by Jocelyn Fox
They’d made Tyr a bed of sorts out of Vivian’s neon-blue sleeping bag and a folded quilt, with an extra blanket tucked around his torso but leaving his injured leg bare. Even though Tyr and Corsica had attacked them before the bone sorcerer – and Corsica had destroyed Ross’s beloved truck in a terrific explosion – Ross still felt her chest ache at the sight of Tyr pale and unmoving. Duke sat next to him and looked up when Ross padded into the room.
“How is he?” she asked, walking over and squatting down next to Duke.
“There’s really not a good way to tell,” said Duke. “I mean, besides the fact he has a pulse and he’s breathing – barely – I don’t know their markers. Forget the regular Fae, I have no idea what’s normal for an Exile.” He shook his head in frustration.
“Does Niall?”
“Probably not, since they were all supposed to die,” he replied. He reached over and tugged up one of Tyr’s sleeves, revealing the scars at the Exile’s wrists. “I think these are from the chains or whatever they used to rope ‘em up all those years ago.”
“Iron is really that caustic to them,” said Ross, swallowing. Her heart sank in horror at the thought of what might have happened that morning if Jess hadn’t caught her before she started cooking in the cast iron skillet and she’d served that food to Niall or Tyr.
“Yeah, as far as I know it’s their kryptonite.”
“You and V with your comic book references,” muttered Ross. She reached over and pressed two fingers to Tyr’s jaw. “His pulse is a bit weak.”
“And what can we do about it?” Duke shook his head again. “Unless Niall knows something. Tyr’s been in and out of consciousness, according to Jess, but nothing lucid enough to tell us what to do.”
“I think I know what we could do,” said Vivian from the doorway. Her blue eyes found Ross’s and then Duke’s. “You said he’s been in and out? That means he can swallow, if you wake him up. Give me your knife.”
“What?” Duke said.
“You heard me. I know you always carry one.”
“V, if you’re about to do what I think you’re about to do…no,” said Ross firmly.
“Ross, I love you, but I’m not a kid that you can order around,” replied Vivian seriously. “I know you’ve been in combat and I haven’t, I know you’ve seen and done a lot of things I haven’t. But I’m telling you that sometimes I feel like I can see solutions that you’re not willing to consider.” She smiled. “Maybe it’s because I read so many fantasy books, I don’t know. But I’m a part of this too, and I want to help. I can’t fight as well as you, so please let me do this.” She shifted her focus to Duke. “Tell me that you think I’m wrong, that blood won’t help him.”
“You only have one good arm anyway,” protested Ross.
“Then use my broken arm,” said Vivian, unperturbed. She slid her sling over her head and gingerly pulled her injured arm free. “I’m not using it for much anyway.”
“V,” said Ross, thinking quickly, concern for her friend whirling in her stomach. What if Tyr awoke and attacked her? What if the bone sorcerer poisoned him and he somehow passed that poison on to Vivian? Outlandish thoughts flew through her mind but she tried to focus on convincing Vivian that she shouldn’t willingly give her blood to Tyr. “Do you think Niall would approve?”
Vivian’s pale eyebrows rose in surprise. “First of all, that’s playing dirty. I don’t ask you if Duke approves of things that you do, do I, and you two are going to be married.” Steel glinted in her blue eyes. “And Niall gave part of his life force to heal Forin, so I think he would approve. If I cared. Which I don’t.” She tossed her sling on the bed and advanced on them, holding her good hand out to Duke. “So either you give me your knife or I’ll go get one from the kitchen.”
Duke and Ross glanced at each other. Then Duke swore under his breath and unclipped his knife from his waistband. “Let me sterilize it first at least.”
“Fine,” said Vivian.
“Why are you throwing yourself into this so aggressively, V?” said Ross. Their earlier conversation echoed in her head.
“I know you don’t want to see me get hurt,” said Vivian, “but that’s already happened.” She motioned to her broken arm, set by Niall and wrapped tightly in Ace bandages since she refused to go to the hospital. “I think Niall used some of his abilities on me anyway when he set my arm, did he tell you that? And Tyr came in to check on me. He…he wrote a rune on my hand, and I think it mostly healed it.” Vivian tilted her hand so that Ross could see the faint tracing of the rune.
