Skulk of Foxes (The Fractured Faery Book 3)

by Helen Harper

  There was a murmur from Rubus’s few remaining followers then one of them elbowed her way through. Lunaria looked even paler than usual, apart from two high spots of colour on her cheeks. When I saw the expression in her eyes, I swallowed. The madness reflected there was even more obvious than the craziness in Rubus’s emerald depths.

  I licked my lips. ‘Morgan,’ I croaked. I swung my gaze round, searching desperately for him. He was curled up into a foetal position, with Rubus’s foot resting on his hip as if he’d just bagged himself some prey. I could hear Morgan’s ragged and uneven breathing. He wasn’t dead but he wasn’t going to be any help.

  My fingers twitched as life stirred in my body. I gulped in air and continued to strain while Lunaria strode forward. Just as the numbness in my legs began to dissipate, she drew out a long, curved dagger. It was already stained with blood.

  Rubus, finally sensing her approach, turned. ‘Ah, you’re there,’ he said. ‘That’s good. You can be by my side when I use the sphere. When we finally get back home to where we belong.’ He smiled, savouring his triumph.

  Lunaria raised the dagger aloft, holding it high over her head.

  ‘Darling,’ Rubus drawled, ‘I told you. I don’t want my brother dead. Anyway, you can’t kill him because the truce still holds.’

  The crazed light in Lunaria’s eyes intensified. ‘I have to help you,’ she muttered. ‘You need help.’

  ‘I’m perfectly capable of managing without you.’ Rubus grinned at the sphere, its smooth metal surface gleaming in the dull moonlight. ‘I have everything I need right here.’

  I pushed myself up to a sitting position. Lunaria didn’t glance in my direction.

  The only other person who seemed to appreciate what the lovesick Fey was planning was Julie. ‘Wait,’ she began. ‘I think…’

  Her words were drowned by the inarticulate sob that ripped from Lunaria’s mouth. She sprang forward, bringing the dagger down with heavy force onto Rubus’s exposed chest. His glee was replaced with an expression of surprise.

  ‘What?’ he asked. ‘What just happened?’

  A moment later, he keeled over on top of Morgan, his fingers curling round the sphere as he fell. Even in his death throes, he couldn’t let go of it. Lunaria’s dagger was buried in the centre of his chest, right up to its hilt.

  The air around us froze. Lunaria seemed astonished by what she’d done. She fell to her knees beside Rubus and stroked his hair. ‘It was for you,’ she murmured. ‘It was all for you.’

  Julie, whose face had been a blank mask of shock, started to shriek. ‘You stupid bitch!’ she yelled. ‘What have you done?’ She lunged forward, scrabbling around Rubus’s fallen body to get to the sphere.

  I staggered to my feet, swaying and unsteady. I took a step forward and stumbled, while Julie prised Rubus’s fingers away from the sphere, peeling them off one by one until the object was returned to her own grasp.

  ‘What do I do?’ she shouted. ‘How do I make it work?’

  Rubus didn’t answer. It didn’t take a genius of my proportions to realise that he would never answer anyone again, even though Lunaria pulled his head into her lap and continued to coo at him.

  Julie swivelled and kicked his leg. ‘Rubus!’ she screamed. ‘How do I get it to work?’

  I moved slowly towards her. I couldn’t hurt Rubus but I could hurt Julie. Whether she was my friend or not, and whether she was having a temporary bout of insanity or not, I’d kill her if it prevented her from using the sphere and flooding this demesne with magic. I threw my arms out and grabbed her wrists in a bid to yank her towards me.

  She pulled away. ‘Fuck off, Madrona! I have to do this!’

  I shook my head. ‘No, you don’t. You know what will happen to this world – your world – if you do.’

  ‘I don’t care!’ But she was shaking her head as she spoke.

  ‘You do care. Using that arsebadgering sphere will kill every human on this planet and probably kill you too. Magic doesn’t belong here. You know that.’

  Julie’s eyes held mine. ‘But I can feel it inside me. I can feel it surging through my blood. The power, Mads. It’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before.’

  ‘That doesn’t make it right.’ I held out my palm. ‘Give me the sphere, Julie.’

  A single tear rolled down her cheek. ‘I’m just so tired of being afraid all the time. I don’t just act on set, I act every single minute of every day. Why the hell do you think I drink so much? It’s the only way I can cope. With this little sphere, I can make those feelings go away.’

  I kept my own gaze steady. ‘You’ll make every feeling go away, Julie. You’ll make everyone go away. For good. I understand you feel like shit but this isn’t the answer.’

  Her voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Rubus said it would be fine.’

