Ari looked at it with her eyes closed. “How are we going to get that to the fae?”
“We aren’t. You are.”
She snapped her eyes open and glared at me. “I can’t use my magic. You saw what happened last time.”
I had. I also saw what happened to the queen, and I didn’t want that for Ari. “I don’t think it’s something you do. It’s something you are. You are the seal bearer for your family.”
“That’s not what that means. I have the family seal on me, and that’s what gives me magic.”
I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye. “Think about it. The royal families weren’t given magic to use against each other. They were given it so that they could seal the realms. When the Fae Mother spoke to you, she said you had to become what you are. You are a seal bearer.”
Ari shook her head. “That’s not what she said. She said I would become a witch.” She started toward the door. “I’ll try.”
“Wait,” I said. “Grimm said it would be in Fairy Godmother’s demesne. It’s kind of like a gateway to where she actually lives, and I’d bet anything magic entering there will raise all kinds of trouble. Stay here at the door, I’ll bring the Seal to you, and you can carry it out to the fae.”
She reached inside the hidden room and touched the floor. It rippled under her fingers, and as she pulled them back a drop of glass fell to the mirror. After a moment, it became solid again. I pushed on it, and felt only glass.
I thought for a moment about Grimm’s warning, but as long as Ari stayed out of the room, I wouldn’t be going through the mirror. So I stepped out of the stairway and into the hidden room. The mirrored floor held my weight, thank goodness, and I walked up to the Seal. It looked like the foxfire Ari had summoned, only bigger, angrier.
I reached out toward it, and flashes of light played across its surface. Grimm had said the Seal was alive, so I figured maybe it could be reasoned with. “I need you to come with me. My friend there is a seal bearer, and she’ll take you home.” The room shook in a way that felt far too familiar.
“Hurry! Your blessings are hungry for it,” Ari yelled.
I remembered what had happened to Ari’s foxfire and grabbed the Seal. It burned like I’d grabbed a power line, sending pain rippling through my hands and down my body, but I forced myself to take a step. I could move it.
“Child,” said Fairy Godmother, “you are foolish beyond compare.”
I took another step, and my arms jerked back and forth as the Seal resisted me.
“Come on,” Ari said. “One of your blessings is fighting with the other one.”
I hoped my blessing was fighting to keep my curse away, but it was equally possible they were fighting over who got the first bite. That’s when I realized I could see Fairy Godmother in the mirrors. All of them. She was no longer the beautiful gray-haired Queen; she was the emaciated woman in a gown of woven bones.
“Once you strike at me, and thrice I return it. Few receive my third gift.”
I managed a couple more steps. Just a little farther to the door. The mirrors went blank, and then lit up. It was like looking out a window on a hurricane. They no longer reflected the Seal. Instead, black clouds boiled in them, and an eerie green light filled the room. “Come,” said Fairy Godmother. I felt the floor change. The next step, my foot sank into the glass an inch, and I pushed the Seal toward Ari. The next step I sank up to my knee. When I raised my foot, glass pulled like taffy along with it.
Ari leaned in and snagged the Seal. It clung to her like a child, zipping in circles around her and sending bolts of lightning off. In the reflection of the mirror, I saw my harakathin drawn to it over and over, but each time they approached, a glow surrounded Ari and pushed them away. The glow drifted off from Ari like a cloud, but as the Seal orbited her, the glow drew inside her until her skin shone like she was on fire.
“Take it to the fae,” I said.
Ari held on to the door frame and leaned out, hanging over the floor. “Give me your hand.”
I sank to my waist in the mirror, and swung my purse like a rope toward Ari. It hit something invisible in the air and bounced to the side. In the mirror, I saw my curse hovering there, his eyes glowing. A claw wrapped around my waist and pulled me under.
I fell through the mirror and beyond.
I LANDED ON grass and clamped my hands over my ears. If the voice of the fae had sounded like thunder, the sounds of birds twittering rushed through my brain like the squeal from a microphone, and the bright glimpse of green seared into my brain. The intensity of this world washed over me like a wave, tearing at my mind. Even the softness of the grass brought pleasure to the point of agony. Then Fairy Godmother spoke.
“Hush,” she said, and the world grew quieter. I opened my eyes, and I lay on a vast field of green as far as I could see. My purse had fallen through the mirror, and my driver’s license and everything else lay scattered in the grass. “You must not go mad yet, darling, or you will not appreciate your third wish.”
I looked for Prince Mihail. “Where are they?”
She floated backwards a few steps. “The queen and her pawn? This was not their checkmate.”
“I’ve won. Ari will take the Seal back to the fae and end the war. They will know what you did. You took the Seal. You hid Mihail. You took the child.”
“And then what, darling? What will the fae do against one of us, the old ones? They are only our dreams, born when our minds wandered. Not unlike yourself.”
“Why? Why start a war?”
“The fae kill the Kingdom, the Kingdom kill the fae, and the people of your miserable slice of world belong to me. Such an irony, in that dull, dreary world, the people grow magic.”
“You started a war for magic?”
She tipped her head. “What else would be worth it? Humans are unremarkable. They grow and die in the blink of an eye, and when they wield magic, they are feeble and clumsy. Still, I assure you—if you took every bit of magic and killed every dream in that city, tomorrow something amazing would happen. Do you know what it is?”
My bracelet glowed white as Grimm tried to reach me. “Enlighten me.”
“They’d get up and go about their miserable little lives, and before they could even make it out the door they’d have a tiny hope. Maybe today they wouldn’t get yelled at. Or today they’d win the lottery, or today they might find love. That pitiful race creates magic it can’t even use. But I can.”
I spotted something lying in the grass and smiled. “It is beautiful here.”
She returned the smile. “I am glad you like it, darling. You will never leave.” She swept her hand, and the sun swung toward the horizon. “I like it best at sunset.”
Rising to my feet, I took a few steps away. “How far does it go?”
“Beyond forever.”
While she spoke, I picked up the gun and hid it in my palm, and picked a glorious pink flower. “I have something for you.” I turned to her and held out the flower.
She bent to smell it, and I pulled the trigger. The gun roared, a muffled, mechanical noise foreign to this world, sending out that last magic bullet in a burst of smoke. The bullet exploded into a cloud of butterflies.
I knew she had toyed with me, but she wasn’t frowning. She was smiling. “So clever. So cunning and courageous. No wonder he took you as his agent. No wonder she marked you as her own. So stupid.”
My hands felt like lead, and my arms hung limp.
“You don’t like that gun,” she said.