Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (5 page)

I pointed toward a spiraling pattern of
leaves. They started out in a dark green, but slowly morphed around
to red and then pink. It almost looked like a bouquet of flowers in
this dim lighting; without my Walker vision, I’d never have known
it was leaves.

“Yes!” Lucy fist-pumped into the air. “It
was so dark I didn’t notice that it wasn’t flowers but leaves. That
pattern is just like the one that surrounded their main gathering
place. Although the colors were yellow and orange.”

After that
we followed the swirls of leaves. The colors did vary, but no
yellow and orange yet. After a while we reached a junction in the
path. The forest had been close and cloying but then, all of a
sudden, it opened and
the path spread out
in four directions.

“
Any
feelings about which
trail to take?” I
peered along them, but everything looked the same in the dim
light.

The energy
was stronger in here than when we
’d first
entered, the cold and chills along my spine increasing. The urge to
run pressed harder into the base of my skull, like a sharp spike.
More of my energy rose to counteract this; it was as if a war was
raging across my skin.

Lucy closed her eyes and placed her hands in
front of her. “I can feel them,” she breathed. “My blood is
singing, burning through my veins and I … I need to dance.”

Dance?

Her eyes were still closed and she began to
move. I had to get out of the road because all of a sudden Lucy was
twirling. Her arms swayed around her as she shifted her body left
and right.

“Luce?” I said, keeping my voice low. I
didn’t want to startle her from this trance-like state she was
in.

She didn’t
answer. Her feet left the ground and she started to twist in the
air as she drifted along the path. She took the smallest of the
four paths, her lithe form swirling and moving in graceful arcs as
she traveled. I called power to myself as I silently followed,
prepared for anything. There were so many strange things going on
right then. Zoned-out Lucy was a huge number one, but there was
also the fact that the dim light in the forest never altered,
becoming no lighter or darker as we moved through the trees. That
wasn’t normal forest behavior.
Not to
mention, it was almost night now and it should be black under the
canopy.

Ahead of us was another fork in the road,
and as Lucy drifted she suddenly leapt to her right and I saw it
then. A massive swirling portal of orange and yellow. It looked
like a flower portrait, but it wasn’t, and for the first time it
wasn’t leaves either. It was an actual portal of swirling
energy.

I was going to take a wild guess that we had
found the entrance to pixie land.

I dashed forward to Lucy, my heart rate
increased at the thought of losing her in here. I was afraid I’d
never see her again. But just as I was about to capture her hand in
mine, the portal shifted, the yellow faded out and an angry red
erupted. At this same moment a horn-like noise sounded, in one long
unbroken note. It vibrated through my energy. Flashes of light
exploded from the portal and Lucy opened her eyes just as the red
extended in her direction and she was sucked into its grasp. Using
my Walker speed, I lunged for her and just managed to grab hold of
the back of her jacket.

We were
pulled through, the speed and brightness forcing my eyes closed.
The influx of negative energy – which had surrounded us
since we’d entered the forest – had changed from
small prickles to more intense stabbing attacks. And then in unison
the horn ceased and the energy abated. I found myself flung forward
to land in a crouched position. Lucy was next to me, her jacket
still clutched in my closed fist.

My lids
flicked up without pause, eyes darting left and right as I took in
our surroundings.
What the
hell?

Without thought I released my grip on Lucy,
my face slackened as the sight before me registered in my
brain.

We were definitely no longer in the forest.
We were in a gully of gently sloping green rolling hills that
spread out for miles. The sky was a brilliant blue, brighter than
any I’d seen, and it was warm without being hot. There was nothing
dull about the massive land spread before us. Everything seemed to
sparkle with its own light or essence. But as welcoming as it
seemed, something still felt off about the entire place.

Lucy drew my attention then. “Holy eff?” She
sounded like herself again. “What just happened?”

I moved, my legs straightening until I stood
at my full height. “Welcome to pixie land,” I murmured.

“State your business or I’ll leave you here
to die.” The deep, masculine voice sounded from … well, everywhere
around us.

It echoed across the landscape, hitting my
skin like the biting breeze on a winter’s day.

Lucy jumped
to her feet, spinning around as her brows drew together and eyes
widened. There was definitely no one close to us and on this side
of the portal I couldn’t feel any
living
beings’ energy besides mine and Lucy’s. Not even the negative from
the forest. But there was still that low hum that seemed to hang
suspended in the very air. I was starting to think maybe this
entire place was one big source of energy. A low growl began to
swirl across us, building in intensity as the man’s words shortened
in clipped cadence.

“Answer me.”

“He sounds scary. You should probably answer
him, Abbs,” Lucy said as she moved closer.

“Me?”

We started to circle around, Lucy sticking
to my back.

“You’re the one who went all trance-like and
danced us into the leprechaun lands.”

I felt Lucy’s shoulders shake as small
chuckles escaped her. “Pixie, Abbs, this is pixie land.”

“Our energy called you through the portal.”
The voice was closer this time. His words were a question and a
statement.

We halted our dizzying steps as a figure
stepped out of thin air. Actually that wasn’t quite right, it was
almost as if a small split had formed in the air and he’d moved
through the gap. He stood before us and I reached out and gripped
Lucy’s hand as we stared. And stared. And then stared some
more.

The man stared back at us. He was small,
probably around Lucy’s height, and slender. His chest was bare,
with a belt made of leaves strapped across his hips and down to
mid-thigh. His hair was bright green, the color of new leaves as
they first emerged in spring. His eyes were a kaleidoscope of pinks
and purples, and he most definitely had –

“
Pointed
ears,” Lucy huffed. “Are you shitting me? He’s right out of
a
faerie tale.”

He took a
step closer to us, his freaky eyes flashing his distrust. In his
left hand was a short-bladed double-edged sword. How had I missed
his weapon? The beauty of his eyes
was a
big distraction.

