by Eva Brandt
Transparent vines manifested from the sleeves of her coat, glowing like stars and slashing at me with the brutality of a whip. An actual vine wouldn’t have done much damage to a vampire, but this wasn’t anything like that. I dodged, but the vine still raked over my side. A burning sensation erupted over me. I ignored the pain and focused on not getting injured further.
Like most spirit-like creatures, Dames Blanches were immune to simple, physical attacks. This meant I couldn’t physically immobilize my attacker. I did have a chance at harming her with my weaponry. Silver wasn’t just a metal. It had magical properties and it was so powerful that it could stop Accursed magic.
Following this plan, I pulled out my gun and emptied the clip into my opponent. The bullets simply bounced off the Dame Blanche, as if the thick cloak she wore was armor, not material. I cursed myself for my stupidity. Fae magic wasn’t like the power we Accursed wielded. Of course my gun wouldn’t be as useful as it had been in the past.
The second Dame Blanche took advantage of my failure to attack me as well. She was a little more hands-on than the first. She had an actual sword, although, for the life of me, I couldn’t see where she’d gotten it from.
“And here I thought Dames Blanches don’t engage in sword fights,” I muttered.
“You don’t know us very well,” the woman surprisingly replied as she tried to stab me with her blade. “We are always what we need to be and we protect our own.”
“Do you really? Then why did you abandon Lucienne? She’s one of you as well, isn’t she?”
That was more of a guess than anything else. I actually had no idea if Lucienne’s famous fae parentage was related to the Dames Blanches. But what other reason could there be for them to team up with Louis de Hastingues? He wasn’t a fae of any kind. In fact, considering his nature, the Dames Blanches should have rejected him, not helped him attack The Pure Kingdom of Alaria. And yet, here they were.
I must’ve hit a nerve because the woman’s blade glowed brighter. Her companion was just as infuriated. Three other whip-like vines joined the first, all of them heading straight for me. I managed to avoid them at the last minute, by launching myself into the air. Unfortunately, even after more than a week of constantly feeding on blood, I still didn’t have all my powers back. My ability to fly was still weak and not as fast as it should’ve been. One of the vines grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I hit the ground hard and, although my Accursed physiology kept me from breaking every bone in my body, I still dropped my gun and was left a little dazed. “We didn’t want to kill you, Malachai Braun,” the vine’s owner said, “but it looks like you need to be taught a lesson.”
I’d already learned plenty and I had no desire to learn more. I doubted the Dames Blanches would’ve let me have much say, but in the end, they didn’t need to. “I’m afraid I’ll have to veto that idea,” Bjorn said, getting between me and the two Dames Blanches. “Why don’t you take on someone your own size?”
That would’ve struck me as arrogant and irritating had I not known he was right. My thrall couldn’t help me against the Dames Blanches and I wasn’t strong enough in spiritual magic to oppose not just one, but two Dames Blanches.
“Go!” Bjorn told me. “Go help Lucienne!”
I didn’t argue with him. I shot to my feet and ran toward the aisle, where my soulmate was facing off against her father with only Mathias to help her.
Queen Sarai and King Sterling had already been defeated. I’d caught a glimpse of the moment when it had happened, and it had looked very painful. I had no idea what Louis had done, but in all my years at the Palasion, I’d never heard the two Alarian sovereigns react in such an intense way. I’d also never heard the queen cry out her son’s name with genuine emotion and that thought alone was most unnerving.
If Mathias was right and Louis could induce manifestations of powerful fears in his victims’ psyche, then he might be able to exploit the Alarian Vow. Alarians should have been immune to fear of any kind due to their inability to feel, but Louis was obviously capable of circumventing that. In other words, the king and queen, who were under the same spell that had almost killed Darius, were extremely vulnerable to Lucienne’s father.
