Chapter 18

Eighteen

"Cain is dead. That was supposed to be something we could celebrate.

But now I'm holding a bag that contains his soggy head, wondering what the hell just happened." ~Lizzy

"I t's been three hours." Lizzy walked past Finn, who was sitting on one of the long benches in the great hall. Other sprites and supernaturals were scattered around the room, most of them looking as if they were awaiting instructions. They stood in groups, speaking in low voices and glancing around nervously. Lizzy had asked about Maxim's pack as soon as the others had left, and he said they'd chosen to stay where they were to keep fighting hybrids. Adam would send another fae to them. So here they were—Lizzy, Finn, Maxim, and Alice—still standing where they'd been left when Fane and all his allies, including Lizzy's best friend Kara, had disappeared with the fae who flashed them away. They didn't know where they'd gone or what they might face, other than a sprite with a vendetta who had Jewel, one of the gypsy healers.

"They should be back by now, right?" Lizzy continued. "I mean, at least one of them should have made it out of a battle, if that's what happened. I saw them fight against Cain's people. They aren't just your everyday, run-of-the-mill supernaturals. These are some serious kick-ass people."

Finn didn't respond, though Lizzy could feel his concern through the bond.

Lizzy turned to Alice, who was watching her pace with arms folded. Alice nodded in agreement. Maxim, her mate, sat across from Finn, looking just as calm as he did.

"What is with you two?" Lizzy waved her hand at the two males. "Why are you sitting there like you're waiting for a meal, all calm and whatever?"

"As opposed to pacing around and speaking really fast about what you think should be happening, even though it isn't?" Maxim asked, his thick accent rough.

Lizzy nodded. "Exactly. Yes. That." She pointed at him. "Why aren't you doing that? I feel like neither of you is as worried as you should be."

"Hello." A female voice interrupted Lizzy's mini tirade as a woman swept into the room with a handsome man beside her. He looked very human. Lizzy guessed this because he wasn't built like a linebacker like most of the wolves, nor was he pretty enough to be a fae or elf. Maybe he was a warlock? "My name is Cindy. I'm Sally's mom, and this is my husband, Chris. We haven't formally met. I'm a seer sprite, and Chris is human."

"Called it," Lizzy couldn't help but mutter. Finn reached out and placed a hand on the back of her leg, just at the bend of the knee. She wasn't sure, but she thought that might have been his way of telling her to chill without actually saying it.

"I've been trying to keep an eye out—no pun intended"—Cindy's voice wavered as she bounced on the balls of her feet and wrung her hands nervously—"on the situation with my daughter and the others, and, well…" She cleared her throat. "I've got nothing."

Lizzy and the others stared at her silently. Then Lizzy asked slowly, "What do you mean, you've got nothing?"

"I mean, I can't see anything. Their futures—all of them—are gone."

"Now." Maxim's gaze met Lizzy's. "Now, we worry," Maxim said coolly as he rose to his feet.

"So, they're… they're dead?" Everything inside Lizzy sunk. Her stomach bottomed out, the blood rushed from her head, and she felt like she might pass out. Finn stood up and wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her upright.

"No, no." Cindy shook her head frantically. "Not dead. Dead feels like something else. It looks like something else. This is… well, it's like they've fallen off my radar. And all the seer sprites' radars. No matter how hard we search for their futures, there's just nothing."

"Then how can they still be alive?" Alice stepped closer to the group.

"Because I would know if my daughter was dead. She's got sprite blood," Cindy explained. "I would know."

"Has she ever died before?" Lizzy asked without really thinking. "Because if she's never died before, how the hell could you possibly know that you would know?"

"Lizzy," Finn said, his arm tightening around her.

"I'm not trying to be rude, but this is Kara. Kara went with them, and this woman is telling me she can't see Kara's future. That Kara doesn't have a future. How can that mean she's still alive?" Her voice rose as the fear inside her surged.

"Since I've come back to the supernatural world, there's a connection with my daughter that I didn't have while I lived in the human world with my powers leashed. Just as you would know if Finn died, I would know if Sally was gone from this world forever," Cindy explained. Her husband, Chris, took one of her fidgeting hands in his, and she seemed to settle a bit. "In fact, you should be feeling something from the alpha bond that Fane has with every wolf under his power. Do you feel anything strange?"

Lizzy paused her Kara freak-out and focused inward. She searched for the wolf that lived within her and what the beast was feeling. She sucked in a breath. There was something there. Something missing, but like Cindy said, it didn't feel gone—just not right. "I feel it," she admitted.

Maxim nodded. "Same."

"The alpha bond feels strained, as if it could snap. It doesn't feel strong and reassuring," Finn explained, much better than Lizzy could have.

Cindy's mouth pinched. "If he were dead, the bond would be gone." She rubbed her hands together as she continued speaking and shifted every few seconds from one foot to the other. "The heads of each sprite group are going to meet and discuss what this might mean," Cindy continued. "Our queen was with that group as well. If she were dead, we'd all know it."

"What's your theory?" Lizzy asked, narrowing her eyes at the woman. "You're a supernatural, and you see the future. Surely, you have some sort of theory."

Cindy thought for a moment. "I think they're alive, but not in the human realm. Wherever they've gone, it's beyond the sprites' ability to see. That could mean other realms."

