Golden Girl (23 page)

“He left town after that, and I never saw him again. But he saved me that night, Callie. I don’t know why, but he did, and I’ve always been grateful. I promised Daniel if I could ever help him, I would. I just never knew I’d be doing it by helping out his daughter.”

I didn’t say anything. I sat there thinking about that promise and how it had pulled us all together, years afterward. It was the promise that had brought him to me and Jack in time. It had to be. It was strange, and it made me feel very small, just when I was learning how strong I was.

“What are you going to do now?” Mr. Robeson asked.

I didn’t answer right away. I just sat there staring at the breakfast dishes. The longer I stared and the longer I thought, the madder I got. I was sick and tired of the Seelies and their games. I was tired of them thieving off me. They’d taken my papa and my mama, and they’d almost had Jack as well. They’d robbed me of the only pathetic little bit of a life I had, and they’d kept me scared and lonely and twisted around until I didn’t even know what I was anymore. I was done with that. Starting right now, I was taking back what belonged to me.

A shadow fell across our table. I looked up, ready to tell the waiter he could clear my dishes. But it wasn’t the waiter. It was Ivy Bright.

“What’re
you
doing here?” I was on my feet, and I didn’t remember moving.

“Hello, Callie.” She blinked those baby blues at me and had the nerve to show a few tears shimmering around the edges. “I … I think we need to talk. Is there somewhere we can go?”

I’d been mad in my life before, plenty of times. But this was different. Everything seemed to change. I felt my magic swarming in every nerve. Everything around me took on a sharp, silver sort of edge. Everything was hard except Ivy. She was all soft and fragile. I could crush her. I could crumple her up and throw her out like the trash she was. And I could make sure nobody saw me do it too, even though the whole dining room was whispering and staring because the brightest little star in Hollywood had just walked into the Dunbar Hotel.

“Sure thing, Ivy.” I smiled so she could see all my teeth, then I took hold of her arm, hard. I’d noticed a door to a private dining room when we came in, and I pulled her inside. Mr. Robeson came too, and shut the door behind us. The private dining room was snug and luxurious, with its own fireplace and two armchairs in addition to the table laid for six by the curtained window.

As soon as Mr. Robeson shut that door, I grabbed the collar of Ivy’s pink coat and spun her around so she slammed face-first against the wall. She squeaked and cried, and I didn’t care. I didn’t care at all.

“You pushed us in there!” I shouted. “You meant for us to get killed!”
You meant for Jack to get killed
.

“No, it wasn’t like that!” Ivy wailed.

I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand that girlie voice and that pretty face and those stupid, fake, movie-star tears she used to get her way. I raised my hand.

“That’s enough, Callie,” said Mr. Robeson. “Let her go.”

“No!” I shouted back. “She tried to kill us! She’s helping them!” I was going to shut her up for good, make sure she never fooled or hurt anybody again.

“And she’s got something to say. You need to hear her out.”

“She’s just putting the whammy on you!” I snapped back. I pushed Ivy’s face against the wall again, and she whimpered. “She’s Seelie! She does it to everybody!”

“Not to me, Callie.” He was right behind me, and I felt
the calm radiating off him, and just a little disappointment. “You know better. Let her go.”

One finger at a time, my hand uncurled from Ivy’s collar, and I backed off. My mouth was wet. I wiped it on my sleeve. My eyes were hot too, and not just from tears. They were shining again, and I knew it, and I didn’t care.

Ivy eased away from the wall.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “It’s Mr. Robeson, isn’t it?”

“It is.” He gave a little bow, like he was onstage. “And you’re Miss Bright, who had best speak her piece and go.”

“I know, I know. Oh, this is such a mess. I …” Another tear trickled down her cheek.

“Stop it!” I shouted again. “You’re nothing but a phony, and it won’t work this time!”

I glanced at Mr. Robeson. He didn’t move. He was just watching, taking it all in, turning it over in his mind. I’d never seen anyone so controlled and careful. He wasn’t going to make a move until he absolutely had to. I realized he was trusting me not to do anything stupid. That sat heavy on my shoulders.

“Who are you, really?” he asked Ivy.

