Page 47 of Devils and the Dead
I put the granola bar back in my bag and watched as the badger tore a chunk off a rotted log and pulled out a handful of grubs. Then I blinked in surprise as the missing piece of log magically reappeared.
“It’s amazing,” the shifter said, his mouth full. “You witches have the best magic.”
That…that wasn’t our magic. I took a step toward the log. It was dead, but teaming with life. Looking up and turning around, I realized the log was in a direct line from the sugar maple grove—right across from where the branches formed a heart.
“Hades!” I called out, hardly daring to hope that this might be it. “Come here and see if you sense anything about this log.”
He walked over then nodded. “Yes! It’s absolutely under some sort of elven spell. The magic is very similar to that of the curse, but far older.”
“It has to be the Everbloom.” The artifact was working its magic on the log, but where exactly was it? Was the Everbloom the log itself? The grubs? I glanced over at the badger shifter in alarm, only to realize he hardly would have been eating portions of an elven artifact for years without knowing something was different about his favorite snack food.
“What’s an Everbloom?” the shifter asked, his mouth full of grubs.
Hades explained it all while I knelt down to look at the log. It made sense. We’d come to the grove where those who knew Tinsel, who lived and walked with him resided. We walked through the “pure of heart” shape made by the trees. We found the spot where the living and the dead resided. Where was it?
With a love for all things living and dead, Tinsel had said. That was me. I equally loved the living and the dead. I walked with both. I embraced both. Reaching out with both hands, I closed my eyes and touched the log, trying to see with my inner sight. When I opened my eyes, the log and the grubs were gone, and cradled in my hands was a tiny glass orchid that sparkled with fae magic.
“Where? How?” Hades sputtered. “I didn’t even sense it until just now. How did you find it?”
“I walk with the living and the dead,” I explained as I got to my feet. “I think that’s the power of the Everbloom. I believe it is a bridge across the veil, something that transcends life and death. I don’t completely understand its magic, or how it can reproduce the magic of an elven homeland, but when I put my hands on the log, it came to me.”
Was it a horrible coincidence that Tinsel had hidden the Everbloom in the form of a dead log, shielding and hiding its magic, and he’d suffered a similar fate in the queen’s curse, entombed forever in a tree?
We’d found it. We’d found the Everbloom and were one step closer to freeing Tinsel. Clinton would be thrilled when I told him. As would Cassie. Now I would just make plans for tomorrow, and try one last time to resurrect Maude before I walked into the elven queen’s homeland, perhaps never to leave.
And I needed to tell Hades about Maude. I couldn’t delay that any longer.
“Where’d it go?” the badger shifter sputtered. “You nearly cave in my sett. You attack me with a bunch of dead spiders. And now you magic away my endless snack bar of grubs. You witches owe me. You owe me a roast. And a chicken. And a case of beef jerky.”
And with that, he spun around, transformed back into a badger, and stomped back into his sett.
Chapter 21
Babylon
We sat in the diner, munching on fried pickles with the Everbloom in a small box between us. The first thing I’d done after calling Cassie and telling Clinton had been to order a case of beef jerky to send to the badger shifter. Poor guy. It wasn’t an endless supply of grubs, but hopefully it would serve as an apology for taking away his all-you-can-eat snack bar.
“I can’t believe we found it so easily,” Hades said, nudging the box toward me.
“I can’t believe the elf queen didn’t see it!” I exclaimed. It had been right there, under her nose the whole time as she murdered and cursed the other elves.
“Perhaps it wasn’t visible until Tinsel decided to reveal it. Perhaps you were the only one who could find it.” Hades picked up the box that held the Everbloom and turned it in his hands. “He was powerful and clever enough to steal it from the queen and to evade her for seven decades. I’ll bet even after his death, even after he was cursed, he managed to hold on to enough power to keep it hidden.”
I nodded, thinking that Tinsel wasn’t quite the helpless elf I’d believed. I didn’t know why he’d stolen the flower, but clearly he’d committed a crime. And he’d embroiled the others in it as well—assuming that they were part of the heist to begin with. But they’d already been punished far more than the crime should have called for. The others were free. I could only hope that Bronwyn’s magical, musical, gem-encrusted bird would buy Tinsel’s freedom.
“I want to hold off going through the portal until tomorrow,” I told Hades. “Just so I can finalize everything and so Cassie and the others can organize their defense of the town.”
Just in case everything fell apart. I wanted the town to be ready. I wanted to be ready, to tie up loose ends since there was a chance I might not be returning. My biggest worry was Maude. I needed to make one more attempt to resurrect her before I left. If it didn’t work, then I was going to tell her it wasn’t possible. I’d have Nash to arrange for a reaper to escort her back to heaven. But in order for a reaper to do that, I’d need those angels Hades had been dealing with.
Which meant I had to tell him. This might be the last night I ever saw him. I loved his gentlemanly approach, but I was hoping we could fast-track this relationship a bit since it might be the most short-lived romance I ever had.
“Things might be different in their world,” Hades warned me. “A lot of things might be different there.”
True. And from what I’d learned about the various fae-lands, they were a mess of convoluted hidden meanings. One wrong word and someone could lose their freedom, or their firstborn child. But this crime hadn’t happened in their world, it had happened here, and that pissed me off.
“They entered our lands, our town, and killed an entire settlement of elves.” My blood boiled as I mentally rehashed the slaughter that had taken place right under our noses—a slaughter we’d been unaware of for decades. It was humiliating. Their queen, or whatever assassin they’d sent, had no right to do that. They’d committed a crime inourtown, onourwatch, against beingswewere duty bound to protect. I wanted to do something about it. I wanted Cassie to do something about it. She was the head witch. She was in charge. Yes, the elves had been murdered when we’d all still been children, but it was our duty to set things right, to see justice done.
The dead elves wanted justice, and I couldn’t let them down. Cassie and my sisters might be able to live with the painful knowledge that a crime had gone unpunished, but I couldn’t. I’d hear their voices, see their faces every night. The dead belonged to me, just as the living belonged to Cassie. I couldn’t deny them their justice.
