Rosie

by Jessica Cage

  “Hey, it could have been worse. Akasha could have succeeded. We all know the risk when we stand and fight. Would have been nice to make it out with no casualties, but we knew with what we were up against, that wasn’t likely going to be the case. Jenai was strong, brave, she served us well.”

  “Still, I hate that you lost people. Especially ones so young.”

  “What’s done is done. We will mourn and then we will live. Let’s get some grub before we go deal with those idiots at Felidae.” Magua slapped Ardyn on the shoulder and winked. He didn’t blame his old friend for what happened. He wasn’t the cause for any of it. Perhaps Ardyn would eventually stop blaming himself.

  “I could go for a good meal. It’s been a while since I’ve eaten.”

  “You know I’m never one to miss a meal,” Magua laughed, and the morose land around them lost just a bit of the gloom holding it hostage.

  Stepping foot in Felidae was a different experience than the first time around. It had changed, but not like Magua’s home. Instead of a sullen mood, the place was drenched in hostility and tension. Everyone in the capital was on edge, and for good reason. They were without a leader. In the time since Akasha’s death, the felines had struggled to find someone to take her place. The people they passed in the streets looked at Magua with hope in their eyes. It was obvious that they believed he was the best option they had for a new leader, but they were all met with his blatant refusal. Magua barely acknowledged the hopeful stares that landed on him.

  The trio walked in the council room led by three panther guards. Inside were leaders from the five other major feline regions—including the lions, leopards, and cheetahs. As the door closed behind them, all eyes fell past Ardyn who led them to Magua and he could smell it, they all could, fear. These leaders struggled not because they fought for power but because they didn’t want it. They knew what the world would think of Felidae, and even though it was their former leader’s action, whoever took over would have to answer for all of the shit that was still going wrong.

  “Magua, you’ve come,” Ekon, the king of the lions, stood from his seat at the table. Since no one else chose to speak, he figured he would get things rolling. The man was massive, nearly the same in size as Magua, yet his stature did not reflect his attitude. He was a coward just the same as the others. “It’s good to see you here.”

  “Yes, I am here, but not for what you are hoping,” Magua stated, brushing him and his hopeful gaze off.

  “You mean to say you still refuse to lead us?” Valda, the leader of the cheetahs, spoke with disappointment. The fair-skinned woman couldn’t help the purr that rose from within her; Magua always affected her in a way that was more primal than anything. For that, she received an exasperated sigh and an eye roll from the newcomer.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. And I must admit that it is interesting to me that none of you have stepped up by now. How long has it been that these people have been without a ruler? Yet there is no panther represented at this table.”

  “We all have our own homes to watch over,” Jedrek, the leopard leader, whose voice vibrated as if in a continuous state of purring, spoke.

  “And I do not?” Magua laughed. “Perhaps my people have not joined in the modern ways, but they still require a leader, someone to step up and protect them. Or maybe you think that we do not require such leadership.”

  “I just meant—” Jedrek backtracked, but Magua cut him off.

  “You meant that you don’t want this. None of you do, which is why you keep trying to shove the joy of Akasha’s mess down my throat,” he scolded them all, then grunted. “Find another way to clean this shit up. I’m not here to make this any easier on you. I only come as a show of support to my friend.” He nodded to Ardyn, but they all ignored the assertion.

  “We cannot recognize the order of succession here. Too many of her people were implemented in her dealings.” Nakhti, the cougar leader, stood from her seat. “We want nothing more than to wrap this up and return to our lives, but without a leader here, we are at risk. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”

  “What about Lorraine? She and a few others, they were not aligned with her. They helped us,” Zaria inquired, fed up with being ignored. “I mean, I know she isn’t a panther, but she seemed like a good leader in my book.”

  “I agree, Lorraine would be a good option.” Nakhti nodded in her direction but addressed the other leaders. “Unfortunately, no one has seen or heard from her or her partners since everything happened.”

