A Fairy Tale (18 page)

The fairy tilted his head to one side and frowned in thought for a moment. He was unlike any fairy she’d ever seen before. If it hadn’t been for the unusual coloring and the unreal level of attractiveness, he might even have passed for human. He dressed like an absent-minded professor, and she noticed a folded newspaper stuck in his jacket pocket. “Friends? Yes, I do believe we are,” he said at last, as though he was as surprised by the thought as Sophie was.

“But you’re the one who took her.”

He looked her straight in the eye and said, “For that I am sorry. I was told she was a changeling who needed to be restored to her people, and I thought her masked aura was proof of that—the reason she’d been lost to us.”

“Her aura is masked?” she asked, fighting to keep her voice steady. That was what the crazy old women had said. It was true?

“She is practically invisible to our kind. I only recognized her by her name when I saw her show. I do not know how it happened. It isn’t fae magic.”

“Why are you helping her?” she asked, suddenly suspicious.

There was another long pause as he put serious thought into his answer. “My name is Eamon,” he said somberly.

Sophie knew he was putting himself at her mercy by giving her his name, though it was largely a symbolic gesture, since she couldn’t really do anything with it. Still, it required a response beyond the usual “How do you do?” She gave him a slight bow and said, “I am honored to make your acquaintance.”

He bowed in response and said, “I am helping because I feel responsible. I was too easily duped. And I do not want Emily to become like the other human captives. I want to bring her safely home.”

That was good enough for Sophie. “Then I am happy to accept whatever aid you offer.”

“You will stay away?”

“Why should I?”

“I will take care of her until I can get her away.”

“Who has her?” she asked, but then she noticed Detective Tanaka staring right at them and starting to move in their direction. She could just imagine what he’d think about seeing her with someone who fit the description of their prime suspect. “You have to go, now,” she said. “And can you change your glamour?”

“I don’t have that power now. It is difficult for me here in daylight.”

He did look awfully pale, she realized. She gripped his arm with the hand not holding the horseshoe and steered him through the crowd. “Then we’ll have to find another way to get you out of here. The police know you were with Emily in the diner.” His eerie silvery eyes widened as he glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t look so suspicious,” she scolded. She couldn’t resist her own glance and saw that Tanaka had picked up his pace and was hurrying toward them. “Are you sure you can’t do anything?” she asked.

“I can barely maintain a human glamour, and my strength is fading.”

She remembered something from her childhood and dug in her purse for the plastic-wrapped chocolate-chip cookie that had come with the hideously overpriced airplane snack pack. “Please take this offering of food,” she said, holding the cookie out to him.

He accepted it with a bow. “Your generosity is most welcome.” It took him a couple of tries to rip open the plastic while they kept on the move, and then he took a cautious bite. After chewing, he shuddered in pleasure. “Oh, this is good.”

“Did it work?”

He didn’t answer, but she felt a subtle change in her sense of the universe, and her next glance backward showed Tanaka looking around like he’d lost his quarry. “I have hidden both of us,” Eamon said.

“Good work. Now, about my question: Who has Emily?”

“My glamour will not last long. I must return to Emily.” Then he disappeared even from Sophie’s eyes. By the time she refocused her senses and found him again, he was too far away to catch.

She heard someone calling her name and realized that his disappearance meant the glamour on her must have dropped, and now Tanaka could see her. “Oh, look somewhere else,” she muttered under her breath. She didn’t have a good explanation for chatting with the prime suspect, so she darted around the next corner and lost herself in the crowd of arriving theater patrons. She didn’t see Tanaka behind her, but she still hurried down the street to the next corner, where she hailed a cab and flung herself into the backseat, crouching so she wouldn’t be visible.

In spite of Eamon’s warning, she knew she had to get Emily back that night, or else Sophie might find herself in trouble with the police.

The Murray Residence

Thursday, 7:00 p.m.

When Michael saw Tanaka’s number on his Caller ID, he eagerly grabbed the phone. “Did you get something?” he asked.

