Jennet got home a few minutes before her dad, which was a relief. He didn’t mind her spending time with Tam, but her going into the Exe would have made him furious. Luckily George, the chauffeur, was on her side - sort of. He wouldn’t tell Dad where she’d been unless directly asked.

When Dad walked in the door, it was clear that asking about her afternoon was the last thing on his mind.

“Welcome home, sir,” HANA said. “Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes.”

Instead of responding like he always did, he just stood there in the entryway holding his briefcase. His face was set in a grim expression.

“Dad?” She went over to him. “Are you all right?”

“Jen.” He gave himself a little shake. “Sorry, I didn’t see you.”

Moving like his bones hurt, he put his briefcase down and slowly removed his coat. One of the maids bustled up - no doubt alerted by HANA that Mr. Carter was home - and whisked the coat away.

“Sit down.” Jennet took his arm, worry pulsing through her. “What happened? HANA, send my dad something to drink, please.”

“Whiskey,” her dad added.

“Right away,” the house replied.

When he got to the couch, Dad sank down and stared at his hands. “I can’t believe it. After all that work, all those years…” He shook his head.

“What?” She sat beside him, suddenly chilled. “Did VirtuMax fire you?”

“No - it’s worse than that.”

“How could it be worse?”

“They pulled me off the project.”

“You’re…” she swallowed, her throat dry with worry. “You’re not in charge of Feyland any more?”

This was bad. Even though Dad hadn’t been able to stop Feyland, he had done what he could. Now there was nothing standing in the way of the company releasing the game.

He gave a thin laugh. “It would be better in some ways if they had, in fact, fired me. But no - they’ve shunted me off to work on the Virtual Conferencing beta.”

“What happened?”

“They’re moving the Full-D release forward, again. When I heard that… well, I lost it. I’m the project manager and they’re making all these decisions without me. I stormed into Dr. Lassiter’s office and demanded she listen.”

Obviously, she hadn’t.

One of the maids came in and set a glass of amber liquid on the low table. Dad grabbed the glass and took a long swallow.

“I told Dr. Lassiter the equipment is dangerous,” he continued, “told her she’s opening up the company to enormous lawsuits in the future. She shook her head and said the Full-D is perfectly safe - that her own son has played it for almost a year now, with no problems.”

“Right,” Jennet breathed.

It explained a lot about why VirtuMax was so determined to go ahead with the launch. The CEO’s own son had been playing, and hadn’t had any issues with the system. No wonder the company wouldn’t listen, not with that example in front of them.

“I…” He took another drink, then set the glass down. “I started yelling at her then. How the hell could she tell me it was safe? She wasn’t there in the hospital, she didn’t see the burned hands, the boy in a coma.” His voice broke. “Her best friend dead in his sim chair.”

“Oh, Dad.” Jennet put her arms around him and squeezed, tight.

He leaned against her for a moment and took a deep, shuddering breath. “She made me sit there while she called in the company counselor. They asked me a bunch of questions, and decided that Thomas’s death had obviously affected me deeply, I hadn’t dealt with it properly, and I couldn’t handle the stress of the accelerated timeline. I’m required to go in for regular psych-evals. They took me off the project, and reassigned me to one without the ‘taxing personal issues’ of Feyland.”

“But,” her voice was shaky, “who’s in charge of Feyland now?”

“Dr. Lassiter herself. And she’s set a firm launch date for the game.”

“When?” She could barely say the word.

“January second - just in time for the new year.”

Fear stabbed into her lungs, stealing her breath. January second? She made a quick calculation. Five weeks. She and Tam only had five weeks to figure out if Feyland truly posed a danger to the mortal world. And if it did?

When the game went live, the Wild Hunt would rampage, the Dark Queen would rule, and humans would be at the mercy of her fey magic.

 Time was running out.

###

The cafeteria was noisy, but not as loud as the clamor of worry in her head. She’d explained to Tam what had happened to her dad, and that the company had accelerated the schedule for Feyland’s launch.

“What now?” she asked, leaning over her tray of mushy vegetables.

Maybe Tam had some ideas, though she had the sinking feeling there was only one thing they could do. She’d spent half the night awake, trying to think of a solution, and had finally come up with the answer.

Tam was going to hate it.

He stopped prodding his lunch and met her eyes. “We need to get back into Feyland.”

She nodded. “I agree, but if we go on my systems, we won’t learn anything. I think… I have to go back in-game with Roy. Get him to take me to the Court.”

“No.” He shoved his tray away. “No way - you’re not going without me. What if our theory about the Seelie Court is wrong? What if you meet the Dark Queen? I can’t let you do that alone.”

She shivered. “I know - but we still don’t understand enough about Roy’s version of Feyland. He could be in serious danger. The whole world could… or not. The only way to find out is by going back in-game. His game.”

“Fine. Then I’m coming, too.” He stood. “In fact, I’ll go ask Lassiter right now if he’d like to game again. I bet he’d love to even the score between us.”

“Wait…” It was a decent idea, but she knew enough about Roy to know it would never work. In fact, it would kill any chance of slipping Tam in under the radar.

Before she could stop him, Tam strode to the front of the cafeteria, halting at the long table Roy had claimed as his own. He spoke, and Roy responded, shaking his head. Tam lifted his hand, as if asking a question. Whatever the answer was, it disappointed him. His shoulders fell. He said something else to Roy, then turned and walked back to where Jennet sat.

“No luck?” She could tell from his expression.

Tam sat down and folded his arms. “Prince Lassiter made it clear that no Exies were allowed at his pristine mansion. But if we wanted to meet at Zeg’s again, he’d be glad to teach me a lesson in defeat.”

“You refused.”

“Yeah.” He let out a heavy breath. “I don’t care what he says. I’m coming along with you anyway.”

“Then he’d just turn us both away. Tam - ”

“Hi, guys.” Marny set her tray down next to Jennet’s, effectively ending their conversation.

“Hey, Marny,” Jennet said. “Glad you could join us.”

It had been a few days since the other girl had eaten lunch with them. Maybe whatever weird hold Roy had over her was fading.

“Did you get kicked out of the harem?” Tam asked.

Marny made a face, looking almost like her old self. “I got tired of watching Keeli make a fool of herself. I can’t believe she got his attention! Roy could do so much better.”

Jennet glanced to the front of the cafeteria. She hadn’t noticed before, but Keeli, the black-haired girl from The View was sitting right next to Roy - and he had his arm around her. Did that mean the rest of the girls would become immune to his dubious charm? Judging from the adoring looks around him, it didn’t seem so.

“Better than a good-looking Viewer?” Tam shook his head. “You don’t need him anyway. Come on, Marny, it’s not so tragic. He just went with his own kind.”

A doleful expression crossed her round face. “But Roy is great, and she’s nothing but an over-privileged, empty-headed, rich - ow! Tam, don’t kick me. You know I don’t think Jennet’s like that.”

Jennet shifted. There was enough truth in Marny’s words to hit close to the bone. And Tam approved of Roy’s choice. His own kind. Like that was the only option for someone who lived in The View. Tears made a sudden lump in her throat.

She grabbed her tray and stood up. “I have to run… catch up on some homework. See you later.”

“Wait,” Tam said as she turned away. “Jennet…”

“Talk to you after school,” she said, not looking at him. “Bye.”

She walked past the table where Roy was laughing at something Keeli had said. The black-haired girl looked blissfully happy, and the hurt inside Jennet scratched even harder.

She was a fool for hoping, but somewhere along the way the warmth of their friendship had changed. At least for her. It was getting more and more difficult to pretend things were still the same.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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