Fury Convergence

by Chrysoula Tzavelas

  Yejun shook his head. “Not unless everything else fails, Jen. My technique won’t be healthy.”

  “Do we care?” asked AT. “He killed a town.”

  “Imani does,” said Amber.

  “Your knife, Cat,” said Brynn. “You said you might be able to separate him from the haunt but it wouldn’t be good for Imani. How about using it to cut him away from the ark?”

  Cat was quiet for a moment too long. “I don’t think that will work. I need to focus and I can’t right now. I probably shouldn’t even be here.” He stared off into space again.

  Jen looked puzzled. “Cat?”

  Capricorn touched Jen’s hand. “Sometimes unexpected developments can trigger unexpected feelings! It’s all right, my friend. I’m sure you’ll come up with another plan.”

  Flatly, Cat said, “I’m sure you will. There are new options.”

  From above, Haliel said, “Did I hear somebody praying for me—Capricorn, you worm! What are you doing now?”

  Capricorn beamed up at the Angel of Joy. “Giving you a present, my love!”

  Haliel scowled. “Don’t call me that.”

  Capricorn’s face fell ludicrously. “Did I? I’m so sorry! I forgot!”

  With a surprisingly mild gesture of dismissal, Haliel said, “What’s this… oh.” Slowly, she smiled. “Slick, are you having a meltdown?”

  “Shut up, Haliel,” said Cat. “Jen, I’m having trouble concentrating. I don’t want to do anything counterproductive, so I’m going for a walk.” He started walking away.

  “I’ll go with you, Slick,” said Haliel enthusiastically. “It’s not your fault, anyhow. Leaving is the right idea.”

  “Cat,” said Jen in a small voice. Capricorn took a step closer to her, so he was standing just behind her as Cat turned back to Jen, his eyebrows politely raised.

  She said, “Just a walk?”

  Evenly, Cat said, “Probably a bit farther than a walk.”

  Amber squeaked and gasped, “Cat, no!”

  Cat gave Amber an impatient glance. “You’ll be fine, I promise.”

  Haliel said, “Very true. They don’t actually need you. You’re just going to make things complicated for her. You already have, from what I hear.”

  Jen’s mouth was a thin, small line as Cat looked up to Haliel. “Yes. I think you’re right.”

  “You were an experiment, that’s all.”

  “A failed experiment,” said Cat bitterly.

  “So come with me, and we can figure out what went wrong.” Haliel’s voice was sweet and soothing, as if she was talking to a wounded wild animal. Sweet like poison, soothing like morphine, and so, so wrong.

  “Haliel, shut up!” Brynn shouted, her fists clenched. “Can somebody kill her?”

  “Brynn,” said Jen, exactly like a teacher giving her a warning in class. She exhaled. “Cat…” she repeated, then again stopped.

  Once again, he looked at her, and his expression was no longer controlled, polite interest. It was hungry, desperate, hurting. “I’m trying to do the right thing, Jen. If I stay, I can’t promise I will. I don’t know how to—” He moved a hand convulsively and his gaze went to Capricorn standing behind Jen, and back to Jen. “I can’t be who I need to be.”

  Jen hugged herself. “Stay until we solve this haunt. Then I’ll help you find a way to leave the Hunt safely. You can go be whatever you please.”

  As Cat’s expression turned bleak, Sunset Horse said, anguished, Why couldn’t she have stopped at ‘stay’?

  Because I broke her, said Earth Horse bitterly.

  What happens if we just tie him onto Sunset Horse forever? asked Silver Horse. It’d be uncomfortable, sure, but you’d make that sacrifice for the Hunt, right, Sunset?

  Cat said quietly, “As you wish,” and for once, Haliel had nothing to say. She only smiled like a cat in the cream.

  “Um,” said Yejun. “I’m not usually a meddler, but I want to suggest nobody make any permanent decisions while under the influence of Goldilocks and Delicious.” Neither Cat nor Jen even glanced at him, and he sighed. “But what do I know?”

  “Exactly, Magic.”

  “So noted, Yejun,” said Cat, belatedly, and walked over to the box. The Ragged Knife shimmered into existence in his hand. “AT, Amber, hold Gale, please.”

