Larkspur (38 page)

“
Which means?” Jacob
asked.

“
What does it mean, Jacob
Marlowe?” Gilfand asked.

Gilfand reached out and grabbed Jacob’s
sleeve. In the blink of an eye, they were standing on the top of
Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

“
Why do they watch?”
Gilfand gestured to the gargoyles. “Why are they modeled after
fairies?”

In a flash, they were back inside the
monolith.

“
What did the dragon say?”
Gilfand asked.

“
I have to decide that I’m
in the game,” Jacob said. “But . . . if I join the
game, this fairy thingy, whatever, . . .”

Gilfand raised his eyebrows at Jacob.

“
How does that help
anyone?” Jacob finally came up with.

“
Try it and find out,”
Gilfand said. “I will make you one promise, Jacob Marlowe: I will
mentor you. I will guide you. I will not leave you or your children
on your own to use your capacities to wash dishes and decorate
holiday trees.”

Jacob turned away from Gilfand.

“
Or I will disappear from
your life forever,” Gilfand said. “A month from now, you will
cynically wonder who that monkey-looking guy was,
anyway.”

“
Monkey?” Jacob
asked.

“
You have to choose,”
Gilfand said and disappeared.

Jacob dropped to his knees and surrendered
to the dark.

~~~~~~~~

“
Katy?” Jill whispered to
the dark. “Katy-baby?”

She groaned at the contraction. Jill felt
the darkness spin around her.

“
Katherine Anjelika
Roper-Marlowe,” Jill said in her sternest voice. “I
know
you’re
here.”

Her desperate love for her daughter formed a
mental bridge through the dark. Jill could hear Katy’s thoughts.
Her daughter was very frightened.

“
Katy?” Jill asked the
dark. “Whoever is doing this, whoever has stolen my child and her
Paddie, you do not know who you are dealing with.”

Jill felt a well of power rise from her very
core.

“
I am Bratva, if that
means anything to you,” Jill said. “And if it doesn’t, my father is
Perses. He will eat your living heart if you injure me or my
child.”

Her feeling of power diminished.

“
Shit,” Jill said. “I
thought that was going to work.”

She took a step forward and felt another
contraction.

“
Katy? I hear you,
Katy-baby,” Jill said. “I hear you. Hang on. I’m
coming.”

Jill looked around her.

“
Please,” Jill begged.
“Whoever has my Katy, please bring her to me. She’s just a little
girl. She needs her mommy. I know she’s lots of different, amazing
and powerful things, but she’s a little girl, my little girl, and
she needs me.”

Nothing.

Jill scowled. What had made her powerful
before?

She wasn’t fairy-kind like Jacob and Katy.
Outside of her fairly random healing capacity, she wasn’t magical
or special in any way. She had great friends, but that was really
about Sandy, not her. Jill scrunched up her face and thought about
Sandy and Tanesha. Heather had to go to the hospital to check on
the baby after having been drugged. Jill thought Heather would be
all right, but it was good to check, especially since Blane was out
at the site.

Jill felt better just thinking about her
friends.

“
Now what?” Tanesha’s
voice came from somewhere near her.

“
Tanesha?” Jill said at
