The creature started dissipating around its middle, strands of darkness flowing toward my hands. I almost lost my concentration when it said in my voice, “Where you go, I go.” Then it slammed into me all at once, knocking me from my feet.
I fell back, hitting the dirt hard enough to knock the wind out of me. I had just enough sense to absorb the impact with my arms rather than slamming my head against the ground, but I was still completely stunned for several long moments. My body went limp, and I blinked up at the moon.
“Eva!” It was Seraphina’s voice, though I couldn’t seem to focus on what direction it was coming from. Then she was kneeling next to me, her long brown hair draping around her to block my view of the stars.
More nymphs knelt around me, talking in hushed voices.
“Is it gone?” I croaked.
“The shadow creature? Yes.” I recognized the voice of Seraphina’s father.
Seraphina helped me sit up, explaining, “When the creature appeared last night, they hid. My father closed the pathway as soon as I was through.” She wrinkled her nose, but didn’t look toward the male nymph in question.
My head swam, and I had to close my eyes for a moment. “Did it hurt anyone?”
“No, but it rendered their magic useless. In fact, it seemed to absorb it. It took everything they had left to create a pocket realm to hide in.”
I took a deep breath, then was able to open my eyes without getting dizzy. “I need to tell the guys what happened. They’re waiting outside the gates.”
Seraphina stopped me when I tried to stand, which was probably for the best since I would likely just fall on my ass again. “Someone has already been sent to grant them passage,” she soothed. “You just rest. It seems we are in your debt again.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I muttered, though the next part I was smart enough to keep to myself. If the darkness had now reached earth, it was because I had brought it.
Even with our precautions, it had come through anyway, and the boundaries were obviously doing nothing to contain it. There could be more darkness coming through the pathway while I sat on my ass in the dirt. It did no good to search the realms for it if it was just going to hide from us until it could travel. Or maybe it wasn’t even in the realms, but broken up into the pocket places that were now being brought back into the pathways. Maybe my great grandfather had known all along I wouldn’t be able to stop it. Now all that was left was to face it.
21
Sebastian made everyone wait in the park with me while he went to alert our allies to the possible threat. Maybe it would make Varian less pissy about not getting his pathway yet, but I doubted it. I probably should have opened the pathway from the Crystal Vale first thing. With their ability to create vortices, the fairies were more equipped to deal with the darkness than anyone else.
But that still raised the question, why had that creature of darkness come to the park of all places? It wasn’t even near the few pathways we had opened. And more disturbing still, where had it gone when it jumped into me? It wasn’t like with the other shreds of shadow. This one had slammed into me willingly.
Sitting beside me on a stone bench near the lake, Crispin bumped his shoulder against mine. “Are you still not feeling any different?”
I had reluctantly told the guys exactly what had happened, and now the two who remained at the park with me were annoying me with their heavy gazes. A few nymphs remained in the open, including Seraphina’s father, who was speaking with Gabriel.
I scooted a little farther from Crispin so Ringo could jump on the bench between us. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I feel normal, but I can’t put my finger on what might be different.”
There was that annoying heavy gaze again, and a worried glance from Gabriel, showing that he wasn’t fully paying attention to the conversation he was having.
“The darkness has to be going somewhere,” Crispin said. “Perhaps it is simply stored in the vortex within you, but at some point…” he trailed off.
He didn’t have to finish the statement. It was simple logic that what goes up must come down. What goes in, must go out. I highly doubted that I was just completely absorbing such strong magic. It had to be stored somewhere.
I didn’t miss the few odd glances I was getting from the nymphs either. I wondered how much of my confrontation with the shadow creature they had seen, or if they had stayed in their pocket realm until they could sense that it was gone.
Of course if they had seen it, they might have wanted to ask me about what it had said.
Where you go, I go.
Now just what the hells did that mean?
Once Sebastian returned,we left the park. The plan was to give it a night, see if any other strange occurrences took place, then we would move forward with Penelope’s pathway.
Except we only made it as far as the sidewalk before being accosted by the ruling vampire of the city and several of her minions.
Elizabeta looked tiny next to all of the muscle she had brought with her, and her floral summer dress didn’t quite fitthe vibe of street punk meets Victorian time traveler that her minions were giving off.
Elizabeta started speaking before any of us could react. “The whole point of siding with you was to make only small paths. To not let the darkness through!” She swept a hand dramatically outward, encompassing the entire city in one small motion. “We only helped you so the pathways would not be healed all at once. Now what have you gone and done? The darkness will come for us all.”
