“He’s right,” Lord Cyrus said. “This is Wyrd territory. Even if we were to lose this fight, Queen Morgana will continue to be a thorn in your side.”
“Oh yeah?” the hummingbird squeaked, trying to peck at Ignatius’ eyes. He blasted her back. She flipped into human form in midair and landed, ninja-like, turning into a petite black girl. “If that’s how you feel, then let the best man win!”
“We don’t want to fight,” the eagle said, having perched in a tree nearby. He had a serious, eagle-appropriate voice, like a national news anchor. “We are familiars. We’ve never fought without our wizards in all of our lives. But we must. You—“ He looked at Firian. “You drive us all into the fight by flaunting yourself in society where you don’t belong.”
“You really enjoy this?” Firian said. “Not sharing the life of your witch or warlock? Fading into the background when they grow up?”
“We don’t belong here!” the hummingbird said.
“But if they need us, we do our duty,” said the duck, who had an unexpectedly deep voice. He was holding back from the fight, but seemed to have healing skills. He was helping out the cardinal, who took a hit earlier. “That’s what we were put on this world for. Not living our own lives.”
“I would do anything for my witch,” Firian said. “But I can’t…think like that. I can’t leave her just because she’s grown up.”
A second wave of familiars was showing up as he was saying this. A lot of these familiars were total cuteness. Cat, two dogs, ferret, chipmunk, beaver, otter, mice, bobcat with a sugar glider riding on its back…ohmigawd. Was that Piers’ familiar? As much as I hated him, how was I supposed to attack this cuteness?
Shit. They kept coming. A coyote, an armadillo bringing up the rear…wait, no, here came a pair of iguanas…
I could only guess some turtles and things were yet to arrive, and insects could be hiding out unnoticed. No matter how cute they were, no matter how much I didn’t want to fight them, they were ready to fight us, and when Firian didn’t back down, the bobcat said, “All right, you know what to do.”
The familiars started pushing their battle line forward, attacking us and trying to get past us. Since they could make themselves small, this wasn’t hard.
“Protect the tree!” Cyrus said.
I ran after him, happy to retreat. I didn’t know what to do. I had been sort of prepared to fight fellow witches and warlocks. I was not prepared to attack a ferret or a furry little tabby cat, even if I knew they could take human forms.
They didn’t find us as adorable. The beaver shot Alec with a spell that slowed his motions down, while I suddenly had a snake chomping into my ankle.
“Ow!” I grabbed the snake to throw it and it transformed into a big tough blonde guy, which completely freaked me out. The snake man did a sweep kick and knocked my legs out from under me, then pinned me down under a foot.
“We’re here to fight, girl,” he said.
“So are we!” Montague grabbed him and shoved him off me, grabbing his shirt to slam him into the nearest tree.
He turned back into a snake, slipped right out of Montague’s grip, and slithered into the underbrush.
“You little bastard!” Montague cast a finding spell, a stream of light dancing from his hands to follow the snake’s course, while Firian dropped to his knees next to me and put a hand on my ankle.
“Venom,” he said. “Stay down. I need to draw it out.” His hand warmed. My skin burned hot and a sudden wave of dizziness came over me. Alec was trying to shake off the spell that slowed him down. Even when he spoke spell words, he sounded like a tape at half speed. Harris had to help him.
“Good lord,” Harris said. “A slow spell. I’ve heard of time wizards, but I’ve never met one before.”
“Kids, you need to shoot to kill,” Ina said. “They might look cuddly, but they are our enemies now.”
I bristled when I heard her voice. “We’re trying to defend our territory, not slaughter people. They haven’t killed any of us.”
“They will.”
“Well, you have your methods and I have mine,” I said, struggling to get up while Firian was still grabbing my ankle. “And your methods included torturing me, so excuse me if I don’t jump on your advice.”
“You can handle a little torture,” she said.
“Not really!” I shivered.
“All things pass,” Ina said. “Look how strong you are now.”
Ignatius was a few steps ahead with Lord Cyrus, but he heard us yelling and backtracked down the sloping path.
“We can talk about this later,” he said.
“Yeah, fine with me, but I’m going to just kill animals!”
“They’re not animals,” Ina said. “You’re showing your weakness. What do you think your spirits will do? Kill for you. But if you won’t kill yourself, they won’t respect you.”
“That’s enough,” Ignatius said to Ina, hustling her along. He gave me an apologetic glance, but didn’t say anything. The faery soldiers were putting up a decent front against the familiars for now.
Firian tugged me to my feet. “All better.” He gave me a crooked smile. “Don’t let Ina get to you. Remember, she was in the Haven for twenty years. She’s been tortured herself. All you need to do is defend yourself until you can summon those ghosts, and they can make their own judgments. Let me protect you…” He was still holding on to my hand, like he didn’t want to let me go.
“Don’t you listen to them either, you know,” I said. “I’m glad you’re not like the other familiars.”
“Yeah. I know,” he said. “I just…wonder…”
“What?”
“What am I? Why do I love you like I do?”
