“Good. Get back to work.”
Chapter Two
Seattle, Washington
Kiernan shut the lid on the observation glass, and sat back in the chair at his desk thinking over everything he’d seen. The glass allowed him to see any of the Faeoihn assigned to him, but he only ever seemed to find himself watching Fae. Why her? Other than going out in the city when he had to for errands, he spent most of his time with the observation glass open on his desk. Showing her.
It was, honestly, getting a little weird.
He was lost in his own thoughts about everything that had happened that morning when Cole appeared in his living room with a loud pop and dropped himself onto the couch. “Kiernan, that’s it, I am taking you out of this damn house. You don’t get to be Mr. Hermit anymore.” When he didn’t respond Cole shouted, “Hey!”
He snagged an apple from the table and threw it at Kiernan. It narrowly missed him and bounced off the window behind him, and Kiernan glared at him.
“What the hell, Cole?!” He leaned down and picked up the apple, throwing it swiftly back at the man’s head, but Cole caught it with irritating finesse.
“Man, you didn’t even notice I showed up. I could have come in swinging a battle axe, and you wouldn’t have done anything about it!” He stood up and walked over to where Kiernan sat, his eyes catching the box.
For a moment Kiernan almost regretted reconnecting with the man that was like a brother to him. He’d successfully avoided him, and all of the Laochra, for almost two hundred years – but with the digital age it was much harder to hide, and much harder to ignore Cole’s pleas for contact. Regardless, he’d missed him. No matter how annoying he was.
With a roll of his eyes, he spoke. “I noticed you, I’m just not in the mood for your shit. Anyway, I would have kicked your ass. You don’t handle axes well.”
“You wish you could kick my ass.” Cole scoffed, and started messing with a small stone egg sitting on the edge of the glass desk. “So, what were you doing?”
“My job.” Kiernan mumbled. Cole raised an eyebrow at that and switched to tossing the stone egg from hand to hand. “Do you ever stop messing with things, Cole? Put it down.”
Cole threw the egg up high and caught it close to the floor, just to be a dick, before finally setting it back down. “Well, I only stopped by because you haven’t been to base in a while, or to my cabin. Not checking in looks bad even if you’re supposedly doing your job.” Cole put emphasis on the word ‘supposedly’, adding finger quotes in the air. “Especially after your little vacation for the last two hundred years.”
“I said I’m not in the mood for this.”
“When are you ever in the mood these days? You went from badass, bloodthirsty warrior just a few centuries ago,” Cole spun a finger in the air to indicate the clean, modern apartment around them, “to this guy.”
Looking over his shoulder out of the floor-to-ceiling window behind him, he could see the bay and the cloudy, cold skies he loved, but today the view wasn’t helping. He couldn’t get Fae’s antics from the morning out of his head. She was definitely stupid – he couldn’t argue with the others who kept telling her that – but he kept watching her. Just her. She was interesting, too interesting to ignore, and had been for over a hundred years. Kiernan had gone from avoiding his monitoring duties, barely paying attention to the Faeoihn under his watch, to monitoring Fae almost daily with rare check-ins on the others.
Cole was still ranting about epic battles long past when Kiernan turned his head back around.
“Cole, shut up.” He stood up and walked around it past Cole. His friend just followed him as he headed towards his bedroom.
“So what was happening?” Cole indicated the other room with his thumb, “I saw the box out on your desk and I know you were watching one of them.”
“It doesn’t matter.” Kiernan leaned over and started looking for a book on one of his shelves, running his fingers along their spines.
“That’s true, but I never used to see you watch them, now the last few times I’ve been over the glass is always out.”
“I don’t watch all the time.” Lie. “This one is just interesting. Kind of feisty.” Truth. Kiernan had found and opened a book, but wasn’t really reading anything in it. It just gave him the option to not look at Cole.
“A lot of them are like that. Eltera didn’t choose the weak ones for her special little army. That’s why Gormahn chose their punishment. What better way to make a bunch of girls who are playing at war recognize their rightful place than by cursing them to serve in it?” Cole laughed a little, “It’s really smart when you think about it. Way worse than just having us kill them that day.”
