Death Card

by A C Wilds

  It’s Not the End Yet

  Azra

  I wake to muffled talking. It seems that Cass and Grey are trying to argue quietly, but they are failing terribly. I get up and stretch my back and legs out. My body hurts from the position I was forced to sleep in. Dusting myself off, I move over to them.

  “I told you, I’m not going to act like her sex slave. It’s bad enough I had to endure all the demeaning shit that the Light put me through. I won’t be anyone’s slave ever again!” Grey whisper-yells at Cass.

  Cass’s eyes are steel gray and set in a piercing gaze. He’s frustrated and angry, but also a little sad too. He’s projecting his emotions out like a wave of energy, and it keeps crashing into me. I can feel it inside me, all these feelings.

  “I’m not saying you have to do anything; you simply have to go along with it. This is how we stay alive. This is how we keep Azra protected. You invited yourself on this little journey, and you will follow the rules, or you can fuck off!” Cass rages right back at him.

  Before Grey can say anything, I step into the space between them. I place my hands on each of their chests because they are standing that close to one another. The mix of energy coming off of them is intoxicating. Cass’s energy is submissive, stormy, and strong; Grey’s is angry, excited, and humanly fragile. It’s almost second nature to be able to feel these things around me, even though it’s only been less than a week since I was taken and found out that I am Fae. This mix of male energy is doing so many things to my body right now. I want to strip them both naked and fuck them till the sun goes down.

  I shake my head to get my bearings. Stepping back, and looking at both of them, I say, “You guys have to stop. All of this animosity toward one another is just going to get us into more trouble than we already are. Cass, you need to be more sensitive in the way you deliver news. Even though Grey has been among you longer than I have, being taken from your home and having everything stripped away from you is going to tear at your insides. He needs to understand why you are saying these things and not just listen to your commands. You may still be a prince, but here you are equal to the rest of us.”

  Grey smirks at Cass with a smug look. I get up into Grey’s face and say, “I’d wipe that look off your face. You’re a real douche you know. We let you come with us, put up with your attitude and anger issues, and you still treat us like we are the scum of the Earth. It needs to stop, Grey. Without all of us making a change, it will never be something new.” I turn and walk away then. I need to tend to the horses before we leave.

  “Good Morning all! It’s a brand-new day, and we are going to conquer it!” I say to my Arion and the other horses. I need to try to be positive for Logan and myself. I feel like dying inside, but I can’t let them see me fall apart. I need to be strong.

  Logan is brushing Hurri down, and she loves it. She is leaning into his firm strokes and nuzzling him when he steps around her.

  “I’m so glad you’re up. You sleep a lot, huh? It took you forever. Grey made me come over here and brush Hurricane because I was going to be too loud and wake you up. I want to get a move on and start this day. I think the horses are ready too,” Logan says, with a bounce in his step. His energy is all yellow — happy sunshine and rainbows. My heart breaks, because if this kid could be so happy in such a shitty situation, then what was he like in the real world?

  “Sorry, it took so long to get up. I guess my body needed the rest,” I tell him with a shrug. “Want to help me get these horses tacked?” I ask him.

  His expression changes from happy to elated. This kid is amazing. “Hell yes, I want to help you!” he yells out.

  “Language!” Grey responds in his best parent voice, from over on the other side of the cavern. He’s sitting and talking to Cass. They don’t look like they are arguing, which is a good sign.

  Turning back to Logan, I start giving him instructions, “Ok Wolvie, your job is going to be making sure these horses are brushed well. I’ll teach you how to put the saddle and bridle on, so you can do it alone next time. These are excellent horses, so you shouldn’t have any problems with them. I can take care of Red. Sound good?”

  “You’re awesome, you know that? I’m glad you came and saved us. I want Greyson to be happy again, and I think maybe you could help him do it,” he tells me, before walking back around Hurri to start on Storm’s grooming.

  We do our work in comfortable silence. Logan is good with the horses. They are tacked up and ready to go in no time. Cass and Grey finish cleaning up the camp and walk over. We load everything up and are prepared to leave.

