When Heather was strong enough to sit up, I brought the broom over to her. I was able to help her stand up just enough to sit in front of me. I wanted to keep my arms around her, just in case she got light-headed and couldn’t keep her balance. Fortunately, Heather was even shorter than me, so I was able to see over and around her head enough that I could still watch where I was flying.
There were no detours or fly-overs of the town this time. I went directly to Heather’s home, flying as fast as I could manage while still holding her up. After a while, Heather’s strength started to come back, and she gripped the front of the broom herself.
It was after dark when I landed in her front yard. As always, the windows of her house were dark, but Heather reassured me that her parents would be home.
“I just don’t want to leave you completely by yourself,” I said. “I think with a good night’s sleep you’ll feel fine again, but someone else should be around to take you to the hospital if you get worse. You’ve already had one close call tonight.”
Heather nodded slowly. “My parents will be awake now, and they’re paranoid about my health. It’s going to be hard to keep them from asking questions. What happened? I must have blacked out.”
I looked down at my feet, trying to figure out how much to tell her. “Well, uh, the spell was broken and the ghosts flew off. I don’t know why it went all weird, though. It was like the ghosts were trying to suck the life out of you.”
“You must have made the spell too strong.”
“Yeah, I guess. I’m really sorry.” I looked up at her sheepishly.
Heather reached out and squeezed my hand. “It’s okay, I know it was an accident. You were just doing what I asked you to do.”
I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have tried to do a spell that I’ve never even heard about before. It was reckless, and you got hurt because of it. I promise that I won’t do something like that again.”
Heather stifled a yawn. “I think I need that sleep now.” She turned to go.
“Hey—” I stopped her before she went up the porch steps. “Are you still coming to that party with me tomorrow?”
Heather hesitated. “Are you sure that I should go? I know the Fae don’t really like vampires.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “Yeah, but that’s just your parents. You’re human. No one will have a problem with you.”
She bit her lower lip. “Those ghosts had a problem with me.”
“We’re never going back to that place again, so don’t even mention it. Seriously, don’t tell anyone, okay?” I doubted that anyone would believe what had happened, or that there were secret Unseelie using the town to exchange messages. I still didn’t believe that part myself.
Heather smiled. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep it a secret.” She looked at me. “Do you really want me to go to that party with you tomorrow?”
I nodded. “It’s bound to be fun.”
Heather’s smile widened. “Then I’ll go. Good night, Rosa.” She turned and went up to the porch.
“Good night! I’ll pick you up tomorrow around six-thirty.” I waved from my broom as she went into the house, and then flew home.
On Friday morning, despite it being a holiday, both of my parents went to work. Before Mom left, she came into my bedroom and woke me up.
“I have the day off from school,” I grumbled into my pillow. “Can’t I sleep in?”
“You’d better get a head start on your homework if you want to go to that party all weekend,” Mom said, pulling the blankets off of me. “It needs to get done before I get home this afternoon, because I need your help repairing that fence in the garden.”
I groaned and pulled the blankets over my head.
“I’m leaving now, Rosamunde. I won’t call you again.”
Eventually I managed to drag myself out of bed and headed downstairs. I found my sister already sitting at the kitchen table with her schoolbooks, but she was scowling at the wall without touching any of them.
I shuffled past her on the way to the refrigerator. “What’s that face for?”
“I got barely any assignments,” she whined. “I wish that I could have gotten extra credit work or something. I’ll have nothing to do all weekend while you’re off partying.”
I repressed a groan and tried to think of something helpful to say. “What about writing an article for the school paper?”
Akasha heaved a loud sigh. “Seventh graders don’t get to write anything. I check facts, or fetch coffee, or whatever other silly errands they need done.”
“Oh. That’s lame.” There was nothing interesting in the refrigerator, so I got cereal instead. I sat down at the table with a bowl of granola. “Why don’t you come to the party, at least for a few hours? You might have fun.”
