“Terrific,” I murmur, tilting my head back and closing my eyes. I only need one thing right now, and food isn’t it.
I need the tattoo artist.
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
After Mom and Dad have gone to bed, I get dressed and open a doorway. I know exactly what the inside of the tattoo artist’s living room looks like, so I focus on that as I walk into the darkness. As light appears, I hurry forward, but I’ve barely left the faerie paths when I feel myself falling, spinning, twisting. I grasp desperately at the air as my body is flung about by an invisible force and a banshee screech wails in my ears. When my surroundings have finally become a slowly swaying landscape rather than a topsy-turvy jumble, I realize I’m hanging upside down.
“What … what the freak?” I gasp.
The screeching stops, and a voice behind me says, “Well, I’m glad to see my intruder alarm is working.” An invisible force swings me the right way up and deposits me on top of the couch. “I should probably thank you for alerting me to the small flaw in my security system,” the tattoo artist says. He leans on the back on an armchair and surveys me. The tips of his fingers are smudged with black. Ink? Paint? Charcoal? I can’t tell from here. “So, Calla. I’m assuming you’ve had a change of heart since this afternoon?” he says.
“Actually,” I say carefully, “I need your help. The time travel thing … it’s happening even when I’m not wearing the bangle.”
He closes his eyes and sighs. “I told you not to put it on.”
“No. You found me after I’d put it on and then asked what was wrong with me. Now there really is something wrong with me, and I have no idea how to make it stop.”
“And you think I can help you.”
“Well, you seemed to know what it was going to do to me.”
He nods slowly. “I did.”
I wait for him to tell me whether he knows how to fix me or not, but he says nothing. “Okay, how about this,” I say. “If you can help me, I’ll give you back the bangle.” That might not be possible anymore, but he doesn’t need to know that. Yet.
The artist raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think you’re in any position to bargain with me.”
“But I have something you want. Isn’t that how bargaining works?”
He straightens, walks around the chair, and sits. “How about this,” he says. “You give me the bangle, and I agree not to tell the Guild about your Griffin Ability.”
“W-what?” I press my fingers into the soft cushion as my insides freeze.
“The Griffin List?” the artist says. “I assume you’ve heard of it. I also assume you’re not on it. If you were, the Guild wouldn’t allow you to be one of their guardians.”
His words hang in the air between us. Words that threaten to steal away everything I’ve ever dreamed of having. I take a deep breath and place my hands carefully in my lap. “What’s your name?” I ask.
“My name is Chase.”
“Well, Chase,” I say slowly. “I don’t actually have the bangle anymore.”
His expression barely changes, but his lips press tighter together. When he speaks, his voice is quieter than before. “Did you return it to the Guild?”
“I did.”
He stares at me a moment longer, then drops his head into his hands. He groans and rubs his temples. “You don’t know what you’ve done.”
He sounds so despondent that I wonder for the first time if I may, in fact, have made a mistake in returning the bangle to the Guild. “Is … is something bad going to happen because I did that?”
“Probably.” Chase rubs his chin and stares at the waterfall painting on his right. “If he stole it before, he’ll steal it again.”
“He?” I ask, sitting forward.
“Saber. The man who found us in the tunnel last night. Ever since he began meeting with one of the prisoners at Velazar, he’s been hunting down the bangle. I assume it’s because he’s been told to go back in time and find some important piece of information. And this prisoner … well, he’s extremely dangerous. Whatever information he’s after, I’d rather he didn’t get it.”
I tilt my head to the side, eyeing him with suspicion. “How do you know all this? Are you working for the Guild? The Seelie Court?”
He chuckles quietly and shakes his head. “Guardians aren’t the only ones trying to rid the world of evil.”
“So you’re—what—some kind of vigilante?”
He laughs again, then turns his bright gaze on me. “Do I look like a vigilante?”
“I don’t know. I can’t say I’ve met many vigilantes, so I’m not sure what they look like. I do know they act outside the law, though, and should probably be reported to the Guild.”
With amusement, Chase says, “You’re threatening me? You, the one with the dangerous secret you’re trying to keep from the Guild, are threatening to report me, the person who knows your secret.” He shakes his head. “You don’t have a clue how this bargaining thing works, do you.”
“I know exactly how it works,” I say as I stand. “I was just hoping you’d want to keep your secret as badly as I want to keep mine.” I drop to one knee and write a doorway on the worn rug.
“Hey, wait a minute.” Chase jumps to his feet, but I’m already falling through the darkness.
I drop onto the old Guild ruins, then immediately open another doorway and come out closer to the new Guild. Ryn’s warned me before that it’s possible to be followed through the faerie paths, and I’d rather not have Chase coming after me. I need to think.
I stand amidst a clump of giant mushrooms and bite my lip. I know what I should do now. I should go to the Guild Council and tell them everything I know. The bangle, the artist vigilante, this guy called Saber and how he’s been meeting with someone at Velazar Prison, home to the most dangerous criminals in our world. But if I do that, I’ll be sacrificing my future as a guardian. I’ll be sacrificing my freedom. Chase will tell them what I can do, and my name will end up on the Griffin List, available for anyone who chooses to look it up. The Guild will keep tabs on me for the rest of my life. They’ll track everything I do and everywhere I go. They might even find out about … that incident. The one I like to pretend never happened.
