I looked through the peephole and immediately opened the door and threw my arms around the tall man standing there.
“It’s been forever! How have you been?” I asked, pulling him inside. Regan lowered her gun, a grin spreading across her face.
“I wish I could say things were well, Casey, but there’s something we need to talk about,” the dark elf said with a grim look on his face. “I know why the dark elves have been resurfacing.” Ston’s violet eyes met mine and then shifted to Regan’s. “I don’t think you guys will get to keep living your happy, boring lives for a while. We have to stop them.”
“Stop them from what?” Regan asked, taking my hand in hers and giving mine a reassuring squeeze.
“From killing or enslaving everyone who isn’t a dark elf.”
So much for my peaceful life.
Chapter 2
“WHAT THE hell are you talking about Ston?” Regan asked.
“Why don’t we sit down first,” I said, pulling Regan with me to the couch.
Ston followed and took a seat in the chair across from us. “I’m talking about the dark elves, Regan. Remember last year when we were coming up from the underground? And everyone was confused and there was a lot of panic about why we were coming up? I know a lot of us just followed along; that’s what we do. We act as a unit, and we follow orders without question. When I was told to go surface side, I did. They didn’t tell me anything else, just to come here. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine and I were talking. He ended up telling me about the details of what they are planning. They’re going to assert themselves as the superior race.”
“Why should we trust you, Ston?” Regan asked. “You said that you follow orders without question. Couldn’t this just be another part of your plan? Talking about them like you aren’t one of them doesn’t help.”
Ston stood up. “Do you forget all we’ve been through? I’m different from who I was down there. I’m not one of them anymore. I’m one of you.”
Regan tensed. I could tell she was going to say or do something she would regret later. I touched her arm, and she relaxed slightly. “He’s right, Regan. We’ve been through a lot, and I don’t think he’d forget that so easily. I trust him. He’s saved our lives multiple times,” I reminded her softly.
She nodded. “I guess.”
I turned back to Ston. “So, what exactly do you want to do?”
“There’s a group in charge of this. A high-ranking family who has always had it in for everyone who wasn’t a dark elf. They’re the unofficial royalty of the dark elves. Everyone would follow along with their plan if they didn’t want to end up dead, not that most of them would miss a chance to kill humans anyway. I know this is their doing. But I think if we can stop this family, we can reason with most of the others. And if we can’t reason with them, they will have lost their leaders, and they’ll fall apart on their own.” He paused, watching me intently. Then, after what felt like an eternity, he said, “Casey, their first stop is your old Temple.”
A chill like ice ran through my veins. My Temple wasn’t the largest, or even the best, but it was a big statement. If they had gone after a few human cities and built their way up, it wouldn’t have been seen as anything special. The fact they were immediately going to take out an entire Temple of highly trained mages was insane. “They won’t make it.”
“They will.”
“How? Liam’s got elves there, and my grandfather is one of the best mages there is, along with everyone else there. They can’t—”
“Casey, they’re going to take it out if we don’t stop them. You don’t know what these guys can do. They’ll annihilate the Temple without our help. They don’t stand a chance.”
I opened my mouth to say something else, but Regan touched my shoulder. “Why don’t you make some hot chocolate for us?”
She was trying to help, thinking it would relax me or something. I wanted to protest, but she gave me this look, and I instead focused on wringing my hands into knots on my lap. “Yeah,” I muttered and stood up.
I walked out of the room and into the kitchen. We had an odd apartment. The kitchen had a door, and once that door closed, I could hear Ston and Regan talking to each other quietly but couldn’t make out what they were saying.
I sighed and started filling the kettle. Then I heard what sounded like static. I quickly shut off the water and listened for it again. There, I thought when I heard it again.
What is it? Cinder asked. He was still in the living room with Regan and Ston.
I ignored him and turned toward the sound.
In the air, just before me, was a blurry shape. It looked vaguely like a person, but it was too hard to tell who.
It faded in and out, and I heard my name come through the static.
“Casey—”
I waited, anticipation building along with my Life Force. I was prepared to set whoever this person was on fire if I needed to when they finally came into focus. A body seemed to vibrate into existence, filling the space before me, and all of the tension slipped away.
“Cam,” I whispered.
Her ice blue eyes met mine, and she looked down at herself. I saw those lips curl into a small smirk. “Thank the Old Ones that worked,” she said before looking back up at me. “I don’t have long, Casey. They can’t hear us; I put a barrier around us.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked.
“I may have been practicing since we last saw each other. I had nothing else to do, and I’m glad I did. Casey, you’re in trouble. Ston isn’t who he says he is; I saw—” She began to fade. “Casey, don’t trust him! I can’t stay any longer. They found me. I’m sorry.” She reached out, and just before her hand touched my cheek, she vanished. I wanted to yell out her name, but I couldn’t. My voice wouldn’t work. It was probably best I didn’t. Regan and Ston would have rushed in here asking what happened. I didn’t want Ston to know. Cam’s words had made me question the man I thought I knew. Then again, it may not have been Cam; it could have been someone wanting me to believe Ston was a traitor.