Normally, the Alarian royals would’ve never been taken by surprise like this. They’d deployed the best possible security teams to guard the premises. The closest groups, led by Valerian Christensen and Cardinal Vaughn, should have been more than enough to handle any threat toward the royal family. However, Valerian and his subordinates were having a lot of trouble fighting off the Dames Blanches. They must’ve encountered the same problem I had with their weaponry, as they had resorted to using their elemental magic. It was more efficient than the silver, but it failed to neutralize the intruders. Worse still, I couldn’t see Cardinal Vaughn at all.
On the bright side, Louis de Hastingues seemed just as prone to taunting his opponents as Mathias had been. That bought me enough time to make my way to them, although it also revealed the nasty secret we were keeping. He only uttered a couple of sentences, but one of them was more dangerous than all of the Dames Blanches put together. “In that body, the body you stole, you’re helpless against me.”
Coupled with the whole uncle/nephew thing Mathias and Louis had going on, the phrase was very incriminating. Neither Lucienne nor Mathias seemed to notice the effect it had on the Alarians nearby. The queen lifted her head and looked at Darius. “W-What?” she stammered. “Impossible.”
The king cracked his eyes open, staring at Mathias as if he’d seen a ghost. Valerian was so shocked by the conversation that he lost track of his opponent and nearly got himself killed in the process.
I launched myself at him and we fell to the ground together, just in time to avoid three daggers of light that could’ve easily slit our throats. Valerian opened his mouth, perhaps intending to thank me or to ask me what the fuck was going on. I didn’t wait to hear what he had to say. I had other priorities.
I left Valerian where he was and he couldn’t follow me since he had his hands full with the same Dame Blanche who had almost killed him before I’d intervened. By now, Mathias and Louis had grown tired of their conversation. I was only a few feet away from them when the worst thing that could possibly happen came to pass.
I remembered what Mathias had told us about Louis de Hastingues the day we’d met with him in Lucienne’s quarters.
“Louis is not like any creature you have met before. He is a special type of magical being called a nightmare. He feeds on fear, but not like an incubus. Instead, he takes the image of a person’s worst nightmare from their head and either shape-shifts into that or projects it in his target’s head.
“But that is only the very basic level of his skill. Ancient nightmares like him have another, very dangerous ability. They feed on imagination. The source of their power is the natural dread all humans have experienced toward the supernatural since the beginning of time. And the more they feed, the stronger they become, to the point where they gain secondary forms of their own, shapes that echo all the fear they have absorbed. In Louis’s case, that form is the giant snail you saw while in Mathias’s mindscape. In France, it is known as Lou Carcolh. There are other beings like him, such as, for example, Nessie. But as far as I know, they tend to stay away from other creatures since very few people are fond of nightmares.”
I had been terrified of the massive snail when I’d deemed it a protection mechanism stemming from Mathias’s psyche. Apparently, it was very real and Lucienne’s father had chosen to bring out that particular form to fight us.
One moment, Louis was standing there, right in front of me, as a man, and the next, the massive snail manifested in front of us like a gigantic, slimy monolith. Its appearance was so sudden that I almost ended up squashed under its bulk. I only escaped because Lucienne must’ve realized what would happen and shouted out a warning. “Get back! Look out!”
Just like I had before, I launched myself in the air, higher than I had during my conf
rontation with the Dames Blanches. The appearance of the snail almost knocked me out of the sky, its shell striking my foot as it popped up right underneath me. A bone snapped, but I managed to jerk away from the creature before more damage could be done.
I wasn’t sure how the others had fared. Mathias and Lucienne were fine. So was King Sterling, for the most part. They had been far enough away that they hadn’t been affected by the transformation. On the other hand, Queen Sarai was nowhere to be seen. I flinched as I realized she must have ended up under the massive bulk of the snail.
I hadn’t liked her, but I wouldn’t have wished such a disgusting demise even upon my worst enemy.
