I had buried the Noxuer beneath my knickers and bras in my dresser, which I had figured would be as good a place as any for me to hide the death blade. Pushing open the door, I stopped in my tracks. Something was different.
The dandielillies are gone.
“I had them removed,” Traflier said, noticing me scanning the room.
“I would like to get dressed,” I choked out, “if you could both wait in the hall.”
Jax and Traflier filed out of the room.
I slid the box under my bed and rushed to pull open my underwear drawer. I moved the items around, and around. It was gone!
“JAX!” I yelled into the hallway. “The Noxuer is missing!”
“Desmoree,” Traflier said sternly, as he stepped in front of Jax to enter the room first. “You put a blade that can take the life from any living thing in with your unmentionables. Grace was putting away a few things she had picked out for you and tripped over herself when she opened the drawer and saw it.”
“Is she okay?” I asked. I could never have forgiven myself if I was the cause of her being hurt.
“She’s fine,” he said with the wave of his hand, as if it was of no importance to him. He is getting weirder.
“I put the Noxuer in my study, where it would be safe.” He stepped closer to me, and fixing his stare he asked, “Why do you need it?”
I had to think quickly. “It is safer with me, seeing as how I can’t be affected by it.” Not complete bullshit. “Can we go and get it please?” I moved towards the door, not waiting for a reply, and made my way out into the cobbled streets towards the tree where I had first met my father.
I would always remember the tree that way. Though it was not the best first meeting, it was what I got, so I held it close to my heart.
A feeling of sadness entered my heart again and, this time, lingered there as I took the last path towards the tree. I glanced over to where Phoneas had been giving away food the last time I’d taken this walk with Moyeth, but she was not there. Only a few people talking quietly amongst themselves filled the usually busy streets.
Traflier and Jax caught up quickly and when I opened the door in the trunk of the tree, I was surprised to find it contained a much larger space.
Okay, the more people, the bigger the lift. Smart magic.
We entered Traflier’s study and were immediately accosted by the smell of sulphur. Moyeth sat hunched over in one of the green leather chairs. He looked up as we approached him, his face red, blotchy and wet.
Crying. Another of my visions to come true.
“My dear boy, what is wrong?” Traflier asked as he lifted Moyeth up out of the chair by his shoulders. Though he had him standing in a moment, Moyeth supported none of his own weight.
“Phoneas,” was all he said before Traflier let go, allowing Moyeth to slump over again and weep into his hands.
“Where is she? What happened?” I asked, unable to stop my mind from going back to the last time I had seen her. Did Moyeth know about the baby and why would that make him so sad?
Remembering that meeting with Phoneas swiftly filled my heart with dread. Moyeth looked up at me a dep frown on his lips and his brow pinched in the middle. It was him I had sensed in the car on our return from Baldea. Moyeth had been hurting, and I had known it somehow. I had known something was wrong.
“She was attacked. She is gone,” Moyeth sighed as he pointed to a table where a black sheet lay over a something large and lumpy.
I walked over to the table, scared by what I was about to see. A lump formed in the back of my throat as I lifted the sheet and gasped, falling backwards five steps.
The beast!
The decapitated body of the beast from my dream lay on the table, oozing thick red blood.
“I know this creature,” I said holding my hand over my racing heart.
“How?” Traflier asked.
“I’ve seen it in my dreams. It has red eyes and a million pointy sharp teeth. Where is its head?”
Moyeth stood, suddenly energized. He walked over to me a black sack in his hands and a determined look on his face. Tipping the bag upside down, a bowling-ball-sized lump of matted fur thumped onto the table. The blood seeped out from beneath it and quickly made its way across the slick surface, dripping onto the floor.
Moyeth grasped the lump between both his hands and twisted it around so I could see the bright red eyes and gleaming shark teeth. “This beast was the Dazerarthro! It dragged her from the edges of Sayeesies and killed her, but I got it; I cut off its head.” Moyeth took a deep breath his hands still shaking as he gripped the sides of the beasts head.
