Devil Inside

by S. A. Price

  “Alyx... Princess, wake up.”

  Opening her eyes, she saw her faeblin smiling at her, felt the warmth of heat and the crackle of fire, and smelled the heaven that was coffee. “Ooh, what time is it?”

  “Four. Sun’s up at six. Gives us time to eat, and pack up. Someone had said they wanted everyone to have breakfast before we rolled out.”

  She sat up, realizing she was in the little nest of blankets alone. “Everything okay?”

  “Just getting everything ready,” Scur said as he appeared. “Hungry?”

  She smiled at her berserker. “Famished. What’s on the menu?” She stood, realizing she was wearing just underwear and a tank top, and took the pants Abaxley gave her. “Where is Willy?” she said, not feeling the familiar feeling of him greeting her upon waking with a small travel across her clavicle.

  “He’s with Eli,” she arched a brow, “drinking sugar water.”

  “How do we have sugar water?”

  Abaxley grinned. “When I woke up, the coyote was sitting by a little garden of flowers, with all the glowing moths and cicadas hunkering down. There was a little pool of water. I tasted it.”

  “You tasted it?”

  He nodded. “If Willy was drinking it, I was checking it.”

  “So, sugar water?” she asked as she slipped her long-sleeve wicking shirt over her tank top and slid her socks on.

  He nodded. “And I think he made a friend.”

  “Another moth?”

  He shook his head. “Come see.”

  Sliding her feet into her boots, she clomped over to Scur and kissed him on the lips. “Morning, love.”

  “Morning, my sexy little vixen,” he said, pulling her flush against him to kiss her properly. “Did you know that making coffee with sugar water makes it taste like heaven?” He gave her a crooked smile. “To answer your earlier question, for breakfast we have jerky, hash browns, and don’t ask me how he did it, but Khalid made some kind of French toast. Which is mind blowing since it isn’t like we have eggs.”

  “That’s what we get with a man who’s spent his life in the woods. Resourceful mother fucker.” She winked and took a sip of Scur’s coffee. “Oh, that is fucking good.”

  Abaxley palmed her ass. “Come on.”

  Squired between two of her guards, she made it to the fire where Eli was sipping coffee and watching Willy and another bug jump and dart at each other, as if they were playing. Her coyote friend was sitting to the other side of them, watching as well.

  “Good morning, baby,” she said to Eli. “And good morning to you, love,” she said to Khalid. “So, Scur says you’re goddamn magic? And what’s this?” She pointed to the moth and what looked like a cicada.

  “It’s a bug,” Scur said and took the plate Khalid handed to him.

  “You already knew I’m goddamn magic,” Khalid said to her with a grin and brought her a plate filled with food. “I’m glad you decided we needed to leave before the sun came up, because this place is seriously beautiful. I’ve never seen so many things glowing. Not to this extent.”

  “Gogo told me that a lot of Faerie, wild Faerie is bioluminescent. She said when she went to Gorrag-li the mushrooms there were glowing like the ones in the moth grove. This place is...magic,” she agreed with her captain.

  “Gorrag- li is airborne,” Abaxley said. “It was on the news before we left.”

  She looked at him. “How do you know?”

  “Ruined city in the sky over Japan? It crossed into Faerie. The humans saw it.”

  “Well hell.” She sat next to Eli and smiled. “Willy seems to be having a good time,” she offered a piece of jerky to the coyote. “Thank you for helping keep watch over the night.” She took a bite of the French toast. “Oh my god. Khalid, how did you do this?”

  “Sorry, sugar,” her captain said with a cocky little smirk, “can’t be giving out my secret. I’ve gotta make sure you keep deciding you need me. My camping cooking skills are my secret weapon.”

  Eli laughed and scooted closer to her until their hips were touching. Her plate was almost polished off. “I don’t mind keeping watch. Plus, the coyote is actually pretty good company. It was peaceful. I’ve never been somewhere so peaceful before.”

