Page 45 of Devils and the Dead
“Tinsel, we’ve struck a bargain with the elf queen. I need to know where the Everbloom is hidden so I can return it to her.”
“She’ll never set me free. Never,” he moaned.
“We made a bargain,” I told him, but the nature of my deal with the elf queen worried me. I was exchanging the Everbloom for the safety of Accident. It was Bronwyn’s gift that I hoped would be enticing enough to secure Tinsel’s freedom. But I’d need the Everbloom first. I wanted the elf queen to have her artifact back and have a face-saving way for her to reverse the curse.
“Doomed. Cursed. Forever,” he cried.
“This is our one chance to free you. We need to know where the Everbloom is, otherwise you will be cursed forever. This is ouronechance,” I repeated.
There was a long silence, then another pained scream from the log.
“Those who know me, who lived and walked beside me will find the Everbloom,” he said, his voice weak. “Those who seek with a pure heart and a love for all things living and dead will find the Everbloom.”
Tinsel barely got the last word out before he began screaming again. I waved for Hades and he upended the grave dirt onto the log.
“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Rest, your soul free as your body returns to the earth,” I said.
The dirt on the log smoked then caught fire with a shower of sparks. I reached out with my awareness and knew that although Tinsel was still cursed, I’d managed to lessen his pain.
The green portal flared and a series of darts flew from it, aimed directly at us. Before I could react, Hades threw his hands out and the air shimmered. The darts vanished, and the portal was now surrounded by that distorted, flickering air.
“Nice work.” I took a step closer to Hades, unnerved to think we’d been half a second from being pierced by those darts—darts that most definitely had probably carried horrible magic. “What happened to the darts?”
“They’re currently in a lava pit in hell.” He grimaced. “I didn’t stop to think about whether they were magicked or not.”
My eyes widened as I thought about some lava pit suddenly exploding.
He sighed. “I guess I’ll have to deal with that later. There might need to be some emergency repairs in the sixth circle.”
“Will the demons and damned souls be okay?” I had no idea what the magic on those darts might do when they hit a lava pit in hell.
“Oh, I’m sure they’re okay.” He shrugged. “Not much can kill a demon, and the damned souls are already dead. Plus, I doubt whatever was on those darts was lethal. The queen wants her Everbloom and is curious about the gift. She wouldn’t kill you and cut off her chance of getting both.”
He had a point.
We started walking toward Clinton and the cluster of werewolves who’d gathered at the edge of the lumberyard.
“Did Tinsel say anything that might help us find the Everbloom?” Hades asked.
“In between his screams?” I winced, thinking of the curse. “I know that was bad. I hate that you had to see it...or hear it.”
He stopped walking and faced me. “Babylon, I know many people, probably even some of your family, find your magic unsettling. Others find it disgusting. I don’t. You are doing everything within your power to help that poor elf. You’re going to break this curse and set him free. I find that admirable. And I see your magic as a beautiful thing.”
“Thank you.” It was the first time anyone had ever called my magic beautiful. And the thought that he saw Tinsel’s pain as a horribly necessary evil so we could release this curse meant a lot to me.
“Do you have any idea what Tinsel may have meant?” he asked as we continued to walk. “Everyone that ever knew him is dead or back in his homeland. Did he mean that you know him well enough to find the Everbloom?”
“I think so,” I mused. “As much as I can, anyway. I’ve spoken to Tinsel twice. I’ve read my family’s journal entries about the elves. I’ve been—” Suddenly I stopped. “Wait. When we came up here to build the houses for the werewolves, there were no existing structures. The elves vanished thirty years ago and the buildings were still here then. There should have been structures, even if they were crumbling and overgrown.”
“Maybe their magic made them vanish without a trace within a certain amount of time?” Hades asked.
“Yeah, but…” I snapped my fingers. “The sugar maple grove! When the elf queen murdered and cursed the elves, she wouldn’t have hauled them down the access road to that grove to do it, she would have killed them right where they stood—right in their village.”
“So the elves didn’t live in this spot,” Hades commented. “Their village was where the sugar maple grove now stands.”
“That’s where we need to start,” I said. “That’s where those who knew Tinsel would have gone to find him. That’s where he was even in death—until the storm brought the tree down and the werewolves brought the log here to their compound.”
“Can we help?” Clinton asked.
