Destroying the Fallen

by Rebecca Bosevski

“Oh, right. Nope, you totally still owe me,” I laughed, winking, and walked through the door, closing it behind me. I needed that shower desperately.

  Crossing the bedroom to the only other door on the far left wall, I pushed it open to reveal a beautiful white stone room, a large clawfoot tub sat center stage, and a large, round shower head protruded from the ceiling right above it.

  “Really, no curtain?” I asked aloud.

  “You were never really the shy type,” Jax said from behind me, then wrapping his arms around my waist, he spun me to face him. Planting a kiss on me, he kicked the bathroom door shut and undressed me in seconds.

  I was exhausted, but his kiss made something inside me ignite. I separated our mouths only long enough to figure out how to turn on the shower. A large wheel sat on the wall beside the door with a red arrow pointing right, and a blue arrow pointing left. I turned it to the right.

  Who would want a cold shower?

  Then Jax’s mouth was on mine again and I was stripping off his clothes. His lips worked their way down my neck and a shiver ran up my spine. My body ached for him. My heart raced for him. I pulled him close, his skin burning hot against mine. His hands gripped me tightly, pulling me into him, holding me close.

  We made our way under the hot water and let it run over our sticky bodies, washing away the grime of the Feydom.

  There was a knock at the door.

  “Mum?”

  This is why people need the option for a cold shower, I thought as I pushed my magic out to turn the handle. Jax pulled me closer.

  “Do we have to get out?” he whispered.

  “Yes, we do, but we will have time. Here in the Elf Kingdom we actually have the time we need to figure this out. We will pick this up later,” I said, kissing him one more time then pushing him back under the cooling water. “Now where are those clothes?”

  “I don’t see any,” Jax said, running his hand through his wet hair.

  “Mum?”

  “Just a minute, Ava, I’m looking for some clothes.”

  “They are out here.”

  “Oh, okay. Is there a towel or two there too?”

  “Yep, here,” she said and the door opened slightly. Ava’s hand appeared, draped over her wrist was two towels.

  “Thanks, honey. Just give me a sec okay.”

  “Okay, I’ll wait on the bed.”

  I took the towels and turned the handle to shut off the water. Tossing a towel to Jax we both dried and made our way out to the bedroom.

  Ava was waiting just as she said she would be, but she wasn’t looking at me. She sat with her legs folded in front of her and her eyes trained on her hands that were fidgeting in her lap. She wasn’t wearing the poufy dress she had been the last time I saw her. She was in plain black tights and a long white button up shirt.

  “Ava, is something wrong?”

  “Mum... promise you won’t get mad.”

  Ahh, hell no!

  14

  “THERE IS NO WAY I’M promising not to get mad, Ava. What happened? What did you do?”

  “Do? No I didn’t do anything. Not really. I mean, I couldn’t help it.”

  “Ava, what is it?”

  She climbed off the bed and immediately transformed. Her feathery white wings resting behind her. Then she spread them out. The tips of her wings were sprinkled with a golden glitter. The same gold of the equillis.

  “Ava, how?”

  “I don’t know. I saw the queen of the equillis and I touched her mane when I was thanking her for helping bring you here. I felt weird and then I phased. I was still wearing the big dress Blake had given me so I knew something had changed. Mum, is it going to happen again? Am I going to go crazy?”

  “No, Ava, we won’t let it get like that. You have fey magic and the unicorn’s. That’s it, you will be fine.”

  “Ava, have you touched any of the elves?” Jax asked, rounding the bed to inspect her wings.

  “Sure, heaps of times. I mean, I take Blake’s arm when he walks me places, and I play with the children. Why?”

  “I don’t know how you would have absorbed the unicorn’s magic but not the elves.”

  “Jax, what are you thinking?”

  “What if she has elf magic too?”

  “Then that would be three kinds, not as bad as before, but not great. If we keep her away from anything else, she could probably keep it under control,” I said, walking over to Ava and wrapping my arms around her. She buried her face in my damp hair and held me tight.

