It didn’t surprise Lily that Diana’s Chroi’s face was stern with concentration, and the power coming from her own body burned as bright as the sun.
Suddenly, everything flashed once more, moving in and out of sight before Lily’s eyes as if someone had bent the celluloid in a film reel in a darkened theater. One moment, she was watching Diana, with her husband standing at her side, and the next moment, the room was bright, the ceiling was gone, and her pupils were shrinking in the harsh light.
Heat touched her skin, kissing it with warning.
The room was back, with its silence and its four walls. Lily blinked – and she was staring at Lalura… who was staring very markedly back at her, keen blue eyes piercing the core of her spirit like telescopes.
Then the room was gone once more.
She was alone. A heat wave struck her form, carried on a blast of wind that was laced with razor-sharp sand. She cried out, shielding her face from the brightness and the pain. The blast lasted only seconds before it died down, and she could lower her arms.
Before her stretched an eternity of sand. It shifted slightly here and there in building and receding dunes that had been formed by the hands of wind and time. The sun was harsh and tinted red, and the air above the ground warped and wavered with radiating heat.
That heat wave buried Lily at once, stifling to the point that it was almost unbearable. But it was offset by the chill of fear she felt inside. Panic welled up from somewhere deep, leaking into her veins on the coattails of adrenaline and cortisol. Where was she? How had she gotten here?
She’d had her fair share of visions, and some had seemed very real… but none had ever transported her before. Was that even possible?
Oh gods….What the hell is happening?
Lily covered her face with her hands, pressing her fingertips into her eyeballs and releasing them again in the hopes it would trigger some sort of return to normalcy. But when she blinked them open again, she was still standing in the same place, in the midst of what seemed like a universe of sand.
She turned a slow circle and squinted into the distance, trying to make out anything that would give her a clue as to what was transpiring. She’d gone half-way when she stopped and strained her vision a little harder.
Behind a veil of dust and raised sand, there was a structure. She couldn’t tell how far away it was; possibly two or three hundred feet. The structure wavered and warped with the rest of the world in the immense heat. Lily moved toward it, and nearly stumbled when her first step sank partway into the sand.
She looked down, adjusted her gait, and tried again.
This time, she moved more slowly, flexed a bit more leg muscle, and managed to make her way in the structure’s general direction. It was like walking on a swarm of miniscule ants that slid to and fro; her shoes were not designed to grip the shifting grains of rock, and her body was not used to having to compensate.
As she drew closer, the structure became more clear. Eventually, she could tell it was not only further away than she’d thought, but also much larger than she’d originally surmised. And it was on the other side of a river.
The river was massive, but it was recessed. It was hidden behind the rise of a dune, which was why she hadn’t seen it at first. She came to the river’s edge and gazed out across the water. Slowly, the horizon cleared, the wind dying down enough for the dust to settle.
A sand-colored city revealed itself before her eyes. Its walls were labyrinthine and endless, a hodge-podge of impossibilities, seemingly glued together so chaotically, it resembled a crumbling mountain range. Countless orifices served as windows, dark and gaping, doorways waited behind ornate, locked barriers, carved and ancient.
It waited, unmoving, hollow, haunted and daunting.
Lily looked down at the river. It flowed swiftly and deeply. It would be impossible to cross.
“Not impossible,” came a voice behind her.
Lily turned.
When she faced the man who stood behind her, a numbness encased her, immobilizing her all the way to her lungs, which stopped rising, and to her heart, which nearly stopped beating. The numbness was followed by a strange fire that tickled at the insides of her veins just before rushing through them to heat her entire body in a way the sun never could.
So beautiful, her quieted mind mourned.
He was a god. This, she absolutely knew.
“But it is painful,” he continued, his voice as old and filled with secrets as the land upon which she stood. “For it requires the shedding of the self.”
“You’re Amon Re,” she whispered, unable to force any further volume into her voice.
Eyes like the endless sands of time imprisoned her gaze and scoured her soul.
“This is where it is,” he continued, not bothering to confirm her identification, but not needing to. “This is what he seeks.”
His gaze unshackled hers to move to the city across the river. Lily followed that gaze.
“And this is what she seeks as well,” he said. “It is the only way.” He looked at her, his eyes beginning to glow. The realms opened up for Lily, bombarding her with images she could not keep track of, nor make sense of. So she didn’t even try. She just let it happen.
Then the images faded, and the heat fled her form as if sucked out by a vacuum. She cried out with the sudden onset of stark, horrible cold that spiked through her like crackling, freezing electricity.
She was falling and freezing. She was dying, she just knew it. She felt like she’d just been thrown into a pool of barely melted ice.
Lily….
She could hear her heart beating, echoing in a chest that had forgotten how to work. The sound rang through her ears, slowing like a fading song.
Lily….
I’m freezing, she said. Or, rather, she thought. She had no idea where her mouth was.
Lily….
At once, something touched her chest like a brand. Heat moved through her once again, raging and painful, but welcome, and Lily inhaled sharply – then opened her eyes.
