I was in bed for weeks, sweating, too cold, too hot, not eating right, barely sleeping. I didn’t have anyone to take care of me then, no friends or family to bother checking on me, and definitely no health insurance to cover hospital visits, or even medicine. I had no choice but to tough it out and hope I made it through the other side okay.

  And I did.

  I knew I could do it again, I just had to figure out what was wrong with me.

  “There has to be something I can do,” I said, “I mean, don’t the Fae ever get sick like this? Does no one around here know how to deal with a fever?”

  Rell shrugged his little lizard shoulders. “There is such a thing as becoming too reliant on magic. When you can wave your hand and make things happen, a roadblock like this throws you off. Of course… I can help.”

  My eyes widened, and I stared at Rell from across the room. “You can? How?”

  “I’m part drake, part sprite on my mother’s side. My magic is different to Fae magic.”

  “Different…”

  “I mean, I’m not going to toot my own horn and say it’s better than theirs, or anything but…” Rell grinned a teethy grin. “Yeah, it’s better.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because I told you I wouldn’t forget the way you left me in my cage.”

  “Wait, so you’re just going to let me die?”

  “You were going to leave me here… it seems only fair.”

  I shot to my feet. “Seriously? What happened to Protection and Hospitality?”

  “Those are Fae Rites, and we don’t owe each other anything, remember? You said so yourself. The Viscount was right—it’s time you learned a lesson.”

  I didn’t have blood that could boil, but I felt the anger bubble up all the same. I marched toward Rell, breaking into a run after a couple of paces. My feet thudded against the ceiling, and as I ran past the light fixture, it swayed gently back and forth—that was when my foot gave, and I tripped. As I fell, I caught a glimpse of Elaith turning their eyes up at the ceiling, as if they’d heard something, or maybe noticed the way the lights were moving.

  Then I hit the ceiling; only I didn’t. Not exactly.

  I went through it as if it weren’t there. The world shifted, my perspective changing with it. Arms flailing, I emerged on the other side of the ceiling, flat on my back, but I was in a dark place, and I couldn’t see. I could sense the walls around me, the way they closed in on me, boxing me in. I thought I could hear a voice somewhere underneath me, and footsteps somewhere above me.

  “Rell?” I called out, my voice bouncing off the walls.

  “That was impressive,” Rell said. It sounded like he was right beside me, only I was alone in here.

  “Where am I?”

  “Stuck between floors, it looks like.”

  “Stuck? Aren’t I a ghost?”

  “Not quite.”

  “How the hell do I get out?”

  “Same way you got in there—you have to force your way through. I have to say, though, I’m surprised you were able to do that. It took years before I figured that one out. I just kept bashing into them again, and again, and again.”

  “Do you ever stop talking?” I moaned.

  “Only when someone stops listening.”

  “I swear, if I get out of this alive, I’m going to grab that little neck of yours, and I’m going to—” the walls shifted, or I shifted. Darkness turned to light, and the next thing I knew, I was through the crawlspace, or whatever that was, and in the next room.

  I wasn’t in my room, though, but the one above mine. This one wasn’t as lavishly decorated as the one below; no four poster beds or gold furnishings here. It also wasn’t nearly as big, or as embellished, or as bright. The main lights had been turned off, the only illumination coming from the glow of a small lantern near the open window.

  Someone was there, quietly pacing back and forth near it, hard-soled feet clacking against the wooden floor. It was the fat man, Vito. As soon as I clocked his oddly hunched gait, his pointed nose, and his thinning black hair, I knew it was him. I wasn’t sure what he was doing, until he suddenly stopped pacing and rushed to the window.

  “What took you so long?!” he hissed, his voice low.

  Someone spoke to him from beyond the window, but I hear the words. I also couldn’t see who it was. A flowing, white curtain was in my way, and behind it, there was little more than a shadow; a dark figure with no features I could use to identify them.