  “How are we choosing which way to go?” I ask them. There are five possible choices besides the one we came through. All look the same, and you can’t see more than 5 feet in because of the darkness. If we stand still the cavern is so silent, so we can’t even tell if something lays in wait down one of the tunnels.

  “How about you spin in a circle and then stop, and we can choose that way?” Logan tells me.

  I smile at him and say, “Sounds as good an idea as any.” This kid is so clever. I start to spin and count the rotations in my head. At five I stop and point. I choose the tunnel closest to us.

  “I think we should walk the horses through again. If these tunnels are anything like the one we came through, the ceilings might not be tall enough,” Cass says. He looks like he didn’t sleep all night. I reach out and grab his hand and kiss his palm. I wish I could have a moment alone with him. I see Grey’s scowl as I let go of Cass’s hand. His energy goes from excited to angry in the two seconds it takes to look at him.

  Red takes point this time while I walk with Cass, and Grey takes the rear with Logan. Cass throws up his glowing orb, and we are gifted with a fantastic sight. Unlike the last tunnel, this one is covered in a glittery rock. I have never seen anything like it. I don’t think it even exists on Earth. It has a black background with silver ribbons running through it. Some of those ribbons are so shiny they look like a cut diamond. It is beautiful.

  “Wow! Logan exclaims, “This is amazing.”

  “It’s called genonite. It’s indigenous to Faerie and can’t be found on Earth. The Fae make a paste out of it to aid the healing of minor cuts and burns. We should scrape some off and keep it just in case,” Cass tells us. Pulling out a pouch from one of the saddlebags, he scrapes some into it with a knife he removes from his hip. I hadn’t noticed it before. I wonder if he has any other concealed weapons.

  Moving on, we walk for what seems to be days; there is no end to this tunnel. I am starting to get nervous, when all of a sudden the ground starts to shake. The walls are beginning to crumble at the seams. I brace myself between Cass and Red. The horses get spooked, but I hear Red calming them down. When it stops, there is a door on one of the walls. Out walk two men. Both are armed with guns and point them right at us.

  “Holy Shit,” I say, because what else is appropriate when two giant men are holding big ass guns at your face? The weapons are a weird amber color, but I do not doubt that they are just as deadly as regular ones. My hands come up, and before I know what is happening, I freeze time again.

  Everyone is frozen solid around me except for Red. “Azra, you need to release the time,” he says to me in a soft tone, like he is speaking to a deer.

  “These guys look like they are ready to kill us! I don’t think that would be a smart thing to do,” I tell him, with a nervous quake to my voice.

  “These are lower level guards. They don’t have the authority to take out a Light Prince, and I think that Cassiel has a plan,” he tells me in a comforting tone. It’s still weird to hear Red speak, but that voice is smooth. It’s like being in a warm blanket sitting near a fire.

  “Are you sure?” I ask him, as I begin to raise my hands. He nods his horsey head, and I release the time freeze. Everything speeds up around us like it’s on fast forward, and the scene plays again.

  “What do we have here? A couple of stragglers. How did you get in?” the huge burly one as
ks me. He has a face like a rhino and has a body to match. His skin is grey, and his eyes are yellow. I can smell him from here. It’s a sulfur scent masked with a campfire. His partner is just as ugly but has the face of a baboon. He seems just as nasty. He has hair all over his body so thick that it’s coming out of his shirt cuffs. Because of course, they both have suits on. They remind me of the guards at the Light, just more beastly.

  “We are here to seek sanctuary in the Dark,” Cass yells to them. His posture is princely and his tone all command.

  They both start laughing. With shoulders shaking, baboon says, “Sanctuary? That’s an odd request from a Light. Why are you even here?” This time his face is much more severe. He knows we are not supposed to be here, and he is starting to get suspicious. He eyes Red and begins to approach him. I step in front and block his view.

  “Get away from my horse,” I say. I know it’s not a good idea to let him know Red is an Arion. He looks a little too interested.

