One Black Rose - August Part 11

I glanced out the window. The day looked clear and sunny. Perfect August weather.

"I should call Samuel and see what he wants," I said. I wanted to see if he was okay a not that I would ever admit that.

"I'm glad you two are on better terms now," said Carley. "How did that happen?"

"I honestly have no idea," I said, sitting up in bed and wrapping my arms around my knees. "You look nice, by the way. Your curls are very curly today."

Carley grinned and shook out her head, making the curls flop back and forth. "Thanks."

"Oh, Nick called. He apologized. I knew he would!"

After she left I got up, showered, put on jeans and a t-shirt, and went to my phone to call Samuel. Before I dialed I thought about what Carley had told me. The fact that it was Susan who found Mary couldn't have been a coincidence. Civilians had stopped searching for Mary days ago. The Fairies must have been looking on their own, or they had gone after the Sprite themselves. I hit Samuel's number and held my breath, but he answered on the second ring.

"Hey," he said. His voice sounded tired.

"Hey," I replied. "Carley said you had a message for me?"

"Yeah, I thought we could meet at Susan's and talk," he answered.

"When?" I checked my clock. It was still early in the morning.

"Anytime. Sooner would be better," he said.

Was he already at Susan's? The Roths'?

"Okay. Hey, what happened with Mary?" I asked.

Silence.

"Just meet me at Susan's and we'll talk," he repeated. I heard girls' voices in the background. I bristled.

"Yeah, okay," I replied, and hung up. As usual he wasn't going to tell me anything unless I badgered it out of him. It had something to do with the Water Sprite, though, I was sure of it.

As soon as I finished my cereal I dashed out of the house. I couldn't wait to get to the Roths'. The last time I'd been there was when I thought I was going over to see Holt, only to have Susan hand me the letter he'd written. I wanted that memory out of my head and here was my chance.

I got to the front door and rang the bell, waiting breathlessly. The day felt warm and pleasant, with a little breeze blowing off the ocean. If my walk to the Roths' hadn't been so frantic, I might have enjoyed it.

The door opened and there stood Logan, answering my knock for the second time. I knew that part of my excitement was that in some corner of my mind I had hoped to see Holt; secretly I had hoped that he would answer the door instead of his brother. But he didn't.

It always threw me off how much Logan looked like Holt. They had the same blond hair and green eyes. Logan looked a little young and his nose was a bit bigger, but there weren't many other differences.

"Hey," said Logan, as if he'd been expecting me; Samuel had probably told him I was coming. but he didn't look happy to see me.

"How are you?" I asked, stepping into the familiar entryway. It didn't look much different from the last time I was there, all cool colors and flowers, with the winding staircase and the closed kitchen door straight ahead. I tried not to think about the last time I'd seen him at Carley's.

I was going to ask Logan about Holt a low, I know, since he was his little brother a because I thought he might be more willing to talk about the situation than other members of his family. But I didn't get the chance, because before I could say a word Susan came down the stairs, and to my complete shock Samuel followed behind her. She was wearing a blue dress with a tie at the waist, and glittering sandals. Her normal cascade of hair shone down over her shoulders.

"You're here," was all I said to Samuel. I was mad at him all over again for refusing to tell me anything.

"You knew I would be." He had his usual routine of hands in pockets. I could see he looked tired and wondered if he had slept.

"Yeah."

"We think Samuel's a decent sort most of the time," said Logan, grinning.

"Right," I said in what I hoped was an I-wouldn't-believe-you-if-my-life-depended-on-it voice.

"I'm really sorry about the other day," said Susan, coming forward with her hands outstretched.

"It's fine," I replied, shifting uncomfortably. This whole house reminded me of Holt and how much I missed him; I had only ever gone over to the Roths' to see him. Some of my discomfort must have shown on my face, because Susan said, "Let's go up to my room."

We headed up the stairs. This was the first time I had been to the second floor, and I couldn't help but think resentfully that if I weren't somehow destined to marry Samuel, I would have been upstairs to see Holt's room by now and none of this mess would have happened.

When we got to the top of the stairs, Logan went to the first door on the right. It was closed, but he said, "This is my room if anyone needs me." He went in and shut the door behind him.