  “Now you can focus?” asked Amber sourly, but came around the box to grab Gale from where he’d been dozing on the ground. AT took his other arm.

  “Bring him closer,” instructed Cat. “Hold him parallel to the box. Yejun, I need you to spot me. I can see what I need to with the Blade, but none of us want to find out what happens if I make a mistake. Brynn, get as close as you can, just in case.”

  The Wild Hunt, sans Jen, crowded around the ark. Brynn eyed the Ragged Blade, which could sometimes cut through a shadow and sometimes failed to cut a slice of cheese. Cat had demonstrated both possibilities in the past. Now he placed the blade along one of the sculpted roses. “It’s a triangle,” he said. “The ark is connected to Imani’s haunt and to Gale; Gale is connected to the ark and Imani’s haunt. I cut one corner, and it becomes a line: Gale to Imani, Imani to the ark. The haunt will weaken, but not enough to fall apart. Still, I don’t know what the impact will be for you, Brynn.”

  “I’ll be fine,” said Brynn.

  “Why not cut all three corners?” Yejun asked intently.

  “Because it still wouldn’t weaken Imani’s haunt enough to matter, but it might unbind Gale from his body. And because if we can solve Imani’s haunt while she’s entangled with the ark, we can dissolve them both without feeding the horn.” There was no hint of the lecturer in Cat’s voice. His words were precisely delivered, but he was reading off instructions, not teaching.

  “Let’s get on with it,” said Amber.

  Cat flexed the fingers holding the knife’s handle and slid the blade through the stem of the stone rose. The stone remained unmarked, but a vividly colored phantom rose parted from the stone and fell to the ground.

  For a moment nobody moved. Nothing seemed to have happened. Then Gale said, “Wha…?”

  Cat picked up the phantom rose and pressed it against Gale’s chest. The thorns drew blood and suddenly sank into his chest.

  Brynn felt the result: the slow trickle of soul energy returning to the haunt shifted gears. It was a changed pattern and she couldn’t immediately tell if it had accelerated or slowed, but the odds that it had slowed seemed low.

  As Brynn tried to evaluate the new pattern of dispersal, Gale changed too. He straightened his posture, and his eyes cleared. The wind picked up, bringing the scent of rain and wood smoke. He looked around coldly, then stepped out of Amber and AT’s grasp as if he was smoke. Even in his rags, he was suddenly beautiful. Not like strange Capricorn, no, but like a work of art in a museum, and just as untouchable.

  “You should not have done that,” he said, in a resonant, brittle voice. “Not that it matters. Imani has grown enough to take my power directly now.”

  “Why don’t you ask her if she wants it?” suggested Amber, an edge in her voice.

  “She wants to punish me,” Gale said. “She will.”

  “You’re really going straight back to what you were?” said Brynn, marveling. “I have no idea how she could have fallen for somebody like you.”

  Jen stepped among them. “Hello, Gale. Do you hate Imani so much that you want us to devour her?”

  Gale’s fine brows developed a crease. “I love her.”

  Calmly, Jen said, “Then you’re going to help us save her, rather than returning to your hiding place.”

  Gale studied Jen for a long moment. The sweet, thick scent of honey joined the scents of rain and wood smoke in the breeze. Then he gestured at her, his long fingers moving invitingly. She tilted her head, and he looked from her to Cat before he laughed, long and rich. “I remember now. Just a few moments ago. Yet you think I can redeem Imani.”

  Doubt flickered across Jen’s face. “I think if you love her, yo
u’ll try.”

  Gale gave her a mocking smile. “And what if she doesn’t want to be redeemed?”

  “She’s suffering,” said Jen sharply.

  Capricorn moved out from behind Jen. “I’d be pleased to be of assistance, my friend. I’m certain my principal would do so if he were here.”

  Gale looked down his nose at the smaller, slighter demon. “Your principal?”

  “Oh, I’m acting on behalf of a certain person whom I feel was unfairly stymied. I believe you met him earlier?” said Capricorn. “Dark fellow, very attached to the lady.”

  Gale’s golden skin paled a shade. Capricorn stepped to his side and put his hand on Gale’s elbow. “This way, if you please.” When Gale jerked away, Capricorn’s eyes widened. “You don’t want to make this difficult, do you?”

  In a hungry voice, Yejun said, “Can I hold your coat for you again, Capricorn?”

