Every time I saw him I felt odd. There was always that attraction towards him and supposedly I was destined to be his queen, and I really had no idea how to act around him when I wasn't even dating him. We had never even kissed. My first reaction was to run and hide, but as long as he ignored me I didn't have to worry. I'd told him that accepting his Rose wasn't what I wanted and he had said that he would respect that. Part of me thought that he was even relieved to hear it.

"How are you holding up?" he asked. In his hands he held two white roses. He handed the first to Carley and for the barest second I thought I saw designs engraved on the petals, but almost as soon as I looked they disappeared. I frowned as I accepted the rose that he handed me. It felt cool in my hands, like it had been in a freezer. Of course, since it was from Samuel it probably had been.

Carley took hers and gave Samuel a dazzling smile. "Thank you so much. It was very thoughtful of you. Let me see if I can find something to put it in." She disappeared into the kitchen while Samuel greeted Nick and sat down.

Carley quickly reappeared carrying a small clear vase. Her flower was in it, but when she sat back down on the couch next to Samuel, she kept the vase clutched in her hands. I was relieved to see that some of the color was returning to her cheeks and her face looked a little less puffy.

You could say a lot of things about Fairies, I thought, but they sure were good with flowers.

"How are you?" Samuel asked her, although his eyes flicked to me. I wondered if he could tell I was p.i.s.sed. I was tired of not knowing what was going on, and he knew it.

"I'm doing fine," she said. "It's silly, really. Her family must be just devastated, and she wasn't even a good friend of mine. I can't imagine what I'd be doing if she had actually been someone I spent a lot of time with, like if it was someone I was as close to as I am to Autumn." She glanced at me, but I wished she hadn't. I didn't want Samuel to be any smugger than he probably already was for telling me to stay out of the water.

"It's okay to be sad," Samuel said quietly.

"I guess so," said Carley. "But we don't even know anything yet. Like, they haven't found her or anything."

Samuel looked troubled.

"How did you hear about it?" I asked Samuel.

"The news," he said, a little too quickly.

"Oh," I said, shifting in my chair to smell the flower. The sweet fragrance of rose wafted around me. I didn't believe him, but I didn't want him to know that. I couldn't interrogate him in front of Nick and Carley anyway.

"Seen any friends recently?" I asked. I wondered if he would tell me he'd seen Susan.

Samuel looked at me in surprise and said, "No a I mean, just you guys. Do you mean about Holt?"

I felt like I'd just been punched in the stomach.

"That's not what I meant," I said through gritted teeth.

"I see," said Samuel. He didn't look sorry for mentioning him.

"Well, I wanted to say thank you for listening to me about not going in the water," he said. "All of you."

Carley blushed and looked down. Nick fidgeted with his phone. "Well, we actually went swimming yesterday," said Nick.

I wouldn't have thought Nick could get paler than he already was, but I was wrong. His face turned the color of freshly fallen snow.

"Autumn, I told you to tell them," said Samuel harshly. He genuinely looked upset.

"Well, I..." I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to throw Carley and Nick under the bus, but I had told them. It had just been a ridiculous thing to have to say. I stuck out my chin defiantly.

"She did tell us," said Carley. "We just didn't listen. Sorry. You were right."

Samuel relaxed a little. "Please listen to me," he said. "I wouldn't say it if it wasn't serious."

Carley looked ready to ask Samuel to explain himself, which was just what I wanted. But instead, she just smiled and said, "Whatever you suggest."

I should have known Samuel wouldn't give Carley or Nick the chance to question him. Carley was normally pretty nosy. I wondered if Samuel was using a little Fairy magic on them to keep them from wondering how he knew about the water. I didn't want to think about that, even his warning them was dangerous, and he couldn't have a good explanation for wanting them to stay away from the water that didn't start with, "I'm a Fairy Prince..."

Just then a flash of movement out the window told all of us that Mrs. Hightower's car had come into view.

"Mom," Carley squealed. She jumped up and raced out the door with Nick following close behind. And there I was, just where I hadn't expected to be: alone with Samuel.

"If they don't stay out of the water... I'll make them stay out of the water," he said, looking at me as if I were the problem.

I was incredulous. Was he threatening my friends?

"How dare you say stuff like that about them? You can't tell any of us what to do," I said hotly. I'm pretty sure I'd already said that about a million times, but apparently I needed to say it again.

Samuel stood up and came over to kneel next to my chair. His eyes were a more brilliant blue than usual. His hands, on the armrest, were inches from my arm. Suddenly it was hard to breathe.

"I wouldn't lie," he said. Never breaking eye contact. "You have to stay out of the water."

I felt slightly dizzy from his nearness, but I nodded. "Okay," I told him. "I'll stay out of the water if you want me to. I already have been, or hadn't you noticed?"

