by Kimbra Swain
In the distance, I saw the flashing lights of a sheriff’s cruiser. Dylan was racing the storm to get to me. Stupid foolish man.
“See him?”
“Yeah, idiot,” Levi replied.
“Jump to him,” I said.
“No, I’m not leaving you,” Levi repeated.
“Now!” The command shook the ground, and Levi trembled. The power between us surged. He released my arm. I held my hands up in defense of the wind. Opening my eyes, I saw the shield spell he had cast swirling around us. I dipped my hands forward into the flying runes around us. They latched onto my hands, and I took over the shield.
“Wow,” Levi said before disappearing. I saw him about a mile down the road appear in the road in front of Dylan who skidded to a halt.
The tornado just to the left of where they stood bared down on them. Levi grabbed Dylan’s arm through the window of the car, blinking them both back behind me. I felt their presence behind me. Tuning out Dylan’s protests, I watched as his cruiser got sucked up into the twister.
Red and blue flashing lights swirled in the dark cloud. The cloud approached our position when it was less than a football field away, the wind around us ceased to swirl. Parts of the clouds opened revealing the sun behind it. The spinning wind littered with trees, dirt, and debris slowed before us.
“I’ve got the shield,” Levi said, pulling the spell back from me.
A green hue surrounded the town as the funnel split open to reveal the sylph in the center. A booming voice echoed around us.
“Gloriana, return the egg of power to me,” she demanded.
I pulled the lapis stone out of my pocket, holding it up to show her.
“If you want it, come and get it,” I replied.
“Grace!” Dylan exclaimed.
Only one person had told me to give the stone back to the sylph. Jeremiah. Everyone else insisted that I keep the stone. Jeremiah had lied to me so many times despite how much he had helped me over the years. I now questioned his motivations for everything.
I felt a wave of cold behind me. My brother stepped up to my side. His platinum hair whipped around his head. He wore the full armor of the Unseelie Realm. Bright silver pieces from the pauldrons to the greaves reflected the light of the sun into a luminous blue glow. Deep blue silk cloak hung from his shoulders with the emblem of my father’s realm emblazed on the back in silver stitching.
Our family’s crest. It had been years since I saw it. My attention turned to it for a moment as it felt like time stood still. The bonehead of a stag with towering antlers encompassing an eternal knotwork. However, the centerpiece was changed to a circular triquetra like the center stone at my well. The crest now symbolized me. My heart stuck in my throat for a moment.
Finley held his two matching short swords which curved slightly and sang with icy light. His headpiece surrounded his head like a crown with diamond antlers much like my father’s crown, only smaller. Winter magic ignited the marks on his skin which matched my silver ones.
The sylph’s approach slowed, but the tornado swirled around her. Dylan stepped up to my right side. I stood mesmerized as he transformed. His sandy hair turned ebony and lengthened to his waist. His tan skin turned bronze and his eyes blackened. A black feather headdress sat on his head, and I realized that the Thunderbird was just as much royalty as my brother and me. His chest was bare and a robe hung from his shoulders. Black leather pants with silver accents hung tightly to his legs. I wanted to grab his ass it looked so good in them. The Native American thunderbird motif featured on the back of his billowing robe. Black and red painted his face for war. He held no weapons, but his fists were surrounded by crimson streaks of lightning. It pulsed around his fists as he leaned forward ready to pounce.
My lady parts screamed in delight. Dylan looked hot as hell. He cut his eyes to me, and a slight smirk formed on the side of his face. “Nice ass,” I mouthed.
“Why don’t I get cool armor?” Levi complained.
“You are a bard,” I quipped.
“I should get something!” he said.
Despite the tense moment, Finley and Dylan both suppressed laughs.
“If we beat the sylph, I will get you some armor,” I conceded.
“Some queen you are, to leave me vulnerable,” Levi pouted.
“God bless it, Levi!” I exclaimed.
“At least you are in jeans too,” Levi said.
