I couldn’t decide if I hoped Cynthia had seen how beautiful Costa Rica was as she was brought here or not, as if it mattered what I wanted. I could see her huge eyes wide in wonder at the beauty around us, captivated and awed. If she had seen it, I was willing to bet she’d forgotten her situation for a while—even Mom and Dad back home in the hospital—and drank in all the magic of the land and sea. Maybe I merely wanted to believe that, because despite the constant hollow ache, my brain kept forgetting about her and about our parents. I even forgot about what lay in store for me. In one sense, I was relieved to have my thoughts captured by something else. In another, each time I realized I’d forgotten for a moment, the worry came back one hundredfold, with a heaping side order of guilt.
We gotoff the bus in Montezuma, the waves crashing on the shore somewhere out of sight.
“Can you believe this place?”
The awe in her voice and the look Caitlin gave me told me she’d been having similar thoughts. “I’d say I want to bring the family down here when this is all over. They’d love it. However, I don’t ever want to hear the words Costa Rica again. Leave it to vampires to—”
A heavyset man crashed into Caitlin, nearly sending her falling over her dropped backpack. “It’s not my fault you’re turning our kids into brats.”
His wife, so nearly identical in body type I would have sworn they were siblings, sneered back at him, the anger in her voice highlighting her East Coast vernacular. “Well, it’s not my fault you’re so afraid of water we couldn’t take the ferry over and save ourselves three hours.”
The man stormed off, wife and kids following. “We shoulda. Then when it sank, I could’ve forgotten to toss you a life preserver.”
I bugged my eyes at Schwint. “Well, if that’s not an argument against monogamy, I don’t know what is.”
Instead of laughing or giving me one of his too-charming winks, Schwint’s attention was fully focused to my left.
Looking over, I saw Caitlin, her face a deep red, her hand raised like she was getting ready to cast something painful in Schwint’s direction. She looked back and forth between Schwint and Newton. Her voice was low, each word drawn out. She was ready to kill. “You mean to tell me that you fucking fairies didn’t check to see if there was a way across the damned Gulf? That we just wasted half a day on a tourist-filled sightseeing bus when we could have been rescuing my sister?”
Miraculously, her hand dropped to her side and she stormed off.
I picked up her backpack and followed at a safe distance, the fairies trailing behind.
Six
FINN DE MORISCO
A fourteen-minutetaxi ride brought us to the edge of the Cabo Blanco Nature Reserve. Cabo Blanco takes up the southernmost tip of the Nicoya Peninsula and is in the heart of the rainforest. We hadn’t even formally entered the reserve when once again I was struck with certainty that the Vampire Cathedral hadn’t exterminated all magical species that weren’t pure blood or could be mistaken for human. Of course, according to Schwint, that was common knowledge to anyone outside the mainstream witch society. For me, though, it bordered on a life-altering schema change.
Caitlin stared up at the huge trees, moss dripping from their soaring boughs. “Let me get this straight. You’re telling me the Vampire Cathedral set up camp in a national park? What, they needed more food and thought a tourist trap would be a good idea?”
“Technically, it’s a reserve and probably wouldn’t necessarily increase foot traffic. It’s to preserve the land, not for human recreation. However, since Costa Rica depends so heavily on tourism, this reserve may…” Newton’s words faded out under Caitlin’s glare.
“Whatever, fairy geek. I don’t need a science lesson. I’m just skeptical that the Royals would choose such a heavily traversed area.”
Schwint jumped in before Newton could respond. “Actually, it’s only been a reserve for a few decades. At one point, much of this area was overdeveloped to the point the forest was disappearing. However, the Vampire Cathedral has been here for a couple of centuries. The Royals would have chosen this well before it was any type of tourist destination.”
Caitlin leveled her stink eye on him. “You too? First the spider and now a topographical lesson?”
He shrugged. “Fairy, remember? We’re kinda in tune to these kinds of things.”
“Apparently not in tune enough to know about boats going across the fucking Gulf. How’d you miss that with all your flying around yesterday?”
“Okay, Cate, we’ve already been through this. We’re here now. What’s done is done.” I turned to Schwint. “I gotta agree with Caitlin, though. There seems to be too many people coming in and out for the Vampire Cathedral to be here.”
“We saw it when we were flying over yesterday. Plus, it’s common knowledge where to find the Cathedral.”
“Not really. We didn’t know where it was. I mean, we knew it was in Costa Rica but nothing more than that.”
Schwint gave me a look. “Is that truly the criteria you want to go with? You didn’t even know ten correct facts about fairies, and we’re living all around you in San Diego.”
“Point taken.” I glanced around, overwhelmed by the huge forest on one side and the crashing ocean on the other. At a rustle, I looked up, and three tufted white faces stared at us from the branches, black tails curling down.
“Capuchin monkeys.” Newton’s voice actually had a hint of a smile in it. “Cute, but mischievous little devils.”
“Yeah, they’re great. I’ll make sure to get a picture with one and send it back home. Better yet, let’s capture one and take it back for Christina’s unborn baby.” Caitlin turned from Newton dismissively. “Maybe the Royals used to be here, but they’ve moved somewhere else with all the recent development in the area over the last few decades.”
Newton shook his head, his words heavy with condescension. “Trust me, they’re never gonna leave the Cathedral. It’s their home, where they’ve been for centuries. They’re not going to just pick up and go.”
