Even if we reach Minnie in time, the barrier will prevent us from rescuing her. My blood pumps loudly in my ears. All I can see is the motionless beetle. Arnold says something, but I’m not listening. All I want to do is end this terrible device and this disgusting farce of a ceremony, starting with Arnold. I step toward him with rage in my heart.
CHAPTER XVIII
Strong fingers squeeze my forearm.
“There you are, Merry,” Jen says with warning in her voice. “I was looking for you. Hi, Arnold.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t remember your name,” Arnold says.
“Don’t worry about it, I’m pretty new. It’s Carly. I just dyed my hair, maybe it’s that. See you later.”
She drags me from the room. I resist only for a moment. Hurting Arnold would definitely fall under the vendetta category, and I don’t have time to waste attacking him, nor do I want to risk losing Jen’s help.
Jen opens the door to the next room and shoves me inside. It’s the room of reflection, empty but for a few cushions on the floor. I pick one up and throw it across the room, where it bounces off the wall with a soft thump. It does nothing to lessen the storm of emotions raging inside me.
“March has the grail. Minnie’s already captured. They’re setting up a barrier that strips the lauvan off anyone who crosses it.” I choke, thinking of Minnie scared and alone and with no idea of what she’s in the middle of. My voice is strangled-sounding. “I can’t save her.”
I squeeze my eyes shut so I don’t have to see Jen’s stricken face. Her mouth is open but she’s at a loss for words. What is there to say? The woman I love―there’s no denying it anymore―will die. They always do, but not this soon. Not before she’s had a chance to live. Not before I’ve had a chance to show her that I love her.
“There must be something we can do,” Jen whispers.
My mind races, but it only encounters dead ends. Unless…
“I’m getting the location from Arnold,” I say. “He knows where they have Minnie, or where they will take her tomorrow. He will tell me, one way or another.”
I don’t wait for Jen’s reaction before I turn to the door. I don’t want her censure, not over something I know I must do. If it’s a choice between Minnie’s life or Arnold’s, there is no contest.
I burst into the amulet room, and the door crashes against the wall. Arnold looks up with a startled expression from his zipped backpack.
“Tell me,” I hiss. I pace toward him with measured steps. My expression must strike fear, for he backs away with dread in his eyes. “Where is the ceremony?”
“If you weren’t told, you’re not supposed to know,” he squeaks out with conviction despite his fear.
Swift as a snake, I wrap my fingers around his neck and force him to press against the wall. His hands grip my wrist uselessly.
“Why?” he gasps. His eyes widen. “You want to stop it.”
“Of course, you imbecile. You’re going to kill an innocent woman. My woman.” I squeeze my fingers tighter in the wave of anger that washes over me. Arnold’s hands leave my wrist.
“We’ve come too far to be stopped by you,” he wheezes.
Before I can react, a boiling mass of silvery air lauvan strikes me in the face with the force of a gale. I release my stranglehold on Arnold’s neck in a futile effort to protect myself from the hurricane that beats at my watering eyes and whips projectiles into my stomach. I stumble back, blind and winded. Jen’s yells dimly pierce the thunderous roar.
Then, silence. I wipe my streaming eyes on my sleeve and take deep, panting breaths.
“Merry, are you okay?” Jen says. I wave in her direction.
“Fine,” I gasp. “Where did he go?”
“He escaped. I tried to pepper spray him, but he pushed me over before I could take it out. I guess he has an air spirit connection?”
“It would appear so.” I stand upright with a groan. I feel very old, both from the attack and from the weight of my failure. “My last hope is gone.”
“It’s not over yet.” Jen stands with her hands on her hips and glares at me fiercely. “The ceremony isn’t until tomorrow. The others are still searching for clues. It’s late―let’s catch a few hours sleep at your place and then save Minnie at first light.”
I stare at Jen’s fierce face, then I hang my head in defeat. Centuries of experience, and I can’t think my way out of this one. How can I reach Minnie?
