Time Slipping (23 page)

Finn shrugged. “You could say that.” He was looking off into the distance, obviously not interested in elaborating.

I put my hand on Tony’s arm as his opened his mouth again. I knew that look on his face; he was about to get to the bottom of Finn taking college botany courses because it was tickling that part of his mind that told him things weren’t adding up. Of course we all thought Finn was a little soft in the grey matter department, but once I thought about it, I realized it was because he talked like a redneck. It wasn’t because he’d done anything brainless in all the time we’d known him.

When Tony looked at me for an explanation, I just shook my head. Tony looked back at Finn and then at me again, finally putting two and two together. He nodded and lifted some weeds to his mouth. “Well, whatever they are, I’m grateful for the meal.” He only winced a little as he chewed.

“Yes, thanks,” Spike said, holding out a few weeds at him in some sort of toast. “Good stuff.” He smiled as he ate it, even though I knew he was hating every bite. He would have much rather sucked someone’s energy, but I had to give it to him; he hadn’t mentioned it once. Neither had Felicia.

“It is my pleasure,” Ish said, tossing his empty leaf-plate into the fire. “I know it is not very filling, but it will give you the energy you need to continue your quest.”

“Are we sleeping here tonight?” Felicia asked.

Everyone looked around at one another, but no one had any answers. Personally, I’d been hoping we’d already be gone from this realm by bedtime, but it didn’t look good for that at this point. Night had fallen, and the only reason we could see anything at all was due to the fire in front of us. The stars hadn’t come out yet or were covered in clouds.

Ish poked the fire, making it flame up higher. “It will be colder here than down below in the valley. But there are animals there you might not want as bedfellows.”

“Snakes?” Becky asked, moving closer to Finn on the log they shared.

“Yes. And scorpions. They seek warmth just as we do, and they are not shy about sharing a bedroll with a human.”

I raised a finger. “I vote we stay up here.”

“Seconded,” Tim said. He was lying on his back next to me, a flat-topped boulder his bed. He wasn’t suffering at all in this realm; his stomach was full of berries he’d found nearby. He assured me they were safe to eat, but I kept a close eye on him anyway. All I needed was a hallucinating pixie on my hands.

“I’m fine with staying up here,” Jared said. “We can gather close together for warmth, but before we call it a night, I’d like to decide on our plan moving forward, if everyone here is in agreement.” He threw his plate into the fire and stood. “I’ll be right back.”

Everyone but Tony, Tim, and I filtered away, looking for a spot to do their business before going to sleep. I had more pressing matters on my mind. “So, what do you think, Tones? Are we going to get out of here?”

He shrugged. “I’d like to think so. But so far, I haven’t seen any promising signs of that.”

“Why are we even here? I mean, what’s the point?”

“I suppose the point is to keep you from your goal. To keep all of us from that goal of going to the Underworld and hanging out with Biad.”

“But why? What difference does it make?” I had my own theories, but I wanted to know what his were without tainting his ideas with mine.

“I’ve been thinking about it all day, and the only thing I can come up with is that someone or some
ones
want to keep you from acting as companion to Biad. Which means they want an unhappy dragon at the Underworld portal. So that tells me they’re either inside the Underworld and want to come out, or they’re outside the Underworld and they want to go in, or they’re outside and they want someone who is inside to come out.”

I felt a little charge in my gut at the last option. “I’m going with Option C. Or was it Option D?”

He smiled. “Which one?”

“The one where there’s someone in the Underworld, and someone in the Here and Now who wants to get that person out.”

“Tell me why you think that.”

“Because. The stuff that’s been happening to us is coming from the Here and Now. It has to be. Biad is in place and the portal is closed, so no one from the Underworld can get out and manipulate things the way someone has been.”

“Possibly.”

“What do you mean, possibly?”

He shrugged. “It is theoretically possible for someone in the Underworld to be present in the Here and Now, even with the portals sealed shut.”

“How? And what’s the point of having the dragons at the portals if that’s true?”

“Black magic. Demons can be summoned.”

“Okay, fine. But that still means there’s someone on the outside in our realm pulling strings.”

“Yes. It would appear that way.”

“Okay, so who is it?”

He shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“My money’s on Leck. And Maléna too.”

Tony thought about it for a while and then sighed. “I suppose they’re as likely as anyone else.”

“No, they’re
more
likely. They hate me. They hate that we put the dragons in place.”

“That’s true. But they were … dealt with. After what happened.”

“Dealt with? What does that even mean?”

“They were punished. Put in a position to not do any more harm than they already had.”

Of course my curiosity was piqued; how could it not have been? “What exactly was their punishment?”

Tony stood. “I have to use the bathroom. Be right back.”

I grabbed his hand and forced him to stay. “No way, dude. You’re telling me now.”

He shook his head. “I can’t.” Pulling himself free, he walked away.

His abrupt departure while I was still hanging onto him caused a slicing pain to move up my arm from the bandaged area. I cradled it against me, hoping for the throbbing to stop, as my brain went a thousand miles an hour. What could have been so bad or weird about the punishment Leck and Maléna got that he wouldn’t tell me? We were best friends and trusted each other implicitly, weren’t we? Didn’t we? I was imagining all kinds of crazy things the council could have ordered as their punishment: the stockades, prison on a pixie colony, drawing and quartering. The possibilities were endless, and probably none of them good enough in my opinion.

Felicia came back alone and I stood. “Hey, could you show me where you made a potty? I need to do the same and I’m afraid to go out there alone.”

She grinned and I could see her teeth in the dark. “You sure you want me to show you?”

My heart skipped a beat, but I pretended like it hadn’t. “Sure. I’m not afraid of you. I know you won’t hurt me.”

She cleared her throat. “Jayne, weeds don’t satisfy my hunger. You know that.”

I glared at her, even though she probably couldn’t see it. “And you know that if you try to put those fangs on me, I’ll comasize you and leave you here to become dragon poop, so come on. Let’s go.” I started walking off, confident she’d follow.
Jesus, just what I need right now. A pain in the ass succubus thinking she can mess with my head.
I was regretting my agreement to let her even come on the field trip to the Isle of Skye. I really only did it to make Tony happy.

“You think I could get a little somethin’ somethin’ from that Ish guy?” she asked, taking long strides to catch up to me. I’d already given up on her guidance in the dark. Besides, the stars had started to glow so I could see well enough.

I shook my head. “No, I do not think you can get a little somethin’ somethin’ from him. Come on, he’s our only contact here. You can’t go sucking the life out of him now. He’ll never speak to us again.”
Hey! What a great idea! How about I try to kill the only guy in the entire realm who’s being nice to us right now!
Stupid cube-eyes. Always thinking about themselves.

I could hear the sly smile in her voice. “Au contraire, my dear. He’d be more than happy to help us out if I sucked some of the life out of him. I promise.”

I ground my teeth for a few seconds before I could answer without punching her in the head. “No. Too dangerous.”

“Too sexy, you mean.”

I sighed. It was pointless arguing with her and her giant succubus ego. “Fine. Yeah. You’re too sexy. He’ll blow his wad and be useless to us, so back off. If you need some juice, talk to Tony. I’m sure he’ll provide.” Maybe I should have been more worried about that suggestion, but they seemed to manage just fine in their relationship. He never looked sick or worn out to me.

“A succubus cannot survive on the energy of just one fae, Jayne. Even you should know that.”

“Even me? What’s
that
supposed to mean?” My temper started heating up even more once she made the conversation personal, and it sure didn’t seem like she was too worried about it. It was more like she wanted to piss me off for some reason.

She continued, her tone mocking. “Even you, the most ignorant fae of them all.”

I stopped suddenly, squaring my body for a fight. “Are you friggin kidding me?”

She stopped too, her hip stuck out in what looked like a suggestive pose to me. It didn’t make sense. I was about to punch her face off and she was trying to look sexy? “No. I’m serious.” She hooked her fingers in her waistband, pulling it down at little. She gestured at me with her chin. “Look at you, standing there with your righteous attitude, and all the while you’re just stumbling around in the dark, clueless. You have no idea who you are, where you’re going, or what you’re going to do from one minute to the next.”