I put the kettle on the stove and turned on the burner while I thought about it. Casey, what’s wrong? Cinder asked.
Nothing, I assured him. I didn’t know why I lied. He was my spirit animal, the only one who would truly understand me. We were one and the same, a part of each other. But I didn’t feel like I could trust anyone right now. I didn’t even know what I thought about the situation.
I was pulling out mugs when Regan came in.
“Cinder is acting pretty weird. Are you all right?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Fine,” I said, moving away to get the hot chocolate packets.
Regan frowned, and I knew she didn’t believe me. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just wondering if we should trust him.”
“You already—”
“I know, and I think that it’s true. I mean… he’s been our friend this long, and he’s put himself at risk for us… but some habits die hard.”
“You think he might betray us later?”
“No,” I said quickly. Then I sighed and said, “I don’t know what I think.”
“We’ll just keep an eye on him, then. It can’t hurt to at least check out the Temple.”
“You’re right.” I nodded and emptied the packets into the mugs. I raised my eyes to meet hers. She had shockingly dark hair and green eyes with a brown circle around the pupil. Central heterochromia. “How’s your family?”
She shrugged. “My brother is still in therapy about what happened, but I don’t think he’s still scared. I don’t think any of them are anymore. And my mom is willing to discuss some wedding things. Venue and stuff like that. She doesn’t bring up the fact that you’re a woman or that you’re a mage. She still seems pretty reluctant to talk about those things. They’re fine, I guess.”
“That’s good,” I said. “Regan, what do we do? Everyone I knew is at the Temple. We can’t let anything happ
en to them.”
“We won’t,” she promised.
The kettle whistled, and I poured water into the three mugs.
She helped me carry them back to the living room and handed one to Ston. “So, what do you want to do?” Regan asked as she sat down beside me again.
Ston took a drink and seemed to think about it for a moment. “We must leave tomorrow if we’re going to make it in time to stop them.”
Regan nodded. “We’ll be ready in the morning.”
I wanted to say something, that we had a life here, that we were getting married. It didn’t feel real. I didn’t feel like this could be happening. It seemed like we had just killed Jaysun; how could this be happening now? So soon after getting used to everything? The neighborhood children rode Cinder like a horse, and their parents talked about work with us. Our new friends would visit us and have tea and talk about how little Joey was doing in his school. This wasn’t real; it couldn’t be.
“Liam—” I started.
“His parents, remember?” Regan placed her hand over mine softly. “They’re ill. He can’t leave Haven right now. The doctors believe they are close to death. He has a lot going on.”
My heart sank. I had forgotten his problems at home. We couldn’t take that from him. He might lose his parents soon, and he deserved to be with them.
Ston hesitated and then said, “Technically, if we left a week from now, we could make it a few days before the attack is planned to take place.”
“Then why are we leaving tomorrow?” Regan asked.
“I’ve heard some disturbing rumors. My friend said the dark elves have a secret weapon. An army. An army of the underfae.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked.
“Ston, we told you not to eat those mushrooms you found.” A little smirk played along Regan’s lips.
“You live a sheltered life on the surface. It has been the land of the humans, of the more acceptable creatures. I’m surprised cinderwolves didn’t go underground with the rest. The underfae were believed to have died off—even the dark elves believed they were just stories told to children to make them behave. Until a reconnaissance mission was sent deeper into the caverns and darker places of the underground. They came back with news of the underfae. They still live. Dwarves in their mines, pixies in camps drinking wine while they sing, trolls and ogres fighting over territory. My friend told me that some of the tribes of underfae have made treaties with the leaders of the dark elves. They want to return to the surface as much as we do.” Ston took another drink. “Not all of the underfae believe violence is the best course of action. If we can find them, we may be able to create our own army. Casey, I know that we did this on our own last time, but this won’t be the same. You don’t understand who you’re going up against. This family is basically royalty, and now they have a hold on an army of underfae? We need more than just us this time, Casey.”
Underfae? Pixies and dwarves and trolls? These were myths. They didn’t exist.
And what was I before you met me? Cinder’s voice echoed in my mind. I looked over at the cinderwolf, black with deep red highlights. I remembered the battle, when fire had come from within him as the Old Ones restored power to the cinderwolves.
A myth, I answered.
Some stories are truths watered down to fit your needs.
I thought about that, and perhaps he had a point. He was just a story once. Perhaps the fae from thousands of years ago disappeared because they found new homes beneath the earth, becoming what Ston called the underfae.
“How do you plan to find them?” I asked skeptically.
“I was on the reconnaissance team. I became close with a circle of pixies on my travels. We’ll start there,” he said.
I looked over at Regan. She seemed deep in thought. Perhaps she was thinking about the possibility of underfae too. “It can’t hurt to check it out. If we’re wrong, then we just go to the Temple. I’ve always wanted to see the dark elf cities anyway.”
