by Jocelyn Fox
“Mud from the river to soothe fire and flesh,” said Corsica, approaching and holding her cloak out before her like an offering.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Ross before she could help herself, but it seemed like Corsica didn’t hear her.
“Not if they’ve bespelled it,” said Niall. He stood and carefully peeled back a corner of the cloak, dipping his fingers into what Ross assumed was swamp mud. Instead, his fingers came away coated in a white substance flecked with shimmering silver. Tyr motioned urgently from the cloak to Ramel. Jess looked skeptically at Niall.
“They are from a different time,” the Seelie Vaelanseld said. “Not many in our world have the knowledge to make this anymore.”
“If you say it’s good, I trust you,” Jess said with a nod. He caught Ross’s wide eyes and gave her a quick grin. “Would you believe me if I said this wasn’t the weirdest thing I’ve seen lately?”
“Strangely, yes,” murmured Ross. She watched for another moment as Niall and Jess began applying the white mud to Ramel’s chest. Molly stiffened and pressed her hand to Ramel’s cheek when the prone man gasped, but he settled after a moment, and they encased his entire torso in the stuff. Tyr nodded in satisfaction. Corsica set her stained and muddy cloak down within reach of the men and wandered toward the trees at the side of the house where she’d been watching the bird.
Ross walked back into the house, feeling strangely numb. On the couch, Tess waved off Duke, who was trying to remove a particularly stubborn bit of gravel from her arm.
“Just give me a minute,” Tess said firmly, taking a shaky breath and looking anywhere but the shredded skin of her arm.
“We could wait a few hours,” said Luca. “A few little stones won’t do you any great harm.” He turned his pale eyes to Duke when the medic began to protest. Duke raised his hands in defeat and dug out some gauze from their rapidly dwindling first aid kit. Ross felt oddly grateful that she’d spent the time to stock it so extensively. Vivian had called her a worrywart.
Tess nudged aside the bag of frozen peas that covered her knee. She grimaced at the sight of the livid bruise and pushed it back into place as Duke bandaged her arm. They didn’t have any gauze pads left that were big enough to cover the abrasion on her side and thigh – Duke muttered something about making a supply run as he was forced to settle for cleaning the tattered skin as best he could.
Satisfied that everyone else had a medic or healer of some sort to tend them, Ross sat on the edge of Vivian’s bed and watched her friend, checking her vitals every few minutes. She left the bedroom twice, once to pilfer one of the slightly stale peanut butter and bacon sandwiches, and the other to check on the progress of the others. The study had been turned into an observation room for Ramel. Ross couldn’t bring herself to feel irritated that the strange silver speckled mud now adorned a good portion of the futon mattress. Her adrenaline began to wear off and she snuck in a nap sitting beside Vivian’s bed. Every time her mind tried to make sense of all the events of the past days, she firmly turned to a concrete task, checking the splint on Vivian’s arm for the tenth time, or rearranging the blankets about her friend. As the afternoon sun slanted golden through the bedroom window, Vivian’s eyelids fluttered. She squinted, wrinkled her nose and muttered, “Ow.”
“About time you woke up,” said Ross.
Vivian stuck out her tongue at Ross and moved to push herself into a sitting position before realizing her arm was splinted. She growled every curse she could think of and even let out a whimper to top off the stream of invectives.
“You probably need some painkillers,” said Ross, reaching for the bottle on the bedside table.
“That is the understatement of the year. No, the century,” said Vivian hotly, groaning as she arranged her arm across her stomach and gingerly pushed herself up against the headboard with her good arm.
“You’re lucky you only have a broken arm,” said Ross severely. “And it wasn’t a tibia fracture, it’s just your radius, so that’s a good thing.”
“Speak English,” Vivian told her. Then she squinted. “Oh. My forearm versus my bicep.” She grinned. “See, high school anatomy and physiology coming back.”
“I’m so proud,” said Ross. “Here, take these with some water.”
Vivian swallowed the pills and drank half the cup of water that Ross handed her. She grimaced. “Those tasted like shit.”
“Well, you’ll be floating on cloud nine in a few minutes, so I think it’s a tradeoff worth making.”
“Did you just give me illegal drugs?” Vivian narrowed her eyes in comical suspicion.
