Faire Exchange: Chapter 32

Zoe has to go downstairs.

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The minivan rumbled toward the Roth House as Zoe sulked in the back seat. The anger in her parents' voices was still echoing in her ears. Thanks to that note the teachers sent home, she was banned from the computer until sometime next term. If her grades were good. Which meant she could forget about watching any games from the UK or Australia any time soon, even on Melanie's phone. All that was bad enough without that curse creeping up on her in about half an hour. What kind of curse? Who knows? But now it meant she was on her way to that Roth house, where those elves were going to be all around her, and she was going to have to say she was sorry for something she wasn't even sorry for. At least Mom was still willing to help her and Jeremy out.

And at least Jeremy was here. Zoe wouldn't have wanted to face this alone. He was oddly quiet, though, and had been ever since they got on the bus together and watched that Wyrdnin girl whisk Martin Caesar away. Even now Jeremy was sitting bolt upright, staring out the window, his hands clenched together, as if he were afraid to speak or move for some reason. She'd always thought he was an obnoxious jerk, with those stupid faces he made and that hoot of a laugh she could always hear from across the lunchroom. Maybe she'd misjudged him.

Mom stopped the minivan in front of a mansion that lurked behind an open gate on the hill. So that was the Roth House. All Zoe had to do was go up while Mom listened to the radio, say a few words, and get out. Zoe just wanted it over with. "Take responsibility for your actions," as Dad put it before they left.

Zoe and Jeremy stepped out and approached the gate. "Well, here we are," she said. "Time to bite the bullet together."

"I guess so," Jeremy said, eyes forward. "You ready?"

"No."

Just as Zoe stepped up to the porch, the front door burst open, and a girl with hair so yellow it was almost blinding—the same girl who'd taken Martin!—stormed out and dashed around the corner without even noticing Zoe. Nadia Xu came out behind her. "Oh, hey Zoe, Jeremy."

"What's going on?" Zoe said. "What're you—"

The yellow-haired girl jumped out from the corner. "What's keeping you?" As Nadia started jogging out, the yellow-haired girl noticed the newcomers on the porch. "Jeremy! Hi! You should probably come with us."

"Why?" he said. "What's happening?"

"Rina's missing." Gregg Herron had just stumbled out the door. "And Papu thinks she's gone to Faerie."

"What?!"

"You've got to be kidding!" Zoe said.

"Jeremy, Zoe, you're here." Martin ran through the door, bumping into Gregg. "Sorry. Come on, we gotta find her." He and Gregg darted after Papu. Jeremy darted after his friends.

Zoe stomped on the floor and followed after the others. Of course Rina would do this! Of course she'd do one last thing to make Zoe's life a living heck. This whole "apology or curse" thing was probably just a way to make her jump through more hoops for Rina's amusement. At this point, Zoe wouldn't be surprised if the curse turned out to be a pie in the face.

Around the corner, the others had gathered behind a white-haired boy elf in front of the slanted entrance of a storm shelter. A lock dangled from the door handle.

"Rina went down there?" Zoe said. She would. A creep like her probably didn't even care about rats or mold.

"Apparently," Nadia said, "the way to Faerie is down in the basement."

"What I don't understand," Papu said, "is how she did it. Only Bellagera and Galen have the spell that opens the lock. And there aren't supposed to be any ways to go meggle in there."

"Meggle?" Zoe said.

The white-haired boy—Zoe assumed he was Bellagera—stretched out a glowing hand. The lock popped open, and he pulled the door up. "There is one way. It's a secret megward route we normally use for supply runs. But she's been sneaking around the house so much this last week, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised she found it. Follow me."

"Huh?" Zoe said. "All of us? We're supposed to go down there?"

His hand began to give off a bright white light, and he headed down the stairs. Papu went after him. Nadia shrugged, then she and Gregg went next.

"That's what it looks like," Martin said as he stepped onto the first stair.

And he was seriously heading down to that grungy old basement, probably full of cursed artifacts, and to what? Go to Faerie? All the way out there? But Zoe's mom was waiting for her!

Jeremy was still standing next to her. "You want me to go first, or…?"

"Ugghh… I'll go," Zoe said. No use being a scaredy-cat, not with a curse waiting for her. "You watch my back. I don't want something sneaking up behind me."

Jeremy held his hand out. "After you, then."

Zoe stood at the top of the stairs leading to the basement. There was a light on, and the others' shadows flitting around the floor. It looked like such a long way. And did she smell something?

"You coming down or not?" Gregg yelled.

Zoe groaned and began to lift her foot.

A pair of hands clasped onto her shoulders, and a shout blasted in her ears. She screeched and nearly launched herself straight up into the sky.

But it was just Jeremy, chuckling like an idiot behind her.

"What is wrong with you?" Zoe said.

"Well, hurry up," he chuckled. "I mean, geez."

With another groan, she stuck her leg through the door and began her descent toward the basement of the Roth House. On the way down, she heard one last obnoxious little snicker from Jeremy.

Maybe she was right about that jerk after all.