In any event we didn’t do anything about the curse today. We only relaxed and visited with the Carstairs-Herondales,who should definitely pick a shorter name we can use for them. Team Victorian Era? Team Time When Everything Was Very Romantic But It Took Forever To Get Anywhere? Hm. I guess I’ll ask them for ideas, since mine are, uh, bad.
There was a complication right when they arrived. We had picked out bedrooms for them to use and asked the brownies to make them up with sheets and towels and all that. We checked the rooms before the guests arrived, and I’m glad we did, because the faeries had made up all the rooms for…birds? Like, for huge, person-sized birds. Big nests of sticks, six feet across, and branches to perch on. Big balls of birdseed hanging from the ceiling. So we had to ask them to redo the rooms and the brownies looked so disappointed. (We didn’t say the guests were birds! I have no idea why they thought that!) The worst part is they did a really nice job, like, if we were being visited by giant birds they would have been very comfortable. They still seemed puzzled when everyone did show up that Mina wasn’t a big egg. Faeries, man.
Speaking of Mina, who is not a big egg but rather a small toddler, she is extremely cute. She is walking now, or toddling, I guess, and she says “Mama” and “Dada” and also “Kish” which apparently is what she calls Kit. And she has a little wooden toy stele that she is constantly trying to scribble on everyone with. Apparently Kit has been learning runes and Mina wants to learn them too.
We should have gone straight into curse breaking, but to be honest we were just having a nice time hanging out. Tessa and Jem are very easy to spend time with, which is great given how high-strung most of our other friends are. I suppose once you’ve gone through all that’s happened to them, it takes a lot to upset you. Just the way Jem talks about the curse makes me feel more reassured that we’ll be able to fix it, even though we don’t really know what we’re doing or what’s gone wrong so far.
They seem impressed by the house, also, which makes Julian look all proud of himself in a highly adorable way. Tessa said the last time either of them were here was after Tatiana was arrested and sent to be an Iron Sister, and they were searching it for demon stuff. (Most of which, she admitted, they clearly didn’t find. It seems obvious from the way she talks that they didn’t understand how dangerous Tatiana actually was until it was too late—I really want to ask her about it, but it seemed a dark topic while we were all having a good time.) Jem told us the house was already in bad shape way back then, but Tessa said she saw the house once “in its prime” at a ball, and then she blushed a little. Whatever happened during the ball must have been pretty impressive if she’s blushing about it one hundred thirty years later!
Of course there’s still the overall shroud of heavy memory that hangs over the place, and no amount of new paint and replaced windows can help. That’d be the curse,of course. Still, it felt cheerier this evening than it ever has before. For the first time I felt a little like it was our house and friends had come to visit and it was surprisingly nice and ordinary. As long as I didn’t think about what’s going on with the Clave
One concern within the house: Kit. He hung out with us most of the day, but he was really quiet, for him, and a couple of times he excused himself to go take a walk in the garden. Julian said he thinks Kit broke up with his girlfriend and maybe he’s sad about that, but I don’t know. He was jumpy whenever any of the builders were around and kept a close eye on them. Round Tom introduced himself and Kit nodded, but he didn’t introduce himself back or say much of anything else. I mean, you can hardly blame him. His relationship to faeries, and Faerie itself, is complicated. According to Tessa, Cirenworth is very tightly warded against faerie incursions, and even the town and the roads nearby are protected. Magnus and Catarina made sure of it. So this would be one of the first times Kit has been around faeries since the big battle outside Alicante. Even though these faeries are safe, it must be weird for him.
But you know Kit. Even at the best of times, he has this aura about him like he doesn’t want to answer any questions about himself. Today he’s been out front, watching the faeries in the garden—it could be he’s worried about them, or maybe he wants to join them? I don’t know. Maybe Julian or I can get him to open up a little while he’s here.Or maybe I’ll get a moment to ask Jem or Tessa if they know what’s up.
So that’s all from me for now, Bruce. Tomorrow we break a curse! I hope!
Emma
TY
KIT (UNSENT)
Ty,
I need someone to talk to and I don’t want it to be Julian or Emma. Or Jem or Tessa. So it’ll have to be you. Which means I can’t ever send this, and you can’t ever read it. I’ll burn it in the garden when I’m done writing, so I’m not tempted to send it later.
The gardens here are excellent, by the way. I guess you know that since you’ve been here. There’s an old Georgian greenhouse, and a little pond with lilies and frogs and benches to watch them from, and a walled garden, and it’s just very pleasant to walk around the grounds with Mina. I never had a sister or brother before, you know that, but being with Mina makes me understand a tiny bit more about how you felt about Livvy. Still feel about Livvy, I guess. I’m not saying I forgive you. Just maybe I get it a little now.
Blackthorn Hall is still being restored, and there arefaeries everywhere doing the restorations. They’re brownies, apparently, and even though they aren’t doing anything that interesting—weeding and carrying wheelbarrows of dirt and whatever—I can’t stop watching them. I’ve hardly seen any faeries at all since—well, since we were in that battle with them. I guess I didn’t realize how carefully everyone was working to keep them away from me. Until now.
I should stay away from them, because every time I get close enough for them to talk to me, they do something to freak me out. The first time the head builder, this guy Round Tom—he’s not even that round, honestly—saw me, he did a little thing where he jumped in a circle and made some odd gestures in the air, then bowed towards me. I turned on my heel and walked off in the other direction like I had just remembered something important.
And then General Winter, like Kieran’s General Winter, was there helping out. Julian says he’s there to keep the workers in line, since they are scared of General Winter but not Round Tom. He knew I was the First Heir. Like the Riders did.
The Riders whose horses I made disappear. Or something. I don’t know if they ever came back. No one seems to know.
I tried to pretend I didn’t notice General Winter either, but we were out in the open and it would have been way too obvious. So when he addressed me as First Heir, all I could think of to say was, “That’s me. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”
“If you’ve been told,” he said, “then it is true, since we do not lie.”
I wanted to say, “Buddy, I worked at the Los Angeles Shadow Market for years. Faeries do all kinds of sketchy stuff.” Instead I just said, “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do about it.”
General Winter watched me with this thoughtful look on his face. “You need do nothing about it, yet. Indeed, at this moment, that might be the wisest course of action. For things are strange in Faerie.”
“What do you mean?” I said.
“There are disturbances,” he said slowly. “Rumors swirl about the Seelie Court. And Mother Hawthorn walks again.”
Before I could ask him what any of that meant, Round Tom came rushing over. “Cousins.” (I had forgotten faeries sometimes addressed each other like that, and it gave me a little shiver, like he meant you are one of us.) “I’ve found something. Please come with me.”
He led us around to one of the big plane trees. A little ways away from the trunk was a huge hole, and then on the other side of the tree were two sawhorses across which balanced a coffin.
At least I think it was a coffin. It was busted up, half-rotted, cracked everywhere, caked in dirt. It had obviously come out of the hole.
“A tomb?” said General Winter as we got closer, but Round Tom was shaking his head.
“We would not have disturbed a tomb,” said Round Tom. “But none lie buried here. Only magic of a dark and powerful kind.” He stepped back. “Look inside.”
