Fury Convergence

by Chrysoula Tzavelas

  “Video games?” asked Rhianna, eyebrows raised. “Here?”

  “Yeah,” said Summer listlessly. “Video games and lots and lots of batteries. They’re okay.” She trailed off, then brightened. “How about Truth or Dare?”

  Rhianna said, “No, no, you can’t bring up video games and then change the subject. I’ve always wanted to fight a giant monster myself. Games aren’t the same thing, but on the bright side, you don’t bleed as much.” Then she lowered her voice conspiratorially and added, “Also, I think we should let Bran recover a little before Truth or Dare, because she’s totally going to take the dares.”

  Rhianna was right; Branwyn had been intending on opting for dares over truth, until she saw the way Summer’s eyes sparkled at the thought and realized all the ways dares could backfire on her, even if Summer thought they were harmless. Weakly, she said, “Yeah, I think I’ll sit back down for a while.”

  She curled up in the armchair this time, sitting at an angle so she could see the enchanted mirror, the window, and, if she turned her head, the small tv. Mostly, she stared out the window, where she could see the distant flashes of red without the mirror. Eventually, the flashes stopped.

  “Woo-hoo,” said Summer when Branwyn told her. “Now you have to climb up its fur, Rhianna.” Rhianna worked the control pad vigorously, but fell from the creature’s back, and Summer clicked her tongue in dismay.

  Branwyn chewed on her lip, then broached the downer question. “Summer, what will you do when the beast reaches the Court?”

  Summer looked up. “Ooh, are you ready for Truth or Dare?”

  After knocking her head against the back of the armchair, Branwyn said grimly, “Only if we can agree on some ground rules.”

  “Sure. You and I can do that while Rhianna gets the beast down. What’s the first rule you want?”

  Branwyn eyed Rhianna, and then slowly said, “No oath-breaking. If anybody says they’ve promised not to tell that answer, or not to do that thing, the requestor has to come up with something else.”

  Summer wrinkled her nose. “Okay. My turn! No picking the same option more than twice in a row. So you can’t be all dares, Branwyn.”

  Branwyn hesitated, her gaze drifting to the mirror. Then she shook herself as she realized she was hoping for a giant burning beast to get her out of this. “Fine. Dares have to be actions, not an alternate way to get a truth.”

  Summer pouted. “I guess that’s fair. Hmm. No physically harmful dares.”

  Surprised, Branwyn said, “Of course.” She thought for a moment.

  “Anything else?” said Summer, bouncing on her toes.

  “No asking primarily for information on third parties,” Branwyn said slowly. “Like, no asking me for the phone number of the cutest boy I know.”

  Summer frowned. “Sheesh, you’re really limiting it. Okay, but this has got to be the last round of rules. And my last one will be ‘no lies of omission’. We gotta share all the juicy details!”

  “And… I’m down,” said Rhianna. “This is a tough fight, Summer. Can I play Truth or Dare instead?” She rotated in the beanbag chair so she was facing them.

  “Yeah, let’s get started! All right, so… Branwyn’s taking the first turn and I’m choosing Truth. And Branwyn wants to know what I’ll do when that beast gets here.” She settled herself on the bed, then tossed a pillow at each of them before hugging her own.

  “Well… if they don’t come up with a better plan, they’re probably going to show up right before it does and try to get me to hide in the caves under the Court until it gets caged. And instead, I’ll slip away from them with you two and we’ll run around in Night having fun.” She gave them a little smile.

  “They?” Branwyn asked, the rest being an extremely unsatisfying projection. She exchanged looks with Rhianna. That whole plan might have to be modified somehow. Caves sounded a lot cozier than Night. Defeating the beast sounded even better. But cages….

  Summer shrugged. “The Dukes and my other so-called guardians. Okay, my turn!” She looked speculatively between Branwyn and Rhianna and then said, “Rhianna, truth or dare?”

  Rhianna promptly said, “Truth.”

  Summer gave her a mischievous smile. “I want to hear about your best kiss.”

  To Branwyn’s surprise, for Rhianna normally had no trouble talking about her escapades, her shoulders and chest pinkened and she ducked her head. “Right. Okay.” She peered at Branwyn through an overhang of red hair and then sighed. “Yeah. So, I have a roommate named Max, and once, after I sort of challenged him to, he kissed me.”

