A quirk pulled at the side of my mouth. She was nothing like the woman I remembered.
I picked the feather light boy up. Roo scurried to the black rubber mat that covered the floor of my in-house gym. She found a clean, rolled up towel and put it on the ground.
“Here, put his head here.”
I gently lowered the boy.
“If there’s no antidote, then I’m going to make one,” she said with a firm set of her jaw.
I met her eyes, they were full of confidence. A wave of shame washed over me about my decision to hide the boy’s condition from her these past few days. Not because she was the Queen, but because we were partners. We’d worked well together in Australia to defeat the witch, and we’d done that by trusting each other. Now she’s trusting my methods. She’ll wait for Marc before attempting a fix herself. Already things were different than the past. An apology was on the tip of my tongue.
Then the boy’s body bowed into the air and his hands curled up, tight, seizing.
“Shit, we can’t wait for Marc. He’s changing. Look at his skin.” It rippled with something underneath it. I remembered the way the Queen’s creations had looked in the end—more beast than man.
Roo glanced at her palm. Within moments a bloody welt appeared as though by magic. And she held her dripping palm up to focus on it. “Get me a knife, and I’ll cut him.”
My hand shot out and gripped her wrist. “No. Not your blood. You can’t mix yours with his.”
She wrenched it out of the way. “I don’t care if we’ll be linked. Blood is more powerful than saliva, and I’m not kissing him. He’s basically a child.”
“But, Roo…”
“No. Get me a knife.”
I shook my head.
She made a frustrated sound and picked up the boy’s arm. She couldn’t open his seized fingers, so moved to his forearm where she ran a finger over his skin. A line of red appeared as she opened his flesh with her power, then she put her open palm over his wound and closed her eyes.
“I can’t let you do that.” I captured her wrist again and pulled her back. Blood smeared on the boy’s arm.
She growled at me with furious eyes and twisted out of me grip. “It’s not up to you.”
“But this is bad for you. You’re risking your wellbeing for this boy. You’ll be infected with this disease and it could drag you down the evolutionary chain.” She had no idea, but it could be the shifting tide that cost her control of the Empire. In this world, a leader without power was useless.
“I’m already doomed to devolve into nothing. Soul-Eater, remember?” She pointed an accusatory finger at herself.
“I’ve told you before, you’re not a Soul-Eater.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You should wait for Marc, he won’t be long.”
“What do you care? You’re leaving!”
“I’m not… I—” My words died in my throat.
“Anyway, I refuse to believe helping someone in need will be a punishment. There’s no way the universe can look poorly on that!” With her last word, Roo turned her back on me and placed her hand gently on the boy’s wound.
Marc
I retrieved the antidote from the hunter’s laboratory, wrapped it in a massive dose of my aura to contain it, and then returned to his abode, ready to save the day. I wasn’t prepared see the boy awake, lucid and apparently quite human looking. The color had returned to his skin, his eyes were clear and the dark residue that had oozed from his every orifice was gone.
The three of them sat at the kitchen bench. Cash and Little Red—I mean Sephie… ah… my brain stalled. I wasn’t sure what to call her anymore. The overwhelming desire to have my old friend back here, lively and full of life was too much to handle, but it was wishful thinking. I both hummed with excitement and felt heavy with dread.
I had to get back to the Empire and see for myself, because the last time I had seen the Queen, she’d been a husk of a woman. She’d sat in her throne room, holding court, with a veil over her face, barely moving as she listened to the petitions of her inner circle. Everything that made her real had faded away. She seemed other-worldly and foreign. People said she was evolving into something that none of us were capable of understanding, but I thought differently. I’d known Sephie since she was a child, and that was not normal. I thought she was withering, dying, and I’d told her so. I called her a coward and said I wouldn’t stick around to watch her fade. She didn’t even respond.
So I sequestered myself on this planet, drowning my sorrows in her pets, pretending to be too busy with The Game and rumors of rebellion. I hadn’t returned. Not once. Perhaps that made me the coward, but she had broken my heart. Our life long friendship hadn’t been enough to bring her back. I hadn’t been enough.
I walked up to the counter and held up the clear bubble of liquid I’d received from Bertram back at the clinic. The vial containing it had dissipated in the in-between, but I’d managed to keep it contained in my essence. I dropped it into an empty glass on the kitchen bench.
“Then I guess you don’t need this?” I slid the glass at the hunter.
Cash effortlessly stopped its momentum and inspected it. “This is what the lab gave you for an antidote?”
“No, it’s not a cure. It’s something to treat the symptoms the poison created.”
“We don’t need anything. I fixed him.” A proud grin broke out on Little Red’s face.
I blinked. “I’m sorry, you what?”
The youth slowed his eating and watched our exchange. Upon seeing the look of complete outrage on my face, he glanced to his new savior for guidance.
“I purged his body of the… sludge, or whatever you want to call it.” She waved at the floor near the gym where the boy had been. There was a black puddle smeared across the ground. I didn’t know what to think. If that wasn’t the Queen standing in front of me, she was still bloody well something special.
