Chapter Forty-Four
Adelaide checked to make certain no one was watching and she, Minnaea, Andros, Nicholas, the newcomer Evangeline, and Rachel were alone in the alley beside the school before she nodded to Minnaea. “Go ahead.”
“Would you rather try it yourself, your majesty?” Minnaea asked with a knowing smile.
Addie stared at her. “Me? Transport?” She looked up at Nicholas, but he became completely unhelpful by crossing his arms over his broad… beautiful chest… and smiling at her.
Minnaea said, “You have it in you. You’re already showing signs of being more powerful than the rest of us.” She shook her head, her eyes wide. “I can’t wait to see what you look like in your true form.”
“My… what?” Addie felt baffled. Her true form? Wasn’t this her true form? She looked down at herself. This form was the only one she had ever known. She was born with it.
“Each of us is so much more than what we see in the mirror,” Minnaea said. She looked at Rachel. “We all have a true form inside somewhere.”
At that, Adelaide found herself looking over at Evangeline. She couldn’t help it. Something about the woman was so very mysterious, and the words “true form” seemed to be at the heart of that mystery. What was she? Other than a healer? Her aura was bewildering.
Evangeline was quiet. She said so little, divulging next to nothing. It only added to the conundrum.
Andros picked up the slack where Minnaea had left off. “If we’re really lucky, we find that true form and let it out.” He was looking at Rachel.
Addie glanced at all of them, then peered up at Nicholas again. He was watching her with a spark in his gunmetal eyes, his handsome mouth curled at the corners as if just like Minnaea, he couldn’t wait to see what Addie’s other form was.
She knew they were being general about the meaning of “true form” for Rachel’s sake. But in Adelaide’s case, it was different, probably something… nightmarish. And when she stood there in the midst of all of them and realized that was the case, it sort of floored her. Not in a bad way. Just a very big way.
She didn’t have long to consider it before Rachel was swooning in place, her hand reaching out for Addie’s arm. She found purchase and squeezed as she lowered her head as if she were about to faint. Addie moved in quickly, and Andros rushed forward as well, managing to catch the girl. Rachel’s head suddenly snapped back. Her eyes rolled back in her head.
“What’s happening to her?” Addie asked, concern slicing through her. After all of this, Rachel wasn’t going to be okay? Was she hurt back there somehow? Was she having a heart attack or stroke or epileptic seizure?
“She’s having a vision,” said Nicholas. “You look similar when one strikes you, though it’s not quite as violent.”
Addie’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
They all nodded. Andros held tight to Rachel until the vision passed, and the girl lowered her head. Her eyes were shut tight. She moaned softly, touching her forehead. “What… the hell?” she asked softly, clearly in a certain amount of pain.
“What did you see?” asked Nicholas
Rachel looked up, her brow furrowed. “See?”
“You’ve had a vision, haven’t you?” asked Addie.
Rachel regarded her for a moment. “I – I don’t know. Maybe.” She closed her eyes, pinched the bridge of her nose, then opened her eyes again. “I had a waking dream sort of thing. But this one was clearer and felt more real than the others, even the ones I had with you in them,” she told Addie.
“You could use some Aspirin for that headache,” said Minnaea. “Or Evangeline,” she said, glancing up at Evangeline.
“My pleasure,” said Eva, though she looked a little drained. Adelaide almost said something, knowing that bringing Addie back from the brink of death had to have taken its toll on the mysterious woman. But Eva had that look about her that said she would heal people until her own dying moment, and not a second sooner. She was just that kind of person.
Addie liked her. For the second time in as many days, she was surprised by this immediate amity. Especially with a woman. But there it was.
Eva placed her fingertips to Rachel’s forehead, and a gentle white light began to glow from beneath them. That glow spread, then faded. When it was gone, Rachel opened her eyes and smiled, touching her head gingerly and in wonder. “How are you doing this?” she asked. “And with Addie – how did you do that?”
Addie supposed the girl just had to know. But Eva was not as forthcoming with answers as Rachel was with questions. She simply smiled a small smile and shrugged. “We all have our talents.”
“What did you see?” Addie asked Rachel, repeating Nick’s question. She could tell Eva no longer wanted the attention, and Addie had a feeling this vision was important.
Rachel frowned again. “Do you know anyone by the name of Nero? Tall, dark hair… looks exactly like him but with green eyes?” She nodded to Nicholas.
Addie looked up at Nick, and their eyes met. “We know of him,” she said cautiously. She looked back down at Rachel. “Why? What happened to him?”
She shook her head. “To him, nothing. At least, not outwardly. But he has a girl with him. Maybe ten or eleven years old, it’s hard to tell. She was putting on a brave face.”
Evangeline moved beside them. She stepped forward and placed her hands on Rachel’s upper arms, turning her so that their eyes met. “Did she have red hair?” Eva asked. Her face was drawn with sudden and severe worry.
Rachel brushed her forehead and closed her eyes again, probably trying to look inwardly for details. Addie did that a lot when she’d just had visions. “I think so, yes. Yeah, she did.” She opened her eyes. “They were in this desert-like place. It looked a lot like Egypt.”
Addie’s guts clenched. Eva straightened, releasing Rachel. Her lavender eyes were growing lighter, as if they were beginning to take on a glow much like Nick’s often did.
“Was she okay?” Addie asked. “Did he hurt her?”
