Cast in Stone

by Bilinda Sheehan

  “Kypherous, the fae who was here.” I ran my hands across my chest, lifting my T-shirt to expose my unmarked stomach. “How is this possible?” I whispered.

  “It’s what I do,” Alex said, catching my attention. “Fear. It’s my thing. My gift, if you like.” He sounded bitter, and when I glanced at him, I saw his gaze trained on a spot on the carpet.

  “You did that?” I shoved my T-shirt back into place and sat up, feeling the hard press of the headboard against my back. It felt real, solid, and I needed that right now.

  “Yeah, I took your fear and spun it out. I can use memories to create new realities,” he said. “Ares used to use it on the battlefield to disorient the enemy.”

  “But that wasn’t his gift,” I said, my voice beginning to edge back to normal. I wanted to be angry at him, but I couldn’t find it in me. Instead, I felt shame for being tricked so easily. I’d allowed my fear of Kypherous to overcome my rational brain. I knew he was dead, and yet…

  “Nope,” Alex said. “When I said he used it, I mean he used me. Well, my brother and me anyway. We made him powerful, and we defeated all who came against us.”

  “Where’s your brother?”

  “Dead.” He uttered the word with absolutely no emotion, which was enough to tell me that he felt the loss keenly.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, you didn’t know him. Phobos was an asshole.”

  I racked my brain, trying to remember the books I’d read on Greek mythology. I’d mostly read the passages about Medusa and the other gorgons, not that there had been much to read. It was amazing how someone who’d been so badly abused, raped, and then transformed into the creature the world remembered her as could be relegated to little more than a paragraph in the story of a hero. But, as I’d found, that seemed to be the plight of most strong women. History enjoyed taking their stories, twisting them until they were utterly unrecognisable, and then rewriting them to suit whatever narrative they were pushing at the time. It wasn’t a phenomenon that occurred only in the history books, either. Life was full of situations where women found themselves subjugated and used before being hung out to dry as the bad guys.

  “You probably don’t know us,” Alex said, and I realised he’d still been talking.

  “You were twins,” I said, pulling myself from my thoughts. “Phobos’s ability lay in panic, and you were Deimos, or ‘fear.’”

  Alex smiled up at me. “Most people don’t know us.”

  “I went through a phase of reading every Greek mythology book I could get my hands on.”

  He nodded and folded his hands on his lap. “So, now that you know who I am, are you going to tell me what you are?”

  I contemplated keeping my secret. It had been so long since I’d had someone I could confide in. In fact, I was pretty sure the last ones to know the truth about me were Kypherous and his Court.

  “Gorgon,” I said, making a snap decision. I was probably going to regret it later, but the moment I said the word I felt as though a weight had lifted from my shoulders.

  “Holy shit,” he said, his own mouth dropping open in surprise. “Really? Like Medusa and her sisters?”

  “Medusa was my grandmother.”

  “Your grandmother? That’s not possible, she didn’t have any children…”

  I smiled at him and shook my head. “And that’s where history went wrong. She had three children: two boys and one girl. The girl was my mother, also a gorgon,” I said, “and her brothers were human. Strong, but still just human.”

  “Why doesn’t anyone know this?”

  “For obvious reasons,” I said. “Look at the stories: Medusa was considered a monster and was beheaded for her troubles. My mother thought it would be better to keep what we were hidden…” I trailed off as I remembered what Kypherous had told me about her.

  “Where is your mother now?” Alex asked, as though he could tell from my sudden silence that my thoughts were dark.

  “Dead.” I clenched my hands into fists.

  “But she was immortal?”

  “We can die, you know… We’ve got the living forever bit down pat, if we want, but if someone wants to try hard enough, we can be killed. You’ve only got to look at my grandmother and her sorry story to figure that one out.”

  “So, something killed her; your mother, I mean,” Alex said.

