Fairyville (Fairyville #1)(64)
Author: Emma Holly

Help, Magnus thought, though he doubted any was coming. He’d made Samuel cross his heart and promise to stay away, unsure how safe the little fey would be. Now he saw that might have been a mistake. His vision had begun to fade, darkening around the edges like a tunnel contracting.

The lead minion looked behind its own foggy shoulder, the other elementals parting so it could see. A mirror seemed to hang in the flames behind it, its surface rippling like water. Magnus’s stomach did an unpleasant flip. He recognized his mother’s scrying pool.

"Your Graciousness," the minion said as Titania’s always lovely image appeared. "The human’s strength is flagging. Do you want us to finish her?"

Magnus had a heartbeat to identify himself. He doubted his mother would kill him. Even the hope of his support strengthened her power base. But if he told her, she’d never let Zoe be. He had to keep up this pretense, even if it cost him his life.

His mind became very calm. He was aware that Zoe wouldn’t thank him for doing this. Her heart was so big, so forgiving that she wouldn’t wish her worst enemy to sacrifice himself for her—much less someone she loved. The truth was, though, that this wasn’t a sacrifice for Magnus. He knew as clearly as Zoe did that death was only a change of state. He’d lived many years on the material plane and had fulfilled more dreams than he could count. Zoe was a baby compared to him. She deserved to finish what she’d come here for, whatever that was… with whomever she chose.

Love expanded inside him until his heart seemed ready to burst his ribs. His natural possessiveness fell away like some old suit he had no use for. He wanted Zoe happy. He wanted her well. And he’d never felt so purely joyous as the moment he decided to give up everything for her. In the beautiful hum of his elation, he barely heard his mother’s words.

"Do it," she said.

A second later, the tunnel of his vision shrank to black.

Chapter Eighteen

"He’s not here," Bryan said, having peered in all the windows of Magnus’s house.

Zoe should have been glad to put off what was sure to be an awkward—not to mention bizarro—confrontation. Instead, she felt like something painful had squeezed her heart, like more than her romantic prospects depended on finding Magnus soon. She found herself wishing they hadn’t slept so late. Saturday or not, her instincts told her this couldn’t wait.

"He has a sweat lodge on his property," she said. "We should check that."

"It’s ninety degrees out," Bryan objected. "Although, who knows how hot fairies like to be. Sheesh." He ran both hands through his rumpled hair. "I just wanna tell you guys, I’m not ready for more weird stuff."

Unable to promise this visit would be weirdness-free, Zoe pointed out the beehive dome of Magnus’s getaway. It stuck out of the ground maybe thirty yards away from where they stood.

The three of them set off, each with a private sigh. Alex’s face was stiff and Bryan’s weary. Zoe didn’t even want to know how bedraggled she looked tramping across the desert in her short red dress and her hooker shoes.

Halfway there, vertigo kicked her in the small of her back. She stumbled and went down, saved from pitching on her face by Alex grabbing her elbow.

"Hey," said Bryan, beside her, too. "You okay?"

"Too much sun," she mumbled, though they’d only been in it a few minutes. "I’m okay. We need to keep going."

Alex gave her a look that said he knew something was up, but he hauled her onto her feet all the same. The closer they got to the sweat lodge, the worse she felt, hot and cold and like she was seconds from passing out. All her brain would focus on was that she needed to reach that lodge.

"Let me carry you," Alex said the third time she tripped. "Bryan, you get the door."

"Are you sure?" Bryan asked. "She looks like she’d be better off waiting in the car with the AC on."

"Call Michael," Zoe begged in a whisper against Alex’s neck. "Call him like you know he’s going to come for you."

"Archangel Michael?" Alex’s eyes were round, and Zoe knew he was going to balk.

"Call your Uncle Henry then. He’ll pass the message to anyone you want."

Alex set his jaw, but this help he could believe in. "Uncle Henry," he said firmly. "We need assistance. Angels, please, if you can get them to come."

Bryan had been tugging ineffectually at the sweat lodge’s door. At Alex’s words it burst open.

"Shit," he said. "More damn rocks."

"Carry me down there," Zoe said to Alex. "We’ll be okay. I can feel the angels surrounding us."

"Guys!" Bryan called from the belowground chamber in a strange, tense voice. "I think you need to see this."

Alex carried her down the steps into the dimness. At first, all she could see was the flickering hellfire up in the ceiling. That was startling enough, but then she noticed the slim, still figure lying on its side on the rock-strewn floor.

That sight clutched her throat in a fist of ice.

"It’s you," Bryan said, gasping a bit in the stifling air. "That body looks just like you."

Zoe scrambled out of Alex’s hold. No matter how the body looked, she’d recognize that energy signature anywhere. She fell to her knees beside it, dimly registering the odd flooring. The figure who resembled her was bloodied all over, its skin ghostly pale in the daylight slanting down the steps from outside. Arrows bristled from its front like a pincushion.

"Magnus," she said, somehow finding the strength to lift his shoulders onto her lap. "Oh, God, what have you done?"

The moment she pressed her lips to his forehead, his disguise shivered and fell away.

"No," said a shocked female voice. "No! You didn’t make me attack my son!"

Whoever the voice belonged to, Zoe didn’t need the angels to banish it. It disappeared with a cry of aggravated horror, taking the circle of hellfire along with it.

At the moment, Zoe was too worried to be grateful.

"I feel a pulse," Alex said, crouching on Magnus’s other side to press two fingers to his neck. "I think we got here in time."

Magnus’s body shuddered like an earthquake.

"You did," he croaked. His lashes were stuck together, and his eyes struggled to open. When they did, they shone green as emeralds in his bloody face. Zoe gasped, the glow of his irises too bright to be imagination. The light turned the red that painted his features to a brutal mask, though it left his beauty oddly undimmed. Seeing her amazement, Magnus swallowed painfully. "I guess maybe you have a few questions about this."