August Read online

  I looked up. Carley was glaring at me.

  I sighed gustily. “Fine.” I picked up the phone and punched the number for Nick. He was on speed dial even though Carley always beat me to calling him.

  It rang.

  And rang.

  And rang.

  Finally his voice message picked up: If this is Carley, I’m not apologizing. I didn’t do anything. For once you have to do the work. If this is Autumn calling on Carley’s behalf, I expected you to have more backbone.

  Beep.

  I hung up.

  “Well?” Carley demanded. “He didn’t even answer? Why didn’t you leave a message?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think his message machine was working just right.”

  Carley narrowed her eyes. She could always tell when I was lying. Or maybe she just assumed I was always lying. I wasn’t sure.

  She pulled her own phone out.

  “You sure you want to do that?” I asked.

  She ignored me and hit Nick’s number.

  I could tell the second his message started to play, because her face collapsed a little and started to turn purple under her tan. She mashed her lips together and jutted out her chin.

  “Well,” she said after she hung up. “I think you are a very good friend.” Breathing out of her nose with her mouth closed was not a good look.

  “Why don’t you just apologize?” I suggested.

  Carley scoffed. “No.” She folded her arms across her chest and glared at me.

  I sighed. “Anyway, what do you want to do today?” Since she wasn’t going to apologize to Nick I figured she would want to stay in the house and watch TV. We weren’t working that day and the rain looked like it was only going to get worse.

  “Lets go into town,” said Carley. “The weather’s not that bad. We can do a little shopping, maybe get something to eat. We’ll probably see friends.”

  I frowned. I really just wanted to curl up on the couch in my robe. If Nick wasn’t coming over we could watch all the girlie movies we wanted without judgment. “Can’t we just stay here?” I asked.

  “No,” said Carley, standing up. “We have plenty of time later to sit in front of the TV and watch movies.” She grabbed a last bite of cereal and headed upstairs. “Be sure to dress warmly,” she yelled down.

  I rolled my eyes and ate my breakfast. Slowly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go into Castleton today so much as that I wanted to sit back and think about what had happened with Logan the night before. I wondered if he was worried about Holt. It would make sense if he hadn’t heard from him, but the way his eyes had gone large when he touched me made me wish he hadn’t touched me. Holt was never that careless. Even if sometimes I wished he would be.

  In the end, though, I followed Carley upstairs to get ready. I put on jeans and a long-sleeved gray t-shirt, brushed out my hair, and wrapped a colorful scarf around my neck. Carley was already waiting for me by the front door, completely decked out in pink rain boots, a yellow rain jacket, and a flowery umbrella. Her blond hair was pulled back into a messy bun. I glanced at myself in the mirror. I had bothered with just a little bit of makeup, and my brown hair was pulled into a ponytail for the millionth day in a row.

  Carley eyed me critically. “It wouldn’t hurt to try a little harder.”

  “For whom?” I asked, grabbing my jacket and heading outside. It was raining harder than it looked, but Carley’s umbrella did a good job of covering both of our heads.

  “Has Mrs. Fritter seemed weird to you lately?” Carley asked.

  I nodded. “I think what happened to Mary really upset her. Mary was her favorite.”

  “I think we should be her favorite,” said Carley. “We’re the ones that work for her and are always on time.”

  I was about to reply when I heard the hum of an engine coming closer. Something about it sounded familiar and made me look around. We were on the same stretch of road I had been on the night I ran into Lydia and Leslie.

  A second later a sleek black car pulled up along side us.

  The hand I was using to hold the umbrella shook slightly. I told myself it was from the cold rain.

  The car pulled to a halt next to us, but the engine wasn’t turned off.

  Carley was openly staring.

  The window rolled down and there was the dark head of Lydia Cheshire.

  I saw two pairs of perfectly formed bare legs in the car. I didn’t have to try too hard to figure out who was with her.

  “Want a ride?” she asked. Her voice was the sort of false bright that was normally reserved for a talking doll.

  “No,” I said, just as Carley said yes. Since I couldn’t tell Carley that Lydia and Leslie were part of the Winter Fair Court and that they hated me, there had been no reason for me to explain my dislike of them. My reticence had made my avoid-them-at-all-costs attitude difficult to justify.