Kiernan looked up at Cole, controlling the reaction on his face. He had blocked out most of those early years and didn’t want to hear Cole’s version of events, “Yeah, that’s true. I guess I just haven’t noticed it before.” He tucked the book back into the shelf, “Listen, I don’t really want to talk about the job. What did you want?”
Cole rubbed his hands together, grinning from ear to ear. “I was thinking we could go hunting! Get you out of this house and back in the mix. Personally, I’ve always wanted to kill another big cat. I think a skin would look great spread out in front of my fireplace. Impress the ladies when I bring them home.”
“Nothing you do will impress the ladies once they’re home with you.” Kiernan grinned and Cole dropped his mouth open, making a dramatic stabbing motion at his heart in response.
“Oh, Kiernan, you wound me.”
“You’re obnoxious, Cole, but yeah, hunting sounds fine.” Fine? He used to love hunting, looked forward to it and would bother Cole to go with him. Kiernan thought about the dinner party, and couldn’t understand why instead of going on a hunt he really wanted to stay and see what happened. Cole was right, he had been cooped up with the observation glass too long. He had to get out of the house, and being on a hunting trip with Cole would ensure he couldn’t cave to the temptation to check in on her again. Perfect. “How long do you want to be gone?”
“Eryn and I were thinking two or three days? If we get bored we can just pop back.”
“Wait, Eryn is going?” Kiernan worked to hide his reaction.
“He’s fine, Kiernan. Plus we’ll be somewhere in Southeast Asia, it’s not exactly civilized out there in the jungle. If he goes nuts, we’ll clean it up, and just so you remember we used to have to clean up after you.” Cole pointed at Kiernan, another of his infectious grins spreading across his face.
“This sounds like a great trip.” Kiernan laid the sarcasm on thick, but Cole seemed unfazed.
“Also, picture this… we’re not using any of these fancy new guns. Bow hunting only for us.” That grabbed Kiernan’s interest, and Cole saw it as he mimed drawing back a bow. “I knew I’d get you with that.”
“Okay,” he put his hands up in surrender, “you’ve convinced me.” Kiernan figured this was the best thing he could be doing, and getting to dust off some of his skills would be useful. Also, if he didn’t give in, Cole would just keep bothering him. “When would you want to leave?”
“Let’s head back to base now!”
“Alright, I’m just going to grab a shower. I doubt we’ll get one when we’re out there, and I prefer being clean.” Kiernan pulled his shirt off over his head, and Cole cursed.
“What the -? Are you an idiot?!” Cole was suddenly right next to him, grabbing his left arm. Dark, thorny vines coiled up Kiernan’s arm starting from his palm and stopping just short of his shoulder.
“It’s okay, Cole, I just haven’t taken care of it yet.” Kiernan pulled his arm away with a sharp jerk.
“Haven’t taken care of it? If you wait much longer it will kill you.” Cole’s eyes were tracing the vines that looked like they were tattooed on Kiernan’s skin, and he noted how close they were to Gormahn’s mark, the black sword pointing down, over his heart. Kiernan turned around and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He hadn’t meant
for Cole to see the vines, it was just further evidence that Kiernan wasn’t obeying Gormahn’s command anymore. It was the last thing he needed another Laochra to report back – but there were just some things that he couldn’t stomach anymore.
“So what do you want me to do to fix it, Cole?” Kiernan’s memories made him nauseous. “Want me to go and slaughter a village? Kill some soldier just for not listening to his commanding officer? Hurt some woman for not listening to her husband?”
“If you have to, yes! That’s exactly what I want you to do! Gormahn was pretty clear with the rules when he created us. Make sure the Faeoihn are suffering, keep the wars going, and punish those who break his laws.” Cole snapped his fingers in front of Kiernan’s face. “You can find someone, somewhere, who is being insubordinate, or showing cowardice or disobedience.” Kiernan didn’t respond. “Come on, Gormahn just wants you to deliver some justice!”
Justice.
Kiernan clenched his fist and bit down so he didn’t yell at Cole about what Gormahn called justice. The strong were not meant to prey on the weak; they were supposed to protect them. There had been a time in Kiernan’s life when he had lived the right way, before Gormahn had taken him. Gormahn had twisted all of their beliefs and a lot of the others still followed him blindly. Except Kiernan wasn’t blind anymore, but revealing that to Cole wasn’t going to help him stay free of the rest of them to figure out who he really was. Who he’d become in the last century, where more mattered than just the sound of a battle cry and a sword leaving its sheath.
