Inimical

by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge

  “Roue!” Syl struggles, but he’s leveraging his power as prince, sucking away some of her own to make himself stronger.

  Fury blasts me like a cold winter wind. I rip my bow across the strings, my violin screaming. Violet lightning lashes out, burning the night.

  I hold my breath. Syl should be immune. We’re soul-bound.

  Aldebaran’s eyes widen. He jerks aside. Zorch! My lightning strikes the car behind him, ripping up the side in smoking black.

  “You missed.” He smirks.

  I smile around my fangs. “Behind you.”

  “I’m not falling for th—”

  I pluck a single string.

  Instantly, the violet bolts leap off the car, curving back, splitting into chain lightning. I bow down hard on my violin, a discordant dark angel.

  The night lights up in violet.

  Caught in the web of lightning, he screams, throwing up his hands to protect his pretty face. Syl darts toward me. Screaming, he lashes out at her, sunbolts flaring from his hands.

  I don’t think. I just protect her.

  “No, Roue!”

  But I’m already there, windwarping in to shield her. The sunbolt hits me like a ton of golden bricks. “Ngh!” I drop my violin and cradle Syl as we’re both hurtled back. Twisting midair, I make sure I take the brunt of the impact.

  Ka-smack!

  We plow into an alley wall, rattling my teeth, my body crunching a spider web of cracks into the brick. I let Syl go and fall to my hands and knees, smoking, sunfire shooting agony across my body.

  “Urrrg… next time, remind me to use sunblock 5000.”

  “Roue!” Syl puts her hands on me to steady me. “You silly. It wouldn’t have hurt me.”

  In my head I know, but my heart only saw her in the path of danger. I stand, smoke rolling off me in waves, and face Aldebaran as he staggers to his feet. I’ve lost my violin, but I still have my voice. “That’s it, pal.” I sing my violet lightning to my hands. The alleyway lights up in a purple glow. “I’ve had just about enough of your sh—”

  Zotch! With an electrical zapping pop! black lightning zigs from a nearby streetlight and strikes the ground. Shadows burst up, and from them steps a tall figure.

  My father’s sent the Xi.

  Miss Jardin’s geis doesn’t work here, so, it’s two-on-two.

  “Make that two-on-one-on-one,” Syl gently corrects me.

  She’s right. Syl and I are a team, and these two clowns are on their own.

  That doesn’t seem to faze the Xi, though. They unsheathe those burning crimson claws, crawling with Inimical circuits. The stench of corrupted sunfire, burning asphalt and circuitry stings my nostrils.

  The Inimical infection’s expanded up both the Xi’s forearms.

  Aldebaran hesitates, the golden gates of OverHill held at bay by the Xi’s sudden burst of power.

  Now’s my chance to reach them.

  I take a step toward the Xi. “I was just like you, controlled by the Moribund, but I fought it. Just like you can.” In this moment, I sound like Syl. Nothing could make me prouder. “Now, fight!”

  “I cannot.” The Xi’s eyes glow fiery red like their claws. “The Inimical obeys the master-key circuit your father holds. Besides, I lack the one thing you have, Princess Rouen.”

  “What’s that?”

  The Xi’s eyes flick to Syl.

  Dread fills me up from head to toe. Of course my father would order his assassin to attack Syl first. “Syl…” I step in front of her, shielding her from the Xi.

  “I know.” She’s figured it out, too.

  As for Aldebaran… Clearly he decides the better part of valor is hiding his sorry behind. After all, the Xi is a powerful dark Fae, and he looks like he lost a battle with a swarm of redcaps. He crouches behind the lightning-scarred car, peeking his head out.

  A glint in the Xi’s glowing eyes is the only warning we get.

  The troll assassin leaps in, throwing blade after blade, weaving a deadly net of flying daggers. The night lights up in bright flashes.

  I push Syl one way and dart the other.

  Snik! Snik! Snik! The daggers lance into the wall behind us, Inimical circuits eating up along the wall in fiery veins before stopping.

  “At least Xi doesn’t have Ouroboros claws,” Syl sends.

  My sweet Summer girl, always looking on the bright side.

  I race toward the Xi but pull up short where my violin lies on the ground. I kick it up into my hand, then my bow. Should I toss in a cheesy one-liner about playing an encore?