  Branwyn’s fists clenched. “Max the monster?” Max, Severin’s buddy who could go places other monsters couldn’t. Max, blond and bronzed and cheerful, with an ashen halo and bloody stubs for wings. Max who’d agreed Rhianna had to pay for ‘betraying’ them when all she’d done was her job.

  “Yes, that Max,” said Rhianna, and that was all.

  “What made it the best kiss?” prompted Summer. “Was it because he’s a monster?”

  Rhianna hesitated. “He was gentle, and he was clearly happy I’d challenged him, and he absolutely knew what he was doing. He didn’t push. I felt like I’d jumped off a cliff blind and landed in a pile of feathers. I don’t know if any of that was because he’s a monster, or just because he’s Max.”

  “Did it go anywhere?” asked Branwyn, and she tried so hard to keep the question light. From Rhianna’s look, she’d failed.

  “No. Just that kiss, that one time.”

  “Why not? If it was so good and he’s your roommate?” Summer asked intently.

  “Because it would complicate things with other people I care about, and he’s never tried to convince me otherwise. And now it’s my turn. Truth or dare, Summer?”

  “Hey, shouldn’t you ask Branwyn?” protested Summer.

  “That wasn’t in the rules,” Rhianna said. “Don’t try to wiggle out of it.”

  Summer grinned. “Okay. Dare.”

  “I dare you to go eat everything on the faerie food tray, as fast as you can.”

  The Queen’s grin became a pout. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. Stuff your face. Eat it all. You did ask for a dare.” Rhianna was serene and firm.

  “Finnnne,” said Summer, and went to the table where she polished off the crisps, the candied fruit, the spun sugar and the sliced meat as quickly as any of Branwyn’s teenage brothers. Then with her mouth still full she said, “Branwyn…”

  “Dare,” said Branwyn quickly.

  After swallowing, Summer said, “You’re an artist. Draw me a picture of Sev. There’s more paper in the desk.”

  Judged objectively, this wasn’t that bad. At least, it could have been so much worse. She didn’t need to actually see him to sketch him. She seemed to have his face burned into her mind.

  Somehow, despite how much worse it could have been, this bothered her. But… drawing was better than contemplation, even if sometimes they were the same thing. “I can do that. But I’m going to toss this right back at you while I work. Truth or dare, Summer?”

  Summer laughed and grabbed her pillow. “Are you two ganging up on me?”

  “You love it,” said Branwyn, getting up to get the new pad of paper. “Pick one.”

  “Dare,” Summer said promptly, just as Branwyn had half-expected.

  She pulled out the sort of dare that Brynn would have secretly loved. “Sing your favorite song while doing a sexy dance.”

  It was nice when things worked out as planned. Even if they were very small things. Branwyn’s skull twinged in remembered pain at the thought. But Summer gave an embarrassed, horrified laugh and leapt right to her feet. “I have to make sure they bring me one of those karaoke machines for my next party. This time…”

  Branwyn smiled at her encouragingly and bent her head to her own dare. After a moment, Summer started singing and Branwyn paused for a long moment before she could draw again. Apparently Summer’s favorite song was from Branwyn and Rhianna
’s step-dad’s band.

  It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Jaime had been the lead vocalist for the song ‘The Calling’, which the Duchy of Nightwell had produced as the second breach of the tripartite Covenant keeping the faeries away from the mortal world. Album sales for Jaime’s own local band had skyrocketed. It made sense that faeries would be fans. But… it was strange hearing a love song from her step-dad to her mother on the Queen of Summer’s lips.

  It wasn’t particularly suited to sexy dancing, either, but nobody complained. Summer went to the window where she swayed while looking out into the night, and sang softly about waking up next to somebody she didn’t deserve, who believed in her anyhow, and who she’d never stop loving.

  Meanwhile Branwyn started three different sketches and discarded each of them. Her first attempt at his face had felt flat and wrong to her even though it was recognizably him. It was… empty, somehow. Then she’d tried a full-figure of him crouching on the sailing stone, but while she’d captured his compressed energy, the sketch was barely more than a few scribbled lines. The third time, she’d focused on his eyes at their scariest, because maybe she could change Summer’s mind that way… but she’d broken the pencil lead and torn the paper to shreds and that wasn’t a good sketch either.

