I was listening to her, but the way she spoke in the ridiculous half-riddles of fortune tellers was really shitting me off. I hated those confusing bastards. Just say what you mean, straight up, no more damn mumbo jumbo crap.
This time I left with only the clothes on my back. The moment I crossed the threshold into the secret garden, I was surrounded by a plethora of new scents. The air was dry and sweet, like summer when flowers were in full bloom. I detected nothing out of the ordinary, nothing which was screaming dangerous. Still, just after I took my first step into the labyrinth, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. The hedges looked different on this side, like they were closer and much taller. I risked one glance back to the entrance, but Rose was already gone.
Great, I was on my own, and I wasn’t supposed to turn back. I shook my head a few times, almost stumbling as the realization slammed into me – Braxton had been back there. My Braxton. And I had let Rose lead me into this fucking path. What the hell was wrong with me? Okay, sure, she’d shown me the images of that battle, the horror of Larky, which had spurred me forward. But she’d also done something with her touch afterwards, calmed me down, laid some Zen over my emotions, and I’d blindly followed like a pet wolf. Hell to the no! She was totally going down.
I turned back at a run, uncaring that I wasn’t supposed to leave. Rules were for bitches. As I tried to burst out from between the hedges, my nose smashed straight into a barrier and I yelped, flung back to land heavily on the ground. Okay then, so when Rose said you weren’t allowed to leave, she had meant it very literally. You could not actually leave.
My wolf and dragon both snarled. They wanted their mate. They wanted their pack. All three of us did. Looked like the only way I was going to end this crap was to get through this maze – get to the isle of the shining ones and ask them for help, or hope they had a weapon to cut the ties between Larky and the marked.
I wondered, for a moment, why I had never heard king dick in my head. He was supposed to be able to communicate, possibly even control us marked as a mass of minions, but so far … nothing. Maybe his Jedi powers didn’t work in Faerie. There was an awful lot of magic in the air here, and it could definitely interfere with the mind-connection.
With a loud exhalation of annoyance, I pulled myself to my feet, dusted my pants off, and started trudging along between the tall hedges of this labyrinth path thingy. I scanned my surroundings constantly, bemused by how boring and mundane it was so far. I wasn’t sure what I expected, having only had a few minutes to wrap my head around a Faerie labyrinth, but surely they could have expanded out from green hedges…
Green hedges which appeared to be pushing up into the sky the further I walked.
As they grew, the darkness around me increased. Great … I just had to open my big fat brain and start thinking about how things were not scary enough here. I should have learned my lesson about that the last time I was in this shithole. The land of Faerie read thoughts and then had a good ol’ laugh creating your worst nightmares.
Despite the growing darkness, my footsteps did not falter. I was not scared of much. Even when I was alone I always had my animals to keep me company. And if Rose was right about my boys tracking me, they could very well be there when I got to the center of Faerie. I freaking hoped they were.
As I walked I periodically reached for my dragon. The wall was still between us, but for some reason it seemed thinner. Maybe Braxton was right. Time was the only thing that could break down these barriers, cement our bonds. I had spent so much of my life pushing her down, forcing her to stay caged – not to mention Louis’ magic subduing her – that now I didn’t know how to bring her to me. I would figure it out though. She would be hugely important in the fight against Larky.
I wondered how much time had passed on Earth since I disappeared. No doubt they were well into the new year now, late January maybe. It was almost the quads’ birthdays. They were born on the first of March. I was the thirteenth of October. We were all twenty-three this year, though some days I felt closer to a hundred and twenty-three. All I could say was that we’d better not still be in the middle of this shit when the quads’ birthdays rolled around.
They were only two years away now from taking over as leaders of the American Supernatural Council. Now that Kristoff was gone and not trying to frame them for murder, they might actually have a shot at learning something. Kristoff. That sorcerer was totally still on my shit list. As soon as I had a spare second I was hunting his ass down and killing him. That’s if one of the quads didn’t beat me to it.
My tumultuous thoughts were cut off by my wolf perking her head up inside. She had sensed that we were not alone any longer. I slowed my pace, stepping lightly, keeping my presence as hidden as possible. The hedges had grown at least a hundred feet high. It was very dark on the ground, but I could still see quite clearly. A slight mistiness was invading, but I didn’t let that deter me as I continued along. About six feet separated one side of the hedges from the other, hopefully keeping out anything too massive. Mind you, I should have known that in Faerie, it didn’t have to be massive to whoop me in the ass.
Two figures stepped out of the misty shadows, blocking the path. Identical in every way, it took me a moment to figure out what I was seeing. My first guess were chipmunks, about three-foot-tall, brown fur with tan stripes across the bridges of their nose and along their tummy area. They stood completely upright, like humans, and had more than a little intelligence shining in their large globe-like eyes.