Susan's Summer (8 page)

Having found a quiet place in the sunshine, I sat in the garden for a long time. Besides the fact that I didn’t want to face Mae’s glee at our staying, and I didn’t want to run into Seth again so soon, I had also just gotten a message from Autumn and I wanted to read it in private.

Fairies had a number of ways to communicate. Yes, we had cellphones and used e-mail, but when it was Fairy to Fairy communication there were other ways. Fairies did that for several reasons. First, it was faster. A Fairy could carry something called a note-stone, which Autumn had thought was incredibly cool when she first got one, and it would instantly light up when a message came through. Note-stones were like they sounded, stones, only they appeared to be made of multicolored glass for Summer Fairies and clear ice for winter Fairies. Every Fairy had one. It was the best way to communicate with one of your own, because it was fast and private. The message would appear on one of the surfaces of the stone and if it was really long you could scroll through it just like on a phone. I loved my note-stone, a beautiful rainbow of colors, because it had been my mother’s.

Autumn and I kept in regular touch, maybe because at this point we both felt like outsiders. But as always, I had to steel myself to read her message. First there were the usual tear marks on the screen of my note-stone, because Autumn usually mentioned Holt and whenever she mentioned Holt I cried. If Autumn and Samuel hadn’t been so important to me I wouldn’t even have read their notes, but besides that, their messages were my best communication to the world I had known for so long. Holt had another brother, Harlequin, but Harl was different from both Logan and Holt, both the youngest in the family and very studious. When we had spoken earlier in the summer he had been off at some learning institute for Fairy brilliance of this or that. He had never been around much, so even though his brother’s death had devastated him as much as it had the rest of us, it hadn’t done the immediate violence to his life that it had done to mine and his mother’s, and to everyone else’s who had been a regular part of the Court in Castleton.

I sighed and opened the message.

~ ~ ~

Dear Susan,

Sorry Samuel and I haven’t been in better touch. Note-stone message communication is spotty here, and we haven’t used the internet for anything else. We still aren’t ready to come back or tell anyone where we are. It’s better that way. Trust me.

There’s still no sign of Logan. He has been totally off the grid and missing for months. I think his mom has stopped worrying; it’s as if she almost feels relieved. She knows he’s okay (she says it’s the same as with Holt, that she’d be able to tell if he wasn’t) and therefore she thinks he has disappeared so that he can deal with his grief. Samuel agrees.

We are very happy here. We’ve talked about having a Rose ceremony and a wedding, but we’re not truly ready yet. It’s too soon after what happened to Holt, and Samuel and I are in no rush despite what his mother wants. I think she just wants him to consolidate her power. She keeps dropping hints to me that if I don’t marry him he’ll find someone else. Like that’s possible. I just try to ignore her, but it’s hard. She’s persistent, as you know.

Anyway, how are you? Mae tells me that you and she are going on a road trip? She was awfully mysterious about it, but I guess you’ve already started. I hope it’s going well. Be sure to take lots of pictures. Samuel and I aren’t getting a chance to do much traveling and we miss it.

Carley and Nick are blissfully together. I spend hours on the phone with Carley hearing her gush about him, and I just have to laugh. I’ve now started asking her when the wedding is. She pretends to be offended, but I think they might actually do it in the next few years. She’s just giddy with happiness and I’m happy for them.

Will write again soon.

Autumn

~ ~ ~

I stared down at the words for a long time. The beautiful summer weather and the sun-drenched breeze, the plants blazing with life, everything around me contradicted my dark mood. I was a Summer Fairy, and with that status went responsibilities to life and growth, but I felt none of those right now. Not knowing what to do with myself, after a while I got up and started to walk through the garden.

I was supposed to use my Glamour for beauty and good, but I found myself wishing I could be more like a Winter Fairy and create an arctic breeze to freeze my heart.

I had spent enough time in my parents’ garden and then in the Roths’ so that I could name most of the flowers I saw. There were long stretches that could have used some tidying up, but the overall effect was overwhelming. The balance of colors and textures, the layout, the way the path led both the feet and the eyes forward—I had never seen anything like it.

My wandering took me around various twists and turns, and soon I was totally lost. Despite the beauty I was surrounded with I was still feeling tired, and the heat beating down from above was not helping my mood. At a point where I must have been at least a mile from the house and was thinking of turning back, I rounded a bend and saw, just ahead, blazing a little to the right of the path, a flower bed that was like a rare and stunning jewel hidden at the edge of the woods. I blinked several times, wondering if my eyes were playing tricks on me. Instantly my mood started to lighten.

The flower bed was otherworldly even for a fairy creation. There was an incredible mix of colors, including some that I knew didn’t exist among ordinary flowers. I could have gotten flowers that color with some effort, but only by using a massive amount of my magic to do it. Holt had been better at it than I was, but I had loved it more. I loved taking care of living beings, and it didn’t matter if they were plants or people. I paid attention to what I cared about, and it made me better at responding to my loved ones’ needs. Holt had been more clinical about caring. He knew the spells and what he was supposed to do, so he did it. I did it from a place of love, he did it from a place of knowledge.

Without meaning to I gave an appreciative sigh, and then, glancing around to see if anyone might be watching, I headed toward the flowers. Surely it couldn’t hurt to walk through them.

