Free Fly by Midnight by Lauren Quick

blade.
    “Ah, sounds like an exciting new case.” January wiggled her eyebrows at her. “Do tell. I want all the details.”
    “It’s intriguing, mysterious, and dangerous.”
    “I am a connoisseur of intrigue. I have the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to unveiling the truth.” January tapped her long nose, where her wire-rimmed spectacles rested.
    “How does the magic of the wall work? How was it designed? Any information you have on it and the wizard who created it would be put to good use. The more clandestine, the better.”
    “No small request, little witch.” January pulled a long silver wand from her exposed ample cleavage. She had once told Honora that just because she was over four hundred years old didn’t mean she couldn’t wear the latest fashionable robes.
    “If you don’t know anything, I could take my business elsewhere.” Honora examined her ragged cuticles, feigning boredom.
    January twisted up her face in thought. She flicked her wand, levitated back onto her stool, and got comfortable. “The wall has been around for many centuries. I was a girl when it first went up. We were so proud, so excited, when the wall was ready. But over the years, it faded from our minds.” She sighed nostalgically and continued, “When Everland was originally founded, there had been no need for an official wall. There was no threat. A few wards were thrown up for precautions. Everland was a secret. No one from the Otherworld knew where it was, and for a time, no one seemed to care.”
    “Sounds about right.”
    January pointed her wand to a high shelf behind her head, and a parchment scroll floated to the counter and unwound before them. “Magic is hard to hide. A witch’s magic is pure and glowing, a beacon in a dark world.”
    “They found us.” Honora’s interest piqued.
    “Once upon a dreary day, dark times came out to play.” January tapped her long enameled fingernail on the parchment. A drawing of hunched and fanged creatures crawling across an idyllic landscape was depicted on the scroll. “Creatures of the night—ghouls, goblins, the fairies, and the wolves—found us hiding across the great divide.”
    A shiver went up Honora’s spine. She loved January’s ability to bring history to life with the sound of her voice.
    “Beings from the Otherworld made their way to our magical plane. Everland was infiltrated—not on a large scale, mind you—and Hex Division kept it very hush-hush. Some of the infiltrators were just curious, like pixies and forest nymphs, but others were less kind. Entities began wrecking havoc—ghouls, goblins, and demon attacks occurred more frequently. Ruthless creatures. It became clear a complete barrier was needed to keep the witching world safe.”
    Honora leaned forward and read a passage from the scroll. “The three mages of the inner council ordered the wall to be built, and the Otherworlders were rounded up and expelled.”
    The council consisted of two parts—an inner circle and the outer governing body. The inner circle contained three supreme witches—the mages. They stayed in solitude within a chamber and watched the crystal, surveying the world and keeping the witches safe. They were the most powerful witches in Everland. They were the watchers of the witching world. The three mages were seen only once a year at the winter solstice, to mark the end and start the new. It was a magical, merry time of celebration, but it had passed with no word from them of any looming danger.
    Honora scanned the parchment. “There aren’t a lot of details,” she observed. “I want to learn about the spellcraft involved in creating it.”
    “The magic of the wall is the greatest secret of our kind. The only ones who know for sure are the wardens who protect it. Well, and perhaps the travelers who are allowed to cross. So few have made the pilgrimage out of Everland…but you know that firsthand, my darling.” January patted Honora’s shoulder.
    The words stung.