Chapter 19
“Turn here.”
Abigail directed Number Twelve up the back driveway to Kurzwell Townhouse, where he parked in a private stall hidden with foliage.
“I’ll be back soon, and you’ll take me to the hospital.”
“Yes, Missus.”
“Don’t leave the stall, you hear?”
“Yes, Missus.”
Abigail nodded, satisfied. Number Twelve wasn’t her brightest husband, but he was obedient enough, and could follow directions.
She left and hurried up the hidden path to her ivy-covered back door, went inside, up to the third floor and lay on the bed that would take her to Kurzwell Manor.
At Kurzwell Manor, she hurried into the rotation room that took her to the Templum.
Once inside the Templum, she rang the bell at Ethedra’s well. Ethedra came quickly, her face eager as she stepped onto the invisible platform above her well, holding the fox pelt.
“Here’s your cask, all safe,” Ethedra said.
Abigail held out her hands for it. Ethedra dropped it and a crackling light flashed through the Templum, as the item passed between worlds.
Abigail probed its belly, pleased that it felt full.
She took Number Six from her shoulders and put the cask in his place, then kissed Number Six on his tiny head.
She held him out over the opening of the well, under Ethedra’s feet and looked up at Ethedra’s face.
Ethedra nodded. Abigail dropped Number Six into the well, and he fell right into Ethedra’s waiting arms. She wrapped him around her shoulders, raised one arm with a flourish and said, “I’m up!” She stepped off her platform and was gone.
Abigail stared at the spot for a long time, wishing she could stick her head through to Ethedra’s world and hear everything, but also knowing the portal didn’t work like that.
Her phone rang—Mina. Abigail answered it, anxious for news. “What?”
“Nana, they saved her. The vod saved Paisley, and we’re all going to the hospital now.”
Relief flooded Abigail. The vodvod had given up his mate, and the mate had given up her life. For Paisley, a girl they didn’t even know. She was hardly able to believe it, and entirely unable to understand it.
“I told you they would,” she snapped. “I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.”
She hung up, then found a chair and sat down, and stared into Ethedra’s well.
***
Exactly 40 minutes later, Ethedra stepped onto her platform.
“It went perfectly,” she said, whisking Number Six off her shoulders and holding him out for Abigail with a flourish. “Crew Arcoal is already back in your world. He’ll follow his mate, and soon all my babies in Dilmet will be freed.”
“Good,” Abigail said, moving close, not knowing where or what Dilmet was, and not caring. She knew when she had her essence and that was enough.
Ethedra dropped Number Six to Abigail. The tiny mink form sparked and jumped on the plane between worlds, the singed fur smelling like a forest fire.
He finally fell through tail-first, and Abigail caught him.
She took her cask off, then slung Number Six around her shoulders, feeling comforted by his presence.
She held her cask over the opening of the well.
“Take this. The hospital will be swarming with vod.”
Abigail dropped the cask and it fell to Ethedra. She put it around her shoulders saying, “Good luck.”
Abigail snorted, knowing she had horrible luck, so she relied on strategy. She left the Templum through the rotation room, then made her way back to Kurzwell Townhouse via the spinning bed. Once there, she hurried to the vehicle where Number Twelve was waiting to take her to the hospital.
The drive did not take long, and when they arrived, the vod were definitely swarming the place, like bearen to honey.
Abigail told Number Twelve to avoid the vod and their flashing lights.
He found a maintenance entrance and Abigail slipped inside, then took the back hallways to Paisley’s floor, dimming herself out with magic.
Inside the pediatric unit, there was only one vod—a big male near a door, dressed in blue and black with a shiny badge and deadly gun, with a coffee cup in his hand.
Abigail snarled silently, creeping closer and closer.
She slipped into a restroom and undimmed, then made her way out into the hallway, head held high, ignoring the vod as he inspected her.
She opened the door to Paisley’s room and stepped inside, glad it was free of vod, so she could breathe.
At the last minute, just before the door whooshed completely closed, she sent some vvyst out, straight into the vod’s coffee cup as insurance for later.
Mina, Ellis and several others were clustered in some chairs, gathered around Rissa, who was sobbing openly, her head on her arms. A nurse sat in a chair near the head of the hospital bed, and on the bed… Paisley!
