creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (12 page)

“Oh. Thank you.” I consider his offer for a moment. “I suppose my first choice would be to have my brother defend me, but I assume that won’t be allowed.”

“Unfortunately not. Family members may not represent one another.”

“Then yes, I approve.”

“Good. I’ll just need you to sign this form then.” He slides a scroll across the desk, and I try to keep my fingers from shaking as I find the blank line at the bottom of the page and sign it. I see another line for a parent to sign for those who are under the age of eighteen, but a note beside it says that those who are members of a Guild are able to give their own consent. Good. I’m feeling like enough of a child as it is. At least I don’t have to call daddy and ask him to sign a piece of paper for me. I sit up straighter, remind myself that I’ve done nothing wrong, and push the paper back across the desk. “Thank you,” Councilor Merrydale says. “So, do you want to tell me what happened last night? I assume it was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it does, unfortunately, appear rather suspicious that you were on your own in that corridor instead of in the ballroom like everyone else.”

I nod, give myself a moment to consider my words—because I’ll probably be asked to repeat this story while being compelled to tell the truth—then start with the anonymous note in my locker. I proceed through the story in concise a manner as possible. When I get to the part about following Chase out of the ballroom, I carefully navigate my way through the truth. “Then I saw a friend I wasn’t expecting to see. I wanted to speak to him, but he appeared to be leaving early. I lost sight of him in the ballroom and assumed he’d left, so I went downstairs, hoping to catch up to him. I didn’t find him, though. When I went back upstairs, I saw the sign for the other lounge further down that passage, and I wondered if he’d gone that way. When I turned the corner and saw the stained glass clock, I almost turned back. But then I saw Saskia. I didn’t know it was her or that she was dead until I reached her. That’s when I screamed, and it was barely a minute after that when everyone else showed up.”

Councilor Merrydale nods as he quickly scribbles down everything I say. He looks up and asks, “Was there anyone with you who can confirm that you saw this friend and followed him out of the ballroom?”

I shake my head. “Unfortunately not. My other friends were dancing at that point.”

“And the letter you received,” he adds. “Do you still have that?”

“Yes. It’s in my training bag.” How fortunate that I kept it instead of throwing it away.

Councilor Merrydale calls a guard in—the same woman who brought me here—and sends her to my home with a note addressed to Dad, probably telling him to send my bag back with her. “While we wait for Clove to return,” he says, “there is something else you need to explain.”

I shift anxiously in my chair. “Okay.”

“The dragon-eye ring in your locker.”

My limbs go still as a chill runs through me. “What … what dragon-eye ring?”

“Your locker was searched this morning and we found a ring exactly like the one Miss Starkweather was wearing.”

“But … I don’t have a ring like that. Somebody must have put it there. It must be part of the set-up.”

Councilor Merrydale nods and makes another note on his reed paper.

“You didn’t touch it, did you? I think the ring is what made Saskia sick.”

“Oh?” He looks up. “What makes you think that?”

I suppose I’ll be compelled to answer these questions at some point, so I may as well come clean now. “When I was Underground recently, I saw those rings in a shop run by witches. Their magic is very different from ours, isn’t it? And this sickness that killed Saskia isn’t something anyone seems familiar with, so it might very well be a witch’s spell.”

“Witches,” Councilor Merrydale murmurs, a frown on his face now. “How odd. And what were you doing Underground?”

I hesitate before answering. “It isn’t illegal to go Underground, is it?”

“No. Although it certainly isn’t encouraged. Where exactly is this shop?”

I explain the location as best I can, and while he writes down my instructions, the guard returns with my training bag. “That was fast,” I say to her with a smile. She nods and leaves without a word.

“Okay, let’s add this letter to the evidence we already have, and then you can return home,” Councilor Merrydale says as he rolls up the reed paper.

I unzip my bag and dig between the books and training clothes. When I don’t see the crumpled letter, I start unpacking my belongings. I remove every single item from my bag until all that remains are several bits of charred paper. Like a letter that was burned or had a self-destructing charm applied to it. I breathe out slowly through my nose as I stare at the empty bag and start to wonder just how deep this deception goes. Then I straighten, resigning myself to the fact that this piece of evidence is gone for good. “It’s not here anymore,” I say quietly, not bothering with any excuses.

Councilor Merrydale nods. “That’s unfortunate.” He leans back in his chair and sighs. “You understand that none of this looks good for you.”

I swallow, feeling sick. “But … the compulsion potion. You’ll know I’m telling the truth then.”

“Yes,” he says as he pushes his chair back and stands. “Hopefully.”

Hopefully?
Hopefully?
What does that mean?

“Thank you for coming in, Calla. I’ll be in touch when we’re ready to proceed with the next step in the investigation. Clove will see you home now.”

CHAPTER

TWELVE

“Tell me again what we’re doing in here?” Gemma asks on Monday afternoon.

I lift the goggles hanging around my neck and position them over my eyes. “My dad told me to paint. So I asked if I could paint the walls in the guest bedroom. He said yes.”

“I see.” Gemma gives me a doubtful look. “I’m guessing he didn’t know you meant
this
.”

I look around the bare room at the balloons of paint floating in the air. “He didn’t ask me to be specific, so …” I shrug. “I didn’t give him specifics.”

“Uh huh. Hopefully he appreciates your design style.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine with it. Mom, on the other hand, will probably freak out when she wakes up and sees it. Who knows when that will happen, though, so let’s not worry about things we can’t control.” I push my shoulders back and lift my arms into position. A bow glitters in my grip a second later, with an arrow ready to fire. I aim for a balloon and say, “Let’s get this redecorating party started.”

“Wait.” Gemma puts her hand on my arm. “Are you sure it’s safe to shoot arrows in such a confined space?”

