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  “She’s not.” He shook off my hand. “It’s for your own safety, Princess.”

  My chest tightened. Why didn’t he understand?

  The sands poured through the hourglass faster by the second. I gripped my wand tight and turned as if walking back toward the palace with him.

  Then I did something I haven’t done since we were kids. I lifted into the air and shoved him hard enough to knock him down. “I’m sorry, but I am going.”

  Before Amaranth could scramble to his feet, I zipped through the portal and turned to watch as it closed behind me. Anger had lit up his face, but I’d deal with that and his disappointment in me later.

  If I didn’t have my adventure tonight, I’d never have another chance.

  Chapter Three

  My heart thwapped, thwapped, thwapped hard in my chest. I hovered above ground on the opposite side of my fairy homeland. The portal didn’t reopen, and no one else had followed me through.

  I wanted to see and touch everything, but first things first. I tapped my head with Iris’s wand and said, “Small.”

  I shrank to the size of a bird and fluttered to the tops of the trees. Even though I wasn’t allowed to godparent, I’d watched the training of my fellow fairies enough to know how to hide from humans and other creepy things prowling the swamp at night.

  I whisked off the cloak and hung it on a nearby branch. My borrowed dress shimmered in the moonlight, and I stuck my enchantment dust in the pocket.

  I inhaled deeply, but immediately wrinkled my nose. Freedom smelled awful swampy, and a little like animal waste. The sounds were much different on this side of the dome, too. The frogs croaked louder, and in the distance, I could hear vehicle engines and the blasting sound of a train’s horn. While I’d never seen these human things up close, I’d read about them and heard the stories brought back from the other fairies. I twirled in a circle and squealed. Now I had the chance to experience them firsthand. How would one night be enough?

  Again, I tapped the wand on my head. “To John Bleaker’s, 325 Palmer Road, Lilac Cove.” With a whizz and a poof and a blink, I appeared inside a human dwelling. “Big,” I said and tapped my head again to return to normal size. I furled my wings so I didn’t bump into anything inside the house.

  If I finished my FE quickly enough then I could take the long way home. Unless Amaranth ran straight to my dad. In that case, I’d better hurry.

  The home I’d poofed into smelled of fresh cut flowers, and I located a vase on a coffee table filled with bright yellow roses. The color of friendship. Once I’d sat at the fountain and watched a woman who watched hours and hours of a television channel called HGTV. Only through this did I know that John Bleaker decorated in a coastal theme with different shades of blues in the furniture and the pictures on the walls. Beside the flowers sat another vase filled with an assortment of shells.

  I took the largest off the top and put it to my ear. I’d never been to the ocean, but I’d heard from other fairies that the sharp windy-whooshes were the same sounds the waves made as they broke against the shore.

  Along the wall behind a couch were three bookshelves filled with an array of hardback books. Each row of books was held upright by a painted brick bookend. Miniature sailboats were painted on each brick. I ran my fingers along the spines of the books. So many interesting titles. If I had enough time, I’d snag one on the way out. I’d have to ask Iris to return it at a later date.

  At the end of the bookshelves hung what looked to be a large rectangular bird cage. When I peered inside, a little chittering face pushed out from beneath wood shavings.

  “Hello, there,” I said and pulled out my wand. I tapped the top of the squirrel’s head and said, “Speak.”

  “A real-life fairy. I’ll be,” he whispered, the amazement in his squeaky voice adorable.

  “What’s your name, little guy?”

  “My human calls me Mr. Squeakers, but I prefer the name Pip.” Pip used his back leg to scratch behind his head. “What’s your name?”

  “Juniper.” I gestured at the cage. “Does he keep you contained all the time?”

  “He doesn’t understand why I can’t use a litter box like Mrs. Miller’s cat.” He sniffed the air. “At least that’s what he says every time he lets me out for several minutes.”

  I unhooked the special lock on his cage and opened the door. I could relate to the feeling of being cooped up all the time. “You’re welcome to come back with me to the swamp. I’m happy to grant you freedom.”

