Curious, I sat down and closed the door. ‘What is it?’
He leaned closer, and whispered in my ear.
As I listened to what Dylan’s wish would be, my pulse ran fast, and I could feel my skin begin to flush.
‘You’re serious?’ I said, my voice sounding hoarse. ‘That’s …’ I cleared my throat. ‘That’s … but you know it can only be until midnight tomorrow, Dylan. Don’t you think it’ll just make us a little bit, I don’t know, frustrated afterwards? To have something once and never have it again?’
He looked at me, his pupils large. ‘Maybe,’ he said. ‘But if we are frustrated afterwards, we can always go back to arguing with each other on a daily basis. I know I enjoyed that a lot.’
My eyes rounded. ‘I knew it! I said it before, didn’t I? I told you there are words for people like you.’
He licked his lower lip, giving me a wicked smile. ‘There are. There are quite a few phrases that would describe how I feel right now, too. Absolutely crazy about you, that’s a phrase that would describe it pretty accurately. Dying to be with you, even if it is only once. So … do I have your permission to make my wish?’
Oh dear goddess! This was probably the stupidest decision I could ever make. Nothing good could come of it – okay, something nice could come of it, but it would be so fleeting. And when it was over … what if I missed him more than I could bear? ‘Okay,’ I said, my voice a little breathless. ‘Make your wish.’
Dylan held the coin tight, looking at me all the while. ‘I wish to spend until midnight tomorrow with Aisling Smith, and for there to be no risk of her becoming a vampire, dayturner or otherwise.’ He took a deep breath, and opened his hand. The coin had disappeared. ‘What does that mean?’
I swallowed. ‘It means that the wish has been granted.’
He licked his lips again, leaned across, and kissed me.
24. The Glittering Garden
I’d never fully believed it before I moved to Riddler’s Edge, but there really is such a thing as bliss. Being with Dylan, even if it was only for a short time, taught me that much.
Other emotions came afterwards, just as I’d feared they would. But I could deal with those. Because no matter how much I missed the brief encounter we had together, at least I’d experienced it. When it was over, I still had a whole town filled with people I loved. And a cat and a broom, too.
I had no idea where the broom had been for those few days over Midsummer. When I got back from my stay at the lighthouse, it was waiting on the bed. Fuzz swore to me that he didn’t know where it had been, either. I guess I’d have to take his word on that one.
For now, I was looking ahead. With the madness of Midsummer finally over, I had a task that might be even stranger yet: Level One Hundred and One.
I told Dylan about the Queen’s challenge, and although he knew little other than the usual tales about Brian the Brave, he promised me he would try to find out more. Grace, Nollaig and Jared would be told next – but not before I spoke to Pru. I’d never gotten around to asking her how old she was, but I knew she was alive when the sióga still mixed with those in Riddler’s Edge and Riddler’s Cove. And as we finally approached the Glittering Garden together, I felt sure that this would be the perfect place and time to tell her the truth.
The garden was situated on the western side of the Wandering Wood. Although seeing as the Wandering Wood tended to … well, wander … I suppose it could just as easily have been in the east. Either way we found the entrance, marked by a wooden, rose-covered arch in a clearing.
The arch was all that there was in the clearing – at least at first. It wasn’t attached to a fence, nor to a hedge. It was just an arch, freestanding and lit by some unseen source. We stood in front of it (or possibly behind it, because how could we tell?) for a few minutes before Wendy, the owner of the garden, arrived.
She was wearing a gauzy white dress, and her feet were bare. Her face was devoid of make-up, but I doubted that it could improve her in any way. There was something ethereal about this woman. I thought of the Queen in Greg’s game. She dressed like this, but she didn’t feel like this. As for Wendy, if ever there was a woman who seemed like my idea of a faery queen, it was her.
‘Welcome to my garden,’ she said. ‘People have called it the Glittering Garden for years now, but to me, it’s my little haven. I only let people in so they can see how the enclaves used to be in the Golden Age, back when Wanda the Wayfarer brought about the only peaceful reign the magical world has ever known. What you’re about to enter is the only place within a witch enclave where some of the fair folk and the outsiders will enter. They come for my flowers, they come for my peace, but most of all they come because this place is an enclave all of its own.’
As she pointed through the archway, I could see a shimmering in the air.