“He was in here alone with you?” Ross said in alarm.
“I think Niall was watching. And you’re missing my point.” Vivian took a step forward. “He helped us, Ross. Corsica might have been a little crazy, and maybe she did double cross us with the bone sorcerer, I don’t know. But everything I saw of Tyr…he helped us. Shouldn’t we help him?” She looked down at Tyr’s face, still beautiful beneath the tracery of silver scars. “Can you imagine what it would be like to be banished to another world where you aren’t expected to survive? Hundreds of years, Ross, think about it, they’ve survived for hundreds of years when all the odds were against them.” Vivian’s voice shook slightly. She looked at Ross. “I’ve been waiting all my life to be part of something bigger than myself. And now that I’m finding out that there are different worlds and there’s magic, Ross, I’m not going to turn back. That’s why I’m being so aggressive.”
“I know you think this is like something out of one of your fantasy books or superhero comics,” said Ross, unfolding her legs and standing. She crossed her arms over her chest. “But let me tell you from experience, V, a lot of times what everyone sees as heroism leaves you with a whole lot of pain and baggage to drag around.”
“I’m willing to take that chance,” Vivian said quietly.
“All right, here’s the knife,” said Duke, walking back into the room. “Sterilized it with Jess’s Zippo best I could.” He held up a packet of gauze in his other hand. “And here’s this for afterward.”
“Let’s do it,” said Vivian. She unclipped one end of the bandage from her injured arm, unraveling it until half of her forearm was visible. Mottled bruising, green and yellow, made Ross frown and think that maybe Tyr’s rune had healed Vivian’s arm at an alarming speed.
“You should wake him up first,” Ross said tensely.
“I’m gettin’ there,” Duke said. He rubbed Tyr’s breastbone with two knuckles, none too gently. “Tyr, come on back for a moment. We think we can help you, but you need to wake up.”
The Exiled’s eyelids fluttered almost imperceptibly. Duke persisted.
“Come on, brother, come on back and open your eyes,” he said. Vivian watched, unconcealed concern on her face as Tyr swallowed thickly and then slowly opened unfocused silvery eyes.
“Stay awake now, just for a few minutes,” Duke said to Tyr. A spasm of pain flashed over the Exiled’s face as he tried to nod. “You took a nasty blow to the head. Just lay still and stay with us.”
Ross watched with her arms still crossed over her chest as Vivian knelt by Tyr’s side and leaned over him, supporting her injured arm with her good hand as she held out her forearm toward Duke.
“I’m not gonna go deep enough that you need stitches,” Duke said to her reassuringly.
“Do it,” she said, her freckles standing out vividly against her pale skin.
Ross forced herself to watch as Duke carefully inscribed a shallow cut down the outside of Vivian’s forearm. She swallowed hard as blood welled up, bright and red, and Vivian held her shaking arm over Tyr’s lips, angling the drips of blood into his mouth. The sight of blood didn’t make Ross nauseous, but the sight of Tyr drinking her friend’s blood did. Duke shifted his focus to Tyr, watching to make sure he was still conscious. A shudder ran through his body. Vivian pressed her lips together and lowered her arm directly to his lips. She winced as his throat worked and he swallowed with increasing urgency. Duke watched in
tently, the knife set aside and the gauze packet in his hands.
“All that stuff about vampires being sexy,” said Vivian in a thin voice, “is total bullshit.” She attempted to smile but it turned into a grimace. “Because there is nothing sexy about this. It just hurts.”
Tyr shuddered again and Duke tore the gauze packet open.
“All right,” Duke said, “can’t push the envelope too much.” He handed the gauze to Vivian as she pulled her arm away from Tyr’s mouth. The Exiled swallowed and gazed up at Vivian. She pressed the gauze to her forearm and smiled weakly at him. His lips moved, forming the outlines of words: Thank you.
Vivian swallowed and nodded. “You’re welcome,” she whispered. Tyr moved his hand slightly, still holding her gaze, and she gently laid her hand on top of his. “You’re not alone,” she said quietly.