***
I drive to my apartment in a daze. Jen glances at me from time to time but refrains from speech. There’s not much to say, after all. My eyes are dry and rough with tiredness, and headlights of oncoming cars make me squint. Damn the frailties of my human body. If I had any leads, any hint of Minnie’s whereabouts, my weariness would be forgotten. But with nothing to strive for, my body asserts its needs.
Alejandro and Liam look up with hope when we enter the apartment but wilt when Jen shakes her head.
“No March, no grail, no answers,” I say in a hollow voice. “Please tell me you have something.”
“We’ve combed the list of Potestas members you found,” Liam says in an apologetic tone. “They either don’t respond―presumably they’re already at the location―or they know nothing about it.”
“We’re sure they don’t know,” Alejandro says in a tired voice when I open my mouth to question their certainty. “Wayne went and asked a few in person. He got rough, and they still didn’t talk.”
I stride to the window and look at the city with unseeing eyes and a sinking heart. There are so many places Minnie could be.
“Where would they take her?” I whisper.
Wayne enters the front door.
“I have a cop friend,” he says as if continuing a conversation. “Maybe she could look up the phone numbers of the members who aren’t answering, figure out where their cell phones are.” He rubs his bald head in distraction. “Is that possible?”
“I don’t know. And only if your friend doesn’t have a strong ethical code,” I say.
“I can convince her. She’s at work by eight in the morning.”
“That’s great, Wayne,” Alejandro says with forced cheer. “We will be at the station at eight to make sure.”
“My geologist friend contacted me again,” Wayne says. “These tremors we’ve been having, they are much more frequent than he expected. Do you think they have anything to do with the ceremony? Spirits, and all that?”
“Yeah.” I rub my eyes. “No doubt. This is the big moment for the spirits, being released into our world. They’re bound to get frisky. Not to mention the power needed for the ceremony.”
“It’s all coming together, isn’t it?” Jen whispers.
“I’m going to check Anna’s house,” I say. Four pairs of surprised eyes look at me. “I doubt she’s there, but I have to do something.” I unlatch the patio door and step out.
“Merry,” Jen calls out.
“I won’t be long.”
On the balcony, my fingers seek out the necessary lauvan. A moment later, my falcon-form thrusts upward with powerful wingbeats into the night sky.
Stars blaze overhead, far brighter with my bird eyes. I catch an updraft and circle higher. When the city is merely dots of light below, I aim my wingbeats toward Anna’s house.
I’ve flown here in darkness before, and my memory does not fail me. Within minutes, I land on soft grass before an imposing older house on a quiet street graced with tall deciduous trees. I release my lauvan and dissolve into my human form with a sigh of relief.
The house is dark, but that is not unexpected at this hour. Curtains on the second floor are closed, so the only way I can make sure Minnie isn’t here is by breaking in. I don’t wish to alert the neighbors with cracking glass―they are far closer to the house than in March’s neighborhood―so I flit to the front door and begin to work on the strands that surround the lock. There aren’t many, and it’s a matter of moments before the deadbolt slides across.
The hall
is dark, and the moonless night sheds no light over the threshold. I leap up the stairs with light feet and swiftly check the rooms for inhabitants. All beds are empty, and the closets as well. I wouldn’t put it past Anna to shove Minnie in the back of one.
The rooms downstairs are similarly vacant, and a dank crawlspace yields no Minnie. Outside, I transform once again. It’s astounding that I’m able to fly at all with such a heavy heart and lead in my stomach.
I glance at Minnie’s dark lauvan that travel from my center to the ground and close my eyes briefly in pain. I must find her tomorrow, whatever it takes.
***
My balcony is easy to spot, since it is the only one occupied. Jen has pulled out a couple of chairs and sits in one with her feet on the railing and a mug of tea clasped between her palms.
I circle down and transform with perfect timing to land heavily in the empty chair to the sound of Jen’s gasp. I slouch and reach for the bottle of beer Jen has thoughtfully left for me on the floor.
