I quickly fired up my computer.
“You’ve got to be shitting me!” I said.
“What is it?” Layla asked.
“Windows is doing a fucking update.”
“I take it that’s not a good thing?” Brag’mok asked.
“No!” Layla and I growled in concert.
I watched as it slowly crawled from one percent to two percent.
“We don’t have time for this.”
It moved a little faster, jumping five percentage points at a time.
It hit one hundred percent.
“Thank God!” I exclaimed.
Then it started back at one percent.
“Goddamn son of a bitch!” I screamed.
“Calm down, Caspar,” Layla said. “Just take us to the church. The Elf Gate church. Jag is probably there or at the gym. You’ve ported to both places before.”
I nodded. “Fine. Just trying to avoid, you know, porting into a trap.”
“We aren’t any safer here than we would be there,” Layla pointed out.
I shook my head. “I know. Whatever. Let's go.”
We’d try the Elf Gate church first. Jag probably wouldn’t be there. It wasn’t like he lived there or anything. But at this time, porting to the gym in the group exercise room would probably drop us into the middle of a Zumba class or some shit, and maybe right into someone’s body. Not the best idea.
I drew on fairy magic, visualized the cult building, the same place I’d ported before, and formed the gate.
Agnus jumped through.
“Well, I guess he’s coming along,” I said.
“He is your familiar, after all,” Layla said. smiling while rubbing her shoulder. “And it isn’t safe to leave him behind. Not after the last time.”
I nodded. She was referring to the time Hector had kidnapped, or catnapped, him. Knowing Agnus, that was what he was thinking about too. My apartment wasn’t safe, but was any place right now?
Layla, Brag’mok, and I jumped through the portal. Ensley followed me.
I looked around the room. I didn’t expect so many people to be at the cult building at this hour. I mean, the trials were over and the cult was divided and in disarray, but these weren’t cultists.
I saw twenty people, maybe more, in colorful, ornate clothing. Several of them had blades sheathed at their sides. All of them had dark purple-gray skin and pointy ears. They were drow.
“I’m glad you’re here, Naayak,” Aerin said. I turned around, and she was standing right behind where the portal had been when it disappeared.
I shook my head. “Glad we didn’t port into you. We could have ended up inside you.”
Aerin cocked her head and smirked.
“Not like that, Aerin!”
Aerin giggled. “You said it, not me. That wasn’t even what I was thinking. I was expecting you, Caspar, after all that has happened.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“The elven legion is here, Aerin,” I said.
“I know, Caspar.”
“And Layla has been wounded. I can’t heal it.”
“Let me take a look,” Aerin said. “This way.”
Layla, Brag’mok, Agnus, and I followed her to the back room with the couches.
“Fred hit me with one of his stupid daggers,” Layla said, pulling down the top of her shirt and exposing her wound.
The magic had expanded and was now spider-webbing halfway down her back.
“It’s his magic, isn’t it?” I asked.
Aerin nodded. “It is.”
“Can you do something about it?” I asked.
“I’m afraid I cannot,” Aerin said. “But you might be able to.”
“How?” I asked. “I tried healing her, but I can’t do anything about that magic.”
“You will need the artifacts Fred stole,” Aerin said. “It’s the only way to stop the magic from spreading.”
Layla took a deep breath. “He wasn’t trying to kill me. Fred knew we’d have to come to him to heal me.”
Aerin nodded. “That is likely, though I doubt he was the mastermind behind this.”
Layla shook her head. “My father?”
“We need to go to him,” I said. “Wherever he is.”
“No, Caspar,” Layla said. “I have to go to him.”
“But if I get the artifacts from him,” I said, “I can heal you!”
“I agree with Layla,” Brag’mok said. “It is risky. Fred will be protected by the legion. If you show up in the middle of them all, they’ll kill you, Caspar.”
I bit my lip. “I don’t think they will.”
“Why wouldn’t they kill you?” Brag’mok asked.
“The assassins could have killed me already. Why the hell was one of them, presumably Fred, following me on the streets? Look, if these assassins are as good as Layla says they are, there’s no reason I should be alive if they wanted me dead all this time.”
Layla spoke up. “My father won’t allow it. Because if they kill you—”
“If one of us dies, both of us die. We’re soul-bound, Layla.”
“Does the elven king even know about that?” Brag’mok asked.
“Of course he does,” Layla said. “It’s the reason he didn’t kill Caspar when he had the chance.”
“It’s why my brother had to stab himself with the Blade of Echoes. To sever the bond between the chosen one and the blade before he sacrificed himself.”
“When I healed Caspar, when I used the magic the Blade of Echoes had introduced to his body to heal him and he survived, I was uniting the magic of my soul and spirit to do it. It’s why we’re soul-fused. My father knew it, which was one reason why he was so pissed about it all. I bound myself like that to a human.”
“So, if this angelic power in you now kills you, Caspar will die, too,” Aerin said.
“Oddly enough,” Layla said, “our connection is one reason why we’re both still alive.”
“If only there was a way to sever our bond,” I said. “Bear with me. I’m just thinking out loud.”
