Chase returns with a collection of bagels, and he, Calla, Dash and I eat quickly before sitting around the dining room table to discuss what was decided at the summit.
“Why is no one else here for this meeting?” I ask before Chase begins.
“I’ve already reported back on the summit to everyone else,” he says. “They know what their next step is. You were at the Guild, Em. And Dash was asleep.”
“I prefer the term ‘recovering from extreme exhaustion and overuse of magic,’” Dash says. “Makes me sound less lazy.”
Calla rolls her eyes. Chase says, “Okay, let’s get through this quickly. Cal and I need to leave in about twenty minutes.”
“Leave for where?” Dash asks.
Calla tells him to be quiet. Chase opens his mouth to speak again, and at that point, a spider scurries across the table, transforming into a mouse before it reaches me. Bandit runs up my arm and onto my shoulder. “Sorry,” I say to Chase. “You can carry on now.”
“Right, here’s what’s happening. The fae world’s army of joined forces will be marching on Roarke and his followers this afternoon.”
“So soon?” Dash asks.
“The situation is urgent. No one wants to waste any more time. And Roarke’s army is small. It’s half the Unseelie army, if that. So if we take the other half, plus the Seelie army, plus all the guardians, it should be easy enough to defeat Roarke. Once that’s done, the Unseelies will deal with Roarke and the Unseelie defectors.
“Next, a small force of guardians will remain behind to remove the enchanted forest, while the rest of the guardians and Seelie soldiers will split between the three areas of the fae world where humans have invaded. Guardians have tried repeatedly over the past few days to push the human forces back, but the humans keep returning with more weapons. However, with additional Seelie support, the Guild thinks they’ll be successful now. Once the humans are back in their own world, guardians will reinforce the glamours and add additional protection to those three openings into the fae realm so they’re properly hidden.
“Lastly, as soon as the previous goal has been achieved, every single guardian who can be spared will be sent to locations all across the human world to spread a vaporized potion the Guild has been working on for the past week. It contains a memory-altering enchantment with all the specific details of the story the Guild would like the human world to believe. This enchantment will be spread by magical winds, and the Guild and other leaders are hopeful that the majority of people will breathe it in. Once they’ve all forgotten that our world actually exists, the Guild will then send out smaller teams over the next few weeks to fix up areas of damage and alter specific memories related to those areas of damage.”
“I can see some serious flaws in that plan,” I mutter.
“What is this story they’re hoping the humans will believe?” Dash asks. “I didn’t think it would be possible to make everyone forget our existence, given the amount of destruction Roarke has caused.”
Chase sighs. “The story sounds rather implausible to me, but all the leaders agreed on it. They want the humans to believe that a whole host of natural disasters across the world are responsible for all the damage that’s actually been caused by Roarke and his followers.”
“They want to blame this all on natural disasters?” I repeat. “Seriously? You think people are going to believe that a gigantic forest growing in the space of a few days and pushing its way through buildings and roads is a natural disaster?”
“I think they’ll find it easier to believe that,” Calla says, “than to believe in the existence of a magic parallel world.”
“And the forest itself will be gone by then,” Chase adds. “Only the damage will remain.”
“And Rhiningsville? Can they blame the disappearance of an entire section of land on a natural disaster?”
“A special team has been assigned to Rhiningsville,” Chase tells me. “That’s part of the long-term plan.”
“But what about all the news footage and the photos and videos?” Dash asks. “Surely those aren’t going anywhere?”
“The enchantment includes the belief that those videos were all hoaxes put together by a special effects team as part of a publicity stunt leading up to a major film releasing later this year.”
I tap my fingers on the table and say, “You know what? That might actually work. Calla’s right that people would choose to believe any explanation other than a magical or supernatural one.”
Dash leans back and folds his arms over his chest. “What about all the people who don’t breathe in the memory-altering enchantment?”
“They’ll be the minority,” Chase says, “and they probably won’t say anything once they realize the rest of the world believes a completely different story. And it’s not as though it’s a new thing for there to be some humans who know about our existence. It’s always been that way.”
“And the natural openings between the worlds?” Dash asks, pointing out yet another problem. “Those who don’t forget will come looking for them. And even if they can’t see the openings, they know exactly where they are now, so they’ll come right back through them.”
“Possibly,” Chase says. “And while that’s a risk the Guild and everyone else is willing to take—mainly because they have no other option—it isn’t a risk we’re willing to take.” He looks at Calla. She turns to me.
“We were kind of hoping you could close the openings,” she says.
“Oh. Yes. I can do that.” I sit forward and place my arms on the table, a small thrill racing through me at the idea that I’m being allowed to make a meaningful difference with my magic. “And I can do other stuff too. Like telling all the humans to go back to their own world. That would keep the Guild and Seelies from having to do a whole load of fighting. And if Roarke still has a shield up around his enchanted forest by the time everyone wants to invade this afternoon, I can tell it to come down. That’ll save the guardians and everyone else from trying to break through it with magic.”
Concern fills Calla’s expression, but she doesn’t say no. “All these things would require quite a lot of power from you, Em.”
