“Atlantean?” she whispered.
I nodded. “Oh yeah. Just found out myself last year, so it’s a surprise to us both.”
She reached out a hand, and I managed not to flinch as she pressed it to my cheek. The tiny touch should have been barely perceptible, but the surge of power behind it almost knocked me on my ass.
“Holy—” I cut myself off with a gasp, and then everything started to rattle around the room, until I wondered if our power together was causing some sort of seismic activity.
I tried to move back, but it was like we were fused together, and even though she did not hold me in any way, our powers were locked. I could not move. I wasn’t sure if she could move, but she certainly didn’t.
“What are you doing?” I gritted out with a clenched jaw. If the rattling got any worse, I’d be in real trouble of shattering my teeth.
“You’re the one,” the fairy said, not sounding at all like she was in the same physical distress as me. Her voice was light and airy and twinkling all over the fucking place. Meanwhile, my cells were slowly shattering and turning me into an amoeba.
“Close your eyes,” she breathed, and as usual I did the opposite, opening my eyes very wide so I could attempt to yell through lock-jaw. She lifted her free hand and blew across it, twinkles of dust floating across the space and into my face.
My eyes burned—probably my own fault, but I was still blaming Mab—and her hold on me was broken. Unfortunately, so was my hold on gravity as I flew back through the air, toward the wall that closed off the library.
18
Iwaited for the pain of being slammed against a solid object, only it never came. I kept going and going and going. Time seemed to fade as my mind flashed in shades of blue and green and gold. When I landed, it was on a soft surface that cushioned around me and gave me the slightest sense of safety.
Home.
I’d only felt this particular sensation a few times in my life. With Asher, always. Another time was when we went down to Atlantis—the energy that called to me from inside those walls. And today. Wherever I had just ended up.
For a second, a burst of hope had me wondering if maybe Asher was in here, locked away, and I’d just found him, but I knew in my heart that wasn’t the reason. This had something to do with Atlantis … not Ash.
A truth that would have annihilated my heart if it wasn’t already rubble in my chest.
Mab fluttered in front of my face, and in this very well-lit area I could see every detail of her perfect face. She was beyond stunning. Beyond any creature or supe I had ever seen.
“You’re beautiful,” I breathed.
She smiled broadly, her teeth slightly pointed, but that in no way detracted from her appearance. “You’re a little power drunk,” she said in her shimmery, pretty voice. So, so, pretty.
Mab held a hand out to me, and I chuckled because she looked like she was going to pull me to my feet. My chuckles turned into side-hurting laughter as I shook my head at her. “So tiny … you’re so tiny. You’re never going to be able to lift me.”
She tilted her head, watching me like I was an amusing bug. “I’m stronger than I look,” she finally said, and that set me off again, my laughter erupting until moments later tears filled my eyes and overflowed. And then I was sobbing. My sides stopped hurting and my stomach hurt instead as the pain threatened to break me.
“He’s gone,” I sobbed. “Asher is gone. I’ll never have myhomeagain. This is nothing but a poor imitation of the real thing. A brief glimpse of what I lost.”
At this stage, Mab no doubt thought I was fucking insane, even if her expression wasn’t showing that. Instead, she darted forward and used her tiny hands to brush away my tears. “Do not despair, Maddison”—I definitely had not told her my name, but whatever—“you may find your home again in the most unexpected of places.”
I appreciated her attempt at comforting me, but I was pretty certain there was no way that would happen.
“Come on, you don’t have much time and you need to see this.” Mab brought me back to reality, and I noticed that I was still in the beanbag-like cushion, the world flashing a deep turquoise color around me. Mab held her hand out again, and this time I reached forward and wrapped two fingers around it, because I didn’t want to laugh at her again when she was clearly trying to help. My body flew up and out of the soft surface, my feet hitting the ground in the same instant.
“What in the…?” I blinked at the fairy, the vapidness fading from my head as I recovered from being “power drunk,” as she put it. Now it was her turn to chuckle.
“I’m stronger than I look.”
Jesus, she was like an ant on steroids: able to lift four million times her body weight.
“Apparently,” I told her drily before I looked around.
What in the actual fuck?No wonder I’d been seeing only blue and green. I was inside an aquarium. Literally. The walls surrounding me on three sides were filled with water and fish and coral. I hadn’t seen it at first, because in front of all of those walls were shelves.
Shelves filled with books that were giving off that same buzzing I’d felt when I leaned against the wall.