She grimaced. “I never have fun. Mom never goes with us, even though she’s a witch. Nobody talks to me, I’m not good at any of the games, and last year I got lost.”
My sister was never going to forget about the Midsummer Solstice party when she fell down a rabbit hole into a strange tea party and got lost. We found her a day later, but she was still freaked out about the whole thing.
“That was just the one time,” I said, but I knew it sounded like a weak protest.
I couldn’t think of what else to say, so I tried ignoring her. I ate my granola in silence and put the bowl in the sink. I thought about procrastinating some more, but as much as I would love it, I didn’t know any spells that would make my homework magically complete itself. Might as well get it over with.
I went upstairs and grabbed my bag. It looked like I didn’t have a lot of assignments, so I could probably put a dent in them in the few hours before Mom got home. Whatever I didn’t get done on that day, I could finish on Sunday night after the party.
When I came back down, Akasha flinched and threw down her pen. She slammed a small book shut in front of her. Her schoolbooks were still untouched.
I sat down across from her. “What are you writing?”
She hid the book under the table. “None of your business.”
If she was hiding it, then it was probably a diary. Akasha had kept a diary before, on and off, but she usually only wrote when something was really bothering her. Case in point: when our grandmother died three years ago. We only saw her a few times a year for holidays, but she was a sweet woman and we loved her a lot, and we took it hard, especially Dad. For the year that she was in the hospital, and then for months after her death, Akasha filled up two or three different diaries while she was dealing with her sadness.
I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t write my feelings out literally as if I were doing an essay for school. I wrote poetry, mostly bad.
I looked at my sister, clutching her diary, and said, “Do you want to talk about it?”
She glared at me. “You’re never around for me to talk to anymore. I don’t see you at home and I don’t see you at school, even though it’s small.”
I rolled my eyes at her exaggeration. I tried to stay calm and logical. “Yeah, I’ve been busy the past few weeks, but you know how crazy things get when the school year starts. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t even try to make time for me. You make time for your friends.”
I struggled to keep my voice even. “I’m making time for you right now. What do you want to talk about?”
“Nothing!” She stood up and stomped out of the room. I heard her bedroom door slam shut.
I just managed not to keep from chasing after her and yelling back. She wouldn’t be a teenager for months, but she was starting to get the attitude down. It was hard not to be more than a little nostalgic for how close we’d been when we were kids and best friends, but we’d both grown up since then, and maybe grown apart.
That afternoon, Mom came home from her store early and called me out to help her in the garden. There was still a gaping hole where three of the posts had fallen, pulling the wire fence down along with them. Dad would be the one to help her fix it later this weekend. For now, I was going to help her re-cast the spell that went along with it.
I watched her closely as she brought out the array of tools for the spell. I took note of each of the plants that she handed me: blackberry, mint, nasturtium, and catnip. She also had a small bottle of essential oil for each of us and a little baggie of salt. When I sniffed the oil, it smelled grassy and lemony at the same time.
I held out the bottle. “What’s in this?”
“That’s citronella. Insects don’t like it.”
We went along the border where the fence would go; she went east and I went west. Every three steps, I stopped, knelt, and dug a small hole. I placed a bit of each plant into the hole, then a few drops of the oil, and finally a pinch of salt. I tried to visualize the animals being driven away from our yard. They would be able to find plenty of other food in the woods.
When we were finished casting the spell, I handed the half-empty bottle of oil back to my mom. “I hope it holds this time.”
She looked up and down the gap. “When the fence is back up, this should be pretty secure.”
“No problem.” I bent and brushed dirt off of my jeans. “Hey, have you talked to Akasha lately about what’s bugging her?”
Mom frowned. “No, what’s wrong with her?”
I shrugged. “She’s just been saying that she doesn’t really like school this year, but she doesn’t want to talk to me about it much.” I rubbed the back of my head. “She’s been writing in her diary a lot.”
Mom sighed. “I’ll take care of it.” She turned back toward the house. “I’ve got to get cleaned up and start dinner before you leave. You did finish all of your homework, right?”
