Autumn (21 page)

She clutched his hands as her eyes darted wildly around.

“We have come to a decision,” said the Winter Queen, smiling. “We are going to read this decision out in front of the entire assembled Courts on Sunday morning. Everyone, even the semi-human, is expected to be at the Cheshire residence at nine o’clock.

Something about the time struck me as bizarrely inconsequential and random. I tried to catch Holt’s eye, but he wasn’t looking at me.

“Until then,” said Divioni, “Mr. Roth, it would be best if you stayed at your mother’s house and refrained from contacting...anyone.” Divoni had no problem glaring in my direction. Apparently, all the problems led back to me.

Mrs. Cheshire smiled. “Samuel,” she said, “come along.”

Samuel started to protest, but his mother held up her hand. Not even Samuel was going to argue with his mother in public.

“I’ll take you home,” said Susan, looking at me.

Mrs. Roth didn’t seem to care what anyone did as long as her two sons were on either side of her. That car ride home is going to be interesting, I thought, not that they were going to take a car. Fairies seemed to have fast ways of traveling, but no one had yet showed me, or explained to me, what they were. I was in no hurry to learn; I knew Holt would teach me once all this was over. Although the smile that Mrs. Cheshire had in place made me uneasy, I was still holding onto the belief that the other Court members would be reasonable in the end.

Susan wrapped one of her thin arms around my shoulders. Just as she started to lead me away, a light touch on my shoulder made me turn.

Samuel was standing there. Before I knew what he was doing he wrapped me in a fierce hug, and all the confusing attraction I had felt for him at the beginning came tumbling back. Even though I had buried it deep within my heart, his touch brought it boiling to the surface again.

“Be careful,” he murmured in my ear. He let me go as quickly as he had wrapped his arms around me. I was left reeling.

“Come on,” Susan said, trying to smile. She never looked back.

But I did. On the left were the blond boys of the Roth household, on the right the dark-haired heads of the Winter Court. Dark and light, but it wasn’t that simple, there was good and bad in both, and neither could be viewed as altogether right or altogether wrong.

This was one time when I wished the world did not exist in shades of gray.

When I got home that night my mom had already gone to bed. I was only a little surprised that Carley wasn’t in her room. I had expected that she’d still be out somewhere with Nick, since it wasn’t really that late. But I wanted to talk to her.

My nerves were pulsing as I thought about Sunday. Finally, there would be a decision and this would all be over. Then Holt and I could go on as I had always dreamed.

I hoped Carley wanted to do something fun the next day. I desperately needed the distraction from thinking about a certain Fairy meeting, and Carley, to her great credit, was an excellent distraction. Besides, I would hopefully get all the juicy details about what had happened with her and Nick. I already knew she thought he was the best kisser she had ever had. Privately, I wondered who he had practiced with.

I wanted to wait up for Carley, but by the time two o’clock rolled around my eyes were closing on their own. I tried to keep them open, which is why I heard the text message come in.

I glanced at my phone.

Holt.

If I hadn’t been so floored, if electricity hadn’t been running through every part of my body, I might have found it funny that Fairy Princes still communicated via text message. It would have seemed more fitting for them to send notes on leaves through the wind. I would have to tell Holt about that the next time we were alone.

The text was simple.

“We have to run. Be ready.”

My heart started to race.

I didn’t sleep that night. Not for a second. I heard Carley come home around four, but I made no move to greet her.

I was paralyzed by surprise. I had known that the situation with the Fairies was bad, at times even desperate, but something in my mind had been blocking me from seeing the truth, like a mental barrier had been placed there. Now I finally saw how stupid it had been for me to think that everything was going to be alright. But I had. I SO had.

It was Saturday morning, and I didn’t want to go downstairs too early or my mom would know something was wrong. At least I had the weekend off from work, so I didn’t really have to be coherent. Carley talked so much she wouldn’t care if I was quiet, and I was so drained that I didn’t think I’d be able to say a word.

 Eventually I padded downstairs. My body felt sluggish with exhaustion and worry. The only thing I wanted to do, and the only thing that would make me feel better, was to talk to Holt. As it turned out, that was the only thing I wasn’t allowed to do.

I was surprised he had even managed to get a text message out to me. From his behavior the night before I had thought he was going along with what the Fairies wanted. Now I knew he wasn’t. Now I knew he had just been pretending.

We were going to leave. Together.

For good? Where would we go? What would we do? Would I ever see my mother again? The dull ache in my chest felt suffocating.

I wanted to call Holt and tell him he was being overly dramatic, but I didn’t think he would have decided to take this course of action if he hadn’t thought it was the only way.

“Morning,” my mom said, interrupting my channel surfing.

“Hey,” I said, giving her a tired smile.

“Honey, you look terrible,” she said, coming to the couch next to me and putting one hand against my forehead. “Are you sick?”

I gently pushed her hand away. “No,” I said, “I’m just tired. Didn’t sleep well last night.” Didn’t sleep at all.

“Well, your friend is visiting,” said my mom cheerily, “you aren’t supposed to sleep much.”

If only that had been why I had stayed awake all night. Apparently she hadn’t realized that Carley hadn’t come home until four, which was good for Carley.

“I’ll get you some cereal,” she said, disappearing into the kitchen.

I sighed. Sometimes it was awesome to have a normal mom who fed me breakfast on the couch and didn’t care if I married a boy, a girl, or a dancing bear as long as I was happy. I snorted to myself at the thought.

“Something funny?” my mom asked, coming back into the room and handing me a bowl of Rice Krispies.

“Nope,” I said. “Sugar?”

