Black Spring

by Christina Henry

  Lucifer and Evangeline were in one corner of the room, surrounded by fawning guests. We had not yet officially greeted the happy couple, and I was reluctant to head that way. Once I joined that group, there would be more pointing and whispering, more speculation about me and my abilities. I just wasn’t in the damned mood to deal with it right now.

  The double doors at the end of the hall were thrown open, and a smartly dressed faerie marched in. “Presenting His Highness Puck, the High King of all Faerie.”

  All of the fae in the room immediately dropped to one knee as Puck entered, a satisfied smirk on his face. The only fae who did not kneel was J.B. I could tell by the look on his face that he really wanted Puck to say something about it. I think we all wanted to have a go at Puck for one reason or another. The rage that surged up as soon as I saw him made me long for an outlet—like, say, beating the manipulative little so-and-so bloody.

  Puck strolled through the throngs, heading toward the corner where Lucifer and Evangeline held court. He wore a suit that would not be out of place at a Hollywood club. I noticed he had a shiny silver birdcage in one hand.

  His path, naturally, took him right past our group. Beezle’s claws dug into my shoulder, a warning against losing my temper. The darkness inside me had already awoken with my anger, and I was struggling to keep it under control.

  Puck saw me looking at the birdcage and stopped in front of me with an impish smile. That smile made me want to knock his teeth out. My fists clenched at my side.

  “Like my new accessory, niece?” he asked, holding up the birdcage. “I have you to thank for it, after all.”

  I realized with horror that Oberon was inside the cage. Oberon, the former High King of Faerie. Oberon, whom I had diminished during a battle in which he had cheated and attempted to kill me. Oberon, whose wife I had killed when she had refused to believe I was innocent in her son’s death.

  The fae could have fit in the palm of my hand. He gripped the silver bars of his cage and glared at me.

  Puck looked from Oberon’s face to mine. “If looks could kill, you would certainly be dead now, my niece.”

  “You’re sick. Parading him around like that,” I said. “And quit calling me ‘niece.’ I would much prefer that no one realize we are related.”

  “Oh, it’s too late for that,” Puck chortled. “On the joyous occasion of his nuptials, Lucifer has decided to reveal our long-secret filial relationship. So everyone will know you are related to me.”

  He then turned to Nathaniel, whose coloring precisely mirrored Puck’s dark hair and jewel-blue eyes.

  “And you, my son? Would you, too, prefer to disavow our bond of blood?” Puck asked.

  “I cannot disavow what is apparent to everyone,” Nathaniel said.

  Puck’s smile widened. “A very careful answer. Although I think you would like to sneak up behind me and slit my throat.”

  “There would be no sneaking,” Nathaniel said, his voice hard.

  Puck laughed. “Families are so much fun, aren’t they?”

  He gestured toward the group of flunkies that had followed him into the ballroom and continued on to greet Lucifer. We all turned to glare daggers into his back.

  “You restrained yourself pretty well,” Beezle said.

  “There’s no damned point in threatening Puck,” I said. “He only laughs and makes you feel like a fool.”

  “Ah. So you would have threatened him if you thought it would make a difference—is that it?”

  I spun around, deliberately putting my back to Lucifer and Puck and the fake display of affection that was occurring over there. The two of them were probably whispering death threats in each other’s ears.

  “I’m already sick of this,” I said. “I want to go home.”

  “You can’t,” Beezle said.

  “Why not?” I said. “Why must we all be in thrall to Lucifer and his desires?”

  “Because he can squash us with one evil thought,” Beezle said.

  “Oh, yeah, that’s why,” I said. I felt abruptly fatigued, exhausted from the constant low-level buzz of stress and adrenaline that I’d felt for the last few days. “Can somebody get me a glass of water or something? I don’t feel so good all of a sudden.”

  Nathaniel went to look for something to drink. There were roving waiters with trays of alcoholic drinks, but those were not for me in my current state. It was unfortunate, because an adult beverage would make a big difference in my disposition.