"Alright," he said. "And do you think they'll stay out this time too?"

"I'm sure of it," I told him. Carley was too upset to go swimming. She was too upset to do much of anything except cry on Nick's shoulder.

Slowly Samuel sat back in his chair. Mrs. Hightower came into the house looking exhausted. Nick and Carley trailed closely behind her.

She sighed when she saw me. "Oh, I didn't realize you had company," she said when she noticed Samuel. I was relieved that Samuel wasn't still kneeling next to me; that would have been hard to explain.

"Of course you did, Mom; Nick's here," said Carley.

Mrs. Hightower scoffed. "Nick's always here. He's like family now."

Nick tried to hide his grin.

I got up from her chair and let her sit there. It left me sitting next to Samuel on the love seat. Awesome.

Out of Samuel's pocket he pulled another flower. I didn't recognize it, but it was light blue and beautiful. Without a word he handed to Mrs. Hightower and said, "Thank you for having me."

Smooth.

Mrs. Hightower actually blushed.

Carley let her mother stick her flower in the same vase where Carley's sat, almost glowing, and finally Carley let it out of her hands, setting it on the coffee table next to where she was sitting. I noticed a change in Mrs. Hightower's appearance almost instantly. This must be pretty simple Fairy magic, I thought. In fact, after seeing what the Winter Queen had done at the Solstice party, I knew it was. Samuel could be spending all his time going around and cheering people up. The ridiculousness of that idea made me smile. What I was learning about Samuel was that instead of spreading himself thinly to a lot of people, he focused on a few, and he would care about them until he died.

"Mom, this is Samuel; Samuel, this is my mom, Mrs. Hightower," said Carley, making the introductions.

"And does Samuel have a last name?"

"Cheshire."

"Oh," said Mrs. Hightower. "I see. Well, nice to meet you, Samuel, and welcome."

"Thank you."

There was a pause, then Carley asked what we all wanted to know. "Mom, what's going on? Where were you all night?"

Mrs. Hightower sighed. "When I left here I went over to the Camdens' house. Lots of people were already there, getting ready to go out in search parties, but Mrs. Camden has a five-year-old and she needed to stay with him, so I stayed with her. It was the longest night of my life and my child wasn't even missing."

"Was there any news?" asked Carley hopefully.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Samuel flinch.

Mrs. Hightower sighed. There were tears gathering in her eyes. "No, they haven't heard anything. The police are still looking, but she got lost so close to dark it has been difficult even to know where to search."

Carley nodded. She looked numb.

"I think I'm going to shower and take a nap. I said I'd sit up with her and if they needed it we'd all help in the search, but I don't think they'll need us to," said Mrs. Hightower, rising out of the recliner.

"Why not?" asked Carley.

"Because she was lost in the water," said Mrs. Hightower simply. "And they don't want any of us in the water. There's no belief that she ran off. Her sister wouldn't lie, and Mary was busy and happy here this summer. She had never tried to run away. It's not like her."

With that she left the room.

"I think I need a nap," said Carley.

"I should probably go home for a bit," said Nick reluctantly. "I'll be back later," he said to Carley, and kissed her on the lips right in front of Samuel and me before she even realized what he was doing.

Red-faced, Carley headed upstairs.

When Nick looked at Samuel, he just grinned. Nick said, "Now you two should get together." He pointed to us.

"Shut up," I mumbled. Now I couldn't even look at Samuel. I don't know what I was embarra.s.sed about; he was the one who had rejected me, basically before he'd even met me. My friends couldn't know any of that, though. They just thought they were innocently pushing us together.

Now Nick grinned, shaking his head. "Okay, maybe another time then." He got up and started straightening the room a bit, folding the blanket he had used and clearing away the dishes.

While he fussed, Samuel stood up and said, "I should get going as well. I have some things I need to take care of. Hopefully I'll see you soon."

He was looking at me when he said it, but it was Nick who replied. "Yeah, of course. And hopefully Mary will be found safe and happy."

I could tell by the tone of his voice that Nick didn't think that would happen.

I went up to my room. Carley's door was closed and I couldn't hear her inside, so I decided not to knock.

In my room I just did random things. I checked my email, put away some clothes that had been sitting on my desk for forever, and turned on some soft music. I was tired, really tired, but I knew that if I tried to sleep I wouldn't be able to.

The whole time I was in the room I felt the pull of Holt's letter in the drawer. I wanted more than anything to pull it out and read it, but I resisted. I kept telling myself that he was the one who had left, even though Samuel accepted my decision and even though I hadn't seen the Winter Queen since that night.

When I had come into the room I had tossed my phone on the bed, which was silly, because I always lost it in the folds of the blankets. Right on cue, when I heard it beeping I had to search for it before I could grab it up.

