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  “It has?” I asked. I had no idea what she was talking about. I was never late, I hadn’t lost any money since the ten dollars incident, I was polite, and I had never broken a dish, although I was sure that would change at some point. So what was her problem?

  “I think I know what it has to do with,” said Mrs. Fritter. “I think I know what’s causing it.”

  “You do?” I asked, incredulous. This oughta be good.

  “Mr. Roth has returned and with it your distraction,” she said, sounding sadder and sadder. “You simply cannot go on like this. You need to surround yourself with good people to succeed, not those who will bring you down.”

  “What did he ever do to you?” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “He’s a nice upstanding guy. I’ve never seen him say anything mean to anyone.”

  “Excuse me? Do not talk back to me. You are a child. I am an adult. Your parents have dumped you here without adequate supervision and will be surprised when you run amok. Well, I won’t have it. Not at my establishment.”

  “You can’t tell me who I can and cannot see when I’m not here,” I pointed out to her.

  “Oh no, my dear, I’d never do that,” said Mrs. Fritter. “I simply tell you now. Your performance had better improve or I think it would be best if you found another place of employment.”

  I seriously couldn’t believe my ears. Was this lady nuts? I couldn’t wait to text Holt and tell him, but soon after she delivered that absurd lecture she shooed me out of the office. I was left to go work my shift, streaming mad at everyone and everything.

  I was mad at Carley for accusing me of guy hopping. I was mad at Mrs. Fritter for lecturing me. I was even a little mad at Holt and Samuel for not being honest with me about this Water Sprite problem.

  I sighed. Maybe being mad at Holt and Samuel wasn’t fair; they were doing their best. I just hoped it was enough. I had faith that they wouldn’t let anything hurt me. Now all I had to do was have faith in myself.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When my shift was over I left with barely a goodbye for Mrs. Fritter. One way or the other, I wasn’t going to be working there much longer.

  It was early afternoon when I got outside. While I walked I checked my phone. There was one text from Holt, simply saying that Logan was going to help out with the Water Sprite if we needed him to, since I had vetoed Lydia and Leslie. I texted him back an okay.

  I started to try to find out what Carley was up to, but thought better of it. She was mad at me, and I thought she was being totally unreasonable, so it was probably better if we just left each other alone. Plus, if I didn’t get in touch with her maybe she’d get in touch with Nick. I was pretty sure Nick had no intention of contacting her, so she was going to have to do the dirty work. For once.

  I’d had a lot of friends who had hooked up before, but never two that seemed to care about each other like Nick and Carley did. Now they had basically just broken up, without ever having been together. Sweet.

  My thoughts soon shifted away from Nick and Carley as I realized that I was walking straight towards Samuel. Unfortunately, Lydia and Leslie were with him. I took a deep breath. Maybe they wouldn’t see me.

  As they got nearer, I tried not to look as if I was afraid of them, but as far as I was concerned there was a good chance they were helping the Water Sprite try to kill me. I was definitely scared of them. And they could tell.

  When they came up to me, Leslie started to giggle. “Oh, look who it is. The girl who thinks she can ban us from Water Sprite hunting.”

  “I’m surprised you’re speaking up, Leslie. Normally you let Lydia do all the talking,” I replied.

  “Alright,” said Samuel. “Let’s not start. Les, Lyd, you guys both know that Holt, Susan, and I can handle the Water Sprite.”

  “Yeah, and what about you and Susan?” asked Lydia. “She’s been around an awful lot lately.”

  I looked at Lydia stupidly. “What do you mean? Of course they’ve been spending a lot of time together. They have to protect me.”

  “My, my, you are a self-involved little thing, aren’t you?” asked Lydia.

  I glared at her. My mother says I’m an excellent glarer; must be from all those years of practice. I would never tell Lydia that, though. She was the sort of girl who was too mature to need advice from her mother, or to approve of anyone else who did.

  “Anyway, we were heading to lunch,” said Leslie pointedly.