  “It is a wonder,” she agreed. She lifted her hand and Willy came to her, resting on her finger. “Hello, my little love. Did you have a good evening? I see you have a friend. The cicada came to her as well, sitting, though a bit heavier, on her wrist. “Hello,” she said softly. It crawled along her hand and then she lowered her hand, and set them both on her knee. They danced around each other some more and she laughed. The utter joy she felt radiating from her little familiar was infectious.

  “You’re becoming the insect whisperer,” Scur said. “Not sure how I feel about that.”

  “I heard you were freaked out by moths,” Eli said with a smile. “Who would have thought the big bad berserker would be scared of little flying insects.”

  “I’m not scared of them, I just don’t like them,” Scur said. “Those little flies are the worst, though, buzzing in your ear.”

  The coyote stretched his front paws and glanced at all of them before coming over to lay in front of her. Khalid grabbed a couple pieces of jerky and put them on a plate before setting it in front of him.

  “I don’t like spiders, Scur doesn’t like moths...” Abaxley said. “What don’t you like, Khalid?”

  She polished off her hearty breakfast quickly, slugging her coffee back, the caffeine and sugar high making her head buzz. “Yes, Cappy, what don’t you like?”

  “Hob and trolls,” he said with a straight face.

  “Cheater,” Eli said with a laugh.

  “Oh yeah?” he said, a smile spreading across his face. “What is it you don’t like, Eliora?”

  She pursed her lips and Alyx could tell she had to think on the question. “I’m not sure, really. Hummingbirds and those chirpy little ones kinda creep me out.”

  “I can see that,” she said, “finches are dirty, too.”

  “Now that we’ve figured that out...” Khalid looked at her as he started to clean up from his cooking. “You know what way we’re heading this morning?”

  She nodded. “North,” she said without a thought, “for a ways, anyway.”

  Twenty minutes later they were packed up, and the camel, who had been dozing by the front of the cave, loaded up with their supplies, was both fed and watered. She went to her knees where Willy and the cicada were now lying together, and put out her hand. “Willy, little love, it’s time to go.”

  The small moth crawled up her finger, then stopped and she watched as the cicada followed suit. Once again, he crawled to her wrist. “Thank you for playing with my little sweetie. I wish you and your community long, lovely lives. And thank you for welcoming us to your oasis, and for allowing us to be here with you for such a short time.”

  Several of the bugs that were resting among the flowers took flight and pulsed color. She smiled. “Thank you. So much,” she said, feeling as if they were conveying good luck. “And thank you for allowing Willy to be one of you for the night.”

  Willy went airborne, flittered around several of the larger bugs and then went to her, settling on her shoulder. She looked down at the cicada and gasped as the small body melted into the skin of her forearm, becoming a small jeweled, milky blue tattoo, though she could feel him nestled just under her skin.

  “I...” she blinked. “I...we have a stowaway.”

  “Okay, that’s just fucking creepy,” Scur said. “You know I love you, Alyx, but if you start playing host to a shit ton of insects...” He shuddered. “That’s like a bad horror flick in the making.”

  She looked up at the flying community, their lights starting to make sense in her mind. “I... Thank you.”

  “What’s going on?” Abaxley asked.

  “I’m getting weird images. But I think they are sending this one to our Sithen, to seed a colony. He...sorry, she, is a young queen.” She
swallowed as the images came easier. “They have been here a long time, waiting to return to the world.”

  “Wow,” Bax said.

  She watched as more images hit her. “They say to be wary of the shifting sand. And keep the moon to our left.” The images stopped and she felt a pop in her mind as the colony fluttered back to the small garden. She blinked and felt Willy melt into her shoulder once more. “Holy shit.”

  “Mystical insects,” Scur said. “It’s official, I have seen it all.”

  “I for one am glad you make friends with mystical insects. We just got two good warnings,” Khalid said as they started forward.

  She nodded. “I got the impression they have been waiting there since Faerie put the spring there,” she said as they started north. They were about ten minutes from the cave when she felt a bubble burst in her mind and then Hendrix was over the coms.

  “Alyx? Khalid? Scur? Anyone hear this?”

  “Hold, please,” Scur said, apparently deciding he was going to throw that in every chance he got. “Yup, we’re all here.”

  “What are you doing up at the butt crack of dawn?” Khalid asked. “Guess the nice part about this is you’re actually in the same time zone for once.”

