The fairy looked amused.
"Just think--you'd never be hunted by knights again," Lily said. "You'd be safe."
The fairy's iridescent wings fluttered. Bits of sunlight flashed off them. "But I am safe," she said. "I have assurances from the leader of the Princeton knights himself: in exchange for my cooperation, he will ensure my survival."
"He doesn't mean it." Lily said. "You heard him. He's willing to sacrifice his own grandson to keep his secret. There's no
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way he'll let you live. Even if he didn't hate Feeders, you know too much."
"Oh, but he is a noble knight," the fairy said. "Virtue personified." She let out a happy bubble of a sigh. "Don't you feel elevated simply from his presence?"
Slowly, Lily inched backward. "He makes me sick."
The fairy pressed her hands to her cheeks in mock horror, and then she careened backward with peals of laughter that bounced off the cathedral ceiling. "Of course I know he plans to kill me, silly."
"You do?"
Swooping close to Lily, the fairy smiled conspiratorially, as if she planned to tell her best friend her most secret dream. "But before Joseph Mayfair double-crosses me, I shall double-cross him. You, my dear darling dove of delight, will open the gate for me."
"Oh!" Lily said. "Oh, wow--you want to go home!" Relief rushed through her so fast and strong that she swayed. She felt her muscles turn to puddles.
The fairy scooped up a cloak from the coatrack by the door. Her wings flattened back as she swirled the cloak over her shoulders. It settled on her back, and she draped it artfully over her wings until the delicate appendages were lost in the shadows of black cloth. "I have been waiting for this moment for many years." The fairy linked her arm through Lily's. Cloak sweeping the marble floor, she descended the staircase arm in arm with Lily. "It is high time that I end
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my association with Joseph Mayfair, as entertaining as it has been. Tell me, my dear, how did you come to keep such unsavory company as the Princeton knights?"
"I just wanted to get into college," she said. A few days ago, it had all seemed so simple: take a campus tour, complete an application, cross her fingers, and that was it. "And then things got complicated."
The fairy patted her hand. "They always do." She waved up at the Chained Dragon as they passed under him. "Off to claim my freedom, old friend. Pity you can't join me."
Above, the dragon hissed. "Set me free. Give me the Key."
The fairy cooed in sympathy. "Wish I could for old times' sake, but I'm afraid I can't part with this Key. If you'll pardon the pun, she's the key to my dream come true!"
He thrashed in the stone. Dust plumed around him.
"Temper, temper." The fairy tsk-tsked.
"Let us finish what we began," the dragon pleaded. His voice slid down Lily's back like a worm inside her spine. "This time, I will not fail."
On the steps, Lily froze. "This time?" she repeated. She began to put two and two together. "Years ago, when the dragon escaped ... He couldn't have caught that Key alone." The fairy blushed prettily and curtsied. "You helped him. You're the one responsible for my father's death. And Tye and Jake's mother. And Jake's father."
"Oh, don't be mad, kitten," the fairy said. "I was the hired help. Just following orders."
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"Whose orders?" Lily asked.
On the arch above, the dragon rumbled.
"Think it through, cupcake," the fairy said. "You were close to the truth down there in the nave." She giggled. "Literally."
"Mr. Mayfair?" Lily asked.
Above them, the Chained Dragon hissed and lashed his stone tail hard against the chapel arch. Rock dust sprayed down. "Explain!" he demanded.
The fairy laughed louder, a sound like church bells. "Oh, this is fun! I really ought to double-cross my allies more often." To the dragon, she said, "I was merely the messenger. Yes, my scaly friend, it was he who offered you freedom in exchange for the death of this Key and then he who revoked your freedom. He betrayed you."
"Traitor!" the dragon cried. "I will rend his flesh from his bones!"
Lily felt as if her head were swirling. "But ... but the dragon killed Jake's parents. His own son."
