by Kristie Cook
“Of course, they do.” The girl named Sky dug into her bag and pulled out a gorgeous dreamcatcher with stones that looked like green jade and prehnite woven into the purple string, blue and green ribbons and feathers trailing from the ring. “I need to set the intention, though, so you’ll have to give me more details.”
Mage—she must have been some kind of mage.
The vendor looked over at us, her brows raised high. “Can I help you?”
“No, we’re good, thanks,” Charleigh replied, ushering my sister and me out. The woman obviously wanted privacy.
We’d just stepped back into the road when a commotion broke out a dozen yards or so to our right.
“What the hell, Breandán!” a man called as another came running in our direction, his long silvery blond hair flowing behind him, exposing the pointy tips of his ears.
“Oh, no,” gasped a voice behind us. I glanced over my shoulder to see Sky stare at the fae running toward us, people shouting and cursing at him as he pushed his way through the crowd. Panic filled Sky’s face before she spun and took off in a sprint in the other direction, darting through the crowd until she disappeared.
When I turned back toward the fae, he’d stopped running a few stalls down, his hands on his hips as he glared this way. Not after Sky, but directly on Brielle. And then on me.
“You,” he mouthed, a terrifying grin filling his inhumanly beautiful face. And murder filling his eyes.
“Fuck,” Charleigh gasped. “Run!”
She shoved us forward, and we sprinted after Sky, following her path. We never caught up to her before Charleigh grabbed Brielle’s wrist and tugged her to the right. I followed them into an alley between real, brick-and-mortar buildings. She pushed us into an alcove and immediately whispered a spell between gasps.
“Okay, we’re cloaked,” she said, her voice low.
Though we knew we couldn’t be seen by anyone else, we remained statue still and silent until we watched the blond fae run past the alley. And then we waited another five minutes, just to be sure. Finally, I blew out a breath.
“Who the hell was that?” I snapped.
“I don’t know, but I’d say we’re still wanted,” Brielle said. “The fae were one of the factions who wanted to kill us before we left.”
“Are you sure? Some just wanted to enslave us for our powers,” I reminded her. “I don’t think we were ever told who wants what from us, though. It’s all so confusing.”
She leveled me with a glare. “It’s not a joke, Elli. Either way, we have a problem. So what now? And don’t say fight.”
We didn’t have a chance to answer. We pressed up against the brick wall as a tall, broad man with greasy black hair and pocked skin sauntered down the alley, passing within inches of us.
“I know you’re here, little girls,” he called out, his gaze sweeping around.
Pure hatred filled me when he looked our way with eyes that were completely black. A demon in a human suit. I still hated demons with a passion, that fateful night fueling it even more. Not even the nice ones at school had been able to change that.
“No, Elli,” Charleigh warned quietly, even if it couldn’t hear us through her spell. She knew me too well. And she could probably feel the need to kill it pouring off of me. My beast inside me lifted her head with intrigue. A part of me wanted to call on her. Waking her might be worth the chance to rid the world of another demon.
“I can easily take it out,” I said through clenched teeth, already drawing on my magic, my fingers inching inside my cloak and under the tank to the secret pocket. A spelled throwing star should do the deed. “Send it back to Hell where it belongs.”
“With what just happened, we don’t need to cause a scene,” she said. “Besides, it’s in a human suit. That could be a major demon in there.”
The demon spun, its gaze aimed right at us as we pressed ourselves against the rough brick. If it could see us through Charleigh’s cloak, it was no lesser demon. I didn’t care, though. I’d been wrong—the market had been a distraction, but the emotions of that night still swirled, now moving closer to the surface. My hands clenched into fists, aching to unleash my magic. I couldn’t defeat Shamara then, but I was much more powerful now.
Just as it lifted a hand toward my face, a boulder dropped from the sky right behind it. All three of us gasped.
No, not a boulder. A gargoyle.
“Uncle Aidan?” Brielle whispered, though he couldn’t hear her.
