Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (11 page)

Abby
. Talina was crying. I could
hear it in her voice.
Where
the hell have you been?

I’m going to kill you, Supes.
That was Fury and she sounded furious.

Do you need help, Abby?
And Ria,
the Queen of the beasts was last and, as always, exuded calm and
tranquility.

The three unknown halves were still there
with muted, inaccessible energy, as if it was hidden from me. Did I
have to know them to be able to properly tether to them? Was it
like the way I couldn’t trace to a destination unless I knew what
it looked like?

Everyone is freaking out, Abbs … we all thought you and
Lucy were dead,
Talina
stuttered.

Brace and Josian had to tie Colton down. His wolf was going
nuts. It was damn scary.
Fury again, and
it was getting confusing having so many of them in my head.
Although,
she continued.
Brace
was kind of losing it too, which was a little weird.

Remnants of the melding bond wreaking havoc.
He must be so confused. I forced aside my sadness and pain for the
moment.

Lucy and I are trapped in pixie land.
Apparently it’s a one-way dimension that no one has ever escaped
from. But we think we might have found a way out.

I wouldn’t
tell them about Lucy yet. I wasn’t even ready to admit it to
myself. And I knew that as soon as the calming influence of the
half-Walkers was removed, I was going to lose it again.

“Abby!” A voice penetrated the bubble of my
head, and someone flicked me on the nose.

I let loose
a snarl as I fo
rced my attention outward.
My eyes focused on the images in milliseconds, and I realized that
Lucy stood before me. Sobbing gasps fell from my lips. I opened and
closed my mouth a few times before one word emerged.

“How?”

Through my tears I couldn’t help but notice
how different she looked. Her skin shone, tiny green pigments
littering the porcelain. As if faint glitter had been embedded into
her pores. Her blond curls were longer, down to her waist, and they
were also threaded with green shimmery strands, like Malisna’s. Her
eyes were full flowers of blue and yellow now, her ear tips pointed
slightly, and she had freaking wings. Which she was fluttering in
awkward and clumsy motions.

I wrenched my gaze from her to Malisna. The
snarls started in my chest again.

“I’m sorry.” The queen held up her hands.
“She needed to be reborn as pixie, and for any rebirth there must
be death.”

I clenched my fists and took a staggered
step toward her.

Lucy halted me with a hand on my arm. “You
can’t punch her, no matter how much she deserves it.” She spun and
faced her mother. “And you do deserve it. That was a really
horrible thing to do. Not only to me, but to Abby. You should have
explained what was going to happen.”

Refis stepped in front of his mother.
Clearly he was reading the murderous intent in my eyes. “What would
you have done if she’d told you? No one willingly lets someone stab
them in the heart, and she had to use her own heart blood too, so
you weren’t the only one to suffer.”

“I don’t care about me, but if someone had
killed Abby in front of me … well, I couldn’t imagine worse
pain.”

I was crying again as I threw my arms around
Lucy and pulled her in to me, my arms awkward as I tried to
maneuver around her wings. They looked so delicate, but I could
feel the strong muscles emerging from her back. So weird.

“I can’t believe you’re alive,” I murmured.
And then Cerberus crowded around us and I hugged him too. “Thank
you for blocking my energy,” I whispered to him.

He nudged me a few times before slobbering
up the side of my face.

Abby! Abby! Supes!

Three voices were yelling at me inside my
head, pulling my attention.

Let everyone know that we’re okay and we’ll be free
soon,
I told them.

Stay safe and we better see your butt in like the next
hour,
Fury sniped at me, and then I used
my energy to sever the cords tethering me to the girls.

I was getting much better at it and now had
barely any jolt. I was alone again in my head.

My rage at
Malisna had not decreased any in t
he last
few minutes. But in light of the fact Lucy was alive and clearly
thriving as a pixie, I pushed it down and managed to look at the
queen pixie without wanting to put my fist through her
face.

