Inherent Fate Read online

  “Yeah, it was pretty lucky that Knight shoved your survey into that old bag that never leaves her side,” Daniel added. He paused and looked over at me. “Until now that is.”

  “Hold on. What?”

  I checked myself and discovered Daniel was right. I had forgotten to grab my satchel before signing the survey. My wand was in my boot, but its trusty carrying case was trapped somewhere far away within the lamp.

  “I can’t believe I left it! Now what am I supposed to carry my wand around in? The thing’s barely been in my boot five minutes and I already feel a dent in my calf.”

  I sighed and pulled my wand from my boot. There was nothing else of particular value in the bag, but I’d had it for an eternity. It’s what I’d been storing my wand in for years.

  Debbie’s mouth hung agape. “You have a wand,” she gasped. She flicked her eyes to the black orb in the corner of the room for a moment with a touch of panic in her expression.

  “Yeah, about that . . .” I responded. “It’s also kind of a long story.”

  “And I’m also kind of intrigued,” Debbie said. “Tell. Me. Everything.”

  “Deb, I don’t know if I—”

  “Come on,” she insisted. “You’ve already shown it to me. You can’t change that. And I promise that anything you say will stay between us; it’s the Fairy Godmother–Fairy Godkid code of silence. Plus, you did trick me last time we met so you could get up here. Wouldn’t you say you at least owe me this in return for all the heat I took on your behalf?”

  “I thought you were totally over that?”

  “I am, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to cash it in as a solid you-owe-me.” Debbie smiled sweetly.

  Feeling unsure, I looked to Daniel. He nodded, giving me the go-ahead to do whatever I thought best. I conceded to going along with Debbie’s request and telling her what she wanted to know. After all, I was giving the whole “being completely honest and trusting people” thing a shot, wasn’t I?

  For the next few minutes I explained to Debbie the details about our visit to Emma, her gift of my wand and the resulting mysterious magical power that accompanied it, and even the painful hand-burning episodes I suffered from when I went too long without expelling magic (i.e. Magic Build-Up).

  When I finished, Debbie bit her lip.

  “Hold on,” she said slowly. “There’s one thing I need to clarify.”

  “Okay, shoot.”

  “Are you telling me—in all seriousness—that the reason you’d been carrying around that disgusting satchel was so you could have a convenient way to transport your wand?”

  “It wasn’t disgusting,” I muttered.

  “Honey, do you see what I’ve got on?” Debbie pointed to her flowing, majestic dress. “Trust me, I know the difference between cute and gross. I saw that bag when the Godmother Supreme was doing her weekly briefings and she showed us images of you, and I know it was not cute.”

  “Hold up.” I waved my arms dramatically. “What do you mean she showed you images of me? Has she been spying on me?”

  “Sort of,” Debbie replied like it was no big deal. “She’s been looking for you ever since she found out you and your friends ditched Lady Agnue’s. A princess escapes protagonist school weeks after breaking into Fairy Godmother Headquarters and you think our realm’s most powerful Fairy Godmother isn’t going to want to have a conversation with her?”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Debbie cut me off again. “But that’s not important,” she said. “What is important is the matter of that gross satchel.”

  Daniel shook his head. “Really? The girl just told you she has magic powers and you wanna talk about purses?”

  “Ignore him.” Debbie waved her hand dismissively. “This is as important as it gets. Explain yourself, Crisa. How could a princess allow herself to carry around such a hobo-esque handbag?”

  “Well, it’s not as though I can make my wand appear out of thin air like you can,” I protested.

  “I don’t make my wand appear out of thin air,” Debbie clarified. “I transform it from one shape to another. Look.”

  Debbie pulled one of the crystal hairpins from her red mane. A second later it morphed into her wand, just like I’d seen it do when we first met.

  “There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to do the same,” Debbie continued. “All Fairy Godmother-issue wands are designed for this type of shape-shifting—that way we don’t have to worry about carrying them around all the time. Here, watch. Hold up your wand.”

  I obeyed.

  “Now concentrate on it and say Lapellium,” Debbie instructed.