  “Not something, but someone. He took me from her.” A bitter laugh escaped me. “I say ‘took,’ but I should say she sold me to him. She sold me to a fae lord, and then he killed her so she couldn’t have more children. He wanted the only gorgon all for himself.”

  Simply remembering the story was enough to rip open the old wound, leaving it as raw as the day it had been created. I flinched, and bit down on my cheek in an attempt to ground myself, keeping my tears from pricking at my eyes. My own mother had sold me to him, knowing what he was, knowing what he wanted from me.

  “He wanted to see what would happen if a fae and a gorgon had a child,” I added abruptly, then climbed from the bed and darted toward the bathroom. I made it there in time to clutch the edge of the toilet bowl and purge the contents of my stomach, as though my body were trying to rid me of my history. If only it were that easy.

  Scrubbing the back of my hand over my mouth, I closed my eyes as my stomach twisted again, but all I could do was dry-heave.

  I climbed slowly to my feet and leaned over the sink, splashing icy water across my face before I rinsed my mouth out. Finally, I raised my head and stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was drawn, and with my dark brown hair scraped back, my eyes looked too big for my face. The remnants of the terror Kypherous had evoked in me lingered in my gaze, giving me a haunted expression.

  And to think others honestly believed I was capable of protecting those beneath my roof. The thought was laughable.

  Making my way out of the bathroom, I kept my eyes focused on the floor. The last thing I needed or wanted right now was to see the inevitable look of pity in Alex’s eyes.

  “I can die too, you know,” he said, catching me by surprise.

  I hesitated for a moment before climbing into bed. “Well, plenty of people have tried damn hard to kill me, and I’m still here.”

  “But they weren’t also immortal,” he said. “It takes a god to kill a god, and all that good stuff.”

  “So is that why you’re here, then?”

  “To kill you? No,” he said with an indignant splutter. “Doll, if I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

  “Don’t call me Doll.”

  “Sorry,” he said.

  “So why are you here, then?”

  Alex shot me a sad smile and laughed. “Because I naively thought you’d understand. It’s been a long time since I’ve had another immortal to talk shop with, and while you’re not exactly the most pleasant…” I glared at him. “You see, it’s all the glaring and smart comments—makes it hard to have a friendly chat.”

  I started to laugh, the sound bubbling out of me unexpectedly, and Alex stared at me as though I’d gone completely bonkers. The more incredulous his expression became, the harder I laughed, until I was doubled over in the bedcovers laughing into my pillow.

  Finally getting myself under control, I stretched in the bed and yawned, wiping away the tears of laughter that had tracked down my face. Alex was sulking, his back turned to me, and I sat up a little straighter in the bed.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just…” I cut off. I’d been going to say it had been a long day, but Alex had died, been eaten by rats, and come back. If my day was long, then his had been pure hell.

  “Did you learn anything about the creature?” I lay down on my side, sliding my blade back under my pillow. It was silly. I should have been wary of him, but everything he’d told me had been the truth; I’d tasted it in the air. And he was just as lonely as I was. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, we had a lot in common, and there was no point in pretending otherwise.

  “I think he’s a Pied
Piper, maybe even the Pied Piper,” he said.

  I stared at him. “Did being dead screw with your head? Maybe you’re not fully back…”

  “Ha-ha. No, I’m serious.” He waited for me to agree with him, but I shook my head instead. “Really,” he said in frustration, “you’re a goddamned gorgon, a beast with snakes for hair was your grandmother, and you’re finding it hard to wrap your head around the idea that the Pied Piper was a real thing?”

  “Medusa is completely misunderstood and…”

  “Fine, snowflake, she’s misunderstood, but you’ve really never heard of a Pied Piper?”

  “Nope. I’ve heard of the story, the one told to little kids, the lessons in morality and all that.”

  “He was real, terrorised the town of Hamelin and took their children to feed from. All one hundred and thirty of them.”

  Shock washed through me as I remembered the way the creature had fed from me, sucking the life from my body. It had been an excruciating experience, and I couldn’t imagine the same thing being done to so many innocent children.

