“Let’s go,” said Evangeline, grabbing Ari by the arm.
Ari shook loose. “I need to see them take him out.” At midnight the reapers would come and the coffin would be taken to the cemetery.
Evangeline leaned down to whisper in my ear. “You’ve got blood on your face. I think the bathrooms are up the stairs.”
“You got Ari?” I asked, as Ari wandered aimlessly in the crowd.
“Got her. The queen caught me by surprise. Won’t happen again.” I’d seen that look on Evangeline’s face before. It would take a miracle to keep this party from ending in blood, and Grimm was a bit busy.
I looked around and found the queen, surrounded by a flock of bodyguards. Evangeline would tear through them like tissue paper if they bothered Ari. I headed off for the bathrooms.
The ballroom was standard for Kingdom. The entrance on one side led down a grand set of stairs to the dancing floor. On the far side of the oval room, another set of stairs led up to a refreshment table, private feasting halls, and most importantly, bathrooms.
At the top of the stairs stood a table of food, mostly ignored in favor of champagne, but I was hungry. I debated cutting a slice of cheese from the wheel. I loved Gouda, but it reminded me a little too much of the cheese in the Agency fridge. That’s when I felt that familiar feeling, someone looking at me, and I looked over my shoulder. The huge mirror on the corner wall showed the dancers whirling in dresses, but the mirror itself was what caught my eye. Grimm didn’t even try to call much in Kingdom, but that’s exactly what it felt like.
In the bathroom I washed the blood off my lip. There, I sensed it again. “Grimm?” I asked, but he didn’t answer. Then again, it was the lady’s restroom, and we’d had a few intense discussions on appropriate places to talk.
Outside, I snagged a glass of wine from a host and watched the dancers below. Ari and Evangeline stood off to the side. The feeling of being watched surged over me again. I turned to the mirror and walked closer, as if by staring into it I could see through. My own face looked back. A nose too small, eyes too large, and a chin that showed no particular heritage. I reached out a hand to touch my reflection.
“That would leave fingerprints,” said a voice.
“Show yourself,” I said.
The mirror swirled, turning milky. In the center something strove with my mind to form, but I rejected the image it sent and countered with another. She came into view, an older woman. Sixty-five or so, with gray hair pulled back in a bun.
“Well met, Marissa.”
“Who are you?” I asked, though I was sure I knew the answer.
“Your Fairy Godmother, of course. We should talk, but not here. Trouble follows you everywhere you go. I’d hate for you to spoil your friend’s mourning. She’ll take care of that all on her own.”
“Where? And don’t say the basement. I don’t do basements.”
She clucked her tongue at me in a disapproving way. “I was thinking over here.” She flashed into a metal bannister. “This way,” she said, farther down the hall.
I walked to the far end and opened a pair of wide doors. This was a feast room, large enough for a hundred guests or more to have their fill before a party. I peered into the shadows with the same suspicion I gave the mirror. “I don’t do pitch-black rooms either.”
“The lights are by the door,” she said, and I turned them on. She stood in a massive mirror above the fireplace, a sweeping white gown over her gaunt frame.
I reminded myself I chose what she looked like, and she shifted to half-snake, half-grandma.
“That’s impolite,” she said, forcing herself back into gown form.
“What is your name?”
“Odette. You may call me Fairy Godmother.”
I sat at the serving table where I could look at her without turning my head. “So talk.”
“So rude. I’m not your enemy yet, darling, though that may change. I simply wanted to meet the girl I hear so much about. Marissa saved this, or Marissa found that—I’ve heard your name more times than you have, and never seen your face.”
If there’s one thing I couldn’t stand, it was people who complimented me. Especially ones I’d never met before, who claimed to know a lot about me. This one had to have an agenda. “What do you want?”
“Why, to help you, darling.” She smiled warmly and her voice sounded like Grandma’s, after school.
I wasn’t buying. I’d had a lot of people try to help me. Help me off a building, help me under the water until I stopped breathing, or help me find out up close and personal what my intestines looked like. Help tended to be deadly. “What do you know about the fae?”
“I know you carry their blessings. Why didn’t he intercede for you? Or help you remove them?” Her eyes flickered with each question.
“What do you know about the Seal?”
“Ah, directly to the point. Good girl. I’m actually here because of it. Did you know what the word on the low streets of Kingdom is? They say the Seal was stolen by a servant of the mirror. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”
“I didn’t take it.” It occurred to me at that moment that “servants of the mirror” was no longer a unique term in this town.
“Obviously not, darling. The seal is a living creature, and pure magic. For one like you, with so little affinity, touching it would be torturous. Your friend, the princess. She’s a seal bearer. She could touch it and it wouldn’t so much as shock her. In fact, the experience would be empowering. Of course, she has plenty of magic. Tell me something, why is it after all these years he hasn’t gifted you with magic?”
“Stop trying to get me to doubt Grimm.”
She shook her head. “I don’t need to do that, darling. You are already doing it yourself. How close are you to being free? You know, I don’t keep people. Three tasks for me and their debt is paid. Why, even if I made it three years you would already be free of me twice.”
I kept my face calm. “I’m almost there.”
She gave me that wan grin and shook her head slowly. “I’ve had so much more experience lying than you, child. You are maybe halfway. Probably less. At some point you’ll be injured, or maybe you’ll make an honest mistake, and he’ll sideline you.” She flashed to a silver pitcher directly in front of me.
“Listen to me, child, while I tell you the truth: You will begin to spend your Glitter, and wait for him to allow you to work, and that day will never come. Do you know anyone who has paid their debt to him? Have you ever seen it happen?”
I didn’t. I hadn’t.
“You are evil,” I said, but I wasn’t sure anymore. I was asking those questions. All on my own, before she ever showed up.
She wasn’t angry. She smiled that look that said she knew so much more than I did. “I give you my word, darling. I have never given someone something their heart did not desire. I grant wishes and give, it is my way.”
“I’m done being vaguely threatened, and I’m done listening to you talk about Grimm. I pay my debts, and I do what he tells me to. You can go now. If your agents lay a hand on Ari, they’ll be leaving teeth under their pillows for you for a month.”
I don’t know which upset her more: the dismissal like she was a servant girl or the deal with the teeth. There are only two magical creatures that deal in teeth, pixies and efreets. Pixies take the tooth under the pillow. Efreets bring pliars.
Her eyes flashed the same way Grimm’s did, and the silverware on the table rattled. “Don’t think I can’t harm you, girl. My wishes are weapons, and I can destroy you with your heart’s own desires. Indeed, it is the only way. Or perhaps I grant the wish of those you love. Does the blacksmith wish to forget you? You mother, does she ever wish she had more time to herself? Without a young child she’d have all the time in the world.”