  “Lapellium,” I repeated.

  My wand shrunk to the size of a sewing needle—that sparkled. It had turned into a delicate hairpin. My mouth hung open in shock.

  “How did . . .”

  Debbie shrugged. “Like I said, every wand is enchanted to change into an accessory—rings, bracelets, hairpins. Coco, our receptionist, even figured out a way to morph hers into acrylic nails. They look super uncomfortable, but to each her own. The bottom line is that it makes life easier for us, just as I’m sure it will make life easier for you. All you have to do is touch the wand, concentrate on it, and say Lapellium. You don’t even have to say it out loud; just think it. And to change it back, focus your magic on the original shape of the wand and the word Lapellius and voilà, it’ll return to normal.”

  I held the slender accessory in the palm of my hand, took a deep breath—imagining the shape of my wand—then thought, Lapellius.

  Sure enough, the little piece of silver expanded in my hand until it returned to its wand state. Fascinated, I tried a second time.

  Lapellium.

  Once more I watched my wand shrink back to the form of a tiny hairpin. I marveled at it like a kid who’d just discovered candy.

  Coolest. Thing. Ever.

  I began fastening the pin in my hair above my ear where Debbie kept hers but quickly reconsidered. I didn’t usually wear my hair back, and my wand felt vulnerable and out of place there. I got into so many action-packed shenanigans I figured it was a bad idea to leave it where it could fall out while I was running or something. Additionally, I didn’t want anyone to identify my sparkly hair accessory for what it was. The odds of someone knowing it was a disguised wand were slim, but I wasn’t willing to take the chance. I settled for clipping the wandpin to my left bra strap.

  Not a very ladylike move to keep a weapon strapped to one’s underwear, I know. But a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

  “Thanks for the tip, Deb,” I commented after securing the pin. “Who knew hairpins could be so multifunctional?”

  Daniel—losing patience—punched me in the arm. “Knight, focus. We’re losing time here. We should be concentrating on a way to find our friends or getting to the Valley of Strife to look for the next item on Emma’s list. We need to go.”

  “I’m afraid you guys can’t leave,” Debbie responded, biting her lip. “At least not yet.”

  I felt a shiver in my spine and took a slight step back. “Why?”

  “Like I said, the Godmother Supreme wants to have a conversation with you. And she already knows you’re here.” Debbie pointed at the black orb with the red blinking light in the corner of the room. “How familiar are you with the concept of security cameras?”

  I thought back. Security cameras were not something I’d ever seen in our realm, but I did know what they were. When we went to Earth to find the Little Mermaid’s daughter Ashlyn, we’d learned a lot about otherworldly creations from watching TV and movies.

  “How long have security cameras been in Book?” Daniel asked, eyeing the thing suspiciously.

  “Only about a month,” Debbie replied. “The Fairy Godmothers have ways of keeping tabs on developing technology from other realms, and we incorporate what our realm’s leaders deem most useful. With her love of control, the Godmother Supreme has taken to security cameras quite wholeheartedly. They were not that hard
to incorporate. In a way, we’ve been using a more limited, magical version of this concept for ages. Think about how we project holographic images from one location to the next, like when we give real-time views of what’s happening in the skies during a Twenty-Three Skidd tournament. This is just a more stationary, stable version of that. There’s a camera in every office of Headquarters now. And the Godmother Supreme has them in key locations across the realm. Their number increases every day.”

  “Maybe she hasn’t seen us yet,” I said optimistically. “If she has that many cameras, the odds of her watching this room at this very moment are—”

  “Debbie Nightengale . . .” We all cringed at the sound of the voice from the intercom echoing through the room. That was one type of technology in Fairy Godmother Headquarters I was familiar with.

  “Please escort Miss Knight and her companion to the Management office in ten minutes. The Godmother Supreme would like a word with her. That is all.”

  The intercom buzzed with static as it cut off.

  “I’m sorry,” Debbie said. “I wish you didn’t have to see that woman. She can be merciless and cruel when she wants to be, but your fate was sealed the moment you popped in.”

