Midlife Witch Hunter (The Forty Proof Series Book 6) Page 8

  “And I still need you to do that.” I smiled. “You and Penny are going to take the money and get flights. A private one if you have to, then you will come with everyone else.”

  She huffed. “I could swim faster than a flight!”

  My eyebrows shot up. “You . . . really?”

  “Well, yeah!”

  I looked to Suzy for confirmation. “She could,” the blond siren said. “I can’t, but because she’s a river maid, she can use the currents and propel herself across the ocean in a matter of . . . well, I’m not sure how long.”

  Feish lifted her chin. “I bet I beat the plane to Paris.”

  I grabbed her and hugged her tightly. “The river runs not too far away from Roderick’s house, that’s what Eammon said. You’d better get going if you’re going to beat us there.”

  She gave a burbling squeal and took off running.

  “I still think I could have shrunk you all down,” Penny muttered.

  Eammon put a hand over his belly. “No. That cat spell was enough to leave me guts rumbling and angry for days, thank you very much.”

  I nodded. “And the last thing we need is for them all to return to normal size in the middle of the flight. Maybe another time, Penny. Who knows when we might need to be all teeny tiny? You could make the spell just in case.”

  Penny must have realized I was just humoring her because she huffed and then slumped into her chair, waving her cane at me. “You’d better go. We’ll be there as soon as we can. Try not to get into trouble before we arrive.”

  A round of hugs for my friends, and Sarge and I got on his bike, without a single piece of luggage. Then again, most of my things had burned up in the fire.

  I gripped his waist as we whipped around corners and the bike drifted across lanes. It was still better than Penny’s driving. Jinx, perched on his shoulder, screamed wheee! as he used his bike to maneuver through traffic. Kinkly clung to the back of my neck, hanging onto my pendant chain.

  As we approached the terminal, Sarge slowed. “Problem, Bree.”

  I looked over at where he pointed.

  “Are you ducking kidding me?”

  Why she didn’t pick a different form, I don’t know. But there was Monica—who was also working for the Dark Council—strutting around the entrance to the terminal. “Kinkly, can you sneak in, see what’s going on?”

  “Me too!” Jinx leapt off Sarge’s shoulder and took on the form of a seriously ugly pixy. She looked like a miniature goblin with wings. Her craggy face still had huge fangs, and her flight pattern was more bat than pixy.

  Kinkly shot away, and Jinx followed her. Sarge parked the bike just to the side of a big tour bus. “Why would she be here?” he grumbled.

  “To stop us?”

  “How do they even know you’re coming?” Sarge asked.

  The only people who should know were on the council. The only other person we’d told was Gerry, and I didn’t think for a second that it was her. That could only mean one thing. “No-face Bruce isn’t the only traitor. Someone else in the council works for the other side,” I said. “That has to be it.”

  We didn’t have to wait long. Kinkly came back first, Jinx close behind.

  “Go, go!” Kinkly was screeching. Sarge got the bike started back up, and as soon as Jinx landed on his shoulder, we were off.

  “What is it?” I yelled into the wind.

  “Monica is guarding the terminal. There is a spell, too, and it almost got us! It’s not snagging humans, but I think it grabbed another fairy.”

  “I saw it first!” Jinx yelled. “It’s stretched across the opening like a spider web. If any of us had gone in, we would have been immobilized. It’s keyed to supernaturals.”

  “Good job!” Sarge barked and Jinx wiggled happily on his shoulder, a tiny spider once more.

  Well duck me up and down on a pogo stick. Just like that, our plans had crumbled. Sure, we could try another airport, but how many would be rigged up like this one? Probably more than we wanted.

  “There has to be another way,” Sarge said over his shoulder. “We’ll just take a private plane with the others. Might take us a day but . . .”

  “A day could be too long,” I yelled back. “By then . . . they could have found Fossette.”

  Kinkly cleared her throat. “There is another way . . . but . . .” She pulled herself closer to my ear. “It’s through a darker path. The path of the demon fae.”

