Love Charms

by Multiple

  “It’s political then.” I grimaced. Sidhe politics were touchy. I would have to tread carefully.

  “Unfortunately it always is,” Vera said with a wry smile.

  “Well, it’s not like I have a choice.”

  “If you wait much longer you won’t have one at all. The police will be here any minute.”

  “Will you be okay?” I didn’t want to save myself at her expense.

  “They’ll never know you were here.” she said patting me on the arm in reassurance. “Don’t worry. I will take care of myself.”

  I smiled. The nice thing about having a friend who could see the future was she was always prepared. I tucked the scroll into my back pocket and turned to Jacob. ”Are you ready to go?”

  He shrugged. “Like you said, I have no choice. It’s either stay here and tangle with the necromancer or go to Fairy.”

  “Yeah, I know it sucks, but at least in Fairy we’ll have safe passage. Here the cops are taking pot shots at us.” I stood up and offered him my hand which he took. “Let’s do this.”

  “Let me get my wand.” Vera disappeared into a room off the kitchen and returned with a tarnished silver wand in her hand. “Stand in front of the fire.”

  We followed her instructions, Jacob tightly gripping my hand. I gave him a reassuring squeeze. “It’ll be all right. You’ll see.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, but the door between worlds opened just then, and cut him off.

  Chapter Nine

  A loud whoosh of air marked our entrance to Fairy and caused my ears to pop. Traveling between the human and Sidhe worlds was an exercise in instant gratification. No ten hour car trips or endless delays at an airport, one second you’re standing in someone’s kitchen, the next you’re in a grassy field under a pastel sky in Fairy.

  The only thing traveling between the dimensions had in common with the more pedestrian human transport methods, was a change in air pressure. I yawned to finish equalizing the pressure in my ears and took in my surroundings. I had only been to Fairy once before, with a tour group, and hadn’t seen much beyond the resort area the Sidhe had created for human visitors.

  The Sidhe had been quick to capitalize on human interest in their world, and, for the price of a few gallons of honey, you could treat yourself to an all-inclusive vacation at Magic Sands, the premiere beach resort of Fairy. Demand ran so high, there was a three year waiting list. I had so enjoyed my first trip—the massages were the best and martinis with pixie dust didn’t cause hangovers— I had immediately signed up for a return visit and was due to go back in another year.

  Where we were now bore little resemblance to the pink sand beaches and sapphire blue ocean of Magic Sands. Vera had sent us to fields of bright green grass under a lavender sky. Soft yellow light lanced through puffs of dove gray clouds. From what I knew of Fairy geography, we were probably in the Lowlands.

  I shielded my eyes from the sun with my hand and turned a slow circle, but the view was the same from all sides: green land topped with a pastel sky spotted with clouds. There wasn’t even a road.

  “I thought it would be different.” Jacob followed me step for step in my survey. “It’s pretty close to our world.”

  “Yeah, I know. Fairy and earth are alternate planes of the same world.”

  “What are we supposed to do? Walk?”

  I shrugged. “I think we wait for an escort.” The pixie should’ve already given the dragons Vera’s message.

  “You think?”

  Seeing the alarm in his eyes at the thought I didn’t know for sure, I pulled the scroll out of my pocket. “I didn’t get a chance to read through this. Why don’t you take a look? It should explain everything.”

  He all but snatched the document from my hands and shook it open. “This script is really hard to read.”

  “I think it’s modeled after medieval calligraphy.”

  He grunted and held the scroll up to his face, squinting. “From what I can make out, you’re right. Someone is supposed to meet us.”

  I lowered myself to the ground, sitting Indian-style. “Might as well get comfortable.” I patted the grass next to me.

  Jacob rolled the scroll back up and tossed it to me as he moved to join me. I tucked it into my back pocked for safe keeping. Then we sat in companionable silence soaking up the sun and acclimating ourselves to our new environment. Fairy wasn’t so different as to be an alien landscape, but there was a palpable otherness to the air and the land. Some said it was because of the magic.

  Jacob reached out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “You look tired.”

  “Adrenaline crash.” I smiled.

