Between (15 page)

A murmur of objection rises from the crowd. “Who decides who’s nonessential?” an Irish brogue sounds from the back.

Lulu lifts into the air and looks back at a group of squat, green-clad men with fiery orange hair. “Those leprechauns are so ridiculous,” she mutters. “They know they’re a big part of our sighting issues over there.”

Alexander raises his hands to quiet everyone. “Moving along, I’m sure many of you have heard about the Mothman incident yesterday afternoon.”

The mention of the Mothman sends my heart into overdrive, and Seth moves backward to stand beside me. He crosses his arms over his chest and brushes my arm with his fingers. It’s a small gesture, but it’s nice.

“One of our Aegises was attacked,” Alexander announces, “and at this point, she has not returned to the mystical realm. There are no further updates on her location at this time. All of our Aegises in the mortal realm are on alert, and more have been dispatched to join the search.”

Alexander recounts the attack, careful to leave me out of it. He doesn’t mention Sam’s name at all. I nudge Seth and stretch up on my toes to whisper, “What about Sam? He’s making it sound like they’re only looking for one person.”

“Of course they’re looking for Sam, too,” Seth murmurs, lowering his head a bit. “But you have to understand Adele is the priority for the Fellowship.”

The hair on the back of my neck bristles. Priority? No one ever mentioned anything about priority playing a role in finding them. Mom and Sam went missing together. Why would they be treated as two separate cases? I concentrate on keeping my voice low. “And you have to understand I couldn’t care less about the Fellowship’s priorities. Mom and Sam are equally important to me.”

“Finding Adele means finding Sam, Charlie,” Seth replies.

I let my emotions speak for me while I stare at the stage, keeping my focus on Alexander. Seth watches my face a moment longer before looking to the stage as well. “We have reason to believe Whalen may be involved,” the founder says.

Whalen’s name rumbles through the crowd. Eyes widen and lips curl. Every single face reacts to it. At least we’re all on the same page about that one. If Whalen is behind this, I want the entire Fellowship to bring him down. I steal a peek at Keiran, but his eyes are on the ground.

By the time the meeting ends, I’ve heard details of a captured changeling in Canada, three troll sightings in South America, and a missing sandman in Africa. Various Aegises come forward to update the Fellowship on less dramatic operations, like monitoring the migration of the merfolk.

When it’s over, Aegises pair up with Apprentices and everyone heads in different directions. Lulu flutters beside Seth and asks, “What are you guys doing now?”

“Gotta get Charlie started on some Apprentice training,” he says. “I’m going to show her around Central Hall, maybe do a little mirror work.”

She places her hands on her hips. “Groovy. You two want to meet up for lunch later?”

Yes, please
. I rock up on my toes, nearly jumping at the suggestion, and nab a chuckle from Seth. Lulu waits for his nod before kissing both of our cheeks and flying off. I watch her sparkling purple trail drift into the grass and disappear behind her.

Seth and I leave the Clearing and walk around the front of Artedion. I watch more Aegises, unattached to Apprentices, split into groups and head off to take care of whatever missions they’re involved in at the moment. The Fellowship is so much bigger than I realized last night. “How many missions is the Fellowship operating right now?”

“Hard to say.” Seth looks toward the sky. “We have several ongoing situations that are constantly being monitored, like yours. Aside from those, we have things that pop up and need to be dealt with, like sightings and rescues and all the things you heard Alexander talk about back there.”

I focus on my footsteps, remembering the leprechaun’s question earlier. “Who decides what’s most important?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you already pointed out that Mom is higher priority than Sam. What’s higher priority than Mom? The missing sandman? The changeling?”

“Shh,” Seth mouths, reminding me that I can’t talk openly about this, and I huff.

A large horse-like creature crosses the path in front of us, bringing foot traffic to a stop as it lumbers across. It has one large horn protruding from its forehead, and another lying across its back. I look everywhere but at the creature, trying to play it cool.

