“Gideon, watch out!”
Reun’s shout barely registered before I saw the thick tendrils of emerald smoke pouring through the portal to wrap around my arm.
The whole world vanished in a blink.
CHAPTER 40
I was livid. All that effort, and I still ended up dead. Sucked right into the Mists. I was nowhere, surrounded by drifting green fog that was somehow solid enough to support me sitting in the middle of it. If I was alive, this would be impossible.
But I didn’t feel dead.
Okay, maybe I had no idea how being dead was supposed to feel. But I figured I wouldn’t have this much anger in me, and I wouldn’t be completely banged up and exhausted. Or still breathing.
“Well met, DeathSpeaker.”
That was a Fae greeting—and it wasn’t in my head. It came from all around me, like the Mists were speaking.
It was the same voice I’d heard calling me in Arcadia.
“Hello?” I said tentatively. “Who are you?”
“I am Kelwyyn.”
Holy shit. The previous DeathSpeaker. “Er, didn’t you die?” I said. “Damn. That means I’m probably dead, too.”
“I am not dead. I am…transformed.”
I frowned. “Into what?”
The fog in front of me started thickening, shaping itself into something vaguely human. The form gained definition and color. Soon, it was a Fae. He wore no glamour, and was dressed in black and silver. Tunic, breeches, boots, cape. Pale lavender skin, pointed ears, long triple-jointed fingers with claws instead of nails. His eyes matched his clothing—black, ringed with silver—and dark brown hair lay in a long braid over his right shoulder that reached his waist.
Kelwyyn smiled. “I believe I have become the Mists,” he said. “Of course, I cannot be certain of this, as there’s no one else here to explain it.”
“Jesus Christ,” I said. “All this time, you’ve been…alive? Well, sort of?”
“Aye. I know not why, but here I have remained, while all others perished.”
The thought left me cold. “So people have died in the Mists, then.”
“They have.” His features grew somber. “I can do nothing for them,” he said. “Though I’ve some control over this…entity, it is not complete. The Mists continue to drift, always.”
“And you’re stuck here,” I said. “Couldn’t someone in Arcadia magic you out, though? I mean, there has to be a spell for that.”
Kelwyyn shook his head. “You are the only living being I’ve been able to communicate with. And even if there was such a spell…I’ve my doubts any Arcadian would want me released, after what I’ve done.”
“Hey, what you did was justified.” Fresh anger filled me as I recalled Nyantha’s story. “I’m really sorry about your daughter.”
“Thank you.”
I started to get up, but then I remembered I was sitting on fog. “Um. If I stand, will I fall through this stuff?” I said.
He laughed softly. “I believe you are safe. Otherwise, I’d not have brought you to this place,” he said. “It seems the DeathSpeaker alone is immune to the effects of the Mists.”
“Right.” I wasn’t exactly convinced. But I put my hands down and pushed, and they didn’t sink into the smoke. After a disconcerting few minutes, I managed to gain my footing. I was okay if I didn’t look down. “So I’m immune to this stuff?” I said.
“Aye…to an extent.” Kelwyyn glanced up at the endless green fog. “As I mentioned, there is no one to explain how it all works. But I believe if you were to remain here too long, you would be incorporated into the Mists, as I have been.”
I definitely didn’t want to be incorporated. “How long is too long?” I said.
“I’ve no idea. That is why I must do this quickly.”
“Er. Do what?”
“Give you the Word.”
Before I could say what word, he pressed a palm to my forehead.
A blinding red flash went off behind my eyes. It felt like he’d driven a heated spike straight through my skull, into the center of my head. I didn’t have time to scream before he removed his hand, and the pain came away with it.
Except for a dull, pounding ache deep in my skull, like there was a pebble embedded in my brain.
“What did you do to me?” I gasped.
“I am sorry. The pain will fade, in time,” he said. “That was the only way—the Word is too dangerous to speak aloud when there is no intended target.”
Jesus. Now I knew what word he was talking about.
