The Councilor for the Ifrit, Ezster, scoffed. “So you suggest we get rid of the most experienced, most decorated Director we’ve had in nearly nine hundred years, in the middle of a war? Tell me again how you got to be Councilor for the Ghul, because it certainly wasn’t for your political prowess.”
“I think the more pertinent question is who she had to fuck to get the position? Maybe it was everyone?” Azar added.
“ENOUGH!” Killian yelled, and thumped down a fist. “Councilor,” he directed to Lila, “if you wish for me to step down as Director, so be it. But we can put that issue to a vote after we win this war. To do so beforehand would be folly.” He gave Azar and Ezster a stern look. “If we could please be adults about this? Our people are about to be slaughtered or enslaved, so if you could put your petty feuds on hold, that would be appreciated.”
He clenched and unclenched his fists, and his face was perfectly calm once again. “A quick vote. All in favor of the Fae allies staying during the War Council, raise your hand.” Everyone except Lila raised their hands. “Good, they stay.”
He looked at Jack and Lorcan. “Please tell us everything you believe is pertinent to the allies winning the war. As you have probably gathered, we had no idea that there was a civil war amongst the Fae. The ultimatum and subsequent attack were unexpected. I have talked to my sources in Europe, and they too had no idea.”
Lorcan looked at Jack for permission to speak first and Jack nodded. “Go ahead. Speak freely, you know more than I about the civil war, and the genocide."
“I have learned from Azar that the knowledge of Fae culture here in the United States is rather limited, which is understandable as you would have had very little opportunity to interact with us on US soil. We were once tethered to the soil of Europe, through magical means, and we recently realized this tether was kept strong by the Tuatha Dé Danann.”
“Tuatha Dé Danann, Fae, what’s the goddamn difference?” Lila asked.
With the patience of a saint, Lorcan explained. “The Tuatha Dé Danann are the children of Danu, the Goddess. Jack here and-” Azar gave a subtle shake of her head. She didn’t want the Council to know she was part Tuatha if she could help it. Lorcan continued “And a few others, have special abilities. I am sure you know that Jack is the Green Man, the Heart of the World? If Jack dies, the world dies.”
“That’s a fairytale told to little children,” Lila said.
The elderly Marid Councilor, who had been silent up until now, cleared his throat. “It is not a fairytale I wish to test, wouldn’t you agree?” Everyone nodded, and Jack just smiled enigmatically. He did enigmatic well.
The Marid Councilor waved a hand. “Please, Prince, continue.”
Lorcan gave the man a tight nod. “The Fae got tired of being the second rung on the totem pole, as you Americans would say, and decided that they’d had enough of the old gods, and being limited to the lands of Europe. They wanted the world. The two Courts joined forces for the first time in recent memory. They began systematically destroying every person within their reach with even a drop of Tuatha Dé Danann blood in their veins. And it worked. Slowly we could move outside the boundaries of Europe, hovering inches above the surface. But as a side effect, the world became off kilter; the weather became unpredictable, natural disasters arose, wars broke out across the human world. The Tuatha did more than keep us tethered to our homelands. They maintained balance in the world.”
This was the first Azar was hearing of this too. She knew that Jack was intrinsically tied to the world, but she didn’t realize all Tuatha were bound that way. Maybe even she was? She shook her head, bringing herself back to the present as Lorcan continued to speak.
“But the Fae have never been known for their love of humans, and they were too selfish to see the effect they were having on the planet. A few of us still adhere to the old ways. The Goddess has given us this world to live on, but she could take it away just as easily. So we fought back. Once we had lost the element of surprise though, we started to get slaughtered. We saved who we could, and we ran. We ran to Jack, the Heart of the World, and he told us to put our faith in Azar of the Ifrit. And we have.”
“Why Azar?” Someone asked, perhaps the Shaitan Councilor. She learned his name was Sephtis.
Jack fielded this question. “The Goddess told us so. We do not argue with the divine.”
No one who had spent three-seconds in the company of Danu would deny her anything.
“Your Gods are not our Gods,” Sephtis replied, but without malice and Jack nodded.
