Americana Fairy Tale (42 page)

“I did?” Ringo asked with disbelief.

Taylor’s shoulders slumped with Honeysuckle’s confession. “I thought you hated me.”

Honeysuckle folded her hands in her lap. “I admit I was under a lot of stress with Atticus. I get jealous when I have too much on my mind.”

Ringo fluttered to her side and hugged Honeysuckle to him. He stroked her silver hair. “Oh, honeybee.”

“So, where do we go from here?” Corentin asked. “Ringo can’t snap his fingers and take us directly to Idi and Atticus.”

“Can you?” Taylor asked Ringo.

Ringo shrugged. “Taylor may have lifted the limits on my magic, but even that is beyond me.”

Phillipa took another breath of the fresh Michigan air. She smiled. “We make them come to us. With Honeysuckle and I with you, you guys will be driving with tempting neon targets all over the truck.”

Taylor steadied his resolve. It was a lot to take in all at once. He still wasn’t sure how he’d react when he came back into contact with his brother. He had to make a decision, and he had to make it now. Even if he had been the one to propose killing his own brother, the idea made him sick to his stomach. He hoped he’d think of something when the time came.

“You okay to drive?” Taylor asked Corentin, determination filling his voice.

Corentin nodded. “I guess we’re on the road again.”

S
PEED
M
E
T
OWARD
D
EATH

Somewhere on the Open Road….

June 13

P
HILLIPA
SQUIRMED
in the backseat of the truck. “Are these bloody Wet Wipes on the floor?”

Honeysuckle maintained her flight in the central cabin. “These conditions are atrocious,” she said, then pointed a shaking finger at Ringo, who lounged on the dash. “I wouldn’t dare touch anything in here.”

Corentin and Taylor glanced at each other and smirked.

Taylor tilted his head back onto the front passenger headrest. “The truck right now is the least of your worries.”

“Why didn’t you clean the truck with your magic?” Corentin arched a brow at Ringo.

Ringo sat up with a huff. “Do I look like your maid? You clean this shit out.”

Grunting his disapproval, Corentin leaned forward and flicked Ringo in the back of the head with a finger. Ringo jolted with a start and rubbed his head. He scowled at Corentin in return.

Taylor seemed relaxed, content to watch the ever-shifting scenery. It was likely Corentin had gone around the bend with him, but it didn’t bother him anymore either. He caught Phillipa in the rearview mirror as she pressed her fingers to the passenger side window. Her lips pursed into an expression of childlike wonder as the landscape changed. First the painted mesas of the Southwest rolled by, and those gave way into driving up the mountain roads of the Appalachians, followed by cruising over a long coastal bridge overlooking the blue-green water of the Gulf of Mexico.

“Is it always like this?” Phillipa asked in awe.

“It used to be really unnerving,” Corentin said. He smiled at Taylor, and Taylor wrinkled his nose in response. “But it depends on who you’re traveling with.”

Ringo pointed a finger high over his head. “Let me state for the record, before these two kids got lobotomized with love, they used to be major league assholes to each other,” Ringo said in a booming voice, as if he were addressing a court. His shoulders slumped. “And it was constant arguing. Constant.
Coooonnnnstaaaant
,” Ringo said in an exasperated groan.

“We argued?” Corentin asked Taylor.

Taylor swatted at Ringo. “You weren’t supposed to tell him.”

“Gotcha,” Corentin said with a grin. He caught Taylor squirming out of the corner of his eye. “It’s in my notes.”

Ringo chuckled. “None of your secrets are safe, kiddo,” he said to Taylor.

Honeysuckle crossed her arms, and her wings continued to buzz in a constant hum. “Is this what you’ve done all this time? Chat your hours away?”

“And drive off bridges,” Ringo said.

“And cliffs,” Taylor said.

“And get into fistfights,” Corentin said.

“Don’t forget the elephant,” Phillipa said, and the three men fell silent.

Taylor put his cheek into his palm. “I wish there was something we could do for Margate City…,” he said with a longing sigh.

Corentin frowned. The dread rolled through him in a prickling chill.

Instead, Phillipa took the lead. She slumped against the seat. “Now that Idi involved mundanes, I think we’ll have much more to fear in the coming years than just the Witchking himself.”

Corentin flexed his fingers over the steering wheel. Unfurling them, then curling them again. “With him gone, something worse will slip in to take his place.”

