Page 78

Getting settled into her bed once they reached her apartment, she let her mind cross over.

The moment she crossed into Faerie, thinking of it as such since Otherworld seemed a terrible name for a sentient entity, she could feel the pull and tug of the souls.

With a thought, she was outside the gates of town, leaving her apartment in a blink.

“Don’t panic. That’s probably normal... I hope,” she whispered to herself.

The souls were speaking in a hushed panic, trying to figure out where to go and what to do as Bryn stepped forward. Every one of the souls turned to her as if magnetized.

“I really wish you could tell me what to do, help me figure out how to do this,” she said to Faerie, and then the silver wolf was there, giving her a bark in greeting, before moving behind her to push her forward with its nose.

“Okay, okay...” She walked toward the souls, each one frozen as they looked at her, watching carefully.

Whispers not from the spirits but nearby caught her attention. She turned to look, and just like before, Faerie overlaid her own world.

Though the sound was muted, the colors vibrant, if she focused, she could see through the gate to where the townspeople surrounded Justin just as they had been before she crossed the veil.

The silver wolf pushed against her, bringing her attention back to the souls. Cyerra fluttered to the gate above them, not speaking to her here, and she wondered if the crow even could.

“I am straddling the line and not fully in Faerie, am I?” she asked, and both the wolf and crow gave her a nod.

Walking up to the first soul, an older man, he took her hand in his. She felt the urge to pull back but let her hand settle there. He was dead, so she wouldn’t see, or feel, how he died... she hoped.

She was wrong.

Bryn watched each battle of his life, both on the field and in his own mind. His life’s highs and lows, regrets and triumphs. It made her dizzy, but she held on until she looked upon the man once again.

“You may pass,” something ancient in her said, her voice stronger than when she was herself in the world outside of the veil.

“Thank you, Phantom Queen,” he said before he broke apart into a ball of pure white light and moved away from the group toward where Arawn stood on the horizon. She’d not seen him there, but it made sense. He would be guarding the ones he took the paradise.

Bryn continued moving through the people until she came upon a man in his late thirties. Touching him made her skin tingle, and the visions she got from him disgusted her. Trying not to lose the contents of her stomach, she pulled her hand back, thinking only burning her flesh would rid it of the wickedness that spread through the man like a cancer.

“You’re evil,” she seethed. “You are not worthy.”

The man narrowed his eyes and grabbed for her hand again, earning a fierce growl from the silver wolf.

“Let me through,” he demanded, stepping into her space, the silver wolf snapping its teeth at the man.

“Call your general off and let me through!” he yelled in her face, but she held steady.

“No,” she returned, bracing herself in case the man took it further, which he did. Shoving at her, he tried to run around her, toward Arawn.

A deep well of power filled her. Like being struck by lightning, all of her hair stood on end.

“Stop.” Her voice was but a whisper, but the man froze as she walked up to him, her hand out. Getting right into his face, she looked into the eyes of evil. The monster who wore the mask of a human. Of someone who mistreated and used the life around him. Both humans and creatures. “You maynotpass.”

Placing her palm on his forehead, the man shattered into millions of pieces before turning to dust and floating away.

Falling to the ground, her body exhausted, the wolf nudged her to continue.

So, she did, her energy depleted with each soul she moved from the mortal world.

“Do I need to be near my body to go back?” she asked, thankful when all the souls were through, it was over, and she could rest.

The wolf only whined, pushing at her with its nose.

“General, huh?” She pushed her fingers into its fur, the wolfish smile making her wish again that she could pull the wolf across the veil with her.