  “But why?”

  “The very thing you and I have in spades,” he said, his smile grim. “Immortality. He’s a wight, a kind of wraith, or at least that’s how it begins. The more he feeds, the more real he becomes, and the stronger.”

  “How real is he now?” I asked, thinking about the creature feeding from me and Alex. We were both immortals, and while the creature hadn’t taken our immortality, our essence still had to pack a punch.

  “He was strong enough after feeding from you to trick both you and Grey. After feeding from me, I can only surmise that he’s almost to full capacity…”

  “But they can be killed, right?”

  Alex shrugged. “That’s a question for our resident druid. I’ve never faced a wight before, only heard of them. They’re wily, dangerous bastards.”

  I had to agree with him. The creature had easily tricked us, and it was strong. Not only that, but how could you kill something that wasn’t completely corporeal? That could change its physical form at will?

  “I’ll go and get some coffee going,” I said, climbing from my bed. I glanced back at the rumpled covers longingly and sighed. When this was all over, I was going to take the longest nap ever. I might not even leave the bed for a whole month… maybe even a year.

  Consoling myself with that thought, I headed for the shower. Cold water and coffee… weapons of choice for the chronically sleep-deprived.

  Chapter 25

  Grey was even paler than usual as he stared at Alex, who was sitting on the other side of the kitchen table. At least Grey was now standing in the same room as his partner; when he’d initially seen Alex, his reaction had been to run, casting spells as he went.

  “And what, you woke up in the cave?” Grey said, scrubbing his hand over the stubble that had darkened the lower half of his face.

  “Yup, came around, a little nibbled on but nothing too egregious,” Alex lied smoothly, keeping his face completely straight.

  He was good. From where I stood, I couldn’t spot a tell, and that concerned me. If he was this good at lying, then nothing was stopping him from lying straight to my face about whatever in hell he wanted.

  What if he was lying about who and what he was? What if it had been a trap, and I’d fallen for it hook, line, and goddamned sinker, all because I was desperate for someone to confide in?

  I pushed the thoughts away and focused on the conversation unfolding before me.

  Grey shook his head, but he didn’t look completely convinced.

  “I mean, I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to you,” Grey said finally. “We thought you were dead. You said he was dead.” Grey directed his accusation in my direction, and I raised my hands.

  “Don’t blame me, you know magic isn’t an exact science.” The irony in my statement was not lost on me.

  That seemed to appease Grey, and he returned his attention to Alex once more. “I failed you.”

  “If anyone did any failing around here, it was me,” Alex said. “I was caught by that thing, and the fact that I’m here at all is sheer luck…”

  Lie number two, I thought.

  “But now that I am here, there’s something you need to know,” he said, giving me a quick glance. “I’ve already told Jenna what I know.”

  “What is it?” Grey seemed impatient, and I couldn’t tell if it was caused by anger toward himself or because Alex had come to me first. Without knowing all the facts, if I were in Grey’s shoes, I’d probably be pissed too.

  “The creature is a pied piper, maybe even the Pied Piper,” Alex said. “A wight.” Hearing it a second time didn’t make it any easier to swallow. I’d always thought of the fairy tales as being just that—fairy tales that taught children important lessons on morality to keep them on the straight and narrow. But I’d certainly never believed that any of the stories had any trace of truth running through them. Which, in a way, was probably utterly ridiculous.

  I could believe in monsters, fairies, trolls, and werewolves. There were also witches and druids, gods and spirits, but give me a fairy tale come to life and that was where my doubt started to creep in.

  “That explains its interest in children,” Grey said, but if he was happy to know the creature’s identity, he didn’t show it.

  “Can it be killed?” I asked.

  “No, they’re already dead. Both dead and undead,” Grey said when he saw my look of confusion.

  “Then it’s a zombie?”