"He's playing video games," said Susan. "We should only interrupt him in dire emergencies like the house collapsing. Water Sprites killing people does not count as a dire emergency in his world."

Susan rolled her eyes. There was a door on the left, also closed.

"That's Holt's room," said Susan when she noticed me looking. But she didn't stop.

"And this is my room," she said, stopping by a room with double gla.s.s doors, both of which were thrown wide open.

Susan's room was covered in white and flowers, as I would have expected. There were flowers on everything, from the pillows to the curtains to the rug, all with a blinding white backdrop. I smiled involuntarily. This was so Susan. She liked everything clean and beautiful.

She closed the doors behind us. Samuel had followed us in without saying a word, but I said, "I love it. You should decorate for a living."

"Thanks," she said. "I love designing and of course I love flowers. I've been thinking about going to school for it, actually.

"There's lemonade and cookies," she said, waving at a silver tray on the gla.s.s coffee table. She's like my grandmother, I thought.

"Where'd you get this homey streak?" I asked.

Susan sighed. "Well, in another life my mother was an interior decorator. I always used to follow her around and 'help' her with fabric and color choices and everything when I was young. After I joined the Summer Court -" and I had a feeling she was glossing over that joining for my benefit a "I was stressed and I baked a lot." She grinned. "Mrs. Roth was worried that I would make all of her children fat from testing the cookies on them, but they survived."

"And how did you come to be part of the Summer Court?" I asked.

She fiddled with her hair, inclining her head ever so slightly towards Samuel. "I'll tell you some other time."

"What?" asked Samuel. "It's a girl thing? Or do you think it's possibly a bit more important if we talk about the reasons we're all here...?"

Susan grinned and playfully tossed one of the colorful pillows towards him. I was reminded that there was a rumor that Susan liked Samuel. "Um, no, it's just a girl thing."

I remembered Holt telling me something about how other girls at Court had to choose new members, but that was all. Yet another thing that no one would explain to me. But I wasn't going to get a chance to ask her right then.

"Anyway," she said, taking a deep breath. "Autumn, we have some stuff to tell you."

"What?" I asked. Instantly I forgot about the Water Sprite and thought of Holt. Was he coming home? Shouldn't he have told me himself?

"It's about the Water Sprite." My heart sank. "Samuel said he filled you in the other night while you were watching a movie," she explained with a slight edge in her voice.

"Yeah, actually it was after the movie if you want to be technical," said Samuel. "Autumn is usually technical about that sort of thing."

"Well, we got the Water Sprite last night. Actually, Lydia and Leslie got it. We had found Mary yesterday in the water, but we didn't think she'd make it. We did some pretty powerful workings to keep her from remembering any of the parts she was actually conscious for, but we just wanted to let you know. Neither Samuel nor anyone else will have to stay with you from now on."

"I don't know why he had to stay with me in the first place," I grumbled.

"For your own protection. The Water Sprite knew how important you were to the Fairies. A girl who is valuable to either the Winter Court or the Summer Court here is basically doubly valuable."

I didn't want to hear this again. "So how did Lydia and Leslie catch this thing?" I asked. I hated asking about Lydia and Leslie, because Leslie was completely evil and Lydia was just as bad, but my curiosity got the better of me.

"Water Sprites are very attached to certain locations. It's not like you're going to find this Water Sprite off the coast of Texas, so judging by where the girls disappeared, we were able to track it down. Plus, we knew what it was after...." Samuel said.

"What was it after?" I wanted to know.

"Well, we think a mate," said Samuel, shrugging. "Because it doesn't make sense that the girls made it angry. There are tons of swimmers in the water and most aren't young women."

"So how'd you find out about this in the first place?" I asked. What I really wanted to know was why I'd been kept out of the loop. I might have been able to help. Why were they always trying to protect me from everything?

"As soon as the first girl went missing we realized something was wrong," said Susan.

"Were you working together from the beginning?" I asked.

There was such a long and awkward silence that I almost started whistling. "Well?" I asked.

"Kind of," said Susan.

"They put aside their differences to make it work," said Logan from the doorway.

"What?" Oh. The Long Awkward Pause was because of me or maybe because of Mrs. Cheshire.

"Hi, Logan. Perfect timing as usual," said Susan, glaring at Holt's younger brother.