The one that could rip a soul from a living body and instantly destroy it.
I couldn’t hold back a shudder. “Why did you give me that?” I said. “I can’t…”
A frown creased his features. “You need not use it, and perhaps you’ll find that it will never be necessary. I would thank the gods if that came to be,” he said. “But I have sensed a great evil in the world, gathering strength. Far more powerful than the one I defeated centuries ago. And this evil…it does not know it yet, but it is seeking you, DeathSpeaker.”
Every inch of my skin broke out in gooseflesh. “Seeking me for what?”
“To destroy all of Creation.”
Okay, that was too much to even consider. “Are you sure about that?” I said.
“Unfortunately, I’m quite certain,” Kelwyyn said. “Perhaps this evil will never rise to power. There are always events that cannot be seen. But if it does…you will have the Word.” He gestured at my head. “And when the time comes, you will know how to use it.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Can’t wait.”
A smile played on his lips. “I like you very much, DeathSpeaker. You are…refreshing.”
“Thanks. I think.”
“And now I must return you to your world.” Kelwyyn stepped back and started to fade, unraveling at the edges. Reverting to the Mists. “You hold the key to salvation,” he said, his voice echoing all around me. “Guard it well, and remain true to yourself. You are stronger than you know.”
Green fog billowed thickly, pressing in from all sides. Blinding me.
Then I opened my eyes in Congo Square.
CHAPTER 41
I was flat on my back, staring up at a ring of concerned faces. When I blinked and stirred, Zoba grabbed me and hauled me off the ground in a crushing embrace.
And I mean crushing.
“Okay,” I wheezed. “Hooray, I’m alive. Gonna need my ribs to stay that way.”
The pressure eased. Zoba clapped my shoulder and grinned wide enough to show every one of his pointed teeth.
“Yeah. Me too, buddy.” I was getting a lot better at reading him. “So, what happened?” I said. “I mean, I know what happened to me, but what happened here?”
Reun had to reel his jaw back in before he spoke. “You collapsed,” he said. “The portal closed, and then you…faded. But not completely.”
“You went ghost on us,” Bastien put in. “Look like you died right there, and yo’ spirit kinda hung around. Only that was dead, too.”
Denei smirked. “We tryin’ to wake you up, and you jes’ plumped right back out and came around.”
“So you not a ghost now?” Isalie said carefully.
“Nope. Not a ghost.” I offered a tired smile. “I was in the Mists,” I said. “Turns out, the Mists are Kelwyyn—or he’s the Mists, or something. He wasn’t sure.”
“Who in the hell’s Kelwyyn?” Denei said.
“The DeathSpeaker.” Reun’s eyes widened. “At least he was, before Gideon.”
“Yeah, and he’s not as dead as everyone thought,” I said. “He’s stuck in the Mists. That’s why I was headed for them in Arcadia. He was calling me.”
Reun frowned. “Why?”
“He had something important to tell me.” I really didn’t want to get into the great gathering evil, the destruction of Creation, or the killing Word just yet. “I’ll try to explain it all later,” I said. “Right now…I think there’s one more thing we
have to do here.”
Denei went stiff as a board. “You tellin’ me we still ain’t rid of that monster?”
“No, he’s gone for good.” I tried to smile. What I had in mind was a kind of bittersweet victory, but I felt like it needed to be done—here, while we were still close. “You guys never got to say goodbye to Rex and Senobia,” I said. “I can bring them out here so you can.”
“You…” Tears sprang to her eyes. “You mean, we can talk to them?”
I nodded. “And they can talk to you. I just need something to glamour.”
“What do you mean, glamour?” Reun stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “Only you can speak with the dead.”
I was confused, until I remembered that Reun hadn’t seen the whole projection thing yet. I’d done it a few times in Arcadia, but Reun was imprisoned in the Unseelie Palace most of that time. “It’s easier to show than tell, here,” I said, looking around for something I could use. Then I spotted the two baskets they’d stored the spell ingredients in. “Those’ll work.”
