Water from the stream splashed into my face as Mike crossed it. I didn't appreciate it at first, but it did clear my head and woke me up a little. The pain in my back had moved around and surrounded me like a blanket of oh fucking God that hurts. I wasn't thinking and I sure as hell wasn't moving.
Until Mike put me down on a soft bed of flowers. I opened my eyes to see one of them. It was something like a bluebell. All the tiny little flowers turned to look at me. Their petals spread to show me tiny smiling faces. I smiled back. "Cool."
"What the fuck was that thing that landed on him?" Sam said as I felt her ripping my t-shirt. Damn…and that was my favorite Muse shirt.
From the look of the wounds, it was a harpy.
"Mike!"
I felt a slight vibration under me and assumed Mike had collapsed.
Mike's wound is very similar, but not a harpy.
"A snake thing got Mike. But a real harpy attacked Dags?"
I wasn't sure whether to be happy to hear Hob's voice, or to be angry. Brendi was sure Hob wasn't a traitor, but I wasn't certain yet. I was also thinking out of my ass at the moment, trying really hard not to pass out. We still had to get home, and I was not going to let Sam do anymore healing on me.
Mike snorted nearby and when he spoke his voice was soft. "What the hell, Sam? Where the fuck do you think we've been for the past…however long we've been in here? We're in Faerie you're holding Queen Maab's head."
Thunder interrupted anything Sam might have said and all movement over me stopped. I wanted to ask what was happening, but I just couldn't find the energy.
"Hob? What is it?"
You have Maab's head? Now he really sounded surprised. You…you cannot stay here. You have to leave now.
"Dags and Mike can't travel like this…and what'll happen when we get back home? You said we'd go the time and day we came in?"
Only if you use the pool…I am not sure of the time…
There was a long, scary, pregnant pause.
"Hob," Mike said just before thunder cracked the air again. The ground vibrated beneath me and the little blue bells closed their leaves and trembled.
Something was coming.
"What are you not telling us?" Sam demanded. "Hob?"
I do not know about the snake creature and since Mike is moving and speaking, I do not believe they are related. A harpy's talon secretes a poison that paralyses its prey. Has the Guardian said anything or moved since it happened?
Another pause. I assumed Sam was shaking her head.
Then it is working its way into his bloodstream. The pool…contains a natural healing property. It was the magic I intended to use to make sure you were not made ill on your return to your world. If you take him through, I fear the pool will dry up trying to cure him. If you place Mike in the pool, there may not be enough power to heal Dags, or if you place him in first—
"Then there won't be a way for us to return without consequences," Sam finished.
Put Mike in the pool! I screamed at them. Or I thought I did. The truth? I wasn't doing anything but staring at a shivering blue bell. Hell, I wasn't even sure if I really said "cool" earlier.
Where is your daughter?
Mike sighed. "She's staying. She…ate some of Maab's body."
Another pause. I hated the pause when I couldn't move and see the conversation.
She consumed the blood?
"So did Dags. She forced him to take some of it."
He has Maab's blood in him? Hob sounded excited.
Thunder interrupted again. This time it was much louder and I swore I heard the baying of dogs.
"Yeah…is that good?"
Yes it is! Sam, put your magic to use with Mike.
Again there was a pause and I drifted off…only to be jostled awake by Mike reaching under my chest. Apparently Sam worked on him this time.
Please, help me get him half into the water. We do not have much time before they arrive. The gate will hold for a short amount of time, but I cannot hold against all of them.
"All of whom?" Sam's voice was loud and clear.
Mike held me across his forearms and then set me into the water. It was cold, damn cold, ice cold on some serious parts of my anatomy. Abruptly the water warmed and churned just beneath the surface as the water touched my back.
"Hey! I can't see what you're doing!" came the raspy voice of Maab from my makeshift bag.
That is very disturbing.
Sam laughed. "I'll say… but what's happening? Is Maab's blood inside of him going to help?"
Dags is both angel and demon, fueled by the book in his center. The Grimoire will take that blood and use it to its fullest need. And right now, his need is to heal.
The ground shook and I heard the gate creaking.
"They're here. I thought they couldn't get here," Mike said. "And what exactly are they?"
Every denizen of this realm Maab has ever angered.
"That's a lot of angry," the bag said.
I knew the moment her head was removed; I just never believed you would bring it here.
"Is that a bad thing? I think Dags figured we would take it to our world and let it burn in the sun."
I hope that is all it will do.
"Are they after her? Those things at the gates? The harpy that attacked Dags?"
Yes. They all want her head so they can torture it through time.
"No one has a sense of humor anymore." Queen Maab laughed. Or it sounded like a laugh.
Feeling rushed into my legs as if a damn had been opened. And then the rush spread through my other extremities, and finally my back—and that's where the pain kicked in. "AAahhhhh….shit! Ow…"
Mike was still half holding me in the water. "Ah…back with us?"
"I wasn't gone. Just couldn't move. And we need to get out of here. That gate's not going to...shit this hurts…hold all those other assholes." I turned my head to see Hob sitting on the water's edge. "Which is better? To take it with us or leave it here?"
Did you burn her body?
"No. It was mauled a little."