“First of all, no, and second of all, you should have asked that before you took them.”
Vivian nodded. “Good point.” She winced. “Ow. My head hurts too.”
“Yeah, well, apparently you got slammed against the porch pillar by the bone sorcerer,” said Ross.
“Did we get him?” Vivian straightened. “Did the trap work? Is anyone else hurt?”
Ross suppressed a smile. “Yes, the trap worked. Tess got scraped up, but it’s not too serious. Ramel got caught in the blast from that spell you threw, though.”
Vivian paled. “I thought maybe I was remembering wrong. He’s not…I didn’t kill him, did I?” She swallowed hard.
“He’s still hanging in there,” Ross replied quietly. “But he’s not out of the woods yet. Corsica made this weird white mud and that seems to be helping.”
“I want to talk to them more,” said Vivian. “Corsica and Tyr.” She smiled dreamily and then blinked at Ross. “Tess. She was the one with the sword made of fire, wasn’t she?”
Ross had no idea what Vivian was talking about, but she remembered the well-worn scabbard on Tess’s back. “Yeah. She was the one with the sword.”
Vivian nodded woozily. She wriggled down until she was lying on her back again. “It was pretty awesome.” Her eyes, glossy now with the painkillers, slid half-shut. “Very progressive, you know, seeing the girls…kicking ass…” Her eyes closed. Ross stood. Vivian stirred at the movement of the bed. “Calliea…has a whip…d’ja know that?” she slurred.
“That is kick ass,” agreed Ross softly. Her answer seemed to satisfy Vivian, who sighed and turned her head to the side, settling into sleep, her arm held carefully across her stomach.
The door to Vivian’s bedroom opened slightly. Duke slid into the room and smiled at Ross. He looked about as weary as she felt. “Hey. We made some dinner, if you want some.” He nodded to Vivian. “Looks like she’ll be fine, right?”
“Yeah, just the arm and some bruises. Maybe a slight concussion,” allowed Ross in a quiet voice. Though her first instinct was to keep her station by Vivian’s bedside, she knew that she needed a break. Her body ached as she stood. “Who do you mean when you say ‘we made dinner?’ Because the way I remember it, your culinary specialty is Ramen noodles.”
He caught her around the hips as she passed through the doorway. She reached back and made sure the door didn’t slam before giving in to her grin.
“Well, when I say ‘we,’ I really meant that Jess cooked. I just found the pots and pans for him,” he said, resting his chin on her shoulder. “You smell good,” he murmured into the soft curve of her neck.
His breath sent shivers through her body. She chuckled and leaned back into his embrace. “I smell like sweat and ashes and God knows what else.”
Duke growled playfully. “Sounds pretty perfect to me.”
“You always did get rowdy when I smelled like the shooting range,” she murmured, sliding around in his embrace until she was facing him.
“I’ll take the smell of cordite over a lacy thong any day,” he grinned. Then he tilted his head in consideration. “Although cordite and lingerie, that’s like a one-two punch…”
“Shut up,” she chuckled, leaning close to kiss him. For a moment, her exhaustion fell away as the world narrowed to just them, just his lips on hers and the familiar feel of the rough stubble on his jaw, a delic
ious contrast to the softness of his lips.
Jess cleared his throat at the end of the hallway. Though Ross jumped slightly and went to pull away, Duke gently but insistently continued their kiss. She could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks – for all her boldness, she wasn’t an exhibitionist – but all the same, she smiled slightly against Duke’s lips. No doubt it was just his way of annoying his older teammate while making up for lost time.
“If you want any dinner, you better come get it before Luca comes back for seconds. And Merrick, for that matter,” Jess said dourly.
Ross chuckled as Duke drew back dramatically.
“You tell Luca that I’ll hogtie his ass if he eats everything,” Duke said with severity. He winked at Ross and kept hold of her hand as they walked down the hallway. “Seriously, I was a hog tyin’ champ in high school, lasso and everythin’.”
Jess merely returned to the kitchen, but Ross saw him trying to hide his smile.
Dinner turned out to be a more than passable gumbo, with rice on the side. Jess had even managed to whip up a batch of cornbread.
