“Tell us about your otherworld establishment,” the bronze queen demanded.
Calisa’s tongue felt thick, and she couldn’t stop staring. She remembered Jack saying that the inn used to be fit for royalty. She wasn’t sure it was anymore.
“Speak,” the blue one said, her voice gentle, coaxing.
“It’s peaceful, it’s beautiful, and it’s quiet,” Calisa said, the words spilling out. “Except for the birds. They sing you awake every morning, and if you wake to their singing and go to the window, you can watch the sun rise over the mountains. It turns the sky lemon and pink before it brightens into a light blue. We serve breakfast every morning for our guests.”
“Pancakes,” Jack put in. “They’re delicious.”
“If you’re looking for an adventure, you should find another vacation. The Faraway Inn is an escape,” Calisa said. “It offers a few days to just breathe. To think, if you want, or not think. To be calm. To heal, if you need to. To have space and quiet.”
“It’s in a place called Vermont,” Jack said. “There are mountains and trees. We have gardens with flowers and a stream that you can sit by. We serve tea every afternoon, and there’s a library with shelves full of books. It’s not fancy, but it’s nice.”
“It is,” Calisa agreed.
The two queens exchanged looks.
The blue-painted queen smiled and said, “It sounds like precisely what we need.”
“We’ll tell the innkeeper, when she returns,” Calisa said. There was no way they could host these two terrifying women without Auntie Zee, and she was certainly not going to invite anyone through the portal without the innkeeper’s permission. “We can’t…” The words died in her throat. Both fae queens were staring at her now, their expressions hard. She felt the urge to bolt and hide under something very large for a very long time.
Rin sighed heavily. “She still has not returned? This is hard news. I hoped she’d gone home of her own accord. Alas, I have heard nothing of her whereabouts.”
Calisa felt her heart sink.
She hadn’t realized how much she’d been hoping that Rin would have the answer—he could have talked with someone who’d seen Auntie Zee, he could have gotten word to her that they were searching for her and she needed to come home, or he could have found her and been here with her, ready to return.
Now what do we do?
Chapter Twenty
Calisa heard Mulligan before she saw him: humming a dirge, mixing and stirring. Entering the kitchen, she found him at the butcher block island, creating a new concoction. She was fully aware she was dragging her feet on calling her moms—they were not going to be happy that Calisa didn’t know where Auntie Zee was or that she’d kept it from them for so long—but despite all that, she smiled when she saw Mulligan. “Another attempt?”
“I had an idea! A new, brilliant, glorious idea that came as if on the wings of night, gliding softly over the mountains, to roost in my mind. If I can re-create the exact drink that Zef and I shared on the night we first met, he might wake.”
“I think that’s a beautiful idea.” She waffled for a half second, wondering if she was overstepping, but then placed the bottle from the Night Market on the counter anyway. “I bought this for you. A new ingredient, possibly? I don’t know if it’ll work,and if you don’t want to try it, I promise that’s fine. I won’t be offended or anything.”
He lifted it up to the light and squinted at the liquid inside.
“The vendor who was selling it says it holds an emotion, specifically regret.”
Mulligan lowered the bottle and stared at Calisa.
Calisa felt herself flushing. Weakly, she said, “I was thinking of you and how you said you just needed to make Zef understand it was a mistake, and I thought you could combine it with your hot chocolate or love drink or whatever?”
He swallowed, and she saw his Adam’s apple bob in his thin throat.
“Or not.” She shouldn’t have bought the potion at all. This really, really wasn’t her business. She’d way overstepped this time, and she knew it. It had been one thing to try to fix the inn when Auntie Zee thought it was pointless; it was another to meddle in a guest’s personal life, especially when it involved magic. “It was just a thought. I don’t know how magic works or, really, anything about anything.”
Mulligan let out a little chirp-squawk noise, bustled around the counter, and enfolded Calisa in his robe-clad arms. She felt as if she were being hugged by a giant bat. His limbs were thin and bony, but the robe was voluminous. When he released her, tears were streaming down the hollows of his cheeks.
“This will work,” he said. “I feel it.”
She felt herself smile. His intensity was…intense. “How can I help?”
Following his instructions, Calisa hand-shredded fresh mint leaves. He scurried around the kitchen, singing tunelessly and happily, as he gathered more ingredients: strawberries, sugar, club soda…He puréed the strawberries, forcing them through a mesh strainer.
“Tell me about Zef,” Calisa said as she inhaled the scent of mint and strawberry that filled the kitchen. “What do you like about him? I mean, when he’s not a gargoyle.”