Logan sidled into the room and sat down next to me. "No offense," he said to me, "but for a while they hate each other's guts because of you." He patted me on the shoulder as he sat down next to me.

"Ouch!" said Logan. I'm pretty sure Samuel kicked him.

Chapter Ten.

As the other three talked, I slipped out. I wouldn't have been able to do it unless Logan had shown up, but he took up a lot of the air s.p.a.ce and focus, which left me free to get away. I didn't want to hear anything else about the Water Sprite, and being in Holt's house reminded me so strongly of him that I was having a hard time breathing.

I half-heartedly wanted to stay and listen to what they were talking about. It would be interesting stuff a how could talking about Water Sprites be anything else? a plus it was one of the few chances I would have to learn about Fairies and supernatural beings. It was just that the pull to see Holt's room, to be close to something that was his, was stronger.

Over the past few weeks I'd found myself wishing that one of the nights we had gone for a walk it had been cold outside and I had happened to borrow his jacket. Then I would have something of his instead of just that d.a.m.ned letter to remind me of him. Of course, if Carley knew of my secret desire, she'd tell me I was an idiot. I had to get over the whole Holt thing, and mooning after his discarded belongings probably wasn't the way to do it.

I'll keep telling myself that, after I check out his room.

The door wasn't locked and there was no one in the hall, so it was pretty easy to slip in: just turn the k.n.o.b and push.

I don't know what I was expecting, but what I found wasn't it. Most guys' rooms I had seen had posters on the walls of sports or hot girls, and maybe a movie poster here and there. Holt had none of these things. Against the backdrop of white walls he had several pictures in dark frames, all of friends a or family. I wouldn't know which since I hadn't met all of his friends or family.

His bedspread was a light green, with black pillows. He had a writing desk that was perfectly clean and organized. There were three shelves in the room: two were filled with books and movies while the other just held random stuff. Along one wall was a closet. The doors were closed, but I was sure that if I opened them I would see a regiment's worth of b.u.t.ton-down shirts, all perfectly ironed and hung.

Carefully, as if I was about to activate lasers or set off a trip-wire, I stepped through the door. I was relieved that the soft white carpet m.u.f.fled my footsteps. I wasn't sure whether I was doing something bad, I just knew I was doing something that I had to do.

My eyes landed on the drawers, and now I knew for sure that what I was about to do was wrong. I'd freak out if someone looked through my stuff, especially my papers, but I was desperately hoping to find a clue to where Holt had gone, so that maybe I could get in touch with him.... I headed towards the desk.

"You aren't going to find out where he is," said a voice from behind me.

I swear if it were possible to jump out of your own skin I would have done it. Instead, I spun around and saw Logan standing behind me.

"I had a feeling you'd come this way. Don't worry. Susan and Samuel haven't noticed you're missing yet," he said.

"Sorry," I said. "I know I'm not supposed to be here."

Logan's face softened. He came into the room and pulled out one of Holt's chairs and flopped into it, pushing aside a pile of blond hair that fell into his face.

"It's alright," he said. "I was hoping to get to talk to you at some point."

"About what?" I asked, sitting down on the bed.

"This whole mess," said Logan, waving his hand.

"What mess?" I asked. He had tried to talk to me once and failed miserably. I was wary.

"You know, the mess where my family is risking war for you and now there's a Water Sprite attacking everyone," said Logan. His green eyes never left mine, but I couldn't read his expression.

I felt hot and cold all at once. Everyone else had carefully avoided mentioning what Samuel's mother had done at the Solstice party, and how the Roths had been forced to react. It could have been very ugly. Instead, I still hadn't seen the full brunt of Fairy power. I still just saw this facade of kindness and gentility.

"You think the Solstice party was my fault?" I asked.

"Well," he said. "But it wouldn't have happened if you didn't exist." He still sat there in his chair, relaxed and easy, but his eyes had turned cold and hard. This was not a side of Logan I had seen before.

I didn't know what to say to that. Then Logan grinned. "Oh well. It will create some family drama, anyhow!"

I stared at him and realized, not for the first time, that I really didn't know much about Fairies.

"Do you think he's coming back?" I asked, meaning Holt.

His smiled faltered a little. "Yes, I do. He's not going to let something like this ruin the family."