Shadeland (The Ethereal Crossings, 1)

by D.L. Miles

  Chapter 18

  Luke and I parked on the bustling downtown street. We were only a few blocks away from the pet shop that I had nearly died in and I wanted to stay far away from it. Despite the fact that Violet had told us what had bitten Jared, I doubted she would be so nice next time we met. I doubted any of them would let me live if I ever walked in there again. I couldn’t understand how such violent and deadly people could sell kittens and puppies; it just didn’t make sense.

  Luke wore his black sweater, being sure to keep the hood up as we went out into the public eye. This was the first time he had left the house and he didn’t want anyone to notice him.

  He led me two stores down from where my car was to a dark yet oddly inviting shop. It was one of the many stores downtown that I had never noticed; its windows had large red letters reading “50% off” while purple curtains hung on the edges. The display was filled with candles, crystals and stones; I recognized one of them as the stones I found in both Charlie’s and Alice’s homes. I made a mental note to ask about them.

  “This is the place,” Luke said, peering into the windows, “I’ve never actually been in but I hear they sell a lot of weird stuff.”

  There was no name on the shop, no sign telling me what to call it. I guessed most people just called it the magic shop; that’s what I would call it from now on anyway.

  Luke and I walked through the glass door, another bell alerting the shopkeeper of our presence. For some reason the chime put me on edge; maybe it was because it reminded me of the shooting. Or maybe because it sounded like the mermaid’s song, the very same song that almost led me to drown myself in a glowing river.

  Forcing my mind to focus I observed the shop. The lights were dim, just barely illuminating the shelves around us. Large, old books sat at the back of the room while newer ones were at the front. Candles and vials of unknown liquids lined the walls only to be complemented by incense and charms sitting beneath glass counters. It gave off a nice atmosphere, a strangely safe and homey feeling rose in me. That was something I hadn’t felt in a while.

  I tried to find something that may look like pixie’s dust but there was nothing. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. It probably didn’t look like the dust that came from Tinkerbell.

  “Hey,” said a man behind a glass counter, “anything I can help you with?”

  He certainly didn’t fit in with his surroundings. I had expected a slender woman to be there, dressed in all black and adorned with silver pentagrams or crosses, but he wasn’t that at all. This man stood around at least 6’4” with enough muscle to make sure nobody was going to try and corner him in a dark alley. His brown hair was kept short and his brow was furrowed naturally, just barely hiding his green eyes. He reminded me a lot of my older brother, imposing but not quite threatening because of his baby face.

  The man set aside a book face down on the glass.

  “Uh, yes,” Luke said from beneath his hood, also taking note of the man’s resemblance to my family with a simple raise of his eyebrows at me, “we’re looking for pixie’s dust, do you have any?” The man thought to himself before holding up a finger.

  “Give me a second and I’ll check the back,” he said, “we might be sold out.”

  He walked around the counter and through the back door, past all the ancient texts. I began to wander around the store, reading book titles and admiring the charms. When I finally came across the stones I got a flash of Charlie’s body in my mind, and another image of the blood coating Alex’s living room. I hurried back to the counter, hoping Luke didn’t notice my mood change.

  “Somehow I doubt they’ll have it,” Luke said, putting his hands in his pocket.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because it would be too easy.” The man came out of the back room, nothing in hand. Luke’s doubts seemed to be accurate. That’s my psychic…err…Fae for you.

  “I’m sorry,” the man said, “but we’ve sold out of it. We should be getting more in by next week.” He walked back behind the counter. “Is there anything else you need?” Luke and I both grimaced.

  “Do you know where we could get some then?” Luke asked.

  “Well you could always just catch a pixie and shake it out of him,” the man didn’t smile as he spoke showing that he was actually serious about his answer. “There’s tons of ‘em up in the northern woods; they usually come out after sunset and fly around.”

  “Really?” Luke said, surprised. “Aren’t they hard to catch?”

  The man swayed his head, thinking.

  “Yes and no,” he told us, “I can sell you some stuff to help get them if you like, but they are fast little buggers.” The man turned and walked to the end of the counter, reaching underneath it and pulling out a jar. He then grabbed two butterfly nets from behind him and brought them to us. “These are enchanted, so once you get a pixie in the net it’ll transfer right into the jar where you can collect the dust. Just be sure keep the lid on, ‘kay?”

  “Sounds easy enough,” Luke said to me with a shrug, I caught a glimmer of a smile on the man’s face as he punched some numbers into the register. “How much?”

  “Comes to $56.38,” he said and Luke pulled out his wallet to pay. Once the transaction was done he said, “You guys look new at this, so I’ll give ya a tip; put anything you don’t wanna lose somewhere safe. Pixie’s love to take stuff.”

  “Thanks,” Luke said, “what’s your name?”

  “Carson,” he replied, “I own the store.” Luke introduced us to be polite, though I honestly don’t know why he would ask for the man’s name. Just as we were about to leave I asked what I needed to know.

  “Do you sell a lot of agate?” I looked up at Carson who seemed a little surprised that I said anything at all. Unfortunately I got that a lot.