  “It’s been a whirlwind. First the detective, then the subway…” he paused and looked at me. The memory of how things had ended on the subway sparked a sudden electric charge in the air between us. Puzzlement, confusion, and hurt all flashed across his face. I felt about two inches tall. I’d been rude and dishonest on the train.

  “Yeah, about the subway…”

  He held up a hand and cut me off. “No need to explain. I misunderstood.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “I didn’t?” He frowned and gave me a skeptical look.

  I sighed and toyed with my hair, nervous. “I enjoyed the kissing a lot.”

  Jacob laughed, nervous. “I thought maybe I had lost my touch.”

  “No, the kissing was fine.”

  “Then why did you run off?”

  “It’s complicated. I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”

  He gave a thoughtful nod. “I see. Cold feet.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Sofia, have you been with anyone since Mark died?”

  Mute, I shook my head.

  “Okay.” He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “Look, I’m attracted to you. I know we probably would’ve never met except for my brother’s death, but I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first saw you.”

  I laughed. “I knew you weren’t just hiding from the cop on the subway.”

  Jacob grinned and ducked his head. “Guilty as charged.” His expression became serious. “I like you Sofia and I want to kiss you again. Maybe go on a date.”

  I twisted a blade of grass in my hands. “Doesn’t what happened with Mark bother you?” In his shoes, I wasn’t sure I would be so quick to ask me out. I had, after all, become notorious for killing my boyfriend.

  “Yes.” He held up a hand at the look of horror I gave him. He wasn’t supposed to agree with me. “Wait, let me finish. What happened with Mark was an accident. A terrible accident that gave you,” he paused and gestured to me, “this haunted look in your eyes. That makes you afraid to kiss another man. So, of course, it bothers me.” Jacob shifted closer to me and took my hand in his. “I don’t want to see you hurting like this.”

  “Oh.” I met his eyes noticing in Fairy they were more tawny than brown, like a lion’s. His hair was lighter too, more of a golden caramel, a lion’s mane to match his lion eyes. I touched mine with my free hand and brought it up to see if it had changed too. I remembered from my time at the resort that my natural auburn highlights had become more prominent and this time was no exception. Instead of the usual dark brown, my hair now leaned more towards the red end of the spectrum.

  “Oh? All I get is an oh?” Jacob put a hand to his chest in mock disbelief.

  I flushed. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “How about, you’ll think about it?”

  “Yes. Definitely.”

  He arched an eyebrow.“Promise?”

  “Yes.”

  Jacob leaned toward me. “Seal it with a kiss?”

  I fidgeted as he leaned in closer and closer. Of course I wanted to kiss him, but still I held back. It was one thing to kiss as a matter of survival, I had an excuse then. But if I kissed him now, it would be admitting my feelings. There would be no going back, which was fine here in Fairy, where Mark could not find me, but what about when I ret
urned to the real world? The one where my boyfriend might be dead, but our relationship was still very much alive? Was I prepared to be part of a love triangle where one of the members was dead and invisible to the competition? Yes. No…maybe.

  Just when I thought I couldn’t avoid the kiss, a strong wind swirled around us and a shadow blocked the sun. Startled, I pulled away from Jacob and looked up to see a dragon the color of a bright red poppy overhead.

  I had never seen a dragon before and the sight rendered me speechless for a second. First, it was huge. Easily the size of a basketball court in length with the height of a five story building. It was hard to believe something that large could fly let alone shapeshift into human form, which I had heard was the form dragons preferred for everyday life. Odd to think, dragons didn’t actually like being dragons.

  With graceful flaps of its enormous wings, the dragon came to hover overhead, and snaked its head down to look at us. Close up, it looked a lot like a Tyrannosaurus Rex with a squat, reptilian head, large nostrils and even larger teeth. A carnivore for sure. I wondered what they ate and hoped their palate didn’t include humans. At least I wasn’t a virgin.

  With a sulfur-laden snort, it said, “Are you Sofia Parker?”

  At my nod, he— she? it?— soared off, rising above the clouds. Initially, it appeared to be leaving, but when it turned and came back at us, I realized it was adjusting its flight pattern, preparing to land.