There were probably more victims, but I didn’t have time to worry about them. The snail wasn’t a threat just because of his bulk. The tentacles Mathias had torn out in his mindscape had reappeared, making a grab for every single person unlucky enough to be within the snail’s reach.
The tentacles were far more lethal than the vines the Dame Blanche had used earlier. When one of them grabbed a nearby paladin, I heard the man scream as his spine snapped. The snail then proceeded to stash the paladin inside his shell. Nauseating sounds of crunching and maybe even chewing reached my ears as whatever was hidden underneath the shell sealed the fate of the unfortunate Alarian.
No sooner had the screams stopped than another person was dragged inside and the process restarted.
Note to self: avoid the tentacles at all costs.
I didn’t feel in any way prepared for fighting Louis the snail. Even if Mathias hadn’t warned us beforehand, I would have still noticed that he was a creature far more powerful than I could ever hope to be. I hated abandoning the victims of the snail, but trying to free them would probably end with me being dragged into Louis’s shell as well.
I took advantage of the fact that Louis didn’t seem to want to approach Lucienne yet and flew to her side. “We need to go,” I told her and Mathias without preamble. “I don’t think the Alarians are prepared to fight this thing.”
If it had been just the Dames Blanches, they would have adjusted and found a solution, but the nightmare was much too dangerous.
Mathias nodded. “Take Lucienne. I’ll stall him.”
Lucienne shot us both a look of disbelief. “The hell you will. I’m not hiding behind Malachai again. It didn’t end well the first time. Or have you forgotten?”
She wasn’t wrong. Roughly two weeks ago, I’d had a similar conversation with Pierce, when Mathias had been the one to attack us at Lucienne’s apartment. The whole thing had ended in Darius falling into a coma, Pierce and his family vanishing, and me getting arrested after drinking Bjorn’s blood. Mathias hadn’t said anything about the side-effects on him, but thinking back, there must’ve been something.
“I didn’t forget,” Mathias argued, “but I also remember that no one died. For good or ill, we managed to escape that situation alive. I can’t make the same guarantees now.”
“He won’t kill me, Mathias. It’s you he’s more likely to kill. If anything, I should be the one stalling, while the two of you flee.”
I gaped at her in disbelief. “Lucienne, you can’t be serious. We can’t just leave you.”
“Well, now you know how I feel,” Lucienne snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. “I won’t just stand here and let this happen. I refuse.”
With a frustrated growl, she reached down at her dress and tore the cumbersome train away. “This is my fight too. Half the time, I might not know what’s going on, but I made an oath, an oath to protect you. I won’t just—”
Before Lucienne could finish the sentence, her father decided he’d had enough of snacking on Alarians. One of his massive tentacles zeroed in on us, flew past me and grabbed Mathias.
Lucienne screamed as the tentacle snatched Mathias away. Cursing, I flew after them, landed on the tentacle, and stabbed it with my dagger.
It was even less successful than my earlier attempt to shoot at the Dame Blanche. The silver blade snapped as it made contact with the tentacle, not even nicking it even if I’d put my full strength behind the blow.
Still, my attack wasn’t completely useless, in that it drew Louis’s attention from Mathias and kept him from dragging our unexpected ally under his shell. It also bought Mathias some time, allowing him to recover from the sneak attack. A powerful burst of fire magic erupted from his body, so intense I had to jump aside to avoid being consumed by the blaze.
The snail screeched and dropped Mathias. “You little bastard. Do you think that trick is actually going to work? You need to learn some manners.”
I had no idea how I could even hear him speak, considering that he shouldn’t have had vocal cords capable of uttering words. Mathias didn’t seem taken aback, though. “As you know, my parents were married,” he shot back, wiping a trail of blood from his mouth. “As for the rest of it... I think everyone here would agree I’m not the one with holes in my education. Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt conversations between soulmates?”
“I’d apologize, but I wouldn’t mean it,” Louis replied.
A mask of hatred settled over Mathias’s features and his aura completely changed. “You and I are too far gone for apologies anyway.”
