by Zile Elliven
Grant was one of the few members of Aeyli’s family who had only a small amount of magic to call his own. It made sense now why her grandmother had him in the room. Out of everyone in her family, he was the only one that had any self-defense training. Aeyli would have been worried for Fourteen, but it only took a few seconds to show her that fear would have been wasted.
Hester was dispassionate in the face of her great-something-nephew quickly losing ground to Fourteen. “You can’t fight all of us. It isn’t like we didn’t prepare for this. Did you think we wouldn’t be suspicious when you showed up to our tracking spell? You just stood there and let us take you, we aren’t morons.” Despite her nonchalant words, she had begun edging away from the fight.
“You just let them take you? What is wrong with you?” Exhaustion swept over Aeyli at his stupidity. “Now we’re both probably going to die horribly in the immediate future. How is that going to help anyone?”
One of the young men grabbed a tool from the workbench and jumped in to help Grant, who was bleeding from multiple places.
“It was the most efficient way to find you.” Fourteen dodged the tire iron swinging toward his head and used the momentum to kick the other young man—her fourth cousin twice-removed, Eli, she thought his name was—in the shield, and his foot sank in, slowing his momentum. Fourteen recovered in time to twist away from the glittering knife that had appeared in Grant’s hand.
The fight was too close for Aeyli’s liking. If Fourteen had been fighting norms, she wouldn’t be as worried—she’d seen what he’d done to a dozen trained mercenaries by himself—but with his hands tied and without a gun to eat up her family’s shields, this fight would last only as long as Fourteen’s body did.
Aeyli inspected the damage she had done to the crate in her frenzy. If Fourteen thought she was going to sit around twiddling her thumbs while he slowly fought himself to death, he was out of his mind. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” Aeyli was certain only dogs could hear her voice at this point.
“I imagine you would have suggested running away?” Fourteen asked, as he dispatched Grant by throwing his arms around her uncle’s head and slamming his face into Fourteen’s knee. She was irritated he didn’t even have the decency to sound winded.
“It would have been better than coming here alone against an army!” She was trying to keep herself calm, but the way her voice was making her own ears buzz made her think she was failing.
More people poured into the room—some of them members of the Blaike family, some of them mercenaries. Aeyli did her best to force her already battered feet through the hole she’d made and ignored the bolts of pain that shot up her legs as she did so.
“Who said I was alone?” he asked casually.
Chapter Sixteen
Aeyli
An explosion shook the ground beneath them. Fourteen smiled cockily, making an impression on Aeyli’s mind she would keep for the rest of her life.
Mine, her entire being shouted, and Aeyli redoubled her effort to get out of the cage.
“I really wish you wouldn’t do that,” Fourteen called over his shoulder as he threw her unconscious uncle into the people coming through the door. “It’ll be easier for me to get you out of here if you haven’t collapsed from blood loss.”
Uncle Grant stayed on the floor where he had been thrown, his head lolling at an uncomfortable-looking angle. Fourteen was still fighting the two young men who had brought him in, and it looked like a badly choreographed movie scene. They tried magically to throw random items from around the room at them, having gotten the memo about Fourteen’s shield. As soon as the magically charged item got within a yard of Fourteen, the weapon dropped to the floor, robbed of its momentum.
Fourteen would strike out at their shields and be slowed significantly. Apparently his armor could only do so much. Everywhere his shield collided with one of her cousin’s shields, the air would distort and time would appear to slow down.
As Aeyli contemplated how helpful having a nervous breakdown would be, Fourteen reached for the hem at the bottom of his jacket and pulled. She saw a glint of metal in his hand as he swung for her taller cousin’s head. Instead of slowing down this time, his hand punched through the shield and connected, tearing a line of flesh off the man’s face. Her cousin screamed in horror—he was young enough that it was probably the first time he’d been wounded so badly in a fight. Fourteen allowed him to turn and flee from the room.
Several more explosions followed the first one, and all the Blaikes except Hester rushed out of the room, glad for the excuse to leave the five mercenaries to stabilize the situation.
“This is getting out of control.” Hester was behind her, tying a rope to the crate, presumably to drag her out of the garage at a safe distance.
Aeyli did the only thing she could think of, she grabbed Hester’s arms tightly both hands.
“Why, you little . . .” The monster-mother’s face began to thrash as Aeyli held on for dear life.
As the creature twisted and screamed in her hold, she felt her body begin to heat up and the pinkness inside her flowed into Hester, much like it had with Fourteen, only a hundred times stronger. She felt incandescent, the power poured through her body, scouring away everything in its path.
If she had been able to scream she would have, but her jaw had locked tight along with the rest of her body. At this point, she couldn’t have let go of Hester if she wanted to. No matter how much it burned, no matter how much her injured arm and hand complained, she was stuck tight. As the pink inferno grew to intolerable levels of pain, she realized she was about to burn to death. She hoped that at the very least she would take her grandmother with her.
