Matchbox Girls (29 page)

Corbin’s hands left her and there was the sound of a scuffle. But even though they were beyond her field of vision, she could still feel them close to her. She could feel Severin’s eyes on her, and she thought they’d always be there. Even in her dreams... And finally, oblivion overwhelmed her.

She sat on her bed, Neath in her lap. As she stroked the kitten, it began to grow. “You knew,” she whispered. “You knew that he didn’t belong in here. Where did you come from, little cat?”

The kitten, now the size of a wildcat, flicked her ears and purred in answer.

The curtains were pulled closed, the door was locked, and there was nothing else in the room with them. And slowly, that absence began to frighten her. The fairy—the
faerie—
really was elsewhere.

She opened her eyes. She was stretched out on a couch, in an empty lobby. The kids were still holding her hands, kneeling on the floor beside her.

“Faeries,” she said. “I’ve been dreaming of a faerie since this started.” She looked beyond the kids to where Corbin was putting away his phone. “Where are we? I have to get to Branwyn. Can you take us through the Backworld?”

“No, I can't. I’ve called a car. How are you? What happened up there?”

“Using the demon’s enchantment while being chased by monsters is exhausting.” She tried for a wan smile. It was better than saying she’d fainted from shock.

“I saw that one. And the other new enchantment. Celestial magic. Let me guess—you met Ettoriel, and then AT introduced you to Tia.”

“Yes,” said Marley. The thought of AT made her want to cry. “Can you remove the curse?”

His look was pained. “I haven't gotten any faster at major workings in the last twenty-four hours. By the time I could remove them, they'd have worn down on their own.” He added, “You seem to be managing it, though. Just keep it up. What did you say about faeries?”

“You said there was a faerie glamour on Absolven. I’ve been talking to a faerie in my dreams since this began.”

Corbin regarded her thoughtfully. “How do you know it’s one of the fae?”

“Because it was six inches tall and looked like a male version of Tinkerbell? Tinker Chime, he calls himself.” She watched as his expression turned dubious. “It was a
dream
,” she snapped. “I doubt the inside of my head looks like my childhood bedroom, or that Neath is actually the size of a bobcat.” She looked around. “Where is Neath, anyhow?”

“I got her and your bag,” said Kari, lifting the sleeping ball of fur in her lap. “Mr. Corbin just wanted to leave her up there,” she added accusingly.

Marley glanced inquiringly at Corbin as she took Neath from Kari. He looked irritated. “What I wanted was for these precious darlings not to suddenly race away from me, especially while my hands were full of you.” His mouth tightened and he looked out the glass doors at the street beyond.

Kari said, “Marley doesn’t leave anybody behind,” as if that was all that needed to be said.

“Yes...” said Marley, giving Corbin a thoughtful look. Then she poked at the sleeping kitten until Neath made a protesting noise and clawed Marley’s leg. “Does she look any bigger to you?”

“What about this ‘faerie’?” insisted Corbin.

“The entity from my dream, whatever it was, talked to me on Branwyn's phone. She gave the phone to him. He's with her now, and I really don't like that. I wanted to protect her!” And the nasty little voice inside pointed out,
She didn't want to be protected. “
I have to get to Branwyn. She’s at Penny’s. Where’s this car?”

“What do you mean, at Penny’s? You mean where I rescued you before?”

“Yeah,” said Marley, standing up.

“The house of the girl who is channeling the angel?” Corbin looked downright angry.

Marley’s own anger began to trickle back. “How many more friends do you want me to lose to this?”

“This isn’t a game, Marley! You can’t do anything for them; you can’t save them by throwing yourself into danger.”

“You don’t know that! I have to try!”

“What did you do here? And AT’s gone now.”

Marley flinched like she’d been slapped, and then said, “I will push you off the balcony, you fuck. I can’t believe I traded her for you.”

“Neither can I,” he snapped. “I didn’t ask you to.”

“Why the hell are you even helping me?” She stared at him suspiciously. “That asshole Severin said something...”

Corbin narrowed his eyes. “Zachariah used me. He got my friends badly hurt. I need to understand why. And I need to have words with him about his behavior. That’s all.”

