Page 28 of Midnight in the Garden of Okay and Meh
“Yeah,” it said, giving her a doggy grin. “That’s pretty cool. Almost makes me want to try human form again. Almost,” it added quickly with a sidelong look at Aisling.
“Can we get back to the business at hand?” Mabel asked, still holding her notebook.
“Absolutely,” Aisling said. “Jim, I won’t order you to silence because we will want input from you, but you are to confine yourself to answering questions or giving information that will help us. Got it?”
“Sheesh,” Jim said, slumping against her leg. “You’re so bossy while Drake is away.”
Gabriel—who had been visiting the bathroom—returned in time to join me in the disbelieving look I gave Jim. It gave us another doggy grin. “Yeah, OK, she’s always bossy, but she’s more so when the King of Bossiness isn’t around. Hilders told me my mom was in the Beyond, and I figured she’d know.”
“Hilders being ... ?” Mabel asked.
“One of the Sovereigns who came after Jim’s mother, apparently,” Aisling answered. “Right, let’s get down to business and make some solid plans.”
“This is the information Sasha sent us regarding one of the former Sovereigns’ notes on Parisi,” I said as I gave everyone a copy of the report I’d printed out. “You will note the mention that at the time of Parisi’s diminishing—when she retreated to the Beyond so her physical body wouldn’t die—the Court was located in what is now Bali, having moved there a few hundred years earlier because its denizens were tired of the cold weather of northern Europe. Gabriel has found Bali’s entrance point to the Court, luckily, so we have a very good place to start.”
“It’s located in a resort outside of Denpasar, the capital,” he said, giving Mabel a nod. “Has May told you that we will be quite happy to escort you inside the Beyond? While I won’t be able to help with anything physically there, May is very adept with her daggers, and will keep you safe should any threat arise.”
“There aren’t often instances of reapers being attacked, but I have no objection to you coming with me if you think it’s important. Bali. There’s a portal shop there, I believe,” Mabel said, pulling out her phone. “Ah. In Denpasar, as a matter of fact. Good.”
“There is a portal shop, but we were thinking of flying,” I said, glancing at him. The expression of persecuted dread was evident on his handsome face, so evident that it made me feel like a monster. “But we might have a better solution. Gabriel just bought a jet, since we’re taking so many trips between Australia and Europe, and it’s fast. Very fast. I can promise that it won’t add much time to the plan.”
“But a portal is instantaneous, and I have limited time. Very limited. I told Aisling that when she booked me,” Mabel said with a finality that irked me. I reminded myself she didn’t know the ways of dragons, and how being patient would gain more benefits.
“The problem is that dragons don’t really portal well,” Aisling said slowly, sending Gabriel a sympathetic look. “Something on the atomic level, I believe.”
“My mother tells me it’s because we dragons had such a chaotic beginning, but I don’t believe it was any more traumatic than other beings’.” Gabriel made a face that changed into a smile. I melted at the sight of his dimples as I always did. “But naturally, if you are more comfortable with using a portal, then I shall simply park my body somewhere here in England, and travel with you incorporeally.”
“Can you do that?” Aisling asked him. “Portal as your ethereal self, that is. I didn’t realize that was possible. I mean, you’re not physically interacting with the mortal world in that state.”
“I can if I’m bound to an object that travels through the portal.” He leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth. “I can’t think of a stronger bond than that of a dragon and his mate, so the answer is, yes, if May takes the portal, then I can travel along with her.”
“Perfect. You can stay here, Gabriel. We’ll park your body in a spare bedroom. Jim, did you get your backpack ready?”
“Yup. Got everything I’ll need in there: my phone, an extra drool bib, my snazzy new collar that has my name in rhinestones—I think my mom will like that—and enough food for two meals, although I don’t think that’s going to be enough. Maybe I should have some snacks, too, because what if we get in the Beyond and they don’t have anything to nom? You know it takes extra care to make this magnificent coat. I should have snacks. I’ll tell Suzanne.”
“You will do no such thing,” Aisling told it. “If for some reason you have to stay longer than twenty-four hours, I’m sure May will find something to feed you.”
Jim looked at me with obvious doubt.
I smiled.
“OK, but you should know that when I had to stay with May while you were having the twin spawns, she never once bought me a burger. She made me eat dog food.”
“Those who choose the form of a dog must suffer the consequences,” I murmured, and thankfully, the conversation progressed without further discussion about the amount of calories that Jim felt was appropriate.
It took us an hour to send out an update to Allie and Christian (who could not visit the Beyond) as well as the others on our chat group, gather up information about traveling from Denpasar to the entrance of the Beyond, and collect a few things that Gabriel thought we might need.
“I feel like an idiot for asking this, but why is it you have to use an entrance for the Beyond?” Aisling asked as we rode in Drake’s antique limo to the nearest portal shop. “I’ve seen May blip into it at will, wherever she is, without having to find an entrance.”
“That’s because I’m a doppelgänger. I can slip in and out of the shadow world at will. Others, like you and Jim, have to use one of the official entrances.” I glanced over to where Mabel sat cross-legged on the seat opposite, watching the London scenery pass by. “I’m not sure about reapers, though.”
“We have to use entrances, too.” She gave a barely noticeable shrug and continued to look out the window. “We’re really nothing more than glorified guides, and don’t possess any powers useful beyond locating a needy spirit and taking it where it wants to go.”
“We’re learning so many things from our new friends,” Aisling said, and promptly sent a text, no doubt updating Drake on the situation.
I could feel Gabriel’s nearness, but without dipping into the shadow world—known to most everyone else as the Beyond—I couldn’t see him.
Twenty minutes later I stood back and watched as first Jim and then Mabel went through the portal.
