creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge (24 page)

Chase nods. “I’m sorry I didn’t come before now. I’ve been in hiding, and I didn’t know until recently that you were here.”

She smiles. “There’s no need for you to apologize. Seeing you again is enough to make me happy.”

“It isn’t enough,” Chase says. “I’m going to get you out of here.”

I’m glad I don’t have to be part of this conversation. Chase sounds so sincere, but I know his words are only part of the plan to get Angelica to trust him once more. If she could see me and speak to me, would I be able to lie as convincingly as Chase?

“Oh, how thrilling!” Angelica says. “An escape plan!”

“Yes. I’m still figuring out exactly how to carry it out, though. There are many obstacles between here and the exit.”

“I have no doubt you’ll figure it out,” she says.

“In the meantime,” Chase continues, “I wanted to speak to you about whatever you and Amon are planning.”

Angelica’s expression becomes unreadable. “What do you know of that?”

“Only the rumors I’ve heard amongst those who visit you and Amon. It sounds like something big.”

“And you want to be part of it?” Angelica asks carefully.

“Yes. In fact …” Chase hesitates, and I know this is the dangerous part. The part where he attempts to split an alliance that’s bonded Angelica and Amon since they were thrown in here. He steps closer to the bars, and his tone becomes more fervent. “It was always you and me from the beginning. We took Zell down together. We destroyed the Guilds together. We hunted down unmarked fae and brought thousands to their knees. Amon was the one who messed up in the end. He was the one who found the Star and brought her to me, and that’s how she was able to destroy all that power you and I worked so hard for. We don’t need Amon this time. We can do this without him.”

Angelica appears to consider Chase’s words. “Amon knows more than I do, though. I’m not sure this plan even exists without him.”

“Of course it does. He’s locked up in here and I’m not. Anything he knows, I can find out. Just point me in the right direction.”

After several moments of indecision, Angelica gives in. “All right. Let’s do this together. After all, it’s my son I’ve always want to see at the top, not some old librarian. I’ll find out what I can from him, but you’ll need to do the rest.”

“Of course,” Chase says. “Just tell me where to start.”

“Amon’s plan hinges on three visions from three different Seers. He had all three of them until one—the only one who hadn’t told him her vision yet—was rescued. I don’t know what information he learned from the first two, but if I tell you where they are, you can find out.”

“I can. And recapturing the third Seer should be easy enough. Amon’s men don’t have the kinds of resources I have access to.”

“Well then,” Angelica says. “The two Seers are being kept in the center of my labyrinth. I obviously don’t have the access stone anymore, so I can’t help you get straight there. But it shouldn’t be too difficult for you to get past the various obstacles in the tunnels. After all,” she adds with a smile, “you helped me put most of them in there.”

Chase hesitates, and I wonder if he’s remembering the minotaur and the strange rainbow colored water and the chasm we fell into. When he speaks, though, he sounds confident. “That’s true. I commanded the labyrinth creatures just as much as you did.”

“You shouldn’t have any trouble then.”

Chase reaches through the bars and takes his mother’s hand. “I’ve spent so much time alone, so much time wondering if it would have been better to die than live such a purposeless life. I’m so glad I’ve found you again.”

She smiles at him. “I’ve been waiting for this too.”

“Oh, and I have a way for us to remain in contact.” Chase pulls his hand away and takes something from his pocket. Confused—I don’t remember him mentioning this part when we were discussing the plan—I take a step closer. On his palm are two simple silver rings, a blue stone set in one and a green stone in the other. “Telepathy,” Chase explains. “While we’re both wearing these rings, we can communicate through our thoughts.”

Angelica looks impressed. “I didn’t realize a spell existed for such a thing.” When Chase shows no sign of explaining where he got the rings from, she adds, “What if I don’t want to hear your thoughts all the time?”

“Then don’t wear it all the time. Besides, you won’t hear
all
my thoughts, only the thoughts I choose to direct at you.”

She eyes the rings. “It’s a clever idea, but far too obvious. We’re not allowed jewelry. The guards will see it and confiscate it.”

“Then wear it on your toe.”

“We’re usually searched after we receive visitors. I’ll most likely be asked to remove my shoes.”

Chase smiles. “You and I both know what you’re capable of. I’m sure you can figure out a way to hide it until after you’re searched.”

“You know me so well,” she says. Then she laughs, and it’s the same laugh I saw in Rick’s vision. I tense, getting ready to tug Chase back the moment she lunges at him. But instead, she reaches calmly through the bars and takes the ring with the green stone. I exhale slowly, wondering what changed between Rick’s vision and this moment. Perhaps Chase was originally planning to say something different. Something that would have angered her.

“I need to go,” Chase says. “I have someone outside distracting the guards, but I don’t know how long that will last for.” He says goodbye to her, promising to let her know as soon as he figures out the details of an escape plan.

I keep myself hidden as the two of us walk back to the door on our side of the room. As Chase opens it, I look back over my shoulder at Angelica. A small smile lifts one side of her mouth as she watches her son leave, and I’m left with the unsettling feeling that we may end up regretting this.

CHAPTER

TWENTY-TWO

“Do you really think we can trust her?” I ask Chase as he closes the faerie door behind us and locks it. “What if she doesn’t intend to help you?”

We cross the entrance hall and climb the stairs. “I think we can trust her. She’s a bit of a slippery character, but she was honest about one thing at least: she has always wanted to see me at the top. Since I stumbled into this world and she discovered I had far more power than she ever guessed, she’s been devoted to seeing me rule over the rest of this world.”

I pull a face. “That’s some seriously misguided devotion.”

“I know, but it makes me fairly certain she’ll align with me rather than with Amon.”