  “Oh, thank you, my friend, but I’m sure that won’t be necessary. After all, Gale loves Imani. Love can be so motivating.” Capricorn never removed his wide gaze from Gale. He once again placed his fingers on Gale’s elbow, and this time Gale started walking in the indicated direction, looking surprised by his own movement.

  Brynn watched uneasily. She wasn’t sure what she’d expected from an unveiled Gale, but this elegant, arrogant, bitter man wasn’t it. That he’d killed four hundred people, she could believe. But in a fit of psychotic rage? He didn’t seem that different from any other celestial she’d met. He didn’t even seem that different from Amber when she’d first met Amber. It was all very worrying.

  “Well?” said Amber. “Clearly she knows where Imani is. Let’s get going and see if we can get this sorted out.” She fluttered her hands and circled the rest of the Hunt like AT’s dogs, until everybody else was following behind Capricorn and Gale, even Haliel. Chewing her lip, Brynn went with them.

  Capricorn led them across town. After only a short distance, Gale once again jerked away from the demon, but kept moving of his own volition. Brynn and AT fell into step together, exchanging looks, while Jen walked on Capricorn’s other side. Cat kept trying to fall back behind everybody else, but Amber was determined not to let him escape so easily, and she walked beside him.

  The phantom town shifted and changed around them as they approached what appeared first as a single square building with a bell, but eventually morphed into a contemporary school. Imani sat on a swing, moving idly back and forth as she sang quietly.

  To Amber’s surprise, she wasn’t singing her blood anthem, but something very similar to Amber’s own lullaby. She looked up as they approached and the creaking of the swing stopped as her humming faded away. Her eyes glowed like coals.

  Gale stopped, too. “I gave her that dress,” he said, his voice so low even Amber’s sharp ears almost missed it. She left Cat to his own recognizance and moved closer, a leaden weight in her stomach. She suddenly had a bad feeling about this whole endeavor.

  “Where’s Charlie, Gale?” asked Imani, in a soft, dangerous voice.

  Gale’s face twisted. “I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

  And there it was. It was the same conversation they’d had before, when Gale had been nearly senseless. Giving him back his mind and power hadn’t given him back knowledge he simply didn’t have.

  “She’s alive,” said Jen, in her supernaturally calm voice. “She’s safe.”

  Gale glanced down at Jen in surprised silence. Annoyed, Amber hissed, “Tell her that, you idiot.”

  He hesitated. “I won’t lie to her.”

  Imani drifted closer, her features morphing into their more angular Hellqueen form. She reached out for Gale with a taloned hand, though he was yet beyond her reach. “Gale…”

  “Oh well,” said Amber, stepping away from him. “I guess we’ll go with Imani’s plan of ripping you to pieces.”

  “I deserve it,” he said flatly.

  Brynn said acidly, “Too bad for Tucker that you didn’t feel this way before you wiped them out.”

  Gale looked back at Brynn. “Child, if you think—”

  Imani’s talons lashed out, her arm elongating as she reached for Gale’s throat. Without flinching or looking away from Brynn, Gale caught her wrist before she reached his throat, pulled, and spun her to hold her back against his chest with his arm was around her waist. She didn’t fight or struggle, although her chest rose and fell rapidly.

  Gale bent his head down to hers and breathed, “In a moment, beautiful. They think we care for the filth that killed you. We can’t have that.”

  She looked up at him. “I hate them. I hate you more for not killing them before they killed me. I hate them more because I screamed and died and my neighbors closed the blinds. I hate them the most. You burned them, and that was right…”

  Tears in her eyes, Brynn said, “It was a whole town. They couldn’t have all done it.”

  “She’s dead, my young friend. And so are they,” said Capricorn, without her usual bounce. “Caring about the death of strangers is the province of the living.”

  “And they pretty much failed her there,” said Amber, moodily.

  “Well, it’s clearly possible to distract her from her other concerns,” said Jen, as Imani turned in Gale’s arms to face him. “And if our friends return successfully, we’ll be able to resolve one…”

  She paused as Imani used her talons to slice off Gale’s rags, and added, “Or possibly two of her concerns… but I don’t know what to do about the town…” Jen trailed off as Gale and Imani’s embrace became more intimate.

