Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series

by Rebecca Bosevski

“If you shoot me you won’t get the gateway opened.” My voice shook a little. I had no idea if a gunshot to the head would be fatal, or if my shield would stop it, and I had no plans on finding out.

  “HAND OVER THE KEY!” Officer Peck ordered again. I took a step back, looking from the pile of fabled offering to my hand and the key.

  “NOW!”

  My arm shaking, I lifted the key and he quickly snatched it away, ducking to beside the pile of bodies.

  “Stupid fairy bitch. You think they didn’t know what you were doing? You think we were not watching. We know where you have been, we know what you planned. But now we have the key we can open all of the doorways. The coven of souls will rule all the worlds.”

  A rustling noise came from within the mound. The heap of bodies breathed. It rose outwards, then sucked in. I watched, frozen, in awe of the stack of death coming to life.

  Then a hand shot from the top of the mound and pushed the body of a dead woman so that it rolled over other dead bodies and slapped into the pool of thick blood surrounding the pile.

  The arm was followed by another and another as several people climbed free of the pile. Hidden beneath the death, they waited. They looked like regular people. Business women, an ambulance officer, another police officer, two twenty-something twins that hissed at me as they clawed free.

  “So this is the coven?” I asked, turning on my knee and standing to see the rest of them unearth themselves.

  “As you rise from beneath the blood of the offering, you rise as one, a coven united in power.” Officer Peck called to them ignoring my question. “Sangist offra magni feracta, rise and take your place, stand ready to receive your power.”

  What the hell was that cast for and how the hell did he know it? I thought as I watched the pupils expand in eyes of the coven members. Creepy.

  Officer Peck looked at me, his pupils too were dilated. “We will be the rulers of this world.” His dark eyes bore into mine but he spoke to the others. “My fellow coven, we have the key to worlds, we can open the doorways to power, to the future, and to the past.”

  I focused on the energy inside me. Ava’s magic danced with my own under my skin. It swelled and as it came to the tips of my fingers I thought of Jax. I thought of the logaras and the other demons within the darkness. Trying to open a portal to somewhere you have never been is near impossible. Ava had made it look simple. But every time I tried to call the gateway open, it fizzled on the edges of my magic like it refused to attempt it when it knew I would fail. So I thought only of Jax.

  I saw his face. His green whirlpool eyes and the look he gave me as they were pulling him under. Then I released the energy and it circled around, blue and white. It reached upwards in a swimming oval. Unlike Ava’s portals, this was three times the size and struggled to hold any real shape. Its edges were bending and twisting, warping. As it rose up the coven all froze in place behind me.

  “The gateway. The mouth is opening!” one of them called. I chanced a look behind me and all but Officer Peck knelt, arms outstretched in front of them. Their bodies hummed as they worshiped the gateway about to open.

  I pulled free the scrap of paper I scrawled the cast onto. It wasn’t long, just old. The words came out clumsy and sounding like gibberish.

  “Dorlel dominesta livest oprendo.” Roughly translated it meant open living world to darkest door. Instantly the gateway solidified into an enormous door shape with a pointed top. I said the cast again and the centre solidified, blocking the view of the alley’s back wall and its haphazard graffiti. It moved like the portal to Sayeesies. Like living liquid metal.

  I said the cast one more time and a roar erupted from the gateway. A hurricane breeze hit me, forcing me back a step. The liquid metal vibrated in sharp spikes that shot out in varied lengths, completely uncontrolled.

  Something dark sprung through the gateway, shooting up to the sky. I followed its shadow as far as I could and watched as it was joined by a much more familiar one. A dragon. A burst of fire erupted in the sky, followed by a painful wail. The ash of the creature’s remains speckled my skin as it fell like a black snow.

  There was silence. My heart hammered in my chest as I waited for something to happen. Where was Jax?