  “Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for me to be caught speaking to you?” Vito said. He looked over his shoulder, his eyes wide and panicked, then he turned to face the window again. “Tell me you have it.”

  A pause, a whisper, the rustling of the curtain. I wanted to stand, to get a better look at what was going on, but I also felt like if I moved, I’d be seen.

  “I told you not to come back until you had it!” Vito hissed.

  This time the whisper rose to something like a voice; another male, I thought, but very light.

  “Don’t you dare raise your voice at me. You are who you are because of me. Why have you come back if you don’t have it?”

  Another pause, more whispering. If I had a heart, it would’ve been wedged inside of my throat and hammering like a jackhammer against a sidewalk.

  “Of course, it did. That wretched human has already caused too many problems, and we cannot afford another setback. Do what you must, but don’t come back without that pendant.”

  The silence thickened as the curtain fluttered.

  “I don’t care who you have to kill—just get it done, and get it done tonight. Otherwise, the deal’s off.”

  What the hell?

  Vito snuffed the lantern out, drew the curtains shut, and walked quickly toward the bedroom door. I tried pushing myself upright, but the surge of panic inside of me was sudden, and immediate. My hand went through the floorboard, followed by the rest of me.

  I ended up where I’d started, on my back against the ceiling of the bedroom I was in, staring at my sleeping body in the bed beneath me.

  “You made it,” Rell said, sounding surprised. “You even caught Elaith’s attention.”

  I could barely think straight. I wasn’t sure what I’d just witnessed, or heard, but one thing I knew was a shady deal; and this one sounded like it was going to end badly for someone.

  Chapter 15

  “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Rell said. “Which is weird, because you kind of are the ghost. What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you talking?”

  I scanned the ceiling, searching for Rell. The dragon-creature was still sitting in his corner, watching me with his burning, golden eyes. I realized now that he looked a little more… solid, more real to me than everything else. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the people beneath me, even my own body, were looking a little hazy, and wavy, as if I was seeing them from behind a thin curtain.

  “I just… saw something,” I said.

  “Saw something?” Rell asked.

  “I think,” I paused, thinking carefully about what I was going to say. “I think someone’s going to die tonight.”

  “Die? You don’t mean yourself, do you? Because it’s fairly obvious to me that you’re about to die.”

  “No, shut up for a second. A moment ago, when I went through the floor, I appeared in another room. I think it was the room above ours.”

  “Yes, I watched you do that.”

  “There was someone in there, some guy named Vito who I kicked in the balls once. It looked like he was talking to someone about some pendant, and how he didn’t care if someone had to die for him to get it.”

  Rell’s eyes narrowed. “That doesn’t sound right.”

  “I’m telling you, it’s what I saw.”

  The dragon cocked an eyebrow. He then shoved his head through the ceiling and burrowed into it, disappearing in an instant and leaving me with my thoughts, and the hazy figures beneath me. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was starting to feel something like pain inside of my chest. It wasn’t more than a bit of tightness but considering I hadn’t felt anything at all until now, it was enough to worry me.

  The door to the bedroom opened, and Kady came rushing in, the Viscount trailing closely behind her. She took three stumbling steps, then paused when she saw me. Her hand flew to her mouth, and then she dashed across the room, shoving past Elaith to get to the side of my bed. I watched her take my hand and instantly recoil from the heat.

  “She’s a furnace,” Kady said, “What happened to her?”

  “First of all, rude,” Elaith said, with a dismissive wave of their hand. “Secondly, Arcadia happened to this one.”

  “Magic has not helped,” said the Viscount as he reached the foot of the bed. “We are not sure exactly what is wrong with her, and we cannot get her fever down.”

  “Have you tried a cold compress?” Kady asked.

  “A… cold compress?” Elaith asked. “What is that?”

  “Oh my God,” Kady groaned. “Someone get me some cold water and a towel.”

