by Carrow Brown
David said, “I feel like I’m missing something.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but it was Silence who rose up, took over my body, and said, “Yeah, we are missing the daylight.” We reached over and snatched my jacket off the ground. “Come on, hobbles, we’ve got ground to cover.” We grabbed David’s arm and dragged him toward the river.
Silence, I said as we walked, give me back my body.
“I’ll switch back once we are actually in Niflheim,” we said. “If I left it to you two, you’d just jabber the night away. Weren’t you the one who said we had a meeting tomorrow? The sooner we do that, the sooner I can stab someone.”
“You must be the Blade of Calamity? The thing Badb didn’t want me to touch?”
Our legs sped up, but David had no trouble matching our pace. “I don’t care what you call me. Names are sentimental attachments the living give to things. I am an Edge.”
“What does that mean?”
With a growl, our legs sped up. “It means I cut, slice, and dice people who ask annoying questions rather than hustle home.”
You don’t have to be rude, Silence.
We scoffed. “I don’t have to be rude? You promised me slaughter, but instead we’re out in the middle of the fucking woods playing Pride and Prejudice.”
David, his breath coming fast, asked, “What qualifies as an annoying question?”
Our head turned to level a red eyed glare at him. “Every time you open your mouth.”
Silence! What is wrong with you? Stop acting like a brat.
We rolled our eyes. “Don’t use mom-voice on me.”
“Are you annoyed because I beat you?”
We stopped, spinning on our heel to face David, who barely avoided colliding into us. “First, my wielder decided to indulge herself in self-starvation. You weren’t even fighting us at anything close to full power.” Our finger jabbed into his chest. “Second, Badb said not to kill you. Otherwise, we’d be carrying your skull back to Grave Wood as a trophy.”
David grinned. “I didn’t think a knife could be a sore loser.”
I reclaimed control before Silence could do anything else and took a step away from David. “Ignore him. He’s just cranky.”
He called me a sore loser. I’m killing him at the first opportunity.
“The river’s over here. You can change before we use the elemental,” I said to David.
We walked again and came across the river. David put his bag down and pulled out the cold-weather gear. “What were you looking at when you got interrupted by McStabby?”
McStabby?
I ignored Silence, keeping my attention on David. Did I really want to explain what the threads of fates were? Or how the one I’d seen between us was one of the strongest I’d ever seen? And how would I explain it if I didn’t understand it myself? Strangers didn’t have such strong connections. I stored the thought to be researched later once home. “Just you and your aura, along with anything else attached to it.”
“What, like my soul?” He made a show of covering himself with his hands. “Is that decent?”
A laugh escaped my lips. “You may as well get used to it. Mythics are always looking at auras.”
David zipped up the jacket. “Will I be able to do it?”
“Someday, once Badb or her sisters teach you. Granted, you’ll have an interesting time.”
He fished out the boots and sat on a rock to put them on. “What does that mean?”
“As the Battle Crow, Badb needs a warrior to be her avatar. A lot of us will be curious about you and more than one will test you.” I watched him, thinking back on my earlier conversation with the goddess. “She only came to you recently? Judging by your leg and mobility, the monster incident happened a while back. What were you doing all this time?”
He jammed his hands into a pair of gloves. “A little of this and that. Doing the work that needs to be done.”
“That doesn’t tell me anything. Don’t be shy, now. You’ve seen me in monster shape.”
David’s face shifted through emotions faster than I could put a name to before settling back into its neutral one. “Cops grab the bullies and murderers and throw ‘em in jail. But they’re out before the week is over. Killing again. Raping again. I just make sure they don’t repeat the cycle.”
He looked at me with that hard glint in his eye. David’s face reminded me of men back in the wild west days when men took the law into their own hands. I missed those times in a lot of ways. “How does that work? Your friends on the force tip you off and you make them disappear?”
Part of me expected him to grin like Badb would, but his expression remained serious. “Someone has to. The legal system can’t be trusted as it is. It just takes a little money to the right person for criminals to walk when they should be behind bars. The people who should be doing the right thing are too busy being elected into office.”
David didn’t look like the kind of man who ran around the streets at night shooting up criminals. But then again, Ted Bundy didn’t seem the kind of man who had killed over thirty women. As I’d told Silence, judging people by appearances was immature practice done by those with limited perspective. The main difference between Ted and David was their reason for murder. David, at his core, believed in a system and found it flawed. Modern society would only perceive him as a wild dog needing to be put down.
“Being a vigilante could be perceived in a lot of ways.”
He laughed, turning in a circle before looking at me once more. “Don’t tell me you’re a goodie who thinks there is a glimmer of goodness in everyone.”
“That would involve a discussion about what qualifies as good, but I kill people for money, so I’d be a hypocrite for even trying to have a stance.” I looked up at the dark sky and sighed. “If you’re dressed, let’s go. I’d like to get you to the Manor before anyone else notices you’re here.”
He rose and slid the duffel bag over a shoulder. “Lead the way. I’ll follow.”
