Rebel Faerie

Chapter 5

Five

“I hope the Guild has sent guardians to monitor every news station in existence,” Calla says to Perry as we walk through the media crowd again, listening in on snippets of conversation. “If your Seers aren’t Seeing all these things before they happen, then the news is probably the best way to stay up to date on all the trouble Roarke’s causing.”

“They must have Seen something,” Perry says. “But perhaps their visions didn’t contain enough details for anyone to stop these incidents. And I guess no one connected them to the Unseelies until after they’d happened.” He pulls his amber from his pocket as it hums again. “Aaaaand people are wondering why I’m not at my job right now. I’d better go.”

Once Perry’s disappeared, Calla says, “We should go too. We can’t do anything about what’s happened here in Rhiningsville, and we can’t help with that huge mess in New York City either. We need to get on with freeing our team, and let’s hope the Guild and the Seelie army can do enough to fix all of this.” She raises her stylus to the side of a van and writes a doorway spell.

“It kinda feels like there’s no way back from this,” I say quietly as an opening forms on the side of the van. “Like … the world has changed forever now.”

Calla reaches back and takes my hand. “Maybe it has. Maybe magic will never be a secret again.”

We cross the desert sand and head for the oasis. We’re barely through the dome layer when I see someone hurrying toward us. “Chase! You’re back!” Calla calls out, running to greet him.

I hang back a few steps as Chase pulls her into a tight embrace. “You’re okay,” he says.

“I’m okay? Of course I’m okay. What about you? I never heard back from you after I messaged you from Velazar, and then I lost my amber.”

“Yeah, I had a similar problem. Both my amber and mirror ended up cracked after I, uh, landed on a rock. I can’t get either of them to work.”

“Someone threw you onto a rock?” Calla exclaims. “But the Argenti elves’ ruler asked you to be there. Didn’t he tell everyone you were assisting with the Petran negotiation?”

“We didn’t get that far,” Chase says as I cross my arms and try not to feel awkward. Should I leave? Should I wait for them to finish talking? “We didn’t even reach the meeting point with the Petrans,” Chase continues. “Everything went to hell after the Unseelie Prince pulled his stunt at Velazar II. Seems he has supporters among the Argenti. He called on them for help—told them all about what had happened and sent them to attack all the glamour magic around those old elf manor houses in Wales in the non-magic world. Apparently he thinks the humans in that area should know about the fae that have been living in secret alongside them.”

“That i***t prince!” Calla hisses.

“So half the Argenti ran off to do his bidding. I followed, of course, hoping to stop them. I could have done with some backup, but I didn’t have any means of communication, and I didn’t want to waste time coming back here. I couldn’t keep them from breaking the glamours, so I set up a storm around the manor houses. Hopefully it’ll keep humans away long enough for someone to get the glamours back in place or for the occupants to leave.”

“And when did you get back here?”

“About twenty minutes ago. Gaius just told me what happened with Vi and Ryn and everyone else.” At that moment, Chase’s gaze moves past Calla and comes to rest on me. “Oh. Em. Hi.” A smile breaks out across his face. “Welcome to the family.”

I blink at him, then take a few steps forward. “You know who I am? But you haven’t seen Calla since she found out. Or …” I look at her. “Did you send him a message while you were waiting to sneak into my cell in the shadow world?”

“I did. But Chase knew about my suspicions already.”

“And the first time I saw you,” Chase adds, “I had the strangest feeling I’d met you before. You reminded me a little bit of Vi when I first met her.”

I’m silent for a moment, my mouth hanging open, before I’m able to speak. “Wait, really? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I figured I was imagining things. We all believed Victoria was dead. It never crossed my mind you might actually be her.” He laughs. “I’m still having a hard time believing it. It’s just … incredible.” He gives me a smile that’s almost as wide as the one plastered across Gaius’s face last night when he heard the news of who I am. But after a moment, it fades to a more serious expression. “I wish there was nothing else wrong in the world right now, and that we could catch up on decades of family history. Unfortunately, we first need to plan how best to break into The Noxsom Facility.”