  “Sometimes, why?”

  “Have you sold two or more stones to one person lately?” I wondered if there were more stones elsewhere. Charlie and Alice had them, but did anyone else? Did Rosa and Heather have one too?

  “Actually I did,” Carson said, rubbing his mouth, “a couple weeks ago a guy came in and bought a few.”

  “What did he look like?” I asked, feeling as if this man was involved. He had to be, right? I put my hands on the counter with anticipation and Carson leaned on with his arms crossed, coming to my eye level.

  “Why do you want to know?” he smirked, amused by something.

  “Because I think this man may be involved in the series of murders across town that are being blamed on Luke,” I said and he lost his smirk, “I know you recognize him from the news.”

  “Yeah,” Carson said, quickly straightening his back, “but I know your boy didn’t do it.” Luke resisted a smile hearing someone other than myself saying he was innocent. If so many people felt Luke was innocent, why didn’t they say so? Why let the rest of the world accuse him?

  “So what did this man look like?” I was determined to find out. There was nothing that would stop me from finding this man.

  “He was pretty small, not much taller than you really,” Carson leaned on the counter again, “dark skin, black hair. Had a bit of an accent, when he asked for the agate he seemed to be in a hurry too. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days.”

  “What kind of accent?” I asked, trying to narrow it down.

  “Sorry, don’t know that,” Carson said, “but he was with some skinny blonde chick, she never said a word though. Her hair was weird, all different colours.”

  “Thanks,” I said, starting to think about who it could be. This could be the mysterious B that had taken the photograph I found in Charlie’s apartment and the woman could be the fourth victim; Heather.

  I walked towards the door, leaving Luke to grab the nets and jar. I heard him thank Carson, who called to us as we left with a resonating ring.

  “Happy hunting!”

  “What was that about?” Luke said as he
caught up to me. I opened the trunk of the car for him to drop our supplies into and shut it hard.

  “I don’t’ know,” I said, still trying to think, “something about that description just set off a flag in my head.” I pushed my hair behind my ears. “I just don’t know, I need to think about it.”

  “Well, let me know,” he said rubbing my shoulder, “are we going out tonight?” There was probably only a couple hours till the sun set, leaving us time to prepare before we went out to find a pixie.

  “Yes,” I said, “the sooner we get the dust the better.” Then all we had to worry about was getting the blood, saving Jared and killing a powerful creature as old as time. See? There wasn’t that much left to do.

  I sat in the car next to Luke, staring out into the dark woods ahead. The sun was almost down, creating a light orange and blue glow across the trees. Beneath them was black, no sunlight getting through the thick fresh leaves.

  “Here,” Luke said handing me a flashlight. We got out of the car and collected our nets. Luke put the mystical jar inside his satchel, making sure to secure the zipper in case the pixie’s wanted in. I had done a little research before we came out, making sure to know roughly what to expect. Pixie’s liked to take things, and they also liked to lead people astray.

  “Let’s make sure to stick together,” I said to reassure myself I would not get lost, “remember what we found online.” Luke nodded and we turned on our flashlights, the sun running away beyond the horizon.

  We were lucky to have grown up here and to be so familiar with the northern woods. It was a well-known hiking path, but people could get lost at night, the trails suddenly becoming strange and twisted. I had never been there at night before though, so I wanted to stay with Luke as best I could. One pixie was all we needed, that should be enough dust for Yamuna.

  Stepping into the woods everything was quiet. The world had gone to bed already, leaving only the crickets and owls to fill the air with noise. Staying on the path our flashlights gave us what we needed to keep walking, the moon only peeking out from behind the clouds and barely penetrating the treetops.

  “How do you think we’ll find them?” Luke asked. All the information I found didn’t say how to find them, and we were currently just going on what Carson told us.

  “I guess I don’t really—ow!” Something hard smashed into the back of my head causing me to drop my flashlight. I held my new wound, making sure to not to let go of the net.

  “What is it?” Luke flashed his light onto me, blinding me.

  “Ow, Luke!” He shone the light lower.

  “Sorry, what happened?”

  “I don’t know, something hit me!” I bent over to pick up my flashlight when it suddenly flew to the side. It floated through the trees and without thinking I chased after it, my instinct kicking in.

  “Liv!” Luke called, chasing after me. “Wait!”

  As I dashed through the woods I could hear laughter, it surrounded me until I tripped and tumbled into a small patch of moonlight. The flashlight dropped in front of me when I stood and whatever had grabbed it flew off. Behind me Luke stumbled into the light.

  “Sorry,” I said, realizing what I did. After reminding him we needed to stick together I decided to stupidly run off. Good idea. I picked up the flashlight and shone it around the area while Luke gave me a dirty look, thinking exactly the same thing I was.

  “I think we’ve found the pixies,” he said looking around. In the moonlight around us tiny creatures came out from behind the trees and flowers. They looked just like people, covered in tiny bits of cloth and giving off a soft yellow glow. None of them had wings, as I had expected they would.

  “Let’s get one then,” I handed my flashlight to Luke, opting to use both hands on the net.

