Some Like it Hexed, page 10
She hurried back over and curtsied to me before rushing out of the room. I could tell I had scared her, which wasn't surprising since I often scared myself. As I went to close the door, several guards walked past, with Willa at the helm. They opened the door and ushered her into the room before I could even call out to her. As the door shut, her eyes met mine, but her face was completely blank and emotionless. In fact, her eyes were deep in the same brilliant color they used to be.
Willa looked straight at me, knowing what had happened in the castle, knowing my uncle had been attacked and didn't say a single word. When her door closed, two guards turned and crossed their arms over their chests, staring at me. I chuckled nervously and shut the door, locking myself back into the room. I was trying desperately not to take Willa's actions toward me to heart. There could have easily been a simple explanation, or there could've really been a complex one. Either way, I wouldn't know until I had a chance to sit down with her, and until the ball was over, that wasn't something that was going to happen. It was hard not to get my feelings hurt. Willa was basically my only family, and we had always been super close. I had never experienced a time in our relationship where she’d had anything less than an exuberant personality.
Between the dim lighting in the room and the incredible number of things that had happened that day, my mind was tired of thinking. I stretched out my arms, shuffled back toward the bed, and pulled the book from beneath the pillow. I knew there was something important about the symbol in the book, but that night I wasn't sure I could really figure out what that was. I walked around the bed to the nightstand and tucked it into the drawer.
As I walked past the window to grab my pajamas and tuck myself into bed, a shimmer of light outside caught my attention. I was just about to ignore it, based on the fact that I knew there were probably guards looking for whoever attacked my uncle, but there was something suspicious about it. I walked over to the window, hiding most of my body behind the long, thick drapes, and peeked out. I didn't see any guards anywhere. The only thing lit up besides the glow from the night garden was the small orb of light bobbing up and down, moving across the long, open field toward a cabin in the distance.
The person or being caring the light was shrouded in a dark cloak with night hiding everything except the orb. In the distance, there was a broken-down cottage, something I hadn't even noticed until that point because it was so unassuming. Who, on a night where there was possibly an attacker on the loose, would venture across the field to an old broken down cabin?
Don't do it. Just go to bed. Wait until morning and go with Shade to investigate.
My common sense tried really hard to talk me out of what I already knew I was getting ready to do. As usual, I pushed back the more practical solutions, grabbed a light-blue velvet cloak from the hanger, and slipped my feet back into my boots. I cracked open the door and glanced out, quickly pulling back and holding the door shut before the guard could see me. He seemed to be doing a check of the hallway. I waited patiently and listened, finally hearing him go back into his room and shut the door. The two guards who had been across the hall were gone, and I didn't see Shade anywhere.
As carefully and quietly as I could, I crept out of the room and down the hall, walking on my tiptoes the entire way not to make a sound on the floor. When I had finally made it around the corner, my shoulders fell, and I let out a deep breath of relief. I wasn't exactly sure why I was relieved. I was basically sending myself into a perilous situation and had no idea what to expect. I had every ability to call on Shade, Esmeralda, or even Harry. But come to think of it, I couldn't remember seeing Esmeralda or Harry since we had arrived. I had only assumed they were by Willa's side because that was basically what they had come there for. It was still kind of strange that we hadn't even crossed paths once.
Once I was in the clear, I wasn't worried about others seeing me. We had been pretty low-key with the rest of the castle, and they didn't think twice of another fae walking in or out at whatever hour they wanted to. I took one of the side balcony exits and meandered through the night air, trying to act nonchalant when a guard watch came by and wondered what I was doing. However, looking all around the grounds, I didn't see a single guard anywhere except the front gate. It was very strange, considering we had an attacker on the loose.
I pulled the hood over my head and wrapped the cloak around me as I moved away from the castle and across the open field toward the broken-down cabin. I made a circle to the right and came around, seeing the flickering light inside as I approached. Pressing myself closer to the house, I inched over to one of the windows with all the broken glass removed. I ducked down under the ledge listening to the voices inside. They were quiet, and the creaking of the house and blowing of the wind across the field was making it very hard to hear. That was probably the point. I couldn't really think of any other reason than nefarious ones for someone to meet in an old, broken-down cabin at the back end of the fae castle. They definitely were not discussing place settings for the ball the following night.
There were two voices, neither one of them particularly familiar, but not unfamiliar, either. They were monotone, and I couldn't tell gender or age from how they spoke. It wasn't like I could guess the age of the fae anyway. They may look twenty-three but actually be two thousand and thirty years old. It was very strange to me. One of the voices was all of a sudden loud, and I backed up against the house, realizing that they were right above me, looking out the window as they talked.
"The princess is under control. You don't need to worry about that."
"It's my job to worry. We need to put things in motion." The second voice was deeper, and it sent chills up my spine.
The first voice whispered with a sharp bite to their tone. "I've taken care of this just as I said I would. The princess is not going to bother anyone or be thinking for themselves anytime soon. Now, we'll have fewer eyes on us."
"Where are we on the timeline?"
