A Faerie's Curse (Creepy Hollow #6) (27 page)

“Of course. I understand. I assume you'll head to Velazar as soon as you can access the paths? I'll see you there, then. We can kick the bad guys' butts together.”

“What?” I grip the harness tighter as alarm floods me. “No, you mustn't go with.”

Confusion lines Perry's face. “Why not?”

“Because … you're not a guardian yet. And it's going to be seriously dangerous.”

He raises one eyebrow. “Are you going?”

“Well, yes, but that's different. The Guild has no control over what I do.”

Perry's mouth quirks up in amusement. “You think the Guild has any control over what I do? Sure, it's against standard procedure for trainees to get involved in something like this, but I doubt anyone will notice. Everyone's too busy worrying about the return of Lord Draven right now.”

“Lord Draven isn't a threat! Trust me. He's actually trying to help. And you need stay out of—”

“Help? Did you say he's trying to
help
? Okay, now you're smoking something.”

“Perry!” I release a groan of frustration. “Just get to Guild, okay? And whatever you end up doing, just don't get yourself killed.”

He smiles and reaches up to tap the mirror. “Same to you, Calla,” he says before his face vanishes, leaving a reflection of the cloud-streaked sky in my little mirror. Before putting it away, I start the spell again, this time pointing my thoughts toward Ryn. I wouldn't previously have risked contacting him this way—the Guild is probably still monitoring every mirror and amber in his home, aside from the old one I gave him—but somehow I think the Guild has more important things to worry about now than catching me. Besides, with my amber being almost the size of a brick and too large to comfortably fit in any of my pockets, a mirror call is my only option right now.

Ryn doesn't answer, though. I didn't really expect him to, but I had to try anyway. I wish I could call Dad and tell him what's going on, but that's not an option. No mirrors or amber down in the Guild's detainment area. I return my mirror to the inside of my jacket, pull the jacket zip right up, and hang tightly onto the harness, aware of every second ticking by. I shift around as much as the harness will allow, but that doesn't keep my body from beginning to ache from sitting in the same position and tensing against the air that's a lot colder up here than on the ground. I could warm myself with magic, but the curse has left me tired enough as it is. Best to save my energy for the actual fight.

When the torturously long journey finally comes to an end and we land beside the river where our mission began two days ago, Chase wastes no time jumping off his gargoyle. “Everyone get your gargoyles—and dragon—into a line adjacent to one another so you can touch hands without dismounting.” He opens a doorway to the faerie paths and pulls it wider, wider, and wider still, until eventually it's wide enough for us all to walk our creatures through together. “Ana, focus on that cliff above the beach near Velazar Island. The rest of you, keep your minds clear.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Gaius asks.

“Back to the mountain to get the rest of the gargoyles. If the guardians fail us, we'll need all the help we can get with an island full of escaped convicts.”

“Chase!” Ana protests loudly. “We can't—”

“Yes you can. I won't be long. I'll probably catch up to you on the way.”

I undo my harness and slide to the ground. “I'm going with you. I need to contact Ryn, and that old amber is back at the mountain. Besides, you don't actually have a key to the faerie door.”

Chase hesitates for a second, then nods. “True.”

As the rest of the team grudgingly agrees to the change in plan and moves forward through the enormous faerie paths doorway, Chase opens a second doorway beside it. He takes my hand, and together we hurry into the darkness. Early morning light slants across the lake house living room as we walk to the faerie door. I retrieve my key from one of my hidden pockets and push it into the lock.

“Calla.”

I freeze at the sound of that familiar voice. The voice I haven't heard since … since before she began screaming that terrible night. I twist around and see her moving out of the shadows. “Vi.”

C
HAPTER

T
WENTY-
N
INE

I want to run to her and throw my arms around her. I want to tell her how sorry I am. I want to hear her cry or shout or wail. Anything but the cold, dead expression in her eyes as she watches at me. “I didn't want to have to involve you,” she says, “but I'm getting nowhere on my own. This man who was once your friend. This man who … who killed Victoria. Do you have anything that belonged to him?”

Something that belonged to him? “You mean … you're trying to find him?”

“Of course I'm trying to find him,” she says, her voice still deathly quiet. “He murdered my child. Do you expect me to let him get away with that?”