  “Wait,” Luke said, “maybe we can just reason with them?” He took a step forward, lightly holding the net in one a hand.

  “I don’t think—”

  “We don’t want to hurt you,” he called into the night air, “we just need your dust! Please, it’s to save lives.” Some of the pixies giggled.

  “If you didn’t want to hurt us,” one on a flower said, “you wouldn’t have enchanted nets!” Three flew at Luke, knocking him off balance to the ground as he tried to avoid their aerial attack. His net was grabbed by two pixies and he quickly chased after them as I had earlier.

  Multiple sets of eyes watched me, daring me to try and catch them. With Luke gone I wasn’t feeling as confident. I heard a giggle come from my pocket and when I looked down I saw a small female pixie there, hanging out of the cloth. When I tried to pull her out she had my phone in her small hands, and flew off before I could stop her.

  I reached out for her but missed. She passed by another pixie and threw my phone to him, allowing him to fly off in the opposite direction of Luke. I chased after them, and every few feet they would pass my phone between then, laughing. It was like I was in second grade all over again, having my favourite doll thrown between my brothers. Unfortunately my mother and father weren’t about to show up to save the day this time.

  The moon was hidden again behind the clouds, leaving me in the dark and without a flashlight to help. I could barely make out the glow of the pixies as they disappeared behind the trees. The only way I knew they were there was from their constant giggling.

  The girl flew out towards me and I swung my net at her, missing.

  “Nyah, nyah!” she taunted, making a face and wiggling her fingers at me. While I watched her flit about my phone dropped in front of me. I lunged for it when two more flying creatures rushed for my ankles, the branch between them tripping me up. My face planted into the ground and they laughed harder.

  I jumped to my feet and chased after them after grabbing my phone. If I was going to fall this much, I may as well fall and catch one of them. Running through the woods I swung at the pixies when they came into sight, but never got one. When I stopped to catch my breath I leaned against the net for support. Then I saw a familiar yellow butterfly land on the top of it, resting. Did butterflies come out at night? And when had it gotten so cold? I could just make out my breath in front of me, coming out in wisps. When the creature flew away I finally I stopped to clearly think about how to catch one of the pixies since flinging the net wildly wasn’t working.

  Listening to the sounds around me I tried to map where the pixies were.

  “One,” I whispered, “two…three!” The female pixie came at me again and this time when I swung at her I got her trapped inside the net against a tree.

  “Hey!” she yelled and beat against the net. In an explosion of yellow and green sparks the pixie disappeared. Her comrades weren’t too happy about that. The other three that had been tormenting me came out of hiding, angry expressions set. Guess they didn’t like that I had caught their friend.

  They seemed to glow brighter as they glared at me, slowly floating closer. A clicking resonated through the air and the pixies scattered, hushed screams coming from them. Other pixies came out of the trees and whisked past me, not caring that I had a net with me. One flew into the enchanted weapon and burst into sparks as the other one had.

  In a matter of seconds the world was silent. Not a single cricket chirped and the pixies were no longer laughing; when they passed by they all looked scared, terrified even. That was making me nervous. I held the net closer to me and took a wary step back.

  I heard the clicking again, this time it was further away, at least I thought it was. I knew I wasn’t alone but I didn’t know who or what else was out there. With the sound of beating wings a dark figure shot out of the shade and into the sky. I could only make out the shape of bats wings as it passed in front of the moon; they must have been at least four feet long and as it flew I could still hear clicking.

  Not bothering to stand there any longer I ran back the way I had come. I could no longer see whatever had flown into the air; I couldn’t even
see the ground beneath my feet. After a while I managed to find my way back to the clear patch of moonlight.

  “Liv!” I heard Luke call and he burst out of the trees.

  “Luke!” I said. “Did you see that?”

  He held up a jar filled with three pixies, banging on the sides.

  “We got them!” He said triumphantly. “Are you okay?” He took in my appearance.

  “Uh…yeah,” I said, taking a wary glance behind me. Maybe it was better to just not tell him. After all, I wasn’t even sure of what I saw and I did take a blow to the head minutes earlier. “Let’s get back to the car.”

  Somehow, we got back to the car and it was only then that I noticed Luke didn’t have his net with him, or his bag for that matter. I asked him what happened.

  “The other pixies got them,” he told me, his cheeks turning red in embarrassment, “it’s okay though, I got the jar back and we have the dust now, right?” I set my net into the backseat and Luke and I closed the car doors. We peered inside the jar at the three Eidolon’s, which seemed to have given up on getting out. They sat cross-legged in the jar, surrounded by a golden haze of dust. It coated the base of the jar and when the pixies saw us watching them they stood.

  “Let us out,” one demanded, “you have your dust, now let us out!” He pouted and crossed his arms, not enjoying that he had lost the game they had played on us. Luke looked to me, as if I would know what to do. I shrugged at him and cracked his window down, low enough for the pixies to get out. Carefully he opened the lid of the jar and they were gone, leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind them. Luke sneezed from the essence left behind and quickly rolled the window back up.

  “We got it,” I said with a smile. “We actually got it.” Now all that was left was the blood of the latest victim.