The Tainted Web (The Godhunter, Book 7) (14 page)

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a part of something so large, something with different rules and morals than I was used to. Where was her protection when Arach was about to rape me? What if Faerie decided it wanted something for me that I didn't want? Maybe a future I wasn't sure I wanted to accept yet? What if she decided I was better off without the restraints of my other lovers? Would she shift things so that I lost them? I needed to get out of Faerie so I could think straight.

I immediately shielded myself to the magic and took a calming breath. “I need to take the imps back with me now.”

“Now?” He searched my eyes for some sign that all was well but I could offer him none.

“
Now,” I nodded. “I'll return with them when we're done. You will barely register my absence.”

“
Vervain, I...”

“
Not now,” I held up a hand. “I will say that I'm better than I was when we first returned but there are things I must think on. We'll discuss them when I get back. I'm just incapable of making a decision right now.”

“
Okay,” he nodded with a clenched jaw. “Think things through but return with a decision, Vervain. I'm not a man to be trifled with.”

“
I think if there's anything I've learned from tonight,” I said grimly, “it's that.”

Chapter Nineteen

I couldn't travel back to the exact moment I'd left since the imps were returning with me but barely any time had passed in the God Realm, even though it felt as if I'd been gone forever.

Meilyr and ten other imps accompanied me back. They followed me happily, as if they were children I was taking to the zoo. They peered around Pride Palace as we made our way to the common room, asking questions that had never even occurred to me before.

“Why are the floors and walls the same pale wood, yet most of the furniture is bamboo or mahogany?”

“
Uh,” I looked at the walls as if they might give me the answer.

“
Where did the wood come from?” The same imp continued. “Was it brought in from another realm or harvested here in your kingdom?”

“
That was before my time,” I shrugged, “and this isn't considered a kingdom, just a territory.”

“
But you're a Queen, so this is now a Queendom.”

“
Ok,” I grinned, “I'll go with that.”

“
How many rooms does this castle have?”

“
Hundreds.”

“
Why?”

“
For all my lions.”

“
You have hundreds of lions?”

“
No,” I laughed, “but I have guests and I don't know, maybe the person who built this place expected there to be more eventually.”

“
Will you make more?” This question was accompanied by a look focused on my belly.

“
Not in the way you think,” I frowned, “probably not ever. I'm not really sure how to make them.”

“
You made the others, didn't you?”

“
No, someone else did.”

It went on that way for the entire walk. I was finally saved by the Intare I found lounging in the common room. The imps were immediately fascinated with them and began a rapid fire volley of questioning as soon as they were introduced.

I left them there while I went in search of Trevor and Kirill, who I found downstairs in the theater. Yeah, we have a theater, it's pretty groovy, all red velvet and plush seats like an old time movie house. They were watching
Resident Evil
on the big screen.

“
Hackers
might have been a better choice, considering,” I said as I walked in.

“
Oh, with a very young Angelina Jolie,” Trevor smiled as he shifted in his seat. “I wish I'd thought of that.”

“
Not the reason I recommended it but ok,” I shrugged and plopped down into the guy seat left open between them. “I brought the imps back with me. They're in the common room annoying some of the lions.”

“
Annoying?” Kirill asked with mild concern.

“
They're very inquisitive,” I laughed. “I'm not surprised they ended up knowing so much about technology.”

“
So we should go rescue them?” Trevor looked over at me.

“
Nah,” I took their hands, “let's finish the movie first.”

“
Pure evil,” Trevor shook his head.

We finished watching Mila kick butt, then climbed the stairs back to the common room. I found the imps sitting in a group on one of the tables, surrounded by lions. The small fey looked like they were in Heaven, smiling up at my Intare as they continued to ask questions. The men, shockingly enough, looked just as happy to answer the queries, and I realized that they'd spent so much time neglected, the imps' attention must have been a foreign thing to them, as foreign as the imps themselves.

“I'm glad you've all behaved yourselves with our guests,” I said as I approached the table.

“
These guys are great,” Darius said as he high-fived Meilyr. “They make you think about things you never would have thought about.”

“
Yeah, they're pretty awesome,” I sat on the edge of the table, “and now I need their expertise. Remember, you guys need to take me into the Internet.”

“
Yes, my Queen,” Meilyr stood up and smoothed out his tiny black jacket. “I can feel the signal strongly in this room. Shall we start here?”

“
Sure,” I shrugged. “I tried over and over to enter the Internet, treating it as if it were another Aether, but that didn't work. Maybe you can start by explaining to me the way you connect with it?”

“
Ah, I see your mistake,” he nodded as he exchanged glances with the other imps. “It's very like the Aether but you must remember it was made by humans and they think differently than fey.”

“
So their version of the Aether would be different,” I nodded.

“
Yes,” he continued. “When you trace the Aether, you treat it as if it were a living thing. You ask it to help you, you request that it carry you from one location to another. We faeries know that everything has life, that everything must be treated with respect. Humans don't view the Internet as a living thing and so it's not one. It holds magic but the magic is dead.”

“
Dead?” I frowned.

“
Dead like the hair on your head or your fingernails are considered dead. They're still attached to a living being but they are not living, they've given up their life and now are mere instruments. The Internet is like that. It cannot be reasoned with or asked to aid you. It must be utilized, controlled. You have to navigate its pathways yourself, you can't simply jump in and expect it to carry you along.”

