Illusions

fingers, where telltale pollen would have exposed Yuki’s secret. “Unless she’s a Spring or Summer, there’s no way that blossom is hers.”

“I don’t know,” Laurel interjected. “There’s something about this powder. I think—” Laurel forced herself to relax, trying to trust her intuition, no matter how it horrified her. “I think the petals have to be fresh. Not dried or wilted…. Tamani, somebody cut these petals off,” she said, the macabre proclamation sending a shiver up her back. Cutting tiny pieces from her own blossom had stung; losing a fourth of it to a troll attack had hurt for days. She couldn’t imagine how badly it would hurt to cut off the entire blossom — but a warding large enough to hide a cabin in the forest would need that many petals.

“Cutting off a blossom would still leave some kind of… texture. I felt Yuki’s back very carefully when we were at the autumn dance and there was nothing but skin there. So even if she is the Fall faerie who made this, the blossom couldn’t have come from her.”

Was that hope in his voice? Laurel tried not to think too hard about that. Hadn’t she, at one point, hoped for Yuki’s innocence herself? “But that doesn’t make any sense. Why would she make a hideout for trolls? I thought they were after her!”

Tamani was quiet for a moment. “What do we know about Klea? For sure, I mean.”

“She likes guns,” Laurel said. “And she’s got those stupid sunglasses she never takes off.”

“Why would anyone wear sunglasses all the time?” Tamani asked.

“To hide your eyes…,” Laurel said, realization dawning.

“And you said there would be no way to hide a blossom under the fitted clothing she wears, but—”

“But if she cut it off, she would have nothing to hide.” Klea. A faerie. Laurel’s mind was racing now. Faerie poison had been used to make her dad sick. Faerie blood had been used to lure Laurel’s sentries away last year. And now there were trolls showing up who were immune to faerie magic. There was evidence of faerie intervention thrust deeply into everything that had happened to her over the last two years. The thought made Laurel’s stomach churn. Everything had been so much simpler when she could tell friend from foe just by looking at them. But when your enemy’s face could practically be the one you looked at in the mirror every day…?

“If she’s working with the trolls, why did she kill Barnes?” Tamani asked, talking as much to himself as to her.

“Barnes said he made a deal with a devil,” Laurel said, recalling the troll’s strange words. “That’s exactly how a troll would see working with a faerie. What if he tried to go back on his deal?”

Tamani nodded. “And if for some reason Klea wanted you alive — which she must, because she’s had plenty of opportunity to kill you—”

“She’d have to protect me by finishing him off,” Laurel said, half in shock. “And if she saved my life, maybe I would be more likely to… what? Help her with something? Barnes was trying to get to Avalon. What kind of faerie would want to get a bunch of trolls into Avalon?”

“The kind with a grudge,” Tamani said darkly, pulling his iPhone out of his pocket. “I think we need to seriously consider the possibility that Yuki is nothing but a distraction, that there are no troll hunters, and that the trolls have been working for Klea all along.”

“But… a distraction from what? What is she after?”

“I don’t know,” said Tamani, putting his phone to his ear. “But I think it’s long past time for us to find out what she’s keeping in that cabin.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

LAUREL KNELT ON THE FLOOR, SCRUBBING OUT THE bottom of her locker with a wet paper towel — something every student had to do before leaving for winter break. Technically she was required to clean it with the can of heavy-duty cleaner, but that stuff wasn’t exactly faerie-friendly. Besides, the teachers didn’t watch very closely. If anything, they were more anxious for winter break than their students.

“Hey, slowpoke, let’s go!” Chelsea said teasingly. “You have to come over and help me pick out a dress!”

Laurel smiled her apology. “I’m almost done,” she said, gesturing at her locker.

“You want some help?” Chelsea asked, reaching for a roll of paper towels that had been left in the hall for them by the janitorial staff.

“Sure, you can clean my locker and I’ll pick your dress; how’s that for a trade?”

“Hey, sounds fair to me,” Chelsea said. “Are you going to wear that one dress?”

“I think so,” Laurel said. Chelsea was referring to the dress Laurel had brought back from Avalon and worn to the Samhain festival. Ever since Laurel had told her about it, Chelsea had been pestering her to wear it to a dance. “I don’t—”

Laurel just managed to bite off a scream as her head exploded with literally blinding pain. An eerie, whistling wind filled her head with sound and pressure and darkness.

And then it was gone.

“Laurel? Laurel, are you all right?”

Laurel opened her eyes to discover she had fallen backward and was now sprawled on the floor. Chelsea was kneeling next to her, concern written all over her face. Laurel sat up and glanced furtively around her, embarrassed. She hoped nobody else had seen her fall over like a moron.

Her eyes met Yuki’s. She was in the middle of cleaning out her locker across the hallway, and looked away immediately, covering a smile with one delicate hand.

Momentarily, Laurel wondered if Yuki might be the cause of her headaches. She’d often been around when they struck… but then, she’d practically invaded every aspect of Laurel’s life, so she was always around. Besides, “causing headaches” was not a faerie power, and even if it was, there were easier ways to distract Laurel from whatever it was Yuki was supposed to be distracting her from. Not that it mattered. If Yuki was doing something, it would all be over in a few days. Shar had arrived and was even now strategizing with Tamani.

“Let’s get out of here,” Laurel muttered, embarrassed.

Chelsea put a protective arm around her and they walked out toward Laurel’s car.

They drove in silence, which at first Laurel thought was weird, but she quickly realized it was restful. All week she had been jumping at every sound, waiting for something to happen. For Yuki to realize they’d found out about Klea — for trolls to come barreling through the school wall — she didn’t even know what. But something! The world had changed and no one else seemed to sense it. Yuki still clung to Tamani; Ryan still hung around cluelessly; Laurel and David and Chelsea tried to talk and laugh normally. Not to mention pass their final exams.

At Chelsea’s house, Laurel did her best to put all of this aside. She had always liked Chelsea’s house. No matter what happened in her own life, at Chelsea’s house it was only her brothers who were the monsters, her room that was the mess, and the most difficult decision Laurel would be asked to make was the black dress or the red one.

“The red, I think,” Laurel said, as Chelsea put it on for the third time.

“Why are we going to the dance with her, anyway?” Chelsea asked, examining herself in the full-length mirror that doubled as her closet door. “If we know Yuki’s a distraction or whatever, then why does it matter if we keep her occupied? I so want to just ditch her. And what’s she distracting us from, again?”

“The cabin,” Laurel said, though she wondered what could be in the cabin that was worth keeping from them. “For all we know, Yuki doesn’t even know the role she’s playing. Klea is some kind of puppet-master, I’m telling you. But just in case, until they actually raid the cabin, we’re supposed to act like nothing has changed.”

“When are they going to raid?”

Laurel shrugged. Shar had been characteristically vague about that. The way he kept putting it off was driving Tamani crazy.

“Hmph. Well, Tamani’s boss. Or is it Shar?” She looked at the mirror as Laurel shrugged again, twisting her curls up on top of her head. “You don’t think it clashes with my hair?”

“Actually, I think it brings out the auburn,” Laurel said, grateful to be done talking about Yuki. “I think you look gorgeous in it. Ryan is going to swoon,” she said with a grin.

Chelsea’s face fell.

“What?” Laurel said. “Is it the college thing? You won’t even know for sure on that for a couple months yet.”