by Dante King
“What?” I asked.
The pixie had the temerity to blush.
“So, the Unseelie were the ones who destroyed my cart,” she whispered, keeping her voice down to hide her words from our new friends. “But that, uh, doesn’t mean that I’m in good with the Seelie. They kinda tolerate me, but... let’s just say I have some unfulfilled obligations where Siobhan herself is concerned…”
“You mean you owe her money,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “Is that it?”
Poppy smiled awkwardly. “Let’s just say it might be better if I’m not with you when you meet the lady herself. In fact, I should stay here in the backseat, just in case I set off an incident. There’s so many debtors among the Seelie, after all. Wouldn’t want the wrong person running up on me in a dark alley…”
For fuck’s sake, how many people did this girl owe money to? I had a hard time believing the Fae would tolerate that kind of behavior. I knew they had a whole weird cultural thing around favors—maybe that’s why they let a creature like Poppy swindle them.
“That’s fine with me,” I said, checking with each of my harem girls to see them nod.
Try as I might, I couldn’t see any ulterior motives in Poppy’s request. Maybe she’d try to steal the Humvee and drive herself off the Island—but there was no way Godfrey would respond to her requests. If she wanted to hide from her moneylenders, that was alright as far as I was concerned.
“Just tell me where Siobhan is,” I added.
Poppy pointed toward a finer tent than the rest, position at the barbican of the half-collapsed castle.
“That’s her tent,” the pixie said gravely. “Be careful speaking to Siobhan, Archlord. Use all your well-learned politesse, or she’ll lay your soul to waste.”
I did a double take. “You have the Stones in the Fae Realm?”
A faint smile played on Poppy’s face. “You know those jokes about how old Keith Richards is? Turns out he’s a lot older than you mortals have guessed.” With that, Poppy climbed into the backseat. “See ya!”
Still trying to figure out if the pixie was winding me up or not, I got out of the Humvee and indicated for my harem to follow me to the tent.
Guards parted for us as we passed, polishing vicious-looking weapons and whispering to themselves as they sized me and my team up.
This encampment looks like it’s gearing up for a war, I thought, my stomach sinking.
Clearly no one here thought there was a peaceful way to resolve things among the Fae. The Seelie and Unseelie were going to fight until only one form of Fae remained.
Lilith was working to make sure the Seelie were victorious, I remembered. But how far could I really trust Lilith?
At the tent’s opening, two elven guards who were even taller than the norm crossed spears across the canvas.
“Siobhan requests that the visitor attend her alone,” the left guard said without looking at me, his eyes straight forward like one of the guards at Buckingham Palace.
I glanced over my shoulder at my harem. They looked pissed to be left outside—and so was I.
“That’s not going to work for me,” I countered, crossing my arms over my chest. “We’re a team. Anything Siobhan has to say to me, she can say to my women as well.”
The two guards shared a look. Was that a hint of nervousness I saw in their eyes?
“The Lady has spoken,” the guard on the right said, sounding a bit uncertain. “Who should we announce is entering the Lady’s tent?”
I’d heard more than enough. With a growl, I reached deep down within and let the flames in my veins ignite. Leather wings exploded from between my shoulder blades, tendrils of pure darkness wrapping around my neck like a fringed collar as I transformed. Both guards took a step back at the sight of my power unveiled.
I knew I was risking a fight. But fuck it—Siobhan didn’t get to order me around. She wanted to make the rules? I’d make them right back.
Soldiers around camp tensed up, reaching for their weapons. Was our mission about to spill over into violence before it even got started?
Before I could find out, a voice echoed from inside the tent. “He can bring one woman,” a female voice said. Whoever it was sounded irritated with the commotion outside, as if a battle among their encampment was little more than a mild annoyance. “Be reasonable. They won’t all fit in the tent!”
I was tempted to argue the point, but if I did, we’d be standing here all day. And I really would rather meet with Siobhan without filling the Fae camp with a mountain of corpses.