  “Want to come?” asked Samuel. In the bright afternoon light his hair shone black and he flashed me a smile. Somewhere underneath his skin were the marks that identified him as a Fairy, but I couldn’t see them.

  “No thanks,” I said, and silently I added I’d rather drink nail polish remover than go to lunch with those two. They’d probably poison my food. I knew I was being overly dramatic, but I did NOT want to be around them.

  I waved goodbye and kept walking. Lydia gave me a smirk, Leslie ignored me, and Samuel looked at me ruefully.

  I started for home again. Holt hadn’t said anything about hanging out today and I guess we couldn’t if we were trying to give the Water Sprite the opportunity to capture me. It made me miss Carley all the more, but I still wasn’t going to call her.

  When I got home there was no sign of Nick’s car in the driveway – not that I’d been expecting it – and Carley wasn’t inside. Relieved to get out of the heat, I plopped down on the couch with a sandwich and a glass of apple juice.

  My phone buzzed before I could even finish the sandwich. I picked it up and checked. It was from Carley. “Hey, come down to the water. Nick and I are here.”

  I frowned and texted her back, “You guys patched things up?” Carley wasn’t the type to grovel or apologize before she knew it was absolutely necessary.

  After a few minutes with no response, I grabbed up my tote and headed back outside into the heat. It would have been nice if Carley had bothered to respond, but I decided it was good anyway that the two of them were getting along again. I would never have said it to Carley, but I thought Nick was good for her.

  When I got there the sand was packed with people. As usual it felt like everyone in town plus a few hundred tourists were crowding around the water. I was just glad that they were safe from the Water Sprite, since we now knew that it only wanted me.

  I texted Carley, “Where are you?” but again got no answer. I wandered down the beach, looking for any sign of her or Nick.

  A little way down I saw a head of familiar blond hair. I smiled, but when the head turned towards me I realized my mistake. It wasn’t Holt sitting on the sand with his friends. It was Logan.

  He waved me over and I went to say hi. I actually felt a little relieved. It probably wasn’t the best idea for me to be this close to the water without knowing that Holt or Samuel was close by, but I wanted to find Carley.

  “Hi, Logan,” I said.

  “Hey, Autumn. What are you doing here?” he asked, looking at me closely.

  I chewed my lip and tried to think of a good excuse. Logan knew I wasn’t supposed to be there.

  “Carley texted me,” I said. “We had a fight earlier, so I wanted to make sure she was alright. Have you seen her or Nick around?”

  “Nope,” said Logan, “but I haven’t been looking either.”

  I wished now more than ever that I had some sort of Fairy power that I could use to ask the plants – or something – where Carley was. This was annoying. Maybe she was just doing it to mess with me because she was still mad, but if she was going to text me and invite me somewhere she should keep hold of her phone and not walk off and leave it somewhere so that I couldn’t find her.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’m going to keep looking for her.”

  “Want to join us?” invited Logan. I now realized that he was sitting with two very pretty girls. One had straight red hair, and her blue bathing suit fit perfectly over her very curvy body. She wasn’t pretty like Susan was pretty, but she was definitely attractive. The other was a gig
gling brunette, who seemed to think that everything Logan said was the cutest thing in the world, and would emphasize that by covering her mouth and making some sort of twittering sound.

  “No thanks,” I said. “I should really find my friends.”

  “Why don’t I go look for them and you can just hang out here? It’s really hot out,” Logan offered.

  “That’s really nice,” I said. I was surprised he’d offered. When he’d found me in his brother’s room he’d seemed a little weird, but I guess he was making up for it now. “But I really should just go find them.”

  “I’ll go with you then.” And he sprang to his feet.

  Giggly Girl Number Two looked disappointed and showed it by tossing her hair and glaring at me.

  “Can we come too?” she asked.

  “I won’t be long. Just have to help my brother’s girlfriend,” he replied.

