Queen Alpha (NYC Mecca #2)(71)

Arianna, I loved you dearly. Forgive me.

I hit the cold hard dirt with enough force to take my breath away, rolling a few times before coming to a halt. Lying there, I had to take a moment to catch my breath. Not just because of the fall, but because of that voice. It had been so clear this time. I knew who it was now. Without any doubt … it was the Red Queen. All this time she’d been trying to communicate with me through the mecca.

Dammit! We might have gotten our answers if I’d known that. I could have tried harder to find out how it was even possible for her to speak to me from the afterlife. But I was in the Otherworld now, and there was no time for me to deal with the Red Queen.

Jumping to my feet, I was up in time to see the portal crush the last of Nikoli’s orange ball spell. It was almost closed now, but I did see Selene running into the room with her guard. She took one look at me on the other side and screamed so loud I heard it in the fae lands. Then she was gone.

Earth was gone. We were in the Otherworld, and I had absolutely no idea how we were going to get back home once we found Violet. A problem to worry about later. For now we had a mission and I was focusing on that. Breathing in slowly, calming my nerves after the last thirty minutes of adrenalin, I let myself really see the land we’d arrived in, taking stock of threats and such that might be in the vicinity.

It was beautiful here, quiet and peaceful. I could sense energy in the land beyond what Earth had, a true natural force that quietly flowed beneath us. Rolling green hills, towering trees which seemed to expand out into the horizon – not to mention a plethora of flowering plants. It was pretty and it smelled good. And all of this beauty hid a deadliness which could get us killed.

In the distance, about five hundred yards away, I caught sight of Blaine and the others. They had wasted no time moving, and we needed to go as well. Thankfully, our travel bags had remained on our backs, even through the fight. We had everything we needed. It was time to go.

Nikoli and Kade started to stalk around, scouting the land. Nix was on Kade’s shoulder, not wanting to fly up yet. When we traveled, though, she would be our first line of defense against any attack. Through the trees I could see a few small huts that made up some type of village, and farther beyond it a huge white-stone castle.

Kade turned to me, his face more serious than usual. “Does it seem a little less vibrant than the last time we saw this world? The plants are sick. I can feel their pain.”

He was right. The last time the colors had almost been too much to stare at. Taking a much more thorough look around, I realized that many of the flowers were wilted, the trees and grass browning in some patches. The sky was also a sickly bluish green, which was different to what I remembered. The mecca was definitely affecting these lands.

A snarly voice came from behind us: “Announce yourself! You know protocol!”

I slowly turned, not wanting to startle them into an attack. I cursed myself for not pulling my hood up, but thankfully my long hair mostly covered my very non-pointy ears. No doubt I was a mess, covered in blood and dirt, which would not help alleviate suspicions.

When the fae came into sight, I was a little surprised, but managed to keep my expression from changing. I hadn’t been sure what to expect, but the four-foot creature with thick brown, wrinkled skin and pointy ears was not it. He had a humanoid shape, but clearly was not one of the fae I was used to seeing. His face had the texture and structure of a brown nut, with two very green eyes that seemed to be one pure color, no pupil to break it up. I scanned down to his toes and saw he was barefoot, with wide hairy stumps for feet. Weird, coarse looking, brown tufts of hair sprouted out at various places on his body.

Let me know what you want to do, Kade said, waiting at my side.

Let’s see if we can talk our way out of this before we attack.

Our conversation was cut off as the creature cleared his throat and took a small step forward. “Announce yourself,” he said again.

He wasn’t coming at us threateningly, but did hold a small knife in his hand, the blade beautiful and unusual. It had a twirled looking blade, the point sharp and glinting. The twirl of metals were a mix of steel and gold.

I had a pretty good idea of the type of fae we were dealing with here. The treeling in Kade’s garden had spent a lot of time talking to me about the different races. He was a gnome. They were great with metals, and they loved food, which gave me an idea.

Keeping my voice low, hiding the New York accent best I could, I said, “Greetings! We’re traders. We come with dried fruits, nuts, and meats in exchange for two nights stay and some finely crafted weapons.”

His wrinkled face went even more creased. My accent was still going to be odd, no matter what I did to smooth it out. My heartbeat was picking up. I really hoped he wasn’t going to attack, because we needed to sneak in without drawing attention to ourselves. We also needed weapons. We’d decided not to bring Earth-made weapons into the fae lands, for many reasons, but mostly because we would never be able to hide our foreignness with them.

The gnome studied us harder, and didn’t say anything, which was disconcerting. He seemed to spend a long time staring at my feet. His mouth dropped open slightly, revealing some sharp, pointed teeth. He then turned to look at Kade, taking in his huge body, before finally Nikoli. On all of us he paid particular attention to our feet.

I looked down, wondering what had caught his eye. Did we wear the wrong shoes, or something? Holy crap! The grass all around me, in about a two foot radius, was a bright vibrant green. It was the same around Kade and Nikoli. All of us had brought some of the mecca with us and it was healing the land here.