The Twilight Prince

Chapter Eighteen: The Glass Embassy

If Éven could find Mum, I would give him every chance to do so. If he couldn't, I wanted Horseshoe to put their resources into finding her, rather than chasing him. So, I would not tell them that Éven had visited me. I would not tell them about the crystal he had given me. And I certainly would not tell them what I thought of him—in part because I wasn't quite sure about that last part.

"The next time I saw him was at Mrs Cavendish's house," I said. That was it. The lie was told.

"In the attic?"

"Yes. He was stealing a stone casket."

"And you didn't call for help? You didn't tell Private Stoker or Mrs Cavendish that he was there?"

"I was scared. This is new to me. He had a sword."

"He had a sword?"

I realised my mistake at once. There hadn't been a sword. Not then. Not in the attic. I had only seen a sword when he appeared in the mirror; the sword he had used to behead a boggart. I was getting mixed up, and Abigail would know that there hadn't been a sword.

"I think he had a sword," I said. "The room was dark. There were shadows. I couldn't see well."

Keele bared his teeth again. He was a bull shark.

"Did you speak to him?"

"I don't remember."

"Did he speak to you?"

I nodded. This was my story now. If Abigail could read lips, this was what she saw:

"He said he was taking back what was stolen from his people."

Keele switched back to processing mode, taking everything that I said and untangling it in his head while his dark eyes drilled into me. I wondered if the reason he hadn't lost his knowledge of magic as he aged was that he never had the imagination for it to begin with. Everything was just data to him. All just facts.

He held his silence for longer than I could stand, so I broke it.

"They took my mum, Mr Keele. If I could tell you more about him, I would, but if you're looking for leads, why don't you track down the people you already know about? Why don't you find Selkie and Kain?"

Keele sucked in a slow breath between his teeth.

"Three agents are dead, Mr Frazer," he said. "We are following all leads."

I flushed with embarrassment at my callousness. I was so caught up in my pain that I hadn't given much thought to anyone else's. Three Horseshoe agents had died trying to protect my mum, and I didn't even know their names.

"If I may continue?" said Keele. "Have you had any other contact with the fey outside of your experiences with Horseshoe Division and the events of May Day?"

"No. I mean, I don't know."

"Perhaps before May Day?"

This was another question I had thought about a lot. I had gone through all my teachers, all my neighbours, all my friends, trying to remember anything that might identify them as fey. Now that I knew they were out there, I thought they might be anywhere, yet I could not think of a single incident that seemed like it had to be magic.

"I don't think I ever encountered magic before May Day," I said.

"But you did. According to Mrs Cavendish, magic is baked in to your bones. That's what makes you different. Someone in your life—most likely your father or your mother—was involved with the fey. The kidnappers may want to find out why you're different, but they may already know. It would help us if we knew as well."