Page 196 of Sigils & Spells

“I’ll see you again.” it came out as a whisper, like my vocal cords dare not tread on the words for fear of jinxing me. “Remember what you said. I have to believe it’ll work out, because if I’m certain it won’t, that’s the first step to giving up. And I’m not giving up, and neither should you.”

She squeezed me tighter. “We’re going on another date. I want to go to a Chinese buffet.”

“You got it, Pickle Girl.”

Alice fell down flat on her feet, letting her hands slide down to my chest. She looked up at me. Her eyes were sparkling with unshed tears, and they bore into me, striking in the torch light. I brushed a strand over her hair behind her ear, and kissed her softly on the lips.

Alice took a deep breath and stepped back from me, her eyes still wide and full. She joined Minho and Ruby where they stood by the window. The window was already open, and a cool breeze gusted across us. I glanced out the window at the wide open landscape of fairy land. If I escaped Maeve, I wanted to come back under less dire circumstances and explore that world out there with the bright colors and sinister beauty.

“Good luck, Julian.” Ruby smiled at me, and waved her wand in a dramatic curly cue motion and my three friends were gone, replaced by three sparrows. After a few moments of hopping as if getting their bearings, the three birds flew out the narrow window. I shut it behind them, and watched the little birds disappear into specs, and then became lost amongst the forest.

Now to wait. I took a deep breath and sat at the desk, picking up the note in one hand and the apple in the other.

If I liked apples, this one would have looked delicious. It was perfectly round and smooth and such a vibrant red.

I set them both down again and went back to the backpack, still stowed under the bed and riffled through it until I found a cheap ball point pen. I took it back to the desk and flipped over Maeve’s ominous note. I started to write.

* * *

I could feeltime passing like a sweat droplet running down my back. My muscles were tense, ready for the Fae woman to burst through my door. There was so much that could go wrong. I could have massively overestimated how important winning was to her, and she could just kill me. Could she torture me into eating the apple? Would that count as my choice in their Fae logic?

It didn’t matter. What I had to do was the same regardless. I just had to keep my cool. If I was right, she’d never be able to resist the gamble of challenging me.

There was no clock in the room. No tick tock to count my heart beats, so I just sat in an ear ringing silence. I thought about opening the window again, so I at least had the sound of the outside world, but I couldn’t bring myself to stand. Could barely bring myself to move, listening to my own breathing and twirling the pen around my fingers.

Silence. Until, after what could have been hours or ten minutes, a gentle tap came on the door.

I stood so fast my chair toppled to the ground and clattered so loudly I flinched. I stood the chair up and faced the door, gripping the pen in my white knuckled hand like it was the hilt of a dagger.

“Come in.” I said, unable to hide the waver in my voice.

The door opened, and there again was Lyrei, standing with her bow drawn, but her expression was different than before, less composed, and she didn’t get the chance to announce the noble, before she shoved to one side to make way for Maeve.

Maeve stormed through the open door. She looked different than she had last time I’d seen her. The leaves on her antlers were less green, wilting with her rage. The glow in her chest pulsated violently, a yellower green than before, almost putrid in color. Her blue eyes seemed to burn and the skin of her cheeks had deepened in color. I imagined it was equivalent to flushing. Maeve’s whole body seemed to burn with a barely subdued rage that seeped from her like fog from a fog machine.

“Time is up.” she said, and I could hear the strain to maintain the lilting softness. She wanted to scream.

I knew I’d been right. She wanted to win. My plan would work. Be frustrating, I thought to myself.

“Mmm.” I said with drawn out thoughtfulness that seemed to make Maeve’s insides boil. “No.”

“No?” she asked through her teeth. “No?”

Maeve grew. It had been more than just part of the dream then. New branches sprouted from her shoulders and small twigs sprouted from her arms like spikes.

“Do you know who I am?” The sing-song misty voice of before was gone, replaced by a dozen voices, overlapping and thick like tar. They seemed to echo inside of my skull. “Do you know what I could do to you if I wanted to? What I could do to your little witch and your werewolf if I wanted.”

For a moment the fear froze me solid, and I thought it would be my own stupid body that ruined everything, but her lie gave me back my resolve. She was lying about having my friends. I smiled at her, and the blue eyes burned hotter.

“You don’t have my friends.” I said, my voice more even than I could have expected or even imagined. “That’s why you’re here right? You wanted to try to break me before I found out all your leverage was gone.”

“What?” she seethed

“You have no way to make me eat the apple.” I shrugged. “You lose.”

The word seemed to fill her from the inside with fury. Her breath came fast and uneven, the light in her chest was so bright I could barely look at her.

“I. DO. NOT. LOSE.” she bellowed, her voices rattling the lanterns on the walls, a stream of dust shaking loose from the ceiling. “I can lock you in this room with the apple. You’ll have no choice. Eat the apple or die. Why wait.”

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