I lower the bow. “It’s not
that
confined. If it was, I’d be having a panic attack.” At the questioning look on her face, I add, “Claustrophobia.”

“Ah.”

“We’ll go one at a time, and that way we won’t shoot each other.”

“Okay. That’s comforting.”

“And if we make holes in the wall, we’ll just fix them.”

“Right.”

I raise my arms again, pull the arrow back, follow my chosen balloon for a few moments as it drifts lazily through the air, then fire. With a loud
pop
, bright green paint shoots out and splatters across two walls, the floor, the ceiling, and both of us. Gemma shrieks and jumps backward. I laugh as I wipe green paint off my goggles. “I told you to wear old clothes, didn’t I?”

“You did. I’m glad I listened.” Gemma pulls her arm back as a knife forms between her thumb and forefinger. While she looks around for a balloon to aim at, I free my arrow from the wall it’s embedded in and let it vanish. As I skip back to Gemma’s side, she aims for a balloon behind me. Her arm flashes forward, and purple paint explodes everywhere. She squeals again, then laughs and says, “That was oddly satisfying.”

“I know!” I get as far back as I can, choose a blue balloon, and line up my second shot. “Where are Perry and Ned this afternoon?”

“Perry had some extra training. Ned was being weird. He said he doesn’t want to see you at the moment.”

“Oh.” I try not to be offended by that comment and shoot the balloon instead.

When it’s safe to open our mouths again, Gemma wipes a hand across hers before saying, “Don’t worry about him. It took him months before he was comfortable around me. I’m sure he’s still just getting used to you. He’s strange like that.”

“Okay.”

“Yeah.” She pulls a throwing star from the air this time. “What’s the smoky white stuff in some of the balloons?”

“Those are mini tornado charms. I thought the wind blasting out of them might create some cool patterns in the wet paint.”

“That sounds … a little bit destructive. I’m going to leave those ones to you.” She flicks her wrist forward, and pink paint flings itself across the room a second later.

“What happened at the Guild today?” I ask as I reach for a knife. “Anything exciting?”

“Not really. Some lessons, some training. Lily and Rosa were absent, but I suppose that’s expected given that Saskia was their best friend. Oh, there was something interesting.” She ducks her head as I aim at a red balloon. Red paint adds itself to our canvas, and Gemma continues. “Some genius inventor guy has finally figured out what combination of spells to apply to the replay devices so they can now play sound. Apparently these spells have been in the testing phase over the past few months, but now they’re ready to sell to the public.” She wipes her paint-splattered hands on her pants and reaches into the air for an arrow. “Your friendly mentor read the letter to us this morning. There are teams going around to all the Guilds to add these spells to the surveillance and assignment replay devices. I think they’re coming to us tomorrow.”

“I’m sure Olive had something negative to say about that.”

“Of course. She said, ‘I wonder how much we have to pay this teenage know-it-all to add sound to the assignments that are painful enough to watch as it is.’”

I shake my head and laugh. “She is so predictable. And that was an excellent impersonation, by the way.”

“Thank you.” Gemma pulls her arm back, then throws the arrow at an orange balloon.

We finish up all the paint balloons before I finally pull a throwing star from the air and aim at one of the tornado balloons. “I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen with this one, so maybe just … brace yourself.” Gemma nods, raises her fists, and bends her knees slightly, as though preparing to fight off a great force. My hand snaps forward, the balloon pops, and a great gust of wind swirls around us. I throw my hands out to keep from falling as the wind spins me around and my ponytail flaps wildly around my face. I can’t see anything, I can barely breathe, and I’m wondering if this was a gigantic mistake.

Then the wind vanishes. Gemma and I stumble to a halt and grab onto each other. “Whoa,” she says. “Don’t do that again. I think one was enough.”

I nod, looking around the room. The tornado wind has spun streaks of color around the room so that the splatters all appear to point in the same direction, one color bleeding into the next in an infinite spiral.

After admiring our work, Gemma and I head to my bathing room to clean up. “Oh, I didn’t realize my mom was trying to get hold of me,” Gemma says after washing her hands and fishing her amber out of the safety of her pocket. She frowns at the screen, then sucks in a shocked breath.

“What? Is something wrong?”

“Oh no,” she murmurs. “This is bad. This is really bad.” She looks up. “Remember I said Lily and Rosa weren’t at the Guild today? It’s because they both started getting sick last night. Healers managed to slow down the symptoms, but they both …” Gemma’s voice catches as a sheen of tears appears over her eyes. “They passed away this morning.”

* * *

“I leave for one weekend,” Ryn says, “and people wind up dying from a disease no one’s ever heard of while my little sister is accused of being the one spreading this deadly disease.”

I hug a cushion to my chest as though it’s the only thing holding me together. “Yes. This is why you shouldn’t leave.” I clear my throat to try to rid my voice of its wobble. “I hope your weekend was better than ours.”

“It was actually two and a half weeks, but yes, it was much better than the weekend you and Dad had.”

“I’m so sorry,” Vi says. “I wish communication was easier through the Kaleidos shimmer. We would have come back immediately if we’d known.”

“It wouldn’t have made much difference,” Dad says, returning from the kitchen with a tray of food. It’s nothing spectacular, just a few snack items he’s quickly gathered together. Normally I’d be happy with this kind of dinner, but right now I feel too ill to eat anything.

“Dad’s right,” I say as he places the tray of food on the coffee table between the four of us. “You don’t work at the Guild anymore, and Ryn isn’t allowed anywhere near the case, so it’s not as though either of you could do anything to help.”

“I may not be allowed near the case, but that doesn’t mean I can’t gather information so we know at least
some
of what’s going on.”

I look up from my spot on the floor. “What did you hear today?”