The Tree

  She watched Erik turn his wince into a nod. “Yes, the encounter did end with the darkness leaving. It took all of us, really.” He nodded at the rest of his people.

  “We hope you can do the same for us.”

  Erik opened his mouth when a screech interrupted the conversation. Mayer’s head whipped around and his eyes went wide at whatever the Ante approaching was saying. It was beautiful. No matter how she felt about most Antes, some of them still struck her with their beauty. This Ante was made of wings; hundreds of tiny incandescent blue-green-purple wings that glittered in the light. They moved in fractal patterns that made Razel want to reach out and touch.

  Mayer looked back and forth once, before he translated the Ante’s words. “You killed my broodmate.”

  Erik did not look frightened or impressed. He raised an eyebrow at Mayer. “You mean that ugly thing made of wings?”

  The screeching came again, ragged and so piercing that Razel wanted to cover her ears, but she knew better than to show such weakness.

  Mayer swallowed. “Chilidae of the House of Broken Barriers, member of The Court of the Neverending Wound, demands recompense for its lost family.”

  Erik rose to his feet and somehow in that moment he seemed much taller than his body; his presence filled the air around him and his very stance hinted at a willingness to kill. “You will get nothing from me. If your worthless broodmate had not tried to harm me it would not have had to die. It died because of its own stupidity. I was simply the tool that delivered the final blow. So, if you’re feeling froggy? Leap.” Razel did not understand the exact meaning of the expression but she recognized an invitation to battle when she heard one.

  The air around them crackled with the potential of a fight. Razel reached under her jumpsuit without conscious thought, her metal fingers clicking against the handle of the weapon she always had there.

  Finally, the Ante backed away slowly and Erik sat down, but the tension in his shoulders and arms did not go away. Dinner was silent after that. No one was ignorant of the scrutiny they were all under.

  As always, they only knew the dinner was over when Antes slowly began to move away. Razel rose and Riana was instantly at her side.

  “They will be staying in Chayyliel’s Hive. None of the others would host them. Show them the way. Learn what you can. I will distract Mayer.”

  There was no pause for an answer before Riana moved off, and why would there be one? It was not a question or a request. It was an order.

  ERIK

  Erik hated this world. He felt wrong. Every step was too heavy, and every breath fire. He felt stretched thin and at the same time in touch with every part of himself as he’d never been before. The Apprentice Razel had volunteered to show them to their rooms and was up front chatting with Elliot, who looked around with excited, wide eyes.

  When Erik had first arrived via portal it had felt like he was physically being ripped apart. He wondered how they had gotten the drop on him, and how he had been so easily fooled. Slowly he was able to see and hear through the pain. He was unsure if it was lessened at all or if his body had simply gotten used to it.

  He faked his way through dinner but his temper was a large angry animal being held in check by the thinnest ropes. Once he let a little of it show to confront the Ante, he found it impossible to pull it all the way back in. Erik knew that his body was sending out every single signal possible that he was ready for a fight. He did his best to try and mask it, while a not-so-quiet part of his mind wished that one of the Antes would take him up on it.

  Daniel was floating around Daya and Elana, and probably bothering them. Normally Erik would do his best to distract his ex, but the throbbing behind his eyes kept him fully focused on making sure his eyeballs didn’t pop out of his skull.

  Matthias moved up on his side and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

  “What the hell happened when you came through?”

  Erik shook his head and stopped immediately, as that only made the pain worse.

  “I don’t know. It was like my body was bursting apart; like I was ripping at the seams and coming apart. It’s still like that. You don’t feel it?”

  Matthias shook his head. “Something is different. I feel different, but it’s not a pain or an ache. It’s more like . . . like my connection to Artemis is stronger?”

  Erik looked at Matthias for a long moment but then looked back at the tall black tower they were approaching. He looked at some of the other living spaces around him. Some looked like towers of light or plants or things he would struggle to describe. There was the one tower that looked like raw, pink flesh. He could not have been paid enough to approach that one.