I looked down at myself. I was dressed rather casual for the impending confrontation. I doubted any of my sexy ice queen dresses would do on this occasion. I owned armor much like Finley’s when I lived in my father’s realm, but that didn’t seem right either.
“Give me the egg,” the sylph finally demanded.
With her demand, I conjured a corseted top lined with silver to reinforce its strength. A long gossamer of iridescent fabric flowed from the base of the corset to the ground. The top of the gown reached around my shoulders featuring gleaming silver pauldrons. The armored pieces of the bodice and shoulders fit like scales on a fish. I held the blue stone in my hand and looked at the sylph.
“I claim this power by inheritance. It was my father’s, now it is mine,” I replied.
“You are not the Queen of the Unseelie,” she spouted.
“Where is your crown?” Finley muttered.
“Shut up,” I replied under my breath.
“What crown?” Dylan asked.
“Oh, they don’t know,” Finley muttered. He started chuckling.
I ignored them both. I had multiple crowns. Levi had seen one of them while traveling through the Otherworld with me. I’d transformed into my fairy self to ward off some of my father’s guards. That crown was a gathering of quartz crystals. Finley referred to something completely different. The crown that made me the daughter of Oberon, the great horned king of the Unseelie.
“I hold his power,” I replied. Reluctantly, I called upon my father’s power. The blue dust rose from the ground surrounding me. It settled on my skin like a light frost. The surrounding wind turned cold.
The sylph did not budge. Posturing wasn’t going to be enough for her. I felt the power of the egg humming in my hand. The power to control the wind. I knew how to control ice and snow, but this was different.
“It is not any different,” my father’s voice said behind me. I turned to find Levi moving his mouth. His eyes were white, and my father’s voice escaped his lips. “Sidhe, this is my daughter. My heir. The stone is hers by right!”
“Okay, that’s just a little weird,” I said staring at Levi.
“Fuck me,” I heard Levi’s real voice in my head.
“She doesn’t look like a queen to me,” Sidhe said.
“Crown,” Finley prompted. “Glory, put on the fucking crown.”
“No!” I growled.
“Very well. It will be your doom,” the cliché villain said.
I had very valid reasons for not wearing my crown. For one, it placed me in a very elite category of unique creatures that rarely walked the earth in the human realm. For centuries, the elusive beast that dwelled inside of me was hunted by any human with a weapon. The last thing I needed was a bunch of hunters in this town. If word got out that I had appeared, Shady Grove would be flooded with eager killers and enamored fanatics. My daughter would flip out.
Sidhe lowered herself to the ground, but her feet did not touch it. She floated toward me. The tornado whipped around behind her like the train of a dress. I looked back to my trailer which shimmied in the wind.
“Not my trailer,” I complained.
“Grace, focus,” Dylan snapped.
Reaching towards Levi’s shield I reinforced it with a thin sheet of ice which allowed us to see the approaching being but provided an extra level of protection. The sylph cut through the ice like a cold wind through your clothes in winter.
“A solid cannot hold back the wind. I shall tear through all of you and your homes. There is nothing you can do to stop the wind,” she bellowed.
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br /> Finley made his move toward her. He held up one sword to fight, and the other to block. As he rushed the few feet forward to confront her. She swiped her hand in front of her flinging him to smash into the side of Cletus and Tater’s trailer. He crumpled in a heap, but still fought to stand on his feet. She held her hand toward him. Her wind held him in place.
The lightning around Dylan’s fists crackled. She turned her attention to him. He threw the lightning at her. Thunder echoed across the trailer park as she directed the lightning back to the tornado which now flashed with the red and blue lights of Dylan’s cruiser and the red streaks of lightning.
Sidhe thrust her hand toward Dylan shoving him back into Levi. They rolled together in a heap of limbs. “Dylan!” called out to him.
He pushed himself off the ground turning back to me. The blackness of his eyes faded and the blue azure flame replaced them. Fear. I turned back around as the ominous tornado surrounded me.