the same time she heard Sandy say, “Tanesha?”

“
Jill!” Sandy and Tanesha
said.

“
Oh, this dark has got to
go,” Tanesha said.

Jill heard Tanesha fumble in the dark. She
saw a pinpoint of light about thirty feet away.

“
There you are,” Tanesha
said. “I see you, Sandy.”

“
I’m right here!” Jill
waved and groaned.

There was the sound of feet slapping stone,
and suddenly Sandy and Tanesha were at her side. They hugged each
other tight.

“
Where do we think we
are?” Tanesha asked.

“
No idea,” Jill said. “But
Katy’s here. I can feel her.”

“
Paddy must be here too,”
Sandy said.

“
Gosh, I hope so,” Jill
said.

“
Let’s find our babies and
get the hell out of here,” Tanesha said.

“
Do we have another
light?” Jill asked.

“
You’re the magic one,”
Tanesha said. “Why don’t you just say ‘let there be light’ or
whatever?”

“
Let there be light,” Jill
repeated in a dull tone.

The lights came on. But that was almost more
horrifying than the dark. They were standing on air. There were no
walls, no floor, and only the night sky above.

“
Where’s Katy?” Sandy
asked.

“
Call her,” Tanesha
said.

“
I did that,” Jill
said.

“
In the voice?” Sandy
asked.

“
You mean the voice that
makes her do things she doesn’t want to do?” Jill
nodded.

“
Hmm,” Sandy said. “Is
Katy why we’re here?”

“
Or me,” Jill shrugged. “I
miss her so much that I . . .”

Tears seeped from Jill’s eyes.

“
Okay,” Tanesha hugged
Jill. “Let’s find our girl.”

“
She’s here,” Jill said.
“I know she’s here. I just . . .”

Jill bent over with a contraction.

“
Did you try that whole
‘I’m going to kill you’ thing you used to do with Trevor?” Sandy
asked.

“
Mentioned Perses and
Bratva,” Jill nodded.

“
Shit,” Sandy said. “Did
you try begging?”

Jill nodded.

“
Wait,” Tanesha said. “Why
can you see us?”

“
Because I love you,” Jill
said.

“
Sure,” Tanesha said. “But
you love Katy a lot more than you love us.”

“
No idea.” Jill shook her
head.

“
Can the boys help?” Sandy
asked.

Jill shook her head.

“
Let’s think this
through,” Tanesha said. “We’re here in this cloudy
place.”

“
It was really dark when I
got here,” Jill said.

“
How’d you get the lights
on?” Tanesha asked.

“
You told me to say ‘let
there be light,’” Jill said.

“
You commanded it,” Sandy
said. “Not because of your dad or grandfather.”

“
Seems like you’re in
charge here,” Tanesha said. “Go ahead.”

“
I want my daughter, Katy,
here right this instant,” Jill said.

“
And Paddie,” Sandy
whispered.

“
I demand that my
daughter, Katy, and our friend Paddie appear right here,” Jill
said.

Katy and Paddie appeared on the ground in
front of her. They seemed to be fast asleep in a small compartment.
Jill saw a tear roll down Katy’s face.

“
Katy?” Jill
asked.

“
Mommy!” Katy sat up.
“Mommy? I can hear you, but I can’t see you.”

“
She can’t see us,”
Tanesha said.

“
I’m here, Katy-baby.”
Jill went to her daughter’s side. She reached to touch her but only
hit air.

“
She can’t see Paddie
either,” Sandy said.

Jill’s knees gave out and she groaned. Jill
gritted her teeth and stood up.

“
What do we do?” Jill
asked.