  “Mum, I’m scared.”

  Jax laid a hand on her back between her wings. “Ava, you will be okay. Don’t you two see? With the elf magic, Ava can learn to create the same sort of protection for herself as the king has over the Elf Kingdom.”

  “You think I could?” Ava asked, releasing me and phasing back to her tights and shirt. “I mean, then I could keep playing with the other creatures. I could visit the firebirds again.”

  “What do you mean other creatures?” I asked.

  “Blake took me to see the kingdom. They are heaps of creatures here.”

  “You have been around other magical creatures too?”

  Her eyes went wide. “Oh my Fey, Mum, I have met so many here. We thought I was safe. He thought I was protected.”

  “Wait, Ava, you said you felt funny after you touched the queen right?” Jax asked.

  She nodded.

  “Then maybe you are already using the elves’ magic to protect yourself. You didn’t feel anything when you met the other creatures, right?”

  “No,” she said, shaking her head quickly from side to side.

  I took a step back and looked for Ava’s magic. It took far more effort than it once had. But finally I saw it. Her wonderful rainbow light swam inside her, giving off a slight shimmer of gold—the unicorn’s magic. I looked closely at the rainbow of colors, just like her hair, they sat in perfect ribbons of color, but unlike her hair and unlike her magic before, this rainbow had a streak of gray.

  “There is something about your magic that wasn’t there before. I think it’s the elves’ magic. I can see the unicorn’s shimmer too, but that’s it. Nothing else out of the ordinary. Can you phase again?”

  Ava did as asked and I had her lift her wings. There were no red veins where they erupted form her back. There were no silver tips to her wings either.

  “Looks like the firebird’s power isn’t there and you say you have seen them here, in the Elf Kingdom?”

  “Yes, I helped bring them through. Blake thought it would be good for them to see a familiar face, plus I made them another tree here in the Elf Kingdom. They don’t have a lake of fire, but Blake was able to bring in some of it, so the eggs are okay for now, the desert lands are hot enough for them to be comfortable and safe.”

  “Ava, that’s great.”

  “How do I learn to use the elf magic on purpose?” Ava asked.

  “With my help,’ King Blake said, stepping through the doorway. His eyes trailed over Ava’s wings and a knot formed in my stomach.

  “We will all help you,” I said quickly. “How about you phase back, Ava, then we can get started.”

  “Umm, Mum, maybe you should get dressed first?”

  I looked down. I was still only wearing a towel. The King quickly turned back to exit the room and Ava followed.

  “We will wait out here,’ Ava said, stifling a giggle as she closed the door behind her.

  “Seriously, Jax, you could have said something sooner.”

  He shrugged. “I like you in a towel.”

  I shook my head and made my way to the dresser. There were some red pants made of a fabric I had never seen. It was like leather, but soft as silk. I pulled them on and returned to the dresser to find something for the top. There were a few plain singlet tops, but at the bottom of the drawer a similar red peeked out from under a black lump of cloth. I grabbed both out. The red was a corset style top that laced up at the sides, with shield pieces to hide the skin under the l
aces. The black lump was a cape coat. It had a large brass flower button that did up at the neck and short sleeves edged in silver thread.

  “Too much?” I asked, spinning to show Jax once I was dressed. But then I saw him and stopped dead. “You look hot,” I said, taking a few steps towards him. He had managed to find some dark blue pants that hugged in all the right places, and a black linen fitted shirt with silver buttons. His shirt was undone and his chest still glistened with droplets of water from the shower.

  “We don’t have time for that, our daughter is waiting.”

  “Tease.”

  “You can talk. That’s defiantly not too much. The other elves might get pissed you look this amazing in their leftover clothes, though. I’ll have to keep my eye on the king around you.”

  I bit my bottom lip. “I don’t think we have to worry about that, he seems to be quite enamored with our daughter.”

  “Ava, no. She’s a baby.”

