A Faerie's Curse (Creepy Hollow #6) (15 page)

Elizabeth shakes her head and sighs through her nose. She stands. “Give me ten minutes.”

I fall asleep while she's gone, so I don't know how much time has passed when she returns with a collection of ingredients, a bowl, a flask, and an old book. “I can't lift the curse, but I know enough about witch magic to be able to alleviate the effects for a limited time.” She places everything on the table. At my questioning look, she adds, “I couldn't very well mix up a tonic right there in Gaius's laboratory if you don't want anyone knowing what it's for. It may be the middle of the night, but he's still puttering around doing who knows what.” She reaches for the book, which looks like it may be the same one she used when contacting the witches. Faded foreign lettering runs down the battered spine, reminding me of the large leather-bound book that was on display in the witches' Underground store.

“Is that a witch's spell book?” I ask.

“Yes.” Elizabeth opens the book and scans through the contents, keeping her back to me.

“What kind of spells are in it?”

“A lot of elemental-based magic. A few witch classics—summoning and changeling magic—plus some darker spells. Chimaera creation, energy rituals, ancient curses. That sort of thing.”

“How did you get it?”

Her piercing gaze lands on me as she looks over her shoulder. “Do you want me to answer questions all night or make this tonic?”

“Sorry,” I murmur. My eyelids slide shut. I think I fall asleep again because the next thing I'm aware of is Elizabeth sitting on the edge of my bed with a spoon, a bottle of brownish liquid, and a glass of what appears to be water. She sets everything on the bedside table as I push myself into a sitting position. “Dilute a spoon of this in a glass of water whenever you've used your ability and are feeling depleted,” she tells me, following her own instructions and adding a spoonful of brown liquid to the glass. “It will replenish some of your strength.”

I take the glass from her and sip the contents, preparing myself for a horrible taste. It isn't that bad, though: sweet with a herbal scent. I gulp down the rest of the drink and, to my surprise, start to feel better within seconds. I stare at the empty glass in my hands. “I assume this won't work indefinitely.”

“No. I don't know how long it will keep the curse's effects at bay. Days, weeks, I'm not sure. Just keep using it until it stops working.”

Not the best plan, but I suppose I can't ask for much more at this point. “Thanks, Elizabeth.”

“You're welcome.” Then, as my eyes slide shut, she adds, “Now don't you dare screw up tomorrow night's mission.”

C
HAPTER

S
EVENTEEN

I wake up some time in the afternoon feeling almost normal, which is a great relief. I know I'm only postponing the inevitable effects of the curse, but I don't care at this point. I simply need to make it through tomorrow night without collapsing. If I survive, I'll worry about getting rid of the curse afterwards—hopefully by getting rid of that witch at the same time.

Late in the afternoon, the rest of the team—which now includes Elizabeth—gathers in the mountain's meeting room for our final run-through of the plan.

“Problem,” Ana announces the moment she walks in. None of us are seated, and Lumethon hasn't even arrived yet. “I spoke to Trian Hared. He—”

“Who?” Darius asks.

“The musician. He—”

“Oh, that guy you got all swoony over?”

“Darius!” Ana punches his arm before continuing. “Trian wasn't invited to this party, but he's been to an event at the palace before. He said he doesn't remember where the journey began, but it was ridiculously long. Three or four hours at least, and not only was his invitation checked by someone at three different points during the journey, he was also supposed to have some special charm to get him through the entrance.”

“What charm?” Gaius asks.

“There's a waterfall of some sort at the entrance to the palace. If you don't have this charm on you as you drive through it, the water becomes solid and knocks you backward out of your carriage. The guards almost arrested Trian, but then it turned out he hadn't opened his invitation properly. Apparently when the person or people the invitation is addressed to first open it, a charm is released that allows those people passage beneath this waterfall curtain.”

“Oh dear,” Gaius mutters, followed by a far more colorful curse from Elizabeth. “We don't have that charm.”

“I know,” Ana snaps. “The baron and his daughter would have received it.” She drops into one of the chairs around the oval table and buries her face in her hands. “Whyyyyy does everything have to be so hard?”

“What's so hard?” Lumethon asks as she walks in, looking alarmed.

“We don't have the charm that will allow us to pass through the Seelie Palace entrance,” Kobe tells her.