Standing by the river, I tapped the edge of the water of it with my foot. “I have paid passage for travel.”
The elemental’s head rose, a lily pad stuck to the side of its head like a fancy hat. “You do, but he doesn’t.”
I grimaced. “I don’t suppose there is a first-time discount?”
Turning its head, the water elemental rose to be level with David. “What will you pay?”
David’s eyes shifted from it to me. “What should I pay?”
“There is trash in Yavapai. Help her, and you may travel with me for a week.”
His head turned to me. “Yavapai? Where is Yavapai?”
“That’s the Salt River,” I said, looking at the elemental. “Which is very large. At least give him three weeks of travel.”
Bubbles rose up in the elemental. “Two weeks.”
“Two weeks is fine with me.”
It loomed closer, watery arms surrounding us. “Then we have a deal.”
I looked to David. “You may want to—”
The elemental exploded, droplets of water surrounding us. My feet left the ground, and I felt myself turn head over heel as images of other places whizzed by. It lasted but a moment before I was flying. Unlike before, I was ready for it and managed to catch myself before face-planting into the snow. David, on the other hand, landed face first.
Walking over to him, I grabbed his jacket and helped him up. “You okay?”
He pressed a hand against his stomach. “I’m going to be sick.”
“Walk it off.” I looked around and grumbled. “We got short changed. This isn’t where I normally surface.”
“That bad?”
I shook my head. “No. Just a bit of walking.”
David moved away from me to retch into a pile of snow. I took in the falling flurries and landscape around us until he was done. He wiped his mouth. “Are you going to be okay dressed like that?”
“I’ll be fine.” I pointed toward a darkness atop a hill in the dista
nce. “We are going there.”
He gathered up his bag, looking in the direction I’d pointed to. “Dark and ominous. I like it.”
We walked onward and I kept my pace slower for David as he trudged in the path I made through the snow.
“You and your ‘family’ don’t seem very close.”
“We’re not. You saw what I turn into. They don’t like to talk about the abomination they keep in the basement. If I’m not called by my pantheon, they pretend I don’t exist.”
“Which one are you really? This”—he gestured a hand to me—“or what I saw?”
“Both.” Adjusting my jacket, I headed down the path again at a faster pace as the snow gave way to black soil.
David caught up and walked along beside me. “What’s the monster-form for? Is it a curse or something?”
“It’s just how I was made. No one, not even me, knew I could turn into a human until it... just happened. Though, when I get really hurt, I shift back. I think it’s a survival thing.”
Which is another reason why you shouldn’t starve yourself, but do you listen? No.
David stared. “How often does that happen?”
“I try to be mindful of it, so it won’t happen at all. But… sometimes life happens and I either take a bullet to the head or fall from a high place. It’s not pretty afterwards.”
“If it’s not too invasive, what’s it like when it happens? When you go into survival mode.”
No one had asked me what it was like—no one cared. To them, I was a beast that ravaged and destroyed. Even if I didn’t remember doing it, it didn’t excuse me from the act. “It’s not invasive. It’s just...” I pulled in a breath. “It’s like a bad blackout. I wake up somewhere covered in blood and dead bodies everywhere. If I’m lucky, no one is alive. Otherwise, I put them out of their misery when I come back to my senses.”
David didn’t respond, and I inwardly sighed. Though, I wasn’t sure how long I could have expected him to treat me like anyone else he knew. Granted, lying to him might have kept that relationship going longer but it would’ve made it worse when he found out. And they always found out.
“When you get to the Manor,” I continued, “you’ll have to do the song and dance with my Master, but afterward we can set you up with a room and some food if you want it.”
A frown spread over David’s face. “Your Master . . . Feels odd to hear you say that.”
I arched a brow. “Why?”
“A feeling, honestly.” He looked me over. “I can’t see you being subservient to anyone.”
I grinned, letting the bestial rumble emit from my voice as I said, “I bow to no man.”
David shoulders bunched up as his head rolled to the side. “You enjoy creeping people out, don’t you?”
I cleared my throat. “Sometimes. You have to make fun where you can find it.”
David looked about the path and then at me, his brows drawn together. “This’ll sound stupid, but you don’t sound like someone who comes from all of this.” He gestured a hand to the snow scape, aura, and the brilliant blue sky. “Besides the turning into a big scary monster bit, you don’t act how I’d think you would.”
I suppressed a laugh. “How am I supposed to act?”
“Worldly? Calm and composed. Bored? I mean, you live with a guy to discuss philosophy in your free time, but act like the jarheads I served with. But I guess you do it to blend in. I mean, what better way to get closer to your food than to look and act like it?”
I grinned, liking the way he thought. “You’re partially right. People accept you when you act, talk, and think like them. The profanity is because I can. Years ago, I was married to an aristocrat for the better part of a century. I did the whole courtly and proper manner bit until we separated. I’m well versed in the art of looking pretty and speaking elegantly. Now that I’m single, I can be as uncouth and vulgar as I want.”