Taylor took a shuddering breath, and Corentin sensed his unease. He reached out and patted Taylor’s thigh. Taylor clutched Corentin’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “This is going to work, right?” Taylor asked. “We’ll stop them?”

Something darted over the landscape across Corentin’s line of sight. He jerked his hand away from Taylor and then slapped it back to the steering wheel. Corentin tensed in his seat. “Check your belts, everyone.” Corentin scanned the shifting scenery. “Because I think we’re about to find out.” A dark shape skipped across Corentin’s peripheral vision.

Taylor jerked in his seat, as did Phillipa, and they all scanned the landscape.

“Do you guys see that?” Phillipa asked. “It’s moving too fast for me to see….”

Taylor nodded. “I’m trying to make it out.”

Corentin kept his eyes on the road but kept seeing the dark shape slip along like a glitch on a TV screen. “Can you pixies help us out?” Corentin asked in a calm tone. He already had an idea he wasn’t going to like what they were going to see.

Ringo nodded and fluttered to Honeysuckle’s side. They linked hands and took a breath in unison. Ringo kept an even expression. He met his wife’s gaze. “Just be cool. I’m with you.”

Honeysuckle’s chest rose and fell with another breath. “Okay,” she whispered.

Taylor, Corentin, and Phillipa kept their attention focused on the road ahead. Taylor curled his fingers over his seat belt. Phillipa clung to both Taylor and Corentin’s headrests.

“Of course, night would fall….” Corentin narrowed his eyes into the dark.

He clicked on his headlights.

Nothing happened.

Corentin frowned. “Junk heap,” he muttered.

In unison, the pixies snapped their fingers as Corentin clicked on the brights.

And there was Idi himself in his vessel of the all-American Charles, sitting cross-legged on the hood of the truck, facing them.

Idi’s face broke into a demented grin, his cheeks cracking like plaster as he did so. The wind tousled his blond spikes, and wisps of his hair loosened and fluttered away on the breeze. “Hi,” he said. His voice rattled in a demonic growl.

“Smile,” Corentin said in a chipper tone. “You’re roadkill.”

Corentin slammed his foot on the brake, and the truck jerked to a sudden stop. The tires screeched as they laid long trails of rubber.

Idi flew from the truck, going airborne, and crashed to the street fifty feet ahead. He didn’t move.

Taylor and Phillipa looked at each other as Corentin threw the truck into reverse.

“Gotta make sure,” Corentin said with such grimness there was no mistake what he meant.

Taylor and Phillipa sat in silence as Corentin backed up at least a hundred fifty feet. He threw the truck into drive and hit the gas. The engine roared to life as the truck bolted down the interstate, headed for a fleshy speed bump. The needle tipped to ninety in the last twenty-five feet to Idi.

Corentin gritted his teeth as the truck smacked into Idi’s body. There was a sickly but far too satisfying crunch under the tires.

Honeysuckle squealed, and Ringo hugged her to him.

Taylor fixed Corentin with an angry glare. “Do it again.”

Corentin nodded and threw the truck into reverse. “As you command, my Princess,” he hissed. Corentin hit the gas again, and the truck jerked back, then finally collided with Idi’s lifeless body in a wet crackle.

Phillipa patted Corentin’s shoulder. “For me.”

Corentin threw the truck into drive once more. “As you wish, your highness,” he said in a low growl and put the pedal to the floor.

One more pleasing, crunchy thump followed, and they sped onward down the interstate, leaving Idi’s body behind.

Taylor slapped his hands to his face. “It wasn’t just that easy, was it?”

“Nope,” Phillipa said.

“Dammit,” Taylor said. He grunted in frustration.

“We just cracked his shell off,” Corentin said and scanned the landscape as dawn approached again. “Goddammit,” he muttered. “Take the wheel, Taylor.”

Taylor seemed to know what he was asking before Corentin had to fully explain. The day changeover this time was like buckshot to the gut. Corentin’s whole body contracted as he hacked for air. Taylor slid across the seat and pressed himself close to Corentin’s side to accommodate a better grip on the wheel. The truck swerved in a severe curve to the left and right. Phillipa planted her hands between the two back windows to hold herself steady. Ringo held Honeysuckle and showed her how to drift with the movement and not get flung about.

“We got company,” Phillipa said and pointed out to the open road.

Corentin fought for air and struggled to take the wheel again. Taylor sensed his crippled state and did the best he could at keeping them on the road.

