13 Stars
Tanya woke to the sound of tiny fingers trailing their claws along her window overlooking the garden of her grandmother's house.
Again.
She rubbed her eyes and restlessly turned over so she couldn't see the window. She didn't want to think about the fairy there. She had had enough with fairies for a lifetime.
Tanya had spent the past week after the "battle" (she, Rowan, and Fabian had come to call the fight with the gavern and death of Eldritch the battle) at Elvesden manor. Rose took them to Tickety End on Wednesday to help clear their minds of all the awful things they had seen at the manor. Tanya had bought all the red clothes she could find, and barely had any allowance money left over. She even found a red dress, just in case. Tanya sewed little pockets of salt into all of her clothes that weren't red, and swept a number of rusty iron nails from Warwick's work desk.
Tanya pulled the thick quilted blanket over her head further when the tapping and clicking on the window became more persistent. But soon, there was a different sound mingling with the fairy's tapping for attention. Someone was knocking softly at her bathroom door.
Rowan and Tanya had bedrooms next to each other, and they shared a bathroom. It connected the two rooms, and Rowan often came in through the bathroom door rather than walking around in the hall.
Rowan came after Tanya didn't say anything. She had hoped Rowan would just think she was still asleep. "Good morning, sleepy head." Rowan said loudly as she came in.
Tanya turned over and cast a glimpse to the window. A miniature grey fairy, no bigger than her hand, crept along the outside windowsill. Its baldhead gleamed in the morning light; its garish black eyes stared at her directly. A smile made of jagged teeth slowly emerged from cracked lips.
Tanya looked away in disgust, hoping Rowan hadn't noticed the fey creature. The last thing Tanya wanted was to be questioned about it. She didn't even know why it was there herself.
"Morning—why are you up so early? You and Fabian usually sleep until noon when Florence goes out." Tanya said as Rowan sat on her bed. Today – Saturday – was Florence's grocery shopping day. Tanya was surprised when Florence had told her yesterday that she was still going out, despite the work that had to be done with the house.
"I don't think any of us can sleep very well, Tanya." Rowan said kindly, looking at her. "To me, it just feels like everything happened too fast. The people who died—the Thirteen Secrets—should have had more time." Rowan's hands were clenched into fists, but she didn't look uncomfortable saying any of this. Tanya had heard in all before, and thought about it before, too.
Tanya nodded in agreement. "What do you think Tino thinks about all of it?" She wondered aloud.
Rowan didn't hesitate to answer. "He doesn't think he's failed yet, that's for sure. He's not going to stop—he's brave," Rowan looked at Tanya. "But he's crazy too…"
Rowan stopped talking then the sound of the fairy at the window could be heard again. "What was that?" She asked, alarmed and looking all around.
"I didn't hear anything," Tanya said in what she hoped was a convincingly careless tone.
But Rowan squinted her sparkling green eyes at Tanya. "Oh really?" Rowan stood up and put her ear to the wall, the wall right next to the window. The scratching noise came again from the ugly fairy. He seemed to know exactly what Tanya didn't want him to do.
With one fluid motion, Rowan swept from the wall, unbolted the locks on the window, and swung it open with incredible force. The fairy stumbled in surprise.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" Rowan asked it fearlessly.
"I have a message for Tanya Fairchild." The fairy said craftily.
Rowan plunged into her cardigan pocket and thrust out an iron nail. She held it to the fairy's face. He could not come in the room because of the salt barrier around the window, and yet he could not jump off the ledge because he had no wings to save himself.
"How do you know her name?" Rowan almost yelled. "Tell me! Who told you?"
"Nobody told me," The fair said evilly, rubbing his grubby, bony hands together. "I discovered it."
"How?" Tanya asked unsteadily, getting off her bed.
"It was the boy," The fairy said, quick to blame it on someone else now that Rowan was holding the iron nail to his neck. "My master told me to find the names of the people in the house. This house. The people close to you, Rowan."
Without blinking, Rowan let the nail touch his skin, causing him to writhe in pain, and fall sideways. He screamed and hissed in pain.
"I learned her name from the boy Fabian!" The fairy said. "I learned the name Rowan from my master. Even though I know no means of magic can harm you, half-fey child," Rowan winced when he said this, "there are other ways to torture the human soul." He laughed maliciously, and, with it all being said, leapt off the ledge and became invisible.
Rowan slammed the window shut furiously. "Let's go," she said through gritted teeth to Tanya. Tanya grabbed her red T-shirt from her closet and pulled it over her tank top. Rowan had taken to sleeping in a red cardigan, so she didn't need to change.
Without really knowing where they were going, Tanya followed Rowan out of her room. She was still in a daze from the information the fairy had given. Who knew if he was really telling the truth or not…but who's to say that Fabian hadn't accidently let her name slip to a fairy? They had all kinds of way of disguising themselves, called glamour. But still…she thought she had thoroughly discussed them plenty of times with him. After all, he was the one researching fairies at the library every chance he got.
Tanya soon realized that Rowan was going straight to Fabian's room. As soon as Rowan and Tanya burst through the door, they both stammered in surprise.
Warwick was pointing his finger into Fabian's scowling, indignant face. Warwick's black hair was as untidy as Fabian's, and lines of stress concentrated his face. He said, "I don't care if pigs fly, son. You aren't going into that music room! No one is! Do you hear me?" His face was red with anger, and Fabian glanced to the doorway at Tanya. Rowan was already snooping around his room.