“Do people ever get used to that?” she says.
“Eventually.” I take a deep pull from the bottle. Effervescence tickles my throat pleasantly, until I remember that Minnie will have no more such pleasurable moments unless Potestas is stopped. The beer turns bitter in my mouth and I don’t take another sip.
Jen doesn’t speak for a long time, not until I finally do.
“I was with Isabella for forty years,” I say at last. “She was the daughter of a butcher. Her favorite color was yellow. She adored sunsets, dogs, and marzipan. When she danced, her eyes would glow with a light to rival the sun. I held her as the spasms of death ravaged her body, from a fever that spread like wildfire that winter.” I take another sip of my beer. The bitterness is fitting, after all. I sigh. “How did it come to this? I truly wanted to avoid love and the heartbreak that inevitably follows. How did Minnie sneak her way in?”
“Isn’t it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?” Jen says after a sip of her tea.
“Perhaps that applies to some, but I have had more than my share of loving and losing.”
We remain in silence for a few minutes, the only sound coming from an occasional car on the road behind my building.
“I don’t have much comfort to offer,” Jen says finally. “Not beyond the promise that we will do everything we possibly can to find Minnie. But maybe you’d like a distraction?”
“How so?” Not much could distract me now, but I’m content for Jen to try.
“I’ve been dreaming of you,” Jen says with a smirk.
“Not you, too?” I groan, then sit up straight. “Wait, what kind of dreams?”
Jen looks perplexed at my reaction but answers readily.
“They are like something out of history class. It must be from you telling me about your past, and all my questions. Now my brain is fired up and making up all sorts of crazy stuff.” She sips her tea with a pensive air. “They’re every night, though. For over a week, now.”
I sit back and contemplate. First Minnie, then Alejandro, and now Jen dream of my past. Alejandro touched the grail, but what about Jen and Minnie? Am I sloughing off lauvan that carries memories with them?
“Minnie and Alejandro have said something similar,” I say slowly. “In all my long years, I’ve never come across this. I don’t know what to say.”
“Oh, well, they don’t do any harm.” She yawns so widely that her jaw cracks. “Some are a bit gory, but nothing I can’t handle. I’d like to see them now, in fact. Let’s get some sleep so we have energy for our search tomorrow.”
“You take the bed,” I say. “I’m used to hard surfaces.”
CHAPTER XIX
Dreaming
Running. Branches lashing at my naked skin. Rain plasters hair to my forehead. Rain dripping
dropping
dribbling
sizzling on my fevered flesh. Dogs howl―wolves―dogs―in my head?
I slip in mud. Sprawl headlong. Mud between fingers, toes, in my ears, hair. The shock stops my mad rush. Why fight the mud?
Oozing under my nails
cool, grounded
part of me
Voices sing, deep grating sounds, no words but I recognize it all the same
hypnotizing
mesmerizing
part of me
Lauvan of the earth wrap around me, tighter than a mother’s embrace. This is where I belong. Voices like a lullaby. I close my eyes.
Nimue’s pale face. Bloodless. Lifeless. Dead because of me, I who will not die.
I surge from the mud with a squelch. I run. Rain washes my body but cannot wash Nimue’s face away. I run to her. I run from her. If I run fast enough, her death face will leave me alone. I can leave the guilt beyond guilt behind.
I run.
CHAPTER XX
I sleep terribly, from a combination of worry over Minnie and restless dreams. I hate dreaming of my period of madness. It is unsettling and always reminds me of the pain of losing Nimue, so quickly on the heels of losing Arthur. I spiraled into a sort of wild lunacy and roamed the forest for years before I could claw my way to normalcy again. By that time, even more of my friends had died.