  Elaith and the Viscount glanced at each other in a not it kind of fashion, but it was Elaith who broke under the Viscount’s stare. They threw their hands up, turned around, and headed for the bedroom door… in no particular rush.

  “Could you be any slower?” I called out, raising my voice.

  Elaith couldn’t hear me, or didn’t care to look up.

  Rell reappeared, burrowing out of the ceiling and sitting upright to look at me. “There’s no one in there,” he said, “Room’s quiet.”

  “Because Vito left,” I said.

  “What exactly did you see?”

  “It was dark. I couldn’t tell who he was talking to, but he told someone to get some pendant for him, to do it tonight, and to kill whoever he had to kill to get it, or the deal was off.”

  “And you’re sure that’s what you heard?”

  “Yes! I was there.” I turned my eyes down at the Viscount. “I need to warn someone.”

  “Warn someone? Since when do you care about what happens to anyone here?”

  “Hey, I care.”

  “Really? Because you’ve tried escaping twice already, and both times you’ve been fine to leave people behind.”

  “It’s not like I’ve had much of a choice.”

  “Whatever. All I’m saying is, your solo escape attempts are what landed you here, as a ghost, on this ceiling, watching your body eat itself. But it could’ve been worse—you could’ve ended up as a human statue on the front porch.”

  I stared at the dragon, a bemused expression on my face. “You’re an asshole, you know that?”

  “I’m aware, yes.”

  The pain in my chest flared up into something bright, and dizzying. I reached for my chest with one hand and slammed another into the floor, gritting my teeth together and groaning. Rell stood, but he didn’t walk over to me. After a second of hesitation, he backed up a step, and then another.

  “Oh no,” he said.

  “It… hurts…” I croaked.

  “It’s happening…”

  I shut my eyes. “What’s—gah—what’s happening?”

  “Outside, past the gates, that butterfly thing touched you, remember?”

  “It didn’t touch me.”

  “It did. It left a dust trail all over you.”

  “That’s… that’s not the same. Is it?”

  “It’s probably worse. I didn’t expect the change to happen so quickly.”

  “Change?” The pain eased, but when I opened my eyes I saw myself squirming on the bed below me, and I was… different. I couldn’t see myself too well from the ceiling, but I thought my skin was starting to look too pale, dangerously pale, and there were marks on it—deep, green marks that looked like veins growing up and over my neck, my arms. “What the fuck is that?!”

  “That’s Arcadia,” Rell said, “Humans aren’t meant to be here, and the ones that do somehow get here, she makes sure they don’t stay human for very long.”

  That’s what the butterfly had said.

  I belonged to them.

  “You have to help me,” I said, forcing myself to my feet. “You said you could, right?”

  “I mean, I can, but I’m in a cage. I really didn’t think it would get this far before they stopped it.”

  “Haven’t you been listening? They don’t even know what’s wrong with me!”

  “That’s because they’re self-obsessed idiots who could care less what happens to anyone else.”

  I turned to look at the dragon. “What am I supposed to do now?”

  He shook his little red head. “I… I don’t know. If I was in the room, I could make the process stop.”

  “So, I’ll go and get you, right? I moved the lights before. Maybe I can break your cage.”

  “Maybe… or, maybe if you tried getting back into your body, it might slow the change down?”

  “That sounded like a question.”

  “Because I don’t know if it will.”

  I turned my head down—or up—and looked at my body. I was writhing on the bed. Kady looked frantic, but the Viscount hadn’t moved from where he was standing. Elaith arrived as I watched with a bowl of water and a towel to press against my burning skin. Kady got to work quickly, but it looked like the fever was the least of my problems now.

  “I need to get down there,” I said, and I jumped, but I fell right back to the ceiling like I was anchored to it. “Why didn’t that work?”

  “Because you believe that’s what’ll happen to you if you jump,” Rell said, “The astral realm is different to yours. You need to break the rules.”

  “Wait, I’m good at that.”

  “Then prove it. Your life literally depends on it.”

