Nevertheless Celine held her head high, refusing to balk in the face of actual magic. Magic she had not believed existed only three days prior.
This morning, she, Arjun, and Bastien had traveled through a mirror to a land halfway around the world. To a place Celine had never once thought she would see. Strange that this wasn’t the most interesting journey of the day. After winding through the streets of Jaipur, they dived into a fountain to be transported to another realm.
At any moment, Celine expected to succumb to total madness. That was the only explanation for any of this. The only one that made a semblance of sense.
Now they stood on a glittering beach, dripping wet, salt water lapping at their feet. All the colors around them appeared enhanced, as if they’d been painted by an overly imaginative child. The thing that struck Celine most—beyond the vivid hues and the unnatural glare of the sun—was the scent. It was what she’d imagined honey to smell like before she first tasted it as a child. Like drops of melted sunlight. A hint of citrus, along with the tang of hot metal.
Celine’s fingers balled into fists at her sides. More than anything, she wanted to look to Bastien for reassurance. But it would be a mistake, for more than one reason. That night at her shop three evenings ago, Bastien had made it abundantly clear that, while he’d once cared for her, she was to have no expectations of him. There could be no future between the daughter of a fairy enchantress and a demon of the night. Beings at odds with each other for millennia.
It was why Celine had gone to Michael yesterday. Why she told him she wanted to build a future together once she returned from Atlanta. Still she could feel the warmth of his arms enveloping her. The way his breath had washed across her forehead just before they kissed.
Celine had made her decision. The safety of love over the thrill of the unknown.
Inhaling with care, Celine stole a glance in Bastien’s direction. His eyes found hers in less than an instant. Heat washed across her skin. Not the warmth of safety but the flash of utter awareness. A spark threatening to burst into flame. She shuttered her gaze, her nails digging into her palms.
A mistake. One she could no longer afford to make.
It mattered too much. To both of them.
From behind the grove of palm trees with blue fronds and copper bark, several cloaked figures approached, their alabaster spears glinting in the over-bright sun. Celine took a step back, her green eyes wide. Almost wild. Even from a distance, she could tell they were not entirely human. Their ears were pointed, their features angular. Sharp. Similar to a rendering of elves she’d once seen in a book. All but one of them stood taller than most men and women. Though they remained expressionless, an air of danger lurked about them. A suggestion of menace.
The smallest of their ranks stepped forward, her grey cloak falling from her head onto her shoulders, revealing a slight young woman who appeared similar in age to Celine, with eyes and hair the color of ebony and skin a sun-kissed bronze.
To Celine’s right, Arjun breathed a sigh of relief. As if he had been expecting someone else and was grateful to see this young woman instead.
“Marceline Rousseau,” the grey-cloaked warrior said, her voice like a wind chime.
Celine took a tentative step forward.
“You will come with us,” the girl in grey continued.
Again Celine looked toward Bastien. “Do you trust them?”
“No,” he replied without turning her way, his eyes glittering.
The fey warrior snorted. “If you don’t trust me, Marceline Rousseau, then trust that the blood drinker will die the final death before he allows any harm to befall you.”
“Beyond my trust in others, I trust myself.” Celine moved closer to the leader of the assembled warriors. “And I will not take kindly to anyone who attempts to deceive me.”
Something shifted in the warrior’s cold gaze. A glint of approval. She nodded and pivoted in place, those at her back waiting for her to pass.
Celine steeled herself before she followed, Arjun and Bastien flanking her. She almost stumbled when a vine wrapped around one of the long copper tree trunks burst into bloom, the centers of the flowers beaming a warm light, casting hazy shadows around them. As if rays of sun had been dipped in molten gold.