A Faerie's Secret (Creepy Hollow Book 4) (13 page)

I wonder if Mom knows what he’s done. Probably not. She’s so fragile, I’m sure Dad would want to protect her from this like he protects her from everything else.

Dad stands as I reach the table and lean against it. “I came across this in a cupboard earlier today,” he says, lifting a knife from a box. The wooden handle is beautifully carved with elaborate patterns and looks just the right size to fit comfortably in my hand. “It was the tokehari my mother left for me,” Dad says. “Something special I could always remember her by.” He holds it out to me, along with a leather sheath. “I’d like you to have it. I know you have guardian weapons now, but there may come a time when you don’t have access to those. A guardian should always be prepared.”

“Thank you, Dad.” I take the knife and test the weight and feel of it in my hand. I run my finger along the patterns in the handle. “It’s beautiful.”

“The sheath can be secured to the inside of one of your boots. That way you won’t have to remember to pack it every time you have an assignment or training.”

“Cool.” I slide the knife into its slim leather covering. “I’ll do that tonight. Then I can start practicing with it tomorrow.”

With a smile and a nod, Dad sits and returns to his work. I head for the stairs.

All I’m asking is that you make sure there’s no record of the bribes anywhere.

I stop and look back over my shoulder. “Dad?” He looks up. “I’m sorry for … being the way I am. I’m sorry for whatever you’ve had to do to keep me off the Griffin List.”

He frowns, then stands and comes toward me. He pulls me into a tight embrace. “I’m not sorry,” he says. “Anything I’ve had to do to keep you safe, I would gladly do again. One day when you’re a parent you’ll understand that.”

I nod against his chest. He steps back, pats my cheek, then returns to the table. I climb the stairs and reach my bedroom as music begins playing from the direction of my desk. I walk over to it and pick up my hand mirror. Zed’s face appears on the shiny surface, but I don’t touch it to accept the call. There’s a traitorous part of my heart that wants to hear his voice, but I’m still annoyed and hurt. Besides, I have something more important to do right now. I can speak to him later when I’ve returned the bangle. I toss the mirror onto my bed and turn back to my drawer.

The room vibrates.

“No, no, no,” I whisper, raising my hands to steady myself. The world ripples and jolts, and suddenly I’m standing in an entirely different place. “What?” I cry out. “How?” There is no bangle on my arm. I wasn’t even touching it.

A woman pushes a trolley through the right side of my body and continues walking. I jump away from her and look around. I’m standing in a large shopping mall somewhere in the human realm. I don’t recognize anything until I spot the music-themed cafe. I see a younger version of myself nestled in a couch beneath a guitar on the wall, and I remember this day instantly. It was my first day at Ellinhart, and I was still furious that Mom had once again refused to let me join the Guild. I left school as soon as my last lesson ended, defied my mother’s rules and fae laws, and sat down in a human coffee shop in full view of every human who walked by. Of course, none of them knew what I was, so I probably wouldn’t have been in much trouble if anyone found out, but I still felt like a rebel.

“Ugh, what am I
doing
here?” I jump up and down and shake my arms around, hoping to jolt myself back to the present. It doesn’t work. Maybe I’m stuck here forever because I don’t have the bangle with me. But then … how did I get here in the first place?

“Don’t panic, don’t panic,” I murmur to myself. I managed to return to the present last time this happened, so I have to trust I can return again. I walk into the cafe and hover near the couch where thirteen-year-old me is sipping a mug of coffee. I know what’s coming next, and a crazy, stupid part of me wants to relive the moment. I look around and find him sitting at the piano-painted counter.

Zed. He’s looking this way with a frown on his face. He abandons his drink, crosses the room, and sits beside younger me on the couch. She almost spills her coffee in fright, but then she recognizes him. She knows who he is before he speaks. “This is going to sound really odd,” he says, “but I think I know you. From … well, do you remember me?”

