Then again, Fae.
And her furs hadn’t been designed to keep her warm. More like furry lingerie.
She was beautiful. And cold. And merciless.
But more than one claw had grabbed us…
As if my thought had been a summon, I got my answer. Instant gratification rocks.
A second figure stepped out from behind the throne, looking smaller, younger, and more fragile. Not sickly or anything, just less powerful than her sister. Which didn’t really mean anything, relatively speaking. The Summer Queen, and since it was Winter, she was at a slight disadvantage to her sister.
For all that, she was healthily naked, and wore a cloak of living fire. The sharp clacking of her molten lava high-heels emitted sparks that burned through the icy cavern beneath her feet. Sprouts of green life tore through the cavern floor in her wake, and her fingertips dripped embers as her eyes of fire stared at us hungrily.
“Welcome home, hounds. It seems you have taken gifts without proper repayment. That shall be rectified this night…” the Summer Queen leaned forward with a lava claw as if to pet us, “and for all nights to come,” she cooed, urging us closer with a beckoning motion.
The Winter Queen nodded excitedly. “Come, come, my pets. You are still mine until the Summer Solstice.” She frowned as none of us moved.
“Nate?” Alucard whispered urgently.
I glanced over my shoulder to see that we were suddenly surrounded by dozens of pairs of crystalline eyes, flickering like glowing sapphires from the darkness around us. One form moved a bit closer to a glowing stalag-whatever, and I noticed it had a white, shaggy pelt, not unlike Gunnar.
“White Walkers,” Alucard whispered.
“The night is dark, and full of terrors…” the Winter Queen quoted, smiling to reveal icy – dainty, but still needle sharp – fangs. I opened my mouth in surprise at her pop culture reference, causing her to laugh lightly. “Do you not think we pay attention to your mortal entertainment? Where do you think Master Martin came upon such monsters? He visited our lands, and was allowed to adapt some of our tales.”
“Jesus…” I whispered, more to myself, now realizing why it took the author so long between books. He was visiting the Land of the Fae between stories…
Chapter 59
“That one is of no use to you here, Maker…” the Summer Queen’s eyes lingered on Alucard hungrily. “Ah, a Daywalker… How sweet he feels,” and her fingers reached out as if to brush his hair, even though we were two dozen paces away. Alucard flinched, and I saw his locks shift as the scent of burnt hair struck me in the nose. He slapped his hand to his head, jumping back as he pushed Tory further behind him. She stumbled a bit from her bleeding leg, but remained upright. My brain moved like molasses, as if slowed by the chill of the Fae Realm. Still, my Beast continued offering, then discarding, ideas like a machine gun.
The Summer Queen pouted. “This hound fears the touch of his Lady. Does he not know the taste of our love?”
“He has not sampled yet, my sister.”
“You!” I finally managed to speak, pointing in disbelief. I didn’t want to use names. We had pissed them off enough already.
“I,” she responded flatly before turning to her sister. “I’ve heard of this game, from the little folk, although I do not fully understand its purpose.”
“Such mortal toils are beyond our comprehension. They shall be much more content as our hounds, discarding their putrid iron-kissed skins.” The Summer Queen’s eyes rested on my sword cane, and her brow furrowed with disapproval. “Thee shall have no need for iron teeth. Thee shall have claws of fire—”
“And fangs of ice,” the other queen added.
That didn’t sound pleasant. But a very small part of me came to the same conclusion as my Beast. We didn’t have enough power to get out of this. That we were, in fact, helpless to stop them from doing whatever they desired. Then I remembered that my friends were dying in our world. With Tory gone, the Beast Master was no doubt cleaning up house, avenging her father.
And none of my friends would be able to stop her. They were primarily all shifters. Unless Ichabod decided to help, but I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him. Which meant that only Rufus, Mallory, Van Helsing, and the Huntress – wherever she had gone – were present to withstand an army of over two dozen bloodthirsty beasts.
And that my shifter friends would likely be turned against my non-shifter friends.
And I couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
“I taste Grammarie,” the Winter Queen hissed.