  “Welcome to Hive Chayyliel,” Razel said. There was no inflection in her voice; no welcome or warning.

  “You okay now?” Matthias asked.

  “Still in a lot of pain,” Erik answered.

  Matthias studied his face closer. “It’s not getting any better?”

  “No.”

  “The problem with your healing hasn’t cleared itself up yet, has it?”

  Erik shook his head and cursed. Though his healing was still working on those around him, it had become start/stop with Erik himself. When he’d sliced his hand open last week, the wound had sealed almost immediately, but the pain had lingered, as had the scar. It had taken a week to fade completely. It struck Erik as a “First-World” Blooded problem—“I’m not healing fast enough”—but considering where they were, such a skill would be important in the coming days.

  “It’s not back to where it was, but it’s not not working.”

  They entered the archway of black stone and were led to a staircase. Erik glanced into the rooms they passed, since most had open archways instead doors. Many were empty of anything but in others he caught glimpses of dark things living under floors and broken things that looked to be in pain, and that were too human to make him comfortable with it. They passed one corridor that made Razel freeze for a moment and then hurry past. Erik made special note of it.

  She turned down the next hall and stopped to turn and face them, four doorways behind her.

  “You will be staying here. Is there is anything more I can do for you?”

  “No, I think we’re good.” Matthias stepped in front of him and gestured for the woman to be on her way.

  There was no offense in her face as she swept past them all and hurried from the tower. Erik felt some of the tension leave his body now that he was around those that he could call ally. He glanced at Tassi and Yonas. For now, at least.

  Erik waited until the sound of her footsteps had completely faded before he turned to the first door and gestured everyone inside. They all hurried through the door. Inside was a room with a central table and various sizes of what Erik assumed to be seats around it. He gestured for everyone to take a seat on the pods and sank into one himself. It was comfortable; somewhat firmer than a beanbag, and it molded to his body before firming up.

  He looked around. Daya had Elana hovering behind her while Elliot stood to her side. Tae had parked himself in the seat opposite Erik but his eyes were boring holes in Daniel, who was hovering in the corner watching them all. Matthias hovered behind Erik’s shoulder, not sitting at all. Erik’s eyes lit on Tassi and Yonas standing to the side. They had been quiet and unobtrusive, which was great, but also worried him.

  He turned to Elliot.

  “Can you do something about us being seen or overheard?” Erik asked.

  The man smiled and nodded before holding out his hands. The air shifted and then popped in rapid succession, a sense of deafening silence spread from Elliot. Since Erik was seated farther away from him, he experienced the outside of it first. He noticed the disappearance of all the small sounds that people use unconsciously to keep track of others. Their breath, and the tiny hints of movement were gone. They even disappeared from his sight, which Erik had not been expecting. For a moment, Matthias and himself felt like the only people in the room; the onl
y people in the world, even. Then the power swept over them and they were reunited.

  “That was different.” Elliot looked down at his hands, eyes a bit wide.

  Erik nodded and drew everyone’s attention back to him. “Which brings me to the first point. Our powers are different here. Everyone needs to be careful. Use your powers cautiously at first. We don’t know how exactly they’ve changed.”

  Everyone nodded as they glanced around. Before there’d been no visual sign of Elliot’s power, but now everything outside of the bubble of silence was in shades of gray and blurred.

  Erik tore his gaze away from the outside and back to Elliot.

  “What did you talk to Razel about?”

  Elliot shrugged. “Nothing much. She asked some questions. I asked some questions. Neither one of us gave anything away. Something about this floor specifically made her nervous though; her conversation got more stilted.”

  “I saw her flinch,” Erik added. He looked over at Tae.

  “What do you think?”

  Tae did not respond, scowling at Daniel, eyes narrowed with a fierce silver glow coming from deep within them.

  “Tae!”

  Tae startled and looked at Erik in the eyes. He let out a little grunt of pain and shut his eyes tight.

