by Kim Faulks
But if she could smell whatever power I held, then so could the others. “We’d have to be quick.”
She grabbed the pot and rose from the small wooden seat, spoke three words in a language I couldn’t understand, and conjured a horse from the air. “Is this quick enough?”
I stared at the animal as it shook its head and nickered softly, then bent to nibble on the soft green grass. “Magic, right?”
“Seelie,” she answered and heaved the pot and the glass bottle toward her tent. “Our world, is not like your world.”
With a wave of her hand, the tent collapsed in the middle and then folded inwards, curling over itself time and time again until it was nothing more than a folded splash of color and six long poles.
I wanted to stand there and watch her all day, and any other day, I might’ve done just that. But not today. I tried to swallowed that bitter taste of desperation, but the shit stayed in the back of my throat.
I stepped backwards, lifted my hand, and motioned toward the trees where the others waited, then turned back to her.
“My blood, what will you use it for?”
“Use?” She turned from settling the pack over the horse’s back. “I won’t use it…I’d never use it. Just to know it exists is enough for me. I can feel your blood, felt it from the first moment you came into our world, and I felt it in the Seelie who drank from you as well. That Seelie was of noble race, they are beautiful, don’t get me wrong, and some of them are powerful. But the blood he stole was not for stealing, and any conjurer worth her soul knows that. The power isn’t in the blood. The power is in you, that’s what I was taking in when you stepped from those trees.”
Her gaze slipped behind me, and her hands stilled. There was a second before all fumbling two hundred pounds of Hellhound and Archangel stumbled into view and stopped beside me.
Oh, and the silver stag that was the hand of God.
How the fuck could I forget that?
“Wow,” she muttered.
“I know, right?” Rival grinned and then looked at me.
“I don’t think that was a good wow…or even an in awe wow. I think that was a fuck-my-life wow.”
His grin slipped, “Oh, okay, yeah, the Archangel is a bit much.”
“The gate,” I urged. “How far and what kind of resistance will we meet?”
I was preparing myself for battle, and understanding the enemy was the first part of that process.
“Resistance?” she murmured. “What do you mean resistance?”
“Bad guys,” Rival offered. “Beasts, creatures, bring them on, whatever battle we have to fight, we will. Gabriel, here, is a goddamn machine when it comes to fighting,” and he lifted a hand and slapped the Archangel on the shoulder.
“I am?”
Gabriel glanced from Rival to me as the Hellhound grinned. “Titus and I are just here as moral support.”
“Wow,” Gabriel muttered and shook his head.
“There are no monsters,” the potion mistress muttered, and shook her head. “The gate itself will decide if you are worthy to pass.”
The cockiness bled from Rival’s tone. “And who governs the gate?”
“The power of both realms. They are the ones at war, both taking and giving. The endless tug of war, when the Seelie power upends the status quo, our world can slip through…when their power takes over…” she glanced toward the plane in the distance. “Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen again, shall we?”
An icy shudder cut through me with the tremor of her words. I looked at Gabriel, and then the Hellhound, who just shrugged his shoulders.
She was on the back of the horse faster than I could track, gripping the reins of the pale mare. She spoke in the strange language once more.
We walked behind her as she flanked the others. Hostile stares were met with a, “Hey, how you doin’?” and a “Keep it real, homie,” from Rival.
I cringed with every word and focused on the path ahead as we left the sparkling Seelie forest behind.
And with each step the grass grew duller, and the sun didn’t shine as brightly. Maybe it was setting? We left the horde of Seelie behind, breaking away on our own now. The potion mistress murmured to the horse and the apparition picked up its pace.
Sweat broke out along my brow, but I kept pace with them until my thighs burned and my lungs were on fire. The further we walked, the darker the world became. Shadows grew along the ground as the sun dulled high in the sky. I’d never seen that before. There was no descent to sunset, no stars and moon to take its place.