“Alright, Cole. You tell me, how do you take care of the vines?” Kiernan really hoped that Cole’s answer didn’t change how he felt about him. He had so few people he still talked to that losing Cole’s friendship wouldn’t be a small loss after millenia together.
Cole grinned. “There’s a few military schools near where I live in Virginia, a lot of the guys there sneak out against their commanding officer’s orders and go drinking at the local bars. I get into a bar fight every couple of weeks; sometimes send one to the hospital. They learn their lesson, I’m doing my job of appeasing Gormahn’s command, the vines recede, and I’m confirmed as a complete and total badass. Ta-da!” Cole spread his arms out, and then began bowing to an invisible crowd.
Kiernan couldn’t help but smirk a little at Cole’s ridiculousness. “I might be able to do something like that, as long as those kids don’t die.”
“They’re fine, they just don’t forget the lesson. Don’t worry though, I’ll help you remember how to have a bar brawl before we go tiger hunting.” Cole winked and Kiernan shoved him in a friendly way. Cole punched him in the shoulder in return.
“I taught you how to fight, remember?” He grinned and Cole rolled his eyes, but Kiernan continued, “And the hunt sounds good.” He needed it, needed to be away from this apartment and the observation glass for a few days. Getting the vines back under control was necessary too, as much as he dreaded it. Kiernan looked down and tugged on a belt loop on his jeans. “But, unless you want to see me naked, I suggest you leave and I’ll meet you back at base in an hour or so.”
Raising his hands in surrender Cole backed up, “Alright, alright. Just know that I’d only suggest you doing anything because I don’t want you to fucking die. We’ve had each other’s backs for too many lifetimes, okay?”
Kiernan nodded back, and Cole disappeared. It always took Kiernan a second to process the whole popping in and out thing, so he blinked and rubbed a hand over his face. One of the few advantages of having a god own you was that the god had to give you some level of power to keep you alive. Gormahn had claimed them so he could raise his own army to destroy Eltera’s Faeoihn. They got to heal, they got to move themselves at will, and they got to give up everything that made them human.
Lucky, lucky.
Staring into the mirror in his bathroom, Kiernan rubbed his hand across the vines on his arm. He shook his head, and gripped the edge of the counter as his urge to check the observation glass came back.
“You can’t do anything, so stop obsessing.” Kiernan met his own eyes in the mirror; the iris and the pupil were so dark they were impossible to tell apart, like all of the Laochra. “Just stop thinking about her.” He closed his eyes, trying to think of anything else, but all he could see was her face. Her beautiful, perfect – “Fuck.”
Yeah, he really needed to go hunting.
Chapter Three
Ráj Manor, Caledon, Ontario
By the time Fae walked back to the upper floor of the East wing the bands of light on her wrists had faded to a dim ghostly outline, but her throat only hurt worse. Especially when she swallowed. At least it would be gone in the morning, like everything else. A blank slate, like every other day, so he, or Butler, or one of the guards could do something new. As Fae moved down the hall, Ebere walked out of one of the bedrooms holding a large basket full of sheets on one hip.
As soon as the other girl saw her she started shaking her head and murmuring to herself as she approached. “Fae… your neck.” Her long fingers reached out and touched the tender skin, and Fae fought the urge to jerk back. She hated being touched, but she forced a smile for the kindness the girl was showing.
“I’m guessing it looks great?” Fae tilted her head and Ebere stepped back so she could finally breathe again.
“It’s already bruising. What did you do?” Her forehead was creased with concern.
“Nikola -”, Ebere grimaced at the use of his name, so Fae corrected herself, “Sorry, Master heard about my little breakfast boycott. He disagreed with my decision.”
Ebere made a tsk’ing sound. “I told you to eat it.”
“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t want to deal with the drug today. I made a choice. There were consequences.” Fae shrugged and stepped towards the next room she needed to clean.
