Glory, page 2
Behind him, Kalina groaned in exasperation and Mitaru grinned. She might order the rest of the Guardians to stay behind, but he knew Kalina would never allow her best friend to step into an unknown situation alone.
Which meant he’d have at least two Fae at his back, for Thorne Evaria would never leave his mate behind.
Mitaru glanced back in time to see a wave of magic that began at the bank of the river ripple through the waters, sweeping sludge and pollution away from where Kalina and the other Guardians stood, forging a path toward Mitaru.
“Zerika, you’re the best!” Kalina exclaimed, grinning at their fellow Guardian who had the ability to heal.
Mitaru would have never expected that ability to transfer to a river, but it made sense. The river, like all parts of the natural world, was a living entity that could be both harmed and healed.
Kalina urged her horse into the Potomac and the rest of the Guardians followed.
As they neared where Mitaru was waiting, Kalina waved Zerika forward.
Zerika sent a ripple of her magic through the waters, clearing another path, this time headed straight for the barrier.
The horses seemed invigorated by the now-clean waters and surged forward, swimming toward the barrier with a renewed sense of energy and purpose.
Mitaru reached the barrier first and without pause plunged straight through it.
It was the strangest barrier of Faerie he’d ever crossed.
Every other passage was simply like stepping through a doorway, one moment in Faerie, the next in the mortal realm.
This barrier though did not divide Faerie from the mortal world, but rather the mortal world from itself.
And yet, it felt like Mitaru had entered Faerie.
A strange and foreign Faerie.
The horse he rode let out a whinny of distress and Mitaru crooned to him softly, sending another ripple of soothing magic through him.
Mitaru glanced back, but couldn’t see Kalina, Thorne or any of the other Guardians. He also couldn’t see the waters he could feel against his legs as the horse powered through them.
Everything around them had been erased by a strange fog that felt dense with the magic of Faerie.
Mitaru faced forward again.
He could only hope that somewhere in the fog the other Guardians followed.
One moment, they were still in the water, the next they were climbing onto the bank on the other side of the river.
The horse stumbled and went down.
Mitaru leapt free of the horse and fell to his knees beside him.
The horse was still breathing and didn’t seem to have any injuries.
Yet his eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving.
At that moment, two other horses arrived on the bank, appearing from the fog as if by magic.
Two steps onto land and both horses toppled to the side.
From Mitaru’s perspective, it was as if an invisible hand reached out and slowly lowered them to the ground, for neither horse fell at a speed consistent with gravity.
Instead they fell as if in slow motion, settling on the ground silently.
Both Thorne and Kalina leapt free of their mounts, then did as Mitaru had. They verified the horses were still breathing, then glanced at Mitaru in confusion.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. They appear to be sleeping. Where are the others?”
Kalina faced the river. “They were right behind us.”
Mitaru stood and for the first time took a look around.
They stood on the grassy bank of the river and not too far from where they stood— “Found the bridge.”
Kalina followed his gaze and scowled. “Figures.”
Only part of the bridge could be seen, rising from the water, the majority of it disappearing into the foggy mist as if it weren’t truly there.
“I’m not sure they’re coming,” Thorne interrupted, eyes focused on where he and Kalina had emerged from the mist. “I can’t see a thing.”
“It’s been too long,” Mitaru said.
“You two wait here.” Kalina started for the river.
“I’ll go with you,” Thorne said.
“We’ll all go,” Mitaru said. “It doesn’t make sense to separate at this point.”
“I just need to make sure they’re okay.”
“They probably never made it past the barrier,” Thorne said.
“If that’s the case, then maybe we shouldn’t go back,” Mitaru said, worried they wouldn’t be able to make the crossing again.
“Just wait here,” Kalina repeated, then plunged forward and disappeared into the mist.
Thorne let out a growl of anger. “I can’t believe she just went without us.”
“That’s Kalina for you,” Mitaru said. “She’s not going to let anyone take a risk she won’t take first.”
“She still should have waited for us, taken us with her.” Thorne paced back and forth. “If she’s not back in another minute, I’m—” He broke off in surprise when Kalina reappeared.
She strode toward them, shoving back her wet hair. “They’re all on the other side of the barrier. I told them to head back to Lawrence, that there was no point in them just hanging out at the barrier since it wouldn’t let them through.”
“Wait. You already spoke with them?” Thorne demanded.
Kalina nodded. “It took me a lot longer this time to get through the fog to the barrier and for a moment, I thought it wasn’t going to let me through again, but it did, though the magic felt heavier this time around.”
“You made it all the way to the barrier, spoke with the other Guardians and swam back here?” Thorne repeated.
Kalina nodded. “I knew it was taking longer than before, but I had no idea how long until the other Guardians told me they’d been watching the barrier all day, waiting for us to reappear.”
“All day?” Thorne and Mitaru exclaimed together.
“I know. Crazy, right? It felt like maybe an hour or two from my perspective.”
“You weren’t even gone that long,” Thorne protested.