  “Should you really be badmouthing your boss with that camera right there?” Daniel said, tilting his head at the intrusive thing.

  “It only does video, not audio,” Debbie explained. “Our fairy engineers haven’t quite found a way to cancel out the magical interference. The intercoms are able to, except for a little static. But the wiring for the cameras is more complex. So for now, while the Godmother Supreme can see everything, she can’t hear us.” Debbie turned to me with a slightly grim expression. “She saw your wand, Crisa. I didn’t know you were going to whip it out or else I would have stopped you. Once you did, I didn’t say anything because the damage was already done. The Godmother Supreme knows you have magic now, but she doesn’t know you got it from Emma or any of the other details.”

  I groaned in frustration. “Debbie, Daniel is right. We really don’t have time to waste here. A lot of important stuff is going on that you don’t understand.”

  “My hands are tied, Crisa,” she replied. “You don’t want to know what would happen to me if I went against the Godmother Supreme. Lena Lenore does not take kindly to disobedience.”

  Debbie walked around her desk and sat down in her chair, propping her chin on her hands. “Since we at least have the privacy of our words and ten minutes, you might as well fill me in on this ‘important stuff’ I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t know . . .” I hedged.

  “Knight, just tell her,” Daniel said. “Maybe she can shed some light. What’s the point of having a powerful guardian if all she can do is give you fashion advice and magic accessories?”

  “You really think she could help us?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Um, hello?” Debbie piped in. “I’m right here. Should I grab a cup of coffee while you talk about me amongst yourselves?”

  I sighed. “Deb, that Fairy Godmother–Fairy Godkid code of silence thing you brought up earlier—is that a universal thing? Like it’ll extend to whatever I tell you?”

  “Totally,” she replied with a shrug that made her ponytail bounce. “It’s part of the oath—a Godmother has strict confidentiality with her Godkid no matter what. It’s an unbreakable trust bond so that, rain or shine, I can be your go-to gal for anything without you ever having to worry about me selling you out.”

  “All right.” I nodded. “Well then take a seat, Deb, because we’re about to put that oath to good use.”

  Maybe it was Debbie’s sincerity and willingness to help, maybe it was the whole Fairy Godmother–Fairy Godkid bond getting the better of me, or maybe it was just the fact that I’d always felt redheads were trustworthy. But, for whatever reason, I decided to tell Debbie the whole story about everything that had gone down since the last time we’d met. Daniel was right—if anyone was in a position to help us or clue us in on some of the stuff that was happening, it was her.

  In tag-team, Daniel and I began telling our story. We opened with the part about our mission to find the Author and explained our ongoing efforts to collect the items needed to break the In and Out Spell around the Indexlands to reach her. Then we told Debbie about how our realm’s ambassadors were conspiring with Lena Lenore and other Godmothers (like the Scribes—the Fairy Godmothers charged with protecting protagonist books) to rig protagonist selection.

  At this part in the story I noticed Debbie eyes widen like ping-pong balls. The way her face paled and fingers clenched, I knew she wasn’t one of the Godmothers on Lenore’s team.

  I was glad for this. I liked Debbie. She was sweet and I’d really been hoping she didn’t know about the conspiracy. Knowledge of the corruption made my insides burn with injustice, and I didn’t want to add her to my already long list of enemies.

  I went on to tell Debbie about the holes we’d discovered in the In and Out Spell that created portals to other realms—like the one we’d used to get to Earth to find Ashlyn. Daniel followed up with a description of the antagonists that were after me, and my dreams of the future. Finally, I wrapped up the tale with an explanation of Natalie Poole.

  Debbie barely blinked as Daniel and I told her of our adventures. Her eyes simply got bigger and bigger with wonder, fear, and disbelief. When we were done she uttered a single word:

  “Dang.”

  “I know, right?” I said. “So . . . can you shed some light on any of this?”

  “I wish I could, Crisa,” she replied, biting the end of one of her ruby red fingernails. “But I don’t know anything about those creeps that’ve been after you or the ambassadors’ conspiracy or Natalie Poole or—”

  “So to sum up, you don’t know anything,” Daniel interrupted, checking the clock.

