Julian returned his focus to Gloriana. “If there’s no royalty here, why are you wearing a crown?” he asked.
“Anyone can wear a crown in Elysium, if it pleases them,” she said. “It’s decoration—nothing more. I wear it every time I introduce myself to chosen champions who’ve just arrived. It makes it clearer that I am who I say I am. Same with the palace, and the clothing.” She motioned to her queenly dress. “Now, would you care to join me for a meal? We have much to discuss.”
The Holy Wand.
I stared at the queen, unable to believe we were here, and that this was actually happening.
Julian stepped closer to me. “Yes,” he said. “Although we won’t be able to eat or drink, because we’re unable to touch anything in Elysium.”
“You’re unable to touch anything that’s alive,” Gloriana said. “You can eat our food, although you shouldn’t, because then you’d be stuck here. However, I’m well acquainted with the goddess of the Underworld, Proserpina. Once Bridget told us of your upcoming arrival, Proserpina supplied the palace with food from Earth. You’ll be able to enjoy it without consequence.”
My stomach rumbled at the thought of familiar food.
“Are fae still unable to lie in the Underworld?” I asked, unable to ignore the suspicion prickling across my skin.
The girl I was on Avalon would have instantly trusted Gloriana. But I wasn’t that girl anymore.
“We’re able to lie,” Gloriana said. “But I want to bring positive change to the Otherworld. And from what Bridget told me, you might be able to do that.”
I looked to Julian, and he nodded. Then I turned back to Gloriana.
“I look forward to eating food from Earth again,” I said, unsure if thanking a fae in the Underworld would bind me to a favor to them like it did in the Otherworld. “Proserpina was kind to go through the trouble of bringing it here. Although I thought you said there were no rulers in the Underworld?”
“There are no rulers in Elysium,” she clarified. “We all earned our way here, and we are all equal in death. But Proserpina—and her husband, Pluto—are gods. The Underworld is their territory. Not just Elysium, but the other realms in it, too.”
“It was kind of her to think of us,” Julian said.
“It’s more than that,” Gloriana said, and then she looked to me. “Proserpina is a daughter of Jupiter. When she heard about you, she automatically took a liking to you.”
“And her mother is Ceres,” Cassia chimed in, smiling as she spoke the name of the goddess who’d chosen her as her champion. “Which I suppose makes us family, in a way.”
“Family,” I repeated. “Or maybe even sisters. If not by blood, then in our souls.”
“Sisters.” Cassia’s eyes sparkled with unshed tears. “I like that.”
I wanted to hug her, but because that was impossible, smiling had to suffice.
Gloriana looked at Cassia fondly, as if Cassia were her own daughter. “I’m glad the two of you were able to have this time together,” she said. “However, my soulmate is waiting for us in the dining room. I’m afraid it’s time for you to say goodbye.”
My chest tightened with a feeling I knew well—grief. “Cassia isn’t joining us for the meal?” I asked.
“The conversation we need to have is private,” Gloriana said. “I love Cassia as much as you do, but there will be no exceptions.”
I looked to Cassia and brushed away a tear. How was I supposed to say goodbye to her for forever?
Not forever, I reminded myself. I’m going to get her out of here. She’s going to live with me in Avalon.
“I meant what I said earlier,” I told her. “I’m going to keep that promise.”
“I know,” she said. “I believe in you, Selena. Thank you for being the sister I never had.”
She lowered her eyes, and then, she was gone.
27
Selena
The palace’s dining room was as grand as the foyer, with an elegant banquet table in the center and huge, glittering chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling. Long buffet tables draped with white tablecloths lined every wall, covered with both familiar foods and ones I didn’t know existed.
A man in jeans and a Beatles t-shirt stood up when we entered. If it hadn’t been for his shimmery aquamarine wings, I would have thought he was from Earth.
“I’m Bradan,” he introduced himself. “Gloriana’s soulmate. It’s wonderful to make your acquaintances.”