  Chapter

  Nine

  “I’m sorry, what did you just say?” I repeated back to Kinkly, because the words she’d spoken sounded so foreign, so ridiculous that I honestly wasn’t sure I’d heard her right.

  She cleared her throat and shouted into the wind. “Demon fae, different than the dark fae. There is a path through their realm. It has stops in major cities around the world. London. New York. Sydney. Paris. Cairo. Vancouver. Every continent has at least one doorway. Usually more, I think.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought you said, but then I thought no, no she didn’t say that. I must be losing my hearing.” I cupped a hand to my one ear. “You did not say demon fae.”

  Kinkly laughed as if I’d spun a great joke. “Ha! You are old! That’s why you thought you didn’t hear me right!” She winked and then nodded. Sarge slowed down once we were a good distance from the airport. “Yes, yes, demon fae. So little is known about them, even among our kind, that they are like a ghost story, a legend. But even if they are not real, the pathway is. It’s blocked, though, and it’s in the goblin city somewhere. That’s all I know.”

  I tapped Sarge on the waist. “Do you know anything about . . .” I swallowed hard. “. . . demon fae?”

  He shook his head. “No. I mean, I know about demons. You think your new friend might know anything?”

  I shrugged. It was possible that Damian or one of the other demons who’d helped us crush the zombie scourge might know, but my feeling was that if Kinkly didn’t think it was common knowledge, then it was likely the demons didn’t know about it. “Maybe, but we honestly don’t have time. We’re chasing our tails here.” I rubbed both hands over my face and then turned to my other friend. “Jinx? Do you know anything about demon fae?”

  She gave a slow nod from Sarge’s shoulder. “I’ve had only two dealings with them. They are uncommon. Many were killed out or absorbed into the other fae. They are far more bloodthirsty and prone to violence. I kinda like them, to be honest.”

  Killed or . . . absorbed. I scrunched my eyes shut. “Kinkly. How dangerous is it? Even if you don’t know much about them . . .” Only, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t so sure that part was true. I’d noticed that some supernaturals seemed bound by rules of their people. Maybe Kinkly knew more but couldn’t tell us more. That felt like what was happening, the way she wouldn’t look at me, the way her wings stuttered more than usual.

  She flew around our heads and then back to my shoulder, her wings brushing against my cheek. “We’ve faced worse. And I can say no more.”

  I snort-laughed and turned so I could look at her. “That is not comforting.”

  She lifted her hands up and shrugged. “It’s the truth. The path will be dangerous, but more so because we must go through Karissa’s realm to get to it. The entrance to the demon fae pathway is in the goblin city, like I said. After that, I’m honestly not sure what we will face. The tales I know are just that—tales. Maybe Bridgette could help?”

  The goblin city, where Crash ruled as the new king. Where I’d had to face down a rather large monstrous goblin.

  “Sarge, you got your phone?”

  He handed me his cell. I dialled Roderick’s number. The vampire picked up before the first ring was even done.

  “Yes?”

  “Monica is holding the airport terminal hostage. Kinkly is suggesting we use the pathway of the demon fae to get to Paris. You got a better option? Something, oh, I don’t know, less ducking dangerous?” I asked my question and then literally held my breath.

  Roderick was quiet. “Let me check something.”

  There was a click. “I think the bastard put me on hold!” I grumbled. Then again, said bastard was, in his own way, trying to help.

  I looked at Sarge. “Any other ideas? I mean, we can’t swim like Feish.”

  “She’s going to be pissed if she gets there before we do.” He smirked. I laughed.

  “No, she’ll be incredibly proud of herself for beating us.” I sighed. “We could drive out of state, to another airport?”

  Roderick clicked back on. “Bree. The council is in agreement. The pathway of the demon fae is viable. Missy said that’s the route Crash would have taken, and since the magic in Faerie is changing, the time differential should work in your favor.”

  He’d said a lot of words that I wasn’t fully sure I was comprehending. Maybe I was just tired. Maybe I was slow. “They want us to use that path?”

  “They agree, as do I, that time is of the essence. Use the route that Crash has opened. Be swift, take a guide, and do not linger. I must go, there is unrest here.” Roderick hung up on me before I could ask about driving to another state.

