Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (4 page)

“What are you up to, Lucy?” Colton locked
her in his gaze and, like a wolf with prey in its sight, he never
wavered. “You aren’t doing anything dangerous, right?”

Lucy wrapped her arms around him. “Just a
bit of research into the pixies, and my family. Nothing too
serious.”

He lifted her up for a few more scorching
kisses, which left her eyes glazed and her features slack.

“No more Lucas,” he growled.

Lucy shook her head at him, the picture of
innocence.

He sighed. “Just be careful, pretty girl,
and get Abby to call for me if you get into trouble. I’ll be in
touch soon.”

He gave her one last kiss before stepping
back into his doorway. This time it closed down behind him.

“That was very trusting of him,” I said,
moving closer to Lucy.

When the dazed look left her face, and she’d
pulled herself together, she answered.

“Yeah, we’ve had to have a few chats lately
about the difference between smothering and protecting. He said
he’d play it my way for now, but something tells me the first time
I get into trouble, we’ll be back to Colton on my ass at all
times.”

I wrinkled my nose. “Don’t pretend you don’t
love it.”

She threw back her head and laughed. “Eff
yes I do. If I had to have anyone permanently attached to my ass,
at least it’s someone I love … and it doesn’t hurt that he’s hot as
hell.”

Sigh.
Lucy’s happiness is my
happiness. I had to remind myself of that when I wanted to pull out
her blond hair. Just a few strands, promise.

“Alright, let’s get moving. It’s going to be
dark in a few hours, and I don’t fancy walking the
forest-of-disappearing-people in the night,” I said, scuffing my
shoes along the join in the ground where the sand and grass
intermingled with each other.

Lucy sucked in a deep breath. “Gosh, I’m
nervous. I’m not sure how to process that I’m not an Earthling.
That I’m not even full humanoid. Pixies are like a mythical
creature.”

She tilted her head at me. “How did you
handle it?”

I shrugged. “Guess I haven’t had too much
time to really think about it. I never felt like anyone but Abby. I
just held onto that fact and the rest I dealt with when I had
to.”

She bopped her head a few times. “Yes, I
just need to remember I’m Lucy. Kick-ass, highly fashionable and
mated to a wolfy, blond Walker.”

I laughed, my head falling back a little at
her cocky stance.

She was all hands on hips and chin in the
air. Her twinkling eyes met mine, before her expression sobered a
little.

“
Are you
sure you’re okay with Brace fighting? Colton promised that he
wouldn’t even mention it to his
princeps
unless you gave permission. I made him swear it or he wouldn’t be
getting any Lucy for a long time.” She raised her
eyebrows.

“Thanks, Luce, for your generous deprivation
of sexual liberty. I just temporarily lost my mind when Colt
mentioned Magenta. Now I have to figure out how I can spend all
this time around Brace without accidentally walking into moonstale
light.”

“Or jumping his bones,” Lucy added
helpfully.

“Yep, or that.” Damn, that was going to be
hard.

She linked her arm through mine. “Oh, well,
he should be mostly fighting and we’ll be trying to find the
half-Walker, so overlap will be a minimum.”

I knew she was trying to stay positive for
me, and right now I was holding on to the hope that she was
right.

“Okay, open your mind and I’ll send you the
images.” Lucy was jittering around. “It’s time to find out why all
this weird shit is happening to us.”

“
Sounds like
a plan.” I had a thought. “So you
do
realize that when you officially mate Colton, you’ll be related to
Magenta.”

“Gah.” Lucy coughed. “I’ll be like freaking
Cinderella with two evil step-sisters.”

“Two?” I asked.

“Yeah, the bitch and the wolf.” She paused.
“Same name, two faces.”

I laughed at her again; she was funny
today.

Lucy sent me
the
forest image. A long straight line of
greenery, its foliage distinct enough for an accurate
tracing.

