Rebel Faerie

Chapter 6

Six

We wait until late in the evening before leaving the oasis so we don’t have to hide too long near Noxsom before my Griffin Ability’s magic is ready to be used. Technically, we should be able to go at any time; I’m fairly confident that I can hold onto my Griffin power and release it at will later on. But Chase and Calla decided it would be better to wait. “This way,” Calla said, “you’ll have whatever power you’ve reserved from this morning, plus the additional power you’ll receive when your ability replenishes again tonight.”

We gather in the living room of the mountain and Chase goes around the group, writing a quick spell onto each person’s arm with his stylus. We discussed numerous communication options last night, including tiny devices the Guild recently developed—a few of which Gaius somehow got hold of—but this enchantment is apparently the easiest option. “Just don’t try any other spell that requires writing on your skin while you’ve still got this one on,” Chase tells me. “It’ll interfere with communication.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” I assure him. “I don’t know any spells that involve writing on my skin.”

“We may not even need to use this spell,” he adds, “but if we have to split up inside Noxsom and you want to talk to the rest of us, just touch the words on your arm to activate the spell and then speak normally. “

Elizabeth rises from the couch and sets her amber tablet aside. “The news is everywhere,” she says as she holds her arm out to receive her communication spell. “The Guild can’t stop crowing about their success at having sent a whole bunch of Griffin rebels straight to Noxsom.”

“Yes, I saw that,” Krystal says. “And I noticed that those who’ve always been the most outspoken about the controversial methods The Noxsom Facility employs are keeping strangely quiet.”

“Of course. I mean, torture’s totally acceptable when you’re doing it to Griffin Gifted fae, right?”

I’m about to ask someone to explain the kind of torture methods Noxsom employs, but Chase speaks before me. “Look, it’s horrible that it’s splashed all over the news, but at least we know we’re heading to the right place.”

“Do you think they’ve jacked up security there?” Elizabeth asks. “You know they feel totally threatened by any Griffin Gifted fae. They’ve probably added another hundred guards because they’re so afraid our friends are somehow going to escape.”

“Surely Noxsom is secure enough as it is?” Calla says, rolling her sleeves down once her communication spell is done. “If the rumors are true, then most of the prisoners are asleep. Besides, Perry would have reported it to me if he’d heard anything about extra security around Noxsom.”

“Look, Perry’s great,” Elizabeth says, “but he doesn’t know everything. He’s part of one small department inside one Guild. He has nothing to do with the security at Noxsom.”

Chase raises his voice above the chatter and says, “I think we can safely assume the Guild hasn’t sent an extra hundred guards to Noxsom. You know why? Because the Guild is facing the one thing no one else in the history of our world has ever faced: the entire human realm suddenly becoming aware of our existence. That’s massive. And since Prince Roarke began openly attacking humans, things have got even worse. With all of that going on, the Guild isn’t going to waste extra guardians on a facility that’s already highly secure.”

“True,” Elizabeth says. “You’re probably right.”

“Let’s hope so.” Chase pats his jacket and the belt slung around his hips, probably to check that all his various weapons are still in place. “Okay. Everyone ready to break into a prison?”

“Absolutely,” Krystal and Carter say at the same time, before laughing at one another.

“Hey, it’s nothing we haven’t done before, right?” Elizabeth says, pulling her gloves a little tighter. “Should be a piece of cake.”

“Em?” Chase looks at me.

“Yep. All good.” What I really want to say is, Am I the only one who feels like throwing up? Probably, since I’m the only one who hasn’t done something like this before. I try to push aside my doubt and the nagging reminder that pretty much nothing in my life ever goes right. Instead, I silently repeat, This will all work out.

“Hey, Em?” I look up and find Calla in the doorway looking back at me. It seems everyone else has left the room already. “Are you sure you’re okay?” she asks.

“Yes.” My voice sounds odd, so I clear my throat and try again as I walk toward her. “Yes, I’m fine.”

“Are you having second thoughts about—”

“No. I’m fine, don’t worry. I know I can do this. It’s just speaking, right? It’s easy.”

She grips my upper arm and gives me an encouraging squeeze. “I’ll be with you the whole time. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Outside the dome layer, in the cool desert night, the seven of us hold hands and walk into the faerie paths together. If I weren’t so nervous, I’d probably want to laugh at how strange we look. Instead, as the darkness closes around us, I focus on trying to keep my heart from leaping right out of my chest.