Tyr took a hitching breath and then his eyes rolled back as he lost his grip on consciousness. Vivian sat back on her heels and gingerly wrapped the Ace bandage around her forearm over the gauze. Duke checked Tyr’s vital signs again.
“Seems like that helped him pretty instantly,” he said. “Pulse is stronger, color is better…looks like you were right, V.”
Vivian only nodded.
“How can he drink our blood?” Ross said suddenly. “If iron is so toxic to them, wouldn’t our blood be poison? We have iron in our hemoglobin, that theoretically would be enough to affect them.”
“His scars,” said Vivian as she finished wrapping her arm. She stood, blinked and then walked around Tyr to fetch her sling from the bed. “Maybe they’re an outward sign of how hard it’s been on his body to survive in our world.”
“Merrick almost died without those runes,” said Duke.
“But Tyr would know them,” argued Ross. She couldn’t deny that Tyr’s color already looked better than five minutes ago.
“Not necessarily,” said Vivian slowly. “From what Molly said about Mab…what if she pulled that out of Tyr’s head? Wiped his memory so that he couldn’t use that as a way to save them?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” said Duke.
“You met her?” Vivian asked in awe. “Queen Mab. You met Queen Mab?”
“Well, more like saw from a distance and fought with her in the castle before we got sucked through the portal,” amended Duke, “so I can’t really claim I had an audience with her or anything.”
“But still,” breathed Vivian.
“How’s your arm?” asked Duke. “Are you feeling dizzy at all?”
“Don’t try to change the subject,” Vivian admonished as she slid her arm back into its sling. “And no, I’m fine.” She looked back down at Tyr. “You think it helped?”
“From everything I’m seeing, it did,” said Duke with a nod.
Ross sighed.
Vivian smiled at her. “Come on, disapproving mama bear, let’s go check on Niall.”
“He was sleeping pretty hard,” said Ross.
“Anyone who doesn’t wake up when they smell coffee and bacon needs to be checked on,” said Vivian firmly, walking out of the room.
Ross sighed and looked at Duke. “I have never seen her this stubborn.”
“Probably because she’s never had something that she feels so strongly about,” said Duke. “I don’t think it’s a bad thing. She’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
“This isn’t a fairy tale, Noah,” Ross said darkly. “We’re not guaranteed a happy ending.”
“I think she understands that,” replied Duke. “I sure as hell do, but you know what? That means I’m just gonna fight harder for that happy ending.” He stood and kissed her on the lips.
Ross softened slightly. Maybe Duke was right. She’d just have to get used to the new Vivian just like she’d gotten used to the idea of alien elves, rune magic and glowing domes trapping murderous sorcerers. “It’s a brave new world,” she murmured, mostly to herself, as she followed Vivian back into the living room.
Chapter 4
Tess took a deep breath and turned to Vell. “What now?”
Vell waited a long moment before answering. Then she said, “Now we will hold our council.” The High Queen turned toward the long table and motioned to Titania, who inclined her head and swept gracefully to her seat.
“Tell me, Lady Bearer,” said the Seelie Queen as she smoothed her skirts, “did Niall serve you well in the mortal world? And why has he not returned with you?”
Vell took her seat at the head of the table. Gray and Liam took seats at her right and left, and Finnead remained standing, though Tess thought, out of all of them, he looked like the one who needed to sit. She walked over to the table and took a seat next to Gray, facing Titania. Luca stood behind her. Calliea and Merrick remained at their posts, though they stood inside the pavilion now rather than at the entrance.
“Your Vaelanseld did indeed serve me well,” Tess said to Titania. “I could not have asked for a more loyal or fierce member of my expedition, and I turned to him for counsel on more than one occasion.”
“We did not expect you to return so soon,” Titania said. “Will you favor us with the tale, Lady Bearer?”
Tess took a deep breath. The Sword’s power circled in her chest, still amplified by the influx of taebramh from her journey in the mortal world. She could still feel it flowing into her, and she wondered if the Queens could feel it. “We entered the mortal world much where the portal had dropped Luca, Merrick and Duke. In short order, we found signs of their presence and then a storm forced us to take shelter in an abandoned dwelling for the night.”
