The Earl's Childe (30 page)

“Lily.” Dad's voice was firm and he pulled her to him.

She balled her fists and punched against his chest. “You're letting them do that! You know better!”

“Lily.” He pulled her closer, murmuring into her hair and rubbing her back. I was close enough to hear. “None of them will be hurt. Nothing bad has happened. They all feel happy, so it's not like an attack or anything is getting buried in their head that will break out later. We're keeping them safe so they
don't
have to suffer any attack. So they don't get hurt. You understand that, don't you, love?”

“But you're still messing with their heads,” she cried into him.

Joe gave me a questioning look. I shook my head and mouthed “later.” He nodded. He knew a little about when Lily was kidnapped, but he didn't know she still woke up with nightmares and was still working with her therapist because she hated not knowing what had happened to her.

Rocking Lily back and forth in his hug, Dad looked at Prince Christopher. “Go with your plan,” he said softly, bracing as my sister tried to struggle from his grip for a moment, then, after a half-hearted punch, just sobbed against him. “And rather than even tell David or Krissy, you may want to just send them back as well. With their horses.”

Taking a deep breath, Tony bowed to Prince Christopher. “I can do this.” Then he paused. “You wish me to take only Richard and Annette of your children?”

I felt Joe tense beside me, grinding his teeth. His dad met his eyes. “Yes, just Richard and Annette. I don't believe Joseph would forgive me if I made him leave.”

Joe sighed, giving his dad a smile.

Prince Christopher nodded at him and then returned his attention to Tony. “Start with the coaches. Annie and Rich are asleep. May as well let them for as long as we can.” He shared a look with his wife. “And I have a letter to write before you see my mother.” He looked at my mum. “Aimee, I'm sure you have paper and a pen handy somewhere?”

CHAPTER

15

Friends are a liability. Even when they want to save your life. Especially then. But I'm glad I have them
.

I don't think we slept long, but I don't think we could have, either. Well, I couldn't. When I rolled out of bed and away from Lily, she grabbed my half of the covers and pulled them over her head with a few incoherent grunts.

My bed was empty, and I was half-tempted to reclaim it. Only half. Even if I wasn't already thinking about the little time we had left to deal with Calbraith's ultimatum, I was seriously gross. I could hardly believe Miss Perfect had let me in her bed. I looked over at Lily and felt an immediate pang of guilt; she'd been a wreck last night. She had been still crying when Dad brought us up to bed, and we'd both let him actually tuck us in. Lily had even snuggled her back up to mine, and I remembered feeling her still shaking before I'd finally fallen asleep.

I wondered what my parents' plan would be in regards to her therapist. Dad hadn't told his doctor about all things fey, and I had a feeling they would come to a roadblock with his meds and therapy if he didn't. But, hey, I was eleven and totally not a psych doctor of any sort. What did I know? I sighed and ran my hand over my scalp and down my braids. I probably needed to wash my hair, but I really had no desire to take an hour in the shower. I just wanted to get clean enough so I didn't feel gross.

Both the upstairs water closets were free, and the house was eerily quiet. I wondered how many kids Tony had taken home already. I was congratulating myself on how calm I was feeling with everything when I sat on the toilet…and let out several good cusses because, really, I totally needed
this
on top of everything else.

On the other hand, now I had a logical explanation for why my stomach had been so sore, and why I'd been snapping at everyone at random times for no reason whatsoever.

But
really
, Mother Nature and God,
really?
I had to get my freaking period for the first time now, when just about everything else that could go wrong in my whole life and my family's life
was
going wrong?

I blew out a few more choice words, and then wiped the stupid tears off my face. I rinsed my things in cold water because my you-should-know-these-womanly-things-when-you-are-five mum had reviewed them plenty enough. I then raided my sister's supplies after I'd taken my shower and cleaned up.

Seriously? Annoying!

But I had more important stuff to deal with. I got dressed and headed downstairs.

I didn't get more than a few steps from the stairwell that came down in the hall between the private side of the house and the entry between the kitchen and dining room when I was accosted by Jared, Chris, Livy, and Sara-Not-Beth.

“What's going on?”

“Yeah, what the H? There was another freak storm last night?”

“Where is everyone? Did something happen?”

“Where's Lily? Is she okay?”

“Are you okay? You don't look so hot…”

I held out my hands and pushed…whoever was closest away from me. “Whoa! Back off! Let me at least…move!” I couldn't even begin to figure which questions had gone with which voices.

Of course, Tony hadn't gotten to the people most likely to
want
to get involved with this mess. No, that would have been too convenient.

The group of them backed up half of a half-step. Between them, because I wasn't quite tall enough to see
over
any of their heads' yet, except Livy's, I noticed the few other students sitting around, eyes on us. Damn.

“What did Mum say?” I asked.

“That we had another freak storm last night, knocking some trees down on the access road and washing out the wires underground for everything,” Sara-Not-Beth reported.

“No offense to your parents, Heather,” Chris said softly, frowning, “but that sounds like rubbish. And we can't even go outside to check on the horses!”

“I'm sure the horses are all right,” I muttered, waving my hands to try and back them all up more. “Mum and Mickey would die before they let anything happen to them. And there was a bad storm last night. I couldn't sleep—”

“Yeah,” Chris continued. “We noticed you were out late last night. With Max.”

“Would you cut it out?” I snapped at him. “We're just friends because neither of us have all that many friends—”

“What are we, chopped liver?” Livy asked.

