by Eli Constant
“Let me guess,” I smile so hard I know the skin around my eyes is crinkled. “You saw ‘Speed’ and lost your boy crush virginity to an action hero cop with a smile for days? Well, I feel like I have to warn you—crushes based on intense actors never work.”
“Good thing I based it on sex then. He’s not a bad partner.” Liam’s eyes are twinkling, and for the life of me, I’ve no idea if he’s joking or not.
And then, of course, I can’t get the thought of a Liam-Keanu mash-up out of my head. And how I’d like to be smack dab in the middle of that fae-laced man sandwich. I shiver, like full body shiver. And then blush, because I know Liam knows exactly what I’ve been thinking about.
“Stop looking at me like that, Liam,” I admonish. He’s actually blank-faced, looking at me with an unwavering gaze. It bothers me more than if he was staring at me with bedroom eyes whilst licking his lips.
“I’m being entirely neutral, Victoria. I’m not sure what else you want from me.” He walks away towards the porch. If it were me, I’d have hesitated at the base of the stairs and called out to Mordecai, but Liam marches up pretty as you please and slams his fist against the door. “Dwarf King! We require your assistance!”
“Liam,” I harsh whisper, “this is pretty much the opposite of your advice to me last year. Hello?” I motion at our surroundings. “King. Territory. Show deference.”
“I’m tired, Victoria. He lives here, out in the middle of nowhere, away from his born world. If he wanted the pomp and circumstance of the royal life, he has chosen the wrong path.”
“But you told me—”
“You have not spent as long in the supernatural world as I have, my Queen. You must walk with caution.” He slams his fist against the door again. “Dwarf King, I call your help in the name of Oran-son, Prince of Light.”
We hear grumbling and something falling over inside the house, then the heavy door creaks open slowly. “What care I for the Prince of Light? What care I for what lies beyond my borders?”
I push in front of Liam, who’s about to say something equally as fairy pompous I’m sure. He said he was tired, didn’t want to deal with formalities, but the exchanges feel like nothing but politics. And I can’t imagine anything more damn tiring than that. “Mordecai, do you know what a Lazarus Eye is?”
His attention leaves Liam instantly, and his mouth falls open a little. “Aye, ah ken whit it is, girl.” He crosses his arms, and though despite being at least a head shorter than me, he looks like a giant of a man. I could be Amazon tall, and I’d still feel lesser.
“You came and warned me about the coven. You said whoever is doing this would need an Adam,” I slap one hand gently, “and an Eve.” I slap the other hand. “That they’re tapping into the ley lines for the power to open a Hellmouth, right?”
Nodding slowly. “Aye.”
“The five witches that were killed had their hearts removed and Lazarus Eyes implanted. The runes were different, for siphoning instead of bringing life back to the vessel.”
“So, tis worse than ah feared.”
Mordecai turns away from us and enters his house. We follow slowly. It’s just the same as I remember, and I’m prepared for the sensation of nothingness this time. The absence of the afterlife, the ether and the anti-ether, that is a constant blanket around me. It is an old friend that I both hate and am so used to that I also hate to walk without it in this world.
The first time I was here, I was solely focused on following the Dwarf King through the labyrinth of his home and towards the God Stones. Now, however, I take in the walls and furnishings. Nearly every surface is tartan plaid—a pattern of crimson, navy, gold and black. There is a long antique-looking sofa facing two high-backed chairs, each bearing a shimmering gold crest sewn into the plaid. The first room seems to only be a sitting area. I try to recall moving through the hallways last year, down the stairs, passing the room with animals in various-states of taxidermy.
“Sit, if ye will.” Mordecai motions at the sofa and he takes up residence in one of the tall chairs. He looks kingly there, large and commanding. Watching him, and feeling the power he contains in his body, I remember the intoxicating feel of his blood. The way I wanted to drown in it. I can taste my pulse in my mouth just remembering how much I’d wanted to kill him and take his rightful essence into my own palace of power. He has such control, the barrier of his skin gives off the aura of a force field.