Seth bends his head close to mine. “Alexander isn’t going to let Adele and Sam fall through the cracks.”

The creature steps off the path on the other side, and we’re moving toward the library again.

I’m sure Alexander will do what he can for Mom and Sam, but in the meantime, I’m waiting. Useless. Hoping that, out of however many missions the Fellowship is running at this very moment, everyone’s going to somehow come together to find my family. I pull on the ends of my braid, absentmindedly separating it between my fingers. “How do I know? How do you know they’re doing everything they absolutely can?”

Seth’s pace slows as he studies my face. “Where’s all this doubt coming from?”

I shrug. I saw the Mothman. I saw how quickly he moved. Even if the Fellowship is doing everything it can, who says it’ll be enough? How do I know it isn’t too late already?

“Charlie.” Seth stops in the middle of the path. “Trust me. I told you I would bring them back, and I will.”

I want to believe him. I know he loves them like I do. How do I trust anything anyone tells me anymore? The last two days have been one big blow after another, and I’m still not convinced I know the entire truth about the Fellowship or even myself. Everyone I meet—Alexander, Seth, Joe, and who knows how many others—seems to hold a new piece of the puzzle.

Everything is so much bigger than I am. I bite the inside of my lip. “There’s a lot happening at once. The mortal realm is huge. I get the impression the mystical realm might be even bigger. How are they going to find Mom and Sam in the middle of everything else that’s going on across the two realms and the Between?”

He puts his hands on my shoulders and lowers his head until our foreheads nearly touch. “You need to meet PRU.”

Great. Another person who knows more about me than I do? “Who’s Prue?”

Seth gives my upper back one swift pat and nods toward the library. “You’ll see.”

We stop outside the doors of the tiny little building that supposedly houses a library, as well as the entire operation in charge of finding Mom and Sam. Two fairies sit on a stone bench outside the doors, heads bowed together over a book.

“It looks like such a dump,” I say, studying the tiny cracks in the white stone walls. You’d think a magical organization like the Fellowship would do a little more upkeep on one of its most important buildings. Surely someone could snap her fingers and turn this into a more respectable library.

“Just wait,” Seth says, stepping up to the double doors. He glances back at me before pushing one of them open, then steps aside and guides me ahead of him.

The ceiling soars over my head, so high I can hardly make out the faded mural painted on it. I barely see the shapes at all, just splashes of muted colors—pale red, buttery yellow, and a strip of periwinkle. Rows of books are arranged on shelves five times taller than I am. I watch pixies fly to the topmost shelves and arrange the books there.

A winding staircase tucked in the corner leads to a few closed doors on the second floor before the landing opens up to more bookshelves. The shelves are topped with arched windows that stream sunlight throughout the building and cast spotlights on the library’s most striking feature—the broad tree growing in the middle. Its branches extend up and out from every side, perfectly symmetrical. It’s wide but short, tucked beneath the second floor’s balcony. A couple of gargoyles pass beneath it to the far side of the room.

I turn, open-mouthed, and look at the door. Seth chuckles as I exit the library and re-enter.

It’s like walking into Mary Poppins’s bag.

I make my way farther inside and Seth walks with me, pausing beneath the tree. The leaves are sprinkled with flecks of gold that shimmer through the branches in waves of light. It continuously sparkles, though there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to it. A leaf right next to my head shines briefly, then goes dark. Through the mass of green, I see several other leaves doing the same.

It’s incredible.

I step closer, brushing my hand across a dark leaf. It’s hard, almost plastic-like. Seth pulls something thin and green, about as wide as a deck of cards, from his back pocket, just like the ones I’d seen Mom and Alexander use. He holds it up by the leaf. They match.