“This I understand, and there is a time and place for the theological debate that all gods are one god and it is just the worship that differs. However, for the sake of expediency, no one here is asking you to blindly follow the words of our Goddess. Please, do whatever you need to do. But Danu has asked us to put our faith in Azar, and that is what we’ll do. Our loyalty, as it is, is not to the Djinn, but to her personally. It just so happens that her loyalty is to her race, and that is your boon.”
“Along with the loyalty of the Weres and the Unbound. It seems that if Azar Nazemi felt the inclination, she could abandon us all to our fate,” Ezster said. She glanced at her quizzically, as if she were trying to read Azar’s true intentions by staring into her soul.
“The loyalty that has been given to me is a responsibility I take very seriously. The lives of the Were, the Unbound and the loyalist Fae mean no more and no less to me than the Djinn. Luckily for all, it behooves us to join forces. Now, tell us about the major players. Who is moving the chess pieces from behind the scenes?”
She couldn’t help but grin when Aaron leaned close to Tao, and whispered, “Did she just use behooved in a sentence? Who does that?” Tao shrugged, but the corners of his mouth were curling upwards, kind of like a smile.
Lorcan considered the question, as did Jack. “The Royal families have the most power, both politically and magically. They can call men to arms, and to refuse their call is tantamount to treason. The punishment for treason is death. Their power is extensive, although individually, they differ in strengths. For instance, my mother Lustre, Queen of the Unseelie Court, is a master of illusion. She can make you believe that everyone around you is dead, or that you are drowning in snakes. However, she is weak in hand to hand combat and will probably stay off the battlefield, which is fortunate as she needs to see her victim to work the illusion magic. My brothers, the Blood Prince and the Golden Prince of the Unseelie Court, have similar destructive magic.”
“Why is your brother called the Golden Prince? I thought the Seelie crown was called the Golden Crown,” Killian asked.
Lorcan nodded. “Cian is half Seelie, half Unseelie. Mother liked to dally with the Seelie prisoners. A most unenviable position in our world until now. Luckily, his strength lies in making people love him, even as he is torturing them. It wasn’t an ability that had ever been seen in the Unseelie Court, though there were whispers of an ancient king who possessed the ability centuries ago. I always believed that he’d developed the power early to survive being a mixed-blood in the Unseelie Court. Cian is, well, he’s different to the rest of the family. No more or less cruel, but a product of his environment. He could have been a good ruler one day, if he wasn’t born to the tender mercies of my mother.” Regret creased Lorcan’s normally ageless face, or maybe it was remorse or hopelessness. He obviously felt guilt regarding this Cian, it was etched across his face. He sucked in a deep breath through his nose.
“Oisrin on the other hand, the Blood Prince, was born evil. He killed a nursemaid when he was just three winters for fun. He can draw every ounce of blood from a person’s body through the pores of their skin, until they are just a husk surrounded by a pool of plasma. It is actually quite gruesome to watch."
Huh. Sounds like the evil prince of the Unseelie and Lila the blood licking foot monster would be a match made in heaven. Azar glared across the table. More like a match made in Hell.
Everyone was trying to process th
e information overload that Lorcan had dropped on their laps. But apparently, he wasn’t quite done with the Truth Bombs yet. “These aren’t their only abilities; these are just the ones that they excel in. All of the royals, and even some of the nobles, can make minor illusions, open old wounds, sift from place to place, and heal ourselves and others to a certain degree.”
Lila stared at Lorcan in a new light. “And what is your talent for magic, Black Prince of the Unseelie Court?” She sneered out his whole title, as if to remind him that she thought he was scum sucking evil.
Lorcan just smiled. “I can kill people instantly, with a thought. The cells of their bodies start to die, and they fall to the ground.” He stared hard at Lila. “Their bodies blacken and bloat with necrosis. It is why I am called the Black Prince, and it is why I am heir to the Unseelie throne.”
Lila visibly paled for an instant, but then she was back to her resting-bitch-face.
“No King of the Unseelie?” Azar asked.
Lorcan shook his head, “No. My mother had him assassinated when I was but a boy.”