My head spins at the reversal of roles. How do I talk her out of this when part of me still wants to go after Zed myself?
Should
I talk her out of it? Yes. I should. If I've learned anything from Chase, it's that revenge helps no one. “I don't expect you to let him get away with it. I want him to pay. I tried to find him too, but someone talked me out of it.” As gently as possible, I say, “This isn't going to change what happened. It won't—”

“DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING OF HIS?” she shouts, her carefully controlled emotion erupting without warning.

I take an involuntary step backward. “I—no. I don't.”

“Don't you dare lie to me. You have almost as much to make up for as he has.”

There it is. The horrible truth I keep wanting to flee. The horrible truth I have to deal with if I hope to have any chance of moving on. “I know.
I know!
And I am so, so sorry. From the very depths of my heart, I am sorry. So take your hurt out on
me
. I'm right here!”

“I don't want to take it out on you! You didn't know what would happen, but
he did
!”

I'm about to respond, but Chase takes my arm and gently pulls me back. He steps between the two of us. “Don't do this,” he says to Vi. “It will consume you. It will destroy you.”

“That was my CHILD! I can't just let this go!”

He grasps her shoulders. “You have to. You have to be stronger than I was. Please,
please
be stronger than I was. Fight for everything you still have and not for what you've lost.”

With a furious cry, she wrenches her arms from his grip and storms away to the far side of the room. “Violet, please,” he calls after her, but she's already opening a faerie paths doorway. “Please, just—” But she's gone, the edges of her doorway sealing up, leaving us standing in silence.

I press my hands over my eyes as the overwhelming urge to fall apart hits me. The fresh reminder that I'm responsible for so much pain is almost too much to bear. And I'm so tired. So, so tired. I want to curl into a ball on the floor and never get up. But Amon—the full moon—the spell—

I pull my hands away from my face and grip Chase's arm as urgency fills me. “No time. There's no time for this. We have to
move
.”

My words snap him free of whatever memory he was lost in. “Yes. Go.” He yanks the faerie door open and we run through the void to the door in the mountain's hallway. I rush to the stairs, but, looking back, I find that he's paused by the faerie door. “There were times I wondered if I'd ever see this place again,” he murmurs. Then he shakes his head and crosses the hallway. “Message your brother. Then come to the gargoyle cave. Be quick.”

The first thing I do upon entering my bedroom is run for the bottle beside my bed. Not much brownish liquid remains. I pour a spoonful into a glass of water and gulp the mixture down. Then I decant the rest of the undiluted tonic into the smaller bottle that fits into my pocket. I hate that I've kept the truth from Chase about this curse, but I don't regret it. Not if my Griffin Ability can still make a difference in some way. I know Chase is far more powerful than the rest of us, but he may have met his match with a pair of witches who can consume the energy of so many magical beings. In the end, a simple illusion could be the only thing that stops them—especially if they know how much the curse has already drained me and aren't expecting me to use my ability.

I grab the old piece of amber and place my stylus against its surface, hoping Ryn's mother gave the corresponding amber back to him after she passed on the message about Victoria's ceremony. I scribble a message to Ryn, my handwriting barely legible in my haste.

Veil spell. Tonight. Velazar Prison. We'll stop Amon, and I SWEAR I will not let the witches get away.

And then, though it terrifies me to think of the curse finally catching up to me, I add,
I love you
. Just in case everything goes wrong tonight and I never get to say it again. Then I toss the amber onto the bed and run for the door.

A loud chirp behind me makes me swing around in the doorway. Owl-formed Filigree launches himself off the top of my wardrobe and shifts into cat form before landing on the floor and running to me. “Filigree, I'm so sorry,” I say as he paws at my leg. “I know I haven't been around.” I crouch down and let him climb into my arms. He nuzzles against my neck. “You must be missing Vi. And Ryn. And I—I can't take you back to them now. I can't take you with me either. It's way too dangerous. You have to wait here a little longer.” His claws press into my arm. “I know. You're not happy about that, but I seriously do
not
have time to argue right now. Please,
please
just stay here. I—I promise I'll come back.” I stand and back out of the room, guilt welling up in my chest as Filigree sits and watches me with his mournful cat eyes.

In the corridor, I turn around and run. To the end and down the stairs to the entrance hall. Then down again. Running, running, running until eventually my feet hit the bottom level—the level with the gargoyle cave. The narrow gap in the corner is dark and silent and ominous, but I have
no time
for fear. Less than no time. So I don't work myself up to it. I don't think of my lake, and I don't calm my thoughts. Instead, I aim straight for the source of my terror and
run
, letting my fear push me faster. I race blindly through the darkness, my hands skimming across the walls on either side and my breaths tearing their way in and out of my chest.