“That’s okay. I drank some of that elixir before I went to the Guild, and I still have power left over from that. And my ability will replenish again before this afternoon, so that will be additional power. Plus, I can go back to the oasis and get the other vial. Then if I do run out of power, that will stimulate more. I should be fine.”
She still doesn’t look entirely convinced. “Em, have you seen the size of the area Roarke’s magic has spread across? Because that’s the size of the shield he and his followers have created. It’s far bigger than the one that was around Noxsom. And there are a lot of human soldiers who’ve now made their way into the fae realm. That’s a lot of people to control. And on top of that, closing three gaps in the veil is going to take a huge amount of power. Even with the elixir, I’m worried you’re going to run out.”
“Okay, then I won’t worry about commanding the humans. I’ll bring down the shield so everyone can get through to Roarke and his army, and then I’ll go close the gaps after all the humans have been pushed back into this world.”
Calla says, “Okay. I guess bringing down the shield is important too.”
“Wait,” Dash says. “One more problem. How do we know the Seers aren’t going to See that Em’s planning to close these openings? If they do, they might send a few guardians to capture her. That’s what happened after we got away from Reinhold with the rest of the rebels.”
“Ah, I wondered how those guardians found you,” Calla says.
“How did you find us?” I ask, tilting my head to the side. “Did Aurora tell you where we were?”
“Yes. She used your amber to send me a message telling me her location. She explained that you and Dash had gone to Reinhold to rescue the others and were planning to return to her.”
“Okay, back to Dash’s question about the Seers,” Chase says. “Hopefully they won’t interfere if they See a vision of you closing the gaps, Em. You’ll be helping the Guild. They’d close the gaps themselves if they knew how to.”
“And what,” a new voice asks, “if these natural gaps are not supposed to be closed?”
“Aurora,” I say, looking up. I push my chair back and stand.
She places her hands on her hips as she looks at me. “You kicked me.”
“I did. I’m sorry. But at least Ada didn’t slice your throat open.”
She rushes around the table and wraps her arms tightly around me. “Thank you. I mean, you could’ve used magic to shove me out of the way, but I understand that magic still isn’t automatic for you. Kicking clearly comes more easily.” I roll my eyes as I pull away from her. “Can I stay for the rest of this meeting?” she asks. “I think my question is valid.”
“Uh, sure,” Chase says. I return to my chair, and Aurora takes the empty seat on my left. “Your question definitely is valid,” he continues, “and no one knows if the natural openings in the veil exist for a reason or not. But we do know there are more than just three, so we hope that closing only those three won’t have any negative impact on either world.”
“Okay,” Aurora says. “And I suppose the negative impact of not closing them would be worse.”
Dash leans forward. “So you’ve told us what the Guild, Seelies and Unseelies will be doing, but you haven’t said what you guys and the rest of your team of rebels will be up to. I assume you’ll be involved somehow? You wouldn’t stay away from something this important.”
Calla smiles as she looks at Chase. “He knows us so well, doesn’t he.”
“There are plenty of people who will be facing Roarke,” Chase tells us, “but until they’ve defeated him, no one will be holding back the human forces in those three parts of the fae realm, other than the local fae who’ve already been fighting for days.”
“Some of whom have no idea how to fight,” Calla adds.
“So that’s where we’ll be,” Chase continues. “We’ve split our team—our full team minus Vi and Ryn—into three groups. That isn’t much, but we have Griffin Abilities, which puts us at a major advantage.”
“Including a whole bunch of abilities from Gaius’s vault,” Calla says, “which he’s finally allowing us to use.”
“Is that where everyone else is right now?” Dash asks. “Back in our world fighting humans?”
“Not yet,” Chase says. “I gave them a couple of hours off to sort their lives out. Take care of personal or family matters, or whatever. After all, half our team just spent a week locked inside their own minds. I figured they needed a few hours off before launching into the next battle.”
“A few hours,” Aurora mutters, her tone suggesting that number isn’t nearly enough. And I guess she’s right, but with our worlds in the state they’re currently in, I guess Chase couldn’t give them much more than that.
“So that’s where Calla and I are off to now,” Chase tells us. “To meet everyone else before we split into three groups. Dash, you’ll stay with Em near Roarke’s enchanted forest so Em can remove the shield surrounding it when our army shows up. Then you’ll go with her to close the gaps. These are the locations.” He slides his amber across the table toward Dash.
“And don’t you dare let anything happen to her,” Calla says.
“Hey, she’s actually not too bad at taking care of herself,” Dash says, pulling the amber closer.
“If my Griffin Ability doesn’t run out. Which it won’t,” I add at the sight of Calla’s raised eyebrows. “Because I’m going to pick up the rest of the elixir before we leave for this little mission.”
“Good.” Chase stands. He looks at Calla. “Then I guess you and I need to go battle some human soldiers and their not particularly nice weapons.”
I stand as well, suddenly anxious about the fact that they’ll be fighting against bullets and explosives. “What is it you guys say to each other sometimes? Stay alive?”
“Yeah,” Dash says. “That’s the one.”
“Stay alive,” I say, looking first at Calla and then at Chase. “I mean it.”