  J.B. scooted closer to whisper in my ear. “Your buddy did go and see that individual we discussed.”

  “Yeah,” I said, thinking of the expression on Zaniel’s face. “Any chance you know what they talked about?”

  J.B. shook his head. “The room was sealed with magic so no one could eavesdrop.”

  “So I know he was there but I still don’t know why or who sent him,” I said. “Maybe I can beat it out of him later.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Sort of,” I said. “It gets very tiresome sometimes, trying to stay on the side of the right and the good when the bad guys get to do whatever they want.”

  “That’s why they’re bad guys,” J.B. said.

  “Speaking of bad guys . . . did you by any chance hear about what happened to Chloe?” I said, sneaking a half glance at Samiel to make sure he wasn’t looking at me.

  “I did,” he said, his green eyes very grave. “The paperwork for her soul retrieval came across my desk, and Lizzie called me. I’m assuming there’s something you want to tell me about that.”

  “Yes,” I said, and turned a little so Samiel couldn’t see me talking as I described what happened. I felt guilty talking about it in his presence, anyway, although he wasn’t paying attention to me in the slightest.

  Jude and Samiel had seemed like they were on alert ever since we entered the room, both of them constantly shifting and scanning the area. Now that alert appeared to be heightened. “What’s up with you two?”

  “It’s not safe here,” Jude growled.

  Samiel nodded. Can’t you feel it?

  Now that they mentioned it, it did seem there was an air of barely suppressed tension, a sense that something might snap at any moment. And it had started as soon as Puck entered the room.

  I looked over to the corner where Lucifer and Puck were playing hail-fellow-well-met with each other.

  “They’re going to kill each other before the night is out,” I predicted.

  “Look on the bright side. If they kill each other, you’ll only have to deal with Alerian,” Beezle said.

  “Yeah, I don’t really see that as a bright side,” I said. “I kind of half expected that he would be here, since Lucifer is all into gathering his family around his bosom.”

  As if my words were a summoning, the double doors at the far end of the room opened again and Alerian entered. He had no collection of hangers-on following him. He was not announced. But the power emanating from him was so palpable that a hush fell over the room.

  Even Lucifer and Puck ceased their antics as Alerian strode toward them. His green hair was tied back at the nape of his neck. His face looked like it was carved from marble. Like Puck and Lucifer, he wore an expensive tailored suit. He walked so lightly that his heels did not make a sound on the floor.

  The crowd cleared the way for him. No one whispered and gossiped. No one wondered who he was. But they understood power, and how to get out of its way.

  I glanced over at Lucifer and Puck. Lucifer was frowning. Puck was trying to act like Alerian’s display didn’t bother him by talking to his underlings.

  Because my group was apparently the first stop on the tour, my great-uncle paused before me, his face impassive.

  “Disappointed to find me still alive?” I asked.

  There was a long pause. “Very.”

  “Don’t think about trying anything here,” I said. “For some reason Lucifer likes me.”

  “I would not dream of violating my brother’s hos
pitality,” Alerian said.

  “But once I leave it’s a different story, right?”

  There was a flicker in his sea-colored eyes; then he moved away without saying a word.

  “I think you should take that as a yes,” J.B. said.

  “I didn’t need to hear him say it,” I said, watching him approach Puck and Lucifer. “He’s a lot like Amarantha, or Titania. He’s decided I’ve given him insult and there is nothing short of complete and total humiliating subservience that will make him happy.”

  “You never even respected my authority when I was your boss,” J.B. said.

  “Exactly,” I said.

  “Exactly,” Beezle said.

  Alerian greeted Lucifer and Puck, and then Evangeline. My many-greats-grandmother was resplendent in a red floor-length gown with long sleeves. One sleeve was pinned up to the shoulder because there was no arm there to fill it. A silk scarf was tied around her head to cover the empty holes where her eye sockets used to be. She was hugely pregnant, like she was about to give birth any second.