  Daniel huffed from the corner. “That’s what you get.”

  Tae shook his head and when he opened his eyes they streamed with tears that he hurried to wipe away. He blinked at Erik, and Erik hesitated before glancing over at Daniel and deciding to ask later.

  “What are your thoughts?”

  “Razel’s our way in,” Tae said with certainty. “The others are in too deep, their ties to each other and this place are tangled and knotted together. Something has changed in her lately, given us an opening.” Tae shrugged and fell silent.

  “Are we sure we can trust what he sees?” Tassi’s voice was without an edge, but Erik still felt himself riled by the questioning of his friend. She must have seen it on his face, because she hurried to continue. “I only ask because Seers are not always accurate when they have a goal. They often see what they want to see.”

  Erik looked at Tae with his eyebrows raised and Tae rolled his eyes in return.

  Erik turned back to Tassi. “I trust him.”

  “The problem will be getting to Razel without her Master around,” Yonas stated evenly.

  “What do you make of Mayer having no assistant and that other one, that creepy boy not having a Master?” Matthias asked.

  “There’s something wrong with that boy,” Daniel said, floating into the circle.

  Erik sucked in a breath. Daniel was no longer wearing an orange jumpsuit with a ragged hole in his chest. Instead he wore a plain black t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans so worn in parts they were white. Erik knew those jeans. He had rested his head against the knee of them while he cried and Daniel ran his hand through Erik’s hair.

  “You’ve changed,” Erik whispered.

  Daniel smiled at him. “Yeah, something about this place I guess. It was actually pretty easy.”

  Elana frowned and closed her eyes and suddenly she was in a tailored black suit, with no shirt underneath, her cleavage highlighted by the rubies that lined the collar of the suit jacket. Daya let out a low whistle and Elana swatted at her before settling in close to her lover once again.

  “The spiritual is more powerful here than in our plane,” Tae stated. “I would guess that’s why our powers are working differently; they’re drawing from a different spectrum of power.”

  “Any ideas on how to get Razel alone?” Matthias asked, bringing everyone’s attention back to the problem at hand, a deep frown etched in his face.

  “I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” Elliot said, also frowning and looking anywhere but at his sister. “Razel sort of implied that her Master wanted her to spy on us.”

  He shrugged when everyone looked at him.

  “Their Masters—” Matthias started.

  “Can we please stop calling them that?” Erik exploded. He did not appreciate the way master consistently sounded like Massa in his head.

  Matthias flinched at Erik’s voice and offered a small smile of apology.

  “Their Holders—” Matthias looked at Erik in question.

  Erik frowned, it was better than master but still uncomfortable. He finally just nodded. He was in pain and wanted to crawl into bed. He had no energy for the longer discussion.

  “—might have a way to see through them or read their minds. We don’t know anything about the powers that call this place home or how it all works,” Matthias finished.

  “True, but I don’t know if we have any other choice,” Erik countered quietly.

  “What did that Angelic say to you?” Daya asked.

  Erik shrugged. “Not to trust anyone around us. That he—”

  “They,” Tae corrected.

  Erik paused and nodded. “That they could be an ally to us. That they knew of others that the Courts feared. That they would contact us when it was time.”

  “Pretty vague,” Elana commented.

  “Pretty dangerous,” Daya countered. “They have no reason to trust us. We could easily turn them in.”

  “If they know enough to approach Erik then they know something of our world. Which means they know that their rulers have been stealing us.” Elana cut her eyes to Yonas and Tassi, who both steadfastly ignored her. Elana continued, “Easy enough to assume we wouldn’t exactly be friends with their rulers. Even if some of us have been selling the rest of us off.”

  Tassi and Yonas both at least had the decency to flinch at that.

  “Pretty stupid to approach us so openly though,” Matthias commented.

  “Or it was a challenge?” Erik asked.

  The room went quiet.

  “I don’t think we’re going to get much else done tonight. Let’s all split up and get some rest,” Erik said, finally letting his exhaustion show in his voice.

