“Fly, Kane!”
What right did Kane have to tell her he couldn’t? He’d just watched Ursula execute a suplex against a gigantic gemstone beetle while wearing a wedding dress, atop a flaming dream mansion. The bubble-thin partition between can and cannot had popped right then. Kane imagined she was right, that he could fly. He believed her, and she believed in him.
He twisted toward the flaming garden and let loose another ethereal blast, opening a crater in the patio right before it was too late. The blast swung them up, and suddenly gravity’s grip was broken; they careened over the garden, swathed in rolling waves of ethereal light from Kane’s body.
Ursula let out a whoop. “You’re doing it! Oh my God! You’re actually doing it!”
Kane laughed with her, but their joy was short-lived. Down from the clouds like a shaft of moonlight came a creature of silence and speed. There wasn’t time to see what it was before it slammed into Kane with a haunting cry. Ursula yelled, there was a burst of pink light, and then they were falling.
Falling.
Kane’s light was gone.
He hid in Ursula’s embrace as the first branches swatted them. Wave after wave of magenta magic cradled them as they bounced through the trees, finally rocking to a stop on solid ground. Ursula let the shield dissipate, falling to her knees.
“You okay?” she asked.
“I’m okay. You?”
“Oh, super.”
“Was that a bird?” Kane peered into the sky, but it was gone.
Ursula shook out her hand. “Yeah, but it was made of like…quartz or something.”
“You punched it?”
Ursula shrugged. “I would literally punch any bird. They all suck.”
Then she stood and began to rip away her skirts.
“Honestly, I wish I could wear one of these outfits without having to end up fighting. I mean, how is anyone supposed to fight anything in this many layers?”
The air around them began to quiver with what Kane recognized as indignation.
“Ursula, I think we’re in trouble.”
“This frickin’ dress is in trouble, I’ll tell you that much! And those frickin’ geode monsters are in trouble as soon as I can actually kick—”
“No,” Kane grabbed her hands before she could do more damage. The skirt had been shredded into a singed nest circling her feet. She now stood in just gigantic high heels, lacy white stockings, frilly garter belts, and a tuft of charred crinoline about her hips. There was nothing to be done about the corset, but at least she’d peeled off the puffy sleeves.
“You’ll make the reverie mad,” Kane warned.
Ursula was a little out of breath. “No sense worrying about fashion when the whole house is on fire, Kane. Pleasantries ended when Helena tried to blow up Elliot’s face.” She stepped from the ruined wedding gown and strode off. Kane trailed after.
“But what do we do?”
“We find your sister. I bet she’s hiding in this garden. Then we find the Others. And then we defend ourselves until the reverie exhausts itself.”
“And then what?”
“You unravel it.”
Kane stopped. “But what if I can’t?”
Ursula put her hands on her hips. “Trust me, you can. You just flew, Kane. You’ve never managed that before, but look. You did it. And besides, you unraveled a reverie just last week. No more can’t-ing, all right?”
Another no was poised on Kane’s lips, but then a scream tore through the night. It was shrill and distant, a soaring last resort from the far reaches of the garden. Ursula locked eyes with Kane, and he knew she was thinking the same thing. There was one beast left, and it had found Adeline.
• Twenty •
CLARITY
They ran along the aisle of poplars bordering the hedge maze, tuned to Adeline’s screams. Kane pushed himself to keep up, to not stumble. The screams multiplied as they passed through archways of rotten roses and barbed vines until, finally, they burst into the place where Kane first awoke: the clearing with the gazebo.
Helena lay in a crumpled heap, sobbing and reaching toward the gazebo, pleading over and over, “Not her! Leave her! Spare her!”
She meant Adeline, who clung to the top of the gazebo as it tilted sideways, slowly collapsing as something coiled through the beams. It was a serpent, as large as the other beasts, but somehow more unreal. Its entire length was bedazzled in diamonds, the frosty white interrupted only by teardrops of garnets that squirmed upon its fluid body. It spooled and flexed, powerful and unstoppable as it peeked its triangular head over the roof’s edge. Its onyx tongue tasted the air between itself and Adeline, who could do nothing but shriek again.
“I’m sorry,” sobbed Helena, as though Adeline were already dead. “I’m sorry, Katherine.”
Yet another beast was even closer, right in front of them on the lawn. Kane recognized the luminous opal of the thing that struck them out of the air before. Its body was shapeless at first, until it ruffled its massive wings and turned its head around completely. It gazed at Ursula and Kane with bulging, porcelain eyes. An owl.
And from its beak hung intestines.
Kane and Ursula were too shocked by the sight of blood on pastel stone to move. The owl lost interest and turned back to the meal under its claws.
Elliot.
Shock dulled Kane’s hearing. Elliot’s blood was everywhere. Elliot was everywhere. Here an arm, there a lung. Prince-shaped parts scattered through the garden.
Ursula crumpled over her knees in defeat.
“Gruesome, isn’t it?” said Adeline’s voice, right next to them.
Kane jumped, turning to find not just Adeline, but also Elliot hiding off to the side of the clearing, near the bench where Kane had first awoken. Elliot’s eyes glowed golden as he focused his power.
“Those…those are…” Kane stammered.
“Illusions,” finished Adeline. Aside from a dried bloody nose, she looked fine. Ursula, on the other hand, still looked sick as she stood. Kane couldn’t shake the gruesome sight, either, and he reached for the whistle for comfort before remembering it was gone. Taken by Helena.
Elliot’s voice was laced with effort of sustaining the magic. “It didn’t take long to realize we had it wrong when Helena came after us. Luckily she was pretty focused on Adeline—or Katherine—so we were able to lure her out here. We thought it’d draw you guys here, too, and not a moment too soon. This reverie is going up in flames.”
Elliot grinned, but Adeline sighed and said, “Elliot, now is not the time for Dad Jokes.”