Page 22

22

W HY ON A WEDNESDAY AFTER school?” I asked as I squirmed on the front steps of Central Shady Hallow High. Gemma was standing next to me, squinting down at her phone.

“Don’t the faeries know we have important stuff to do?” I pitched my voice low. “We have eight days, Gemma.”

“Until the harvest moon. The attack happens after.” She stood on her toes and craned her neck, trying to peek down the road. “And today worked well for them.”

“Did they ask if it worked well for me?” I crossed my arms. “I don’t understand why we are doing this when we have leads to follow and—”

“Because it’s the Coalition of Faeries. No one turns down an invitation from them. No one. ”

“Okay. Whatever. I just feel like it’s a waste of time right now with everything else going on. Shouldn’t I be meeting with the Psychic Guild to figure things out?”

Gemma sighed loudly, tipping her head back in frustration. “You are meeting with the Guild later this week. Look, I know you’re antsy, so listen. The girls who vandalized my locker weren’t in the hallway, so despite their creepy comments on my videos, we can rule them out as suspects. Kaci and Mateo are out looking for the ‘where’ it will happen, based on the sketch and the clues. Reese has a lead on a video from the hallway. And Al is working on a tracking spell for Dennis.” She ran a hand through her hair. “So all you have to worry about right now is meeting with the faeries.”

My mouth dropped open in awe. “You organized all this?”

“Of course I did. It’s what I do.”

Okay. Wow. I felt wrong-footed and a little out of the loop. “Well,” I blustered, “maybe I had other plans.”

“What else would you have going on?” A slow smirk stole over her features. “Unless you have plans with Mateo?”

I glared. “No. For your information, that’s not until Saturday.”

She snorted. “Gross.”

“What? It’s just a date. Besides, I’m sure you have had crushes before.”

“Nah,” she said, twirling one of the ribbons on her backpack. “Dating is overrated. I’m not interested in that at all right now. But maybe in the future, in a romantic sort of way.”

“Ah, okay. Cool.”

Gemma bounced on her heels, her unrelenting energy on clear display. “Anyway, Val should be here by now. I wonder where she is. I don’t want to be late.”

“We’ll be fine, Gemma. They’re immortal. They have all the time in the world.”

Gemma gave me a very unimpressed look. “Well, at least I know you read the materials I sent you.”

“Of course I did,” I said, affronted. “I didn’t even read for lit class because I was deep in faery lore.”

The materials Gemma referenced were a fifty-page document written in an impossibly small font. I guess the faeries would have a lot of history, being immortal and all. But from what I gathered, they lived outside the bounds of our reality somehow. And they were experts on bargain magic and on the manipulation of space and time. While the witches received their powers from a goddess of magic, the werewolves from a goddess of the moon, and the sprites from a goddess of nature, the faeries obtained their abilities from a god of time.

“Good,” she said with a sharp nod. “Because this is the meeting. Like, huge. Beyond what I had expected. I mean, the Coalition of Faeries makes the Psychic Guild look like a bunch of middle schoolers in a bad Model UN.”

Okay, well, Gemma needed to stop because I was beginning to sweat. I kind of knew this was a big deal based on the reactions of my friends, but all of this was a big deal to me. I didn’t need any more pressure.

Thankfully, Val pulled into the parking lot. Gemma hurtled down the stairs, while I followed at a more sedate pace.

Except Val wasn’t alone.

Juana stepped out of the passenger side, holding two to-go cups. Her long golden-brown hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and she wore a cute dress with leggings and soft ankle boots.

“Iced mocha for you,” she said, offering me the drink. “Val told me you’ve ordered it twice.”

I gulped. With a shaking hand, I took the coffee. “Yeah,” I said, my voice a squeak. “I have.”

“And extra caramel drizzle for you.”

Gemma’s heart eyes were a sight to behold as she took the drink from Juana. “Thank you,” she said with reverence. “I now understand why you are Mateo’s favorite cousin.”

Juana giggled.

