Fire and Fantasy: A Limited Edition Collection of Urban and Epic Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  “Thank you.”

  “I have no intention of harming either you or your father. But I do have a prophecy for you. You will grow up to be the queen of a faraway place. You will be a strong and judicious queen and have no weakness except one. You will fall in love with a Silver Blood soldier. And that will be your fatal weakness.”

  “I shall remember that. Will you heal my father now?”

  “Not so fast, child. You’re smart, but you don’t know the power of this prophecy. Here is what I want to heal your father. When your weakness becomes the truth, and you are at a loss, you must come to me for help before it kills you. This is not a debt. It’s more like a favor. As I said, I like you. Do I have your word?”

  “Yes, I promise. I might be very young now, but I know how to keep my promises.”

  The shaman nodded. “All right then. I am the shaman of the Black Mountain, in the Middle Land. I hope to see you again one day.”

  Twenty

  Faye exited the hallway and headed toward the door. Kai walked by her side, with Lorcan dangling over his shoulder. Her father had put Lorcan out, again, for this trip. It was the most convenient way to handle the situation. Faye glanced back at the Great Hall and saw her father standing still, his hands in his pockets. He nodded at her with blessing and encouragement, as he always did.

  She promised him she would come back as soon as she had obtained the key. She promised him she was well aware of the prophecy and wouldn’t let it get to her. She didn’t know what Lorcan was exactly, but she knew he wasn’t a Silver Blood soldier. Silver Blood was mere rumor, anyway, and so were the soldiers who were supposed to carry that powerful property of the multiverse.

  Millie scurried along, trying to match Kai’s very long strides.

  “Can you please pretend that Lorcan has some weight to him. Isn’t he like six foot five?” Millie said, running and out of breath from having to keep up with Kai.

  “He’s six-eleven.”

  “You measured him?”

  “No, I’m a fighter. I’m quite accurate when gauging my opponent’s size and weight.”

  “See if you can measure up my Grant. He’s the best fighter,” Millie muttered. “By the way, did you see Grant when you went into the Heating Ducts, Faye?”

  “Huh?”

  “Did you message Grant at the Heating Ducts?”

  “I sent the message, but it didn’t get to him. I didn’t see him there.”

  Millie pulled a seaworm from her side pocket.

  “No, Millie, please don’t take the worm messenger with you. We’re in a hurry here!” Faye said.

  “Yes, Faye.” Millie let the worm go and scurried toward the carriage that Kai had put Lorcan inside.

  Inside the carriage, Faye checked the box containing the white and jade pieces of the key. They were intact.

  “Are you ready, Millie?”

  “I am,” Millie said. She pulled out the rectangular pass to the gate, and Kai began to navigate the carriage dolphin to the correct gate.

  Soon, they passed into the dark water, through layers and layers of time and space dimensions. Gradually, a dimly lit surface appeared above them.

  “This is as far as the dolphins can go. We have to get out here and surface,” Millie said.

  Faye was about to check on the wound on Lorcan’s side where the jade piece was when Kai grabbed her hand. “Be patient, Faye. It will work.” He tapped on the side of the carriage, signaling the dolphins to stop.

  They got out of the carriage and kicked their way to the surface, breaking through the water in the middle of the open sea in the human dimension.

  Faye had been here before, and she was sure the experience would be much the same. Kai still held Lorcan in his arm, keeping his head above the water’s surface. “Are you both okay?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” Kai said.

  “Me too,” Millie said, her teeth chattering loudly.

  Faye pulled out the box containing the two key pieces and opened it. The stones had vanished. She showed it to Kai and Millie. “It worked. That means the red piece has gone from Lorcan’s heart, and they’re all back on the boat now.”

  A short distance away, they could see the cruise ship lit up with party lights and alive with music. They began to tread water and move toward the ship. When they got close, they waved their hands to get the attention of the boat’s passengers.

  “Someone’s in the water!” A man on the ship holding a champagne glass in one hand pointed at them. A spotlight from the boat shone on them in the water.