  “No, they’re corporeal. Wights are like wraiths, stuck in a kind of limbo, making it impossible to kill what’s already dead.”

  “That thing that attacked me felt pretty real,” I said. “And when I stabbed it, I hurt it. I heard it scream.”

  “Wait, you stabbed the thing?” Grey said.

  “Yeah, when it knocked me to the ground, I stabbed at it with one of my blades… the one you have in evidence, as a matter of fact.” I gave Grey a pointed look, but he ignored it. Turning on his heel, he darted from the room, and I heard the front door click open.

  He soon returned carrying the plastic baggy containing my karambit blade.

  “You’re sure you stabbed the creature with this?”

  “Yeah, I’m more than sure. Why?”

  “Because if we can get the blood from this, then we can track the thing.” Grey sounded so happy with himself. At least if we knew where the creature was, we could potentially stop it from hurting anyone else. But we needed more than just its location. We needed a plan to stop it permanently.

  “And when we track it, what then?” I asked, and Grey’s face fell.

  “I don’t know. Generally wights have to be trapped, but I have no idea how we’re supposed to do that.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” I said, sensing he was holding something back.

  “Fine, I do know how we’re supposed to do it, but I can’t…”

  “Grey,” Alex said, butting in, “I don’t think this is the time to hold back. This thing is killing kids, it’s stealing their lives in the most excruciating way possible. The things it does to them…” Alex peered out the kitchen window. “Well, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

  I knew exactly what he meant. Feeling the creature suck the life from my body had been an experience I never wanted to repeat. To think that the children it had murdered had died like that, that their final moments on earth had been filled with pain and despair, knowing they were dying and being unable to do anything to stop it… It didn’t bear thinking about.

  “Human sacrifice,” Grey said quietly. “That’s what it takes to trap a wight.”

  His words were like a bucket of ice water over my head. I suddenly knew why he’d said he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it. I didn’t blame him in the slightest.

  Murdering someone in order to trap that thing just didn’t seem right.

  “Great, so where does that leave us?” I watched as the sun rose over the hills, casting strang
e shadows across the frozen ground.

  “Back at bloody square one,” Alex said, shooting me a meaningful glance.

  I wasn’t sure what that look meant, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t like it.

  The sound of small feet running around on the floor upstairs told me that Merry was up and about.

  “Can we do it without the sacrifice?” I asked.

  “Maybe a goat or something bigger could work,” Grey said, but he didn’t sound convinced.

  “Great, then I need you to go and check into it.”

  His head snapped up, and he shot me a curious glance. “Trying to get rid of me?”

  “Merry and Carolyn are up,” I said, pointing upstairs. “And I’d really rather not freak them out too badly with all of this.”

  He nodded in understanding. I wanted to ask him what he knew about Carolyn, but he’d promised to tell me once we were done with the case, and I had to trust that. If he thought I was in danger, I knew he would have already told me… or at least I hoped he would.

  “Come on, you,” Grey said to Alex. “We need to get out of here.”

  “What about Triskel?” I said, following the two men to the front door.

  Grey tugged it open and gave me a wide, winning smile. “I’m sure you two will get along just fine. You know, so long as you don’t act like a tit around her and upset her too much.” He grinned at me as he threw the words I’d used on him last night right back in my face.

  Balling my hand into a fist, I drew back to sock him in the arm. He’d clearly seen my move coming, though, because my hand slammed into flesh that was far too solid to be just skin, muscle, and bone. The force of the blow ricocheted up my arm, making my teeth chatter, and I carefully uncurled my fingers. Bruising was already beginning to bloom across my knuckles.

  “Now, now, why get angry when you can get even?” Grey teased as he stepped out the front door.

  “When you least expect it,” I vowed, then slammed the door in their faces, locking them out in the cold.

  The sound of Grey’s car engine starting up and the crunch of the tyres over the gravel filled me with dread. And I suddenly remembered that I’d driven into town to meet him yesterday and hadn’t picked up my car since.