“I didn’t even know we had all these ingredients,” Ross said, her eyebrows lifting in surprise.
“You didn’t,” Jess said. “I took the liberty of making a supply run.” He handed Ross a bowl. She served herself a generous portion of rice, ladled gumbo over the top, and selected a square of cornbread from the corner of the pan.
“Well, I would have been more impressed if you’d made all these ingredients appear magically,” said Ross as she settled at the table with her food. “But color me impressed all the same.” She spooned up some rice and gumbo, nodding in approval as she tasted it. “Guessing you used V’s car for the groceries?”
“Yours is kinda toast,” said Duke. He shook his head. “Cryin’ shame.”
Ross sighed. “I still don’t know how I’m going to list that on the insurance claim.”
“Act of magical arson by crazed Fae rebel?” suggested Duke. His grin only grew wider when Ross punched him lightly in the arm.
“Yeah, that’ll really go over well,” she grumbled. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. This food is too good to spoil with worrying.” She glanced into the living room and glimpsed Luca ensconced on the couch, spooning rice and gumbo from what Ross was pretty sure was supposed to be used as a mixing bowl. Tess dozed on the other side of the couch. For a moment, Ross thought she saw something like glimmering snowflakes swirling around Tess, but then she blinked and the strange sight faded. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Molly is in the study with Ramel. I believe Merrick is sleeping there as well,” said Jess, stirring the gumbo in its huge pot and replacing the lid. “Calliea and Niall are keeping watch on the asshole in the glowing dome. The other two, I don’t know.”
“By ‘keeping watch,’ do you mean plotting how to crush him like a bug?” asked Duke through a mouthful of cornbread. “Because that’s what I wanna do.”
Jess opened the refrigerator and selected a beer. He sat down at the table with them as he took a contemplative sip. “I don’t know if it’s that simple.” He rubbed his chin, which was covered in the beginnings of an impressive beard.
“It seems like nothing is simple anymore,” agreed Ross. She scraped the last of her rice and gumbo from the bowl. “Except good cooking. This is really good, Jess. Are you sure you didn’t grow up here?”
“Hunger is the best seasoning,” said Jess with a chuckle. “And my grandma was from down here. Over near Shreveport, I think. It’s her recipe.”
“Well, it’s fantastic,” Ross said firmly, heading back into the kitchen for another helping. As she walked back to the table, she saw the glowing snowflakes – or feathers, maybe they were feathers – drifting lazily around Tess again. And this time they didn’t disappear when she blinked. She placed her bowl carefully on the table, shut her eyes for a moment and then looked again.
“You’re seein’ it too?” Duke asked quietly. “Good. I was beginning to think I’d done damage to these pretty baby blues.”
“Your eyes aren’t blue,” replied Ross automatically. She squinted. “What is that?”
“Well, based on our experience, it’s some kinda magicky thing,” he replied with a wave of his hand.
“A…magicky thing,” she repeated skeptically. “That’s really what you’re calling it?”
“I’m sure it’s not the technical term, but…” Duke shrugged and grinned.
“It’s called taebramh,” said Luca as he surveyed the pan of cornbread. He opted for more rice and gumbo instead.
“What’s taebramh?” asked Ross.
“What you would call magic, I think,” replied Luca. Duke raised a hand at the validation of his description. Ross rolled her eyes at him. Luca held up his bowl in Jess’s direction. “This stew is very good. Very different than anything I have tasted before. It is like delicious fire.”
“Delicious fire,” repeated Ross with an uncharacteristic giggle. Duke grinned.
“It’s got a true Southern kick to it, for sure,” agreed Jess gravely.
Luca stood for a moment in the kitchen, looking over at Tess where she lay dozing on the couch. Ross could see his devotion written plainly across his face – it made her like the big Northman that much more. As she finished her second helping, Ross went to the refrigerator and raised her eyebrows as she opened the door. “Jeez, do you expect an army or something?” she commented, poking at the overflowing shelves.
“Have you seen how much Luca eats?” Duke deadpanned. The ulfdrengr chuckled.
Ross grabbed a soda, though she didn’t usually indulge in the sugar laden drink. Her body still hurt from the post-adrenaline crash, and a bit of sugar would help to take the edge off. Luca looked at the can suspiciously as she popped the tab and the drink fizzed a little.