“
Okay,” I nodded, “I think I understand but how do I get in it to begin with?”

“
The easiest way to enter,” Meilyr said as he gestured to a closed laptop. “Is through a computer screen. The energy there is already familiar with images and that is what you will project into the Inter Realm, your image. Touch the screen and picture yourself, the energy will accept the image you give it and upload you into the realm.”

“
That sounds painful,” I grimaced.

“
Not at all,” he shrugged. “We're all energy, we just need to shift our energy into a form the computer will recognize. This is human magic so forget your god magic for now and focus on your sidhe and human side.”

“
Sidhe?” I cocked my head at him. “I thought you said it was human magic?”

“
And what is human magic but watered down sidhe?” The imps all smiled at me, well, impishly.

“
Right,” I huffed a laugh, “but I thought the Internet was pure human?”

“
No, I said it was made by humans and so acts as humans expect it to act. It is insentient but it's blood and bones are sidhe.”

“
Do people ever get headaches from listening to you?” I grumbled.

“
Not if they pay attention,” Meilyr walked across the table, his tiny boots tapping the wood, and then rapped me on the nose. “This is important, now focus. See the magic inside you and then project that image onto the screen.”

“
See the magic inside me,” I frowned and as I said the words, my Nahual padded forward inside my chest, making her presence known.

My Nahual was basically the embodiment of my magic. The term comes from the Aztec religion, where they believed that everyone is born with an animal twin and those with great magic can access this twin, even shift form into their twin. I'd never shifted into my white jaguar but I was okay with that. I had my lioness and the jaguar was changing anyway.

She'd taken on aspects of my dragon. Something about my sidhe magic surfacing had changed my human magic. Her previously white hide was now tinged red, she had black talons adorning her paws, yellow dragon eyes, and a pair of tiny, dragon wings that were totally useless but very cute. I think the last was a manifestation of my inability to fly, a little nod to my determination to hold my dragon in check and preserve my other magic. If the dragon ever did get loose, my other magic, including the one that bonded me to Trevor, may pay the price. That was an unacceptable risk, so I remained grounded, just like my Nahual.

Thinking so strongly about her made my vision very clear and I was easily able to project this image onto the computer screen. I opened my eyes when I felt something click, and saw my Nahual roaming across the blank screen.

“Good,” Meilyr clapped his hands and my men murmured around me. “Now let your magic draw you into the realm. Don't worry, we'll follow you.”

I closed my eyes and felt my connection with her. It was a bright, shining cord reaching out from my belly. I mentally released my hold on the God Realm and let that line pull me forward. It was a strange feeling, like the tapping of fingers all over my skin and the zip of electricity in my veins. It felt like things had shifted around me without me actually moving.

I opened my eyes and saw the same room I'd been in before but it was too bright, so bright that everything in the room appeared to have a halo around it and the things themselves were sharper, clearer, as if they'd been brought into focus so I could see what they truly were. I had the sense that if I touched anything, I'd immediately have as much knowledge of it that the Internet possessed.

I was also behind the laptop instead of in front of it and I suddenly realized that I couldn't see the entire room. It was like I was standing in a tube of light, a tube that connected to the laptop and then snaked out through the hallway and into Pride Palace. I frowned at the bright fog that made up the walls of the tubes, cutting off the rest of the room from my view.

“You have only the one connection here,” Meilyr was suddenly standing beside me but there, in his Inter Realm, we were the same height. “So the Inter Realm is limited to a smaller area. If we follow this vein out, we'll be able to see much more.”

“
So we travel through the Aether inside of this?” I smiled at him.

“
Yes,” he nodded as more imps popped into view. “Your connection keeps the path open so we can travel it.”

“
Then we'll be able to actually look inside the Aether,” I walked from the room, following the tube of light toward our tracing point. “I've always wondered what the Aether looks like.”

“
It's a bit overwhelming,” Meilyr spoke from behind me. “Try not to stare too long.”

That gave me pause and I looked back at him but he only shrugged. I continued on until we reached the hall with the tracing point. Most places in the God Realm had actual tracing rooms but at Pride Palace we had a wall. I guess Nyavirezi didn't want to waste the space. The thing was, there was no wall.

I stood before a black hole where the wall should have been. It looked creepy, as most pitch-black places do, but I could feel something emanating from it, like an awareness. It knew we were there.

“
This is safe, right?” I looked over at Meilyr, still a little shocked to find his face at the level of mine.

“
Absolutely,” he reassured me. “Inside the Inter Realm we're safe from that which is beyond its borders. The Aether will not hurt you.”

“
Okay,” I swallowed hard and was about to go in when Meilyr stepped ahead of me, putting one foot in the black hole and holding a hand out to me with a smile.

I smiled back, took his hand, and followed him into the dark.

Except it wasn't dark. I had to stop a second to keep from reeling back. All around me were images, either static or in motion as if a million home movies had come to life and stepped off the screen. People laughed, got married, played with their children, climbed mountains, did thousands of things that people did everyday, all while objects floated over or through them. Jewelry, cars, money, houses even, things people coveted just swam through it all. The scenes playing out didn't seem to have any boundaries either, they drifted through each other until the whole thing was a dizzying conglomeration of desires, dreams, and experiences. It wasn't just humans either, gods and faeries were featured heavily, adding scenes that were sometimes fascinating and sometimes terrifying.