  Summer finished her song and came over to see what Branwyn had accomplished. She looked at each of the discards, then brought Branwyn a new pencil. “It’s tough, huh? But you can do it.”

  Branwyn accepted the pencil with a scowl that made Summer laugh. She told herself that she didn’t need to capture Severin’s true spirit, she just had to draw a picture of him that Summer would recognize. And hopefully one that would give her a better idea of what he was like. She doodled as she thought about this, then stopped and stared in horror before scribbling out the R A M I she’d drawn in jagged, artsy letters. What the hell was wrong with her?

  Quickly she blocked in a new shape and started drawing a man with Severin’s haircut and shark smile. That was the best she could do. Summer would have to be happy.

  Meanwhile, Summer said, “Truth or dare, Rhianna?”

  “How about a dare this time?” said Rhianna, turning back around from where she’d been poking at the video game menus.

  Summer jumped up and down. “I’ve got the perfect one. You’ve got a cellphone, right?”

  Rhianna held it up. “I do. But there’s no cell tower in Faerie yet.”

  “That’s okay. I mean, it’s supposed to be a phone call, but I figured a way around it. Rhianna, I dare you to record an honest confession of your feelings for the person at the top of your favorites list, and then play it for them later.”

  Summer’s previous request had made Rhianna go pink; this one made her go pale. She actually dropped her phone. “What?” Then she picked it up again. “Do I have to do it now?”

  Summer nodded. “You have to record it now and play it later. But… you could record it out in the hall if you really wanted to keep it secret. Because of that one rule Branwyn made.”

  Rhianna took a couple of shallow breaths. “No. No, I think I need the support. Uh, do you mind if I have a drink first?”

  Branwyn watched with a dark interest as Rhianna dug out the little bottle of vodka from her bag and drained it. Then Rhianna looked up and met her gaze with bright eyes. “Bran? You remember how you were mad at me for kissing Max?”

  “I wasn’t mad, Rhi—”

  “Don’t be mad at me for this, okay? Please? Remember, it’s Summer’s fault! She’s making me do this. We’re doing this for the kids. Yeah. For the kids.” She lifted the phone to her mouth, took a deep breath and pressed a button. “Hi, Umbriel. Um, I know this is really inappropriate. I know that. But working for you is the best thing that ever happened to me. I hate how much trouble I cause you and I am so grateful you’ve helped me grow and… and… I really like you. And I hope one day I can do something for you the way you’ve done so much for me.”

  Summer clapped her hands together, her eyes glowing, as Rhianna collapsed into the bean bag. “That was so sweet. Oh my goodness! That was amazing.”

  Rhianna stretched out a trembling hand to Branwyn and then melodramatically dropped it, her eyes clenched shut. “He’s going to fire me, Bran. Will you be happy then?”

  “No,” said Branwyn, with a ruthless lack of sympathy. “Then I’d worry. The only reason to fire somebody after a ‘confession’ like that is if you wanted to make a move on them but were too ethical to do so while they worked for you.”

  Rhianna opened one eye so that suddenly she was winking. Then she shuddered. “You never know with him. I can think of at least four different excuses he’d have to kick me out after a speech like that.”

  “You have to play it anyhow,” Summer insisted.

  “She’ll be fine,” said Branwyn, maintaining her tough front. But inside, something had eased, just a little. For the first time, she considered the possibility that Umbriel wasn’t quite as much of a self-centered bastard as every other celestial she’d met. Probably, he was. Rhianna’s speech wasn’t that different from how Penny had felt about Ettoriel, after all. But there was a pretty important difference, in that Ettoriel had burned through Penny’s soul, while Umbriel seemed to be protecting Rhianna.

  “I’ll play it,” said Rhianna, sitting up again. “Possibly I’ll press play and run away, though. No need to embarrass him. Hey, Summer, truth or truth? You’ve already had two dares.”

  “Oh! All right. Truth!” said Summer, flopping back on the bed, with the confidence of somebody who had nothing to hide.