Eva looked up at Rachel, waiting for her response. Rachel shook her head, but then she stopped mid-shake and her eyes grew wide with memories. She said, “No… not yet. But he had a dagger of some kind. He called it the Sleeper Number Two.”
Nicholas went stiff beside Addie, and she looked up at him. His eyes were turning silver with power, swirling and molten, the way they turned just before going red altogether.
“What did he do with it?” Nick asked, his voice tight.
“He hadn’t done anything with it yet in the vision,” Rachel assured him. “But I think he was planning to use it on her, because he….” Her face paled considerably. “He grabbed the girl by the throat and held her down on some kind of altar shaped like a sarcophagus. It was stone. What was really scary was what was around that, though. The altar was on an outcropping of land, and all around it was a circle of nothingness. Like a moat.”
Minnaea lifted her chin in an “Oh yeah” kind of expression. “Yes. Dannai mentioned something like this might happen if we were all to enter the Duat together. Remember? She said bits of it might fall apart.” She addressed Adelaide. “It would appear more than a few bits fell off. It sounds like the entire room the goddess was kept in is gone now.”
Then she turned to Rachel. “That nothingness you’re seeing is just that. It’s the edge of the Land of the Dead, otherwise known in Egypt as the Duat. Anyone who falls into that nothingness is destroyed permanently. It apparently eats souls. Devours them or something. There’s no bottom to that drop, and there’s no coming out of it once you fall in.”
“Shit,” Rachel said shakily. “It’s as bad as it felt, then.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry – that’s when the vision ended. I didn’t see anything else but the man and girl, the dagger, and the sarcophagus-altar on that platform surrounded by a drop-off of darkness.” She was trying to be as precise as possible, and Adelaide had to hand it to her. The girl wanted to be helpful. She was afraid of being judged again, of coming up as worthless or undeserving. She had some major issues to work through. Fortunately, she had Addie to help her work through them. And a whole bunch of other people too.
Nicholas looked at his Preceptors. “He has someone in the Duat, and he has his dagger, which he has so cleverly labeled. He’s going to use it on her unless we stop him.”
“You think he’s going to use it on this girl to awaken Amunet?” Andros asked. He shook his head. “That makes no sense. Who is she? Is she powerful enough for her blood to awaken the goddess?”
“Her name is Mimi Tanniym,” said Eva. “She’s a young red dragon and a friend of mine. I’m probably the reason he went after her. As revenge, maybe. You see… I was working for him before. For the Entity, anyway. It’s a long story, but please believe me when I tell you I am not now and I’m sorry I ever did.”
Everyone was quiet for several long seconds. And then Nicholas asked, “Is she powerful?”
Eva shrugged, but shook her head. “She’s a dragon and a precocious one. But she’s young still. I’ve met dragons stronger.”
Minnaea shook her head. “No, you’re right Andros. It doesn’t make any sense that he would use Mimi to awaken Amunet. He wouldn’t need to use the Sleeper or its twin on anyone else but you, Nicholas. If the Entity is inside Nero and he’s wanting to complete what he started in the Land of the Dead, all he needs is a blade. Any blade will do.”
“What is the Sleeper?” Addie asked.
“It’s a very special dagger,” explained Andros. “We have one, and Nero has another. They are the only blades that can kill the Nightmare King. And, I would guess… eventually they will be the only ones capable of….”
“Of killing you as well,” said Nicholas. “Once you’ve fully become queen, it will take the strike of the Sleeper or Nero’s dagger to destroy you. Nothing else will work.”
Beside them, Rachel Reyes looked absolutely mystified. She listened in muted silence, her face a mask of pure, un-adultered confusion. But the truth was, Adelaide wasn’t far behind her on that front.
“So what are you saying?” Addie asked, just wanting them to get the point.
“I’m thinking that this is a trap,” said Minnaea. “Nero knows you will go after the girl to save her. You’ve already proven you will put yourself in harm’s way to help someone.” She glanced at Rachel. “No offense, Rachel, I promise.”
She looked back to Addie before Rachel could say anything; not that she was going to. She was still too stunned.
Minnaea she went on. “And like Eva said, he probably went after Mimi specifically because of the attention she would garner. He probably assumed that someone would get a vision. If not you Addie, then Rachel here, or perhaps even Rodney, your butler. You’re all seers, most likely drawn together because of that fact. One of you would for certain see him in the Duat with the girl and you would henceforth rush to her rescue.”
She stopped talking long enough for them all to digest what she’d said, and Nicholas picked up the slack from there.
“And he knows that if you did enter the Duat, I would follow you. Thus, the dagger is for me.” He paused, then said, “He wants to finish this.”
Minnaea and Andros nodded. After a beat, Andros added, “Plus, he wants the blood of a queen to awaken Amunet. We’ve already determined this. He wants you there, Addie.” He nodded at Adelaide. “And he wants you out of the way.” He looked up at his king.
Nicholas’s eyes had gone magma red.
“Whoa,” said Rachel softly. “This shit is all real, isn’t it.” It wasn’t a question. She was just trying to work out the stuff in her head by giving it a voice. Albeit a shaky voice, but a voice.
“It is,” said Nicholas. He looked down at Addie, and those red eyes of his reminded her of so many things, delicious and sexy, and at the same time they meant so many other things that were neither.
He didn’t look away from her when he said, “We’ll take the bait. We’ll go once more into the Duat. But this time, we go in prepared.” He looked over at Minnaea and Andros. “I have an idea. If it works, it will bring an end to the Entity once and for all.”