Destroying the Fallen

by Rebecca Bosevski

  “I feel great,” she said, letting him help her stand and I pushed off the chair to join them.

  “Sire!” an elf guard yelled, running into the room.

  “What is it Mayder?”

  “Message form the Feydom, they are under attack.”

  I looked at Jax, he was already off the bed and headed towards me.

  “King Blake, we have to go, can you portal us, and maybe... spare a few elf guards?”

  “Mum?”

  “Ava, stay here with the king like we planned. We will be okay, I promise. Blake?”

  Sien and Mayder both looked at me when I so informally addressed their king, but Blake didn’t even flinch. “I’ll get you to your father’s study. Mayder get the elves from the hall, hurry.”

  Mayder disappeared out the door then reappeared a few moments later with five elf guards.

  “Great, let’s go,” I said, squeezing Ava in a tight hug. Jax wrapped his arms around us both and I breathed in the scent of them. Mint and berries with a fragrant spice mix I would never forget. They smelled like home.

  I heard the portal open before I turned to see it, Sien had created the doorway just as she had for our entry into the Elf Kingdom. I grabbed Jax’s hand and we jumped through before it even had time to lock into place, the elf guards followed.

  The door closed just as quickly behind us. We ran into the garden, Jax phased, and we soared into the sky, the elf guard zoomed faster than I knew they could through the trees below us. I couldn’t see what Mayder was talking about, Baldea looked as it always did, but then the faintest rumbling came from the direction of Sayeesies. We shot forward through the sky as fast as we could.

  Fey were running through the border, children crying, as their parents pulled them away. Some Stalisies had taken to the sky to flee and were headed our way.

  “What is it?” I called out to them as they neared.

  “Demon,” one of them yelled back.

  Demon? Crap, did that thing get out of the catacombs?

  “Jax, the catacombs, could it be?”

  “I doubt it, those cells are magically sealed. Des, look!” Jax called as we flew over the outermost houses. A black lightning bolt, not unlike what Traflier used against me, shot up into the sky. It just missing a fey woman trying to fly away, while holding onto the right arm of a moderately large male. He dangled from her arm as she rose and dipped in the sky under his weight. Jax was there before me and gripped the guy’s other arm to help take some of the weight.

  Another bolt shot up, slicing through part of Jax’s wing. He cried out, but his grip on the fey didn’t falter.

  Amongst the screaming fey I could see elves helping to get them out. I swooped past them and down into the streets, where the crowd had thinned and only those without magic seemed to be retreating from the danger. I caught a few of them looking up at Jax, but they were past me before they could stop to question his magic’s return.

  I broke out of the alleyways and into the main square. Then I saw him. It wasn’t the demon from the catacombs, it was a Fey: Marx. But he also wasn’t Marx either. His face was sunken in and dark shadows sat beneath his black eyes. His arms crawled with dark veins down to his hands which were raised, palms pointed at me.

  What the hell?

  7

  BLACK ENERGY SHOT FROM his hands. My shield went up and the magic inside me swelled. My light grew brighter and then that dot of the fabled magic appeared, and it grew too.

  “Marx, what happened? This isn’t you.” I remembered Moyeth with a pang, and how his appearance changed when he gave himself over to the Dazerarthro. But this was different. It had to be. The Dazerarthro was dead.

  Another bolt hit my shield and I blasted a white energy ball towards him. He ducked just in time.

  Crap.

  “Marx if you can hear me, you have to fight it!” I yelled as something to my right caught his attention. I glanced that way and my stomach dropped.

  “Grace, get out of here!”

  “I can help,” she called and fired a smaller bolt of pale green light at Marx. It hit him, but he simply looked down at his chest, then rose his head slowly, grinning with blackened teeth.

  “Grace, run!” I yelled, but Marx took off towards her. She didn’t run back down the alley she had come from, instead she ran sideways, headed for the path that lead towards Traflier’s Tree.

  I ran after them both, shooting balls of white light as I went, trying to hit Marx but always missing by the slightest bit.

  When I broke through the path and saw the tree, I couldn’t see either of them. The fabled magic inside me pushed out against my own, it forced its way towards my hands, and rather than fighting it, I let it come. My fingers grew warm and each one shone with a different color. I clenched my fists and rainbow energy swam in circles around them.

  “Desmoree!” Grace called as she appeared out from under the low handing branches on the left. Marx dashed out from the ones on the right and I flung my arms forwards sending the rainbow of magic out towards Marx. He froze in place, locked in the magic glow. He rose up, arms fixed at his sides, and his head arched back. After another second his mouth opened and a black mist spewed forth. It wasn’t locked in the rainbow of magic. It slithered free across the ground, towards where the door had once been to Traflier’s study.

  Grace was frozen in fear as she watched the black mist of the demon that had possessed Marx slither past her.

  Then with an enormous crack, Jax landed, my elf sword in hand, and the tip of it buried into the ground, straight through the demon mist.

  Grace screamed.

  The demon solidified around the sword in jagged black spikes. Jax pulled the sword free and with the movement, the mass collapsed, dissolving to nothing.

  I ran to where Marx hovered in the rainbow energy.