"Oh, the son was the whole problem," the fairy said merrily. "He wasn't supposed to forgive Jake's mother. She'd left him, you see, for some furry man. Joseph's son was not supposed to meet her at the gate on that day. When Joseph learned that his son was there ... well, he rushed to save him, and that's when the plan went awry. The knights followed Joseph and interrupted all the festivities, arriving in time to save you and your silly mother but too late for the other
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humans. After that failure, Joseph reimprisoned the dragon and swore to avoid any more 'extreme measures.' Until now, of course."
"I will crush his body!" the dragon cried. "I will flay him with fire!"
The fairy smiled sunnily at Lily and hugged her shoulders. "Oh, my sweet, I am so happy that the plan went awry. If it hadn't, today wouldn't be possible. I would never have had this opportunity." She swept Lily down the steps and across the plaza as the dragon continued to rage on the front of the chapel. "Your world has been a place of a thousand delights, but I miss my family. I miss my friends." As they passed through East Pyne courtyard, the fairy waved at the indent where the vines had held the goblin. "I even miss the little goblin that your tiger boy so kindly returned, pest though he was. He was like a puppy to me. Always so obedient."
Still trying to wrap her head around these new revelations, Lily nodded in response. They passed through East Pyne, circled Nassau Hall, and crossed the yard.
The fairy squeezed Lily's hand. "Thanks to you, we will never be hunted again."
Lily couldn't wait to be rid of the fairy. "Ready to go?"
"One sec, pudding pie." She flashed a smile at Lily and held up a finger.
Two goblins skittered across the yard and scrambled up the stone pillars. "What are they doing?" Lily cried. The fairy
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held tightly to Lily's hand and waited with a pleasant smile on her face as the goblins attacked the eagles. In seconds, they'd wrapped their green bodies snugly around the stone eagles, pressing their wings together so they couldn't fly. "Stop them!"
Amused, the fairy said, "After I went through all the trouble of recruiting them? I think not. Besides, we can't have our pesky bird friends alerting Vineyard Club, can we?" The goblins squeezed the eagles' beaks shut to prevent their cries and tossed cloths over their heads to hood their eyes.
On the street, pedestrians halted and gawked.
"But why--," Lily began.
"Now I am ready," the fairy said, and she shoved Lily against the wrought-iron gate. Some of the pedestrians shouted. A few whipped out cell phones.
"Ow," Lily said. "Stop. Let go of me!"
The fairy drew a rope from the folds of her cloak and lashed Lily to the iron gate. She touched Lily's lips. "Shh."
Various onlookers called out, "Hey, what are you doing? Let her go!"
With a smile to her audience, the fairy pushed Lily halfway across the threshold of the gate. Half of Lily's body vanished.
En masse, the pedestrians gasped and withdrew. A few ran in the opposite direction. One applauded as if it were a show. The fairy winked at the crowd and then kissed Lily on the cheek and walked through the gate.
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The fairy vanished.
Lily struggled against the rope. "Help me, please!" Several yards away, the onlookers still gawked. One person snapped photos. Lily tried to pull her arm and leg back into the human world. "Please, someone, help!"
A middle-aged man with nondescript brown hair and plump cheeks broke out of the circle of onlookers. He inched toward her with his hands spread wide. "Don't worry," he said. "Stay calm." Slowly, as if reaching toward a rabid raccoon, he touched the knots in the rope.
In that instant, the fairy returned.
Hand on the rope, the man froz
e.
"Tut-tut, none of that," the fairy said. She'd lost her cloak. As the man gaped, the fairy extended her glorious wings and then folded them around him. She pulled him close to her, and nuzzled against his neck. Pink shot through her wings like streaks of lightning, radiating out until they shone. The fairy pressed her body against her victim's body. She moaned in pleasure.
The man twitched.
Seconds later, he crumpled to the ground. Blood leaked from delicate bite marks on his neck. His eyes were open and sightless. The fairy wiped a streak of red from her cheek with the back of her hand. She smiled at the crowd and laughed in a voice so high that it sounded like shattering glass. Her teeth were stained pink.
The crowd screamed and ran.