“Whatever,” I said, slipping a hand around Maddie’s waist. “The rest of you stay out here. I’ll be right back—”
Before I could step inside, however, Eiko shot to the front of the group.
“Master,” she whispered, carefully avoiding using my real name in front of the Fae, “I have to ask that you bring me into your meeting, and not another one of your women.”
Jealous glances greeted this proclamation, but the look on my face stilled any conversation.
“You know why,” Eiko said thickly. She was unwilling to discuss it where our potential enemies could hear, and I didn’t blame her.
So. This was one of the decision points where I could accidentally trigger the Day of Judgement. Great—no pressure, Luke! It’s just the fate of all existence riding on your shoulders. No big deal.
Over the objections of some of my other harem girls, I let Eiko come forward.
Maddie was not one of the complainers—she stepped aside with a nod, understanding better than most the gravity of the situation.
“Go for it,” the angel whispered, smiling at me as I wrapped an arm around the raven-haired instructor’s waist.
“I think we can make that work,” I said, affecting the air of a magnanimous conqueror as I held Eiko’s beautiful body against mine. The stares of jealousy from both of the guards let me know it was working. “Would you like to accompany me to a meeting with the Fae, darling?”
Eiko knew her part and played it to the hilt.
“Of course,” she purred, affecting that Mona Lisa smile that always drove me crazy. “Lead the way, Master.”
Together, we stepped past the guards and into the tent.
A smoky ambiance engulfed us, the scents of rosemary and jasmine mingling with the rough smell of the canvas tent. Inside, torches cast a wan light across a dirt floor covered in thick rugs.
A large wooden table dominated the center of the room, surrounded by a group of Fae advisors. At their head waited the woman I’d been searching for. One look at her and I knew this could be none other than Siobhan herself, the leader of the Seelie Fae’s resistance.
How to describe Siobhan? It wasn’t easy.
Since leaving Earth and entering the Infernal Realm, I’d been exposed to so many extreme examples of goddess-like beauty that lingerie models and actresses would have looked almost commonplace to me.
Yet there was something about Siobhan that put her ahead of even the most delectable, worship-worthy beauties of the Infernal and Celestial spheres.
Upon stepping into a room with her, you got the impression that the world had just become a little less solid—that you’d stepped into an ethereal realm where dreams came true, almost like the fairy tale promise of the Fae Realm itself.
The basic facts: she was tall, taller than any woman in my harem and maybe only an inch or two shorter than me. Her boots made it hard to tell for certain. That day she’d dressed for strategy and battle, not to woo a moral visiting from another Realm, so she wasn’t wearing one of the wispy, diaphanous gowns that were the hallmark of the Fae Realm’s leaders. Even if she had, however, it would’ve been hard to see how she could have been any more beautiful.
Like Raquelle she was a redhead, but while Raquelle’s angelic locks were a cherry shade that made me think of fizzy, bubbling soda, Siobhan’s shimmering tresses were the deep auburn of a forest floor a week before Halloween. In fact, there was something witchy about her—th
ough she didn’t wear dark makeup around her eyes or matching clothes, something made me think she’d have been a goth girl if she grew up back on Earth.
Siobhan leaned over a map of the Fae Realm that looked far more complete than the one Lilith showed me in the liminal zone. Tiny carved pieces stood for armies, outposts, hidden reservoirs of support in the populace.
She turned away from all of that and fixed me to the spot with her piercing blue eyes, the shade and intensity of a glacier being sheared in half.
“The Candidate,” Siobhan said, balling her hands into fists and pushing them into her lower back. I got the impression she’d been leaning over the map for a long time, planning, and only my arrival had snapped her back to the present moment. “And a visitor, I see.”
“I understand we don’t do names here,” I said, stepping forward. “I told one of your subjects to call me ‘Archlord’ on the way over here—that title will do for now.”
I leaned down to plant a kiss on the back of Siobhan’s hand. After a moment, she allowed me to.
“Yet you are not Archlord,” Siobhan said, sounding amused. “Not yet, in any case.” Her eyes traveled to Eiko. “And who’s this?”