“Do you feel different?” I asked Lucy,
pulling back to see her again. I wondered if this was anything like
my enlightenment.

“You mean, besides the fact I have wings,”
she trilled, fluttering her glittering attachments and floating
into the air. “I haven’t figured out how to tuck them away yet, but
they are awesome.” She looked around. “My senses are so heightened.
Is this how it is for you every day? Everything is brighter, louder
and more intense. And where did the burning lava falls go?” She
swiveled her head left and right in rapid movements.

“That was an illusion,” Malisna said. “This
is the real path.”

Lucy’s eyes widened as she took in the stone
path with its shadow lands. She fluttered her wings, rising off the
ground again, but when she tried to move forward she stumbled down.
“Damn, I don’t quite have the hang of my wings yet.”

“It won’t take you long,” Malisna said.
“Just like walking for the first time.”

Lucy and I
both laughed. “Earth children don’t walk until they’re about twelve
months old. It takes a long time.”
I
said.

Malisna and Refis exchanged glances. “Pixies
are not like that at all,” Refis said. “We walk hours after
birth.”

I wrinkled my nose. I didn’t even want to
know what their babies looked like when they were born.

“
Holy crap
on a cracker, I don’t even want to know.” Lucy
agreed, holding up both hands, her nose
wrinkled.

She continued to practice flying, and each
time her skills improved until finally she seemed to have mastered
the basics. Malisna looked proud, fluttering her own wings, arms
crossed across her chest.

“Alright, let’s go.” Refis straightened, his
hand lightly brushing his weapon. “Time to see if we can be
free.”

The three pixies flew, about a foot off the
ground. Lucy couldn’t wipe the grin off her face; she looked
ecstatic. Cerberus and I walked along, using our feet like losers.
I wasn’t jealous that Lucy had beautiful, glittery wings. Lucky,
biatch.

The path was long, and with no landmarks to
break it up, I had no idea if we were making ground. Or walking in
circles. Lucy chatted excitedly, trying to determine every pixie
skill she would inherit.

“
Bit greedy,
don’t you think, Cere?” I had a hand on him as we walked. The path
was just wide enough for us to stride side-by-side. “She has wings,
gorgeous glittery skin and hair, and she wants
more
powers.”

One of his heads dropped down. His big dark
eyes stared into mine.

I lifted my hand and patted him a few times.
“I knew you’d agree.”

“I can hear you now, Abigail.” Lucy’s voice
was sweet as she sang back to me. “And suck it up. You got awesome
Walker marks and the ability to skip across the galaxy.”

She made a fair point, but still …
wings.

“And you’re tall,” she finished, sticking
her tongue out at me.

I was opening my mouth to shout back at her
when the path fell out from under me.

I mean literally.

I was falling into the nothingness, darkness
surrounding me, and I was alone.

Suddenly images appeared in a circling
motion around me. Shadow people in the shape of Brace, Josian and
Lallielle flashed in and out. And then Brace’s shadow solidified,
and he stepped out of the darkness toward me. Reaching my side, his
arms went around me and without question I sank into his warm
embrace.

“Where have you been?” The echoes of his
voice brushed along my spine. “Will you stay here with me?”

I closed my eyes. From the moment I’d broken
the bond, pain had flooded me, intense and all encompassing.
Walkers were designed to have one soul mate and to be without them
was to exist without half of yourself.

But right now I was whole again.

I could breathe.

I was crazy to think I could have lived
without my mate.

“Yes, I will stay with you.” I pulled him
closer to me, the ache inside easing further.

It’s not real.

A voice in my head was niggling away at me,
a rational part that had not forgotten Malisna’s words about this
land of illusions. But Brace felt so real; the pain was so much
less. I couldn’t walk away from him again.

What about the half-Walkers? What about
Lucy? Are you giving up on all of them?