“Yeah, it’s all done.”
I went in after her and jumped in the shower. After that, while I was waiting for my hair to dry before I could get dressed up, I went downstairs to look for a drink.
I found Mom sitting at the kitchen table alone. Akasha’s diary was open in front of her. Akasha had disappeared to another part of the house.
I stopped short in the doorway. “Mom, what are you doing? That’s her private diary!”
Mom closed the book and looked up at me. “Don’t yell, Rosamunde, I’m right here. You were the one concerned about your sister. I’m just finding out what’s wrong.”
“I told you to talk to her about it!” I walked over and reached across the table for the book. “You can’t just go snooping like that, she’ll hate it. She freaked out when she thought I might look in there.”
Mom picked up the book and stood up from the table, holding it away from me. “I’m not a big sister who is going to tease her about the book, I’m her mother. I need to know the truth so that I can help her.”
I folded my arms. “That’s ridiculous. Being her mother doesn’t make you entitled to go through her stuff. Some things have to stay private.”
“Some day when you’re a mother, maybe you’ll understand that a child’s privacy is not as important as her safety.” Mom put the diary down on the table and walked away.
I ran upstairs and looked around my own room. How many things did I have that I didn’t want my mom seeing? Letters from Lindsey, my books of poetry—where could I hide them that Mom wouldn’t find them? Somewhere that she’d never think to look. The underwear drawer was too obvious, and so was under the bed.
Then I saw my school bag sitting open on my desk. Maybe I could take them to school and hide them in my locker.
To keep them safe until Monday, I slipped them inside my textbooks. I made sure that my notebook full of homework was on top of the stack, just in case Mom wanted to check that I’d finished my assignments. Hopefully that would be good for a few days, at least.
After the family dinner, I got dressed in a hurry. I always wore the same dress for any kind of special occasion. Mom made it for my thirteenth birthday, the perfect outfit: the fabric was soft against my skin, a bright blue cotton blend, and the design was simple, with little puffed short sleeves and a long, full skirt. Last year Mom had to let out the bust area a little because it was growing tight, but otherwise it fit me perfectly. I did most of my growing at the end of elementary school and by now I’d resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t getting any taller.
I had to rush because I was stopping on my way to pick up Heather, and her house was in the opposite direction of the Faerie Court’s local castle.
It took a certain amount of concentration to fly on a broomstick, especially when I lived in an area known for very large trees. I had to be careful because of my dress. But flying was a feeling like none other, and once I’d seen the view from up on a broom, I knew it was worth any inconvenience.
I maneuvered the broom up between the trees that surrounded my family’s house and then floated up into a sky painted in the golds and pinks of an early autumn sunset. The sun was sinking below the horizon, and the pale crescent moon, which was almost half full, was also in the west, although still high up in the sky: it would still be up for a few more hours. There, I paused for just a moment to take a deep breath and enjoy the lovely sight.
Then I bent low over the broomstick and zipped over the ridge. The wind blew my cape so that it flapped and billowed out behind me, sending a shiver of cool air down my spine. A few birds veered out of my way as I passed them, but otherwise the sky was clear.
Below me, the road wound back and forth across the mountainsides, but I flew straight, to the north and a little bit west. The sun was setting over my left shoulder, but it would be in our faces coming back from Heather’s house; I hoped that it wouldn’t bother her too much.
I flew fast until I was near Heather’s street. Then I had to slow down to a cruise because it was harder to recognize her house from above. I remembered that we had turned left there, and then there was a large oak tree—ah, there it was. It looked the same as the last two times I’d dropped her off, with the curtains closed in the windows, no cars in the driveway, and the garage door closed. It looked as if there was nobody home.
I landed lightly in her front yard, adjusted the cape on my shoulders, and walked up to ring the doorbell.
