Rebel Faerie

  “Of course,” she says. “I’ll go immediately.” I open my mouth to speak, and she adds, “Yes. I know. You want to come with.”

  “Dash is my friend too. And the human world used to be my home.” My mind turns from an image of Dash to an image of Val. I can’t help seeing the ground tearing open every time I think of her. I can’t help the guilt that always gnaws at me when I remember how I left with no explanation.

  My grip tightens on the hilt of the training sword. “Please,” I say to Calla. “I need to know what’s happening there.”

  Four

  The aviary turns out to be one of Perry and Calla’s predetermined meeting points, and it has nothing to do with birds. Instead, when we walk out of the faerie paths, we’re in a park in the middle of a city. Even without the surrounding apartment blocks and the cars driving past, I think I’d be able to tell we’re no longer on the magical side of the veil. There’s something different about the atmosphere here. Something that feels a little bit … lifeless. It’s probably always felt this way and I’m only noticing it now because I’ve spent weeks in a world where magic is woven through everything.

  “There he is,” Calla says, pointing across the park to a bench. Perry waves at us.

  “You’re glamoured, I hope?” he says to me as we join him on the bench.

  “I think so.” I look up at a young man hurrying by with earphones on and two teens in school uniforms running the other way. “No one’s looking at me strangely because I’m sitting alone on a bench speaking to myself, so that’s a good sign. Hopefully no one comes over and sits on top of us.”

  Perry grins. “Now that would be awkward.”

  “If your glamour’s working properly, it’ll direct people around us,” Call tells me. To Perry, she says. “You’re up early. I think. If I’m calculating the time correctly back in Creepy Hollow.”

  “Yeah. I wanted to do a bit of snooping around before the Guild got too busy. I made sure to get in before the night guards went off duty. The ones in the entrance room are always so bored by the time their shifts end. Always eager to chat.”

  “And what were they chatting about this morning?”

  “Dash Blackhallow, the traitor who was removed from the Guild in the middle of the night after attacking three guards and seriously injuring one of them.”

  “Shoot. Removed to where?” Calla asks.

  “No one knows.”

  “Wait,” I say to them. “Would Dash really attack other guardians? Aren’t many of them his friends? He doesn’t always agree with them, but he wouldn’t want to hurt them.”

  “He was probably provoked,” Perry says. “As you know all too well, some guardians have an intense dislike of Griffin Gifted fae. If they discovered one of their own was actually helping the Griffin rebels, they could become extremely unfriendly.”

  “Or this story could be a lie,” Calla says. “An excuse to remove Dash from the Guild. An excuse they can give Flint when he demands to know why his son disappeared when he was supposed to be awaiting trial.”

  Perry sighs. “I wish I could say that was out of the question, but we know it isn’t. If the Councilors think they can use Dash in some way to uncover your rebel community, they’ll bend their own rules to get what they want.”

  “You seriously need a new Council,” Calla mutters.

  “Don’t I know it.”

  I turn sideways so I’m facing the two of them. “Surely the Council will have to tell Flint where Dash is. I mean, he’s Dash’s father. Even if he can’t do anything about it, he has a right to know what they’ve done with … Actually, never mind.” I shake my head and slump sideways against the back of the bench. “It appears rights don’t mean much to these guardian Councilors.”

  “True,” Perry says, “but they’ll have to tell Flint something. It’ll be interesting to see what story they come up with.”

  “It had better be a good one,” Calla says grimly. “Otherwise Flint’s going to start an uprising with anyone who’ll listen to him, and he’ll get himself and a whole lot of other guardians in trouble.”

  “Maybe that’s what needs to happen,” Perry says. “This Griffin Gifted persecution has gone on long enough. It’s about time some of us stood up to the Guild’s leadership.”

  “I’m not going to disagree with you on that, but is now really the best time?” Calla asks. “Gaius said you told him things are getting worse here. Don’t you think you should focus on calming the hysteria in this world before creating a divide within the Guild?”