She was obviously picking a fight, but I couldn’t figure out why. Regardless, it was only because she was my best friend’s girlfriend that I held back from delivering the boob punch of all boob punches that she totally deserved.

“Yeah, so? Is that supposed to be news to me?” I tried to sound tougher than I was feeling. “Everyone knows I fly by the seat of my pants. So what? I’m still standing, aren’t I?”

“For now.” She took a step forward. “But for how much longer will your luck hold out?”

I quietly pulled up some of my Earth element into me, telling it I wanted it to repel anyone who had bad intentions toward my person, including succubi who might think I look a little too tasty in the moonlight.

“Hey, Jayne? You out here?” Tim’s voice was coming from my right, and I turned to answer him. It was in that brief moment of inattention that Felicia thought she saw her window.

“Oh, there you are, you …,” he started to say.

And then a giant green spark lit up the night around me, a shower of sparkly bits flowing over me like a slow-motion fountain.

When I looked back, Felicia was on the ground in front of me, motionless.

“What in the hell…?” I said, the green fireworks fading out to nothing in seconds.

“Whoa nelly, did you see that?” Tim was buzzing around Felicia’s head. “Woo hoo! You just zapped the crud out of that succubus, Elemental!” He flew up and turned to face me, keeping his distance. “I’d come over there for a high-one, but I don’t like flying into bug zappers.”

“You’re not going to get zapped,” I said, holding up my finger. I couldn’t stop staring at her. “Is that what just happened?” My brain was having a hard time piecing everything together, it had gone down so fast.

Trampling sounds came next and then suddenly my friends were there, Jared at the head of the group. “What’s going on?” he demanded to know, his gaze going from me to Felicia. She was still out cold.

I shrugged. “She just … came at me.”

Tony walked over and bent down, leaning so he could feel her breath on his cheek and then her pulse by her neck with his fingers. “She’s still breathing. Pulse seems elevated but not dangerously so.” He looked up at me. “What did you do to her?”

The criticism in his voice was impossible to miss. “What did
I
do?” I snorted. “How about I tell you what
she
did.”

Spike’s response was the worst of all of them. “Jayne?” His brow went up and he just stood there, expecting me to bow my head and apologize or something insane like that. Something cracked in my chest; I was pretty sure it was my heart.

Becky walked over and stood next to me, putting her hand in mine. “Don’t worry, Jayne. We understand.”

I shook her off. “You understand what? That I’m a friggin idiot fae? Short bus rider?”

She looked up at me confused. “What? No, I didn’t say that.”

I glared at my friends and the guy who was supposed to love me no matter what, suddenly seeing them through different eyes. Had they always looked at me and seen a big idiot standing in front of them? Had I fooled myself into thinking they actually respected me and appreciated my efforts at trying to do the right thing? Had I always loved Spike more than he loved me back? It was heartbreaking to think I’d been wrong about all of that. I wanted to cry, but I was too pissed to let them see that.

“You know what? Screw you guys.” I stormed off, moving through the bushes and trees as fast as my feet would take me. I had no idea where I was going, just that I wanted it to be as far away from them as I could get.

Chapter Thirty

I’D BEEN CRASHING THROUGH THE landscape for a good half hour or so when I heard his voice. “Hey! Wait up, roomie! Where’re you going?”

I stopped immediately, trying to stand perfectly still, hoping he’d fly by and miss me entirely. But he wasn’t that easy to get rid of; he kept coming, his voice moving closer and closer. “You’re getting really far from the camp. You sure you want to do that?”

I gave up on being incognito and continued on my way, the moon and stars lighting up a nice path in front of me. “Go away, Tim. I want to be alone.”

“Phooey on that. Who wants to be alone after hanging out with a succubus? No one I know. You need to reconnect, preferably not with someone who wants to suck the life out of you.” He finally caught up and buzzed along beside me, ignoring my cold shoulder and occasional swat in his direction.

I’d thought walking briskly off in the opposite direction of my friends would make me feel better, but the farther I got, the more determined I was to escape. I didn’t want them to come after me and find me, to tell me they were sorry and didn’t mean those horrible looks they were giving me when they thought I’d hurt Felicia. She asked for it. She did it to herself. I did nothing but protect myself.