Relics and Runes Anthology

by Heather Marie Adkins

  Chloe placed her hands in his. They were so small compared to his, engulfing hers with finger length to spare. His skin was warm, and his touch was gentle. If she really thought about it, man or beast, Bram had always been gentle. Beast? Chloe thought to herself again as she felt two separate heartbeats underneath his skin, just as she had at his apartment, pounding as each pulse coursed through his veins. One beat sounded and then another like a soft echo of the first. Chloe lifted her eyes to Bram’s, and her skin flushed. The whole world faded away. It was as if the thrumming of his hearts were a mating call. It was intoxicating and undeniably seductive. The longer they touched, the faster her own heart started to beat.

  Bram seemed to clear his throat reluctantly. It pulled Chloe out of her intoxicated haze. With one hand cupping hers, he softly caressed her fingers before looking away, but he didn’t let go. There was a deep pain in his eyes, an internal struggle over something ancient, Chloe thought. But mixed with his sadness, she saw the light Jessica had mentioned. Chloe’s heart beat even faster, and Bram looked at her, then, and smiled. He waved his hand over hers, revealing the bandages hidden beneath the glamour, like a magician performing a trick.

  Chloe unwrapped her bandages and looked at her palms. Mary’s potion had worked. There wasn’t a scratch on them. She thought for sure she would have deep, jagged scars where the faery whips had ripped through her skin. “You’re going to tell me the entire story of this place one of these days, Bram Tice,” she demanded.

  “Of that, I have no doubt.” He cracked another small smile.

  “And your story,” she persisted. Amazed by how quickly the potion had healed her wounds, Chloe reached up and touched her forehead. Her glamour was still intact, but the tenderness where the gash used to be was gone.

  “Restrooms first, human. It’s almost time to portal, and I’ve just about worn out my warm welcome. Can’t you tell?”

  “An attempt at self-deprecating humor while facing down the nine levels of Hell doled out by a coven full of witches that hate your guts? I’m impressed.”

  “Just wait until you meet someone who really, really doesn’t like me.” Bram chuckled as they got up to leave.

  As if on cue, several customers entered Hilgrid’s shop as the pair departed. Chloe thanked Hilgrid again before she and Bram left and headed towards the Spree’s beaded entrance.

  As they neared the glowing strands of magical spells, Chloe caught sight of the afore-mentioned Ogre’s restroom door. It was a huge damp, slab of tree bark, overgrown by clumps of moss, which smelled like manure. Several flies buzzed around the door as well. In the middle of the brick wall was a tiny door that looked to be made of blue opaque glass. It was the size of a mouse hole. Chloe wondered how any creature could approach it, since it was three feet off the ground. Next thing she knew, a glowing ball of white light buzzed passed her and into the small doorway. Its trail of pinpricked light marked its path before those, too, disappeared.

  “Sprite?” Chloe asked.

  “Mhmm,” Bram answered.

  On the other side of the Spree’s cobblestone street, right next to the glowing beads, there was a narrow gilded door. It had patterns of leaves, flowers, and vines embossed into the metal. That was definitely the bathroom Chloe was going to use.

  Just then, Chloe heard a faint cry for help outside the Spree. Whoever the sound had come from Chloe was sure they were human, very young, and in trouble. Chloe got a knot in her stomach and wanted to throw up. She pulled the curtain of beads to one side and looked far out into the darkened Seattle sky. The storm of dust and blood had passed, but Chloe still couldn’t see anyone. The fish market stood trashed and empty. Feeling helpless and weak, she looked back at Bram.

  “Help one or save them all. You can’t do both,” he said.

  Movement behind Bram caught Chloe’s eye. Mary and Hilgrid had come out of their shops and were standing in the middle of the street facing each other. They raised their hands, palms facing one another. Blinding white orbs of light the size of baseballs formed between their hands. Four spheres began rotating in their palms. The air between the Spree witches shimmered like the heat-distorted view above a long stretch of highway on a hot summer day. They were opening the Mirror. Chloe looked into the space between the two witches as some of their patrons stepped through the shimmering air. The locations themselves within the Mirror shifted as each new person entered. Chloe saw glimpses of a lush green forest full of magical creatures and then a modern looking city on the edge of an impossibly-high cliff floating among the clouds. Then, she saw a brief glimpse of Seattle through the Mirror, scorched and rotting, before the scene shifted to Coleman Dock. Mary turned to Chloe and Bram, her patience seeming to wear thinner every minute the two did not enter the Mirror.