  Giggly Girls One and Two looked happier now that he’d called me Holt’s girlfriend, as if they felt confident that I would never switch brothers, and therefore they had nothing to worry about.

  Logan and I started walking. I’d been avoiding him, but after a couple of minutes I realized that I didn’t have to. He was really nice. He cracked jokes about the Cheshires, particularly Lydia and Leslie, whom he knew I couldn’t stand.

  After walking along the beach for a while and seeing no sign of Carley and Nick, I decided to ask Logan what I’d been wondering ever since I had seen him. I could have asked Holt, but it always felt too awkward to bring Samuel up to Holt. Logan was a different story; I was pretty sure that Logan wouldn’t say anything to Holt about my asking.

  “So, I saw Lydia earlier,” I started. I was never very good with subtlety.

  “How is she? Evil as usual?”

  “Pretty much,” I said. “But she said something interesting….”

  “Oh? Was it the fastest way to freeze a person to death in temperatures of ninety or above?”

  “What? No,” I answered. “It’s about Susan and Samuel.”

  “Ha,” said Logan. “You’re just noticing about them?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Susan’s been in love with Samuel for years,” he answered. “Totally head over heels. I think she always held out hope that she’d end up with him, maybe if it was only that he would choose a Queen he didn’t really like and keep her on the side. Sometimes princes do that. I have no idea, because she’s too good for that sort of crap, but you never know.”

  “Wait, but Samuel doesn’t feel the same way, does he?” I asked. The thought of him with someone else upset me. Maybe it was that whole destiny thing. Then I had an even more unsettling thought. Maybe Carley was right. Maybe I just flitted around from man to man.

  “What?” asked Logan. “You look queasy.”

  I glared at him.

  “So, they’re together?” I asked. I could barely get the words out, but I had to know the truth.

  “No idea,’ said Logan, shaking his head. “Never been sure how Samuel felt about her and he always keeps to himself. But you came along this summer, which I think screwed some shit up for us.”

  He said it while he smiled, but the smile wasn’t friendly.

  Not wanting to talk about this any more, because Logan was making me feel like Susan’s predicament was my fault, I said, “No sign of Carley?”

  “No,” said Logan.

  I stopped dead in the sand and looked at my phone. There were still no texts from her, which wasn’t like her at all. The only time she didn’t reply to a text within five minutes was when she was working, and I knew for a fact that she wasn’t working today. She’d once said to me that she was worried about dying, mostly because no one would be there to reply to the text messages she got.

  I grabbed Logan’s arm. “Run for help,” I cried.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Logan. “Run for whose help?”

  I stared at my phone and started to frantically text Holt. He had to get here. Now. Carley had gone to the water. She’d been mad at me and gone to the water and now she was gone. I don’t know if she’d texted me beforehand or not, but what I did know was that the Water Sprite must have her and for all I knew the Sprite could have killed her by now.

  I started to race towards the water, ignoring Logan’s cries for me to stop. I just hoped it wasn’t too late.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  I ran into the ice cold waves. I had no plan. I knew very well that I wouldn’t be able to stay underwater for more than twenty seconds or so without being forced to the surface. I wasn’t even sure about that, because it wasn’t as if I had made a practice of seeing how long I could hold my breath. The talents we don’t know we need until it’s too late, I thought.

  I was waist deep when I turned around to make sure Logan had gone for help. He was nowhere to be seen.

  I knew I had to dive under, to completely submerge myself in the water. I had to let the Sprite know I was there. So I dropped under the waves, pushing my breath out as I went. I didn’t dare to open my eyes because every time I had ever tried it, my vision had ended up painful and blurry.

  I came up for air, then dove under again. All I could think about was Carley. I couldn’t believe I’d gotten my friend into this. She didn’t deserve it, no one did, and now she was lost at sea. I wanted to cry, but I was already too cold.

  I came up for a second time, taking in one great big gulp of air.

  That’s when I felt something slimy encircle my foot. I fought not to flinch, even though terror gripped me. Gritting my teeth, I lashed out with my free leg, trying to hit whatever it was that was grabbing me.