The rest of them followed me as I placed the baskets side by side. The moon was still up, and I was starting to get my spark back, but I could do this without burning through magic. It was a lot easier when the dead were willing to participate, and I knew they would be. “All right,” I said. “Senobia, Rex…you guys are still around, right?”
Senobia spoke first, in a puzzled tone. Yeah, cher. You need somethin’ else?
Ain’t we won yet? Rex joined in, almost laughing.
“Yeah, we won,” I said. “Thanks to you two.”
Hey, we was jes’ talkin’, Senobia said. Y’all done all the work. Can you tell our kin thank you from us, and we love ’em?
This time I managed a genuine smile. “How about you tell them yourself?”
The silence was heavy. How we gonna do that? Rex said.
“I can project you out here, and they’ll be able to see you and hear you. And vice versa.”
You shittin’ us. That was Senobia.
“Not at all.”
Well, let’s do it!
“Okay. Bear with me, because I’ve never done two at a time,” I said.
It was even easier than I thought. They both came willingly, and they were only in my head for a few seconds. One slight push and they practically flew out. The baskets in front of me appeared to stretch and fade at the same time.
And there they stood.
“My babies,” Denei whispered roughly behind me. “Dear Lord…”
“Hot damn. We really can see them, cain’t we?” The ghost of Rex grinned. “And y’all can hear us, too?”
“Yes. We hear you, honey.” With a hitching breath, Denei stumbled toward them, and the others were close behind. “You free now,” she said shakily. “We all free. But I cain’t believe you’re gone from me…”
“We ain’t goin’ nowhere jes’ yet.” Senobia’s voice shook just as hard as her sister’s. “Don’t you worry. Me and Rex, we always gonna be wit’ you. All of you.”
Zoba’s hands shook as he tried to reach for them. The motion passed right through, and he shuddered hard. He made a terrible, desolate sound.
Senobia smiled at him. “It never was your fault, Papa Bear,” she said. “You done gave everything to free us, and now we are. He cain’t never touch us again.”
“Ain’t all bad, bein’ dead,” Rex said. “Now we get to go wherever we want, and y’all cain’t tell us what to do no more.”
A few faint sobs rolled around between them. Then the four living Duchenes and the two dead ones came together in a tight embrace.
I’d give them all the time they wanted.
“Incredible,” Reun said softly. “I’d no idea you could do that.”
“Me neither, until Nyantha told me about it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “The Sluagh witch of the wood?”
“Uh, yeah. Her.” I didn’t know she had such a reputation.
“Well, however you’ve managed this…it is miraculous.” Reun bowed his head. “Is féider leis an éirí an bother leat.”
“May the road rise to meet you,” I echoed.
I had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last I heard from Rex and Senobia. And for once, it was a good feeling.
CHAPTER 42
The train station was the last place any of us wanted to be. The prospect of two days on a train, after everything we’d been through, felt like a sentence we had to serve. But unless someone could pull a few thousand dollars out of their ass for plane tickets, or we all suddenly learned to fly, we’d have to get on the goddamned train.
I was glad I’d been able to bring the Duchenes together, but now I was truly exhausted. We’d grabbed some bad pizza from a twenty-four-hour place in the station. No one had much of an appetite—it was purely a defensive move against starving to death.
And now we had a few hours before the train left. The round-trip tickets they bought were actually scheduled for a return trip later this evening, but one of the clerks took pity on us and transferred the tickets to a train departing at 4:45. It was 2:30 in the morning now, and the waiting room was nearly deserted. Just the six of us, one older man watching the news on the overhead televisions, and a younger couple watching something on an iPad.
Zoba sat on a bench by the window that looked out over the tracks. Reun and Denei had taken side-by-side chairs and held hands without speaking, and both Isalie and Bastien were fast asleep sitting up.