  “Don’t get feisty, little one. I just thought I recognized him, that’s all. He looks a lot like the Prince’s steed,” Baboon tells me.

  I wrinkle my eyebrows at him because he looks nothing like Storm. Also, how do they know Cass is a prince? I turn my head in confusion toward Cass and project to him. What is he saying? He looks nothing like Storm.

  He’s not talking about Storm. He is talking about the Dark Prince, Cass says in my mind.

  There is a Dark Prince? I project back.

  Yes, now if you don’t want to get caught, I need to say something to them, Cassiel says.

  He then gives the guards his full attention. “Listen, we don’t want any trouble. Yes, we are from the Light, but we are seeking sanctuary with the Dark. This is the Changer. I think the Queen will want to meet her,” Cass tells them. I give him a thanks-for-that look. I don’t know what the hell I am doing, but fuck, even I know that wasn’t a good move.

  “The Changer? How do we know it’s you?” the rhino asks with raise eyebrows, or should I say eye sockets, because he has no hair at all. Both of them appear shocked. They share a look that means they are going to take us anyway. They are just hardasses for the sake of it.

  “You don’t know, and there isn’t any way for you to find out standing in this cavern talking. Now take us to the Queen, or I am going to have to show you a bit of my light,” Cass says in a threatening tone, with sparks crackling in his hands. I only saw him act this way once; when we were in the hallway, and he called me out on my bullshit.

  “Yeah, yeah little sunshine. We’ll take you, but just so you know, it’s because we want to, not because you demand it,” Baboon says. He leads us through the rock door, and we come out into a closet. This is the last thing I expected.

  “What the fuck are we doing in a closet?” Grey asks. This is the first time he has spoken since the cavern. I can tell the conversation he had with Cass is getting to him.

  “Tell your human to keep his mouth shut. While we don’t do slavery here in the Dark, we don’t take too kindly to humans with big mouths,” Rhino says to me, with a snarl and a raised rhino lip. If it weren’t for the massive horn for a nose, it would look cute.

  “Don’t talk to him like that. He’s mine and can speak freely if he wants,” I say through gritted teeth. There is no way that I am going through all this crap again. I look over at Grey and see his fists clenching. I don’t think he liked being called mine, but it feels right somehow.

  Logan slips up next to me and grabs my hand. “It’s ok Azra, they don’t know any better,” he tells me with his small boy voice. He looks so innocent then, but brave too. It takes a lot of guts to speak out when there are two animals with big guns.

  Both Fae beasts huff and turn toward the door on the opposite side of the closet. If this is any indication of how it’s going to work out, we may have made a mistake coming here. The closet opens up into a large room. It seems like the back of a stage. Curtains are obscuring our view, and a thick purple carpet covers the floor. It smells like blood and death in here.

  When we round the corner, I realize we are in a throne room. It is empty except for a colossal throne atop a dais of black marble. Everything here is done in deep purples and onyx. There are huge curtains on all four walls. It makes this room look like one big silk-lined jewelry box with the throne as the ballerina.

  A groan of an enormous door jostles me out of my mind, and in walks an entourage of people. Leading them is the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen. She is in a voluminous black evening gown with so many layers of silky material that she looks like a walking oil slick. It has a tight bodice but comes out at the waist in waves of silk. There are two significant slits all the way up her legs. When she walks, you can see the creamy skin underneath. Her raven hair hangs in loose waves. It looks electric. Her eyes are such a vibrant purple, that I can see them from across the room. She marches right up to us with hands on her hips. She looks furious.

  “Culsu, Kroni what is the meaning of this? How dare you bring a Light into my castle, and with human pets no less,” she yells at the two guards.

  “Your Majesty, this girl claims to be the Changer. We thought you’d like to see for yourself; you know, in case it’s true and all,” Culsu says. He is the rhino look alike.

  She gets in his face and stares at him. The tension in the room is so high that you could suffocate from it.

  She looks over to Kroni, the baboon, and says, “You allowed this?”

