Diamond Dust (Shadowbound Fae Book 2), page 31
Her body wasn’t cold yet, though. It wasn’t beyond use. If they could heal her body and fix some of the prongs, using spirit to patch everything together, they could keep Daisy alive.
They needed that soul, though. She couldn’t cling to life without her soul.
“What did she—” Lexi cut off as a plethora of thoughts and images rolled through her head, so fast she almost didn’t grasp them. Then she saw, through the fae’s mind, his thoughts, his feelings. She saw the whole thing—the pain, the magic, the amount of sheer power that had gone through her kid’s body. It had fried Daisy and evacuated the soul. But the magic hadn’t lingered. It hadn’t stayed. It had blasted through, like electricity looking for ground. She needed to be jump-started. Her heart, it needed to be—
“Faelynn!” the fae yelled, command in his voice.
A female ran in on shaky limbs and with a deathly pale face. She hadn’t gotten over the fright from Lexi’s magic. That was pretty common the first couple times.
“She’s a healer,” the fae said. “She can help.”
Kieran took Lexi by the shoulders. “You focus on those prongs and the soul. You need to pull her back and get her soul in this body. If she’s gone too long, the body won’t be able to repair. I’ll work on her heart.”
Tears dripping from her eyes, she moved to Daisy’s feet and bowed her head. She worked those prongs, rebuilding, and got ready to call Daisy back over the line. She got ready to fight her way through that guy standing in the way. She could do this. She had to do this.
37
Daisy
The colors around her were so calm and tranquil. Comforting. She felt…at peace in a way she never could remember before.
She moved through the space, like walking in a meadow at dawn.
Dawn…
Why did that ring a bell?
She couldn’t really remember. Wasn’t exactly troubled to think about it. This felt right, this place. She belonged here. She felt that.
She closed her eyes, kind of a weird idea, since she didn’t actually have a body, and prepared to drift away. To roll with the winds of time and the fluctuations of forever. To exist but not. The afterlife really wasn’t so bad.
“Hey.”
A man leaned against a doorframe in a place where doors weren’t present. For some reason, that didn’t seem odd. He looked vaguely familiar but also like he didn’t belong here. His magic was all wrong for this place. Foreign.
“Wow, when you give in to something, you really go all in, huh?” he said, wearing a smirk. His eyes narrowed as he looked closer. “Ah. Yeah, gods are tricky. We can help a spirit find peace, whether they like it or not. But you took it and ran. There are no halvsies with you. Now I get why you all but threw your panties at that fae. Don’t get me wrong, he is hot as fuck, isn’t he? A wet dream walking. But I expected you to give him more guff at the start.” He shrugged. “Why resist when they are that bangable? I get it. I’ve been known to make a bad decision now and again when it comes to pretty partners. They wrote a whole fucking myth about it. I can’t seem to live it down.”
Strange feelings vied for attention. Strange memories, pulling at a heart she’d left behind. Pulling at her very core and squishing out sadness. Loss.
A moment of panic snapped her out of her peaceful state, grasping at a memory that wouldn’t quite form. A need not realized. This place seemed off. Not right. She shouldn’t be here. She couldn’t—
“Shh, shh,” the man said, putting out a hand. A wave of peacefulness again enveloped her, washing away the panic. “You’ll never remember things like that. Not here. Let’s get you in the right headspace. How’s this?”
The strange plane turned into her bedroom near the dual-society zone line. Her computer was aglow with squares of imagery, cameras picking up the beautiful day and cultivated yard. She sat on her bed with the man in a chair near the window, lounging like he’d been there all his life. His ankle was crossed over his knee, and he wore jeans and a button-up.
The familiar setting eased her, and she took in his appearance. Late twenties and with clear blue eyes, he was a looker. He had slight bags under his eyes and tousled hair. He almost looked like James Dean, an appearance he could choose.
“Hades,” she said, bouncing on the bed. It felt normal. The temperature, the dust motes floating through the air—it all felt normal. Comfortable. She breathed a sigh of relief. “Why are you bothering me?”
