Beguiled (13 page)

“It really is, isn’t it?” Maggie’s gaze slid over the pale, marble walls, where threads of silver in the stone sparkled like secret treasure. The marble should have given a feeling of cold sterility, but instead, warmth radiated from the walls, enveloping the visitor with a sense of well-being.

Gleaming tables held crystal vases filled with a riot of blossoms in every shade of the color spectrum. Their scent and what Maggie thought were probably the lingering effects of lemon polish filled the air with a homey kind of atmosphere. And the miles of bookshelves that studded the walls were stuffed with tomes both ancient and new. Their brightly colored leather bindings made them look like jewels shining in the dark.

The windows in Sanctuary were always open and sheer white panels danced in the constant breeze. Soft, delicate scents wafted in and just as before, Maggie had to wonder from where they came. Sanctuary was literally a castle in the sky.

No ground stood beneath it, no sky hovered over it. Instead, pale blue surrounded the building that was out of time and space and wisps of white clouds sailed past like ships gliding across a glassy ocean.

“It’s so . . . big,” Eileen said, her head turning first one way then another, as she tried to see everything at once.

“And this is just one room of the place,” Maggie told her.

Eileen’s gaze shifted to hers. “There’s more like this?”

“Oh yeah.” Maggie grinned, and relished the sensation. She’d been so worried, so anxious lately, that she hadn’t taken the time to really step back and see the magic in what her world had become. Now, looking through Eileen’s dazzled eyes, she was seeing this place for what it was.

In a word,
spectacular.

“Look up, sweetie,” she said, and lifted Eileen’s chin with the tip of her finger.

“What?
Whoa
. . .” That last word slid from Eileen’s throat on a sigh of delight so pure that it made Maggie’s smile even broader.

She looked up, too, and just as she had the first time she’d stepped into this room, Maggie felt a tingle of raw wonder sparkle to life inside her. Fifty feet above their heads, the ceiling put the Sistine Chapel to shame.

Brilliantly colored murals streaked across the broad expanse, depicting life in Otherworld. The trees, the crystal towers, the Queen’s castle. There were representations of every kind of Fae she’d ever seen and some she’d yet to meet. There were rivers and oceans and forests so richly detailed, her artist’s soul ached to find a paintbrush and canvas and lose herself in creating her own masterpiece. But just as before, she wasn’t here as an artist. She’d come for help.

Again.

“Majesty.”

She dropped one hand onto Eileen’s shoulder and turned around to face Finn, the wizard and scholar in charge of this amazing place. Tall and lean and so gorgeous most women would have toppled over from the force of his smile, Finn had long blond hair, deep blue eyes, the temperament of an angel and the wicked smile of a devil. He wore black slacks, a long-sleeved white shirt that was open at the throat and black shoes that made barely a whisper as he walked on the silver-veined marble floor. He was, like most other Fae males Maggie had met, quite the hunk.

But with Culhane a part of her life, Maggie was pretty much immune to Finn’s charms.

“It’s just Maggie,” she reminded him, and wondered if she would ever get used to the idea of someone referring to her as “Majesty.” “I really need to talk to you.”

“Of course.” He walked closer, held his hand out to Eileen and said, “You are the Queen’s niece. I’ve heard much about you.”

“Really?” Eileen grinned. “That’s so cool. Maggie said I could come with her and you wouldn’t mind.”

“Not at all.” He escorted the girl to a nearby table, waved one hand and a tray holding milk, cookies and a bowl of apples appeared in front of her. “Please, Eileen. Make yourself comfortable. As the Queen’s niece, you are most welcome here. Look around. Explore. Enjoy yourself. That’s what Sanctuary is for.”

“Excellent,” Eileen said. She was already turning to look at the immense bookshelves lining the white marble walls.

Maggie chewed briefly at her bottom lip. Eileen was in her care, so she just had to ask. “You’re sure she’s safe here on her own?”

“Aunt
Maggie!
” The humiliation in Eileen’s voice was complete.

Finn only smiled. “Certainly. You know better than anyone, Maggie, that when a Fae enters Sanctuary, their power is stripped from them, not to be returned until they leave the same way they entered.”

“Right.” That was, after all, how she’d beaten Mab in their big fight. She’d tricked the Queen into showing up at Sanctuary, knowing that Mab would lose her power and they would be closer to even ground than they would have been anywhere else.

For just a second, she remembered that fight—it had happened here, in this very room. If she closed her eyes, she could see it all again, hear the hissed breathing and the slap and punch of kicks and fists that she and the enraged Faery Queen had shared. And she could see, very clearly, the last image she’d had of Mab, just before Maggie had pushed her out of one of the windows.

The Queen’s golden hair flying about her exquisite face, her pale eyes flashing with fury and the smile that had curved her mouth when she’d whispered one last warning . . . “You think you’ve won—but just so you know, when Culhane whispers in the night—he lies.
”

She swallowed hard and released that memory, wishing she could simply block it from her mind entirely. Not that she believed Mab or anything, but did she really know Culhane well enough to say that he
wasn’t
a liar?

“Maggie?”

“What? Oh. Sorry.” She shook her head, forced a smile for Finn and Eileen and then shrugged. “I was just . . . never mind.”

“You okay, Aunt Maggie?” Eileen looked worried and instantly Maggie felt guilty. The girl was twelve years old. She didn’t need to be worried about her family. She needed to be a kid. To be protected from the big bad world, not bothered by it.