I couldn’t quite get there. The metal mesh chairs weren’t the most comfortable seats in the world. I’d just stood to go in search of a cup of coffee, to keep me going until the train arrived, when a breathless voice behind me called, “Gideon! What the hell are you doing in New Orleans?”
The voice was extremely familiar, but my brain refused to believe it. Even when I turned around and saw her. Both of them.
All three of them.
“Sadie?” I finally blurted.
That got everyone’s attention in a hurry.
Sadie and Taeral stood at the far end of the waiting area, looking like they’d just gotten hit by the train we were waiting for. And Daoin was with them.
Taeral started toward me first, with the other two close behind. I was way too stunned to meet him halfway, or even move. “How did you find us?” I managed.
He froze. “What do you mean, us?” he said, looking around slowly. The shock on his face when he spotted the rest of them was almost comical. “Reun? Denei?” he sputtered. “What in the worlds…Zoba?”
“Yeah.” I could sense an impending explosion, and I really didn’t want it to happen in the middle of a train station. “How about we all go outside and figure this out, okay?”
“Fine.” But instead of turning around, Taeral walked briskly over and grabbed me. I couldn’t do anything but hug him back. “Do not ever disappear on me again, brother,” he said in rough tones. “You’ve frightened the life out of me. If anything had happened to you…”
My eyes stung a little. “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ve had more than enough adventure for the rest of my life.”
The nine of us gathered under the railroad bridge by the boarding platform, where no one but the woods could see us. “Okay,” I said. “So…who gets to start?”
No one volunteered.
After a minute, Daoin cleared his throat. “Well, I returned from Arcadia to find neither of my sons where I’d left them,” he said. “Your golem friend, Grygg, informed me that Taeral had gone to the mountains, and that he’d no idea where you were. So I tracked Taeral—who also had no idea where you could be. And together we tracked you here.”
“Oh.” That explained how they’d all gotten here. Daoin could teleport—or something. I wasn’t quite sure what that particular power was. But he could move instantly from place to place over long distances, and he could take quite a few people with him. He must have zapped himself to Pennsylvania, found Taeral and Sadie, then zapped them all here. “Sorry about that,” I finally said.
“Sorry? That’s all you’ve got?” Sadie had vacillated between happy to see me and ready to kill me at least four times already. Apparently it was ‘ready to kill me’ time again. “You’d better start talking,” she said. “One of you guys, anyway. What happened?”
Denei started to say something, but I held her off with a gesture. Taeral would be less furious if I told them—if she did, he might actually try to kill her. And Sadie just wanted answers. “Remember that guy you told me not to go after?” I said.
Sadie looked lost. But Taeral got it right away. “Legba,” he spat. “Tell me you did not attempt to fight that monster. If you’ve angered him, he’ll not cease in his pursuit of vengeance. He will destroy you.” He turned a furious expression on Denei. “You brought him into this, Duchene,” he seethed.
“Taeral, it’s over,” I said as calmly as I could. “He’s gone.”
“Do you not understand? He will return!”
“Not from the Mists.”
His anger melted into sheer astonishment. “The Mists?” he said slowly. “Of Arcadia?”
“Yeah. Those Mists.” I let out a long breath. “Look, there isn’t enough time in the world to tell you the whole story,” I said. “But I promise, when we get home and I’m less than half dead on my feet, I’ll give you the highlights. Okay?”
Sadie gasped suddenly, and then clapped a hand over her mouth like she hadn’t meant to let that out. Her eyes grew impossibly wide. “Taeral,” she whispered. “Look at them. I mean…really look.”
He did. His furrowed brow smoothed out slowly. “Were there not six of you?” he said in a much kinder, gentle tone. “Where are the youngest two?”
Denei’s gasping sob was more than enough of an answer.
Taeral shrank back, horrified. “I am so sorry,” he said. “I’d no idea—”
I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Rex and Senobia are going to stay here for a while,” I said, hoping it would help them to remember that they weren’t gone. Not really. “But they’ll stop by to check in from time to time.”
Return of the Hunters (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 4) Page 15