  “Give me Carley back,” I screamed. “She doesn’t have anything to do with this!”

  She is mine now. As you will be soon, little princess.

  The voice sent shivers into my bones.

  Panic rose up in my chest as I felt myself being tugged under, but this time I wasn’t caught off guard. Instead of going along and letting myself be pulled out to sea, I firmly planted my free leg and pushed as hard as I could backwards, trying to pull the thing towards the shore.

  Instead of going along nicely, it tightened its grip. What felt like sharp nails stuck into my skin and I gave a small cry of pain. Looking through the water, I could see something short and a metallic green. I knew Water Sprites weren’t large, but I hadn’t expected them to be so small, either.

  “Autumn!” I heard a yell from the shore. I turned my head and saw Samuel running towards the water, just as whatever was holding my leg gave a great yank.

  I screamed as I was jerked under the surface. I had no time to take a breath and my mouth filled immediately with salt water.

  Frantically, I spun around. The Sprite couldn’t pull me away as easily as before, because I dug my hands as hard as I could into the sand and was again trying to kick back at its small form. I could see its luminous eyes and a trail of long black hair flowing out behind it, and its pale skin (well, of course it was pale; it wasn’t exactly something that would tan) almost glowing. I felt the sand underneath my hands shift. My grip was slipping.

  Luckily, Samuel wasn’t far away, and Lydia and Leslie had come with him.

  I had thought the water was cold when I went in, but suddenly it was freezing. If I hadn’t known better I would have said that it was about to become a block of ice. I could see the Water Sprite’s movements slowing. Shock and the drop in temperature seemed to be confusing it.

  Your friends won’t be able to save you, little princess. Your princes won’t be able to save you. They will mourn for you.

  The voice inside my head felt like a pounding hammer with an endless supply of nails. Inside my pounding head, I cringed.

  But already, the eerie voice sounded less threatening as the Sprite’s speech slurred with the cold. I felt him trying to fight it and me at the same time, but even though I wanted to be hopeful because I knew that the cold could only be coming from the Cheshires, I was about to run out of air.r />
  Facing the ocean bottom, I tried to hold on. Finally, a pair of pale feet came into view, and strong arms gripped me and pulled me upwards.

  I burst out of the water in a spray of droplets and looked up into Holt’s grim eyes.

  “Miss me?” I tried to say, but all that came out of my mouth was water.

  Gross.

  I saw Holt’s faint smile as he took me up onto the shore, but it didn’t come easily. He looked pained. It took me a moment to realize that it was because he was in the water too, and it was most emphatically not his element.

  As I came ashore I saw that Lydia, Leslie, and Samuel all had their hands stuck into the ocean. To the extent that I could see anything around the beach it was faded and blurry, as if it was only half there. One of the Fairies must be Glamouring everything, I thought; it wouldn’t do for all the residents of Castleton to think that the Cheshires and the Roths were crazy.

  Everything happened quickly after that. The Water Sprite had no chance, not against so many Fairies. And I was glad. At first a part of me had felt bad for the thing, which was surely lonely, but not after it killed a girl and tried to kill me. There was no going back after that. I was proud of my friends. I was proud of my own resistance at the end. Most importantly, no one was going to be hurt by a crazy Water Sprite any more.

  Carley was also fine. Once she was out of the water she had no idea what had happened, beyond that she had almost drowned again. To deal with her stress and panic she started making out with Nick.

  “We have a problem,” said Samuel, coming up to Holt and me where we sat on the beach. I was pitched out of my rosy outlook when I saw the worry all over his face. “Are you okay?” he asked me before he continued.

  I nodded. Moving my head made my throat hurt.

  “What is it?” asked Holt. He was sitting next to me on the sand.

  “Water Sprites can’t do this much damage on their own,” said Samuel. “I mean, they can do random damage. But this Water Sprite always knew where Autumn was. How could he know? Why was he always close by?”