  After several moments, Amber said resentfully, “That’s not what she said she’d do to him at all.”

  “Brynn…” said Jen in a shaky voice, lowering her eyes. “Cat, don’t let—”

  “I’m a member of the Wild Hunt, not a kid,” said Brynn, her eyes very wide. Cat didn’t move from where he stood, although he was watching Jen, not Gale and Imani.

  Yejun, his back turned, said, “Is everybody but me really into voyeurism or something?”

  Above them, Haliel’s pen scritched away, and she growled, “If anybody interferes here, I will make the rest of your lives miserable. Wow. I can’t wait to show this to the boys upstairs.”

  “I won’t let anybody stop them, my—Haliel!” said Capricorn.

  AT sat on the ground and patted her dogs. “Uh, yeah. This isn’t the first time. They, uh, did this earlier, right after we drained the haunt. She doesn’t just hate him. I think their relationship must have been… very sexual…”

  “Apparently,” said Jen dryly, and added, “All right, well, let’s leave them to it and maybe this will help exorcise some of those pent-up emotions now that he’s back to the man she knew…”

  “We’re not going to leave him here unsupervised so he can pour his power back into the haunt again,” said Amber flatly.

  Jen gave her a wry look. “Then you can stay, watch and interfere if necessary. But everybody else who is uncomfortable can take a break.”

  Brynn shook herself and glanced between Jen and Cat. Amber once again thought of lit fuses. Brynn was up to something, and it was going to go wrong. But what could Amber do? She didn’t trust this faerie an inch.

  “I’ll stay with you, Amber,” said AT, and for a moment Amber thought, Yes, you monitor them and I’ll stop Brynn from doing something stupid, but she let the thought die unsaid. “Thanks,” she said instead, watching as Jen and Yejun walked away, followed by Cat and Brynn. Then she sat down and glanced at AT. “You’re not uncomfortable?”

  AT shrugged, drawing in the black dust with a finger. “Ghosts live in a world of their own. I’ve always been able to see them. They get up to some embarrassing stuff. And… our first haunt was a couple like those guys. The one we ate too quickly. I feel like I owe it to them.”

  Amber glanced at the current couple out of the corner of her eye. Gale was bleeding in several places now as Imani took what she wanted from him. But he didn’t seem to mind. He had his gaze fixed o
n her with a passion that was unnerving.

  Her own lover, her master, the monster who had taken her soul had never looked at her like that. He’d killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people, too. As far as she knew, he was still out there. Jen and Cat had discouraged her from confronting him at first, and since then, she’d been too engaged in her new life to think about what she’d left behind.

  When she’d been mortal, she’d truly believed she loved him. She’d given herself to him as completely as a human could. She hated him now, but she wondered if, upon seeing him again, she’d react as Imani had.

  Her stomach churned at the thought. But Imani hadn’t given herself the way Amber had, and as far as Amber could tell, he hadn’t asked her to. It was a marked and important difference. Amber had been looking forward to Imani’s bloody punishment of her lover. But now, when comparing Gale to her own lover, she realized what she’d really wanted was the same punishment on her ex-master. It was food for thought.

  “As far as I know, faeries can’t be tethered and executed the same way as angels and demons and monsters,” said AT, half musing to herself. “Somehow they found a way around that while they were exiled.” She hugged Nod. “I’m glad I’m not a judge.”

  “It’s tricky,” said Amber slowly. “I bet Honeychord doesn’t care very much, or they wouldn’t have let him hide out here for the last year. Somebody with leverage over them would have to insist.” She thought about it more. “Yeah, I’m glad Rhianna’s boss is taking responsibility for that.”

  Brynn quickened her pace to catch up with Cat. “Hey,” she said anxiously.

  He gave her a quick sideways glance. “Are you all right?”

  She shook her head. “I’m fine. Are you all right?”

  “Not really, no,” he said distantly.

  “Because of Capricorn?” Brynn twisted her hands together.

  “Am I jealous of Capricorn, you mean?” he said dryly, and then sighed. “How could I be? I’m glad she’s found somebody to talk to. But it does underscore how little I can do for her.”

  “You should talk to her more,” said Brynn firmly. “Just like you wanted. Here. Now. No horses, and while the busybodies are distracted.”