She’d first seen him at the Demigod convention when everything went to hell. Since then, he’d hung around occasionally, working with Lexi and her magic. He liked to listen to the guys poking fun at Daisy and each other, but usually he didn’t engage with Daisy directly. He was usually too enamored by Bria.
“Because you’re a favorite of my favorite, why else?” He leaned back and stretched, yawning as he did. “I got an invitation here, did you know? These fae have their own god of the afterlife. It’s a different sort of place than what I run, but it’s okay. Too pretty for my tastes. With beings that are too…fucking arrogant, if I’m being honest. It’s like hanging out with an entire race of Zeus wannabes. What. A. Nightmare.”
She struggled to make sense of what he was talking about. She felt so…tired. So ready to rest eternally.
“Why’d you get an invitation?” she asked.
“Because you lot are very entertaining. Lexi is, as we all know, and now you? The gods here are placing bets and undermining each other. It’s great sport. But”—he leaned forward—“I have a little skin in the game myself. I couldn’t help myself. If I lose, I have to be a toy. They didn’t specify what that meant.” He gave her a deadpan look. “It’s a fuck-toy, isn’t it.” It was a statement more than a question. “They essentially want to make me a fuck-toy for a while.” He lifted his eyebrows but leaned back. “So we obviously can’t have that. I like to call the shots, not the other way around. If I win, I get to abduct the god of my choosing and keep her for a while. That is also code for a fuck-toy, just so we’re on the same page. I already got her all picked out.”
Daisy’s eyebrows settled low. “You guys have problems.”
“I’m well aware. But eternity gets boring, so you need to live on the edge. Anyway, where are you going?”
She looked around in confusion. Nowhere. This was home.
Wasn’t it?
It no longer felt like home. It felt like a memory.
The snap drew her focus. Hades waited for her to look at him before speaking. “Lexi came for you, did you know?”
Confusion bled into her again.
He nodded. “She isn’t the type of woman to let a different realm stop her from protecting her own. I hear she got you into this mess. Well, magic comes at a price, kid. Now you know. She didn’t have it easy either. Know what I mean? But if you listen real hard, you might find that taking an eternal nap might not be the right choice.”
A voice echoed in the sudden darkness. Her room had cleared away into a strange violet field. Hades was back to leaning on a doorframe that wasn’t there. That voice reverberated all around her. Called her name. Offered her comfort.
Lexi.
“She…came for me?” The shroud of confusion started to lift. Memories of her life filtered in. Panic threatened, pulling at her. Turning her in circles. She knew where she was. Feared the unknown of it.
Daisy…
That voice was so familiar. So comforting. More so than the call of eternity. Than peaceful sleep. That voice was home. It was love. It was life.
She was rising without knowing where she was going. Without knowing how she was doing it. Hades rose with her.
“She’s being cock-blocked,” Hades told her. “The god of this place had a big bet that once you crossed into his domain, he’d keep you put. He knows what magic she has, see, and he’s swinging his dick around. She’s fighting him about it, hence her voice getting through, but he’s got more power. You’ve got to do your part. Help her, help you. Go back to that dreamboat of a fae. Come on, kid. I am not interested in being a bored god’s fuck-toy.” He jerked his head right and tensed. “I gotta go. I’m cheating pretty badly right now, and soon I’ll get found out. Do me proud, kid. You’ve got some of my magic, after all. You’ve been initiated into the troublemaker clan. Make your own rules.”
With that he was gone, and she was left floating in nothingness.
Daisy…
Lexi
“I feel her.” Sweat ran down the sides of Lexi’s face. She didn’t dare look at Kieran and the healer fae’s efforts. She didn’t dare look at Daisy’s deathly pale skin, cooling to the touch. “That fucking bastard keeps blocking my attempt to grab her, though. I need more power.”
“Here.” The male fae picked up one of the items at his feet.