  Suddenly, a young girl’s blood-curdling scream sounded from beyond the beaded curtain again, closer that time; much, much closer. Chloe stood up straight and took in a deep breath. As her instincts kicked in, the knot in her stomach disappeared, and her nausea faded.

  “Don’t even think about it. Chloe, no! We have to go,” Bram said. He seemed to know exactly what she was about to do.

  Chloe looked at Bram with a defiant gleam in her eye before bolting out of the Spree, leaving it and the portal behind.

  7

  A Royal Invitation

  “Chloe, stop!” Bram yelled running out of the Spree after her.

  Chloe kept running in the direction of the young girl’s screams.

  “God-dammit.” Bram hissed his displeasure as she was about to reach the market’s entrance where she’d be exposed to Seattle’s darkened sky and all its lurking creatures.

  One minute Bram was running to catch up to her, and the next he was in front of her, suddenly blocking her path. “How did you…” Chloe started to ask, coming to a halt right before she ran into his chest.

  “Hells, woman, do you ever listen? Just wait one minute. Will you at least do that much?” Bram was fuming. They were barely shrouded by the dark shadows of the market. He hovered over her, blocking her view and her path.

  Chloe stretched her neck and looked around him. “Bram, the humans, they’re fighting back.”

  “I know,” he stated without even looking behind him.

  Out on the street, she watched as a young girl came into view, followed by several adults with makeshift weapons. They fought off two scabs as the young girl ran into the arms of a woman in the group of humans. She’s safe. Chloe sighed to herself and relaxed a little. Then, the group of humans started to grow from five to more like twenty-five. At least ten of the men surrounded the two scabs. Instead of running the powerful creatures off, they pinned both down and stabbed them over and over and over again. Shit! Chloe thought.

  Bram raised his hand in the air in front of Chloe’s face and quickly pulled the glamour from her like an invisible sheet unmasking a marble sculpture. “You still look like Famke, but human again; got it?”

  Chloe touched her normally-tipped ears. The fae features of her glamour were gone. “Oh shit! I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Mhmm. I know,” Bram mumbled. “An angry mob out for vengeance will ask too many questions of us, believe only what they want to believe, and cast swift judgement. Every possible scenario only leads to problems, or worse. I’ve seen this before.” He was quiet for a moment. “I don’t want to hurt them, Chloe, but I will, if I have to.”

  Chloe’s breath caught in her throat at his threat. She wondered how Bram could assume so much about a group of people he had never even met. Weren’t they just defending themselves? What had happened in his past that had made him so untrusting of humans? “The girl’s safe, and they can’t see us. Let’s just go back to the Spree,” Chloe pleaded. She didn’t want to have to choose a side if it came to it. How would she? If they found out Bram was fae, what would they do to him? Or worse yet, what would he do to them to keep his secrets?

  The deadly sound of cracking bone stopped Chloe from imagining the worst. One of the sca
b’s chest plates had been punctured. She heard the familiar crunch of bone before the blow to his heart turned him to ash and cinders. The men all looked at each other in astonishment as the man wielding the efficient iron weapon struck the second scab in the chest with the same killing blow without a second’s hesitation. Just as with her own scab kills, the small burning cinders floated away on the wind. All that remained was a thin layer of dust coating the street.

  “Son of a bitch,” Bram hissed. But instead of looking to the mob of humans, he unexpectedly looked towards the Spree.

  The sound of wind rushing through the cracks of a rickety old window made Chloe turn and look at the Spree as well. The once-blue iridescent strands of delicate spells framing the archway into the Spree were now a solid mass of blinding white light. The sound of wind turned into the buzzing one might hear from a bug zapper annihilating its prey as the white light flashed even brighter before disappearing completely. The only thing that remained was the now-solid wall of the Seattle fish market.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “An entire coven’s version of slamming the proverbial door shut.” Bram clenched his jaw.