David grinned. “You must feel liberated.”
“You bet your sweet fucking ass I do.”
No more of your obsession with his ass. First, you stare at it and then you talk about it. Soon you’ll be drawing it.
David’s mouth opened to say something, but it stayed open as he stared past me. He jutted his chin in my direction “What is that?”
I turned my head to see what he was looking at. The Under was glamoured to look like a child’s fairy tale—except one place. A crater black as the Abyss with jagged stone talons reaching up to claw at the sky. All around it, nature flourished, rich with life, but not near or in the crater. I’d gotten good at ignoring it, which was saying something, considering how close it was to my home.
“It’s an old name, but it translates into ‘End’s Beginning.’”
He stepped closer and leaned against a dark tree to look at the landmark.
His head turned to me. “What’s its story?”
“It was before my time, but I heard it was the gods fighting a creature that sought to end all life. That’s the battle site. I can’t give you the details because no one wants to talk about it. Even though the thing is dead, it still scares them.” I took David by the arm and led him to the path toward the Manor. “Enough of the creepy crater. Let me show you some creepy trees instead.”
CHAPTER TEN
Hospitality
It didn’t take much walking to reach the edge of the forest. Branches reached out wooden skeletal fingers toward us. I stood in place when David walked off the path toward one of the trees, peering at the skeletal shapes in the trunk. Some trees had partial skeleton forms, while others were half stump and half-human bones reaching for the heavens. Most branches ended in skeletal fingers either reaching for the sky or some traveler. They liked to play with my hair.
David faced me. “What is this place?”
“Grave Wood,” I said as we resumed walking. “It gets its name because the trees are grave markers for those I eat.”
You’re trying to scare him off now? Good. I support this.
David froze, his head turning to take in every tree in the dense forest around us. “Christ.”
“Don’t bother Jay-Jay. He’s busy.”
Fog hovered over the ground as we moved deeper into the wood. It hid the ground beneath our feet, muting our steps as we followed the thin path through the trees.
David’s eyes remained fixed on the silent screaming faces of passing trees. “Why are the trees so different here? Back in the other place they were practically a fairy land.”
“They aren’t different. They just… don’t look like them.” I stopped walking to reach out, my fingers intertwining with a bony branch as it wrapped around my hand. “They help those in need and attack intruders. I just wish we could get some forest Fae or creatures here.”
“Wouldn’t that be like inviting a foreign species into a new area?”
“Well, if I had a forest fairy, they could help keep all that in order. They’re great for maintaining a balanced ecosystem.”
He continued to evaluate the forest as we walked through the dense foliage around us without an end in sight. His gaze returned to me after several silent minutes. “What happens when there aren’t any?”
“Soil loses its nutrition, plant life struggles, and…” My words trailed off as my brain went back to Vainya’s concern with magic. No magic meant no mythics. The natural systems we helped would fail once we went extinct. How long would it be until all life dwindled away and died?
David’s face popped in front of me. “Are you okay? You literally froze.”
I shook myself out of my thoughts. “I’m fine. Just realized something. Anyway, the Manor isn’t far now.”
The remaining trip was quiet as David left me to my thoughts. Vainya had likely realized the dire impact of my observation when I’d mentioned it to him. The scope of it all boggled my brain and I hoped he’d be successful in finding a solution. But how much time did we have? He had said a slow death, but slow by whose standards? Him, a creature who’d lived for mille
nnia, or a mortal’s life span?
The trees gave way to open space where the Manor resided. All the windows glowed with a welcoming light, creating a haven in the surrounding gloom.
David studied the large, two-story construction of the circular building. The Manor was composed of a mixture of Victorian architecture and medieval fortress design. Elegant pillars framed the double door entrance, adding a soft contrast to the stone walls. On the east side of the Manor, a tower rose into the sky, its lone window dark. Windows on the first floor glowed from the illumination cast from the fireplaces within.
“That’s a big place,” David said as we approached the entrance. “What do you do with all that space?”
“I clean it, repair it, and give it materials since it keeps growing.”
“Grow? You mean it literally grows? Like how a kid grows?”
“Sure, we can go with that. It builds rooms and furniture, but not out of thin air. It needs material or it ends up having to cannibalize itself to do it. I try to keep a good stock of everything it needs in the basement.”
My hand wrapped around the door handle, feeling the gentle warmth spread over my palm. It made me smile in turn, and I patted the door with my hand. “I brought a friend to stay the night. He’s nice.”
The door and frame creaked, and I picked up on the sounds of wood shuffling and scraping on the inside. I pictured all the furniture and paintings adjusting themselves ever-so-slightly to create the perfect impression for a first-time guest.
Pushing the door open, I waited for David to enter before following him inside, colliding into his back. Peering around him, I saw Vainya sitting in the main lobby watching us. His red eyes looked me over, and I knew he was observing my change of clothes, before returning his unblinking eyes to David.