Abigail hurried to Paisley, then touched her cheeks, her hair, barely able to believe that she was here and alive. If they managed to get her out of the hospital without incident, bamboozling both the demon and the vod in one day, it would be a foxen triumph to be talked about for ages.
Paisley lay still, her eyes closed. Mina came close to the bed and combed Paisley’s long brown hair with her fingers until it fanned out on the pillow.
Crying softly, Mina said, “She won’t wake up, and they don’t know why.”
“Shock,” Abigail said, eyeing the nurse.
Mina nodded and pulled a chair next to the bed to sit in, but then Rissa called for her, still sobbing. Mina hurried over.
Good, Abigail thought. She put her hand on the back of Paisley’s neck, probing for the veil inside her mind, wondering when the best time to remove it would be.
She decided to wait, because who knew what Paisley would say when she woke up.
She glanced at the nurse again, but the nurse was playing Farmville on her phone.
The door opened and two vod entered, drawing all eyes to them.
The first was the vodvod Crew Arcoal, and the second made Abigail gasp.
It was Deputy Chief Wade Lombard, a powerful Citlali.
He could bind virtually them all in place if he discovered what they were, and it was well-known that he hated foxen.
Abigail backed away from the hospital bed, toward her family, stepping behind Ellis, but keeping her eyes on Crew Arcoal.
What was he doing? Did he not know he had the power to follow his mate?
Ethedra had given him a pill that would take him right to the world the mate was in, but he didn’t even need it.
All he needed was his echo, who could be used as a portal.
If he wanted to go somewhere, he only had to fix his choice of location in his mind and then ask—he would be delivered instantly.
The room seemed to swell and then shrink with all the people inside it… and then Paisley opened her eyes and spoke to the vodvod!
“Nana says your echo will direct you how to get to where you want to go. Fix your choice clear in your mind and ask.”
Abigail clapped a hand to her forehead.
Mina shouted, “She’s awake!” and the family stampeded to Paisley.
Abigail didn’t know what the hell had happened to the veil.
She put on her human face facade and went to the vodvod, babbling like a human.
“Thank you, thank you for everything.” She touched his arm and hid a gasp.
She’d found her veil. He’d taken it from Paisley, into himself!
Abigail hid her shock. Why? How? The vodvod Crew Arcoal was truly a—a what?
A hero? A good guy? Still babbling, she magically yanked the veil out of him, then dropped her hand.
“Good wishes to your family” he whispered, leaving her stunned once again. He turned and hurried out. Wade Lombard followed him, calling his name. The nurse also left the room, saying she would get the doctor.
Abigail stared at the door, as her family fussed over their little lost doe on the hospital bed.
When the door didn’t open again, and no more vod came in, Abigail opened it and looked out into the hallway.
Only one vod was in sight. At the nurse’s station, the doctor and nurse were talking.
The nurse motioned down the hall toward Paisley’s room.
Abigail pointed behind them at a big piece of equipment and whispered, “Molofi garan,” A metal panel blew off the thing and hit the ceiling, and bubbles gushed out like a champagne bottle.
The doctor and nurse forgot Paisley and rushed over.
At the other end of the hallway, the vod took interest in the noise.
He dropped his hand to his gun and strolled that way.
Abigail pointed at his belly and stirred up the vvyst he’d swallowed, making his stomach cramp.
His confident gait faltered. He stopped and bent at the waist, then he rushed to the bathroom.
Abigail let the door fall shut. She turned around and whistled at her family until they shut up, then she told them, “Everybody out, and quickly. Mina, you carry Paisley. Ellis, you’re in charge of making sure no personal items are left behind.”
They all jumped into action. Mina picked Paisley up, everyone fell in around them in a group, with Rissa following, still sniffling. Ellis stayed back to sweep the room.
“To the Inn everyone,” Abigail said. “To Tod’s Table, even you Van Crimsons. This ordeal is not over.”
As soon as Paisley was safely out of the hospital, Abigail and Number Twelve would get Frannie out, and then they would close ranks up at the top of Morning Bluff.
Because who knew what Sage was going to do when she heard Khain had taken her daughter, and who knew what the vod would do when they figured out they’d been tricked.
It was a new era, starting today, and Abigail was not ready.