  When Lorcan was placed on the floor of the boat, a woman in a red velvet dress asked, “Is that Mitch Wayland? What was he doing in the water? Is he okay?”

  “He hit his head on the way down. He’s fine,” Faye said.

  Kai pressed on Lorcan’s chest, causing him spit out water and gasp for air.

  “The medical doctor is coming,” the man with the champagne glass said.

  “We’re from the other boat,” Kai said and pointed out in the distance. “Water camping for the night. Then he came to us on a small boat, asking these two ladies to go out fishing. He wasn’t as good a boat driver as he’d promised.”

  “I bet he has a gallon of alcohol in his blood,” the woman in the velvet dress said.

  The doctor rushed in. “Please take him down to the medical room,” he said after checking Lorcan’s eyes and his pulse.

  Lorcan tried to sit up, but he was still very dazed.

  “Let me,” Kai said. He threw Lorcan over his shoulders and followed the doctor.

  In the medical compartment, the doctor was happy with Lorcan’s condition and had stepped outside for a moment.

  Lorcan opened his eyes immediately, grinning widely.

  “How…? You looked like you were dead just a second ago,” Millie said.

  “Well, I’m not now.” He sat up, and his eyes landed on Faye. He paused there for a second, but not long enough to embarrass her, and then he hopped off the bench.

  “This is my turf, so I’ll take care of this. Just follow my directions. I know where the key is. I can break the lock, and give you the box with the key in it. But keep an eye out for a woman in a red velvet dress. She was the one who set up the explosive.”

  He gestured toward the door. Kai and Millie exited. Faye was about to follow when she felt Lorcan’s touch at her elbow. “May I have a word with you?”

  “Sure.” She stayed in the room with him.

  He looked at her with his blue eyes, the ones that always made her stomach quiver. “I heard more of the conversation between you and Kai than the part about the red piece implanted in my heart.”

  Faye could feel her face burning. She tried to read his mind to guess what he was about to say, but her mind-reading talent was only consistent in her own dimension. When nothing came to her from Lorcan’s mind, she gave up and prepared herself for what was coming.

  “You’re blushing now, but I have to say this. I am flattered that you have feelings for me, Faye. But I am a spy and a data thief. You’re a royal, and you deserve a lot better for what you have done for your family and your people.”

  “There’s a prophecy—”

  “No, Faye, I am a scientist. Magical explanations aren’t going to work with me. But I do understand this—your reign and your work has occupied your mind for years, and when you saw the human emotion in my mind, you fell in love with it. You love the idea of being in love and being cared for. And you deserve all of that. But not from me.”

  “Enough said.”

  “No, I don’t think you understand. I think you’re overlooking what you’ve got, and who you’ve got. I am just an illusion, a dream to you. A dream is beautiful, but it’s not real. You have a real man standing by you and loving you in every waking moment he has. You’re overlooking that.”

  “I said that’s enough, Lorcan.”

  “Okay, I’ve said what I had to say. If we part after this, and if whatever happens makes me forget all of what h
appened in Nepolymbus, I want you to know I care about you. And please, do yourself a favor—love the man who loves you. You both deserve it.”

  “Shall we go?”

  “Sure.” He pushed the compartment door open.

  Twenty-One

  From the foyer of the ship, looking up to the upper deck where the tycoon host was entertaining his VIP guests, Lorcan could see the woman in the velvet dress. She glanced at him, nodded, and smiled. But unlike what had happened before, she remained there, talking to the other guests, and didn’t approach him.

  Faye stood next to him, so Lorcan turned and asked, “Is it possible that the situation here has changed compared to what happened before because I’ve come back from Nepolymbus?”

  She nodded.

  This is not good, Lorcan thought. It meant he didn’t have any advantages from the come-back, and there was no way they could benefit from what he had learned before. There was one thing, however, that he was certain was unchanged, and that was his thievery mission.