“V is gonna have a lot of fun introducing you guys to all this mortal stuff,” Ross said with a smile.
“Who says I can’t introduce everyone to mortal stuff?” Tess asked good naturedly, smoothing down her sleep-ruffled hair as she padded into the kitchen. She yawned and then frowned, testing her weight on her right leg. Luca watched her silently as she prodded her knee, gingerly at first and then more forcefully. “What in the…” she muttered, pulling up the side of her shirt. Shiny red scars dappled her ribs.
“Your side looked like ground beef a few hours ago,” said Duke, raising his eyebrows.
Tess tugged at the gauze on her left arm, unwinding it to reveal the tender pink of just-healed flesh. She stared at it for a moment and then walked back over to the couch, swiping her hand over the cushions and coming up with a few pieces of bloodstained gravel.
“Well, that’s…neat,” said Duke anticlimactically.
“I guess absorbing all this taebramh in the mortal world has its benefits,” murmured Tess, looking at Luca with raised eyebrows.
“I cannot say that I object to anything that makes you a more formidable warrior,” he said with a glint in his blue eyes.
“Yeah, well, that means I kinda have to get sliced and diced before this takes effect. But…I’ll take it.” She shrugged. “Weird that I’m stronger in the mortal world than in Faeortalam, huh?”
“Not necessarily,” Luca said.
“Don’t tell me it’s because I’m mortal, because you and I both know that’s not quite true anymore,” she said. They both grinned like it was an old joke between them. Then Tess grimaced, patting her stomach. “I hope there’s food left, because apparently healing myself like a glowing mutant requires some refueling.”
Before she finished her sentence, Luca had refilled his giant bowl and held it out to her expectantly, spoon and all. She smiled at him, kissed him on the lips and took the food. She slid into the last chair at the table, testing the temperature of the gumbo with an experimental bite and then beginning to wolf it down with impressive speed.
“So,” she said between bites. “Any ideas on how to get that psychopath in the glowing cage to give us the
Lethe Stone?”
Chapter 31
After every battle, food tasted better. It was a rule that Tess had learned during her time in Faeortalam. But even without the post-fight euphoria, she was pretty sure that Jess’s gumbo was blue ribbon at the county fair special, and she told him as much between bites. When she wasn’t complimenting the cook, she spent the time between mouthfuls explaining the Lethe Stone and the Council of Queens to Duke and Luca. Duke seemed abivalent about the Lethe Stone, and Luca merely absorbed the information in a stoic and thoughtful manner. Neither of them had offered any questions, so she moved on to musing aloud about the bone sorcerer. “I mean, we have him hemmed up, so that’s a point in our favor. But I’m not sure how to make him give up the Lethe Stone.”
“Tell him we’ll kill him if he doesn’t,” rumbled Luca.
Tess hummed thoughtfully. “That’s an option,” she admitted, “and that was the original plan.”
“You should probably talk to Merrick,” Duke said. “Tyr – he’s the silent one, not the weird one – helped him with the runetrap. And Corsica said something about the bone sorcerer being able to help them.”
“Help them how?” Tess asked sharply. “The bone sorcerer is a monster. He had a teenaged girl tied to a tree and he was about to cut her heart out.” She scooped another spoonful of gumbo and rice into her mouth. “Speaking of…where are the Glasidhe? I’d have thought they’d returned by now.”
“They are out with Niall and Calliea,” replied Luca. “They said they didn’t want to intrude during the busy hours after the battle.”
“That was probably Haze,” said Tess with a fond smile. “They didn’t bring the girl here, did they?”
“No.” Luca shook his head. “Haze reported that they led her to the road and watched over her until a passersby stopped to help her.”
Tess interrupted with a frown. “They shouldn’t have just left her with anyone passing by. How would they know that he wasn’t a creep too?”
“If you would let me finish,” continued Luca. Tess smiled a little sheepishly and gestured with her spoon for him to continue. “Haze reported that they followed the car into a small town, staying out of sight. The girl went to a place that looked very official, and had men with uniforms and shining gold stars pinned to their chests. Haze’s words, not mine,” said Luca with a hint of doubt, as though he couldn’t envision what Haze described.