  I scrambled to my feet not knowing how well dragons did with spatial relationships. From the way it was positioned, it was due to come in head first, right into us. Being ready to move out of the way seemed to be the wise thing to do. Jacob climbed to his feet as well and we both watched in awed silence as the dragon gently settled onto the field amidst the vortex of air its wings raised.

  Even though I hadn’t felt as if we were in any danger, I was still surprised at how close the dragon had landed. Probably not more than fifteen feet from us. The reason for the close landing became apparent when the dragon began to walk. Short, stout legs might be good for holding a dragon’s heavy weight, but they did not grant the ability to move with grace or speed. Where, in the sky the dragon had been a sleek, if large, aerodynamic form, on land, it became a bumbling, clumsy collection of scales and wings. I began to see why they liked their human form better.

  Grunting with the effort, the dragon came to stand in front of us and announced without preamble, “I am Tyllven and I will take you to Wyvrnydell.” It shifted so its flank faced us. “Climb up my back and we’ll be on our way.”

  I walked up and lightly ran a hand across his scales trying to figure out how to navigate a height most people required a safety harness to climb. With my fingers, I searched for a handhold, but the scales were tight and smooth as glass and warm enough that I didn’t want to touch them for long. Next to me, Jacob did the same and we looked at each other, exchanging shrugs.

  “Excuse me, how do we get up on your back?” Jacob asked, shouting to be sure the dragon heard.

  The dragon craned its neck to look back at us. “Here.” It frowned in concentration and slowly, some of its scales swiveled, popping out into a makeshift staircase. “That should help.”

  I took the ‘stairs’ first and counted over two hundred before I reached the top. Out of breath, I leaned over, hands on my knees and waited for Jacob who wasn’t far behind. First the cop chase marathon, now the dragon version of the stair master. I would bet I’d already lost five pounds and that my legs would be sore the next day.

  “You can sit behind my neck. There are two spots there that make good seats for humans,” Tyllven said, craning its neck to watch us as we walked along the ridge of its spine. “You don’t have to hold onto anything. It’s a very smooth flight.”

  We made our way up to the dragon’s neck and settled into the ‘seats’ it indicated, which turned out to be some kind of bony projection that formed two concave depressions perfect for us to sit in. Once we were seated, Tyllven began to flap its wings. The wind the dragon generated flattened the grass below, like a helicopter.

  To my surprise, the flight was smooth. Despite the dragon’s assurance, I had expected to be wind whipped, but one flap of its large wings allowed it to coast for several seconds. I also thought I would be cold too, but Tyllven’s skin radiated enough heat to keep me warm even though the air was cool. Now that I stopped to think about it, it made sense that animals capable of producing flame would run warmer than most.

  The ground dropped away until it looked like a small green jewel. To the left, lay the dark swirling gray skies of the Wastelands where the Hunt rode free and where time storms developed. No one went into the Wastelands unless they had to. It was full of dark things and tricks of time and space. Just looking at the obsidian clouds roiling above it gave me goose bumps.

  Although not visible from where we flew, beyond the Wastelands lay the ‘resort’ area I had visited. Underneath us, the verdant hills of the Lowlands rolled across the landscape in grassy waves. Most Sidhe made their home in the lowlands. I would’ve picked the beach, but the Sidhe didn’t look for the same perks of location humans did. There was more magic in the Lowlands and the Sidhe cared more about magic than the beach.

  Based on Jacob’s watch, it took about an hour of flying parallel to the Lowlands to reach our destination. The Sidhe had given the dragons a large patch of land on the border of the Lowlands and Wastelands. Over the centuries, the dragons had built a thriving metropolis (by Sidhe standards) they called Wyvrndell, which served as a nexus of Sidhe and human business. Because of the city’s location, away from the Sidhe’s stronghold, it had become neutral territory for human and Sidhe business interests. Wyvrndell was ‘the place to be’ for entrepreneurs. Sidhe from all over set up shop in Wyvrndell and did a brisk business with human and Sidhe alike. Wyvrndell had the financial clout of New York, yet wasn’t much bigger than a few city blocks.