I stood inside the vortex with the sylph. She stared at the stone in my hand. In the center of the storm, the wind died out. The swirling around us continued, but no longer affected either one of us. Looking back at my family, I couldn’t see them through the storm.
“A real queen would know how to use the power. You are nothing like your father,” she said.
“I concede that point. I don’t deal death and destruction as he did,” I replied.
“You better learn how to deal it or every single fairy in this town will die. Give me the egg. You aren’t worthy,” she said reaching for it.
Jerking away from her, the back of my dress caught in the twister. It whipped up around my body twisting violently. I lost my balance but looked at the stone. As I fell back to be caught in the wind, I pulled the power of the stone. Instead of a rush of ice, I commanded a wind to right me.
I underestimated the power of the stone and subsequently flung myself across the center of the vortex landing at the feet of the sylph. She reached to grab the stone. Using its power again, I controlled it better this time and lifted myself to my feet.
She smiled as she stepped toward me. “Are you a Queen or not?” she asked holding her hands in front of her. I felt the power of the stone vibrating toward her. She gathered it in her hands coiling the power around her arms.
“Oh, hell,” I said as my crown appeared on my head. The glittering ring around my head supported a single horn draped with diamonds. Strings of faceted blue gems hung from the base resting on my platinum hair. The horn twisted and tapered to a tip shimmering in clear ice. The rainbow prisms formed from the diamonds reflected around the horn casting light all around me.
The sylph smiled. “A crown does not make you a queen.”
“The stone is mine. I claim it as Gloriana, daughter of Oberon, Queen of the Exiles,” I tried a formal approach to her. I watched her closely as the energy around her arms pulsed ready to be released.
“That’s not enough. You must defeat me to prove you are worthy to wield the power of the daughters of Aeolus!” She forced the wind toward me. Using the stone, I swiped my hands in the same fashion she had to fling Finley across the trailer park. The misdirected wind joined the violent swirling of the tornado.
She began stepping toward me flinging gusts of wind. I directed each one of them into the cyclone. Distracted by the onslaught of wind, I missed her approach. As she reached me, she grabbed my neck and squeezed before I could dodge her. We lifted off of the ground, joining the circling winds.
I dug my nails into her hands, and she tilted her head back with a piercing scream. I held tight to the stone. She didn’t grab for it. Instead, her attention focused on squeezing the breath from my body. I gasped, as we whipped around in the tornado. We had twisted and turned so many times, I wasn’t sure which way was up.
“The power to create, the power to wield, and the power to destroy,” Levi’s voice echoed in my head. It felt like the wisdom of my father.
Creating the wind wasn’t what I needed. We had plenty of it around us. Wielding it wasn’t enough. I needed the wind to cease. I realized that if I could cut off a winter storm, I knew I could stop the winds. Relaxing as the sylph tightened her grip on my neck, I tilted my head back holding the stone out to my side. I remembered the day I forced my father’s power down into my well. I would pull the wind back into the stone.
As I opened my hand, the stone laid heavy in my hand undisturbed by the wind. I felt the power of the tornado as I let go of everything else. I called the force of the storm back to the stone. As we twirled around in the air, the dark clouds sank into the stone like bath water down a drain.
The dust settled, and the debris dropped from the sky, including the sylph and me. Just before we hit the ground, I released just a minuscule amount of power from the stone, and we landed lightly on our feet. The sylph stumbled back from me. My lungs sucked in the oxygen that they sorely missed.
Dylan’s car crashed in a heap near the entrance of the trailer park. The flashing lights finally died out. The car smoked in its crumpled state. I seemed to have a knack for destroying vehicles.
I squared my shoulders to the sylph waiting for her next move.
“Wow,” Levi said behind me.
Dylan chuckled, “Well, the car is done.”
Sidhe sank to one knee before me. “The daughters of Aeolus grant you the power of the stone,” she said.
“You honor me,” I replied.
She rose from the ground, nodding to the men behind me. A smile crossed her face before her large iridescent wings lifted her off the ground. She darted off toward the west as a flicker of light fading into the sky.
