“Yep.” Nodding with pursed lips, she sarcastically chided, “Yeah, that’s what I want. To kill you. Geez, Martha. Give me a break.”
Refusing to enter the never-ending sisterly banter and debate session that we three Dellencourt Dragonesses had at the very least on a daily basis, I kept making my way around the hole. I knelt to the left of what I could see was a scrap of dirty, orange fabric and reached down to retrieve it.
Holding the cloth in my hand, I got up and took a few steps backward. Stretching it open with both hands, I gasped with such vigor that I was lightheaded as I saw the black, block letters PPFBH.
“Purgatory Penitentiary for Beings of Horror,” I gulped. “Barney was here.” Looking at Maeve, then Theresa, and finally Zelda, I drew a sharp breath. “He didn't come for me.”
Shaking her head with worry in her beautiful green eyes, she confirmed my worst thoughts. “No. He came for Kai.”
“But how…?”
Cut off for the third, or maybe it was the fourth, time by Mona’s determined barking, I barely got my eyes on her before she was galloping toward the stairs. Disappearing around the first spiral of what had been a stunning mahogany staircase, not even the tip of her tail was visible when Arthur shouted, “MONA!”
Racing after my boys as they raced after Mona, I got halfway up the stairs when a weak, faint voice from somewhere far below my feet whispered, “If you're Martha Dellencourt…”
Eyes flying to the girls, I mouthed, “Did you hear that?”
They all shook their heads.
To Aideen, I confirmed, “That wasn’t Kai.”
“No, it was not.”
“Was it…?”
“Turn around and go home.” The voice was adamant, even a little louder. “Because if you come down here...”
The longest pause of my life ensued. Sure, it was only a second and a half, but to me it was an eternity. Then the voice added, “You're gonna become something none of us can stop.”
5
“Who the hell are you?” I snarled, wishing Roy were around to help. Being a Fairy King without the Fairy King with whom I had shared my soul for several centuries was not good… seriously, not good. I had no Magic, and Roy was nowhere to be found. I needed to get in contact with Martha. She had to be freaking out.
For a few brief seconds, all I got was endless silence. Talk about frustration, I was ready to gnaw through rocks with my teeth.
Then something echoed. Was it a whisper? Maybe just movement. I needed to know.
A flash of orange. The sound of shuffling feet. Then, out of the shadows, appeared a man.
PPFBH in thick black letters sat over his heart. Purgatory Penitentiary for Beings of Horror, the words slashed through my mind.
It had to be Barney Mackrelfresh, but…
He was NOT what I expected. He didn’t look insane, whatever that looked like. He wasn’t foaming at the mouth. Not even drooling or talking to himself. At least, not at that moment. And I didn’t sense any violence.
In all honesty, he just looked exhausted, thin, emaciated, and starving. He was also really dirty. Looking right into his soul, letting him know that in no uncertain terms I was sizing him up and deciding what to do next, I saw something I had never expected.
Barney was utterly terrified.
The man looked as though he hadn't slept in years. His cheeks were hollow. His hair hung in tangled ropes around his face. Purple, black, blue, green, and yellow bruises painted every visible inch of skin.
But his eyes... His eyes were sharp.
It was time to get to the bottom of the mess I found myself in. So, I firmly stated, “Barney Mackrelfresh.” When he didn’t even blink, I went on, “You're supposed to be in prison.”
“And you're supposed to be upstairs.”
Reaching for my Magic, sure he was about to attack, I pulled back two fistfuls of nothing. No Roy. No Enchantment. I was instantly enraged… And did a shitty job hiding.