“I told her you didn’t need the caffeine.” Val’s voice drifted from the driver’s side. “But she wanted to get your favorite. She’s a nicer person than I am.”

“I agree.” Gemma flung her backpack with one hand into the back seat, then climbed in. “Come on, Cam,” she yelled, when I stalled. “The faeries are waiting.”

Juana laughed again. “Sorry,” she said, leaning in. “I hope it’s okay that I crashed the party. Val and I were hanging out when she said she had to come pick you up. I wanted to tag along.”

My mouth was dry. I took a sip of the drink through the straw. “I didn’t know you knew Val,” I said.

Juana smiled. “Teo mentioned Drip in a conversation the other day. I went to check it out, and Val and I hit it off immediately. She’s so cool.”

“She is.” I stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do or say, because here Juana was so vibrant and beautiful and alive , and I knew for a fact that was going to change in about eight days. “Thanks for the coffee.”

“You’re welcome. Anything for Teo’s friend.” She winked.

Oh, he’d totally told her about our date on Saturday.

“Cam!” Gemma said with a whine to her voice. “We need to go .”

Juana gestured toward the back seat. “After you.”

“Thanks.” I set my backpack on the floorboard, then crawled into the car, balancing my coffee as I clicked on my seat belt. The back seat was so small that Gemma and I were pressed together uncomfortably, and my knees no doubt were poking Juana in the back as Val drove away from the curb.

I wasn’t sure where we were going, other than it was out of the central school district. Val followed the directions from Gemma’s phone, and thirty minutes later, after hitting a blip of traffic, we pulled in front of a cottage set on a verdant square of property. I could feel the waves of magic surrounding the scene; a tingling sensation scraped over my skin as I slid from the car.

Val stepped out and crossed her arms over the hood of her car, eyeing the cottage with a raised eyebrow and a wary expression. “Um… okay. No. You’re not going in there.”

Gemma frowned. “Why not?”

“Because it’s unsettling. I mean, look at it.”

Val was correct. On the property sat a cottage—a very small, very fairy-tale-esque house, with wooden slats on the outside, a small porch, and vines and flowers crawling over the facade. The roof was moss-covered, and the walkway from the concrete sidewalk to the front door was cobblestoned. A little wishing well with a pulley and a bucket sat on the side of the house. The porch had a lattice of roses on one end and a swing on the other that was painted a weathered white. It was as if every person’s vision of what a house from a folktale would look like had been transplanted from our collective unconsciousness into this very spot. Compared with the rest of the neighborhood, which was populated with sprawling McMansions, the little cottage exuded a strangeness that was unparalleled.

It was unsettling.

Because I wasn’t sure if it was real or unreal , a mirage made of magic. It was so perfect. Creepily so. Not a blade of grass from the lush lawn out of place. No sounds of traffic from the neighborhood, only the babble of a nearby brook and the songs of birds that were perched on the rafters of the well. Combined with the crawling feeling of being watched by someone unseen, the whole vibe of the property was “cottagecore meets the uncanny.”

“We’re going,” Gemma said firmly. “They invited us. It would be uncouth of them to do something weird to us.”

Val rolled her eyes. “Yeah. That’s a great excuse.” She pressed a hand to her chest and, in a high, mocking tone, said, “?‘Sorry, Mom, Gemma said she would be safe because it would be rude of the faeries to harm her.’?”

“First,” Gemma said, ticking a list off her fingers, “Mom doesn’t sound like that. And second—”

“It’s fine,” I said, waving them away. “I can go alone.”

Juana’s lips pursed in concern, but she didn’t say anything. I shouldered my backpack and gripped the straps. “It’s me they want to talk to, anyway.”

“Cam,” Gemma said, bolting from my side to stand in front of me. “Remember what you read?”

I nodded. “Yeah. Faeries are immortal. They use bargain magic. They also can stretch time and create mirages, but other than that, not much is known about their powers. They keep to themselves and stay out of faction politics. They’re powerful but really just want to be left alone.”

“Okay. Good. So you understand why it’s so strange they contacted you, right? I have no idea what they want with you.”