“Does that mean Kobe is back as well?” Calla asks.

“Yes. Gaius said he returned about an hour ago.”

A thrill of nervous anticipation rushes through me. This rescue is finally happening. It’s real. I’m going to get Violet and Ryn back.

As we head away from the dome layer, Calla asks, “Any news from Elizabeth and Tilly?”

“Elizabeth’s on her way,” Chase says. “She’ll be here tonight. But Tilly’s in the middle of another expedition. Gaius can’t get in touch with her, though he’s left her numerous messages.”

“Let’s assume she won’t receive those messages in time. That leaves us with seven people to work with.”

“Seven?” Chase asks.

I raise my hand as Calla says, “Em wants to help. From a distance, of course. We won’t let her anywhere near the inside of that facility.”

For a moment, it looks as though Chase might argue that point. But Calla shoots him a glance, and after another a few seconds of silence, he nods. “Okay. Let’s start planning.”

Our rescue party is an interesting combination of fae. Calla and Chase are faeries, but their friend Elizabeth turns out to be part siren. She has magical powers of influence, which I suppose will come in handy if a guard needs to be convinced to leave his post. Only after I ask why she’s wearing gloves does she mention, with a serene smile upon her face, that her siren abilities include the power to suck the life out of people.

Kobe, a guy with narrow vertical pupils and no hair, tells me he’s a drakoni. He doesn’t speak much, and if I hadn’t been watching closely, I would have missed the fact that his tongue is forked. I’m interested to know whether drakoni are related in some way to actual dragons, but with our conversation focused solely on how to get in and out of The Noxsom Facility, I decide to save that question for another time.

The next two members of the team are Krystal and Carter Millingjay, a faerie couple who fled the Guild at the same time Ryn and Vi did, years ago when someone came up with a way to visually identify Griffin Gifted fae. They were from a different Guild, though, so Vi and Ryn didn’t meet up with them until about a year after they all went into hiding. Like Vi and Ryn, the Millingjays’ guardian markings were never deactivated, meaning they still have access to their guardian weapons. Krystal’s Griffin Ability is something random and unhelpful to do with flowers, and Carter isn’t Griffin Gifted. I’m sure they’ve both got kick-butt fighting skills, though.

And then there’s me. A faerie with only one skill to offer: the Griffin Ability I’ve recently gained tentative control over. It ‘recharges’ itself twice a day, about twelve hours apart, and if I focus hard enough when it appears, I can reserve that power to use at another time, either in a single command that requires a large amount of power, or in numerous minor commands. It’s a power that will definitely be useful to our team—as long as I don’t lose focus.

When introducing me to the rest of the team, neither Calla nor Chase mention my connection to their family. “It’s too much to explain right now,” Calla said earlier. “Let’s get Vi and Ryn back first, and they can tell people whatever they want to tell them.” So after she explains to everyone that I’m involved in the rescue mission because of my Griffin Ability, we get on with our initial planning.

Over the course of the evening, we discuss different options for exactly how to break into Noxsom. We can’t make definite plans until we know the internal layout of the facility—information we’ll hopefully get our hands on tomorrow, Calla tells us—but in the meantime, we plan as much as we can, including which powers to borrow from Gaius’s Griffin Ability vault and how to magically communicate with each other.

I use the term ‘we’ loosely, of course, since I keep my own mouth shut most of the time. Partly because I have zero experience in this area, and partly because I’m worried that if I draw too much attention to myself, everyone will decide it would be safer to leave me out of this.

Despite the fact that I should be less agitated now that we’re finally doing something to rescue Vi and Ryn, a barrage of thoughts bombard me when I try to fall asleep that night. Front and center is the unsettling reminder that no one has any idea where Dash is now. I try to settle my anxiety by telling myself we need to take one step at a time. First, rescue everyone from Noxsom, then find out where Dash is and do the same for him.