No. I have to get that bangle back. Besides, if Chase is right and Saber gets hold of it again because I returned it to the Guild, then I’m actually doing the right thing by stealing it back. And, now that I think of it, who am I to judge Chase for working outside the law when I’ve spent the past few years doing the same thing? The Guild had nothing to do with any of those ‘assignments’ Zed gave me.
Decision made, I head for the Guild’s interior entrance through the faerie paths. Fortunately, my trainee pendant is still around my neck, so I don’t have to go home for it. I expect the night guard to question me when I show up in the entrance room, but he doesn’t say a thing. I suppose it’s normal for trainees to show up at odd hours if they’ve had late night assignments. And people like Saskia who are obsessed with the rankings probably come here to train in the middle of the night.
I hurry up to the library, hoping this will be as easy as returning to the spot I left the bangle and picking it up. It isn’t, of course. The bangle is gone. “Obviously,” I mutter to myself. Life is never that easy. I walk to the front desk. After making sure no one is around, I search, carefully lifting books and scrolls and opening drawers.
I don’t find the bangle.
Shoot. It’s probably been returned to the artifacts level already. The highly secure artifacts level. Can I come up with an illusion good enough to get myself in and out of there without getting caught? I suppose I’ll have to if I—
Hang on. As I walk past the librarian’s office, I see something sitting on his desk. Something with clockwork pieces and green jewels. “Yes!” I whisper. I look around once more, but I still don’t see anyone here. If the office door is open, does that mean the librarian is around somewhere? Probably not. He can’t work all day and all
night.
I slip inside and grab the bangle—and hear a thump from the library’s front desk.
Of course. Because life is never that easy.
I drop down and crawl behind the desk just as someone walks into the office humming quietly. I peek beneath the desk and see the pink high-heeled shoes of the assistant librarian. She places something heavy on the desk, then moves around the side.
Think, think, think! I let down my mind’s defenses and project an image of one of the messenger dwarves knocking on the door. And he says … Crap, what would a messenger say at this time of night?
“Evening, ma’am,” I imagine the dwarf saying. “I just saw a trainee attempting to vandalize one of the plaques in the Hall of Honor. I couldn’t find any other offices open, and since I knew you were here this evening, I thought you could perhaps deal with it.”
“Oh, thank you for telling me. That’s very strange, but I’ll be sure to deal with it.”
I make the dwarf move out of the way as the assistant librarian hurries from the office. When I’m sure she’s gone, I jump up and leave. I push the bangle into my jacket pocket and take the elevator down to the foyer. A minute later, I’m hanging upside down in Chase’s living room with that horrible screeching threatening to deafen me once again.
“Ugh! Get me down from here!” I shout. A moment later, I drop clumsily onto the couch as the noise stops. I scramble into a sitting position and point a finger at him. “You could have stopped your intruder charm from flinging me around a second time.”
He shrugs. “Perhaps.”
I pull the bangle out of my pocket and slam it down on the coffee table. “There. Now you have no reason to tell the Guild what I can do.”
Incredulous, Chase says, “You touched it again?”
“I didn’t have time to make another plan. Besides, it’s already affected me, hasn’t it? How much worse can it get? Now tell me what I have to do so you’ll help me with this time traveling problem.”
He sighs and picks up a paint-stained cloth from a box beside the desk. “You don’t have to do anything, Calla. Of course I’ll help you.”
“You—you will?”
“Yes.” Using the cloth, he picks up the enchanted bangle. “Despite what you’re probably thinking, I’m not the bad guy in this situation.”
“But … you threatened to expose my ability to the Guild.”
“I wasn’t actually going to follow through on that. I was just trying to get the bangle back. And hoping to stop you from running off to the Guild with crazy stories about me being a vigilante.” He removes a small wooden box from a draw and places the bangle inside. “I happen to be strongly opposed to the Griffin List, as it happens. I understand why it exists, of course, but I believe everyone has a right to privacy. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for putting anyone’s name on that list.” He locks the box and holds the key up in front of his face. He blows gently on it, and it disappears. “I probably should have locked it up the first time,” he says, looking over at me. “Then you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
I sit on the arm of the couch and stare at the wooden box. “How does it work? I mean, it seems random—I don’t know when it will happen, and I don’t know what time it will send me back to—but I assume it’s something that can be controlled if I know how.”
Chase nods and leans against the edge of the desk. “There is someone who knows how to control this power. Unfortunately, I’m not that person.”
My shoulders slump. “Terrific.”
“But here’s what I do know,” he continues. “The magic was supposed to stay inside the bangle and only work when someone wears it, but it turns out it’s kind of … clingy. It likes to stick to people. It seems that spikes in emotion are what trigger the magic to jolt out of this time and into another one. It can only send you back, not forward, and you can’t do anything to influence the scene it sends you back to. You can only observe. You can’t use any magic when you’re back there, and none of your communication devices will work. When you return to the present, you feel sick. The further back you travel, the worse you feel when you return.”
