SalGoud readjusted his hold on Lichen, who was still unconscious. Annie felt the boy’s forehead. It burned.
Bloom tapped on the window again. Three short raps.
“Maybe she’s not home,” Annie said, worried. She was really afraid that Lichen would die. She already liked his feisty self, and it just seemed so wrong to die so young, after trying ridiculously hard to save other people. Plus, Bloom … how would Bloom handle another loss like that? She didn’t want him to have to.
Megan’s panicked face appeared at her bedroom window. She gasped and then smiled as she saw Bloom, but her expression changed into something much more negative as she spied SalGoud, Annie, and Lichen.
She lifted the window. “What is it?”
“We need help, Megan,” Bloom answered. “Please.”
His voice was desperate.
“The hags are still awake. Be quiet.” She lifted the window higher, and Bloom vaulted up the five feet and was easily inside.
SalGoud passed Lichen through the window, accidentally bumping the injured elf’s leg against the wall. He cringed. “Sorry … Sorry …”
Annie went in next with SalGoud giving her an easy boost up. Then he climbed through himself.
“What is going on?” Megan had pulled a sweater over her white nightgown. Her hair was all knotted and twisted up like the hair of the older hags she lived with. She reached up to her hair nervously and tried to tuck it into shape, and Annie realized she must spend hours every morning with brushes and detangling spray trying to get it to behave, which explained why she was always floofing it.
Poor Megan, Annie thought, and then immediately grew mad at herself. That girl hates me and I’m “poor Megan-ing” her.
She almost expected Megan to refuse to see them, especially after Megan’s prophecy that “Annie would fall with evil,” but the young hag didn’t seem to care about that at all, right then. Instead, Megan drew in a sharp breath when she saw Lichen, who looked so much like Bloom, her not-so-secret crush.
“Is he your brother?” she asked Bloom, eyes wide. “He’s beautiful.”
And so they told her the story and she swore secrecy, making a bed for Lichen in her large closet, surrounding him with stuffed animals and dolls in case he grew delirious and rolled about, thrashing as people sometimes do when they are terribly sick. She didn’t want him to cut himself or hit his head on her sharp-heeled dress shoes or anything like that.
He had become conscious long enough to spot a gigantic purple poodle with rainbow ears and a red heart on its chest.
“Am I dead?” he asked, poking the dog’s heart.
“I love you,” a robotic voice squeaked from inside the dog.
Lichen gave a little shriek and fell back asleep. Megan took out a chest of strange-looking potions, a small rainbow-glitter cauldron, and a book of healing spells called Hags’ Healing Health Spells. Then she placed a wet cloth on his head and whispered to the rest of them, “I’ll take good care of him.”
“And you’ll tell no one. Not the hags. Not Odham?” Bloom asked, referencing some boy that Annie vaguely remembered meeting before.
Megan’s nervous fingers clenched into fists. “I detest Odham.”
Bloom smiled and held out his hand for Megan to shake. She took it.
“Welcome to the club,” he said.
But Megan had already turned away, pulling a pink quilt off her bed and tucking it in and around her patient in the closet.
She cocked her head, listening, and then her eyes widened with alarm. She shut the closet door and lurched into her bed, gesturing frantically for them to go underneath it. “Hide!”
The children scurried under the bed, except for SalGoud, who couldn’t fit and had to hide behind the long drape by the window. He had only just scooted his shoe back behind the long pink drape before the bedroom door opened and an eyeball floated in. The blue eye zipped around the room, hovering over Megan’s bed for a moment before rushing off again, the door shutting behind it as Megan started to make fake snoring noises. It reminded Annie of pig snorts, which reminded her of Walden, her obnoxious ex–foster brother.
“All clear,” Megan said, jumping out of bed and opening her closet door. “They always use the third eye to check on me. Every night. They tell me it’s because they love me. Personally, I think there’s some trust issues going on. Hags have a lot of trust issues.”
She sighed and looked at Bloom and SalGoud. Annie, Megan ignored. She scurried back into the closet and put her hand on Lichen’s forehead and then arranged some of the fluffy stuffed animals around him.