“You’d barely left when you reappeared,” MItaru agreed. “It couldn’t have taken more than a minute or two.”
“That does not bode well for this journey,” Kalina said.
“Not if time is moving differently this side of the barrier,” Thorne said.
“All right, let’s get moving,” Mitaru interrupted. He was getting anxious, filled with a rising sense of urgency to find Princess Glory.
“I guess we’re on foot,” Kalina said.
Chapter Three
INSIDE THE NORTHEASTERN shield
Mitaru wasn’t surprised to discover a set of concrete steps and a road not far from the bank of the river.
He was getting used to the cities of the mortals, where they tended to cover the natural with ugly constructions that were mortal-made. Used to them, though, didn’t mean he liked them.
In fact, the entire trip from Lawrence, Kansas, to Washington, D.C. had been frustrating as the Fae attempted to find routes that allowed them to walk across the natural earth, but instead, more often than not, found themselves walking along unnatural, mortal-made roads.
As a result, Mitaru wasn’t at all surprised to discover Washington, D.C. had as much concrete as any other city they’d passed through. Despite the familiarity, though, the city felt strange.
There was a quiet in the air that felt unnatural.
“There’s no wind,” Kalina remarked as they climbed the concrete steps and started across the first road.
She was right. It wasn’t the only indication that something wasn’t right, though.
“No birds in the sky,” Thorne said.
Mitaru looked up. He hadn’t really noticed, but now that Thorne had pointed it out, the lack of birds was as eerie as the silence.
Then they came across the first vehicle.
The vehicle itself was nothing new.
They had encountered many cars and trucks along the roads they’d traveled, but these particular vehicles were different.
They might be on the roads, but they weren’t moving.
They weren’t stopped at lights or stop signs either.
Nor were they parked along the sides of the road.
Instead, they simply sat in the middle of it, abandoned.
As Mitaru got closer to the first one, he realized a mortal was still seated inside.
So not abandoned after all.
“What’s going on?” Kalina asked in a hushed voice at his side.
Mitaru shook his head, walked up to the driver’s side of the car and knocked on the window.
The woman inside didn’t move.
“Has she passed into eternity?” Thorne asked.
“I can’t tell.” Mitaru opened the car door and leaned in. “I think she’s asleep, like the horses.” He waved a hand in front of her face, but she didn’t flinch.
“Her eyes are open,” Kalina observed from where she stood at the front of the car.
“Maybe she’s just frozen,” Thorne said.
“With time slowed inside the shield, that would make perfect sense,” Mitaru said, closing the car door and glancing around, taking note of the other cars with mortals inside them.
“Then why aren’t we frozen?” Kalina demanded.
It was a good question, but not one Mitaru knew how to answer. “We should keep moving.”
He strode around the car and ignoring the cars in the next lane, hurried to the base of another set of concrete stairs, these much wider and taller, and began to climb.
“That’s disturbing,” Kalina muttered as they passed a mortal, frozen mid-step, heading down the stairs, and another at the top of the stairs, in the middle of a turn, as if he was about to run back down the stairs he’d just climbed.
“Bizarre,” Thorne agreed.
Feeling an increasing sense of urgency, Mitaru picked up the pace, hurrying across two additional roads, weaving in and out of the cars there, until he reached another grassy area and broke into a run.
Somewhere beyond this grassy area, beyond the building with towering pillars to their left, they would find Princess Glory. He just knew it.
It didn’t take long, with the pace Mitaru set for them to reach the area the mortals called the National Mall.
Mitaru had learned that the mortals referred to inside shopping areas as malls, but that in this case, in the capitol city of Washington, D.C., the mall referred to something else.
This particular mall featured museums and monuments, fountains and a mortal-made pool among other things.
It was at this pool where the Eastern Veil was located and where Princess Glory, along with all the other Fae accompanying her, had last been seen.
Mitaru knew they were in the right place when they came upon the guardian force of the mortals.
Soldiers and police, they called them.
“They still have their weapons,” Thorne warned as they slipped through the frozen mortals.
“We should disarm them,” Kalina said. “They cannot be trusted.”
Despite Mitaru’s desperation to find Glory, he absolutely agreed as he had no desire to be shot again.
“We should try to use the magic of Faerie,” Thorne said. “It worked for Astra.”
“Yes, but she’s a princess, tied to the magic of Faerie in a way that we are not,” Mitaru protested. “I’m not sure—”
“We should at least try,” Kalina said, “as I have no desire to watch you fall again, Mitaru.”
The look on her face told Mitaru how much the events in Lawrence had impacted her.
He didn’t remember much about what had happened, just of being hit by something so forceful, it seemed a thousand Sorenalaya—those Fae who had faded so far from the world of the living that they’d become nothing more than beasts—were burrowing deep, devouring his flesh and soul from the inside out.
He’d felt his life force fading, heard Kalina shouting as if from a distance and then he’d been filled with so much magic, it had felt as if his form was being burned from the inside out.
When he’d come back to the world, he’d found everything changed.