“Do you really want an answer to that?” the bat woman said as she manifested in front of us, blocking our way to the others. Alec and Harris were being driven up the hill toward the tree, getting farther away from us. Ina and Ignatius were already out of sight. Pretty soon we’d be cut off.
“No thanks,” I said. “We know what Firian is.” I didn’t trust her.
“I doubt you do,” she said. “The council could tell you, but the council doesn’t tell anyone. They would rather let nature take its course. They want familiars to be in their place, because that is where power comes from. And if a familiar breaks the code and dies, that makes things easier for them. Why should they explain it to anyone? If you love Firian, Charlotte, you will let him go, or else he will die.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Firian
Die?
The look on Charlotte’s face was enough to break me before we’d even begun. She didn’t need to be worrying about me right now. We were in the middle of a fight. But of course she was worried about me. Charlotte was loving and generous, and despite that she was also pretty brave, she wasn’t really meant for fights like these. Killing a demon was one thing. Killing people—
No, she wasn’t going to be able to do that. I knew it.
“Tell me what you mean,” I said. “What is this code?”
“You probably don’t know what familiars really are,” she said. “Just as the faeries are dying now, familiars were once the animal spirits that helped early man, in a time when most religions were more shamanistic. As humans and their beliefs evolved, the animal spirits started to die. And just as the faeries make a bargain with the witches today, so did we animals make a bargain to serve the witches and warlocks.”
“Stuart said that familiars learned to become human so they could be in love with their witch,” Charlotte said, her voice getting thinner as the authority in the bat woman’s voice made her nervous.
“That might be true,” the woman said. “At first, it is believed that the witches and warlocks and their familiars did mate and start families. The councils started to realize that arranged marriages and important alliances were falling apart. One can only imagine the complaints that must have been brought forward of infidelity, even after the marriages occurred.”<
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“Oh, so the witches were pressured to marry snotty warlocks but their familiar could sneak in any time and make love to them,” Charlotte said. “Let me guess—the warlock council didn’t like that one bit.”
“I believe you are probably right,” the bat woman said. “So—the practice was not just banned, but cursed. If you have a child with this man, he will die when the baby is born.”
“I thought we couldn’t have children!” I said, as a sense of foreboding passed over me.
“They tell you that so they can catch you,” she said. “You have a baby and your familiar dies, thus exposing your crime and ending the relationship.”
Charlotte glanced at me, panicked. “But we—“ She turned back to the bat woman. “What about Adia?”
“Adia…?”
“My grandmother’s familiar became human and married a human man and they never had a baby.”
“Well, she became human. That is the only way that a familiar can live. As humans, a familiar is barren.”
“Oh…” She gripped my hand.
“Charlotte…if I have to become human to be with you, then I have to become human. What if you’re already pregnant?”
“Is…is that why I’ve been getting nauseous? Firian…!” She reeled back a step. “I don’t believe you!”
“I’m sorry,” the woman said. “But it’s true. And you do believe me. You just don’t want to believe me.”
Charlotte looked at me. “I already got your magic back once. I can’t let you lose it again.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I don’t care about losing my magic. Especially if we get to have a kid. That’s—wonderful news. Really.”
Of course, I did care about losing my magic. But the outcome was the same. All I really cared about was Charlotte, and I needed to keep her safe. I could see the conflict and pain in her eyes, wearing away at her ability to fight. “Charlotte,” I said. “It’s all good. We need to catch up with the others.”
She looked up the hill, through the trees, and it was clear that everyone else had rushed to the tree, losing us in the chaos of the fight. “Right.”
I took her hand. We started to run.
Only to have the path blocked by a man who appeared out of nowhere. He must have taken the form of some small creature in the brush, but now he was a sturdy chap from the ‘magical bazaar’ school of wizard fashion. Gold jewelry, shirt with draping sleeves that he was only wearing half of for some reason, the other sleeve dangling to show off a muscular arm, loose pants tied with a sash. He was also very blonde and Nordic looking. Oh, right, this was the snake who bit Charlotte earlier.
“I don’t know,” I said. “You might want to check with Twitter about that genie outfit. Then again, even if it’s not cultural appropriation it’s definitely bad fashion.”
“You are one to talk about ‘fashion’, scrawny boy,” he said. “Your friend Twitter sounds like a fool.”
“All right, that’s mostly fair,” I said. “Except the scrawny boy part. I’m a fox spirit, what do you want from me?”
He ignored me at this point. “Did you tell them, Maria?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Good. None of it matters now, but I like to leave my foes with thoughts of sorrow before I kill them.” He lifted both hands and blasted me in the chest.
Reflexively, I turned into a fox, so I took up less space and had more agility.
But I guess he was right. None of it mattered. I slammed into a tree and heard Charlotte scream my name before darkness closed around me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Charlotte
“Firian!” I tried to run toward him, only to have the bat woman fly toward me—as a bat—then turn into a human again and fight me, pinning me against a different tree with a spell. I had to cast a counter-spell to break the hold, but I had barely done this before I saw the other man walk over to Firian and draw a long knife from a scabbard at his belt.
“You’ve been warned,” the bat woman said.
The man lifted the knife and drove it into Firian’s heart.
The look of shock on his face would be seared into my brain forever.