“We should probably clean it up,” she said. “Do you think it’s bio-hazardous, contagious I mean? I’ll be okay, of course, but what about you guys?” She squinted at us.
“Are you checking my aura?” I asked.
Caught in the act she widened and averted eyes.
“They think the disease was administered in doses,” said Cash, musing over the antidote glass. He pushed it aside in favor of his own drink. “So, I don’t think it would be contagious.”
“No offense,” said Roo, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not contagious. I know how to create a virus that starts in one body, incubates, and then releases infectious airborne particles after a while.”
The hunter and I both gave her an incredulous look.
“What?” she replied innocently. “It’s from Petra’s Grimoire. I haven’t actually done it. Stop looking at me as though I’ve grown two heads.”
“Sorry, love, it’s just that you remind me of someone.”
“Oh, really, who?”
Cash choked on his drink, then tried to hide it with a cough.
“Someone I need to go and check up on.” My eyebrows quirked at the thought. There was no need to get caught up believing Sephie was right here when I could be wrong. She could be safe and sound, thousands of light-years away.
“Probably best we collect more samples of that, then.” I pointed to the black mess on the floor. “And the boy needs to be assessed.”
Roo placed a gentle hand on James’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
“Hunter, could I see you outside, please?” I stepped toward the exit.
Cash followed me through the door and positioned himself in the portico outside. He checked back briefly at Roo, then folded his arms and waited, expectantly. Since I had left, the man had changed shirts to replace the one I’d ripped open. He now wore a chambray business shirt with the sleeves rolled up. No snide comments this time, just his trademark unwavering attention. Almost reminded me of the good old times.
“Right. We nee
d a plan of action,” I started.
“I love how you think there’s a ‘we’ in this equation.”
“Are you mocking me, hunter?”
“Never.”
“We’re either together on this, or we aren’t.”
“I’m with her.”
“So am I.”
“Then we’re together.”
I sighed. “We should be including her in this conversation.”
“She can’t be. There is no way around it. Like you said, we don’t even know for sure it’s her.”
“I know that, but lying about this feels wrong.”
Cash placed a hand on the back of his neck and rolled his head, cracking his bones. “I don’t like lying either, but it’s for her protection.”
“You were fine to lie about it a day ago. What changed? Oh, no, don’t tell me. Of course. You did the rumpy-pumpy and now you’re whipped. You can’t see the forest for the trees. Need I remind you that you went off all half-cocked on a killing spree the first time and look where that got us.”
“She ordered me to do that.”
“But did she really mean it?”
“I left the uninfected.”
“I’ve done nothing but her wishes since you cocked up everything. I’ve spent my life cleaning up your mess. If there is anyone who will lead here, it’s me.”
“And what, exactly, do you think I’ve been doing? Having a picnic, or a walk in the park, perhaps? No. I’ve fucking been gathering the pieces of my broken soul for millennia. A soul that was broken to save this fucking mess.”
“Exactly. You’re broken. I’m not.”
“You dare to question my abilities…” His voice trailed off, and he dropped his arms to his side. “You’re right.”
“Of course I’m bloody well right. You may have been the strong one back then, but all I’ve been doing for the last few thousand years is damage control. I think I’ve learned a thing or two.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Just… just sit tight until I’m back. Can you do that?”
Cash’s nostrils flared, he grit his teeth and nodded.
“There’s a good lad. I’ll send help for when you get to The Ludus in Sydney.”
“I don’t think that’s wise. We shouldn’t be sharing this information with anyone.”
“She won’t know the full details. She’ll just think she’s doing a favor to get back in my good books, and considering how your body is failing, I believe we need backup. Australia is Urser’s territory. When I travel, time can shift out of my control. I only intend to go for a day or two but there may be too much passed before I get back. You stick to her like glue. Not a hair on her head harmed, yeah?”
“Of course.”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “I’ll go and give a few instructions to The Ludus about the trials. I don’t think I can cancel them, but perhaps I can shorten them to four or three. Oh, how I long for this all to be over, but there is so much to do before I go.”
“Via, veritas, vita.” Cash’s words hadn’t been spoken for many years, not since beginning. They meant: The way, the truth and the life, and it was a greeting and a goodbye in one. A motto, or guideline by which to live by. I thought it was good to hear the words again. It grounded me.
“Via, veritas, vita,” I murmured, then added, “Vivat Regina.” Long live the Queen.
Before I left for the Empire, I took a detour to the London Ludus, and made my way to the lowest below ground level. The desire to skip it all was strong. I had to get off this piddly planet. I had to get home. I longed for it. Ached for it. There were questions only my people could answer.
My people.
The words swam around my head. Were they really my people anymore when I’d lived on this planet for so long?
Perhaps the Simons were my people now.
Standing in Purgatory, ready to collect Seraphim souls, I realized I might have to make a few trips. Cor blimey, I thought, as I picked up a collection of baubles filled with static life-force. I struggled to carry them all. This was way overdue.
“About bloody time.” Jacine’s voice echoed from somewhere behind me in the vast, dark chamber. Walls were lined with shelves stocked with rows of souls trapped in glass spheres.
