“What?”

  “We have to make out to show our dominance.”

  “Yeah, you wish.” Minho rolled his eyes and pulled the brim of his hat down to his nose. “I can’t hear you, I’m asleep. And I’m a great Cowboy!”

  “I’m sure you are, baby.” Ruby was still laughing, and patted his shoe patronizingly. “and Julian makes a great ride.”

  Minho and I groaned in unison.

  “Anyway!” I prompted. “Alice wants to come.”

  Ruby took a deep breath, sobering quickly. “To Elfhame? Why?”

  “Because there is no way in hell I’m missing this,” she said firmly. “I can’t walk away from magic now that I know it's real.”

  There was understanding in Ruby’s blue eyes. “Ok. But you need to understand how dangerous it will be.”

  “I read all the messages, and Julian filled in the rest.”

  Ruby’s eyebrows were knit. “Alice, listen. This is dangerous. Not risky. Dangerous. I can’t promise you’ll come back. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to protect you.”

  Alice’s eyes wavered, but her resolve didn’t. “I want to come.”

  They locked eyes for a long moment, and some invisible language passed between them. Ruby nodded. “Ok.”

  Like some kind of field trip chaperone, Ruby had prepared us backpacks, two of which were stuffed with snacks and water bottles. The third was filled with something that clattered like hunks of metal, her only explanation being that they were “artifacts.” Still confused, I nodded anyway.

  Next, Ruby put a small round stone in each of our hands. mine was shaped a little like an ear, and in the center was a hole about as big around as a pencil. I glanced at the rocks in the other’s hands. the same gray stones with small holes in the middle.

  “This is a Hagstone.” Ruby explained. “It will help you see magic. You’ll be able to see it anyway in Elfhame, but I'll need some help finding an entrance. you can use these to help me look.”

  I frowned at the stone. “How does it work?”

  Ruby grinned as if excited about a trick. “look through the hole.”

  I put the hag stone to my eyes, and nearly jumped. My jaw dropped. I’d expected nothing to happen, somehow after everything I now knew to be true, I’d expected the hag stone to be nothing more than superstition. But I was wrong.

  Everything was gray through the hag stone, like the world had been cast in black and white, like there was a lens in the center of the tiny hole. Well almost everything. The world was gray, but not everything was gray. Minho and Ruby, who stood next to each other, both seemed to glow. Well, glow wasn’t the right word. It was like they were surrounded by floating glitter. It was difficult to describe, but they both had an aura around them. Minho’s was pale gold and his eyes were luminescent. Ruby said you could see magic through the stone. Minho was a werewolf, so I was seeing his magic.

  But he might as well have been black and white beside Ruby. The glowy, glittery aura around her was nearly blinding, and it seemed to be every color all at once, shifting and moving. Her hair and her eyes glowed and every time she talked it was like there was a fire inside her and the light was desperate to get out.

  Now that we were properly equipped, Ruby led us out the door of her study, and down a worn path that led down to an old and dried stream bed. Blackberry brambles filled the ditch, and blocked our way to a sparse forest beyond. Undeterred, Ruby waved her hand and the brambles parted like the red sea for us to cross through.

  As we walked over what would have been an easy and pleasant hiking trail if Mission De-Horse Julian weren’t so perilous, Ruby took a small palm sized book out of her pocket. She opened the book, and as soon as the pages separated, it was suddenly a hefty volume that she needed both hands to hold. We wandered for the better part of an hour, which I spent marvling over just how much magic there was that my eyes ignored every day. I watched three tiny people with round red faces close a little door in the base of a tree, grumbling to themselves. My human eyes only saw a rabbit hole.

  “Alright.” Ruby announced after a while. She looked from the book to the tree and back again until she nodded curtly and traded the book for her wand. “Remember what I said. Never say thank you or you’re welcome, don’t eat anything that you didn’t bring. Don’t drink from any streams. And whatever you do–” Ruby looked us each in the eye for a long, hard moment “--don’t trust any of them. Let me do the talking if we meet any one. Also, don’t say your full names.”

