Jenna Black - Glimmerglass

It was a crazy idea. Even if Ethan really could pull it off, I had to be out of my mind to even think about asking him. He was the enemy, after all. Well, maybe not the enemy exactly, but he was definitely a lying jerk who had his own—and his father’s—best interests at heart.

Then again, he had taken quite a risk approaching me at Starbucks the other day to tell me the truth about the Spriggan attack. Finn had been on a hair trigger, and he could easily have flattened Ethan. And Ethan could have just had his father warn my father. The fact that he’d talked to me personally instead told me he probably really did feel bad about what he’d done.

Bad enough to help me escape Avalon?

I gnawed my lip. Even if he wanted to help me, he might think the same way my dad did, that I was safer in Avalon than in the mortal world. I let the idea ping around in my brain the rest of the evening. Dad couldn’t help but notice my less-than-lovely mood, but though he tried to talk to me a few times, he didn’t push.

I watched TV with him for a bit, my arms crossed over my chest, my shoulders hunched. I hoped I wasn’t laying it on too thick. Probably not, because Dad looked relieved when I finally announced I wasn’t in the mood for TV and wanted to spend some time surfing the Net.

When I got upstairs, I closed my bedroom door, then booted up my computer. I’d bookmarked the Avalon phone directory when I’d been looking for my dad, so I had no trouble finding it again. I then held my breath as I entered Ethan’s name into the search field. I sighed in relief when his number popped up. Then I kind of laughed at myself, because it was way too early to feel anything even resembling relief. I didn’t know what the chances were that Ethan could help me, or that he would help me. But I was about to find out.

I surfed to an Internet radio station and turned the volume up on my computer. If Dad was spying on me and wanted to listen in on my call, all he had to do was pick up another receiver, but at least with the music blasting he wouldn’t be able to overhear me accidentally if he for some reason came to check on me.

I then went through a few repetitions of picking up the phone, starting to dial, then chickening out and hanging up, before I finally punched in Ethan’s number. I don’t know if I’d have had the courage to try again if Ethan hadn’t been home, but luckily he picked up before I chickened out yet again.

“Hello?” he said.

My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, and I sat there like an idiot not saying anything. How could I possibly be asking help from a guy who (1) could have gotten me killed by arranging for me to be attacked, and (2) had used magic to try to seduce me for political reasons?

“Hello?” he repeated. “Anyone there?”

Then again, it wasn’t like I was just overflowing with options. I cleared my throat, and that loosened it up enough for me to talk. “Yeah. It’s me. Dana.” I rolled my eyes at myself. I’m sure he recognized my voice without me having to tell him my name.

There was a half-second hesitation before he answered. “Well, this is a surprise,” he said in a low mumble I’m not sure I was supposed to hear. “Is everything all right?”

“Um, yeah. Sort of. Umm…” Oh, please! Could I sound any more pathetic? “Well, not exactly.”

“Sorry. That was a stupid question. You wouldn’t be calling me if everything were all right. Are you somewhere safe? Do you need me to come get you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, feeling more confident. “I’m at my dad’s house.”

“Oh.”

“Look, you know what a mess I’m in. Your father has filled you in, hasn’t he?” Because I couldn’t believe Alistair wouldn’t have told Ethan about the Queens being after me, not when the two of them had already been coconspirators.

“Yeah, he told me. But I was coming to that conclusion myself. The more I thought about those Spriggans…” His voice trailed off, probably because he realized talking to me about the Spriggans wasn’t his wisest move.

“My dad says I have to stay in Avalon for my own safety. I bet your dad and Aunt Grace agree.”

“But you don’t.”

“I assume Kimber told you about what happened to Finn the other day?”

“Yeah.” I could almost hear the wince in his voice.

“If I stay here, I’ll have both Queens after me, and they’ll have a lot more weapons they can use against me. If I leave, the Seelie Queen will be satisfied, and the only people the Unseelie Queen can send after me are humans.”

“But you won’t have any sort of magical protection at all,” he reminded me.

“I won’t need it if I don’t have Fae attacking me.” I think I was trying to convince myself as much as him. I reminded myself that if we escaped Avalon, Mom had promised to go into rehab, and that was worth whatever crazy risks I was about to take.

He changed gears. “All right; let’s say I buy your reasoning. I know I’m not your favorite person right now, so I’m guessing I have a part to play in this great escape?”

I bit my lip. I’d probably told him enough already to get me in trouble if he blabbed to his dad, but even so, it was hard to make that final leap of faith and tell him what I had in mind.

“Did you ever actually like me, or was the whole thing an act?” I found myself asking, without having had any intention of bringing the subject up.

“Of course I liked you. Like you. How could I not? I wish I had half your courage.”

That startled me. “What are you talking about? I’ve been a mess since day one!”

He snorted. “You saved Jason’s life when those Spriggans attacked. If you hadn’t slowed the Spriggan down, I’d have been too late to save him. Not to mention that you had the courage to come all the way to Avalon by yourself.”

“That wasn’t courage. That was stupidity.”

He laughed, but it sounded bitter. “I know you had to defy your mother to come here, and you’re planning to defy your father to leave. I have never once successfully defied my father. So that’s courage in my book.”

“If you say so.”

“I do. Now tell me why you’re calling. What do you want me to do?”

I considered the ramifications of what he’d just said, and my heart sank a bit. “I was basically going to ask you to defy your father and help me get out of Avalon.”

“Tell me what you need, and I’ll help as best I can. Defying him behind his back might be slightly easier than doing it to his face.” Again, I heard a hint of bitterness in his voice. I hoped that meant his conscience was bothering him over what he’d done to me.

“So you don’t think I’m completely crazy for wanting to leave?”

“It’s a risk. But then, so is staying in Avalon. As you’ve already seen.”

I believed him. Of course, I’d believed him before and been wrong, so my judgment might be questionable. But he was the only hope I had, so I pushed forward.

“Right now, I can’t get out of Avalon because either Grace or my father has my passport. I don’t see myself getting it back, no matter who has it. So somehow, I need a fake one that will do the trick. Is that something your magic can do?”

For a long, tense moment, he didn’t say anything. I could practically hear him thinking. Now, if only I knew what he was thinking!

“I suppose you know this,” he said, “but that’s a hell of a lot more complicated than creating an illusionary wall.”

“Yeah, I figured. But is it possible?”

Another long pause for thought. “It’s certainly possible. I’m just not sure I can do it. I’m good, but that’s a tall order. There are a lot of pages in a passport, and they’re detailed. Plus, I’d need an American passport to model it on, because I wouldn’t know what one looks like off the top of my head.”