"Well, that's at least hopeful, right?" Lizzy asked. "Not dead means there's hope to bring them back."

Cindy nodded. "We just have to figure out where we need to bring them back from."

"How many realms are there?" Finn asked.

"That's a little hard to answer." Cindy's mouth pinched. "The realms that have remained open for centuries are Fae, Elves, Pixies, Djinn, and Draheim."

"Okay, so what realms haven't remained open, and why?" Lizzy narrowed her eyes.

"Trolls, the Dark Forest—which has sort of been opened, closed, and opened again. It's a little tricky. And then there's another, but it's been closed for as long as anyone, even the oldest of our kind, can remember."

"What's that one?" Alice asked.

"It's called the Realm of the Dead," Cindy answered, her voice dropping a bit.

Lizzy's brow furrowed. "You mean hell?"

Cindy shook her head. "No. Not exactly. Hell is where people go to be punished. The Realm of the Dead is different. Sort of."

"You're starting to speak gibberish, and it's frustrating me." Lizzy was unable to keep the bite out of her tone. Kara was gone, possibly in one of these realms, and now there was a chance she was in a realm called the Realm of the Dead that wasn't hell but sort of was.

"How do we find out if this is what actually happened to them?" Maxim asked.

"There are three ways: we go to those veils and actually enter the realms, we consult the Djinn holder of all history, or we go to the one person who would know—Celise."

"The crazy sprite who wants Peri dead?" Lizzy laughed. "Because she's just going to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with us, no doubt."

"Sounds like we start with the Djinn," Alice offered. "That would be quicker than searching a bunch of realms, right?"

Cindy looked pensive again. "We can try that, but like seers, the Djinn have rules—especially the one who holds all of history."

"You've been looking for a ton of people's futures," Lizzy pointed out. "Was that breaking any rules?"

"No." Cindy shook her head. "But telling you that I couldn't see their futures is. Just like telling you what their futures were, if I had seen them, would be breaking rules."

"What happens when you break rules?"

Cindy lifted a brow at Alice. "You're a scientist, so you're familiar with rules. What happens when you break the rules of science?"

Alice made an explosion sound with her mouth and mimicked an explosion with her hands.

Lizzy sighed. These people had obviously never been homeless or come from a life of struggles. "So if we break some rules, things might explode, possibly the universe itself, and all life as we know it will change or be over. Is that what I'm getting?"

Cindy bobbed her head from side to side. "More or less."

"I don't see what the problem is."

Cindy's brow went up. "You're a lot like Jen."

"She's the crazy blonde?"

Cindy nodded.

"Would she care about blowing shit up if it meant finding her friends?"

"Nope," Cindy said immediately. "And I'm not opposed to it, either. My daughter, grandson, and future grandchild are missing as well. But if we're not careful, and we mess with something we're not supposed to, we could wind up locking the veils, and then we could be stuck in the human realm …or here. And then we're?—"

"Screwed," Alice finished for her.

"Exactly."

"So we start with the Djinn history keeper and then go from there." Lizzy leaned against Finn.

"We'll need to go to the Djinn veil to get in," Cindy said. "The quickest way is to ask one of these fae warriors to flash us."

Suddenly, a woman appeared in front of them, causing Lizzy to stumble back. "How do you guys not wind up knocking people over when you just show up like that?"

The woman—Gwen, the high fae, Lizzy realized—glanced at her, but her eyes were wide and filled with fear. She turned back to Cindy. "We have a problem."

"We're aware. We're going to find them."

Gwen frowned at Cindy. "Find who?" Then she looked around. "Where is everyone?"

"Wait, what problem?" Alice held up her hand. "And why do your clothes look like they've been through a shredder?"

Lizzy had been so shocked by Gwen's sudden appearance that she hadn't even paid attention to the woman's disheveled state. But now that Alice pointed it out, she noticed that the fae's robes were torn and tattered, her hair windblown and messy. Her face was flushed, and her eyes were wild.

"I was flashing in when something shifted. I barely made it without being split in two," Gwen said. "I don't know how to explain it to someone who can't flash, but the magic has changed, and it happened right as I was flashing. It's like someone just flipped off the power. I was coming here to tell Peri." Gwen looked around and then focused on Sally's mom. "Cindy Morgan, where is Perizada? Where are the others?"

"They're gone. They went to face off with Celise, and now I can't see them. We were about to go to the Djinn veil to see a history keeper."

Gwen's mouth tightened. "You can't."

"Why do I feel like an explosion is already imminent?" Alice muttered.

"Why can't we?" Cindy asked.

"Because the veil to the Djinn realm is closed." Gwen's eyes landed on each of them. "Every veil to every realm is closed. That's why I was trying to get here as fast as I could. I went to the fae veil and couldn't get through. I reached out to other fae and had them check all the other veils. The same thing happened."

"You're sure? All of them?"

It sounded like Cindy didn't understand what Gwen was saying.

Gwen's mouth tightened. "All of them."

"So, wait." Lizzy held up a hand. "If they're all closed, does that mean the one getting us out of here is closed? Are we stuck here?"

"Yes," Gwen answered.

"How can we help Kara and the others?" Lizzy felt like the walls were crowding in around her. She'd just found her best friend, only to lose her again.

Cindy dropped her head, closing her eyes as a tear streamed down her face. "We can't."