“He won’t die here with me,” she told them. “You go do what you must to stop this. He’ll be safe here for as long as I am safe here. The Council says they’ve got all the trolls. It turns out there weren’t that many who had made it inside while the gnome was gone, but it was enough …”
“Did anyone …?” Annie didn’t know how to ask the question she wanted to ask, because she didn’t honestly want to know the answer.
“Die?” Megan finally looked her in the eye.
Annie refused to look away, but she couldn’t make herself say the word, especially not with Lichen right there and so close to death himself.
“There are a couple of fairies missing even though you all rescued them … allegedly.” Megan raised an eyebrow as she spoke the last word, illustrating that she still wasn’t cool with Annie. “The mayor is missing. Canin and Eva were, but they’d just shrunk. And Jamie is missing, but I suppose you’ve found him. You were missing, Bloom. Since you are here, you are obviously alive. Some vampires were injured. One shifter is hurt. That’s about it. There were pretty minimal casualties.”
“Except for Miss Cornelia,” Annie murmured.
“Yes, except for her.” Megan studied Annie for a moment. “I will keep the little elf safe. Try to not make my prophecy true.”
“She won’t fall with evil,” Bloom interrupted before Annie could answer for herself.
“We’ll see, but if she does …” Megan pointed a finger at Annie. “She better not take anybody with her.”
“What do you mean? Why not?” Annie blurted.
“Because these are my friends, and I protect my friends.” Megan’s answer was a whisper, but it was still pretty intense.
After that, it was a lot harder for Annie to keep disliking her so much. Still, as they excused themselves from her house, she couldn’t help worrying about whether or not Megan would really keep her word, or for how long.
13
Grandparents
After talking to Grady O’Grady, Jamie led his friends back to Miss Cornelia’s to find the book he had read about the Golden Arrow in the hidden compartment beneath the Cupid statue. They discovered the town was still in an uproar about losing Miss Cornelia, and about the random assortment of baddies that they had to expel. The fairies didn’t feel safe any longer and spoke of going to Charleston, South Carolina, where there was a North American Fairy Family Festival going on. The vampires dreamed of a mass exodus to Seattle and New Orleans, but decided that was a bit too cliché. Jamie kept his head low and tried to avoid everyone’s notice. He didn’t know when the residents’ sentiments might turn against him again.
At Aquarius House, Annie watched as the town’s magic seemed to dwindle with the remnants of the night. When she first arrived in Aurora, the sitting room looked like an enchanted forest. An overhead light source shafted rays of brightness down through branches of trees and ivy that covered the ceiling, which must have been twenty feet high. Along three of the walls, thin tree trunks grew into branches, golden flowers and bright purple blossoms twining around the bark. The fourth wall was a mural. Couches, chairs, and statues were nestled among it all. But now, everything seemed a bit drab, like a yellowing lawn that hasn’t been watered in the heat of the summer.
She eavesdropped as Gramma Doris said that even the Gnome of Protection wouldn’t last much longer. Canin was busy patrolling the woods at night, searching for mo
nsters. Annie hoped Megan was doing a good job nursing Lichen.
Jamie slid back the secret catch to the Cupid statue and scrambled into the hidden hole, retrieving the book Gramma Doris had flung down at him only hours before. He flipped through the pages, which revealed the country where the Golden Arrow had last been seen: Ireland. Annie, Jamie, Eva, Bloom, and SalGoud knew Ireland was a big country. They were going to need another clue if they had half a chance of finding what they needed to save Miss Cornelia.
Annie’s patience could take it no longer. Every minute that passed was another minute the elves and Miss Cornelia came closer to death. Every minute that passed was another minute that the Raiff grew more powerful.
Closing the shades behind her, Annie called for everyone’s attention.
“We need to find the bow and arrow, and we need to find it now,” she said, pulling the final drape shut over the shades. “Maybe we need to think about this another way. If all our research isn’t helping, maybe we can use magic to find the bow and arrow.”