  “I’m sure they are in hiding, expecting some sort of backlash for their actions.” Magua ran his hand across the freshly shaven head. Done as a show of respect for the ones that were lost.

  “Has anyone tried to find them?” Zaria again spoke up, and this time she got an irritated look from Valda, which she brushed off. They had no claim to order when they couldn’t even put a leader in the seat for their people.

  “No, it would seem we have bigger issues at hand,” Valda sneered.

  “Such as?” Zaria stood her ground. “What could be more important than making sure that your people have a solid leader?”

  “Such as the coming summit and the ferals. We cannot have Felidae unrepresented there. Especially when there is such discourse here at home,” Valda bit back. “We cannot put our resources into searching for a woman who may not even want to take the position. No one else is volunteering for the role.”

  “Magua, perhaps you could step in, just for the interim, while we locate Lorraine and find another way,” Ekon choked on his words before Magua could say anything to deny him. “I mean, just present a face for the summit. You know, that’s it. Nothing else.”

  “How is it that I knew this would happen?” The jaguar rolled his eyes and shot an annoyed glance at Ardyn who simply shrugged.

  “You’re familiar with the summits, though as I understand you haven’t been to one in quite some time.”

  “No, I haven’t,” he grunted. “And neither have any of you. You’re all leaders, and yet you allowed Akasha to take the reins and now you want me to take over. Again, I ask, why the hell aren’t any of you so-called leaders stepping up to bat?”

  “Well, perhaps your return will give the world confidence that we have things under control here,” Adira, the white tiger who sat in the corner silent for the conversation, finally interjected. “You’ve been there before, they will recognize you and trust you. Outside of Akasha, you’re the only one of our generational leaders who have been there. We all agreed to allow one to represent. If we suddenly show up there, all of us, it will look suspicious. You, however, perhaps it will just look as if you overthrew Akasha, which is not the best, but it is better than the alternative.”

  “Which is?” Magua challenged. They would need a lot more to convince him to take a seat at the summit. He’d allowed them to do as they pleased as long as it didn’t involve his people. Now that everything had turned to shit, they wanted him to step up and fix it.

  “Allowing the world to see how screwed up things are around here. We are just asking you to buy us some time here.”

  “Right … so you want me to lie,” Magua laughed.

  “Call it what you will, but our home is at stake. Your home is a part of this territory whether you want it to be or not.” Adira rolled her nails across the table, and again they were all silent while they waited for Magua to decide.

  Before he could announce his decision, the heavy wooden doors closing them off from the rest of the world swung open, and Miti, a muscled lioness, entered the room. She knelt before her king before speaking. “We have a problem.”

  “What is it?” Ekon addressed her, and she stood.

  “The ferals, they are getting worse. Our scouts have found more. It seems the closer we get to the peak, the worse they are. These, they’re like nothing we’ve seen before. They’re not only changed, but they are strong, and larger than their average counterparts.”

  “This is getting out of ha
nd. We have to figure out how the hell to stop this.” Ekon turned his back on her to address the others in the room.

  "You said it's worse near the peaks?" Ardyn addressed Miti. “How close are you finding them?

  "Yes, it's gotten so bad that people have evacuated all areas within a twenty-mile radius of the peaks. Our scouts are afraid to get any closer than the 25 mile marker. No one wants to turn and we’re finding that the further you go, the higher your chances are."

  "I think we need to go there." Ardyn spoke up cutting the growing tension in the room. “We need to see what’s going on.”

  "Do you think it’s safe for you to be there?" Magua asked his friend concerned about his safety. They’d already lost too many people. They couldn’t avoid to lose one as strong as Ardyn.

  "No idea, but we don't have a choice." Ardyn looked to Zaria who nodded in agreement. “If we don’t get to the bottom of this thing, it’s not going to stop. Besides, there may still be a chance of saving some of these people. We have to try.”