It was just swallowed, leaving a blanket of darkness like I’d never seen. I slowed my steps, turning to glance back the way we came and, yeah, it was just as I thought.
Behind us was the bright…daylight glow of the Seelie world. This wasn’t nighttime, this wasn’t the natural movement from one day to another—this was Unseelie…
I turned back, driving my steps harder into the ground to catch up to the others. The tug of war of the realms. That’s what she said, and my blood hummed with the thought of the two forces at war.
Through the darkness in the distance rose a wall. The surface glinted like stars the closer we came.
“Obsidian,” Rival murmured. “The Unseelie realm is built of the stuff.”
To me, it looked like the Unseelie power was winning the battle. Darkness bled into the light far from the line that divided the realms. I lifted my gaze to the woman. “Why is the Unseelie power winning?”
The horse slowed its gruelling pace as she answered. “Because their people are leaving their own realm for ours.”
The horse slowed once more as we neared the towering rock wall.
“Why?” Rival gasped and sucked in a breath. “You hate each other.”
She bent low and spoke into the mare’s ear and the horse stopped. One leg swept over the high rump before the potion mistress’s feet hit the ground and she answered. “Yes, but they hate their Queen more.”
I glanced to the Hellhound and then the Archangel. The stag just kept on walking without making a sound, as though it were never there. It seemed to know the way now, seemed to understand the urgency of what we were trying to do.
“We made a bargain,” the Seelie woman whipped out a small, thin-bladed knife from the waistband of her skirt, and then held out her hand. “A drop of blood.”
“Dude, again?” Rival growled. “Next time I travel with you, we’re bringing gift cards. Everyone wants gift cards.”
I lifted my hand and stepped closer, hoping she knew what she was doing.
She gripped my hand, clenched tight enough to hold me still. The cut was fast, just a tiny nick against my thumb. There was a sting before she turned my hand upside down. A tiny bead of crimson blood welled into a thick heavy drop and then fell from my thumb.
This time there was no greedy mouth to take it, this time there was only the one drop given as payment. It hit the ground at the base of the gate, and in an instant, the world around us seemed to change.
The air grew brighter, like day fought night. The hard, rocky ground beneath our feet trembled, tufts of green grass sprouted from the surface.
“Jesus,” Rival ground out, and the silver stag lifted a hoof to paw the ground. He glanced toward the apparition, and winced. “Sorry.”
Seconds passed as the world around us changed from Unseelie back to Seelie. “This won’t affect the world across there, right?”
“No,” she answered, then dropped her hand from mine and tucked her knife away. “You have the blood of Aeon in your veins. I could sense a strength, like an untapped well.”
“Easy there,” the Hellhound muttered. “One drop of blood is one thing, but the dude doesn’t have an untapped well of that in his veins.”
“He brings balance,” she answered with a smile and motioned toward the ground. “He brings life. We need no more than the drop we’ve taken. Go now, go in peace, go with the strength of a thousand races,” she murmured and stared into
my eyes. “I wish you well.”
Sunlight glittered against the obsidian wall. I glanced at tufts of grass that had spread across the ground and took a step closer toward the towering wall.
The air vibrated, sending tremors across my skin.
We moved as one, Rival, Gabriel, and the silver stag, and together all of us passed through the towering obsidian wall and into the Unseelie realm.
Chapter Sixteen
Lorn
“Come on, you ugly fucking thing,” I snarled and lunged into the edge of the Unseelie forest.
I had no fires from Hell to protect me, no power of Lucifer’s blood to wield as a weapon. I had what I came into this world with, my grandmother’s temper and a foul mouth.
“I’m gonna kick your fucking ass.” I stepped closer to the towering shadow of the beast. “And then I’m gonna turn you into a wallet…how’d you like that, a wallet, hmm?”
The beast snorted and grunted…and then it reared up onto its hind legs. The thing had the body of a horse and a head like a sabre-toothed tiger. Thick fangs shot up from the bottom of its jaw, the underbite must’ve been a pain in the ass.