I skid to a halt just inside the cave and bend over, my hands on my knees. “Okay,” I gasp. “I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay.” Straightening, I look around. Last time, the creatures filling this cavernous space wandered freely and randomly. Now, dozens of gargoyles are gathered in a group in the distance near the crumbling wall of towers and turrets. I see Chase amongst them, so I take off in that direction, swatting at a cloud of tiny bugs I happen to run through.

At the sound of a ferocious roar behind me, I almost trip over my feet and wind up on the ground. I twist around as I stumble to a stop—and find myself facing a dragon.
Crap.
I'm not certain, but given the green and purple scales, I think it may be the dragon that chased me out of here last time. I back away as it approaches me with slow, earth-shuddering steps.

A piercing whistle tears the dragon's gaze away from me. “Hey! Samson!” Chase shouts. “Back off, man, she's with us.”

A low growl ripples through the air before Samson lowers himself to the cave floor and lies there watching me. Wishing I didn't have to turn my back on him, I swing around and run the rest of the way toward Chase, throwing a number of glances over my shoulder to make sure Samson isn't coming after me. I catch Chase's arm as I come to a stop, breathing heavily and reminding myself that I don't have to be afraid of the horns, fangs and snarling expressions surrounding me. “I pity any intruder who finds his or her way into this cave.”

Chase grins as he loops a rope around the nearest gargoyle's arm. “Samson does make an excellent guard dog. As do most of the other creatures down here.”

“Do they all listen to you?”

“Mostly. The nascryls—” he looks up at the creatures with black leathery wings and oddly charred-looking clawed feet clinging to the cave ceiling “—often require a little magical reminder of who's actually in charge down here. There are only about four or five of them, and they're pretty wild. Found their own way in here one day and decided to stay.”

“Are they all—” I pull my head back as several moths flutter past my face and up toward the ceiling. Clearly large creatures aren't the only creepy things that live down here. “Uh, are they all coming with us?”

“Only the gargoyles. It's more difficult to get the dragons through the faerie paths if they don't each have a rider, and the nascryls definitely aren't team players. The gargoyles, though …” He pats the gargoyle's shoulder before moving to the next one with the same rope. “They let me lead them.”

“Why? How did they all end up here?”

“They were treated terribly at the Unseelie Court. Gaius, Kobe and I freed them all in one of our first missions together. I thought the gargoyles would make their own way in the world, but instead they followed me. We had to make a plan for them after that. Gaius already had two dragons down here, so we enlarged the cave, created a few different environments, and let everyone loose.”

“And they all play nicely together?”

“For the most part. The other end of the cave—around that corner there; you can't see it from here—is open to the outside. They come and go as they please, hunting out there in the wild somewhere.” He steps back from securing the end of the rope around the last gargoyle's arm. “Okay, we're ready. Let's get moving. You're riding one gargoyle, I'm riding another, and the rest are attached behind us so we can all make it through the paths together.”

“Uh, okay.” Pushing aside the unpleasant memory of the gargoyle ride that took place a few days after I met Chase, I follow him to the front of the group. I want to cringe away from the wrinkled leathery hide, but there's
no time
for freaking out about anything, so I climb awkwardly onto the back of the gargoyle that crouches down for me. At least there's a harness, unlike the last time I clung to a gargoyle. Chase wraps part of the harness around my back and secures it. As he steps away, my gargoyle rears up, causing me to let out a startled yelp. But the harness holds me in place. Chase climbs onto the gargoyle beside mine. I lean over to help him with his harness, but he's already secured it. “Time to move!” he shouts out.

My gargoyle drops down onto all fours. He rushes forward with the others while I bounce up and down in the harness. Then with a leap, he rises awkwardly and jerkily into the air, his wings creating an unpleasant smelling wind around me. We follow the cave around the corner and then shoot out into the fresh air above the lake. The lake I remember flying over the very first time Chase brought me to the mountain.

With sections of rope tugging between each gargoyle, our flight to the ground on the other side of the lake is bumpy and unpleasant. The moment we land, Chase climbs free of his harness and jumps down. He opens a doorway to the faerie paths, pulling it wider and wider. After returning to his gargoyle and climbing onto its back once more, he points and shouts, “Forward!”

And together, we move into the darkness.