  “Des, release him,” Jax said, meeting me there.

  “I’ll try, but I don’t really know what I did.”

  Jax’s brow creased before he shook his head and laughed. Only he would find that funny.

  I scrunched up my nose as I tried to use my magic to pull the energy field back. It didn’t work.

  Because it isn’t your energy dumbass.

  I focused on the spot within my own magic, the fabled’s magic. I pictured my own magic separating to make a path through for the fabled power. It worked, the dot moved from the middle of my energy and made its way through the path I was creating. When it reached my right hand, I brought it up to the forcefield holding Marx.

  Jax stiffened beside me.

  Not so funny now, huh? I thought as I let my fingers touch the surface. All of the magic surrounding Marx flooded back into me with a dizzying rush. My own magic quickly surrounded, it and I blinked away the stars that specked my vision as the fabled magic shrank back to an almost invisible dot within the middle of my power.

  Marx fell to the ground in a heap, Jax phased and was first to his side.

  “Is he okay?” I asked as Jax rolled him onto his back and checked for consciousness.

  “He’s breathing, so at least there’s that.”

  “Desmoree,” Grace said, joining our side. “I’m so sorry, I wanted to help but my magic did nothing, and then I froze. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “It’s okay, you didn’t know you wouldn’t be able to stop him. At least you were here trying.”

  “I told the others to go, to help the Tanzieth get out of the city.”

  “I flinched at her use of the T word, but she wasn’t wrong. Without their magic they were the last to escape and would have been helpless against this demon.

  “How did it get in?” Jax asked, looking up from Marx to Grace and I.

  Grace shook her head. “I don’t know, but Marx was in the human realm so maybe it got to him there.”

  “But the gateway should have protected Sayeesies. He shouldn’t have been able to get back though possessed by a demon,” I exclaimed and Grace rung her hands in front of her. “What is it?”

/>   “The adults have been learning form the scrolls. Many can phase into a fey form like you. They’ve mastered the hold all cast and they are practicing portalling.”

  “They can portal now?” I still can’t get that shit right half the time.

  She shook her head. “No one has mastered it yet, but some are close. Marx was closest, last I saw. He must have made it work.”

  “But if the demon possessed him, how did the demon cast the portal, would it even know how?”

  “Maybe if the demon used to be fey?” Jax offered and Marx began to stir.

  “Marx, can you hear me?” I asked kneeling beside Jax at Marx’s side.

  “Was it Traflier, did he possess you?” I asked, but he only groaned in reply.

  “You don’t really think?” Grace asked, holding her hand over her heart. Traflier was her father, and though I never saw much interaction between them before he revealed himself as the monster he truly was, I was sure at some point she had known a different man.

  “If it was, he’s toast now,” Jax said, looking at the sword laying by his side.

  I shot him a glare, and he bit his bottom lip, realization of who he was talking to sunk in. “Sorry, Grace, it’s just...”

  “It’s okay,” she said, unable to hide the gleam of welling tears in her eyes. “I should go and get a sage for Marx.” She turned and flew away.

  “Good one, numb nut,” I said, elbowing him in the side.

  “What? It’s not like it isn’t true. If it was Traflier, he’s gone now.”

  “I don’t think it was him, but how many other fey have turned evil and become demons?”

  “None.”

  “Okay, so what if Traflier is teaching the demons how to possess the fey and use their magic to get into Sayeesies?”

  “That’s pretty far-fetched. I mean how smart can a demon really be?”

  “Smart enough to get in here.”

  Jax looked down at Marx. “Okay, so what do we do?”

  “We do what we had planned, we go hunting.”

  The sages arrived without Grace a few moments later. We made our way to the council building, I needed to tell them about what had happened and how we thought it happened. They needed to find a way to protect Sayeesies against another demon possessing a fey and portalling in. Not that I had any idea how they were going to do that.

  When we reached the council building, I was about to climb the stairs to the entry when an arm swung past me and connected with Jax’s face. Jax phased instinctively on contact. Gasps surrounded us.

  “Back off now!” I yelled, phasing and bringing a ball of energy to my hands. “Jax, are you okay?”

  “Fine, Des, it’s alright.”

  “Like hell it is. What the hell was that for?”

  The man glared at Jax. “I don’t care what they say. I’m not going through you. I’ll take what I want before I do that.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Des,” Jax pressed, phasing back and taking my arm. The warmth of his hand on my skin instantly calmed my rage. “It’s okay, let’s just go in.”

  The man turned and walked away. The others still whispered amongst themselves, pointing at us, confused frowns and angry scowls on their faces.

  “Look, Jax has his magic back,” I began as I reabsorbed my energy blast and phased back. “And no, I can’t give all of you yours back yet. But I’m still trying to.”

  They didn’t look happy, but they started to disperse and I turned to Jax. “So what the hell is going on?”

  “I might have, sort of, kind of...”

  “Spit it out already.”

  “I gave a heap of stuff to the yowies.”

  “Stuff, like what?”

  “Nothing bad,” he said, holding up his hands in defense and shaking his head. “It was mostly food, but there was some blankets, plants that grow in darkness, some books.”

  “Okay, so why are they pissed? What did he mean by going through you?”

