“Why is it that I never seem to feel like I’ve gotten the best of you?” I muttered. Beezle needn’t have worried. Madeline Black had returned without any ill effects.
“People often feel that way around me,” Lucifer said.
I rubbed my head. “Will you take me to the path, then? Since it seems to suit you?”
“Of course, as it suits you as well,” he said, a merry twinkle in his eye. “But I think you should not go alone.”
He nodded toward the front porch, and I turned to see Nathaniel standing there as if he’d been summoned. I looked back at Lucifer and shook my head.
“I’d rather have Jude,” I said.
“But I would prefer you take Nathaniel,” he said, his voice covered in steel.
“Why?” I asked. “What have you got planned now?”
“If you want to go to the path, then you will allow yourself to be escorted by Nathaniel ap Zerachiel and no other,” he said.
I glanced back at Nathaniel, standing on the porch with a stony expression, waiting for my decision. Was it worth it to push this, and lose my chance at confronting Titania and Oberon? I already knew I could handle Nathaniel, but why was Lucifer pressing him on me so determinedly?
“Ticktock,” Lucifer said.
“All right,” I said.
I needed to take one problem at a time. First Titania and Oberon, then Azazel’s plot, then Azazel himself. Somewhere in there I’d have to find time to unknot Lucifer’s motivations and figure out if the Agency was conspiring against me.
“Beezle is not going to be happy about this,” I said.
“I will speak with your gargoyle, and your guard dog,” Lucifer said.
“Um, I don’t think you want to talk to Jude,” I said, thinking of their history.
“Do not worry. Judas and I have dealt with one another before.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered. I didn’t want Jude to get himself killed going after Lucifer.
Lucifer smiled, and it was not a nice smile.
“Wait here for a moment,” he said, and went toward the house. He paused on the threshold, calling Jude’s name.
Even Lucifer couldn’t get into my house without an invitation. That made me feel a little better.
Jude, Samiel and Beezle must have been lurking just inside the foyer. The door opened immediately.
Nathaniel went down the steps and came to stand near me. I watched Lucifer and the other three confer in quiet tones at the door. I couldn’t see Lucifer’s expression or hear what was said, but Jude was purple in the face and Samiel’s jaw was set.
“He’s controlling them by threatening your life,” Nathaniel said softly.
“He wouldn’t risk me,” I said, not mentioning the baby. As far as I knew Nathaniel was still unaware of the pregnancy. “He wants me for some purpose of his own.”
“They won’t risk you,” Nathaniel said. “No one can see into Lucifer’s heart, and they love you. So they will not take the chance that Lucifer might harm you out of spite.”
“Would you let him?” I asked, giving him a sidelong glance.
“No,” Nathaniel said firmly.
I was surprised. I’d expected the usual nonsense about having to obey the wishes of his master and whatnot.
“Whatever you may think, whatever my other motivations, you have come to mean something to me. I would not let anyone harm you if I could prevent it.”
He seemed sincere, but I didn’t know what to think. Just about every angel I’d ever met had seemed one thing and been another. Except Gabriel. He’d always been exactly what he seemed to be.
I didn’t know what to say to Nathaniel, so I just nodded in acknowledgment. This seemed to satisfy him for the moment, and we both looked away.
Lucifer approached us with a satisfied look on his face. Apparently he’d gotten his way. Jude, Samiel and Beezle all appeared angry and frustrated.
“Are we ready to depart, then?” Lucifer said, clapping his hands together.
“Just a moment,” Nathaniel said. “I have to discuss something with Samiel.”
Nathaniel went up to the porch. I watched him go, bewildered. What on earth could he have to discuss with Samiel?
Lucifer turned to me. “I hope you are prepared, granddaughter, for the trial ahead of you.”
“Titania and Oberon can’t be worse than you,” I said.
He smiled at me. “Not many are.”
“Normal people aren’t proud of things like that.”
Nathaniel returned a moment later, nodding at Lucifer. “My lord.”
“Off to see the wizard, then,” Lucifer said.
He took hold of my hand and Nathaniel’s, and a second later we winked out of sight.
It wasn’t like traveling through a portal. Portals are noisy, and windy, and painful. This was like passing through the heart of the universe. It was peaceful, and quiet. Above and beneath and beside us all the worlds unfolded like a beautiful string of pearls. Images passed by at a rapid rate, a flickering film of people, gods and monsters, cities and countries, mountains and oceans. And in one of them, I thought I saw, just for a moment…
“Gabriel!” I cried out, and tried to slip Lucifer’s hand, to go to him.
“Madeline,” he said firmly. “Do not let go, or you will fall into time and space and be lost forever.”
“I saw… I thought I saw…” The wound that I’d thought was scabbed over was bleeding anew. I’d seen him. I was sure of it.
“You saw what you wished to see,” Lucifer said.
I didn’t say anything further. The moment was gone. I didn’t even know which of the dozens of places I’d seen had held Gabriel. But I had seen him, even if Lucifer didn’t want me to believe it.
I don’t know how much time passed. After a while Lucifer said, “This is the place.”
And we were there.