Heather answered the door. She was wearing a long, dark purple formal gown, and her black hair was swept up into an elaborate mass of curls that must have taken a long time to arrange. She was also wearing a heavy amount of make-up on top of her pale skin, amethyst jewelry, and a corsage of white roses.
I grinned. “You look like you’re going to be crowned prom queen.”
She looked down and smoothed the dress. “Is it too much? I didn’t know what was appropriate, and then my mom wanted to help me get ready—”
I shook my head, then peered over her shoulder into the darkened house. “Are your parents here?”
Heather stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind her. “They’re resting. They don’t like being, um, active before dark. They also asked if I could try to be home by one.”
“Oh, of course.” I was still learning vampire etiquette. “Do you have a jacket? It can be a little cold flying.”
“Oops. Wait here.” Heather went back inside the house. A minute later she came back wearing a white lace shawl over her shoulders and clutching a small white dress purse. “Now I have everything.”
I eyed the delicate shawl, doubting that it would keep her warm. “That looks very—pretty,” I said. “Well, try not to drop anything.”
I stepped down off the porch into the yard and sat down on my broom. Heather stood there and stared at me helplessly.
I pointed to the space beside me. “It’s easier to fly side-saddle, as they say, instead of astride, when you’re wearing a long skirt. If you sit here sideways, but facing the other way, then you can hold onto me and keep your balance. It’s easier the second time.”
Her look told me that she wasn’t any more confident than she had been the day before, but she approached the broom and sat down gingerly. I kept the broom perfectly steady. “That’s it,” I said. “Make sure you’re centered. Now put your arms around my waist, and hold on tight.”
Her corsage tickled as it brushed the underside of my arm when she slid her arms around my waist. I lifted my right arm and put it around her. Confident that she was secure, I glided the broom up slowly until we were above the treetops.
The sunset was also beautiful with all of its shifting colors. I’d arranged us on the broom so that Heather would be facing a little away, instead of looking directly into the sun, so I hoped that she could appreciate it without being uncomfortable.
I turned the broom southeast and flew us off to the Faerie Court on Quiggs Mountain.
Doe’s Rest Castle was a tall, sprawling complex of mismatched buildings, rising up on the peak. The largest building was modeled after medieval castles, but since it had never been used as a true fortress, it was more fanciful than defensive, with delicate towers and elegant trim. Surrounding the castle were buildings in a variety of other architectural styles from the past century, lavish amenities like swimming pools and athletic courts, fields for the horses and stables. At the heart were the gardens, full of colorful flowers and fancy topiaries, and of course the Grove of rowan trees.
I felt Heather catch her breath at the sight. I smiled, glad that she got to see it, too.
“It’s so big,” Heather said.
“Yeah, Count Duncan and his wife, Serafina, keep adding on to it.” I smiled. “Hold on tight, we’re going in for a landing.”
After circling around the estate once, I let the broom drift down until we landed in the driveway before the front door, careful to avoid the cars that were arriving with other guests. A servant, dressed in emerald and gold livery, came forward to take my cape and broomstick. Then he bowed and stepped aside so that we could enter.
“One moment,” I said. We’d both spent a lot of time getting ready for tonight, but now the wind had messed up our hair and our formal dresses were wrinkled from sitting on the broomstick. I reached into one of the hidden pockets of my dress and pulled out a charm. This one was a bundle of sticks and dried flowers tied together with a silver thread. I held it out in my hand, palm up, and told Heather, “Touch this.”
She looked questioningly at me, but did as I asked. I whispered a word to activate it.
Magic made my skin tingle as the stray hairs slipped back into place and the wrinkles smoothed themselves out. I grinned. “Much better. Ashleigh made that for me. That’s how she and Glen ride a horse to school every day and always show up looking nice.”
Heather looked down at the transformation and raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That’s a useful trick.”
“Yeah.” I looked up at the sky, where the last sliver of the sun was just about to slip below the horizon. “Right on time. Let’s go.” I couldn’t wait to see her reaction to the wonders on the other side of the door.