Azar was especially glad that she hadn’t grown up in the Unseelie Court. She’d thought the Djinn were bad, but that was like The Hunger Games year in, year out.
She already knew that Finlay had killed most of the direct line of royals to the Seelie throne except Nevyn. Finlay was a cousin, on Nevyn’s father’s side, which was why he became King after the genocide killed the rightful King and Queen of the Seelie court, as well as Nevyn’s older brother and sister. After the brutal assassination of the Seelie Royal family, most of the Seelie nobles joined Finlay’s cause and helped murder the rest of the Tuatha. No one knew what Finlay's abilities were.
Azar explained all this to the rest of the Councilors, trying to leave Nevyn out of it as much as she could. The Djinn weren’t above using a child as a bargaining chip.
By the time they recessed the meeting, they’d gone over every ability, strength and weakness the Fae army had. They were allergic to cold iron, of course, which was why Killian had ‘appropriated’ an iron works in Jersey to start churning out iron daggers, swords and had someone working out the logistics on iron bullets. Although this might sound simple, the iron had to be cold iron, and therefore not worked to a heat that is high enough for it to lose its magnetism, or so Jack explained. The concept of metalworking made her head hurt, and she was happy to let the Djinn weaponsmiths do their thing.
The Fae also couldn’t sift to locations under the surface of the earth, which is why the dens were safe, and most couldn’t use their magic without seeing their intended victim. The average Fae soldier had very little magic though, just the ability to sift, and intense weapons and battle training. They were also more agile, faster and ruthless.
Azar’s head hurt almost as much as her heart. How could they defeat anyone with such debilitating strengths?
Lorcan and Jack went to sit in Central Park during the recess, to immerse themselves back in nature. Being in the city surrounded by cement and steel was uncomfortable for any Fae. They took the opportunity to sit beneath a magnolia tree, and Azar crossed the park to visit her family and Mira.
When she knocked, she wasn’t surprised when Roxx opened it again. He seemed to spend most of his days in the house.
“Azar! It’s nice to see you. Come in. Keeley and Yasmin have gone shopping, but the unhappy patient is in the cinema room watching Die Hard 2 for the seventh time. She’ll be glad for the company, I think. Convalescing doesn’t come naturally to our Adel soldier.”
Roxx went to hop in the elevator, but Azar shook her head. “Let’s take the stairs.”
Roxx shrugged and they mounted the stairs together. Roxx, while slim, was impossibly athletic. He took the stairs two at a time, and Azar struggled to keep up. He was almost Fae in his litheness.
“So, how’s your stay in New York going? Finding things to do?”
Roxx gave her a grin, big and wide showing perfectly straight white teeth. A small diamond glinted in his left incisor. It should have made him like a pimp, but instead it highlighted the devilish glint in his eye.
“It’s going well. I’ve found a few projects to keep me busy.”
Azar held up her hand. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to be an accomplice after the fact.”
Roxx laughed and shrugged. She could only imagine what her old contacts in the NYPD would think.
Thinking about her old life reminded her of her ex-boyfriend Keenan Reilly. Maybe boyfriend was too strong a word. Maybe ex-lover would be a better one. He was a Djinn informant now, but Azar didn’t know what had happened to him since the New York Adel compound had fallen. With any luck, they would forget about him and he could finish out his life in peace. Well, hopefully it would be peace if they could defeat the Fae, or else it may be in a new form of subjugation that would make his attachment to the Djinn look like a play date. Azar didn’t know what they had planned for the humans of the world, only the Djinn and the Were. But if they wanted to make them their servants and slaves, then it could only be worse for the humans who were even further down the food chain.
Now that she was a Councilor, perhaps she could get him released from his indenture. She made a note to ask Killian about it. He was in control of all the Adel intelligence resources. He’d do it for her. Killian liked her, maybe even loved her in his own brotherly way. Hell, she could order him to do it.
Roxx led them through double doors into the home theatre room.
“Seriously, Hollywood? A1 Jet fuel doesn’t just flame up like that unless you are an Ifrit. Idiots.” The grumbling voice came from somewhere in the darkness, and Azar recognized Mira’s sweet dulcet voice.