The three of us stood on a high hill. The hill was split down the middle. One side was rocky and barren, and stretched away into an icy tundra covered by a gray sky. The other side was lush and green and dotted with sunshine. We were on the rocky, icy side, and a bitter wind bit through my coat.
“Once you cross this line,” Lucifer said, indicating the split, “you will have entered the kingdom of Titania and Oberon, and there is no turning back.”
“How will we get home without you?” I asked.
“Either you will negotiate your own safe passage, or…” He trailed off.
“Or we won’t come home at all,” I said.
“I have every confidence in you, granddaughter,” Lucifer said, taking me by the shoulders and kissing my forehead.
I felt the usual roil of confusion that I experienced around Lucifer. There was something very fatherlike about him, but then, no good father had ever threatened to sacrifice their child for their own purpose.
He released me and turned to Nathaniel.
“You know what your charge is, Nathaniel ap Zerachiel,” Lucifer said, and all the warmth was gone from his tone.
“Yes, my lord,” Nathaniel said, bowing.
“See that your duty is done,” Lucifer said.
And then he disappeared.
I looked at the happy valley spread out below us. Like all things faerie, I was sure that it was a glamour disguising a lot of terror and ugliness. Knowing that there was danger ahead didn’t make it any easier to take that first step.
“Well, I guess it’s you and me,” I said to Nathaniel.
“Not quite,” said a muffled voice, and Beezle crawled out of Nathaniel’s coat, looking disgruntled.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as he flew over to my shoulder and made an elaborate show of smoothing his horns.
“Like I would let you go to Titania and Oberon’s court without me. How are you supposed to benefit from my intel if I’m not with you?”
I looked at Nathaniel, who watched me with an uncertain expression.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I t
hought you would feel more comfortable if the gargoyle were with you,” he said.
“Well, comfort doesn’t really factor into it, since I’ve got to lug him around,” I said.
“Information comes with a price,” Beezle said loftily. “Now, can we get this train rolling? I need to be back in time for Dancing with the Stars.”
“Of course,” I said dryly. “Nothing could possibly be more important than seeing which D-list celebrity gets eliminated this week.”
“It’s awesome,” Beezle said.
I took a deep breath, and stepped over the line. Nathaniel followed.
I was immediately enveloped in warmth. It felt like a beautiful summer day on this side. The air was lightly scented with flowers. Birds whistled songs that caught in the breeze and carried up to where we stood.
“This is so wrong,” Beezle said.
“I know,” I replied. “Nothing this lovely or charming could possibly be real. Do you see what’s underneath?”
Beezle concentrated, staring at the scene before us. After a while he shook his head. “This glamour is really good, and it’s old. It’s layered so deep that I can’t see with a quick glance. I’d have to look at it for a while.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “We know that we can’t trust what we see, so let’s just proceed carefully.”
“And don’t eat or drink anything,” Beezle said.
“I know,” I said, and we started down the hill.
The hill was longer than it seemed from the top. The descent was gradual but it took much more time than I’d expected to reach the bottom. When we did, both Nathaniel and I were sweating. We were dressed for winter in Chicago.
I pulled off my coat, hat and gloves and gave them a regretful glance as I left them on the ground. Nathaniel followed suit, his wings revealed. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
“There’s no point in carrying this stuff around,” I said, though I hated to leave things behind.
“The coat is trashed, anyway,” Beezle said. “Again. What tore up the shoulder?”
I told Beezle and Nathaniel about the mantis-thing that had attacked the girl on Southport as we walked through a field of knee-high grass. Brightly colored butterflies alighted here and there on tall wildflowers.
“Was the mantis something faerie?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” Beezle said.
“Great. So something else is out to get me?”
“I suppose it could be a sending from Azazel,” Nathaniel said. “One of his experiments?”
“Then why not say so?” I asked. “Azazel loves to rub it in my face when he thinks he’s about to get the better of me.”
“I guess we just have to accept that you’ve pissed off enough people that we can’t tell who’s after you without identification,” Beezle said.
“Why is it my fault when these immortals come after me?”
“Well, you do keep foiling their evil plans,” Beezle said.
“So, I should let them kill innocent people?”
“All I’m saying is that it puts a target on your back,” Beezle said.
“Enough,” Nathaniel said. “Why did I consider it a good thing to bring you along?”
“That wasn’t too bad,” Beezle said. “You might want to work on your cutting tone, though. I can’t fence with an unarmed man.”
“It is a wonder both of you have not yet been killed,” Nathaniel said seriously. “How can you hear the enemy approaching over the sound of your bickering?”
“Maddy survives mostly on luck,” Beezle said. “I’m not sure being able to hear the monsters approaching would make much of a difference.”
“I resent the implication that I’m some kind of half-wit stumbling around in a sea of chaos,” I said.
“You said it, not me.”
“Gods above and below,” Nathaniel muttered.
Beezle winked at me.
We came to the edge of a wood. There was a clear path proceeding through the trees, and the forest looked as bright and happy as the field we’d just passed through. A doe and her fawn stood a short distance away, and seemed unconcerned by our presence as they fed on leaves and twigs.
