Queen of the fairies.
When we reached the back wall, I didn’t hesitate, stepping right on through. My boys would follow me without pause. I knew that as well as I knew that the hole in my soul would never be filled.
My body did some sort of involuntary sigh of relief when I was back in the blue-toned room, the water around us, the scent of books and magic in the air.
“Well, fuck me.”
Rone looked astonished, and it was such an odd expression on his overtly masculine face that I chuckled. “I know, right?”
Laughing felt odd, but also cathartic. I wasn’t someone prone to depression, but losing … Ash … it was breaking me in ways I never anticipated. I thought I would be stronger. But I felt as fragile as a spiderweb drifting in a storm.
“You know,” Mab started conversationally. The room went quiet and everyone turned to her. “Spiderwebs are very unique in their characteristics. In truth, many of them are able to withstand gale force storms. And did you know that if you break one strand of a web, the entire web as a whole becomes stronger?”
I gulped and choked on air or something. “You can read my mind?”
She fluttered up and off my shoulder. “No, my darling,” she said softly. “But when your pain is broadcast so strongly, I feel it in my soul, and occasionally our minds connect. We have bonded, somehow, and you are one of the few supernaturals in this world I give a damn about.”
My eyes were burning like someone had a blowtorch aimed right for them. “Spiderwebs get stronger when they’re broken?” I choked out.
She nodded. “Yes. Just because you’ve had some strands destroyed does not mean you are weak. If anything, the fact that you are still standing here, trying to save the world, tells me that you’re stronger than you will ever understand. Do not underestimate a delicate, beautiful thing. It is never weak.”
Mab was the epitome of that, if the fear from my guys and the power she exuded was any indication.
And we were bonded. I had no idea what that would mean for my life, but I would take it like everything else.
One day at a time.
20
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Jesse said, breaking the tension. “We need to start researching.”
Everyone moved about the room, Mab flying into the center and perching on a small pillar there. “What information do you feel is most pertinent?” she asked, looking down on all of us.
“I think we need to find out what Maddi is,” Rone started. “What it means if she was born half god?”
“We need to know why Atlantis sank,” I added. “I mean, the real reason, and what actually caused it.”
Everyone nodded.
“Also what gods we might be going up against if it rises,” Calen piped in. “Not to mention there’s probably a prophecy somewhere about what its rise will bring about.”
No one else had anything to add, but that was probably enough for the few hours we had left before having to leave for Atlantis. Everyone had spread out, moving toward the multiple towering shelves, when a loud noise from behind drew my attention.
“We made it, bitches!” Ilia said, bursting through the fake wall. She had a bottle in both hands, and her hair was looking a little disheveled, springing out around her face in crazy disorder.
I snorted. “Are you drunk?”
She shook her head, and at the same time Larissa nodded. “Yeah, she got to drinking with the librarian, trying to get into this room. Apparently, fairy wine is the librarian’s weakness.”
Mab chuckled, the musical tones ringing out through the room. That drew Ilia’s gaze. She stared and then spluttered. “Fuck. Me.”
I lifted my head to meet Mab’s gaze. “That’s like your standard greeting now.”
She shrugged, delicate shoulders and wings lifting. “I’m afraid my reputation precedes me.”
“Hell yes it does,” Ilia said, splashing wine over the edge of the open bottles. “You’re Mab, the fucking queen of the fairies. You are badass, girlfriend, and I’m not even going to ask what you’re doing here, because it’s just so freaking awesome you are.”
Mab’s lips twitched, but she managed not to smile at my insane best friend.