Tanya looked back at him, suddenly feeling foolish for ever thinking that he would intentionally put her in harm's way. She had thought so once, when he left her in the woods, but she was wrong. He had been helping her all along.
"Look at me, lad! Do you understand that you are not allowed in that music room?" Warwick shouted at Fabian.
Fabian snapped his eyes back to his father. "Yes, sir." He said haltingly, standing up.
Fabian was at least a couple inches taller than he had been at the beginning of the summer. He was almost the same height as his father, and not as scrawny as he used to be, and with all the exercise he was getting outside nowadays, he seemed strikingly handsome. From the pictures that Tanya had seen of her, Fabian was looking more like his mother everyday.
Warwick roughly stomped past Tanya to get out of the room. Fabian ran his hand through his thick, messy hair when Warwick had gone. "What are you guys here for?" He asked Tanya and Rowan moodily.
Rowan slammed shut one of Fabian's library books titled 'The Fey: Legends of Olde and Modern Times.' It was thrown across his bed, along with several loose sheets of scribbled on notebook paper and the brown journal that he never let anyone see.
"Tanya and I just had a very interesting visit – from a fairy," Rowan began.
Tanya looked at her accusingly. What was she doing? Didn't she just hear what Fabian was being scolded for? And how Warwick had treated him, simply because he wanted to go into his mother's music room? But Rowan wouldn't care. She knew how to be ruthless.
"How astonishing," Fabian said in a low voice. " I mean, it's not like that happens everyday. It must be rare for you two to see fairies." His voice, heavily coated in sarcasm, was also tinted with jealousy. Fabian had always wanted to see fairies.
Tanya decided to take over the explanation. She was wary of what Rowan might say in response. "Basically, the fairy told us that you told him my name. He knew all of our names. You know how hazardous that is, Fabian." Tanya said to him matter-of-factly.
"You don't honestly think I would do that, do you?" Fabian said, looking hurt now, his blue eyes seeming so deep.
"No," Tanya said quickly, before Rowan could say anything. "I really don't, but think about it, Fabian, is there any time you could have accidentally said something?"
"I didn't say anything to any fairies! I swear…" Fabian suddenly stopped talking, his face turning colorless like a sheet.
"What?" Tanya snapped. "What is it?"
"I just remembered…" Fabian said quietly, appearing uncomfortable.
"What are you waiting for? Tell us!" Rowan rushed him.
"I didn't mean to! I promise! It's just that – Rose and I were taking care of the animals on Thursday, when you and Tanya were helping Warwick clean out the attic…and Rose said something like…s-something about Tanya…and I said something too…"
"What? What was it? And why were you talking about me?" Tanya shot at him.
Fabian unexpectedly blushed and turned away from the furious Tanya. "I-I don't remember." He touched his hair again.
Rowan had had enough. She walked up to Fabian and pushed his shoulder violently. "Fabian, I don't think you realize how dangerous this is. We have a new enemy. Whatever you said could put us all at risk. Fairies can control people with names, with personal objects, with information! Remember what that blasted fairy said, Tanya?" Tanya nodded solemnly. Rowan continued. "He said there were ways other than magic to harm the human soul. He's going to use the people close to me – the people I care about –like you, Rose, and Tanya to hurt me. I know it."
Tanya stared out the window. She had already guessed at all of this. She couldn't even decide if Fabian was still to blame, or if they should really be questioning their best friend like this. But that's one of the ways fairies manipulated you. They confused you, so that you can't think straight and you end up making a whole bunch of horrible mistakes. Rowan knew about it all too well.
"Okay," said Fabian, moving out of Rowan's stern line of vision. "Okay. Rose said something to me about Tanya getting prettier – and I said, yeah, she was, except I thought she's always been pretty, and then we took in the eggs and honestly that's all I said about it." Fabian rushed the whole last sentence so that it was barely understandable.
By now, both Tanya and Fabian were bright red. But Rowan had a slight smile creeping onto her lips. She hid it hastily behind her hand.
"Well, Fabian," Rowan said teasingly. "Are you sure that's all?"
"You know, that's NOT all I said. But you're not going to pressure me into telling you because I'm pretty sure that what I think about Tanya doesn't matter to the fairies and wont hurt either of you." Fabian said loudly, obviously trying to talk above Rowan's snickering.
Tanya was so embarrassed by this point, she could hardly think straight. So, fittingly, without thinking much at all, she ran out of Fabian's room, closing the door unintentionally loud behind her. She could faintly hear Rowan say, "Oh, she's okay. I think she's just hungry."
It wasn't until Tanya almost tripped over Spitfire, Florence's ginger cat, that she realized Rowan was behind her.
"What did he say?" Tanya asked breathlessly.
"That he was going back to bed. Pretty pointless once Florence comes home, though."
Tanya scowled at her. She was sure Rowan had said pretty like that on purpose. Rowan was smirking; her neatly cut, shining red hair bouncing as she jumped down the steps. As annoyed as she was, Tanya was glad that Rowan looked so cheerful. But she knew it wouldn't last long. With the eminent danger growing nearer, Rowan was soon to have a plan. And it would involve both of them…plus Fabian. No, their story wasn't over yet. With Eldritch's death, it had probably just begun.