Come to think of it… Crwys stepped back into the dining room, intent on looking to see if she had her remaining gun with her. Only Sam wasn't there. Levi was on the ground.
"Hey!" Crwys yelled at him as he strode through the empty space where Sam was supposed to be. He checked the table. The axe was gone.
Bending over his partner, he checked for the human pulse and found it. A nasty gash against Levi's head was already healing. He'd be okay, but it looked like Sam had surprised him. Levi was a good cop, but Crwys knew he'd let his guard down around Sam.
"Is he okay?" Arden said as she and Dharma came out of the kitchen.
"Yeah," Crwys stood and looked at the front door, then past the women down the hall. "Stay with him till he wakes. Arden, he's gonna need blood," he said as he ran past them.
"Me?" Arden shouted back.
Just past the kitchen door was a bathroom and then the herb room—which had a door to the outside. He took off running down the hall and checked the bathroom, and then checked the herb room. The outside door stood wide open.
That's when he heard the sound of shattering glass and a car alarm.
He took off through the door into the front yard and came around the iron gate just in time to see Sam's Jeep take off down the road before he took a long, angry look at his Mustang.
Sam had smashed his windshield and taken the axe to his driver's side. Every door hung open, as well as the trunk. Oh, she'd looked in his car all right. He felt his internal furnace ignite and almost—almost—set the car on fire.
Until something dumped water on top of his head. He froze where he stood in the middle of the street and sputtered before he raked the wet shock of hair from his eyes to look at the iron gate. Dharma stood there with her Undine racing back to her.
"Sorry…I just felt your power and was afraid you'd set the house on fire."
Great.
With every joint in his body aching from the pull then the end of his power and ignoring the steam that rose off of him in the New Orleans heat, he squished to his car, closed the doors and the trunk, and then headed past her to the house.
Kyle, Arden and Levi came out of the house and it was Arden that approached him. She had a handkerchief pressed against her wrist.
"Oh…Crwys…" She smirked. "I can't say you haven't looked better."
"Sam's gone. She smashed my car and took off."
"Look," Levi said and gestured with his hand. "I don't know your business, but something's wrong with her. Either she's possessed or something has set her off."
"Can't you tell if she's being overshadowed?" Dharma asked Levi.
"Not if it's a Leviathan. We can sense the double pattern if there's a Revenant present because they share the body. A Leviathan rides it. Great way to mask itself. And besides, Elemental Witches are the hardest to possess. They fight back."
"With Spirit," Arden said. "Sam's weak at Spirit."
"It would still take time with her fighting."
"And we weren't in Alfheim that long," Dharma spoke up. "She wasn't away from us for more than ten minutes when she spoke to Tzariene."
"Then I need to talk to Tzariene and see what the hell happened," Crwys said. "Arden, I'm going with you."
"You're soaking wet." Arden made a face as the group stood in the front yard of Ina's house.
"You have leather seats. Won't be a problem. Kyle needs to come too."
"Kyle should go back to the store—"
Crwys turned and glared down at Arden, which sufficiently shut her up. "Kyle is going too. I need him."
She held up her well manicured hands. "Fine. I assume you want us to open the Cairn?"
"Not the one by your house." He still had very vivid memories of crashing that party, of being shot and taken through the mirror into Faerie.
"That wasn't a Cairn, Crwys," Arden said and her voice was low. She started to touch his arm and then pulled away. "It doesn't matter. I have to get back there anyway. I have over a dozen calls and not one message. Dharma?"
She was on her phone and shaking her head. "There's no answer."
That's when something appeared in the air in front of Crwys. It was dim in the sunlight so he walked toward the house and the image grew brighter. Stronger. He recognized it as a text box like the one on his phone. He pulled it out of his back pocket and tried to see it through the water spots.
Answer your phone.
Ivan.
It vibrated in his hand. "Hello?"
The voice was rough, a bit hoarse, and it coughed a few times. "Tell Arden…the wolves are here."