  “Our full names?”

  “You can say your first name. Like I can still call you Julian, but never ever say Julian Sanchez. And really really don’t ever call me Ruby Brambles. ‘Brambles’ as a word is off limits.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Off limits?”

  “Let’s just say I have some Harry-Potter-chosen-one-bullshit I have to deal with all the time and any creature that ever hears my full name always wants to eat me.”

  “Yeah,” Minho added, “even her aunt tried to murder her. We had to enlist the help of a cow.”

  I blinked at him, “Excuse me?”

  “Shush,” Ruby waved him off. “Keep names to first names, and keep to yourselves. I don’t know what we’re about to walk into, and I don’t know how far we’ll have to go before we find someone who can help.”

  “So, remind me again, what is our plan?” Alice asked.

  Ruby looked a little pale already, and I could practically feel the nerves radiating off of her. “Well, we don’t have much of a plan. Our best hope is to find either who did this to Julian to begin with, or to find someone more powerful than them so we can get him freed. We have some artifacts to trade.” –Ruby shook her bag, which rattled a bit– “and beyond that we’re winging it.”

  She grimaced. “I know how that sounded.”

  Alice rubbed the back of her neck, pulling her short hair up and fanning herself. It was early, but the air had already started to thicken with the daily Texas heat. I caught myself looking at the back of Alice’s neck. Her skin was a pretty, smooth copper and the sweat beading there made her look a little like she was sparkling. I caught myself and looked back at the tree. Ruby had her wand out, and was gently tapping the wood around the hollow.

  The hollow of the tree was just big enough for a person to crawl through. Though, to the naked eye, it only looked to be a couple inches deep.

  I fished the hagstone back out of my pocket and looked at the tree again. Ruby tapped around the entrance with her wand.

  The tree itself was in color, which stuck out starkly from the forest around it. The tree was like an over-saturated version of itself, and the hollow seemed to glow. A pale white seemed to radiate from the edges, and instead of the darkness of inside the tree, the hollow was filled with a swirling mass of yellow and blue and white. It sparkled and sparked.

  I took the stone from my eye and looked at the normal bark, filled with leaves and old rain water.

  Magic was so cool.

  “Ruby?” I asked tentatively, nervous to break her intense conversion, but too curious to wait.

  “Hmm?” she asked without looking up.

  “Is what we see through the hagstone… is that how you see all the time?”

  That seemed to catch her off guard. She lowered her wand and looked at me thoughtfully.

  “No, not really. The hagstone is like the extreme version. It helps me too, to identify what’s magic and what isn’t. I can see where there is magic, but I don’t see it like this.”

  “If someone isn’t already in this world…” Alice piped up from my side. “Is there a way they could be? Like to learn what you do?”

  Ruby shook her head. “Not exactly. You can’t learn to be a witch like I am. But there are things that you can learn.”

  Alice nodded, and motioned for Ruby to continue.

  Ruby looked back to the hollow, and put her hands on her hips. She took a deep breath. Minho stepped up beside his girlfriend and put a hand on her shoulder.

  He squeezed, and she put her hand over his, smiling up at him. “I’m okay.” she mouthed.

  Ruby looked back at the three of us. “Okay. We have to be careful. Elfhame is no joke. This isn’t Tinkerbelle and Peter Pan. It’s not Narnia. We could die. There is a chance we won’t come back. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we do but I’m just one witch.”

  “Julian,” She continued. “You’re the only one I really need. Minho you don’t have to come, but I don’t think there’s any way I’ll convince you to stay.”

  “No way.” Minho shook his head. “I may feel like shit, but my girl and my best friend are not going somewhere dangerous without me.”

  Ruby looked at Alice, and I followed her gaze. “Alice, you’ve only known any of us for a couple hours. You don’t have to risk your life for this. ARE YOU SURE?”

  Alice pursed her lips and lifted her chin. “I know. I'm sure. But I’m coming. Uncle Blaze said I needed to make some more friends. I know I won’t be of much help, but… I’m coming.”