But the dream had a purpose. I sit bolt upright from my blanket on the floor. The spirits. That’s what the voices in my dream must have been, although I didn’t know it at the time. Why do I always forget about the spirits? They will know where the ceremony will take place. And after previous encounters, I’m sure I am strong enough to force them to answer. I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to contact the spirits. The spirits want to come to this world so badly? They’ll have to get through me first.
I rise, careful not to wake Alejandro, Wayne, and Liam sprawled on the couch and floor of my living room, and find my satchel. The amulet that Anna gave me is still there. I don’t know if I need it to contact the spirits, but it can’t hurt to have a little help.
We are far too high in the apartment, however. I know, instinctually, that I must be on the ground to feel the earth spirits best. That, and there are very few earth lauvan up here. I slide out of the front door without a sound. While I wait for the elevator, a throat clears behind me.
“Going somewhere?”
Jen stands with arms crossed beside me. I nod curtly.
“Getting answers from the earth spirits. They will tell me what I need to know, or there will be consequences.”
Jen nods and says nothing else, but when the elevator arrives, she steps on board with me.
Once outside, my shaking fingers pull the wristband from my pocket. Earth lauvan swirl around my hands and gently touch the strands there. I take a deep breath, then close my eyes and send my mind into the strands as I do with a lauvan cable.
To my surprise, presences immediately surround me. Inquisitive prods touch my consciousness, but I don’t have time for niceties. With all my will, I visualize grabbing one of the presences and pulling it out of the stream of strands.
Chaos reigns. Presences batter my mind with the force of pelting stones, but I don’t let go. The presence I contain rages back and forth, rough as rock and as implacable as a mountain, but I’m stubborn too. One by one, the other presences flee and leave their fellow in my grasp. Did I frighten them? Good.
I open my eyes and pull the presence out with me. I have no idea what will happen, but I have one now and I can’t let go, for Minnie’s sake. This needs to end.
The strands that entwine around my wristband bubble and grow. My fingers quickly lay the wristband on the ground. A figure emerges from the strands, its shape vaguely humanoid. Its rough features give the impression of fear and annoyance.
“You have ensnared me,” it says in a deep, gravelly voice. Jen gasps at the sound. I smile briefly in grim satisfaction.
“Yes. I have questions that must be answered.”
“You have been told, everything will be revealed by the successor once the ceremony is complete.” The voice sounds slightly petulant. I suppo
se these spirits aren’t used to being bested.
“That’s not good enough. You’re planning to sacrifice a human to complete the ceremony, and I can’t let that happen. She is precious to me.”
“You could choose another,” it says. “But with the risk of angering the successor.”
“Who is this successor?” I mash my fist into my palm. Again and again I hear the same story. I need answers, and I need results. Minnie is counting on me.
Even though its features lack the true expressions of a face, it still manages to look surprised.
“You truly do not know? I assumed you were disregarding the elemental side of yourself on purpose, not out of ignorance.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The successor is one of the fundamental earth elementals. I am but a minor elemental compared to the successor. Earth elemental lives are long compared to the others―fire elementals last for only weeks―but yet we too must be reborn on occasion. The predecessor was old, and when he died, the successor was reborn out of his essence. The balance must always be kept, the same number of elementals always.”
“While this is undoubtedly fascinating, what the hell does it have to do with me?”
“I will come to that, but you cannot understand without knowing what comes before. Long before you were born, we elementals moved freely between our plane and your physical world. Some even donned human forms and procreated with humans. But with that procreation came imbalance to the world. We are not meant to create more of ourselves, we are only reborn from the death of another. The fundamental elementals gathered all of us and constrained us to our plane of existence, and destroyed all those creations that remained, to restore the balance.
“The predecessor grew restless and found a way to come to the physical world. There, he formed a human body, and met a human woman. When the child was born, the joining of human and spirit, and in a few years grew into his powers, the other fundamentals knew what had been done. Rather than having his child destroyed, the predecessor agreed to enter a state of stasis, a sort of half-life, in order to restore the balance and allow the child to live. He stayed in that state until his death.
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