The name clicked instantly. In the Otherworld, I’d learned all about the tragedy of Queen Gloriana and Prince Bradan. Right after Gloriana had publicly announced that she’d met her soulmate, she was murdered in her home by the half-blood who’d previously been her lover.
Bradan took his own life soon after her death.
Yet, here he was, as jovial—and as modern—as ever.
“The Beatles,” I said, nodding to his t-shirt. “You have good taste.”
“They’re my favorite,” he said, and I knew we were going to get along immediately.
Julian looked back and forth between us in confusion. “You both have a favorite insect?” he asked.
I burst into laughter, which only made Julian more confused. Bradan chuckled, too.
“The Beatles are a band,” I said once I got ahold of myself. “From Earth. One of the best.”
“They aren’t only the best band on Earth,” Bradan added. “They’re the best in all the realms combined. You can trust me on that, since I’ve listened to more music from the archives than most anyone else in Elysium.”
“Ah.” Julian nodded, although I didn’t think he fully understood.
“We have a lot of pop culture education to cover once we get to Avalon,” I said.
His eyes hardened, and he looked away.
My chest hollowed. Why was it that once things were feeling sort of normal between us, I said something to mess it up?
Gloriana motioned to the buffet tables before I could continue beating myself up over it. “Please, help yourselves,” she said. “I’m sure you can find something that suits your taste.”
I focused on the buffet, eager for a distraction from Julian’s mood swings.
The sheer amount of food in the room intimidated me. I recognized some of it—cheeseburgers, tacos, steaks, lobsters—but most of it looked foreign.
“Isn’t this a bit much for four people?” I asked.
“Everything we don’t eat will be recycled back to Earth,” she assured us. “Proserpina and Ceres have that covered. So go ahead. Dig in.”
She and Bradan picked up their plates and started helping themselves to heaping portions of pasta.
The sooner we sat down to eat, the sooner we could discuss the Holy Wand. So Julian and I grabbed our plates and headed to the buffet.
I eyed it up, unsure where to start. On Avalon, we ate mana. And while mana tasted like whatever we were craving at the time, it wasn’t the same as handling real food.
Julian headed for slabs of meat similar to what they had in the Otherworld.
Seriously? No way was he going to get away with playing it safe when we had so many new foods from all over the world to choose from. At least, not on my watch.
I picked up a cheesy slice of pizza, walked over to him, and dropped it on his plate.
He glared at it and poked the doughy crust.
“That’s pizza, and it’s delicious,” I said. “Try it. Just a bite.”
He eyed it suspiciously. But then he picked it up and took a small bite of the triangular point.
His eyes lit up, and he went in for more.
Gloriana chuckled from where she was standing nearby. “Pizza’s one of my favorites, too,” she said. “I also recommend the pad thai and the green curry.” She motioned to a section of the buffet full of meats and noodles covered in a variety of creamy sauces. “They’re from a place on Earth called Thailand. The Thai people have the most delectable food.”
I wasn’t familiar with Thai food, so I foll
owed her recommendation and tried it.
The dishes were as tasty as she claimed, and I scooped some of each onto my plate.
Plates full, we sat down, and Gloriana raised her glass of Coke brought in specifically from Mexico. Apparently, the Coke there was made with cane sugar, which made it taste better than the more common version of the drink. “To meeting the chosen champions who might finally bring change to the Otherworld,” she toasted.
“Amen to that.” Bradan raised his glass to his lips and took a long sip.
Gloriana placed down her glass. “I hear you’re seeking the Holy Wand,” she said, surprising me so much that a bit of my soda went down the wrong pipe.
Luckily, Julian cut in. “Who told you this?” he asked.
“All of Minerva’s chosen champions who pass through Elysium,” she said. “I’ve spent a long time waiting for you. The first chosen champion of Jupiter, destined to wield the Holy Wand and use it to bring peace to the Otherworld once more.”