“Why bring it here?” Jax asked.
Moyeth stormed him, grabbing his shoulders he pushed him back, pinning him against the wall.
“What’s it to you? The first Nazieth brought it here for Traflier to examine.” Moyeth dropped Jax and turned his back to him.
Jax ran his hand through his hair and leaned on the wall, seemingly happy to stay out of the way.
Traflier took a slow step closer to the beast. “These are normally a peaceful species; fish-eaters I think.” Not once did he take his eyes off the bloodied head Moyeth had dumped on the table.
“The Dazerarthro mutilated its spirit, the Dazerarthro was controlling it,” Moyeth said, heading for the door.
“Moyeth, I’m so sorry.” I wanted to tell him it was my fault, that I had the dream and I should have stopped her, but I couldn’t bring myself to add to his pain.
God, I hope he didn’t know she was pregnant.
Moyeth didn’t look back, instead he quickly took the elevator back to the surface.
“Where is the Noxuer?” I asked, turning towards Traflier whose gaze remained fixed on the decapitated beast.
He pointed to a shimmering black envelope, deformed by its contents, which sat centered on Traflier’s desk. I took the envelope and moved towards the door when Jax caught my arm.
“Did you see it attack her?” he whispered, almost sounding afraid to hear my response.
“No,” I lied. “I saw it in a nightmare. I didn’t know it was here, that it was real. I had the dream before I came to Sayeesies, before I knew monsters were real.”
Jax smiled, his green eyes shone and the dimple appeared.
My heart fluttered and he ran his hand down my arm to my hand but didn’t take hold, instead his fingers brushed mine softly, sending shivers up my spine.
“Jax, will you come with me?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
He nodded and we both entered the lift to make our way back to the surface. Traflier put on thick black latex gloves, too enamored with the beast on his table to notice or care about our exit. The doors to the lift closed and we made our way up.
Walking back to my room was strange. The few people who were in the streets were gawking at us, many glaring at me. A man stormed over to us and lifted Jax from the ground. He tossed Jax against a large white stone wall before I could process what was happening and began ranting as he lifted Jax again and wrapped his hands around his throat.
“You should have died! You probably brought it here, Tanzieth scum. There was never anything horrible in Sayeesies until you showed up, and now she’s dead. It should have been you.” He slammed Jax’s head against the stone wall again with a sickening thump.
I leapt forward, arms flexed, dropping the envelope and forcing my arms down, hard and fast, against his. Thankfully, it knocked Jax free of his grip and he fell to the cobblestones, gasping for breath.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I spat. “Jax is not the one to blame; he’s as innocent as you or I.”
The man laughed. “Innocent? You? You’re as impure as this Tanzieth trash.”
“Call me trash again and see what happens!”
“What could you possibly do about it, little girl? He is the spawn of traitors, an omen of evil, and you,” he said, taking a step towards me, his fat finger pointed square at me, “your mother ran away from
her responsibilities. Why don’t you run away too? We would have all been better off if you had just stayed gone.”
The patter in my chest became a raging beat, burning against my skin.
Before I could register what I was doing, I picked up the envelope. In one swift movement, I had reached inside of it, grabbed the hilt of the Noxuer, and pulled it from its pocket.
I stepped devilishly forwards and raised the blade, its tip less than an inch from his neck.
“You certainly will want to consider your next words,” I growled. “They may be your last.”
Sweat beaded on his waxy forehead, but he didn’t speak. I lowered the Noxuer and placed its cool blade against the burning skin of my left arm. He watched, eyes widening, as I ran it across my flesh, the familiar faint blue line appearing but again, no blood.
“Do you want to try it?” I asked the tiny man that stood before me. I stepped forward, flipping the Noxuer around in my hand so I held it out to him by the blade.
Jax coughed on the ground beside us and began to stand. The beady-eyed man backed away, his hands raised apologetically, or defensively.
Idiot.
