“Have you seen Isaiah?”
“No Lady Jacqueline. He left the same day you jumped off the cliff.” The housekeeper had scooted as far away from me as was polite. Couldn’t blame her.
“Could you please contact me immediately if you hear from him?”
“Of course, lady.”
My next stop was our bedroom in Crescent City. I opened the safe and pulled out the ancient dagger, then took the lines to a secluded spot on the beach. I needed to concentrate.
I didn’t know any true spells, but I’d been taught by Liam and Isaiah both that magic was fueled by the intention of the magic user as much as the words spoken or the symbols drawn.
I sliced into my palm with the blade, perhaps a little more deeply than was necessary, but I had to know that he was safe. I smeared my Naberia-infused blood on the blade and reached out to my uncle. I knew his aura and his magical signature as well as my own so I searched for them here on the Mortal Plain. When I found only emptiness I took in a deep breath and traveled the lines to Isaiah’s home in the Demon Realm.
It wasn’t a difficult journey. I’d been there many times over the years. He never liked it when I popped in unannounced, but my link to him was stronger now that the demon side of my magic was growing in power. He was in pain and needed help. His home was empty. I wandered through room after room and couldn’t even find a servant. Finally, I ran into Stan, a strange unseelie creature who fought like a samurai warrior and behaved like a cultured butler.
With a slow sweep of his gaze he took in my disheveled appearance, but also my stronger magical signature. “Lady.” He bowed. “My master is not here.”
“Where is he?”
“With the archdemon. You must leave immediately.”
Instead I closed my eyes and sent, “Where are you, Isaiah?”
Pain and darkness surrounded me for a moment. He was here, in this realm.. “Little demon.” A hoarse voice croaked in my mind. “Stay away.”
“Is she killing you?”
“Eventually, I’d imagine. But probably not on this occasion..”
“How can I find you?”
“There is no way.”
“I’ll find a way. Hold on. Stay alive for me and Charlie.”
“I will endeavor to follow your orders.”
“I’ll give you permanent access to the Mortal Plain if you do. I promise. You can pop in anytime, forever.”
“That’s certainly worth staying alive for. That and seeing my two most annoying relatives again.” He began to cough. It went on for too long.
“We love you too.” I choked back a sob. “Hold on for me. Don’t leave me.”
“Jackie, you’re strong now. You don’t need me.”
“Not strong enough.”
“Go now!”
Naberia’s frozen calm stroked my senses and I shivered. I was back in the sand a few moments later. Someone else had arrived on the beach. I rubbed my chest, which seemed to hold onto the cold despite all my efforts.
“Ma. What happened? You disappeared from our world.” He was angry with me. I’m sure he wasn’t the only one.
“Isaiah. He needs us. She’s torturing him.”
“Naberia?”
“Yes.”
“He’ll talk his way out of whatever trouble he’s in.”
“She’s going to kill him. I know it.”
“She hasn’t killed him yet. Why now?”
“Because he’s too involved with our family. Because he helped me control my demon which went against what she wanted to happen, whatever that was.” I clasped Charlie’s hands. “My connection to him is much stronger now. I’ve had his blood and my powers are growing. We have to help him. Please.”
He wrapped his arms around me for a rare hug. I clung to him and glanced down the length of the beach. We were alone. “It’s okay, Mom. We’ll help him.”
Charlie’s scent, a scent that had always brought me such joy as his mother, struck my senses like a derailed locomotive. Words of a spell came to my mind, then slipped through my lips, muttered in a tongue I’d never spoken before. I grasped the hilt of my dagger but realized instantly that I was too close for a proper strike. The angle of the blade must be perfect for death to occur.
I pushed away and took another step backwards, the exact amount necessary. Charlie’s eyes widened as I began to raise the blade, still muttering the words of the spell, drawing closer to the end.
“Go…go now!” I gasped, fighting against the movement of my hand with every ounce of my maternal instincts. The bitch had spelled me to kill my own child, the person standing between her and an easy victory. I wouldn’t let her win. I couldn’t.
