“Fae can’t be trusted.” Lavinia chuckled. “They’re tricksters—all of them. Including you half-bloods.”
“Many are,” I agreed. “But I can think of one or two who I’d trust with my life. Ones I technically already have trusted with my life.”
I looked to Julian, and he gave me that knowing smile of his—the one that meant we were on the same page.
From there, we filled in the others, and figured out a plan.
23
SELENA
“ARE you sure I can lightning-travel all seven of us at once?” I asked Lavinia.
“I’m sure,” she said. “Fallon did a lot of testing.”
“With zombies. Not with real people.”
“And she said that bringing a zombie along was the same as bringing me along. As long as there’s skin-to-skin contact, you can bring as many people as you want.”
“It seems risky…” I looked over at the others, worry swirling in the pit of my stomach.
“Even if the pegasi reached our campsite in the mountains and healed, they can only hold two people each,” Julian said. “One of us would have to be left behind.”
“But we can’t just leave the pegasi there,” Sage said.
“There was fresh water at the campsite, and they can go for a long time without food,” I said. It was one of the many tidbits Bridget had shared with me during our long days in Vesta’s Villa. “Pegasi are good at surviving. Once they heal, they should be able to easily return to the city on their own, especially since they won’t have the storm pushing against their wings.”
“They’ll be fine,” Julian said confidently. “But like I was saying, we can’t ride them back to the city. And it’s too risky to travel on foot. Not only because of the hordes of zombies we’d encounter, but because we barely have any food remaining. We can’t count on there still being animals out there to hunt. Lightning-travel is our best bet.”
“But I’ve only ever used it on myself. Maybe I should test it out with someone else first.” Remembering how painful the lightning-travel had been, I turned to Lavinia. “Since you’re so certain this will work, do you want to volunteer?”
“No,” she said, and I frowned, since I was looking forward to putting her through lightning-travel twice in such a short period of time. “But I’m sure one of your heroic friends will gladly step up.”
“Me,” Torrence said, just as Julian started to say that he’d do it. “As much as he tries to hide it, Julian’s weakened from the plague. So you’re taking me with you.”
I walked toward her and held out my hand.
She took it and smiled—the mischievous, excited smile that I’d missed since we’d reunited in the Otherworld. She nodded, and I called down a thick bolt of lightning from the dark clouds overhead.
It surrounded us, one long, painful second passed, and then it dropped us off on top of the closest hill, about a hundred yards away.
“Damn.” Torrence stretched out and gazed down at the zombies lumbering around the bottom of the hill. “That hurt.”
“Told you it would,” I said. “You ready to go back?”
“Might as well get it over with.”
Another bolt of lightning, and we were back inside the super dome with the others.
“The ability to pass through barrier domes makes lightning-travel far superior to teleporting,” Thomas observed.
“It does. But I can only travel as far as the storm reaches,” I reminded him. “It would look pretty suspicious if once we’re back on Earth, a storm spans from—for example—the Vale to Utopia.”
Sage cracked a smile. “A storm that spanned from the Canadian Rockies to New Zealand would definitely look suspicious,” she agreed. “But you could always just teleport to wherever you wanted, and then lightning-travel through the domes protecting the vampire kingdoms from there.”
“Which means once we’re on Earth, Selena will hide this ability from everyone who doesn’t need to know,” Julian said. “From what I’ve heard of your vampire kings and queens, they won’t take kindly to someone who can easily break into their kingdoms.”
I nodded in agreement. Because while Avalon currently had an alliance with all the kingdoms so we could fight together against the demons, there was no saying what would happen once the war was over. The more volatile kingdoms—like the Tower, the Ward, and the Carpathians—were too unpredictable to mess with.
“Don’t worry.” Lavinia smirked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I won’t say a word.”
“Do you want to give us another reason to send our army after you once we’re back home?” I asked her, and her smirk vanished. “That’s what I thought. If you have as much self-preservation as you claim, you’ll keep this to yourself.”
“Noted,” she said, and I had a feeling she might actually keep my secret.
At least, until it benefited her to share it.
“Let’s not delay this any longer,” Reed said, and he fidgeted, like he might actually be nervous.
Torrence smirked, amused by his discomfort. “It hurts as much as they said it would,” she said.
He glared at her. Then he walked toward me and put his hand on my arm.
The others followed suit, and I raised the wand to create my biggest storm yet. The crystals answered my call, and I felt the clouds as they spread over the Western Mountain Range, crossed the Central Plainlands, traveled over the Eastern Mountain Range, and settled above the citadel.
“You all ready?” I asked, and they all said a variation of yes.
I pictured our destination in my mind, called down a giant bolt from the sky, and then, we transformed into electricity and zoomed through the clouds.
24
SELENA
WE LANDED in an alley on the outskirts of the fae section of the city.
Reed and Sage cursed right after our bodies reformed. Torrence whooped with glee, and Thomas and Lavinia looked shaken. Julian’s hard expression revealed nothing.
If Julian was able to hide his pain after that, I didn’t want to know how agonizing his infected wound must be.
