Winnie turned and walked to the door. She pulled it open then looked at Elaine one last time.

  “I’ll lock up behind me so you don’t have to get up and do it yourself. Goodbye, Mom.”

  Elaine watched Winnie shut the door. She heard the lock tumble back into place as her daughter locked it. There was scraping, then the brass key slid under the door to rest on the floor a few inches inside the apartment.

  Tears welled in her eyes. She wondered if this was the last time she and Winnie would talk, or even see each other.

  Elaine sobbed until she was finally snoring.

  Chapter 6

  Chief Inspector Victor Holmes tightened his tie in the mirror. The rank insignia on his collar shined in the reflection. News of the latest promotion had come down from the Director’s office a few days before. The letter from the office of the DMC cited significant work in controlling the spread of illegal magic in the Baltimore region as the reason for the promotion to the city’s senior Red Leg office. It was ironic that he continued to rise in power even as he secretly helped Winnie Durham and the other Sable bosses working to counter Kane’s efforts to control all magic.

  The job came with his own luxury car and a significant pay increase. Morgan had been especially happy to hear about that last part. She wanted to move out of their apartment and get a house together. But given the current volatility, Victor didn’t think it was a good idea to make any major life decisions. Yet, Morgan was ever the optimist. And he wasn’t about to complain. He loved that about her.

  He walked out to the kitchen to see Morgan setting two plates of eggs and bacon on the table.

  “There you are,” she said as she sat. “I was just going to call you. Sit down and eat something, Chief Inspector.”

  Victor smiled and sat across from her. “It looks delicious. Thank you.”

  “Just don’t expect this every morning. We still need a fair division of chores, Chief Inspector or not.”

  Victor laughed. “Point taken. Really, though, thanks for this. It makes the promotion that much more special.”

  “I’m just excited that you’ll have access to even more information. Now we can really help Winnie. All of this intrigue excites me.”

  Victor considered her words. Morgan was proud of his support for her sister and the city’s chanters. It had taken him a while to see things the right way, but he too couldn’t help but feel the same sense of excitement now that he did. The ever-present scent of danger was almost narcotic.

  He and Morgan had discussed this at length, but he didn’t think she understood the true danger of their position. Being the Chief Inspector made it harder to slip under Kane’s radar, not easier. He would be in the spotlight and other ambitious types would be gunning for any opportunity to trip him up and knock him down. If anyone discovered his work to support the dissidents and rebels, losing his job would be the least of his problems.

  There was also the little problem that he’d somehow been turned into a chanter himself, or at least into someone able to manipulate magic. While he couldn’t create charmed items on his own, Victor’s experimentation had led to the discovery that he could lift enchantments from other objects and turn them back into ordinary things.

  This power had surely come from his connection with the Fae crater, hidden in the northeastern corner of the city. Situated in the abandoned industrial park where Kane first built his Harvester to siphon magic from chanters, Victor had visited the crater many times on his own. Each time he came away with a renewed sense of wonder, marveling at the clear blue skies above. There were no dust storms around the abandoned steel mill, though that truth was hidden from view by some sort of magical glamor that deceived the eye. Even Victor couldn’t see it until he was inside.

  The crater was still his guilty little secret. He wanted to tell the others, but felt like it was supposed to stay buried. Victor would talk with the fairies and learn of their work to repair the broken land around them. When he asked about how they could repair something so utterly broken, they would laugh and tell him that it was their job. What else would they do? Victor couldn’t help but feel the significance of what was happening.

  “Hello?” Morgan said, interrupting his train of thought.

  “What?”

  “You were lost in thought, somewhere else entirely. There isn’t something you’re hiding from me, is there?”

  Victor wanted to tell her about the crater. Morgan deserved to know more than anyone other than Winnie.

  “No, just thinking about work and everything that needs to get done. I’m also concerned about the Director’s scheduled meeting with all the city chiefs. He has something up his sleeve, but I don’t know what.”

  “Can’t you do some digging and ask your sources at the Department headquarters?” Morgan asked.

  “That’s the problem with this promotion, Morgan. It actually makes it harder for me to do that kind of investigation. I’m at a level now where people notice if I’m nosing around or asking questions in places where I don’t belong. They’ll start wondering what I’m doing and why I’m there. I can’t afford that kind of attention if we want to help Winnie directly.”

  “So what do we do?” Morgan asked. “I suppose I can be more diligent in scanning communications coming in from my new position in dispatch and research.”

  “That’s a good idea but be careful. Don’t leave any trail in the system that could lead back to you if you go beyond reading incoming mail and other intercepts. Kane’s no idiot. He surely knows that Winnie has some sort of contact in the department — you’ll be suspected of collusion no matter what I can do to cover for you.”

  “Director Kane thinks he knows where I stand and that I always toe the company line regarding chanters and the Sable trade.”

  Victor winced, remembering when Morgan realized what the Harvester was doing. Kane chose that moment to congratulate her loyalty. It was a chilling point in her life and transformed her belief in what she’d been doing up to that point.

  Victor changed the subject. “Can I drop you at the communications center on my way in?”