  ‘Rubus was a psychotic maniac who didn’t care about anyone or anything other than his own glory. Give me the sphere. It doesn’t have to be like this.’

  From the ground, Morgan let out a soft moan and my heart wrenched. He moved slightly. With one eye on Julie, I stepped over and helped him up.

  ‘Maddy’s right,’ he whispered. ‘This isn’t the way. You’re not going to solve any problems by using the sphere. We’ll find another way to help you and make you strong so you don’t have to be afraid. Destroying your own world won’t help anyone.’

  Julie choked. For the first time, it seemed as if the layers were peeling away and the real Julie was being exposed. She wasn’t a glamorous actress or an all-powerful vampire, she was just scared. Gasbudlikins. She wasn’t the only one.

  I didn’t waste a second. Taking full advantage of her wavering, I leapt forward. I’d over-estimated my own recovery from Rubus’s magic bolt, however, and ended up colliding with her. Both of us crashed to the ground, narrowly avoiding landing on Rubus and Lunaria.

  Sprawled underneath me, Julie yelped loudly.

  ‘Sorry!’ I rolled off her. ‘I wasn’t trying to hurt you! I just wanted to get the sphere…’ My voice trailed off as Julie kicked the sphere away.

  It was glowing. Blue light bounced off of it, casting a tremendous haze into the air.

  ‘I didn’t do anything,’ she stammered. ‘I didn’t set it off. I didn’t mean to! Stop it, Mads. You have to do something!’

  I shielded my eyes and sprang towards it. Morgan did the same but I pushed him back. Feeling the sphere burn through the skin on my fingers, I grabbed it and covered it. ‘Stop!’ I yelled at it. ‘Stop that!’

  Unfortunately, the magic paid me no attention. Despite my attempts to cover it, the light increased. Even Lunaria paused in ministering to Rubus’s corpse to stare, while his bedraggled group of blood-soaked minions gaped.

  ‘We’re going home,’ one of them whispered.

  Not if I had anything to do with it. ‘Tell me what to do!’ I shouted, rounding on Morgan.

  He shook his head, growing horror in his eyes. ‘I don’t know! I don’t know how to stop it!’

  ‘Destroy it,’ whispered Monroe, from where he lay on the ground. ‘Stamp on it. Use your own magic. Just do something.’

  He was right. I flung the sphere to the ground before bringing my foot crashing down on top of it. Nothing happened. If anything, the freaky blue light only intensified. I raised my hands and sent a jet of magic towards it in a bid to cancel it out but again my efforts only seemed to make things worse. It was as if the entire city of Manchester was now bathed in the blue magical glow.

  ‘Look,’ Julie whispered.

  I turned and followed her gaze. There, just beyond the Roman fort, a ghostly horde of people suddenly became visible. Fey: lots of them. They were just beyond the border with Mag Mell and they were watching us. Some appeared to be shouting, although their words were inaudible, and most of them were gesticulating frantically.

  ‘What are they saying?’ I screeched at Morgan.

  ‘Destroy it. They want us to destroy the sphere.’

  I rolled my eyes.
‘I’m fucking trying.’ I turned back and gazed in frustration at the tiny ball of chaos. Then, without thinking, I snatched it up again and swallowed it.

  Morgan stared at me. ‘What the hell have you done?’

  I retched. That was harder than I thought it would be.

  A strange heat spread through my chest and down into my stomach, like the world’s worst case of indigestion. I’d already thought this would be a bad idea when I’d considered it back in the police station several days ago. Now I knew it was. I opened my mouth but no words came out. It felt as if I were burning from the inside out.

  Julie’s mouth dropped open. ‘Your eyes are blue,’ she said. ‘And your fingers…’

  I looked down. Blue light shone from each digit. The magic was growing; it was inside me but it was still growing and there was nothing I could to stop it. The heat was getting more and more extreme. I was going to explode.

  I reached out and grabbed Morgan’s hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I’m so sorry.’ Never had an apology been so weak or so insignificant. The world was ending and all I could do was mumble that I was sorry. Gasbudlikins.

  I squeezed my eyes shut. I really was very, very sorry. The Madhatter had really fucked things up this time.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  There was a lot of screaming. Of course, that was probably fitting for the end of the world but it was hurting my ears. I hoped that it would be over quickly and the people here wouldn’t suffer too much.

  Then Morgan leaned over and I felt his lips brush against mine. I opened my eyes and blinked. ‘We’re home,’ he said, cupping my face in his hands. ‘We’re in Mag Mell.’

  The screaming continued. All around us, Fey were hugging Fey. What I was hearing were not screams of fear or pain or horror, I realised rather belatedly. Quite the opposite: everyone seemed utterly delighted.

