by Caleb James
He felt the teen’s body against his, her forefinger still lodged in his flesh.
Kill me! The teen’s voice gained in strength as May was momentarily stunned by Liam’s glamour.
Kill me! the teen pleaded.
It was what he’d intended. He could grab the ax and with a single swing separate her head from her body. It needed to happen. Expel May from the haffling. She would break in the See and be unable to rule.
Please kill me.
Another way. There is another way. With no time to reflect, he embraced the power that had caused him and those he’d turned it on inestimable heartache. If she is glamoured, there is a chance.
FOR THE second time that night, Charlie stood paralyzed. With Finn by his side and Nimby on his shoulder, the three stood like statues in the doorway of the burned-out store. Unable to move, he was tortured by what he’d seen. Liam about to kiss a patrolman… at her bidding. Not like he didn’t warn you. You thought what? One day with you would change what he said he was? What an idiot. The kiss has to do with his magic, the thing that sets it in stone. But then Liam did the unexpected. He defied May’s order.
What the hell. He just said he loved me. Then why was he gonna kiss that cop? Doesn’t matter. It’s magic. He has his reasons. He said he loves me. He loves me. His breath tightened as a possessed Alice Nevus, dressed in blue satin and lace, tore a gaping wound in Liam’s neck with her finger. No! Liam…. Stop! He couldn’t turn his head to look away or open his mouth to scream… to beg for her to stop. Please, no!
Nimby, on the other hand, could speak. Her tinny voice chattered with fright. “She is going to kill him. She is going to kill us. We are all going to die, die, die!”
Not helpful, Charlie thought. I love him. He loves me. Tears of rage and frustration tracked down his cheek as he realized the only man he’d ever loved not only loved him back but was willing to die for him. Liam, run! Please run! What’s he doing? He can still move. Charlie watched as, rather than flee, Liam leaned in to the possessed teen as blood trickled down his throat and soaked the front of his shirt. Run!
Nimby whispered, “He’s got a trick.”
Charlie stared as Liam’s mouth and beautiful lips landed on the girl’s. He pulled her in tight.
May’s spell broke. Like throwing a switch, Charlie, Finn, Nimby, and all those who’d come up the stairs unfroze.
Charlie raced to Liam’s side, about to pull May off him.
Liam waved him back and clutched Alice tighter, his lips glued to hers.
Charlie replayed Liam’s words from the dream after he’d kissed him. “You should not have done that, Charlie Fitzgerald.” It’s his magic. It’s how he binds people. Did he do that to me? He snorted. In the midst of a night filled with horror and death, a night that was by no means at an end, he laughed.
“What is your problem?” Finn hissed.
“Him.” They stared at Liam, in what seemed an endless kiss. “He thinks he put a love spell on me with a kiss. He didn’t need to. I was lost the minute he made me wait in that death trap so he could save that dog.”
“Naked Chihuahua Guy.”
“Yup.”
“Something’s happening,” Finn said.
A milk-white film clouded Alice’s blue eyes. Her body shook as Liam eased her bloody finger from his throat.
“He’s doing it.” Nimby fluttered off Charlie’s shoulder and flew to the ceiling for a better look. She was joined by the two other little fairies as the rest formed a wide circle around Liam and mad Queen May.
Smoke trickled and then poured from Alice’s lips as Liam pulled back, his shirt drenched in blood. He cooed endearments. “My queen. My love… my only love.”
What the hell? Charlie wondered but knew better than to break the connection. His focus shifted between the wound on Liam’s neck and the way he held May in thrall.
“Sweetness,” Liam whispered, but loud enough for all to hear. “Show me your splendor. Show me your power. Be with me.”
Alice’s eyes, now white as eggs, fluttered shut. Sparks flew out of her mouth and popped as they interacted with the air.
“Show me your glory.” Liam held the teen by her shoulders. He didn’t flinch as a spark caught his hair and singed his cheek before dying. “Be with me. Show me your truth. Show me, my queen, my love. My true love.”
Alice’s tremors coarsened. Her mouth opened wide… wider. Her jaw, like a snake about to feed, detached.
“It’s happening,” a tall blonde woman who’d come to stand behind Charlie whispered.
