Spirit (34 page)

“C’mon, this
way,” I said as I took the lead, deciding on the passageway directly across
from us. Exerting ourselves unnecessarily by winding this way and that seemed
silly.

Each room we passed
through was grander than the one before it. One was a round amphitheater; benches
all around led down to a dais in the middle of the sunken floor. The next was a
magical ballroom with a glittering white marble floor with veins of black and
gold, the walls hung with silver and gold gossamer. The next room was like
something out of my dreams. If I could have shaped my perfect garden, that would
have been it. The ground was covered in a thick layer of moss, and old oak
trees lined the walls, the braided branches reaching up and up to form a domed
canopy.

A small bubbling
creek snaked through the room, winding through the flowerbeds and low bushes
that hid benches and chairs. Lanterns glowed with mild yellow light, hung at
random intervals throughout the room. I hadn’t realized I had stopped walking
until Balor yipped for me from the other side of the room. I blinked at him,
and moving my feet to get walking again took more effort than it should have.

“Tempting to
stay right here instead of dealing with double crossing angels and creepy ghost
crap,” I said to Balor once I was at his side again. We pressed forward,
entering a very familiar room. This was the audience chamber for Iris, where I had
watched the Minotaur torture the Sylph until she was a mad, giggling mass of
bloody ribbons. A violent tremor went through my body at the memory. I squeezed
my eyes shut and shook my head, trying to shake the image out of my mind.

“So, you have
finally returned,” a rich, melodic voice spoke. I remembered that voice, filled
with the sounds of ringing bells. I turned to see Iris entering from a doorway
I was sure wasn’t there a moment ago.

Her hair was
still long and black, flowing in soft curls down her back with irises braided
among the locks. She had hidden her wings away and looked very human without
them. If not for the long pointed ears and her eyes, she could have slipped
into my world and hidden in plain sight. Her eyes were as bright and full of
lavender stars as they were the last time I saw her, but today she was wrapped
in a flowing white silk gown rather than standing proud and naked. Of course, I
was a gross mess of blood and grey matter; I shifted awkwardly, feeling so out
of place in this pristine room. Seeing her covered was strange, but it was a
bit of a relief as I never really knew where to look when I was in her
presence. I always ended up staring wide-eyed, desperately trying to maintain
eye contact with her.

“We too enjoy
the feeling of certain fabrics against our skin,” Iris said, answering my
silent question. She stepped forward on bare feet, and I expected to see
flowers blossom in her wake, but the floor remained unchanged.

“Iris,” I
breathed her name in relief. Calling her by her name felt strange, but she had insisted
we were equals and I shouldn’t bow or call her silly things like “my lady.” So
I didn’t.

“Terra,” she
replied, “it is good to see you.” She reached out to take my hands. Her skin
was warm and soft, like fall leaves warmed from the sun. “When you went beyond
the pale, I feared we would never speak again.”

I squeezed her
hands tightly. “So did I. I need your help.”

“I know,” she
said, letting go of my hands and turning back the way she’d come, walking to
the doorway. She beckoned me with a small gesture, and I nearly ran to follow
her. Balor followed quietly behind me.

The room she led
me into was clearly her private chambers. A large bed sat in the center of the
room covered in soft white linens and dozens of pillows that spilled onto the
floor. The floor itself was covered in a carpet of fallen petals in shades of
whites and purples. No matter where I stepped, the petals appeared untouched,
never bruising or becoming crushed. The same lanterns in the garden were hung there
as well, and there were clear orbs all around the room of varying sizes, a
gentle white light emanating from them. I walked over to the wall to get a
closer look at one of the orbs. Inside was a strange and beautiful glittering
substance that moved constantly, never settling.

“Pixie dust,”
Iris said. I turned to find her sitting at a small table with two chairs and a
porcelain tea service laid out. I knew they hadn’t been there when I walked in.

“What?” I said,
feeling my brow contract in confusion.

“The orbs,” Iris
said as she poured two cups of tea. “They are filled with pixy dust. That’s
what you were wondering, wasn’t it?”

“Actually,
yeah,” I said as I walked over to take the empty chair. Balor came to my side
to lie on the ground next to me.

Iris lifted her
cup to take a sip of the warm liquid. “I see you have yourself a
Cwn Annun.
”

“A coon, what?”
I asked.

“
Cwn Annwn,
” Iris repeated. She smiled
lightly when she saw my confused expression. “A Hound of the Hill.”

“Oh,” I said
lamely, glancing down at my canine companion. “I didn’t know that’s what he
was. His name is Balor.”

“Balor, is it?”
Iris asked coolly, earning a head bob from the white dog in return. She lifted
one dark brow in a perfect arch while the rest of her pale face remained eerily
still.

“What’s wrong?”
I asked, my hand freezing in mid-air as I lifted the teacup.

“You have met
Gwyn,” she stated. I nodded, not at all surprised she knew Gwyn. “And you stole
his hound.” A slow smile curled over her lips as she watched my face.

“No, I didn’t
steal Balor,” I said, setting my cup down. “Balor chose to come with me. Twice.
He could’ve stayed with Gwyn or even gone back with him, but he didn’t want
to.”

“Oh, I imagine
he was terribly, terribly upset about that.” Iris said it as though it was the
most wonderful thing in the world. She even leaned forward to run her hand
along Balor’s head and scratch between his ears.

“Yeah, he was
pretty put out about it,” I said. “How do you know Gwyn?”

“Our world, much
like yours, is quite small,” she said cryptically. I waited to see if she would
give me any more details, but she simply resumed sipping her tea with that same
satisfied smile.

“What is a Hound
of the Hill?” I asked, not bothering to attempt the other term she’d used.