But my chest burned with the molten need to kill my son, the overwhelming desire to stab Charlie in the heart with the ancient blade. I would be at peace again, my mind told me. My cheetah would return and I would be made whole.
Charlie’s eyes had narrowed but he hadn’t moved even an inch. Why hadn’t he teleported away? My struggles were giving him time enough.
“Ma.” He grasped both of my wrists. The demonic spell forced me to struggle against his iron grip. “It’s me. It’s Charlie.”
“Char…Charlie…” I clenched my jaw and clamped my mouth shut. The words of the spell were trying to force their way out again.
“Fight it off. We’re rogues, remember? Tougher than Naberia.”
I shook my head violently, glancing down at the sheathed blade at his waist, desperate to come up with a plan. “Stab me,” I spit out.
“I won’t hurt you and you won’t hurt me either.” He sounded so confident. Why didn’t he run or take the lines? Or at least call for help? Trapping both of my wrists in one of his hands, he slid his own enchanted dagger from its sheath and laid it in the sand by my knees, as if in surrender. What the hell was he doing?
“Go… Now.” I rasped, struggling against the compulsion. I tried to contact Garrett or Liam, but all my energy was focused on fighting the spell. If I lost my concentration, I might begin to utter the words again, to finish the spell. Anything might happen then.
Still kneeling in front of me he pretended to bow. “If I am to die, let it be in your arms.” He smiled as if we were playing a game.
I found myself smiling back, smiling despite the horror Naberia had brought about. He’d quoted from Robin Hood, my sweet boy. My son. And just like that a precious memory flooded my mind of a tiny blonde angel with too-long hair flying in his face and a carved wooden bow in his hands.
The urgent desire to harm him dwindled with the memory, my chest cooling, my hands steadying. Finally in control once more I used a powerful influx of demon magic to send my traitorous dagger back to the safe in the bedroom, then threw myself into my Charlie’s arms.
He’d saved me from the worst fate possible for a mother who loves her child with the ferocity of an angry bear. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” It was all I could think to say. “Don’t hate me.”
Garrett was there a moment later and he and Charlie exchanged a few seconds of private mind-to-mind conversation. They’d kept their feelings about what I’d done off their faces, but I was fairly certain I could guess what they were thinking. Garrett took Charlie’s place and whisked me back, although we didn’t return to the party. He’d chosen the family room on the second floor, the perfect comfy spot for a chat, as if we’d be discussing the weather or an upcoming birthday. He placed me on the couch and sat beside me, pulling my head against his shoulder.
I was surprised that I wasn’t crying, wailing, screaming or worse. I wasn’t feeling anything at all, really. My body and my mind were numb, unable to grasp what had actually happened only a few minutes before. Garrett smoothed my hair and whispered words I didn’t seem to understand. His final words, perhaps, before he left me. I tried to pull away because I certainly wasn’t worthy of being comforted, but he wouldn’t release me. Maybe he thought I’d go after Charlie again.
Words were mumbled back and forth between them, more wo
rds I couldn’t puzzle out. My ears were ringing and the rapid pounding in my chest was making it hard to take in a good breath. I was cold, so cold, but I refused to shift position. Garrett would realize his mistake in a minute and push me away. Then the coldness would turn bitter.
“She’s in shock.” Charlie quickly draped a blanket over me, his expression concerned. He touched my forehead with the flat of his hand and I pulled away, burying my head in Garrett’s shoulder. How could he bring himself to touch me? Did he know I would have killed him if he hadn’t helped me remember the sweet little boy, as if the strong male he’d become wasn’t enough to force me to drop the dagger.
The dagger. I’d trusted the ancient blade would always obey my commands, but now I could never trust myself to wield it. Naberia, the murderer of children, had taken even that from me. Her cold calculations made perfect sense, of course. I would murder my son, bringing chaos and killing Finvarra’s best chance to beat her in battle. King Khent had made it clear that the large goblin population would only fight beside the fae against Naberia if Charlie were leading the army and there was little anyone could do to persuade him otherwise. Charlie had tried.