Drawing a deep breath, I turned to face the men behind me. Finley knew my animal form, but Dylan and Levi didn’t.
As a young child, I watched my father transform into a stag many times. Finley could do it too. Much to their surprise, once I learned the trick, I didn’t transform into the doe they expected. Instead, I was a mix of my father’s power and my mother’s equine heritage passed down through my grandfather the kelpie. It had been several years since I’d transformed, and I wasn’t going to start today. Alabama was full of itchy trigger-finger, shotgun-wielding fools. The last thing I needed to become was an urban legend. It was bad enough that the single-horned crown on my head made it painfully obvious to my fiancé and bard what my animal form was.
“You are a fucking unicorn!” Levi exclaimed. “Can we see it? Transform! Please!”
“Hush your mouth before someone hears you,” I said.
“No one is here. They all ran from the storm,” Levi replied.
“Go ahead and say whatever you want to say,” I turned to Dylan.
He walked toward me with a smile on his face. “What are the chances that I’m the last phoenix-thunderbird on earth, and you are the last unicorn?”
“Apparently pretty good,” I shook my head. He was right. I was the only one that I knew of.
He brushed hair out of my face, leaning down over my lips. “Just don’t stab me with that thing.”
I rolled my eyes. His lips locked on to mine. The fairy inside of me squealed with delight. Dylan’s warmth coursed over me. I moaned. The kiss felt so good.
“Get a room,” Finley said.
I opened my eyes to look at the trailer fully expecting it to be destroyed, but it sat solidly in place. Not a single broken window or missing siding. The lawn was littered with plastic bottles, but other than that, it was untouched. Beyond the trailer, I saw a figure leaning against a green car next to a green trailer. Dylan followed my eyes to her.
The grindylow nodded, then sauntered back into her trailer. So much for no one knowing about the unicorn.
“Creepy,” I said.
“Indeed,” Dylan said. He turned back to Finley. “Give it to me.”
Finley pulled a red stone out of his pocket, placing it in Dylan’s outstretched hand. He took the stone and opened my empty hand. When it touched my skin, I felt the warmth of it spread down my hand.
; “The sons of Hephaestus grant you the power of the stone,” he said.
“That was a whole lot easier than the sylph’s stone,” I smiled.
“You can pay me later,” Dylan said.
Levi groaned. “So, what’s it like having my father take over your body?” I asked.
“It’s skeevy,” he said as he shivered.
“I can start calling you Daddy,” I teased.
Levi’s head turned sideways like a curious dog. “Hmm,” he said.
“No,” Dylan said. We laughed.
I closed my eyes willing the crown back to its hidden spot in my well. Shifting my clothing back to my jeans and a t-shirt, the platinum hair lingered. My father’s power still coursed through my veins, but I held on to it determined to eventually get used to it. It might be days or weeks, and I knew I’d return it to the well. But for now, I held on to it. Perhaps subduing my subjects wasn’t a matter of doling out death but understanding their gifts and powers to use them against them.
“I’m going to get Winnie at school,” Dylan said. “The power is out. They are probably waiting for parents to pick up their kids.”
“Sure,” I replied, then turned to Levi. “Where are you going?”
Levi looked at me. “Home. With the power out, I can’t take Winnie to the diner. I’ll take her tomorrow,” he said. His eyes darkened with sadness. I blinked, and he was gone.
“I knew you had it in you,” Finley said. His words barely registered as I watched Dylan pulling out of the drive in my truck crushing plastic bottles along the way.
“Huh?” I said.
“Glory, stop worrying about Levi. He’s fine. I’ll keep an eye on him for you,” he said.
“Thanks,” I replied. It wasn’t the same as having him at home with us. “Two more stones?”
“Yeah. I have them both. I will try to contact the entities that control them. Until then, I think I should probably keep them,” he said.
“Where are you keeping all of this stuff you took from the vault?” I asked.
“You will see,” he smiled.