I turn over yet again, hug Bandit against my chest—he’s in the form of a half-grown leopard—and finally drift toward asleep.

The following morning, Calla leaves the oasis to meet Perry so he can hand over the Noxsom floor plans he stole during the night. When she returns, we reassemble inside the house everyone calls ‘the mountain.’

“You know what?” Elizabeth says as Calla drops the rolled-up drawings onto the oval table at the center of the room. “I’m finding the Guild less and less impressive as the years go by. They don’t even know when their own people are stealing from them.”

“Architectural plans aren’t actually stored at the Guild,” Calla tells her, “which made it even riskier for Perry to steal these ones. He had to sneak into a records department he had absolutely no reason to be in and hope they have far fewer surveillance bugs flying around than the Guild has.”

Elizabeth takes a seat at the table and crosses one leg over the other. “He should have worn one of those disguises he loves fooling around with so much.”

“He did. There was a wig involved. And some form of fake facial hair. But still.” Calla leans across the table and spreads the blueprints open. “I worry we’re going to land him in serious trouble one day.”

“Then we’ll do exactly what we’re doing right now,” Chase says, tilting his head as he examines the plans. “Save him from whatever trouble he finds himself in.”

Which won’t change the fact that his career will have been ruined, I almost add. But I remind myself that I’ve decided to say as little as possible during these planning meetings. Besides, it’s Perry’s choice to help the Griffin rebels. He’s obviously decided it’s worth the risk.

“Okay.” Calla separates the pages, placing six large drawings beside each other. “Six levels. We’ll only know once we get there and check the inmate records in this room here—” she taps her forefinger onto one of the blocks on the first page “—exactly which cells our people are in. But let’s assume the worst and figure out how we’re going to get all the way down to the furthest floor below ground.”

“And remember,” Carter says, “they’ll have a Griffin Ability detector over their entrance.”

Chase nods. “So one of you who isn’t Griffin Gifted will need to sneak in first and disable the enchantment.”

Kobe raises his hand. “Great,” Calla says. “Thanks, Kobe. Em will tell the gate to open, so that won’t be a problem, and I’ll hide outside and imagine you as invisible.”

“Or Em could tell every lock in the prison to unlock,” Carter suggests. “That’ll make our lives easier once we’re inside.”

“And risk some actual criminals escaping?” Calla says. “Probably not a good idea.”

Kobe leans forward and asks, “Do we know where the detector enchantment is housed?”

“It’ll be in the control room here.” Chase points to another part of the plans.

“Once that’s disabled,” Calla continues, “we can all get inside.”

“And the surveillance bugs that will no doubt be flitting around?” Elizabeth asks. “Both inside and outside. They’ll see through whatever illusion you’re projecting. Kobe might not even make it inside if someone sees him on an orb.”

“Tropical storm,” Chase says. “It’s going to rain so heavily outside The Noxsom Facility that no one will be able to see a thing.”

Elizabeth nods. “That works for outside, but what about inside?”

“We can do that explosion thing again?” Kobe suggests. “To cut all the light spells. It worked well at the Maxwood Museum.”

Despite my plan to remain quiet, I can’t help asking, “Are you sure you guys aren’t criminals? Why on earth would you need to break into a museum?”

“Because the curator of that museum stole a valuable family heirloom from someone,” Calla explains to me. “The Guild couldn’t help her because they couldn’t prove anything, so after hearing about us, she asked for our help. We located the heirloom hidden inside the museum and stole it back for her.”

“But … what if it wasn’t actually hers?” I ask. “What if she’d been lying to you?”

“The family crest engraved on the item was a bit of a giveaway. We assume the curator was planning to remove it, but if so, he hadn’t got around to it yet.”

“Is it really necessary to tell this story right now?” Elizabeth asks.

Calla sighs and looks at Elizabeth. “Just explaining that we’re not actually criminals.”