My stomach flipped, and my food suddenly looked unappetizing. Because yes, I was seeking the Holy Wand.
But not for myself. Once I found it, I was going to give it to the Empress so I could return home.
How had Minerva’s chosen champions not foreseen that?
Julian reached for my hand and squeezed it—hard. I glanced at him, and his ice blue eyes glinted with warning.
Say nothing.
While he couldn’t say it out loud, I’d learned that look well while we’d played in the Faerie Games.
Gloriana looked back and forth between the two of us. “Is something wrong?” she asked.
I cleared the last bits of soda from my throat. “Not at all,” I said, forcing a smile. “I’m just under a lot of pressure.”
“Understandable.” She nodded. “However, I trust the chosen champions of Minerva. And therefore, I will tell you where I hid the wand.”
“Just like that?” I asked.
“Yes.” She smiled. “Just like that.”
This was it. She was really going to tell me the location of the wand.
It felt surreal. Too easy.
But like Thalia had said in the forest, there was no need to kick a gift horse in the mouth. And the chosen champions of Minerva had the gift of prophecy. If they saw that my handing the wand over to the Empress would bring peace to the Otherworld, who was I to question it?
So I waited, ready for Gloriana to tell me what I needed to know.
“I met Bradan a week before I was murdered,” she started, either not noticing my unease or ignoring it. “That night, the ancient goddess of prophecy—Scathach—came to me in a dream. She told me that the Holy Wand—my wand that I’d created and used to peacefully rule the Otherworld—would soon be stolen by another who’d use it to cause mass destruction. She showed me her vision of the annihilation my wand would cause. So many slaughtered. A massacre of the half-bloods on a grand scale. Horrors that one would never believe…” She shook her head, and her eyes went distant. But she quickly got a hold of herself and refocused on me. “To keep that from happening, I needed to send the wand as far away as possible. To a place no one would find it. The North.”
Julian straightened. “The North is cursed,” he said. “No one can survive there.”
“I told her as much,” Gloriana said. “But the goddess was insistent. She said I was to send my daughter—my half-blood daughter who I’d conceived and raised with my ex-lover—away with the wand. I told her I’d go myself, but the goddess said that if I did that, I’d fail. It needed to be my daughter. And she needed to go in secret, with five pegasi and as many half-bloods as they could carry. She said my daughter and the half-bloods she brought with her would make a home for themselves in the North. There, they and their descendants would guard the wand until the chosen one with lightning magic claimed it so she could bring peace to the Otherworld once more.”
All the air left my lungs at once. “Me,” I said.
“This was before the Roman gods came to the Otherworld, so we knew nothing of chosen champions and their magic,” she said. “But yes. It’s you.”
“And you trusted her?” Julian asked.
“Not at first.” Gloriana smiled sadly. “I’d never send my daughter away, and I told her as much. But she promised to keep them safe. Still, I didn’t believe her. So she told me she’d send me a sign. And she made me promise that if, when I woke, I believed the sign, I was to do as she asked. And that I was to do it immediately, as time was of the essence.
“I woke a moment later with not just one Holy Wand in my room, but two. A perfect dupe. Even I couldn’t tell one from the other until I held the true wand in my hand and felt its power. No one but a goddess could create such a flawless replica. And as I held both wands, I knew in my heart that the goddess was telling the truth. The replica wand would ensure that no one knew the real one was missing, so they wouldn’t know to search for it until it was long gone. If I didn’t do as the goddess asked, those awful visions of death on a grand scale would become reality. My people would be slaughtered. And I would be to blame, for not listening to her.”
“So you did it,” I said.
“I did.” She nodded. “The true wand has yet to resurface. I believe it’s still safe in the North, where it’s waiting for you to claim it.”
Suspicion darkened Julian’s eyes. “You believe it’s still there?” he asked. “You don’t know for sure?”