Without warning, she felt herself detach from her body, drifting away from it until she hovered over the scene in the garage. She could still feel the magic roaring through her, but it felt distant and unimportant. Idly, she noted her body hadn’t actually caught on fire and found she was surprised and relieved.
She looked below at the woman locked in her arms and felt the world around her change. The garage had vanished, and in its place was a cemetery on a hill overlooking a smog-covered city. What should have been a breathtaking sunset was almost completely drowned out by the smoke coming from the city below.
A horse whickered behind her quietly, and she turned to see an ornate carriage draped in black bunting coming to a stop several yards away. The driver of the carriage hopped down from his perch and opened the door of the carriage after letting down the steps. A woman, dressed in black from head to toe, held out a hand and allowed the driver to help her down.
“Leave me.” Her voice was cold and imperious as she ordered the driver away.
He hesitated, worried about leaving a lady alone in a cemetery at night.
“Go!”
His lady’s sharp rebuke was enough to decide him. Nodding once, he said, “As you wish, mum.” Tugging his hat, he climbed back up on his perch and drove the carriage away.
Aeyli couldn’t see the woman’s face under the heavy veil she wore, but something about the way she moved was familiar.
As soon as the carriage was out of sight, the woman strode over to a large stone structure, stalked up the stairs, and with a sharp gesture, sent the heavy doors flying open.
Aeyli followed her inside, curious.
A second gesture caused the lanterns on the walls inside the mausoleum to burst into flames. For a time, the woman stood in the center of the room silently. Slowly her shoulders began to shake. At first, Aeyli thought she was crying until a loud peal of laughter rang out from the woman’s small frame.
“I finally did it.” Her voice was raw with triumph. “I beat you, you bastards.”
“You know, you weren’t what I was expecting.” A harsh, confident voice spoke from a corner of the room. “Not at all.” In the darkness a pustulant, oozing wrongness radiated outward, filling the room. It was the same nightmare that had set up shop inside her mother’s body in
the present day.
The woman held out both hands, crackling with red fire. “I’m a match for you, nightmare. Go find someone smaller to feed on.”
Laughter rolled out from the corner, slow and rumbling. It was a tangible thing that crawled over Aeyli’s skin leaving her feeling in need of a bath.
“My sentiments exactly, my dear.” Part of the shadow in the corner broke away, writhing and undulating toward the woman, growing brighter until it was the shade and consistency of bread mold. It stopped at a respectful distance. “I’ve been watching you, Hester. You lost much of your family in the revolt, so you should have been an easy meal for me. Nothing is more tempting, more delectable than the pain and guilt of a survivor. Imagine my surprise when there was little sustenance for me to feast upon.”
Somehow Aeyli had managed to recreate the effect she’d experienced with Fourteen when she’d stumbled into his memory of the past. She had been able to affect her surroundings there, perhaps she could do the same here. She watched as her grandmother lowered her hands slightly, intrigued by the creature before her.
“What do you want, nightmare?”
“I want what all of my kind wants when they get to the Real, a chance to feed and grow strong without interference from the Guard.” The creature spat out the word Guard like an epithet. “I have a desire to do more than live on the edges of society, feeding only when I am so hungry that the danger of being unmade is worth the risk. I want away from this world. It tempts me with its bounty but denies me the ability to slake my hunger.”
“You want to go to the demon realm.” Hester circled the nightmare thoughtfully, the red fire from her hands leaving trails in their wake. “What’s stopping you?”
“It isn’t difficult to get there for the likes of me, it’s true, but I want more than to be a pawn or, worse, a snack for one of the lords there. When I enter the demon realm, I want to go there in style. I refuse to claw my way up, like the sniveling demonlings nightmares become when they arrive. When I go there, I will go there to rule.”
“Draining me won’t get you the power you are looking for, nightmare. And even if it did, you wouldn’t survive the encounter. I didn’t get this far to die here.” The energy around her hands blazed brighter.
The creature gave off the impression it was smiling, and Aeyli’s guts felt like they were filled with worms. “Don’t waste your power, dear, you mistake my intentions. I want a partner, one ruthless enough to destroy half of her family to get what she wants. One with a desire for power equal to my own and willing to do anything to get it.”
The power in Hester’s hands dimmed as she took in the nightmare’s words, showing only small lines of energy crackling around her knuckles. “Partner.” It was a whisper on her lips.
“Why settle for ruling one family when you could be the queen of an entire realm—one even the Guard fears to enter?” The shadow closed the distance between them, reaching out a fuzzy tendril, pale and rotting, to caress Hester’s face.
A wall of red fire sprang up between them before it could touch her. “How do I know this isn’t a trap? You could be lying to get me to let my shield down so you can possess me.”
The creature’s voice lost its harshness and became smooth and seductive. “Your essence isn’t what I want from you, my dear. If you are half the creature I believe you to be, killing you would be a waste. I want you to be my queen. With your help, I could rule the demon realm.” It reached out a tendril again in offering.