  “The entire coven? It, it only took two of them to open the Spree Mirror. Please, don’t tell me that means…?” But Chloe knew what it meant.

  “There’s no way back in. We’re on our own,” he said coolly.

  “Shit.” Chloe turned back to the mob outside. The group must have spotted their silhouettes when the Spree’s light flashed, or, perhaps, they’d heard the buzzing when its door snapped shut. Several flashlights were aimed in their direction, and most of the mob was headed straight towards them.

  “Tuck the pendant away, would you?” Bram asked in a rush. With his back still to the group, he quickly manipulated the air in front of him. His pointed ears and armor faded.

  Chloe had the distinct impression he was putting a glamour on, not taking one off. She did as he asked and hid the pendant underneath her jacket. As the group entered the market, she tried to swallow the lump stuck in her throat.

  “Are you two alright?” asked a large man armed with an axe.

  “Us?” Chloe was caught off guard by the apparent leader’s sympathetic question. She had run out of the Spree, fully prepared to try and save a young life, not realizing she had just put all their lives in danger instead. Several of the leader’s men flanked him on both sides as they assessed their surroundings. But more importantly, they also appeared to be studying Chloe and Bram’s threat level as well. Bram had been right. Shit! Think, Chloe; think. Fast! she thought to herself. They were all carrying multiple weapons. Most had handguns, large knives, or makeshift bludgeoning weapons; but it was the baseball bat the woman cradling the young girl gripped Chloe was admiring. A sheathed knife was wrapped around the handle. Wrapped above that was a flashlight illuminating the fat end of the bat, which had been carved into a point. Nice! she thought to herself.

  Chloe quickly realized she would have to do most of the talking. Bram couldn’t lie to them, and with the group, it seemed like the only good fae was a dead fae, no matter their intentions. Chloe shuddered. Now that the group knew how to kill scabs, she wondered what gruesome fate awaited the higher castes of fae at their hands. “Us?” Chloe started again changing the subject and the mob’s focus. “Are you guys alright? We heard screams.” She gestured to the young girl still clinging the woman with the bat. “What happened?”

  “Bloodsuckers rushed our building during the storm.” The leader paused for a minute. Lightning in the dark clouds behind him flashed. “We’re all that made it out.”

  Chloe took a closer look at the mob. It looked like the group had only enough time to grab their weapons and flee with the clothes on their backs. Many weren’t even wearing jackets. Some didn’t even have shoes on. No wonder Bram had mistaken them for a mob set on vengeance. They had no food, no supplies, and, now, no home. The thunder and lightning in the sky threatened again, and Chloe wondered what massive weather pattern the fae would set upon them next.

  “Aunt Gemma, my mo…?”

  “I know, munchkin; I know.” Gemma’s voice was strong and reassuring. “Shh, I’ve got you.” The young girl hugged her aunt even tighter, burying her head as thunder roared above them. Gemma turned away from her niece as tears streamed down her face. She was determined to stay strong for the girl. It broke Chloe’s heart. The young girl shouldn’t have to worry, wondering whether her mom was still alive or where she would find shelter as another deadly storm loomed over them. The thought filled Chloe with a rage she could barely contain.

  Bram’s bladeless sword, strapped to her thigh, seemed to purr in delight at her rage, almost welcoming it as nourishment. If it coveted her meager human anger, she wondered what the sword could do in the hands of a powerful fae.

  Chloe tried to calm herself instead of giving in to such thoughts. Focusing on something else, anything else, she took a deep breath. She could smell the familiar scent of ions in the air, which helped to soothe her building anger. She knew Seattle's weather far too well. The unusual lightning storm looming over them hadn’t been created by the fae. This one was all Mother Nature. The crispness was almost invigorating, washing away her cloud of rage, and she suddenly had a thought.

  Jessica! Bram’s neighbor. They could fight and survive together! Jessica had the fortified shelters and supplies, and the new group had the numbers and the weapons. Chloe turned to Bram with a hopeful look in her eye. She wondered if he could see her plea behind the Famke glamour.