‘It would be wrong of me to say I protect this place with my life,’ she went on. ‘Because the truth is, if you pick a flower to take it home, or if you harass the residents in any way, then it’s your lives which will be at risk. Because beneath the beauty of my haven lies a fiercely beating heart.’
Wendy grinned, and I thought I saw just a hint of razor sharp teeth. ‘So place these on and enter. Enjoy. But leave my world as you find it, or there will be consequences.’
She held out two bracelets, each one made of a glowing metal that I couldn’t identify. They slipped easily onto our wrists, and the shimmering air began to clear. As we stepped through the arch, I gasped.
‘Pru,’ I said breathlessly. ‘This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.’
Pru smiled gently. ‘It really is.’
It was close to midnight by then, but just like the arch, everything in the garden was alight. The flowers and even the grass shone brightly, while here and there, certain flowers, toadstools and flying creatures seemed to glitter. The whole place was alive with activity, but it was activity like nothing I’d ever seen before.
I knew that there were plenty of outsiders, but to see so many in one place was leaving me dumbstruck. There was a unicorn (an actual unicorn!) drinking from a stream. There were leprechauns and gnomes. There were teeny tiny shining sprites with gossamer-like wings.
‘Those sprites are what I always thought faeries looked like,’ I told Pru as one of the small winged women plaited her hair, and another decorated hers with woodland flowers.
‘They can, if they want,’ Pru replied. ‘They can look however they choose at any given time.’
We wandered around, meeting more and more supernaturals I never thought I’d be lucky enough to see. I wasn’t surprised that they felt safe here. It might be in the Wandering Wood, and therefore part of a witch enclave, but like Wendy explained, this was an enclave of its own. It was a whole other place. Whatever Wendy was, she clearly had the magic to make that happen. I felt sure that, as long as we were in here, we were completely apart from the rest of the forest. The Wandering Wood could burn to the ground, and the Glittering Garden would remain untouched.
The path that we were to walk was clearly marked, and after a couple of hours we came to a picnic area. I laid out our blanket, opened up our basket, and began to arrange the food. Nollaig told us she had prepared the meal, but I had a feeling she might have had a little help from Jared. She’d definitely had some help with choosing the wine. It was the same brand I’d shared with Jared on our first and only date.
I decided to wait until we were finished eating to tell Pru everything, but as I finished off the last of my chicken salad and opened up the strawberries, she looked like she was miles away.
‘I guess none of this is new to you then, huh?’ I questioned, refilling her wine glass. ‘It’s probably just an average walk in the park to anyone who lives around here.’
‘What?’ She looked up at me. ‘Oh my stars, no. I’ve never even bothered to apply, the waiting list is so long. Wendy lets in a few people a month, and she’s very selective. Jared must have paid her a hefty sum to move up the list lik
e this. Never mind to hire the whole place for the night, because I’ve never heard of her letting anyone do that before.’
I bit down on a strawberry, feeling my cheeks flame. Jared had been amazing over the last few days. Back when he was trying to get me to date him, I used to think he came on far too strong. But now I’d told him there was never going to be anything between us, he was being just as generous as ever. Maybe being full-on was just his nature. If it was, then I hoped he’d find someone who deserved him.
‘Oh, Ash.’ Pru shook her head and grasped my hand. ‘I didn’t mean to make you feel bad that you’re not into my brother. I mean, for the love of Dracula! I’m glad that I’ve finally found the one and only woman who’s immune to his charms. It’s just that this place has made me think. About you.’ She let go of my hand and took a sip of her wine – an awfully big sip, in fact. Maybe it would be better just to call it a glug. ‘When I told you I really am a seer, I wasn’t making it up. I see all kinds of things, Ash. Things that scare the life out of me – and believe me, if something scares the life out of an undead vampire, then you know it’s bad.’ She took another glug of her wine. ‘For instance, I know that if I ever tell Greg how I feel about him, it will end in tragedy.’
My eyes rounded, and it was my turn to take a sip that turned into a glug. ‘That’s why you won’t tell him? You don’t really believe the future is written in stone though, do you?’
‘I’ve yet to see evidence otherwise. But it’s not Greg I want to talk about. It’s you.’ She looked me full in the eyes. ‘I know you’re half sióga, Ash. I told you my family are more powerful than your average vampire. Well, I’ve spent a bit more time honing those powers than my mother or Jared have. So I knew it the moment I smelled you. But even before I ever met you, I saw you in my crystal ball.’
