I didn’t say anything further. The moment was gone. I didn’t even know which of the dozens of places I’d seen had held Gabriel. But I had seen him, even if Lucifer didn’t want me to believe it.
I don’t know how much time passed. After a while Lucifer said, “This is the place.”
And we were there.
The three of us stood on a high hill. The hill was split down the middle. One side was rocky and barren, and stretched away into an icy tundra covered by a gray sky. The other side was lush and green and dotted with sunshine. We were on the rocky, icy side, and a bitter wind bit through my coat.
“Once you cross this line,” Lucifer said, indicating the split, “you will have entered the kingdom of Titania and Oberon, and there is no turning back.”
“How will we get home without you?” I asked.
“Either you will negotiate your own safe passage, or…” He trailed off.
“Or we won’t come home at all,” I said.
“I have every confidence in you, granddaughter,” Lucifer said, taking me by the shoulders and kissing my forehead.
I felt the usual roil of confusion that I experienced around Lucifer. There was something very fatherlike about him, but then, no good father had ever threatened to sacrifice their child for their own purpose.
He released me and turned to Nathaniel.
“You know what your charge is, Nathaniel ap Zerachiel,” Lucifer said, and all the warmth was gone from his tone.
“Yes, my lord,” Nathaniel said, bowing.
“See that your duty is done,” Lucifer said.
And then he disappeared.
I looked at the happy valley spread out below us. Like all things faerie, I was sure that it was a glamour disguising a lot of terror and ugliness. Knowing that there was danger ahead didn’t make it any easier to take that first step.
“Well, I guess it’s you and me,” I said to Nathaniel.
“Not quite,” said a muffled voice, and Beezle crawled out of Nathaniel’s coat, looking disgruntled.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as he flew over to my shoulder and made an elaborate show of smoothing his horns.
“Like I would let you go to Titania and Oberon’s court without me. How are you supposed to benefit from my intel if I’m not with you?”
I looked at Nathaniel, who watched me with an uncertain expression.
“Thank you,” I said.
“I thought you would feel more comfortable if the gargoyle were with you,” he said.
“Well, comfort doesn’t really factor into it, since I’ve got to lug him around,” I said.
“Information comes with a price,” Beezle said loftily. “Now, can we get this train rolling? I need to be back in time for Dancing with the Stars.”
“Of course,” I said dryly. “Nothing could possibly be more important than seeing which D-list celebrity gets eliminated this week.”
“It’s awesome,” Beezle said.
I took a deep breath, and stepped over the line. Nathaniel followed.
I was immediately enveloped in warmth. It felt like a beautiful summer day on this side. The air was lightly scented with flowers. Birds whistled songs that caught in the breeze and carried up to where we stood.
“This is so wrong,” Beezle said.
“I know,” I replied. “Nothing this lovely or charming could possibly be real. Do you see what’s underneath?”
Beezle concentrated, staring at the scene before us. After a while he shook his head. “This glamour is really good, and it’s old. It’s layered so deep that I can’t see with a quick glance. I’d have to look at it for a while.”
“It’s all right,” I said. “We know that we can’t trust what we see, so let’s just proceed carefully.”
“And don’t eat or drink anything,” Beezle said.
“I know,” I said, and we started down the hill.
The hill was longer than it seemed from the top. The descent was gradual but it took much more time than I’d expected to reach the bottom. When we did, both Nathaniel and I were sweating. We were dressed for winter in Chicago.
I pulled off my coat, hat and gloves and gave them a regretful glance as I left them on the ground. Nathaniel followed suit, his wings revealed. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt.
“There’s no point in carrying this stuff around,” I said, though I hated to leave things behind.
“The coat is trashed, anyway,” Beezle said. “Again. What tore up the shoulder?”
I told Beezle and Nathaniel about the mantis-thing that had attacked the girl on Southport as we walked through a field of knee-high grass. Brightly colored butterflies alighted here and there on tall wildflowers.
“Was the mantis something faerie?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” Beezle said.
“Great. So something else is out to get me?”
“I suppose it could be a sending from Azazel,” Nathaniel said. “One of his experiments?”
“Then why not say so?” I asked. “Azazel loves to rub it in my face when he thinks he’s about to get the better of me.”
“I guess we just have to accept that you’ve pissed off enough people that we can’t tell who’s after you without identification,” Beezle said.
“Why is it my fault when these immortals come after me?”
“Well, you do keep foiling their evil plans,” Beezle said.
“So, I should let them kill innocent people?”
“All I’m saying is that it puts a target on your back,” Beezle said.
“Enough,” Nathaniel said. “Why did I consider it a good thing to bring you along?”
“That wasn’t too bad,” Beezle said. “You might want to work on your cutting tone, though. I can’t fence with an unarmed man.”
“It is a wonder both of you have not yet been killed,” Nathaniel said seriously. “How can you hear the enemy approaching over the sound of your bickering?”
“Maddy survives mostly on luck,” Beezle said. “I’m not sure being able to hear the monsters approaching would make much of a difference.”
“I resent the implication that I’m some kind of half-wit stumbling around in a sea of chaos,” I said.
“You said it, not me.”
“Gods above and below,” Nathaniel muttered.
Beezle winked at me.
We came to the edge of a wood. There was a clear path proceeding through the trees, and the forest looked as bright and happy as the field we’d just passed through. A doe and her fawn stood a short distance away, and seemed unconcerned by our presence as they fed on leaves and twigs.
Beezle gave the deer a good hard stare. Then he leaned close to my ear. “Those aren’t deer.”
“Do I want to know what they are?” I asked.
“Probably not,” Beezle said. “It will just give you indigestion.”
I pointed out the deer to Nathaniel. He nodded.
“Should we go forward?” he said quietly.
“There’s no other way to go if we want to get back home. Let’s just hope they don’t bother us,” I said, and stepped onto the path.
Both deer looked up as my foot crossed into the forest. They shimmered for a moment, and the deer suddenly weren’t there anymore.
But something else was, and they looked far too happy to see us.