“You’d be dead before the night was out,” Layla offered.
I shrugged. “Maybe I would have been. Before. When I didn’t have this power, but Ensley can’t locate the elves right now. There’s just too much magic in the air. He can’t sense where they are, so we’d have no way to find them and locate Fred to attempt to get the artifacts from him.”
Layla shook her head. “It’s too risky, Caspar.”
“But if they think our bond is severed, there’s a chance they’ll show themselves. They’ll come after me. It’s our best chance to locate them.”
“Still,” Layla said, “there’s no way I know of to do that. To sever a bond like that?”
Brag’mok grunted. “When B’iff stabbed himself, the bond between Caspar and the Blade of Echoes was severed, correct? That’s why Caspar didn’t die when the blade was destroyed.”
I nodded. “I think that’s correct.”
“It is,” Layla added.
“What if there was a way to bond Caspar to someone else? To replace the bond you two share…”
Aerin cleared her throat. “There is. But you’re not going to like it.”
I sighed. “Let me guess.”
“When drow marry, we seal our union with a common bond to an object enchanted by aether. The connection binds us together. For the drow, to marry is literally until death parts us, for when one spouse dies, so does the other.”
“So, the only way to do this is for us to get married? Why am I even asking that? Of course it is. For fuck’s sake.”
“It does not mean love, Caspar,” Layla said.
“It is true,” Aerin said. “I do not love you, Naayak. I know your heart belongs to her. But often, marriages are made not out of love but for politics, to forge alliances, to save kingdoms. Or in this case, the world.”
“It still doesn’t make sense,” I said. “If they are hoping that Layla will return to them, there has to be a way to find them. Brig
htborn doesn’t want her to die.”
“He doesn’t want me to die,” Layla said. “But if it comes down to it, he knows we are desperate.”
“If we sever our connection,” I said, “we’re doing exactly what he wants us to do. We’re giving him a chance to kill me but save Layla. We’d be playing right into his hands.”
“Perhaps,” Layla said. “But it’s either that or this magic consumes me, and both of us die.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The Elf Gate Cult…
Correction, the Order of the Elven Gate. Since I was working with these folks, it was probably time I started referring to them by the name they’d given themselves.
Of course, was it even the same Order now that Fred and others had divided their loyalties? I expected that, now that the elven legion was on Earth and they weren’t ever going back, other members of the Order would likely follow Fred’s lead. Sure, I’d done some impressive tricks taking down those elementals, but I was one man. Brightborn had a whole legion at his command. An army of badass, magic-wielding elves.
I might have persuaded them for a minute, given them a second’s pause to consider the idea that I might be able to defeat them.
But let's face it. I couldn’t square off with a whole legion. Even with all my newly acquired power, I was still one man.
Anyway, the Order was already set up for live streaming. For a second, I considered porting us to Holy Cross, my old church. Maybe I could convince Philip to do the service. I was kidding myself. If he was seen marrying me to Aerin, he’d meet the same fate with church authorities that I had.
Why did I even care? It wasn’t like this was a real marriage, just a formality. A way to give the impression that Layla had reason to reconsider her loyalties and an excuse to untangle our fused souls.
But I didn’t like that idea. I had to admit, there was something oddly romantic about the drow tradition of fusing souls when married. I mean, I wasn’t sure how many drow there were—probably not many more than Aerin had brought with her. But I was reasonably certain their rate of mariticide was likely a lot lower than among human couples.
But the idea of tying one’s life to one’s spouse took that whole “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone” thing that Adam said in Genesis to a new level. The drow took that shit seriously.
That was how it was with Layla and me, and I appreciated it. Our lives were bound together. I didn’t resent it even a little. If she died, so would I, and vice versa.
Don’t get me wrong. Aerin was hot. Next to Layla, she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen, and she was thoughtful, playfully flirty, and wise. What more could a man ask for? I mean, there’s the whole female supremacy thing; that was an issue we’d have to work on. But other than, well, her entire worldview, she was a catch.
For some men, that would be tolerable or even thrilling.
But that wasn’t the sort of thing you’d find in my browser history.
The doors to the church swung open.
My heart skipped a beat.
My first thought was the elven legion. If it was, maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Sure, we might get our asses handed to us, but I wouldn’t have to marry Aerin.
My second thought was that it was the government. Maybe a Seal team was pissed because I’d gotten the troops sent to back me up slaughtered.
I’d have to deal with that eventually. I wasn’t sure how they’d respond, but I did know that they would be far less likely to back up one of our plans in the future. If they helped at all, I’d be doing things their way—which would probably get us destroyed.
But I didn’t need to work with the government. They just complicated everything. I only hoped they’d still fight. Let them be a nuisance to Brightborn. A distraction, at least. As long as they didn’t surrender.
But the figure that walked through the door was large and imposing. He walked with confidence, though his arms swung a good foot away from the rest of his body on either side.
“Jag!” I said, both excited to see him and relieved that it wasn’t any of the other folks it might have been.
“Saw y’all show up on the security feed,” Jag said.
