Chapter 112

“Yes, June,” Orion says, smirking and pointing up at the temple, deliberately provoking me and clearly enjoying himself. “It is right there. See?”

“And did you just miss the fact that we’ve been wandering around in circles?” I snap, throwing my hands out wide as I gesturing around at the narrow streets, all of which look stupidly similar and equally empty. Anton likewise looks around, his face frustrated. Blythe stands next to him, just looking dour and unhelpful.

“I guess I did miss that,” Orion murmurs, looking down at his feet. “I was trying not to trip.”

“We’ve been here twice before, Orion! The first time we went left at the end of this street, the next time we went right, and always we end up right the hell back here!”

“Oh,” Orion says, grinning at me. “When clearly, we need to be up there.” He points at the temple again. My face goes red with rage and lightening sparks at my fingertips, just making him smile more.

“I told you she wasn’t going to make it easy on you, Princess,” Faiza says, sauntering over with a grin.

I just scowl, spinning to glare at the temple as if it’s the Goddess herself.

“Okay, okay,” Anton says, laughing a bit, good-humored as he usually is as he puts his hands steadily on my shoulders. “Clearly, Life is messing with us, making it hard to get to her. But come on, June, you’re all Goddess-y too. Don’t you have any magic to counter hers?”

Everyone looks towards me with faith and interest and I grumble, looking down at my hands, wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do to fix this.

But…I mean, Anton is right, as he usually is. I’m just getting frustrated and letting my frustration cloud my mind. I have magic too – why shouldn’t I be able to call some of it up, to find a way forward?

I exhale slowly, cupping my hands together and imagining something that feels…a bit ridiculous, willing it to be real. Nothing happens for a long moment and I scowl.

Why isn’t this working?

“You want a drink?” Anton murmurs, putting his arms around me from behind and pulling me close to his chest, lowering his head to say the words low in my ear. “You have less trouble believing things are real when you forget the rules of reality.”

I smirk a little, realizing he’s right. “You have a secret ghost flask in your pocket, Tony?”

“I do if you want me to,” he murmurs, low enough to be private, soft and close enough that a lovely little shiver runs through me at the feel of his breath against the shell of my ear.

But I sigh, even as I smile. “No, I shouldn’t have to be drunk just to use my magic,” I sigh.

“Pissed off works too,” he murmurs, making me laugh. “Want me to insult your taste in fashion?”

“I have excellent taste in fashion!” I gasp, shoving away from him and glaring heartily at my handmaid.

“Yes, you do June, no worries.” He grins at me for a moment, clearly pleased, and then shifts his eyes down to my cupped palms. “What’s that?”

I blink and then look down into my hands where a little blue butterfly sits, slowly moving her wings up and down, completely calm and incredibly pretty.

“Holy shit,” Blythe whispers, stepping close to peer at it. “Where did you get that?”

“Want to be a butterfly next?” I ask, a bit wicked, grinning up at him.

He just flinches back, looking at me with horror.

I burst out laughing, stepping towards him with a hand out, which just makes him gasp and take a step back. “Okay, okay, too soon,” I say, still laughing. “I’m sorry, Blythe, seriously. I’m not going to turn you into a bug.”

“But it’s so pretty!” Laila coos, coming closer and bending down to peer at the butterfly. “And surely more impervious to salt.”

Blythe shudders and turns his head away, his eyes pressed shut.

“What does it do?” Orion asks, stepping close and bending at Laila’s side, peering at the little blue bug. I don’t miss the casual hand he places on her back, but I ignore it, attending to the situation.

“I’m…not really sure,” I say with a happy sigh, lifting my hand higher and peering with a good bit of pride at my magical creation. She continues to lift and lower her wings, placid and calm. “I imagined something that could help us see a real path and this is what showed up.”

“Must be nice,” Faiza says, dry. “Such limitless power that you can just call up a magical being without even needing to understand how the magic works, just confident that it does.”