The faerie paths bring us to a wooded area bathed in pale beams of moonlight. The air is warmer, balmy like a summer night. Looking up through the trees, I notice that the moon isn’t as high as it was by the oasis. Early evening, I think to myself. Noting the position of the moon or sun wasn’t something I ever did in the non-magic world. But that was back when I had a cell phone to tell me the time, and when I didn’t switch time zones so often—or ever, for that matter.

“It’s this way,” Chase says, leading us through the trees. We don’t have to walk far before we reach the edge of the forest. Up ahead, surrounded by the kind of shield layer that shimmers just enough to be seen, is a plain, rectangular, single-story building. The Noxsom Facility. It doesn’t look too bad from the outside, but I don’t let the boring exterior fool me. All kinds of horrific torture could be taking place on the five additional levels hidden beneath this one.

“How long until your magic is ready, Em?” Chase asks.

“Uh …” I focus my attention on my magic for a moment. “Probably less than fifteen minutes. I can sense that it’s almost ready.”

We spread out as we wait, each of us remaining pressed against a tree to blend in with the forest so Calla doesn’t have to conceal us yet. True to her word, she sticks right beside me, her back against the same tree I’m peering around. “I assume we can’t use the faerie paths to get to the other side of that shield layer,” I say.

“Nope. No access to the faerie paths beyond this forest. At least, that’s what Perry said when he was explaining how to get here. We have a complicated series of enchantments we generally use to disable shield magic—including a few spells no one outside the Guild is supposed to know—but hopefully your Griffin Ability can save us the hassle.”

“Yeah. I think it should work.” I lean back against the tree and fan my face with my hand. It’s warmer here than I expected, and my nerves are starting to make me sweat.

“I could cool you down with magic,” Calla says, “but it might interfere with the communication spell.”

I let my hand flop down against my leg. “It’s okay. I’ll probably cool down if I just stand here calmly and stop fanning myself.”

“Probably,” she says.

But I find it impossible to keep still. My hands end up twisting together. One heel taps repeatedly against the grass.

“You’re nervous,” Calla says, stating the obvious.

“I’m fine,” I reply, though we both know I’m lying.

“You’re scared this isn’t going to work.”

“Actually, I’m scared of the opposite. I mean—” I shake my head. “Sorry, that didn’t sound right. I’m scared of seeing them again—Violet and Ryn—not because I don’t want to, but because …” I swallow, and my heel tapping begins again. “Because … what if they don’t want me as their daughter?”

Calla turns her head to look at me. “What?”

“I mean, what if I’m a huge disappointment to them? They’ve probably spent years building Victoria up in their minds, this perfect daughter they would have had if she’d never died. She’d be just like them, brave and selfless and totally kick-ass. And now I come along and I’m just … me. I’m the girl with the totally average human-world upbringing. I’m the girl who ran away from everything they offered me without explaining myself. I’m the girl who trusted the Unseelies instead of trusting them. There’s no way they’re not going to be disappointed by that girl.”

“Look at me,” Calla says. When I do, I find her bright golden eyes staring fiercely back at me. “Don’t you dare let yourself believe lies like that. I can promise you, Em, that disappointment is the last thing they’re feeling. You are their daughter. They will love you no matter what kind of person you are or what you’ve done. Okay?”

I breathe out slowly, letting go of some of my anxiety. “Okay.” I tilt my head back against the tree, shut my eyes, and remain like that until the moment my Griffin Ability’s magic rushes to the surface. I hold on tightly to it, imagining it as a living thing I’m wrestling into submission. Each time I do it, it gets a little easier. When I’m certain I’ve got it under control and it isn’t about to escape me in a single flood, I open my eyes. “I’m ready,” I tell Calla.

“Great.” She raises her voice so the others can hear her and says, “I’m picturing us all as invisible now.”

“Alrighty,” Carter says from the next tree over. “It’s all on you, Em. No pressure.”

I manage a breathy laugh. “Yeah. No pressure at all.”

Holy. Freaking. Fudge nut.

I breathe out slowly through my mouth and try not to throw up. Then I remind myself that I volunteered for this—that somewhere deep inside me, I still want to do this—and I walk forward with the rest of the team.

We leave the trees behind us and walk at a steady pace toward the facility. On the other side of the shield surrounding the building, rain begins to fall. It seems Chase is keeping his storm confined for now. I’m not sure what will happen once the shield is gone, but hopefully someone here knows how to keep us from getting drenched.