The person standing above me in the open window turned away, walking back into the cottage. I rolled my eyes, my hand pressed my chest, trying not to make a sound. I could hear one of their footsteps because of the creaky wooden floors.
The first voice dipped even quieter, and I lifted my ear, trying to make out what they were saying. "We're precisely on schedule. Everything will happen on the night of the ball. We won't let anyone get in the way this time. Execute it well. And don't contact me like this again. I'd come to you if I needed you."
In an interesting play of power, the first voice had taken control of the situation and cut off any more dialogue. I crept back toward the far end of the house so I could hide as soon as they came out the front door, but no one came out. The light inside went out, and stillness fell over the cottage. Wherever they had gone, they didn't come out the front door. In the distance, closer to the castle, I could see several guards with lights flowing in front of them, searching the grounds. I needed to get back before someone knew I was gone. Since I couldn't trust anybody, I didn't want to get caught and give away my upper hand in the situation.
The ball was the next evening, and whatever was about to go down, I knew it had to do with Willa, the stone, and our lives.
18
Callie
* * *
When I finally maneuvered myself like a special agent around the property of the castle and up the stairs back into the safety of the walls, or the mirage of safety that they provided, I made a beeline straight for Willa's aunt's room to let her know what I had found out.
Obviously, someone was planning something for the ball, and I needed to make sure Willa was 100% safe. I had no idea who was behind it or who was even in that cabin. In reality, I didn't even know where they went because they didn't come out the back door, and they didn't go out the front door.
I knew the fae could take care of that, though. That wasn't my job, but it might help lead us to where the stone was and maybe even Willa's father and the king of the witches. In my hurry, I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going. It wasn't like the holes were packed full of fae. It was practically the middle of the night, and not even the guards breath their normal posts. I had taken a count of every guard on the first night to know where the safety was and, if something happened, where he needed to get to. That was my whole play-it-safe tactic that I had used just about everywhere I went.
As I rounded the corner, my eyes on the prize, I ran straight into Shade, slamming into his chest. I stumbled backward, and he grabbed my arm, keeping me from falling.
I shook the impact-created daze from my head. "I'm so sorry… I…"
As my eyes reached Shade's, I realized that not only was he up in the middle of the night, which wasn't all that suspicious for Shade, but he was wearing a cloak, and it looked like he had just come from outside. His hair was windswept, and his cheeks were red. With as pale as his skin was as a fae, complexion changes were easy to spot. He followed my eyes down his cloak the back up to me. He reached out for my arm, but I stepped back, narrowing my eyes at him.
"Callie, what's wrong with you? Why are you out here, and why are you wearing a cloak?"
"I feel like I should be asking you the same question…."
I couldn't help but be suspicious. It just so happened that even though I hadn’t seen Shade in the hallway when I had snuck out, and I hadn’t seen him on the grounds as I was making my way to the cottage, he was outside at the same time as me? I took another step back and shook my head. "I've just got to get to Willa's aunt."
Before he could ask any questions, I hurried around him and raced down the hall as quickly as I could. I stopped as I went around the next corner, just making sure he wasn't following me. My heart was beating wildly in my chest. I couldn't tell if the tingling was from my nervousness about what I had heard at the cottage or from the fact that my mind was telling me one thing about Shade, but he was showing something completely different.
Up ahead, the sound of someone clearing their throat pulled me from my thoughts. A guard was standing in front of the queen regent's quarters, the same place I had been earlier, giving me a suspicious look. I grinned nervously and walked down, straightening myself out. "I need to speak to the queen regent right away. It's a matter of security and safety.
Before the guard could even knock on the door, the queen regent threw it open and stared at me, looking a bit frazzled. I could only assume she had been woken up either by me or by someone else. Either way, she didn't look delighted that I was standing at her door. For all intents and purposes, I wasn't happy to be standing at her door.
"Queen regent, I'm sorry to interrupt you or wake you up, but I just…" I looked back at the guard.
The queen regent waved me in. "Take a deep breath and tell me what you heard."
I waited until she closed the door before spilling the whole story without even taking a breath in between. She listened to me calmly with that normal non-expression on her face that the fae were apparently very good at and then nodded. "I know all of this already. I've already dispatched guards to track them down."
"But…"
She put her hand on my back and walked toward the door. "Trust me, Callie. I promise I'll keep everyone safe."
A wild tingle ran up my arm and across my chest, the same uncomfortable burning that I had when I first met her. Willa's aunt opened the door and pressed on my back, letting me know she was giving me more than a gentle nudge out the door. I stepped out and turned around, not even sure what I was going to say but wanting to protest her nonchalant brushoff of what I had seen, but she had already closed the door in my face. I glanced up at the guard, looking straight ahead and not paying me a bit of attention before turning and walking back to my room.
Once inside, I locked all the locks, lit a couple of candles because it was far too dark in the room for me with the way I was feeling, and climbed into bed, pulling the covers up and tightly around me. Despite the extreme comfort of the bed that night, I couldn't help but stare at the door, waiting for some sort of shadow to fall in the hallway. There were all sorts of emotions going through me, and I wasn't sure what to do with one of them. I didn't want to believe that Shade was the person responsible for everything. I didn't want to believe that he was in on the kidnappings, stealing the stone, and the King Collector.