Now they all had to live with the repercussions of those changes.
“You know, standing here, from the outside looking in,” Thorne said, “I’m beginning to understand why we were met with such force back in Lawrence.”
“What are you talking about?” Kalina whirled on him. “The mortals were out of control. Guardians were falling everywhere and if it weren’t for Princess Astra, we’d have all entered eternity right then!”
“I understand that, Kalina, but look.” Thorne nodded toward something over her shoulder.
Mitaru and Kalina turned to look and Mitaru’s breath caught in his throat.
There were the Fae Guardians of the Eastern Veil, so many of them, standing in lines, facing the mortals.
Some were falling backward, others were falling to their knees while still others were already on the ground.
Many, many more, though, were standing strong, lunging forward, seconds from engaging the mortals.
Whether falling or standing or leaping forward, though, all of the Guardians—every single one—had their swords drawn.
It was a frozen battlefield, upon which the mortals were clearly outnumbered.
“There must be a hundred Guardians at least,” Kalina muttered. “No wonder the mortals attacked. They probably thought they were being invaded.”
“It looks like my entire generation crossed,” Thorne said, staring around at the Guardians he had served with for the majority of his service to Faerie. “I recognize Guardians from every unit, but none from my brother’s generation.”
“Are you sure?” Mitaru asked. “Once we find Glory, we can look for Tarek as well if you’d like.”
“No need. He was granted leave to be at the Western Veil when we crossed over.”
“He was in our Honor Guard,” Kalina said.
Mitaru didn’t know whether that was a blessing or salt in the wound.
“Nako should be here though,” Kalina said, referring to Thorne’s best friend.
“He should,” Tarek agreed. “I’ll look for him after we find the Princess. It’s interesting so many of the Guardians made it through the Eastern Veil when so few did so in Lawrence.”.
“Yes, but the Sorenalaya attacked at the Western Veil,” Kalina said.
Mitaru winced. He couldn’t believe she’d brought that up when they’d just been speaking of Tarek.
Most of the Guardians in the West had stayed behind to protect the mortal realm from the Sorenalaya. Tarek would have been no different, leaping into battle to defend the innocent, even though he was technically a Guardian of the East.
Poor Thorne didn’t need any reminders of the dangers his brother had faced back home.
Then again, if Tarek had managed to survive that confrontation, at least he was also safe in Faerie right now, rather than living in exile with his brother, or worse, frozen here on this battlefield.
A battlefield that was hiding a princess.
“So, where is this infamous pool?” Mitaru asked, moving past another cluster of combatants, trying to find the area where Princess Glory had last been seen.
She’d been standing in the waters of what the mortals called the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, but everywhere Mitaru looked were black-clad Guardians of Faerie and weapon-heavy soldiers and police officers of Earth.
It took them a while to weave their way through line after line of Guardians, but they finally arrived at the Reflecting Pool.
Guardians had surrounded this end of it and from what Mitaru could see, the pool extended far beyond the section they protected.
At the center of that section, the Eastern Veil towered above the waters, providing a glimpse into Faerie.
Surrounding the Veil, a secondary cluster of Guardians faced outward, standing as Faerie’s last line of defense.
Mitaru knew at the center of that cluster, not far from the Veil, would be the princess herself. He stepped into the waters and strode through them toward the Veil.
Kalina and Thorne followed.
When they reached the cluster, it became clear a hole had been punched through the Fae defenses surrounding the Veil.
It was a small hole, created by three Guardians who had fallen at the edges of the pool and another Guardian who had fallen to her knees in the water, but it was enough.
Just beyond the Guardian on her knees was the Princess.
She was half submerged in the water, not resting at the bottom of the pool, but not floating on its surface either.
She had clearly been falling and had just hit the top of the water when everything stopped.
Water had geysered up all around her.
Droplets hung in mid-air, tiny jewels that captured the light and sparked rainbows across the water.
Mitaru’s heart almost stopped when he first saw her.
He had never seen anything more beautiful in all his days.
For a split second, he was frozen, unable to move at the sight of her, but then that sense of urgency came rushing back.
He slid past the Guardian on her knees and entered the protective circle that should have kept the princess safe. He splashed to her side, then knelt and slid his arms beneath her form.
Cradling her against his chest, he stood, then turned and carried her back the way he’d come, Kalina and Thorne flanking him on either side.
When they reached the edge of the pool, Kalina and Thorne exited first, then turned to help stabilize his own climb out of the waters.
Once they were on solid ground, Mitaru paused, uncertain what to do with the precious burden in his arms.
“What now?” Kalina asked.
Glory’s eyes were closed as if she were unconscious or sleeping, but Mitaru could feel the magic that was actively working to hold the entire place in a form of stasis.
She was the reason everything had stopped.
“We should try to wake her, don’t you think?” Thorne asked.
“If we do that, it’s possible everyone else will waken,” Mitaru said as he strode through the groupings of frozen Fae and mortals. He needed to get her away from where all those weapons were pointing.