  “Aren’t you coming into city headquarters?”

  “I have a meeting first. I’ll be back at HQ later in the morning.”

  “What’s your meeting about?”

  “Boring policy with some stuffy administrators. Nothing exciting.”

  Victor didn’t want Morgan to know about his multiple trips to the crater each week. He found the visits restorative. They helped him organize his thoughts and prepare for the subterfuge of his days trying to undermine the department’s work from the top down.

  Morgan waved off Victor’s comment, grabbed the plates, and put them in the sink. “Pull the car around from the garage and I’ll meet you downstairs. I just have to put my face on.”

  “Sounds good,” Victor agreed. “I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

  It was time for another day of living more than one lie.

  Chapter 7

  Victor dropped Morgan off at the Red Legs building, then pulled into traffic and started towards the city’s northeast corner. He could feel the crater’s pull, tugging at him in some intangible way. He believed he might be able to find his way there, even if blindfolded. The sensation was wondrous and strange. It intensified as he drew closer until it was a tiny buzzing in the center of his chest, like it always was when he pulled into the steel mill’s abandoned lot.

  He killed the engine and savored the sensation. It wasn’t unpleasant at all, more like the feeling of glorious anticipation and exhilaration he’d felt before jumping from a high-dive platform as a child.

  Victor drew a deep breath and got out of the car. He noticed the differences immediately. The sidewalk was now cracked and broken from below, crumbling at the parking lot’s edge. Wildflowers bloomed from the cracks amid lush tufts of brilliant green grass. The sky was clear and blue, no sign of the orange dust permeating the rest of the heavens.

  Victor could smell the fragrant blossoms as he approached the main building, growing stronger by the step. Despite the outside changes, he was unprepared for what he found inside.

  Previously, the door led to a catwalk surrounding a large central factory floor. There was a crater in the room’s center, containing the magical entrance to the other world. The Fae crater hadn’t expanded, at least not exactly. It was better to say it had outgrown its borders. The factory floor was now covered in lush grass. There were vines and even entire trees growing in past the catwalk and stairs leading down to the floor. He could see the flitting lights and tiny shapes hinting at the winged fairies he’d seen so many times before. But now they weren’t staying in the crater; they were flitting all about around the cavernous room.

  Victor stood, taking in the tableau unfolding below, smiling at its impossible beauty. Before he knew it, Victor found his feet wandering across the catwalk to the stairs.

  A tiny voice sounded to his left. “Hello, Victor. I missed you.”

  He turned and saw the tiny girl hovering next to his head, tiny wings like a dragonfly, buzzing in the air behind her.

  “Hello Seelie. I missed you, too.”

  “I’ve been watching. I see that you’ve discovered your talent.”

  “That was your voice I heard when I removed the magic from that charm? You startled me.”

  “I’m sorry. We are tied together and I can sometimes see what you are doing. I don’t mean to pry, but I’m curious about the world beyond this place.”

  “I’m afraid it wouldn’t be kind to one such as you. I’m sorry.”

  “The Lady had told us to keep to our work here. Someday, we can freely travel the world as we used to.”

  Victor turned, looked to the clear blue pool in the crater’s center.

  “Is the Lady here now? I would talk with her again if so.”

  Seelie giggled, flipped around in the air, then hovered to a stop before him. She tapped the side of her head.

  “She talks to us here. And besides, talking to humans is hard for her. It has been, ever since our magic was stolen.”

  “Magic was stolen from you? Who took it, Seelie? Tell me and I’ll find the thief. Then maybe I can return it to you.”

  The tiny fairy giggled again and pointed to Victor. “You all stole the magic many years ago. The Lady has told us all the story.”

  “I would love to hear about it, Seelie. Will you share it with me?”

  “I guess so.” The tiny Fae shrugged. “Come. The others will want to be there. We love this story because we are part of the ending.”

  Seelie turned and flitted over the balcony railing, now overgrown with deep green ivy, flying down towards the crater.

  “Wait for me,” Victor called out, racing to catch up to Seelie. He didn’t want to miss a thing. This story seemed more than important, somehow significant, as if his quest were dependent on its telling.

  He raced down the stairs, barely noticing that the lower landing had become a tiny hillock, covered with grass. The final flight of stairs was now a gentle slope downward. He focused on Seelie, unwilling to lose her.

  But Victor didn’t need to worry — Seelie stopped and waited at the crater’s edge, now a deep, grassy depression in the center of the room.

  “Don’t worry, silly. I won’t start without you,” Seelie said when Victor caught up. “Come. This tale has more power when told at the water’s edge.”

  “The story has power?”

  “All stories do. A story can change history, make good people do terrible things, or turn evil on itself until it is good. The telling of a story in its proper place and time can gather and strengthen its power. You’ll see.”

  Though the water’s edge was a small, clear blue pool from above, down here that pool became an endless lake, bounded by trees and mist on all sides.

  “Please, Victor, sit, and I will tell you the tale as it was told to me and my brethren.”

  Seelie’s voice no longer had its childlike quality. Now it carried the weight of wisdom earned through the years.