“This is PRU,” he says, gesturing to the tree. Light from the leaves bounces off his dark eyes. “The Principal Recording Unit. It’s how we keep track of every single operation the Fellowship is involved in. Any sightings, any issues, they’re all logged here. Everything I do for the Fellowship is recorded. I enter it here in my leafkey,” he swipes his finger across the leaf-shaped device in his hand, “and it’s directed to PRU. That’s all the light you’re seeing—each time a leaf lights up, someone’s entering information into the system.”

I tilt my head back and peer straight up through the leaves, watching them glow. It is without a doubt the coolest thing I have ever seen.

And that’s saying something, considering everything I’ve witnessed in the last twenty-four hours.

Seth slides his leafkey back into his pocket and steps closer. “Events that seem random take on a completely different shape once they’re logged into the system. This is how we’re going to find Adele and Sam in the middle of everything else the Fellowship is doing. Trust me. We
will
find them.”

Each little light is a glimmer of hope that Mom and Sam are that much closer to being found. I look at Seth. There’s not a shred of uncertainty on his face. “Okay,” I tell him. “I believe you.”

He smiles, and with a quick nod of his head he pulls me away from the tree. We follow another Aegis-Apprentice pair up the winding staircase, and I run my hand along the iron railing, peering down at the shelves of books below. We stop outside a closed door with a frosted glass window. It reminds me of the principal’s office back home.

“Over there.” Seth points to a door on the far side of the second floor. “That’s where Principal Command meets. And this,” he opens the door with the frosted window, “is Central Hall, where the real work happens.”

As the door swings open, two hooved women dart past us, staring at their leafkeys as they trot down the stairs. Seth places his arm around me to keep them from knocking me down.

The room is the very definition of clutter. Scattered rows of wooden chairs line one side, and an assortment of tables take up the other. Mostly, the room is filled with Aegises. Male and female, Seth’s age and older, some more human than others, I think. Talking to each other, drawing pictures on white boards, passing out papers. I get the feeling no one stands still long enough to straighten up this place.

A muscular guy with blond hair and pointed ears looks up when we enter. “Hey, Seth. Didn’t expect to see you around here today.”

“Hi, Justin,” Seth says. “This is Charlie, my Apprentice. I’m just showing her around Central Hall. Charlie, this is Justin. He keeps everything in order around here.”

I take in the hardly organized chaos and wonder about his idea of order.

Justin sizes me up. “Right, right. I heard about you. Charlie with the harpy.”

Thanks, Justin. I was really hoping someone would bring that up
. I don’t have to be an empath to interpret the sideways glance Seth lays on me.

“Anything interesting going on today?” Seth asks. A tall gorgon passes behind us, pushing me and Seth into Justin.

Justin steps backward and fans a stack of papers in his hand. He spreads them out for us to see, but they’re completely blank. I blink, and then a bulleted list in scripted type crawls across the page.

“PRU generates that info,” Seth tells me. “It’s constantly updating.”

Justin scans the list. “Let’s see. Two more units were added to the search for Adele. We’ve had a chupacabra sighting, a couple of leprechaun issues, somebody found a unicorn fossil—oh, and a couple fairy rings malfunctioned this morning. It was brief, but Clara wants to set up an inquiry.”

Well, look at that
. The mention of Clara’s name is already producing a reflexive snarl on my face.

Seth rolls his eyes. “Of course she does. The fairies need to be more responsible with their rings.”

Justin laughs a good, hearty laugh. I decide I like him. I love genuine laughs. “You know Clara. Nothing’s ever the fairies’ fault. We should give Alexander a heads-up before she launches into one of her tirades.”

“I’ll mention it to him,” Seth says. “Charlie and I are going to do a little mirror work, but I’ll see him this afternoon.”

“Perfect. One less thing on my list.” Justin slides the pages back into one stack and tosses it on the desk behind him. “You need anything?”

“Not at the moment,” Seth replies.

Justin nods to us and directs his attention to an Aegis who entered the room behind us. I follow Seth to the far side of the room. I remember what Lulu said about a fairy forgetting to close a fairy ring earlier. “What’s a fairy ring?”