“I’m fine, kiddo. Hey, don’t you have like a zillion books to read or something?”

Eileen stared at her for a long second or two, as if trying to decide whether to take Maggie’s reassurance at face value or not. But finally, the lure of this amazing library was too much for her. “Yeah, I guess so.” Then she looked up at Finn. “I can read anything I want?”

“Anything,” he said with a half bow. “As I said, you are the Queen’s niece. Sanctuary is always open to you.”

“Very cool.”

“You just made a friend for life,” Maggie told him. Then turning to Eileen, she said, “We won’t be long, okay?”

“Take your time. Seriously.” Eileen was already wandering off to the closest bookshelf.

Maggie laughed a little as, beside Finn, she walked out of the room, her heels tapping on the marble floor. He led her down a long hallway that was as elegantly appointed as the main room. Paintings dotted the walls, along with brilliantly executed tapestries in colors so vibrant they might have been made yesterday.

Eileen darted back to the table, picked up a couple of cookies and then began to wander through the room. She didn’t even know where to start. There were so many books. Her gaze skimmed titles at random
. The Demon Threat. The Care and Feeding of Cyrillian Cats. The Human Problem Through the Ages
.
Warrior Clans and the Fae
.
The Templar Experiment
.

“Ooh, that would be a good one,” she murmured, and ran her fingers lightly over the dark blue leather spine of the book. The books didn’t seem to be in any particular order. The librarian at school had a cow anytime somebody put a book back on the wrong shelf. But these were all jumbled up together.

“
The Human Problem
?” Eileen read again, and almost reached for the light brown leather book. She pulled her fingers back, though. Maybe there was something even more interesting here. “It’ll take me for like . . .
ever
to look through all of these.” Suddenly she had a new appreciation for the crabby school librarian. How were you supposed to find anything if everything was all over the place? She didn’t see a computer or one of those old-fashioned card shelf thingies that told you where the book you were looking for was.

Frowning now, she turned in a slow circle, wishing she were quintuplets so she could look at everything at once. Who knew when Maggie would bring her back here?

And this was just one room in Sanctuary, she reminded herself. She wondered how many more there were in this place. Just how big was Sanctuary? Could she do some exploring? Would anyone know?

“Probably not,” she told herself as she headed for the massive door through which Finn and Maggie had left. She tiptoed, even though her tennis shoes hardly made a sound on the floor. Her stomach twisted a little with nerves, but she ignored it and kept moving. “Finn said the Queen’s niece was welcome anytime,” she reminded herself in a stern whisper. “He said I should make myself at home. So that means I can look around all I want, right?”

Of course, Maggie might not like it. Eileen almost stopped again. But then, she told herself, Maggie didn’t have to know. Eileen would just look around quickly, and be back in the main room before her aunt and Finn got back. No biggie.

She poked her head out first, wanting to make sure the coast was clear. And when she was sure the adults were nowhere around, Eileen smiled to herself, made a sharp right and started walking.

“This is amazing,” she murmured, taking mental pictures so when she got home she could tell Devon about this place. Of course, she’d have to tell him at school since she was practically a prisoner in her own house and couldn’t have a boy come over at all because Mom and Maggie were so weirded out by the thought of a
boy
actually wanting to come and see her, which was totally normal and everything. Eileen’s best friend, Amber, had already
kissed
a boy, that icky Brian Stone, and she said it was gross, so Eileen was in no big hurry to try it herself, although she thought kissing Devon probably wouldn’t be gross. But if she told her
mom
that, she’d be locked up in a convent until she was forty.

Eileen stopped to look at a painting of Otherworld and sighed a little at the beauty of it. All those trees. Silver streets and a river so blue, it was like a sky on the ground. It wasn’t just the boy stuff bugging her mom and Aunt Maggie, Eileen told herself now. It was the Fae stuff, too.

Her mom was feeling sick and mad at Quinn. Maggie was fighting with Culhane and Bezel and sooo didn’t want to be Queen, so she and Mom were just not getting how great all of the Fae stuff really was. They had this cool new world to explore, but instead of being psyched, all they did was worry about everything.

Adults just didn’t get it.

Grinning to herself, Eileen crept on, peeked into another room, saw it was pretty much the same as the one she’d just left and continued down the hall. Devon said Mom and Aunt Maggie were just old and that’s why they didn’t understand how cool all of this was. He was being so completely frosty about everything and she couldn’t even bring him home because Mom and Maggie would both start interrogating him. Like Eileen was a little kid or something.

“Oooh.” One glance into the next room convinced Eileen this was something she wanted to investigate. No books here, just paintings. Big ones, little ones, framed in gold and white and black, they hung on walls so white they were shiny.

Eileen stepped into the room and listened to the slap of her tennis shoes against the floor. There were flowers here, too, in huge vases on tables. The air smelled sweet as she wandered the room, drawn from one picture to the next.

Just like in the Harry Potter books, some of these paintings actually moved. Trees waved in invisible winds, people strolled down those silver sidewalks, oceans rushed to snow-white beaches. But Eileen passed them all by as she was drawn to one painting in particular.

One where a solitary woman fell through an endless blue sky.

Chapter Seven

“What do you mean, the warriors won the battle?” Maggie stared up at Finn and noticed that he was looking a lot less relaxed than he had a minute ago. “What battle?”