Take it with you. It is best if her head never find her body. But wrap it in some of the spiderwyk web. That will keep any of its evil taint from touching the pool's water.
"I ain't got no taint!" Maab broke out into raspy laughter.
"Can we gag her with it first?" Mike quipped as he helped me crawl out of the pool. I rested on my side, shirtless and shivering from cold as he helped Sam gather up some of the webbing and wrapped the bundle in it. The gate creaked again.
You must hurry.
"Okay how does this work?" They joined me at the edge of the pool, the bundled head in Sam's hands.
You must swim down to the door at the bottom of the pool. It will open for you because you left me a part of yourself. Go through and make sure you close and lock the door on the other side.
"Door at the bottom? Hob, this pool's shallow." Mike said.
Is it?
I watched Mike jumped in first and he disappeared immediately. Sam reached out for Hob's forearm. To my surprise, he took her hand in both of his. "What's going to happen to you? Will they hurt you when they don't find the head?"
I do not know. Do not worry Samantha Hawthorne, Dags McConnell. I have been, and always will be. And if this proves not to be true, then I thank you for not rejecting me, and giving me your time. It is all I have ever wanted.
He pulled her to him and they embraced. When he let go he pushed her into the pool. I nodded to him and started to slide in myself—my back was burning like a son of a bitch—but he grabbed my wrist and held on tight. Did she grant him the wish?
I had to think for a second. "No. She didn't."
Then you still have a wish you must make. Do not allow anyone else to do so. He moved his hand into mine, shook it as a gentlemen, and then shoved me under the water.
KNOWLEDGE iS POWER
Once in the water something grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. Luckily the water was clear and I
could see the hand belonged to Mike. I moved with them and righted myself when he let go. I could see the door below us. It was simple and lay on the pool's floor. The walls of the pool shook and kicked sand up as Sam reached it and yanked it open.
Me, Mike, and a shit load of water were pulled into the hole. The motion made me dizzy as we rode the world's scariest water slide out of the Cairn and into—
The Savannah River.
We came out of a pipe, yelling as we tumbled airborne for a few seconds before we hit the water. It was colder than the water in the Cairn. We broke the surface close to one another and looked around.
"Bonaventure!" Mike pointed to the landmass to my right. The moss-covered oaks were a dead giveaway. That and after we swam with him to the other side we came ashore below a bench overlooking the river and marsh.
I crawled out and collapsed on the sticky grass. The sun was up and the spring warmth felt good.
"Hey, you guys okay?"
I didn't bother looking up. I figured it was someone in the graveyard that saw us come out.
"Hold on!" Mike answered and I felt him beside me. "Dags, you're still bleeding. In fact…I'm not sure having an open wound in the Savannah River was a good idea."
Like we chose that?
"Dammit…the pool didn't heal him. You're nearly scar-free Mike, but not Dags." Sam put a hand to my forehead. "Oh shit…you're burning up."
I nodded but didn't think much more about it. We were back home. We'd failed to rescue Brendi. But at least we came back with a head. Yippie. "Sam…you might want to hide the head?" I managed to give her this warning before I slipped my eyes shut and checked out for a while.
* * *
Seems Mike had been right about the open wounds and the Savannah River water. Not a good combination. I spent a week at Memorial University Medical Center, suffering through a serious staph infection. Sam and Mike stopped by every day, and twice Sam tried to heal it, but instead of healing she mucked up the machines. After that Mike came alone and kept me informed.
The head, when they were able to go back and get it from where they hid it in Bonaventure, had turned to something like porcelain. But Mike said it had the consistency of concrete. It looked like Maab, painted the way her face had been at the dance. It also talked when you didn't want it to. Sam stuck it in the safe of Mike's townhouse and said she would take it with her when she went back to Louisiana.
There were some serious magic users that could have fun with it in New Orleans.
Mike went back to the cemetery and found the pipe and shut the door. The fact it was open for two days before he did that terrified me. I didn't know what had come through, if anything. Hob's warning had been sincere.
And there was the question of Hob. Had he survived? Was he still there? Or had the horde of Maab's fan club destroyed it all? I wanted to know how Hob was, but I had no intention of ever going back to Alfheim or into a Cairn again as long as I could help it.
Release day came none too soon. The cherry trees were in bloom; the sky was clear and it was a Saturday. The art students were out on River Street, offering up caricatures for sale, personal one of a kind pieces of jewelry and pottery. We'd come straight from the hospital to River Street because I wanted pralines. And I wanted them now.
I hadn't had them until a nurse had given me one. Her mom had bought them for her and she was afraid they'd wreck her figure.
She became my life long friend after I tasted that delicious candy. So I watched them make the stuff on a huge marble slab at River Street Sweets before I bought about ten pounds I was sure would last me a week.
After that we had lunch at Huey's and managed a table on the patio. I had a mufflaeto, Sam got a salad and Mike had red beans and rice, with the promise of sneaking into my room later tonight when the gases were ripe. Yeah…my room. He'd offered me a home there, as long as I got a job and helped pay the mortgage. He was going to have to be in court a few more times, but it looked like the police weren't going to try and pin his daughter's disappearance on him anymore. And since we knew were she was…and what she was…he seemed a little less frantic.
