Adi gaped at her. "And then what? If you’re too weak to maintain the borders, what is going to happen?"
The queen shook her head. "I have absolutely no idea. This has never happened before. But I believe if the borders break down, it will be the end of all our worlds. The spirit and the human worlds will mingle. But it’s not just those two worlds. There is also the world of the dead, and Faerie itself. Humans will wander into this realm. You yourself have experienced how dangerous this is. I’m a lot more concerned about the world of the dead, though. The spirits are vengeful. There is a reason why they’re locked away in their own realm. It is not a good idea for them to rise and return from whence they came."
She closed her eyes and fought for the strength to continue. The droop of her head, her shoulders, her entire body, evidenced her fatigue. Long moments later she continued, her voice breathy and faint.
"I need to rely on you now. I have no power in the human world. You need to find out who or what Nina is. This is my new task for you, Adi. Stop Nina."
Adi stared back. Her head was swimming with the burden the queen had just placed on her.
"And what if I can’t?"
The ruler laughed. First it was a chuckle, then the sound grew into a desperate howl of mirth. As Adi watched with wide eyes, she grew taller and the temperature in the small room dropped. Within seconds, shivers were running up and down Adi’s arms. She had to blink to stop her eyeballs from hurting. She hugged herself, rubbing her hands vigorously up and down her arms. The smell of ozone invaded her nostrils, burning like ice.
“My queen, enough. There is no need for this.” Diarmuid shook his head slightly.
To Adi’s surprise, the queen took a deep breath, then seemed to sag into herself. The bone-chilling cold dissipated, and Adi’s breath was no longer visible. The queen had gone from a horrifying ice wraith back to as normal as a faerie creature could look.
"Shit," Adi murmured under her breath. She had nearly forgotten how scary the faerie ruler could be. Shaking her head, she looked out of the window. Nina’s spirit animals were playing tag, weaving in and out of the hyenas’ legs. As she watched, one of the mangy animals set off in a loping run. Adi’s gaze followed the animal, puzzled as to why it was running away.
A few hundred yards in the distance, a faerie in a light-green tunic cut roses off a giant bush, placing the blooms into a basket on her arm. Adi watched helplessly as the gruesome animal drew closer and closer to the woman who was unaware of the danger she was in.
Adi stretched out of the window, shouting a warning. At the last moment, the woman looked up and saw the large dog-like creature only a few yards away. She screamed, whirled around, and darted for a small door, set in the wall. Adi covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide and terrified for the faerie.
Just as Adi was about to turn away and cover her ears with both hands so she wouldn’t have to listen to the death screams, the woman managed to slip through the door with inches to spare. She slammed the door into the face of the leaping predator with a resounding crack. The hyena snarled and barked its strange laugh, before turning around, and trotting back to join its comrade. Adi turned round.
"Did you see that?" she asked, her voice betraying her disbelief.
The queen nodded grimly. "This is what I was trying to tell you. Even just a few human days ago, this would not have been possible. My powers have been drained, and I cannot keep my own castle safe. You must help us."
Confronted with the reality of the threat, Adi nodded rapidly. The queen and Diarmuid both sighed with relief. The air shimmered. Between the blink of an eye to another, she was in her bed, next to a softly snoring Honi.
He slept stretched out on his stomach, his face relaxed. He seemed so innocent, so free of stress, that it took her breath away. Her gaze wandered to the open window. High above the mesa, a beautiful bird of prey circled, starkly outlined against the brilliant square of blue sky .
Adi closed her eyes and imagined for a moment how she would fly with him, allowing the thermal currents to carry her higher and higher, far away from everything. Away from earthly problems like a boyfriend’s family that hated her. Away from supernatural problems that nobody but her could deal with.
But were these issues really separate? Her eyes flew open. If she took care of Nina, all the other problems might resolve themselves as well.
