Shadowspell

I waited until after eleven to prick my finger with the Erlking’s brooch. I was sure Ethan would still be up, but it was late enough that Finn might assume I’d gone to bed. Taking a deep breath for courage, I tiptoed through my living room and eased open the door to the guardroom.

Of course, with the magic of the Erlking’s brooch, I didn’t need to tiptoe. Finn was sitting in his recliner reading a magazine while the TV played soundlessly in the background. He didn’t look up from the magazine when the door opened, nor did he notice me when I walked right by him and opened the door to the tunnel system. Whatever the Erlking’s charm did, it made me not just invisible, but unnoticeable.

Taking a deep breath for courage, I switched on my flashlight and started down the tunnel.

There was an entrance to the tunnel system in the courtyard right outside Ethan’s apartment, but I hadn’t the faintest idea how to get there from my safe house. Nor, come to think of it, would I have been able to lift the hatch that concealed the entrance from view. Which meant I had to take the long way. The Erlking had said the effects of his brooch would last for a half hour, so I kept myself moving at a brisk pace. I had more than enough time, but with my sense of direction, I had to allow for a wrong turn or two along the way.

There were a couple of nightlife hot spots—like The Deep—in Avalon, but for the most part the streets were practically deserted after dark. As I exited the tunnel system and started making my way down Avalon’s main road, I saw only the occasional car, and even fewer pedestrians. The streets had never been lively at night, but I think they were even less so now, when everyone knew the Wild Hunt was in town.

I made good time, and for once I didn’t get lost. I had a good ten minutes to spare by the time I rounded a corner and saw the student housing complex in which both Ethan and Kimber lived. There was a light on in Ethan’s apartment, and a shadow moved across the curtained front window. He was definitely home and awake. Now that I was here, however, I struggled against an almost unbearable urge to turn around and run away.

What if Ethan flat-out didn’t want to see me? To have him not return my calls hurt bad enough, but if he told me to go away, I thought I might die on the spot. And then an even worse thought occurred to me: what if he wasn’t alone? If he opened the door and I saw another girl in there …

“Oh, cut it out!” I grumbled to myself. I didn’t really believe he had a girl in there, not after what Kimber had said about how gloomy he was acting. And I hadn’t dragged myself out here in the middle of the night just to stand in the courtyard and stare at his window like a lovesick puppy.

With worries and doubts clamoring for attention in my head, I forced my feet forward, then climbed the concrete stairs that led to the second floor. I gave myself another silent pep talk as I stood in front of Ethan’s door, my stomach doing nervous flip-flops and my heart beating double-time.

I knocked on the door quietly at first. Then, when no one answered, I knocked a little louder. I held my breath, sure Ethan would have heard me this time, but he didn’t come to the door. I was about to knock a third time, but I noticed the little doorbell button and rang it instead. The bell rang, and moments later I heard footsteps coming my way. Once again, I held my breath.

The door swung open, and Ethan stood framed in the light from his apartment. He was wearing a wrinkled, faded T-shirt over torn jeans. His hair was badly tousled, and the pallor of his skin made the blue stag tattoo look almost black in contrast. And yet he still took my breath away. I had come impossibly close to losing him forever, without ever having had a chance to sort out how I felt about him, and I wasn’t planning to make the same mistake twice.

“Hi,” I said with a nervous smile, my palms sweating. “Sorry to stop by so late, but…”

Except Ethan looked right through me, as if I weren’t there. The corners of his mouth tugged down in a frown, and he shook his head. Then he swung his door shut without saying a word.

The pain that stabbed through me at his unequivocal rejection was like nothing else I’d ever felt before. I’d thought seeing him at the dance with another girl was bad, but having him shut me out without even a word was nearly unbearable. I’d get angry about it later, when I thought of what I’d done to save him from the Wild Hunt and how completely ungrateful he was, but for now I felt nothing but aching hurt.

I turned around, determined not to cry, and started heading for the stairs. I checked my watch to see how much longer I had until the magic of the Erlking’s brooch wore off, and that’s when reality smacked me upside the head and surprised a nearly hysterical laugh out of me.

Duh! Arawn had said his charm would hide me from people even if they happened to bump into me, that it wasn’t just invisibility. Ethan had looked through me like that because he couldn’t see me—or hear me.

I felt giddy with relief, and for a moment I thought my knees were going to give out on me. I leaned against the wall outside Ethan’s door and breathed slowly in and out, calming myself little by little. Then I watched the second hand on my watch tick-tick-tick away the time until the Erlking’s spell wore off.

When the thirty minutes were up, I waited a little longer, just in case the duration of the spell was approximate, but standing outside in full view of anyone who chanced to see made me too uneasy. The chances that one of my enemies would just happen to see me here for the couple minutes I was visible were extremely slim, but I didn’t exactly have nerves of steel.