A cold prickle of fear made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. “Yeah.”

“We’ll stay,” Juana said, arms crossed. “Until you come back out.”

“You don’t have to.”

But Val’s and Juana’s expressions said otherwise. “You left your bike at the school,” Juana said evenly. “You don’t have a ride home. So we’ll stay.”

I couldn’t argue with that. “Okay. Thanks.”

I stepped around Gemma and headed for the walkway. At the edge of the concrete, where the cobblestone met the sidewalk, I paused and stared at the cottage. It was like looking through a thin sheet of glass, which added to the eerie image, the picture of the cottage itself wavering with the sunlight. I took a breath and stepped onto the stones.

A wave of magic scrubbed over my skin, cold and seeking, as if making sure I wasn’t a threat. As soon as my sneaker hit the stone, the door of the house opened of its own accord.

I looked over my shoulder. The three girls were still there but blurred, as if they were on the other side of whatever encased the house. Juana’s teeth were bared in a snarl. Gemma’s eyes were wide, and despite Val’s attempt to appear unaffected, even her face was pale.

Great. Well, too late to turn back now.

With a stride that looked far more confident than how I actually felt, I walked down the path, crossed the porch, and entered the house.

Another wave of magic washed over me, but this time it wasn’t prying like the other one. It was welcoming, like a warm hug or a hot cup of tea or a fuzzy sweater. While everything on the outside of the cottage had screamed danger, the magic inside felt… safe in a way. Still powerful and peculiar as fuck, but without the sinister undertones.

I was in the entryway of a massive house. The floor was a gleaming black, and the walls were white, leading to a huge, vaulted ceiling and a massive golden chandelier. My mouth hung agape as I took in the magnificence of the interior—the glossy cherry half-moon table on my right, the gilded mirror above it, the wide staircase with shiny metal banisters leading to another level that certainly did not exist on the outside, and the emerald-green plush carpet that ran from the door to the base of the stairs. Wait, was that carpet or… grass with little white flowers sprouting from it? Heavy curtains hung over the windows. The eerie, disembodied sound of distant piano music emanated from somewhere within.

I took a hesitant step forward, craning my neck to take it all in. The unnerving feeling from before tickled the back of my brain again when I spied the closed doors that lined the room, and the paths of the grand staircase that wound around each side and led farther into the structure.

The sound of approaching footsteps reached me, and I stiffened, composing myself as best as possible in the face of powerful magic. I’d visited Al’s home and the coven house, and I’d been to a werewolf picnic, but all of them were nothing compared to this.

“Hello. You must be Cam.”

A woman appeared from around the corner, and despite hearing her approach, I still jumped, my hands white-knuckled on my bag.

“Hi. Yes. I am.”

She smiled. She was tall, with light brown hair. And while I had expected to meet someone in a power suit or an evening gown, she was dressed in yoga pants and a flowy white shirt, and she was barefoot. She had white skin and red eyes and sparkling gossamer wings that fluttered behind her. Her pink lips pulled into a wide smile.

“I’m sorry. This must all be overwhelming.”

I wanted to lie, but I felt like I couldn’t. Like if I tried, I wouldn’t be able to. Instead I nodded.

“Yes. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

She laughed, and it was like tinkling bells. “I can’t imagine how difficult it has been for you since the first glimpse. My understanding is that you had very few interactions with the paranormal until that event.”

I found myself smiling too.

“You’re right.”

Her eyes crinkled when her grin grew, but I couldn’t guess her age at all. She could’ve been twenty or a thousand. I wouldn’t have known, and I didn’t dare ask.

“My name is Ileana. I’m the leader of this grove. But I’m not the one who invited you here.”

My blood ran cold. “You’re not?”

I followed her to the sitting room, and she beckoned me to sit on the couch. I sank into it, placing my bag at my feet, while she sat opposite me in a high-backed armchair. The cushions of the sofa seemed to mold to me instantly, rearranging themselves for my comfort. They were so cozy, I was scared I’d fall asleep, so I straightened my back and sat up the best I could.

Ileana watched me with an amused expression.