28
Through his closed eyelids, the sun assaulted Honi’s vision. His hand flew up to cover his eyes. He wasn’t in his bedroom anymore. It wasn’t the the first time he’d woken in the spirit world. It was in the job description, after all.
Honi blinked against the blinding rays. His eyes didn’t adjust fast enough to feed him more information. When his reality tilted sideways, Honi yelped and grabbed the bedlinen with both hands in a desperate attempt to hold on. For a split-second, he flinched away from the oddness of the contact before clutching the bedding again.
Where his skin touched the fabric, the feeling of wrongness intensified the longer he held on. Both cool linen and rough grass occupied the same space. His stomach revolted, and nausea threatened to overtake him. He squeezed his eyes shut against the disorienting sensation and groaned as he tried to separate the two sensory inputs.
It was no use—there was nothing to separate. His hands were touching both smooth fabric and rough ground at the same time. Even with his eyes closed, the room was still spinning. Any second now he would have to throw up. Just when he felt he could no longer control himself, a cool hand touched his forehead.
"Shhh, Honi. I’ve got you."
The vertigo receded, and the sensation of dirt and ticklish grass stems under his hands came into sharp focus. His eyes flew open. Nina lay next to him, her face too close for comfort.
He pushed himself into a sitting position, and she immediately withdrew to a safe distance. His dizziness had disappeared completely. What was she doing here? He still had trouble believing she was a spirit walker. But if Adi was right, something very sinister was going on. If she wasn’t, Nina would remember their conversation as a dream when she woke up. Might as well be direct.
"Are you a spirit walker?"
Nina shook her head. She looked frightened and a shadow of her usual brash self.
"I— I don’t know how I got here. I just remember going to sleep, and now I’m here. Am I dreaming?"
She sounded like a little girl, her voice small and scared. Honi stared at her. He hadn’t seen Nina in years, but he knew her well enough to know when she lied. Right now, she didn’t. Adi was obviously convinced Nina was behind all the weird things she’d seen.
But Honi should also have seen the sick spirit animals, and he hadn’t. In fact, he hadn’t seen anything out of the ordinary until Con had been attacked. He had no reason to disbelieve Adi, but he’d known Nina all his life. She’d been his best friend until he left Heota.
Honi looked around and frowned. Something wasn’t right. He stood up and tried to look into the distance. Everything was clear around him within maybe ten yards, but then things got hazy. He’d worn his mom’s glasses once, and it was much the same sensation. The outlines of trees in the distance were fuzzy, turning into black blobs further back.
He shook his head and rubbed his eyes in an effort to see more clearly. When he opened them again, it had made no difference. In fact, the fuzziness seemed to worsen. Once again his head began to swim, and he stumbled. Nina grabbed his arm and propped him up until he found his balance. He nodded at her gratefully. That seemed to be all the encouragement she needed.
"Come on, let’s see where we are. You feel okay to walk?"
He didn’t really, but he didn’t want to show any weakness in front of Nina, either. So he straightened his spine and allowed the tall girl to pull him along with her. He certainly wasn’t in complete control of his body, and he kept stumbling over rocks he didn’t see until it was too late.
Soon, the queen’s castle was looming above them. The laws of physics felt suspe
nded in this realm. An experienced spirit walker could manipulate distance, speed, and even weight. He couldn’t focus long enough for his abilities to kick in, though.
Another wave of sickness coursed through him, and rather than lose last night’s dinner, he closed his eyes and allowed Nina to pull him along with her. He wasn’t at all sure he’d be able to cover the distance that separated him from the large building. Nina tugged his elbow, and he opened his eyes and gasped.
They were standing right outside the large gate that led into the queen’s garden. Somehow they’d moved several hundred yards during the time he was fighting back his nausea.
"How did we get here?" He hated how tentative his voice sounded.
"I don’t know. One minute we were walking all the way down the hill," she said, pointing from where they had come from, "and then we were here. Just like that."
"Just like that," Honi echoed quietly.