  Perry sighs. “You’re right, of course.”

  I straighten and peer past Calla as I ask, “What did you mean about things getting worse here? What exactly is happening?”

  “Well, there’s the hysteria going on in the town where the gap in the veil was visible. People are evacuating in droves. Fights have broken out in stores because everyone rushed to stock up on supplies before leaving town or disappearing into their bunkers, and there’ve been car accidents because of the crazy traffic. And at the same time, the media is flocking in the opposite direction into that town.”

  Calla shakes her head. “Sounds like chaos.”

  “And then there are the rumors I heard this morning about several other incidents—magical incidents—that have taken place in full view of dozens of humans. Apparently there’s reason to believe these incidents are linked to the Unseelies.”

  “Roarke,” I say. “It’s far more likely to be him causing trouble in this world than his father.”

  “Do you know where these other incidents took place?” Calla asks Perry.

  “No. I left after I heard about Dash. I assume teams have already been assigned to deal with the incidents. Hopefully they’re minor enough to be covered up within a few hours. Rhiningsville, on the other hand …” He sighs. “That’s the town where our world was visible through the gap in the veil. I have no idea how we’re going to cover that one up now that the whole world knows about it.” He stands. “My team hasn’t been told to get involved, but I want to see for myself what’s going on, so I’m headed that way now. I figured you’d probably want to come along.”

  “Definitely,” I say at the same time Calla says, “You figured correctly.”

  We stand, but before either of them opens a doorway, Perry takes Calla’s arm and pulls her a short distance away from me. He lowers his voice, but if he was hoping for some actual privacy, he should have moved a lot further away. “This is a little unorthodox, isn’t it?” he asks. “Bringing along the newest member of your community to one of our meetings? I would ask if you’re training her to become part of the core team, but I know she’s barely even been introduced to our world, so she can’t possibly be ready to go out on missions with you.”

  “Perry—”

  “It’s not that I don’t like her,” he continues, while I cross my arms, look away, and try to pretend I’m not feeling super awkward. “It’s just … why? You don’t ever do this. You rescue Griffin Gifted fae, leave them to make a home within your haven, and you get on with the next mission. You don’t bring extras along for a field trip or to listen in while I share confidential Guild information.”

  “I’m sorry this makes you uncomfortable, Perry. But Em is more than just the latest Griffin Gifted person we’ve rescued.”

  “Which means what, exactly?”

  When Calla says nothing else, I turn just enough to see her looking at me. “What?” I call to her.

  She rolls her eyes and motions for me to come closer. “Don’t ‘what’ me. I know you heard everything. Perry’s always been louder than he thinks.”

  “Hey, I can be quiet when I need to be.”

  “Do you want to tell him?” Calla asks me. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. We can leave him in suspense and he can find out when Vi and Ryn are back. But he’ll be super excited once he knows. He was one of my only friends back when—when it happened.”

  Perry’s gaze moves back and forth between the two of us.
“When what happened? Tell me what?”

  “I guess I don’t mind him knowing,” I say. “Then hopefully we can avoid further discussions about why I’m tagging along for field trips.” I push both hand into my pockets as I look at Perry again and decide to go with the shortest explanation possible. “So, uh, you know how Vi and Ryn’s daughter died years ago?”

  “Yes?”

  “Well … she didn’t actually die. There was a changeling spell, and she was swapped with a human baby. So … surprise, surprise. Here I am.”

  Perry blinks. He looks at Calla, then back at me. “Um … what?”

  “Crazy, I know,” Calla says. “I still can’t get over it.”

  “This is Victoria?” he asks, gesturing at me, his face the picture of disbelief.

  “Yes, it is.” Calla steps closer and gives me a quick sideways hug. “My little niece, all grown up. She walked right into our lives and we had no idea who she was.”

  “No way.”

  “Yes way,” Calla answers.