~~~~~~~~

Deep under the meadow in the King’s Forest
on the Isle of Man, Delphie skidded to a stop. James and Valerie
ran ahead in the catacombs’ rock hallway.

“
Hold up!” Sam yelled from
behind Delphie. James and Valerie ran back.

“
She’s not here,” Delphie
said. She dropped her sledgehammer onto the ground.

“
Who’s not?” Sam
asked.

“
Katy,” Delphie said. “She
was. Paddie too. She’s not here now.”

“
What?” James
asked.

“
What do you mean?”
Valerie asked.

“
He slipped them out from
under the fairy’s nose,” Delphie said. “He’s . . .
We’ve . . . Oh God, Katy.”

Delphie dropped her head into her hands and
cried. Sam wrapped himself around her. Valerie put her arms around
her father. James looked down the hallway.

“
There’s a blue light
there.” James pointed. He looked at them for a moment, “No matter.
I’m a tough MI-6 agent. I’ll go.”

He jogged down the hallway to where he saw a
blue dot. He kneeled down to be at her level.

“
There’s a fairy here,”
James said. They looked up at him. “It looks sick.”

Edie threw up.

“
He took her,” Edie said.
“I . . . couldn’t fight him. He’s too
strong.”

James picked up Edie and stuck her in the
front pocket of his shirt.

“
Let’s get out of here,”
James said. “There’s something not right here.”

Valerie, Delphie, and Sam gave him numb
looks.

“
NOW!” James pushed them
apart. “Sam, put your mask on.”

Sam put his mask on. Sam helped Delphie with
her mask while James helped get Valerie.”

James pointed to Delphie and Sam nodded. Sam
picked up Delphie. James threw Valerie over his shoulder in a
fireman’s hold. They made slow progress to the top.

“
We’re lost,” Delphie said
through her mask

James pointed down a long hallway and to a
flight of stairs. Sam and James lumbered up the steps. Near the
top, Sam stopped walking and pulled off his mask. James ran into
him. James pulled off his mask.

“
What are you doing?”
James asked.

“
There’s nothing here,”
Sam said.

James pushed passed him. He was standing in
some kind of white room. There was low hanging fog or clouds on the
ground. There were walls and an empty open sky above. He set
Valerie down and gestured for Sam to join him.

“
Where are we?” Sam asked,
and set Delphie down.

“
Do you know them?” James
pointed. There were three figures near the edge of the
room.

One of them crumpled and moaned.

“
Why, that’s Jill!”
Delphie exclaimed. She took off toward the women. She ran for what
seemed like an hour.

“
Jill!”

“
Do you hear something?”
Tanesha asked.

“
Sounds like Delphie when
she’s talking to herself in the kitchen,” Sandy said.

“
I can’t make out what
she’s saying,” Tanesha said.

“
Sandy!” Delphie yelled.
Sam, James, and Valerie caught up to her. “They can’t hear
us.”

“
Or see us.” James waved
his hand in front of their faces.

“
Look it’s Katy and
Paddie! We found them!” Valerie pointed through the fog to two
figures lying on the ground. “Katy! Paddie!”

The little girl blinked and jutted her chin
out in defiance. Tears ran down Katy’s face, but didn’t respond.
Paddie seemed asleep. James plucked the fairy out of his shirt
pocket and held her up in front of his face.

“
What is this?” James
asked.

Edie looked at him and then looked
around.

“
Oh, this isn’t good,”
Edie said.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Seventy-one

“
What is this?” Delphie
asked Edie the fairy.

Edie took a breath.

“
Wait, can you make
yourself bigger?” James asked. “I can’t deal with hearing wisdom
from a fly.”

“
Oh, sure,” Edie said. She
waved her wand and grew to the size of a normal human.

“
And the taffeta?” Valerie
asked.

“
I know. It’s ridiculous,”
Edie said. “Uniforms. The wand, too. It’s a huge honor to be on the
fairy corps. What are you going to do? I don’t wear the uniform or
the tiny size unless I’m working.”

“
What do you wear at
home?” Sam asked.

They turned to look at Sam.

“
She looks like she’s
wearing some sexy Halloween costume,” Sam asked. “It’s
demeaning.”

They nodded. When they turned back, Edie was
wearing a pair of denim jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a thick,
hand-knit cardigan. Her hair was in a long black braid down her
back. Her skin was fair with a tint of something else. Her eyes
were large and green, flecked with brown. She had a pert mouth and
a sharp nose.

“
Wait, I know you,” James
said.

Edie blushed.

“
You’re at the coffee shop
by my house on the weekends,” James said. “You drink Earl Grey tea
with milk and . . . and . . . you
knit sweaters on a near-continuous basis. I stop there every
weekend I’m in town.”

James blushed and cleared his throat. Edie
clasped her hands behind her back and looked down. Sam raised his
eyebrows at them and grinned.

“
Hi, my name is James
Kelly, man of mystery; I’m from Northern Ireland,” Valerie said.
“Hi, my name is Edith the fairy; I grew up here on the Isle of Man.
Nice to meet you Edith. Oh, you can call me Edie, everybody does.
Well, Edie, I’d like to get to know you better, but I’m in
the middle of a crisis right
now
.”