Page 250 of The Spider Queen
“Good news travels fast,” I muttered.
“The Guardian is quite overjoyed at the news. As are we all. We’ve waited a long time for him to return. We’ve waited a long time for him to be happy. And now he is.”
I grasped Ragna’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you. This has been…” I trailed off.
She squeezed my hand back and then let it drop. Ragna disappeared into the shadows, but I knew if I called to her, she’d come.
And suddenly I didn’t feel so alone.
I left the throne room with the intention of heading back to bed. But when I passed the door that led to the bridge, something made me stop. I turned to face it. Out of sheer curiosity, I placed my hand on the door. My handprint glowed silver, and then the door skated open.
I looked down the hallway, both directions, expecting to see guards or Thane rush from our bedroom. But it was clear that I hadn’t triggered some silent magical alarm. I inhaled and stepped through the doorway. The door closed behind me.
“This is weird,” I whispered. My voice carried across the mist and smoke as my feet marched toward the second doorway. No way this would work a second time, I reasoned. So I placed my hand on the door, not expecting anything. Yet it opened, too.
I squared my shoulders and walked across the cobblestone. The mist and smoke cleared enough for me to see the edge of the bridge—and the gold soul hovering in the air.
“You must be the soul that refuses to move on,” I said. “I wonder why.”
The soul shook.
I frowned. “Can you hear me?”
It shook again.
“No. You can’t be cognizant. It’s not possible.” Then again, hadn’t my soul been aware when it was leaving my body?
Silken tendrils peered through the mist and curled around the soul. I watched the silk harden, crack, and then turn to nothing. The soul remained in place, unblemished, unchanged.
My spiders thrummed with the answer, and I took their offering. Words flew off my tongue, words that only belonged to the Guardian. I chanted them as I stood on the bridge, staring at the golden soul.
The soul pulsed, its outer rays shooting off. I thought I was destroying it from the inside out, telling it to go to the afterlife it belonged to. But it wasn’t dismantling, it was rebuilding, rearranging. And when the soul was no more, in its place was a golden face.
A face I knew well.
“Hunter,” I breathed.
Chapter 61
The face smiled. Pure. Happy. Peaceful.
“Hello, Poppy.”
My hand lifted, and my fingers itched to touch the visage. But it was floating out of reach. “What are you—I don’t understand. You’re supposed to be in Atlantis. Aren’t you?”
“I couldn’t find my way. I was lost for a while, and then I came here.”
“How?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Because of you, Poppy. You are still holding on to me.”
“You’re sayingIstopped you from going to your afterlife?” I whispered. “I didn’t know…”
“A part of your heart still holds mine, I guess.” His gaze was unrelenting yet calm. “You look happy.”
“I am.” My eyes dropped from his to stare at the cobblestone.
“Why do you look as though you feel guilt about your happiness? You did what you were supposed to do, Poppy. You freed Thane, you saved the world, and now you get to live happily-ever-after.”