Ivy licked her lips. She looked from one of us to the other like she was looking for a way out, and not finding one. She sighed so hard her shoulders slumped. Her face changed too. The baby doll fell away and I found myself seeing as much of the real girl as I ever had. I’d been right.
She was a bit older than me, maybe even Jack’s age. She looked tired, hurt, and more than a little angry.

“I’m like her.” Ivy nodded at me.

“You’re half-blood?” I should have known it. I should have felt it the second we got near her. But I hadn’t, because she’d been magicking me. Just like she’d been doing to Jack. She’d been keeping us both blind with her glamour, the movie kind and the fairy kind.

“Not just half-blood.” She lifted up her nose. “My father is the Seelie king.”

“So you’re … you’re a princess? Like me?”

“Yes. Sort of. Mostly.”

I folded my arms. “What do you mean,
mostly
?”

“Look, it doesn’t matter. I’ve been sent with a message, Callie.” She pulled a piece of paper out of her pink purse and handed it to me.

“No!” Mr. Robeson jumped forward, but he was too late. The paper touched my fingers and stuck tight. I backed away, shaking my hand, but it was no good. Magic crawled straight up my arm, sinking in deep. Mr. Robeson grabbed at the paper and pulled so hard I whimpered, but the paper didn’t tear or come off my hand.

“What is this?” he demanded.

“It’s a summons,” said Ivy softly. “From the Seelie king. I’m sorry, Callie, I
had
to.”

I stared at my fingers. The paper was thin and light, more like silk than stationery. It had fallen open, so I could
see it was written over in red and gold. The print glowed and smelled of cinnamon and chili peppers.

For her crimes against the Shining Court
, I read,
against His Majesty and his subjects and blood kindred, Callie LeRoux, scion of the Midnight Throne, is called to answer before three days of mortal time have passed. If she fails to answer the charges, the hostages against her behavior will be declared forfeit, according to the law
.

There was no signature, just a drawing of a pearl and gold mask surrounded by beams of light. It blazed bright for a moment, searing my eyes and my fingers. The paper vanished then, but it wasn’t gone. It was under my skin now, and it was still burning.

Mr. Robeson grabbed my hand and turned it over, looking for burn marks. Of course there weren’t any. The fire was all inside me.

Ivy backed away, twisting her fingers together. “This is because I went through the gate,” I said, and staggered. Mr. Robeson sat me in the nearest chair. “That’s the crime this is talking about.”

“You broke in without permission,” Ivy said. “You attacked one of the Seelie court.”

“Because
you
pushed us in!” I rubbed at my hands, at my arms. The summons was sinking deeper. It was right under my skin now, but it was looking for a way to get deeper, down to my blood, down to my heart. As it moved, it left behind a hot, crawling itch. Mr. Robeson was watching me closely. I shook my head and he eased away, sitting
down and laying both hands on the table. But his eyes never left us.

“I’m sorry,” Ivy whispered, and maybe she even was. “I didn’t mean for Jack to get hurt.”

That much was true. I could tell. She liked Jack. She wanted him to look at her the way he looked at me. Which left me with the cold realization that she wouldn’t mind so much if I got hurt. Or killed.

“This was all your idea from the start,” I said.

“Not right from the start. We really were just trying to bring Mr. Robeson to court. His Majesty had a bounty out, and whoever could bring him in … I’m sorry, Mr. Robeson!”

“So you laid a trap for me, with the famous Ivy Bright as the bait?” He’d gone stone still, and I think it was a good thing Ivy could look so small and helpless, because if there was anybody angrier than me in that moment, it was Mr. Robeson. “Waiting for me to stroll in?”

“Except Callie and Jack showed up first,” said Ivy. “When we realized who she was … plans kind of changed.”

“You mean you decided to go after me instead?” I scratched at my arms, trying to lessen the itch. I knew it wouldn’t do any good, but I couldn’t help it.

“You really think I want it this way?” Ivy sank into one of the armchairs by the fireplace. “They ordered me to trap you. They said if I brought you to them that … that …”

“That what?” I snapped.

Ivy twisted one of her curls around a finger. I snorted at
the little-girl gesture, and she yanked her hand away. “They said I’d get to be a real princess,” she said softly. “They said I’d get to go live with them and be part of the court forever.”

My jaw flapped open. “That’s it?”

“You don’t understand what it’s like to be left out,” she said to her hands. “To not even have your blood family want to know you.”