My heart throbbed in my chest. Watching the man fumble and fall over himself as he fled excited me. Jax grabbed my arm, yanking me down from my cloud-filled head. It forced me to realize that it was not that long ago I had been completely disturbed with the prospect I could be feared by anyone, yet there I was, relishing in exactly that.
I shoved the Noxuer back into the envelope before Jax hauled me away. Pushing past my door, he continued to pull me through the hallway and into my room.
“What the hell was that?” Jax let go of my arm and rubbed at the bruise forming on his neck.
“What was what? I had to do something. He was trying to strangle you.”
“But the Noxuer. Why use the Noxuer?”
“I don’t know. Does it matter? It worked, didn’t it?”
“Des, you had him off me without pulling that on him. I get you wanted to scare him. But you could have killed him.”
Jax was right, what the hell was I thinking? This place is nuts. It’s making me nuts. What if he didn’t recognize the knife, what if he grabbed for it and I cut him? I have to remove the curse on the Noxuer.
I raised my eyebrow. “Look, I have to do something. If it works, the Noxuer won’t be able to hurt anyone ever again.”
Jax looked confused, but nodded then watched me in silence as I pulled the box out from beneath my bed. I unlocked it quickly and climbed up onto my bed before tipping the contents onto the covers to find Parabellum. I lifted the blue eye to the blade of the Noxuer, and Jax and I both looked on with anticipation.
As Parabellum made contact with the blade, a tingle rose from my fingertips and into my lower arm. It continued upward, stretching out until my whole body filled with vibrations. Jax moved to sit behind me on the bed, his hands steadying me at my waist as my body began to sway. My head felt weighted down by iron clouds, pushing against my skull until I was sure it was about to implode.
Then it stopped. The clouds dissipated and the room became clear. I looked closely at the blade of the Noxuer, its once silver gleam now blackened and dull. The life force once vibrating around it had gone.
I dropped the blade to the bed, and held my hand out in front of me. Jax’s arms were still firmly around my waist, his grasp tightening. We both watched in awe as the shard dug its way into Parabellum. It hummed with energy, vibrating as it folded in on itself, over and over again, until all that was left was a small, flat square stone no bigger than a penny. It still looked like an eye; it had a hole in the middle like a square pupil. The empty square was outlined by three lines. The first was white, followed by blood red and finally a thin dark blue that made up the outer edge and shimmered in the light.
I twisted to gaze into Jax’s eyes as he continued to hold me. His hands warmed my skin, his touch sending new shivers down my spine.
Before my eyes could meet his, they closed as the knowledge Frey said I would receive began to flow through my mind. So many visions, memories—not my own, but Frey’s. Flashes of when she had buried Parabellum in the sapling and when she first met my mother. A haze like peering at a photo through milk concealed many of them, but many more visions were clear, as if they were playing out before me: My ten-year-old self reading a book on the floor of my bedroom, surrounded by candles; Jax smiling as he looked across a sea of fey to where I was sitting beside Traflier and Moyeth; a hand passing over a shimmery orb; white leaves with torn edges that moved along the grass, unnatural but beautiful all the same; Rosaline telling me he will help you to see your power, he will be with you till the end; A swarm of color flying through me as I stood on the edge of a cliff; Jax, looking at me as I slept in this very bed-clasping at my hand, begging me to wake.
I opened my eyes and regarded Jax, dropping the stone onto the bedside table. I lifted my arms around his neck and pulled his face down to meet mine. His sweet, warm breath tickled my nose as he leaned in and kissed me deeply.
His hands moved around to my back, pulling me in tight to his chest. I caressed his arms, and began to unbutton his shirt. His soft kiss moved down my neck into the crease of my shoulder, sending a shiver up my spine.
I pushed back against him, ravenous, removing his shirt and revealing his dark, god-like chest. It glistened as the light from the Shulun sparkled into the room.
He grabbed me and pulled me to him once again, kissing me harder this time. Soon, the rest of our clothes were scattered across the room as we forgot about the past and what we still had to face. It was our moment, and it was all too easy to think of nothing but the feel of his skin against mine.