“Hang on,” I say, holding my hands up as my last memory of Olive springs to mind. “The person I followed to the palace last night sprinkled something over her herself before she drove beneath that waterfall. Something she kept in a pouch in her desk at the Guild. Maybe it's the same kind of thing. Something that allows her to pass through the water.”

“And what if it's not?” Ana says as she looks at me between her splayed fingers. “What if it was something entirely unrelated?”

“Then why would she bother sprinkling it on herself just before entering the palace grounds?”

“Whatever it is, we have to try it,” Gaius says, seating himself at the table. “Calla, can you get this pouch from her office?”

My eyes meet Elizabeth's across the table. We both know I shouldn't be projecting any illusions before tomorrow night, but this has to be done. “Of course. I'll go as soon as this meeting is over.”

“Excellent. Let's run through everything then.”

Those still standing take a seat at the table, and Gaius begins by telling everyone to be here at midday tomorrow. We'll get ready—masks, weapons, relevant spells and charms—and leave the mountain in the late afternoon, which means we should arrive at the palace in time for the party in the evening.

Two or three hours later, when we've been through our plan in detail and talked through every possible obstacle we might encounter, Gaius calls the meeting to an end. He invites everyone to stay for dinner, but I tell him I'll eat when I get back. I want to get that pouch out of Olive's desk before she locks her office for the night.

I'm tired of wigs—they itch my head—but I know they help me to blend in far more easily than if I'm wearing a hood. I use the shoulder-length black and pink one again and stick with my normal black jacket. Lumethon's tan-colored one spent far too many hours hanging around Olive's office yesterday.

I expect the Guild to be emptier, given that it's evening and training should be over. Anyone working through the night should be upstairs in an office or out in the field on an assignment, but instead I find a bustle of activity in the foyer. Councilor Merrydale is there, speaking with two other guardians while tapping his foot and glancing over his shoulder every so often. Olive is present, as are several other guardians I recognize. Relieved to be covered by invisibility, I walk confidently across the foyer and up the grand stairway.

Olive's office is unlocked, so I slip inside with no trouble. I hurry over to her desk and open the top drawer. The pouch, of course, isn't there. Because, as Ana pointed out, everything about this mission is hard. Grumbling beneath my breath, I yank the second drawer open—and there it is. “Okay, scratch that,” I whisper to myself. Not everything is that difficult. I pick up the pouch and find a symbol—the Seelie Queen's insignia, I'm guessing—stamped onto the fabric. Pushing the drawer closed with my hip, I open the pouch and peek inside. The powdery contents glitter in the light of the glow-bugs attached to Olive's ceiling. “This had better work,” I murmur as I pull the string to close the pouch. I open my jacket and drop the pouch into the inner pocket—just as I hear footsteps pounding along the corridor outside.

“… right now?”

I'm not here. Don't see me, don't see me.

“Yes. Not more than a minute ago. I saw her—”

The door swings open and Olive storms in with a thunderous expression. “Who's hiding in here?” she demands, her eyes darting around. She marches to the desk. I squeeze around the other side as she yanks her chair back and looks under the desk. “You didn't see her leave the office?” she asks the guard standing in the doorway.

“No, but I might have missed something while on the way here. We'd have to go back to security and ask if one of the other guards saw—”

“Was the woman wearing a hood?” Olive asks as I inch around the edge of the room.

“No. She was a faerie. Pink and black. Or dark brown. I couldn't quite tell from the—”

“Get inside here and close the door,” Olive snaps.

No, no, no!
I suck my stomach in and hold my breath as I side-step past the guard. “Yes, of course,” he says, moving into the room and slamming the door.

But I'm out. I'm out and I'm running. Not the best idea because it will draw attention, but if guards are watching for me, they'll see me anyway, no matter what speed I'm moving at. And they'll send people after me.
Get out
, my instincts tell me.
Just get out as fast as possible.
Corridor, stairs, foyer. It's almost empty now, allowing me to run straight across without having to dodge anyone. Through the doorway into the entrance room, I see Councilor Merrydale. But he's chatting with the guards, so it'll be easy to open a way to the faerie paths under the cover of invisibility and get myself out of here. I dash into the room—

And something shocks me. I can't move. I'm stuck in the doorway.
What the …
I'm visible. I'm
glowing
. Councilor Merrydale steps back, raising a hand to his mouth in surprise as he stares
straight at me
. “Oh, it—it worked.” In an instant, his surprise vanishes. “Seize her before she gets away,” he shouts.

