by E.J. Stevens
“Arachne, fetch me the cot we keep in the back,” Kaye said, frowning at me. “That potion packs more of a wallop than I expected. Best to be prepared, we don’t want Ivy getting a concussion from hitting her fool head.”
Without the yoke of the glaistig’s bargain around my neck, I felt like I could take on anything. Too bad the first thing I had to face was death. I’d rather go knock some fire imp heads together than drink Kaye’s potion. Such is life.
Arachne carried in a folding cot and set it up beside the counter where I stood. I’d been on that cot more times than I’d like to admit, usually with Kaye stitching me back together. Taking on cases involving the fae hadn’t been good for my health.
“Go on, lie down, dear,” Kaye said. “Might as well get this over with. We still have a lot to do tonight.”
I sighed. Our plan had worked. Kaye had eaten her apple and drank a goblet of poison, died and been resurrected. Now it was my turn.
“You ready?” Arachne asked, shaking hands reaching for the second goblet.
Watching Kaye die had left me with some serious thoughts. It put things into perspective. And the fact that the witch had survived was no guarantee that the second apple would work on me. There was nothing in Kaye’s books to reassure me. I was about to drink a poisonous brew, but I was no fool. There were no guarantees as far as I was concerned.
I may not make it back.
“There’s a phone call I need to make first,” I said, pulling out my phone. “Think you can keep The Emporium from eating me, or making me walk around in circles for hours?”
Kaye lifted her unblemished arm and waggled her fingers.
“Oh I can do a lot more than that, dear,” she said. “So much more.”
Chapter 45
I stepped out onto the sidewalk and took in a lungful of spring air. Mud and car exhaust never smelled so sweet. I just hoped I’d still be here to enjoy the coming summer.
But I didn’t know, not for sure. That was why I needed to call my mom. I’d gone years resenting her for her distance. I believed it meant that she didn’t love me, couldn’t love the freak child that I’d become when my powers began to manifest. But that hadn’t been the full truth.
My mom hadn’t been afraid of me, she’d been afraid for me—and the geis that my dad put on her made it impossible for us to talk about my fae blood. We’d lost years to a misunderstanding and a well intentioned, but misguided spell.
After figuring that out, I’d come to see my mom in a different light. We were beginning to have a better relationship with each other, but I was still guarded. There was so much left unsaid, and I didn’t have the excuse of a magical geis. Before going through with my crazy scheme to unburden myself of faerie bargains, I needed to set things straight with my mom. I had to let her know that I love her.
Too bad the Moordenaar had other plans. Pesky assassins.
Thwap, thwap, twhap. Three arrows sunk deep into my flesh, each imbedding their tips into vital organs—stomach, liver, heart. I noted the deadly strikes with a strange detachment, as if the injuries were happening to someone else.
My phone slid from my hand, shattering on the sidewalk. Shattering like the fragments of my soul. Where do half-breed souls go when they die? I’d never thought to ask, and now it was too late.
“Finish her,” a voice like the whisper of a scorpion said from the growing shadows that blurred my vision.
At some point, I’d fallen. I could see approaching black and silver boots, but I no longer cared. I’d finally get some sleep. I let my eyes drift closed. It’s funny how comfortable cobblestones are when you’re dying.
A low, rumbling growl startled me awake, though I couldn’t move. I lay there helpless, unable to reach my weapons. Just like in every nightmare I’d ever had, the monsters I saw everyday were finally going to catch me—and there was nothing I could do about it.
“The gargoyle?” another voice asked.
“We have pierced her vital organs,” said a third voice. “That and the poison will do the rest.”
“Then leave the guardian, he has not been marked for death,” the first man said. “The traitor will die before the day is out. Our work here is complete.”
A monster loomed over me, casting what was left of my vision into shadow, and roared. Eyelids growing heavy, I sighed and let them drift closed again, no energy left for the monster. But it grabbed my jacket and shook me until I opened my eyes.