  I turned my eyes at the upside-down people hanging above me. Kady was padding my head down with the wet towel, but it wasn’t working. The green veins around my neck had gotten deeper, and darker. They were starting to come out of my mouth now and stretch into my cheeks, where boils were starting to form. My hair was also losing its color, and as I shook in the bed, I thought I could see leaves falling out of it.

  Worse, the pain I was feeling inside of my chest had come back, making it difficult to concentrate. But I had to concentrate. I had to believe that the rules didn’t apply to me, that I was above them, outside of them. I had to turn my middle finger up to Arcadia, just as I’d done to Earth and everyone in it many, many times before.

  So I did, and with my middle fingers turned up, I readied a jump, and went floating off the ceiling and into the center of the room. My world shifted and turned; up became down, and down became up. I was weightless for a moment, my arms and limbs flailing as my body righted itself and gravity, or what passed for gravity here, took hold.

  I landed with a thud near the Viscount, but he didn’t turn his head to acknowledge the sound. Looking at him now, even up close, I could see the features on his body starting to fade. It wasn’t just him, either; Elaith and Kady were the same. It was as if I was starting to forget what they all looked like.

  I had to get back into my body, I had to tell them what I’d seen, and I had to do it fast.

  Scrambling around the Viscount, I moved toward the side of the bed. I was in bad shape. My skin wasn’t just pale, it was slowly turning a shade of pastel green I didn’t care for. The moss-green veins were crawling all over my body now, from my fingertips into my neck, my face, and down my chest. I was tossing and turning, writhing on the bed, and as I ground my teeth, I saw my mouth was bloody, and my teeth were going jagged.

  I wasn’t me anymore—I was become a thing with bulging eyes, boils on its skin, and claws.

  Claws.

  “Rell, what do I do?!” I called up.

  “You have to take your body back,” he yelled, “Quickly! It could already be too late!”

  I looked down at my body again, at the monster it was turning into, and I grabbed my own hand. The thing suddenly turned its head to glare at me, its teeth barred, its bulging eyes bloodshot and red, the veins on its skin taut and still. Out of the corner of my eyes I noticed Kady, Elaith, and the Viscount had all stopped moving and were staring on, stunned.

  “No,” my body hissed at me with a gravelly voice I’d never forget, “This one is ours.”

  “Give me back my body!” I screamed, and I threw myself onto her, but she stuck one arm out and held me away from her.

  The world was vibrating, trembling, quaking. I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside out, but when I opened my mouth to scream, I couldn’t produce a sound.

  “What’s happening to her?!” Kady yelled.

  “I don’t know!” Elaith shrieked. “I’ve never seen this before.”

  I wrestled with my own body, trying to force myself into it even as I saw it change in front of my own eyes. There were leaves in my hair; thick, green leaves and flowers in bloom. The tips of the deep, green veins crawling over my skin were starting to push through and peek out, stretching, and unfurling to become long… butterfly antennae.

  I backed away at the horrifying sight, my mind broken and helpless. The world was falling away from me more rapidly, and the creature on the bed was grinning. Happy that it was winning, that it was beating me.

  “Stand back, all of you,” said the Viscount. “I think I know what’s happening here.”

  I glanced at him, and I watched him remove his jacket and toss it at Elaith. He was left in a long-sleeved white shirt, the sleeves of which he rolled up to his elbows. Carefully, like he had a purpose, he walked around to the side of the bed Kady was on and shoved her aside. He then grabbed one of the creature’s hands. He then took hold of its face, and forced it to look at him.

  “My blood for hers,” he said.

  “You would give of yourself willingly?” came that awful gravelly voice again.

  “Take me, you coward. Let this human be.”

  “Fine,” it hissed, and the monster raked one of its claws along the Viscount’s forearm.

  The Viscount let the creature go and staggered back a few paces, cradling his bleeding arm. Turning his eyes up not at the bed, but at me, he yelled “Now, Avery.”