  Ruby looked at her for a long long moment before nodding. I didn’t take my eyes from Alice. She looked at me, and stared me down, determined expression unwavering. I barely knew this girl, how could I ask her to risk her life to help me? Well, I could see in those dark eyes that there was no way I could ask her not to help. I thought about if I had been in her shoes. I would have done the same. No matter how dangerous, if I discovered a way to literal fairy land, there was no way in hell I was going to walk away. She seemed to read my understanding, and I caught a hint of a smile on her face.

  “Alright!” Ruby said in a voice somewhere between confidence and uncertainty. “I’m going through first. Julian, they’re looking for you, so you come through last.”

  I offered a mock salute. Ruby rolled her eyes and stuck her wand back in her boot. She waved Minho over to help. He laced his fingers and made a little step for her to boost off of. She kissed him quickly and stepped on his hand, and was seemingly swallowed by the tree.

  I couldn’t help but gasp. It was like in an instant she was gone. She didn’t even seem to crawl through the hole, and it wasn’t like she disappeared as she went in, she was just gone.

  My heart kicked up in my chest. It suddenly felt real. Real in a way it never had until now. It was so easy to pretend I was faking it or I was dreaming, but watching Ruby vanish… it was real. We were about to go to fairyland. To Elfhame. We could die, or I could get permanently enslaved. Minho climbed up after Ruby, and vanished just like her. My breath came out shallowly now. Like I was breathing through fabric.

  I pressed a hand to my chest and tried to calm my heart.

  I nearly jumped again when Alice put a hand on my shoulder.

  “Are you alright? She asked softly.

  I shrugged. “I want to say yes, but it just hit me that… I might not come back.”

  I looked down at her and met her eyes again. “Why do you do your homework in the bar, instead of in your apartment?”

  She blinked. The question had clearly taken her off guard.

  “Is liking fried pickles not a good enough reason?” She grinned. I almost laughed, and she let out a long breath. “It’s because my apartment is lonely. And I thrive in chaos. I like it loud and bustling. I like people.”

  It was Alice’s turn to shrug, but a smile was tinging her lips.

  “So, wanting more friends is worth risking your life over?”

  She considered me. “Yes it is. Right now it is. I like not knowing what is going to happen next. I like waking up and figuring it out. I ran away from this magic world after almost dying, but now that I’ve found it again…” she shook her head. “I’m never walking away from all this again.”

  I wanted to kiss her. What she said hit me deep in the chest, and it made the panic building in me ease. I cleared my throat.

  “I’ll help you up.”

  Minho and I were tall enough that we could just lean in and crawl through, but Alice and Ruby were both short enough that they needed a bit of a boost.

  I laced my hands for Alice to use as a stepping stool. She put a hand on my shoulder for balance, and grabbed onto the tree to hoist herself up. But she stopped, and looked at me for a long second.

  “Wha-” I asked, but before the word was done, Alice grabbed my face in both hands and kissed me. My heart dropped again, and if it weren’t for her foot already on my laced hands I would have grabbed her face to kiss her back. But before the thought even finished Alice straightened and disappeared into the hollow. Leaving me shaken. My lips felt like they were buzzing.

  I stood. I was alone in the forest now. For all the world it looked like I was a lost hiker.

  I took a breath, stealing myself. I shook out my arms, and, as if I was about to go swimming, I dove towards the hollow.

  For a millisecond, it really did feel like I’d dove into a pool. I was surrounded by the magic essence I’d seen floating around my friends, and it seemed like I passed through a pool of honey.

  I gasped as I came out the other side to blinding sunlight and crisp air.

  And then the gasp turned into a scream.

  The hollow had only been four feet off the ground, but I popped out the other side a good ten feet, and I plummeted.

  I screamed and fell into soft grass with a solid thud that knocked the breath from me.

  I wheezed, unable to move. Ruby looked down at me, her hands on her hips breathing hard.

  “You okay?”

