Evelyn?” one asked.
“Yeah,” I said, waving a hand dismissively and moving to walk past them. Lend always hung his keys on a ring near the door. I’d get those, and—”
“You’re under arrest for violating statute one point one of the International Paranormal Control Charter.”
I stopped. “Wait, seriously? Seriously? You guys are here to arrest me?” I started laughing. Wow, you so picked the wrong day. Come back next week, okay?”
Before I could move one of them shoved a shiny silver Taser at me; the last thought that went through my head before I collapsed, shaking on the ground, was that, bleep, being tased really sucked.
No, child,” Nona said. “We were victims of the faeries’ pride and greed.”
“Victims? Sorry, but most of you don’t seem very victimish to me. What about hags, and fossegrims, and redcaps, and all the other sharp-toothed nasties”—I looked pointedly at the dragon—“in your group? I don’t feel very bad for anything that’s spent all those centuries preying on innocent people.”
“It makes sense,” Arianna said, her voice soft but thoughtful.
“What?”
“When you introduce an alien species into a new environment, it has to adapt or die out. And usually the way it adapts it by preying on the native species. Look at the dodo birds. They were fine until people came to their island with cats and dogs and pigs, then they became prey.”
“You do realize you just compared our entire race to dodo birds.”
She shrugged. “If they were never meant to be here in the first place, it’s not their fault they had to become predators.”
“Thank you, Animal Planet.
What do you know about being a person?”
She sniffed primly. “We have a lot to discuss. This would all be much easier if you’d cooperate. Wouldn’t you rather be useful, make a difference to humanity, than be locked up in this cell for the rest of your life?”
I laughed. “Don’t talk to me about humanity. I know a pair of freaking seals that have more humanity in their flippers than you do in your whole organization.
It’s okay,” I said, my voice breaking. “It’s okay. You guys stay back here. Try to help the others. I can’t let her hurt anyone else. She won’t leave until she gets me.”
“You,” Lend whispered, then looked at Reth. “Something unspoken passed between them. “Keep her safe,” Lend said fiercely.
Reth nodded. “Always.”
Lend leaned forward and smashed his lips into mine, kissing me desperately, then pulled away. “I love you,” he said, his glamour melting off so it was him, just him for a heartbeat, and I got ready to stand and be lost forever. Then he replaced his water self with:
Me.
“No!” I screamed, but Reth wrapped his arms around me and traced one finger down my throat, freezing my voice.
I screamed and screamed, ripping my throat to shreds but no sound came out. Lend-as-me stood up, lifting both hands in the air.
“I’m coming,” my voice said. “Stop.”
He walked out from behind the counter and I couldn’t see him and she’d kill him and I’d lose him forever and I couldn’t live in a world where he wasn’t.
I kicked against the counter as hard as I could, trying to force Reth to let me go, but his arms weren’t flesh, they were permanent, there was no give. I slammed my head back into his chest again and again, but then I felt more than heard her faerie door closing as the air thinned again and I knew it was over and my world had been destroyed.
Lend was gone, and it was my fault.
I slammed my head against Reth again in rage; he pulled me closer and said, in a voice tender and sad, “Sleep.
I hurried to the end of the Iron Wing and opened the door.
Where I found myself face-to-face with Anne-Whatever-Whatever herself.
I pulled my hand back to punch her. “What are you—” she started, when her eyes went wide and she collapsed on the ground, revealing Tasey in the hands of a teen boy with blond curls, blue eyes, dimples, and the most impish smile I’d ever seen.
“Hey-oh, did you miss me?” Jack asked.
Since my hand was already pulled back, I went ahead and punched Jack.
“Bloody—What was that for?” he asked, hand over his nose.
I stepped past the unconscious body of Anne-Whatever-Whatever lying on the white tile floor and snatched Tasey from the blond nightmare. “Are you kidding me? The last time I saw you, you left me for read.”
“Well, yeah, there was that. But I thought rescuing you from IPCA might make up for it a bit.”
“I’m in the middle of rescuing myself,” I snapped.
“And how were you planning on getting past her?” He nudged the prone body with a none-too-gentle foot.
“Improvising.”
“And once you were past her, you were going to get out of here . . . how?”
“Shut up!” I turned and tried to stomp down the hall, then cringed in pain from my ankle. Okay, no dramatic stomping. I opted for emphatic limping instead, which unfortunately allowed Jack to catch up quite quickly.
Wait—no, not drifting. Following us. “We have an audience,” I said to Reth, nodding at the clusters of flying insects.
“I suppose we can’t make the Dark Queen any angrier with us than she already is,” he said, then his perfect mouth moved, silently forming words, and he gracefully waved his hands through the air in a semicircle. The warm breeze suddenly froze, and I saw frost eat across the nearest butterflies’ wings. They stopped midair, then dropped to the ground with tiny clinking noises, frozen solid.
A serene smile spread across Reth’s face. “I’ve always disliked insects.”
“If the whole being-a-faerie thing doesn’t work out for you, you definitely have a future in pest control.
Ta-da! Faerie!” Jack pointed at Reth, the very definition of beauty, leaning casually against the wall in a cream Victorian suit, the shirt open around his neck revealing perfectly sculpted collarbones, his golden hair just brushing along them.
“Evelyn, love, there you are.”