“Oh. So revenge for fallen friends is much better than trying to stop something from happening, than trying to
protect
people. Thanks. Then I’m going after him for Penny and AT. Are you going to get in my way?”

“But
we
hurt AT,” said Lissa, her voice very quiet.

The world twisted and stretched. Everything was wrong. The space around her distorted.

The curse struck.

There was a harsh, buzzing noise and the power in the building went out. The half-strength lights faded, and there was the acrid, rubbery smell of an electrical fire. Barely seconds later, smoke trickled out of a vent.

Corbin cursed steadily as he grabbed her stuff and her arm, and started dragging her out of the building. He paused at a fire alarm just long enough to pull it. The clanging helped Marley shake off the aftereffects of the curse striking through her, and she realized that just as Corbin was dragging her, she was dragging the children.

Out on the sidewalk, Kari wailed, “Why do we break everything?” The city street was nearly abandoned; in the distance, a few cars passed and a pedestrian ran along across the street and vanished down the block. It was disturbingly post-apocalyptic.

Corbin’s eyes flickered down to the children. “The Machine I summoned didn't mention breaking the Hush. And the Hush doesn't seem to affect their magic at all. That construct was impervious to it. I wonder...” And he trailed off.

Marley remembered what he’d discovered on the roof, about the children being a kind of event horizon to the celestial Machines. She smacked him in the chest, propelling him away from her. “Don’t even
think
it,” she snarled. “They’re
children
.”

Corbin looked at her, all angry coiled energy. For a moment, she wondered if she was going to have an actual fistfight with him. Distantly, in the sparking fogs of fear and bravado that now made up what could laughingly be called her mind, she recalled that only a few minutes ago, she’d been
worried
about him fighting with Severin. She
knew
she was being completely irrational, but she could no longer bring herself to care. Being rational hadn’t saved anybody.

A black limousine slid up to the curb. The back door popped open. Corbin looked between her and the car, and then he sighed. “Get in.”

-thirty-one-

T
he ride to Penny’s house took far too long, and was far too quiet. The girls didn’t protest the lack of car seats as they had before. They didn’t talk. They didn’t play with the buttons in the limo. They didn’t even cry. They just sat quietly in their seats, staring dully out the window.

Marley felt like she should address their fears, but her brain was full of sparks that flared and quickly died. She didn’t know what to say. She barely knew who she was. She tried to focus on suppressing the curse, so the limo didn’t have a catastrophic failure, and she could feel the suppression draining her.

Penny’s house looked utterly normal outside. Branwyn’s car was parked beside Penny’s, and the shades were drawn against the coming afternoon sun. Penny’s neighborhood showed more signs of life than the street where she’d found Corbin, although most people remained indoors to avoid the smoke. The fires were so far down the mountain now that she couldn’t see much of the orange line, just the black ashes marking where the flames had been.

They emerged from the limo. Corbin paused for a quick word with the driver, who left the car running. Then he looked up at the charred mountains and blinked. “I think you’re right,” he said quietly.

“About?”

He shook his head. “Faeries. I know there are other angels involved, but I don't think that was who was on the roof, using the pollution. Fae magic is elemental, and it's governed by the Covenant, not the Hush.” She stared at him, and he shook his head. “Let’s go see your friend.”

But when they knocked on the door, nobody answered. Marley tried the door, and then fumbled for her key to Penny’s house. Before she could find it, Kari reached up and touched the knob. There was a click.

Marley squeezed Kari’s other hand, and opened the door. “Penny? Branwyn?” she called, as she stepped inside. She didn’t expect an answer, and she didn’t get one. Dread nearly freezing her limbs, she walked down the short hall to the living room.

It was empty. The whole house was empty. It was perfectly tidy, the model house that Penny’s parents wanted it to be. But their model daughter was gone.

“Are you sure they were here?” Corbin asked, coming out of the kitchen.

Marley frowned. “I was sure...” But had Branwyn actually said?

“Marley,” said Lissa. She pointed at a delicate transparent sphere, balanced against a photo of Marley, Penny, and Branwyn laughing together. Marley stared at it, frozen, then rushed across the room to snatch at it.