Beezle gave the deer a good hard stare. Then he leaned close to my ear. “Those aren’t deer.”
“Do I want to know what they are?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Beezle said. “It will just give you indigestion.”
I pointed out the deer to Nathaniel. He nodded.
“Should we go forward?” he said quietly.
“There’s no other way to go if we want to get back home. Let’s just hope they don’t bother us,” I said, and stepped onto the path.
Both deer looked up as my foot crossed into the forest. They shimmered for a moment, and the deer suddenly weren’t there anymore.
But something else was, and they looked far too happy to see us.
9
“YOU WERE RIGHT,” I SAID TO BEEZLE. “I’D RATHER not know.”
The creatures grew before our eyes until they were the size of the trees that towered in the forest. They looked like a cross between trolls and dogs, with lumpy, misshapen, humanoid faces attached to furred four-legged bodies.
Long canines protruded over their lower jaws, and their disconcertingly human eyes seemed to say one thing when they looked at us.
Lunch.
“Stand and fight or try to escape?” I asked.
“Fly!” Nathaniel shouted.
I didn’t need to be told twice.
Beezle launched off my shoulder. I pushed out my wings and shot into the sky above the trees, Nathaniel beside me. We accelerated away from the troll-things, which howled as they saw us taking to the air.
I looked back over my shoulder and gasped. “Oh, that’s not fair.”
I pulled up for a moment. Nathaniel and Beezle turned to see what I was looking at.
The creatures were growing wings. Huge, reticulated wings sprouted from their bodies. The larger creature narrowed its eyes at us in triumph.
“Fly faster,” Beezle said.
“No,” I said. “We can’t outrun them. Evasive maneuvers.”
I dove back into the trees, the other two following me. For a moment we were out of the sight of the monsters, hidden by the thick, leafy canopy. I settled in a sturdy-looking curve of branch, and Beezle landed on my shoulder. Nathaniel hovered in the air beside me.
The monsters both roared in anger as we disappeared. A moment later the ground trembled, and then a gale-force wind hit us as the creatures lifted off the ground. They buzzed over us, shouting at one another in a language I did not understand, clearly searching. They flew in small circles above the trees, and we tensed as they passed above us, then relaxed when the trolls moved on.
“What do you have in mind?” Nathaniel whispered, his face close to my ear so I could hear him over the wind. “We can’t hide here forever. They are large enough to grab us from the ground if we stay under the tree cover.”
“So if we stay under the trees, they’ll grab us from the ground, and if we stay above the trees, they’ll catch up to us quickly,” Beezle said. “Why didn’t I stay home with the TV and the popcorn?”
“We’ll have to fly in and out,” I said. “And try to blast them with spells while we’re at it.”
“Oh, great,” Beezle said. “We’re going to kill something else of Titania and Oberon’s, and then they’re really going to be pissed at us.”
“Do you want to get back home to the TV and the popcorn?” I asked.
“Fine, fine,” Beezle said. “Have it your way.”
“Look—they’re staying above the trees for now. So let’s try to get as far as we can under the canopy. They make so much noise they should be easy to hear if they approach,” I said.
Nathaniel nodded and Beezle squeezed my shoulder with his claws.
“I take it that you’re riding?” I asked Beezle.
“I’m not built for evasive maneuvers,” Beezle said.
“You left yourself wide-open there, but I’m not going to take advantage on account of the fact that we’re in mortal peril,” I said.
Nathaniel and I flew quickly and quietly toward the path. The branches of the trees arched over the path and left plenty of room beneath to fly between the two sides. The trolls were still above, roaring at one another.
“We’re always in mortal peril, so if you’re going to have scruples about things like that, you’re not going to be able to keep up with me,” Beezle said.
“If that’s the case,” I started, but I never had the chance to finish.
Something wrapped around my waist and yanked me backward, out of the air.
Beezle cried out as the impact caused him to lose his grip on my shoulder.
A moment later I slammed against the bark of a tree, and looked down to realize that one of the tree’s branches had wound around me. Another branch quickly wrapped around my ankles. Across the path, Nathaniel had also been captured by the trees. The trees began to shake, almost like they were trying to communicate with the trolls.
“Oh, no,” I said, annoyed. “I know what to do with you.”
My hands were bound tight against my sides by the branch, but I could still wiggle my fingers. Which meant that I could send a blast of fire scorching down the bark of the tree.
The tree loosened its grip on me for a moment. I laid both my hands against the branch and gave it a good solid blast until it ignited.
It let me go and I plummeted toward the ground for a moment until I could get my bearings and start flying again. The air quickly filled with smoke.
“Why don’t you just wave at the trolls and say, ‘Hey, I’m over here’?” Beezle said conversationally as he reattached himself to my shoulder.
“Should I have let the tree crush me to death?” I asked, flying toward Nathaniel.
He’d blasted his tree with fire as well. That meant that we were both free. For the moment, anyway. The trees were looking very ominous all of a sudden. The two trees that had caught fire were waving their branches around in distress.
“I don’t think we should stay under the cover of the trees anymore,” Beezle said.
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