He took a hard left, cutting off a guy in an SUV. “Or what? You’ll jump?”
I didn’t plan on going that far.
“Did you?” he bellowed, startling me.
“Yes. What’s up with that anyway, because back there—” I pointed at the small dot in the distance that was the convenience store “—I couldn’t think straight.”
Isaac replied with a stream of profanity that was obviously directed at Reed. I’d never seen him so upset, and I was still trying to understand why. All I could think was Reed had to be a dark witch; how else could he mess with my head so easily?
“How’s he here?” Isaac asked.
I took a deep breath. One of us had to remain rational. “Maybe if you tell me what’s going on and how you know Reed, we can figure that out.”
“He’s a manipulative, self-serving faerie, and I sent his ass back to his realm last year. I sealed the door myself.” Isaac slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “It doesn’t make sense. Faeries can’t open the door between realms on their own, and they have to be invited to ours before they can enter.”
“Reed’s not a faerie.” He couldn’t be. He worked for my dad.
“I assure you, he is.”
I thought again to how I’d seen his eyes change colors and heard his voice in my head though his mouth hadn’t moved. “But I only summoned one.” I couldn’t have brought Reed into our lives too.
Isaac’s shoulders stiffened, and the muscles in his jaw twitched. “You did what?”
I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “I needed some help around the house. Your mom was the one who said faeries like to do housework in exchange for cream—which is a myth, by the way. Not only do they not drink cream, they don’t like to clean.”
“I could have told you that.”
Isaac pulled into the fifteen-minute parking lot at Annisquam Lighthouse. His frustration rippled off him, tainting the air with an acid metallic taste that stuck to my tongue right alongside the copper already there.
“Madison, Reed being here is bad. I believe his last words to me were, ‘Pray our paths never cross again.’”
In the confines of the Jeep, our powers suffocated me. I got out. Isaac did too.
The air smelled of fish and salt from the bay. I couldn’t tell if the energy surrounding Isaac was rage, fear, or irritation, but it scared me. It warned me to keep my distance until he managed to get his emotions under control. He paced back and forth from the Jeep to the large rocks that created a barrier between land and water. Over and over. Sometimes he just breathed in long deep breaths. Other times, he mumbled to himself so quietly that if I hadn’t seen his lips moving, I wouldn’t have known he was doing it.
I waited by the Jeep, fidgeting with my rings and listening to the sounds of the water slapping the shore. I was dying to know how one faerie could be such a threat. Slowly, the taste of power leaking from Isaac’s pores changed from steel to vanilla and spearmint.
“Where’d you get the spell?”
“From your book on Fae,” I confessed.
He punched the front quarter panel of the Jeep, creating a fist-sized dent that pushed its way out until there was no evidence of the damage. Recomposing himself, he said, “The book I asked you not to read.”
Technically, he hadn’t asked me not to read it—more like alluded to it, which, to be honest, sparked my curiosity. No way was I going to point that out.
“I didn’t see the harm in doing one spell,” I said in my defense. “And it’s a spell your great-aunt has done.”
Isaac held his hand in front of him.
“Yeah.”
“Trust me, my aunt never cast this spell.” He turned the book around so he could read it.
“But that spell summons one faerie, and Reed is not the faerie I met.”
He looked at me. “Who’d you meet?”
“Brea, and she hasn’t asked for anything. As a matter of fact, she’s nicer than some humans we know.”
“Did you read every word of the spell exactly as it’s written here?”
“Yes.” I had been very careful to follow the instructions to a T.
“And you called upon Dellis and Rhoswen Reedsnap?”
“Called upon? Those are names?” I’d figured it was gibberish like
“The faerie at the store was Dellis Reedsnap of the Seelie Court.” Isaac closed his eyes. “I guess I should be thankful there aren’t any Unseelie names in this book.”
I shook my head, still not convinced I had summoned Reed. “The spell grants me Sight. It allows me to see who I summon.”
“Apparently it only allowed you to see one of them.”
“But everyone at the gas station could see Reed,” I said, confused by the Fae’s rules.
“Because he’s allowed us to see him.”
“Oh…and he’s wearing a glamour so that he’d fit into our world.” Like Brea had done when she’d explored Gloucester. “But how’d Brea get here? Her name isn’t in the spell.”
“My guess is she’s really Rhoswen.” He strolled toward the rocks and took a seat.
“Reed’s sister,” I said, the proverbial light bulb going off above my head. She had said she had a brother; it would have been nice if she’d told me he was here.
I thought back to the day I’d met Brea. Her attention had been fixed on something near the window, and I had assumed she’d been gazing outside, but what if she hadn’t been? What if someone had been talking to her? Her comment,
I joined Isaac near the rocks. “Why do you think he’s pretending to be human? Why work for my dad?”
“Take your pick: because it amuses him, to get close to you, to make you trust him.”
The knot in my stomach bet all of the above were correct. Isaac flipped forward a few pages and held the book so that we could read it together.
“Brea’s a princess,” I said matter-of-factly. “That would make Reed a prince.”
Isaac gave me a sidelong glance. “Does it make you feel better to know a prince has wormed his way into your life?”
I rolled my eyes in lieu of a reply. After a few minutes, I pointed to a paragraph in the book.
“It says here that as long as you know a faerie’s name, they can’t harm you. It gives you some type of control over them.” I looked at Isaac. “That’s good, right?”
“It would be, if we knew his name.”
“Dellis Reedsnap.”
“Trust me, that’s not his full name.”
I gave that a moment’s thought and decided since “Brea” wasn’t even in the spell I’d cast, it made sense there was more to their names than Dellis and Rhoswen Reedsnap.
“This is my fault.” Isaac pinched the bridge of his nose. “If he figured out you’re with me, then he’d want to use you to get back at me.”
“Right, because you sent him packing the last time he was here.”
“I warned you about messing with the Fae.”
Glad Mr. In Control was back, I bumped his shoulder with mine and replied, “No, you said learning about earthly elements was more useful than learning about faeries.”
“I believe I called them devious little creatures that twist the words of humans to their advantage.”
Figured he’d remember his words verbatim. I already felt bad enough I’d been tricked into thinking Reed was a nice guy. Isaac dragged his fingers through his hair, grabbing a fistful at the back of his head. We were quiet, each consumed in our own thoughts. Mine centered on that tiny fuchsia-wrapped treat I hadn’t gotten to