“No, no!” Another fae, much older and with jewels or something in his gray hair, hurried forward. “No, those are the wrong chalices for her. She’s spirit, right? Here.” He held out two items with a glowing amethyst hue within their depths. “These are the most powerful of the spirit chalices. They’ll give you more power—until the little human’s magic completely fades away…”
She took the objects and ignored his words. She didn’t know about the magic, but Daisy would not fade away. Lexi would break through in time. She would. The prongs were nearly rebuilt. A little bit more and they would hold. The body just needed a soul.
“Push your power through it and pull it back into you before using it how you normally would,” the younger male said.
That sounded confusing, but when she tried it, the magic ballooned. “Awesome,” she muttered, pushing hard into the chalices and blasting into that spirit realm.
Daisy, she called through spirit, reaching out. The pull deadened, but she tried again, and again, shoving back at that god. Daisy!
The feeling of her kid intensified. Pulsed. Lexi squeezed her eyes tight, drew as much power as she could, and pushed harder. Gave it everything she had.
DAISY!
The feeling of Daisy was like an inferno barreling through the spirit. Once it had a direction, it incinerated everything in its way. The god turned, startled. Lexi used the opportunity to work around him, slink past him, and then she was reaching into spirit, grabbing up her kid, and pulling her home.
“Hang on,” she said through gritted teeth as that god tried to sever the bond. “Hang on to me, Daisy. Don’t let go.”
“She won’t,” the male said, his voice confident, his tone infused with hope. “She won’t let go. If she wants to come back, no one will stop her, not a god of the afterlife or the creator herself.”
Lexi resisted the god’s attempt. She kept power pumping through those items and gasped when they got stronger. Hummed harder. It was as if Daisy’s soul getting closer gave them more power.
Something pulsed. Magic, it felt like. A surge of magic.
Lexi peeled her eyes open, sighting in on the pretty item that had knocked Daisy down in the human world. The fae male followed her gaze, his hands clutching Daisy’s. He released one and grabbed the item, pulling it closer and putting it to Daisy’s palm.
The pulse sounded again. And again. Lexi got the illusion of heat and light pulsing through spirit, following the line connecting Lexi and Daisy.
Magic flowed over that connection. Traveled along it. Strengthened it and then slammed into Daisy. The god bellowed, frustrated, and Lexi could just barely feel Hades behind him, sporting a shit-eating grin.
What the hell was Hades doing in this realm?
Didn’t matter.
Lexi reeled Daisy in, grunting from the effort. The pretty item pulsed. The feeling of light and heat intensified, and then Daisy stepped out of the veil. She wore a flowing satin dress, the same material that was pooled on the floor near the door. A cape billowed behind her in the spirit wind, and her gaze found Lexi. Her eyes shone with determination and pride.
“No one cock-blocks my mom-type,” Daisy said.
“Mom-type?” Lexi replied with a wry grin.
“You’re too young to be my actual mom. There’d be all sorts of questions. I’ve told you that.” Daisy stopped beside her body, but she wasn’t looking down at herself. She was looking at the handsome fae who knelt beside her, holding the pretty item to her palm. He looked at Lexi urgently, wondering what was going on.
“I hear your thoughts. I know what is going on,” he said. “Come back to me, Daisy. Please. Let her fix you. Let them all fix you. I’ll find a way to stay in this life if you’ll come back to me.”
“I apologize to you, Lexi,” Daisy said, kneeling. She didn’t reach out to touch the fae. She’d heard Lexi telling ghosts not to touch the living often enough.
“What for?” Lexi asked through tears. She tried to close the veil, but the god was not having it. He looked out with a glower.
“For giving you a bunch of shit about Kieran in the beginning. I get it now. I chose this fae despite everything.” She held out a finger. “I’m swearing because you can’t physically punch me in the face. Besides, I’ve earned it at this point.”
“Daisy, get in your fucking body,” Kieran barked, and thunder boomed around the castle. “You’ll have time enough to eat crow when you’re back in the world of the living.”
Startled, Daisy grinned and shook her head, at a loss. “What do I do, just…like…lie down in it? Fuck, this is the worst. I’m a ghost. I hate ghosts.”
Lexi didn’t waste any time. She stuffed Daisy in and started working those prongs.