A grotesque face hovered close to mine. It was familiar, but it took my brain a minute to give it a name.
“H-h-humphrey?” I asked.
At least, I tried to say his name. It came out more like a wet, stuttering croak as I choked on my own blood.
“Do not speak,” he said, words tumbling like rocks in a landslide. “I will take you to Mistress Kaye.”
My head fell back as the gargoyle lifted me into his arms, spread his wings, and flew—actually flew—through The Emporium. I heard a gasp and then all hell broke loose. I couldn’t help but laugh. It was too funny.
I let down my guard for one second and sidhe assassins come along and turn me into a half human pin cushion. Funny bastards.
“Ivy, eat,” Kaye said.
I choked as someone shoved food into my mouth. It tasted like apples and mold and blood. I gagged, but someone held my jaw shut. I struggled against the vice-like grip. I couldn’t swallow, couldn’t scream for help…couldn’t breathe.
Chapter 46
The visions went on forever. At least, I thought they were visions. Maybe this was the afterlife and I was doomed to an eternity of repeatedly playing out the painful moments of a young couple’s tragic life. And it was a tragedy—that was for certain.
Faeries may have an obsession with The Bard, but Shakespeare got his inspiration from somewhere. I was guessing that Romeo and Juliet had Manannán mac Lir and Ailinn to thank for the bittersweet ending to their romance.
Manannán had three wives—Fand, Aife, and Iuchra—but when he met Ailinn it was love at first sight. The two were inseparable until the Milesians invaded the north. Manannán rode north on his sea chariot to help the Tuatha Dé Danann repel the invading army.
Fand, jealous of Ailinn and angry at her husband for ending her own affair with her lover Cúchulainn, saw her opportunity for revenge. She sent messengers to the border villages of the north, spreading the rumor that Ailinn was dead.
On his return journey south, Manannán was told falsely that Ailinn had died during his absence. He used Fragarach the Answerer to force the truth from the man, but since the man believed the rumor, he continued to claim that Ailinn was dead. In his grief, Manannán turned his sword on himself.
When news reached Ailinn that her lover had taken his own life, she too takes her life to be joined with him for eternity. But in a cruel twist of Fate, Manannán is not dead. His sword Fragarach did not hit any vital organs, and its blade was so sharp that his wounds knit in a day. In frustration, he rode home, learning along that way that he’d been tricked by Fand, but he was too late to save Ailinn.
When he arrived on the hillside where they’d promised to meet when the war was over, a tree bearing silver apples grew from Ailinn’s fresh grave. The sea deity’s tears flooded the land, creating Emain Ablach and turning the hill into an island.
I rode the visions that the apple gave me, my own tears falling to join those of Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir. Their tragic story was a lesson that I would take to heart, if I survived.
Chapter 47
“Feeling better?” Kaye asked.
I blinked against harsh light, memories falling into place. Sidhe assassins, Humphrey the gargoyle, Kaye’s voice, the taste of apple…
“It worked?” I croaked.
I turned over onto my side and wretched, dry heaves wracking my body. I’d been brought back to life, pulled from the endless visions of Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir’s tragic romance, but, for the moment, I wished I were dead.
“The pain and nausea will subs
ide,” she said. “You will live.”
The faerie courts had sent their assassins and they’d finally caught up with me. They’d shot me full of poisoned arrows and left me for dead. If I hadn’t grabbed that second apple…well, that was something to think about later. The universe sure worked in mysterious ways.
“Ceff?” I asked.
“I am here,” he said.
I looked up into his face, taking in the dark rings that circled his red rimmed eyes. He looked like he’d been crying. Normally, I’d look away or make some kind of joke, shrugging off our messy feelings. But memories of Ailinn and Manannán mac Lir flooded my mind and I reached out to hold his hand with my gloved one. I was done with being careful, with pushing people away.
“I missed you,” I said, letting all those messy emotions into my voice.
