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I raced over to the trade floor, bracing myself what I would find. I had no idea how long the shadow elves had knocked me out. One of them had said something about Lacy disappearing. There were so many things that could have gone wrong while I was unconscious. So, it was with a wave of relief that I saw Killian manning the table like it was just another Saturday.
"Oh, thank god you're here..." I said, running forward.
He looked at me curiously as he folded a shirt. "Why would I not? How was your seminar?"
"Shadow elves..." I said, looking around in case there were any more hidden among the festive crowd.
Killian was immediately on high alert. I filled him in on the attack and this whole new prophecy that was dumped on me. I concluded with, "So somebody somewhere is saying we're supposed to topple King Cole and maybe something is wrong with Mindy's baby."
"But how did you learn of this new information?" he pressed with concern.
I kept trying to remember, but it was all so hazy. "I dunno, Killian. They knocked me on the head and I'm still a little foggy." I thought hard. "There were some of the creatures who live in the bushes and the Taniwha... I just don't remember..."
He was worried, but was staying focused on solutions, which is something I like about the guy. "Should we send Pipistrelle back to guard your sister?"
I chewed on my bottom lip, torn by the fact we needed all hands on deck here and the fact that prophesies are usually a bunch of bunk. "Let's find this hei-tiki before the convention ends tomorrow, because we're all dead if we don't find that necklace for Trovac. And then we all drive to Father Killarney tomorrow night to find out what he knows about 'bewaring a baby'. There's more urgent needs." I looked around. "Speaking of which, where is Lacy? The shadow elves mentioned her and it looked like one of them had been bitten by a poisonous plant—"
"Xiaoming's plants must have protected her before the elves could reach her," said Killian, frantically hiding the cash box and asking the table beside us if they could watch things for a second. "She went to sign up for the Miss Hukilau competition," he continued. "Miss Hukilau stopped by to see you. Said that you had a conversation after her slide show that she wanted to continue. One thing led to another and she managed to convince Lacy to sign up."
"And you didn't stop her?!" I said, aghast.
"She seemed interested in doing it. Quite insistent." Killian started to look more worried. "This seems like a very bad plan."
"I'm sure everything's fine," I said, trying to be a glass-of-rum-punch-half-full kind of gal instead of going straight to full-on punching things. "I'm sure she'll be right back and we'll all just laugh and laugh and laugh about all this."
"You said whatever happened was bad enough for Lacy's plants to bite the shadow elves?" Killian clarified.
I cringed. "Yeah. So, maybe if we find her, we quit this retail nonsense, let Trovac's goats beat us up for the failed hei-tiki attempt, and call it an otherwise pleasant weekend."
"I am comfortable with that strategic plan," Killian replied. "Now, let us find Lacy."
We took off in opposite directions. Killian went toward the convention check-in by the lobby, I dashed toward the pool. My feet pounded to the rhythm of the ska band on the bandstand as I dodged crowds of people twelve sheets to the wind.
Finally, I saw a booth. There was a line of women dressed in sarongs and pinup clothes. I saw my blue friend at the front.
I shouted and waved. "LACY! Before you do that—!" I was trying to make it casual so as not to freak people out, but I guess it was too casual.
"Just a sec, Maggie!" she hollered back, putting her pen to the paper.
"No! Wait!"
So, there's a lot of ways to capture a person's spirit. Bit of hair, bit of blood... or someone's signature.
As soon as her pen hit the paper, there was a flash of golden light. Kind of like the perforations I saw in the boundary between Earth and Fairy. Her face went blank. She turned to me and her eyes had been replaced by all white orbs. And then she disappeared.
Just, gone.
And what was worse was that no one around her seemed to notice. It was like she never existed. My brain went into "fix this" mode and I raced to the sign-in sheet, not even caring that the ladies were pissed I was pushing through.
"I promise I'm not signing up!" I snapped as they huffed at me.
So, sometimes if you destroy the paper, you can free the person's spirit. But as I snatched the clipboard, I was in for a nasty surprise.