“Magic?” Eva scoffed. “The only magic we got left around here is the magic of my ax.”
“That’s not true,” SalGoud interrupted. “The town isn’t as fortified, yes, and Miss Cornelia’s magic is almost completely gone, but each of us still has our own. Bonding together we are still strong.”
Eva raised an eyebrow.
“Strong enough,” SalGoud faltered.
“How about if Annie uses her magic?” Jamie suggested.
“But I don’t really know how.” Annie looked at the floor.
“Maybe you could draw it,” Jamie said.
Bloom exploded off the couch. “That’s brilliant!” He grabbed Jamie by the shoulders and twirled him around, laughing. “You are brilliant.”
“I am?” Jamie asked.
Bloom kissed the top of Jamie’s head. “Exactly.” The elf turned his attention toward Annie, kneeling in front of her and grabbing her hands in his. “You can draw the arrow and the bow, Annie. You draw bunnies and they appear. You draw the word “STOP” and it happens. Why not the bow and arrow?”
“Um … because I don’t know what they look like,” Annie offered.
“It’s a bow and arrow! Gold. How hard can that be?” Eva asked, stashing her ax and the sharpening stone in assorted places in her belt.
“It’s a good point,” Bloom said. “And if they are protected by a magic spell of any sort they won’t just appear, but we should give it a try, shouldn’t we?” He answered his own question, “Oh, yes, we should.”
Annie caught Jamie’s eye in an attempt to get him to say something, anything, to help her out here. Responsibility crushed her confidence. What if she couldn’t make the magic work?
Eva scoffed and Jamie shushed her even as he showed Annie the picture of the arrow in the book.
Bloom pulled in a breath and began to read. “It’s gold …”
“Duh …,” Eva interrupted.
“Could you please shush her?” Bloom asked SalGoud.
SalGoud made hopeless eyes. “How?”
Bloom continued. “The string is gold and it is thick for a string. The bow itself is shaped as if two golden wings reach a point in the middle. This is where the arrow goes. The arrow is gold.”
“Duh,” Eva interrupted and yawned even as Annie tried to imagine the Golden Arrow.
“And the shaft is gold. The back is notched with three golden feathers for balance, and the front, right before the tip, is bound by shiny green twine … or some material like it.”
Annie’s fingers moved on top of the desk, outlining the object in her head. Her fingers seemed to vibrate as she drew the lines of the bow and the arrow. The wood underneath her hand glowed, and then the entire room lit up.
“Wow,” said Eva, sitting back up. “What’s happening?”
“Look!” Jamie pointed to the far wall where there was a mural that seemed to change slightly even as they watched.
A golden bow just like the one that Annie had drawn glowed against a backdrop of four-leaf clovers. A prancing unicorn galloped around a field of clover on green hills. Eva rushed over and tried to pluck the glowing bow out of the painting, but it wasn’t three-dimensional at all, just flat, part of the painting.
“What the holy heck,” she muttered.
“It must be protected,” Bloom said, sighing and flopping down on the couch. He seemed heartbroken.
Annie felt that way, too. Still, she petted him on the arm. “It’s okay. We’ll find a way … It’s a clue maybe … a sign …”
The door flew open. Helena and Gramma Doris hobbled into the room.
“What are you children doing? Having a party? I love a good party!” Helena boomed. She had confectioner’s sugar all over her shoulders and streaks of chocolate on her cheeks.
“Oh, look!” said Gramma Doris, rubbing her hands together. “The mural glows. It hasn’t glowed like that in—” Doris gasped, hand to her heart. “Her grandparents …”
“What?” said Annie. “What does this have to do with Eva’s grandparents?”
“Not hers … yours …” Helena pointed at her. Rainbow sprinkles shot out of her finger and cascaded around the room.
Doris squealed, throwing up her hands in disbelief, trying to get Helena to not say anything more.
“Grandparents … I have grandparents?” Annie squeaked.
“Everyone does, silly,” Helena said.
“Yes … yes … that’s right,” Doris said awkwardly, pulling Helena back out of the room and into the hallway, leaving the children alone and in shock.