“Who are you?”

The pixie
spoke with no accent at all. Which was weird, right? Almost as if
his English was so generic it would slot into any society. So very
bland, almost unforgettable
, and yet I
knew I’d never forget the strange monotonous nature of it. When he
moved closer I noticed his skin was green. The same tone as his
hair but a thousand shades lighter, almost like a green ivory. He
face looked ancient, and it was not exactly like a human’s: his
eyes were too large, nose too tiny, and lips disproportioned. But
still there was something enchanting about him.

“My name is Lucy,” she said, stepping
forward, “I’ve had visions of this land and I believe that I’m half
pixie.”

His flower eyes locked on to her.
“Impossible, we’ve had no young born since the queen’s…” He trailed
off as he stared, which went on for many minutes. He never blinked
or moved once.

I’d have
thought he was a statue, but
I could
still heard his weird rhythmic heartbeat.

After many minutes of this awkwardness, Lucy
looked over her shoulder at me. I shrugged having no idea what was
happening. I didn’t exactly have a manual of pixie behavior.
Finally he seemed to pull himself together and straightened.

“Follow me,” he said as he turned. “Do not
delay; the pixie lands are fraught with danger. You’re lucky I
happened to be patrolling close to the portal today.”

As he started to move, I thought he was
gliding over the short stalks of vibrant grass, in the same way
Lucy had hovered on Regali. But then I realized I was wrong; he was
not gliding, he was flying … because he had freaking wings.
Emerging from joins in his shoulder blades, the large wings spanned
most of his back and down his thighs. They were translucent in
nature, but with shimmers of color shooting up each of the pointed
tips.

I nudged Lucy, before realizing she’d
definitely noticed his appendage. Her jaw was about on the floor
and filling with grass as she dragged it along. With a shake of our
heads, we both managed to pull it together. He was already moving
rapidly away so we hastened to keep up with him.

This continued as we traveled up and down
miles of diminutive hills. The landscape gradually changed the
further we moved from the portal. Looking behind us, I was worried
about the lack of distinctive landscapes. I feared we’d struggle to
find that portal again. And would I be able to trace with the pixie
land doing strange things to my energy?

“Where are you taking us?” Lucy’s impatience
spilled over.

We were striding toward flatter lands with
small pockets of forests. And beyond this was a blue lake, its
sparkling shine illuminating all of the landscape that surrounded
it.

The pixie replied, “I’m taking you to our
queen, for your own safety. She will hear your words.” At my huff
of breath he continued. “There’s no going back through the portal,
and you would not survive one night out in our land.”

“How is he doing that?” I asked Lucy. It
sounded as if he was standing right next to me, his speech was that
clear. And yet he was pretty far in front of us. “This place is
freaking me out,” I muttered. “Everything is too perfect.”

“What do you mean?” Her brows arched as she
swung her head in my direction. “It’s lovely.”

I wasn’t
kidding when I sai
d that everything there
was perfect. Each strand of grass shimmered green with no brown
patches, the sky was a royal blue, and there was not one cloud
marring the color. If I had to guess, I’d say there was so much
energy in that place that it had infiltrated the land, turning it
into something that was no longer natural. It was the most luscious
environment I’d ever seen, but I didn’t enjoy the sensation of
being there.

I pulled my gaze from this unnaturalness to
study Lucy. “You seem different. Is the energy affecting you?”

She shook out her curls. “I feel amazing,
free and strong.” And with those words she began to glide above the
ground like our guide. Well, minus the wings, of course.

I was thinking – as I ran to catch up with
them – that Lucy was starting to look different. Her blond hair
shimmered more than usual, threaded through with new shades of
gold, yellow and white. It might have even been longer and thicker
as it trailed down her back. Her eyes were still very blue, but now
around the pupil there were flowery shaped shoots of yellow. In
short she looked even more stunning than usual. And just the
tiniest bit like a pixie.

She caught my eye as I examined her.

“What?” she said, her lips straightening
into a fine line.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt you’re a
pixie,” I replied drily.

And at that point she glanced down, gasping
as she finally realized she was floating again.

“Coolest thing ever,” she gushed.

Damn, where was my smartass friend? She was
all … dreamy now.

“Hey, pixie man,” she trilled, like church
bells or something.

“I am called Refis.” His haughty voice
sounded back.

“Okay, Refis. So is this flying thing normal
for pixies … uh, minus wings? Because I’ve suddenly started
floating when my emotions are heightened.”

He stopped,
spun around and was back at our side in seconds.
Lucy dropped to her feet and they stood eye to eye. “You’re
gifted with the skills of our kind. But there are too many
unanswered questions. We must speak with the queen.” His features
hardened. “I don’t like that you arrived with a Walker, and why are
her marks visible?”

I almost
lost it. Laughter bubbled up inside me trying to force its way
free. His tone was one of disdain, and he was such a wee little
fella. At this
point Lucy lost some of
her blissed-out expression as the mellow grin flipped into a
frown.

“Abby’s my best friend, and you better watch
how you talk to her.” She growled a little.

He shrugged,
his eyes brushing over me again before he turned and walked away.
Did pixies not like Walkers? Or was it
just me specifically he didn’t like? Oh, well, it had been
known to happen once or twice. We continued our journey, heading
toward the sparkling lake.

And then, as we crossed into a cooler shaded
section, a rumbling sound started around us. Great, what was coming
at us now?

“Cease.” Refis’ voice rang out in
command.

I studied our surroundings, before resting
my gaze on the surly pixie again. As with Refis’ appearance, what
one saw in pixie land wasn’t always what was there. Which I did not
like.

“You must step aside, I need to enter at
once.” Refis was still talking to the invisible growler.