  “Ardyn is right.” Zaria spoke again but this time she was met with neutral faces. Of course, none of them were going to be volunteering for the job. “We need to go there.”

  “Zaria and I will go and survey the area. We will report back here with our findings." Ardyn nodded to Magua who grunted because he realized he'd been tricked into staying and dealing with more whining from the other cat leaders when the djinn couple vanished from the room.

  The feeling of darkness reached into the ethers of their arrival and touched every pore of their bodies as they materialized. The evil that had taken its hold on The Peak wrapped around them, and if they hadn’t been prepared for it, they would have been completely overwhelmed. It covered every inch of the abandoned territory and eliminated all signs of viable life. Hovering in the air, they stared down on the land, afraid of what contact with it might do to them.

  “Ardyn, I don’t like the look of this. Why is this happening?” Zaria swallowed back the nausea that had come over her in a wave. She felt as though she would lose every bit of food she’d managed to choke down back in Lagial.

  “I don't know, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say it has something to do with Daegal and the spell that Akasha tried to pull off.” He pointed to the center of the area where the altar once stood, the site where the former panther queen intended to bring the dark warlock back from the dead.

  “Do you think she succeeded?” Zaria followed his gaze. “Is that why this is happening? The spell worked?”

  “No. I think if he had returned, we would all know about it. But it did do something here. The land is dying. I can feel the decay from deep beneath the surface. We have to find a way to stop this from spreading any farther. In order to do that we need to understand what this magic is. I don’t believe we’re up against a normal spell casting.”

  “Its time we considered calling in some back up for this.” Zaria nodded. “I mean, I’ve done some basic studies of magic, just killing time, but nothing I know of comes anywhere near this level of evil.”

  “I think you may be right. We’re going to need a lot of help figuring this out, and something tells me we’re going to need even more to make this right again.” Ardyn pulled the stone that hung around his neck from beneath his shirt with the intent to call Jinn and fill him in, but the stone was glowing. It was a charm used for communications between their friends, one that couldn’t be intercepted with the use of modern technology. When he touched it, Jinn’s face appeared before them.

  “Hey, as soon as you can, I need you to get to us here.” Jinn’s face held a worried expression that echoed his own. “Something is really wrong, and it’s going to take all of us to figure this out. Meet us back at my place. I’m sure you remember where it is.”

  “Shit, that isn’t good,” Zaria muttered as Ardyn dropped the charm.

  “Well,” he sighed, “we can always fill him in when we get there.”

  Ardyn knocked on the door of the suburban home that belonged to Jinn, then he and Zaria waited for an answer. When Nitara opened the door to the home with a questioning look, Ardyn explained himself. “I’ve never been here and didn’t want to just pop into your living room.” He left out the comment about how he knew Jinn still wasn’t a fan of his and didn’t want to give the man a reason to throw a shot at him. He could always claim he was taken by surprise.

  “Right, okay, come in.” She stepped aside and let them enter the home. “Thank you for coming.”

  “We came as soon as we could, had to tie up some things before we could make the trip. What’s going on?” Zaria hugged Nitara before she continued further into the house. They were old friends and she’d missed the woman who pulled her into the chaos that was now her life.

  “Our girl Rosie, something is happening with her. She put up a barrier so strong that none of us can get through it. Jinn thought with more fire power, we might be able to bust our way in.” Nitara shut the door and followed them down the hall.

  “Three of you couldn’t do it?” Ardyn rounded the corner to find Bruto on the couch next to Jinn. “How strong is this field?”

  “Strong enough to keep all of us out, and that’s why we called you here.” Bruto rolled his eyes and Nitara laid a hand on his shoulder, again calming the restless spirit within him.

  “It’s intense, almost like something else is fueling it, not just Rosie,” Jinn answered Ardyn’s question. “There is no way she should be able to sustain that level of strength for this long. She’s one of the strongest djinns I’ve encountered, and yet still this seems far outside of what she should be able to do.”

