Minutes to Midnight (23 page)

Miles were crossed in the blink of an eye,
and then I stood outside of Hob's broken gate. Thick, lush plants,
trees, and flowers spilled through the iron fence and flooded out
of the door hanging at an angle from a single hinge. High grass and
a patch of purple flowers mingled with the edge of the desert as I
bent low and walked between the broken gate.

It looked the same as before: the low
ceiling of the cave; the plethora of flowers, some moving, some
still. I saw the spiderwyk nests Hob had made for us when we were
injured, discarded to the side of the water. I looked around at the
wild.

You are alive.

It was the most excited I'd heard Hob.

I turned in time to see him materialize out
of the water. Urisks were hard to look at for a lot of people. The
discomfort came from their lack of features. This one resembled a
black, faceless mannequin, the kind you see in department store
windows. He walked to me. I held out my arms. He hesitated before
he held his out as well. We hugged and I felt him there. Cold,
slick, but alive.

"It's good to see you, Hob."

He pulled back and I stared
into the smooth, featureless face.
I had
feared the queen had you.

"You mean Charybdis?"

Yes. I take it you have seen her.

"Yeah…she's now in possession of an old
girlfriend of mine. One of those little inconveniences of my
forgotten year."

You do not sound happy.

"I'm not." I turned and ran a hand over my
face, then through my hair. When I looked down at myself, I saw my
pale chest, the bullet scar, and my favorite pair of jeans, ripped
and beaten beyond repair. I watched a small patch of white flowers
lean toward my bare feet and caress my toes. It tickled. "I'm sorry
I haven't been back to talk, Hob. That was rude of me."

Finding a door in has become difficult. But
because of the hole Maab's enemies tore in the Cairn, I have found
small ways to sieve into the waterways of your world. I can't
manifest very well there, but I can float to the surface and
overhear the voices of conversation and not feel so alone.

I looked at him. "She got through here that
day, didn't she?"

Yes. I sensed when she went by. You didn't
shut the door.

"The door came out in a pipe that dumped us
in the Savannah River. Mike had to go back and figure out a way to
go in and seal it." I looked at the water. "I'm assuming that way
out is now closed."

Yes. But the original way
out is permanent because Maab made it. And because I wove feathers
from your wings into the rebuild, you can also open and close it if
you wish
.

"Wait…" I glared at him. "You mean I have a
permanent way in and out of the Peripheral?"

You have a way in and out of Alfheim. The
Peripheral is this World, Alfheim is just a part of it. Think of it
as a fiefdom inside a larger kingdom. Charybdis owns the other
territories, though the new Faerie Queen of the dark is quite
formidable. And Titania still rules the Snow.

"You mean Mike's daughter, Brendi, is now
the Obsidian Queen." I don't think I'd really realized Brendi had
taken over Maab's position until that moment.

Yes. I think you have to know that if you
return here, I will have to either kill you, or detain you.

I sighed and turned to the darker part of
the farthest wall. If I remembered correctly, the wall was false
and would take me back to the corridor of the Cairn. "She told me
if I left, I was forbidden to return."

Then stay, Guardian. Do your good here. Keep
me company.

His voice held so much anguish in it. He had
to be the loneliest creature I knew. "Would you really kill me,
Hob?"

Puck flew in at that moment. "Hob cannot
kill! Hob cannot kill!"

Quiet, you damned idiot!

The raven landed on a gnarled branch by the
gate and watch us. "Puck gave me your message," I said. "The one
you sent to come see you. It gave me hope."

As it was meant
to
. Hob moved past me to the darkest part
of the wall and waved his hand. The wall vanished and he stepped
through. I stepped through with him. The walls of the tunnel
shifted and wrapped itself from the dark, web-infested lair of the
spiderwyk into what I first remembered the place looking like: an
abandoned mine tunnel.

Hob held out his hand.

I put mine in his. "Is the spiderwyk still
roaming the tunnels?"

No, she's in your world now. Those few
Peripheral creatures who survived the transition into the Material
now roam there, Guardian. Find them, banish them, and I will put
them back where they belong.

"And if I need a place to hide?"

He didn't say anything as he turned and
melted into the tunnel wall.

REVELATIONS AND CONSEQUENCES

Thomas Rhymer met me at the round grate, the
entrance to the Cairn. It appeared and disappeared in the brick of
the retaining wall facing River Street. He wore his white top hat,
sans the red scarf, his white suit, and white boots. His horse and
buggy waited patiently to the left. "Good to see you again, Mr.
McConnell."

"Hey, Thomas." We shook hands. "How
long?"

"It's May now. Ending of the day. What's the
last day you remember?"

"April…tenth I think."

"Today is
Cinco de Mayo
. Several
bars are open late and I have money to make!" He climbed back in
his buggy. "Give you a ride to your house?"

"Is it the same? Have things changed?" I
climbed in the back.

He coaxed the hoarse forward and we made our
ascent up the ramp of cobblestone back to Bay Street above. "The
more things change…the more they stay the same. Prepare
yourself."

His words scared me.

I got a few odd looks from some of the
people along the sidewalks. Me, single guy with no shirt, covered
in blood, on a buggy ride. Yep. There's a winner.

I also noticed I wasn't sick or shivering.
In fact, I felt fine, except for the ache in my thigh where the
sword went through. When I looked at it I panicked. It was bleeding
again and left a few spatters on the floor of Thomas's buggy.

We stopped in Madison Square and I jumped
out. "Hold on and I'll see if Mike's got money—"

"Save it, Guardian. And walk softly." Thomas
coaxed his horse again and I watched the two of them move around
the Square back to Bay.