The text was from Susan. "Hey, sorry about yesterday. I had to run. When are you working again?"

I told her I was working that night.

"Awesome, I'll come by and we can chat when you have a break."

I told her that was fine. I still wanted to talk to Susan, not just about what I'd seen with Samuel, but to see if she could teach me, or tell me, more about Fairies. I thought I should learn more than the little I already knew. And all of that was without even touching on the subject of drownings and the strange appearance of Fairy friendships where there had apparently been none before.

Thinking about Holt, Samuel, and Fairies had made me tired and sad. It was only early afternoon, but I'd gotten up so early that a nap seemed like a good idea before work. Without another thought I crawled into bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter Six.

By the end of my shift that night I wanted to scream or stomp around and hit something. I kept waiting for Susan to come in, and every time the door opened my head would snap up to see who it was, but by the end of my shift, at almost nine o'clock, I was forced to admit the truth. Susan was blowing me off for the second time in two days, counting the fact that she'd left without even bothering to say bye last time.

After I'd finished cleaning up and waved goodbye to Jill and Mrs. Fritter, I headed for the door. There'd been no news of Mary. Mrs. Fritter said that no one was talking about it. The mood in the cafe all evening had been subdued. More than once searchers came in for coffee, grim faced, then went back out.

One of the searchers, a man named Michael, was very chatty when I served him coffee. He said that there were hundreds of people out looking, plus the police and the Coast Guard, but it was like she had just vanished into thin air. He commented that since people can't actually vanish she had to be somewhere; they were just worried that somewhere was in the ocean. I knew it was too cold for Mary to survive long in that water. If she was still in the ocean, she was dead.

I was relieved to get outside into the cool night air. It had been so hot the past couple of days that I had started to consider chopping off all my hair, which I knew was an extreme response, but desperate times called for desperate measures and I was sick of having my long mane stuck to the sweat at the back of my neck.

I decided to wander down by the water. I would be fine as long as I didn't go in, and it was a beautiful night. Plus, maybe taking a walk would help me clear my head. Remembering that time earlier in the summer when I had gone for a walk and ended up almost falling off a cliff and dying, I was careful to stay away from the woods. Thanks to Samuel, I was still here to remember what a close call I had had, and to make sure it didn't happen again. I wished he would stop saving my life, though. I didn't want to have to be grateful to him, I just wanted to be mad. It was easier to be mad at someone, or mean to someone, than to actually deal with your problems. High school had taught me that if nothing else.

As I walked I looked up, inhaling the wonderful smell of salty fresh air, looking up at the stars and seeing their milky white color in stark contrast to the black sky. I sighed. This summer was supposed to be simple and fun. So much for that.

Just as I got to the beach and plopped myself down on the sand, my phone buzzed. It was Carley, but I didn't answer. For once it was nice to just sit.

A movement out of the corner of my eye made me turn my head to the left. I didn't see anything at first, but frowning, because now I was starting to be worried, I looked more closely. There, far away down the beach, I thought I saw a figure moving quickly. I waited. It was too dark to see clearly and I wondered if whoever it was would come towards me or move away. That dim figure made me uncomfortable. It wasn't like I was the only one who had a right to be on the beach at night, but something about how he or she was moving made me think that someone was up to no good.

I held my breath as the figure started walking towards me. I was only now realizing how alone I was out there, and how foolish that might turn out to be. I could see the lights of Castleton twinkling close behind me, but there wasn't anyone else around.

The dark figure was moving closer and closer. I told myself that whoever it was would probably just walk past me, and I looked out at the water to prove to myself that I wasn't afraid. The waves lapped gently and invitingly onto the sand. Walking ankle deep in ocean would be wonderful, I thought, on this lovely night. I was about to push myself up and head towards the water when I heard someone calling my name. I looked towards the figure, but it was now getting smaller. At the sound of someone else's voice, whoever had been on the beach had decided to leave. That was odd, as was my sudden urge to wade in the water, but I didn't have time to think about it because to my surprise, the voice I had heard turned out to be Samuel's.

He was standing up by the road. I could see the headlights from his car.

Slowly, I got up and walked towards him.

"Hey," he said. His voice sounded a little strained. He'd changed into a black long sleeved t-shirt and shorts, making it look like his face was floating in a sea of darkness made up of his hair, the night around us, and his clothes.

"Hey," I said. I don't know why, but I was relieved to see him. Maybe it was because it would distract me from my self-pity, and maybe I thought that I would be able to get some information out of him at last. And maybe, just maybe, I was a little scared to be outside alone.

"How was work?" he asked, still standing by the open door of his car. His voice was soft, but it carried clearly to where I was standing.