A Fey New World (The Godhunter #32) - Amy Sumida Page 0,98
if my family was safe. Thank you for looking after them. Now, Azrael and I are going flying. He wants me to see what's happened for myself. I'll mirror you when we get back to Lexington.”
“You haven't seen it yet?” Arach asked in a guarded tone.
“No, but I imagine it will take a long time to check it out. In fact, we might fly to San Francisco since we're in California. We have two options.” I widened my eyes at my fey husband, hoping he'd take the hint. “There are so many choices really. Lots of places for us to go. We could trace anywhere. Not like in Faerie where there's only one tracing point. The Earth is open for travel—all but the castle, of course, that's warded. So, don't panic if you don't hear from me again for hours.”
Arach blinked. “I won't.”
“That is incorrect. She will not be contacting you again,” Azrael said stiffly.
“Yes, I will,” I growled. “I said I wouldn't leave you but I didn't say that I would cut them out of my life for you, Azrael.”
“Carus, you must. We are meant to become the Gods of Earth.”
“We'll talk about it later,” I snapped. To Arach, I said, “I'll see you soon. Stay well, Dragon.”
Arach's eyes widened in understanding and he nodded. “I will. I love you, Vervain.”
“I love—”
Azrael swiped a handful of eyebright over the mirror and cut off the call.
I glared at him. “Azrael!”
“They are your past, Carus,” he said firmly. “You must accept it and look to the future.”
I shook my head at him and stormed out of the house. Azrael chased after me.
“Lock the door,” I growled over my shoulder at him. “We don't want any more assholes breaking in.”
Chapter Forty-Seven
We decided to trace to Paris. Mainly because the thought of flying around the Eiffel Tower tickled me pink and I needed a bit of a pick-me-up, but also, I was hoping the situation had improved the general Parisian attitude, which—sorry, but it's true—lacks a certain, shall we say, warmth. We traced right to the foot of the famous tower because, again, why not? I gaped up at it for five minutes before I was able to speak. And it was not because I was stricken silent by its grandeur.
“Carus?” Azrael finally asked in concern.
“Um, that was the Eiffel Tower, wasn't it?”
Azrael looked at the conglomeration of metal and wood before us. “Yes. It's lovely, don't you think?”
“Sure,” I said with a little whimper. “Lovely. The new, improved version.”
The tower's metal frame was still there—not intact but there. The base was unchanged except for the fact that it was full of tree trunks—four, to be exact. The trees had grown in each corner, the metal caging them in and forcing them to wind together into one tree at the center. But that was where they stopped conforming. Just past the first horizontal line of the tower, right above the first arch, the spiraled tree burst free of its cage and spewed forth. The top of the tower had split and peeled back like a banana to allow for this—four lengths of metal strips drooping toward the ground in perfect curves, like the sepals of a rose. The tree that emerged from this new Eiffel Flower went from a normal brown shade to a rich black, darker even than the night sky.
Yes, it was night in Paris, and the tree might have blended in with the sky beyond it if not for the electric lights that were—despite all the damage—still attached and working. They blazed gold along the curves of metal lattice and shone upward to illuminate the glossy black branches and massive lavender leaves. But all of that wasn't as startling as the shadows that swirled within between the four trunks below, uniting them with darkness. I'd never seen a tree like it, not even in the Dark Kingdom.
“How are the lights still working?” I asked Az.
“The magic is a step forward, not back, Carus,” he chided me. “The human machines that power cities are still functioning, they just do so more efficiently now. They run on clean energy—water, wind, and geothermal power. I've done what the humans have been trying to do for many years but have failed at for ridiculous reasons like politics and greed. Now, providing power to the machines necessary for human survival and comfort will not pollute the planet. And you still have your precious Internet.” He smiled indulgently at me.