Ston shook his head. “Not possible right now, Casey. Maybe when this is all over, but right now tensions are too high, and there’s a lot of intense hatred for humans in the cities. We’ll have to use back roads and do some camping in order to avoid being found by anyone who would do us harm.”
I sighed heavily, disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see the cities I had imagined since I was a child, but I nodded. “It can’t be helped. It’s worth a shot. Come and get us in the morning. We’ll be ready.”
He nodded and set his mug down on the end table beside him. He stood and looked at Regan. “It’s a lot to take in, and I wouldn’t expect you to believe me without proof. I’ll see you both tomorrow. Enjoy your day.” He let himself out, and we sat there for a long time.
“Do you believe him?” Regan finally asked.
I thought about it for a moment. “I believe that stories may have some truth in them. Perhaps there are underfae, but we won’t know until we look for them.”
She nodded. “Right.”
“Come on, I’ll make you some lunch,” I said.
The rest of the day was spent packing, getting ready to leave. We packed plenty of clothes for the trip. We were getting ready for bed when I saw Regan grab her leather jacket, and I chuckled quietly.
“What?” she asked.
“You wore that our entire journey last time. You died in that thing,” I said, moving forward and taking it from her hands. I unfolded it and pointed to a few worn spots and a small hole in the sleeve.
“I met you in it.” She frowned. “Most exciting months of my life were in this jacket. With you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, take it. But take something else too, another jacket? Just in case that one catches fire or sinks to the bottom of a lake. We’ve had some terrible luck, so I wouldn’t be surprised.”
I grabbed my leather gloves and set them on the desk so I wouldn’t forget them in the morning. It had been so long since I wore them that I was afraid of what it would feel like. It had been a while since I used any magic that was intended to hurt someone. Sometimes I did little things for the kids, but this? Going back to setting things on fire and trying to kill people again? Trying to save people?
“What if I’ve forgotten how to do this?” I asked, looking at my gloves.
Regan came up behind me and kissed my shoulder. “It’s like riding a bicycle. It’ll come back. Don’t worry, Casey. We’re going to get through this. We’re going to stop all of this and get married and settle down some more, and maybe we can have a kid or two someday.”
We hadn’t really talked about kids yet, and I didn’t really think about them much on my own, but the idea made me smile a bit. Regan would be a good mom. More of the traditional “dad” figure, but she’d be good at it. I wasn’t so sure about myself, but I had Regan. “Yeah, maybe.” I think she saw my smile, though, or maybe she just knew me well enough to know what I was thinking.
She started to say something when there was a scream.
I jerked away from Regan and raced to the door.
Cinder was already there, trying to claw his way out.
I didn’t stop to ask any questions; I just threw the door open.
I heard Regan behind me, probably with her gun in her hands, but I wasn’t focused on that. I was focused on the blonde with the short hair and ice blue eyes. Her white shirt and light blue jeans were stained red, and it was only growing.
She was on her knees in front of our door, bleeding profusely.
Cam’s transparent blue eyes met mine, sweat trickling from her forehead, and I could only imagine the pain she was in. She gave me a painful grin and asked weakly, “How’s my hair?” before passing out on our doorstep.
Chapter 3
“GET HER inside.” Regan’s voice came from behind me, but I was frozen. “Casey,” she said quietly, “we should get her inside. The faster we get her in here, the faster you can heal her.”
“She’s dead,” I whispered.
“We can talk to her about it later. Come on, let’s help her first.” She walked up and tucked her gun in the waistband of her jeans so that it was pressed against the small of her back. She hooked her arms under Cam’s and pulled her inside.
She set her down on the thick rug in the living room and grabbed a pair of scissors from the drawer of the end table. Cam was on her stomach, so Regan cut the back of her white shirt in half. It fell open to show me the horrible cuts along her back.
She unclipped Cam’s bra and sat back. She looked up at me, her eyes filled with worry. “I can’t do anything else, Casey. You have to help her.”
I felt like I was watching myself move toward her, that it wasn’t really me.
My stomach lurched at the sight of her back. The flesh was ragged and seemed like it was barely hanging on in some places. I knelt beside her and tried to avoid the worst of what seemed to be wounds caused by lashes.
I took a deep breath, trying not to think about the blood between my fingers, and started pouring my Life Force into her.
I watched skin and muscle knit itself back together, but it was slow. Painfully slow.
An hour later and I still wasn’t done. Regan sat on the couch, watching us anxiously.
Cam groaned, and I whispered, “It’ll be all right, just another couple of minutes. Don’t worry, Cam. Don’t worry.”
“Casey….” She sounded like she was still in pain.
“Yeah?”
“Am I really here?”
“You’re here,” I assured her, though I didn’t know how long she would be.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too,” I said, feeling my heart tighten at those words.
“It was nice there sometimes, but it wasn’t like home. It wasn’t like here.”
“We can talk in a minute, Cam, I promise. Just relax for a bit,” I said, trying to focus on the small cuts left on her back.
She fell silent, and after a couple of minutes, I think she fell asleep.
I finished and sat back, feeling exhausted. “What do we do with her?”
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