April 2007

Hundreds of knights clothed in long, silver robes and masks navigated the open-air villa. Fancy fountains spouted water and fairies flitted around the air. The hosts were preserve caretakers, but it almost felt disingenuous to call it a preserve. There was practically nothing more dangerous than a fairy here. It was more like a magical petting zoo.

But, nevertheless, excitement rushed through Vanessa for today's annual convention. She hadn't been paired with Warren for missions in almost two years. She had no clue what had happened to him, and she missed him. All of him.

Maybe during this convention, she could see him. Somehow. Dougan, newly promoted to be the Eastern Lieutenant, could call them back to brief them on a new mission and they could take off their masks. Would they embrace? No, probably not. It had been two years and in hindsight, they had never really been much of anything. Vanessa sighed.

Later, when Vanessa retreated inside the main manor to recieve her mission from Dougan, her heart threatened to burst out of her ribcage. It had been long enough. Warren had to be done with his solo mission by now. It had been more than enough time. Maybe this was it. Her mind told her that they were nothing; her heart longed for its other half.

But when Vanessa opened the door, her heart dropped dead to her stomach and tears welled up in her eyes. There was no Warren. She hadn't expected such a visceral reaction. But she had been unconsciously placing her hope in seeing him again. Everything around her had been crashing and burning. She was so confused. She just wanted him to hold her. But, she took a deep breath and wiped her disappointment off her face before she took her mask off.

Dougan did the same and she saw how his half-lidded eyes gazed at her. If she wanted information about Warren, who would know better than his Lieutenant and long-time friend?

"This is straight from the top," Dougan said. He handed her a folder. "We believe an artifact is no longer safe at Fablehaven. You've been selected as part of a team to extract it."

Shock raised her eyebrows. Easy to think it was at the reveal of an artifact or the rashness of the move, but it was that single word: Fablehaven. Warren's family home. Maybe that was why he wasn't here. He was already helping Fablehaven. Hope crawled into her veins and rushed through as she thumbed through the folder full of information about the possible locations, the possible artifact identities, and all recorded knowledge of retrieving artifacts.

This was it. This was the world-changing mission she had infiltrated the Knights for. She had built up her portfolio enough to qualify for a mission with stakes unlike any other.

She accepted it.

As soon as Vanessa found solitude again, she dialed the Society's number on her red blackberry. This was quite possibly the most important call she had ever made. The call picked up to silence. She uttered the code phrase of the month, emphasized the significance with the highest code level (that she had yet to use), and a raspy voice spit out coordinates and instructions to meet at midnight.

Vanessa checked the time display on her blackberry. 9:00 pm. She had time to kill.

Soon after, Vanessa tumbled into the back of her custom luxury sports car with Dougan. Black leather pulled at their sweaty skin and hand prints ruined the tinted windows.

After, with heavy panting, he leaned back on the seat. "God. I'm exhausted. But I still have that meeting tonight."

Vanessa climbed into the front seat. Then, she pushed the passenger seat as forward as possible to create more space in the back. "Take a nap. I'll wake you up."

"You're a lifesaver." Dougan laid down on her cushions and passed out.

But, when the time came, Vanessa didn't wake him up. She closed her eyes and took control of his body.

It was weird to see her sleeping form from someone else's perspective. Her makeup had smudged in the steam and tangles infested her hair. She sighed. Not cute.

Once she got to the meeting room, she took a seat and waited for everyone else to trickle in. She met the other three lieutenants. One of them had the identity she had guessed years ago, but the two others were randoms to her.

When the leader walked in, she remained engaged in conversation with the West lieutenant. With a quick reminder to herself to not react, she turned to the door.

Her heart stopped.

It was the Sphinx.

His locs were all pulled back in a ponytail and a golden pen shined, tucked behind his ear. It glistened in the light, and when he pulled it out, clicked it, and began writing, it was all she could focus on.

Little black suns decorated the gold cap. She watched them spin around in his deft fingers and took deep breaths to control the wave of emotions that threatened to break through her dam of control. Vanessa sat on her shaking hands.

She had figured it out. The Sphinx was the leader of the Knights of the Dawn.

Holy fuck.

—

Once she got back to her car, she severed the connection and endured Dougan's heated annoyance that she had fallen asleep and had forgotten to wake him up. But, she told him that she had already smoothed it over with the other lieutenants and leader and that he didn't need to worry.