  Then, the wave hit. A dark cloud of evil gushed from the gateway. The darkness ploughed through towards us and when the first of the back mist touched my skin it sent shooting pains throughout my body. I cast my shield with as much energy as I could, locking it in place. The darkness surrounded me but couldn’t break through, instead it bounced off with each advance it attempted. The screams that filled the air told me the coven weren’t so lucky.

  Taking a step back with my shield in place, the darkness fell away and I saw it envelop the coven of souls. They screamed as they clawed their way free of it. Grappling for anything to climb on. Some of them died wailing in agony, enveloped by the demons spewing through. With their deaths, the demons gained new strength, became more corporeal. I looked for Officer Peck amongst those who had climbed onto trash cans and up broken sections of walls. I couldn’t see him.

  Pity, I would have loved to watch that prick die screaming.

  I saw a flash of skin through the black mist that thundered through the gateway.

  Could it be Jax?

  “JAX!” I called into the mist. I reached out across the darkness and felt a hand grip my own. I pulled and my heart beat in my ears. When Jax’s face burst out of the dark he didn’t look happy.

  “Desmoree!” Jax yelled.

  I grunted as I heaved him the final distance, enveloping him in my shield.

  “What have you done? Quick! You have to close it.” Jax yelled at me.

  “I will, I had to get you out first.”

  “Des close it.”

  I focussed and watched the black mist rise over a coven member cowering on top of a small trash can. The mist became thick with form. A feractacs. The feratacs demon had become corporeal with the consumption of the coven member’s life force, or body, or both.

  It looked like a pterodactyl. Large half bird half lizard, it had an enormous sharp beak that protruded from its round bulbous head with seven eyes that ran across the beak’s bridge. Their wings, though feathers, were nothing like Ava’s. Theirs were a sort of brown leather that concertinaed out from the bones.

  So much for the coven’s glorious rule over humanity. I almost giggled to myself but Jax’s harsh stare pulled me back.

  The demons kept coming and I looked out at the park, now covered in a blanket of dark mist. Little sparks of light illuminated sections, bursts at a time. The elves were fighting the demons. The fey would be by their side too hopefully. I was counting on them to contain the mess I made by opening the gateway.

  “Close it, Des!” Jax screamed again and I knelt down to the ingredients at my feet. They were all still there. All except the key.

  “Looking for this?” Officer Peck called from a fire escape, level with the middle of the gateway. Unfortunately safe above the lake of demon mist.

  “For fuck’s sake are you still alive?”

  He sneered at me from across a river of darkness.

  “When I toss this key into the portal he will be free. He will give me this world and use the demons to take back yours.”

  “You are insane,” I called back. “Look at what your demons have done to the other coven members. You will be next, you will die screaming too.”

  “I will rule this world at his side,” Officer Peck shot back.

  “Who is he talking about?” Jax asked as he placed a hand on my shoulder. It sent a shiver through me and I felt strong.

  “You will never rule this or any world, alone or by the side of another. You can tell him—whoever he is—that I said go to hell.”

  Officer Peck sneered again. “Oh, Desmoree, you already sent him there.”

  My eyes went wide and I watched as if in slow motion as Officer Peck tossed the key towards the portal.

  It turned over once. J
ax reached out towards it.

  It turned over twice. And he pushed against my shield.

  It turned over a third time. Jax looked to me with desperate eyes and a spike shot out, wrapped its tendril around the key, and sucked it into hell.

  The darkness continued its wave through to this world. The gateway didn’t change. Officer Peck snarled at me from across the sea of darkness.

  “What have you done? I don’t understand. The key should have linked the gateway to all the worlds. What did you do?”

  I smiled my best evil grin then held up another key. The real key.

  “Oh, I am sorry, is this what you wanted? Too bad pecker-head.” I circled the hand holding the key over the border of ingredients in an anticlockwise direction. The centre of the circle glowed a brilliant white and started to rise. I focused on its light, watching it grow with each passing second. Suddenly my shield vibrated with a thud and Officer Peck catapulted over me to the wall beside us. I was thrown sideways by the impact, and though Jax was quick to steady me, I dropped the key.

