Belladonna

since the locks all look the same they'll all be the same. And some people don't ask for the lock they truly want because it's high up in a corner of the door or too low to the ground and they don't want to be inconveniencing the spirit and they figure a lock that's easy to reach will do just as well.
    But it won't do as well. I'll tell you that now. It won't do, and if you settle for what is easy instead of what you truly want, you may never discover the hope that lives in your heart.
    So you choose wisely, and you choose well, and you pick the lock that matters the most to you at that moment.
    Then the spirit takes the key that was plucked from your heart and slips it into that lock.
    It changes you. It doesn't matter if you end up in a place you didn't know existed or in the village where you've lived your whole life. It changes you — and you will never again see the world in quite the same way.
    Except we've lost the way of it, you see.
    A dark and terrible Evil swept through the land in that long-ago time, and the spirits disappeared. Some say they were all destroyed in a great battle against that Evil. Others say that those who survived went into hiding and still tend the magic garden. No one knows the answer, just as no one knows how to find the magic hill or a spirit who can pluck a key out of a person's heart and open the Door of Locks.
    But I can tell you this. That magical place still I exists. And someday someone will remember how to find it —
    and how to open the door that leads to all the hope that lives in the heart.
    — Elandar story

Chapter Eighteen
    B oredom gave birth to bravery. The True Enemy had not found It. The male Enemy had not pursued It. The voices of the haunting dead entertained It, but no living humans had sailed into Its watery landscape recently, so there had been no minds to play with, no fear to savor. As It explored the borders of this landscape, trying to sense the presence of either Enemy, It remembered the delight of being among so many minds that did not know the Eater of the World, that were unaware of the source of the whispers that floated through the twilight of waking dreams, urging humans to make choices that would dim the Light a little more. Most of the humans It had encountered in the seaport called Kendall enjoyed the shiver produced by scary stories but no longer truly believed in the things that moved in the dark, ready to hunt them.
    It would go back to Kendall and help them remember, give them a reason to believe.
    And then It would feast.

    *
The carnal carnival. The Den of Iniquity certainly was that — and more than a girl who had spent her life in Raven's Hill could imagine.
    The colored lights that gave everything a festive, make-believe quality. The people strolling down the streets — or performing in the streets. And the music! Oh, Michael played his tunes, and she liked the music of her own country well enough, but this! Hot and edgy, pumping through the blood and making the heart pound with the need to move with the rhythm.
    And Teaser, all cocky and full of fun, teaching her how to dance while Michael got all stony-faced. Until Glorianna started dancing, too. That had changed the man's tune fast enough. And did her prissy-prig — how she loved that word! — brother think no one had seen him kissing Glorianna after the dancing? Ha! So when Teaser ...
    "You've never been kissed?" Teaser had asked.
    Caitlin shook her head.
    Glancing around, he nudged her into the alley next to Phillo's place.
    "It's just a bit of fun, you know that?" he asked. "I don't want to get into trouble for a little kiss."
    "In trouble with my brother?"
    "No, with Sebastian's auntie."
    The fact that Nadia could worry him tickled something inside her — and also made her feel safe. "Just a bit of fun," she agreed.
    Oh, it was more than a bit of fun, that first kiss. It started out sweet and gentle — and ended as hot and edgy as the music.
    Might not have ended at all if Michael hadn't walked into that alley with Glorianna in tow.
    Probably just as well that they had all spent the rest of the visit within sight of Sebastian's auntie.
    * * *
    Caitlin stood at the end of Nadia's personal gardens and breathed in the crisp morning air. Across a little stone bridge — which Lee had assured her was nothing more than an ordinary bridge — was the walled garden that protected Nadia's landscapes.
    Landscapes! According to Nadia, the world was made up of lots of broken pieces