Fractured Souls(76)

The Water Faerie doesn’t budge, watching us as it floats in the same space it appeared in. When we pass by it, it opens its gaping mouth and lets out a breathless scream that rings loudly inside my ears. The vines above our heads move again and brush the top of my head. I clutch onto Alex’s arm as the Water Faerie rotates around and trails after us, the bottom of its fabric body dragging along the ground.
The farther we get into the tunnel, the more the Water Faeries multiply, flying out from every angle and direction. Pieces of their fabric bodies touch our faces and head as they fly back and forth above us, their boney fingers reaching down in our direction, but never touching. The longer it goes on, the more afraid I get. The fear only seems to encourage them and they get rowdier by the minute. Then I remember Alex said they feed on fear, so I try to calm down, however it’s difficult.#p#分页标题#e#
Just when I think that I can’t take it anymore, the tunnel opens up to a cave. A rock-shaped throne is in the center, the back coiling up to the ceiling. But the Queen isn’t sitting in it like she was when I saw the vision. That’s when I realize something about all of this is terribly wrong.
“What is it?” He gives me a quizzical look. “What’s wrong?”
“This isn’t how it works.” I look over my shoulder at the herd of Water Faeries floating behind us, making raspy noises and taunting screams. “We don’t come in here by ourselves. We’re brought in by some sort of Water Faerie… This isn’t what I saw in the vision.”
Alex’s brows furrow. “But how can that be? If you saw it, then it should happen, right?”
Someone—or something—clears their throat from behind us and we spin around. Standing in the cluster of white fabric covered bodies is the Queen. Her frosty hair veils down her back and her eyes are soulless, yet I detect a hint of amusement in her desolate character.
“Well, it looks like I have some unexpected visitors,” she says and the Water Faeries begin to swarm around our heads like bees. We hunch over as the Queen steps toward us, holding the bottom of her dress. “Coming here willingly to be tortured in my world? Let the Fey take you and torture you? I have to say, you two are brave souls.”
This is all wrong. This is not how I saw it. This is not how it’s supposed to go.
Fuck.
If I can’t fix it, then Alex, my mom, myself and the world are screwed.

Chapter 26
 
During my first visit to the City of Crystal, Dyvinius had explained to me how visions work. He said if a vision wasn’t seen correctly then the world as we knew it could shift. I never considered the depth of what he’d said until now. The vision that I took Nicholas into, the one where we entered The Underworld, never really was finished. Nicholas had flipped out and choked me until I nearly blacked out and took us back. I’m assuming it means I didn’t read it clearly, and now I have no idea what’s going to happen.
I’m the worst hero of all time. I really am.
“I have to say,” says the Queen as she circles around us with her dress dragging in the mud, “It isn’t every day that someone voluntarily enters my world. Usually it’s with much force and fussing on my Faeries’ part. Yet the two of you enter it at your own free will.” She stops in front of us with her hands behind her back. “Tell me why.”
“We came here to get something,” I tell her in a firm voice as I grasp onto Alex’s hand.
“Ah, I see.” She turns around toward the tunnel. “Come with me.”
We follow her down the tunnel in the direction we’d just come from, the mob of Water Faeries trailing behind us, some daring to touch our heads. The Queen is taller than Alex, her head clips each one of the vines dangling from the ceiling. With the contact, they shrivel and die, the browned pieces fluttering to the ground like ash. In each of their places a new vine regrows. This pattern continues on and on, death and life repeating itself.
We finally enter a room. There’s a slender, antique table and an eccentric chandelier made of thorns with vines in it. The chairs around the table have backs that look like thorny rose bushes and the idea of sitting on them makes me cringe.
“Have a seat.” The Queen gestures at the chairs, gathering her dress as she sits down at the head of the table.
Alex and I reluctantly sit down, making sure to keep our backs straight so no thorns stab us. The Water Faeries linger in the arched doorway where water cascades down the sides of the wall and floods the floor of the room, making the floor sopping wet.
“So you’ve come here for something?” The Queen asks, tapping her long, black fingernails on the tabletop.