Find Me: Faeries Lost
Page 28
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Drew's body shook as all his cells came back together. He looked down at his palms, watched them solidify into skin and bone and muscle. He stood in a place with no clearly defined matter at all. The surface upon which he stood seemed to have no clear definition and he wasn't certain if it was even solid under his feet. Everything around him was a vast white space.
"Pandimora," he whispered as the goblins had instructed.
Instantly, she was beside him, her arms coming around him tightly as if she would never let him go. "Drew! By all the faeries, you are alive and well." She placed kisses on his mouth and he put his arms around her, but then she pushed him away from her, her eyes sparking in anger. "Why are you here?" Her voice was almost a screech and he covered his ears.
She reached for him again. "I'm sorry."
"Sirt and Jonic." He hadn't been sure any of this was true or that it would work. He touched her forehead, pushed the curling red hair back from her face. Her eyes were red and he was angry that Lukais had made this sweet faerie cry. But there was no time for delay.
"We have to get out of here now." He opened his palm to reveal ancient silver coins the goblins had given him. "One for you and one for me. Concentrate on returning to Aisywel, just as if you were opening a portal," he said. Even as the words left his mouth they both began the transition into transparency and dissolved from the white space.
They materialized in a place that reminded Drew of the healing sanctuary. He had only a moment to scan its breathtaking beauty and the large glass enclosed building beside them before he saw the two goblins running toward them. The air swirled with strange dark currents that made him uneasy.
"Quickly." Sirt and Jonic reached them but Pandimora darted away.
In disbelief, Drew watched her run to the front of the tall glass building. "Pandimora!"
She looked over her shoulder. "I must meet the elder council as I should have done that first day." Her legs moved incredibly fast and she disappeared into the building. He looked back at the goblins then ran after her.
"It may be too late," called Jonic after him. "Um, and Lukais implied he would kill us last time we were here, if we came back."
Drew turned his head as he reached the corner of the building. "Get out now."
Sirt nodded. "Hurry. With each passing heartbeat the peril increases."
"Thank you," Drew said and ran into the building, skidding to a stop inside the doorway. Pandimora stood in the middle of an enormous open room, opulently furnished with glowing tables and chairs of glass, the floor some type of shattered glass that had been reconstructed. On her knees, she struggled to rise.
Drew ran to her and pulled her to her feet. He saw the mark on her arm glowing bright red.
"The human."
Drew recognized the same deep, ominous voice he'd heard before in his office. His adrenalin raced, heart pumping fast. A regal older man in white robes with shoulder-length white hair sat at a glass table facing them. His ice-blue eyes assessed them without emotion.
Drew quickly looked for a means of escape but the room was circular, and even the door he'd entered appeared gone.
"I am frankly amazed at your tenacity, Pandimora," said the elder. "If you seek the high elder council, they have wisely moved their meeting with the insurgents to the southern hemisphere."
Drew felt the tension radiating through Pandimora. He reached for her hand and pulled it behind him, palming her a silver goblin coin. She took it but in the next instant Drew saw two coins appear on the glass table in front of the elder.
Lukais picked up the coins and casually tossed them in the air. They burst into blue flames and disintegrated.
Pandimora squeezed his hand and he felt her shaking. He remembered the crystal expert warning against making a faerie mad. Looking at the fury in the elder's eyes, he knew then it was very, very bad.