I growled. Why wouldn’t they just shut up? I
was happy now. I raised my head and Brace touched his lips to mine.
And in that moment my heart swelled and broke again. The road to
perdition could fake a lot of things, but the taste of Brace was
clearly not one. It was wrong and it allowed me the ability to snap
back into control. Gulping down the fresh onset of waterworks – I
was turning into a regular old fountain – I finished the kiss and
with a sigh placed both of my hands onto his muscular chest.

“You’re not Brace!” I shouted, shoving back
with all of my strength.

Despite the fact the illusion wasn’t Brace,
it still hurt. I needed him more than anything. And just like that
I was back on the stone path, but now there was a gateway at the
end. I was alone so I moved cautiously, waiting for something to
jump out at me.

But nothing did.

The barrier blocking the path looked like a
simple, circular doorway. But there was no handle or anything to
indicate a way to open it.

“I have reached this point many times, the
illusions no longer hold me, but I have never figured out how to
open the door.” Refis came up behind me, silently flying along the
path. I could see Cerberus was back now also. “I’m surprised that
you managed to break free so easily, especially the first time. The
illusions give you your most fervent desire.”

“The illusion wasn’t very good,” I said
simply. Although it had been just good enough to crack my heart and
leave it oozing.

“Benefits of being a Walker.” He
shrugged.

“Does that mean Lucy and Malisna are still
in the illusion?” I squinted with narrowed eyes behind me, but only
Cerberus was on the path.

“Have faith,” Refis said.

Very helpful little pixie.

Malisna appeared first. And just when I was
panicking a disheveled Lucy stumbled along the path.

“
Than
k god,” she muttered, “he
smelled different.”

I smiled. I guessed that was something to do
with Colton.

“So how do we open this door?” Lucy asked,
pressing her hands against it.

For a brief moment I thought it might react
to her touch, but nothing happened.

“I need a strand of your hair,” Malisna
said, holding out her small delicate hand.

Lucy reached up and yanked out a long wavy
piece and handed it to her mother.

Malisna took the blond hair and, turning to
the door, lowered her head to the center. There was a tiny little
hole there which I hadn’t noticed earlier. She took the hair and
threaded the end into the hole and with slow precision started to
feed it through.

“I always figured the missing ingredient was
the hair which I used to bind us here.” Malisna was still
threading, and then finally, when it was almost at the end of the
hair, she pulled out the knife again.

I yanked Lucy closer to me, but luckily for
her, the pixie queen just cut her own hand and let a few drops fall
onto the end of the hair strand. She finished by swooping a single
teardrop from her eye. The drop followed the path of the bloodied
hair, and with a deep breath Malisna blew in the last of the
strand. It slithered inside, disappearing from sight.

Nothing happened for a few beats of my
pounding heart, but then the doorway started to move.

“Amazing.” Malisna sighed. “Lucy’s hair was
what we needed all along.” She turned to her daughter. “If you
hadn’t come searching for us, we’d have been stuck in here
forever.”

They hugged, arms awkward over wings, but
the joy on both faces was almost blinding. I turned back to the
door. The circles had just started swirling rapidly. I watched
closely until the motion began to make me dizzy.

“I can’t believe it,” Refis said. “It
worked.”

“What happens now?” I had to speak loudly;
the door was noisy.

“Now we can move between this realm and
First World.”

I wondered if I could … I pictured my room,
and sure enough the tethers were back. Reaching out, I captured one
and in a flash I was back in Angelisian. It took about thirty
seconds for people to burst into my room. Josian was one of them;
Colton, Lallielle and Fury were also there.

I held up one hand. “Be right back.”

I attempted to tether back to the circular
doorway, but there were no glittering strands there. I ended up
back at the edge of the forest where we had started. I didn’t know
where else to go.

“Lucy!” I bellowed.

Damn, I should have taken her with me. How
was I going to find her now? I spun as a doorway appeared right
where I was standing and a large wolf lunged free. I should have
expected him to be on my butt. How he’d tracked me, I had no idea,
maybe just from the location of the forest. He stormed straight up,
his fur standing up in a hawk and growls falling from his
mouth.