  Pip crawled out of the cage and jumped to the back of the couch. “I don’t mind being a pet. How is it you can understand me? And what are you doing here?”

  I waved my wand through the air. “The wand lets me communicate with nature and manipulate objects.” I patted the pouch filled with fairy dust. “The dust allows us to give a sprinkle of good luck.”

  He crawled across the edge of the couch and back, standing on his hind legs. “You’ve come to the right house. I’ve never seen a human with so much bad luck.”

  I sat on the couch, pulling a pillow with seashells printed on it into my lap. “How so?”

  “He’s easily manipulated by his jerk of a boss and his not-so-nice ex-girlfriend. You should hear the way everyone who comes to the house talks to him. I can’t imagine the other humans treat him any better once he leaves. Speaking of the house, he’s on the verge of losing it. He’s been on the phone with the bank and I heard him repeat the word ‘foreclosure.’ Someone stole money from his bank account and cleaned him out.”

  I rested my chin on my hand. “That’s awful.”

  “It’s weird that I know what all these things mean,” he said.

  I nodded. “It’s the wand magic.”

  “I don’t know what will happen to me if he loses his home. I’ve been raised by humans since birth. I’ve never had to jump from tree to tree and bury nuts.” Pip jumped down to the coffee table and bumped into the vase of flowers.

  It rattled on the tabletop and fell over, spilling flowers and water onto the floor.

  “Uh oh,” I said, dropping to my knees and picking up the roses. I stuck them back in the vase.

  Pip jumped back to the couch. “Sorry.”

  The vase tumble had caused a screen to light up on the laptop on the coffee table. The screensaver had a picture of a white sailboat with a cursive B in the corner. I closed the top to put Pip and I back into darkness.

  “John must like sailboats,” I said and tapped the top of the laptop.

  “The ex-girlfriend did. He doesn’t really do anything but watch some show called TMZ,” Pip said. “Do you have all these things in your fairy world?”

  “Our world is similar to the human’s, minus all the excessive electronics.” I pointed to the laptop and oversized television hanging on the wall. “Our magic allows us to know what things are and how to use them, even if we’ve never actually touched them before.”

  Pip shook his head. “Magic is amazing.”

  “It comes with costs, and that’s why we only use a pinch here and there.”

  He jumped to the coffee table and the vase shook again.

  “We’d better get you back in your cage, and I’d better get my FE finished.” I held out my hand for Pip but instead of jumping into my arms, he pointed behind me.

  My stomach churned as fear curdled the berry soufflé I’d had for dinner. I turned slowly and found a man standing behind me in striped pajamas, his mouth hanging ajar.

  I jumped back and reflexively my wings unfurled, spreading behind me and lifting my feet off the ground.

  The man, who I assumed to be John Bleaker, stumbled backwards and tripped over his own feet. He hit his head against the wall and a resounding thud followed. His eyes fluttered closed.

  “You killed him!” Pip shouted.

  “I didn’t mean to!” I shouted back. I rushed to John’s side and placed my hand on his chest. “He’s still breathing.”

  “What are you going to do?” Pip ju
mped back and forth between the coffee table and the couch, once again knocking over the flowers.

  My father would never forgive me for allowing a human to see our kind. Even if it had been by accident. Yet, he’d be the only one able to fix what I’d done. I grabbed a shaking Pip and nestled him in my arms, then I pulled out my wand. I tapped my head. “Home.”

  In an instant, I appeared back in the swamp. The portal sat open with a gaggle of palace guards surrounding my mother and father.

  “It’ll take all our wands to hold the portal open.” Dad practically foamed at the mouth. “When I find that girl…”

  My mom placed a hand on his arm. “I’m sure she’s fine, dearest.”

  “I’m okay,” I called out, my voice sounding as squeaky as Pip’s.

  Mom rushed forward and placed a hand on my cheek. “Please don’t ever scare us like that again.”