“I’ll be sure to write them an angry letter about it,” Azar drawled, and Mira turned toward the door.
“Azar! How are you going? How’s the War Council? What’s happening on the outside world? Please convince Keeley that I’m fine and can leave the house before I go insane. I’m not made for bed rest.”
Azar envied Mira’s presence. Mira was only 5’3, but she was a powerhouse, and therefore seemed much bigger than her diminutive size.
A sly grin passed over the Marid’s face. “Or should I say Councilor? The paranormal world is abuzz with news of the Unbound’s step up in the world. Congratulations.” There was no snideness in her tone, she seemed to be genuinely happy that the Unbound had gotten their own seat on the Council, and that she was Councilor. Mira was ever the pragmatist, and she had always been fair and just. Azar should have known she would have been fine with everything that had happened.
“Just Azar, please. I need friends more than I need loyal subjects at the moment. How are you feeling?”
“A hundred percent. Actually, better than a hundred percent. I feel hundreds of years younger than I am.”
“You don’t look a single day over a hundred,” Azar said with a smile. “Let me catch you up on everything. I could really use your counsel.”
They walked around the halls of her father’s old house, which partly belonged to her now, as she told her friend about everything that had happened, about the fight with the Fae, about Becca and moving into the dens.
They talked about the one problem she didn’t feel comfortable talking about to anyone else. Bast had been gone since their battle with the Fae at Oliver’s cabin. His own self-flagellation driving him away from Azar’s side, and off on some ‘mission’ in South America to gather Adel troops, or something like that. He’d barely stopped to tell her that he was going.
“You must decide if your love is strong enough to survive the possibility that he will never be whole again,” Mira said sadly.
She had been Bast’s partner in the old days, when he was first in the Adel. They’d continued to be good friends after Bast had bought Coney Island Amusements from Mira’s father.
“I love the man with everything in me. But he is pulling away. It’s like he’s preparing me for his eventual, permanent absence and it scares me, Mira. I can’t live w
ithout him, which sounds pathetic and desperate, but he’s been my rock, my tether after everything I’ve been through this past year. Without him I feel like I am just floating through problem after problem alone.”
Mira patted her back. “Never alone, but you have to understand what this would be doing to his sense of self-worth. He cannot defend you, make love with you, or even console you when you are sad. Bast has always been a pillar of strength, and he has a kind heart even if he hides it most of the time. This would be killing him as much as it is hurting you.”
Azar sighed. She knew that, and had tried to reassure him over and over, but so much of her life had been out of control lately. She’d kind of taken for granted that he knew the depth of her feelings. Maybe she’d been wrong. Could she tell Mira about her other problem? Not that she considered Oliver a problem, or Donovan for that matter. But her feelings for Jack, Oliver and Donovan were definitely problematic. She slid her eyes toward Mira, and as much as she wanted to trust her with this, she couldn’t.
“Perhaps we can find a Fae powerful enough to reverse the magic that was imbued in Posidagi? If we can reverse it quickly enough, he might survive,” Mira mused.
“I’m not sure I want to risk Bast on a might.”
They both sighed and walked in silence for a little longer.
“I better get back to the Council. Otherwise Lila will have them all rolling over and bearing their bellies to the Fae.”
Mira laughed. “I’d heard Lila had been voted onto the Council. I can’t say I understand the wisdom of their choice.”
Ha, that was an understatement, but everyone knew Azar’s feelings about the Ghul in general, and Lila specifically.
Mira walked her to the door, and they hugged. “I’ll talk to Keeley about cutting short your convalescence. You seem fine, and to be honest, we need you.”
Mira nodded sadly. “I know.”
Azar walked back across the road, to where Jack and Lorcan were still sitting cross-legged in the park. They looked so very other. Jack earned his name as the Green Man, as he was actually physically green. Well, his skin was the pale color of moonlight, but it was kissed with green, like frost on green grass. His hair was a messy brown, sticking up in tufts. But his eyes were closed, and it was his eyes that marked him as something alien. They were large in his face, a moss green color, but the irises were huge, so no whites showed in their depths, like the eyes of an animal.
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