  “Yes, your majesty. I felt you should make the decision,” he tells her, with a tilt of anger in his voice. He is the dominant of the two, and it is hard for him to reign it in, even for the Queen.

  This sets her off. She squares her shoulders and fists her hands at her side. Kroni begins to scream in agony as he drops to his knees. She leans down over him and says, “Never assume what I should or shouldn’t do.” And with that, he is set on fire. The blaze is so hot that my face starts to sweat. I jump and back up into Cass, who steadies me on my feet. She just roasted him alive. I can smell the cooked meat in my nose. It smells like BBQ. I gag at the scene and try to keep my composure.

  She turns to me and narrows her eyes. She pulls me into her gaze. I can feel the touch on my mind, but I shut it down. It’s like a reflex, the same as when I first used my powers. She cocks her head to the side and looks at me quizzically. “Now where would you learn to do that?” she asks. I’m intriguing her. That’s good; maybe she won’t kill us then.

  “To be honest with you, I have no idea. I don’t even know what I just did. I didn’t know I was Fae until four days ago.” I tell her, sounding braver than I am. I am shaking with fear right now. She can incinerate a person in seconds, and all her attention is on me.

  She stares at me for a few moments trying to decide if it’s true. Trying to decide if I am genuinely the Changer or not. She finally breaks eye contact and looks around the room. She notices the guys and the horses for the first time. Her fury comes back. “Someone gets these beasts out of my throne room now!” she screams to the servants behind her. They all rush over to us, and each grabs the reins of a horse.

  Before a young woman can take Red, I ask, “Will they be kept in a safe place? They need to be watered and fed. We haven’t exactly had the best time getting here.”

  “Curious. So many curious things that you are saying,” the Queen says to me, as she watches me like the bug she thinks I am. If she could pin my metaphorical wings down, she would. “Take them to the royal stalls and have them cared for like they are my own,” she tells the servants, and off they rush. She raises an eyebrow at me as if to say, “good enough for you?”

  “Thank you,” I tell her, with a gulp loud enough to be heard around the room. She nods and makes her way up to the throne. With a flourish, she snaps the skirts of her dress back and lands gracefully in the large purple chair. It matches the color of her eyes. The black silk of her dress drapes all the way down the steps of the dais. It’s awe-inspiring.

  “Now, what are you d
oing here?” she asks us. We stand before her in a line, one filthier than the other. Cass takes one step forward and bows. “Your Majesty, thank you for the audience. I am Prince Cassiel of the Light. I come here with my mate the Changer, Azrael, looking for sanctuary. We fled the Light with our human consort and his brother because Azra was being forced to choose the Light. My father was planning on tricking my mate into a betrothal and pushing her into picking the Light without her knowledge.”

  “Michael is still a selfish prick, I see. I guess when you have two thousand years of no one to keep you within the checks and balances, you tend to get a little full of yourself,” she says. Her nails are drumming on the throne. She glances to the left of her, and I notice movement for the first time. Two large jaguars’ approach from behind the curtains. Their yellow eyes trained on us with a curious stare. The one on the right brushes its head along her thigh before sitting down at her side. The one on the left hops down the dais and begins to pace in front of his queen.

  I stare in shock and fear at the huge beasts. They are larger than their animal counterparts. I wonder what they really are? She seems amused by my fear. She is getting off on holding this much power over my head.

  Grey starts laughing nervously, and this brings the Queen’s attention to him. She looks at him like he is a dog— someone she can make heel. “You’re the human consort?” she asks him. There is curiosity there, and maybe a little lust. I go to step toward him, but Cass grabs my arm.

  Don’t let her see how you care, Cass says in my head.

  The Queen doesn’t notice my concern because she only has eyes for Grey. “Answer the question, boy,” she says to him, as she walks off the dais and stalks over to him. She invades his space and gets up too close for my liking. Her finger trails along his jawline and down his neck. Her finger pauses on his pulse point, and she stares at him nose to nose. His eyes don’t leave hers, and at that moment I can tell she is enthralling him. Shit! This is going to get us killed. She’ll know he hates the Fae and me.