  “But … surely the healers would have tested the Victoria who died for something like this. Don’t they have spells that would have detected she was a human instead of a faerie?”

  “I don’t know. The changeling spell was on her, so the healers would have detected magic within her body. And changeling spells have been so rare for so long that it probably didn’t cross anyone’s mind that that might have been the explanation. And because of the fact that Zed stole her a couple of weeks before that,” Calla adds, “everyone assumed her death was caused by a spell he used on her. After all, we knew he had ties to the witches and had used their dark magic before.”

  Perry blinks several more times. “Wow. Holy heck. Holy fuzzballs.”

  I smile. “Do you and Dash hang out often? ’Cause that sounds like something he’d say.”

  “We do occasionally, though we try not to make it obvious. Wouldn’t want anyone at the Guild wondering how we became good friends. Okay, wait.” He holds his hands up. “Do Vi and Ryn know about this? Did you manage to tell them before they were taken?”

  Guilt eats at me knowing that my revelation distracted Vi and Ryn enough to get them caught. “I kind of … yelled it out while they were fighting. They heard me. And then guardians got hold of them.”

  “And now you’re desperate to get them back,” Perry says, nodding. “Right, I get it. I mean, you’d want to get them back anyway, but now you really want to get them back.” He tilts his head to the side and frowns at Calla. “I still don’t get why you let her come along today, though. Since she’s your long-lost niece, doesn’t that give you even more reason to want to keep her safely tucked away within your haven?”

  “She begged,” Calla says simply. “And I kinda feel like she’s safer if I don’t let her out of my sight.”

  Perry nods. “Got it. So … are we calling you Victoria now?” he asks me.

  I feel my eyes widen. “Uh, nope. I mean, it’s a pretty name, but … it doesn’t feel like mine.”

  “That’s totally fine,” Calla says. “You’re Emerson. That’s who we know you as, and you’re welcome to stay that way.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Oh, Perry,” Calla adds, reaching for one of her pockets. “Before we go, let me give you my new amber ID. I don’t want to forget.”

  “Cool, okay.” He removes his amber from a pocket inside his jacket and taps the edge against Calla’s for a moment.

  “I should probably get an amber at some point,” I say. “Dash was going to get me one, but then … well, he got a little preoccupied with the Guild locking him up.”

  “You should definitely get one like this,” Perry says, placing his sleek, translucent amber on his palm and showing it to me. “See how thin it is? Almost like paper. And man, oh man, the things this baby can do.”

  “Perry, she doesn’t need the latest, greatest amber,” Calla says, putting hers away and taking out her stylus.

  He sighs. “You’ve always been so behind in the technology department, Cal.”

  “Everyone is behind you in the technology department, Perry. That’s what happens when you buy the newest version of everything before anyone else does.”

  She writes a doorway spell on the back of the bench, and Perry mutters, “Yes, well … I like toys.”

  Calla takes hold of my hand and Perry’s, and together we walk into the darkness of the faerie paths. “You’re directing us, I hope?” Calla says to Perry.

  “Yes.”

  After several moments of walking through nothingness, light appears up ahead. “What did you say is the name of this town?” I ask as we step onto a road between two fields.

  “Rhiningsville,” Perry says. “Not much happened here until the sky opened up and revealed a parallel world on the other side.”

  At the sound of voices coming from somewhere behind me, I turn—and that’s when I see them all. The vans, the reporters, the tents and caravans. The crowd begins further up the road and extends as far as I can see up the hill. The majority of this town’s residents may have evacuated, but plenty of people have arrived to take their place. “So many of them,” I murmur.

  Beside me, Perry nods. “And with every day that passes, more people arrive. Everyone wants to get a shot of the exact spot where an entire piece of land, along with several houses and families, simply vanished. At least, so I’ve heard from the Guild gossip. I haven’t had a chance to get here until now.”