The line went dead.
Ah great. He had Sam in the wind and acting crazy. He was soaking wet. His car was pretty much totaled (calm down). And now there were wolves at the doors of Gypsy Gardens.
He held up his phone to the little crowd. "We're taking this to Gypsy Gardens. Arden, you have a canine problem." Crwys stopped in front of Kyle and Dharma. "Ivan's awake."
TWENTY ONE
SAMANTHA
Tzariene left me alone for a while, excusing herself for business. I hoped her business had to do with getting me my body back. Though…trotting around in the meadow was kinda fun.
Clouds rolled across the sky and the shapes were actual shapes, unlike the ones I used to "make" when I was a kid. Thinking back, that was the first time I realized I made magic like my mom. I was five maybe? I was at a daycare, which was actually the house of one of my mom's coven mates. I was outside in the grass with two friends I'd grown up with since…as far back as I could remember.
We lay on our backs, head to head, staring up at the clouds. Tom and Nathaniel were their names. I can't remember if I even realized they were boys back then. They were making blades of grass flip and fly in the air, which was something I couldn't actually do. But I didn't want to be left out, so I told them to watch the clouds as I molded and formed them into birds, and a dinosaur, and…
A Unicorn.
I came to a stop near a clump of trees, not even winded, and thought about the Unicorn I'd made that day in my apartment with Ivan. I thought about the Hammer, the original Ivan left with me, the copy I lost while rescuing Crwys (and hoped it disappeared in the turmoil that followed), and I thought about my mother's athame.
As I stood under the tree, making sure my horn didn't tangle itself with the branches, I spotted something in the distance coming toward me. Or it looked like it was coming toward me. It was small at first, but it gained size and speed as it neared. I wasn't overly panicked watching it, because there was something oddly…familiar about it…
A great gray wolf, and what looked like my old Kachina doll atop its back, came to a loping stop in front of me.
"Sam! Baby, are you okay?"
"Mom!" I had no way of hugging her—not as a horse. But I sent as much love and affection as I could to her through our bond. A second later, I blinked. "You talked out loud."
"Yes."
"As a wolf."
"And you're a talking Unicorn."
She had me there.
The doll stood up, wobbled a bit as it caught its balance on the back of my mom, and put its hands on its hips. "Don't I get any kind of greeting?"
"Hello, Medbh. I'm just surprised to see you with my mom. After all, you're the bitch that turned her into a Hunt beast."
The doll put a tiny hand to its round beak. "You know, you're right. I did." She bent forward and petted the back of Mom's neck. "You know if this works, I can restore you. But…if you return to your own world, you'll also show and feel your age."
The wolf tilted her head. "And if I stay like this?"
"An unnaturally long life."
I heard Mom laughing in my head. "I prefer the fur coat. I would also prefer you get off of me because your feet are poking into my backbone."
"Oops." Medbh, the previous Winter Queen before Brendi, had her spirit removed from her body when her head was chopped off. I brought the head with me into my world where it took on the shape of a creepy ceramic doll's head. And it
talked. Just a few months ago—back around the end of October, really—Brendi brought Medbh's spirit back here. I still wasn't all that sure I trusted her, but she had helped us find and rescue Crwys.
The doll jumped down and landed with grace on the grassy ground. "You talked to Tzariene?"
"She just left."
"So she told you what's been happening?"
I bobbed my head up and down. "I think I get most of it. I'm still unnerved that Arden saw my death. Why didn't she tell me?"
"Everyone knows the worst thing you can do with a vision is tell the subject of that vision," Medbh said. "You do that and it's locked in place. But if you don't and you can move and change events…"
"Then there is the possibility of changing the vision," Grey finished. "It really upset her, Sam. You need to know that. And I hope you realize she did the things she did because there was sort of a plan in place."
"We didn't go into what happened with Crwys, Mom, and right now, it's better we don't talk about her. I swear I'll gore her with my horn if I see her."
"Okay. The most pressing thing now is getting your body back."
