Chapter 18 #2
Thistle. Had to be. The guy couldn’t just pick a normal glamour. He had to choose one that left people thinking he was famous.
“He come over a lot?” I asked.
“Usually on weekends,” she said. “He might live in LA?”
I nodded. “I might have met him. I don’t talk to her a lot this semester, I’m so busy with classes.”
“Could you ask her to call me? I’m getting some… terrible… energy. I’m just worried about her.”
Around her, the air seemed to waver a bit, like it did in the heat. The magic was leaking out of her, and my eyes widened. There were few humans whose magic didn’t pool in them, waiting for use.
“You’re an oracle?”
“How’d you know?" She groaned. The magic in the air seemed to absorb back into her, and the short hair of her bangs stood up like she’d touched a Van de Graaff generator. Sharply, she shook her head, and it settled back down.
The hair color, which I’d taken for a very unicorn-punk expression of style, was some of her excessive magic escaping the only way it could.
“I can just tell.” Leaning against the door, I eyed her up and down. “What terrible thing do you see with Acacia?”
Biting her lip, she sighed. “Before she left, I felt this kind of dark energy around her, like a wolf hunting its prey. I tried to warn her, but she didn’t listen.”
“A literal wolf?” I asked.
Immediately, she shook her head. “No, it just felt like a wolf. And then she didn’t come home, and I tried everything. I tried reading the cards, I tried tea leaves. All I get is big flashing danger signs, but no specifics.”
I pondered the problem. It definitely meant she hadn’t just run away from her responsibilities with the Summer Queen. But ‘danger’ wasn’t a big clue to go on. There was another option, but I was even more hesitant about it.
“Hey, let me grab my stuff from Acacia and then maybe you can read my cards? I’ll look for her, so maybe that will give us a clue?” I asked.
“You’ll look for her?” she asked, relief loosening the tightness around her eyes. “Awesome. Thank you. I’m up one floor: 3A.”
“Sure.” I walked into Acacia’s apartment. “I’ll be right there.”
She waved at me, grinning, and hopped up the stairs.
I shut the door and looked around. It was pretty typical for a college student’s apartment. Furniture that looked more cheap than sturdy, enough snack food to fill a convenience store. There wasn’t anything screaming where she’d gone.
Experience made me quick to thumb through the paperwork on her desk, but there wasn’t anything other than bills and college papers there. I picked up a gas statement and squinted at the name.
“Hello, Acacia Clarke,” I said. “Where are you hiding?”
On her desk there was a rectangle free of clutter with a power cord trailing off her desk, but the laptop that should have gone there was missing. Her trash was rank after two weeks and, when I poked through it, was mostly food waste.
I grabbed a photo album off a shelf, and a couple of books that looked like journals. Other than that, her place was free of clues. She didn’t even have any wards or dirt like mine to guard her space.
Closing my satchel, I locked the door and headed upstairs to Skylar’s apartment.
It was exactly the sort of space I expected.
Scarves hung from everything, covering the windows so light filtered in in colored shadows.
Fairy lights trailed across the ceiling, tangling in each other as they came to the ground at plugs.
She was sitting on a meditation cushion in front of her coffee table and gestured for me to sit across from her. I sank to the ground and watched her deal out the cards.
When she flipped them over, they weren’t cards I knew. She hummed as she looked at the spread, tracing her fingers between the cards like she was spinning a web.
“You’ll find her,” she said, sighing in relief. Then she paused, frowning. “But, I’m not sure how or when. Or…”
Uncertainty gripped my stomach. This had been a bad plan. Skylar dealt another card, and then a final one. “…or if she’s alive. You’ve got a great weight coming to you.”
“Like a trial?” I asked, thinking of the voice in the dark.
She hummed. “Like a new responsibility. Something life altering. You’ll have to decide if you want to take it and be free or live as you are: chained.”
“Any more specifics?”
She shook her head, biting her lips hard. “No. If I get specific, she might be dead. And, if I say she’s dead, then she’s dead. Maybe—maybe if I just don’t read it, then she could still be alive?”
A fat teardrop landed on a card showing a Pan dancing in the field. She shoved her hand up her face, wiping away snot and tears.
“Okay,” I said, quickly. “Skylar. I’ll look for her and I’ll find her alive.”
I couldn’t make a promise because I was fae, and a promise meant something if you’re fae. Instead, I just tried to make her believe it. If she believed it, I could believe it.
A sense of dread settled over me. I had to find Acacia alive. If I found her alive, the Summer Queen wouldn’t rip my heart out through my throat.