“Faeries don’t have much need for a clairvoyant. We tend to keep to our own. We’re working on integrating more with the world, but that movement is led by our grandchildren.”

“Grandchildren,” I sputtered.

She laughed. “Yes.”

“Then why am I—”

Ileana stood. “Oh, here he is. I’m sure you’ll have much to talk about together.”

I swiveled to look at the person who approached and shot to a standing position when I realized who it was. “Aiden?”

He raised his hand and waved. “Hey, Cam. Thanks for coming.”

I didn’t care if it was a trick or a mirage. I launched myself at my brother, falling into his body and wrapping my arms around him in a tight embrace. If it was a trick, it was a good one, because they had his height perfect—several inches taller than me. And when he hugged me back, it was just like all the hugs we’d had over the years. Overwhelmed, I buried my face into his shoulder, and tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. I didn’t care that I might have a glimpse. All I cared about was hugging my brother.

“Hey,” he said, rubbing his hand between my shoulders. “It’s okay.” Even his voice was perfect.

“I have so many questions,” I choked out into the flannel shirt he wore.

“I know. I have answers.” Aiden pulled away, prying off my clawlike grip, and held me at arm’s length. “You look good,” he said with a crooked smile. “I love the hair.”

I self-consciously tugged on a strand. “I was bored.”

He laughed. “Sounds like you. Come on—let’s go into the garden. You’ll like it. It’s beautiful.”

Aiden picked up my bag and took my gloved hand. He led me out of the sitting room and down the hallway. The door in front of us glowed as he approached, then swung open before he even touched it.

The garden was as beautiful as the house. We walked down an earthen path to a gazebo in the middle. A cool breeze ruffled the plants hanging from pots and carried the fragrant smell of flowers. We were surrounded by buzzing bees, singing birds, and colorful plants that were vibrant and heavy with fruit. It was like we were in a picture book, on a page depicting an ideal spring day.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” Aiden asked as he sat on a bench. He beckoned me to join him, and I weakly sank down next to him. Because it was Aiden. His brown hair was a little longer than the last time I’d seen him, and he had added to his ear piercings, but it was him. It was my brother.

“It is,” I finally answered after taking him all in, and then reality slammed into me. My brother was here . “What the hell, Aiden? Is this where you’ve been? Why haven’t you called me? Do Mom and Dad know?” I dropped my voice and whispered, “Are you trapped? Kidnapped? If so, I have several friends who might be able to help you get out of here.”

Aiden held up his hands. “Slow down, Cam. First, no. I’m not trapped. I can leave anytime I want. In fact, I do leave to go to class.”

“You’re still in college?”

He smiled and rubbed my shoulder, his touch comforting and firm. “Yes. I’m still at the university in New Amsterdam. But when I saw the videos of Shady Hallow’s new clairvoyant, I took a quick break to come down and check in on you.”

I fiddled with my uneven nails. “You saw those, huh?”

“Oh yeah.” He ruffled my hair. “You went viral, Cam. It was all the buzz, even at school. Three correct glimpses. That’s amazing.”

“Thanks.”

“Any thoughts about what you’re going to do with your clairvoyant abilities?”

I narrowed my eyes. “Is this you asking, or the Coalition of Faeries?”

Aiden raised his hands. “Just me.” He crossed his heart. “Promise.”

Beyond saving Juana, I hadn’t really thought about my future, other than knowing I would have to ally with a faction. “I think… I want to be able to help people. However best I could do that.”

“That sounds awesome. I’ll support you in whatever you do.”

“That’s great, but none of this explains why you’re in a faery grove and why you went missing for months.”

Cam sighed. “I’m not missing. Mom and Dad know exactly where I am.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “Why… why did you cut us off? Was it something they said? Or I did? Did I do something, Aiden?”

“What? No!” He recoiled, horrified. “I didn’t cut you off. Mom and Dad cut me out. They stopped paying my tuition. They cut off my phone. They forbade me from trying to contact you.”

My whole body went cold. “What?”