Wait a minute. "How did you get here? You didn't come with us through the Cairn."
"I did, after you guys went in. I just hid and waited. We knew what he was going to do and I wanted to make sure your transition went smoothly. You didn't feel any pain, did you?"
When I thought about it, I admitted I didn't. "It was like falling asleep. So does anyone else know about this? About the vision and Tzariene's deal with Dionysus or this cockamamie plan?"
Grey and Medbh shook their heads.
"You didn't even tell Kyle or Crwys?"
"Sam," Grey said. "At the time we didn't know where Dionysus was. So we didn't know who to trust. Arden vetted certain people and we came up with a small group that couldn't be possessed or swayed by Dionysus. Small being the key word."
I stared at her. "You mean…Arden's been doing this all by herself?"
Medbh laughed. "Yeah. You should have heard her cussing you out when she had to make that deal with Brendi—and then bam! She had to capture that smexy boyfriend of yours. You know he damn near killed her."
"Yeah, well letting them take him damn near killed him. And me!" I stomped a hoof hard on the ground and Medbh backed up. "What am I supposed to do now? That bastard's running around in my body and I don't have a clue how to get it back, and I have to have mastered Spirit to defeat him—"
Grey stood up. "Medbh, go ahead and tell Sam."
"We're not waiting for Tzariene?"
"You really think she'll approve of this?"
I looked between the two of them. "Approve of what?"
"I have a deal for you—" Medbh began.
And I shook my head. "No. Uh uh. No deals with Faeries."
"Aw come on, Samantha. This is a fair one. No tricks. No double cross. Your mom's here as a witness."
"I don't trust you."
"I wouldn't trust Tzariene, either," Grey said. "I know it looks like she's helping us, but I can't get it out of my head that she's also working something out that's beneficial to her."
"Of course she is." Medbh walked to me and looked up. I had to bend my head down to see her properly. "All I'm asking is you help me get my body back and I'll get you back through a Cairn."
I moved my head and looked at Mom. "Is she legit?"
"I have no idea. But when she presented it to me, I thought it was a sound idea. Tzariene's the only one that controls the Cairn here in the Summer Kingdom, and she's sort of dragging her feet about contacting Arden to let her know you survived."
"Arden doesn't know I'm here?"
Grey shook her head. "I think Medbh's plan might get you out of here faster. So you can do what you were born to do."
I didn't really understand, but I also didn't care much about it at that moment. I looked at the Kachina doll. "And that's it, Medbh. No hidden agendas, no secret crazy aspirations to take over the world or come after my Dragon?"
"I ain't touching a scale on that monster's head. I don't want him destroying anything. I mean, if he obliterated your world, where would I get my Hunt beasts?" When I didn't respond, the doll leaned its head to the side. "Too soon?"
I ignored it. "So, what's the plan?"
"You'll accept the deal?"
Did I really have a choice? Dionysus was running around in my body—that meant no one knew and they were all in danger. The only saving grace I thought I had was that he didn't have my Arcane or my Elementals. So in essence, he'd just slipped into a powerless body. And that was going to make him mad.
If it were me, I'd look for the things that had power. The only powerful items I possessed were Mom's athame and the original Hammer. But would he know this? I figured he'd know about the athame. He gave it to me when I thought he was Inamorata. But the book—
I snorted. Where in the hell did I put them? I couldn't summon a single memory that went with where I put those things. Oh crap. I hoped I hadn't left them out in the apartment, because Dionysus would know to use the athame with the Hammer and then he'd have access to a crap-ton of very, very bad spells.
"Yes," I said.
Chimes sounded. The deal was cast. You know, if bells went off in my world every time someone promised something, and the punishment for reneging or breaking that promise was death, I'm pretty sure nobody would promise anything ever again.
"So, where are we going to look for your body?"
The Kachina doll leapt up and landed quite expertly on my back. I could feel its feet but not much else. Its weight was negligible. "The Obsidian Palace."
