“Okay, that’s enough heavy philosophy for one meeting,” Caelum said. “Let’s all gang up on Quayla for screwing up her hair.”
Caelum’s attempted distraction failed to protect me from Vitae. He made an example out of me, as usual, waving my mistakes as the banner for lectures on procedure. He berated us all, but even with all the others attempting to deflect Vitae’s anger, I felt more beaten by Vitae than I had by the grendlings.
Summus offered the group ineloquent encouragements, and Vilicangelus took Summus and Vitae to one side.
I seated myself on the fountain’s edge, fingers traipsing through the water. I sprinkled my silently singing egg, the droplets of water on the egg tingling my skin.
“You all right?” Caelum asked.
I nodded.
He smirked. “You need a good party...in fact. Hey, guys?”
Terrance and Ignis joined us.
“My company’s throwing a huge picnic party out at Stone Mountain on Labor Day in two weeks. You’re all invited. What do you say?” Caelum said.
“No,” Vitae snapped.
“You weren’t invited,” Caelum chuckled. “Well, at least not yet.”
“That weekend is DragonCon,” Vitae said.
“He’s right,” Ignis said. “The Courts relish exploiting the power boost from all those dressed up like the faerie.”
“They always exploit the power boost,” Terrance said.
“I’m talking about Monday,” Caelum said. “Most everyone’s gone by then.”
“No,” Vitae said. “The Courts will be up to mischief. This Shield will maintain high alert the whole weekend—including Monday.”
Caelum’s expression turned sly. “Fine, fine.”
We followed Caelum out, but Vilicangelus stepped between me and the garden’s exit. He lowered his voice. “May I have a moment, Quayla?”
A surge of dread wrapped crooked fingers around my heart. “Please, don’t relocate me. I know Vitae isn’t satisfied with me, but I’m doing my bes—”
The divine phoenix placed soft fingers across my lips. A corner of his mouth curled up. “I am not removing you from this Shield or your paramour.”
My breath caught in my throat. Ideas circled my mind in a swarm of ravens and vultures.
“You made some mistakes today, but I am well pleased with you,” Vilicangelus said. “Pets and children are the ultimate innocents, precious in His eyes, and you were right to defend them.”
Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes.
He wiped them away. “No matter where your journey takes you, follow your heart. The one given you is precious.”
Light flashed, forcing me to blink away spots and the tears still clinging to my eyes.
Our Praefectus had praised my choices. He’d reinforced that I made mistakes, but he hadn’t belabored them. He expected me to work them out if I hadn’t already. He treated me like a shield.
The encounter buoyed my spirits, though not enough to totally eclipse my impending meeting with Dylan. I took a moment to wipe my face and square my shoulders before heading out.
A vice clamped down on my bicep. “You and I are not done.”
Vitae glowered at me, eyes blazing with essence.
“Please let go of my arm,” I said.
He looked at his grip and eased open his fingers. When they moved away, white handprints lingered a few minutes longer.
“Pack your things,” Vitae said.
“I thought we’d settled that. We need to live with the mortals.”
“You’re leaving this Shield. I will not have such a disgrace endangering our charges.”
The thermal vent opened back up. “I’m not a disgrace.”
“You are. You’re selfish, unthinking and careless. Your refusal to follow procedure is going to cost more mortal lives, and I won’t have you killing our charges.
“You’ve proven yourself time and again to be nothing but a maverick, a lifelong disappointment. I don’t want you in this Shield. I’ve demanded you be relocated or Destroyed.”
I gaped at him, nothing but a soft hum in my mind.
“We need a real shield as our Aqua. Someone who will help protect Atlanta,” Vitae said. “You’ve got no business here. You could never replace Mare.”
The heat rose, drying out even a desire to cry. “I’m a shield...part of the Atlanta Shield, and I’m not going anywhere. Vilicangelus even said so.”
He snorted. “He’ll change his mind, and if not, it won’t be hard to convince the new Praefectus. You’re barely better than a Sidhe.”