“I never left,” he said.
“Yeah, but I did,” I said. “I’m sorry about that.”
“It was not your fault,” he said, dark green eyes going black. “It was the Moordenaar.”
“Yeah, but I was going to do this to you anyway,” I said. “The Moordenaar just beat me to it.”
“I forgive you,” he said. “I will always forgive you, Ivy, but I will never forgive the faerie courts. The Moordenaar tried to take you from me. That is not something I can ever forget.”
The lights flickered and a booming sound like a gong rang throughout the building.
“What the hell is that?” I asked, trying to sit up.
“Something’s tripped the wards,” Arachne said, rushing over to Kaye’s side.
Kaye was at her scrying bowl. She looked up, a slow smile sliding onto her face.
“It looks like we have visitors,” she said.
Great, just great.
“Is it the Moordenaar?” I asked, pulling myself to my feet. “Fire imps?”
My knives hit my palms and I shook my head, clearing away the mental cobwebs. I needed to be alert if this came down to a fight.
“Even better,” Kaye said, a glint in her eye. “Two demons and a cat sidhe.”
I sighed, slipped my knives into their sheaths, and rubbed a hand over my face.
“Whatever you have planned, don’t kill them,” I said. “They’re with me.”
“I was only going to have a bit of fun,” she said.
“There isn’t much time to prepare our attack on The Green Lady,” I said. “We can use their help.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said, frowning.
“So can they come in?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said, tapping her fingers beside the scrying bowl. “War certainly makes for strange bedfellows.”
“You have no idea,” I said, marching toward the door.
Chapter 48
“Princess, you’re alive!” Torn exclaimed, eyes wide.
“It appears that news of your imminent demise is highly exaggerated,” Forneus said, tugging at his gloves. “More’s the pity.”
“What are you both doing here?” I asked.
At my voice, Sparky peeked out from behind Forneus’ legs and ran at me, nearly knocking me off my feet. The little guy may not be linebacker material, but my knees were still wobbly from my recent brush with death.
“Iveeeeeeeeeeee!” he squealed, grinning from ear to ear.
Sparky did a twirling dance, his floppy ears bouncing while he spun, my pant leg clutched in his tiny hand. Dang, but the runt was cute.
“Come on in you guys,” I said, waving them all inside. “Better get in off the street.”
Torn seemed to relax into the shadows, but Forneus hesitated on the sidewalk and continued to fidget with his gloves.
“Is the witch here?” he asked.
I knew he wasn’t referring to Arachne. Kaye and Forneus hadn’t got off on the right foot, and he’d be a fool not to wonder what she had planned, but the two were going to have to go the night without killing each other. If not, I’d do the honors for them.
We were all going to have to work together. The fire imps had to be contained, the glaistig needed to be taken down a notch, and we had to break the hold that her incubus had on Jinx. If nothing else worked, I figured that last point would get the demon on board.
“Yeah, Kaye is inside with Arachne and Ceff,” I said. “Play nice.”
“Jinx?” he asked.
“She’s still sleeping,” I said with a shake of my head. “Now come in before someone else gets filled with poisoned arrows. We’re fresh out of magic apples.”
Forneus raised an eyebrow, but stepped inside, the door slamming shut behind him. Apparently, Torn hadn’t filled the demon in on our successful trip to Emain Ablach. Or who knows, maybe he did but they still thought I was dead. Magic apples aren’t the most predictable of safety nets.
With all of our guests inside, I held my breath and scanned the room for signs of hostility. The Emporium creaked and groaned, but it didn’t lash out against the demons and cat sidhe. That, strangely enough, made the shop a safer place than the street. I didn’t need to risk being shot by anymore poisoned arrows, and Humphrey had looked ready to tear our guests limb from limb.
Judging by the way Forneus eyed Torn, the demon was having the same ideas about the cat sidhe lord. I shook my head and winced. These two were giving me a headache. It was going to be a long night.