  Carley looked at me wide-eyed. “It is raining!” she said indignantly. “They’ve offered us a ride and it’s a GIRLS day. They,” she pointed to the sleek black car, glistening in the rain, “are girls.”

  I heard Leslie mutter something, but I couldn’t hear what. Probably something nasty.

  “Just get in,” said Leslie, leaning over her sister. Her startlingly blue eyes were outlined in black kohl, and they combined with her pale skin to make her look like she was ready to go out for the night.

  I took a deep breath. They had been ordered to be decent. I was sure they wouldn’t defy Samuel, but I hoped they wouldn’t. When I had allowed myself to think about it at all, I had realized that Samuel’s mother was a queen, and that Lydia and Leslie, no matter how much loyalty they might feel toward Samuel, might owe their ultimate loyalty to his mother.

  It turned out I didn’t have a choice. Carley was already climbing into the back seat.

  Taking a deep breath, I climbed in after her. I couldn’t help but be nervous; I didn’t like Lydia or Leslie and I wasn’t a fairy. They were stronger than I was, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever feel completely safe with them. Just in case they decided to drive the car off a cliff and jump out at the last minute, I buckled my seat belt. Carley raised her eyebrows at me but did the same.

  “So, nice weather we’re having, huh?” I asked. Leslie rolled her eyes at Lydia.

  “Look, we didn’t offer to give you a ride so that we could exchange useless niceties,” said Lydia. “We want something.”

  I twisted my hands in my lap so they wouldn’t see how nervous I was. I was gripping them together so tightly the knuckles were white. “You mean you don’t want to hang out with us for our wonderful personalities?” I asked.

  “We offered you a ride so that we could discuss Samuel,” Lydia said.

  My eyes flicked to Carley. I wasn’t sure what I could discuss with Lydia and Leslie about Samuel with Carley in the car, but instead of asking I just waited. Since the car was massive, Carley was enjoying playing with the back seat stereo controls.

  They must have been waiting for me to say something, but I wasn’t going to further the conversation. Finally Leslie said, “We want to know what your intentions are with Samuel.”

  Of all the things they could have said, that surprised me the most. Wasn’t the guy supposed to go out and ask about suitors for his sister, and not the other way around? Fairies definitely do things differently, I thought.

  “Sorry?” I asked. “What do you mean my intentions?”

  Carley had turned off the radio. Anytime we were going to discuss guys she was all ears.

  “How is that confusing?” asked Leslie.

  “Well,” I said, being extra careful because of Carley, “Samuel doesn’t seem to want to...date.” At this point I wasn’t sure what Samuel was doing, but I did know that he didn’t act like the kind of guy who wanted to be in a relationship, let alone take up with the girl he was destined to marry. And as long as he didn’t want me I didn’t have to worry about my attraction to him.

  Lydia scoffed. “You think you have
no control over what’s going on?” she demanded. She sounded incredulous.

  I felt like I had no control, but obviously that would be the wrong thing to tell Lydia. Instead I said, “I am certainly not the only one who has decisions to make.” I was trying to make the point that Samuel had made it crystal clear what his intentions were and that being with me was not one of them.

  “Do you really think that Samuel isn’t interested?” asked Leslie.

  Carley perked up. “Samuel likes you? Samuel Cheshire? What are you waiting for??”

  “That’s what we were wondering,” said Lydia, turning around and smiling at Carley. Carley’s cheeks turned a faint color of pink.

  Leslie’s smile at Carley was calculated. Now that Carley had a little encouragement, she launched. “Look, Autumn, I know this is really hard and you liked him, but Holt is gone. You’re only here for the summer and you didn’t even know Holt that long. Now you’ve had a lot more time with Samuel, and lets face it, he’s gorgeous. Plus, Nick and he are good friends so the four of us could go on double dates all the time. It’d be awesome.”