“No…just…” My face turned red. I knew that they wouldn't understand if I said that
I
knew they were all Lily's friends.

“Heather, news flash, we're your friends as well as Lily's,” said Chris. I blinked in surprise even as he continued, “Now, back to the whole point of this inquisition. What, really, is going on? All the coaches are missing, and so are all the little kid students. If the access road is blocked, how did they leave? And when?”

Crap
, I thought. The adults hadn't thought that one out too well, had they? Maybe they figured, if Tony was taking everyone back safely and making them forget, a little confusion now wouldn't matter.

“I don't know. Honestly, I don't. But I can see if I can get something better from Mum, maybe?”

“She's been running between the kitchen, where she's helping cook or something, and her office with your Dad,” said Livy, with a frown. She paused as we all heard footsteps on the stairs. In a split second, her jaw dropped as she looked up, whispering, well, sort-of whispering,
“What's Prince Joseph doing here?!”

The look in Joe's eyes told me that, if he hadn't been looking right at us, all now looking at him, he would have cussed, hard. He must've heard us, no? Well, he still looked half-asleep, despite being recently showered. He met my eyes with a silent
Help!

“Okay, fine, part of the whole thing is
they
—” I nodded towards Joe “—also were traveling and got diverted here by the storm, which is why all the adults are rushing around all hush-hush.” I glanced between them and the small group of older teens, who, fortunately, appeared to have lost interest in us and were talking amongst themselves. They must've missed Livy's stage whisper.

“What time is it?” Joe asked, softly.

I pulled out my cell. “Like eleven.”

“It's earlier than I thought. Mine finally died, and I don't have the charger.” He stayed in the stairs, barely in our line of sight. “Who else is still here?”

“Five of the other teens.”

“And Max,” Sara-Not-Beth added. “But he's been wicked sick all day. In and out of the bathroom. We thought there was some virus, but none of the rest of us are sick.”

“Unless he's patient zero, and we're in some zombie movie,” Jared said. Hunching his shoulders and waggling his fingers in the air, he spoke in a horror-movie premiere voice. “In a secluded castle. On a barely populated coast. Danger lurks, unseen, in the blood of an unexpected test subject… and in a conspiracy to change British life as we know it!” He straightened back up and gave Joe a half-smile. “Because, you know, why else would your family be diverted here where we have no phones, we're just running on generator power, and everyone under thirteen except Heather has totally disappeared, yet the access road is blocked?”

Joe and I shared a look. Yeah, our parents didn't think this cover story through very well at all. Granted, I bet none of them had gone to bed either, despite Mum having given Joe's parents a room.

“You're right, it sounds mental,” I said. “So let me talk to Mum and Dad and find out what the real story is so I can tell you.”

Livy looked up the stairs. “Want us to grab you some food so you don't have to come down?” she asked Joe sweetly.

Frowning, he shook his head. “I think I can make it to the kitchen if you lot clear the path there.”

“You don't think the rest of the survivors—I mean students—are going to freak if they see you?” Chris asked.

Joe gave him a look I can only describe as “princely,” which made Chris wither a bit.

With as much dignity as he could muster—more than I'd expect from someone in rumpled army pants and one of my dad's too-long T-shirts, with damp hair starting to curl in odd directions—Joe said, “I suppose if you all continue to stand there, I could just ease by
into
the kitchen and then join Heather to talk to our parents without anyone noticing.”

The group shuffled to the doorway of the dining room while Joe and I grabbed glasses of milk and some wrapped sandwiches we found in the fridge and took them into my family's side of the house. When we passed by the group again, I heard a small smack and Sara-Not-Beth whispering, “He's, like, twelve.”

And Livy responding, “Still a prince.”

Next to me, Joe ground his teeth but said nothing as I knocked on my parents' office door.

“Heather, Joe, you're up,” my dad said, opening the door. He may not have slept, but he'd at least showered, and his hair was standing out in more odd directions than Joe's, reminding me why his normal routine for dressing and styling himself took longer than Mum's and mine combined.

“Good,” Mum said from her computer. She looked much worse for wear. Her face was pale, and her eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles.

“Morning.”

I jumped in surprise at my brother's greeting. He looked up at me from the beanbag chair he was sitting in and then quickly back down to the book in his lap when he saw Joe with me.

“Morning…?” I stared at my younger brother, who looked only slightly better than Mum.

Dad started to explain, “We sent the twins and Anita with Richard and Annette, but Rowan—”

“Not. Leaving,” my brother declared, looking up at me again. “I helped Heather before, and the faery things can't touch me.” A little smile curled his lip, though his eyes looked almost scary-dark. “Not even a genie.”

“Yes, Rowan, not even the djinni can touch you.” Exhaustion painted Mum's voice; Dad was frowning at her with concern. “But what have we said about interrupting someone?”

With a scowl, Rowan looked back down to his book. It was one of Mum's faerie encyclopedia-type tomes.

“Rowan?” The edge in Mum's voice was sharper than usual.

“I'm sorry, Dad.”

“Good.” She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her hands over her face with a groan.

“Where are my parents?” Joe asked.

“Aimee finally convinced them to sleep, since they have had even less than we have,” Dad said, looking back at Mum with a frown. “And she thinks that's also a good enough reason why she
should
stay up.”

“Michael, enough! You have work to do and one of us needs to research!”

“Heather and Joe and I can research,” Rowan said, without looking up. “I'm good at research. Ask Heather!”

“What about you, Mr. MacArthur?” Joe asked.