“My Queen,” Liam addresses me formally before taking my hand and guiding me to sit next to him on the couch. I shake my head a little, pulling myself from my thoughts. What I really need to do though is to pinch the hell out of myself—the way you do in a lucid dream when you’re not sure which side is up and which side is down. Only a moment of silence lapsed around us before Mordecai got down to business.
“Speak,” he prompted, “Ah hae things tae do.”
“A lot on your plate, once-King,” Liam scoffs out.
Mordecai looks at my fairy, and the expression on his face isn’t angry, or annoyed… it’s thoughtful. And then he lifts a hand slowly, his fingers moving into a cup-shape. There’s a rattling from nearby. I search for the source of the sound and eventually find a dark-red vase on a table. It’s moving slowly, around and around. Then it speeds, faster and faster in a crazy tilt-a-whirl that causes the edge of the vase to lift and fall, lift and fall.
Liam is looking at it now, his right eyebrow quirked curiously.
A swirl of darkness spins like a tiny tornado from the opening of the urn. It stays in one place for a while, until I think Mordecai is making some feeble attempt to show his power and assert his authority. And I don’t understand that, because I can sense that he is a pressure cooker of ancient world magic.
Yet then the twister is shifting across the room in a flash of hard-to-follow motion. It rushes towards Liam and it envelopes his head. He stands, clawing at himself, his fingers sinking into the sand and clay that is a storm obscuring his face. The soil gathers in one large dark cloud and it pushes into his mouth. He fights it, squirming, his eyes going wide.
“Stop it!” I yell and stand. “Stop it, Mordecai!”
“He needs tae min’ tha auld ways. Tha power. Tha time ay shadows. Ah was a King, a chosen one. An’ he be naethin’.”
“Stop it,” I scream again, lifting my hands and letting down the frail barrier that separates the world from the murder inside of me. I reach for his power, and the taste in my mouth is no longer a memory, but the ever present now. It is euphoria on my tongue. I want to swallow him down, every inch of his smaller frame. Something snapped inside of me, with the complete release of the control I kept so tightly. “Mordecai,” I force out, my voice sounding strained, “Mordecai, let him go.” I feel my skin grow hot and my hair fly about my head like static electricity gone insane.
The Dwarf King doesn’t look at me.
“Let. Him. Go.” I yell out the words, one by one, pushing a livewire of magic into each utterance. Liam falls against the sofa, his hands around his neck as he coughs.
Blood. Give me the life, the red, the wet. Give me the magic that dances in your royal veins. I meet your force. I meet it, and I beat it. I will eat you to the marrow. I cannot control the words flowing in my mind. They aren’t mine. They are… but they aren’t—it feels like a stranger firing bullets at my brain.
Mordecai goes pale. Now he does turn, but I can tell it takes every ounce of strength he has that is not going into the assault on Liam. I focus on his hand, the one held up towards my fairy. I focus on it and I think of the crimson beneath the aged skin. Come to me. Power unto my power, like layers of silk will fall. I’m master of death, warden of decay. The void that consumes oblivion.
Blood begins to gather on his hand, seeping from his pores. He grimaces, his knees buckling, and his hand drops to his side. Immediately, the tornado falls lifeless and Liam’s face is revealed—his expression equal parts horror, rage, and fear.
“Let me go, Blood Queen,” Mordecai’s vo
ice is gasping, his accent strangled.
All I see is the blood. All I feel is the magic. I am consumed. I am my own oblivion.
I want to kill this Dwarf King.
Chapter Nineteen
Little Dwarf King. Do you remember when you were liege of the mountain? Do you remember when you signed our pact? I gave you the lands, harnessed nature in your name. We are bonded, through time and space and mortal vessel.
The stranger in my head is growing louder, nearly deafening. And the magic. God, the magic…it is a pain so intense that it verges on pleasure.
“Victoria,” a voice, so faint and otherworldy, reaches my ears, “Victoria, control it.” A blurry figure forms in my mind, standing nearby. In my mind… not real.
