Wood Sprites(186)

Louise groaned. She’d forgotten that they had more than one website of rabid fans.

Iggy continued, apparently assuming that she knew nothing about the fire. “Neighbors heard an explosion and called 911. They think that there was a gas leak in the kitchen. By the time the fire department got there, though, the whole house had caught on fire. They’re still fighting it.”

Which was why Iggy was frantically texting them.

“Yeah. We blew it up before we left.”

“What?” Iggy shouted.

“Our grandmother is married to a very evil family. She got sick and went to the hospital and her stepson locked us up in the basement. In a cage. And he had a boy locked up in the next room. So we blew up the house and ran away. He’s probably looking for us, so it’s not safe for us to tell anyone where we are.”

There was a long silence from the other end and then Iggy said, “You’re totally serious. You’re not making that up?”

“Completely totally serious.”

“Louise, your grandmother died today.”

Louise felt tears burning in her eyes. She rubbed them away, surprised that she actually hadn’t seen the news coming. Yves wouldn’t have dared to lock them up without being sure that there was no chance of Anna ever finding out.

“Everyone is saying how you don’t have any family left,” Iggy said. “You don’t have any place to go, do you? Come to my house. You’ll be safe here.”

“No. No, we won’t.” There was no way Louise was going to be responsible for getting Iggy or his protective sisters hurt. It would kill her to bring harm down on the close-knit family. “If the Jello Shots can find all our friends, so can Desmarais.”

“Just come to our house and my mom and dad will find a place you’ll be safe.”

“We have family. Princess Tinker is our older sister.”

“She is? I thought the tabloids were just making that up.”

“No, they’re not making it up. She’s our sister.” Not that Alexander knew it. There were Orville and Lain, who were also complete strangers. Louise shivered at the knowledge that they were putting all their hope on people that they would barely recognize in person, who didn’t even know they existed. “We’re going to Elfhome. Windwolf will protect us there.”

“Are you sure?”

Louise closed her eyes tight and took a deep breath. And another. She sought that mysterious calm of knowing. Would Windwolf protect them? “The shards of the fallen have slipped from our fingers. With Joy, the darkness will strike at the heart of the wolf’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness. The wolf must gather the children to him. From oldest to unborn, Brilliance must hold the door.”

“Huh?”

She opened her eyes. “It means he’ll protect us. He has to. He has no choice. He needs us if his world is going to survive.”





39: WALDORF ASTORIA


They were deep in planning their next move when Crow Boy hobbled out of his bedroom and stared out the penthouse window in confusion. The sun was setting over New Jersey, and the canyons between the tall buildings were filling with darkness. He had discovered the blue jeans shorts and crutches but had ignored the T-shirt. The only sign of his wings was the mysterious complex spell tattooed onto his back.

“Where are we?” he asked without turning.

“Midtown East.” Louise pointed toward the kitchen. “We ordered Thai takeout for dinner. There’s shrimp pad thai and chicken satay and vegan fried rice.” The last because they weren’t sure he could eat shrimp, and chicken felt a little cannibalistic. There had been all the makings of banana splits, but Joy had gorged herself on them. The baby dragon was asleep in the twins’ bedroom, sprawled on the unmade king-size bed.

Crow Boy turned awkwardly on his crutches, eyeing the lush luxury of the sprawling sitting room. It was done all in soft blue, butter cream, and highlights of gold; a grown-up version of a fairytale castle. According to the literature, kings and queens, movie stars, and dozens of presidents had stayed in the suite.

Crow Boy startled slightly when he got to them and registered the change in their appearance. Jillian had wanted to bleach their hair blonde, but it turned out that the dye turned Jillian’s hair carrot-orange. (Louise told her that it was a bad idea.) Jillian waved it off, saying they looked less like twins this way. They dyed Louise’s hair jet-black and got her a pair of cosplay glasses. They were dressed in mismatched baggy T-shirts and pants, hoping that they would read as “male” to a casual observer. Louise secretly thought they’d only achieved looking like Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.