There was no stopping Annie. She barged into the kitchen just as Gramma Doris was baking bread. Flour and sugar was spread all over the kitchen counter. A mound of sliced apples seemed ready to topple over. Fairies hovered around it with their arms out, ready to catch the slices if it all went to heck.
Doris smiled as Annie and the other children entered the kitchen.
“Gramma Doris!” Annie said with gentle force.
Her voice sounded quite a bit like Miss Cornelia’s, Jamie thought.
“Children! Have you come to help with dinner? How nice!” Gramma Doris snapped her fingers, and aprons whizzed toward each of them, wrapping their cloth around the children’s backs and tying themselves in place.
Eva scowled at her bright-pink kitty cat apron. “Dwarfs do not cook.”
Gramma Doris ignored her.
“Excuse me, Gramma Doris!” Annie didn’t pay attention to her own apron, which was struggling to tie itself around her waist as she strode toward where Gramma Doris stood by the refrigerator.
“What is it, Annie?”
“I have grandparents.” Annie yanked her apron off.
“Of course you do, dear.” Doris seemed nonplussed.
“Are they alive?”
The room went still.
“Yes.” Doris began to twist her hands together. “This … this is really … this is really not …”
“I have grandparents.” Annie sat on a stool with a thump, face sad and broken. Her forlorn voice seemed to make the entire kitchen sigh. “I have grandparents who are alive.”
“Shouldn’t that be a good thing?” Eva said, snagging an apple slice.
Bloom threw his hands up in the air. SalGoud thrust an apple into her mouth, silencing her.
“Who are they? And why didn’t they want me, then?” Annie asked quietly. “Why did they shove me off from foster house to foster house? Why does nobody ever want me?”
Jamie started to try to comfort her, but he didn’t know what to say, and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“That’s not it! That’s not it at all, Annie.” Gramma Doris’s face broke into an understanding grimace, and she rushed forward to try to take Annie up into a hug, but Annie skittered away, knocking over the stool.
Her shaking hand covered her mouth. “Does everyone know? Does everyone know this but me?”
“Not me,” said Bloom and SalGoud.
“Hadn’
t a clue,” Eva said with her mouth full of apple.
“Your grandparents never met you, Annie … They didn’t … They didn’t approve of the match between your mother and your father,” Gramma Doris began. “They later regretted this choice.”
“How do you know this?” Annie asked.
“You were born here, Annie. Cornelia failed to protect you during the Purge. We thought you had died. Your mother was dead. Your father—” Gramma Doris’s voice cracked. “It is a difficult story, but Miss Cornelia assumed you were dead as well, and the other grandmother and grandfather that you are asking about … Well, they never acknowledged your death.”
She looked up at Annie, horrified. Some pixies entered the kitchen as well, and Gramma Doris shooed them away, claiming they made her cakes drop.
Annie’s voice steeled out. “I used to live here? Does everyone know that?”
“I had no idea, Annie.” SalGoud raised his hands.
“Me, either,” Eva said, “and let me add that it is freaking rude of everybody to not tell me.”
Bloom elbowed her in the stomach. “Eva, this is not about you.”
Eva grumped over to the refrigerator, opened it, and looked in. All of the food was quietly whispering.
“What else aren’t you telling me?” Annie demanded. “Did you really think I was dead? Or did you just let me go?”
“Oh!” Gramma Doris rushed forward, and this time she truly did gather Annie up into a great big hug. “Oh, you poor little thing. The world was in chaos. We were confused and overwhelmed and so many were dead and so many were gone, and … We would never, ever let you go, Annie. Don’t you remember how joyous we were to have you back?”
Annie did remember. She tried to take a calming breath. “Then why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me all of it? That I was from here? That I belonged here …” She had never belonged anywhere, and the moment she came to this quirky, magical town she had finally felt like she fit. Well, now it all made sense, didn’t it? She fit because she was from here. Not because she was special. In fact, she was so un-special that her own grandparents never met her. “Wait. What about my grandparents? What are their names?”