Whoa.There was a lot to process there. I wanted to respond with something intelligent, but instead I just said,“Um, are you sure?” like some kind of mortal idiot… which I guess I was, considering the company.
“Almost everything he said was a lie, but I don’t know why.”
“So does that mean…?”
“Yes, Melony is fine. They never had a confrontation.”
Finally I found some helpful words.“Then why didn’t you stop everyone from going to ward the town?”
“Because something’s not right. I didn’t want to alert Parker to the fact I was on to him.”
“How did you know he wasn’t being honest?”
She pointed to herself and smiled.“Angel.”
“Right.”
“We need to act fast before he realizes that I haven’t joined the others. Do you still want to help?”
She probably should have asked that before she catapulted me into the sky, but whatever. I was in this to win it, even though I had no idea how victory might look or what it would ultimately entail.
“Yes. I’ll help. What do you need me to do?”
She flashed me a magnanimous smile that sent a shiver right through me.“You, my dear, are going to serve as our bait.”
Wonderful.
25
“Where are we going?” I shouted into the wind as the angel and I picked up speed. “And how will I be used as bait?”
“We’re going to the place where this whole thing started,” Greta said as we zipped toward our location.
Not even a minute later, we clunked down right in front of Mrs. Haberdash’s house, the place I’d been headed on my own, anyway.
“What’s the plan?” I asked as Greta made her wings disappear with a quick flick of both wrists.
“Haven’t really got much of one.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out my brooch. Even though I hadn’t been granted magic long enough to know what I was doing with it, I immediately felt relieved. If nothing else, my instinctual abilities could protect me—at least for a little while. I hated how much I wanted it, even though I was already beginning to suspect that magic did terrible things to a person’s mind. Even knowing it could corrupt me, I wanted it.Desperately.
“It’s a decoy,” Greta explained, dashing my hopes just as quickly as she’d lifted them. Oh, well. It was definitely for the best. “Wear it. Pretend you’re searching for something specific.”
I thought about this for a moment. I also thought about how unfortunate it was that my pajama pants had no pockets. I shoved the decoy into my bra to keep it safe, then asked,“What should I be looking for?”
“Doesn’t matter. Just tear around the house and generally make a nuisance of yourself. If one of the Haberdash heirs is around, they’ll come find you.” She stepped forward and I studied the back of her simple pastel pantsuit. There was no sign of the enormous wings that had delivered us to this location mere seconds ago. No tears from where they’d emerged through the fabric. No hint that she was anything other than an ordinary human being.
“What will you do?” I asked skeptically.
She glanced toward the horizon and frowned, which was not exactly comforting.“I’ll be watching from nearby, just as soon as I come back from informing Mr. Fluffikins of my observations.”
Horror flooded my chest.“So I’ll be alone in there?”
“Not for long, but I need to warn the others so they can be on the lookout. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I promise to keep you safe. That’s why I had to push you away. I couldn’t let Parker know that I suspect him.” She turned and stared off into the distance.
“You suspect Parker now? Of what?” Parker was the easiest for me to relate to on the board. I truly liked him, but I’d been wrong about people before.
Greta, for instance, had rubbed me wrong many times since I met her earlier that morning, but she also seemed the most genuinely concerned with what happened to me—and to Melony. Despite her warnings that magic always came to a violent end, it seemed she still yearned for a peaceful resolution here.
She worried her lip and brought her gaze back to meet mine.“I don’t know, but it’s not like him to lie. Back in the boardroom, didn’t you notice that he seemed a bit, well… off?”
Actually I had, but I thought it was just because of the trauma of potentially killing someone. I chose not to acknowledge that. I wanted to trust Greta, but I was still so confused about this brave new world of magic and danger. I mean, she was probably one of the good guys—being an angel and all—but how could I know for sure?
I suspected I wouldn’t know anything for sure until it actually came to pass. Which meant my goal here was to find the truth and use it to guide my actions.
Oh, also to not die.
That was definitely important.
“You said you’d keep me safe. How can you guarantee that if you’re not here?” I mumbled nervously.
Greta scanned the horizon again and shifted her weight from foot to foot before speaking.“Step forward,” she instructed.
I did, and she grabbed my hand by the wrist, then placed it over my heart.
The blinding light shone again.
I blinked hard as I watched it pass from Greta’s chest into my hand, up my arm, and then eventually into my chest, where the light faded and disappeared.
“You have my armor of light. It will be enough to keep you safe for the time I am gone,” she said with a pained expression. Did it hurt her to lose this magic, the way losing mine had weakened me momentarily?
“What? I can’t accept this. What about you?” I couldn’t let her sacrifice herself like this. There had to be another way…
“I,” she said with a wistful grin as she let out her wings again, “will just have to do my best not to die.”
Before I could argue, she launched into the sky, leaving me to set my part of the non-plan into motion. And so I took a deep breath, rolled my shoulders like some kind of boxer prepping to go into the ring, and jogged up the porch steps to the empty house.
No, I didn’t have any magical offenses, but I could still help somehow.
Greta believed in me enough to trust me with her very life, and I refused to let her down.
26
Greta had readily admitted she didn’t really have a plan for us to follow. Neither of us knew for sure what was going on with Parker—or Melony for that matter.
Trouble was brewing, and we’d just have to deal with the resulting chaos as it came.
I couldn’t offer much beyond my willingness to help, but that still might be enough to bait the bad guys… Um, whoever they turned out to be.
I thought about this more as I made my way upstairs to the late Mrs. Haberdash’s bedroom. Greta had instructed me to pretend I was searching for something, and my performance would be far more convincing if I actually was trying to find something.
Melony had come for the old witch’s hat earlier. Might there be additional magical accessories just waiting to be discovered?
I thought of the decoy brooch nestled in my bra, and decided, yes. An accessory seemed a far better bet than trying to find some kind of revealing paper or book. Much more my style, too.
Maybe I’d get lucky and uncover something that could actually help. And if I didn’t, that was also fine.
After all, I wasn’t expected to actually find anything, just to create a distraction.
Greta hadn’t given me much to go on—I suspected that was because she didn’t know much herself—but she had revealed that Parker was lying to us. Could that mean Melony had already gotten to him and that he was now under her control? I remembered how helpless I felt when Parker and Fluffikins each tooktheir turn manipulating my movements and emotions.
But how could Melony have overpowered someone like Parker? He was a much more experienced magic user, and he even had the town magic to bolster said powers even further. Not to mention, he had at least sixty pounds of muscle on her.
Granted, Melony had managed to hold both me and Greta when we had our confrontation earlier that morning, but maybe that was simply because she’d taken us by surprise.