Hester’s eyes were half closed, and her breathing became ragged. The wall of fire vanished. Her hand came up slowly, reaching out inch by inch until it brushed the edge of the tendril. The sound she made caused Aeyli to blush.
“Yessssss . . .” the nightmare hissed. It wrapped around her hand and crawled up Hester’s arm, burrowing into her skin.
She couldn’t watch this, she couldn’t let this happen. Logically she knew it already had happened, and any actions she took here weren’t likely to affect the present, but she couldn’t just stand there, so she leapt forward and sunk her hands into the nightmare.
Her hands felt like they had been plunged into nitroglycerin. The cold sank into her so quickly she lost all feeling in her hands and her heart begin to slow. Brutal, unforgiving brightness flowed through her, racing through her veins and invading every inch of her body. Her thoughts became vague and indistinct.
Where was she? What was she doing? She could feel no connection to her physical form, so there was nothing to anchor her mind as it spiraled out into white nothingness.
Aeyliana, you naughty minx, I can’t wait to play with him once I’m you.
Pink fire blossomed at the center of her fading consciousness, dragging her back together. As she solidified, she felt the fire permeate her entire being, racing to the edges of her mind, giving it a shield between her and the never-ending white void she had nearly succumbed to.
She became aware of her body again and saw she was still latched onto Hester, feeding pink fire into the twisted creature the woman had become. Hester wailed and pulled, trying to break free, but Aeyli clung to her, energized by the strength pouring through her body.
It continued for what felt like three eternities—long enough for her to decide, over and over again, that she had had enough and needed to let go, then change her mind and continue on regardless.
Her body protested loudly, informing her it was done with how she’d been treating it. The initial boost she had received faded quickly, and she was finding it difficult to ignore her dislocated shoulder, multiple lacerations, and the fact that she was losing blood much faster than she was comfortable with.
She dug deep trying to find some hidden reservoir of strength to hold on and was reminded of the story of Tam Lin. She could do it. She could be Janet, or at least channel Janet and hold on, despite the damage Hester was doing to her as she flailed around trying to break free. Though Janet got a hot guy at the end of her troubles, and all Aeyli would get would be . . . what? What was Aeyli expecting to happen here?
Her vision had gone dull and sparkly at the edges, and she was barely clinging to consciousness when the woman in her arms let out an unearthly howl and collapsed. Aeyli was barely aware of the billowing white smoke that rose from Hester and raced away through the open door.
Dizzily, she released the motionless body in front of her and flopped over onto her side. She panted and twitched as her body struggled to come to terms with what had happened. She felt empty and alone inside, and she wanted nothing more than to give up, to go to sleep, and hopefully never to awaken again.
The sound of metal hitting bone forced her from her lethargy, and she raised her head to see that Fourteen had gotten his hands free and was holding off two of the mercenaries with a pipe, nimbly dancing around the bodies of the other two. The smile on his face made her laugh wearily. It looked as though she had gravely underestimated him.
“Aeyliana.” Her brother’s voice chased her laughter away.
With the speed of a sloth, she sat up as much as she could and noticed one of her legs was still trapped in the hole she’d tried to make. “Please, don’t. Please . . . just go, okay? We only want to leave. He won’t hurt you if you leave right now.” Her eyes pleading, she reached up a shaky hand as if to hold off the violence she already anticipated.
“What the hell was that thing inside of Mother?” Visibly shaken, Sterling stepped closer, but he stopped when a bucket of paint thinner sailed past his face, clipping his nose as it went.
They both whipped their heads to look at Fourteen, who gave Sterling a narrow look that clearly said, That’s close enough. Her brother’s face grew pale, and he took a step back, rubbing his nose. Fourteen nodded sharply and impaled one of the mercenaries in the back with a well-thrown screwdriver.
Sterling took three more steps backward but persisted with his questioning. “Tell me what is going on! Please.” He shot a nervous look at Fourteen.
She related what Hester had told her, examinin
g her brother for any sign of disbelief. When she had finished, Sterling looked decidedly green around the edges.
“You didn’t know then?” She held her breath, aching for it to be true.
“I knew there was something wrong. But not this! How could I have guessed something like this? Gods, Aeyliana, I thought . . . I thought it was you making everything so awful. I’m sorry.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Any time something shady happened, Mother said it was your influence that was the cause. She claimed you were twisting people’s hearts and making them into monsters.”
Stricken, Aeyli looked down at her hands, intently studying the contrast between the mangled one and the uninjured one. “Was that why you didn’t visit me again?”
“She wouldn’t let me. The only time I managed to get in, I had to sneak to do it. She caught me after I left.” He shuddered in remembrance. “I was punished so badly I never tried again . . . I’m so sorry.” Sterling’s voice had become so faint she had to strain to hear it from across the room.