Autumn (18 page)

My mother came out of the kitchen, a streak of spaghetti sauce across her cheek.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you,” she said, reaching out her hand. Although Samuel had come for dinner with Carley’s mom, he had never met my mother. She was in heaven.

“I invited Nick,” I said suddenly.

“Yes,” said my mom, putting her hands on her hips. “He called me earlier to make sure it was alright.”

“Of course he did,” I sighed.

“Sounds like Nick,” said Samuel. “It smells wonderful.”

My mother blushed. I hadn’t seen her do that in a really long time and I was glad Samuel was putting her at ease without using any Glamour. I wanted my mom to like Samuel for who he was, without all the Fairy stuff.

“Follow me,” said my mom, swiping at her cheek.

Nick arrived not long afterwards and we all sat down to dinner. Nick was excited because he had gotten a message from Carley saying she’d be visiting for the fair the following weekend. I tried to hide my worry. Now that I knew the fair was run by Fairies, I really didn’t want my friends anywhere near it, but obviously there was nothing I could do about it. I looked sidelong at Samuel, but he was busy talking to my mother about the best herbs to use when you roast a chicken. It shouldn’t have surprised me that Samuel knew about cooking; he knew about everything.

“So, Samuel,” my mother started, “are you looking forward to the Maine winter?”

Samuel laughed. “Actually, I may be going to Alaska soon. I have some work I can do there and my family has a place.”

Of course the Cheshires have a house in Alaska, I thought. It is one of the few places on earth colder than Maine.

“That sounds lovely,” said my mother.

“Not before the fair, I hope,” said Nick, his mouth full of pasta.

Samuel shook his head. “No, there are a few things here that need to be tied up, but then you never know.”

I picked up my glass and took a long sip of juice, trying to keep my hand from shaking.

Samuel was hinting that stuff with the Fairies was coming to a head. It made sense; no one could be happy that traveling Fairies had arrived. They were dangerous and unpredictable, and I didn’t like it any more than anyone else did.

“Autumn, dear, are you going to the fair?” my mother asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sure I will be. Despite the many things to do around here I’ll have to fit it in somewhere.”

“Of course you’re going,” said Nick. “That’s the whole reason Carley’s coming.”

“Yeah, that’s the reason she’s coming,” I muttered, grinning.

Nick blushed all the way up to his hairline and Samuel laughed softly.

“Is there something I should know?” my mother asked pointedly. I was going to tell her that there wasn’t, because I assumed that Nick didn’t want her to know about his love life, or lack thereof.

But Nick had other ideas. He squared his shoulders and said, “Well, actually, I’m in love with Carley.”

I felt my eyes growing wide at his boldness.

“I have been for a while and I’m hoping that at some point we will be together. We sort of were but....” He trailed off, a deep blush staining his cheeks.

I glanced at Samuel. He was sitting back in his chair, grinning.

My mother, on the other hand, took Nick’s confession in stride. “That’s great, Nick,” she said. “It’s wonderful to care about someone, even if it’s hard sometimes. How does Carley feel about it?”

Nick sighed. “It’s complicated.”

My mother smiled knowingly. “Yes, I can see how that would be true. But don’t give up. Nothing in life worth having comes easily.”

I beamed at my mother, mostly because Nick looked so happy.

After Nick and Samuel had left and my mother had gushed about how nice they were, I went up to my room. I had held off all evening on reading the note from Holt, because I had wanted to concentrate on dinner and not be shattered by whatever it might say. Now, in the privacy of my own room, I carefully took it out of the jeans pocket where I had left it.

The paper was thick and yellowed, and the sweet smell of summer nights floated up to my nostrils.

I smiled. It was so Holt.

Carefully, I unfolded the paper. The message was simple, short, and sweet. It just said, “I miss you. So, so much.”

I held the paper in my hand as I fell asleep that night. I would never let it go.

Thursday rolled around, the day before the start of the fair, and the excitement in town was palpable. I had been seeing itinerant Fairies all over town, and I knew they must be spreading anticipation among the residents of Castleton. Luckily, none of the visiting Fairies so much as looked at me twice.

Carley would be arriving on Friday, and I had picked up a shift on Thursday afternoon so I’d have the whole weekend to spend with my friends.

The rest of the week had been hard. Susan had texted me to say that she was too busy to get together that week, and I took that as code for the fact that she didn’t actually want to get together, or had been forbidden to do so.

My mother, on the other hand, had been a lot better. Now that she had had a chance to spend some time with Samuel, she was more relaxed about where I was. It was pretty clear that Samuel wasn’t a drug dealer, although I wasn’t sure my mom would think that a Fairy Prince with an evil mother was much of a step up from that.

It was a blustery day, with wind whipping off the ocean and clouds gathering overhead. Rain hadn’t been predicted in the forecast, but the weather changed quickly in Castleton. If it rained all weekend it would make the fair pretty miserable. I was surprised that the Fairies would stand for it. I kind of hoped that it poured buckets, just to make Rog mad.

UP UP and Away was almost deserted, so most of the time I was able to sit playing games on my phone. As my shift wore on I was alone in the cafe except for one elderly couple in the corner. They were always there in the afternoons, enjoying sitting for hours with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. I appreciated the company, not liking to be totally alone anywhere in public in Castleton, at least since the entire Fairy world had started to hate me.

I probably should have been doing schoolwork, but it felt like such a distraction. I hadn’t thought at all about college, despite my mother’s prodding. I really didn’t want to deal with it until I had a chance to talk more with Holt.