  “We’ll room together,” Tassi said, gesturing at Yonas and hurrying out of the room.

  Daya and Elana just looked at him expectantly and walked out. He smiled until he realized that left him, Matthias, Elliot, and Tae. Elliot should room with Tae, whom he was still technically mentoring, and Matthias would stay with Erik since they had had a similar relationship. Except Erik did not want to stay in the same room as Matthias. He did not want to deal with Daniel floating in and out, or the tension between those two and the awkward silences he would suffer through.

  “I’ll stay with Erik,” Tae spoke up.

  Elliot and Matthias nodded and left the room, though Matthias left slowly and kept looking back at Erik.

  When they were alone, Erik smiled at his friend.

  “Thank you.”

  They both looked at Daniel, who smiled at them. Even without the obvious wound and in different clothing, the smile still made Erik squirm.

  “I’ll go exploring while you two sleep,” he said and floated through the wall and out of the room.

  “There’s something about him, Erik. Now that we’re here and my powers are different, it’s like I can almost see it,” Tae whispered.

  Erik stood and walked over to Tae, placing a hand on the other boy’s shoulder.

  “Keep trying.” He squeezed and then stumbled over to one of the doors. He did not remember falling onto the mattress as sleep rushed up to claim him.

  Erik’s dreams were filled with mad things, bodies being ripped apart and devoured. People living in giant bird’s mouths. Cities that ran on the pain of one child. Angelics devouring each other as they made love. They were twisted things similar to a Bosch or Dali painting, if they had an orgy with Paradise Lost. Even when Erik was aware within them that they were dreams, they still felt too real for the fear to ever truly leave him.

  He woke up in the dark. Though even as he sat up, light began to slowly fill the room. Before he had adjusted he could feel someone else in the room with him.

  “Who’s there
?” He growled out. His power came rushing forth and with it a headache that ripped through his brain like a freight train.

  “It’s only me,” Daniel said from the corner.

  Erik forced the power back, and though the headache lessened, it did not go away.

  “What are you doing, Daniel?”

  “I came to warn you. The Angelics are coming. The darkness has shown up and they want to see what you can do.”

  Erik groaned and forced himself to his feet. He looked around the room. In addition to the bed he was laying in, there was a dresser with his bag pushed up against it. There was an open door that led to what he assumed was a restroom. He approached, but before going inside he saw something from the corner of his eye: a skinless man, screaming, reaching for him. Erik whirled around, hands raised and metal bracelets curving over his knuckles. He looked around the room but all he saw was Daniel in the corner staring with a furrowed brow.

  He hurried into the bathroom and pulled off his wrinkled suit, lowering himself into the warm pool of water in the floor. A small crystal bowl sat on the edge of the tub, filled with fragrant sand that turned out to be soap. He scrubbed his skin and hair, and rinsed himself by dunking down. He could not figure out how to drain it so he simply climbed out of the tub and returned to the bedroom. Daniel was nowhere to be seen. Lacking anything resembling a towel, Erik dried his body with his dirty clothes before throwing them on the bed and pulling new ones from his bag. A soft long-sleeved black shirt designed with randomly-placed silver threads that caught the light, paired with teal slacks, and the same trusty black Doc Martens.

  When he exited his room, the lounge was empty and Tae’s room door was open. He stepped out in the hall to find the rest of his people. All were dressed, but exhaustion was still heavy on their faces.

  A small Angelic was waiting off to the side. It had a pinhole mouth and red-and-white skin. It gestured and they followed it out of the tower. They exited quickly and crossed the courtyard, craning their necks to see the unusual towers in the light of the sun.

  Erik stopped at the monster he saw before him. So much like the thing that had murdered most of the Suits in San Francisco, but without the added metal spikes and other accoutrements. Also it was much, much larger, so it did not look like it needed the metal additions to rip them apart. Its legs were easily twice as tall as Erik and its mouth could bite someone in half.