  “Long ago, before humans recorded the passing of time, the Fae tended to the natural world, maintaining balance between all things. Their magic was powerful and dwelt in all living things. Very early on, it was discovered that some humans had an affinity to manipulate the magic within them. These few became the bridge between worlds. We reached out to these humans and with their help, we maintained the balance between light and dark. Only by keeping that balance could the world continue to thrive as intended.”

  Victor heard the words, but he experienced them, too.

  He could see the peaceful interactions between the Fae and their human colleagues. He sensed the way balance was maintained by their actions. There were times when one or more of the humans tried to upset that balance by taking more than their share of magic. But the Fae and other human protectors always worked to restore the balance.

  Then Seelie arrived at an intersection in the story … a place where Victor could sense multiple possible conclusions.

  “Then came the fall, a dark time for mankind. On the fringes of a crumbling empire, men struggled against dark agents to control the future. A man named for the hawk — Merlin to his friends — approached the Lady and requested a great boon of the Fae. He wanted the talisman that controlled all the magic so that he might set his people and all humans back on the proper path, towards a future of machines. The Lady was reluctant. This was a dangerous request. As long as the Fae possessed the talisman, they could maintain the balance. By giving it to the humans, they would surrender this power until its return.”

  Seelie paused, and Victor realized he was surrounded by hundreds of fairies, all gathered to hear the story. While they’d been reluctant to come close before, they were quite near him now. A tiny boy turned toward Victor, waving with a smile. Victor waved and smiled back. He felt a sense of belonging that he’d never experienced before. Seelie’s voice drew him back to the story, and he let his mind sink inside it.

  “Merlin was persistent in his pleas. The Lady had grown fond of the human and finally relented, giving him the talisman in a form humans could understand. He was to hold it for one generation only, using it and his own magical power to help a young king forge a regional sanctuary of order and light amid the chaos and darkness. He was to return the talisman at the end of his reign, back to the Lady by his own hand as such things must always be given freely, without coercion.”

  Victor, in his mind’s eye, saw the Lady hand a gray-haired and bearded man a shining sword with a golden hilt. As she released the blade into his hands, she offered her final words of warning:

  “Guard this talisman well, Merlin. Great woe will befall both the land and mankind in the years to come if it isn’t kept safe.”

  “I will, my Lady. The talisman will be encased in stone until the time when the once and true king should draw it forth. I shall guide and counsel him through his reign and ensure that he returns it to you when his work is complete.”

  Victor sat for a time, hearing these words play over in his mind.

  Then he realized that Seelie had stopped talking and that the other fairies were starting to disperse.

  “Wait, Seelie, what happened next? That can’t be the end of the story.”

  The fairy shrugged. “No one knows the end. When the talisman was given over, we lost the ability to control our magic and to foretell what might be in the future. The Lady told that the time of magic and machine were never meant to intersect. So now the world is slowly dying, as machines leach magic from the world.”

  Victor thought about the talisman, the sword handed to Merlin all those centuries before. It seemed somehow familiar. His brow furrowed. Seelie misread his expression.

  “Don’t worry, Victor.” The fairy flew forward and laid a tiny hand on his cheek. “The time has come when things might be set right. That’s why you’re here. You’re the once and future queen’s protector. You will help her recover the talisman so she can restore the world and return it to us.”

  “But what if I don’t know what to do?”

  “You’ll know, Victor. That is why you were chosen, why all of the queen’s companions were chosen. You’ll know because it’s the right thing to do.”

  Seelie’s final words echoed in Victor’s head — on his way to the car, inside the cabin, and every moment through the rest of his day, walking through a world that was never meant to be.

  Chapter 8

  Winnie was excited to exert her newfound power.

  Several bosses had sworn their allegiance. She still held out hope that there might be a way for the bosses to show the middling lawmakers that chanters could live peacefully with their neighbors without resorting to the sort of laws and crackdowns that had been put in place so far.

  She looked at her friends sitting in the back of her shop. Cait was sharpening a knife she’d produced from somewhere in her leather outfit. Tris was sitting with her nose in a book. Danny was playing cards with Cricket, and losing, judging by his expression.

  Things had progressed well following their mission to land Colten Sico’s loyalty. She’d received overtures from other bosses in the Midwest and on the West Coast asking for meetings to coordinate efforts. It wasn’t the same as the formal ties of her allegiance with the East Coast bosses, but it was a solid start. She glanced at the latest email from Diego Chavez, the San Angeles boss. It was time to try another part of her plan.

  Winnie broke the silence.

  “Now that we have more bosses coming on board, we can push back against the Red Legs.”

  Tris looked up from her book. The diminutive Sable tech had fire in her eyes. “We could orchestrate simultaneous attacks on Red Leg Precincts across the country.”

  “No, Tris,” Winnie countered. “I’m talking about organizing peaceful demonstrations. We organize with some of the community outreach organizations in each city, groups like the Chanter Benevolence Fund. The CBF has chapters in every major city, and they’re known for their charitable focus. We want to organize without threatening the middlings any more than we have to. The Assembly has led us out onto this ledge, but we can turn around and walk the other way.”