“We thought it best not to track the bone sorcerer in the midst of darkness and a raging storm,” contributed Haze, landing on the table and bowing to the High Queen and the Seelie Queen in turn.
“I cannot fault that decision,” said Titania, smiling at Haze.
“Niall used his scrying skills to locate the bone sorcerer and our missing warriors. They had been taken in by one of Duke’s friends, Rosaline Cooper.”
“A friend?” Vell raised her eyebrows. “I’d think it would be more than that, since presumably she was his last thought as the portal consumed him.”
Tess smiled. “I’d rather let them explain it, if they ever decide to come back to Faeortalam. In any case, Niall saw that they had constructed a rune-trap for the bone sorcerer.”
“A rune-trap,” murmured Titania thoughtfully. “I would not have thought that any of them had the skill to construct such a thing.”
“With respect, my lady, I do,” said Merrick with a slight bow. “But I did have assistance.”
“Assistance?” Titania looked at Luca. “From the ulfdrengr?”
“No,” said Merrick, shaking his head. “From one of the Exiled. His name is Tyr, and he was very knowledgeable about arcane runes.”
“I think it is a stroke of fortune that Queen Mab chose to leave this council,” said Titania. An embroidered vine curled over her shoulder and wrapped around her arm, blue buds blooming into magnificent flowers. “She would have been furious to hear that Tyr has survived.”
“We can discuss Tyr’s transgressions after the Bearer has finished telling her tale,” said Vell firmly.
Gawain, sitting at Titania’s left, smiled slightly at Vell’s resolute guidance of the discussion. Titania inclined her head and Tess continued.
“When Niall saw the bone sorcerer, he told us that Gryttrond was about to kill a young mortal girl that he had kidnapped. I couldn’t allow it, so I took action.”
“You were able to find him and save the girl? Heroic indeed, Lady Bearer,” said Titania.
“No,” said Tess, forcing herself to speak calmly despite the impatience beginning to rise inside her at Titania’s interruptions and assumptions. “I didn’t have time to do that. I sent the others ahead to the house where Merrick had built his rune-trap, and I sent the Glasidhe to free the girl once the bone sorcerer abandoned her. Kianryk stayed with me.”
“You lit yourself up like a beacon, didn’t yo
u?” said Vell. “You did that once before, right before I found you in the forest.”
“That time was a bit involuntary,” admitted Tess. “I didn’t quite understand how my taebramh worked. But yes, I did, on purpose this time. I wanted him to see me. I wanted him to come after me. And he did.”
“You led him into the trap,” said Vell, a hint of admiration warming her words.
“Not quite,” admitted Tess. “I got to the front of the house and he…he moved the ground and threw me off Kianryk. But the others had arrived there and they were ready.”
“Or as ready as we could be,” added Luca.
“Calliea was the one who actually pulled him into the rune-trap,” said Tess. “And it held him.”
“And then you executed him,” said Gawain with a nod.
“If everyone would allow me to tell the story,” said Tess with precise courtesy. Vell hid a smile and Gawain grinned good-naturedly, bowing his head for a moment to acknowledge her comment. “I did not execute the bone sorcerer. Before I arrived at the house, two Exiles named Corsica and Tyr did. Initially they attacked Luca and Merrick and the others, but they were subdued and reached an agreement.”
“Why would you bargain with the Exiled?” demanded Titania, her eyes flashing. “While I may not have approved of Mab’s handling of the rebellion, she would have been within her rights to execute them. They were traitors.”
“Or they simply wanted their freedom,” countered Tess. “In any case, I am not questioning Luca and Merrick’s judgment, because I wasn’t there. Tyr had knowledge that could have been the difference between survival and capture at the hands of the bone sorcerer.”
“I was not strong enough to contribute to the defense against the bone sorcerer at the time that Corsica and Tyr attacked,” said Luca quietly. “Merrick, too, was losing ground against the influence of the mortal world.”
“He did not have the correct runes,” murmured Titania.
Luca nodded. “And so when Tyr offered to help us in exchange for the ability to speak with the bone sorcerer once he was captured, we agreed.”