“No!” The scream ripped out of me as the bat woman drove me back with blue flames that glowed hot from her hands.
“It’s too late,” she said. “You’d best worry about your living friends.” She glanced at the man, and he vanished.
I tried another attempt to get past her and get to Firian, at least to hold his fox body as he died—
“No…” I choked on the word. “No…” She was fighting me back, and the hummingbird girl showed up beside Firian, planting herself in front of him, daring me to reach him.
I had no choice but to give up and run toward my other friends. “No…” Firian was always with me. Always.
The battle wasn’t going well. I mean, even besides Firian. The familiars were powerful; they could zip in and out, changing forms, wielding magic of their own.
The familiars seemed to be trying to drive my friends apart from each other. Everyone was scattered. I saw Alec fighting two men by himself.
“Alec!” I cried. “Alec—Firian—he’s—he might be—”
“Firian?” he said. “No way. He’s fine. Don’t worry, Firian’s tough.”
“Well—I’m not sure this time… Alec, watch out!”
I’m sure women were staying away from Alec, considering his seductive powers. He was in his demon form, but physical strength was about all he had when he was fighting most men. One of the familiars cast a spell that created a sort of swirling vortex under his feet, knocking him off balance. He stumbled, trying to escape it, only to get slugged by the other guy.
“Hey! Cowards!” I screamed, casting a spell of my own to blast the guy.
Alec finally jumped, grabbing a tree branch to get his feet up above the vortex, and kicking the other guy. He looked so strong and tough, I swelled with pride. His tail swept forward to grab the guy’s arm before he could try to escape, and held him there while Alec kicked him again, right in the face. The guy got knocked right out.
He dropped to his feet again, and we were about to take on the next guy, when who should show up but hummingbird girl. She hummed in and turned human right behind me, tackling me, pressing a knife to my throat.
“Watch,” she hissed. “This is what will happen, again and again, until you stop this fight.”
She whistled, and guess who showed up? The time witch. Oh, crap. The time witch was the worst. She cast a spell to stop Alec like a statue.
“Nngh…” Alec groaned.
I drew breath to call for help, and the knife pricked my skin. “Don’t you dare scream.”
Even though Alec was frozen so he couldn’t even look at me, the time witch still paused and started to check him out. She reached out a finger, tracing a line down the center of his chest.
“Don’t,” the hummingbird girl said. “He’s an incubus.”
“I know. Look at him…”
Hummingbird Girl started to look. The time witch slid Alec’s shirt up as she stepped closer, then put her hands on his ass.
Hummingbird Girl was getting distracted.
I grabbed her hand. “Let the fire I summon scorch your skin, let it burn you to your very core!”
She was knocked back, as flames swept from my hand over her body. The time witch had to rush over to help break my spell. I rushed to Alec—
I wasn’t the only one.
A snake slithered up to us and transformed into the same man who attacked Firian. Oh, not this asshole again.
Kill him, I thought. Come on. He killed Firian. Just do it. Kill him!
Before I could get to Alec, his blades whipped out and slashed off Alec’s wings. I screamed as I saw Alec’s face struggle to contort while the time spell held him in place. I couldn’t imagine the pain. The weight and size of the two wings as they slid off his back and fell to the ground, crumpling—I would never forget the horror of it.
/> “Alec! Alec!!” My gaze whipped around, looking for help as Alec’s eyes rolled back into his head. As blood gushed down his back, he passed out. That broke the time spell, like it did any good now. I still tried to get to him, but now a blade was thrown at my feet.
“One more step and I’ll throw one through your heart,” said Snake Man.
“Charlotte!” I heard Harris call my name.
I whirled and ran toward help. Of course, Harris’ voice came from a direction from which there was no obvious path. One of my shoes got caught in the brush when I stepped through a hidden hole in the ground. I had to leave it behind like Cinderella, but now my foot was pricked by sticks and thorns as I ran. I hardly even registered the pain.
I scrambled up rocks and saw Harris trying to heal a fallen faery soldier. He waved a hand to me. “Charlotte—I’ve got a shield up around me. Get in close. They scattered us in every direction. Have you seen Alec and Monty?”
“Alec—they—cut off his wings.” I smeared away some wayward tears with a dirty hand. “He passed out from the pain. He’s losing blood. They wouldn’t let me near him.”
“Shit.” Harris looked conflicted as to whether he should keep helping the faery or just go right to Alec.
“And Firian—might be—he might be— They put a knife through his chest!”
Harris frowned. “Did you feel the connection between you sever?”
“No.”
“Then he’s still alive.”
“But for how long?”
We heard a man scream.
“Was that Monty?” Harris looked scared, and it wasn’t often I saw him look scared. My ears were attuned to every rustle in the trees around us, wondering if some tiny familiar was sneaking up on us.
“They separated us so they could pick us off one at a time!”
“I’m going to send Eleanor to check on him.” He held out a hand and his hawk familiar appeared, perched there. I had only seen the hawk once before, but that was normal enough for other familiars besides mine. She regarded me with a slow, haughty bird blink before looking at Harris.
Battle of the Hexes Page 21