Page 70 of Hidden

She hadn’t been in this exact passage before, but she had a good sense of where she needed to go. She started up a flight of narrow stairs, then along two corridors that turned right and right again. Rafe followed, his steps all but silent. Before long, Lila found herself at the entrance to Ademar’s secret hidey-hole. The door was ajar, as if he’d left in a hurry. He had a tendency to forget the time when he was deep in his experiments.

She cautiously pushed the door open. The room was much as she’d seen it before, with the crystal shard on his desk and the shelf of dismantled electronics.

“Captain Teegar is somewhere in the cells, and we will find him. But I can also try to get a message out from here,” Lila said with more confidence than she felt. What had seemed like an easy win a moment ago was less certain now that she was looking at the equipment. It might work. It might not. She hadn’t used a crystal in years.

As if he sensed her apprehension, Rafe held her gaze for a long moment, then nodded. “All you can do is try.”

Lila’s mouth was dry. “Of course.”

“What’s all this?” Rafe asked, peering at the shelves. He picked up a ring of heavy keys she didn’t recognize. “Are these useful?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. “They don’t look like they fit ordinary locks. They’re too big.”

Rafe kept them anyway, then moved on to the next shelf. A handful of phones were charging in a power bar. More phones sat to the side in pieces.

“Magic and telecommunications don’t mix well,” she said. “It’s impossible to get bars in here, so Ademar is trying to combine fae power and conventional tools.”

Rafe moved in for a closer look, his hand finding hers and giving it a quick, reassuring squeeze. Then he flipped a phone case over to see the silver and black design. Most of the insides were missing. “This was Izetta’s.”

Lila moved behind the desk. “I’m sorry for that.”

With a soft cry of triumph, Rafe unplugged one of the others, which was still in one piece. “This is mine. But you’re right. No bars.” He stuffed it into his pants pocket.

Lila was barely listening. She could feel the crystal’s hum like a vibration in the bones of her skull. It made her teeth ache. “This will take a few minutes, and I need to concentrate. Will you keep watch?”

“Standing guard is what I do best.” With a grim smile, he stepped into the passage, pulling the door closed behind him.

Wasting no time, she sat down and examined the crystal. She had to do this old school since he had no idea how to use Ademar’s experimental enhancements. The obelisk-shaped stone sat in the middle of the blotter, the only object besides a stray paperclip. The stone was pink quartz, about a foot tall and the width of her palm at the base. Big enough for long-distance calls, then. This wasn’t mind-to-mind communication, but it would leave a message with every crystal keyed to the person the caller wished to reach.

Lila flicked the paperclip to the floor. She was out of practice and couldn’t afford the slightest interference. Taking a deep breath, she touched the peak of the stone with one finger and formed a picture of the recipient in her mind. She’d thought long and hard about whom to call. They had to be fae, as only fae used the crystal network. It had to be someone who wasn’t likely to be under Lord Farras’s control—and from what her mother had said, that narrowed her choices considerably.

Lila hesitated, a deep wash of foreboding sapping her will. Asking for help meant implicating Galeeta and probably Ademar, too. There was a good chance she would damage her family’s fortunes beyond repair, but what was the alternative? If Farras won the day, they would be under his thumb forever.

If his plans failed, he would drag her family down with him. Still, this was bigger than House Fernblade. Murder, unjust imprisonment, plots against the Throne—and the Magician, whose name wove through everything. The only way to save her family—and maybe all the Forest Fae—was to put an end to this madness before they dug themselves in deeper. Perhaps the fact that Lila raised the alarm would count for something when it came to judging the guilty.

And there was only one person she knew with enough clout to take down Lord Farras—King Elroth himself. Maybe he had her father, but she was willing to gamble he didn’t have the full story. She pictured him as he’d been the day he’d taken her for a ride on his beautiful white horse. He’d been a prince then, laughing, kind-eyed, and patient with her childish prattle. He was as far above her in rank as the stars overhead, but she had to believe in someone. She had to believe in the justice of that man who knew how to be gentle with a child.

A diffuse glow sprang to life at the heart of the crystal, bathing the room in a soft pink glow. Lila sent her consciousness into the heart of the light, steadying herself against the stream of energy. This part reminded her of sledding down a bumpy hill, at least until she got control of the flow. That wasn’t easy. Ademar’s obsession with crystals showed in the speed and power of the stone.

Only when the energy was smooth and even did she start her message. It came in words and images like a montage—Teegar, Rafe and his Undead friend, the wolf graves, her father, the prison, Farras, and the barrier that trapped her. She held back nothing. She might not get a second chance to tell this story.

Once she was done pouring out her tale, the stone pulsed with light. Lila sat back, releasing a long breath. The stone would take a moment to gather the information into a concise package ready for transmission. Given all she’d had to say, that would take a moment. All she could do was wait.

Impatient, she jumped up and began an inspection of Ademar’s clutter, rummaging through the shelves for keys, weapons, or anything she could use. She found some old shirts and pants that looked human-made—possibly something her brother wore if he went into town. They were too big, but infinitely warmer and more practical than the remains of her ballgown. She changed, then found an elastic to confine her hair. A little more searching revealed a pocketknife she tucked into the fleece jacket she grabbed from the back of the door.

By that time, the crystal had stopped pulsing and settled into a steady, muted glow. It was ready to transmit. She sat down again, focusing once more on the message’s destination. The glow narrowed to a pinpoint, bright as a miniature sun in the middle of the stone. She cupped her hands around the base, feeling a faint, warm buzz of power. She licked her lips, remembering the rhyme she’d learned as a child.

“Through fire and rain these words do wend, by stone and air the message send.”

In truth, she didn’t technically need the incantation, but she was rusty. The rhyme helped summon the exact twist of will that triggered her magic. There was a brief pink flare, and the crystal went dark. And then it shattered.

Lila gave a wordless cry and pulled her hands away from where they cupped the stone. With a noise between a crunch and a tinkle, chips of pink quartz collapsed into a heap. By the Abyss, I broke it!

Her first reaction was a childhood echo—Ademar’s fury that his baby sister had broken his toy. Lila began to shake. Had there been a flaw in the crystal? Or had her clumsy skills ruined sensitive equipment—and her only chance to set things right?

Then again, it might have fractured because of her brother’s experiments. Whatever the reason, her message was lost. There was no chance a communication could have gone—and no chance of sending one in the future.

The door opened and Rafe stepped in. “I heard something. What happened?”

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