Of course I remembered him. How could I forget the guy who was locked in the hanging cage next to mine? He did his best to distract me from my fears. The terrifying Unseelie prince, the wails and cries of the other prisoners, the creatures that swam in the dark water below us, the blood of the man I tried to get away from—

The world tips and shudders and jolts me back to the present.

I stumble across my bedroom and catch myself against the desk. Nausea attacks me. I double over, clutching my stomach. Breathing deeply, I manage to get to my bathing room without throwing up. I kneel beside the enchanted pool, pressing my fingers into the small white pebbles that cover the bathing room floor and watching my rippling reflection in the water. After a minute or so of deep breathing, the nausea passes.

I have to get rid of this bangle.

CHAPTER

TWELVE

I wrap the bangle in a T-shirt and put it inside one of my painted tote bags before heading to the Guild. “Back for some extra training?” the guard asks as he scans my pendant.

“No, I just left my homework in my locker,” I tell him with a smile and an eye-roll.

The moment I step through the doorway into the foyer, I remember the extra layer of magic that exists there. My smile slips. I freeze for a moment, expecting an alarm to go off as the protective charms detect the bangle. But nothing happens. Relieved, I keep walking. I guess the bangle’s magic isn’t seen as a threat. Or perhaps, I think to myself as I head for the staircase, it’s an unknown kind of magic, like the magic that allows me to create illusions. The protective doorway has never seen
me
as a threat—even though it probably should.

Instead of climbing the stairs, I walk behind them toward the elevator. I didn’t know it was here until the last week of summer break. Ryn never seems to use it, and neither do most other members of the Guild. I’m usually happy to climb the stairs, but I don’t want to be seen this afternoon. I wave my hand in front of the ornate elevator door, then step back and wait. After several moments—during which I keep my head down and hope no one joins me—the door ripples and vanishes. I step inside the elevator and turn to the brass clock face on the left wall. There are far more than twelve numbers around its edge. With my finger, I move the pointer from zero to five. The door reappears, and the elevator moves up. When it opens once more, I step out near the library.

I considered giving the bangle to a Council member, but then I’d have to answer questions about how and where I got it. I could give it to Ryn and ask him to keep my name out of it, but then
he’d
be under the spotlight. Better just to keep everyone out of trouble and leave the bangle where a Guild member can find it.

I walk into the library and head down one of the aisles, scanning the shelves as if looking for a particular book. I reach the other end, look around to make sure no one is watching, then remove the wrapped bangle from my bag. I place it on the floor before pulling the T-shirt off. Without pausing a moment longer, I straighten and walk back down the aisle. Now I just need to get my books and training bag out of my locker, and I can—

“Oh!” I jump back as I reach the end of the shelves and almost walk into someone.

“Oops, I’m sorry,” Gemma says, bringing her hand up to her mouth. “Oh, Calla, hey.” She gives me an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, that was totally my fault. I was rushing in here to get my stuff. I’ve just been upstairs with, um …” She reaches up to touch her neck in a self-conscious gesture. “Well, there’s this guy. He’s a Seer trainee. You know the top three floors are for the Seers, right?”

I nod, hoping I don’t look as guilty as I feel.

“Yeah, so we don’t see them often because our training is completely separate from theirs, but I ran into him a few times when I started here because his mom is also an admin. I’ve kinda had a crush on him for, like, a year.” She rolls her eyes as pink appears in her cheeks. “We hang out sometimes. As friends. Because he’s awesome and I’m too shy to tell him I like him. Anyway,” she rushes on, “what are you doing here? I saw Olive just now, so I figured you were done for the day.”

“Yes, I just … forgot my books.” In my locker. Which is downstairs. Nowhere near the library. “And I was looking up something I didn’t quite understand in one of the lessons earlier,” I add quickly.

“Oh, cool,” Gemma says, without a hint of suspicion. “I’m walking home now. Do you want to join me?”

“Walking?” I follow her to a table where she retrieves her bag from a chair. “Don’t you use the faerie paths?”