#
We rested in each other’s arms, the contents of the box littered around us. Something rubbed at the back of my leg, and I reached beneath the sheets and pulled the snake-like necklace out from under my thigh.
“Here,” Jax said as he took it and fastened it around my neck.
Something cold pressed against my chest. I looked down, and found the stone strung onto the chain. As its smooth surface touched my bare skin, I sensed an odd release, as if a weight had been lifted off of me. I could see bright blue swirls of energy—Jax’s energy. It wrapped around us both, encasing me in its glow. Its energy ran through me, strengthening every muscle, every cell. It was his strength but it was almost begging me to take it from him. Take it all for my own.
That’s it!
“Jax, I have to go.” I was sure that telling him this was going to spoil the moment in some way for him, but Frey’s visions and seeing Jax’s energy had given me an idea, and I needed to find out if it could actually work.
“I’ll come with you.” He jumped up, beginning to pull on his clothes. “You can’t go alone; I know what you are going to do.”
“Jax, no.”
“Promise me you won’t try to find the Dazerarthro.”
“I promise I won’t look for the Dazerarthro. I’ll be back. I need you here, I need you safe. I love you.” Um. What? Did I just say I loved him?
He smiled, pulled me in, and kissed me.
I could have easily become swept up in the passion yet again as the world drifted away, but I had to leave, so I stopped him before he could move his wandering hands any further.
“I truly do have to go now.” He looked at me with a childish pout as I pulled on my black flats and walked out the door.
First thing’s first, I thought as I glanced around the street ahead. I need to see Moyeth.
I took one step forward and he was there, walking towards me.
“Wow, I was just about to come and look for you,” I said, startled by his sudden appearance. My gaze wandered past him to a doorway where a man had been kneeling slightly, attempting to pick up a book he had dropped. I looked at him then at Moyeth. The man was no longer moving. But Moyeth was.
“Moyeth, what happened? Why…?”
“I let it take me,” he said, his gaze droppi
ng to his feet. “I wanted to be with her, but killing myself would not do it; I would not be in essence. So… I just let it have me.”
A veil fell over my vision as another image tried to come to the forefront. In only a second, I could see it as clear as if I were there: Moyeth alone in the woods, talking to himself. Talking about ascending, about essence. But I knew he only appeared to be talking to himself. I moved the vision closer and slowly the other voice emerged: “You will see her again. It is the only way, it will be quick, a moment and then eternity with the one you love.”
In the vision, Moyeth had concentrated on the tree in front of him, raised his arms above his head, and then mumbled something I could not make out. Then his body fell limp, crumbling to the dirt as if all the bones had been removed and only the gooey flesh had remained.
The vision was not over though, and after a few seconds, his body rose up in one swift movement. He looked to the moon, his eyes black orbs. Moyeth was no longer in there.
“Moyeth, what have you done?” I yelled.
The Dazerarthro had been given a physical form, and not just any. It now inhabited one of the most powerful gifted Stalisies in existence. Moyeth hung his head, tilting it ever so slightly to the side. Phoneas emerged beside him, lacing her fingers into his. She pulled him into an embrace that reignited his light, the light I had so successfully dimmed with my reaction. If I had not known that they were both dead, I would have thought it quite beautiful.
“Moyeth, the Dazerarthro now has all your strength, all your gifts. If it was a thousand to one shot to defeat it before, it just became a million to one.”
The Dazerarthro had to have had the ability to control the primitive beasts that had attacked Phoneas. Somehow it had known that if she were gone, Moyeth would be easy to sway; he would do anything to be with her again. At first we’d thought that if the Dazerarthro took a form, it would be easier to kill. But in the form of a Stalisies, the chance of getting close enough, let alone overpowering it, was slim to none.
“There is one thing I can’t understand,” I said. “Even with the added abilities, wouldn’t it have been easier to take a human?”
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 13