Before he could get clarification, Charlie witnessed the impossible. Alice Nevus’s jaw unhinged. A white salamander with a broad flat head bigger than a man’s peeked from between her jaws.
“My love.” Liam gazed into two sparkling red eyes. “Be with me. Let me know your love.” He stuck his head between Alice’s gaping jaws and kissed the thing inside. He reached in and began to pull her out. “Come… be with me.” His lips held those of the monster.
Sensing something was amiss, the salamander resisted and pulled back.
Liam redoubled his efforts. The muscles in his arms corded and strained. His voice filled with warmth, love, and promise. “Be with me.”
“We have to help him,” Lianna urged. “She’ll pull him in.”
Without pause, Charlie went to his side.
Liam pulled a hand from out of Alice’s mouth and waved him back.
Charlie hesitated, sensing the worst thing would be to break the connection between Liam and the creature. It was agony to not be able to aid the man he loved… truly loved.
“By the arm!” Lianna said. “See if you can grab her arms.”
Liam reached in deeper. His head, shoulders, and arms vanished inside Alice. His feet dug into the ground.
Charlie couldn’t stand back. She’s going to swallow him. He grabbed Liam around the middle, and like a fish too big for one man to land, he pulled with all he had.
“Pull!” Lianna ordered. “Get her out!”
She gripped Charlie, and like a fey tug-of-war, others added their strength, all depending on Liam’s charm and his arms to not let go.
Inside Alice, Liam’s lips stayed on May’s, one hand on each of her front legs, as the talons raked the flesh of his hands and arms.
He pulled and twisted, feeling the muscular creature cling to Alice. His thoughts whispered inside May, giving her all the love, all the possibility of joy he’d been trained to cast. “I will be yours. You will be mine. Forever, my love. You will know peace. We will be happy. So happy. Delights you cannot imagine. Come to me. Come. Leave this sad body. Be with me. Taste what I have to serve.”
The beast clung to the haffling, but Liam’s kiss and the strength of her own magic mirrored back was too strong. She ached for him, for his kisses. The connection with dusty little Alice weakened. You, she thought. Words were impossible to describe the love, the hunger she felt. You, you, you. Don’t pull back. You, you, you. Love, love, love.
“I won’t leave you. Come to me. Be with me. Now… forever.” He pulled and cajoled, feeling Charlie’s strong arms like an anchor around his waist, his body pressed against his back. “Be with me. Now… forever.” The words were whispered to May but meant for Charlie. “I will love you… just you.”
Forever. You, you, you.
“Yes. Forever. Come….”
Inch by inch, it happened. A white salamander with a broad snout emerged from the five-foot-nine teen. Its long slick neck slipped through Alice’s dislocated jaw as Liam, like birthing a calf, coaxed first one of its forelimbs and then the other.
“Come, be with me.” His lips stayed on the creature’s. His hands let go of the forelimbs as he urged her out of Alice, who would most likely die.
Others grabbed its head and its long, twisty neck. Two fey gripped Alice, and they gently pulled the girl back.
May’s hind legs scrambled for purchase, her thoughts torn between the hunger and need for Liam and the mounting panic tha
t something horrible was happening. I can’t think.
No need to think. His lips pressed to her mouth, his thoughts in her head. Just love.
I could eat you.
No… be with me. Love me. He wrapped his arms around her, aware that she could easily devour him. He did not stop. His hands slid down as her body arched higher and higher, her mouth never leaving his. He reached into Alice’s mouth for her back legs. Be free with me. You and I, forever.
Forever.
With a final tug between those grabbing Alice and Liam—with Charlie and others behind him pulling at the beast—May’s tail slipped from the girl’s lips.
“Get her away!” Lianna shouted to those who held Alice. The salamander flopped onto the floor. She convulsed and sparked as she hit the ground. The connection between her and Liam broke as he landed against Charlie and the others.
Lianna barked, “Get the haffling away! Get her out!”
The beast twisted on the ground. Its red eyes filled with rage and hunger. She looked back at her haffling host. She could not tell if she was dead or alive. But then she spotted Liam. You, you, you. With mouth agape, she lunged for him. You, you, you.