  I sighed, not seeing any other option. “Okay, time is of the essence, as Roddy put it. Unless there are major objections, I think that’s our best option. Kinkly, lead the way.”

  And all of that is why our entire contingent wound up standing in front of the fountain in Forsyth Park with our neighbor goblin, Bridgette, as our guide. She’d confirmed there was indeed a path—a locked path. Sure, Roderick said Crash had opened it. But Bridgette seemed wary. The goblin’s big eyes kept sweeping over the group of us, all with at least one backpack, her mouth moving as she counted us again. Penny, Suzy, Eric, Sarge, Robert, Eammon and, of course, me. Eight if you counted Bridgette and chose not to count Kinkly and Jinx.

  “Oh dear, this is a lot,” Bridgette whispered as she wrung her hands. “I don’t know how we are going to get past all the goblins.”

  “You sure you want to come with us? You could just give us directions,” I asked her again. Because I didn’t want to force her hand.

  “You need me.” Bridgette blinked up at me. “You won’t be able to get back through the tunnels of the demon fae without me. The inscriptions are what take you to different places, but you have to know what you’re doing . . . and you have to be able to read goblin.”

  “We also need at least one more person with a connection to fae in order to get this many people through safely,” Kinkly said, pointedly not looking at me. Me, who’d given up that ability to bring Robert back. “Kind of like a sandwich. Everyone who doesn’t belong, stuck between a couple of fae. That’s doable. And Bridgette leans to the darker side of things, so that’s helpful too. You know, being able to read goblin and all.”

  I pulled myself back to the moment.

  The splashing of the fountain was lulling, and I found myself breathing in the smells of the park, as if . . . well, as if I weren’t going to be coming back to my home in Savannah for a good long time. That’s what it felt like—an unexpected goodbye. I wasn’t sure whether there was anything to it.

  “Gran,” I said. “You with us?”

  My bag moved, but there was no answer. Gran was still pissed at me for not bringing her back to life.

  Penny swung her cane at me, which I dodged easily. “She’s in your hip bag, and you know it. Asking her ten times won’t change that!” Yup, she was jittery too. We all were.

  I put a hand to my bag. I hated that she’d gone in there, yet at least she’d come. Having my gran with me meant the world. She bumped under my hand but still wouldn’t answer me. “Stop fussing, girl. Just move quick.”

  Kinkly fluttered around our heads. “I’ll go first. Bridgette will bring up the rear until we get to the tunnels.”

  Without another word, she dove through the splashing water, and my friends followed her. Feish was going to be pissed to find out we’d all traveled together after all, and she could have come with us. I smiled at the thought, mostly because I missed her.

  Everyone went through, with the exceptions of Robert, Bridgette, and me. Robert held his hand out to me, and I took it.

  “I’m sorry,” he said softly. He’d barely spoken to me, almost as if he’d gone back to his skeletal form. “You lost this part of yourself to bring me back. I’m so sorry.”

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t using it anyway. Though I kind of wished she’d just asked for my ovaries. They’re out of date.”

  His lips twitched. “Expired already?”

  “Completely past their best before.” I tightened my grip on his hand. “My friends are worth fighting for, Robert. And you’re one of my best friends. Cross my heart.”

  His eyes searched my face, as if he wasn’t sure I was telling the truth.

  Bridgette cleared her throat. “We should go.”

  I tugged Robert along with me. We needed a chance to talk, to really . . . I mean, we should probably address that not-quite-a-dream kiss. Maybe it hadn’t meant anything to him, beyond the need for connection after being alone for so many years. In truth, that would make me happy. I needed a good friend. One that I could trust.

  We jumped through the fountain together and landed in the land of the fae.

  I took a breath, and the world kind of . . . fuzzed.