Before Eiko could possibly slip up and give the woman her true name (not that I thought she’d make an error like that), I took over the conversation.
“A former instructor from the Celestial Academy,” I explained, putting a possessive hand on the top of Eiko’s ass. “She’s defected to my side—she’ll be assisting me as I hunt for Oni in your Realm.”
Siobhan nodded slowly.
“Very well,” she said, watching Eiko with a gaze that wasn’t entirely trustful. Did she suspect what Eiko’s hidden abilities were? “So Lucifer’s new whelp managed to bag a teacher from his old alma mater, huh? I bet the Prince of Darkness will be crowing about that for decades.”
“I’m not interested in what the Prince of Darkness thinks,” Eiko said smoothly, showing she wouldn’t be intimidated. “Just my new Master.”
Siobhan snickered at that.
“Leave us,” she said to her strategists.
None of her entourage looked ready for combat in any case, should things go bad here. These men were prized for their mental acuity and strategy, not their sword arm. They went with token concern, leaving Siobhan, Eiko, and me alone in the sizable tent.
As soon as her courtiers were gone, Siobhan relaxed into a more businesslike posture.
“I assume the Headmistress has briefed you on the situation?” Siobhan asked, gesturing for me to stand next to her at the map table. “Your little friend has caused an intra-Realm incident. Now the Fae stands a heartbeat away from the Day of Judgement.”
Eiko gave my hand a squeeze as I took my place next to the leader of the Seelie resistance. She wanted to remind me what dangerous ground I trod upon—as if I could forget.
The slightest error here could doom all three of our Realms to an apocalyptic war.
“I’m here to spring Oni from wherever the Unseelie have him,” I said, scanning the map with more than casual interest. “From what I hear, they’re your enemies too, right?”
“In a manner of speaking,” Siobhan said, showing her teeth. “I take it Lilith didn’t give you a crash course in the political details of the Fae Realm, did she?”
I shook my head. “She was more focused on the mission.”
Siobhan nodded as if she’d expected this.
“Right now, the Unseelie control all the levers of power,” Siobhan explained.
I found myself more than a little surprised to see her opening up this way to an outsider—then I remembered that I came with Lilith’s vouchsafing. As far as the leader of the Seelie cared, she was talking to Lilith’s representative—which made me completely trustworthy. She had no idea about the wedge between the Headmistress and my team.
“Sounds rough,” I said, rubbing the stubble on my chin.
Now that I looked clearly, I could see the map had been marked to show areas of Seelie resistance in Unseelie territory. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see the Seelie were outnumbered—and badly. They looked to be on the verge of losing the Fae Realm entirely.
“You don’t know the half of it,” Siobhan said. “We’re taxed half to death, yet we’re not allowed to hold positions in our governments—to look after our own people! In ages past, there have been times when things weren’t as bad as they are now. But Queen Titania is a monster. The Fae who go to her castle as a yearly offering never return.”
“Reminds me a little bit of Queen Bathory,” I thought. “Does she bathe in the blood of her subjects, too?”
Siobhan shivered. “I don’t know. What I do know, is that this isn’t the way things are meant to be. For thousands of years, the Fae Realm had two Queens—one from the Seelie, and one the Unseelie. Somewhere along the line, the balance was broken, and the present state of affairs proceeds from that.” Siobhan punched her palm with a fist. “We need to bring the balance back. Lilith has been helping us from the shadows for a long time. We owe her much.”
My mind was already making connections. “I see. And as for that Seelie Queen… I’m guessing that would be you?”
A faint smile spread across Siobhan’s face. “You wouldn’t be one of her agents if you weren’t perceptive,” she said, sounding pleased. “You’re very powerful as well—I can tell. And you’ve brought a very powerful team into our Realm with you. Yes, I can see you’re exactly what we need.”
I cleared my throat. Before we got down to business, there was something I wanted to know.
“My group and I ran into a beast on the way to your camp,” I said, provoking a raised brow from Eiko. “A giant stone angel with glowing red eyes. It tore the woods up pretty badly chasing us?”