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"Do you really think I want to give that up?" the fairy said to Lily. "Drinking straight from a human ... nothing can compare. You would have me trade fine wine for water. Less than water. For air." She glowed as if she were lit from within. "Oh, I feel like I could fly." She giggled at her own joke.
"You can't do this!" Lily shouted. "Let me go!"
From the other side of the gate, claws grasped Lily's invisible arm. She screamed and tried to yank herself away, but the rope held tight. A goblin emerged into the human world. On the street, a car slammed into the rear of a truck.
Smiling brightly, the fairy scooped the goblin up in her arms and swung him in a circle as if he were a toddler. "Well done, my pet!"
He was followed by others. Elves, gorgons, fairies, and trolls crossed. A snake woman slithered past Lily so close that she felt the scales against her skin. On Nassau Street, cars screeched and crashed into one another as the creatures ran down the road. Lily struggled harder against the rope as more creatures slipped into the human world.
Suddenly, a blur of orange and black shot through the gate. It slammed into the fairy, knocking her backward. Pivoting, the tiger slashed at Lily. The ropes split away from her.
As the fairy flew toward them, Lily swung herself onto the tiger's back and wrapped her arms around his neck. The tiger, with Lily clinging to him, ran.
* * *
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The tiger raced across campus. Holding tightly to his fur, Lily felt the muscles in his back shift as he leaped over stone benches and bounded down marble stairs. She buried her cheek in his neck as she held on. He smelled like summer-warmed leaves, like grass after rain, like Tye.
He slowed to a walk, and she lifted her head. She saw the manicured flower beds of Prospect Gardens as the tiger padded across the grass to the fountain at the center of the tulips. He lapped up water as Lily slid off his back. Grass curled around her feet and cooed at her. Late afternoon shadows covered the garden.
"You came for me," she said.
The tiger's fur rippled, and the air smudged around him like summer heat. The orange and black tiger fur melted away, and Tye in jeans and a black T-shirt crouched in front of her. "Always," he said, rising to his feet.
Lily threw her arms around his neck and pressed her face against his shoulder. His arms curled around her back. After a second, he stroked her hair.
"I screwed up," she said into his shirt. "Really screwed up." She shouldn't have trusted Mr. Mayfair. She should have gone directly to Vineyard Club and ... then what? She should have quit the Legacy Test. She should have picked another damn college.
Tye didn't reply with a platitude like "it will be okay" or "it's not your fault." He simply held her and continued to
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stroke her hair. She tilted her face up to look into his tawny eyes. His lips were inches from hers.
Lily pressed her lips against his. His eyes fluttered wide for a moment, and then he kissed her back. When they drew breath, Lily noticed that the petals of the closest buds had opened and exposed their hearts to the sky. Her lips tingled.
She began to pull away, but he kept his arms around her. "Did the Feeder hurt you?" he asked.
Lily thought of the man who'd been drained, and she shuddered. "Not me," she said. "Tye, what are we going to do?"
Tye smiled.
"What?" she asked.
"You said 'we,'" he said. "I didn't think you knew that word."
"I studied it for the SATs," she said. "I don't understand how there were so many creatures. It was like they were waiting on the other side of the gate."
"I saw it happen," he said. "The dryad queen had us all wait at the forest edge, watching the gate for your return." He tangled his fingers in her hair. "As soon as the fairy appeared, two trolls disabled the eagles, and the Feeders guarded one another as they crossed. They were ready."
"But how?" Lily asked. "It's not like she could have called ahead to warn them...." She remembered how the fairy had greeted the goblin. "She sent word with the goblin?"
Closing his eyes, he said, "See, you're not the only one who screwed up. I took the goblin through. He used the time
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to contact criminals, former addicts, and anyone so unhappy with their lives that they'd be willing to leave their world and live in the human one, to feed. Once the fairy appeared, dozens were able to pass before anyone could react."
"You reacted," she said, lifting her head to look at him. Her knight in shining fur.
This time, he kissed her first. Her fingers wove up into his soft hair, and his arms held her against him. For an instant, she stopped thinking about her mother, about the Feeders, about the knights.