“Spiced with Glamourie,” the Summer Queen spat.
I nodded. “I used my powers to—”
“Faen powers, not yours,” they hissed in unison.
I nodded, swallowing slowly. “Yes, that. I tried to protect her from her enemies—”
“We are not her enemies,” the Winter Queen snarled, taking charge of the conversation. “We are her Masters.”
I shook my head. “No, in our world, we were under attack—”
“Ah, by the failed father and his Beast Master. The broken puppeteer. The entertainer. The ringmaster. He was going to host our solstice in a few weeks.” Her brow drew down, a few tiny icicles snapping off her eyelashes. “But you have taken them from us.” And I gulped.
“Yeah… about that,” I said in my best apologetic tone. “Sorry?”
“All will be forgiven when you are collared.”
And they began striding towards us, hands held out as if calming wary dogs. I tried to back up a step, but warning growls behind me halted my movement. We were entirely boxed in.
“Anytime now, Rufus. I thought you said you were good at this type of stuff…” I whispered to myself, full of panic. Alucard shot me a look, confused at my words. Because he thought I was relying on Gunnar saving the chimera in time to give me my full Maker powers back.
But that wasn’t what I really wanted.
I wanted the curse to drop, burning up the last of my power forever.
I had been hoping for it to happen by now, because I didn’t dare proactively use my limited Maker’s power to attack, burning away the last of it. Even if I only used it to free my Beast, because that wouldn’t accomplish anything. The Queens would still have us.
As soon as I tried to use my Maker’s power, the Queens would kill me on sight. And I didn’t know how long it would take for my wizard’s power to unlock. Hell, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Would I pass out? Then wake up hours or days later, only then having access to my wizard’s power? Fat lot of good that would do me.
“This Rufus will not save you. You belong to us, now, Maker…”
And I suddenly realized that we had been here for some time now. And that at any moment, Rufus could touch hands with Camilla, giving me all of my Maker’s power back, and with my newfound wizard’s power regrown inside of me, I would likely become a vegetable on the spot.
Alucard struggled, pressing Tory further behind him. “Nate…” he cried out, terrified. “Do something!”
Then he went rigid, and the Summer Queen stepped up to him, grinning hungrily. “Mmmmm, my pet. Lick my hand, like an obedient little beast.”
And, seemingly against his will, he opened his mouth and obeyed.
My mouth ran on autopilot. “How many licks does it take to get to the center?” I asked, panting, the stupid Tootsie Roll Pop commercial replaying in my mind as I panicked.
They chuckled, dark, throaty purrs of anticipation. “We shall get to that later, boys…” the Summer Queen considered Tory hungrily, “and girl.”
Despite how stupid, how reckless, how suicidal, I needed to burn up that last shred of power.
Right freaking now. I had no idea how much time had passed in the mortal world. Could be seconds, years, or no time at all. Then again, nothing had happened yet. Maybe they were all dead. I sighed, realizing it was my only option, even though there was really no upside. At least I could die knowing I hadn’t given up.
>
I really had nothing to lose.
“Pah! You wear our cuffs, hoping to defy our power?” The Summer Queen belted out, eyeing the bracelets I had stolen from the goblins. Being closer now, she must have finally sensed them. “See how well they work against me, Maker.” As I prepared to do something drastic before she could stop me, I felt the combined power of the Queens of Fae hammer me like a million-pound blanket, settling over me, pressing me down, down, down, forcing my hands to my sides…
To rest on the hilt of the sword cane.
I gripped it, barely, my muscles not working properly as a faint click reverberated through the cavern. Alucard’s eyes went vacant, and he suddenly spun, latching onto Tory, a stupid grin on his face. “It feels so nice…” he whispered, his fingers slowly rising to the intricate silver collar around his throat. “No more pain. Here, just try it…”
She shouted, eyes lighting with green fire, but they faded almost instantly as the two queens’ eyes also lit up with fire – blue and orange. The Winter Queen slowly clasped a collar around her throat, too, and a peaceful smile slammed into place like an iron portcullis on a castle fortress.