  A rush of excited voices filled the air and my father waved a hand to silence them. He focused his glare on me. “Get to the palace right now.”

  “We can’t,” I said. “A human has seen my wings.”

  Chapter Four

  The swamp echoed with the chattering of the guards. I’d seen my father angry on many occasions, but his speechlessness gave me a sense of dread I’d never felt before in his presence.

  Mom pulled me into a quick hug. The scent of sweet jasmine surrounded us and her thick brown hair tickled my nose. She pushed me to an arm’s length away and checked me with a quick bounce of her gaze up and down my body. “At least you’re safe and unharmed. We’ll fix this. Right, dear?” She glanced at my father who’d yet to do more than clench his fists at his side.

  When my mother had spoken, the guards had once again gone silent. Mom and Dad moved to the side and their hushed discussion went on for several long minutes. I could tell my mom wasn’t winning whatever argument they were having.

  “Show me,” my father said, the words coming out low and with sharp enunciation. My mother backed away from me and bowed her head. As much as she loved me, she wouldn’t stand in the way of my father’s rage against my actions.

  Pip wiggled in my arms. “You’re squishing me.”

  I relaxed my grip and my squirrely friend climbed to my shoulder, his claws pinching my skin.

  Dad flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand. “Amaranth, you will join us.”

  “Yes, sir,” Amaranth came to stand beside me but didn’t even flicker his eyes in my direction. I’d made a lot of mistakes tonight. I owed him an apology. That would come later.

  Dad turned to my mother. “Take the remainder of the guards and close the portal. I will send a signal when we return.”

  “No,” she said, her voice firm, yet she kept her eyes downcast. “I’ll accompany you three. When we return, the four of us will have the power to open the portal and pass through. Then the rest of our kingdom can stay focused on their tasks.”

  Dad nodded and turned to the guards. “You have your orders.” With another flick of his wrist, he moved his wand in a semi-circle and said, “Back.”

  As suddenly as I’d appeared in the forest, we were back in the neighborhood of John Bleaker. We’d appeared in a cluster of trees in the conservation area to the left of the neighborhood.

  I gasped at the activity outside of John Bleaker’s house. Pip let out a chirp and clung to the side of my face.

  Red and blue lights filled the night in blasts of blinding color. The lights belonged to several cars with the name Lilac Cove PD on the side. An ambulance and a firetruck were parked haphazardly beside them. Someone had draped yellow ribbon across the bushes in front of the door. I squinted and made out the words crime scene.

  The entire neighborhood had come out for the light show, many of them dressed in robes and slippers.

  “What have you done?” Dad asked.

  Amaranth moved around us, his wings beating in an awkward rhythm. “Your majesty, we need to get you and the queen out of here.”

  Dad ignored him and bounced his wand against each of our heads. “Fit in.”

  My wings disappeared and my clothes changed to match the people standing nearby. The same happened for my mom, my dad, and Amaranth.

  “Come with me and keep your mouths shut,” Dad ordered.

  We moved out of the brush and made our way to the group of people huddled together. Dad rubbed his eyes and yawned. He stopped by an elderly woman who cleaned her glasses with the edge of her robe. “What’s going on?”

  “Someone’s murdered poor John Bleaker,” she said and perched her glasses on the end of her nose. “I heard it over my personal police scanner a few minutes ago.”

  “That’s not right,” I blurted. “He was breathing when we left. Wasn’t he, Pip?”

  Pip blinked and squeaked. Then squeaked louder. He put his furry paw up to his neck and shook his little head. I couldn’t understand him anymore but it appeared he could still understand me. When Dad hit us with his magic, he’d removed my ability to communicate with the one animal that could corroborate my story.

  My dad’s glare silenced any further defense.

  The elderly woman wasn’t fazed by my outburst and continued to supply us with information. “The dispatcher got a call from inside the house about an intruder dressed like a fairy and when they showed up—deader than a doornail.”