“Yes, how is our Jinx?” Torn asked.
He smiled and winked. Damn the cat, he was toying with the demon. I’d wondered why Torn had shown up, and I didn’t think it was solely out of concern for my wellbeing. We were allies, not besties. But Torn had been flirting up a storm with Jinx lately and the two had been spending a lot of time together ever since that night at Club Nexus. If I knew the meddlesome cat sidhe, he was here to mess with Forneus and screw up the demon’s chances with my best friend.
I grit my teeth and tried to change the subject.
“So, learn anything new?” I asked Forneus.
Forneus was supposed to be doing recon. If we were lucky, he’d have learned something that could help our assault on the carnival.
“For some reason, they relaxed security half an hour ago,” he said. “I came here to report back, but when this one relayed the information he had gathered from his spies, concerning your shooting, I assumed that the change in security meant that you were dead. But here you are, in the flesh.”
The glaistig had relaxed security? It had to be in response to the completion of our bargain. She would have felt it and assumed that Kaye was dead. Little did she know that the witch had come back to life, and was stronger than ever.
I just hoped that the glaistig couldn’t sense that there was no longer a second bargain between us. So long as she didn’t figure that out, she’d keep me around, a tool to be used when needed. As far as she was concerned, I’d followed her orders and taken out the most powerful witch in Harborsmouth. She’d think I was a useful tool, indeed.
“Yes, princess, you look good for a dead chick,” Torn said, suggestively licking his lips.
“I got better,” I said with a shrug.
“I gather by your resurrection that you successfully completed the trials of Emain Ablach?” Forneus asked.
“Yeah, not my idea of a tropical getaway,” I said with a grimace. “But I got the apple we went there for…and I managed to grab a second one on my way out. Good thing too, since Kaye was determined to use one of the apples. The second apple was half rotten, but it still held enough of Ailinn’s magic.”
“Hence your resurrection,” he said.
I nodded.
“Ah, princess, tsk tsk,” Torn said, wagging his finger. “You’ve been keeping secrets.”
“Like you haven’t?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Touché,” he said with a wide grin.
We strode into Kaye’s spell kitchen and into a makeshift spell circle that pulled us up short. Damn, I should have noticed the chalk marks on the floor. Kaye had us trapped with her magic, unable to move a muscle. Forneus, Torn,
Sparky, and I all hung in place like flies on fly paper.
“I have let you all into my domain because we have a battle to plan,” Kaye said, eyes glittering. She pointed her wand at us and a trickle of sweat ran down my back. “But first, some ground rules.”
Oh yeah, it was going to be a long night.
Chapter 49
I held my breath against the stench of the alley, but I wasn’t complaining. Anything was better than being trapped inside The Emporium with my ragtag group of friends and allies. Forneus and Torn had managed to behave while we planned our attack on The Green Lady, but it was a close thing.
I rested my elbows against an overturned crate, steadying the binoculars I held in gloved hands. Lights winked out and the last few human stragglers were finally exiting the carnival turnstiles.
“Looks like they’re closing things down,” I said, my voice low and nasally.
I pinched my nose and tried to breathe through my mouth to avoid the stench, but it wasn’t working. This alley had a clear line of sight perfect for observing the carnival gates, but it smelled like stale piss, French fries, and rotting fish. I wrinkled my nose, wishing we’d chosen a different spot for doing recon.
“About bloody time,” Forneus muttered.
I nodded in agreement. At least we wouldn’t be here much longer. With the humans clearing out of dodge, we were up next.
The plan was for me to carry the spelled demon vessel through the gates and onto carnival grounds. I figured the glaistig would be eager to hear all about how I took down Kaye for her. That should get me in through the front door and, hopefully, gain an immediate audience with The Green Lady. For maximum mayhem, I needed to give the glaistig an up close and personal introduction to the demon vessel.
A grin tugged at my lips. I’d never played at being a Trojan horse, but there was a first time for everything.