“You have security cameras here?” I asked, looking all around but unable to spot a single one.
“The same cameras we used for streaming. I left the gym when I saw Aerin came back. And then you guys showed up.”
Jag looked at Brag’mok and cocked his head. “How much you bench, bro?”
Brag’mok shrugged. “Probably two of you.”
Jag grinned. “Mad respect, bro. Mad respect.”
“Good to see you, Jag,” I said. “Nice to see a friendly face.”
“What did I miss?” Jag asked.
I gave Jag the short version of all that had happened, just the basics. Magic blew shit up. Elf legion was here. Layla was magically wounded. And now I had to marry Aerin.
“Marry her?” Jag asked, raising one eyebrow.
I nodded. “It’s the only way we can think of.”
“Care if I move in on your sloppy seconds?”
“Excuse me?” Layla stood there, her hands on her hips. “I’m not sloppy, and Caspar and I aren’t breaking up, exactly.”
“Dude,” Jag said. “You’re going to be a polygamist?”
I shook my head. “Not exactly.”
“This marriage,” Aerin said, “is a matter of necessity, not love. I have no intention of preventing Caspar and Layla…”
“An open marriage!” Jag exclaimed. “Dude. I knew you were a progressive minister, but that’s…I don’t know what it is. I envy you, bro.”
I shook my head. “This isn’t something we want, Jag. We have to do it to save Layla.”
Jag nodded. “Over my head. But you have my support. Good thing you’ve been working that cardio. You’re going to need it to keep up with these two sexy elves.”
I snorted. “I don’t think that’s what this is about either.”
“Dude, don’t tell me you aren’t going to consummate this?”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
Jag scrunched his brow. He was confused. It just wasn’t fathomable that I wouldn’t take carnal advantage of the situation.
“Look, Jag,” I said. “We just need to make sure this goes out on the live stream. Can you make that happen?”
“Totally,” Jag said. “But I don’t know we can send that to everyone. Children might be watching.”
“What are you talking about, Jag?”
“The consummation, dude! What are you talking about?”
“Um, the wedding, Jag. Just the wedding.”
“Oh,” Jag said, looking genuinely disappointed that I was asking him to be a wedding videographer rather than the director of an adult film.
“Who is going to perform the ceremony?” Jag asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know, Aerin. This is a drow ceremony, right?”
Aerin nodded. “It is, but it would not be bad to include rituals common in human marriage. Our usual rite would not be immediately recognizable as a wedding. We want any who see it to have no doubt that we are getting married.”
“Have a minister in mind?” Jag said.
I shook my head. “None of the pastors I know would do it. Not without getting themselves into trouble.”
“Then you’re in luck!” Jag exclaimed.
“How so?”
Jag stood up straight, tucked his tank-top into his sweatpants, and grinned. “You’re looking at the Reverend Jagger.”
“Reverend?” I asked. “When did you go to seminary?”
Jag snorted. “I didn’t. I paid thirty-five bucks to the Church of Universal Life. I can do weddings, bro!”
I sighed. “This isn’t going to be the wedding my mother always had in mind for me, but whatever. It’s a second marriage. I can handle that. You’re on, Jag.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
This wedding was going to be a joke. Jag as the min
ister? The love of my life standing in the back of the room, watching it happen? And broadcasting to the world.
I didn’t even have a best man.
“Hey!” Agnus blurted. “Where’s the sandbox in this shithole? I have to go!”
I cocked my head. “Hey, Agnus. How would you feel about being my best man?”
Agnus cocked his head. “I have to poop, Caspar.”
“Yeah, but would you stand up with me at this wedding?”
“Just don’t call me a best man,” Agnus said. “That’s degrading.”
I nodded. “I think there’s a potted plant or two in the back room. The room with the couches.”
“Brilliant!” Agnus exclaimed, taking off as fast as he could run.
Layla was sitting by herself on one of the chairs around the perimeter, the same place she’d sat for the trials. I walked over to her and sat down.
“This sucks,” I said.
“It does,” Layla agreed, staring into space.
“I’m sorry, Layla.”
Layla said, “It has to happen. Just think, both prophecies were correct.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I will always love you, Caspar. That’s what our prophecy stated—that we’d fall in love. And their prophecy, the one with the drow, was about marriage. I just assumed all this time that love and marriage would go together.”
I nodded. “So did I. But you said it, this is just a ceremony. A ritual. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“But it does, Caspar,” Layla said. “Your lives will be bound together when this is done. How can I compete with that?”
I shook my head. “There is no competition, Layla. When my heart stops beating, Aerin’s will too. But a lot of people throughout the world die at the same time, and they have no relationship at all. I promise you, Layla, until my heart’s last beat, every one will be for you.”
A tear fell down Layla’s cheek. “I just didn’t realize how hard this was going to be. When we were talking about it, it made sense. In my head, I know this is the right thing to do. But in my heart, I fucking hate it.”
I nodded. “So do I.”
Layla rubbed her eyes.
I leaned over to kiss her.
Three Dogma Night (The Elven Prophecy Book 3) Page 20