I lifted my gaze higher…and then higher, over the muscled chest and thick hoofed feet the size of a damn tree trunk.
Shit.
All I had was a burned-out torch to save my sorry ass. Suddenly my smart mouth didn’t feel quite so…smart.
The creature dropped to the ground, let out a snarl, and then charged through the darkness toward me.
I cocked back my arm and threw the remnant of the torch, then lunged right. The gust of wind buffeted my face as the midnight beast lashed out, barely missing my head.
I hit the ground with a thud and rolled. I coughed, spluttered, trying to draw breath as a howl ripped through the air once more.
I needed another tactic…I needed a goddamn miracle. So I shoved from the ground, stumbled to my feet…and ran. Branches clawed my cheek as I stumbled as the monstrous thing behind me charged again.
Its fetid breath blew cold on the back of my neck, the deafening thunder of its hooves swallowed my own frantic pulse. I scanned the shadows, shoved my hand out in front, and levered over the trunk of a fallen tree.
My hand slipped, and some kind of slime coated my palm as I hit the ground on the other side and stumbled. The beast screamed and charged, hitting the rotting wood behind me.
There was nowhere I could hide now, no where I could turn and fight. Trees and bushes crammed the never-ending darkness. It was too late for me to make a run for the castle. The beast would kill me before I made three steps into the clearing.
All I had was my agility, and even that was too goddamn slow.
Until in the distance, the soft white glow of a silver stag stepped out of the trees. My heart leapt at the sight. I punched my boots into the ground and screamed. “Over here, please, for the love of God, over here!”
I skirted a bank of bushes as the pissed-off creature howled behind me. The silver stag lifted its head, massive antlers skimming the distance between one towering tree and the next as it leapt forward.
“Lorn?” Rival’s voice filled my head.
Even my own head was playing tricks. I couldn’t trust anything here. Not the food, not my own senses…maybe not even what I saw.
I stumbled with that thought as the creature behind me charged. What if the beast behind me wasn’t even real?
“Lorn, for fucks sake!” Rival charged out from behind the stag. “Get the fuck down!”
A shadow blurred in the darkness, crashing through the bushes as the silver stag lunged. The deer’s hooves were silent as it landed beside me, with towering shoulders and curved, wicked antlers that would gut you in a second.
The dark pupils of the deer captured my stare, before the glowing animal reared on its hind legs and pawed the air.
The Unseelie creature let out a roar as Rival grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me to the ground. We hit the forest floor with a bone-jarring thud and then rolled, his weight on top of me pushing me into the ground.
Sticks and thorns tangled in my hair, tearing the strands until fire lashed my scalp and my eyes watered. “Ow, what the fuck!”
Screams from the Unseelie creature filled the air, but this time they weren’t the cries of madness and rage—they were of terror.
The stag was a neon light in the darkness, its glare lighting up the most perfect sight of my Hellhound lover leaning over me. “Lorn…Lorn, Jesus, I didn’t think we were ever going to find you.”
“Lorn, you okay?” Titus growled.
He stepped closer and then held out his hand. I stared from Rival to him, hope trembling my words. “Are you real?”
“As real as you’re gonna get,” he answered.
“He’s a real pain in my ass, does that clear things up a little?” Rival snarled and then shoved from the ground to stand above me.
He lifted his head as the silver stag and the Unseelie creature collided with a loud crunch. The beast spun and thrashed, howling in pain. But there was no stopping the stag. The heavenly creature reared once more as the tiger-looking beast stumbled backwards, and then lowered those massive antlers like spikes designed for death.
“We have to go,” Titus urged.
“Now,” Gabriel emphasized. “We need to get you out of here.”
My heart leapt at the sight of the Archangel. I reached up, grasped Titus’ hand, and was lifted from the ground.
“Let’s go,” Rival glanced over his shoulder into the darkness of the Unseelie forest. “I think I can track the way we came.”