  He entered the hallway and used the boat’s phone to contact his client. He entered the passcode and pin number. The encoded message he received suggested that the mission was still on. He nodded at Faye, Kai, and Millie and headed downstairs. They followed him.

  In the narrow corridor that led toward the compartment where he knew the tycoon kept the safe, the light flickered a couple of times and then became steady. Lorcan waited. Before the group caught up to him, a waiter carrying a tray of drinks on his hand walked toward Lorcan.

  Lorcan stepped aside to let him pass. As he moved past, Lorcan noted he wore a large ring on the outside of the gloved hand with which he held the tray above his shoulder. When the hand got close to Lorcan, a needle poked out of the ring. Lorcan figured the woman’s role had been passed on to this waiter.

  He grabbed the waiter’s hand with one of his own, scooped the tray away from him, and then stuck the waiter with his own needle.

  The group approached him. He thrust the tray at Kai and caught the waiter as he slumped down.

  “To the elevator compartment on the left, second to the last door,” he said.

  He half-dragged, half-carried the waiter to the elevator compartment and squeezed him in. Then they went down a level. Lorcan navigated back to the where the explosion had occurred previously.

  He pushed the waiter in. “We need to wake him,” Lorcan said.

  Kai said nothing. He picked the waiter up by the collar and punched him in the face. The man moaned, and his eyes fluttered open.

  Lorcan searched him, pulling a gun from the waiter’s pocket. “Did you plant explosives in here? Don’t lie because you’re going to be staying right here with us,” Lorcan said.

  The waiter shook his head.

  “Is there a disposable submarine attached to this compartment?”

  He shook his head again.

  Lorcan grabbed a rope he found behind some equipment and tied the waiter securely to a steel rail. “Where’s the safe?”

  “I don’t know about any safe.”

  He pointed the gun at the waiter’s head. “We don’t have time for nonsense. Where is the artifact? Tell me, or I’ll blow your head off.”

  “Don’t…please. It’s here. In here. There isn’t a safe.”

  Lorcan pressed the gun harder against his temple.

  “It’s under the tank. In a box. Please don’t kill me. It’s just a job. Take what you want.”

  Lorcan left the waiter and headed to the tank in the corner. It was empty, and from the bottom, he pulled out a large steel box with a lock.

  “It’s primitive technology. Shouldn’t take long,” he muttered and quickly decoded the lock. In a few seconds, the lock clicked open. He opened the lid and saw a time bomb staring up at him. Its clock was counting down.

  “Explosives. We’ve got sixty seconds. I’m sure this is your Key of Pisces box. But I don’t have time to unlock the key box to check.” Lorcan carefully pulled out a box with carving on top that he knew he had seen before. He thrust it at Faye.

  He turned back to the bomb.

  “Shouldn’t we run now?” Kai asked.

  “Untie me, please. Let me go. I know nothing about this!” the waiter cried.

  Lorcan gingerly separated the wires on the explosive. “You go,” he said to Faye. “There won’t be enough time to make it off the ship. But there’ll be a lesser impact from above.”

  “I won’t leave you here,” Faye said.

  “Let me go!” the waiter cried again.

  “Look out!” Kai shouted and darted toward Faye. He pulled her toward him, the momentum pushing his body forward and copping the full impact of a blade from Millie, who was standing behind Faye.

  Millie withdrew the blade, and Kai’s body collapsed to the floor.

  Faye and Lorcan turned to Millie and saw that her face had turned white, and her eyes were bloodshot. One of her arms was transforming from a blade back to its normal shape, and the other was holding the key box.

  “You’re that hologram,” Lorcan said.

  “You’re the sea witch, Sonya,” Faye muttered.

  “You can retrieve the bodies of your servant Millie and her boyfriend from the bottom of the sea.” Sonya turned to leave.

  “Not so fast,” said Lorcan. He pulled his gun and savaged Sonya’s head. He had been quick, and she hadn’t been able to use her magic to avoid the hit. Her head and body exploded.

  As the bomb ticked down to the final seconds, Lorcan pushed Faye out of the way and threw himself on top of it.