  I panicked. Fear brought down my shield. Officer Peck launched at me again and this time connected with my side. I fell to the ground. He punched me once in the face, then grabbed my hair in his hands and pulled my head towards him. He slammed my head back into the ground. My shield down, I barely felt the impact. Only the pain.

  One minute Officer Peck was on top of me, his hands pulling my hair, and the next he was floating above me.

  His eyes went wide as he flailed his limbs around trying to force his body to the ground.

  He flew past my head and I twisted my neck to follow. His body stopped above the river of darkness, but before he could land in the churning mist, the mouth of hell reached out with a twisted black tendril and latched onto Officer Peck’s right ankle. It pulled at him, but some other force was pulling back. Another tendril shot out and took his wrist on the same side. His body hung in the air like a starfish, his face strained under the pressure of being pulled both directions.

  “How are you doing this?” He screamed.

  I’m not doing anything. I thought as I turned away to search for what was. But before I could see anything a sharp cry and sickening gurgle drew my gaze back. A third tendril, or rather a spike, had shot from the gateway, straight through Officer Peck’s stomach. The force holding him back from the portal released and the darkness was finally able to swallow Officer Peck whole. About fucking time!

  I looked back and saw Jax, illuminated by blue and white magic, the hand stretched towards me swallowed by little lightning bolts. In the other hand, he held up a single strand of yowie fur. The strand blackened at one end, slowly turning to ash.

  My magic burned in the air around him.

  “Jax! I need my magic back to close the portal. You have to give it back to me.”

  Jax had used the yowie fur to syphon away most of mine and Ava’s magic. It had given him the strength to dispose of Officer Peck, but he was not strong enough to seal the portal.

  “Jax!” I called again as I climbed to my feet. The pain from the attack remained, though no actual injuries would show. Once I had all of my magic back I would take care of the pain too.

  Jax looked at me, then to the portal, and then the fur in his hand that had already started to blacken.

  “I saved some, Jax, we will get you your magic back. But for now I need mine.”

  “Ava’s. You have Ava’s here, too,” he said, frowning in confusion.

  I lowered my head. “I had to take it, she was going to stop me from getting you out. I had to get you out. I couldn’t leave you there.”

  Jax focused and I felt my magic return, but he held onto Ava’s. It clung to him like a possessive energy latching on for dear life.

  I smiled and took another strand from the bag and placed it in his hand. “Find Ava, give it back to her. I will close the mouth and then we can help send these monsters back to hell.”

  Jax took off at a jog avoiding the river of darkness. I started my hunt for the key.

  “Where is it?” I mumbled, scurrying on my hands and knees, careful to keep my shield around me as I went. It had landed a little to the side of the evil mist. I reached out to grab it and another blackened hand reached out too. I blasted my shield forwards over it before I snatched the key up. I had grabbed it mere moments before whatever that thing was could. When its hand touched my shield it pulled away quickly. A charred blackened face rose from the mist, screamed an ear-piercing scream, then was swallowed back into the portal, back to the demon realm.

  If only they all ran home so easy.

  I hadn’t just been shown the items I needed to close the mouth. I was told exactly what to say too. It was an old cast. Difficult to remember, so I scrawled it onto a scrap of paper and shoved it to the bottom of my bag. But as I reached into the bag I couldn’t feel the scrap.

  My heart leapt into my throat and I lost all focus on the magic as I stretched open the top of the bag. I reached inside and pulled out the pencil. Throwing to the side with a grunt, I reached in again. My neck prickled and I struggled to swallow, and all air left my lungs. Then my fingers brushed against something crumpled. I snatched it out and dropped the bag to my feet. Fumbling with my fingers I struggled to unwrap the wad of paper. Just fucking do it! I told myself and my hands seemed to obey. Shaking a little less, they were finally able to unfold the edges.

  I had it. I had the cast. I pressed my hand against my chest and took a breath to centre my mind.

