Revealed in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

“That’ll last until the guards decide he’s a nuisance.”

Yes.

“And then?”

At that point, I doubt you’ll be still long enough for a plan.

Good point. I didn’t plan to stand idly by as elves rushed us.

Fire rolled over me, and the heat felt damn good.

The first few people went through.

“I’ve always wanted to see the Flush,” Dizzy said, pushed up behind me. Apparently they’d be traveling in the middle as well. “I’ve heard it is absolutely beautiful.”

“I feel like a donkey, carrying all of this stuff.” Callie pulled at the backpack straps again.

“Here.” The big dude, Rod, stepped up and put out his hand. “I can take that for you, Missus Banks.”

“Oh.” She smiled at him sheepishly. “Well, thank you, young man.”

Penny and I exchanged a look, our eyebrows hiked up. Young man? It wasn’t like her to play the old biddy. Then again, if it took the load off…

“Did you really come for me, or because you didn’t want to be left behind?” I asked as we stepped forward, like waiting in line at Disneyland. These people were much too cautious.

“I’d be lying if I said I savored the prospect of waiting in the house,” Dizzy said, “doing nothing, listening to the two Seers bicker.”

Callie elbowed him.

“What?” he hollered at her. “She’s not a dummy. She knows we hate taking the safe approach.”

Callie scowled at Dizzy. “We wouldn’t have bothered if it hadn’t been you and Penny in the mix.”

“I’m just coming along because of Reagan,” Penny said. “The Flush”—she reduced to a whisper—“was not very fun.”

“Why is that?” I stepped up again as the rest of the fae ducked through the gate. “You never said. I mean…you didn’t give me a reason I actually believed. Boredom and hunting for weird stones has never been a problem for you.”

“Why didn’t you pester her about it, then?” Callie demanded. “It’s a little late now, with curious ears listening in.”

“We’re the only ones with curious ears, hon,” Dizzy said. “Everyone else has been there.”

“I didn’t badger her about it before ’cause Charity’s story was more interesting, and then I just forgot.”

Penny was still whispering. “I didn’t want to…speak badly. But… Well, you’ll see. They aren’t exactly welcoming to strangers.”

“Oh, that’s okay.” I shrugged. “I’m rarely welcome anywhere. This will be no different.”

“It might be a little different,” Emery said, and started laughing. That was promising.

We finally stepped up to the gate. Darius put out his hand to stop us.

Halvor, a hard-eyed man with impeccable posture and an air of unspeakable violence, stepped up to my side. All of the mages took a step back.

“’ello, guvna,” I said in a terrible English accent.

He didn’t respond. Not real chatty, that fae.

Here we go, Darius thought.

Like prickles lightly sliding across my skin, the magic of the gate washed over me. The dark sky became orange with little gold filaments floating around us. The path turned to cobbles, flanked by sweet-smelling flowerbeds laden with magic and trees with perfectly manicured branches. The whole thing looked like a children’s picture book, down to the little bench under a green light pole off to the side.

Romulus stood near that bench, speaking to two tall and swishy elves, their hair flowing in the lack of breeze, their red and orange tunics draped down their slight bodies just so, and their hands flared to the sides just a little, like they were about to dance forward and frolic in the flowers.

It was all an act.

All of it. After my stint in the Underworld, I knew in my blood this was a magical construction painted over the natural habitat.

To that end, I looked upward, wondering if it was like earth, and the universe waited beyond, or if it was like the Underworld, and we were actually inside an enormous cave or something. And if the former was true, were we in a different universe than the one that existed on the Brink side, or was it somehow the same?

Darius moved us forward, Halvor still at my side, forcing us to stay within a protective bubble of fae. I let them shepherd me, looking back at the gate, wondering if the worlds weren’t separate at all. Maybe we all existed together—the magical people and the humans—and the magical people sectioned themselves off into these pockets in time and space. Maybe we actually stood on Brink soil.

“Oh no,” I murmured, grabbing my head. “This place is just as much of a mindfuck as the Underworld.”

Do not mention that here, Darius thought, his hand tightening on my wrist.

“Can the elves hear as well as you?” I whispered, no longer able to see them through the thicket of fae surrounding us. “As well as the shifters?”

Nearly.

I nodded and tried to ignore the urge to explore the magic stitching this place together. Maybe my magic couldn’t crack the Realm open like it could the Underworld. Then again, with Lucifer so suspicious of the elves, and the elves so distrustful of him…