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Was he still mad at me about whatever fake memory Arthas had given him? That wasn’t fair!

  Ian wouldn’t leave me in the fae realm,would he? I decided the best thing to do would just be to sit down and wait. I walked through the castle, noting the lack of comfortable chairs. Most were made of gold, or wood, stone, and I was looking for something of the sofa variety. Finally, I discovered a big arm chair with plenty of cushioning. My eyelids got heavier and heavier until finally, I stopped fighting against them.

  When I woke up, Ian was standing over me, and it took me a moment to realize that I was still in the castle.

  “Well, look who it is,” I said, putting my hands on my hips and fixing him with a cold stare. I wouldn’t let him have power over my emotions again.

  “Erica,” he said, looking at the ground nervously, “I just stopped by to apologize for how I acted earlier. You know that wasn’t the real me. Arthas had been toying with my mind. He made me think you did things you didn’t really do.”

  “Here’s the thing,” I said, “Arthas can’t make you believe something unless deep down, you think there’s some possibility it could happen. So you must think I’m capable of some pretty bad things, huh? Well, maybe I am.” I got up and walked out of the room, slamming the door in his face.

  Ian just jumped into the hallway I was in now and continued talking like nothing had happened, “Arthas preys on our fears,” Ian said, “And deep down I’ve always know that I cared about you a lot more than you cared about me, so it wasn’t that hard to believe you could betray me. It’s what I’ve been fearing all along. That you would fall in love with someone else…”

  The whole issue made me feel kind of awkward, so I changed the subject, “Are we still ‘Promised,’ or whatever?”

  “Yes,” Ian said, looking up at me for the first time since he had gotten there, “Is that okay?”

  “You tell me,” I said, my voice softening against my will.

  “Erica,” he said, “You know that if it was up to me, we’d already be married.” His voice broke, and he swallowed hard. I had done my best to stand firm, but my resolve wavered. I threw my arms around Ian and held him close to me.

  “One more thing,” Ian said, “Now that Seth’s back, I may not ever become king. Is that okay?”

  I laughed so hard that I could barely speak, but I finally said, “Ian, I’m not marrying you for your title. I don’t care about the throne.”

  “I’m going to stay with you in your world,” Ian said, “I’ll have to go back every full moon for the royal congress, but other than that…”

  I didn’t respond at first,and he misinterpreted my silence for reluctance. He continued, “I could still spend nights in the castle. I can jump there. And it’s not like I’ll hover over you - I’ll give you your space. I think you’ve proven that you can handle attacks by the fae in this world.” I think Ian and I realized at the same time that I didn’t need him as my protector anymore, “And in return,” Ian said, “I’ll help you with your family, and you can stay at the castle whenever you need a break.”

  “Deal,” I said. For all the trouble they had caused me, I missed my family, and I was glad that I didn’t have to go back to the fae world anytime soon.

  “I’m going to take you back to your family,” Ian said, “but after that, I need to go clear my name.”

  Even though I knew Holly-who-looked-just-like-me would be there, I still jumped when I saw myself lying across my bed, thumbing through one of Julia’s Vogue magazines.

  “Thank goodness you’re here!” Holly exclaimed when she saw me. She snapped her fingers and the other me was replaced with a short, slender woman with long, flowing red hair.

  “Those kids are brats,” Holly said, “No offense. I don’t know how you put up with them.”

  “It’s not always easy,” I said, “but it’s what I’m used to.”

  “Sorry about the house,” Holly said, “I did what I could.” She walked out of my bedroom and left me expecting the worst. I hesitantly stepped out of my bedroom. My brothers were wrestling, there was a small fire in the kitchen garbage can (which I quickly put out), and Julia had some boy with multiple tattoos hanging out in her room. The whole house looked like a frat party had been thrown there.

  “Enough!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. My brothers stopped fighting, Julia came out of her room (without the boy), and they began to clean up the mess they had made, with a little prodding from me.

  “I thought you said you didn’t care what we did anymore,” Stephen said.

  “I changed my mind,” I said.

  After several hours, the house was clean and life went back to what it was before.

  Ian showed up a few hours later, knocking on the front door so that my siblings wouldn’t wonder how he had entered the house.

  “How convenient, you showed up right after we got done cleaning,” I said, “Did you find out what happened between you and Seth the day you went horseback riding?”

  “Yes, and Arthas must have had this whole thing planned all along. He kidnapped Seth, knowing he was the heir to the throne. Then Arthas altered Seth’s memories so that Seth would trust him and think we were the true enemies. Arthas planned to become Seth’s advisor when Seth went back to the castle years later and claimed his throne.”

  “But why would Seth believe that you were his enemy?”

  “Seth has always been protective of his claim to the throne. He always thought I was trying to steal it from him.”

  “That’s messed up.” My family may have its issues, but at least none of my siblings had ever tried to kill me. After seeing what Ian had to deal with, my life didn’t seem so bad.

  Chapter 17

  Ian stayed true to his word. He didn’t come with me to classes, but he always showed up to eat lunch with me at Julia’s freshman table. We spent most evenings together, and this made Julia a lot easier to manage, since she was a lot more likely to listen to a handsome guy that to me. He always left before I went to sleep, and he was always kind to me, even when I was in a bad mood.

  Everything was perfect until I started having dizzy spells three days after defeating Arthas in the castle.

  “I don’t feel so good,” I said to Ian, who was sitting on my bed next to me. All of a sudden, the room was spinning. I wasn’t in my room anymore, but at the castle. At first I thought Ian jumped me there, but then, as soon as I was there, I was back again.

  “What just happened?” I asked.

  Ian felt my forehead, “Are you feeling okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said, “It must be all the fae blood and food from a few days ago. I thought that I was in the castle for a second.”

  I started to get a little worried when the same thing happened at school the next day. One minute I was sitting in history class and then the next, I was standing in the throne room. I saw Vanya putting on an unusual-looking silver bracelet, and then leaving the castle. The king and queen had worried expressions on their faces.

  “Hey,” I said, but they didn’t turn to look at me. The room shifted again and I was back in Ms. Trupe’s class. No one had even noticed that I had been gone.

  Had it just been a dream? Had I fallen asleep during class? I had been rather tired lately.

  “Hey,” I said to Ian casually, “Does Vanya have a silver bracelet that looks like a dragon with its tongue sticking out?”

  “Yes,” he said, “How did you know that?”

  “I had a dream about it,” I said, “I must have remembered the bracelet from when I saw her at the castle.”

  “That’s impossible,” Ian said, “Vanya only wears that bracelet when she knows she’ll be facing one of her own kind - a dragon.”

  “Well, how else could I have known about the bracelet?”

  “Erica,” Ian said, “I think you’re developing powers of your own.”

  Acknowledgements

  First of all, I would like to thank God for life and for having the
opportunity to write.

  Second, I would like to thank Karolyn Redoute, for editing my work and making insightful comments about the story. I would also like to thank m

  y mother, for always listening and for reading so many of my writing projects.

  About the Author

  Sara Brock lives in Michigan with her husband and daughter. She also teaches math and success strategies to high school students. Before that, Sara worked as a literacy coach, helping children to develop a passion for reading.