When we’re a few paces away from the shield, we stop. No one says anything, but I know they’re waiting for me. Like turning a faucet, I let some of my power leak out. My voice is rich and resonant, both far away and deep inside my chest, as I tell the shield around The Noxsom Facility that it no longer exists.

Then I wait. For a moment, I’m convinced it isn’t going to work. I’m going to disappoint my team before we’ve even begun. But then the shield ripples and vanishes with a faint pop. And the dull roar of the rain reaches us.

“Nice,” Kobe says as Elizabeth quickly raises her hand, forming an invisible umbrella over us.

“Awesome,” Carter adds.

I manage a smile. “Thanks.” This successful first step gives me a tiny boost in confidence. I can do this.

We head forward through the storm. The wind pummels us, but not a single drop of rain strikes my body. We reach the imposing main gate outside Noxsom, and unlocking it proves to be just as easy as removing the shield. Telling the Griffin Ability-detecting charm that it no longer works goes smoothly as well. Next, I unlock the door into the building itself, and finally—we’re inside.

Chase quietly shuts the door behind us, and as I face the bright, sterile interior, my next command is for any surveillance bugs in this corridor. I can’t see them, but I don’t doubt they’re here. “Surveillance bugs,” I say, imagining tiny enchanted insects, “you can’t see us.” After a pause, I add in my normal voice, “I hope that worked if I can’t actually see them and don’t know where to direct my intentions.”

“Well, let’s move quickly,” Chase says. “The sooner we get to the control room, the better. This way.” He walks ahead of us, and we follow as quietly and quickly as we can along the bare and brightly lit corridors. With no visible hint of magic, this building is the closest I’ve seen to something that looks like it could belong in the human world.

Every few steps, I look around and repeat my command to the surveillance bugs I can’t see. “Be careful not to use up all your magic,” Calla says.

“I know, I’m just trying to keep us out of sight until we reach the control room.”

“Almost there,” Chase says. We turn a corner into the next corridor, where we have only two doors to choose from.

We come to a stop outside the first door, and Carter whispers, “Inmate records? In the room next door, right?”

Chase nods. “Yes, you can take a look at those. Make sure you find all ten of our people. Calla and Em, we’re going into the control room. Kobe, Krystal, Elizabeth, you’re out here to stop anyone from coming into either room.” He reaches for the first door.

“Wait,” Calla whispers. “Sorry, just let me focus. We’re opening the door, but I need them to see a door that stays closed. And wherever we’re standing, they need to see empty space.” She pauses. “Okay, got it.”

“Em?” Chase asks. I nod, but my heart patters painfully fast as he reaches for the door handle. The door barely makes a sound as he opens it. We step silently into the room. The four guards—two men and two women—seated in the center of the room watching at least a dozen orbs floating in rows in front of them don’t turn their heads. If they did, they wouldn’t see us. Calla’s making sure of that with her illusion. My job now is to make sure they won’t see us in their orbs as we steal along every corridor from here down to the bottom of this facility.

“Don’t panic” is the first command I give them. Then, as they all look around at the sound of my voice, I add, “Stay seated. When you look at your orbs again, you won’t be able to see any of us, no matter where we are inside The Noxsom Facility.” I follow that command with another one that names us each individually, just in case the first command wasn’t explicit enough. Finally, I add, “Forget that someone was in this room speaking to you.”

The guards’ faces take on blank expressions for a moment, then confusion. One man looks at the other. “What?” the second man asks.

“Nothing. Just … looking around.”

They return to watching the orbs then. Calla raises a finger to her lips, and we quietly back away. The moment the door is closed behind us, giddy exhilaration rushes through me. “This is working,” I whisper to Calla. “This is actually working.”

“Well done,” she answers. “Just don’t get cocky now. We still have a lot to get through.”

“I know, I know. This is just really cool, that’s all.”

Carter slips out of the room next door. “Found them,” he says. “They’re all on the third floor down.”

“Good,” Elizabeth says. “Not too far to go.”

“All fine in there?” Carter asks, pointing to the control room door.

Chase gives him a thumbs up, then says, “Okay, let’s get moving. Cal, you’re still projecting that invisibility illusion?”

“Yes. In case we pass other people out here.”

“Great.”