Apparently, withstanding pain was one of the many abilities of being a chosen champion of Mars.
Once we got ourselves together, I lightning-traveled to a bunch of other random places inside the dome, leaving before my body fully re-formed so no one could see me. The goal was to create a bunch of lightning strikes that went through the dome. They had no idea that the lightning was my unique way of teleporting, so hopefully they’d think the lightning was connected to the Blue Storm overhead, and they wouldn’t come investigating.
I ended a few alleys away from where we’d first landed, and released my hold on the storm. The clouds rolled away, and the first rays of sunlight peeked through. Hopefully people would assume that those final bolts of lightning were a result of the storm ending.
Next, I glamoured myself invisible and hurried to find the others. It had been less than thirty seconds since we’d arrived, so they were still there, waiting.
I removed the glamour, and they smiled in relief when they saw me.
Julian and I glamoured our wings back to only being one color. His steel gray, and mine light blue.
With our wings back to their expected colors, we led the way out of the alley, turned the corner, and stopped in front of our destination.
Sage looked over the plain, marble, one-story house, less than impressed. “This is it?” she asked.
“This is it.”
“You’re right,” she said. “After everything you told us about them, it is more modest than I expected.”
I smiled, since given that the Montgomery pack lived in a compound of mansions in the Hollywood Hills, I wasn’t surprised that her definition of “modest” was different from most. Then again, I grew up in a castle, so who was I to talk.
But the longer we stood there, the more likely the rare person passing by might take notice of us. So I hurried up to the front door and knocked.
The d
oor opened slowly—cautiously. But the moment the man behind it saw me, he beamed.
“Selena!” Bryan bounced in excitement and looked over my shoulder at the others. “Come in, all of you, and quickly so you’re not seen. I can tell from the looks in your eyes that you’ve got a story to share—and I can’t wait to hear all about it.”
Finn joined us in the kitchen, where he and Bryan set out sandwiches and fruit for us to enjoy while we filled them in on everything that had happened since Julian and I had last seen them. Finn was quiet as he listened, unlike Bryan, who peppered us with question after question.
“You’ve come a long way from being that scared little girl about to enter the Games,” Finn said to me once we finished. “Now, I’d like to give you something.”
He stood up, spun around, and left the kitchen before I could ask what that “something” was.
“Any idea what he’s getting?” Torrence asked Bryan.
“Yes.” Bryan smiled and raised his eyebrows. “But I’m not saying a word. It should be a surprise.”
Finn returned quickly, holding a small, black velvet pouch. He sat down and handed it to Torrence. “I’m loaning this to you,” he said. “So you can bring back the cure.”
She opened it and pulled out a golden token with Finn’s likeness etched into the back. Her eyes lit up, but then they filled with suspicion. “What do you want in return?” she asked.
“I want you to bring back two test vials of the cure. One for Julian, and one for Kyla.”
Dread filled my stomach, and I couldn’t look at Finn.
Julian reached for my hand under the table and said, “We can’t bring a vial back for Kyla. At least, not yet.”
“She’s nearly succumbed to the plague,” Finn said. “She’s down there, locked up and suffering. She needs that cure.”
I looked back up at him and swallowed down the lump of guilt in my throat. “I’ll push back the poison and keep her alive until she gets the cure,” I said. “I promise.”
“Why wait?” Finn clenched his fist, the muscles in his arms growing more defined, and I feared he was about to snatch the token out of Torrence’s hand.
“Because Sorcha will do anything in exchange for getting Kyla that cure,” I said. “And I want exactly what I’ve wanted since I was brought here. I want to return to Avalon.”
“You’re going to use Kyla as leverage.”
“As much as I hate it—yes. But you know me.” I looked over at Bryan, and then back to Finn. “I won’t let her die. Too many people have already died here because of me. I refuse to add her to that list. All I can do now is ask for you to trust me.”
“I trust you,” Bryan said, and then he looked to Finn, his eyes begging for his soulmate to agree.
Finn stared down at the table, not looking at any of us as he thought it over.
I barely moved as I waited for his decision. Neither did the others.
Finally, he refocused on me. “I’m a strategist,” he said. “And I can’t deny that your strategy is a good one. I also know that you have a good heart, and I trust you’ll try your hardest to save Kyla.”
“I will,” I said. “I promise.”
“Good. So I’ll loan Torrence the token in exchange for her bringing back one vial of the cure, to test on Julian.” He gave me a single nod, stood up, and looked to Torrence. “The token will bring you to the Fonte Gaia in Sienna, Italy. The fountain to get there is in our courtyard. Follow me, and we’ll send you off.”
25
SELENA
AS PROMISED, I pushed back the plague for Kyla. But I didn’t tell her about the cure. I didn’t want to get her hopes up until we were sure it worked.
Bryan stayed in the basement with her afterward and told her the story of how we’d killed Fallon.
I went up to the courtyard to wait with the others for Torrence to return.
Finn brought a wide variety of ancient Roman board games to the courtyard and taught us how to play, but I couldn’t focus. Not that I would have been able to beat Julian or Thomas, anyway. They were both really serious about winning.