  Bram nodded his agreement. He had.

  Chloe turned back to the group as she pulled something from her pocket. At the time, she’d thought it silly to place it with the weapons she had stowed, but had done so anyway. She had never been so thankful to be a student in all her life than at that very minute, since she took a Sharpie everywhere she went and the one she’d stowed away just happened to be pink. She bent down to talk to the young girl. “Do you like butterflies?” she asked.

  The young girl nodded.

  Chloe quickly drew a tiny butterfly on her own hand. “Want one?”

  The young girl nodded again, still clinging to her aunt. Gemma smiled.

  Chloe drew a butterfly on the girl’s hand to match her own adding Jessica’s address below. “You’ll be safe here,” she said, as she drew the antennae of the butterfly, adding hearts to the tips. “And, there’s a little girl there named Sophie that I know would love to play with you.” Chloe held out the pink marker to her. “Will you give Sophie a butterfly for me? My name’s Chloe. Tell her Peter Bram sent you, just like Peter Pan; k?”

  The girl nodded again. “Peter Bram and Chloe,” she repeated, taking the marker.

  “You’ll be tempted to walk closer to the buildings where there’s shelter. Don’t. Stay to the middle of the streets until you get there.” Bram looked at their leader. “They don’t like the rain.” His tone demanded compliance.

  Their leader glanced at the brass-knuckle handle of Chloe’s silver trench spike still tied into her jacket before nodding at Bram. He wisely decided not to question Bram and his unusual knowledge about the bloodsuckers. It was obvious he wanted to stay and ask what they were really doing, learn more about their common enemy –and their weaknesses, but keeping his displaced group safe took priority. He was ready to be on the move and started giving his men directions to Jessica’s shelter as they made plans to head out.

  “Come with us,” Gemma said, still holding tight to her niece.

  Their leader stopped, curious as to Bram and Chloe’s response and why they were staying behind.

  Bram remained stoic. To Chloe, his silence was a glaring beacon of deceit, hiding the reality that Bram, too, was one of the things they should fear.

  “We’re on a supply run with two others. We won’t be far behind you.” Thunder cracked in the sky at Chloe’s lie.

  “Best take advantage of the weather,” Bram said, glancing to the young girl before locking eyes with thei
r leader.

  “Agreed,” the burly man said back.

  Neither of the men had said it out loud, but Chloe got the feeling they were acknowledging the young girl to be a tasty treat the scabs wouldn’t be able to resist for long. She shivered at the thought.

  The group started to walk away, but Gemma lingered and took Chloe’s hand. “Thank you,” she said and squeezed hard. Her gratitude was almost palpable.

  Chloe reached into another of her pockets. She handed Gemma a silver dagger and casually pointed at her own heart.

  Gemma nodded. “See you soon.”

  “See you soon,” Chloe said. She hoped it would be true.

  The group faded far into the darkness before Chloe let out her breath. She wished it would just start pouring rain already to keep the young girl safe. She caught Bram giving her a solemn smile as more lightning illuminated the thick clouds above them.

  “What?” she asked in a defensive tone as a few raindrops fell.

  “I just realized that humans do have magical powers after all. I never knew you could lie so convincingly until now.” Bram tried to lighten the mood, teasing her. “You even had me fooled in Hadley’s office when you said you didn’t know where his journal was.”

  “I’ll trade you,” Chloe scoffed. “Any one of your magical powers in exchange for my ability to bullshit.”

  “It’s more than that. You always try and do the right thing. You’re a good person, Chloe, better than I could ever hope to be,” he stated.

  “Well, you didn’t slaughter any humans, so there’s that.” She looked at the traces of dust coating the street. It was all that remained of the two scabs who had chased down the young girl before they’d met their ends instead. Was that humanity’s fate, to simply disappear? To become nothing more than remnants of ash and fade into oblivion? Forgotten? ‘I don’t want to hurt them, Chloe, but I will, if I have to.’ Bram’s warning kept repeating inside her mind and sent a shiver down her spine.