Lalura Chantelle finished her chant and removed her hand from Lily’s chest. The high witch’s blue eyes were glowing with the power of her magic
Lily understood. She had slipped into a vision, the most powerful vision she had ever had and perhaps that anyone had ever had, and hadn’t been able to come back out again. Lalura had saved her with a spell. She’d reached in and wrapped around Lily like a lifeline to pull her back out again.
Lily looked up from the floor where she’d fallen, and the inhabitants of the room peered down at her in stunned silence. Lalura sat back, the glow left her gaze, and Dannai Caige came into view.
The werewolf witch was healed. She was pale, and dark circles painted her face beneath her eyes. But she was whole and she was moving. Diana’s healing magic had worked.
Dannai knelt next to Lily, and before Lily could say anything about the enormous amount of relief she felt at seeing her friend whole and healed again, Danny spoke. “It was my father, wasn’t it?” she asked. Her voice was gravelly, which was understandable. The vampire who’d bitten her had been so savage, that despite Diana’s healing powers and the overwhelmingly powerful blood that once more ran through Dannai’s veins, the mark had remained. A scar marred her neck. Lily wondered if it would be there forever.
Lily nodded, thinking of the man who had greeted her on the shifting sands of her vision world. “Yes.”
“What did he tell you?”
Lily formed her words carefully. “It wasn’t what he told me,” she said.
“It was what he showed you,” Lalura supplied, her tone sure. Lily looked over at her to find the old witch’s chin raised in confidence. She knew.
Danny’s multi-colored eyes glittered with the threat of tears. She looked from Lalura to Lily. “Lucas?” she breathed, barely able to voice her hope.
Lily nodded. And then she tried to sit up, and everyone helped her into a seated position. “Lucas,” she confirmed. “We
can bring him back. Amon Re showed me how.”
Chapter Eleven
It wasn’t like Avery to skulk and watch from the shadows. Frankly, that was like a Shadow fae.
The Shadow fae, otherwise known as Shades, were partly under the sovereignty of the Unseelie realm, and partly under the Shadow King’s domain. It was a shared responsibility. It had to be. Shades were sneaky, quiet, devious, they held their cards close to their chest – and they were deadly. They “grew up” to become assassins, bounty hunters, and out-and-out lunatics. They struck fast and hard, like a Writhe Snake, and if you were lucky, you would die right away.
Shadow fae watched from the shadows.
Not Avery. Spying from the darkness wasn’t his style. He was a king. He faced problems head-on, stepped up to the plate, and never told a lie. He was the Seelie King, so unlike his brother, he wore his heart on his sleeve. There was no duplicity with Avery, no callousness or cunning, no stalking.
Yet, here he was, skillfully hidden in the various darknesses found in the shade, in the underneaths, and in the unseens of the Seelie realm. Watching.
He took everything in. Every tiny move she made, every glance this way or that with those inhuman, beautiful eyes, every single step she took that drew her deeper and deeper into his world, he observed and drank up and filed away. Every sharp intake of breath that made him imagine dark things, each wide-eyed look of wonder that made him imagine even darker things, he absorbed as if it were his food and water and air to breathe. Her full, pouty lips twitched, her white teeth were bared in a smile, and Avery found himself floating between right and wrong, wanting things he shouldn’t want, and wondering what his body was going to force his mind to do any minute now. Or vice versa.
She was kind of killing him.
And at the same time, she was also absolutely, undeniably bringing him to life.
She’d entered the Seelie realm without even knowing she was doing so. He knew. He’d been observing. The moment he'd made it out of the veritable tomb his brother had tried to lock him in, he’d located his queen’s signature. She was a beacon on a dark night, and there was nothing that could have hidden her from him.
She’d been in a human grocery store when he’d found her. But, although she was unaware of it, the grocery store was being overrun with portals. They were everywhere, moving in, changing the place of business down to its fundamental molecules, and opening the way for her to enter the world where she belonged.
He wasn’t sure what the catalyst for her change had been. The spell that had almost killed them, maybe? His nearness to her? He didn’t know. But she’d reached a point now where the fae blood in her veins was nearly mature. And it was taking over.
Little by little, her surroundings had been eaten up by the more powerful of the two dimensions, leading her away from humanity and its failings. The other humans around her had noticed nothing, save perhaps her odd behavior. And even that, they paid little heed to, as they paid little heed to most things that didn’t directly concern them.
Finally, she vanished. And they still didn’t notice.
But he did.
The moment she was fully immersed in his world, all the land was aware of it. Her spirit infused the ground, the air, the plants, the animals – like a bolt of fuzzy lightning or a cool blast of wind. Everything breathed, inhaling deeply, and pleasure pulsed through the very fabric of the realm.
She was their queen, finally come home.
Now then, he thought to himself as he followed her down the amethyst path that would lead to the Morphing Gardens. What kind of fae are you, my little one? Despite everything, he hadn’t been able to tell yet exactly what she was. It was clear that at least one of her parents had been a fae, and most likely a very powerful one, but no matter how he tried to read her, he failed.
There were several possible explanations. She was his queen, and it had been accepted amongst the kings that their brides would wind up being more powerful than they were. Selene Trystaine was likely just stronger than he was and more capable of hiding her nature than he was at discovering it.