But he was sad now. I could see it forever etched on his face.
Sam was packed and ready to head west. She wanted to wait until she knew I was okay.
I had one question of my own. "So…the last thing Hob told me was you still had a wish." I looked at Mike.
He nodded. "Yes. I did."
Sam and he looked away from each other. I frowned. "What happened? Did you try to use it and it didn't work since the mantle was fake?"
"No," Mike said and pushed his plate away. He'd eaten every bite of it. The orchestral accompaniment of that many beans would commence soon as we got back to his place. "I used it."
I wasn't sure about the looks they were giving each other. I also felt a pang of worry because Thomas and Hob had been adamant about me making the wish, but I'd never shared that with Sam or Mike. And then I had a terrible realization. "Shit…you used it to save me? Guys…it wasn't that bad of an infection—"
"No." Mike shook his head. "That's not what I used it on." He licked his lips.
"Now you're scaring me… did you use it to make Brendi whole again? Is she human and here now?" I looked around, half expecting her to come out and serve us now. Surprise!
"Darren," Sam said and leaned forward. She sat across from me at the table, her expression sincere. "He didn't use it on Brendi. That wasn't possible." She grabbed the check and waved to the waiter. "Let's go."
We walked in silence down the sidewalk to her car. She'd parked it in the lot beside Kevin Barry's pub. She drove a Prius, silver, with a sleeping wolf resting in the back seat. When Sam opened the back door, Grey bounded out and put her two front paws on my shoulders.
I am very happy to see you, Darren McConnell.
I gave her a hug and she jumped down.
The head is safe in the trunk. It mumbles sometimes but I'm happy to know my jailer is now jailed.
I knelt down beside her. What about your form?
I have it back. But I still do not want Sam knowing I am her mother. Will you keep this secret?
"Always," I said aloud.
"Sorry about that—" Sam said before she reached inside the back of the car and pulled a large tan envelope out of the pouch behind the front passenger's seat. "But she seems to adore you." She straightened and handed me the envelope. "I kept it in the car because it's been protected."
I stood and looked at each of them, not sure what wish could possibly be inside of an envelope. When I took it, a sharp pinprick of a shock ran through my body and I pulled my hand away. "What the…"
Mike took the envelope, took my hand, and put the envelope in it. The shock happened again, and then disappeared. "This was my wish to make, so I asked for a way to return your memories to you."
The sounds of the seagulls, the murmur of people, the water, everything disappeared as I stared into Mike's face. I opened my mouth and then closed it. With trembling hands I carefully tore open the top of the envelope and pulled out a single sheet of parchment paper. To the untrained eye it was blank on both sides, but to my eye, it was filled with an ancient Babylonian text.
"The spell is older than the book," Sam said. "If you place it into the Grimoire, you'll remember everything."
I looked into her face. Though she was smiling at me, I thought I saw a hint of sadness. "What's wrong?"
She looked away from me at the river. One of the large cargo boats was making its way slowly through the water. "When I first touched it, the Mother let me see things. They were some of your memories. And I think I was allowed to see them because you need a warning," Sam looked back at me. "This wish doesn't just give you back the year you lost, Darren. It gives you back everything you've ever forgotten."
Everything I've ever forgotten…
It took a few seconds before I understood what she meant.
My mom.
My grandmother and dad told me I was there when th
e house burned, that I'd run into the woods and then something happened in those woods outside our home. They didn't find me for a week, and when they did, I'd shown no sign of dehydration, no exposure to the elements. Dad said they found me inside of a tree, unconscious. I didn't wake up for weeks after that.
And when I did, I had no memory of what happened.
Only nightmares.
Sam put her hand on my forearm. "I see you understand the warning. Mike thought it best to give you the ability and not just make it happen. This way you have a choice. When you're ready."
When I'm ready?
I looked at the page for a few more seconds before I slipped it back into the envelope. When I tilted the envelope I saw transparent images drawn on the surface, much like watermarks on expensive paper. I wiped at my eyes.
Mike put a hand on my shoulder. He stood behind me. Sam pulled me into her arms and I wrapped my arms around her. Mike wrapped his arms around the both of us. He'd given this to me.
He could have wished for so many things, but he'd given it to me.
But Thomas's warning that I should make the wish still rang in my ears. I didn't know why, but holding the page in my hand filled me with a sense of dread.
* * *
After Sam left with promises to keep in touch, Mike and I walked back to his townhouse, cracking jokes about what we'd been through, what we'd seen, and what we hoped to never see again. Once in the kitchen, I put the envelope on the table and he grabbed us a couple of beers.
"You want to do something?" he asked after taking a long swig. "See a movie?"
"No…" I walked to the window and looked out at the garden. "You think Hob's still there?"
"You want to go see?"
"No," I said it almost immediately. "Sorry…I just hope he survived."
We didn't say anything for a while.
"Well," Mike said as he headed to the stairs. "I'm going to give a friend a call, see if he's got any work. You still bartend?"
"Yeah." I called out to him as he climbed the stairs. I drank my beer and stared outside for a very long time.
Dance By Midnight Page 14