"I beg your pardon!" said the gentleman with a twirly waxed mustache running the table. "That is not yours!"
Lacy's signature was missing. It was like she had never signed it.
"What happened to her?" I asked, the panic climbing.
"Who?" he asked, mystified. "Ma'am, this signup sheet contains private information. I need you to put it down or I am going to have to call security."
I took a deep breath. Getting kicked out wouldn't help Lacy. I followed the nice man's instructions. "Sorry. I was... looking for someone... I mean, looking to see if someone signed up. We're going to sign up. I'll be back."
The man took it and shook his head. "I'm sure whomever you are friends with would not be interested in signing up for this competition."
"Right," I said, stumbling away. "Sorry."
I turned and raced to the lobby. My heart was in my throat. My stomach was in my shoes. I was all messed up inside.
But however I felt about it did not change the fact that I had lost Lacy.
And I did not want to be the one to break this news to Killian.
The moment he saw my face, though, he knew. It was the worst feeling in the world.
"What happened to her, Maggie?" he asked with dread.
Fuck. I looked up at the ceiling. I was having flashbacks to when I had to tell my mom that my dad had disappeared into the boundary. I had been so close. If I had just run a little bit faster, I could have stopped it. I felt a lump of powerlessness catch in my throat. "Someone kidnapped Lacy."
I could see his heartbeat stop, and then come back double-time as the adrenaline hit. "Who? How?"
I pressed my palms into my eyes, trying to keep any wetness behind my lids before anything resembling a tear spilled onto my cheeks. "Someone stole her from her signature. She signed something and then disappeared like she never existed."
Killian's knees went out on him and he collapsed into a bent bamboo reception chair. Guilt coated every word that came out of his mouth. "If I had just married the Queen... Lacy would be safe..."
Okay, so the thing about working in a team is that only one of you is allowed to lose your shit at a time. And seeing how my turn to freak out appeared to be done, I tried to pull myself together and be there for Killian. "Hey now, that's quitter talk," I said, trying to buck him up.
Killian seemed to not want any more of his turn, however, as a fierce determination settled in the corner of his mouth. "Where do you think they took her?" he asked.
"Honestly, Killian? I don’t know. And it might not be the shadow elves. They are stuck here on Earth. They were going to kidnap me to try and force me to open a portal and drop them into the Other Side."
"Too bad they did not know you would have gladly done it for free."
"Right?! Like, I'm on their side with this..." I stopped myself. "She just disappeared and I didn't feel a portal."
"So... an illusion?"
"Or a binding. Because of the signature?"
"A... contract?"
We both looked at each other and said it at the same time. "Fairy mischief."
"Jinx," I said. "Except this time you owe me a whiskey."
"I shall purchase you some from the very top shelf," said Killian.
"I guess the good news is that if this is true, if Lacy has been kidnapped by whatever fairy force is making the zombies, this fucked-up-ness has absolutely nothing to do with you marrying or not marrying a psychotic bitch."
He gave me a weak smile, trying to allow himself to find some hope in what I was saying. He leaned his hands upon the coffee table as a friendly couple in matching tropical garb walked by. "If it is some fairy contract that she signed that caused her to disappear, there will be terms. And the terms she thought she was agreeing to was participation in the Miss Hukilau competition tonight. If her signature is the binding, her soul will only be able to be claimed if she has a chance to make a run for the crown."
"So if it was a fairy binding she should be at the luau tonight?"
Killian nodded grimly.
I reached out and took his hand. "We are not going to stop looking for her until then. We'll send out Pipistrelle. We'll talk to hotel security. If she's here, someone has to have seen a blue woman walking around. We'll find her."
"Kidnappings, the convention ends tomorrow and we still have not found the hei-tiki, which means Trovac will seek his revenge. There are shadow elves and zombies and fairies and dangers so great both your mother and Xiaoming are worried."
I tried to joke away the mountain of fucked before us. "Sounds like another weekend."
"Well, Maggie," he said stoically. "Let us do what we do every weekend."
"Save the world?"
"Save the world."