I revealed my suspicions about Nick to her. “I’m sure he was trying to do something to me, but whatever he tried didn’t work. And then Fenwen interrupted, threatening him, and he blasted her with some strange power I’ve never witnessed or felt before.”
“Do you remember anything else?” Lucky asked, stroking his short beard.
The longer I thought about it, the more disgusted I grew. “Just that he used magic to keep me from helping her. After that, I woke up at Nana’s house. Well, she slapped me, and then I woke up. It’s complicated.” It would take too much time to explain since I didn’t fully understand how my grandmother had communicated with me in the first place.
“We cannot accuse a resident without proof. Not in this climate,” Lady Eveline warned.
“But we can’t allow Nick to get away with hurting Fenwen,” I countered.
“I’m with her,” Lucky added. “I say we hit first and ask for forgiveness later.”
The regal vampire stopped listening to the leprechaun and me and pointed at the town hall. “Looks like your aunt is going to make some sort of speech.”
“Residents of Honeysuckle Hollow, as the new occupier of the high seat, it is my duty to keep those who matter safe from harm.” Aunt Nora surveyed her audience, avoiding my scrutiny the second she spotted me. “As I have proclaimed a state of emergency, my first act will be to shut down our borders. No one will be allowed in or out until we can assess the current threat level from today’s egregious breach.”
The moment my aunt finished her announcement, all of the lights illuminating the evening sky blinked out as if the town itself protested against her actions. Whispers and murmurs morphed into shouts of concern. We waited the usual time for the electricity to return, but it remained off. Without the whirring motors of modernity, the air filled with cool breezes and chirping cicadas.
I conjured a small light orb to light the three of us.
“So much for my emergency plan to leave and sit this out from afar,” complained Lady Eveline.
Lucky crossed his arms. “I wonder what Flint will have to say about her stomping all over his territory.”
My fingers played with the pendant, and my heart thundered. “Oh no. If she’s locking down the barriers, then Mason won’t be able to get in.”
“We’ve got more pressin’ problems to deal with,” Lucky said. “Although I wouldn’t mind a little muscle to help.”
“Will I do?” Dash asked, joining us. “I don’t know what it is you’re planning, but if you want to overthrow a certain witch in charge, then I’m all for it.”
The shifter wasn’t the man I wanted, but he’d do. I grabbed his arm and pulled him closer to hear my plan. “Before anything else goes wrong, we have to go after Nick.”
“You mean, the spa guy with tats down his arms?” Dash clarified.
“Yes. I think he might be involved in Fenwen’s disappearance.” But I hoped with all my heart not her death.
The wolf shifter’s eyes glowed yellow. “What do you need me to do?” he growled.
“I think the best plan of attack is to confront him head-on,” I suggested. “Maybe I can talk directly to him and convince him that it’s for his own good if he cooperates.”
“In my considerably long life, I have found negotiations rare in their efficacy when the perpetrator has already shown you who he is through his actions. A villain always tends to be…well, a villain.” Lady Eveline examined her long fingernails as if we weren’t making plans to invade someone’s home and place of business.
Dash grunted, “I agree.”
While we deliberated, the town’s power blinked back to life. Several onlookers cheered, but I cursed under my breath. No lights would have provided good cover for us.
“We’re wastin’ valuable time,” Lucky complained. “I’ll break down the door m’self.” With short strides, he took off in the direction of Serenity Oasis.
Lady Eveline followed the leprechaun, her high heels clicking on the pavement. Determined, I headed after the two of them, ignoring Dash’s disapproving gaze. He didn’t have to chastise me for jumping into trouble. If I could be a part of finding the sprite who’d risked her own life to save me, then nothing would stop me from trying.
Lucky approached the old Abernathy house from the side. “No advantage to us if he sees us comin’.”
Dash made us stop at the far edge of the property. “Let me scout the perimeter and see what I can sense.”
“You’re not the only one with super senses, wolf. I’ll bet I can beat you,” Lady Eveline said, her smile showing off her fangs.
He cracked his neck with slow deliberation. “You’re on.”
I stayed crouched behind an overgrown camellia bush while the vampire and shifter rushed off.
“Lucky, you said that fading for the fae is worse than death. Why’s that?” I pressed.
He sighed. “There’s a wide gap between livin’ and dyin’ as well as dyin’ and not existin’ for every being on this planet. But since the lives of our kind are tied to the Earth itself, then we can last as long as it does.”
“That’s a long time.”
“Aye, it can be. And sometimes, life can be too hard to bear or perhaps something critical happens to us. Then we are at risk of fading away little by little until we are a husk of our very bein’.” He gripped my arm. “You have your ghosts that can haunt ye, but I guarantee our shades are far more sinister than anything ye have encountered in your young life.”
For all the time I’d lived in Honeysuckle, there was still a lot I didn’t know about some of my fellow neighbors. I put it on my to-do list for the future to grill my friends and learn as much as possible about their complicated lives.
Dash returned to us, but Lady Eveline beat him by half a second in a blur of speed. She examined her long, manicured nails as if she’d never moved,