At some point earlier in the day, Katie had said that there was one garden that was to be left alone. She hadn’t said why, just that no one was allowed in it, and that I’d know which one it was if I ran across it. I was sure this must be the one; it was too beautiful to be disturbed by a human presence. I sighed appreciatively as I looked at it and wondered why no one was allowed inside. I couldn’t imagine the smells or the peace I would feel if I were actually walking among those colors.

My own Glamour clamored for release, longing to flow out of me and suffuse itself with the flowers surrounding me. The pounding sun and the sweet breeze only strengthened its resolve to be free of the constraints I had put on it, so it was only with difficulty that I made myself keep walking. But such was the effect of the flowers that I forgot all about my intention of turning back toward the house. I don’t know how long I walked, but I was sure I'd never reach the end of Arsenal land, and I didn’t really care if I did. My emotions were a confused mess, and walking away was a relief.

“Are you lost?” asked a male voice, warm and friendly, from behind me.

Startled, I turned. I was in the deep woods now, having left the fields long ago. I wasn’t worried; if necessary the nature surrounding me would tell me how to find my way home.

The guy standing behind me was tall and strong looking. I looked up into his face and saw a square jaw and a straight nose with just a few freckles. Wavy dark brown hair brushed his forehead, framing milky gray eyes. He smiled. He was dressed casually, in a t-shirt and jeans. He wore boots, as if he was prepared to walk through rough terrain.

Wow, there were some really cute guys in Vermont. I vaguely wondered what their mothers fed them out here.

“Aren’t you hot?” I blurted out. I could see that he was hot in a different sense, but I meant from the sun. Unfortunately it hadn’t come out like that. I had gone months, literally, without being attracted to any guys at all, in fact I had barely looked twice at anyone. Now, in the space of twenty-four hours, I had suddenly been faced with two guys I couldn’t take my eyes away from.

“I was walking through the field,” he said, still smiling. “I do research on the growth out here.”

“Fascinating,” I said.

He laughed. “It isn’t as boring as it sounds.” Unlike Seth, this guy had nothing mysterious about him. Seth had been kind and I had even seen the spark of interest in his eyes, but he was hiding a lot about his family, and his last cold words to us had been out of harmony with his earlier manner. This guy’s smile was warm and inviting. It seemed to say, “Ask me anything and I’ll answer.”

I had blocked off my Glamour, but I still knew this guy was a fairy. What kind I couldn’t tell, but I could also sense that he knew I was a fairy too. There was a cool flow as air moved around him, not quite touching his skin, and an increase in the fragrance around us that said that nature recognized him as magical. Sometimes I thought it was a mistake for the Supreme Council to just let us all walk around unchecked. It made me suspect that they didn’t realize the effect hot male Fairies had on humans. Well, maybe not just humans. I felt a blush coming on—again.

This guy, in any case, wasn’t acting like a mysterious fairy. He was acting like a guy who had come across a girl in the woods that he thought was cute. Well, duh!

“Are you lost?” he asked. The light in his eyes told me he was teasing. The confident way his large hands rested on his hips told me that he knew exactly where we were.

“No,” I said. Granted, without my Glamour it would have been like I was paddling a canoe in the ocean, but the thing was, I had my Glamour and I always would, because it’s super difficult to get a fairy’s magic away from her or block her from using it entirely. Usually only sitting royalty, meaning the King and maybe the Queen, have such powers.

The guy with the dark brown hair could see my thought process cross my face, and his smile got wider, making those milky gray eyes crinkle in mirth. He was so tall that I had to bend my neck back a little to look up into his warm, open face.

“Can I walk you back to Arsenal?”

He was still beaming at me, so much so that I felt safe and relaxed just being in his presence. I knew he wouldn’t ask me any uncomfortable questions or make me feel something I wasn’t ready to feel. And I shouldn’t have been surprised that he knew where I was staying; there wasn’t anywhere else within walking distance, of that I was sure.

Still, I had to ask: “How do you know that’s where I came from?” Whenever I felt threatened I went on the offensive. It was a bad habit I had no intention of breaking.

“There’s nowhere else close,” he said. “And you’re a Summer Fairy. Susan, right? Part of the Roth court? I knew you looked familiar.” He smiled again.

I took a deep breath, forcing down the panic that started to rise in my chest. I would have to get used to this. I had decided to travel, for goodness sake! I would have to talk about the Roths sooner or later, and probably often.

How could there be two totally hot guys—in Vermont no less—who were Fairies who had never attended any of my parties? Or the Solstice Party? I prided myself on knowing everyone. I was the social glue of the courts and I loved it. All the hot guys came when I asked them, or so I had thought, anyway.

“I’m Teegan Hamilton of the Marchell Court.” He stuck out his hand.

The Marchell Court was the counter to the Arsenal Court, much like the Cheshires’ Winter Court balanced the Roths’ Summer Court. Now that he had said it, I remembered hearing various court members discussed at parties as recently as last summer. I frowned. I couldn’t remember exactly why they were talked about, but something told me it was bad.

“What’s wrong?” Teegan’s voice drew me back to his gray eyes, his beaming smile, and the brown hair that flopped lazily over his forehead. His hand was still waiting. Cautiously, I reached out and shook it.

I was relieved to feel the warmth in his touch, and the calluses; it meant that he didn’t just sit around and let others do the work, he did some too. Of course, he was a member of someone else’s court and not a Prince, so it shouldn’t surprise me that he worked, but it did surprise me a little that he put none of his magic into his handshake. Fairies were known for trying to show dominance and a lot of Fairies did that by trying to prove they were stronger. I was glad Teegan didn’t feel the need to do that with me.