“I already did that one,” Ebere nodded her head at the door behind her, “and this one. I came upstairs to bring you fresh sheets, and you weren’t here. I figured something had happened, so I tried to help.”
“What’s going to happen in laundry if Butler does a check?” Fae crossed her arms, not wanting to be responsible for someone else’s punishment.
“Mei-Li will tell him I’m running sheets up to the bedrooms”. She shook the basket she was carrying for emphasis and grinned. “And I am. See?”
Fae smiled back, if that was true it was going to be nice to have the help since she had lost time that morning. It would also be nice to be done when Lena decided to check the rooms. “Alright then, which room is next?”
Ebere stepped across the hall and opened the next room, setting down the basket of fresh sheets at the doorway. They got to work pulling the old sheets off the queen sized bed. Ebere’s eyes were glued to the bands of light that were barely visible in the dim light of the bedroom. For a second Fae thought she’d ignore them like everyone did, but then she spoke. “Those things are on your wrists again.”
“Yeah, it’s because I was around Master.” Fae wadded the sheets up and stepped into the hall, leaving them in a pile before grabbing new sheets from the basket of clean ones.
“Do they hurt?” Ebere spoke quietly, keeping her eyes on the bed as they fluffed out the sheets. No one really asked these types of questions in the female section. You just didn’t ask about punishments, or scars, or prismatic wings, or glowing bands. A few girls had asked her one on one in the last years, and it seemed being alone made Ebere brave enough to ask for herself.
Fae sighed, hating the itching heat that was starting to crawl under her skin as the Oblivion took effect. She didn’t want to explain the bands, but lying would be worse. “They only hurt if I don’t obey him, they’re tied to his commands.”
“Do they hurt right now?”
“No.” Fae started tucking the sheet in on her side, tempted to ask Ebere to drop it but too grateful for her help to snap at her.
“Then why would you disobey him at all?” Ebere pulled the new sheets across the bed, and when
Fae looked up at her she realized it was an innocent question. She wasn’t judging her. It was just that she couldn’t imagine consciously choosing pain over obedience.
Then again, Ebere hadn’t served for two thousand fucking years.
“Because it’s my choice. My choice to obey or not. I’d have gone crazy years ago if I just said ‘yes sir’ or ‘no sir’ all the time, my life wouldn’t be mine anymore. At least this way I’m making the choice, not them, and the consequences are mine.” Fae surprised herself with the stream of words that had just left her. She never talked this much and usually shut this kind of conversation down. The Oblivion was really starting to affect her – great.
“But you could have a much easier life, without so many consequences, if you just did what he asked.”
“He never asks, Ebere. He commands. There’s a big difference.” Fae turned to check the bathroom as they continued the routine. Bed linens, bathroom, towels – rinse and repeat.
“Okay, I get that, but don’t you always end up doing what he tells you anyway? Because of those things?” Ebere pointed at her wrists and Fae was grateful the bands had faded away. She hated the attention they brought from the others, and the constant reminder they were of her own failures. Reminders of the ways they had all failed Eltera.
“Ebere, how long have you been a slave?” The question came out harsher than Fae had meant it to and Ebere straightened up for a moment before returning to wiping down the shower.
“Almost four years,” she mumbled.
“How did it happen?” Fae almost bit down on her own tongue. It wasn’t a good question to ask. It wasn’t tactful to make Ebere talk about it. It was sort of an unspoken rule not to ask about any of the before, but Ebere had opened the door asking about the bands and the drug was making Fae talkative for once. They were silent for so long that Fae was about to apologize and tell her to forget it, but then Ebere started speaking quietly.
“I was sixteen and… and my family needed money. I heard about this job in the city, and so I went. When I arrived they said it was housework for a family. I would stay with them and clean their house, only once I went… they never let me leave.” Ebere stepped out of the shower and wiped down the mirror. “They did not pay me, and they said if I tried to run they would kill me and my family. I had four younger sisters, and I didn’t want anything to happen to them, so I stayed, and I did not try to run away.” Fae shook her head as she listened. Her story wasn’t unique, it was similar to others she had heard from girls all over the world in recent years, one of the traffickers’ best traps. “I was there only a year before they sold me to a market in Cairo, that is where Master bought me. I have been here since then.”
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