  “The yowies gave me opals for it.”

  “You traded with the yowies for opals? That’s great!” I exclaimed, a smile spreading across my face. “Wait, why would they be mad about that, they haven’t been able to trade, and now we might have a shot at rebuilding their trust and getting more fur one day?”

  “I only got enough opals for Maylea and the other sages. They think I gave away too much for how little I got in return, and now the yowies are refusing to bargain with them and only want to deal with me, or the ones who I vouch for as being fair.”

  “For fuck’s sake! These fey really need to pull their heads in. I mean, come on, they were banished to a bloody swamp for decades, give them whatever the hell they need already. Fucking speciates.”

  I said the last part loud enough for the few remaining around us to hear and they ducked their heads and wandered away.

  “Des.”

  “No, I’m so over this crap. Let’s go talk to the council, it’s about time they did something to stop this shit anyway, maybe knowing that the demons can get in will be enough drive for them to stand up. If not, I do have another way, but I would rather save that for when we really need it.”

  Jax looked at me, a confused scowl on his face.

  “It’s nothing, look let’s just get in there. I can hear my father yelling already.”

  That brought a laugh and we headed inside. Max was yelling.

  “How do you not see this is madness!” he said, slamming his fist down onto the table.

  “What the hell is this?” I asked, pulling out my chair, but not taking a seat just yet.

  “They want to instate a lockdown. No one in, no one out.”

  “And you disagree?”

  “Hell yes I disagree, Desmoree, and you should too.”

  “Why? If no one leaves, then no demons should be able to get in by possessing one of them,” I said. Nods and snickers came from the other council members, Grace excluded. She sat, hands folded calmly in front of her as she stared at her fingers.

  So this is where she went.

  “Desmoree, the ban starts immediately,” my father explained.

  Oh hell no.

  “Um, no. Jax and I are joining the hunt in the human realm.”

  “See?” Max turned to the council again. “I told you, they need to leave, the Nazieth you had recalled too, they need to get back to the hunt.”

  “The Nazieth teams that were hunting are back? When did they return?”

  “The council recalled them immediately after the attack on the Feydom.”

  “But that means the elves, the others, they are fighting our war without us?”

  “It’s not our war,” Grace said, slowly raising her head to look at me. “It’s yours.”

  “Um, excuse me?”

  “You opened the gateway, you let in the demons. It’s your war they are fighting,” she said, looking to each of them one at a time. “Regardless of what started it, the demons are growing bolder. Reports are coming in of a particularly large, dark energy around the area you opened the gateway. The humans are growing more suspicious of the otherworldly creatures, and the elves are struggling to keep up with the memory alterations.”

  A large dark energy... could that be him? I wondered as Grace continued. “Council members, I ask that you allow Desmoree and her husband to leave Sayeesies and return to the human world so they may help tidy their mess. However, I also ask that the Nazieth not return with them.”

  Wait, what?

  “I ask that the Nazieth be permitted to come with us?” Jax interjected, and was met with a pfft from several members. Jax had no standing on the council and therefore no rights to amend a vote, not that it ever stopped him from voicing his opinion. Before I could repeat his request, Max placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “I request that the fifth and ninth return to the human realm with Desmoree. They can protect the gateway from the other side.”

  The council members all stood.

  June raised her
hand, palm out. “We vote. Will Desmoree and her husband be permitted to leave Sayeesies and take with them...” She paused and looked at Grace, then at my father. “The ninth Nazieth. All other teams will be stationed throughout the Feydom to ensure our protection, should another demon get through.”

  I watched as they each took a seat. A unified vote.

  Probably their first.

  “Great, now you need to stand up again, I’m calling another vote,” I said arms folded across my chest.

  “What is it you wish us to vote on, Desmoree?” my father asked as he and the others stood.

  “You may or may not know that Jax was able to successfully trade with the yowies for opals for our sages.”

  A few eyes shot to Jax, but most remained steady on me.

  “The yowies, the firebirds, the equillis, they are all within the Feydom, and they are all under threat by the demons should they break through.”

  “What do you want?” Gerald asked, squeezing the back of his chair with his thin, pale fingers. I’ll never warm to Gerald, I guess I hold grudges and all that. But Grace and he had grown up together and she trusted him, so I guess I needed to too.

  “The council needs to call a meeting with the heads of all the creatures within the Feydom, tell them about the attack and if they need it, help them to be protected.”

  “Help them? They should be helping us. We let them in, they owe us,” Gerald replied.

  Fuck you, I though as I concentrated on using all my strength not to jump over the table and slap him.

  “Despite your opinion on the matter, they are a part of the Feydom and are as invested in its protection as we are. They can help us as we too can help them. The yowies included. Think of how better protected the wards would be with more opal dust. The firebirds are formidable warriors, and the unicorns—you all know how helpful they can be. If another demon attacks you will need their help to heal the ones caught in the cross fire.”

  “Are you done?” Maryella asked, rolling her eyes a little.

  I took a controlled breath. “Yes, would you all please vote, call a meeting, do everything you can to ensure their help, and do everything you can to help keep them just as safe as the fey within our lands?”