Nik stood and took her by the shoulders. “What is it?”
Uza continued speaking. “Don’t tell the hottie where you’re going. They will torture him to find you. They might have a mind reader. It will be easier on him if he doesn’t know.”
Images of blood running down Nik’s face flickered through Elena’s mind. His whole body was broken. She shook her head to clear it. “No,” she said again.
“Ellie, I’m not shittin’ ya. Poof now or else this will all go wonky,” Uza said. “You can’t save him from this. You need to save yourself. You’re too weak to take him with you. Honey bear, you may not have enough juice to make it there yourself. If you die, so do millions. They are more valuable than the one. Do it now.”
Millions could die because of me.
“Elena…” Nik cupped her face in his hands. “What’s going on?”
A helicopter thrummed close enough to make the dishes in the cabinet rattle.
“Shit,” he said. “I can’t get us out in time. The spell takes too long. You’ve gotta get us out of here.”
“I’m so sorry, Nik.” She took several steps back from him, breaking their contact. She could barely see through her tears. “So very sorry. Please forgive me.”
Hoping she had enough energy to make it to the designated meeting place, she envisioned it. Before her body totally broke apart to teleport, two huge Slayers in combat gear broke through the door of her kitchen. Nik was so distracted that one was able to kick the sword from his hand. The other grabbed Nik by the hair and held a knife to his throat while the first reached for what remained of Elena, only to get a handful of empty air.
“Where did she go?” she heard the man demand as if in an echo chamber. “Tell us or you will die here and now.”
“I have no idea where she went,” Nik’s voice answered from far, far away. “Hopefully, she’s gone straight to hell.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
It took forever for Elena’s body to reconfigure. For a while, she thought she’d be stuck in a noncorporeal, molecular limbo forever, which honestly, might have been preferable to the pain that crushed her heart when her body solidified at last.
I don’t wish to be seen. Taking a shaky breath, she wondered why Uza would pick this place to meet up. The sound of children’s laughter and the calliope music from rides echoed in her head, mixing with the memories of the last time she had been here. Fortunately, the human Veil appeared to be working; no one around seemed to notice her standing in the middle of an aisle on the carousel with tears running down her face.
She slumped down onto a bench seat flanked by fiberglass swans and clutched her aching chest. Nik’s voice in her head overrode the cacophony of amusement park. “I’ve fallen in love with you.” She took a gulp of air as his last words he’d told his captors bounced through her brain. “Hopefully she’s gone straight to hell.” He thought she’d betrayed him. He believed she’d turned him over to his enemies.
And she had.
The relentless twirling of the carousel, mixed with the carnival music and pulsing lights, made her feel like she was caught up in a whirlpool. If only she could truly drown, rather than be suffocated by her own sorrow and regret. A sob racked her body, and she curled up on a ball on her side on the carousel bench. She willed the images of Nik to return, but none did.
She had nothing now. When her parents had died, she thought she’d suffered the greatest loss possible. Now she knew that wasn’t true. This was as bad. Worse in some ways. It was like losing part of herself that could never be retrieved. “Nik,” she choked out between sobs. “I’m so sorry.”
She didn’t know how long she’d been on the carousel. It had stopped and started with new riders many times when a loud pop came from somewhere nearby. “Well, howdy-doody, Ellie baby. Glad you had enough juice to not get lost in space.”
She sat up and scraped the hair out of her face. Another pop sounded, and Aunt Uza appeared on the carousel swan bench facing her. She rubbed her eyes and did a double take. Uza’s hair was so big that it looked like it had been teased all the way to the ends, and she wore a mu-mu covered in cats. No way was this woman the uber hot sorceress Aleksandra described.
“Peppermint Park,” her aunt said, smoothing the front of her dress. “You used to love this place. Your daddy brought you here all the time.”
Yeah, great. Just when Elena thought she couldn’t hurt more.
“You know why, now, don’cha?”
What on earth was she babbling about? Elena shook her head.