  Nah.

  I let ‘er rip. Violet lightning lashes off my strings. The Xi dodges, contorting that athletic body around bolt after bolt. Syl backs me up with white flame.

  She nails the Xi dead center, but it’s still no good.

  The Xi’s untouched.

  Whoosh! In a spray of freezing shadow, the Xi windwarps in and belts me in the face, crushing me to the ground. Wham! I skid across the asphalt, my leathers protecting my skin from turning to road rash.

  “Roue!” White fire eclipses the brightness of OverHill as Syl comes to my rescue.

  The Xi turns toward Syl. “Now for you, princess.”

  Hells and Harrowing! Bolting back up, I race in.

  My flying kick slams into the Xi’s side, crumpling the troll-assassin like a tin can. Whip-fast, they grab my leg and swing, slamming me into a car. Krunk! The hood buckles, the windshield shatters. I’m peppered in glass.

  The Xi hauls me off, elbows me under the chin.

  I see stars. “Syl…run!”

  But Syl won’t. Hot summer breezes blast the parking lot as she windwarps to my side. The Xi is waiting, crimson claws slashing.

  “Syl!” I can’t move. The Xi’s holding me down. I flail, kicking my legs. I’m strong, but I’m not troll-strong. My head throbs with a sudden painful pulse.

  Let me out. My dark self scrapes at the bars in my mind. I can help you.

  No. I can’t. I won’t! I slam my mental shields down.

  The Xi strikes at Syl, those claws spearing in.

  She’ll be infected. She’ll be Reinghûl’s.

  “No!”

  Whoosh!

  Aldebaran—pretty, perfect, selfish Aldebaran—windwarps into the path of the Inimical claws. Cha-thunk! They pierce his chest, hooking in deep. Instantly, crimson circuits leap onto his skin, digging deep inside him.

  His scream shatters the night.

  Syl’s face is stricken. “What? Why?” I feel her sympathy for him, her guilt like maybe she’s read him wrong all this time.

  And then he opens his big mouth.

  “You. Are. Mine.” He grits his teeth and turns his manifestation on the Xi. The Gates of OverHill slam open, and full-on Summer in all its radiant glory blasts the troll assassin full force.

  I jerk back as the Xi recoils with an ear-splitting howl of pain, throwing up reams and reams of shadow. The air pressure changes, my ears pop, and the Xi windwarps away.

  A few stray crimson circuits patter to the ground. With nothing to infect, they melt, turning to… Is that blood? I have no time to check it out.

  Because Aldebaran is standing, the Inimical circuits eating up his arms inch by inch, turning him into a Circuit Fae under the control of his mortal enemy. His grin is dark. He grabs Syl.

  My entire world narrows to that one focal point—him and Syl, and the brightness that bleeds through those Gates.

  Sunbeams sear me. And I have no choice but to back off.

  My world is heat and stinging pain, blazing sunshine and sweltering heat. I can’t feel the ground beneath my feet.

  Still, I push through and dive for Syl.

  My fingers barely brush hers, outstretched, reaching for me.

  “Rouen!” she cries down the bond, and her cry tears at my heart.

  There’s a sudden blare and wash of summer heat and sunlight. The Shroud parts, and I flail desperately for her, my mind whirling. Not again, not again, not again!
/>   And then she is ripped from me.

  I stagger into the parking lot, darkness falling in around me.

  She’s gone. Stolen by Aldebaran. Again.

  19

  SYL

  Even a princess of the fair Fae

  Can become faestruck

  - Glamma’s Grimm

  * * *

  “Rouen!” My heart cries out as I’m torn from her.

  The Gates to OverHill burst open in the mortal realm, gusting out heat and sunfire, and Aldebaran drags me from the Nanci Raygun to the dimming fields of Fair Faerie.

  I am strong, but I am a princess newly Awakened, and he has been a Prince of the Summer Court for so very long. Plus, he’s turning into a Circuit Fae.

  It’s bad with a capital B.

  I struggle as he yanks me through summersteel gates blaring like liquid gold. With a snap, they close behind me, locking me into my dying homeland, the realm that wants me as queen.

  The realm that wants me to kill my Roue.

