Chapter Eight
EIGHT
May
“W hat do you think? Will she be able to help?”
I rubbed my arms, feeling a bit chilled due to the damp weather, and considered Aisling’s softly asked question. “I don’t know. I hope so. I just assumed a reaper would be ... you know. Someone who looks like they herd the dead around. Not pretty and feminine, although I realize that sounds highly sexist.”
“I know what you mean,” Aisling said, nodding. “She doesn’t look at all like someone who shepherds dead people, but as we both know, appearances in the Otherworld are often deliberately misleading. I don’t think that’s the case here, though.”
We sat in Aisling’s living room, since Gabriel had recently given up the house upon which he’d held a lease, allowing us to shop for something more permanent in the area. Mabel had left the room to take a call, but reappeared in the doorway just as Jim came into the room from another entrance.
“Hey, the reaper chick is here. Hiya! Name’s Jim. Well, it’s Effrijim, really, but I never liked the whole thing, although now I can ask my mom and dad why they stuck me with it. Whoa. Like ... what’s wrong with your legs?”
We all looked at Mabel. She was a little taller than me, pretty, with an oval face and dimple indents on each cheek, and waist-length strawberry blond hair, but as I looked at her legs, I could see what it was Jim noticed. She stood with her feet forming an angle of about 160 degrees.
“What about my legs?” Mabel said, looking down at herself. She was clad in black leggings with a wrap top, and I had to admit, her legs were pretty buff looking. Clearly, she did not skip leg day at the gym.
“They’re pointing east–west,” Jim said, moseying over to snuffle her in its normal method of greeting.
“That isn’t east–west,” she answered, then shifted slightly so that her feet were in a straight horizontal line. “This is. It’s also first position. I’m a ballet dancer. Hence, I tend to stand like that, since we strive for perfect turnout.”
“That would explain you saying you were stretching,” Aisling said, gesturing to a chair next to me. “Please make yourself comfy. And how exciting to meet a real ballet dancer. Where do you perform?”
“A small country called Beck. It got swallowed up after World War I, but regained independence about fifteen years ago.” Mabel glanced at the clock on a mantel. “I hate to be a pushy reaper, but the sooner we get this done, the sooner I can go back to a wonderful physical therapist who seems to have magic hands when it comes to Achilles injuries.”
“Wow. A dancer, huh? Can you do the splits?” Jim asked, giving her feet a second snuffle.
“Yes. Now, what information do you have on”—she pulled out a small notebook—“Parisi. She’s in the Beyond?”
“Yeah,” Jim answered before anyone else could. “Can I see you do the splits? ’Cause I’ve always wanted to meet someone who can do it, but dragons are kind of stiff around the hips.”
“That is utter rot,” Aisling said quickly, giving Jim a quelling look. “You know full well that Drake’s hips are as loose as they come. He’s an excellent dancer!”
“The reason Gabriel and I are here is to act as your protection in the Beyond,” I told Mabel. “I’m a doppelg?nger, so naturally I can slip into it. And Gabriel can join me, although not in physical form. We thought it would be better if you had protection. Just in case.”
“Like ... when you do the splits, does it hurt?” Jim asked.
“Oh for the love of Pete—don’t answer it, Mabel,” Aisling said, thinning her lips at the demon.
Mabel heaved a dramatic sigh and, to my utter and complete surprise, stood up only to bend down to touch the ground a couple of times before standing on one leg, her other leg lifted so the toes pointed straight up to the ceiling, effectively doing a standing split. “It hurts if I’m asked to do it without first stretching sufficiently. Happy now?”
“Yeah,” it said, giving her a doggy grin. “That’s pretty cool. Almost makes me want to try human form again. Almost ,” it added quickly with a sidelong look at Aisling.
“Can we get back to the business at hand?” Mabel asked, still holding her notebook.
“Absolutely,” Aisling said. “Jim, I won’t order you to silence because we will want input from you, but you are to confine yourself to answering questions or giving information that will help us. Got it?”
“Sheesh,” Jim said, slumping against her leg. “You’re so bossy while Drake is away.”
Gabriel—who had been visiting the bathroom—returned in time to join me in the disbelieving look I gave Jim. It gave us another doggy grin. “Yeah, OK, she’s always bossy, but she’s more so when the King of Bossiness isn’t around. Hilders told me my mom was in the Beyond, and I figured she’d know.”
“Hilders being ... ?” Mabel asked.
“One of the Sovereigns who came after Jim’s mother, apparently,” Aisling answered. “Right, let’s get down to business and make some solid plans.”
“This is the information Sasha sent us regarding one of the former Sovereigns’ notes on Parisi,” I said as I gave everyone a copy of the report I’d printed out. “You will note the mention that at the time of Parisi’s diminishing—when she retreated to the Beyond so her physical body wouldn’t die—the Court was located in what is now Bali, having moved there a few hundred years earlier because its denizens were tired of the cold weather of northern Europe. Gabriel has found Bali’s entrance point to the Court, luckily, so we have a very good place to start.”
“It’s located in a resort outside of Denpasar, the capital,” he said, giving Mabel a nod. “Has May told you that we will be quite happy to escort you inside the Beyond? While I won’t be able to help with anything physically there, May is very adept with her daggers, and will keep you safe should any threat arise.”
“There aren’t often instances of reapers being attacked, but I have no objection to you coming with me if you think it’s important. Bali. There’s a portal shop there, I believe,” Mabel said, pulling out her phone. “Ah. In Denpasar, as a matter of fact. Good.”
“There is a portal shop, but we were thinking of flying,” I said, glancing at him. The expression of persecuted dread was evident on his handsome face, so evident that it made me feel like a monster. “But we might have a better solution. Gabriel just bought a jet, since we’re taking so many trips between Australia and Europe, and it’s fast. Very fast. I can promise that it won’t add much time to the plan.”