  “Exactly how dead is that?” I asked. Perhaps with the different levels of dead in the human world it could be reversed with wand magic or a bucket of fairy dust.

  “Sweets,” my mother interjected softly. “Dead is dead forever in any realm.”

  My heart sank. We couldn’t fix this.

  Amaranth once again moved between us and the humans. “The human police are asking questions of those standing outside. We need to leave before they make it over to us.”

  I stretched on my toes to see over his shoulder. Two men in uniforms with pens and notepads in hand moved through the crowd, stopping to ask questions.

  We backed out of sight toward the deep shadows cast by the trees. Dad flicked our heads again and we each returned to our fairy forms and dress. Unfortunately, the wig had returned.

  “I should speak to them,” I said. “Tell them what I know.”

  “Absolutely not,” Dad said.

  “He was alive when I left or else he wouldn’t have been able to make the call to their dispatch like the woman said.” I pointed toward the woman who now spoke to a police officer.

  “Even so,” Amaranth interrupted, “you can’t tell them who you are or why you were in the house. It’s best we return to the swamp and leave this mess for the humans to clean up.”

  He placed a hand on my upper arm as if to direct me, and I pulled away. “No.”

  My father lifted his wand but before he could include me in his circular motion meant to send us back home, I put my hand over the end of it. “No,” I said again. “We have to sort this.”

  “Juniper, the damage is done.” My mother used her soft voice to soothe. “There is nothing we can do.”

  “Someone killed John Bleaker in the moments after I left. We can help find that person for the human police.” I glanced back and forth between Amaranth and my mother. “It’s the least we can do.”

  “There is no we, Juniper!” Dad bellowed my name as if all the anger he’d been holding back finally erupted to the surface. “You disobeyed your mother and I, your king and queen. You traveled into the human world and allowed one of them to see your wings. You will be held accountable for these actions.”

  Pip crawled behind my neck into my hair, and I understood his need to hide. My father was fierce on a good day, and this was not a good day.

  “Daddy…” I started, unsure how to form an argument.

  “Do not ‘Daddy’ me. You are not some insolent teenager in rebellion. You are a fully functioning adult godparent who made the choice to put yourself and our world in danger. That is not fitting of a princess of the fairy realm.”

  “Yes, Father. You’re
right. I was wrong.” I appealed to his sense of reason. “And I am willing to face the consequences however you see fit back home. But right now, I need help setting things right for the human I failed.”

  “We’re leaving,” he said, the last of the angry tirade over with a whoosh of a sigh.

  “No,” I said again.

  Amaranth stood behind my father. “Stop this at once. I cannot allow you to disobey the king.”

  “If you can’t listen to me as my king, then listen to me as my father. You are the one who taught me right from wrong, and leaving is wrong,” I pleaded. “How can you expect me to lead our kind one day if you don’t listen to me now?”

  He lowered his wand. “I have a kingdom to think of, as do you. We do not have the time to flit around and interfere with a murder investigation.”

  “You don’t have to. I can do this by myself.”

  His jaw tensed. “Well then, future queen. How would you fix this?”

  “With my wand and some dust.” I patted my pouch. “I’ll sprinkle and tap until the killer confesses and then hand him over to the proper authority.”

  He scoffed. “Your education into the human world is sorely lacking.”

  “That is your fault,” I snapped.

  My mother gasped.

  “A mistake that I can easily rectify,” he said. He waved his wand and my dust pouch disappeared. I reached in my pocket for Iris’s wand but found it missing. With another flick of his wrist, my wings vanished and I dropped to the ground, my bare feet landing in a patch of wild ivy.

  “What’s this?” My mother asked, the horror in her eyes making them shine in the moonlight.

  “She wants an education in the human world, then I’ll give her one. It’s only right that the future queen understand the people she’s sworn to help.” His thick eyebrows creeped up his forehead. “But she’ll do it as one of them.”

  “She won’t last an hour!” Mom cried. “She’ll be defenseless.”