Charlie sprang to his feet. He circled behind the salamander and jumped onto the creature’s back. Finn retrieved the ax from the floor and came to his aid.
With a flick of her tail and arch of her back, she hurled Charlie into the air. Her armored tail pounded the ground around him. Her gaze fixed on Liam. You, you, you. Love you. Eat you. Love you up. Eat you up.
Liam scrambled back toward the door.
“Why is she after you?” Charlie shouted as he tried to put himself between the beast and Liam.
Liam, his face slick from May’s kiss, his hair singed, felt a freedom he’d never known. In that moment, death did not matter. I have done this thing. “She is glamoured by her own magic. She loves me.” His feet shuffled back toward the door. “Know this, Charlie Fitzgerald. I do not know if I glamoured you or not. But it’s you, Charlie. It’s you I love.”
Without another word, he bolted from the store.
The beast howled, raised up on its small hind limbs, and like a puppy after a red rubber ball, she gave chase. You, you, you. Love you. Eat you. Love you more. Eat you more.
Thirty-Four
LIAM RACED through the late-night streets of Manhattan, pursued by a lovestruck monster. The creature, which measured ten feet from the tip of its scaly tale to the rounded snout of its head, was visible to all.
Residents who’d fled their homes in the night of 132 fires turned, gawked, shot videos, and uploaded them to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Where they crowded in the streets, Liam screamed, “Out of the way!” as he raced toward the only destination he could think of. But from all his outings with the map the man in green had given him, he knew that to get from where he’d glamoured Queen May on Eighth Street, to Fort Tryon Park and the weeping tree where he’d left the Mist, was many miles north. He ran and shouted and wouldn’t look back at the fire-spitting creature that hungered for him in all senses of the word.
He spotted a subway opening on the corner of Fourteenth and Seventh. He pictured the diagram on the map. No, she’ll follow. She’ll kill, and not just me.
His feet, clad in borrowed red sneakers, pounded the asphalt. Faster, faster.
While not the quickest of beasts, the salamander was engorged with magic, fairy fire, and love. She easily kept pace, her thoughts, like her mouth, not far behind. He tried to shut out her primitive pleas for him to stop, to turn, to be loved, to be eaten. Love you, love you. Eat you. Eat you. Liam, Liam. Yummy, yummy in my tummy.
Liam had not considered his body’s incapacity to run for miles at a sprint. He’d never had to. In the Unsee he flew on the wind, and here there were subways, buses, and Charlie’s red Ford. His legs burned, and blisters rubbed and popped on the balls of his feet and the back of his heels. He gasped as his lungs burned. I must be strong. He pictured Charlie breaking through that door, lifting him over his back, and waiting as he glamoured the little dog to jump through fire. Charlie on the beach, their hands joined. Tears clouded his vision as the beast’s fiery breath nipped at his heels.
She’s too close. At Twenty-Third Street, he zagged to the left, the location of the weeping mulberry like a beacon in his head.
Her thoughts, even over the sirens, pounded him.
Love you. Love you. Eat you. Eat you. Liam, Liam. Yummy, yummy in my tummy. Yummy, yummy, tummy, tummy.
Fear of failure, fueled by his body’s growing exhaustion, tortured him. At least I told him I loved him. He knows it was not a glamour. I love you, Charlie Fitzgerald.
“Liam!”
Not stopping, he heard Charlie’s voice shout at him. I’m sorry, Charlie. I failed you. I failed… us.
“Liam, behind you!”
He dropped his pace, and bouncing on the balls of his shoes, he turned and saw two things—salvation and death. To the left, coming fast, was the gamboling beast with the light of love in her flaming eyes. But passing her on the right was Charlie in his red Ford, with Finn at his side and Nimby fluttering in the windshield.
The truck drew past him. Finn opened the front and rear doors of the double-row supercab.
“Get in!”
They slowed, and Finn held out his hand. “Come on, Liam.”
Liam grabbed Finn’s wrist. He stumbled. The redhead gripped him tight and pulled hard. Liam jumped and was hoisted into the backseat, winded but alive.
At seeing her love and her prey disappear into the truck, the creature howled, reared back, and hurled herself at the Ford. Her jaw clamped onto the rear bumper. Her front legs dug vicious holes into the sides of the metal bed as her rear limbs clawed asphalt.