Well, this was a bit of a revelation wasn’t it? It was a bit of a disturbing one, too, if I’m honest. Pru had known things about me before I even knew them myself. She’d taken the wind out of my sails somewhat, seeing as this was the place where I intended to tell her about me, and about the quest to find Brian the Brave.
‘I learned a long time ago that I need to choose my moments if I’m ever going to tell a person what I’ve seen in their future,’ she continued. ‘And this is the moment for us. In my visions, I saw you with Greg. I saw you and him sitting in his flat, and the Queen standing in front of you – the queen of the faeries, I mean. She was standing right across from you, smiling at you like she knew you. Like … like she loved you. She had this long titian hair and … well, she looked a bit like Wendy to be honest. Anyway, I focused in on you and Greg, and I saw you looking at a computer screen. The same woman was on there, pretending to be some character in a game. And on the screen she was giving you instructions, but she spoke the words at the same time as her character wrote them. She was telling you that you needed to find your father.’
I blinked. ‘To find my father? No. I mean, the computer game happened, but she didn’t tell me I have to find my father. She told me I have to find some guy called Brian the Brave. She told me I could get as much help as I wanted for the quest. I was going to tell you about it tonight.’
Pru put her now-empty glass aside and grasped both of my hands again. ‘What she was telling you on the screen and what she was telling you herself are one and the same. Don’t you get it?’
I got it. I really did get it but … Brian the Brave? Why didn’t she just come out and say it, then? Out loud, to me. Tell me it was my dad she wanted me to find.
‘Are you sure she’s been watching me, Pru?’
‘It was real. She watches you. I know it. I sense it. I’ve even scented her blood in the Vander Inn. The sióga power is like nothing in this world, Aisling. I doubt even Greg has the technology that could prove she’s been watching you. But she has. And if I thought for a second that her motives were harmful, I would have told you a lot sooner. But I felt sure that she wants nothing but the best for you. I felt sure that I needed to wait until you were ready to tell you this.’
‘And you think I’m ready now?’
‘I do.’ Pru nodded firmly. ‘You’ve found out what you are. You’re taking control of your power. You’re most definitely ready for what happens next.’
I almost didn’t want to ask. ‘So … what does happen next?’
‘Next,’ said Pru, ‘you find your father. Who just happens to be the Queen’s youngest and favourite son, Brian the Brave. No, don’t shake your head and look at me like that Ash.’
I stopped shaking my head, but I doubt I managed to wipe the nervous expression from my face.
‘Can you see him, then? Do you know where he is? Do you know what happened all those years ago? How Arnold managed to split him and my mother up?’
‘No,’ Pru said sadly. ‘I don’t know exactly where he is. And I can’t see him. No matter what medium I use, he’s hidden to me. But I sense him, Aisling. I sense him, and I see something when I look. There’s a cloud over the images, but one thing is clear – he’s close, Ash. I believe he’s being hidden by someone. And I believe he’s in Riddler’s Cove.’
I lay down on my back and stared up at the dark sky, feeling a leap in my chest. I was a twenty-nine-ish woman for criminy’s sake. I didn’t have the right to be feeling so … so …
And yet I did. I felt so everything. So full of hope. So full of longing. I was going to take this challenge of the Queen’s. I was going to find my father. And I was–
‘There’s more,’ said Pru, interrupting my train of thought.
My body shot upwards. ‘More good or more bad?’
‘More strange. I don’t just sense your father close by, Ash. I sense your mother, too. Aisling, I think Arnold Albright lied to you. I don’t think your mother is dead. Because I sense her. I sense her even closer to you than your father is. And she’s very much alive.’
While I was busy gasping for air, Pru pressed my body back down on the grass, and lay next to me, pointing up to the air above us. There was a tiny sprite, barely the size of my thumb, spinning in the air and letting out the sweetest of laughs.
‘All of it can wait until tomorrow, though,’ said Pru, turning her head to me and smiling. ‘When you’ve got me and the rest of your friends to help you make a plan. For now, let’s just lie here, and soak this beautiful garden in.’
≈
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Lucky Witches Page 16
