A Great and Terrible Beauty

Injured, Kartik is unable to defend himself for the moment. "Stop!" I shout. "Let him go and I'll take you into the realms."



Felicity is panting, the stick still raised above his eyes.



"Fee," Pippa whines, sounding a bit scared herself. "She's going to take us."



Slowly, Felicity releases him, saunters back to join us.



"She'll give us the power once we're there," she says, trying to save face. "I'm sure of it."



On the ground behind her, Kartik is worried. I give him a small nod to let him know it's going to be all right, though I don't know that. I have no idea what will greet us on the other side of that door now. I don't know what they've started, if anything. I only know that I've got to do it.



Felicity gives me a hard look. Things have changed forever. There's no going back. I follow them into the woods so that they can dress again. Soon, they are ready.



"Take my hands," I say, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.



CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX



The door pulses with light. When we stumble through, everything seems as it was. The river sings sweetly on. The sunset is still a gorgeous spill of colors. Flowers float by.



"You see?" Felicity says, eyes shining in triumph. "There's nothing amiss. I told you she only wanted the power for herself."



I ignore her, listening for anything out of place.



They glide down into the meadow ahead of me, walking toward the garden, hand in hand like a trio of paper-doll cutouts from a doily.



The wind shifts, bringing the scent of roses and that other, unfamiliar stench, which sends me running after them.



"Wait! Felicity, please listen, I think we should go back."



"Go back? We just got here," she says, mocking me.



Ann's face is a stone. "We're not going back without the power to cross over by ourselves."



The huntress is suddenly by our sides. It startles me. Odd that I never heard her approach. I can't help thinking of her offering me the berries. It makes me cold all over. She wipes a ringer across Felicity's bloody face, rubs the stain with her thumb. She brings the finger to her mouth, tastes it and smiles.



"You've made a sacrifice, I see."



"Yes," Felicity says. "Will you grant us the power to enter the realms?"



"Didn't I promise that I would?" She smiles but there's no warmth in it. "Follow me."



I grab Felicity by the arm. "This is wrong. We shouldn't go," I whisper.



"No, somethings finally right," she says, breaking away and running after the others.



I follow them under the silver arch, into the grotto. My mother is nowhere to be seen. The smells of my childhood waft by. Curry. Pipe smoke. And something else. There it is again. That unpleasant stench.



We've reached the Runes of the Oracle, the heart of everything.



The breeze shifts. The smell is back. Underneath the memories is something pungent, like meat rotting in the sun. Does no one else smell it?



"What do we do now?" Pippa asks.



"Use the magic to take me through to the other side," the huntress says. "If we join hands and take you through, you'll give us the power we need, to come and go as we please?"



"Not me. My mistress. She will give you what you deserve."



Wariness steals inside me and takes its perch.



"Your mistress?" Felicity is confused.



Everything in me is screaming to run. I've got my hand on Felicity's arm, and as if she can feel my terror, she backs slowly away from the circle. The huntress seems to grow taller. Her eyes go black; her voice becomes a hiss.



"Come to me, my pretty ones."



The sky opens into a churning sea of dark clouds. Quick as rain, she rises before us, a towering, screeching wraith, carrying the souls of the damned inside her unfurling black cape. Felicity can't break away, can't stop staring at that skeletal face, the eyes rimmed in red with swirling black ovals for centers, the sharp, jagged teeth. The thing clamps a hand onto her arm. Felicity's mouth stretches into a ghastly O. Like ink, the black floats across her eyes, till they're bottomless.



"No!" I scream, barreling headlong into Felicity, the two of us sprawled on the ground. She's shaking all over, her eyes still black. Screaming, Pippa falls to the ground, scrambles down the hill, toward the river.



"Ann! Help me! We've got to get her back now!"



We're on either side of Felicity, running for the river. We have to find Pippa. We have to leave. A storm wind is blowing. It rips blossoms, leaves, and branches from trees, sends them flying over us. A branch narrowly misses my head and scrapes the side of my cheek, drawing blood.