I'd started to follow Grey, then stopped. "You gotta be kidding me."
Grey answered, "She's not. That's where Brendi interned her body. We just don't know where it is. And there's a rumor that's where Brendi is. So all you have to do is get Brendi to tell you where it is."
It didn't sound so far-fetched when I thought about it. In fact, it sounded kind of easy. Brendi was still a young girl under twenty. And what girl didn't love big purple Unicorns, right? This should be a piece of cake.
Right?
* * *
I didn't know how bad the destruction of the castle was until we got closer. The journey from the Summer Kingdom was instantaneous once we reached the border. I assumed we'd traveled over the ley line between the two, just as I had the first time I'd come to Alfheim. Originally Brendi had removed them, but apparently Tzariene put them back.
The difference between the two kingdoms took my breath away. Where the Summer court was filled with meadows, trees, grass, bunnies, rainbows and sunshine, the Winter court looked like scorched earth. The grass covering the ground gave way to dry, lifeless dirt, littered with the spiraling branches of dead trees along a path that might have once been the palace gardens. What had once been a majestic fountain of obsidian was now little more than a stack of broken stone. And the castle itself looked like a snapped, broken bone sticking out of the ground. A bone made of black soot and cracked stone.
"Crwys didn't do this…he couldn't have." I could hear dismay in my voice.
"No," Grey answered. "Crwys's anger and rage was contained in the throne room, deep inside the main hall. This was done by the armies of the other kingdoms. Brendi nearly destroyed the Summer Kingdom and became a threat to the Fall and Spring. Even if the Dragon had turned on its keeper, they weren't going to just leave her with any capability of war."
"So they decimated everything?" I picked my way through stone, but the ash and soot coated my hooves. "Even the people?"
"They left one alive."
I stopped and looked at Grey. She paused and looked back at me. "One?"
"The queens decided the best punishment for Brendi was to be locked inside the ruins of her own castle until a new Winter Queen appeared and decided her fate." Grey turned back to the castle in front of us and continued along a path I couldn't make out.
I wanted to feel bad for Brendi, but I was having a hard time of it.
My history with her was a complicated one. I'd come to Alfheim with her dad because we believed she'd been taken when Medbh decided she wanted Witches as her Hunt beasts. But when we found her, she chose to remain here and had actually taken in the Queen's blood. I remembered that really well because Medbh had turned me into a stone fountain, and as the magic wore off and I could actually do some good to help Mike and his friend, I had never felt another pain like it.
"Medbh?"
"Mmm?"
"When Brendi drank your blood that afternoon that Mike, Dags and I came to find her, is that what turned her into a Faerie?"
"Oh, I remember that day. That was a bad party. Worst I ever threw. But it'd been a bad week too. Let's see…the answer is yes. But the outcome of doing that would have the most effect on her mind."
"I'm not following."
Medbh continued talking from where she sat on my back, with tight handfuls of my mane. "It's been a running legend, or rumor, for as long as I can remember that Faeries formed from the birth blood of Gaia's first born, Echidna. I personally don't think that's true. But it generated the myth that our blood could create other Faeries since we have such a low birth rate. So children from other realms were taken, which is why we created the Changelings."
"Is that why there's a myth that if you drink or eat food in the land of Faerie, you'll become one and never leave?"
She paused. "I think so. But the myth's been a bit tamed. That whole drinking and eating our food only has any effect when it's laced with dust. Then we have complete control over the human. The turning into a Faerie happens when you drink the blood. So often enough, we would put our blood in the food."
I shivered at that thought and remembered the blood on Brendi's lips and chin. "So Brendi really is a Faerie now."
"Yes. Unfortunately, she also has all the problems the transformation brings with it. Mostly in her mind. I think it's hard for humans to go from living in a land with no discernible magic, a land with its own order, to living here where the landscape changes with each new queen. Given that power at her young age…and being pretty much brainwashed by Blackwood…"
Elemental Soul (The Eldritch Files Book 5) Page 15