“I do. Don’t worry, I’m not one of those extremists who hasn’t used the paths since Draven’s reign. I just like to take the Tip-Top Path when it isn’t winter because it’s so pretty. Have you been on it before?”

“Uh, no.” We walk out of the library and aim for the stairs. “I don’t actually live in Creepy Hollow, so if I were to walk home it would take a very long time. Faerie paths are my only option.”

“Oh, but you’re missing out. It’s so pretty up there. A little dangerous, obviously,” she adds as we descend the stairs, “but it’s a little dangerous everywhere in Creepy Hollow.”

“I guess I could walk with you for a bit and then take the faerie paths home,” I say.

After stopping by the lockers so I can fetch my things, we leave the Guild through the entrance room and come out of the faerie paths near the start of the Tip-Top Path. It begins at the base of a tree where large gnarled roots twist around each other to form uneven steps. Higher up, where the roots end, low branches bend around and over and under each other to form more steps. The uneven stairway continues in an easy gradient from tree to tree until it reaches the forest canopy. While the stairway isn’t steep, the bark is slippery in places where it’s been worn smooth over the centuries. I almost lose my footing several times, but it’s easy enough to catch hold of nearby branches.

The Tip-Top Path continues on for miles through the canopy, constructed from the topmost branches of adjacent trees. At intervals here and there, an uneven stairway like the one we climbed at the start leads down to the ground—which is so far down I can barely make it out between the tangled branches and leaves. The twilight sky is perfectly visible from up here, though. A pinky purple haze like watercolor paints bleeding into one another. In the fading light I notice minuscule glow-bugs far smaller than those that appear closer to the ground sitting on the autumn leaves. Umbrella sprites race each other along the smaller side branches, jumping and then opening the tiny umbrella-like appendages attached to the backs of their necks so they can glide from one branch to the next. Asterpearls, small white perennial flowers, grow here and there amongst the moss on the path. Their faint scent lingers in the air.

“You’re right,” I say to Gemma. “It’s really beautiful up—”

My words are cut off as a miniature sphinx jumps from the shadows onto the path in front of us and bares its teeth. Gemma clutches my hand. We both freeze. It’s the size of a large house cat but looks ferocious enough to do some damage. We’ve both been taught not to fight anything unless we’re first attacked, though, so we wait, motionless. After more growling, the sphinx bends its front legs and leaps away from us into the shadows on the other side of the path.

“Whew,” Gemma says, letting go of my hand and continuing along the path. “I think I’ve seen that one before. It always gets a bit aggressive, but it doesn’t attack as long as you don’t make any threatening moves.”

“Do you know this from experience?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I was with Perry. He did this weird arm-flapping dance thing, and the sphinx jumped and clawed his chest. He wanted to go after it when it flapped away, but I managed to get him to sit still while his wounds healed.”

I smile and step carefully around a small furry creature that decided the middle of the path was a good spot to have a nap. “Have you guys been friends a long time?”

“Since first year at the Guild.”

“Okay.” I nod. And then I nod some more because I’ve never been fantastic at making conversation with new people.

“So, um …” Gemma swings her arms at her side. “What do your parents do? Hopefully something more exciting than my parents.”

“Not really,” I say with a laugh. “My mom’s a librarian at that enormous library attached to Wilfred Healer School, and my dad works for a private security company. He used to be a guardian, but he stopped working after his first son died and his first union fell apart. After he met my mom, he quit being a guardian altogether. Deactivated his marks and everything.”

“Seriously? Wow. I don’t know anyone who’s had their marks deactivated.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s not common. The Guild reactivated his marks after the Destruction because they needed all the help they could get, and Dad didn’t want to hide in the shadows, even though my mom would have been happy with that. She was terrified every single day that she’d get a letter saying he died or had been captured and marked. Anyway, that didn’t happen, and after Draven’s reign was over, he left the Guild again.”