“Has the ballerina come home yet?”

“I think she might have. She didn’t come up to see me, though. Why?”

“If I’m not mistaken, she just had a little chat with our prime suspect at the vigil, and then she helped him get away.”

“Are you sure? She might have dragged him into her lair to torture him. I saw how terrified he was when she caught him last night.”

“I didn’t hear the conversation, but she was talking to a guy who fit the description, and when I headed toward them, they walked away in a hurry, then vanished. When I caught up, Sophie was alone, and she gave me the slip.”

“I know she’s weird and a little scary, but you don’t think she’s in on it, do you?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time a family member did an end-run around the police to pay a ransom. It may not be anything. It may be a different guy, and she realized that after talking to him, but do me a favor and keep an eye on her. Let me know if she does anything suspicious. It may take a while to get a warrant to track her phone.”

Feeling only slightly guilty for spying on Sophie, Michael positioned himself near the living room window so he could watch the front door downstairs. Shortly after eight, she left with Beau, a tote bag slung over her shoulder. Michael knew he should call Tank, but he’d probably lose her if he stopped to make a call. He could always call once he saw where she was going. He bolted for his door and hurried downstairs, reaching the sidewalk just in time to see her round the corner. He followed, staying far enough behind not to be noticeable.

She went down Columbus, turned onto Eighty-first, then crossed Central Park West and headed downtown. The sidewalk there was fairly empty, as most of the dog walkers and joggers were inside the park instead of along the street, so he had to fall back to remain inconspicuous. She entered the park at Seventy-seventh, followed the path along the lake, then headed to the Imagine mosaic, where she melted into a cluster of tourists. He watched the edges of the crowd, but didn’t see her again until she was already well down the path heading south into the park.

She’d apparently noticed him, and he’d have aborted if this had been an official operation. But it wasn’t, and if she wanted to know why he was following her, she could let him catch up and ask him.

Or she could try to lose him, which was what she seemed to be doing. The paths twisted and turned through the trees, and the sun had set enough that the light was dim within the park. He was also tiring rapidly. He hadn’t done this much walking since he’d been shot, and she kept a brisk pace. She was losing him just by walking quickly. He couldn’t keep up.

He had to pause and catch his breath while fighting off a dizzy spell, and by the time he recovered, she was so far away he could barely see her. She cut across the grass north of Tavern on the Green, but then he lost her completely. He reached the spot where he’d last seen her, and she was nowhere in sight. It was as though she’d vanished into thin air.

He wasn’t sure if it was his overexertion or the setting sun, but he couldn’t fight back a shiver.

The Realm

Twilight

Sophie came out of the gateway under a full head of steam, not so much because she was trying to lose Michael but rather because she was afraid that if she let herself slow down or hesitate in the slightest, she wouldn’t be able to go through with her plan. She was in such a hurry, in fact, that it took her a while to notice how cold it was, colder even than in her previous visit. Shivering, she pulled her sweater tighter around her as she noticed a few snowflakes dancing in the air. It was as though months had passed in the Realm since the night before.

She didn’t recognize her surroundings, which made it difficult to get her bearings. Then again, bearings were irrelevant in the Realm. If she kept walking, she’d end up where she was supposed to be—or where whatever powers that ruled the Realm wanted her to be. Sure enough, she soon found herself in a more familiar setting: the woods behind her grandparents’ house. Or, rather, the fairy world that she’d entered through the woods behind her grandparents’ house.

It was exactly the way she remembered. The clearing surrounded by tall pine trees was open to a sky of rich blue, just dark enough for stars to be visible. In the middle of the clearing was a patch of marble floor ringed with carved pillars, like the ruins of a temple. Some of the pillars had fallen into just the right position to serve as benches. Broad pediments topped the standing pillars, so the place had always reminded Sophie of the fairy circles of toadstools that grew in the lawn.

