creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (20 page)

“Anyway, it all got messed up after The Destruction. I was away from the mountain when our dear friend Lord Draven started that storm within the faerie paths, so I had no way of getting back here. I went from having a fortune to being homeless. And that is when …” He takes a deep breath and stops pulling thorns, staring past the bush at memories only he can see. He swallows. “That’s when I saw the real fruit of my work for the first time. I saw people who were nothing more than shells, barely existing, their minds utterly lost to their addiction. Lives ruined, long before The Destruction hit any of them.”

“Gaius …” I don’t know what to say. All I know is that my simple question has led us into far darker and heavier territory than I could ever have guessed, and I don’t know how to get us out.

“I know, I know,” he says, still staring somewhere past me. “I should have realized, right? I should have known the lasting effects my substances and spells were having on people. And I did, to a certain extent. I had a vague idea of it in the back of my mind, but it was never
real
. I simply produced the enchantments and potions, that was all. Then I sold them to distributors. I never saw the end users.”

“You don’t have to tell me this stuff, Gaius,” I say quietly.

With a sigh, he looks down at the jar of floating thorns. He tilts it to the side, examining it. “Yes, we can fit some more in here.” He returns to his work pulling thorns from the bush, and I’m about to ask if we’ve moved on to a different topic of conversation when he starts speaking again. “I never sold another spell after that. It made me sick to even consider it. When I eventually got back to the mountain after Draven had been defeated, I set fire to my greenhouse and my laboratory. Destroyed everything. And then, after plenty of time pondering what an awful person I had become, I decided to build another greenhouse, fill it with plants that would be useful in everyday potions, and send the resulting herbs and powders and other ingredients to where they were actually needed.

“Chase and I met some time after I got that up and running. He’d been looking for me for months. He knew about my Griffin Ability from the information Zell had gathered on the Gifted, and he’d thought of a way I could use it that would be helpful to others.”

“So he told you who he was, and you trusted him just like that?” I ask, my tone skeptical.

“He didn’t tell me right away. But from what he said he’d been involved in, I suspected he was high up in Draven’s circle. And it’s not as though I was innocent. I had ruined lives just as he had. Lives like … like Luna’s.” Gaius lowers his tweezers to the ground and screws the lid back onto the jar. Quietly, he adds, “I understood the need for atonement.” He packs the bottle into his equipment box and stands. I get to my feet, brushing sand off the back of my pants. The box floats ahead of us as I follow him to another part of the greenhouse where a mirror berry bush is growing. “Anyway, that’s how I wound up living in a mountain,” he says with a chuckle. “Bit of a long-winded answer, but there you have it.”

“Thank you for telling me. I appreciate knowing the truth.”

“Now you know I’m not such a good guy after all,” he says with a teasing grin.

“Maybe. Maybe not.” I look at my distorted reflection in one of the larger mirror berries. “Maybe there’s no such thing as good guys and bad guys after all. Not when the good guys fail to see what’s wrong, and the bad guys are the ones who end up helping you.”

“Ah,” Gaius says as if he understands. He pats my arm awkwardly. “Your guardians are not the bad guys just because they failed you. They’re trying to fix up all the mess in the world, and they don’t always get it right. They make mistakes too.”

“I suppose. That’s just not the way I imagined the Guild to be.” I clear my throat, deciding we need a change of subject. “Um, so, are we picking berries now?”

“Yes, just a handful. They’re part of an experiment I’m working on at the moment.”

Gaius fills a small bowl with berries, and I grab a few to munch on as we leave the greenhouse. Instead of walking back downstairs, we head right, and it turns out there’s a laboratory next to the greenhouse. Half of it is filled with potion ingredients and equipment. The other half is dedicated to the construction of various gadgets. The counters are covered in cogs, levers, pipes and various mechanisms I’ve never seen before. “I guess you had to rebuild this as well after you burned the previous one,” I say.

“Yes. I probably should have considered my options more thoroughly before setting fire to all of my equipment. I was rather annoyed with myself when I decided I still needed a laboratory after all.”