After his sweaty body abdicated her car, she slammed the accelerator to the floor. The coordinates for tonight's meeting were very close, and she made it there just shy of the allotted time.

It was a warehouse this time, and when she pushed the doors open, she found a single chair faced away from her in the middle of the floor. A single gloved hand leaned over the side of the chair, clicking a pen.

"You said this message deserves the highest confidentiality. So I am here." The auto-tuned voice came from the chair. Constant pen clicking underlined the message.

Vanessa's legs struggled to take more steps as the implication settled in. "Are you the leader?"

"Yes. I am."

She had so much to say. Her mission, the Sphinx. So much.

Excitement rushed through her veins. She felt like she was coming home. She would be irreplaceable after this. She had earned family.

Vanessa closed the gap and hesitated before the chair. He obviously didn't want her coming closer. It was so tempting.

But then she saw it.

The pen in his hand.

Golden with black suns. All the air rushed out of her, and her heart leapt to her throat, sticking and ending her airflow.

The same unique pen the Sphinx had been twirling tonight at the Knights' meeting.

Details, details. It was always in the details.

The Sphinx, the Society, the Knights. He was all of them?

Those Society reports. The Sphinx hadn't had to steal those. Those were...

"What is your message?"

Frigid air seeped through her clothes and she snapped back to Vanessa Santoro—star Society member—despite the cold sweat dripping down her neck. She took a deep breath and suppressed her tremors. "I have a mission to recover an artifact. From Fablehaven."

"This is the time."

Vanessa knew it was time for her betrayal to the Knights. But what was it time for him? What was this house of cards for?

Vanessa tucked her chin down. "That's what I had thought."

"We'll send Errol. Attempt to work alongside the other experts sent to Fablehaven and only steal the artifact for the Society at the end. If that isn't possible, do whatever it takes to get it."

Vanessa nodded her assent and drove miles away before pulling off into an empty parking lot. She said nothing, just placed a hand on her fast heart, and controlled her breathing.

She was privy to information no one else had—for a reason. Anyone who got too close to such a conspiracy died.

But Vanessa?

She flipped open her driver's side mirror and checked her makeup. With her eyeliner pen, she touched up her eyes and wiped away any fallout from her smokey eyes.

Well, Vanessa would survive.

—

Now, who was being played here?

Vanessa thought back to all she knew about the Society and the Knights. The jubilant attitude among the Society that they were finally gaining footholds. The crashing, falling preserves—Rio Branco, Summercrest. The defeats the Knights seemed to constantly suffer. They won the small things, sure. But when it mattered they slipped up.

Because of this, the Knights always grumbled about Society infiltrators.

But it was more than that.

The Society held the strings. The Knights were simply puppets.

But...

Vanessa chilled.

There were so many instances where the Knights hurt blixes or the conservators' alliance imprisoned them. The Sphinx—conversators' ally, Society star, and Knights' leader—had been fine with that apparently. Small sacrifices for his bigger goal of breaking into the demon prison.

He saw her kind as expendable.

Vanessa ran her hands through her hair, greasing the ends with her sweaty palms.

But, did he see her as expendable?

—

Vanessa stood stiffly on a ticking time bomb of information. She couldn't act differently, she couldn't be different, she couldn't do anything that would lead anyone to suspect her knowledge.

If the Sphinx found out, she would be dead. There was no world in which he would let such a liability survive. But if he never found out, she was safe. And she could continue.

Vanessa didn't know who to trust. She didn't know about the Society. But she would do this mission successfully. It would be a major step.

If the Sphinx served her and this moved them closer to blixes' freedom, she would reaffirm her undying loyalty.

If...

Vanessa thought of Warren. She thought of his kind words and his caresses and his residence at Fablehaven. She thought of seeing him there, meeting his family, his brother, and integrating into their life. Hope wriggled underneath her calloused skin.

She banished the thought.

There were no ifs.

The Society would come through and her doubts would be assuaged.

Vanessa shifted her custom Ferrari into drive and squeaked out of the parking lot toward Fablehaven.

She had her super sweet car.

Now she had only one goal left to meet.

To do so, she would have to infiltrate Fablehaven and deceive Warren flawlessly. Vanessa turned up her old Greenday album until the speaker buzzed with strain, and slammed the gas pedal to the carpeted floor. Vanessa would do it.

She would survive.