“Charlie, run the bath.” Charlie disappeared, not hesitating when his dad used that authoritative tone. “We’ll warm you up, my love.”
“No…n…no.” My teeth were chattering.
“You’re in shock. We need to warm you up and get you comfortable.”
“I need to get away from both of you, from everyone here. I’m sure Sinc might take me in and I’d be far enough away from you and Charlie that I couldn’t do any…any harm.” My breaths were shallow, my heartbeat still faster than normal.
Garrett placed two pillows under my feet and lowered me to a reclining position. He kneeled beside the couch and kissed away every single tear. “Do you think I could live without you? That I could send you away? I have no life without you, mon ange.”
“But I tried to kill our son.”
“Naberia tried to kill our son, and you were strong enough to resist her. You found the key to dispel her magic.”
“If he…if he hadn’t spoken that Robin Hood quote about dying in my arms…” I wanted to laugh, but I was too busy crying.
“And didn’t you talk to him about Robin Hood just a few days ago? You were finding the key to Charlie, as you found the key to me with our Rogues team. You defeated her by your will alone. You only used magic to send the blade away, but at that point you’d already made your decision.”
“He put himself in terrible danger. He placed his dagger in the sand, opened his arms and made himself vulnerable to me. It was foolish.”
“Charlie knows his strength. He would have stopped you before the blade ever touched his chest.” Garrett turned me to face him, brushing a tear away and kissing the corner of my mouth. “He gave you the chance to stop yourself. And you did. You sent your dagger back to the safe.”
I rubbed my face and turned away so he wouldn’t see how much the words I had to say would hurt me. “You have to send me away. We can’t take a chance. What if I try to hurt you?”
“We’ll go to Faerie together, as Fin suggested. Take a vacation. Even I can spend the day in the Faerie sun. Your demon magic will be weak in Faerie. You’ll have a chance to recover from all you’ve endured. To refresh your mind.”
“What will I do all day? Here I had plans.”
Garrett laughed. “I believe in Faerie you can do almost anything you enjoy.” His eyes widened with an idea. “Start a school there. You’ll have plenty of students and when you run out, start training the common seelie males. Most of them haven’t learned to use weapons. I’ll help and I bet Philladre and Linn will help, and even Aedus when he has time. In fact, I think you’ll have as many teachers as students. Everyone wants to do something toward the war effort but no one knows exactly what it is they can do, especially among the Cascade Sidhe. You’ll have to go to the Cascade Elders to get approval, but that won’t be a problem since King Finvarra already approved the school here. Add don’t forget, you’ve charmed them before.”
Charlie returned after filling the bath. “Do you need anything else, Mom? Did you tell Dad about Isaiah?”
“Oh my god, Isaiah!” I told Garrett what I’d learned on the beach and in the DR.
“You took the lines to the DR?” Garrett was horrified.
“I have a stronger connection to him now. We’re shared blood. I felt his pain and I had to know. I was only there for a minute or so.”
Garrett shook his head and probably would have laid into me if I hadn’t looked so pitiful. I glanced at Charlie but his expression was impossible to read.
“Don’t worry mom, I’ll get in touch with him.” He promised.
Our gazes met and I knew right away how he was planning to contact Isaiah. I started to speak, to tell Charlie no, to tell him it was way to dangerous, but the reinvented me glowed with pride and wished more than anything that she could tag along. “Stay safe, Robin,” I teased.
He grinned from ear to ear. “Go to Faerie, Mom. It’s changed so much. You’ll love it. Sash can handle the school. I can handle the rest.”
“Don’t go alone.”
“There’s no one else to take, except Samson.”
“He’ll like the change of scenery.”
Epilogue: Two weeks later in Faerie
Charlie
“Where are you going?”