“I’m familiar with that delightful side effect,” I say with a nod. “I assume you know all this from experience?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re better now, right? Which means you can help me.”
“I can’t, but I can take you to someone who can.”
“Thank goodness.” I stand. “Can we go now?”
“Sorry, I have some other business to deal with tonight.” He pushes away from the desk and walks to the door. “Come back tomorrow night.”
“Um, okay. No, wait, I have my first assignment tomorrow night.”
“Well, the next night then.” He opens the door.
I look at the open doorway, then back at him. “I can’t wait that long.”
“It would appear you don’t have a choice.”
“But what if it happens while I’m in class? Or in the training center? Or, I don’t know, while I’m standing in the middle of the dining hall with half the Guild watching?”
A ripple slides away from me, distorting the room for a moment.
“Crud.”
“Stay calm,” Chase instructs. He leaps over a small side table and moves toward me.
The vibration intensifies. I throw my hands out as the rushing sound begins.
“Stop!” Chase shouts, grabbing my hand firmly.
Everything stops—and I remain exactly where I am, in the present, in Chase’s living room. “How—how did you do that?”
“You can’t take anyone with you.” He drops my hand. “So I guess it helps if you’ve got someone strong enough to anchor you in the present.” He looks away, then walks back to the door.
Strong enough.
He’s strong enough to knock down a shield of magic in one blow, strong enough to block my projections, and strong enough to root me in the present when a magical force wants to tear me away from this timeline. Instinct tells me it’s dangerous to get involved with someone with so much more power than the average faerie. But what choice do I have? He’s the only one who can help me.
CHAPTER
FOURTEEN
I spend my fourth day at the Guild focusing on calm thoughts like gentle streams and snowflakes dusting quiet winter landscapes. I make it through the day without traveling to a different time, but I almost project an image of a sunset on Ned as the two of us walk into the Fish Bowl to fight each other. I watch him frown, blink, then shake his head while I mentally reinforce the barrier around my mind. Ned then proceeds to kick my butt because, as it turns out, he’s far better at fighting than he is at talking to people.
After dinner, I return to the Guild to meet Olive so she can give me my first assignment. She doesn’t greet me when I enter her office, but I’m quickly becoming used to that. Annoyed With Life seems to be her default setting.
“Sit,” she says after I’ve hovered near her desk for several uncomfortable moments. “I’ve got things to do, so let’s get this over with.”
Let’s get this over with? Fantastic. That’s exactly what I want to hear right before my first assignment as a real trainee. Calm thoughts, Calla. Calm thoughts.
“It’s a fairly straightforward assignment,” Olive says as she scans through the paper in her hand. “Normally I’d be happy for you to handle it on your own, but since I’ve never observed you in action before, I feel it would be irresponsible of me not to be present. Depending on how you do tonight, I’ll decide whether I need to babysit any more of your assignments.”
Be calm, be calm, be calm.
“So. We’re going to a home in the human realm, and we’re expecting a harpy to show up and try to take a four-year-old boy. You should know the assignment rules already, but since your training has been severely lacking, and things have changed since your brother’s day, you probably don’t.”
“I’m aware of the—”
“You can’t do anything
to the harpy unless she first makes a move against a human. Once she does, you should protect the human first, then restrain her so she can be brought to the Guild. If she gets away, you’re unable to do anything else, and your assignment will end once you’ve laid protective spells around the area. If she fights back and you have no way of resolving the situation without killing her, then you have to do that. There will be an inquiry to determine whether you were justified in killing her. If you were, you’ll continue with life as normal. If you weren’t, you’ll be suspended. And there’s counseling, of course.” She appears to shudder slightly, probably at the thought of having to counsel me. Hopefully that never has to happen, since I don’t plan on killing anyone. “Here’s your tracker band.” She hands me a narrow strip of leather. “Put it on, and don’t take it off until the assignment is over.”
“Oh, is it still necessary for me to wear it if you’re with me?”
“Yes. All assignments are recorded via a replay device and kept for three years, after which they’re disposed of. If there’s an inquiry, it will be used for evidence. Didn’t anyone record the assignments you did during your summer break crash course?”
“Uh, no. I didn’t have a tracker band then.”
Olive makes an annoyed tsk sound and shakes her head. “How are we supposed to run things properly when people simply disregard policies? This is how things went wrong the first time. This is how the Guild fell.”
“Actually, I think the Guild fell because a lunatic named Draven somehow got an explosive device inside the old Creepy Hollow Guild, where most of the Council members, who were following policies by meeting to deal with an impending threat, were then killed.”
Olive’s lips form a tight, straight line, and her jaw tenses.
“At least, that’s what my textbook says,” I add before she can explode. “Anyway, we should probably get this assignment started.”
“We should. And you should keep your smart mouth shut if you’re hoping to make it to the end of this year without failing.”