  “Wait,” I said, desperately trying to get Carley to stop talking. “You two want me to date Samuel?” I was looking at Lydia and Leslie. Since they had threatened me with harm if I didn’t stay away from Holt, I guess that’s one way I could look at it, but they hadn’t ever seemed in favor of me hanging out with Samuel, either. I had thought they were in favor of me disappearing altogether, actually. If they could have put me on a one way spaceship to Mars, I thought, they’d do it gladly.

  “That’s not what we’re saying,” said Leslie. Carley’s face fell a little, but she was still excited.

  “We are saying that Samuel is spending a lot of time with you and we just want to make sure he doesn’t get hurt,” said Leslie. We had pulled up in front of UP UP and Away a few minutes ago. My hand was poised on the door handle.

  “When have you been seeing Samuel?” Carley asked, hurt in her eyes.

  I didn’t want to point out to Carley that she was now very absorbed in her relationship with Nick, so I just said to Lydia and Leslie. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, which I would think is obvious, but at this point I don’t see who there is left to hurt.” I knew that if I kept going, thinking about Holt and about Samuel’s initial rejection of me, I might start crying. So I pushed the car door open and got out. Carley had no choice but to follow.

  What I couldn’t say to Lydia and Leslie, what I would never say to anyone, was that I wondered if I could like Samuel at all if I was waiting for Holt to come back and figure things out with me. But I was destined for Samuel and the pull I felt when I was with him proved that. Now I was more confused than ever.

  Chapter Nine

  I waited to hear Samuel say they had caught the Water Sprite, and I wanted to hear the police say they had found Mary, but neither happened for the next few days.

  During the day Samuel felt comfortable leaving me alone, but he instructed me to call for help if anything strange happened. He said the Fairies would know if something was wrong with me. The police had done what he suggested; they had roped off the beaches. At first people argued. I would walk past some of the more popular beach spots and there would be teenage guys swimming. The police soon put a stop even to that, though. Apparently they didn’t know that only girls were at risk, or if they did it wasn’t something they could come out and say. Summer without swimming was like dinner without dessert. Might be good, but couldn’t be great.

  After several more nights, Samuel and I had another argument. I was tired of not getting any news about the Sprite, and he disappeared out the window while I went to sleep angry.

  When I woke up the next morning I was surprised to realize that I had slept well. I hadn’t had any dreams of being attacked by sea monsters or anything else. Carefully I peeked over the edge of my bed, looking at the heap of blankets on the floor. There wasn’t a person wrapped up in them; Samuel had never come back.

  “Some protection he is,” I muttered.

  “What’d you say?” Carley asked, pushing her way into my room. If I hadn’t been lying down I would have jumped three feet into the air. “Were you talking about a guy?”

  She wore a polka dot dress and a disgustingly cheery smile. “What are you so happy about?” I asked.

  “They found Mary,” said Carley, excitedly plopping down on my bed. “She’s disoriented but alive.”

  “Really?” I asked. “That’s great.” Relief for Mary flooded through me, but at the same time another worry crept in. Samuel hadn’t said anything about there being a chance that they’d find her alive, and I wondered if that was why he’d run off and not come back. My stomach twisted. What if he wasn’t okay?

  “Yeah,” said Carley, “I guess she hit her head and was knocked out on some remote part of the beach for a long time. It was actually Susan who found her. So they’re lifting the ban on not going into the water.”

  “How’s Mary doing?” I asked. I needed Carley to keep talking so that I could get my addled thoughts in order.

  “She’s good, I guess. Just at the hospital with her family. Samuel came by. He said to call him when you got a sec,” said Carley. “What’s with the blankets?” she asked, pointing to the floor. I hadn’t bothered to pick up the makeshift bed I had created for Samuel when he started staying over.

  “Oh, I, um, was thinking of sleeping there if it was too hot,” I said. Nice lie, I congratulated myself. Normally I wouldn’t be able to pull off spewing such crap on the fly.

  “Right….” said Carley. Maybe it wasn’t such a good lie after all, because she obviously didn’t believe me. “Anyway, Nick and I are going to go shopping and then maybe on a bike ride or something. Want to come?”

  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 – 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, wit
h 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 – low, I know, since he was his little brother – 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.”