Chapter 6 #2
With Mike on one side, his grandmother on the other, her magic pulsed around us and she whisked us both out.
The dungeon disappeared in a blink, and the sudden sunlight replacing the shadows blinded me. It seared straight through my retinas until I cried out and ducked. My forehead collided with pillowy sand, and beyond the roaring in my head came the soft burble of water over stone.
I gripped my head, squeezing my eyes shut until the world stopped spinning so sickeningly, but the sensation lingered. I’ll never feel normal again.
“You can’t do that!” Mike told her, furious. “You can’t whisk us away. We had steps in place, carefully planned steps.”
“Ah, look. There’s my ex-husband’s genes.” Poppy was unruffled by his outburst. “Tsk-tsk. He also thought it was a good idea to snap at the hand that fed him.”
Mike growled. “Where have you brought us?”
I forced myself off my knees as sand spilled through my fingers. I thought I recognized the bank of the river near the outskirts of town, where the cobblestone streets and intricately designed bridges ended and the forest began.
“I brought us straight to the closest morsana field, because it’s imperative we free your girl from this curse. Now.” Poppy pointed at me. “She’s dying. You have to see that.”
Her statement was enough to curb Mike’s temper. He looked at me, really looked at me, and I latched on to the morsana comment.
“Flower.” My voice sounded like gravel. I was unsteady and nearly staggered.
“Shit, Tavi, let me help you.” Mike hustled over and gave me his support, which was very welcome indeed because I was fading fast.
As I clung to him, I looked around. There beyond the riverbank, a field of dazzling blue blossoms spread out. And beyond that I caught the craggy spires of a ruined castle.
Wait. We weren’t in Eahsea anymore?
I’d thought we were, but Poppy seemed to have transported us so much farther.
“How…” was all I could manage.
“When you brought the EverRose morsana field back to life, the acres of growth became untouchable,” Poppy explained.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. No Fae was able to destroy it, not through the rest of the Pixie War and beyond.
Trust me, the Thornwood kings have tried.
They see it as a mockery of their power. ”
Mike raked his free hand through his hair until the gilded strands stood on end. The tips of his pointed ears went bright red. “We changed history. What does it mean for the world?”
“It means we can save Tavi’s life,” Poppy said adamantly. “This is the only way and she’s the one who made it possible. So less yapping and more lifesaving. Okay?”
And just like that, she was the same Barbara I’d known. She might look like the Poppy I’d met but her attitude was the same, brisk and blunt in all the right ways.
She was the woman who would save my life so I wouldn’t have to pay the ultimate price for my meddling.
So EverRose had changed since the last time I saw it. Of course it had. That was so long ago.
Evidence of the fire’s hunger still marked the castle ruins. I might have restored the blossoms, saving them from extinction, but the castle showed its age.
Poppy marched ahead. Mike slid his arm around my shoulders for support as we followed her.
The slight hill leading up from the river wasn’t as steep as I remembered it. The hills must have caved with erosion, too. But the flowers—
An undulating wave of rich turquoise-blue spread out in every direction. Poppy wasted no time before grabbing handfuls of blooms and tucking them into the pockets of her trousers.
“This should do it,” she assured us. “And a little bit extra in case I get the mixture wrong.” She laughed at the absurdity of that. “Let’s get this show rolling.”
My head lolled to the side as her magic surrounded us again, shoving itself through my nostrils and into the deepest parts of my lungs.
I’m going down fast.
Faster than before, as though our trip through space catapulted me into the last stages of this disease. We were so close. The flowers were there, ready to be put to use.
I sucked in a deep breath and coughed as Poppy’s magic filled my lungs. She whisked us away as I hacked.
This was a powerful witch. Her ability to take three of us across the world without breaking a sweat? Poppy’s power dwarfed any other witch or Fae I’d met.
Mike’s grandmother.
She frightened me. I’d never admit it.
We touched down, and the hacking drove deep into my bones. Without air in my lungs, I keeled forward, knees knocking against a spiked stone jutting up from the ground.