I found a
close
by tether and, reaching out with my
right hand to capture Lucy’s wrist, I used my other to grab the
shimmering cord. I hoped on this adventure we found out more about
her visions and if they were able to be changed.

Otherwise the end of the worlds was coming
faster than anyone was going to be happy with.

We stood on the edge of the creepiest jungle
I’d ever seen. The outer tree line seemed to be nothing but a mass
of thorny brambles. They intermingled in an array of green tones,
with some random splashes of color from yellow roses and huge
drooping purple flowers.

“
Do you ever
have visions
that don’t end up with
everyone dying or us having to explore someplace creepy?” Shivers
wracked my spine. Every part of me wanted to turn and run. I
wrapped my arms around myself, shrugging the warmth of my coat
closer.

“
You should
be in my head. It’s a right old riot up in here.” She winked at me.
“
Texas Chainsaw
Massacre
style.”

Ah, old-school horror, our favorite. I just
wished it would stay in the movie world and stop leaking into real
life.

We started to walk along the forest edge.
Its seemingly impenetrable barrier revealed no entry portal. As we
searched I decided to voice some of my worries. Lucy was the one I
trusted above all. Especially with a sensitive subject.

“I need to ask you something.” She caught my
eye; I hurried to continue. “Have you noticed anything strange
about Josian?”

My voice didn’t waver as I asked, and I
hoped that the icy fear coating my insides wasn’t that obvious. I
loved my parents, but Josian had been off lately.

Of course there was no fooling Lucy; she
knew me too well.

“Tell me what you know?” She didn’t smile or
joke, which was never a good sign.

The tone of her question had me grinding to
a halt halfway along the lengthy line of forest. “Damn, I was
hoping you’d relieve my worries. Instead it sounds as if you’ve
been waiting for me to ask.”

Lucy didn’t shift her stance, just stood
there, staring at me. I realized how strong she’d become in the
time since we’d left New York. From the funny, sassy girl who
wouldn’t leave the compound, she now traversed the universe with me
and didn’t blink an eye. And she had powers and strength that I’d
never imagined.

“
If I didn’t
know better, Abbs, I’d say you were checking me out.” Her full lips
quivered as she held back laughter. “But your look goes a little
deeper. Stop trying to see into my soul; it’s
not as light in there as it used to be.”

“I’m just proud of how far we’ve come from
our days with Olden.”

“Me too! We’re awesome. It’s never been in
contention.” She reached out and gripped my wrist. “But no avoiding
any longer, what have you noticed about Jos?”

Pulling my
hand free
I started to slowly move again,
worried about losing daylight, and Lucy followed along. But I knew
her unwavering laser eyes were glued to me.

I wasn’t even sure what to say, so I just
went for the biggest worry.

“Did it seem strange that he wanted to
separate all of us girls? He was really insistent and then before I
could blink they were gone.”

Talina
, Fury and Ria, the
half-Walkers from Spurn, Crais and Regali, were off training with
the princeps of their clans. Which was Josian’s
suggestion.

“
I mean,
shouldn’t we be working on strengthening our powers as one unit?” I
paused as I noticed a small inlet to the otherwise vined barrier of
Lucy’s pixie forest. Finally an entrance. Moving into the
opening of the darker environment, I finished my
sentence. “It just struck me as odd. What would his reasoning
be?”

“
Have you
spoken with Lalli about this?” Lucy was close enough to my back
that she kept shoving me as I tried to side-st
ep through without touching any plants. We knew from Regali
that unknown plants could be deadly.

I didn’t speak for a few minutes, allowing
my eyes to adjust to the darker environment around us. It was cool
inside, with a moisture in the air that left wracking cold shivers
caressing my limbs. I was immediately glad for the coat.

“
There’s
energy here, some sort of barrier that’s to deter
visitors
, right?” Lucy had lowered her
voice to just above a whisper. “Because I’m fighting the urge to
run my ass right out of here and never look back.”