  From the sky, then city had the appearance of a classic fairy town full of brick buildings coiling into spires and cobblestone paths. As Tyllven lost altitude, I could see people in long, flowing robes of various colors milling through the streets and around a square filled with what looked to be market stalls.

  Further up, sat a large, red brick building with three tall smoke stacks blowing out puffs of white smoke that smelled faintly of hot metal. Behind it sprawled a jumbled mix of thatched and tiled roofs in what appeared to be a residential area. Past that, up on a hill, loomed a medieval looking castle built of dark stone. Bright blue and yellow flags lined the castle turrets, their fabric snapping in the wind. As our escort flew past the castle and banked in preparation for landing, I saw guards in tunics the same colors as the flags lining the walls. Tyllven flew in lazy circles, spiraling closer and closer to the ground until the dragon finally landed in a field just outside the city gates.

  Flexing a wing until the tip touched the ground Tyllven looked back at us and said, “You can slide down my wing, it’s faster than taking my scales.”

  “Okay, thanks.” I pushed myself out of my ‘seat’ and climbed up on the dragon’s back.

  I walked in the rough pathway his vertebrae provided to where Tyllven’s wing fused with its spine and made the mistake looking down. Turns out ‘don’t look down’ is good advice. I swayed as vertigo hit me and visions of me plummeting to my death raced through my mind.

  “Are you okay?” Jacob wrapped an arm around me, pulling me close.

  I leaned against him. “I’m just a little dizzy.”

  “Afraid of heights?”

  “Kind of.” Elevators? No problem. On the back of a big dragon who wanted me to use his wing to slide down a height equivalent to a baby skyscraper? I most definitely had the heebie-jeebies.

  “It actually looks like fun. I always liked the corkscrew slides at the water park.” Jacob contemplated the wing ‘slide’ before us.

  I looked at everything but the precipice before us, Jacob’s face, the sky, anything to avoid seeing how far we had to
go before we went splat. I had always hated those big water park slides. Roller coasters too.

  Jacob squeezed me tight against him. “We’ll go together.”

  I tried to put on a brave smile, but the ‘fun’ we were about to have made my stomach churn. My definition of fun didn’t involve wondering how many times my body would bounce if I fell. “You probably love roller coasters, don’t you?” I accused him.

  “Oh, yeah. Especially the ones that go upside down.” Jacob peered over the edge and smiled.

  “It is perfectly safe, I assure you,” boomed the dragon.

  Noticing my lack of enthusiasm, Jacob grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Come on. We’ll jump together, on the count of three. All right?”

  I gulped and nodded as he began to count moving me ever closer to the edge. On two, he suddenly shoved me out into empty air.

  I went over the edge, kicking and screaming, and landed, butt first, on Tyllven’s wing. The wing sagged under my weight and then recoiled like a trampoline, shooting me back into the sky. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jacob next to me, also airborne.

  Tyllven’s wing was not without obstacles. Several horizontal rods of bone formed a support structure for the elastic leathery skin of its wing and they made for natural stopping points along the way down (or nifty spots to break a bone if you weren’t careful). I caught my breathe at the first one, waiting for Jacob, who was just a few seconds behind, to catch up to me. He hit the bone with a solid thump and ended up sitting backwards, facing up instead of down.

  Panting, I said, “You pushed me.”

  He shrugged. “Would you really have jumped on three?”

  “No, but…”

  Jacob swung his legs around, grabbed my hand before I could finish talking, and jumped, dragging me with him. On the first bounce, he lost his grip and we separated. I screamed the whole way to the next stopping point while Jacob whooped it up, obviously enjoying the experience.

  Deciding not to wait for Jacob, I went ahead and jumped by myself on the next two stops. Instead of taking the great flying leaps Jacob had forced on me, I eased myself down and tried to slide more than bounce. The calmer, slower descent gave me more control and allayed my fear of falling. Although, I didn’t relax until I had gone far enough down to ensure my survival if I did go over the edge. On the last descent, I joined Jacob in a few acrobatic bounces and managed a whoop or two myself. It was actually kind of fun, but I didn’t think I would volunteer to do it again.