“Lots,” said my mom. “You could use the sweetening.” She pinched my nose affectionately and disappeared as I groaned into my spoon.

I sat on the couch all morning, but if anyone had told me that I had to repeat what I saw  on TV and it was a life or death matter, I would have been dead. The images on the screen passed by in a blur, and although I heard sounds and saw movements, my mind was far far away.

Instead of feeling better, as the morning went on I only felt worse. Right before I literally thought I was going to throw up, Carley came bounding down the stairs.

If I looked like death warmed over she didn’t notice. She flopped down on the couch next to me, still in her sweater and comfy pants, and said, “Oh, my, I’m in LOVE with Nick.”

I smiled. It was a genuine smile, even though it hurt.

“Really?” I asked. “That’s wonderful.” Finally, she had realized.

“Yes,” she sighed happily.

“What changed your mind?”

“I saw him and just knew how much I missed him,” she said. “Besides, I think being in different places sort of took the pressure off us. Besides, the guys at my high school suck.”

I wanted to laugh hearing Carley talk about pressure, but I didn’t. Instead I spent the rest of the day chatting with my best friend and hearing all about her new boyfriend, because I knew, deep in my heart, that it was probably going to be the last such time we ever had together.

Holt came for me in the early hours of the next morning. I had sat up all night in my rocking chair, not even trying to sleep. Instead I had stared wordlessly at the night sky, a mute vigil on a seemingly innocent night.

I had packed a small suitcase, even though I wasn’t sure where we were going or for how long. All I knew was that I had to support Holt. I wanted to. I had kissed my mother on the cheek and she had asked me what was wrong. I had told her that I loved her. She clarified yet again that I wasn’t on drugs. Carley had laughed and giggled. Nick had come over and the three of us had picked up right where we left off at the end of the summer: with me losing at cards.

Now Holt came clambering through the window, and the butterflies in my stomach, which already felt like they were flying around in crazy directions, grew more insistent.

“Hey,” he said, “what’s wrong?”

I stared at him.

What?

“Excuse me?” I asked, getting up to help him in. Not that he needed it; he was the most agile person I had ever seen, except maybe for Samuel.

“You texted me and asked me to come,” Holt panted, staring at me. I saw a mix of emotions on his face. He looked like he simultaneously wanted to kiss me and shake me, while my primary emotion was confusion.

“I didn’t text you,” I said. “You texted me last night.”

Holt took a step back. Even in the dark, even with his brow creased with worry, he looked splendid.

“Let me see your phone.” His voice was harsh, but I knew the harshness wasn’t directed at me.

I yanked my phone out of my pocket, almost dropping it in my rush to hand it to him. Quickly, he flipped it over and stared at the number.

“Rog,” he breathed. “Shit.”

“What? What are you talking about?” I cried, before I realized I should keep my voice down.

“We’ve been set up,” said Holt, his green eyes filled with a deep sadness as he looked at me. He smiled softly and my heart wanted to break. “My own kind set me up.”

“Holt,” I pleaded, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I didn’t text you,” he said, “and this morning, the text I got from you saying that you were in trouble, you didn’t send it, right?”

I nodded. A cold stone settled in the pit of my stomach and I didn’t want to hear any more.

“It was Rog, and probably my brother, who sent the texts. They were worried that we were going to get off this morning, and I think they should have been, so they sabotaged us. They knew I was never going to leave you in harm’s way.”

“Why didn’t you just ask Samuel to come?” I asked.

“Because I’m tired of Samuel always taking care of you,” Holt retorted, raking his hand through his blond hair. “It’s supposed to be me.”

Without a word I slid my hand into his and my mouth quirked up in a smile. I couldn’t help it.

“What now?”

Holt shook his head. “I don’t know. We could try to run; I see you were ready for it.” He glanced at my bag and smiled. “Truly? You would have run away with me and left everything you know and love behind?”

I wrapped my arms around him. “We are in this together,” I said, looking up into his eyes. “Always. Besides, as long as I can still watch my TV shows I won’t have left everything behind.”

He laughed. It was a relief to hear a happy sound come out of him.

A ripping noise was our only warning. In the blink of an eye a hole was torn in the side of my room, giant and gaping. Cold wind whipped into my face and I screamed.

Our time was up.

Long black vines snaked into the house with a speed I could barely follow. One wrapped around Holt, while the other slithered up to take hold of my waist.

Before I had time to scream again we were yanked out of the house. I didn’t see who had pulled us away before blackness enveloped me. My last thought was that I hoped Holt was okay.

I started to come awake and wondered why my face was so cold and my pillow so hard. As more of my faculties returned I realized that my face was cold because that’s what happens when you lie face down on a rock in October. And my pillow was hard because it was granite.

I stirred and instantly understood that I wasn’t going very far. My hands were bound, although as far as I could feel my feet were free.

“She’s awake.” I heard the familiar cold, clipped voice of Logan. Anger coursed through my veins, warming me.

“What about your brother?” Rog’s voice asked from somewhere behind me.

“I’m awake and I’m going to kill you both,” came Holt’s answer. He wasn’t next to me, but he was close. I breathed a little easier.

“Let’s dangle her over the edge and see how mouthy he is then.” Rough hands grabbed me under my arms and hauled me to my feet. It wasn’t until I was standing that I knew where we were: the place where I had gotten lost way back in the beginning of the summer, where Samuel had come to my rescue for the first of many times. Now I was standing there feeling like I had been punched in the stomach. All around me, all I saw was blackness.

“Holt,” asked Logan, “do you see this? Your girlfriend? And you’re powerless to help, not that it matters now. They’re going to kill her. You know that, right? You’ve broken the law...geez how did that happen?...and now you get to pay.”