Charlie floored the accelerator. The tires spun. The air filled with the smells of fairy fire and burned rubber.
Liam stared at Charlie from the back. The firefighter’s jaw was tight as he gunned the motor. Their eyes connected in the mirror.
“She’s too strong.”
“But she’s stupid,” Liam said. “She’s broken. You’re smarter, Charlie. You can do this.”
Charlie nodded. “Buckle up! Now!”
Liam and Finn strapped in as Charlie slammed on the brakes.
The creature didn’t let go but wasn’t expecting that or what came next.
Charlie threw the truck into reverse. The heavy vehicle smashed back into the love-starved salamander.
Reflexively, its jaw unhinged and clamped hard onto the flatbed. Steel crunched and plastic cracked.
“Crap!” Changing directions, Charlie gunned the engine, and with a giant white salamander devouring his truck like a python chowing down on a rat, he flew down Twenty-Third Street. His rear tires whomped and thumped as she bent the axle.
“Where we going?” he shouted.
“North,” Liam gasped, his lungs not trained for multimile sprints. “Fort Tryon Park. There’s a tree with leaves that scrape the ground. It’s where I came back.”
“Okay.” He turned up Eighth. With one eye on the road and the other on Liam in the mirror, he asked. “You hurt?”
“No. You?”
“Right as rain. Finn?”
“Ducky,” the redhead deadpanned. He twisted in his seat, his attention on the creature devouring the back of Charlie’s truck. “Can you shake her?”
Before Charlie could respond, the right rear tire blew. The truck lurched and bounced as the rubber tore free from the rim.
Charlie gritted his teeth, and not slowing, he swerved left onto Forty-Fourth. The pickup fishtailed with the salamander stuck tight, her jaws working their way through steel and plastic. The left rear tire blew.
With his eyes on the road, he spoke. “Back there, when she told you to kill me. You said you loved me.”
Liam looked into the rearview mirror. “Yes, Charlie. I do. I love you, and I’m sorry.”
“Stop it! This is not your fault. If we get out alive, it’s b
ecause of you and what you did. I love you, Liam. And here’s the deal. I don’t care if you worked some magic on me or are even still doing it.”
Bare metal sparked as Charlie ran the red and took a hard right onto the Joe DiMaggio Highway. “Before Saturday, I didn’t think I’d ever love anybody. And then you saved a little dog. And… it’s not how you look, and yeah, you’re hot, and so far out my league. But here it is, Liam Summer. I love you because you’re smart and funny and stupid and crazy brave. And Finn, stop smirking.”
“No smirking here, Charlie boy. Just praying this wreck holds out till we get to… crap, I can’t even deal. But go on. You were declaring your love… and if I wasn’t scared shitless, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Right. Liam, I love you. End of story. Or beginning of story, if we don’t get killed.” Charlie floored the accelerator. The rear axle dropped dangerously close to the road.
The salamander’s unhinged jaw spewed smoke as it worked its way down the flatbed, separating the truck’s body from the chassis.
In the backseat, Liam watched, horrified and fascinated, as the creature drew closer to the cabin’s rear window. Down her gullet he saw fairy fire tear through and melt the metal. He heard her thoughts. Love you. Love you. Eat you. Eat you. Dangerous ideas floated to mind. If I give myself to her now, would she leave them alone? He reached for the latch on the rear window, which separated the cab from the flatbed.
“Don’t!” Charlie said. “Finn, stop him!”
“How could you know what is in my head?” Liam asked, his hand on the plastic latch.
Charlie grew frantic. “Please. Stop! I know you, Liam Summer. I love you. And we’re both going to make it through or go down together. I will not lose you. Do you understand? Do not run from me.”
“Yes,” he said, set to release the latch, push the glass aside, and hurl himself down her fiery throat. Would that stop her? Would she let them go? Would she let Charlie live?
Charlie tore his eyes from the road and saw what Liam intended. “Finn! For the love of God, stop him!”
Finn unbuckled, climbed over the back of the seat, and grabbed fast to Liam’s middle. “Don’t do it, guy.”