“Or,” Krystal says, “that we’re the right kind of criminals. That might be more accurate.”

“So, back to the explosion,” Chase says, looking at Kobe. “Yes, exploding some nightlace should work well. Whoever’s hanging out in the control room won’t be able to see a thing.”

“It’ll make it difficult for us to see as well,” Elizabeth reminds everyone.

“Yes, but it won’t be completely dark,” Calla says, an edge of frustration to her voice. “We’ll be fine.”

“If it isn’t completely dark for us, then it won’t be completely dark on the surveillance orbs the guards are watching.”

“Elizabeth! It’ll be fine. You heard what Kobe said. It worked well at Maxwood.”

“It did work well,” Kobe adds, nodding.

Elizabeth holds her hands up and sits back. “Okay. Just checking.”

Calla turns back to the plans. “Next thing we need to figure out is how to get through the security gate that separates each level from the next one down.”

“Well,” Carter says, “the logical thing to do is use that Griffin Ability that can unlock anything. You know, the one Gaius transferred into that antique key.”

“Isn’t that one of the Griffin Abilities we lost when the others went to get Vi and Ryn?” Chase asks.

I clear my throat and lean forward. Nerves flutter in my stomach as I say, “Do you know how much easier all of this would be if you just let me go inside the prison?” Silence greets my suggestion. Everyone looks at me. I elaborate quickly. “If I go into the control room with Kobe, I can tell all the guards on duty there that they can’t see any of you. Then I can go to each gate and tell it to open. I can open whatever cells Vi and Ryn are locked in. Every step of the way, I can simply say something, and it will happen.”

Another beat of silence passes. Then: “Out of the question,” Calla says.

“Why? It would be so much easier that way.”

“Does your Griffin Ability have enough power for that many commands?” Krystal asks.

“Well, I told the veil to close. And it did. I assume that would have required a rather large amount of magic?”

Carter’s mouth drops open. “Wow. Okay. Yeah, I think you can handle a bunch of locks and surveillance enchantments.”

“Still out of the question,” Calla repeats.

“Why?” Krystal asks. “If her magic can do all these things, then why make this rescue operation harder than it has to be?”

“Em is brand new here,” Calla reminds everyone. “We can’t ask her to do something this dangerous.”

“You’re not asking me,” I remind her. “I’m offering.”

“Ryn and Vi wouldn’t want you to do this. You’re—” But she cuts herself off before finishing, which makes me wonder if she was about to tell everyone that I’m actually Vi and Ryn’s presumed-to-be-dead daughter. Would it make a difference to anyone’s decision to let me inside the prison if they knew? I don’t get the chance to find out, though, because Calla says, “Yes, Em’s ability can do all these things. Which is exactly why we can’t risk the Guild getting her in their clutches again.”

“But if we don’t use her magic,” Krystal says, “chances are high that we’ll fail to rescue our people. We could all end up imprisoned as well.”

Calla looks at Chase, a question in her gaze. He’s quiet for several moments before saying, “You can stay with her the whole way. Keep her concealed. And I’ll remain close by so I can fight off anyone who happens to see the two of you.”

Calla’s face is full of uncertainty. “Chase …”

“I know,” he says. “But we need to get everyone back, and this is the best way. We’ll make sure Em doesn’t get caught in the process.”

Calla looks at me. Her voice is pained as she says, “I don’t want to lose you again.”

Carter turns to Krystal and whispers, “Is there something else going on here I don’t know about?”

“No idea,” she whispers in response.

“I know,” I say to Calla. “But you won’t. I can do this. I have more control now. You know I’ve been practicing. We’ll all come out the other side of this just fine.”

I guess I sound more confident than I feel, because eventually, Calla gives in and agrees. But as we sit down to decide on the exact words I should say at each point in the operation, I can’t help remembering what she said after we very nearly messed up our escape from the shadow world: No plan ever goes the way it’s planned.