  Now let’s do this shit.

  The key to worlds in hand I again circled the offerings of the Fabled. The white light strengthened, it rose again to meet my hand. Wails, screams and screeches flooded my ears, demons were dying, but I knew Fabled and humans could be too. Their cries assaulted my mind. I struggled to focus on the cast and as a result, the light began to lower.

  I shook my head trying to shake loose the guilt. I was the cause of their pain, if I had left Jax there, left him to the logaras, then the gateway would never have opened. The demons would not be free in the human world and the fabled would not be risking their existence to help clean up my mess.

  I couldn’t leave Jax.

  But how many lives had I traded for his?

  The light shrank.

  “Focus, Mum,” Ava’s voice came through my depression and I opened my eyes. I hadn’t even noticed I had closed them. She was walking towards me. The dark mist circled around her like a river flows around a rock. Her wings were out and they draped around her sides like a feathered cloak of power.

  “I am so sorry, Ava,” I whispered.

  “Mum, we have to close it, you have to focus. We can end this, but you need to turn it off first.”

  She reached me and pulled me in tight. Her magic was strong and bright. Jax must have found her and returned the power I took. Borrowed. Stole.

  Feeling her power strong and back where it belonged made my own magic want to surface too. It climbed inside me. It came forth in a brilliant buzz of hope and I took Ava’s hand.

  I used my other hand to circle the fabled items again and this time instead of rising slowly, the light that had almost faded completely, burst upward in a tower of white light. It lit the sky above and shot out tendrils of energy across the night sky. Everything became brighter.

  Well there will be no hiding this from the humans, I thought as I heard the pained squeals of the demons. Some demons feared light because it drained them, others because it burned or even killed them. I smiled at the thought that it would be sunrise soon, and the entire city would be bathed in light.

  I still held the paper with the cast on it, and hand lightly quivering, I began the cast.

  “Dorlel dominesta livest cleseta.” Close living world to darkest door. “Sevel ona domenes.” Darkness will be sealed. “Sevel ona obrata.” Gate will be sealed. “Satina moocho ona sevel fabled lumenessa.” Light of the fabled will seal the mouth of hell.

  The tower of light sunk back down to the circle of
fabled items, drew them into it, disintegrating them in a vibrating glow. Before I could toss the key into the middle a burst of black smoke erupted from the gateway. Larger than any that had passed through so far. Whatever demon or beastie it was, it was big, and it sent a shiver down my spine as it pressed at my shield, before disappearing into the sea of demons.

  I threw the key into the middle and repeated the last line, desperate to seal the mouth once and for all. The circle rose up like a dish of light. It began to grow. It inflated to an enormous dome that swallowed the gateway in a orb of light. The demons still trying to exit squealed as they hit the surface of the dome and disintegrated too. The wave of demons already through pushed at my shield, testing it but not manifesting in full form to attack me head on.

  The dome began to shrink, it sucked the gateway down with it and in a matter of breaths it was gone. The gateway, the dome of light, the fabled items, all gone.

  The energy released as Ava let go of my hand.

  “Where are you going?”

  “We have demons to kill,” she replied, spreading her wings and shooting upwards to join the dragons.

  I sent bolts of energy towards the darkness that trailed towards the park. The gateway was open far longer than I had hoped, and more demons than I would have thought possible had made it through. But many of them lay dead in their natural form, scattered across the grass of the park.

  I joined the fight. The blades of elves and fey swung amongst the trees and shrubs, decimating the monsters.

  Not all of the demons surfaced from the darkness. The mist of evil swam like a river through the park, weaving between trees, fey and elves, trying to find a way out. I had to contain them.

  I pushed out a golden barrier, strong as the one that once protected Baldea. I let it rise over the fabled fighting by my side and the demons they fought. I sent it around the park itself and back underground to encase the entire area.

  The demons that hit it didn’t disintegrate, though that would have been handy. But they did bounce off it. Each contact causing a ripple that vibrated through to my core.