  “What makes you think we will have any chance of breaking through? You three are a lot older and stronger than us,” Ardyn questioned, and glanced at the depressed looking Bruto who kept quiet this time around.

  “It’s just an option. We try it and see how it goes. Then if not, we think of something else.” Jinn shrugged.

  “It’s called process of elimination,” Bruto grunted, and Nitara started to rub his shoulders. He relaxed just a bit, but not nearly enough.

  “Excuse him, it’s been a difficult time,” Nitara apologized for his rudeness.

  “Seems that is something that’s going around.” Ardyn dragged his hand down the length of his shadowed face.

  “You look tired, what’s wrong?” Nitara stopped rubbing Bruto’s shoulders, and patted him on the head when he groaned. “Settle down.”

  “A lot of shit going down lately. We’ve been trying to sort it all out.” Ardyn plopped down in the arm chair and placed his hand on the hip of Zaria who sat on the wide armrest.

  “What do you mean?” Jinn headed to the bar, realizing that whatever Ardyn had to say was going to require a chaser of whiskey.

  “Shit is bad in shifter territory. That is where we were when I got your message. Felidae is a mess as they try to assign a new leader, Magua wants nothing to do with it, but everyone thinks he is the best option right now. I agree, but I’m not telling him that. The Bear King is down, and the polars aren’t letting anyone in to see what his status is. It’s a hostile environment. Not to mention the ferals.”

  “Ferals?” Jinn poured a double shot into the glass and emptied the contents quickly into his mouth. “What do you mean ferals?”

  “Yeah, on top of everything else, there is a growing number of cases, reports of shifters turning into their animal counterpart and not being able to turn back. Not just that, it’s like they aren’t themselves anymore. It’s as if they just lose all humanity. They’ve even been turning on their loved ones and attacking anyone who dares to come near them. Most have been subdued, locked away with hopes of solving this. Others have already lost their lives.”

  “Shit.” For a moment, Bruto stopped feeling sorry for himself.

  “Yeah, the world is going apeshit right now and I don’t know what to do about it.” Ardyn’s frustration added to the already tense atmosphere in the room.

  “One problem at
a time.” Jinn held his hand up as he tried to think on their growing list of problems.

  “And as if the list wasn’t long enough already, we have another one,” Zaria offered, knowing that Ardyn would omit it. “One of the ones who was affected is Ryesen.”

  “Oh no.” Nitara covered her mouth.

  “We’ll figure this out,” Ardyn said. “First we need to get to Rosie. We’re going to need as much help as we can get with solving the issue with the ferals. You all were witches before, right? Maybe something from one of your pasts will connect or help us solve this.”

  “It’s not a far stretch.” Jinn rubbed the back of his neck with his hand to massage the cramp that was forming. “However, Rosie was far more knowledgeable of spell casting than I ever was.”

  “How do we get her out of there?” Ardyn asked.

  “Figured we just hit it with all we have and see how that goes.” Jinn offered the simple solution with a sideways glance at the newcomer. “Not really sure what else to do at this point.” He glanced at Bruto who avoided his gaze like it would burn right through him.

  “All right. Well let’s get to it and hope like hell that it works. It would be nice if one thing could be simple.” Zaria laughed knowing damn well that it wouldn’t be the case.

  “Doesn’t look like it’s getting any better,” Jinn commented as they stood of the edge of the island looking up at the mountain where Rosie’s home was. The pink border that surrounded the perimeter had nearly doubled in size, expanding farther from her home perched up above them on the mountain’s cliff. It also felt stronger than when he last arrived. Something was feeding her magic, and whatever it was didn’t give him a good feeling.

  “How the hell is she doing this?” Ardyn felt the power coming from above them.

  “There is something else going on here, has to be.” Zaria raised a brow to Ardyn, and he nodded; the feeling there was the same as what they felt at the Peak. It was the signature of something dark that reached out to them and caressed their skin, tempting them to give into it.