  But I’m not the one who freaks out.

  “Noooooooo!” Aldebaran’s shriek shatters the Summer all around us, sending a flock of white birds scattering from dying snow-clogged trees. “No… No!” His voice is shrill, terrified. “Not this!”

  He’s turning…

  Heat blasts the air around him, the Inimical circuits burning through his flesh in angry red veins. He jerks wildly, arching, mouth open in a silent scream.

  My heart’s in my throat, rabbiting against my ribs, but I call on my white flame. In a rush of heat it comes. I hit him dead center. Please work, please work…

  The white fire washes over him, but his screams only continue, the Inimicals eating him up from the inside out. Sickly heat pours off him in shimmering waves. The silvery pipes that herald his power come, rising up over a landscape torn by Summer and Winter, but where they were once haunting and beautiful, now they wail and howl.

  I try and try.

  My white flames should purify him, should burn the Inimicals from him at best. At worst… Well, at worst, he should legit be on fire.

  He’s not.

  The Xi was right. Once the Inimical circuits are inside, I can’t purify them.

  “Nice try, sleeper-princess.” He tries his own gramarye, pulling on the energies of OverHill. The entire realm shudders as a sunfire cloak drapes him in brightness.

  For a moment, he’s a brilliant, burning beacon.

  And then he changes.

  The Inimical circuits race through his system, turning his power from molten gold sunfire to a burning, sickly black darkfire. Smoke pours off him in billows. Like the heat’s been ramped up so high he’s charred from the inside-out.

  Fear punches into my chest. I stagger back, almost tripping over my own two feet. This is what Roue’s father wants me to become—a Circuit Fae controlled by his Inimical circuits.

  Aldebaran’s golden eyes darken, bleeding into molten-black shards, bitter as burning ash.

  He turns to the horizon.

  The sky is a bruised blue, nearly purple, and cloudless. Directly overhead hangs a massive dark curve like someone’s pressed a dirty thumbnail into the sky. The vast, sweeping curve dominates the atmosphere. Like a planet about to crash down.

  Fear splits my skull.

  This is Dark Faerie edging its way into Fair Faerie.

  Midsummer is still weeks away, but already, the two realms are crashing into each other.

  The white castle in the distance seems to shudder and collapse a little more. Fading summer sun hits the sagging towers, lighting up patches of snow and ice capped on the turrets. The hearthstone isn’t powerful enough to combat the bursts of Winter caused by the oncoming Convergence.

  A gleam of gold at the center of the castle heralds the only thing untouched here.

  The Aureate Throne.

  Aldebaran looks at me, predatory. He raises a hand burned black with corrupted darkfire. “This changes nothing. I still need my queen.”

  This again? “Seriously, guy, a broken clock’s right twice a day. You? Not so much.” I take a step back, but he’s on me in a flash of burning black. His fingers dig into my arm, darkfire flaring.

  “You and I will take the Aureate Throne.”

  “You’re crazy!” I fight, but he only digs in harder. My skin starts to blister and blacken. Pain whites out my vision. “Gah!”

  “Together, we will take the Aureate Throne and destroy the Dark Faerie realm on the day of the Great Convergence.” He drags me toward the castle. With every step, a bitter darkness spirals outward beneath his feet, burning so hot the grass and all the wildflowers catch fire.

  I dig my heels in, but I’m no match for his strength.

  “You will become my mate. We will soul-bond as we were meant to.” His face splits with an unhinged grin. “And we will rule.”

  “Let me guess.” I grit my teeth, fighting for all I’m worth. “With you as king and me your slave.”

  He gives a small shrug. “I will be Overking, yes. And you will sit at my feet as my queen and obey me in all things.”

  Just like Roue said—I’d be a queen and copper-top battery.

  A power source for him to drain.

  Anger rushes through me. “Ha.” The bark of my laugh echoes across the snow-choked field. “You. Wish.”

  I fight even harder, but he taps into OverHill again, sending shudders rippling through the ground at our feet. Princely power surges into him, Summer winds kick up, and whoosh!

  We’re sped forward like a golden comet as he windwarps us to the castle.

  Snow-dead fields and skeletal trees, wilting gold roses blur as we speed across the landscape, across the floating platforms, and up the cracked marble stairs.

