Free creepy hollow 05 - a faerie's revenge by rachel morgan

power again.”
    “I had to get out somehow. After I touched the guard, he was disoriented and scared enough that I was able to get the key from him.”
    “And you? Weren’t you disoriented and scared?”
    He looks away. “I … I was scared. But I wasn’t seeing the things he was seeing.”
    I swallow. “So you’ve been hiding inside the Guild since you escaped?”
    “Yes. All over the place. An empty lab, the library, the healing wing, a storage area. Wherever I had to. I’ve been waiting for a quiet moment to walk out of here without anyone noticing.” He looks toward the entrance room at the side of the foyer.
    “And when you get in there?” I ask. “You’re going to do it again? Scare them, so you can get out without being scanned?”
    “Yes.” He hesitates. “You’re not going to stop me, are you? You’ll let me go?”
    I feel guilty about letting someone escape the Guild, but it’s Zed . He’s my friend, and he hasn’t done anything wrong. “You’re not a criminal,” I say. “Of course I’ll let you go.”
    “Thank you,” he says with such sincerity that I know I’ve made the right decision. He looks around again—so do I, just to make sure there aren’t any surveillance bugs buzzing around—before grasping both my hands in his. “Come with me,” he says fervently.
    “What?”
    “Calla, these people … you don’t want to be one of them.”
    “I do, Zed. That’s why I’m here.”
    “There’s so much you’re not seeing,” he says with a slow shake of his head. “Guardians … the Guild … it’s all a very noble idea, but there’s so much wrong with the system. There are so many people to save every single day. How do they choose who’s worth it and who isn’t?”
    “They save as many as they can.”
    “They don’t. They abandoned us. Remember? So many of us. You got out, so you don’t know how bad it got after that. The Guild left us to that fate. These people you idolize.”
    I want to tell him just how much I don’t idolize Olive and anyone else like her, but I need to stand by my commitment to the Guild. “I’m one of them, Zed. And if you hate them, you hate me.”
    “I don’t hate you, Calla. That’s precisely why I’m begging you to come with me. This is your last chance to—”
    “Go.” I pull my hands out of his and step back. “Just go before someone figures out that you’re the guy who escaped.”
    His expression is tortured, as though he honestly believes he’s leaving me to a terrible fate here amongst the guardians he’s grown to hate. But he doesn’t see what I see. He doesn’t see all the good that comes out of this imperfect system. I know this is where I’m meant to be.
    With a final nod, Zed turns and strolls away, pushing his hands back into his pockets, doing his best to look relaxed. I walk back to the training center and wait there for a while, giving him a chance to get away. Giving the guards a chance to recover from their waking nightmares. Giving myself time to smother my guilt.
     
     
     

CHAPTER
    NINE

     
    The ballroom is almost full by the time I arrive at Estellyn Tower. The Guilds host their Liberation Day celebrations at different venues every year—never at a Guild; that would pose too many security issues—and this year, the Creepy Hollow Guild has hired the ballroom on the second floor of Estellyn Tower. I remember what Olive said about there being far too much expense involved in celebrating Liberation Day, and I find I’m starting to agree with her. Or it could be the fact that I have negative associations with this place and I’d be happier if the ball were held pretty much anywhere else. Because all I can think of as I walk in here is the party I attended recently on the topmost level of this tower. The party Chase turned out to be at.
    I find myself wishing, wishing with an intensity that hurts my chest that he was just a normal guy. Wishing that I could have invited him tonight, so that we might have