It’s then that I realize my eyes are closed. But if they are in fact closed, how am I seeing an explosion of color? Fireworks of mystical energy firing like I have a second mind… how am I seeing the speaker who is telling me to control it.
Control what?
The thing inside pushes again, like it is just across that veil and it only needs me to welcome it with open arms. Hesitation clouds everything, and I can tell the strange voice hates that I’m trying to hold onto myself and fight.
I’m lost. So lost. I’ll never be me again.
Another form is a haze against the backs of my eyelids.
Hands grip my wrists, and they are too small formed to be Liam’s. A flood of pure white light pushes into my hands and works up my arms. It reaches my shoulders and sinks into my chest. It’s nature. Flowers. Trees. The God Stones.
Mordecai is giving me the goodness of the planet, the fount of his own magical seed.
And it is expelling the stranger, the eater of souls.
I find myself blinking, fast and furious, until I see Mordecai’s face. There are wrinkles across his brow, and his mouth is taut with concern.
“What… what happened?” I feel weak, and I sit on the sofa quickly—too quickly, which makes my head rush and my stomach turn.
I feel Mordecai wants to say something, but Liam speaks first.
“That is the first time you have attempted to access the depth of your power, Victoria. You’re not ready. You cannot do that again, not until you are better trained.” Liam is still standing, looking down at me. He has not lost that battlefield of emotion. In fact, the war might be raging even harder now—after my lapse into madness.
It is then that Mordecai speaks once more, but his words are haunted by something unsaid. “Ask yer questions, Blood Queen. Ah believe yer visit is come to an end.”
I swallow hard, but the lump left in my throat from the fear of that strange voice remains. Liam does not take back his seat beside me; he stands near the exit to the room instead, ready to fly when we’ve gotten what we came for.
My throat hurts when I talk now. “Mordecai, you came to me and you knew what was going on before anyone else did. What does having the Lazarus Eyes in the equation mean? What does it change?” The sofa is super uncomfortable, stiff and there’s a thick metal coil sticking into my ass so bad that I can’t stop wiggling—which isn’t very Queen-like.
“The Adam and Eve… they are not simply trying to open a Hellmouth. They do not desire to simply let demons into the world. They are reaching for a goal past the hell gates, deep in the depths of the Underworld. They reach for the Cage of the Unseen.” He says it without his homeland accent. He sounds disconnected now, resigned.
“It is not possible,” Liam breathes out beside me. “That magic is forged for eternity. And the ashes within cannot be resurrected without the touch of the originals.”
“Yes,” Mordecai said simply, getting up and going to a tall bookshelf in the corner of the room. “The Adam and the Eve. The seed of original sin.” He pulls something off the shelf. It’s not a book, as I expected. It’s so small that it is hidden in Mordecai’s fist. He walks to me, leans down and kisses my forehead in an almost…ceremonial way. Then he picks up my hand gently, turns my hand over and gently pries my fingers open from the weak fist I’d been making.
In the center of my palm, he places the object he’s gotten. It’s tiny and I have to lean down to make out what it is. A seed. “Not to sound like an idiot, but I don’t get it.”
“It wasn’t the fruit of the apple that poisoned the hearts of the originals. It was the seed within, that grew and grew. The seed that gets sunlight and water, it thrives. The seed that is born in darkness knows only shadows.”
“But the magic sealing the Cage of the Unseen is unbreakable. A seed is meaningless. It’s nothing.” Liam stands up and begins to move nervously around the room.
“You should understand that a seed is powerful. That a look or a touch can birth passion. That a harsh word can topple kingdoms.” Mordecai moves to Liam now and puts his hand against the taller fairy’s chest. “There is a seed here, my fairy foe, that has grown beyond your chest.”
Liam flicks a glance at me and his face gains the slightest of pink hues in the cheek.
“If the Cage of the Unseen is open, what will happen, Mordecai?” I stand up and try to redirect the conversation.