“But a portal is instantaneous, and I have limited time. Very limited. I told Aisling that when she booked me,” Mabel said with a finality that irked me. I reminded myself she didn’t know the ways of dragons, and how being patient would gain more benefits.
“The problem is that dragons don’t really portal well,” Aisling said slowly, sending Gabriel a sympathetic look. “Something on the atomic level, I believe.”
“My mother tells me it’s because we dragons had such a chaotic beginning, but I don’t believe it was any more traumatic than other beings’.” Gabriel made a face that changed into a smile. I melted at the sight of his dimples as I always did. “But naturally, if you are more comfortable with using a portal, then I shall simply park my body somewhere here in England, and travel with you incorporeally.”
“Can you do that?” Aisling asked him. “Portal as your ethereal self, that is. I didn’t realize that was possible. I mean, you’re not physically interacting with the mortal world in that state.”
“I can if I’m bound to an object that travels through the portal.” He leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth. “I can’t think of a stronger bond than that of a dragon and his mate, so the answer is, yes, if May takes the portal, then I can travel along with her.”
“Perfect. You can stay here, Gabriel. We’ll park your body in a spare bedroom. Jim, did you get your backpack ready?”
“Yup. Got everything I’ll need in there: my phone, an extra drool bib, my snazzy new collar that has my name in rhinestones—I think my mom will like that—and enough food for two meals, although I don’t think that’s going to be enough. Maybe I should have some snacks, too, because what if we get in the Beyond and they don’t have anything to nom? You know it takes extra care to make this magnificent coat. I should have snacks. I’ll tell Suzanne.”
“You will do no such thing,” Aisling told it. “If for some reason you have to stay longer than twenty-four hours, I’m sure May will find something to feed you.”
Jim looked at me with obvious doubt.
I smiled.
“OK, but you should know that when I had to stay with May while you were having the twin spawns, she never once bought me a burger. She made me eat dog food.”
“Those who choose the form of a dog must suffer the consequences,” I murmured, and thankfully, the conversation progressed without further discussion about the amount of calories that Jim felt was appropriate.
It took us an hour to send out an update to Allie and Christian (who could not visit the Beyond) as well as the others on our chat group, gather up information about traveling from Denpasar to the entrance of the Beyond, and collect a few things that Gabriel thought we might need.
“I feel like an idiot for asking this, but why is it you have to use an entrance for the Beyond?” Aisling asked as we rode in Drake’s antique limo to the nearest portal shop. “I’ve seen May blip into it at will, wherever she is, without having to find an entrance.”
“That’s because I’m a doppelg?nger. I can slip in and out of the shadow world at will. Others, like you and Jim, have to use one of the official entrances.” I glanced over to where Mabel sat cross-legged on the seat opposite, watching the London scenery pass by. “I’m not sure about reapers, though.”
“We have to use entrances, too.” She gave a barely noticeable shrug and continued to look out the window. “We’re really nothing more than glorified guides, and don’t possess any powers useful beyond locating a needy spirit and taking it where it wants to go.”
“We’re learning so many things from our new friends,” Aisling said, and promptly sent a text, no doubt updating Drake on the situation.
I could feel Gabriel’s nearness, but without dipping into the shadow world—known to most everyone else as the Beyond—I couldn’t see him.
Twenty minutes later I stood back and watched as first Jim and then Mabel went through the portal.
“Bon voyage,” Aisling said, looking cheerful as she gave me a thumbs-up. “I really hope this works for Gabriel.”
“It should. Right.” I turned to the portal operators, conjoined twins named Sami and Parek, who watched us with obvious amusement. “I’ll step into the Beyond just before I go through the portal.”
“It’s calibrated for you and the dragon to go through together,” Parek said with a nod. “Just remember to keep your arms crossed.”
“Will do. All right, here we go.” I stepped into the shadow world, and was delighted to see the handsomest man in creation leaning against the door. “Oooh, imagine that. There’s a silver-eyed gorgeous dragon waiting right here flaunting his sexy self at me.”
“It’s a good thing I’m incorporeal right now, because I’d be tempted to show you just how much I love you,” he answered, waggling his eyebrows in a way that never failed to make me giggly. “Shall we, Little Bird?”
“We shall,” I said, and, waiting for a second for Gabriel to merge his spirit with mine, stepped into the twisting, turning miasma that was the portal device.
Exactly two hours and twenty-seven minutes later, we all entered the Beyond through its Bali entrance, and paused to get our bearings.
“Well, this isn’t what I expected,” Jim said, looking around with a slight curl of its lip. “Like, why is it so grubby?”
I knelt down to touch the powdery gray substance that seemed to coat everything before showing my fingers to Gabriel.
“Scales?” he asked, quickly moving in front of me in a protective gesture.
“Dragon scales,” I agreed, wiping the faintly glittery power onto the side of my leg. “But I thought that dragons—Baltic aside, because of his father—couldn’t go into the Beyond normally? Why is the whole place covered in dragon scales?”
“Whoa,” Jim said, snuffling a door, which swung open to reveal a grimy garden. We’d entered through a small building in the mortal world, which, when viewed in the Beyond, appeared similar, but just off slightly, leaving me with the feeling that none of the angles in the building were square. “There are dragons here? Who?”
“Xavier,” Gabriel said in a low tone that sent a little ripple of apprehension down my spine. “Archer and Hunter told us Xavier had escaped into the Beyond when challenged by them. I dismissed that as a fanciful interpretation of the situation, but now I see I was mistaken. This bodes ill not just for dragonkin, but all immortals if Xavier has impacted the Beyond in this manner.”