My finger jabbed so hard into his chest, pain lanced up my arm. “I am a full shield, Vitae. I’m as good as any Aqua, I can prove it.”
I stormed away before the rising current roaring in my ears rose too far. Vilicangelus had praised me, told me I was staying. He wouldn’t lie, so either Vitae was trying to motivate me or lying or some other misunderstanding was afoot.
It didn’t matter.
I would not willingly leave Dylan.
I would prove myself to Vitae in such a way that no one could ever question my dedication again.
I would figure out why the Wyldfae attacked the shelters. I would unravel their game and then I would stop it.
I am Aquaylae, Shield of the Atlanta shire in service to the Undying Light.
Caelum
Quayla emerged from the garden and stomped to the top of the stairwell. From her expression, whatever Vitae and Vilicangelus had said to her hadn’t been nice.
Caelum wasn’t sure the best way to help her.
Terrance and Iggy just said to support her, but I’m not sure that’s enough.
He’d tried to ease her fears, tried to help brace her for the possible loss of her mortal love. A knot around Caelum’s heart tightened to a tourniquet. He missed Shelby.
The love of his life, the woman that had rejected and nearly destroyed him was eighty-four, a great-grandmother not long for the world. He’d kept an eye on her, at first just to protect her from faerie reprisals, but later he’d found he couldn’t walk totally away.
Mortal intoxicants hadn’t worked on him—not even a whole tavern’s stock. Drugs hadn’t worked either—mortal or faerie. Carnal pleasure distracted him, but never dulled the edge.
They couldn’t, not while he watched Shelby age alone, abandoned by children too weak to stand by her while age ate away at her body and her mind.
“Deep thoughts, little brother?”
Caelum turned toward Terrance’s deep voice.
“It’s been a day for them,” Ignis hoisted a smile as Quayla descended the last few steps.
She tried to smile back, but the results looked brittle, on the edge of shattering.
Caelum pushed away thoughts of Shelby and trotted over to push the elevator call button. He offered the room a rakish grin, waggled his brows and lowered his voice conspiratorially. “You know, we can be on high alert from the picnic.”
“I’m afraid Vitae is right in this, Caelum,” Terrance said.
Caelum deflated, his attempt to raise Quayla’s spirits a bust.
Tension clung, a palpable pressure like the thick humidity just before a summer storm. Each phoenix’s body language echoed his own muscled shoulders.
Ignis set a hand on Quayla. Terrance followed suit a moment later. She closed her eyes.
“What did they say?” Caelum asked.
Her voice didn’t break, but it did crack. “Vitae asked that I be relocated or Destroyed.”
Lightning flashed through Caelum’s chest, burning long, hot lines up and down his body.
“I have spoken for you with Vilicangelus,” Ignis said.
Her eyes opened, latching on Ignis with obvious gratitude.
“I, too, have praised your service,” Terrance said. “Vilicangelus will do neither.”
“I-I know. He said so, it’s j-just...,” her eyes sought us each in turn. “I need to prove myself, on my own.”
“Screw Vitae,” Caelum said.
“You don’t need to prove anything to us.”
Terrance scrutinized her. A sigh escaped him as his head began to shake. “She needs to prove herself to Vitae.”
“Why?” Caelum asked.
Quayla looked up, eyes glowing a glistening blue. “I just do.”
Vilicangelus
Vilicangelus stood at the edge of the garden hidden behind a curtain of Light. He watched the four departing shields through the Watcher’s eyes and listened to their conversation.
Worry ate at his essence. Atlanta’s Shield was fractured.
Still broken by Mare’s sacrifice. It’s essential I do something to fix this before things become irreparable—no matter how much pain that requires.
Vilicangelus eased himself back into reality. He didn’t bother to seek Vitae. There was no need. His old shieldmate would regret seeking out Vilicangelus soon enough.
Vitae stormed across the garden like an Aero clouded in temper.
Summus took a step to either intervene or join them.
No, Summus, let this conversation be between Vitae and myself.