“They are part
of our Wild Hunt, though I’m sure you know that.” She set her cup down on the
matching saucer. “They have many charges. They will hunt down wrong doers
who’ve been brought to the Outlands, each night chasing them as they chased
their victims in life. They also act as guides to lost souls on their way to
the Otherworld.” She said that last so casually as she stirred a spoonful of
pale pink sugar into her cup, the tiny ceramic spoon clinking against the sides.
No metals down here.

“They guide lost
souls,” I repeated, glancing down at Balor again. “But he’s been helping me get
out of the Otherworld.”

“Because you
were not meant to be there. I imagine he is only fulfilling his duties the way
he sees fit. Faerie animals, dogs especially, are curious creatures; you would
only give yourself a headache trying to understand them wholly.”

“You know I
wasn’t meant to be there?” I asked, earning another of her small smiles that
said nothing and everything. “You seem to know an awful lot about what’s going
on even though you’ve been down here this whole time.”

“Those of us
with dominion over the layers of our worlds are privy to many things, yes.” She
nodded.

“If you’re privy
to many things, then why the hell didn’t you answer my call?”

“We do not have
dealings with the dead here,” she said, surprising me. “Here we are the
Deathless Ones. We cannot hear the cries of the dead.”

“But you have an
Otherworld for the dead,” I argued.

“And that is the
only place they can be seen and heard.”

“So how did you
know I wasn’t meant to be there if you couldn’t see or hear me?” My head was
seriously starting to hurt.

“Because I could
still see Jodi and Steven,” Iris answered.

“Then why didn’t
you answer them?”

“Because I knew
what they wanted and it was too late to help them.”

“What? What do
you mean?”

“Steven had
already banished you to the Outlands,” Iris explained. “Jodi called to us for
help in finding you and bringing you back. That was beyond my control at that
point.”

“Are you
freaking kidding me right now?” I nearly broke the teacup as I slammed it back
down on the saucer.

“No,” she
replied simply. “I am not.”

“Couldn’t you have
told them where I was then?”

“I suppose I
could have,” Iris nodded, “if they had asked.”

“But you didn’t
give them a chance to ask!” I could hear my voice rising, I could feel the
warmth of anger blossoming inside of me again, but I couldn’t do anything about
it. I didn’t want to. “I can’t believe you! You asked for our help, we risked
our lives doing it, you promised us you owed us a favor, and how do you repay
us? By turning your back on us on a technicality? Damn, stupid faerie games!”

I didn’t
remember standing up, but I was suddenly looking down on Iris’s calm face, my
hands balled into fists, and I was out of breath from screaming. Had I still
been alive, the walls would have been trembling as the ground shook around me.
However, I wasn’t alive and the room was unnervingly still as the echoes of my
screams died away.

“Feeling
better?” Iris asked without as much as a trace of emotion in her voice. I
gritted my teeth, biting back the curses I would’ve flung at her had I not
wanted to know what other secrets she hid from me. I grabbed the back of my
chair and pulled it out again before sitting down, crossing my arms over my
chest, and glaring at her.

“So, what else do
you know?” I demanded.

“I know you ran
from your guardian angel.”

I quickly
replied, “He was not my guardian.”

“Perhaps,” she
said with a nod. “But I know turning away from the Light tore your wings from
your back, and you have been running from the deadly Northern Angel. And I know
he is with your friends right at this moment, performing a spell to pull you
from this world into the next.”

“I know that
too,” I said. My earlier anger washed out of me so suddenly that my whole body
slumped.

“Why don’t you want
to be a guardian angel, Terra?” I glanced up at her and saw that she truly
wanted to know why I had run. I remembered wanting to ask her if faeries really
were descended of angels. Maybe if they were angelic outcasts, she would
understand my reasons more. But did it really matter to me if she understood?

“I knew leaving
Jodi and Steven behind would hurt them,” I said.

“Death always
leaves a void.”

“No, not just a
void,” I said, shaking my head. “When I died, Steven and Jodi lost their powers,
and they began to fade.”

“When you sever
a limb and allow the wound to bleed and bleed, eventually the entire body
dies.” I blanched at her choice of words, but she was pretty much correct.

“Anyway,” I
said, “Ashriel told me I couldn’t worry about them anymore, and he tried to
take me away. I couldn’t abandon them. I couldn’t leave them to die because I
was foolish and got myself killed.”

“And he wouldn’t
allow you to remain with them, even as an angel?”

“No, he said
they weren’t my charges and I couldn’t concern myself with them.” I made an
ugly noise of contempt.

“So,” she said
after letting me brood for a few moments, “tell me why you are here.”

I opened my
mouth to ask her for the favor she owed me, ready to lay it out on the line,
when the other question came to mind. I closed my mouth and looked at Iris,
wondering if she’d tell me the truth or just give me one of those infuriating
half-truths.

“Are faeries
really descended from angels?” The question rushed out of me so fast I wasn’t
sure she understood me.

“I wondered when
you were going to ask me that.” She pursed her lips, deciding whether or not to
answer me. “Not exactly,” she finally said.

“What do you
mean?”

“The Higher Fae,
such as myself, are related to your angels.” I had the sense she was being very
careful choosing her words. “We have many of the same abilities and magics, but
we have very different motivations. Angels are revered and charged with
watching over humankind, whereas we were driven out of your world as if we were
some sort of false idol.” I was surprised how light her voice was, not even a
hint of bitterness as she explained. “Humans long ago worshiped us as we helped
shape their world, fed them, protected them, but as time went on and new gods
came into fashion, we were forgotten, pushed to the side, and eventually driven
out.”

“Were angels
around when that happened?”

“Oh yes, they
are as old as we. But they found a new role to play in this new world order,
fitting into the new way of thinking in a way we could not.”