“I didn’t reach out to you at first. That’s true, and I’m sorry. But when I saw the videos, I gathered the courage to comment and maybe get to you via Gem-Jam, but she had comments limited to verified users. And so I thought I’d email her, but I was terrified it would get back to Mom and Dad. I had no idea how they were reacting to everything. I was scared they’d do something drastic to you.”

I flinched. That sounded like our parents from weeks ago. But not now. Not with their current mindset. They were different. Weren’t they?

“You could’ve tried harder,” I said, tears clogging my throat.

“Cam, they said they’d file harassment charges if I tried to talk to you, when they first cut me off.”

“They did?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

Aiden shook his head and ignored my question. “I wanted to make sure you were okay. That they hadn’t done the same to you. That they hadn’t kicked you out.”

I blinked. “They weren’t happy,” I said, staring at the wooden floorboards of the gazebo. “But they’ve kind of come around. They’re trying. There have been olive branches.”

“You can’t trust them, Cam.”

I snapped my head up. “Aiden—”

“Cam, I’m serious. I know they’re our parents. But you can’t. They’re unyielding when it comes to certain things, and the paranormal is one of them.”

“And I’m supposed to trust you?” I asked. I gestured to everything around us. “We’re in a faery grove. Magic is all around us. This could all be a ploy to get access to my glimpses. I’m not even sure that it’s the real you I’m talking to. And… and… I haven’t seen you in months. You disappeared. You sent me cryptic messages and then didn’t answer my texts. And you still haven’t told me why we are meeting in a faery grove!”

“When you were three, I grabbed the back of your shirt. When you pulled away, I let go, and you nailed your head on the toy box. You had to get a butterfly bandage on your forehead.”

I absently touched the thin scar next to my hairline. “And?”

“And you sucked your thumb until you were six. Mom put that nasty-tasting deterrent on your nail, but it didn’t make you stop. You only stopped when you met Al and were afraid you’d be teased.”

I gulped. No one outside our family knew that. I hoped. Because it was a little embarrassing. “Is this you proving that it’s actually you?”

Aiden shrugged. “Maybe.” He clasped his hands. “As for us meeting in a faery grove, uh… there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”

“Huh?”

A rustle in the flowers caught my attention. I turned to see a girl emerge from a deeper path in the garden.

Aiden stood. He held out his hand to her, and she slid her slim fingers into his. She was beautiful. As she stepped out from beneath the shade of a tree, the sunlight illuminated her white skin, her long black hair and her bright blue eyes. She was also barefoot like Ileana. But instead of yoga pants, she wore a long dress, and she didn’t have wings.

“Cam,” Aiden said, pulling the girl toward him, “this is Astra. My girlfriend.”

She leaned into Aiden’s side, wrapping her arms around him as a smile bloomed across her face. Aiden pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. And ugh. It was obvious he was utterly smitten. But she looked like she was too.

I crossed my arms, annoyed.

“Hi, Cam,” Astra said, beaming. “I’ve heard so much about you. I’m so glad to meet you.”

“Are you a faery?” Oops. That wasn’t quite the question I’d wanted to lead with.

“I’m half faery. One of my parents is a faery, and the other is not.”

“Ah.”

My gaze flitted between the two of them. “And she’s why…”

“Mom and Dad didn’t approve of me dating Astra.”

And okay, maybe I just didn’t understand. Because a girl, even as beautiful as she was, wasn’t a reason to leave your whole family. And I had needed Aiden for the past several months, and he was with her. And I couldn’t stop the jealousy that flared to life within me.

Aiden must’ve noticed my incredulous expression, and he sighed. “Cam, if it wasn’t Astra that led to Mom and Dad cutting me off, it would’ve been something else. They didn’t like the classes I took. They didn’t appreciate it when I called them out on their prejudices. If I wasn’t going to be the perfect son and meet all their standards, then it was only a matter of time. So even if Astra and I don’t work out,” he said, squeezing her waist, “it will have been worth it. And I’m not sorry for it.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Okay. Fine. But did you ever think that I might have needed you?”