“Yes.” My voice quavered as I hugged my arms
closer to my side. “I can feel the magic beating along my skin, but
my Walker strength seems to be holding it off.” My energy had risen
to coat my skin, an added protection.

“That’s good.” Lucy straightened. “Don’t let
me freak out and bail.”

I reached
out and grasped h
er hand, and together we
continued to step along the worn little path through the dark and
dense forest. Unlike Regali or even the forests surrounding the
First World castle, there was no structure to the pixie land. As if
everything here was wild and just did what it wanted. Plants grew
in every way: through, over and around each other. Until there was
such a tangled mess that, besides the very small path we were
walking on, the rest would require a machete to move in any other
direction.

“So back to Josian.” Speaking seemed to help
fight off the hum wanting to invade my mind. There was a crap-ton
of energy surrounding us. “I haven’t spoken to Mom, but maybe I
should. She sees into his mind. Surely if there were something
weird, she’d know.”

Lucy’s voice rose, which was odd because she
was whispering. “I did have a vision about Josian, long ago before
I even realized I had soothsayer abilities. It was very obscure.
I’ve never mentioned it because I really have no clue what it
means.”

My heart started beating faster. I both
wanted and didn’t want to hear her next words.

“But for some reason it plagues me still and
I feel it’s because I ignored it.”

“What did you see?” I choked out.

She bit her lip, working the lower pad
through her white teeth. Her free hand ruffled her blond curls,
something she did when nervous.

“You and Josian were on the beach, and you
were crying.” Her voice hitched. “No, not crying, sobbing your
god-damned heart out. And Josian stood there, staring at you.”

“
Doesn’t
sound very obscure to me.” I attempted to keep my voice
light.

“
Josian
had
two faces, Abbs. From my viewpoint I
could see the one that faced you, and then there was another on the
back of his head. This one was sorrowful. And he had all these
weird strings on his arms and legs.” She shook her head. “I have no
idea what it means.”

I wondered
if the string
s were like
tethers.

“Did you see this before we even met my
parents?”

She nodded.
“Yes, when I started having the dreams after leaving New York. But
then we met Jos, and he clearly didn
’t
have two faces, so I just forgot about it. And then bam, last week,
same dream again.”

I’d been
ignoring my instincts, pushing down the feelings that something
just wasn’t right with my father. Sure, he’d seemed down lately,
but I tended to ag
ree with Brace – from
our conversations long ago, before the broken melding bond – Josian
was probably worried about the final battle. I just hoped it wasn’t
more.

“Maybe next time you’re chatting to Lalli,
just ask a few questions and see if she’s had any concerns,” Lucy
said quietly.

I should
have asked her during the last two weeks.
When I wasn’t training with Josian, I’d been spending a lot
of time with Lallielle and Francesca trying to figure out why I
continued to have weird, infrequent dreams about ruling First
World. My mother’s gifts were in dreams and my aunt was a born
soothsayer, so they had great insights. But basically we’d come to
the very unhelpful conclusions that my First World half, and the
energy that belonged to it, was trying to direct me toward my
destiny with Lucas. Well, it could keep on trying. A much larger
destiny had claimed me long ago.

We were
walking deeper into the crazy landscape. The light was dim, but it
wasn’t fading
any further as we traveled.
Although the cold was increasing. Our breaths were visible now,
small puffs of condensed air that filled the space in front of our
mouths. Lucy’s eyes flicked back and forth; she was looking for
something so I didn’t interrupt her. But she broke the
silence.

“
I
need to find a path in here, one with a weird
formation of flowers. It led into the inner forest. I know that’s
where I’ll find the pixies.”

I paused. “Besides those flowers along the
outer edges of the forest, I haven’t seen any others.”

She laughed.
“I know
. That fact has really put a kink
in my plan to follow the color.”

“Wait, were they definitely flowers?” I
asked. Her words had triggered a response from my eyes; I’d noticed
a pattern in the foliage. “Because there are colors. Look at that
red.”