“Anyway, this is our room.” She turned to us, her cheeks pink. “Sana packed in a hurry, and then a bunch of people came through here retreating to the fae realm. It’s . . . definitely going to be a mess. Sorry.”
I choked out a laugh at the innocent and reassuringly normal worry. “I think we can all handle a messy bedroom. Lay it on us, Torna.”
Ayla still looked like she was about to seriously regret letting us into her room, so I gave her a reassuring smile. With a small sigh, she pushed the door open.
I blinked. Damn, the girl hadn’t been kidding. It looked like a tornado had been through here. Clothes everywhere, a lamp overturned, makeup lay scattered, and random items spilled out of the dressers and closets.
Ayla pressed her hands over her eyes. “By the aether, my sister is such a slob.”
Behind me, Hunter let loose a laugh. A few others joined in, lightening the mood.
“When we get to Faerie, you can tell her how much she embarrassed you.” I patted her on the shoulder. “But we should get moving.”
I hadn’t felt anything strange or demonic, but the hellborn could crop up at any second. The last thing we needed was for the demons to watch us retreating to another realm.Theymight not be able to enter, but they had other magical minions who could.
Ayla picked her way through the room, muttering and shaking her head every couple steps. She stopped when she reached a bed—presumably hers, because it was more well-made than the other—and ran her eyes over it. “I don’t think anyone’s been here since your parents left.”
“Your bed is the portal?” Diana asked, a tone of incredulity in her voice.
In response, Ayla grinned and leaned over the queen-sized mattress to tap the headboard.
My eyes widened. What appeared to be a nondescript headboard, decorated with concentric circles from the middle all the way to the outside, was actually a well-disguised portal. In the dead center, a knob protruded ever so slightly, presumably the handle.
“Brilliant,” I said. “How do we open it?”
The faerie’s lips pulled up at the corners. “Easy. Be me, Sana, or our headmistress.”
Her hand landed on the knob, and suddenly, it began to glow a brilliant white. When she pressed inward, the portal door swung away, and a stream of yellowish mist flew into her bedroom.
She turned back to us. “Shall I go first?”
I nodded and watched as the faerie crawled on her mattress and through the portal hole.
I went next, bracing myself for the strange sensation that had overwhelmed me the first time I visited the other realm. But as I traversed the ten or so feet of the portal, it didn’t come. In fact, nothing about entering this realm felt strange, which both relieved and confused me.
I’d reached the other side, but was still on my hands and knees.
Ayla extended a hand to help me up. “You won’t feel Faerie-drunk this time. You’ve acclimated.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. My last visit, I’d been out of it for hours. But now, I didn’t have time for that sort of nonsense.
“We’ll have to have rooms prepared for Eva, Alex, and Hunter so they can sleep off the Faerie drunk,” Ayla mused, as if it had just occurred to her.
“Rooms have been ready for you for ages,” a familiar, yet pinched, voice shot through my heart.
I peered past Ayla, and found my mom at the door of the room we’d entered, her arms extended.
“Mom!” I ran to her and threw myself in her arms. “I’ve been so worried. When I didn’t find you guys at the house, I—”
“I know, honey.” Mom stroked my hair, and I noted that she smelled different. Still like vanilla and myrrh, but lacking the touch of her favorite perfume or oils. “It was so hard for us not to leave a more obvious message, but we just couldn’t risk it. We had faith, though, that you would figure it out.” She pulled away to look at me.
The months I’d been away had changed her, given her lines where there hadn’t been any before. And she looked thinner . . . from anxiety, no doubt. Her brown hair even had a couple streaks of gray.
“I’m so glad you’re here, and that you’re safe, Odie.” Her voice broke a little. “We’ve been so worried. All the parents have. We’ve been taking turns waiting here for word of our children.” She gestured back to the single chair and table in the room. “I’d just gone to take my plate to the kitchens, and when I came back . . . you were here.” A sob escaped her mouth, and tears began streaming down her face. “Finally here.”
I pulled her tight again. “I’m here, Mom. And I have so many things to tell you. I—Argh!” My hand flew to my head as a pressure increased all the way around my skull, and then, just as suddenly, eased up.
I blinked, unsure what had happened.