I faced the townhouse door, counted to ten,
a spell on the tip of my tongue—just in case what answered wasn't
human.

I was ready for anything—

—
except for a very excited
Stella opening the door and launching herself at me. We fell back
on the front porch and I grabbed the railing so we didn't tumble
down the steps. "You're alive!"

She was kissing me. I mean,
smacking me with her lips all over. I was ecstatic to see her alive
and well. She wore an apron over jeans and a T-shirt. Her deep red
hair was pulled into a ponytail. She looked beautiful. "Hey…come on
and let me breathe. I'm alive. And I'm fine."
Don't think about what you did to Rhonda!
"So…what's been happening since—"

The door opened wider and Raven came
through. She yanked Stella off me, shoved her into the townhouse,
then grabbed me by my hair and yanked me inside, too. Before the
door closed, the Revenant grabbed me by the shoulders and sank her
teeth into my neck.

"Raven! Stop it!" That was Stella's voice.
She was here as well. I could hear as well as feel her smacking
Raven with her hand as my eyes slipped closed. "You're going to
kill him."

I figured I knew what Raven was doing—or,
rather, why. Best way to identify someone was to taste their blood.
I was pretty sure this new form of ID would catch on soon.

When she was done, she let go and I
staggered backward into Stella's arms. I pushed against the closed
door and waited for the dizzy that sudden blood loss gave me.
"Wow…nice to see you too, Raven."

It is very nice to see you are alive,
Guardian.

"Hey, Nyx. So, what was with the violent
greeting?"

Raven pointed at Stella. "Go make that thing
you've been talking about."

"What thing?" Stella frowned.

"For him. You kept wanting to make it for
him. I bought everything you need. Go cook."

Stella's face brightened, and she kissed my
cheek and bounced off. I couldn't remember ever seeing Stella
Rosenberg, mild-mannered real estate tycoon, act like that before.
I pointed after her. "What is wrong—"

But Raven waved at me to be quiet and then
gestured for me to follow her. We walked past the kitchen, out the
back sliding doors, and into the garden. Everything looked the
same—no. Actually, everything looked unkempt. Dandelions peeked
through the bark mulch around the stones. The fountain was green
with algae, and weeds choked the flowers.

I picked a dandelion and blew off the seeds.
It reminded me of Brendi. "Mike's gone, isn't he?"

"Once we stomped back through that Cairn and
landed on River Street, he wanted to see where he lived." She
crossed her arms over her chest. "So we walked back here. Then that
Angelic bitch friend of yours showed up, started picking a fight
with him. He ripped her apart and buried her back here."

I dropped the dandelion stem. "Gabriel's
buried…" I looked at the ground and stepped away, just in case I
was standing on her. "Here?"

She pointed to a black spot in the grass by
the deck stairs. "Her pieces are buried there. But you can't kill a
Cherubim. She'll show up again soon as she possesses and cultivates
a new body."

Which also meant that when she does, she'll
be meaner than before. "So Djins and Angels—"

"Do not get along. Honestly, Angels don't
get along with anyone." She pursed her lips. "Djins are mostly
tricksters when they're left to their own devices. So soon as I saw
what he did, I shot him. He left and I haven't seen him since.
Someone's tried to break into the townhouse a few times but the
floodlights scare them off."

"You think it was Mike?"

"It's been a rough month, Dags." She rubbed
at her face. "I was about ready to call up Mephistopheles' cabal
when I got a call from Thomas Rhymer. Said you were on your way
home."

I didn't know how the old legend did that.
"So you haven't seen him."

"No. Your friend Klinsky's been by twice,
wanting money for information on Mike. I don't know if he realizes
what's inside of Mike. If the Djin sticks to its usual activities,
it'll get drunk and stay that way. What we have to do is make sure
it doesn't turn violent. Once it starts down that road, there's no
going back."

I nodded to the kitchen. "And Stella?"

"She was here when we got back. Illy said
she showed up after we left and stayed." She nodded at me. "Your
turn. You tell me everything that happened to you."

Fuck that! I opened my mouth to lay out a
plan to find Mike when the back sliding doors banged open.

Darius ran outside and stopped a few feet
from us. He was breathing heavy, sweat beading on his face. He wore
a dark green tank, jeans and Sketchers. I hesitated—I didn't know
if he was happy to see me or ready to strangle the life out of
me.

Raven stepped back as Darius came to me and
literally buried me in his arms. The hug was brief and bone
crushing. He lowered his arms and caught his breath. "It's good to
see you again."

I held up my hand—after my ribcage popped
back into place. "Have you been tracking Mike?"

"Nothing yet."

I ran fingers through my hair. "Okay. Let me
shower. You shower. We'll take my SUV and then—"

"Excuse me?"

I turned to look at Raven. She stood to my
left, Darius's right, her hands on her hips. "What?"

"You're not going anywhere right now."

I opened my mouth but she held up a hand. I
closed my mouth. "I've got to find Mike. It's my fault he's in this
position."

"How is this your fault?"

"Because I hired the Djin to get you two out
of the 'Pheral. But then he took advantage of things and took Mike.
I was…locked up." With a zombie!

"Darren—" Raven made sure I was looking at
her. "You forget I had a little taste of you—and I got all kinds of
insight from that single bite. You're running on borrowed
energy—which we are going to have a conversation over later so I
can understand the image I got." She waved at me when I opened my
mouth to talk. "Silence. You need food, and you need sleep. You're
going to eat, Darius is going to go home and pack and be back here
by nine this evening." She looked at him. "You got that?"

Darius nodded and put a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm taking your car. I can get it gassed and ready."