  At the top, the massive golden Throne stands, pure and unsullied, its back shooting up in bright rays. Sunlight streams out from behind it, setting everything in stark silhouettes.

  The Aureate Throne.

  Next to it stands the queen. And seated upon it, the king of Fair Faerie.

  Dad… Maybe he can help. Even if he is caught in Summer’s Rest. Hope stirs inside me—hope and something else, something so close to who I am it aches. Duty.

  These are my people. I have to help them.

  But the closer I get, the more danger I put Roue in.

  Roue would be the first to tell you to save them.

  I shove Aldebaran off—finally—and take a step toward the two royals.

  Both the king and queen are caught in Summer’s Rest, letting the realm of Fair Faerie thrive on their power, their life-forces. Living batteries. Come Midsummer Day, their power will be exhausted. They will die.

  And the hearthstone will die with them.

  “We have to help them.” My gaze flicks to the hearthstone, to its single dying flame. The last sliver of Summerfire. “If we can somehow heal the hearthstone—”

  “No.” Aldebaran steps up next to me. Casually, he raises a chalk-white arm. Beneath his skin, red veins crackle as if lightning lives inside him. Bitter darkfire drips from his fingers like magma. “We will replace them.”

  “Replace— Are you crazy?”

  He whirls on me, madness in his eyes.

  “Who shall I drain first? Eenie, meenie…” He points at the king and queen in turn. “Miney…moe.” His pointing lands on the queen.

  No. No! I can’t breathe, can’t think… “Stop!”

  “Why should I?” He cocks his head. I can feel he’s already gathering up all the power of OverHill, readying to use it on the two royals. The marble stairs, the open-air throne room—everything begins to shudder and quake.

  I don’t know if I can stop him.

  “Why?” I scramble for time. I can’t use my white flame on him. My strength’s not enough. “Why would the fair Fae prince want to destroy his own kingdom?”

  Light and life, the Summer Court. Gone.

  His laugh is shrill, without humor. “Your father abandoned you. Tell me you don’t want revenge against him.
” His golden eyes are full-on black now, darkfire dripping, hissing, from his fingers.

  I look to my father, trapped in Summer’s Rest, his grey eyes sad.

  I haven’t let myself think of him much yet. My feelings are…complicated. “I’m angry, yeah, but I’m not homicidal!”

  “I am.” He spits the words like venom. “They adopted me as prince, but they always favored you. Their precious sleeper-princess.”

  “Wait…adopted?” This just took a turn for the weird. I glance at Aldebaran, the guy who’s trying to make me his mate, his queen. “You mean, we’re…related?”

  Make that a turn for the weird and gross.

  “Don’t be dense,” he snaps. “Only blood calls to blood.”

  I get his meaning. “So you’re not a real prince, then.” Whether he is or not, I’ve had enough of this guy. I slap my hand over Aldebaran’s and try to steal his power.

  Mistake.

  The usual static-spark jumps between us, signifying the power-steal, and then a scorching agony rushes into me, hot, bitter, blasting me. I try to pull away, but I can’t. I’ve tapped in, and now I ‘m getting a taste of what it is to be Inimical.

  The cold burn, the pain, the agony, the hunger… It pulls and twists and yawns, hollow, painful, inside me like my stomach is trying to eat itself. My cry shatters the Summer day.

  I try again to disconnect, willing my power to stop, stop… “STOP!”

  Violently, I yank away, panting, and fall to my knees. My entire body screams with pain. Still, I stagger to my feet, dizzy and out of breath. “I…I won’t let you hurt them.”

  “Oh?” He blasts me with darkfire.

  Wham! A fist of heat and sparks slams into me. I fall to the steps, the crack and whack of my limbs crushing whatever air I’d managed back out of me. Tiny dark flames sputter out all across the marble stairs.

  I can only watch, helpless, as he touches the queen’s cheek.

  A simple caress. But it changes everything.

  Instantly, her body goes rigid. Her eyes flash open, golden as the circlet of sun’s rays about her brow. He drags at the air with his hands, and her light pulls toward him, beads of liquid gold Summer welling up through her pores.

  No, no, no! I scramble to my feet, but I can’t get the breath to windwarp.