The fire burning in his eyes held a dark edge that hadn’t been there before. Even if Mathias still inhabited Darius’s body, it couldn’t have been more obvious that Darius was no longer the person running the show.
“High King help us,” King Sterling whispered. “What have you all done to my son?”
We didn’t bother to answer his question or address its hypocrisy. Mathias had already attacked Louis, dodging the flailing tentacles with ease and using Darius’s fire magic and his natural agility to get closer.
It would not be enough and we didn’t have anyone to turn to. Despite the appearance of the snail, the Dames Blanches were continuing their relentless siege on our forces. Most of Darius’s enforcers were therefore either incapacitated or busy. Those who were close by had heard the whole exchange and, like the king, had realized that their prince’s body had been taken over by someone else.
Left with no other option, I rushed after Mathias. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have any weaponry left. My physical strength, while significant, could not compare to that of a nightmare. Being in sunlight weakened me and I couldn’t try drinking blood to give myself a boost since if I targeted someone else, I’d get distracted by the feeding and would become unable to help Mathias. Biting Louis was out of the question. I’d break my fangs if I even tried.
Physically, the discrepancy between me and Louis de Hastingues was much too high. But perhaps mentally, I might have a chance, if not to beat him, to distract him.
It was the same strategy I’d used when I’d teamed up with Bjorn against Cardinal Vaughn. The cardinal was a more powerful mind mage than me, but the two of us had succeeded in bypassing his defenses. Louis was not Cardinal Vaughn and I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Mathias about collaborating in this fight, but I needed to try anyway.
The creature’s tentacles were focusing on trying to capture the elusive Mathias, so I sneaked past them and flew onto the snail’s massive shell. The snail’s eyes were located on a set of prehensile antennae, so approaching its head would be too dangerous. However, by now, it had become obvious that the shell hid something very interesting.
Usually, in nature, creatures grew shells around sensitive parts of themselves. Louis would not have a lot of natural predators like a regular snail and he certainly didn’t have to protect himself from sunlight, but that didn’t mean he had no vulnerabilities.
Hoping and praying that this would work, I landed on the shell. Louis hadn’t noticed me yet, but I suspected that would soon change. Bracing myself for what would undoubtedly be a very unpleasant experience, I knelt on the shell and readied my mind to connect to that of my target.
That was when I noticed something very important. I felt no discomfort over the wound I’d receiv
ed earlier from my battle with the Dame Blanche. My broken ankle had also healed. Granted, both injuries had been minor and my vampiric healing factor could easily handle such things. But this was still daytime and the sunlight should have had a bigger effect on me than this.
It hadn’t and there was a good reason why, something that had slipped my mind in all the commotion.
I wanted to kick myself. How could I have forgotten about it? I still had an excellent weapon at my disposal, a gift a certain spirit had granted me.
With shaking hands, I reached into my jacket and retrieved the pendant, the High King’s Privilege. It still glowed just as brightly as it had the first time I’d looked at it. I looked between the pendant and the gigantic shell I was standing on. Logic stated that if I went through with my plan, the priceless artifact would be destroyed. But logic meant nothing in my life and in my world, and sometimes, you just needed to believe.
I brought down the pendant onto the shell, much like I had done earlier, with the dagger and the tentacle. The result was the complete opposite of my first attempt. The moment the pendant made contact with the snail, there was a bright flash, and the surface of the shell cracked like an egg.
Louis screeched so loudly that for a few seconds, I could have sworn my eardrums shattered. My hearing recovered just as easily as the rest of me, just in time for me to notice the reaction the rest of those present had had to my attack on the shell.
Down below, all the Dames Blanches lost their interest in the Alarians and zeroed in on me. “There!” I heard one of them shout in French. “On top of Louis. Someone is using dark magic. Stop him!”
Lucienne had an entirely different opinion. “Whatever you did, Malachai, don’t stop!”