Avery smiled to himself, again half realizing it was not a friendly smile, and only half caring. He liked a challenge. His brother’s blood pulsed through his veins, feeding his hunger and killing his kindness.
It was time his queen met her king.
*****
There were sounds around her, but unlike the sounds in the forests or woods she was used to, these were more musical. A cricket in the “real” world would make a high-pitched squeaking sound. But Selene could imagine that a cricket here would… sing.
It would sound like a flute, she thought, not knowing how she could be certain, but absolutely certain of it nonetheless.
Wonderland….
As she passed the flowers that lined the smooth, amethyst walk, she tried to identify their species, and failed. One vaguely resembled a rose, with its onion-like layers of silken petals that folded perfectly over one another, but the colors were off. They were blue and purple, the stems were bright ruby red, and they seemed to be almost braided together rather than standing alone. The “thorns” coming from these rose-like flowers actually felt like feathers, not sharp at all, but enticingly soft. She knew this because she’d bent down and examined them closely, going so far as to run her fingers along almost every inch of the obscure, unbelievably beautiful plants.
Other blooms resembled butterfly wings, marked with iridescent colors separated by glittering ink lines, seemingly drawn by master artists. Some flowers possessed stamens that glowed like tiny stars or pixie dust, little firefly beams of light at the centers of blossoms of impossible color.
The trees overhead were even more fascinating to her. Strictly speaking, she would guess they were some sort of willow. But, they seemed to be extensions of the walkway to some degree, because instead of heavy branches that hung down toward the ground like curtains of green, these trees were draped with gemstones.
They reminded her of the oak trees that lined major streets in New Orleans the day after Mardi Gras. Millions of beads would dangle thick from the branches, casting the world into so much sparkling color, it resembled a scene from a Dr. Seuss book.
Here and there, small pools of water, no more than a foot or two across, sparkled in the shafts of light coming through the trees. Some of these led into secondary pools, and the tiny waterfalls between the two were perfect and unencumbered, falling directly downward as if constructed by an architect.
Selene stopped, her boots clicking to a halt on the smooth, shining surface of the purple stone beneath her. Beside one of the pools of water up ahead rested a small animal. Selene found herself inhaling and smiling, at once disarmed by the creature, which appeared to be nothing short of a part bunny and part kitten mix, with some kind of bird thrown in as well.
Its ears were long and floppy, like those of a lop-eared rabbit. They appeared incredibly soft, with white-gray fur in gradiation on the outside, and pink fur on the inside. The animal’s face was feline, tapered like a kitten’s, and it sported whiskers of the same white-gray as the color of its ears. It had the body of a cotton-tail, and upon the creature’s back were a folded pair of multi-hued, iridescent wings that ranged from red to violet, the full spectrum of the rainbow.
The entire animal was such an unbelievable bundle of cuteness, Selene could barely contain herself. She was fairly sure she made some kind of sound, a high-pitched adoring squeal or something similar, because the animal suddenly turned away from the pool where it had been quietly lapping up water – and looked straight at her.
Selene froze as the kittybunnybird’s gaze met hers. Its eyes were blue on the outside, where a human’s sclera would have been white, and rather than a colored iris, these were black. Those irises expanded quickly as the beast took in Selene’s presence, eventually growing to the point that they nearly took over the entirety of the animal’s eyes.
Selene at once felt guilty for scaring the creature.
�
��I’m sorry,” she automatically said, speaking as softly and sweetly as possible. “I didn’t mean to scare you, little one.” She held out her hand very slowly and very carefully, as if to assure the animal. “I promise, I would never hurt you.”
The creature’s eyes got wider, and the black of its pupils finally swallowed up the last, thin ring of stark blue color.
Selene’s heart skipped. Something felt wrong.
“Unfortunately, he can’t promise the same,” came a deep voice behind her.
At that very moment, the animal leapt. Selene back-stepped, but it was too late. The creature rose into the air in the span of a fractioned second. It’s wings expanded, spreading from an initial two-foot wingspan to three, then four feet, and then double that. The feathers vanished, morphing into the smooth black skin of a bat’s wings.
Darkness seemed to engulf the beast, turning its white-gray fur raven-black. Its ears shrunk, and from behind the smaller lobes, black horns began to rise in spirals, coming to sharp, twisted points a full two feet above its head. Scythe-like claws sprouted from the pads of its paws, curling downward into razor half-moons.
The beast opened its jaws, revealing extra-long fangs that gleamed bright white and deadly. Pin-points of bright red light burned to life at the centers of its dark, dark eyes, and this fire grew larger, encompassing Selene’s own vision as the monster sped toward her.
It all happened so fast. The transformation had taken no more than a second and a half at most. Selene was frozen to the spot, paralyzed in her surprise as the creature’s darkness filled her world, and the breath stilled in her lungs.
A word was spoken – harsh and beautiful.
It rang out from behind her, deep and powerful, and slammed into the beast like a sound wave. The wave rippled over the animal, stunning it in mid-flight, and the creature let out a helpless sound. It tumbled to the ground in front of Selene, shrinking at once to its former shape and size.
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