  “I thought maybe Lucifer would have found some way to fix up Evangeline,” I said quietly to Beezle.

  My gargoyle shook his head. “She lost her eyes and limb as a result of the price paid for defying the magic of death. There is no fixing that.”

  Now that the three brothers were gathered together, all the air seemed to have gone out of the room. The crowd had resumed speaking, but conversations were low and furtive. No one seemed to want to attract the attention of the big three, which was unusual at a wedding. Normally people tried to monopolize the engaged couple. I put one hand on J.B.’s shoulder. My face was hot and my lungs were tight.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked. “Are you going to be sick?”

  “No,” I said, fanning my face with my hand. “I feel like I can’t breathe. Where the hell is Nathaniel?”

  J.B. scanned the crowd, looking for my escort. “I can’t see him. I wonder where he got off to?”

  I felt a moment of illogical panic. What if Lucifer had instructed his underlings to grab Nathaniel as soon as he was separated from me? But a moment later he was at my shoulder, holding a large glass of ice water. I grabbed it from him and guzzled it down quickly.

  “More,” I said.

  Nathaniel stared at me. “If I had realized you were so thirsty, I would have brought a pitcher. I had to go to the kitchens to get this. There are only cocktails on the trays.”

  I put my hands over my throat, which felt parched. “I just feel so thirsty. And hot.”

  Nathaniel put his hand on my forehead. “You’re burning up with fever. What happened while I was away?”

  J.B. looked startled. “Alerian stopped here for a second. That was it.”

  Beezle flew off his perch to peer at me more closely from the front. “Someone is trying to hurt her,” he announced. “Someone in this room has got a spell going to make you sick. I can see the traces of magic on you.”

  “Can you trace it back to its owner?” I asked, my breath coming in short bursts.

  He flew around me, looking for a trail to follow, and returned to my shoulder with a shake of his head. “No,” he said. “It’s like the shifter. The trail sort of peters out when you look at it.”

  “That means the shifter is in this room,” Nathaniel said.

  I slumped against his shoulder, barely able to stand on my feet. Jude, J.B. and Samiel huddled closer, the four men forming a protective knot around me. “But he’s not trying to kill me right this second. He’s trying to weaken me, make me sick.”

  It was working, too. All I wanted to do was lie down and close my eyes.

  “I thought the gargoyle was here to identify the creature when it is in disguise,” Jude growled. “Do your duty.”

  “There are a million people in this room,” Beezle said. “If I fly around looking for the shifter, it could walk right up to Maddy while I was somewhere else and you would never know.”

  “Beezle’s right. He needs to stay here,” I said. “And I don’t want to make a big fuss and attract everyone’s attention.”

  “You’ve already attracted attention,” Beezle pointed out. “People are looking at us, wondering what’s wrong with you. In a second Lucifer will hear something’s going on and come over here.”

  “That’s exactly what I don’t want,” I said. “I’d like to try to keep Lucifer out of this.”

  “It is Lucifer’s home. I doubt you will be able to do so,” Nathaniel said.

  Nathaniel’s arm was around my shoulder to help keep me upright as I swayed back and forth. I needed to focus, to push off the shifter as I had done before. But he was smart. A direct attack would have brought a full show of force on my part.

  Instead the creature had chosen a subtle magic. That magic wormed its way inside, weakening me before I even realized it was there. If not for Beezle, I might not have known it was a spell at all. It felt exactly like a sudden illness.

  “I do not like standing here while this monster does as he likes,” Jude said. “It is infuriating that we can do nothing when we know it is so close.”

  “We could chase around and make a scene,” I said through the haze of fever. “But it would just drop the spell and we wouldn’t be any closer to finding it.”

  “In the meantime you’re getting sicker by the minute,” J.B. said. “Let’s make a scene if that’s what makes it stop.”

  It was getting hard to think straight. “No, I want to try to trace it back.”