The stone figure rose to its full height, towering over the demon in the human suit. Its wings spread outward, tripling its size, as its carved lips bared jagged teeth.
“Mine,” the gargoyle grumbled, the sound of rocks falling over each other.
The demon shot down the alley, the gargoyle lifting into the air to follow. They disappeared around a corner, and we exhaled a collective breath when a loud roar echoed off the brick walls. A few moments later, a tiger rounded the same corner and stared in our direction with large yellow eyes, its orange and white fur striped in black raised along its back.
Relief swept over us. I could tangibly feel my sister and cousin’s energy change just as much as my own. The tiger’s ears twitched, and the tail flicked, then it turned and waited. Without a word, we followed the feline down the alley and turned onto a path where we had to be careful to avoid the people giving the beast a wide berth—a testament to how much had changed in the Edge that a tiger walking down the road was barely noticed. We made another turn and then entered one of the train car residences. As soon as we did, the tiger huffed then shifted, a tall, thin brunette replacing it.
She quickly lit a candle before drawing the car’s door closed, then turned and dropped her hands to her naked hips. “What the hell are you girls doing here?”
Chapter 4
Our aunt Sheree stared us at expectantly, her long fingers tapping on her bony hips.
“We’re looking for you,” Brielle answered her. “Well, for our parents, but you’re the next best thing.”
“What are you even doing in this world, though?” Sheree demanded as she slipped behind a room divider. The narrow train car provided barely enough space for a sink and a couple of cabinets in one corner to the left and cushions piled on some kind of makeshift frame to form a wide chair in the other corner. I could see the edges of a bed beyond the divider at the far end to our right, where Sheree had gone. “Did something happen? Were you in danger where you were?”
“We weren’t sure,” I answered, not quite a lie. Sheree wasn’t our aunt by blood but by choice. Like Blossom, she was one of Mom’s best friends and on her inner council. Unlike Aunt Vanessa—who could be terrifying sometimes—or Aunt Blossom—whom we couldn’t spill too much to, being Charleigh’s mom and all—Aunt Sheree was the one we could go to and know we wouldn’t get in trouble or be judged or anything. She’d listen, and she’d help. I’d normally have no problem telling her why we’d come, even if it did sound a little overreactive, but as soon as I started talking, I wondered if I was making a big mistake. “I saw something. During one of my classes. I was practicing the use of my intuition and seeing beyond what’s right in front of me. And what I saw … I didn’t know then if it was a vision of what was already happening or a premonition of something to come or what, but it scared the shit out of me.”
“What did you see?” she asked as she pulled back the room divider to join the sleeping area with the main room of the tiny compartment. Now wearing faded jeans and a black T-shirt, she dropped to her knees and dug for something under the bed. Her dark brown hair was cut much shorter than the last time we’d seen her, barely touching her shoulders.
I hesitated. Though I knew I could trust her, I also knew how ridiculous it sounded when I said it out loud. “Horses—black, smoky horses at least two stories tall, and riding them were giant, black smoky figures with red glowing eyes,” I began. She pulled out a backpack and a duffel bag, turning on her knees to stare at me. Her mouth was already opening, but
I hurried on. “It’s not really what I saw, though. It’s how it felt.” I shuddered at the memory of the terror they’d evoked while I was in the mirrors. “Complete and utter darkness. Like they were pure, unadulterated evil personified, spreading over this world and pouring into that one, too.”
I purposely left out what else I’d felt—the bit of thrill in my belly at the magnificent sight of them. The desire to give myself over, thoroughly and completely, just for the chance to bathe in their energy. The longing to become a part of them … one of them.
“And you’re sure it wasn’t just a dream?” Sheree asked.
I eyed her dead-on. “Absolutely. I was wide awake, fighting for my life and everyone else’s at my school.”
Her dark hazel gaze flicked to my sister and cousin before landing back on me. If she could see and feel what I had, she’d understand, but there was no way to do the whole experience justice. Brielle and Charleigh kind of got it because they’d been there when I’d stumbled out of the hall of mirrors. They knew, as Sheree did, how hard it was to shake me up. She must have seen that in my face because she seemed to believe me.