“I—You—and you?” I looked incredulously from Jack to Reth and back again. “This does not compute on so many levels.”
Jack shrugged, shoving his hands sullenly in his pockets. “Reth found me, told me you were in trouble, so I agreed to help.”
Reth cocked his head, giving Jack a curious look. “I seem to recall offering you the choice between having both yours hands removed or pulling Evelyn out of that abominable iron-lined prison.”
Jack didn’t meet my eyes. “Like I said, I agreed to help.”
I snorted. “Noble, as always.”
Reth held out his elbow. “Are we quite ready to go? I, for one, would rather not spend much time here. Tasteless décor, and the lighting doesn’t do your complexion any favors, Evelyn.”
“Oh, for the love, you two are not in charge! And I don’t trust either one of you for a stroll down the hall, much less through the Faerie Paths!”
Reth fixed his eyes on mine. “You have my word that you will come to no harm while in my care.” He waved a hand at Jack. “And you have my word that if he does anything I find even so much as mildly annoying, he’ll never walk again.
It’s so cute, isn’t it?” Arianna said dreamily.
“Are we seeing the same creature? It’s like a demented goat with a bone growth.”
“You’re going to hurt its feelings! Now shut up and sit on the ground.”
I did as I was told, sticking my ankle out. “How is it going to heal me?” I asked, suddenly nervous. I pictured it licking my ankle and gagged. I could only imagine the diseases unicorn saliva had or what it carried around in its filthy, matted beard and hair.
Bleating reproachfully, it stared at me with its doleful, square-pupiled brown eyes.
“Oh, fine. Great, glorious unicorn, beloved of oblivious girls everywhere, please heal me. Now, if you don’t mind.”
With one last bat of its gunk-crusted eyelashes, it lowered its head and put its stubby horn against my ankle. I cringed, waiting for pain, but felt instead tingling warmth spread out, almost like having butterflies in my stomach. Only in my ankle. Butterflies . . . with rainbows.
The feeling of wholeness and well-being spread up my leg and into my entire body, and I couldn’t stop grinning. The forest was beautiful! The tree branches, naked against the brightening sky, held unimaginable wonders. The hard-packed dirt beneath me was a treasure trove of unrealized potential, lovely for what it could eventually give life to. I could sit out here forever and just enjoy nature. I was so happy! And rainbows! Why did I keep thinking of rainbows? Who cared! Rainbows were totally awesome!
And the unicorn! I beamed at it, reaching out my hand to stroke it. There was never a creature more beautiful, more majestic. I’d spend the rest of my life out here, and we’d prance around the forest, worship the sunlight, bathe in the moonlight, and . . .
I shook my head, scattering the idiotic warm fuzzies that had invaded. “Whoa,” I said, shoving the unicorn’s head away. “That’s enough of that.” I looked down at my ankle, which was now completely healed, not even a scar left. I fixed a stern look on the unicorn. “I am not going to frolic in an eternal meadow of sunshine and moonlight with you, you rotten little fink. But thanks.” I smiled, just enough to be nice without being too encouraging, and patted it quickly on the head.
I was going to soak that hand in bleach.
“Okay, let’s get out of here.” I stood, testing my ankle and relieved with the utter lack of pain. I still had an irrational desire to do an interpretive dance about rainbows, but it was a small price to pay for being healed.
Do you think she was like that?”
“I’ve found it is helpful when talking to use actual subjects and context so your listener can understand what, exactly, you are trying to convey.”
I rolled my eyes. “Like you’re so big on clear communication.”
“Reth, I . . .” I paused, then took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
“Whatever are you sorry for?”
I shrugged. “How about threatening to kill you, for starters.”
“That is an excellent place to start, although I must tell you those threats were rather more endearing and humorous than frightening.”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever. You really came through for me when no one else could, and I know Lend wouldn’t be here without your help. So thank you.” I leaned my head against his shoulder and it seemed like he almost missed a step, but then he continued on as graceful as before. I lifted my head back up, staring ahead and straining for my first glimpse of the pond. “Why did you do it? Help me, I mean. I know you don’t love Lend.”
His golden voice was as deliciously warm as it had always been, wrapping around me in a comforting blanket, insulating me from the bite of the December air. “No, but I do love you, silly creature that you are.
This is the worst idea ever,” Lend shouted from behind the closed door as Arianna finished pinning my hair under a brunette wig.
“I’ve been having a lot of those lately, but one of us wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for my most recent one.”
“Well, you look the part, at least,” Arianna said, standing back to admire her handiwork. I was in a fitted, sleek black pantsuit with a blouse underneath. The blouse was white. I hated it already. That, combined with the too-dark hair and colored eyebrows making my tragically pale skin even white, and I was not loving life. Still, sacrifices had to be made.
Jack was lying on the bed with his head hanging over the side, his face slowly turning more and more red as the blood rushed to it. He looked phenomenally bored for someone about to break into a secret international high security facility.
I slipped into my favorite stilettos, took one step, and fell over. “Ouch.” Shaking off the shoes, I rubbed at my still-tender feet. The stilettos were so not happening. That did it. If I didn’t already want to destroy the Dark Queen, the fact that she had ruined my ability to wear high heels put her at the very top of my hit list. She was so going down.
« first previous
Page 32 of 42.
next last »
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.