“Yes, it is nice,” I say, sending her a placid little smile. Faiza smirks at me and shakes her head.

I turn my attention back to the butterfly, lifting my hand higher in the air. Everyone keeps their eyes fastened on it – even Blythe – curiously watching for what happens next.

“Okay, lil girlie,” I say, smiling at her. “Show us what you’ve got.”

The butterfly takes its cue, lifting off my hand and beginning to float down the street towards the intersection, where we’re forced to go either left or right. We all move after it, moving at a quick pace to keep up.

To my shock, instead of turning left or right as I previously assumed, the butterfly goes through the building before us – just…floating right through the bricks. And as she does my vision fuzzes, going hazy, making me realize that…

That there is no building there – instead just a complicated magical mirage.

“Oh, god damn it!” I snap, storming through the mirage through to the other side where the street continues.

“Awesome!” Anton breathes, stepping through with me and looking around eagerly at the new street and then back at the magic as the rest of our group steps through it. Laila likewise looks awed and pleased, though Faiza and Orion are more subdued. Blythe steps through last, looking a bit shell-shocked and wary.

“You stay by me,” Laila says, ever-kind, moving to Blythe’s side and smiling up at him. “I’ll make sure you’re not hurt.”

“Are you…powerful?” he whispers, staring down at her, his eyes moving again and again over her pretty hair, her too-wide dark irises that make her look as unearthly as she is beautiful.

“Nah,” she says, still grinning at him. “But I’m nice.”

Blythe hesitates for a second and then nods, stepping closer to her, realizing that in this world this might be the best he gets.

I grin at them for a second before turning back to my butterfly –

But I gasp when before my eyes she puffs into smoke. “What happened!?” I look all around for her, frantic, a bit sad to see her so callously snuffed out of existence.

“I told you Life’s not going to make it easy on you,” Faiza says, crossing her arms and smirking at me from her spot next to Orion. “Did you think a little cantrip was going to be all it took to get to the temple? Come on, June.”

I scowl at the Priestess before turning to Anton, wanting his advice.

“One little cantrip got you through Life’s first trick,” he says, grinning down at me and slinging a supportive arm around my shoulder. “Come on, we’ll figure it out.”

I grin at my ghost, suitably chuffed and newly excited. Because he’s right – I got through one trick she set up to make me stumble. I’ll get through the next one too.

My little group starts down the street together with Anton and I in the lead. And despite my desire to pay attention to any tricks and traps that Life may have laid to slow me down, I have to say that I am mightily distracted.

Because the streets in this section of the city are as narrow and windy as they were before, but now they’re full of people. And creatures.

My eyes go wide as we walk forward through the streets and people begin to appear from doorways or just strolling down the street. They become more and more frequently as we go until suddenly the streets are packed. Crowds – full throngs of people, moving through the streets, stopping at stores and kiosks set up outside them, buying goods and making trades. My mouth fairly falls open as I look around – because while I would have said that our group of two ghosts, two wolf royals, a Selkie princess and a Priestess was odd…

God, but we don’t hold a candle to this group of citizens.

“What…who are all of these people…” I whisper, watching in awe as a man with an elephant’s trunk instead of a nose walks by, clearly going about his daily routines.

My eyes dart next to a woman with spiky fish fins emerging from her cheeks and the top of her head, looking bored as she stands behind a table covered in tiny silver fish. I gasp in wonder and delight as a little dragon –

A tiny dragon! -

Hops up onto the table and lets out a little flame, neatly frying a little fish that she has impaled on a stick. Laila bites her lip, her eyes eager as she watches the woman take a big bite, but Orion laughs and slips an arm around her waist, tugging her closer and murmuring to stay on task. Laila sighs.

“These are the people who have found themselves between,” Faiza says, stepping close to me and looking around with a bit of pride. “Still alive, from many worlds, who have slipped into the Underworld and have come to the City of Life to bide their time until they die.”

“Why do they come here?” I ask, baffled and a bit delighted by the sheer variety of people. “And how?”