  This time it was my turn to punch Daniel on the arm, narrowing my eyes at him. “Don’t be rude.”

  “It’s fine, Crisa,” Debbie said calmly. “But he is wrong; I do know one thing. It’s about those dreams you’ve been having.” Debbie rotated in her seat so that she was looking at me directly and her face was concealed from the camera. “Crisa, whatever you do, you can’t tell anyone else about seeing the future in your dreams. Especially any of the other Godmothers.”

  “Why?”

  Debbie bit her lip nervously. “It’s . . . well, it’s complicated,” she replied. “I don’t really know all the details. All I can say is that dreaming about the future is definitely not something you want to brag about. So please, until we know exactly what we’re dealing with, just go with me on this and don’t tell anyone. If the Godmother Supreme ever found out . . .” Debbie’s eyes darted away nervously. “Just promise, okay? Mum’s the word?”

  “All right,” I agreed, feeling curious. “I promise.”

  “Good,” Debbie continued. “And as for everything else, I’m afraid the only person who might be able to give you answers is the Godmother Supreme. It sucks, I know, but she is the most well-connected person in the realm. She knows everyone and everything, so she may be your best and only bet for finding out the truth behind all this.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Great. I didn’t exactly rub her the right way the first time we met so speaking with her a second time ought to be fun.”

  “Look on the bright side, Knight,” Daniel said. “You rub most people the wrong way the first time you meet them. But the majority seem to get over it.”

  “Gee, thanks, Daniel. That helps a lot.” I gave him a disdainful smile and turned back to Debbie. “I guess you should take us to her now. I want to get this over with.”

  “Okay,” Debbie said. She shook her head. “You know, it’s funny. Ordinarily I’d insist you clean yourself up a bit first—the Godmother Supreme appreciates presentation, and you guys could use all the good credit with her you can get. But despite all your misadventures, the pair of you look surprisingly put-together.”


  “It’s the SRB,” Daniel said, holding up his wrist to show Debbie the Soap on a Rope-like Bracelet that SJ had crafted for each of us. “They’re made from a potion that keeps you from getting dirty or stank.”

  Despite the harrowing tales of danger and drama that we’d just told Debbie, it was this statement that caused her face to grow the palest. She shot to her feet. “Are you telling me that you two have been wearing those same outfits for days?”

  “Well, that depends if you count the Earth-to-Book time difference,” I replied. “Otherwise it’s been a lot longer.”

  Debbie’s face grew even more ghostly. “Oh no,” she said, waving her arms. “No, no, no. Not on my watch.”

  My Fairy Godmother’s tsunami dress had started to ripple aggressively, greater swells of dark gray pushing away the blue. She reached for the wandpin in her hair and transformed it. I took a step back.

  “Deb, what are you—”

  I didn’t have time to finish the question. Debbie waved her wand. Scarlet sparks rushed out of its tip like a swarm of bees. The sparks zoomed around Daniel and me until we were enclosed within separate cocoons.

  After being consumed by the purple, magic-sucking vortex that had trapped us in the genie lamp, the claustrophobic sensation of the cocoon made me tense and breathless. Thankfully, it only lasted for a few seconds. My sparkly cocoon evaporated with one mega burst. When it was gone, I looked down and discovered Debbie had magically changed my outfit.

  I checked to make sure my wandpin was still where I’d placed it. I still wore black leggings, but my brown boots had morphed into a pair of dark gray boots with an inky design crawling up the sides. If I looked closely, the design seemed to fluctuate like dark clouds, pulsating around the onyx laces as if they were the eye of a storm. The laces streaked periodically with itty-bitty flashes of silver electricity like tiny lightning bolts.

  The main difference in my ensemble was the dress I now wore over my leggings. It was long sleeved and a rich shade of cobalt. The material was soft and supple; its cut was A-line, and it had glittering black shoulder pads like a soldier’s uniform. But it was the sleeves that made me stare.