“Many of its guardians have passed on and ended up here, in Elysium,” she said. “Including my daughter, although she chose to be reborn centuries ago. The most recent guardian confirmed that the Holy Wand remains safe, and that the guardians are still waiting for you to find it.” She looked at me pointedly when she said the last part.
“When did the most recent guardian arrive?” I asked.
“Three years ago.”
I exhaled and leaned back in my chair. “A lot can happen in three years,” I said.
Gloriana raised her chin, like I’d insulted her. “The wand has been protected in the North for over two millennia,” she said, and in that moment, it sank in just how old Gloriana was. “Three years is nothing. The wand is safe, and it’s always been safe. You’ll see.”
“Perhaps three years is nothing for you,” Julian said. “But a plague started spreading about six months ago. A plague that turns the fae into…”
“Zombies,” I filled in.
Gloriana and Bradan nodded, seeming to understand the term. They must have watched at least one zombie movie or television show from the archives.
“Could the Holy Wand have been used to create the plague?” Julian asked.
“I saw no plagues in the visions the goddess showed me,” she said. “But technically, I suppose it could be possible.”
My heart sank.
Bradan placed his fork down on his plate with a loud clang, and we all looked to him. “Plagues spread when a person comes into contact with an infected animal,” he said. “There’s no reason to assume the wand is the cause.”
“But this plague isn’t natural.” I thought about the soulless fae with their black wings and empty eyes and shuddered.
“I have no answer for you,” Gloriana said sadly. “All I know is where my daughter hid the wand. So do you want me to tell you the location, or not?”
“Of course we do,” I said.
“I thought as much,” she said. “The Holy Wand is hidden in the northernmost point of the North. Hypernia.”
Julian sucked in a sharp breath. “Hypernia’s a wasteland,” he said. “It’s uninhabitable. Those who go there never return.”
The corner of Gloriana’s lip curved into a smile. “Or, those who go there either stay, or are killed to make sure the location of the Holy Wand remains secret.”
I shuddered at how calmly she said it.
“The choice is yours.” She shrugged. “Once we finish our meal, I’ll bring you to the Ivory Gates. Proserpina arranged it so the Gates will drop you off at the south
ernmost point of Hypernia, and Ceres left survival packs for you there.”
“Why are the gods helping us, when they’re the ones who created the Games?” I asked.
“The Empire created the Games,” Gloriana said. “The gods went along with it because… well, because they’re the gods. They view the world differently than we do. But the fae are the ones who allow the Games to continue. The fae are to blame for the dreadful state of the Otherworld.”
And we’re going to hand the Holy Wand over to their leader, so we can stay alive.
It felt more and more wrong by the minute.
“If you wish to reach the place where I sent the wand, then follow the North Star,” Gloriana continued, apparently unaware of my distress. “It will guide your way.”
“We’ll do it,” Julian said, before I could say what was on my mind.
“Wonderful.” Gloriana smiled. “You should also know that time flows naturally in the Underworld. So when you return to the Otherworld, one week will have passed since your departure.”
“We can handle that,” Julian said.
“I’m sure you can,” she said. “I just thought you should know.” She smiled again, picked up her fork, and continued eating.
The rest of us did the same.
Once we were back in the Otherworld, I’d talk with Julian about my worries regarding the Holy Wand. But something else was nagging at me. I just needed to figure out the right way to word it…
“One more thing,” I said, and Gloriana stilled, looking at me to continue. “You want us to find your wand. Right?”
“Of course I do.” Confusion passed over her face. “I was the First Queen of the Otherworld. I love the realm with all my heart. Everything that’s happened there since my death—the enslavement of the half-bloods, the Faerie Games, and now, the plague… it needs to be stopped.”
“And you think I can stop it.”
“I wouldn’t have told you the location of the wand if I didn’t.”
I held her gaze and took a deep breath. “We’re putting our lives on the line to do this,” I started.
The Faerie Wand (Dark World: The Faerie Games Book 4) Page 11