He spins me around again in his joy and I laugh with him, letting happiness fill me before everyone else comes. They rush up the stairs, and then for a second we all just stand awkwardly around. My feet plant on the floor. Issie glows with happiness despite the fact that she was frozen a little bit ago. Nick looks part angry and part confused.
“You know,” Nick says, breaking the silence as he surveys the scene around him. “This isn’t at all what I imagined Hel would look like.”
“Me neither!” Issie chirps. “I imagined it a lot less frozen outside, with demons and pitchforks and hellfire flames everywhere. This is totally better.”
Amelie raises an eyebrow.
Hel’s voice rings over us, much more commanding than it was before. It seems to have layers of depth to it. “I hope it is a pleasant surprise.”
Issie’s mouth drops open. I guess seeing a half-zombie, giant-sized woman from a distance isn’t as traumatizing as it is being up close and personal with one. Issie stutters, but stretches out a hand. “You must be Hel. It-it’s good to meet you. I’m Issie.”
“I am delighted to meet you, Isabelle.” Hel shakes Issie’s hand and smiles. To her credit, Issie’s shudder of revulsion is really barely noticeable. Hel greets the others as well and then turns to me. “It is time for you all to go back.”
I nod. Something inside me twinges. Strangely enough, it feels so safe here. And I think I’m going to actually miss her.
“If you would not mind giving us provisions,” Astley says, “we would greatly appreciate it. Your land is cold and we have humans.”
Hel smiles and motions for us to follow her. She leads us back into the long room of mirrors and windows and gathers us all around a stained-glass window that depicts her reaching up beyond a frozen land and into the warm earth above it.
“Hold one another’s hands,” she commands.
I grab one of Astley’s and one of Nick’s because they are on either side of me and for a second I feel awkward and strange. But it passes because the world shimmers and shakes and then it’s as if all of my atoms have exploded and then slammed back into each other again.
Nick swears. Astley holds on tighter. Everything is white, terrifically blinding white light. And then it flashes out. I resist the urge to rub at my eyes and keep holding on to their hands as the world comes into focus again.
Nick curses under his breath and lets go of my hand and Issie’s. He twists around looking for threats.
“Wait. We’re uh …,” Issie starts.
We’re back in Iceland, right by our cottage. The air freezes against us and I am suddenly very tired and confused and energized by what just happened.
“We teleported,” Issie finishes. “Like in Star Trek or Harry Potter, sort of. No! Like in Dr. Who in that episode with the Sontarans and the brilliant human boy, or really any Dr. Who ever if you think of the Tardis! Holy canola! That is just the coolest thing ever! Wowie, wow, wow!”
She starts jumping in place, excited beyond belief, I think. I laugh at her and she rushes to me and hugs me and says again, “This is the coolest thing ever!”
Nick smiles because he’s obviously no longer on high alert. “The world may end, but at least Issie got to teleport.”
“Wait till I tell Devyn! He’s going to be super-jealous! Then he’ll start explaining how the laws of physics work and blah, blah, blah, make teleportation absolutely impossible, but he’ll still be soooo super-jealous,” she says, letting go of me and still smiling. “I wish he got to do it too.”
“He does get to fly, Is,” I say. “And shape shift. You know those are pretty impossible things.”
“True. True. I’ll tell him that the next time he goes into his ‘time travel is impossible’ lecture mode.”
I adjust her hat, which has gone all lopsided, and announce to everyone, “Let’s get back to the airport. It’s time to go home.”
On the ride to the airport, I tell them all what happened with Hel, how she said magic and the army were important, how she said we had to be proactive and not reactive with Frank’s pixies, which means that we have to attack first.
“But how do we do that?” Issie asks.
“We could use bait,” I explain. “We get them to gather in one place because they think they’ll get something they want, something unprotected. Then we attack them.”
“What if that is what they want us to do?” Astley asks. He shifts around in the seat, lifts the seat belt away from his chest, reaches into his back pocket for a cell phone, and then settles back in.
“Well …” I obviously haven’t thought this completely through and I’m okay with that. “If we have a battle, we can eliminate Frank’s pixies, get Bedford safe once and for all, and then focus more on this whole end-of-the-world thing.”
Nick snorts. “And what is the bait?”
“Me.”
“Hell no!” he says. “Hell no.”
Astley says more calmly, “I do not believe that is a good idea.”
“How are you even bait anymore?” Amelie asks. “You are human now.”
I explain that Frank will still want me. He will try to turn me again, make me his queen instead of Astley’s. He won’t care if I die in the process. He just wants to try.
We argue and argue about it for the entire ride back to the airport. The sky is dark against the car but it’s warm inside from all our body heat and words. After a while I lean back and close my eyes and let the rest of them hash it out. I know my plan is right. I know my plan is dangerous, too, but it doesn’t matter. I move the sleeve of my parka enough so I can touch my father’s watch. It gives me hope and strength, and when I look around the car, I see my friends. I listen to them argue, and even though it’s cheesy I feel all full of love for them. No matter what happens, it’s worth it. It’s worth it to save them. I know it beyond a doubt.
The moment we drive into an area that has cell reception again, I call Betty.
“For crap’s sake,” she swears above the sound of the ambulance siren. She must be on an ambulance call. “Where the hell have you been? What’s happening?”
I breathe out and breathe in, snuggle my shoulder closer to Issie’s. “Well, to start with, I’m human again.”