“That’s why I’m here now. That’s why I invited you. Getting the chance to introduce you to Astra was just a bonus. But I really wanted to see how you were doing. To offer help. To be here for you.”

“A little late,” I said. “I have friends who are helping me.” Yes, I was being petulant, but it was bizarre. Here was my brother, standing in front of me and telling me that our parents were bad people, and then leaving me with them. Like, the hell? I stood, because I didn’t like that he was standing over me, and even though he was taller, at least it didn’t feel like he was talking down to me.

Astra moved out of Aiden’s embrace. She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek, murmuring something, and then left the gazebo.

He watched her walk away with an awed expression, then turned to me. “Okay, fine. What do you want me to do?” He matched my stance and my tone. And oh, he was mad at me now. Well, great.

I took a breath. “Nothing.”

He blinked, taken aback. “What?”

“You can do nothing. I have a support system of friends now, and just because you couldn’t work it out with Mom and Dad doesn’t mean I can’t.”

“Trusting them is a mistake, Cam. I’m warning you.”

I shrugged. “Then it’s a mistake. But I get to make that choice.” I gestured to the garden around us. “You’ve made yours.”

I grabbed my bag, then tromped down the wooden gazebo steps onto the garden path and headed back toward the cottage.

“Can’t you just be happy for me?” Aiden called.

I paused. “Yeah,” I said, turning on my heel, waving at the magic surrounding us, and forcing a smile. “I’m happy for you. See you around.”

“Wait! At least take my new number. You can text me if you need help.” He pulled a scrap of paper from his pocket and held it out. “Please, Cam. If you ever need to text me, you can. I’ll come. I promise.”

I swallowed down my tears and my hurt and nodded. The paper trembled in Aiden’s grasp, then flew upward. It floated toward me, and once it was near enough, I grabbed it out of the sky. I shoved it in my own pocket.

“Thank you,” he said. “It was good to see you.”

“It was good to see you, too.” I took one last long look at my brother, because I didn’t know when I’d see him again, and then I left.

I entered the back door and ran right into Ileana.

She frowned at me.

“That didn’t appear to go the way Aiden had planned,” she said softly.

“Thank you for the invitation and the hospitality, Ileana,” I said, ignoring her statement. “If at a later time you do have an interest in clairvoyance, please contact my human advisor, Gemma James.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

She guided me to the exit. The door opened of its own accord, and I stepped outside.

Dusk had fallen. The cool air and crisp breeze were a far cry from the bright sun and humid atmosphere of the garden. I hurried down the cobblestones toward the sidewalk. The door of the cottage shut behind me with a creak, but I didn’t look back. And as I stepped through the barrier onto the sidewalk, magic prickled across my skin.

Val’s car was gone, but Juana sat on the sidewalk, reading a battered paperback. Great.

“Um…”

She looked up and smiled. “There you are! Val had to take Gemma home, but I told them I’d wait for you. Danny is on his way with the car.”

“How long was I…”

“A few hours.”

I scrunched my nose. “But—”

“Time displacement,” she said. “It happens with faeries.”

“Thanks for waiting.”

“No problem.” She beamed.

I sat next to her on the sidewalk and took out my new phone. The battery was completely dead. “Crap.”

Juana hummed. “Faery magic,” she said by way of explanation. “It’s brutal on electronics.”

“Huh. You know a lot about this stuff.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what Teo told you, but I’ve done some traveling this past year. I’ve met different people and been to different places. And I learned a bunch of new things.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yeah. It was.” She nodded toward the cottage. “Did everything go okay in there?”

“Not really.” The dejection and the jealousy the whole encounter had elicited bubbled right underneath the surface of my skin, as if I were a volcano of negative emotions on the verge of exploding. “I mean, it could’ve gone worse.”

She gave me a side-eye. “That doesn’t sound promising.”

“It is what it is.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” Especially not with the cousin of the guy I had a date with in a few days.

“Okay. I’ll accept that.”

We sat in silence on the curb. I stared at the darkening sky and wondered what I’d done in a previous life to land me in an emotional blender since the beginning of the school year.