“The five fires planted the seed, connected the points of the pentagram. The sixth fire watered the ground with blood of the originals. Daughters and sons of Adam and Eve. The death of magic came next, with its resurrection soon after.” Mordecai drops his hand from Liam’s chest, where it has rested long past the awkward stage. “Look to your ancient scrolls, fairy foe. You’ll find the dice have been rolled. Three sixes for the end.” He takes a deep breath. “I go to commune with the stones.”
With that, the dwarf king walks out of his living room and into the belly of his home. He does not dismiss us, or say goodbye. He just leaves.
And, though we have more information on what is happening now, I still don’t know what in the utter fuck is going on.
***
“Why did he call you his ‘fairy foe’, Liam?”
“It’s a thing between dwarves and full-blood fae, my Queen.” I don’t look at him, my eyes on the road, but I can hear a small smile in his voice. He doesn’t elaborate, I don’t ask.
“What do we do now then?” I turn onto my drive, my house looming in the distance like an old friend. “And stop it with the my Queen crap. It’s fine when you’re teasing, okay… I guess… when we’re around a dwarf king, but we’re alone now. So stop it.”
“He said look to the scrolls, but I do not have access to them any longer.” The smile is gone, and now Liam only sounds thoughtful. “There may be a way I can get them, but it is not a way without risk.”
“Then it’s not worth it, Liam. Not if it could land you back in prison. And what would the Light Court do to a traitor?”
He doesn’t answer me.
In my jean pocket, I feel the weight of the seed. How heavy it is, yet so small in the scheme of the world. The seed of evil began with the originals. Would it end with them too?
“We need to find the coven leaders. The representation of Adam and Eve. If they’re connected to the Lazarus Eyes… If their power is what will open the Cage of the Unseen, then we have to… eliminate that power. We have to destroy the seed.”
“I don’t think you realize what that will take, Victoria.”
“I’m guessing they have to die, Liam.” I bite my lower lip. “And if that’s what it takes to save Bonneau and the rest of the freaking world, then that’s what I’ll do.”
I park the car and go through the side entrance into the house. Liam follows close behind. “You don’t sound like yourself, Victoria. You hate having weapons on your person; I can feel the truth of that every time you carry one. You go to self-defense classes, but every time you throw a punch, you feel a knot in your gut. You’re saying that you’ll kill these coven leaders, like it’s grabbing a burger at a fast food joint. And you know, and I know, that you cry over killing a spider even though they scare the hell out of you.”
“So what do you expect me to do, Liam?” I open m
y apartment door and stand to the side as he enters. “Let a Hellmouth open in the middle of town because I’m too scared to face a Black Widow?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. I’m simply saying be true to yourself, Victoria. Despite what you are, death is not something you easily stomach.”
“I’m true to myself every damn day, Liam. And as for death? Stomaching it’s sort of a lifestyle. Unless you’ve forgotten the funeral home beneath our feet.”
I walk down the hallway towards my room. It’s not until I get to my doorway that I realize Kyle’s not here. He’s at Jim’s. I get my phone out and call Kyle, but he doesn’t answer. “Hey, babe. It’s Victoria. I mean… obviously. What other woman would be calling you and calling you babe? I mean, don’t answer that. Anyways,” I let my words trail off, feeling insanely awkward all of the sudden. “Kyle, just call me. Please. Let me know if you’re doing okay.” When I end the message, I hover in the doorway to my room, unsure what to do. I stare at the bed.
“Would you like me to go check on our bear?” Liam is a breath away from me, so close I can feel the warmth of him radiating like embers dying. He’s behind me. I only need to turn. He’s here. Kyle isn’t.
I turn, and that thought is on my lips like silk. Words want to slip from me like water. But I quiet them. I quell them with the force of my will. Because I am a one-man necromancer. And I choose Kyle.
“No. That’s okay. I’ll… I’ll just try him again later. And go over there tomorrow if I don’t hear from him.” I turn away from my fairy. All I want is my room, and my bed. I want to close my eyes and greet the quietude of nothingness. Before I close my bedroom door on Liam, not knowing if he’d stay or retreat to his hideaway in the woods, I whisper ‘thank you’, because he at least deserves that—for caring for the man I’m with, despite his feelings.
***