  “What exactly are they photographing if the land and houses aren’t there anymore?” Calla asks.

  Perry shrugs. “I guess we can walk closer and find out.”

  We weave our way through the vehicles and the crowds. No one looks at me, so I think I’m finally getting the glamour thing right. When we eventually reach the edge of the crowd where barricade tape and police officers are making sure no one pushes forward any further, I see what everyone’s photographing, and it sends a shiver across my skin. It’s the single wall of a house, with family photos still hanging in frames, and several inches of the ground floor and upper floor jutting out from the wall. There’s even a small section of a kitchen counter and the back half of a stove attached to the wall downstairs. Outside, the grass on one side of the wall is different from the grass on the other side of the wall. Because of course, there’s a large piece of earth that once existed between those two sections of grass. A piece of earth that vanished into the gap between two worlds and became part of the shadow world.

  “Good luck to any scientists trying to explain this,” Perry says. “No wonder people are taking about aliens and parallel worlds and the apocalypse.”

  I swallow and clear my throat before asking, “Do you know if there were people inside this house?”

  “Yes. Sadly, there were. Apparently there were people inside all the houses that have vanished.”

  I breathe deeply against the rising nausea. “If my Griffin Ability had just been ready a few seconds earlier, I could have saved this house, this family. I could have—”

  “Don’t.” Calla grips my arm. “Don’t even start that. You didn’t do this. You stopped it from happening to every other house in this town. Okay?” Though I can’t push the nausea down completely, I nod. I know she’s right, even though it feels like I should have done more.

  I hear a faint hum then, and Perry reaches into his jacket for his state-of-the-art amber. He frowns at it for several moments before writing a quick reply and putting it away.

  “What was that about?” Calla asks. “More news?”

  “No.” He doesn’t look at her as he answers. “It was Gemma, actually.”

  “Oh.” Calla nods slowly. “Are you guys …”

  “No, don’t worry. We’re not getting back together yet again.”

  “Okay. Good. I mean, I think that’s good? I wouldn’t want the two of you to break each other’s hearts for … what? The fifth time? Sixth time?”

  I turn away from the wall and face the crowd as Perry says, “Fifth.”
>
  “Right,” Calla says. “So, uh, is she still at the Estra Guild?”

  “Yes. She was just asking for the name of our new fish bowl designer. She wants to get in touch with him for some reason. I’m not asking why.”

  “Okay.”

  After breathing out slowly once more, I think I’ve managed to bury the nausea. “Can we find a TV somewhere and see some of the stories that are being reported?” I ask. “Or I guess we could just hang around out here and listen.”

  “TV’s probably the quicker option,” Perry says. “We can just go into one of the homes around here and find one.”

  I look over my shoulder at him. “You want to go inside someone’s home?”

  With a puzzled look, he says, “How else are we supposed to watch the news?”

  “Um, I was thinking more like a cafe? You know, so it doesn’t feel like breaking and entering?”

  “Don’t worry, we won’t be breaking anything. Faeries do this kind of thing all the time. How are we supposed to save a sleeping human from an enchanted winged serpent that’s taken up residence beneath the bed if we’re bothered about things like entering private homes?”

  I blink. “That’s … a joke?”

  He laughs, while beside him, Calla pulls her stylus out and looks around. “Nope,” Perry says. “That was one of my first solo assignments when I was a trainee. I successfully pulled off the entire operation without waking the human. I would have scored full points for that assignment if I’d been able to capture the serpent instead of letting it get away.” He frowns at my open-mouthed expression. “Why are you so shocked? I thought Dash told you all about what guardians do. I mean, when they’re not hunting down Griffin Gifted fae.”

  “He … he did. He spoke about trainees and assignments and … stuff. I guess I just didn’t think about monsters hiding under people’s beds and invisible faeries wandering around homes without permission.” My frown deepens as I consider something. “How many faeries hung around inside Chelsea’s home watching me before I realized I had magic?”