“No,” I tugged my hand from Titus’ hold and shook my head. “I can’t…not without Redemption.”
“Redemption?” Gabriel jerked his head toward me. “Is he here?”
I nodded, looking from one of my men to the other. “Yes.”
They didn’t know. That was plain to see.
Rival stepped closer, and reached up. His fingers curled around the point of my chin and gently eased my gaze to his. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“She has him. The Queen…that fucking, baseless, dead-inside bitch has him, and she’s hurting him right now.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because he bargained himself for me,” the words felt dead as they slipped from my lips. “This was what she’s wanted all along.”
“Did she tell you that?” Hate danced in the Hellhounds eyes.
His fingers slipped from my face as I shook my head. “She didn’t have to…the castle showed me.”
“Showed you what exactly?” Titus growled as the Unseelie creature turned tail and ran.
The sound of hooves crashed through the darkness. I followed the frantic sound and tried to find the words. “The past…it showed me the past, how she…how she used him. There’s more…a King’s knife, well, a case where the King’s knife used to be. I think that’s him. I think Redemption is the King.”
“Or the King she wanted him to be,” Titus answered. “Don’t you think something as big as being the King of the Unseelie realm would be worth a conversation?”
The silver stag charged through the darkness, leaving the light fading around us.
“You hide something you’re ashamed of,” Titus continued. “You hide things that will destroy everything you have. You hide things for a reason, and you know Redemption better than any of us. So what reason would that be?”
Terror slipped into my mind. Terror from the face of a man fresh from the Queen’s bed. Terror in the absence of her own people. The Redemption I knew wouldn’t stand by and watch this. He’d fight. “She’s broken him, somehow, someway she got under his skin and she broke him. He’s not the King, that’s why he ran. He never wanted to be the King.”
“He came for you when Horton told him what’d happened. He was the only one who found you. He doesn’t abandon those he loves, which means only one thing.”
“He never loved her,” the whisper slipped from my lips and the thro
ne room came to life inside my head. Tell me, warrior. What will you give her, that you could never give to me?
Everything…
I shook my head. “We can’t leave him…I won’t leave him.”
Rival glanced over his shoulder. “Do you know where she has him?”
I shook my head, and then realised it was useless in the dark. “No.” Boroch’s face filled my mind. “But I know someone who does.”
Gabriel stretched his wings out wide, smacking into one tree and then another before he folded them against his spine once more. “Then let’s go get him.”
The silver stag was gone now. It didn’t matter. I’d prayed for a miracle, and the creature delivered three of them. I held out my hands, finding theirs in the dark. “I thought I was going to die down here.”
“Not while I’m alive,” Rival answered in a heartbeat.
“Or me,” Titus followed.
“Or me,” Gabriel finished.
“I love you,” the words were a whisper. “All of you.”
“Then lead the way,” Rival snarled. “Let’s get Redemption and get the fuck out of this place. I’m starting to hate the goddamn dark.”
“Hell, yeah,” Titus mirrored. “Find your man and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Rival’s warm fingers slipped from mine as I took a step. The forest floor crunched behind me as they followed. There was no beast hunting me this time, no frantic scurrying through bushes and around trees, only surrender.
The more I walked, the stronger I felt. It was this place, this air, this darkness. I’d felt weak since I came here…I felt vulnerable.
But with my men at my back, the old me returned with a vengeance. Find your man, Titus had said and he was right. Redemption was mine, he’d always been mine, and would always be mine.
I hugged the tree line, keeping closer to the castle’s grounds as I made my way back to the dark outline. I slowed my steps until Rival and Titus flanked my side, and Gabriel moved closer.
The soft brush of his fingers against my spine made me tremble. But there was steel in the touch, there was an honesty and power and I took every bit of his energy as I lifted my hand to the towering shadowed outline in the distance. “There’s an open glass door to the right of the first tower. It leads to some kind of ballroom, but the furniture is stacked against the opening, so it’s either fly, or crawl.”