  “Not really, Jax. I mean, I get it. Trust me, I do. But she isn’t a baby, no matter how much we wish we had gotten that time with her.”

  “But he’s a king and an elf and...”

  “And she is something else entirely. I know. I’m not saying I approve. I don’t. I mean, I don’t even know if she has any clue about any of that stuff, and I hope I don’t have to go over it with her any time soon, Besides, she might not even be interested.”

  “Then we do... what, now?”

  “We wait, I guess. He hasn’t actually said anything. I just noticed the way he looked at her before. I have been looked at like that.”

  “What? By who?”

  “You silly.”

  “Oh... so we wait?”

  “We wait.”

  There was a knock at the door. “Mum, are you dressed yet? Blake has an idea.”

  Jax whispered in my ear. “She called him Blake, not King Blake.”

  “I call him that too, it doesn’t mean anything,” I said, then went to open the door. “I’m ready, so what’s your idea?”

  King Blake stood on the other side of the hallway. Had he heard what we were saying?

  “As Ava is still able to absorb magic you could create a power trap for Traflier. Have him take a specific power though, not just any.”

  “Ava is not going anywhere near that monster,” I said, moving in front of her slightly.

  “Mum, come on, he didn’t say me,” Ava said, nudging me as she made her way back into the room. We all followed.

  “Sorry, Ava, but I want you to understand, you will not be a part of this fight.”

  “I know,” she said as she sat on the end of the bed.

  “It would have to be you, Desmoree,” Blake continued. “I don’t believe even Ava could absorb the power you would need. She couldn’t bear the strength of human emotions.”

  “And I could?”

  “You were raised human. You know of their emotions better than most.”

  “The fey have emotions. The elves too.”

  “Yes, but the humans are open to a range of emotion, like no other creature.”

  Jax took my hand in his. “What is she supposed to do? Take their emotions? What magic is that?”

  The king shook his head. “She won’t take the human’s power, she’ll take a demon’s.”

  “You have got to be kidding.”

  “I’m afraid not. It might be your best chance at stopping him.”

  “What demon?”

  “Come with me, I’ll show you.”

  “Show us? You don’t have a demon in the Elf Kingdom, do you?” Ava asked, sliding between her father and I, and forcing Jax to drop my hand. I didn’t mind, we both took one of her hands in ours and followed the king down the corridor together.

  “I didn’t, but with the evacuation of the Feydom...”

  “You brought a demon though with the evacuation? Why? How?”

  “It was imprisoned.”

  “No!” Jax gasped, holding his free hand to his throat. The marks were finally gone but the memory remained. “You brought it here, why?”

  “Sien sensed it when she was called to open a doorway at your council building, she was trying to help ensure no creature was left behind to be drained by Traflier. She never expected to find this thing imprisoned beneath the Feydom itself.”

  “That thing, it’s a demon?” I asked as we continued following the king left, then right, then right again. He stopped at a black door.

  “It’s a demon unlike any other. Much like you are fey like no other, and Ava is... Ava.”

  Out the corner of my eye, I saw Jax’s gaze dart from the king to me and back.

  “And I can use this demon to... what? Dose Traflier?”

  “Essentially, yes.”

  The king opened the black door and a candle lit stairwell lay before us.

  “I guess we are going down?” I mused, letting go of Ava’s hand and turning to her. “You don’t need to be here for this, Ava. You should go find Maylea, your grandfather, the others. See they are settling in okay and not causing too much hassle for the elves.”

  “Mum, I want to come.”

  Jax let go of her other hand and stood beside me. “Your mother is right. You know this place now, the elves know you too. I can’t protect you from every monster under the bed, but I can protect you from seeing this. Ava, please, do as we ask.”

  She looked to the king but he didn’t make eye contact with her. So she dropped her head. “Okay, Dad. But promise you won’t just disappear again? I want to see you before you go, before you... just promise, okay?”