  “How?” Nathaniel said.

  “Beezle, you can see the effects of the shifter’s magic.”

  “But the spell fades away when I look at it,” he said.

  “Right,” I said. “But if I push back against the spell, push against the source, you’ll be able to follow my magic back to him.”

  Beezle gave me an admiring look. “That’s pretty good thinking, Maddy. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

  Nathaniel shook his head. “I do not like it. The shifter will be able to continue to harm you. We should do what is necessary to break the spell now.”

  “Just trust me,” I said, and my voice sounded little and breathless. “Jude, you get ready to follow Beezle wherever he says you should go.”

  I knew the wolf had personal reasons for wanting to capture the shifter himself. I also knew that if I didn’t give Jude something to do soon, he might start rampaging around just to burn off his excess energy.

  Should I stay with you? Samiel signed.

  “No, Beezle should go with you and Jude,” I said. “J.B. and Nathaniel can stay here with me.”

  Beezle fluttered over to Samiel. His little face was concerned as he watched me struggle against the fever.

  “Maybe Nathaniel’s right. You don’t look so good,” Beezle said.

  “This is our chance,” I said. “He’s here in Lucifer’s mansion. I don’t want to look over my shoulder for him anymore. Now be quiet.”

  I turned my focus inward, searching for the thread of the spell that was sickening me. My baby turned over and over in my belly. He could feel the magic, too. He could feel what it was doing to me. But it wasn’t hurting him, and that was some consolation at least. The magic was so small and subtle that it didn’t have the power to go after my child as well.

  In fact, the subtlety was so great that it was hard to catch hold of the magic. It moved not like a river, as most magic did, but more like a fine mist. Now I could see the reason why I didn’t notice the intrusive spell immediately. The difficulty was in pushing it away. I couldn’t shove the magic back out by force when it was spreading in every direction. I collected the disparate pieces of the spell into a kind of arrowhead, and then blocked them with my own power.

  I hoped that once the invading magic was drawn to that point, I would be able to bulldoze the spell out of me. Otherwise I would be using up a lot of energy when I was already in a weakened state. Then the shifter would be able to finish me off, and no one would be able to find the culp
rit.

  As before, the shifter seemed to sense my resistance and redoubled its efforts. This actually worked to my advantage, for strengthening the spell gave it a more solid and consistent form.

  Which meant it was a lot easier for me to push back, once I could clearly see what I was pushing.

  A few moments later I felt significantly better as the shifter’s power cleared my body.

  “I see it,” Beezle said. He directed Samiel and Jude in the direction of the spell I had sent in pursuit of the shifter’s power.

  The shifter seemed to realize that the magic was no longer affecting me. It strained back toward me, tried to take advantage of my physical weakness. The few minutes of illness had left me feeling drained, and it was extremely difficult to fight back without drawing on the darkness inside me. If I called upon that power in Lucifer’s presence, he would surely be able to sense it.

  The tug of magic back and forth between the shifter and me was almost like a rope, a long rope that joined the two of us. I was slightly shocked that in a roomful of magical creatures no one else seemed to be aware of what was going on. Then I realized that any little pulses of magic that came from me or the creature would be easily drowned out by the show of power coming from Lucifer and Evangeline’s corner. The shifter had timed his attack perfectly.

  Even though Alerian, Puck and Lucifer were pretending to get along, each was clearly trying to outmuscle the other in presence. The guests were fascinated by the display while trying not to notice it, because gawking openly might draw the attention of one of these big, bad immortals.

  In the meantime the shifter was able to attack me under everyone’s nose.

  Beezle, Jude and Samiel disappeared into the crowd as I continued my battle with the shifter. I wanted to make sure to keep its attention long enough for Beezle to track my magical signature back to the creature.

  There was a sudden surge of power, like the creature was pouring everything it had into one shot. I staggered back, my grip on my magic tenuous for a moment. That was when the darkness inside me, waiting so patiently, seized its chance.