I didn’t even remember sneaking past the sentries, back into the Academy and all the way up to the Air common room, but we must have done.
As soon as the door shut, Matti said. “What just happened?” Strands of hair were sticking to his forehead with sweat; he swept them away impatiently. “Seriously, what just happened?”
“We just got involved in a fae dispute,” I said. “That’s what happened.”
“I think we did more than that. I think we interrupted a kidnapping.” Lucas looked around as if expecting someone to come bursting through the door. “Or worse, an attempted murder.”
Nadia shook her head. “We trespassed into a fae realm! We could get into serious trouble for doing that!”
We hadn’t thought of that. We’d been so curious about why a fae gate had opened on Academy grounds and…well, we weren’t exactly great at obeying rules.
“Maybe the Silverfae will keep quiet about that,” I said. “For all we know, the Shadowfae weren’t meant to be there either.”
Matti lifted his hands and let them fall to his sides. “So what do we do?”
“I think we keep quiet.” Lucas’s eyes were serious. “We’ve got no reason to say anything.”
Nadia, Matti and I looked at each other. Lucas was right. This was a fae problem, on fae territory, and it wasn’t really anything to do with us. And anyway, if we told someone, they’d want to know why we’d entered the Silverlands in the first place.
“So we just behave normally,” Matti said. “As usual. I guess that’s fair enough – I mean, what else can we do?”
A loud bell suddenly rang twice.
“That’s the security alarm,” Nadia breathed.
Uh-oh. This wasn’t good. “Let’s go and find out what’s wrong.”
We’d almost made it down the stairs to the ground floor when the head sentry, Marcel, found us.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“But what’s happened?” asked Nadia.
“A fae criminal’s escaped from the Silverlands; his name’s Zarga. He caused a lot of trouble in the Shadowlands, and the Silver monarchs decided to appease the Shadow royals by giving them permission to arrest him. Trouble is, he’s disappeared and they’re sure he’s in our world now.” Marcel sighed. “Look, you know he can’t get past the shield, but they sent the message to the Academy anyway in case he tries it.”
He hurried away, leaving us staring after him.
“Library, now,” I hissed.
We managed to hide away in the first reading nook we came across. It had spring blossoms on the ceiling and around the pillars, and soft pink curtains framing the windows, but the scent didn’t help any of us relax.
“What are we going to do?” I paced back and forth in front of the windows.
“Why did we even go in there in the first place?” Nadia moaned, dropping onto one of the couches. “We helped a criminal!”
“OK, but we didn’t know he was a criminal!” protested Matti.
Lucas rounded on him. “You think the Shadow royals are going to care about that? Or the Silver monarchs? We weren’t even supposed to be there in the first place. We were trespassing, aiding and abetting!”
“We didn’t mean to! We thought the Shadows were the bad guys!”
“Well, we didn’t exactly stop and ask, did we?”
I stopped pacing. “None of that matters right now! There is a fae criminal on the loose and it’s our fault. What are we going to do about it?”
“What can we do?” Matti cried, running a hand through his hair and making it stick up in dark little tufts. “Where could he have gone, anyway?”
Nadia sat up suddenly. “Zarga must have opened the gate to try and escape. He would have been desperate to get away. What if he ran through it before we did?”
“And it would have taken a lot of magic, which means he’s vulnerable.” My mind was whirling. I began to pace again. “Guys, if…if that shield keeps the fae out of the Academy grounds, can it do the opposite? Could it also imprison them?”
Lucas frowned. “Yeah, I guess it could, but…” His expression went blank with horror. “If he attacked the Four Corners, he could take down the shield. We’ve got to get there before he does.”
“Shouldn’t we tell the sentries?” asked Nadia. “It’s their job to deal with situations like this.”
“Yeah. But like Kayley said, it’s our fault he’s loose. We can’t just do nothing.”
Final part coming soon…