  The beauty of the world—the smells, the way the air felt against my skin—everything was so heightened that I struggled to breathe and see through it. We stood in a field filled with flowers and grass that brushed against the middle of my thighs. Each blossom had its own glittering color that ran the spectrum of the rainbow. I took a breath, and I swear the flowers actually dipped toward me, a breeze pushing their scents my way and up my nose. Lilac, vanilla, rose, lily, and wisteria. They were like a drug, and I drew in the smells hard enough that my brain rattled and my legs tried to buckle. The only thing that kept me on my feet was my hold on Robert, who didn’t seem to be as deeply affected.

  Damn it, was this what everyone else felt like here? A quick look at my friends, and I could see that they were also being hit with the sensations of this place—well, those who did not have fae blood anyway. I swallowed and shook my head to clear my thoughts.

  “Let’s go.” I pulled it together, though I sounded like I’d had one too many pulls on the whiskey bottle. “Post haste, as Stark would say.”

  Kinkly fluttered around. “Yes, let’s go. Karissa’s spies will be watching. We must hurry.”

  As before, Bridgette stayed back with me and Robert, kind of herding us along.

  In order to keep myself from losing it completely, lying down in the field of flowers and just letting the fae world take me, I dove right into the hard questions. Topics that would keep us both occupied.

  “Who is Eleanor?” That was the name of the woman whose grave he’d always hung around in the cemetery where I’d found him. He’d called her a friend. But seeing as that was one of the only words he had in his skeletal vocabulary, it could mean a lot of things.

  Robert didn’t exactly pull his hand away from me. But he relaxed his grip as if he wanted to.

  “She . . . was my wife.”

  Okay. About on par with what I’d suspected.

  “And did you like her? I mean. I was married, and look at what that got me.” I smiled to soften the words. Because I really wanted Robert to open up so we could get to know each other on a deeper level. I mean, did he want to bring her back from the dead? Was she walking around the way he used to, someone else’s skeletal helper?

  Robert glanced at me, then looked away. “Bree. It was a marriage of convenience. She was a guardian, like me. It made us stronger to be together. She was my friend.”

  Friend.

  Like I was his friend.

  “Huh.” Yup, that was my initial response, because the ever-present pit in my stomach opened up a bit wider. I didn’t want anything but friendship from him. I wasn’t about to get hitched for a power boost. “Interesting.”

  Robert tightened his hand on mine and smiled. “Not like that, Bree. Not like . . . why are you asking?”

  “Because she was obviously special to you. And it’s not like we’ve been able to have conversations beyond the look out, that monster’s going to eat your soul variety prior to now.” I sighed and a tall stalk of dandelion fluff blew away. Okay, it literally flew away. They must’ve been tiny bugs or something. I squinted. No, just fluff.

  Maybe I was seeing things differently here now that I’d lost my connection to the fae world? No, not lost. Given up.

  “Are you sad?” Robert squeezed my hand gently, pulling my attention back to him.

  “I’m just trying to work out where your head’s at.” I squeezed his hand. “I need a friend. That’s it, Robert.”

  He laced his fingers with mine. “I’m here, Bree. I am your friend, and hopefully I will be able to help you through the challenges you seem to draw to you.” He smiled. “And maybe, once the challenges are gone, perhaps . . . then there could be something more for us.”

  I forced a smile. Because I didn’t want something more with him. No matter that his kiss had been good. No matter that he was a handsome man . . . he didn’t call to me. Not even as a rebound from Crash. I . . . was I even looking for a relationship at all? I rather liked not being beholden to anyone.

  I pulled my hand away. “Okay. Perhaps. Let’s see how this goes.” Then I motioned for him to go ahead of me. “You have good instincts. Why don’t you walk up there with Kinkly? I’ll keep the back spot.”

  Robert’s jaw ticked and one eyebrow went up in a perfect arch that mine could never duplicate. “You’re dismissing me?”

  I shrugged and then smiled as I raised both eyebrows. “Perhaps.”

  His lips twitched upward, the frown gone in a flash, and I knew then we’d be okay. Gut feelings were my jam lately. Regardless of what role he filled—friend or friend with benefits, if that was what he was into—Robert was with me on this journey. He leaned in and kissed my cheek, then jogged toward Kinkly’s position at the front of the group.

  I fell back a little more, and Bridgette kept stride with me, her big eyes very definitely on my face.