I stopped in my efforts to shove another tee shirt into the lightweight backpack, smiling despite the fact my plan to leave Faerie unseen had fallen through. I hadn’t expected to see Brina this morning—not that it was in any way a hardship—and as usual her sudden appearance was always a shock. Not just because she was able to move so quietly, but also because even against my will, her warrior’s body, sparkling eyes and mischievous grin affected me in a physical and emotional way I’d tried very hard to quash. We’d been getting on a lot better lately, partly because I’d been working my butt off trying to help Fin get Faerie back in shape, partly because I’d been encouraging the High Seelie to pull out their dusty swords and start training again, and partly because we’d had a chance to talk briefly, clearing some of the stuffier air between us.
Brina had been my first and only real girlfriend with all the usual perks that entailed, but when I’d found out she’d been reporting my actions to Fin, her king, I’d ended it. I’d trusted her with private information that had no business being spread all over Faerie and I’d been hurt by what I viewed as her betrayal. I’d fumed over it for months; always coming back to the fact I’d been too wound up at the time to really listen to her explanation.
“I’ve been planning a trip to the Rocky Mountains for a couple of weeks, now that Mom and Garrett are settled in their Cascade vacation home.” That’s what we were calling it so she wouldn’t think of herself as some kind of prisoner—which she wasn’t at all. It’s just that she was safer here, which was everyone’s priority, especially Dad’s. She’d already gotten the approval of the Cascade Elders to start her school and there was already a waiting list of students and teachers. “I hope you’ll stop by once in awhile to check on Mom. I’d appreciate it.”
Brina’s expression turned sly. Somehow I got the feeling she had other plans. “Would you like company on your trip?”
“Uh, that’s nice of you, but—”
She picked up the backpack and shook all the contents onto the bed, then began to repack the equipment and neatly refold each item of clothing. I started to protest, but it was too late. I watched her with narrowed eyes and had to admit there was something kind of nice about watching her doing something so domestic. I groaned inwardly. I guess that made me a sexist pig. I kept watching anyway.
“You cannot go alone,” she said as she folded the last tee shirt, rolling it neatly and returning it to the backpack.
“What could happen? I’ve been in the Sierras dozens of times. The Rockies aren’t too different, I’m sure.”
“You are
not going to the Rocky Mountains and you insult me with your lies.”
I bristled at the comment. “Oh, really? I insult you with my lies?”
She narrowed her eyes, beginning to circle me like a hawk that had spotted a juicy squirrel. “I wish to propose an agreement between us—one that will benefit you greatly.”
“I’m gonna have to say no, but thanks anyway.” I relieved her of the backpack, adding a few other items without folding them. On purpose.
“Will you not hear me out?” she asked.
I frowned at her spoken challenge. This had always been one of her complaints when we’d been together—that I didn’t listen to her side when she and I disagreed on something. I’d thought about it a lot and come to the disconcerting realization that it was true. I’d been hurt, but that wasn’t reason enough to behave like a first class tool. “Okay, go ahead.”
“I will accompany you to the Demon Realm to rescue your Uncle Isaiah and in return I will keep my mouth shut about where we are going.”
After a couple of heartbeats, I sputtered, “I’m not going to the DR. That would be totally nuts.”
“That is very good, because now I can go to Grandfather and tell him there is absolutely no chance you would be that foolish. In fact, I can tell him that the reason you are packing these specific supplies—extra weapons, items needed for spells, steel chains—is so you can trap little red foxes, rabbits and bobcats that live in the Rocky Mountains.”
“You’re blackmailing me? Aren’t the fae known for their honorable behavior?”
“I am not a typical fae maiden, as you know quite well.”
I twisted my mouth in thought. It would be great to have backup, but there was no getting around the fact she was fae. A fae in the DR would stand out like a graceful deer in a field of crocodiles. I pointed toward the weapons on my bed. “Rocky Mountain bunnies are pretty kick ass.”
“I am sure.” She waited. She was good at waiting for me to talk first, a trick I normally used.
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