Still sitting on her knees on the floor, she braced her hands on her thighs. “So you thought leaving the one place where you couldn’t possibly be any safer was the right action to take?”
“We didn’t know what to do,” Charleigh intervened. “If you saw Elliana like we had … We had to know what was going on here. I tried to call Mom with the charm she gave me, but it wasn’t working. Their faerie stones weren’t working either—Aunt Alexis never responded. Nobody did.”
Sheree frowned at this.
“And when our parents didn’t show up to visit like they’d promised, we got really worried,” Brielle added.
I cleared my throat and shifted on my feet, not wanting to admit the next part, but she had to understand that we weren’t overreacting. I looked at Brielle while silently warning her through our mind-link what I was about to disclose, and she gave a small nod. We couldn’t deny this any longer.
“Besides, if nothing else,” I said, “I knew for sure one thing: the darkness not only found Brie and me in that world, but it’s growing stronger. The leaders of that safe haven only allowed us to stay as long as we didn’t bring trouble to their town. I was afraid we could no longer ensure that. They would have made us come back soon anyway.”
Sheree’s frown deepened into a scowl. “Well, shit.”
We stood in silence as she pushed her hand through her hair and stared at the floor, seeming to be contemplating what to do with us. I wasn’t surprised that last bit would find its mark. Brielle and I hadn’t been the perfect princesses everyone had hoped for to save the Amadis and the world.
“We really just need to find our parents,” Brielle said, breaking the drawn-out silence. “Are they here?”
Sheree’s head snapped up, her eyes focusing as though she just remembered we were even there. Then she leaned back over her knees, pulling clothes, weapons, and other items out from under the bed.
“What happened to everyone at the Loft anyway?” Charleigh asked. “We went there first.”
Sitting back up, our aunt blew out a breath. “A lot has happened since you’ve been gone. Well, of course it has, as long as it’s been. I really wish we could have been there to see you graduate. Ah, I’ve heard so much about that world and how amazing it is. Makes me miss the old days so badly, but I’m happy for you three that you got to experience something like it.”
“Aunt Sheree,” Charleigh interrupted, “you’re rambling like my mom.”
“Oh, yeah, sorry.”
“What all has happened?” I persisted. Unlike Blossom, Sheree wasn’t exactly a rambler. And she wasn’t making a lot of sense, like about how long we’d been gone and missing our graduation. It hadn’t even been two years since we last saw her. Something was up with her. “And why are you packing?”
Glancing at the stuffed bags, she pursed her lips and rose to her full, quite tall height. In three strides, her long legs carried her over to the cabinets, where she pulled out a jug and cups. She poured us each a glass and handed it to us—a light brown liquid sloshed around inside. The smell just about got me, but I took a sip anyway—and about spit it everywhere when I tasted what might have been the worst moonshine ever. Or maybe it was just because my taste buds had been spoiled rotten the last couple of years. Sheree motioned for us to sit. Charleigh and Brielle shared the chair, but I just leaned against the wall.
Our aunt leaned her butt against the countertop across from me. “As you can imagine, things got pretty bad after the massacre here at the Edge. Both your mom and Shamara, that demon bitch, violated the peace treaty. Unfortunately, a lot more people in most factions are taking Shamara’s side, including a lot of norms.”
“What?” Brielle and Charleigh gasped. I, however, wasn’t surprised by this.
She frowned. “A lot of humans died that night. Other beings, too. While the supernaturals know the truth, not all of the humans believe that demons had set up camp in their loved ones’ bodies. Your mom looked like the bad guy, only out to protect herself and you two, no matter the consequences. They don’t get that she’d been protecting the humans, too. The demons and Daemoni have exploited that perception, driving a wedge between factions, including humans. The dark fae are taking advantage of it all, more and more of them coming to this realm and joining their side. Your mom managed to prevent war, but tensions were growing worse and worse. She had to seek out allies.”