As they walked through the entrance into the castle grounds, images rushed at Honi. He stopped and looked at the beautiful garden he had spent many days in. He didn’t remember everything, but he cringed as flashbacks of beatings, of hard hands holding him down, assailed his memory.
Beyond the manicured hedges stretched a large field the faeries used for play and practice. Honi had been turned into a wolf and Adi forced to pick him out of a line of identical animals. In the process, Honi had been mortally wounded. He’d been seconds away from dying, and the pain and encroaching darkness still woke him in the middle of the night at times.
He’d lie on his back, burning, searing phantom pain deep inside his lungs, and he could have sworn he could taste his own blood drowning him and filling his mouth. Somehow, Adi had managed to save him. He still didn’t know how. It must have been painful for her to remember the terrible hours she’d spent alone, battling the queen. He’d never pushed her for answers. Adi had eventually filled him in on all the things that he’d missed when he was held captive as an animal.
But as he looked around the splendor of the faerie world, the enormity and solidity of the castle walls, he wondered again just how they’d gotten away. And with a sudden drop in his stomach, he realized he really, really did not want to go back and put himself into the faerie queen’s power.
Nina apparently had no such qualms. She was already several yards ahead of him. She turned around and called out, "Come on. There is a reason why we’re here. Aren’t you curious to find out what it is?"
Honi was torn between shaking his head and nodding because, no, he didn’t want to go inside, and yes, he was curious what had drawn them to the castle. There didn’t seem to be anybody else in the garden, only birds and plants as far as the eye reached.
He stepped forward and followed his ex-girlfriend. He had just caught up with her when she stopped and stood stock still. She put her finger on to her lips, so Honi held back the question about to come out of his mouth.
"Can you hear that? Is that Adi talking?"
Honi listened intently. Yes, it did sound like Adi’s voice. There was a window above them, and bits of conversation drifted down clearly. His breath hitched as he realized who Adi was talking to.
His entire body clenched up as he recognized the faerie queen’s voice. What was Adi doing here? Why was she talking to the queen? And not just talking—they were having a friendly conversation. Icy dread shot through him. They hadn’t exactly left on friendly terms with the creature.
Holding his breath to not miss a word, Honi closed his eyes, straining to hear. There was talk about the queen growing weaker. By the sounds of it, she was asking Adi for help. How could that be? Adi wouldn’t go out of her way again to help the ruler, would she? Not after what they’d both endured, surely?
The conversation stopped. Honi hadn’t realized how tense he was, until Nina touched his sleeve. He jumped so violently, he nearly pushed her over. Honi whirled and caught Nina by her arms before she hit the ground. Nina didn’t seem all that shocked. Maybe she didn’t understand the significance of what they’d just overheard.
"So, was that Adi?"
Honi nodded.
"Who was she talking to?"
He stepped back, trying to think up an explanation. He still wasn’t sure what Nina knew. He had no idea how far he could trust her. So he hedged.
"That was the ruler of the castle. She isn’t a friend of ours."
As he said those words, the hurt cut deeper until he blurted out, "I don’t know why Adi’s talking to her. She’s evil. Adi shouldn’t have anything to do with her."
Nina regarded him calmly, despite his outburst. In fact, she took this nightmare trip to the faerie realm remarkably well. Maybe too well.
Without warning, the world spun, and Honi leaned sideways, desperately trying to keep his balance. He would have fallen, had Nina not grabbed him once again and propped him up. The light seemed to have dimmed in the last few seconds, but he could still hear Nina’s voice clearly.
"I think there are people coming. Can you walk? We should probably hide behind the hedges over there."
Honi nodded, keeping his eyes closed, and allowing Nina to lead him the few yards to a high privet. When they got to the other side, he dropped down heavily. The world stopped spinning, and he opened his eyes. The hedge wasn’t so dense he couldn’t look through it, and as they watched, the door opened and Adi walked out. She had her thinking face on, but didn’t look upset or angry.