The seven of us slip silently along the corridors with Chase leading the way. We’re nearing the gate that separates this level from the next one down when we begin passing rooms with glass windows that allow us to look in. Calla and I pause briefly beside an occupied room to take a better look. A narrow bed stands in the center of the room. Its occupant, dressed in white overalls, is asleep. A funnel hangs from the ceiling, and from its open end, faint sparkling wisps of something drift down over the prisoner’s head.

“That’s so weird,” I murmur. “What’s coming out of the funnel?”

Calla shakes her head. “I don’t know.”

“I thought you said people are tortured in this prison.”

“They are.” She pauses before adding, “From what I’ve heard, the torture takes place inside their minds.”

A chill creeps over me. My thoughts can’t help turning to the kinds of nightmares this seemingly peaceful prisoner might be enduring right now.

“Calla, Emerson, come on,” Elizabeth says. “We don’t have time to waste staring at sleeping prisoners.”

We hurry after the rest of our team. “Vi and Ryn and the others must be asleep too,” I say. “Do you think we’ll be able to wake them?”

“If we can’t,” Elizabeth says, “we’re going to have to direct ten sleeping bodies through the air all the way out of this facility. That’s going to take some coordination.”

“Yeah,” Chase says grimly. “Not an ideal situation, but we can make it work. Calla needs to focus on her ability, and so does Em. That leaves five of us to direct ten bodies. We should easily be able to manage two each.”

Cartner nods. “Cool. I like it when you use the word ‘easy.’”

“Or,” I say to them, “I can tell our people to wake up and hope it works.”

“Even better,” Carter says.

We continue on, soon reaching the gate that blocks our access to the stairway leading down. But all I have to do is tell the gate to unlock itself, and it does. With each command I’m able to successfully give, my confidence rises. The next two gates open easily, and by the time we get to the correct level, I’m starting to think we might actually pull this off without anything going wrong. But I tell myself not to get too excited yet. We still need to get everyone out of here, and if for some reason I can’t wake them, we’ll have to levitate them. And directing ten sleeping bodies through the air doesn’t sound like it’s going to be as easy as everyone believes it will be.

“Okay, this is it,” Chase says, stopping as we turn into a long passageway lined with doors. Instead of being closed, each one is slightly ajar.

“Weird,” Calla says. “But I guess the doors don’t need to be locked when the prisoners on the other side of them are unconscious.”

“Were any of the rooms we passed on previous levels also open?” Krystal asks. “I can’t remember now.”

“Yes, I think some of them were,” Elizabeth answers.

“So we’re hoping this is normal?” I ask. At that moment, something crawls up the top of my arm. In fright, I inhale sharply and smack at my shoulder. But the crawling insect has morphed into a bird and narrowly misses my hand as it flits away. “Holy crap,” I breathe. “Bandit, you have got to stop following me everywhere.”

“You brought your shapeshifter pet with?” Elizabeth asks, arching one unimpressed eyebrow.

“Of course not,” I hiss. “He likes to shift into tiny forms and hide in my pockets without my knowledge.” Bandit lands on my shoulder and becomes a lizard. I grab hold of him and push him into my jacket pocket. Then I bend my head forward and whisper, “Please stay there.”

“Ready, Em?” Chase asks. “Are you going to try to wake them?”

“Yes.”

He looks behind us, then ahead once more. “I’ll stay here at the end of the passage in case I need to keep anyone away while the rest of you are freeing our people. Calla and Em, check the first room.” He looks at the other four. “You can move on to the next rooms.”

As I walk toward the first door, my heart begins to race again. Who will I find in this room? Will it be Violet or Ryn? Then, as I reach out and push the door open, a sense of déjà vu overwhelms me. I remember being at Tranquil Hills Psychiatric Hospital several weeks ago, pushing open a door to see Dani. I remember the alarm that suddenly screamed through the quiet.

I cross the threshold into this room—and no alarm goes off. Calla follows quickly. I can’t see the occupant of this bed because a thin grey blanket covers him or her completely. Which seems … strange? Calla must be thinking the same thing because she’s now frowning at the bed. She edges closer, slowly takes hold of a section of the blanket, and yanks it back.

The bed is empty. Whatever formed the shape of a person beneath the blanket is gone.

“Crap!” Calla gasps as something darts out of the wall and catches hold of her arm. I jump backward as another something—a metal arm?—extends in my direction. Behind us, the door bangs shut. She shouts, “Don’t go into the—” But her words are abruptly cut off as something like an electric current flashes across the room, burning into us. For a moment, intense pain paralyzes me. Then everything goes dark.