We stop outside my open bedroom door. “What was that ring you gave her? You didn’t mention that before.”

“I remembered those rings at the last minute and went back for them,” he says, looking down the passage and pushing his hands into his pockets. “It seemed a convenient way to stay in contact with Angelica. We don’t have to sneak back into the prison every time we want to discuss something with her. And it’s harder to be deceptive with thoughts than with words. It will help me to know what’s the truth and what isn’t.”

I wait for him to tell me the most important thing about those rings. When he doesn’t, I cross my arms and say, “And?”

With a small frown, he looks back at me and asks, “And what?”

“That was a Griffin Ability, wasn’t it? One of those from the
collection
you and Gaius have. And you know he won’t approve of you removing the rings from the mountain, so you didn’t say anything to anyone about taking them.”

A moment passes before Chase answers. “Gaius told you about the collection.”

“Yes.” I walk into my room and sit on the edge of the bed, my arms still crossed. “He told me his whole story, in fact.”

Still standing in the doorway, Chase says, “Then you understand where all the abilities in that collection come from. The majority were voluntarily given to us by those who, for whatever reason, don’t want their abilities. The telepathy came from a pair of twins. Their minds were linked in such a way that they could communicate without speaking. Convenient at times, I’m sure, but they wanted to live their own lives without being so closely connected. It’s a very useful ability, and its magic doesn’t seem to cling to people the way the time traveling ability did. Most of the abilities don’t stick, actually. I’ve told Gaius many times that we would benefit from using some of them on occasion.”

“And he disagreed, so you’re now using this one without telling him.”

“He already knows. He was there when I took the rings.”

“Oh.” Feeling awkward, I focus on my boots and tap one against the other, activating the spell that makes them unlace themselves.

“You’re right that he wasn’t happy, though,” Chase adds. “But he understands that it makes the communication in this current mission a lot simpler.”

“I guess it does.” I lift up my legs and cross them beneath me. “So … the labyrinth. When are you going? And you don’t have to hang around in the doorway, you know,” I add. “You are allowed to walk into this room.”

Looking amused, he takes a few steps forward. “I’m going now.”

“Now? Like right now?”

“Yes. I don’t have any other urgent matters to deal with at the moment, so why wait?”

“I … I don’t know. I suppose I just picture these things taking longer. If this were the Guild, the request to go into the labyrinth would probably take at least a day to get up the chain of authority, and then after permission is granted, they’d need to make sure the right team is pulled together and that everyone is on the same page for whatever the plan is.”

Chase spreads his hands out, palms up. “And here we have the benefits of working outside the law.”

I purse my lips and don’t bother replying. He already knows my thoughts on that subject.

“Well, I’ll see you later,” he says, “hopefully with two rescued Seers in tow.”

I stand quickly. “Do you need me to go with you?”

He considers my question before answering. “You probably shouldn’t. It’s quite dangerous, remember? I don’t have Angelica’s access stone, which means I can’t simply picture the chamber in the center and get there through the faerie paths. She built it that way. I can take myself to a tunnel close to the center, but with all the confusion spells and the repeating passages, it could still take some time to find the chamber. That would be the dangerous part. As Angelica pointed out, I’m familiar with many of the creatures and spells, but I’m sure there are new ones, like that rainbow water we encountered last time.”

“Would my Griffin Ability be of any help?”

“Possibly. It would depend on what kind of obstacles we come across.”

“Then I should go with you,” I say, stepping back into my boots. “And don’t tell me it’s too dangerous. Those Seers and their visions are linked to my mother somehow, so I want to get them away from Amon and Angelica just as much as you do.” The boots lace themselves back up while I stare Chase down, daring him to try and stop me.

“Fine then,” he says eventually. “But please try not to get yourself hurt. I can only imagine what you brother would do to me then.”

“He would do nothing,” I snap as I stalk past Chase, “because I would remind him that I’m old enough to make my own decisions and that neither you nor he get to decide whether I walk into a dangerous labyrinth.”

* * *

Two hours later, I’m beginning to regret my show of bravado. Not because I’m afraid of any creatures we might come across, but because I’d forgotten how narrow some of these tunnels become. I can deal with the one we’ve just walked into through the faerie paths, but if it gets any tighter than this …
Then you’ll stay calm
, I instruct myself.
You made a show of being a big, brave girl. Now you have to live up to that.

“So,” I say out loud as Chase finishes lighting the lantern we brought with us. “Here we are again. In a labyrinth you actually know far more about than you let on last time.” I turn to him as another piece of the Chase-puzzle clicks into place. “Hold on. You’re very powerful, right?”

“I am,” he admits, sending the lantern into the air above us. “Not as powerful as Tharros was, but considerably more powerful than most.”

I cross my arms. “Powerful enough to fight a minotaur?”

His eyes meet mine. In the light from the floating lantern, I can see he understands where I’m going with this. Quietly, he says, “Yes.”

“So the last time we were here and you told me to run, it wasn’t because you were afraid of the minotaur. You were afraid of what he would reveal about you.”

Silence passes between us before he once again says, “Yes.”

“Another deception,” I murmur, looking away. It makes complete sense now why the minotaur’s first words to Chase were, ‘We meet again.’ How could I possibly have forgotten to ask him about that after we ran? Probably because we fell into a chasm and almost met our deaths at the bottom.

“You might see it as a deception,” Chase says, “but it wasn’t meant that way. Surely you can understand the need for me to protect my identity at that point. You and I had only known each other a few days. Yes, it felt as though we had … connected, but there was no knowing if our acquaintance would continue after we got out of here. It didn’t make sense for me to tell you the truth back then.”