"Clearly, I should rescue you more often," he said when they broke apart.
"Clearly," she agreed.
He rested his forehead on hers. For an instant more, she tried to keep from thinking about everything that had gone wrong. But she couldn't. Fifty or so wannabe serial killers were spreading across campus and beyond, dispersing and vanishing into her world, and it was her fault. "How do we send the Feeders home?" she asked.
"We can't convince them to leave; they'll have to be stopped by force," he said. "This is what the knights are for."
"The knights ..." She told him about Mr. Mayfair.
He was silent for a moment, and then he said, "At least now I know why the knights never accepted me. Mr. Mayfair has been poisoning them against me from the start. Because of my mother. Because of his son. Because I'm a Key." He shook his head. "Jake won't take this well."
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Funny that Tye thought of Jake's feelings. That was a switch. "Is Jake okay?" She wondered what they'd talked about in the dryads' forest. She wondered what it felt like to discover a sibling, to suddenly be less alone than you thought you were. She thought of Mom's family and wished she'd gone straight to Vineyard Club.
Tye hesitated. "He's conscious. And he's an idiot. He should never have come when he knew he was already full of magic."
"Mr. Mayfair is willing to let Jake die to protect his secret," Lily said. "He'll never let us close enough to the knights to warn them about the new Feeders." If she could just tell someone what she'd learned about him! She'd uncovered the kind of secret that should be broadcast by CNN, shouted from the tops of towers across alpine mountains, taught to every child. ...
"The more time that passes, the harder it will be to find and catch the Feeders," Tye said. "We need someone the knights will listen to, someone they won't automatically skewer on sight."
Lily realized whom he meant. "The gargoyles."
Tye nodded and took her hand.
Together, they ran out of Prospect Gardens toward Dillon Gym.
On the street in front of Dillon Gym, orange-and-black-clad alumni cheered for P-rade. As the Class of 1985 marched
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by, the younger alums on either side of the street chanted, "Hip-hip, tiger-tiger-tiger, sis-sis-sis, boom-boom-boom, bah! Eighty-five! Eighty-five! Eighty-five!"
Lily clutched Tye's hand, determined not to be separated from him. "Excuse me, excuse me," she repeated as they wove among alums.
Breaking through, they darted into the street. A band bore down on them, and they dodg
ed trumpeters and tuba players. Reaching the opposite sidewalk, they squeezed through the crowd and then ran hand in hand to the entrance of Dillon Gym.
"Professor Ape!" Tye called.
"Literate Ape, please, wake up! We need you!" Lily shouted.
Tye cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted over the trumpets, "It's an emergency!" Behind them, the crowd cheered as drummers marched past.
She turned to Tye. "Can you lift--"
Before she finished the sentence, Tye dropped to one knee, wrapped his arms around her legs, and hefted her up into the air. She reached up and knocked on the gargoyle's chin. "Feeders are here."
In a soft voice, the gargoyle said, "Feeders are always here. Call the knights."
"Can't," she said. Quickly, she explained about Mr. Mayfair and the fairy.
With the sound of shifting gravel, Professor Ape tilted his
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head to look down at Lily and Tye. "Grave accusations," he said disapprovingly. "You cannot be serious."
"Come to Vineyard Club." Tye said. "See how serious we are. Make them show you the hidden room. Ask Mr. Mayfair where his grandson is. But first, warn them about the Feeders."
Without altering a single stone feature, the ape looked appalled. "Leave my post?"
"If the knights don't rally fast, the Feeders will disappear into the world," Tye said. "You want to be responsible for that?"
"Joseph Mayfair cannot be a traitor," the ape said. "I trained him myself. He has passion, yes, but he would never--"
"Remember when you asked me to skip the I-can't-believe-it speech?" Lily said. "Can we skip it now? We have to warn the knights!"
"You can ride me," Tye said. "We'll blend in with all the P-rade costumes." He lowered Lily onto the sidewalk, and then he stepped back, shook out his shoulders and arms, and changed into a tiger. Lily could hear the crowd cheer as a new class marched past.