He places the jar of thorns and the bowl of berries on the nearest counter while I look around. “So the greenhouse and the lab are up here. The next floor down is for the bedrooms and your study—which is like another greenhouse—”

“Hey, it’s not that bad.”

“Not that bad?” My eyebrows lift. “Gaius, one day the plants in that study are going to take over completely. They’ll devour all the books and the furniture, and then they’ll move on to the rest of the mountain.”

Gaius scratches his head. “Now that you mention it, there is one shelf I haven’t had access to since the dragonwing snapping pods matured. I really should take care of that.”

“You should. Okay, so then below the bedrooms is the level with the faerie door and the mountain ledge entrance Chase brought me through the first time I came here.”

“The kitchen, dining room and living area are down there too.” He sets a balance scale down on the counter beside the berries. “And a storage room.”

“Okay. Is that all, or is there more?”

“There’s a lot more, actually, and there are other people who come and go, but I’m not sure I should be telling you about any of it, seeing as how … well, you might not be with us for that long.”

“And if I end up in the hands of the wrong people, you wouldn’t want them getting any important information out of me about this place.”

Gaius gives me an apologetic look. “Yes. You understand, don’t you?”

I nod, but I hate that that’s something we have to worry about. I’m curious about this mountain and I wish I could see all of it.

“Hey,” a voice says behind us. I look around and see Chase walking into the lab. “The secret ingredient you requested,” he says to Gaius, handing him a brown paper bag. Now that he doesn’t have a jacket on, I can see the new tattoo marking his right arm: a long feather, the top of which disintegrates into small black birds flying away.

“Oh, fantastic.” Gaius opens the bag. I lean closer to get a look at this secret ingredient. I’m expecting a vial of liquid or a bottle of powder or a bunch of exotic herbs, but instead Gaius pulls out a glazed piece of bread in the shape of a ring. He takes a bite, then holds it out toward me.

“Um …”

“It’s called a bagel,” Chase says. “I introduced Gaius to them a while back. Apparently he can’t survive without them now.”

“Mmsogood,” Gaius mumbles through his chewing.

I look at Chase. “And here I was thinking you were out on a secret save-the-world mission.”

“Oh, I was. I just picked this up on the way back.”

“I see.”

“And while I was picking it up, I had an idea about how you can see your brother without anyone at the Guild knowing about it.”

“Oh.” He has my full attention now. “What is it?”

“You won’t like it. You’ll most definitely say it’s too dangerous, but it will work. Trust me.”

CHAPTER

NINETEEN

I clench and unclench my fists as anxiety builds inside me. “It’s been half an hour.”

“I know,” Chase says. “We agreed we’d give it at least an hour, didn’t we?”

“I know, but I thought he’d be here by now.”

“Relax and have some patience.”

“It’s a little difficult to relax when we’re hiding
inside the Guild
.”

Through the dim light in the back corner of the library, Chase looks at me. “Nothing’s going to go wrong. And even if it somehow does, you and I can easily fight our way out of here together.”

I pull my knees closer and lean my head back against the wall. I let out a long, slow breath. “This is just a little bit insane. You know that, right?”

“Yes. And that’s exactly why we’re safe,” he says. “Because no one would ever expect it.”

“Let’s hope not.”

Chase’s brilliant plan involved me using my Griffin Ability to help us walk right into the Guild without anyone ever knowing. I was terrified to come back here, but getting inside was as easy as Chase said it would be. My illusion made the guard in the entrance room think he was seeing two of my classmates walking in here this morning inside of Chase and me. To get safely to the library, I projected images of empty space onto the people we passed, which took a little more concentration but seemed to work fine. I kept my hood up to conceal my hair and face from anyone who might see us on a surveillance device, and we walked at an unhurried pace, despite my instinct to run.