Not this time.
“She has to go,” Vitae snarled.
Vilicangelus didn’t return his shout. “No.”
Vitae balled his fists, his body vibrating. “You’re wrong. She’s destroying this Shield. I demand you remove her.”
A corner of Vilicangelus’s lips quirked upward pushing up the matching eyebrow. “No.”
“She’s selfish, obstinate and disrespectful of me and her duty.”
“Then you should be glad, shouldn’t you? Do not those qualities make her less like Mare?”
Fury bent Vitae’s features into something nearly demonic. “Aquaylae is nothing like Mare. Nothing.”
“And yet they are so similar.”
For a moment it seemed my old pupil would strike me physically. He shook, eyes ablaze behind a halo of barely restrained tears. “She has to go.”
“No.”
Vitae snatched up a nearby bench, roaring like a maddened bear cornered by a circle of spearman. He hurled the wrought-iron furniture into the greenhouse glass.
“Shieldheart?” Anima asked.
Vilicangelus held up a hand. “Not now, Anima. Let him rage.”
The Shieldheart locked eyes on Vilicangelus. A cold iron mask snapped into place as he straightened his suit lapels. Only the tears betrayed the calm as illusion. “She has to go. I cannot do my job with her here.”
“What is your job, as you see it?”
“I am the Shieldheart. I must protect and perfect this Shield, see to it that this Praefecture is protected from the Sidhe.”
“We’ve had few Fae Kissed and fewer still diplomatic issues with the young leaders placed here by the two remaining Queens. It seems this Shield is doing the job admirably.”
The violent head shake set several tears free. “We’re spread out. We’re weak. Holes riddle our net and the Sidhe mock us.”
“The Sidhe mock often. You’ll have to do better than that.”
Vitae purpled then returned to his normal color in turns. Words poised behind lips pressed so tightly together they all but disappeared.
Vilicangelus watched Vitae struggle with guilt and rage and countless other emotions. The life phoenix had been bottling them all by sheer, unconquerable will.
If that cork doesn’t burst soon the pressure may become too much. Maybe it would be a mercy just to rewrite him and swap him into another shield.
Vilicangelus’s stomach turned at the thought.
No, I couldn’t inflict so unjust a punishment on Vitae, certainly not after all he’s accomplished here. He must grow beyond this.
“Fine,” Vitae spun on his heel.
“When you first came here, I’d never have imagined you a coward.” Vilicangelus shook his head. “Do your books allow you to hide from yourself as effectively as you hide from your duty?”
Vitae whipped around, heavy suit fabric fluttering around him like a dark flame. “I’ve done all I can to perform my duty while that lazy, incompetent Aqua sulked in her chambers watching the city grow. She has to go. She will not cause me to fail.”
“Again.”
Vitae swung, his rage so complete that he nearly telegraphed the move with holographic foreshadowing.
Vilicangelus slipped out of the way.
Summus lurched forward.
No, Summus, stay clear.
Vitae swung again.
“Admit it, Vitae. Own it.”
“Own what?” Vitae’s voice broke. “That I failed? That the Sidhe played me like a fool?”
Vilicangelus’s gut twisted, but Vitae’s willful wall of denial was cracking. The divine snorted. “That’s hardly all that was your fault.”
“What else do you want from me, Aether?” Furious, shameful tears burned golden-red lines down Vitae’s face. “You want me to admit that I led this Shield into the middle of a fake war meant to give the Sidhe sport and take our lives? I admit it.”
“That’s not the whole of it.”
Vitae swung at Vilicangelus. The divine phoenix caught the blow and twisted Vitae’s arm into a painful lock. “Admit it, Vitae. If you’re not a coward, then face it like a shield and own all of it.”
Vitae transmogrified into swirling gold and scarlet plasma, reversing Vilicangelus’s hold and throwing him into the greenhouse glass after the bench.
“Fine! I let my pride get the best of me and I cost Mare her—”
True Death. Did you ever even confess your feelings for her?