As soon as she touched it, it burst. She saw the room as it had been.

Penny lay on the couch, so pale she seemed transparent. Branwyn stood near her, fierce and angry, facing something that Marley couldn’t quite make out. Light bent around it, much like the blurred figures on the roof who had controlled the pollution elementals. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me,” said Branwyn. Then, overlaid on the scene like a double exposure, a hole in the world gaped open. A winged sprite flitted through it.

The vision faded.

Marley’s breathing was ragged. “They took them. Chime took all of them. Zachariah. Penny. Branwyn. We even talked about how
faeries steal people.”

Corbin said slowly, “Fae elemental magic could be shielding Ettoriel from the Hush. That fire’s producing a huge amount of power. But why would they be helping an angel? The Covenant limits them tremendously and they hate the angels for inflicting it on them. And angels hate fae magic because it's parasitical. So... why?”

“Desperation? I'd use whatever power
I
could get right now.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t understand anything. But I know where to find answers.” She knelt down in front of Kari. “You felt the door in the fire once. Can you feel a door to the Backworld where the faeries live?” Slowly, Kari nodded. Marley took a deep breath. “Can you open it?”

Kari hesitated. “Is that where Uncle Zach is?”

“Yes,” said Marley, absolutely certain.

Kari’s gaze went far away.

In an undertone, Corbin said, “Marley, the valence event is passing soon. Technically, by still being alive, you're winning. In a day or two, you'll have time again.”

Marley didn’t even look at him, her gaze fixed instead on the patch of air where Kari was staring. He sighed, and said, “Right.”

Then Kari touched a point in the air with one finger, and the point flared. It was different from the holes in the world opened by Severin and AT. This looked like lightning, like sparks, like the thin membrane between “here” and “there” was melting and curling from the heat of Kari’s touch. It didn’t look like a hole that would zip shut again easily. Oh well.

“We’ll just step inside and see what there is to see. And we’ll come right back out again if we don’t like what we do see.” Marley wasn’t sure if she was reassuring Corbin, the girls, or herself. She held out her hands to the girls and took a deep breath.

Then she stepped through. As she passed through the shattered barrier, Corbin suddenly said, “Marley, wait—”

But she didn’t wait. The world on the other side wasn’t the white, featureless hall that AT had led her into before. It was a large room, with dim lamplight caressing rich textures. Marley’s feet sank into layered carpets, and the spiced air tickled her nose. Shimmering fabric veiled the walls and tinted the light emanating from mirrored lamps set in shallow depressions.

Silhouetted in an arch on the other side of the room was a tall figure with dark hair, broad shoulders, and a familiar profile. It was Zachariah. First Kari, then Lissa, squeaked and pulled away. Before Marley had finished taking in their new location, they were both running forward.

And everything went horribly wrong. Whiteness flared, crackling around the children. Marley screamed as something ripped the twins from her with the force of a tidal wave. A canyon opened between them, and the twins were on the far edge, still moving away from her.

That wasn’t Zachariah.

The world turned inside out. The curse struck. Everything became a series of images and unconnected sensations.

The room around her shattered, shards of color and light flying everywhere. A giant invisible hand batted her through the air. She flew backward and then dropped, sickeningly.

She was falling.

Knives sank into her arm. Something yowled.

Without any clear awareness of a transition, the fall through the air slowed like she was sinking through water. Then, as gently as if she’d laid down, she came to rest on a surface. Something warm was on her chest.

Marley couldn’t see, blinded by tears. The twins were beyond her protection, although she could still feel them, still sense the awful danger they were in. What had happened?

She remembered AT saying there were things that lived in the Backworld who could control her perceptions. Were the girls really gone? She brought her hands up to scrub at her eyes.

Neath was on her chest, grown to the size of a bobcat again. Marley was lying on a giant velvet pillow tossed against a wall hung with bronze and green. It was the same place she’d stepped into through Kari's Backworld portal, and there was no sign of whatever horror had occurred. She hurt all over, though, like she’d been caught in an explosion.