I glanced over my shoulder. “I know it’s been a while, but I had no idea these would build up so much.”
“A while? Try decades, Marc. And what did you expect? These souls won’t be happy when they return to their bodies.”
“I don’t suppose you’ve weighed any of them in front of the Tribunal, yet?”
“Well, we had. But it’s been a while. You might have to do them again, for due diligence.”
I sighed. Of course I did. If one, just one, of them was tainted with heavy darkness, and I let it through, then a plague of epic proportions would be released on the Empire. So far we’d kept the evil confined to this planet because we’d checked, quarantined, and checked again. And with the new threat of its rebirth, I couldn’t take a chance. But honestly. “There’s got to be over a hundred here.”
“Try a thousand, Marc.”
“Bollocks.”
“Don’t use that tone with me.”
I scrubbed my face. Perhaps it had been longer than I thought since my last trip. “All right, all right. I accept this as my fault. As long as you said they’ve been weighed, I’ll give you that. Besides, this lot looks clear to me. They’ll get assessed again upon entry to the Empire, so I’m sure it will be fine.”
“C’mon, then. How many can you safely carry?”
I assessed the mountain of spheres with a heavy heart. The answer was: not nearly enough to make this journey simple. I scratched my chin. “I’d say perhaps around a hundred, give or take.”
“Is that all?”
“If I take anymore, there’s a risk I can’t safely contain them in my aura. Even though this is a new polymer blend type glass, it’s still not fully organic and nowhere near as advanced as the one’s from the Empire. Even those disintegrate after a time. Perhaps you should liaise with the hunter and his team. They’ve come up with some fandangled new encasing. These spheres shatter half way across the journey, the souls release and then the strength of their energy competes with mine. I need to contain it, otherwise, boom, they’re tangled in the universe.” I shivered at the thought. The whole damned lot of them would wind up a mish-mash of atoms, including me.
“Are you saying you are in danger, dove?” Call me crazy, but to me, Jacine appeared concerned. She stepped towards me, a crease formed in her smooth brow. “Has this always been the case, no matter how many you carry?”
I recognized an ego stroke when I saw one. And I accepted. I flicked imaginary dust off my shoulder and shrugged. “It’s nothing.”
“Rubbish. You risk your life daily for her and what does she give you in gratitude? A lifetime of servitude.”
“Jacine,” I warned, but without resolve.
“Dove.”
“Pet.”
“Tell me you’ll think about it.” She was inches from me now, but respectfully distant. She moistened her lips, and it reminded me of a time when I’d done that for her. “You owe her nothing,” she said.
“Please stop talking like that.”
“I miss you,” she added, hopeful.
“And I, you, love.”
“Can’t you perhaps put me in one of these spheres, and I can come with you?”
“What, and give up your corporeal body?”
She shrugged hopelessly. “At this point, I don’t even care.”
“But you’ve spent eons enhancing those three-dimensional molecules. That body has been primed for evolutionary upgrades. If you leave all that behind, you’d be starting at the beginning, and that’s if you can find a new body to meld with at all. They might be empty at the institute. You could end up coasting in the ether for years, slowly disintegra—”
“Yes!” Jacine cut me off. “I know all that, but—”
“But the fact remains the same. She comes first and always has. I have a feeling this will be over soon. You’ll get your just rewards. Wait a little longer.” As the words came out of my mouth, I knew with absolute certainty that I’d never betray Sephie. Never. I was in her corner until the end, even if she didn’t know it.
Jacine turned away, the hurt in her eyes palpable. “For once, I’d like to come first.”
Her words broke the temporary hold she had over me, and I laughed. “The Goddess of Love never coming first? Un-bloody-believable.”
“Shut up.”
“I’ll bet you came first many times over.” I wiggled my eyebrows.
“I said, shut up.” Jacine gathered a silver tray and began counting spheres onto it. Each had a little name tag that dangled when it moved.
“In fact, I can remember when you and I were in a juicy little hot-spring in Iceland, and you came first. And second. And possibly third, but I’m a bit hazy on that.”
She tried to hide her smile rather unsuccessfully.
I joined her counting out the baubles and said quietly, “Jacine? I’ll talk to the Queen. And in the mean time, there’s something I need you to do for me. It will go a long way to help prove that you’ve done your penance.”
She glanced at me from the corner of my eye.
“This is of the utmost importance. I’m giving you leave to exit the London Ludus.”
Now she fully turned to face me, focus etched on her features. “Really?”
“Yes. I agree with you, you’ve been down here long enough. I think you’ve learned your lesson about fraternizing with and manipulating the Simons.”
“I have.”
“Right, so…” I stalled and licked my lips.
Jacine placed warm her hand on mine. “What is it?”
“There is someone who needs protection and help.”
While she waited expectedly, I mentally argued with myself. If I asked her to protect Little Red, it could be entirely too obvious. But if I asked her to protect the hunter, then it’s possible Little Red would be safe as a sideways result. With my absence, I didn’t want to take any chances. I couldn’t live with myself if I returned and Little Red was gone. I’d already been complacent and negligent. Now someone had discovered she could move through the in-between with me.
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