SNEAK PEEK - The Boy with the Hidden Name

Chapter Three

My aunts are annoyed to see Will. When we get there, they have every light in the house blazing in an attempt to fend off the unnatural darkness of the day.

“Oh no,” Aunt Virtue complains. “What now?”

“We need to get the prophecy back on track,” Will says.

This is an abrupt turnaround from the despairing and depressed Will who said that Ben had destroyed the prophecy when he left.

“I thought you said we couldn’t after Ben left,” I point out. Honestly, I just thought Ben was fulfilling a different prophecy, one my mother had taunted me with. Benedict Le Fay will betray you. And then he will die. But Will keeps insisting it’s not actually part of the prophecy. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Prophecies are so tricky, so hard to pin down, that as far as I’m concerned, we might as well not have them.

“I’m still not entirely sure we can,” Will admits. “But take a look outside, would you? The sun has gone out. And the church bells are falling out of the towers as far away as Lexington and Concord. We have to do something.”

“I don’t get it,” I say. “The Seelies love light. Why would they put out the sun?”

“The Seelies love their light,” notes Will grimly. “Can’t have the Thisworld sun competing with their Otherworld light. Got to get rid of the Thisworld sun first.”

“The Seelies can’t get into Boston though,” Aunt True says, wringing her hands. “Aren’t you protecting Boston? Don’t you have it locked from them?”

“The Seelies have been picking at the lock for a while now,” Will says. “They’re going to get in, sooner or later. Especially without a Le Fay enchantment to add to the protections. Our only chance is to get out now, while we can, and find the other three fays.”

He says it like it’s so easy. 

“How are we supposed to do that? I wouldn’t know where to even start looking,” I point out.

Will goes to answer, but Aunt Virtue cuts him off. “You mean to tell us that, after all this time, that foolish boy Benedict suddenly leaves and all of Boston is going to fall?”

“Boston was always living on borrowed time,” Will says harshly. “We built it to be ready for battle, because we knew that sooner or later, the battle would come. You’ve just forgotten that. Well, the battle is here.” Will gestures toward me. “She triggered it. It’s coming. There’s nothing we can do to stop it now. We have to take a stand, and we have to fight.”

There’s a beat. Kelsey says, “Let’s get out of Boston then.” 

“No, you don’t understand because you’re human,” Will informs her scathingly. “Boston is the safest place we can be. Good luck with the rest of it.”

“Kelsey’s human,” I say. “Won’t she be fine? The Seelies, they want me, they want us, they want—”

“They want everything. You’ve met them. You’ve spent time with them. The Seelies have always been in the Otherworld because we kept them there. If you start to blur the lines between the worlds, they’ll be everywhere. Fresh blood for them to feed off. They need fresh blood, you know. It used to be you could throw them a few changelings here and there. Younger blood, faerie or human, it didn’t matter. They need the youth, the vibrancy. They feed off of it. And the most alive creatures in either world are humans—they live everything so intensely. So no. The humans won’t be safe. Not if we don’t hold the line in Boston.”

“And we can’t hold the line in Boston without Ben,” I conclude.

“Or the other three fays,” says Will. “Look, I can’t read the prophecy anymore. It’s a mess; it’s too in flux. You can’t predict the events that you’re already living. All I can do is guess. We needed the other three fays. Benedict was supposed to help us find them. This is why you can never trust a faerie.”