I wrench myself free of the magic constraining me to the doorway and stumble backward. The guard launches through the doorway and tackles me to the ground. I kick and squirm and elbow my way out of his grip. Scrambling away and aware of a least five guardians rushing toward me, I cast about for a suitable illusion. My desperate mind starts screaming—and screams are what I hear out loud. The blood-chilling screams that filled Ryn and Vi's house, magnified and echoing across the great foyer. The sound sends chills across my skin as my pursuers look around, searching for the source. Glittering weapons blaze into existence all around me. I jump to my feet and find that despite the deafening shrieks of despair, every guardian still runs for me.

Fire, as searingly hot as I can imagine it, tears across their path. They leap away from the flames, giving me time to run for the exit. I dive through the doorway—and I'm stuck again. “Argh!” I writhe and shout and try to imagine flames consuming the foyer behind me and—

A heavy force knocks me into the room. A person, strong and fierce and pinning my arms behind me. “Got you,” a voice snarls in my ear as she rips the wig from my head.

Olive.

“Release her immediately!” my projection shrieks, and though I've never seen the Seelie Queen in real life, I think of her portrait in the library upstairs and picture her in the most opulent gown my imagination can come up with, along with an expression of fury and a commanding, pointing finger.

“Your—your majesty?”

I take advantage of Olive's momentary confusion and thrust my elbow back as hard as I can. She grunts in pain and her grip loosens. I repeat the action, knocking her further backwards. I scramble away, turn around, and force a pulse of magic straight at Olive's chest. With a cry, she flies backward and hits the wall.

“What is the meaning of this?” my imaginary queen yells as she moves toward the doorway. I jump to my feet, fumble for my stylus, and scribble across the wall.

“It isn't real!” someone shouts on the other side of the queen.

A doorway of dark space materializes in front of me. I take my first step—and Olive throws herself around my legs. I fall into the darkness of the faerie paths with the lower half of my body still sticking out. “Ugh, get off!” I yell, wriggling and shooting sparks of magic from my fingers.

“You're not getting away this—”

“Yes I am!” I sit up, lean forward, and swing my fist at her face. Surprise, more than anything, is probably what makes her let go. I give her a good kick and squirm my way into the darkness as my doorway closes up behind me. I stand up in the darkness and scramble awkwardly into the lake house on the other side of the paths. “
Flip
, that hurt,” I mutter, clutching my aching hand. And now, in the quiet of the lake house as fatigue and a headache creep up on me once more, my mind finally has a moment to comprehend what just happened.

A spell. To detect Gifted. That's what that woman was testing downstairs. She must have put it on the entrance room doorway after I was already inside the Guild. That's why there were more people than usual in the foyer. They cast the spell and then everyone went home, probably never suspecting they'd get a chance to see it in action so soon. And the damn thing
works
, which means that every single Griffin Gifted fae who—

Ryn. Crap. I have to warn Ryn.

I'm about to rush straight to his house when I remember the other spell I'm supposed to be avoiding. Stupid Guild and their stupid detection spells. What were the words to that shield charm Gemma and Perry put together? It was so much simpler than the tongue twisting faerie paths spell but, darn it, I can't afford to get it wrong.

I unlock the faerie door and run through it. Then into the entrance hall, past the living room, and

“Oh, Calla, did you—”

“Yes, got it!” I shout as I run for the stairs. Gaius can examine the contents of the pouch later if he wants. I find the page with Perry's spell beside my bed. I rush into the bathing room, stand in front of the mirror as I hold one hand above my head, and read the spell. Looking into the mirror, I make sure the glowing dust forms and settles over me. “Done,” I murmur to myself as I leave the page on the bed. I hurry back downstairs, and barely a minute later, I'm stepping out of the faerie paths into Ryn's living room.

Dark, quiet and musty, the room's only light comes from the open door leading to the kitchen. I take a careful step forward, and then another, afraid to disturb the stillness. The room is tidy, with everything in its place except for the open books on the coffee table and the bottle standing beside them. A bottle containing some kind of alcohol, judging by its shape. Human-made alcohol, I realize as I step closer. The kind that knocks faeries out after only a few sips. It's unopened, though, which provides me with some relief.