“Okay, I’m going to ask,” Juana said, breaking the silence and closing her novel with a snap. “Why don’t you like me?”

“What?”

“You ran away at the cookout. You try not to look at me, and when you do, you become jittery and pale. Like Kaci used to do when she saw a ghost. Teo has even become a little weird around me, and I can’t help but think it might be your influence.”

That stung. Mateo acting weird made sense from my end, but she wouldn’t know why. I didn’t want to be blamed for putting a strain on Mateo and Juana’s relationship. She continued before I could find a plausible excuse.

“And I know Teo looks up to me, so I don’t want him to see me in a bad light, you know? If he thinks we don’t get along, I don’t want him to think I’m the problem. And I’m sure you don’t want him to think you’re the problem, since I kind of get the feeling that you want to be closer than you already are. I want to try and be friends. So what am I doing wrong?”

I froze. I couldn’t tell her the real reason. Or maybe it would be easier if I did. No, Mateo would kill me, and he’d already said he would handle that. He’d be upset if I overstepped. So I went with a half-truth.

“You’re intimidating,” I said. “Your whole family is, really, but especially you.”

“Me?”

“Mateo loves you. You’re his favorite person. And I don’t want to mess up in front of you.” And that piece wasn’t a lie at all.

“Oh,” she said on a breath.

“Yeah.”

She laughed then. “Wow. All this time I thought it was the scandal with the sprites. I know you’re also friends with Reese.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You think I didn’t like you because you got your heart broken by the Sprite Alliance?” I grasped my shins and tucked my chin on my bent knees. “Do I really exude jerk vibes?”

“You are difficult to read,” she said with a grin.

“Years of hard work perfecting my resting bitch face.” I picked up a stray pebble from the sidewalk and rolled it between my fingers.

She laughed. “Wow. That’s amazing.”

I smiled.

“Anyway,” she continued, “while I was pretty upset, I wouldn’t say I was heartbroken.”

“You weren’t?”

“Not really. I mean, I was the one who called it all off.”

“Huh?”

“I broke up with Mia.”

I dropped the pebble. “You did?”

“She was willing to leave the Alliance and planned for us to run away together, but I just couldn’t abandon my family.” She shrugged. “I broke it off. She was upset and kept trying to reach out, blowing up my phone, showing up at my classes. It was a mess. I took a vacation to get away.”

Wait. What? That was not the story Mateo had told me. He’d made it seem like Juana was the jilted party. But I was shocked to find out that she was the person who’d broken a heart. And who’d recalled the whole situation rather callously. Why would he lie?

“Anyway, now that we’ve cleared the air—I know you want to romance my cousin.”

I shuddered at the term “romance” but hesitantly nodded. There was no use in lying. We did have a date planned.

“Okay, great. I’m going to help you out. I’m on your side, Cam. I think Teo needs a little romance. Maybe it will help him with his… problem.”

“Problem?”

She waved a hand toward her ears. “Spontaneous shifting. He’s so bent out of shape over it, which only makes it worse. And don’t get me started about the full moon. He has such a problem shifting out of the full wolf form; it sometimes takes days. Poor guy.”

I was slightly mortified that Juana was telling me all this. Wasn’t this considered personal? Would Mateo even want me to know this?

Juana continued, “Maybe some romance will help ease the frustration.” She clapped her hands on her knees. “I’m going to help you.”

“You don’t really have—”

“Here, read this.” She thrust the paperback into my hands. “It’s an extremely popular book series, especially among us werewolves. I love this author because they get all the lore correct.”

I turned the book over, and my eyes widened at the steamy cover. It was a werewolf romance novel. “Um…”

“Go on, it’s yours. I’ve already read it twice.” She winked. “It’s really good.”

“Thanks,” I said, shoving the book into my bag, quietly discomforted.

“You’re welcome!” she said, beaming. “Oh, Danny’s here.” She stood and brushed off her jeans as the Lopez family van drove into view. “I enjoyed our talk, Cam,” she said, tossing the end of her ponytail over her shoulder. “I hope we can get to know each other better.”