  “We promise. We are just going to check this out, we won’t make any plans until we find you,” Jax said, and I kissed her on the forehead before following Blake down the low lit stairs. Jax said goodbye and followed behind us. I turned back and saw Ava standing at the top of the stairs, watching us go. She rose her left hand and waved slowly with her fingers, before closing the black door and disappearing from sight.

  “What is so special about this demon?”

  King Blake didn’t look back, his voice a soft whisper. “I have heard of empath demons, but never had I seen one.”

  “Empath demon? Like they feel the other demon’s emotions or something?” Jax asked from behind me.

  “No, they absorb emotion. Mostly human, as you can imagine they hold a plethora of emotions to feed on.”

  “Then why haven’t you seen one? If they feed on human emotions you would think they would be everywhere in the human realm, or at least be on the radar of the factions who are there to keep the demons in check and the humans oblivious.”

  “That’s true,’ King Blake said, looking back at me for a moment before continuing down what had to be the longest bloody stairwell in history. I was dreading walking back up. “But there isn’t. For some reason there either aren’t that many of them, or something took them out.”

  “How much further is it?” Jax asked through heavy breaths. Ha, nice to know I’m not the only one struggling with all the stairs.

  “Not too much further. We had to take precautions for the safety of the Elf Kingdom and the Feydom refugees. If this thing got out of here, it could potentially do as much damage as Traflier himself.”

  “Do you think that’s why Traflier had it locked in the catacombs?”

  “Let’s ask it,” King Blake said, stopping at the bottom of the stairs where the candles disappeared and a pure black stood before us.

  “Where is it?” Jax asked, pressing up against me in the narrow space.

  Blake pressed against something on the wall to his right and a thin line of light appeared on the ground, rising to reveal another hall, this one was very well lit. Light shone in from a large square on the ceiling. On the far right was a curtain, it ran from ceiling to floor in heavy black velvet.

  “It’s behind that?” I asked, walking past Blake and taking hold of the edge of the curtain.

  “Yes, but be careful. It doesn’t like the light, so don’t leave the safe zone.”r />
  I pulled across the curtain, the bars of the cell in the catacombs stared back at me.

  “You transported the cell?”

  “It was the only way to keep it contained. A young elf got too close and is still recovering from the interaction. After all the years it has been imprisoned it remains an extremely powerful demon.”

  “I’m not a filthy demon,” the slick voice hissed from somewhere in the shadows of the cell.

  “Then what are you?” I asked.

  “I’m the beginning... and the end. I’m the truth and the lie. I’m life and I’m death. I am forever.”

  “Oookay, so you are all those things, but a little light has you quaking in your boots?” I teased.

  “You are the one who attacked me?”

  “Attacked you? You attacked Jax. I was asking you to let him go... with a light signal.”

  “Interesssting,” he said, his voice thick with an accent I had never heard, he drew out the s like a hiss. “Come clossser.”

  “Des, no,” Jax said, grabbing my arm.

  “Desss,” the demon said through the darkness. “Come closer, Desss.”

  “You still haven’t told me what you are, if you aren’t a demon what are you, who are you?”

  “I’ve had many names, Desss, which would you like? The name I gave myself, the one the humans called me, called my children? Would you like the name he called me, the one you run from?”

  “Traflier had a name for you?” King Blake asked, moving to stand on my other side. I felt a buzz coming from him. His magic was rising. He was either shielding himself, or he was preparing to blast the thing behind the bars.

  “He called me Racktaybyja, a name I never really liked. I prefer the name I gave myself, the one the humans came to fear.”

  “And that would be?” I asked, taking a step closer to the bars. The light from above stopped just past where my feet rested and I wasn’t planning on getting any closer.

  “Vamp—”

  “Stop, just stop, okay,” I interjected.

  “You know the name I speak? Even after all these years trapped here by him, you know the name they called me?”

  “Des, what is he? What is this thing?’ Jax asked, placing his hand on my lower back. I couldn’t see into the darkness to where the demon was, but I could feel his eyes on me and it made my skin crawl.