I shook with sudden anger, and my hands clenched over something in my pocket. I slipped my hand in and found a few stones from the vase, and I started to laugh.
“How would you like to work for me? I pay your debt. You work for me. You could be free before the end of the year.”
I did want it. Anger welled up in me like a fever. Anger at myself for wanting to accept her offer, rage at her for knowing how much I did. I shoved the anger down inside me with that same cold wall of emotion I’d practiced so much.
“I’m not going to skip out on Grimm. All the magic I need comes in ammo boxes, and I’d rather plunge an ogre’s toilet every day than work for you.” I stood, taking the rocks from my pocket. They were solid black, polished. I picked up a pitcher and threw it across the room. She retreated to the mirror.
“Child, do not raise your hand to me.” Her face became stern, her mouth pulled back in a grimace, and her eyes narrowed.
“You threaten my friends or my family, and I will find a way to kill you, if it takes me a lifetime.” I threw the stones. They struck the mirror and it shattered, splitting like a spiderweb. The mirror bled, blood gushing from the cracks like I had sliced an artery.
She screamed in rage, a word that spun past me like the wind, and rooted me to the spot. I strained against the spell but it pinned me in place. The table shook and silverware went flying. The lights exploded in a rain of sparks. My blessings, it seemed, didn’t like her any better than I did.
Then something appeared in the air. It popped into existence. A bottle, and a brush, and the brush began to paint the mirror. As it did the blood turned black and disappeared, and the mirror was flawless. The stench clawed at my nose, the smell of fleshing silver. As the brush wiped the last drop of blood clean, she formed again in the mirror.
“I return your blow threefold, foolish girl.” Her skin was pulled back so tight she looked like a talking skull, and her flowing white dress now looked like woven bones.
“Get it over with,” I said, steeling myself.
Instead the spell released me, and when I looked up she stood there, her normal self.
“Not yet, darling. A blow struck in haste is a blow wasted. When the time is right, I will give you my gifts.” She faded out. “Only when you have received the third may you ask, and I will grant your request. Only then will I kill you.”
The giant clock in the ballroom rang over and over, and as I counted it, I realized it was midnight. I had lost hours to the fairy’s voice. I ran out the door to the ballroom, and heard the shouting before I could see them.
“You will come home,” said the queen. Most of the guests were huddling near the entrance, but Ari stood before the coffin, between it and the queen.
“I don’t think you understood my friend,” said Evangeline, and I knew her tone. It was the harbinger of pain and violence coming.
I ran down the stairs. “Leave her alone.”
The queen turned to face me. “Hold your tongue, fairy whore. You turn cheap tricks and pass them off as magic, but you would make more Glitter on your back.”
She looked to Ari. “You choose them over me? Then I decide. Until you return to my house and accept my training, you are not my daughter, and you’re not of this family. I cast you out of this house and Kingdom.”
Ari let out a sharp cry as if she had been punched in the stomach, and Evangeline grabbed Ari’s wrist. The doors to the ballroom slammed open and the reapers entered, sending guests rushing to the walls. They marched through the ballroom toward the coffin, and the queen stepped aside as they passed, their robes trailing. They seized the coffin and marched out, and the head reaper waited. Evangeline seemed to be wrestling with Ari, trying to put something on, but my view was blocked as the head reaper approached me.
He didn’t speak. He looked at me with his empty skull, and I felt his gaze on me, like when Grimm is watching. He bowed before me and followed the others out. Evangeline pulled Ari out the front door, and I followed, running up the stairs and out the door.
Evangeline ran to the valet booth, dragging Ari with her. “We’ve got to get out of here. She’s fading.”
The valet wandered off at his normal pace. I realized what was wrong. The queen couldn’t change who or what Ari was. Sadly, she’d be a princess and seal bearer for the rest of her life. The magic of Kingdom did follow strict rules though: Stripped of her family title, Ari wasn’t just thrown out of the family. She was being removed from the place. As I watched, she faded from view, disappearing completely.
“Where is she?”
Evangeline looked around, checking the street signs. “You don’t want to know. That part of the city isn’t somewhere you go in daylight, let alone midnight.”
“I’m going after her. We’ll meet you at the gates. Grimm, if you can hear, let me go.” I pulled my Agency bracelet off and threw it at my feet. The world wrenched sideways, and the shimmering lights of Kingdom disappeared. Abandoned cars sat against the curb, missing tires and burned.
That’s when I heard someone scream: someone who wasn’t Ari. I took off in that direction because any scream is a bad scream. I rounded the corner, and there in the middle of a gang of men was Ari. One of them was rolling on the ground, clutching at his crotch while the others laughed. I cursed this tiny dress purse with no room for my gun.
I whistled as I approached. “I’ve had a bad night, boys. I think it’s about to get better.” A couple split off to meet me. They weren’t expecting what happened next. There wasn’t any reason to.
I raked the first one in the eyes and followed it with a knee to the groin, grabbed the second and bent his arm until I got a nice clean snap, and let him scream for a moment to give the others something to think about. Ari swung a broken bottle and hit one of them in the head. He fell like a bag of sand and the others decided they were done.
I walked up to her and gave her assailant a kick. “Sorry I missed the fireworks.” She had been crying, but it was anger as much as fear or sorrow. I heard the thugs in the alley. They were coming back, and this time they were bringing friends. “Take off your shoes,” I said, and she did. We ran. I think they followed for a few blocks, but we ran all the way, all the way down and across, and we didn’t stop until we hit the gates, where Evangeline was waiting.
As we spun through the city, Ari drooped over and dozed. Evangeline clicked on the light to check on her. “Some night, M. We’re going to have trouble with the queen, you know.”
“Yeah, but she’s not who worries me.”
“Something worse than an angry royal?”
“You have no idea.”
Twenty-Four
I GOT TO the Agency bright and early the next day. The waiting room was empty—Rosa had put a closed sign on the door and hung signs that read “Caution, Biohazard,” “Now Entering Tuberculosis Infection Zone,” and “Jehovah’s Witness Meeting Today!” at various places in the halls. Even the most desperate wishers wouldn’t risk catching Jehovulosis.
I entered the conference room, which normally only held this many people on poker night. Jess and Clara, Evangeline, Ari, and myself.
Grimm waited while Jess and Clara took turns giving Ari hugs, and then cleared his throat. “We are no closer to finding the Seal, despite your exemplary efforts. The fae, on the other hand, grow restless. The fae realm lies exposed, and they believe someone in this world holds their Seal.”
“Plus,” I said, “there’s a fairy godmother in town.” In the silence that followed I watched Grimm digest this.