  “Oh, thank the gods. The cave you were in...are you still there?”

  “No...” Alyx said. “We left a few minutes ago, why?”

  “Because it’s gone,” he said. “Literally a blip and it’s like it was never there. No sat photos, no nothing.”

  “Alyx said we needed to leave before the sun came up,” Eli said. “Looks like her instincts are spot on.”

  “Anything new pop up on the satellite?” Khalid asked.

  “Not near you, but Terjit is getting a storm. Odd for this time of year.”

  “Faerie’s way of getting rid of the humans,” Bax said.

  “Let’s hope so,” Scur said. “I have a feeling this isn’t going to be just a normal hike through the desert, which means we don’t need any human witnesses to what’s going to happen. More so, last thing we need is the humans around when the hobs show up.”

  “Agreed. I’ll keep an eye in the sky. Which way are you heading?”

  “North. At least for a while. Anything there?”

  “Sand, and an old stone dwelling. A couple hours.”

  Eli rubbed her hands together. “Ooh, old stone dwelling. Those are always fun. I can’t tell you how many humans I met when they thought it would be a good idea to mess with one of them. Religious?” she asked Hendrix.

  “Unknown.” She heard him typing. “This is weird.”

  “What’s weird?”

  “You know what Lalibela is?”

  Alyx nodded though Hendrix couldn’t see her. “The churches carved from the rock, from the top town in Ethiopia. Hendy, we aren’t near there, there’s just sand here.”

  “And apparently what looks like one of those ahead of you.”

  “Someone want to fill in the guy who never left the Front for his entire life?” Khalid said, looking over at her. “Is there something significant about this church other than it was carved out of rock?”

  “How it’s carved. From the top down, like literally hewn into the rock, and the length of time it took to do it. There are some like the Kailasa Temple at the Ellora Caves in India that are intricate as fuck, humans can’t figure out how it’s been done, or how it was supposedly done in just twenty years with no trace of the rock they extracted. Same with Lalibela. But there are none in the vicinity because there’s no rock here.”

  “Well there is one now.”

  Scur looked over at Khalid. “You sure you didn’t go sleep walking one night and do any of that?”

  Her captain snorted. “First, I have a feeling those places are way older than me. Second, I’m not very artistic with my power. More like move ‘em, but don’t decorate. Hendrix, is this something we need to be concerned about or is it just an anomaly?”

  “I’m working on it,” they heard Nihar say in the background. “It’s kinda hard to know exactly what we’re dealing with when I can’t find anything saying it’s been there before. But have no fear, I’ll have something before you get there.”

  “You’re a peach, Nihar. Hendrix, does he at least have his dick in his pants?”

  “Thankfully, yes. Clearly he wasn’t with Gogo.”

  “If the man can get us the info we need,” Scur said, “I say let him go balls out.”

  “Literally,” Eli added. “You said we are about a couple hours before we hit it? Anything popping up that we need to worry about before then? We already have moving sand and the moon on the left side on the list.”

  “What? How?” Hendrix asked.

  “Um...the colony of insects that lived in the cave,” she said and winced, knowing it sounded insane.

  “We got ourselves a full-fledged insect whisperer here, Hendrix,” Scur said.

  “Keep it up, Scur,” she said and sighed. “I have a cicada that’s hitching a ride to my Sithen.”

  “Makes sense. Each of the Houses is a haven for a specific subset of animals. Sleeping for the darker dream animals like wisps and the basilisks, and most of the shifters. Blood for the dragons, Dank has so many animals coming back to its forest, and the Sluagh calls those from the depths among other things. It makes sense Alyx would take the insects. She is the Arcane house and a lot of arcane magic has to deal with insects,” Hendrix offered. “The fact that she’s not afraid of them or freaked out by them is a boon.”

  “Not everyone in my house is as...tolerant.” She looked at Scur. “Thanks, Hendrix. We will be in touch.”

  “Stay safe,” they heard him cut out.

  Alone, but for each other, traversing the sands north, the pull in her gut gave a tug. Abaxley took the reins of the camel from her.

  “I got him.”