“What do you mean, I don’t understand? Because of your people, I spent my life stuck in the middle of the Dust Bowl. We starved out there while you were here making movies and being rich and famous, and now you’re whining about how you had it tough?”

“You had someone who loved you, Callie,” she answered. “Really loved
you
. You weren’t born just to …” She stopped, and started again. “The only reason I was even born is because the king thought
I’d
be the Prophecy Girl. When it didn’t turn out, he left me with Mrs. Brownlow. Oh, sure, I got the movies because he couldn’t have one of his daughters being just a nobody, but that’s it. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, it doesn’t matter. For a while, it was going to be okay because …”

“Because why?” I was having trouble sitting still. Perspiration was running down my forehead now, and it was making the itch worse.

“Because the Unseelie prince was going to marry me. But even he didn’t want me.”

“Wait. Stop.” I held up both hands. “You don’t … you can’t …” I couldn’t say it. It couldn’t possibly be true. “You
are not trying to tell me
you’re
the one my papa was supposed to marry.”

But Ivy nodded solemnly. My stomach plunged and twisted like an Olympic champion diver. I had to swallow hard to keep from being sick right then and there. “You’re a kid!”

“So? It doesn’t matter anyway. He didn’t even want me. He’d rather have some skinny mortal woman from nowhere and nothing.”

“That’d be my mama,” I reminded her, making sure she heard every word.

Ivy blanched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

“Yes, you did. And you’ve given me your message.” I was scratching my arm harder. The itch had worked its way down to my veins, and it was creeping up to my shoulder. “You’d better get out of here. Now.”

But Ivy didn’t get. She leaned forward and took a deep breath. “Callie, I can’t help being what I am any more than you can. But we can both get out of this. I can free your parents, and you can all leave, no strings. I’ll swear to it.”

It was those last words that stopped me from letting out another holler at her. “How?” I asked.

“You give me the gate power.”

“What?”

“You can do it. We can make the wish between us. You don’t want it anyway, and your folks don’t want it. You give it to me, and there won’t be any reason to keep any of you around. You can just walk away.”

“And make you the Prophecy Girl?”

“What do you care? It doesn’t matter to you. Your people care about you. You’re not just one of a hundred. But if I had the gate power, it’d all be different. Please, Callie. I’ll promise you anything.
Anything
.”

Ivy’s wish didn’t just bump against my mind; it banged on the door, crying to be let in. She needed this like she needed breath and blood. She’d give me anything I asked for as long as she got the gate power at the end of it. Then she’d be the special one. Everybody would want her up there in the Seelie palace. She’d never be left alone again.

Which was kind of funny, because being left alone was all I wanted. To be left alone to be a family with my parents, and to have a chance at making the Midnight Club real. That’s what Ivy Bright offered to me, right here. If I wished the gate power away to her, there’d be no reason left for the Seelies to be after me.

“And when you have this power, what will you do with it?” asked Mr. Robeson quietly.

Ivy frowned. “I … I don’t know. That’ll be for the king to decide.”

“I see.” The tone in Mr. Robeson’s voice made it plain he saw a whole lot more than she wanted him to. “Like he decided how you should live and with whom, and how he’s been running his games around you ever since?”

“No, not like that,” said Ivy quickly. “It’s just … it’s an important power, that’s all. Because whoever has it can sneak into anyplace. It’s not safe.”

Where she stays, where she stands, there shall the gates be closed
. But I felt Ivy holding something back. It fluttered around behind her words.

“So you don’t really know what will happen if Callie gives up her power to you?” asked Mr. Robeson.

“Does it matter?” She said this to me. “You don’t want it, and I do. Please, Callie.”

Mr. Robeson cocked his head toward me. I saw the question and the answer in his expression, and I agreed with him. “It does matter,” I said.

Ivy blinked.
“What?”

“What you’d do with the gate power does matter. It matters what the Seelie king would do with it.”

Ivy leaned forward. “I won’t let it be used to hurt you, Callie, or your family. We can make that part of the promise.”

I was getting hotter. The itch had reached my shoulder and was creeping across my back. Mr. Robeson eyed me uneasily. A drop of sweat fell into my eyes and I wiped at it, but it stung, and now my eye began to itch.