Siobhan fell silent. I could tell she didn’t want to talk about it, but I wasn’t about to let her off the hook.
Rather than say anything, I allowed the silence to stretch out. I knew from long experience that doing that in a conversation left the other person desperate to fill the space with something—it was even a way to get people to give you information they didn’t want to hand over.
Apparently, the Fae were no better at resisting psychological tactics than humans.
“It’s a monster,” the resistance leader whispered.
Her eyes grew faraway, staring into the distance. Suddenly, I realized Siobhan and her group had run into Holofernes at least once—and that they hadn’t escaped without casualties.
“The Seelie call it the Red-Eyed Angel,” she explained. “I don’t know what it used to be, but Queen Titania did something to it. It doesn’t even distinguish between Seelie or Unseelie any longer—it just kills.” She turned and faced me, staring me full in the face. “I’m shocked you survived an encounter with it, to be honest.”
I know what it is, I thought, gritting my teeth. And I know who’s responsible.
Queen Titania might have corrupted Holofernes, but Judyth was the one who stranded the Angel of Vengeance in the Fae Realm in the first place. If I got the opportunity, I had to free him somehow.
Holofernes’s fate raised an interesting question, however—one I couldn’t waste the opportunity to ask.
“But it’s Oni who’s going to set off the Day of Judgement?” I asked. “Not that thing? That doesn’t seem like it makes very much sense, Siobhan. Oni wouldn’t hurt a fly—not unless I commanded him to, in any case.”
Siobhan gazed upon the map for a few more moments, then turned away with a sigh and threw herself into a high-backed chair near the rear of the tent.
“The Red-Eyed Angel is a mad dog,” she said, sounding almost unbearably weary. “Seelie and Unseelie alike have had to rearrange their entire armies around it. But your Oni? Your Oni is a wedge. One that can give the Unseelie total control over the Seelie, once and for all.”
The idea intrigued me—but before I could ask for more details, Eiko spoke for me.
“How?” the instructor asked, tuggin
g her dark robes tighter around her curves.
Strangely, Siobhan smiled through her tiredness at the sight. “As disruptive as he is, your demon isn’t the real problem. It’s what Oni brought with him.”
Eiko and I shared a look. Neither of us had heard a thing about this.
“The creature brought something along with him when he entered the Fae Realm,” Siobhan explained. “Despite the best work of my agents, I’ve been unable to discover what it is—that bitch Queen Titania has the information locked up tighter than a bug’s ass. But whatever it is, it threatens to unravel the very foundations of the Fae Realm. No one knows what it might be, except for the Queen herself. Which is why we’ve got to stop her.”
Huh? I shook my head.
“I’m just here to get my demon back,” I protested.
In an instant, Siobhan’s tiredness evaporated. Within moments, she looked so fierce it seemed impossible that she’d ever been so exhausted publicly. She sprang forward, as lithe as the hilt of a knife, and got right up in my face.
“That’s not what the Headmistress promised me!” she hissed, eluding Lilith’s true name. “She told me she was sending me a team who could help me take Titania down. I saw your girls—every one of them is worth a hundred of my soldiers. Together, we’ll storm Titania’s castle and rip it down stone by stone. Only then will the Seelie truly be free!”
Siobhan had begun to sound manic. As smoothly as a playing card in the hand of a magician, Eiko slipped between the two of us. The instructor put an arm around Siobhan’s shoulders, her face filling with a sympathy I could hardly believe.
“I’m sorry,” she said, staring deep into Siobhan’s face with her dark eyes. “But I’ve seen the future, Siobhan. If I allow you to talk the Archlord into attacking Titania directly—which would have happened here today without me present—you’ll all be killed. You, the Archlord, his harem. Titania’s army would slaughter them.”
I knew in an abstract fashion that there were several possible futures I needed to avoid during this meeting. But having it shoved in my face in such a blunt fashion sent a chill down my spine. With the gift of prophecy singing in her veins, Eiko took on a fearsome appearance—like the Oracle at Delphi, speaking the tongue of the Gods.