My phone buzzed, and when I glanced at the number, shock shot through me. It was Holt.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hi,” I said back.

“Are you alone?”

“Yes.”

“Logan is on his way to the cafe,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be texting you, but I don’t care.”

I gasped.

“Logan is back?”

“Apparently for a while now,” he said. “I think he came with the traveling Fairies without telling anyone. It would explain how Rog knows so much about what’s been happening.”

Anger curled through my insides as I glanced at the door. “Should I lock him out?” I asked.

“No,” said Holt. “He isn’t going to hurt you now. Plus, just a regular human door isn’t going to keep him out. I think he’s been over talking to the Winter Queen, but I’m not sure. I’ve refused to be in the same room with him.”

“You shouldn’t be talking to me,” I said. “You’ll get into even more trouble.”

“They won’t catch me,” said Holt, “and your safety is more important than that.”

I shook my head, not believing him. “What should I do?” I asked.

“Just don’t provoke him, and remember, you’re a Fairy now, and he can’t hurt you like he could before, not without dire consequences. You’ll be fine. I’m trying to get help. Just hang on until then.”

“I wish you were here,” I said.

“I wish I was there too.”

I took several deep, steadying breaths. As if this week hadn’t been interesting enough, now Logan had showed up. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I had wanted him to be found ever since he disappeared, but now it felt like bad timing. With Holt’s release from the Cheshires’ basement, it actually seemed as though we might have a chance to work everything out, and Logan’s return might mess it all up again. Maybe everything with the Fairies really was coming to a head. That could only be a good thing for Holt and me. The sooner this fall was in our past, the better.

I set the phone down. I didn’t want to be holding it in case Logan showed up and blew me against a wall or something.

Unsure what to do, but not wanting him to realize I was expecting him - if he showed up at all - I started to clean glasses that were already clean. The couple in the corner were still chatting away happily, and there was probably no chance of getting them out of the cafe in time, at least not without arousing Logan’s suspicions that I had been tipped off to his impending visit.

I tried to calm down and act normally.

I hadn’t thought anything could shock me any more, but the idea of Logan showing up at UP UP and Away was testing that theory. One of the most normal activities I still had was work. It wasn’t nearly as much fun without Carley to make sarcastic remarks and natter on, but I still enjoyed it.

I scrubbed every dish twice. The floor was gleaming from where I had swept it, and I didn’t feel at all guilty about curling up with a mystery I had taken out of the library. I loved mysteries and read them whenever I could, though my reading time had dwindled once I had become a Fairy, which had been like having another class on top of all the high school ones.

I flinched and tried to turn my attention back to the book; I didn’t want to think about high school. I was just getting to a good part of the story when the door opened and a cold blast of air came through. As usual I was hunkered down behind the counter and had to turn around.

When my eyes landed on Logan Roth I let out a scream that hurt my throat, and then I chucked my book at him. Unfortunately, I had never been any good at softball, and my throw missed terribly. The book went thumping against the wall, denting the pages, and fell to the floor.

“Autumn,” Logan said pleasantly, as if we were old friends, “there you are.”

I glared at him. “Here I am,” I said through gritted teeth.

“At least you didn’t break a window,” he said casually. It infuriated me to see him standing there in his blue collared shirt and khakis, looking for all the world as if nothing was wrong, and resembling his brother so much it was uncanny.

Not to be deterred, I grabbed up a teacup and chucked it at him. I was bound to hit him eventually, or force him to leave. I would be fine with either.

Unfortunately, the teacup missed and shattered, covering the open book with white porcelain shards.

I grabbed up another, but Logan held up his hands. “If I had a white flag I would wave it.”

“I’ve actually been meaning to get glasses,” I said. “Whoops.”

I threw another cup, but this time Logan raised his hand and a vine twined from his fingers to pluck the cup out of thin air. There it hung, held by warm green tendrils sprouting out of a wicked hand, keeping my vengeance at bay. He had the nerve to use Glamour in front of me!

Never in my life had I disliked anything more than I disliked Logan in that moment.

“Get out,” I said through gritted teeth.

“We have to talk for a minute first,” he said, sauntering up to the counter, where he draped himself on the bar.

“I suppose a cup of coffee is too much to ask?” His casual tone made my blood boil.

I picked up another cup to throw, and he laughed.

I took a deep, steadying breath. Maybe I should be afraid of Logan; the last time I had seen him he had tried to kill me. But now I was a Fairy, and Holt had said that he was sending help. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I had to hope that the help would be there soon.

“We need to talk,” Logan insisted.

“I have nothing to say to you,” I told him. “Unless you’re here to tell me you’re going to turn yourself in to the authorities, I don’t want to hear it. You are evil and you and Mrs. Cheshire deserve each other. Not to mention Rog.”

Logan was laughing. I wanted to throw another cup at him, but I knew it would do no good.

“At least I care about what’s best for the rest of the Fairies,” he said, “unlike my older brother and some other people I could name.” He eyed me coldly.

I had to stall, I realized, and since Logan loved to hear himself talk....

“What are you suggesting?” I asked.

“Here’s the thing,” said Logan sighing dramatically. He leaned his arms against the counter even as I backed away from him.

“The thing is, everyone likes Holt. Yes, he’s had some blips in the road. Well, actually only one, and yes, he has let his family down, but we think he can recover from all that.”

I wondered if Logan realized he was only seventeen and acting like he knew absolutely everything.

“You, on the other hand...” he said, making of show of looking me up and down in silence. From his expression he obviously found me wanting.