“Yeah,” I said slowly, my thoughts running a mile a minute. “Me too.”

When Danny dropped me off at home, it was much later than I had expected to stay out, especially on a school night. I waved goodbye to Danny and Juana as I walked up the brick steps to the front door, nervousness and uncertainty swirling in my gut. I hoped to creep in unnoticed by my parents, because I wasn’t quite sure what to say to them. My missing brother had just told me not to trust them. That they had cut him off, not the other way around. And I didn’t know how to process that. I knew my parents could be dismissive and absent and even harsh on occasion, but I didn’t know them to be cruel.

In the foyer, I dropped my backpack on the bench and worked on wrestling my jacket off. It caught at my wrist on the material of the glove, and as I flailed, I knocked into my precariously perched backpack. It fell with a loud smack, splitting the zipper open and sending books and pens tumbling from the top, including the romance novel. It flopped against the hardwood a foot away, face up, its incriminating cover on full display. What’s more, the scrap of paper with Aiden’s number fell out and fluttered to join the rest of the mess on the floor.

“Cam?” my mom called. “Are you home?”

Crap! Would she recognize Aiden’s number if she saw it? Would she know I’d seen him? I couldn’t take that chance.

Her footsteps on the hardwood became louder as she moved toward me.

Still twisted in my jacket and utterly panicked, I kicked the novel underneath the padded bench. Then I dropped to my knees as I managed to wrangle out of my denim prison and snatched the paper. I shoved the slip of paper into my jeans pocket just as she rounded the corner from the kitchen.

“Cam?”

I grabbed a handful of pens and pencils. “Hi, Mom,” I said, a little breathless.

She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. She was in her pajamas, and I could hear the sound of the TV coming from the family room—some political news show.

“You’re a little late coming in.”

Oh no. I couldn’t tell her I’d been with the faeries. “I was with Gemma,” I said, unceremoniously cramming books, papers, and highlighters into my backpack. “I have a meeting with the Psychic Guild coming up, so we were learning things about… things.”

Smooth.

“You couldn’t have texted us?”

“My phone died. I forgot to charge it last night, and then I didn’t bring a charger with me to school, and we were really deep in the stuff we were researching. So sorry.” I finally managed to clean up my mess. I picked up my jacket from where it was draped across the bench and hung it on a hook, then hoisted my bag.

Her expression didn’t change, but I knew she wasn’t pleased. “We wanted you to use the phone from the coven so that you’d be able to stay in touch, now that…” She paused, her jaw working as she found the right words. “Now that you’re special.”

Ouch.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

She nodded. “Okay. Try not to stay out so late on a school night again.”

I scratched the back of my neck. “Yeah. We lost track of time. It won’t happen again. I promise.”

“Fine. Now I think it’s time you got ready for bed.”

“I agree.”

My mom didn’t move. She stayed, leaning one shoulder on the wall, waiting. There was no way I was going to be able to grab the book. I’d have to fish it out later.

I edged past her and headed up the stairs, her disapproving gaze a physical presence on my back until I reached the landing. Once inside my room, I closed the door and collapsed on the edge of my bed, allowing my bag to thump to the floor. That had been close.

I took the paper with Aiden’s number from my pocket and stared at it. A deep well of resentment rose in me at the thought of him hanging out in a faery grove with some girl this entire time while I’d been floundering. When I’d needed him.

But he had contacted me in the way he thought best. He was still my brother. And I missed him terribly. And maybe, even though I was still mad, he could offer some advice on this whole clairvoyant deal. He obviously knew way more about the paranormal than I did. He could be a good resource if my friends and I needed help.

I tapped his number into my contacts, putting it under the name “Faery Pizza Delivery” for a later time when I wasn’t pissed off. I flopped back on my bed with a dramatic sigh, my head hitting the pillow, my arms spread out over the bedding, and closed my eyes. I hoped beyond hope that tomorrow wouldn’t be as strange as today, but if the last few weeks had taught me anything, it would be even weirder.