Then the four turned to me, and began to saunter closer.
No, no, no, no… don’t let them lock me away again. Please, please, PLEASE! The Beast begged in my ears, panting frantically.
I responded in my mind. I can try to release you now, but we’re still toast. It’s suicide. They’ll take us both no matter what we do… he whimpered in response, fully realizing that his momentary hope for freedom was now dashed.
My mind raced as I backed up another couple steps. I felt a sharp lance of fire bite down into my leg, and I hissed, spinning, to find that a hound the size of a Great Dane had bitten me.
The familiar warmth slowly began to pour over my wound, followed by the icy flash as it healed. I wondered how many times it would work.
Or if it could bring me back from the dead.
My only choice was to honor my promise to my Beast. He needed me in control to free him. He couldn’t do it on his own. I had given him a Prison… a home. The cane. Hopefully a safe place to ride out this storm. And there, he could possibly recover from this. Heal. If it took him years, so be it. At least he might live. I was dead either way. As were my friends. Or we were mindless hounds. Same thing, really.
We were going to die.
My only choice in the matter was whether to be a martyr – freeing the Beast as I had promised – or as a victim – under the control of the Fae Queens.
I accepted this truth, and smiled for the first time in what felt like years.
A soul-deep smile.
And my fist squeezed around the cane.
“Stop! Kamikazee time!” I shouted at the advancing group, preparing to burn up the last of my power in two simultaneous spells: a quick, dirty attack on the Fae, and severing the tie connecting me to my Beast.
The Queens frowned at me as I opened myself to my power for the last time.
Chapter 60
But I was slapped down at the last second.
And not by the Queens.
My turn, my Beast roared in my ears, wrestling one of the two spells right out of my metaphorical hands. Right as I was trying to unleash a fireball at the Winter Queen’s heart.
But instead of fire, my cane tore free from my belt, a kiss of hard iron, and it glowed bright yellow as it abruptly screamed through the air, and my Beast was riding the metaphorical bullet.
Remember me… I heard him say in farewell.
But the Beast hadn’t been strong enough to stop both of my spells.
And as time seemed to slow, I realized what he had just done.
He had sacrificed his life to possibly save mine. Not likely to work, but he had still done it.
The Winter Queen threw up her hands to block the sword, but the sacrificial power of my Beast was apparently too strong, because it didn’t slow down, only flashed brighter in retaliation. I frantically sliced through the cord connecting us, my world exploding in a shower of sparks as the last of my Maker’s power severed the tie right before the blade pierced through the Winter Queen’s outstretched arms, and right into her chest.
She flew from the force of the impact.
On her way, she shattered right through several stalag-whatevers, before slamming into the wall, pinned like a butterfly a good ten feet above the ground, which was just terrible.
I fell to my knees, screaming as my wizard’s power suddenly filled my skin to bursting. I cried out in relief and pain.
I was back.
Next, I may or may not have indulged myself.
Bolts of lightning suddenly hammered into the cavern floor around us, and I realized I was laughing like a maniac. Everything with a heartbeat went sailing off into the darkness, even my friends, hammering into yet more of the stalag-whatevers. Then each hound was stabbed by a bolt of lightning, and the collars around my friends’ necks snapped open. Then, silence.
And my fading laughter.
The scent of blood filled the air.
Alucard and Tory were sitting up, dazed, covering their ears as they unsteadily waved back and forth.
The Summer Queen lay draped on the throne, whimpering in pain, but the Winter Queen was impaled on my cane, still hanging high above the floor, embedded in the rocks of the cavern wall. She gasped, bloody tears dripping from her eyes, only to freeze into crimson snowflakes as they drifted to the ground below her thrashing feet.
The Summer Queen’s eyes saw her sister, and she howled.
My eardrums shattered, but I felt no pain, only the sensation that something had broken inside of me. Then a warm band around my waist began to throb, steadily, stronger, faster, until sounds slowly returned, and the wailing of the Summer Queen was more of a sob.
“I will not be collared,” I spoke in a low, authoritative tone.