  Faye used every ounce her power to whistle, a terrifying sound with a frequency that could cut the sea in half. The sound penetrated the wall of the ship and opened up into the water. The sea poured inside. The liquid environment was best for her power. She grabbed Kai’s body, and then Lorcan by the collar, and then shot through the water to move them all outside the ship.

  The explosion came.

  She felt the impact, but she pushed forward with the waves and the pressure. Lorcan and Kai were totally out. The ship split in half, and each side of it began to drop down into the deep sea.

  People jumped and cried out for rescue. Shards of wood from the broken boat floated around her. Amid the chaos, through the layers of dark water, she could see the box with the key in it sinking in the distance.

  She had to let it go. She made a mental note of its location so that she could come back later. But for now, Lorcan’s and Kai’s bodies dangled from her hands. She needed to bring them to safety. She turned around, looking inland, where help from humans would come. She swam toward a large piece of wood from a broken door and flung Lorcan and Kai on top. She dove beneath the water’s surface, grabbed the door handle, and pushed them toward the shore.

  She didn’t just swim, she surfed the currents. She commanded the waves, gathered the energy of water, and charged ahead.

  The water became shallow quickly, and she hit land. She stood up and saw several vehicles with flashing lights arriving at the shoreline. Several men ran over, pulling Lorcan and Kai onto the sand.

  A man approached her. “Are you okay ma’am?” he asked and handed her a blanket.

  She nodded. “Please help them. Are they alright?”

  “We’re taking them to emergency now. Did you just bring them in from that accident?” He pointed out in the distance where the flames from the boat explosion still soared into the air.

  Several small boats were discharged to the scene to rescue any survivors. Lorcan and Kai were both placed in the same emergency vehicle, and she followed them inside.

  In the hospital emergency room, they were pushed into separate areas divided by a curtain. She darted back and forth between them, checking on their conditions.

  Soon, Lorcan opened his eyes. He blinked and looked at her as if he’d never seen her before.

  “Lorcan!”

  “Who are you?”

  Faye withdrew. “I’m sorry. I made a mistake. I thought you were someone else.”
r />   A beautiful woman rushed to his bedside. From outside the curtain, Faye could hear her fussing over him. “What did you do on that boat, Lorcan?”

  “Don’t be mad, Orla. I thought it was the last job…”

  Faye went to the other room and saw that the doctor had stopped working on Kai.

  “Excuse me, is he okay now?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, he’s lost a lot of blood. If you’re his next of kin, you might want to say a few last words. But you’ll have to hurry.”

  She ran to the bed. It was the first time she had seen Kai like this. He didn’t talk. He just lay there. The pain in her heart was unbearable. It was like a hole had been ripped in her heart and soul, an empty space she would never be able to fill.

  What Lorcan had said on the boat made perfect sense now. She had overlooked this. She had never appreciated what she’d had.

  It was Kai who had always stood by her no matter what.

  She stared at the machine, which suggested his pulse was weakening by the second. She could not accept this.

  She held his hand and looked out to the darkening sky outside. “Shaman of the Black Mountain, I’m calling you, wherever you are. I am in your debt as I promised, and I am calling you as I promised. I am at a loss. Please help me.”

  A cold breeze rushed in through the window and cracked the glass.

  The entire hospital was blacked out.

  Kai opened his eyes to see Faye’s beautiful face smiling at him. He smiled back, but it probably looked more like a wince. He ached everywhere. His body felt useless.

  Faye traced her finger over his chest. “Toughen up, soldier,” she said.

  He recalled the what happened and remembered the sensation of the blade penetrating his body.

  “I was—”

  “Stabbed. And almost died.”

  “But I didn’t. Where’s Lorcan? Did you get the key?”

  She placed a finger over his lips to stop him from talking. “It’s all figured out. Lorcan is safe and sound. And the best part is…you are alive. I would hate to have to recruit a new guard.”

  “I didn’t do a very good job on the boat.”