With a cocktail of fear and sadness swirling around in me, I lay there for most of the night until I gently fell asleep right before dawn. It was the first time since Rome that I fell asleep, wondering if I would even wake up the next morning.
19
Callie
* * *
When I was barely an adult, I could remember standing in my parents' house, the world moving around me, the feeling as if I were standing still in time. The emotions, the commotion, and the sheer drama of my parents’ death freezing me right where I was.
It had taken me a lot of time to get past that, to feel that I was moving forward with the world again. But on that day, meandering through the hallways of the castle, everyone wild and busy working on preparations for the ball that night, I was back there again.
I hadn't gone to breakfast as I didn't really want to see Shade at that moment. I knew he would ask me about the night before, and I didn't know what to tell him. Even after a good night's sleep, I still had my questions, my suspicions. Then, the queen regent seemed to be brushing me off more and more as time passed. I wanted to know how they already knew about the people in the cabin, and I wanted answers. I wasn't there for a vacation. I was there to help Willa.
Willa…
That was another thing blowing around in my head. My own best friend had turned into somebody I didn't even recognize anymore. And it wasn't her appearance. It was the fact that she had withdrawn entirely from us altogether. She hadn't checked in, she hadn't checked it on my uncle, and she had completely ignored me the last time I saw her. Something was going on, but I couldn't put my finger on it. There were too many missing chunks of the story to get anywhere close to understanding what was happening.
There was nothing really for me to do for several hours before it was time to get ready for the ball, so I headed over to see my uncle and find out how he was doing. I had received a message that morning from one of the server girls letting me know that my uncle was awake. I was hoping he had some more insight into who had attacked them.
I barely knew the man at all, but when I walked into his room, which oddly looked a lot like a hospital, the smile on his face made all the anxiety flutter away, at least for a little while. "Look at you! Sitting up and everything! How are you feeling?"
Alabaster grinned, finishing up the last bite of the food that had been brought for him. He may have been awake, but he still looked pretty rough. The bruising and swelling had gone out a bit, and the magic that the fae were using to heal him seemed to be working, but I could tell he wasn't anywhere near ready for what I feared was coming. I also knew I couldn't really talk to him about it because he was a finder. He wouldn't be able to tell me anything useful, and it would just take away from his ability to have a nice conversation with me. Not to mention, he needed to rest. I didn't want him attempting to get up before he was ready just because I had overheard a conversation that may or may not have been concerning. I had suspicions about someone who was, unfortunately, leading the charge on everything, but he couldn't help in the shape he was in.
"I think I've seen better days, but I'm alive. I shook my head. "We've all been terrified. Do you remember anything about who attacked you?"
He shook his head. "I remember there was a noise, and then I remember waking up here. They're hoping I get my memory back soon, and I do, too, because whoever did this is going to be really sorry when I get a hold of them."
It was hard to take him seriously looking the way he did, but there was no doubt in my mind that my uncle had some sort of mean streak in him. The kind that he only pulled out for the most well-deserving of people, and whoever did that to him was definitely well-deserving.
He stared at me for a moment and then smiled. "You look like your mother."
That was always the best compliment ever. "You met my mother?"
He nodded, pushing the tray away from him. "Just once, but I'll never forget it. I was going through a rather lonely time with no family or friends, stuck on Earth, when I decided to look up your mother. I knew I couldn't just walk into her life and try to explain everything, so I went to her house is as a solicitor for the church."
I wrinkled my nose. "I'm sure she loved that. I'm surprised you even got to talk to her."
He began to laugh and reached up, wincing as he gripped his side. "She was definitely fiery. She let down her guard pretty quickly, though, when she realized that I had just as much of a fiery personality as her. She offered me some coffee, and we sat and talked for several hours. She looked so much like my family, with the creases next to her eyes and the laugh lines because she was always smiling. It was right after I heard that your parents had gotten married, and I know they didn't have you that long after that, so she may have been pregnant with you at the time."
It warmed my heart to hear the story. Not only did I rarely hear stories about my mother that I hadn't heard before, but it made me remember things about her that I had all but forgotten. Things like the lines at the edge of her eyes or the way she always smiled. But that happiness didn't last as long as I wanted it to. The events of the night and what I had heard were weighing on me heavily.
Alabaster reached up and touched my arm. "What's going on? I can see it all on your face. Did something happen?"
I hesitated for a moment, not wanting to tell them. Still, my uncle gave me a look so similar to the one my mother used to give me when I didn't want to tell her the truth about something that I couldn't help but fess up. Suffice it to say, he wasn't too thrilled about the fact that I went out following these people to the abandoned cabin without letting anybody know. It wasn't like I was a child, though. I felt like in the fae world, they treated me like that. I was an adult, and I made a decision, and I was glad I had. I just wasn't sure what to do with it at that point.