  I wheezed again and put a thumbs up. It didn’t feel like anything was hurt, except for my pride. A few feet away I caught Alice and Minho making their way to their own feet, both breathing hard like they’re breath was just coming back too. Minho winced and rubbed at his shoulder.

  I closed my eyes and managed a deep breath that ended as a cough. I took another breath until it felt natural again and levered myself into a sitting position.

  Now that I could breathe again, I was finally able to take in my surroundings.

  The air was cooler than it was at home, like an autumn crisp that almost made me want a jacket, and it smelled good. The air smelled like… like… I couldn’t place it. Something like flowers or fruit. Something pretty.

  We were in a glade, filled with the softest grass I’d ever felt. It felt almost like fur under my hands. Trees taller than any I’d ever seen surrounded us. I could see the hollow I’d fallen from, a good 10 feet off the ground, only on this side it was so much smaller. Ruby was looking up at the hollow too, a look of concern on her round face. He pushed up her glasses and looked around us.

  Past the glade, the trees seemed so thick we couldn’t see through them.

  From every tree, mushrooms grew on the bark. Lichen and oyster mushrooms and little capped mushrooms I didn’t recognize. The third ones were a pale blue, and seemed to glow. It was like seeing that sparkly aura, but without the hagstone.

  The forest sounded exactly how it should. Bugs and birds and the gentle rustle of the wind filled the air, but somehow it also sounded different. Like the birds had a little too much tune in their song, and the incessant trilling of the cicadas had been replaced.

  Replaced by what? I couldn’t tell.

  If I hadn’t already known we weren’t home, I wasn’t sure how long it would have taken me to figure out. It was almost like being home, but in so many ways it was different. Like being in a dream.

  “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.” Alice muttered and offered me her hand. I took it and let the stout girl pull me to my feet.

  It felt like I went up too quickly, and I stumbled a little into Alice. She put a hand on my chest to steady me. I blinked.

  Ruby was biting the end of her wand thoughtfully, gaze on the gate we’d fallen from. “Speaking of, it looks like we’ll have to find another way back.”

  A little lump of dread took up residency in my rib cage, and I bit my lip. “Will that be possible?”

  Alice nodded, as if distracted, and pulled the little book out of her pocket again. She opened it, and the little book became a full sized book in her hands.

  “Yes, the same spell will work here too.”

  Minho came up behind Ruby and put a hand on her shoulder. “Ok, Ruby, which direction?”

  Alice, Minho and I all watched Ruby expectantly. She didn’t seem to notice, reading over whatever was in the book one last time before shutting it with a thump. The book became little again and she put it back in her pocket.

  “We need to find a town where people are.” Ruby scanned the trees around us as she spoke. “We’re more than likely dealing with a Fae from the local nobility.”

  I nodded like that made any sense.

  “Just remember to stick together and don’t ea–”

  Ruby cut off suddenly and whirled, looking at the trees around the glade with wide, wide eyes.

  “Shit.” she hissed. She looked at each of us wide eyed. “Julian, I need you to turn into a horse right now.”

  “What?”

  Before I could say anything in response, Ruby put out her hand “Alice, come here I need to put a protection spell on you.”

  Alice put her hand in Ruby’s, her dark eyes wide, and Ruby closed her eyes and muttered a spell under her breath, quickly like she was talking too fast and waved her wand over Alice’s hand.

  And Alice disappeared.

  I took a step back, mouth agape. “What did you do?”

  Ruby opened her eyes, and her eyes widened. She looked down at her hand, and I realized suddenly her hand wasn’t empty and Alice wasn’t gone.

  “What the hell!” she cursed loudly.

  In her hand, was a small fuzzy creature, like a hamster, but with a long tail. I looked from the little rodent to Ruby and back.

  “Did you just turn Alice into a sugar glider?”

  Ruby’s mouth was agape and the little creature in her hand squealed in shrill distress. she turned in a circle, a long fuzzy tail windmilling angrily.

  “It was just supposed to be a protection spell!”

  Ruby cursed again and shoved the sugar glider that was Alice into my hands. I took her gently and the sugar glider stared at me with huge eyes. She squeaked.

 

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