  Rhianna tapped her lips, her head tilting to one side. At last, she said, “Why are you the Summer Queen?”

  Summer let her pillow fall and hugged her knees. “Hmm. It’s odd talking to somebody who doesn’t know. Faerie is so small. It’s better now that we’ve reconnected to the world, even if not everybody is happy about it.” She shrugged and when she spoke again, her voice was somehow older. “It’s me because somebody had to be, and I… volunteered, in a way. It was a very long time ago, and the Pacts were scattered. If I hadn’t picked up the Pact of Day, we all would have… vanished. I would have vanished. So I suppose I did it to save myself because I didn’t think anybody else would.” She laughed a little. “Most of them couldn’t have anyhow. I don’t blame them for that.”

  She raised her eyes and looked between Rhianna and Branwyn. Then she said, in her more typical voice, “Hey! The beast is reforming again! Maybe somebody will do something different this time.” She added, “Okay, I’ve been talking a lot. Branwyn, truth or dare.”

  Branwyn stared at the picture under her fingers. It was basically done. Oh, there was plenty of finishing work she could do. But it was a sketch, and it resembled him. And it was all the strange little Queen had asked of her, personally, so far. It suddenly felt deeply unfair to try to hide things from Summer when she was bound by her very nature to honesty.

  She glanced up at the enchanted mirror as the beast of fire and thorns roared. And at least if she answered a question now, Severin would probably be too busy to listen in.

  “Truth.”

  Summer clapped her hands again. “Finally! So what’s really going on with you and Sev? You said it was more complicated than mere business.”

  Branwyn pressed her lips together, tore the portrait off the pad and held it out to Summer. “Sev shows up in my life when he needs a catspaw. The first time was when he wanted to kill Tarn. The second time, he needed help killing an angel. This time… well, I think he wants to find a kid, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.”

  “Are you skipping juicy details?” asked Summer suspiciously, taking the portrait.

  “No,” said Branwyn. “I’m thinking about how to explain them. …I guess the simplest way is that while I take exception to his very existence, I also find him attractive to an embarrassing degree. He knows that and he enjoys teasing me about it.”

  “Does he like you? I mean, is he attracted to you?” Summer’s
eyes were big.

  Branwyn’s heart jumped into double time. “I… I don’t know. All I know is that he likes to tease me. And that doesn’t mean anything because tormenting people seems to be his… job or something.”

  “He was nice to me,” muttered Summer, and looked down at the picture again. “Do you want him to like you?”

  Branwyn scowled. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s an asshole.”

  Summer gave her a skeptical look. “Would that stop you from liking him if you thought he liked you?”

  “Summer—I… I don’t know. Feelings are hard.” She pelted the Queen with all her crumpled rejects save one. “I don’t want to like him just because he likes me. There are better reasons to like somebody.”

  “Like what?” said Summer, uncrumpling each rejected start.

  “Like… like their bravery, or their integrity, or their insight…” Branwyn trailed off, realized it, and hastily added, thinking of her friends, “Or their sense of humor, or their loyalty, or their gentleness…”

  “Or because they help you pass English, or you just have fun with them,” said Rhianna lightly. “Is it Branwyn’s turn yet?”

  “I guess so,” said Summer dubiously. “That doesn’t sound nearly as complicated as I expected, though. I thought they were exes or something.”

  “Sometimes all of Branwyn’s relationships seem like war fronts. She’s prickly like that. Your turn, Bran.” Rhianna kicked a leg into the air, watching as the nightgown shimmied down it.

  “Thanks. Truth or dare, Rhianna.”

  Rhianna looked at her from the corner of her eye. “Truth.”

  “Oh, good.” Branwyn thought about how to phrase her question. “Does anything weird ever happen when you talk to Umbriel… or Max, I guess… on the phone?”

  Rhianna frowned. “Not… usually. It’s just a phone call. But I think I know what you mean. Sometimes, especially with my Advisor, it’s like… like how I imagined praying to work when I was a kid. Like I can feel him there with me. Like he can hear me without the phone.” She added hastily, “It’s not actually praying. I’m usually reporting something to him, or he’s mad about something. He can get very intense when he’s mad.”