Right behind her walked the tall, blond faerie warrior Honi had met before. Last time, the guy had been loyal to a fault to the queen. Had he been given the order to kill both of them at the time, Honi had no doubt he would have obeyed it. The warrior might have felt sorry for them, but he would never have disobeyed his queen. As he watched, the faerie laid his hand on Adi’s shoulder and smiled at her. Adi smiled back shyly.
Honi squinted as if that might give him an insight into Adi’s head. His girlfriend and the faerie laughed, and Honi was more than baffled. He couldn’t understand what was going on. He frowned as his thoughts whirled. Did Adi have a thing for the guy? Or maybe this was the queen messing with her mind again? Except that Adi was largely immune to the queen’s powers.
Honi closed his eyes and allowed his head to drop to his chest. There seemed to be only one conclusion: Adi had lied to him. She was still in touch with the faerie realm, and by the looks of things, she was very friendly with both the queen and their former jailer. If Adi had lied to him about something that important… they’d talked about everything—well, before they’d arrived at Heota… It made him doubt every word she’d ever said to him.
The door opened again, and the tall white creature Honi knew as the faerie queen, stepped outside. Nina’s eyes opened wide and she whispered urgently, "That’s the Spider Woman I told Adi about. Adi never said she knew her."
She turned frightened eyes to Honi. "Why wouldn’t she have told me? I told her how scary she is. She threatened to kill me!”
Before Honi knew what was happening, Nina had thrown herself into his arms. She clung to him for dear life, and he couldn’t make himself push her away. Not when she was so upset. Holding her tight, he burrowed his nose in her black hair, remembering how much she’d meant to him at one time.
Nina lifted her head. "I have no idea what’s going on. But I feel like we should stick together. Wouldn’t you agree? We’ve known each other for so long. I know I can trust you."
Honi remembered their school years together, and how much it had meant to them both to be members of the same tribe, the same traditions. There was a bond between them that had grown over decades. He loved Adi, he knew that. Yet right now, he trusted Nina more than he did Adi.
His head had never stopped spinning, and as he clung to Nina, his vertigo grew worse. He squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to see the ground and the sky swap places, even though his body told him it was happening.When the movement finally stopped, he carefully opened his eyes.
He was back in his bed, his arms still wrapped around a sleeping Nina.
As if he needed more proof that he’d just had the weirdest dream-walking experience. He’d been a spirit walker long enough to know the difference between sleep and a spirit journey. Everything he’d just experienced had been real. Adi’d had a friendly conversation with their nemesis, the faerie queen. She’d been way too pally with the queen’s minion. Honi suppressed a growl. He hated that guy with the power of a thousand suns. He’d touched his Adi. And she seemed to have liked it. Goddammit.
29
Eventually, Adi had to get up. Napping in the afternoon was one of her favorite things to do, but it would make it that much harder to fall asleep later. Besides, she was determined to seek out Nina and sort this out once and for all.
The faerie queen had given clear instructions. She was to eliminate Nina before the girl could cause major damage to the worlds. She hadn’t bothered to argue with the queen over her methods. The ruler had seen so many generations of humans live and die over millennia, she’d lost all awareness of the value of human life. Her instructions always seemed to end in, "Sort it out, and if you can’t, eliminate the threat." Adi was under no illusions what that meant.
It had been easy with Gerald in Heidelberg. The student had been utterly clueless, but once Adi had convinced him of his destiny, he was happy and eager to play along. Last Adi had seen him, he’d been lying on the floor with the little chipmunks, that were his and his boyfriend’s spirit animals, running happily all over him.
Nina was different. She possessed a center of darkness that frightened Adi. Her motivation to spirit-walk had nothing to do with finding this incredible place that nobody else could get to. No, she was thinking a lot bigger. She was plotting how she could exploit her access to those different worlds. How to use spirit animals to increase her power.
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