“She needs her body to live now,” she said. “I can manage the soul, especially since she is holding on tightly, but I need that body to keep going or it’ll just evacuate her again.”
“Oh yeah?” the god said. “Maybe you need a distraction.”
“Shit, Lexi,” Hades called from somewhere behind the god. “Shouldn’t have said that. These fae hardcore cheat. He’s—yup, he’s getting an army of undead brewing. You better hurry the fuck up.”
38
Lexi
“We got company!” Lexi yelled, not moving. Not even looking away from Daisy. Instead, she started using her increased power to pull her spirit people to her. They were in that mishmash of fae spirit, with the strange magic and odd storms, but she had figured out enough to learn the lay of the land. She used that now, since the god blocking her way was currently busy.
“Lexi, are you animating these cadavers?” Bria called in. “I really hope so, because their power feels intense.”
“Fuck,” Lexi muttered, working on those prongs. She would not leave her kid. They were so close. “Bria, get active. Get those spirits out of those cadavers!” she yelled. “What’s the story with Daisy’s body?” she asked Faelynn and Kieran.
“She’s close,” the female fae said, sweat beading her brow. She held one of the items—a chalice. It glowed in her hand. “The body suffered extensive magical trauma and has been shut down for a long time, but she’s coming along. She’s coming back.”
“I’m trying to will myself, for what good that’ll do,” Daisy’s spirit said, holding on.
The prongs of her soul kept breaking, the body trying to give up and get her out. Lexi fixed first one, then the other, docking her tightly and putting as much spirit into the prongs as she could.
“Jack!” Kieran yelled, pumping Daisy’s chest to get her heart working. They were moving toward the red line. Healing her needed to happen now.
Jack jogged in, his eyes tight. “Yes, sir?”
“Take over.” Kieran jerked his head to bring Jack over. “I’m needed out there.”
“Of course.” Jack kicked the other chalices out of the way and slid in beside Daisy. His hand moved in as Kieran’s moved away. “Come on, Gremlin,” he murmured through clenched teeth. “Come on. You don’t die, remember? You don’t get saved. You save yourself. Save yourself.”
“Can you tell him that that is very unhelpful right now?” Daisy drawled. “I don’t have hands with which to pump my own heart.”
Lexi repeated it, and the handsome fae at Daisy’s side looked at Lexi hard. “You can actually hear spirits?”
“Don’t you start,” she muttered as Jack pumped and Faelynn did…whatever it was she was doing.
“It is not uncommon to hear spirits,” the old fae in the room said, looking on. “But repairing the body to accept the soul…that is uncommon. How very interesting. I have so many questions.”
“He’s like a smart version of Frank,” Lexi mumbled. “Equally as annoying.”
“I heard that!” Frank said from just outside the door. He’d definitely run away from that god the first time and was now keeping his distance.
“Come on, Gremlin,” Jack pushed, bending to blow air into Daisy’s mouth. “Come on. Don’t stay a spirit. It is not fun. You’ll hate it.”
“Also not fucking helpful,” Daisy said, which Lexi repeated, minus the swear. Daisy chuckled.
A grin worked up Jack’s face. “She’s got fight. She can do this. Just hang on, Daisy. That was my problem. I didn’t hang on long enough. Lexi will fix you. Just hang in there.”
“It’s Faelynn we need,” Lexi said as yells rang through the halls. “Fuck.” She was needed out there. An army of undead required a Spirit Walker. “What the fuck is up with that god? Usually they are happy to have their people live. Mine is ecstatic I can save people as well as kill.”
“These gods aren’t like yours, and fae aren’t like people,” the handsome male said. “The gods here are using me for sport in their mundane existence. And now…they are using you as well.”
“As the gods will it,” the older male said.
“You should go, Tarian,” Faelynn told the handsome male. “You’re needed there more than here.”
He leaned down and put his forehead to Daisy’s. His eyes closed tightly, his words whispered but impassioned. Urgent. “C’mon, little dove. Fight your way back to me. Back to your family.”