  She looked over to Eli and quickened her pace so she was beside the other woman. “Hey.”

  "Hey yourself," Eli said, shooting her a grin. "This has got to be old hat for you now. The adventures and travels and the unknown of what you'll discover."

  “Nah, I mean don’t get me wrong, it’s something to do, and it makes our Court important, I mean who the fuck else has the out and out balls to do this? Okay, Mea and those psychos she lives with but...” She shrugged. “I’m good at it.”

  "I knew that about you the moment I met you. You’re different, Alyx Mayhem, and I happen to like different." They walked in silence for a moment before Eli spoke again. "You know I left Hell to find me a princess. I didn’t think I actually would, just had this undeniable need to try. After being in Faerie and the human realm for months I was about to give up and go back home but Bechar said one more party." She smiled. "Gonna have to send my brother a fruit basket."

  “We find any seeds or edible plants on this trip, bring him some of that,” she said. “I’m glad you came, And I’m glad you are my fourth guard. So, time in the human realm...what did you like most?”

  "Oh..." Eli pursued her lips in thought. "Might sound lame, but I liked seeing humans who weren't all evil. I mean I've been around the bad ones my entire life, but to see the good they do and their humanity? Gave me hope."

  “Humanity is largely flawed,” she agreed. “But there are just absolute gems out there that are what should define the species as a whole. You know, aside from Verity, I’m the only princess that’s lived my life largely in the human realm. I have seen the good, and the bad, and the horrible. I’m glad what you have seen has given you hope.” She took her hand.

  "I will admit, there were some complete evil assholes in Hell that I did like. But when you're a kid and don’t have anyone else to talk to, you make do," Eli said with a laugh and squeezed her hand. "When this adventure is over, probably gonna need to let my dad know I'm not coming home."

  “Probably, yeah. Well, that you’re not going back to Hell anyway because you’re home now.” She looked sidelong at Eli and grinned. “Because you’re with me. So, what do you like to do?
Movies? Music? Hobbies outside of torture?”

  "Oh, gonna throw the hard ones at me." She laughed. "Music would be rock...hard, but not screaming. Movies...well, don’t laugh, but I like romantic comedies. I might be the daughter of Satan, but I'm still a girly girl at heart. And while torture is my favorite pastime, I also like to dance. It’s freeing, if that makes sense. What about you?"

  “Music? I like anything I can fight or fuck to. Heavy, driving, but also melodic. But I also like to go dancing to old darkwave. Octavia and I used to go every week. Movies? Horror, and Sci-Fi. Both pull me out of real life, but I could do with a romantic comedy or two.” She giggled. “As to hobbies? Technically this has been a hobby for a long time. Before this, I liked to make Zen gardens. Back at my old place we had this amazing courtyard we turned into a stunning Zen garden. I kinda miss the peacefulness of it.”

  "Seriously? That sounds amazing. It's weird, even though I'm old as dirt, I still feel like there is so much I haven't seen or done. Getting to do this?" Eli looked around them. "It’s something I always wanted to do. Explore and learn new things. Getting to do them with someone I can already feel in my soul and with men who already feel like family? Dad might gag if he heard me say this, but I feel blessed."

  “Blessings can be dark,” she said softly. “You are my dark blessing.” She leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and then pulled out her canteen, opening it to take a swig, then handed it to Eli. “This entire thing, this quest, or race...or whatever...” She took the canteen back. “Finding the origins of Faerie, our homeland? What will happen with finding it, you know?”

  Eli took a swig herself before handing it back. "I can’t imagine not knowing your origins. I mean it's just Dad and me, you know, and I know all my history and his. Hearing about Bechar going through not knowing where he came from was tough, but an entire species? That's crazy. We're going to find out, though. You strike me as a woman who won't rest until she gets what she wants. I happen to like that in my women."

  “I happen to like that, too. So, always you and big S, no mom?”

  “No mom.” Her mouth pursed again and Alyx was learning her newest guard did that whenever she thought about something. “I’m not entirely sure how that works, to tell you the truth. My dad never mentioned her. I don’t even know if I had a mom or if I hatched or some shit. Never thought to ask.”