In the distance, Idi stood in the middle of the road. He brushed off the last flecks of Charles that clung to him. He shook off his hand, and the crisp shell of white human skin clattered to the street like shattering pottery. Idi’s true flesh, the glimmering obsidian scales, flashed with iridescence in the truck’s headlights.

An impossible pressure built inside Corentin’s chest as he clung tight to Taylor. In turn, Taylor yelled something to Ringo. A hard punch to the back of Corentin’s seat made him hack up the last bit of darkness. The relief of air flooded in. The pressure in Corentin’s chest faded as he relaxed, but he was exhausted from choking.

Phillipa ran her fingers through Corentin’s hair. “You can thank me about the Heimlich later,” she said. “Now hold on.”

Corentin coughed one last time. He gripped the wheel and steeled his resolve. “I think he didn’t get enough of the truck the first time,” he said in a raspy growl. Corentin pressed the gas again, and the truck sped closer. Taylor slipped back to the passenger side and secured his seat belt once again.

In the distance, Idi raised a finger, and a thick humidity filtered into the truck.

Phillipa slapped her hands to the headrests and snarled in a horrific tone between terrified girl and hungry demon. “
Guys
!” she squealed as her skin rippled.

Taylor looked frantically between her and Corentin. “What’s happening?”

Ringo and Honeysuckle zipped to the forward cabin. Ringo held out his palms, and a shimmering gold barrier sparked into being between the front and backseat.

Honeysuckle gasped and pressed her fingers to her lips. “Child… your face….”

Corentin kept his expression even as he watched Phillipa fight for her fragile humanity in the backseat. They met gazes, and Phillipa nodded as the bones in her face shifted. Corentin clicked the automatic locks off.

“What’s happening!” Taylor screeched again as he pulled forward to the dash.

“Her curse,” Corentin said.

Idi’s terrible voice flowed through the cabin like cold tar. “I release you, Beast.”

Corentin stepped on the gas, pressing the needle to ninety again as he prepared to pulverize Idi with the mighty power of being built Ford tough. Taylor watched Phillipa all the while. Ringo maintained the barrier that protected them from the fearsome creature that tore its way from her flesh.

Phillipa’s smooth, unblemished skin, that of a sorority girl
sweetheart, shredded and peeled away, as insignificant as crêpe paper. Underneath, her true form birthed into existence. Slicked with the blood of the girl who held it captive, the dark-furred beast emerged as Phillipa slipped away. Two backswept horns punctured forth from the crown of her head, and her hair slipped away like a discarded wig. The horns grew, elongating down the length of the beast’s hunched back. The creature howled in agony, pounding its clawed hands at Ringo’s barrier.

Corentin floored the gas, but Idi never came any closer. Corentin frowned. Idi had expected Phillipa to finish them in Corentin’s own truck. He knew Idi hadn’t counted on Phillipa’s humanity holding on long enough for them to know she was a threat.

What remained of Phillipa’s mind led her to slap her flattened hand to Ringo’s barrier. Taylor pressed his hand to hers on the other side. Their eyes met, and Taylor’s lip trembled. Phillipa puffed a foggy breath on the barrier.

“I think you’re beautiful,” Taylor whispered.

Phillipa’s logic hung on by a shred. She turned and then shoved the back door open with her thick arms.

“What are you doing?” Taylor yelled to her.

“Saving us,” Corentin said flatly and then set the truck into a spinning drift.

The force threw Phillipa from the truck and into the darkness. The truck skidded three times into a perfect donut and coasted to a stop.

Phillipa was gone.

Taylor’s lip trembled, and Corentin snatched his hand.

“Taylor, Taylor, look at me,” Corentin said and pulled him close. “Things are going to get a lot harder from here. You’re going to see things and have to make choices that will seem unthinkable. But in time you will make peace with them.” He petted Taylor’s hair, and Taylor trembled against him. Corentin kissed the top of his head. “We just have to get to the point that we can survive to eventually make peace with our decisions. Okay? Right now, we’re making decisions. Can you make decisions?”

Taylor pulled back and brushed away a tear. He gave a shaky nod. “I can do that,” he said in a croak.

Corentin squeezed his hand. “Just don’t think about what happens after. Just make one choice and go to the next. Don’t stop making choices until there’s no more choices to make.” Corentin cast his attention to Ringo and Honeysuckle. “That goes for you guys too.”