Vitae whipped aside, seizing a planter box and shattering it against the floor. “Never again will I let this Shield fail. Never again will an undeserving shield in my care be Destroyed, not even if I have to ride them night and day to His absolute perfection.”
“Life isn’t about perfection, Vitae.” Vilicangelus rose, dusting himself off. “Neither is perfection His will. That’s why He gives forgiveness.”
“If I need His forgiveness, then I failed...again.”
“You need to forgive Aquaylae.”
“She has to go.”
“No.” Vilicangelus locked his hands on Vitae’s shoulders and matched gazes with his hurting friend. “You need to forgive yourself and forgive Aquaylae for not being Mare.”
Eyes locked together and skin touching, Vitae’s thoughts slammed into Vilicangelus’s mind with furious clarity.
Vilicangelus dropped his eyes and let go of Vitae. He couldn’t bear to watch his millennia-old friend destroy himself for Mare’s death. He’d relinquish the duty to Summus. Maybe without their shared history, the new divine would be able to lead Vitae out of his self-made hell and back into the light.
9: Lies & Turncoats
Quayla
We split up when the elevator deposited us in the parking deck. The warmth my brothers offered me lingered even though their touch had gone. Caelum didn’t understand my need to prove myself, but Ignis and Terrance did.
I hadn’t been as close to the Terra or Pyri of my first shield. Without Ignis’s and Terrance’s support, I wasn’t sure how long it would’ve been before Vitae’s accusations started to feel like truth.
I sighed. My trials weren’t over. Dylan awaited across town.
Traffic clogged the highways, dragging out my dread.
In Atlanta, bustling wafers filled the roads early morning to late evening, tapering off only in the darkest times of night. Stores and corporations ran all night around the city in little islands, but for the most part, wafers hid in their caves when darkness descended—an instinctual or perhaps genetic memory warning them of the things darkness hid.
Like faeries coming out to play.
I pulled off the interstate, taking a moment at the red light to reach my senses out to my seeds. Anima monitored the web around the clock, but that didn’t absolve me of my duty—something Vitae had practically scream
ed into my face during the group meeting. I felt no taint upon my little pools other than the faintest itch of residual magic and air pollution.
A car honked.
I glanced into the side mirror at another huge SUV practically driving up my back wheel. I eased into traffic, the driver whipping around me with a rude gesture. I shook my head and tapped my thumbs. I pulled off the main thoroughfare to a small apartment building. The sight of Dylan’s car in its parking space seized my chest and squeezed.
My Jahammer fit in the space Dylan had left between his bumper and the curb. I glanced at the archangel talisman.
Neutral and unfeeling, a good soldier like Vitae wants—just like he wants me to break up with Dylan. Might get his wish.
I entered my three-story walk-up. Each step seemed to echo like the final, condemned strides of someone marched across a platform to be burned alive. I opened my apartment door. Dylan reclined, asleep on the couch with a tech magazine on his chest. I watched him from the doorway, memorizing his soft, sandy hair, rugged features and blue eyes hidden behind Harry Potter glasses.
“Just going to stand in the doorway?” His eyes widened. “Quayla?”
My teeth kept my lip from quivering. “Yes.”
He rose, looking me up and down.
“I told you this could happen,” I whispered.
“I know, and I’ve seen you come home injured, but I guess I never really...even your voice is different.”
“It’s a whole new body.”
His cute little dimpled smirk appeared then fell away. “We need to talk.”
I can fight dark faeries hand to hand, I can face this.
I squared my shoulders. “You’re angry.”
“I was. I was in the middle of an important meeting, and you tell me you died like you were asking me to pick up milk at the store.”
“I had to hurry back.”
“You had to hurry back? To your corpse? To the people that killed you?” Dylan asked.
“Yes, there are certain—”
He turned his back on me. “Don’t you care about me at all?”
What?
He turned watery eyes back to me. “I worried about you before, but you died today. No warning, no nothing—”
“I don’t generally plan on dying.”
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