With every hour that passed, I worried that Torrence had run into trouble. I couldn’t even bring myself to eat when Bryan brought out a huge roast for dinner.
“She has a lot to explain to your mother, and it takes time to brew potions,” Sage assured me at nightfall.
“This one shouldn’t take any longer than an hour,” I said.
“But you’re forgetting about the time dilation. A day on Earth is equal to a week here. I’m no math genius, but that means an hour on Earth is…”
“About seven hours here,” Thomas finished. “There’s no getting around it—we’ll be waiting for a while.”
Still, we were all worried—including Lavinia. Although her pacing was probably due to annoyance, too, since Reed had used his dark magic to lock her inside a small boundary dome. The dome didn’t hurt her, so it technically didn’t go against the blood oath.
Eventually, Bryan brought out sleeping rolls so we could get some rest.
I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep. But it had been a long day, and eventually, exhaustion kicked in and sleep took over.
I woke to a light nudge on my shoulder.
“Selena,” Julian said softly, and I opened my eyes to the sight of his face framed by the beautiful pinks and yellows of sunrise. “She’s back.”
I pushed myself up and smiled at the sight of Torrence standing next to the fountain. She had a large, full, brown sack strapped to her back, and my heart leaped in excitement.
It fell a second later. Because Torrence’s green eyes lacked the sparkle they always had when she’d succeeded in something. And her face looked drawn and aged, like years had passed in the time she’d been gone—even though because of the time dilation, it should have only been about an hour for her.
“What happened?” I held my breath, preparing for the worst.
She dropped the sack to the ground, and the items inside clanked loudly against each other. Then she smiled, and said, “I have the cure.”
“I was worried there for a second.” I relaxed, able to breathe again. “You look…” Exhausted? Defeated? “Stressed.”
“I’m fine.” She pulled a vial of white, milky potion from her weapons belt, and looked to Finn and Bryan. “Which one of you wants to do the honors?”
Bryan stepped forward and squared his shoulders. “Finn loaned you his token,” he said. “I’d like to give my blood.”
I smiled to express my gratitude.
But despite Bryan being a friend, he was also a fae. I needed to be aware of that, always.
“In exchange for what?” I asked.
“In exchange for promising that if the cure works, you’ll do everything in your power to get a vial to Kyla as soon as you can.”
I quickly analyzed his precise words. He could have given me an exact deadline of when I needed to get Kyla the cure, and he could have made sure that I’d definitely get it to her instead of doing “everything in my power.” There was a lot of wiggle room with his phrasing.
“I’d already planned on it,” I said. “So yes, I accept the offer.”
Torrence pulled out her dagger and held it out to Bryan. “I only need a drop,” she said. “A prick on the pad of your finger should do it.”
Bryan shuddered and stepped back. “That blade has iron.”
“Here,” Julian said, and he pulled a gold dagger out of the ether. “No iron.”
Bryan took the dagger, and Torrence uncapped the vial. With a swift jab, he pricked the tip of his middle finger. A drop of blood bubbled on top of his skin, he held his finger over the vial, and squeezed it so his blood dripped inside. It diluted in the milky potion and turned pink.
“That’s enough.” Torrence popped the cap back on the vial and slowly turned it upside down. The blood spread evenly throughout the potion, until the opaque white liquid was only slightly tinted pink. Then she turned it right-side up, walked to J
ulian, and held it out to him. “It’s ready. In twenty-four hours, you should be cured.”
“Not should be,” Lavinia said. “He will be cured. Assuming you brewed the potion correctly.”
“Of course I brewed it correctly,” Torrence snapped, and she turned back to Julian. “It’ll work. It might make you a bit woozy, but I know it’ll work.”
He took the vial, and my heart beat so hard that it felt like it was trying to punch its way out of my chest. Then, without hesitation, he uncapped the vial, brought it to his lips, and downed the potion.
He made sure to get every last drop, and then I took the vial from him.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
He blinked a few times, and his eyes glazed over, like he was trying to focus but couldn’t. “Tired,” he said, although the word was slurred. He swayed slightly, and I reached out to steady him.
He sounded—and looked—drunk. No, that was an understatement. He looked wasted. Even more so than when he’d had to drink all of that wine for the discus competition in the Faerie Games.
“Milk of the poppy will do that,” Lavinia said casually.
I moved closer to Julian and propped him up to keep him from falling over. “Milk of the poppy makes people woozy,” I said. “It doesn’t do this.”
“It’s a strong potion.” She shrugged. “His body will be working hard to reverse the effects of the poison, so he’ll be out until he’s recovered.”
“You could have warned us before he drank it.”
“I could have. But there’s no harm done, and it’s more entertaining this way.”
I glared at her and helped Julian down onto the nearest sleeping roll.
He fell down onto it and conked out in a second.
I placed a pillow under his head, made sure he was comfortable, and then brushed a finger over his cheek, studying him. His face was pale, but he didn’t appear to be in pain. In fact, he looked more at peace than ever.
But sitting there staring at him wasn’t doing any good. So I moved to his feet to take off his boots and socks.
The Faerie Plague (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 5) Page 12