“Tavi! Damn.” Mike’s curse filtered through the coughing and his hands, cool on my overheated skin, wrapped around my biceps.
He dragged me up until my head was cradled on his chest.
The coughing fit passed and I blinked the watery haze from my eyes until the world solidified again. The graveyard stretched around us, flowing over the dips and hills in the terrain. Rows of mossy stones were dull underneath a gleaming sun.
It looked different in the daytime. The last time I’d been here, with Bronwen, the midnight bells tolled and a zombie rose from death.
“Help her this way, Mike.” Poppy barked out commands. “We’ll get her as comfortable as possible while I work this spell. It shouldn’t take long.”
My feet barely left the ground, the tips of my sneakers scraping grooves in the dirt. Mike propped me gently against one of the gravestones. Outlined by the sun, he was an angel, his hair a glowing halo around his head. In contrast, his eyes were grim, and his mouth set in a firm line.
Just ahead—
Madam Muerte’s grave rested bleak and colorless among the rest of them. A chill settled inside of me and froze my blood.
Poppy, with her typical unceremonious effervescence despite her imprisonment, bent and scooped some of the dirt from the top of the grave. She cupped it in her palms. With a muttered word, she conjured a mortar and pestle from thin air.
“It won’t be long now,” Poppy assured us.
She dropped the dirt and a morsana flower into the hovering mortar and used the pestle to smash it all together.
Mike knelt by my side, one hand resting on my thigh. When I looked at him, I saw my hero. When he looked at me, I wondered if he saw a burden or a clock ticking down.
A few grinds in a semi-circle had the consistency mixed to her satisfaction and Poppy thrust the bowl out to me. Unless I missed my mark, her face held a smile.
“There you go, girl. Eat up.”
My stomach staged a full-on revolt the instant I caught a whiff of the mixture. The morsana flower might have had a delightful sweetness when it grew alone in the field, but mixed with the grave dirt, it went rancid.
Gorge rising, I clamped down on my teeth to keep from puking in front of Mike and Poppy.
“Well?” Poppy shook the bowl when my arms refused to move.
I finally took it from her. The mixture was literally only flower and dirt. The disgusting smell aside, the consistency was pure nightmare fuel. But I was weak enough and desperate enough to do anything to break this curse.
A couple of swallows and I’d be fine. I’d be normal.
“That’s it,” Mike urged when I pressed my lips to the side of the bowl. “You got this. It’s going to be fine.”
Easy for him to say.
I pinched my nose and unhinged my jaw like a snake. The visual helped distract me long enough to get the first mouthful down. My throat refused to actually swallow, like it knew the texture was abhorrent, wrong.
My gut heaved again, pushing up against the dirt I hadn’t even swallowed yet, forming a blockade. Too damn bad.
I managed to get the mouthful down my throat and audibly gag. “Isn’t there a spell?” My voice sounded dry, raspy. “To help me with this?”
Poppy shook her head. “You’re on your own, kid. It’s gotta be all you. Any other magic will only interfere. We can’t risk it. Now go on. Eat.” She grinned at me. “Yum, yum!”
Her delight helped me get through the next mouthful out of pure spite. The longer she looked at me like she enjoyed my suffering, the more determined I was to lick it clean.
A cloud passed over the sun and cast the graves in shadow, the stones soaking up the last of the thin light. Mike shivered. “This is weird.”
“It’s not weird. It’s disgusting. But she’s a tough girl, she’s got this.” Poppy straightened and pressed her hands to the small of her back, stretching. “A few more mouthfuls and no more blood curse.”
“Not Tavi. Something else… I don’t know how to describe it.”
But Mike was right. The air shook, thickening the longer we sat there and I dry-heaved my way through the mixture. Poppy glanced over her shoulder and her eyes narrowed.
My hackles rose. “What?” Crumbs of dirt fell from my lips.
“I don’t—”
The ground trembled and cleaved, dirt geysering up. And through the funnel, a rotted hand reached for the light as the zombie clawed its way from the grave.