On the way up to the library, Chase stopped a messenger dwarf and asked him to deliver a note to Ryn. Presumably the dwarf thought Chase was just another guardian because he took the note without question. Chase’s initial plan was for us to go straight to Ryn’s office and talk to him there. That would cut out the need for Vi to find me. But I didn’t think that option was nearly as safe as meeting at the back of the library where hardly anyone ever goes. Ryn’s office door is usually open. His team members come and go, along with other Council members. It would be far too easy for someone to walk in and see us. And even if we could easily fight our way out, Ryn would still be in trouble.

My right heel bounces up and down. “If we hear someone, I’m going to hide us with an illusion, okay? In case it isn’t him.”

Chase nods.

“What if someone’s checking all messages going to Ryn? They wouldn’t let this one through. It’s far too suspicious.”

“If the message came from outside the Guild, then it would probably be checked, but I highly doubt they’re checking internal messages.”

My leg continues bouncing.

“Calla.” Chase puts his hand on my knee to stop my leg moving. “Do you really want someone coming back here to find out why the floor is vibrating?”

I roll my eyes—then I realize his hand is still on my knee. I give him a pointed look and he quickly removes it. “What if Ryn doesn’t figure out what the message means?” I say. “Or maybe he can’t get hold of Vi at the moment because she’s on Kaleidos, so the message doesn’t help him at all.”

“He’ll figure it out,” Chase says. “It wasn’t exactly cryptic. And your brother’s supposed to be intelligent, isn’t he?”

Something in Chase’s tone tells me he doesn’t think very much of Ryn’s intelligence—and that’s when I realize something. I turn and look at him properly. “You’ve met my brother.” It comes out sounding like an accusation, which I suppose it sort of is. “I mean, aside from when he was captured and marked. You met him before that, because of Violet.” I was so shocked to discover that Vi knew Chase back before The Destruction that I never asked if Ryn knew him too.

Chase keeps his eyes averted. “Yes, I’ve met him. We had a few … less than friendly encounters.”

“Well,” I mutter. “This is just wonderful.”

Chase seems to decide it’s in his best interests to keep quiet, so we sit in awkward silence until we hear footsteps coming our way. We stand quietly as I let go of the mental barrier keeping my thoughts in. I picture the wall behind us and focus hard on pushing the image outward onto whoever’s about to walk around the nearest book shelf.

Ryn. And Violet.

I pull the image back and raise the protection around my mind. They see us—and within a second, two sets of weapons are pointed at Chase. He raises his hand, but it’s more of a greeting than a surrender. “Hi,” he says. “I’m flattered, but that isn’t necessary.”

“He’s right,” I say, moving in front of him. “He isn’t who he used to be. He helped me get away from all those guardians who were chasing after me, and he gave me somewhere safe to stay.” My eyes move to Vi. “That’s why you haven’t been able to find me until now.”

Still looking uncertain, they lower their weapons. The moment Ryn’s bow vanishes, I run and throw my arms around him. “I’m so relieved you’re okay,” he says as he hugs me tightly. “But are you
crazy
?” He pulls back and takes hold of my shoulders. “What are you doing here? And with
him
! You!” He points at Chase, then takes in a deep breath, as though barely managing to hold back from throwing himself at the guy. “You should be in prison for everything you did. You should be dead. That’s what was supposed to happen when you were stabbed with that—”

“Ryn!” I whisper furiously. “Stop it! That’s not why we’re here.”

“It’s fine,” Chase says. “He’s right. I should be dead or in prison. I should be suffering every day for all the pain I caused others. If guilt counts, then I’m suffering every day already.”

I look back and forth between the two of them, waiting for some kind of explosion on Ryn’s side and hoping it doesn’t come. When neither of them says anything further, I step in front of Ryn again, trying to bring his attention back to me by answering his question. “No, I’m not crazy. I thought the Guild might somehow be monitoring your house. And our house. Or that someone might be following you to see if you met up with me somewhere. So it seemed like the safest place to talk to you would be here. And Chase … well, like I said, he’s different now. He explained everything that’s happened since we all thought he died.” I look over my shoulder at him. He’s watching Vi, and she’s staring back with a stunned expression.