“So where are Mom and Dad?” Brielle demanded.
“And where are my parents?” Charleigh asked.
“Last I heard, Alexis and Tristan went to talk to the light fae, to try to get an audience with the Seelie king in the Summer Court.”
“Wait, what?” I said. “Seelie fae and Summer Court?” I knew these terms from Sadie and her Faery realm, but didn’t know the fae of our world used them.
Sheree snickered. “Right, I forgot. The fae have become so common now, and we’ve learned so much. I forgot you didn’t know about them when you were here.”
“We do now,” Brielle said. “From school.” She looked at me with a glint in her eyes. I knew what she was thinking—this meant Sadie could be right. Our Faery realms could be connected. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, though.
“So your grandmother Bree is Seelie fae,” Sheree continued. “I didn’t catch it all, but Bree is part of the Summer Court. Your parents, Owen, and Vanessa were going to see if she could help form an alliance, while the rest of us headed to Amadis Island to regroup with Noah. But then Blossom left to catch up to your parents because …” She drifted off, and the corners of her mouth turned down a bit as she went over to Charleigh and squatted in front of her. I straightened up as I watched them. “Charleigh, honey, there was a skirmish on our way to Amadis Island, and Jax was hit with some kind of black magic.”
“Oh, no!” Charleigh clapped her hands over her mouth, her words coming out muffled. “Is he …?”
Sheree shook her head. “No, he’s not dead. But your dad’s hurt badly, and nobody can figure out how to cure him. It’s either demon magic or fae. Your mom hasn’t been able to counter it with any of her own magic, so she went in search of the Seelie Court.”
I gnawed on my bottom lip, wondering if Charleigh realized what this meant—if her mom could even find her way to Seelie Court, she would have to make a deal with a fae.
“So you don’t have to be fae to go to Faery?” Brielle asked. We already knew that was true for the fae we’d met in the shiny world.
“Anyone a fae wants in Faery can go to Faery,” Sheree said. “So your dad—and probably you two, as well—can take anyone you want there. And as you’ve seen, fae seem to be everywhere these days. Blossom only needed to ask for Bree, and she might have found a way in.”
“So when will they be back?” I asked.
Turning, Sheree opened the cabinets, retrieving a few items, then strode back over to the bags on the
bed. “That’s the question of the decade, apparently.”
“What do you mean?” Brielle asked.
Sheree hesitated, her back to us as she fiddled with the items in the backpack. “We haven’t heard from them in … a while. When the Loft was raided, we all figured it best to disperse and go underground again until your mom returned. Alexis left her uncle Noah in charge, but all of the Amadis have been keeping a low profile. It’s been the best way to keep the peace until we know we have allies.”
I could feel her getting closer to the truth, but still sidestepping. “Aunt Sheree,” I said, my voice low, “are our parents okay?”
She finally turned around, blinking rapidly, the corners of her mouth pulling down. “We don’t know. They could be perfectly fine. They probably are. They’re powerful and can definitely take care of themselves. And I mean, time passes differently in Faery, right? It’s probably been only like a week there, but … it’s been over three years here.”
“What?” we all said again.
“How can that be?” Charleigh asked. “We left only a year-and-a-half ago.”
Sheree shook her head, her brows coming together. “No, it’s been four.”
The three of us exchanged a look, then Brielle’s eyes lit up.
“It’s the whole timeline shift phenomena when passing through dimensions.” She turned, her gaze bouncing between Charleigh and me as her nerdy self showed through. “Remember, we learned about it in class?”
Charleigh smirked. “Can’t say I learned a whole lot in that class. I was a little distracted by the sexy teacher in the kilt—and what was under it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I remember. Passing between dimensions can take you forward or backward on the timeline, even between two worlds that are near exact replicas.”
“And in other realms, like Faery,” Brielle continued, “time can actually pass faster or slower.”
“So this at least explains why so much has changed here in what we thought was a short time,” I said.