Enchanted Ivy

'Wait!' Lily said. 'All I want is to help my mom. I'm not part of your battles.'

Silent, the stone man pulled them both out of the council room.

As he dragged them downstairs, Lily clutched at the railing. Her feet slipped on the worn steps. 'Please, you have to listen,' she begged the stone man.

Jake punched the stone arm that held him. 'I demand you release me!'

'If you won't help me find the dryads, at least help me go home,' Lily said. 'I can't stay here. My mother needs me.'

Unimpressed with both of them, the rock man deposited them in a small, gray room and shut the door. Lily tugged on the door handle. 'Please! Let us out!'

'Stand back,' Jake said. He rammed his shoulder against the door. It didn't budge. He tried again. Nothing. A third time.

'Why did you attack Tye's father?' Lily asked. 'What were you thinking? This wasn't supposed to be about your stupid war with Feeders; this was about my mother!'

Jake stopped and blinked at her. 'I ... oh, whoa ... I just ...'

Lily sighed and let him off the hook. 'You were baited. Tye's father went after you as soon as he saw you. I don't know why. He wasn't that unreasonable when I met him before. Scary, yes. Irrational, no.' Changing the subject, Lily waved her hand at the cell. 'I don't suppose you had a training exercise on this?' She tried to sound light, but her voice cracked.

'Several,' Jake said. He picked up a chair and smashed it against the wall. He selected a chair leg out of the wreckage and brandished it like a sword.

'What—,' Lily began.

The door clicked and opened. Jake lunged forward, swinging the chair leg at the figure in the doorway. The figure leaped backward and said in a mild voice, 'I rather liked that chair.'

Lily grabbed Jake's arm. 'Jake, don't!'

Tye poked his head into the room. 'Coast clear, or is Pretty Boy still playing baseball?'

Jake continued to hold the chair leg like a bat. 'Stay behind me, Lily.'

'It's okay, Jake,' Lily said, squeezing past Jake. She threw her arms around Tye's neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist. 'You found us! How did you find us?'

'He's a clever little tiger boy,' Jake said behind her.

She released Tye's neck. He was slower to withdraw his arms. Lily felt a blush creep onto her cheeks and was glad that her back was to Jake. Maybe she shouldn't have jumped into Tye's arms quite so enthusiastically. She barely knew him, after all. The tingle she felt every time they touched—that was just the feel of magic or very enthusiastic static cling, not a sign of destiny.

Ignoring Jake, Tye answered Lily. 'Father likes to stick me in here whenever the council debates whether or not I behaved appropriately on my latest trip to the human world. Not a fan of waiting, so I borrowed a spare key.' He shrugged. 'We Keys are supposed to open doors, after all.'

'Your council's security is lax,' Jake said disapprovingly.

'You're welcome to stay and lodge your complaint,' Tye said. He nodded at the room. 'This isn't a cell, though; it's just a waiting room. If the council believed you were a threat, then your lodgings would have been much more secure. Guess you were voted harmless, Pretty Boy. Congratulations.'

'I could show you 'harmless.' ...'

Lily shot a look at the staircase. Any second, the stone man could thump down those steps and throw them into a real cell. 'Guys, can we chat about this after we escape?'

Tye executed a courtly bow. 'As my lady wishes.' He crooked his arm and looped her hand through as if escorting her to a dance. He then strode down the hallway. She had to half jog to keep pace. His arm muscles, she noticed, were tense under her fingers. He wasn't nearly as cool and collected as he sounded.

Jake trailed behind them. 'Why are you helping us?'

'I'm helping Lily,' Tye clarified. 'Who are you?'

'Her guard,' Jake said.

'Nice job on that,' Tye said.

'You can't trust him,' Jake said to Lily. 'He refused to swear allegiance to Vineyard. He hasn't been through our training. All the trainees are told to keep our distance. He's a wild card. For all we know, he could be leading us into a trap.'

Considering they'd just come from what was essentially a cell, Lily found it hard to get worked up about that idea. 'He's only lied to me once or twice,' she said.

'That you know of,' Tye added cheerfully. He shoved his shoulder against a door, and it popped open. He ducked through it.

'Tell us why you're switching sides,' Jake said. He clamped his hand down on Lily's shoulder before she could follow. 'Or we go no farther. I won't let you endanger Lily.'

Lily stared at him, her wannabe knight in shining armor. He'd come a long way from calling her a monster.

'Your pretty boy seems to have some trust issues,' Tye commented to Lily. To Jake, he said, 'I'm a Key. We don't have sides. If we pick a side, we die. One of the many perks. Besides, aren't we supposed to be allies?'

'Please, Jake,' Lily said. She touched his arm lightly. 'I don't have a better plan. Do you?'

Jake opened and then shut his mouth. He released her shoulder.

She followed Tye through the door, and Jake followed her. He shut the door behind him, and the three of them hurried down a hall that looked like a stretch of basement: pipes on the ceiling, concrete floor, gray walls.

'So how did you piss off my esteemed paternal figure?' Tye asked.

She hesitated, not quite ready to admit that they might have nailed the coffin shut on a centuries-old alliance. 'I'd guess it was Jake's knife.'

Jake agreed with her. 'He did take exception to the knife.'

'You sneaked a weapon into council?' Tye whistled. 'And they only put you in a waiting room? Wow, you must be really bad with a blade.'

Lily winced.

'Nearly sliced open that monster you call Father,' Jake said.

To her surprise, Tye laughed. 'Wish I could've seen the look on his face.'

'You dislike your father that much?' Lily asked.

'Pretty Boy never would have nicked his fur,' Tye said. 'But it's been a long time since anyone has done anything but cower in front of my father.'

'Including you, I assume,' Jake said, disgust dripping from his voice.

'Absolutely,' Tye said. 'I'm not suicidal.'

They turned the corner and faced more corridor. The dull gray hall looked as if it stretched on for the length of a football field. It ended in shadows and a red EXIT sign.

When they reached the exit, Tye put his finger to his lips. He pushed open the door and led them into a carpeted hall. Office doors lined either side. At the end of the hall was a wooden door with a window. Daylight shone through—it was a door to the outside.

'Where are we?' Lily asked.

'Shh,' Tye said.

Jake answered, 'Stanhope Hall, next building over from Nassau.'

Tye glared at him. 'What part of 'shh' was unclear?' he hissed. He peered into one of the offices. 'Lucky that no one is here,' he said. 'We should have been intercepted by now.'

'You expected to get caught?' Jake asked.

Tye shrugged. 'It was more than likely. Usually, these buildings don't empty out.'

'You still trust him?' Jake said to Lily.

'Yes,' she said simply.

Lily walked toward the sunlight that poured through the window in the door. Both boys blocked her before she could go farther.

'You scout; I'll guard,' Jake said.