CHAPTER 141

Could he use this to find the fae realm? It would be like swimming up a river, but if the Underworld really was a central hub...

Excited, she tucked the book under one arm and headed for the backyard. Once outside, she saw that Tink and some rats were busy uncoiling a large portion of wire, using a pair of large planters to help lay it out straight. Naia was in her fountain talking to Lily, and Abella was standing at the back of the yard, staring through the open gate.

"What the fuck were you doing?" Lily curled her lip in disapproval, and Beth held up the book.

"I think I found something, but it can wait."

"I don't think it matters. Naia doesn't know anything about a contract." Lily lowered her voice dramatically when she spoke next. "This surprised nobody."

"Be nice. Naia, are you sure you don't remember any sort of contract with the faerie queen? Maybe a golden scroll, like the one Mike has, or mention of sending a banshee to watch over the family."

Naia shook her head. "I'm really sorry, but I don't. Maybe Sofia would know, or someone else, but important documents and water don't tend to mix well."

"Annoying, but fair." Lily grabbed Beth's hand. "C'mon, let's go see what old One-Eyed Winona has to say."

Beth was about to turn away when she heard Naia gasp. Tink dropped her tools and froze in place, startling the rats that were helping her. Over by the gate, Abella turned to look over her shoulder, her stone features wide in surprise.

The nymph had gone deathly still, her mouth opening and closing like a fish as she gasped for air.

"Lily, what's happening to them?"

"I don't know." The succubus spun about, her horns appearing over her head, but there was no enemy to be seen.

Tink let out a shriek of anger and picked up the hammer closest to her and threw it into the side of the house, where it busted through the siding and stuck. Abella's face turned somber and she turned back to the gate to resume her vigil. Naia, on the other hand, was turning translucent, ripples going up and down her body as her form wavered.

"Naia, please, what's going on?"

Naia looked at Beth, her lips twitching. A single tear ran down her cheek.

"She...she was my sister. How could I forget my sister?" Her eyes met Beth's, and her body became translucent. "Oh, Emily, how could you?"

Naia fell to her knees and clutched the side of the fountain, which was now overflowing onto the ground in time with her tears. Beth set the book somewhere dry and then stepped into the fountain, doing her best to comfort the nymph.

And, much to her surprise, so did Lily.

🏡🏡🏡

Kisa sat on the edge of the roof, her legs dangling over the side. She had been up here for most of the day now, listening to an mp3 player that Tink had scrounged up for her.

The electricity on her floor was out due to repairs, and she had discovered a perfectly lovely spot on the roof to stretch her legs and soak up some sun. The music on the mp3 player wasn't anything great, but it would do for now.

Ever since Tink had given her the record player, she had found a purpose other than lounging about, a reason to live, to breathe. In between songs, she could recall memories of the old man who had helped her. His face was a constant presence during her moments of peace, and while it bothered her that she couldn't remember who she was, it bothered her even more that she couldn't remember him.

But she did remember that he had taught her how to dance. It was something he had learned from his home country, and it was what he had taught at the rec center. It was her hope that maybe dancing would help her to reconnect with the past, to give her the answers she so desperately craved. Whoever she used to be may be gone, but the person she was when she danced still existed.

Of course, her peace had been interrupted when Death had come up to watch her. The spooky specter was content to sip his tea and watch, and when she asked him if there was somewhere else he could be, Death had explained that he and Mike had engaged in a long chat about personal space after some important meeting.

Once she explained to him that dancing was also private (sometimes), Death had pulled a children's book from the depths of his robe and was busy looking through the alphabet, but he did not leave. Happy that he would at least keep to himself, she had danced some more, albeit not as enthusiastically as before.

The events of the house were like a foreign entity to her. The urge to dance called to her from the moment she woke to the moment she slept, and other than a couple of check-ins with Tink, she was perfectly fine being the ever-elusive feline of the house. She needed to work through so much of her own drama first, that she felt like this approach was perfectly fine.

However, her mp3 player had died almost twenty minutes ago, and she was deliberately leaving her earbuds in and pretending to be listening to music so that she wouldn't have to talk to Death.

The earbuds didn't quite fit her ears correctly, so the sound of Tink's shout followed by something slamming into the house was perfectly audible. Crouching down, she crossed the roof on all fours and looked into the backyard.

Naia was crying in the fountain, and Beth and Lily were busy trying to console her. Curious, she leaned over the edge for a closer look, but movement in the yard caught her eye.

When she turned her head, she saw a dark figure move past Abella and then disappear through the gate in the backyard and vanish in between the trees. It was a man, but that was about all she could tell. A growl escaped her lips, and she kept her eyes on the spot where he had disappeared.

"I say, this is a bit dramatic, is it not?" Death had crouched down right by her side, and she startled, then nearly fell. Her scrabbling claws caught the roof in time to keep her from falling free.