“You have no idea what you’ve done…” the Winter Queen whispered back.
“You tried to collar a Temple,” I replied. Then, for dramatic reasons, and to give her pause, I leaned closer. “A future Horseman…” I added in a menacing whisper.
“We had only… rumor of this,” the Summer Queen was on her knees, one of her lava heels broken, and her cloak lying on the ground behind her, smoking as it slowly burned through the ice floor. She looked like a candidate for the worst walk of shame ever. “But you have doomed us all now. Without her, the world will burn to ashes…” She glared daggers at me, eyes full of hatred, doom, and… defeat. “You have won, and ultimately lost…” she sobbed.
My belt throbbed at my waist, and I glanced down, a sudden revelation.
“What do you mean, burn to ashes?” I asked softly.
She was staring at her sister as she answered. “Life requires balance. Dark and Light. Glamourie and Grammarie. Beasts and Masters. Fire and Ice. Life and Death. Your retaliation has doomed us all…”
I stared down at her. “Thanks a lot, my Beast,” I said to my old roommate. Both as a eulogy for his sacrifice, and a frustrated realization of my luck.
I heard a faint whisper from deep inside the cane. Always so dramatic, the Fae…
I almost gasped, but seeing that no one else had heard it, I kept my outburst internal.
You’re alive? I asked in disbelief. But I heard no response. The cane – his home – had protected him. It had worked!
I studied the Summer Queen, and then the dying Winter Queen. “I propose a bargain.”
The Winter Queen spat bloody slush onto the cavern floor. “Denied. Reap what thee has sown…” she managed in a feral hiss.
But the Summer Queen was watching me, considering. “Bargains will soon be null and void, when the void of Creation’s Chaos reigns supreme…”
“Well, I don’t know what the hell that means, but… I can heal her.” I pointed casually.
Alucard groaned from his position on the floor, thrashing weakly in an effort to find Tory. His fingers touched her chest, and power began to pour out of
him into her, waking her. Her fiery green eyes shot open, tiny flames lancing up an inch into the air, and she sucked in a huge gulf of oxygen. But they seemed dazed – not deaf, at least – from the Summer Queen’s initial shriek. Maybe because I had seen them covering their ears.
“Speak!” the Summer Queen commanded.
I blinked at her lazily, arching a condescending eyebrow. “Perhaps you misunderstood the situation. I do not obey you. I thought I made that perfectly clear…”
“Wretched swine,” she hissed back, stumbling to her feet with lava claws as she took an aggressive step my way. “I will strip the skin from your bones for bacon to break my fast.”
I flicked a hand, and she went flying into the cavern wall. “Manners, my Queen. Always, manners. Lest, we are but beasts.” I think it was the shock and fear that allowed me to get away with it. After all, I didn’t think a wizard would be able to go toe-to-toe with her. Then again, I did feel stronger than I remembered with my wizard’s power. I strode up to the Winter Queen, staring at her with merciless eyes. She stared right back, but no longer with fury. Her gaze was calculating, dying, desperate for a taste of hope.
“What is your bargain, Mak—” she corrected herself, “Horseman?”
I waved a hand. “That’s just a temp job. I seem to have an affinity with them, but I wouldn’t go around pretending to be one. Consider that a… job offer.” But I wasn’t truly certain about my words. I hoped they were true.
I really didn’t want to be a Horseman. That had just been me putting them on edge.
In fact, I was entirely sure that it wasn’t possible to be a fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse. It would mean the Revelations Chapter in the Bible was effectively full of typos and that Big G needed to fire his editor.
I met her immortal eyes, unflinching. “We leave with no obligation, commitment, or promise to return. We are entirely free from Fae entanglements. And you are obligated to return any and all property brought here to its rightful owner. Oh, and no more child abductions,” I added, remembering the numerous Amber Alerts recently. Her eyes glittered with fury. I couldn’t think of anything else, so continued. “And in exchange, I will heal thee,” I added gently.
Beast Master: A Novel in The Nate Temple Supernatural Thriller Series (The Temple Chronicles Book 5) Page 32