Grave Visions(38)

Chapter 10





We continued to question Icelynne for what felt like another hour, but there wasn’t much more she could tell us. She’d been held by three fae, one of whom she thought might be Sleagh Maith, but she’d never seen any faces. They’d drained their captives, but slowly. They’d fed the prisoners, presumably so they’d gather as much blood as possible from each. Oh, and just maybe they were using the blood to distill pure glamour. Why? I couldn’t guess, and it seemed no one else could either. Not yet at least.

The queen was the most persistent in the questioning. Continuing to try the same questions from different angles long after everyone else had fallen silent. Icelynne dutifully attempted to answer, but there was just no more information she could provide.

By the time the queen turned away, disgust curling her lips, I’d consented to sitting cross-legged beside the ghost. It didn’t take much energy to keep her visible—certainly much less than a ritual holding a shade for this long would have cost me—but the interrogation had still taken more than an hour, and I was exhausted. I was also getting rather anxious about the time. Tamara’s rehearsal dinner was in a couple of hours, and I wanted to have this all tied up in time to make the event. Ethan’s family had booked a reservation at one of Nekros’s nicer restaurants, and I needed enough energy in reserve that I didn’t fall asleep on my very expensive plate.

It was a relief when I finally released Icelynne’s shoulder, slipped my extra shields back in place, and dropped my circle. The evening sun hung over the horizon, all but obscured by the surrounding trees. Fall was progressing quickly, so despite the growing gloom it was still relatively early in the evening. Early or not, I wanted to go home and sleep. I couldn’t, but oh how I wanted to. On the plus side, I could still see. No ritual meant my eyes had taken minimal damage.

“Where will you take that?” Icelynne asked as Falin retrieved the knapsack holding her bones.

Since I no longer had contact with her, he couldn’t hear her, so I repeated the question. Falin paused, the bag not quite slung over his shoulder. The look on his face was half grimace, half embarrassment, as if he’d forgotten the connection between the fae he’d spent the last hour questioning and the bones. Or as though he hadn’t realized she was still there watching now that she was once again farther across the chasm between the living and the dead.

“My lady?” he asked, turning to the queen.

For a moment I thought she’d brush off the question, unconcerned. Then she frowned, and addressed an empty space to my left, not quite where the ghost-fae stood, but close. “Icelynne, you served me as my handmaiden. What is it you would like done to honor your body? We could bury you here where you would become part of the wild.”

That sounded like something Icelynne should answer with her own words, and likely nothing I’d want to try to repeat. So I reached out and gave her a bit more energy. When the queen’s eyes snapped to Icelynne, I knew the ghost had solidified.

The little fae’s face scrunched in thought. She’d clearly never considered what should be done with her body after death—most near-immortals didn’t dwell on such mortal details. “I hate this place. It is decaying all around me,” she finally said. “I want to be in the beauty and magic of Faerie. I want to be returned to the winter court.”

The queen nodded and turned away, satisfied the conversation was over. I had no idea what they’d do with her bones once they got them back to Faerie, but Falin carried the bag toward the car, so I dropped my hand from Icelynne’s arm.

I trudged after the queen and Falin. Ryese and Blayne had apparently gone ahead of us while I was breaking my circle, but Maeve and Lyell followed me, leaving a wide stretch between us that I could feel their suspicious gazes filling.

“Wait,” Icelynne called after me, her wings fluttering as she crossed the distance I’d already covered. “I’m uh, dead, correct? And they can’t see or hear me, but you can.”

I nodded.

“What happens now? To me, I mean?”

I opened my mouth, but then closed it again as I found I had no words that could offer her comfort. I’d seen the plane of light and life the soul collectors existed on, but that wasn’t where souls actually went after they moved on. I wasn’t even sure Death knew what awaited a soul on the other side. Telling Icelynne that likely wouldn’t reassure her. While most ghosts crossed into the land of the dead by the soul struggling against collector, Icelynne hadn’t chosen to stay behind, to become what she now was. I’d freed her from the prison of her bones, but only to release her into the purgatory of the land of the dead. Looking at her panicked features, that seemed like less of a kindness than it should have been.