The music was even the same as she remembered, seemingly emanating from the trees themselves. The feathery branches of the pine trees sighed and sang like a string orchestra. Their sound brought back memories of long-ago nights spent dancing. She caught herself swaying to the music, then snapped herself out of the spell. She wasn’t here for fun. She had a mission to accomplish—or she would if anyone showed up. The clearing was annoyingly empty. In spite of her stern mental lecture, her toes twitched and she shifted her weight from foot to foot. She’d never wanted to dance so much in her life. She rationalized that Tallulah would require a dance before she’d talk as a payment for the conversation, so she might as well warm up.

She took off her sweater, sat on one of the fallen pillars, and took an old pair of pointe shoes that were still serviceable—but too frayed around the toes to be presentable—out of the bag she’d borrowed from Emily’s closet. She put on the shoes, then stood up and moved to the center of the floor.

After a few warm-ups, she started with an adagio suited to the plaintive tone of the forest music. The music grew livelier, as though welcoming her back, so she moved into a series of turns and jumps. In spite of the gravity of her predicament, her heart soared with the dance. At the same time, tears spilled from her eyes with the awareness of what she’d given up. She hadn’t let herself go free like this in years. She kept up her skills with classes, but a routine of teaching little girls with big dreams and dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy every December didn’t stretch her fairy-honed talent. She was getting old for a dancer, but she didn’t feel it in her body. It was like she was seventeen again.

The music built to a crescendo and she crossed the floor with a chain of soaring grand jetés, her legs in a full split. As she’d told Michael, she could get some serious air. Sometimes she felt like she was just short of taking flight. She finished with some big fouetté turns, whipping herself around by kicking her leg in and out as she spun. This was the move that had been so helpful in snaring Eamon, and she couldn’t help but smile at the thought. She landed in fourth position, breathing hard, tears streaming down her cheeks.

That was when she realized she had an audience other than Beau. The sound of one pair of hands clapping came from the trees surrounding the clearing, but she didn’t see anyone. Beau dropped the stick he’d been gnawing on and growled. Squinting, Sophie could make out a few figures hiding among the trees. One finally stepped forward.

She was a statuesque fairy woman with flame-colored hair that fell to her hips and wafted around her like she was caught in a stiff breeze. Her gauzy dress, unaffected by the wind that stirred her hair, clung to her curves. “You have not forgotten everything I taught you, I see,” she said.

Sophie returned the gaze of her former mentor, refusing to let herself be cowed. “No, I haven’t.”

“You will excuse my friends if they are wary of approaching. I’m sure you understand their fear.”

“Yes, I suppose I was rather …” Sophie’s voice trailed off as she tried to think of a good way to describe the way she’d acted the last time she’d met Tallulah and her people.

“Angry?” Tallulah suggested.

“That’s putting it mildly.” Sophie didn’t apologize because she still wasn’t sure that her fury hadn’t been justified. “And it’s happened again.”

“Your sister,” Tallulah said with a nod, stepping up onto the marble floor and coming to stand in front of Sophie.

“Among others. And I’m here to get them back.” Her heart pounding madly at the enormity of what she was about to propose, Sophie steeled herself and said, “I know what you taught me had a price, and I’m willing to pay that price myself. I’ll stay here with you, as long as you want me, if you’ll let Emily and the others go.”

Smiling sadly, Tallulah placed the palm of her hand against Sophie’s cheek. “My poor child, your sister was not the price for my teaching.”

Sophie jerked away from Tallulah’s cool touch. “Then why did you take her? Why have you been trying to take her for years—and taking the wrong women along the way? Why do enchantresses feel the need to protect Emily from you and your people by masking her aura?” Sophie still wasn’t sure about that last bit, but she wanted to see how Tallulah reacted.

“Do you think so little of me?” Tallulah said, arching one slightly slanted eyebrow. “If I wanted your sister, I would have found her, with or without an aura. I would have made no mistakes.” She held up a hand to silence Sophie before she could protest. “No, it is Maeve who has taken your sister. It was she who tried to take her before—as you would have known if you’d listened to me instead of terrifying my people. It was she who mistakenly took the others.”

“But Maeve was part of your family.”