  I stared at Morgan in horror. ‘It’s happened,’ I whispered. ‘The human demesne ... the world…’

  An elderly Fey man pulled me from Morgan and hugged me tight. ‘You did it, Madrona! I knew you would!’ He squeezed me. ‘You have no idea how much I’ve missed you. To not know how you were or what was happening…’ He sniffed. ‘It’s been so hard.’

  ‘I caused the apocalypse,’ I mumbled into his shoulder. I didn’t know who this guy was but right now I desperately needed the hug. All those people, all dead.

  ‘No, you darling girl! You stopped it!’

  Hope flared in my chest. I stepped away from him and he pointed. ‘Look.’

  I blinked and followed his finger. Seemingly only metres away, albeit as if I were looking at flickering shadows, I could see Castlefield. It looked exactly as we’d left it. A vast vista was displayed in front of us, the border rippling between us, but my friends visible. There was a slight blue hue, which I supposed was because we were watching from a different demesne. But nobody was dying. My eyes skimmed over each figure.

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t understand,’ I whispered. ‘Did it really work then? Are they really going to be alright?’

  ‘As you see,’ Morgan said. He glanced at me with a small, relaxed smile then swept an arm across. ‘Unless we’re both hallucinating, the human demesne has survived – and it’s all still standing.’

  ‘The people too,’ I breathed. All of them. I squinted, focusing on the shadowy shapes. ‘That’s Julie!’ I yelled. My erstwhile friend was on the ground on all fours, a look of anguish on her face. Not far from her, Monroe was picking himself up. He staggered over to the crumpled form of Jodie and poked her. Her head turned slightly and I relaxed further. Even Finn was stirring. Morgan was right. They were suffering but they were still alive. A slow smile spread across my face. ‘I saved the world.’

  The elderly man smiled, his eyes crinkling at the edges. He was remarkably good looking for someone of his age. ‘Indeed. The humans are still there and they’re all fine. We could feel what was happening though. For the last few days we’ve been able to watch as well.’ His smile was replaced with a flash of rage. ‘So we all saw what Rubus was just doing. The shifts in power and magic over the past few days have been felt by everyone in Mag Mell. It’s why we’re all here. We knew something was happening with the border. I prayed it was going to re-open but I couldn’t allow myself to really believe…’ His voice cracked slightly and he gave himself a small shake. ‘That magical thing you swallowed was about to blow. When the dust has settled, you’re going to have to tell me what it was and where it came from.’ He patted me on the arm. ‘Don’t worry though, sweetheart. You saved all those humans. You saved that entire demesne, Madrona.’

  I sensed rather than saw a brief ripple of tension from Morgan. ‘The blue …’ he muttered, half to himself.

  The old man grimaced. ‘Magic.’

  I gulped. ‘Magic? But that means…’

  He brushed my cheek with the back of his hand. ‘Some leaked out from that thing. You couldn’t possibly contain it all. It doesn’t appear that there’s enough to seep out beyond Manchester though.’

  I yanked myself away. That was my city. My home. ‘It doesn’t belong there.’ My voice was rising. ‘It will cause so many problems. It—’

  ‘Normally,’ the old man said, with a strangely fond expression, ‘I’d have agreed with you. The human demesne shouldn’t be able to cope with that level of magic. Maybe we’ve underestimated it all along.’

  Maybe. There was a lot they wouldn’t have seen from here though.

  Morgan ran a hand through his hair. ‘Perhaps the build-up of magic created by all those spells prepared Manchester for what was to come. The city made itself strong enough to withstand the onslaught that the sphere created. You stopped the sphere before anything worse happened.’ He glanced at me, obviously trying to be reassuring.

  ‘Definitely,’ the old man said briskly. ‘There’s nothing to worry about. Watch them. From what I can tell, the humans are going to cope just fine.’

  I didn’t know who this guy was and I had no reason to trust him. I stared at Morgan, aware that panic was causing my nostrils to flare in what was probably a less than attractive expression.

  Morgan understood me instantly. He reached out and took my hand. ‘I think it’s true,’ he said. ‘Manchester will never be the same again – you can see that from the very visible magic in the atmosphere. But it’s been contained. You contained it. By swallowing the sphere, you prevented the magic from leaking out further. The humans in Manchester – and the vampires, werewolves and the rest – will be okay. Their lives will be changed but they will survive and they can leave if they wish. The rest of the world is going to be fine. If the apocalypse had been going to happen it would have already.’

  The old man sent me an anxious look. ‘Believe me, since the day you left, I’ve been here almost every morning trying to find a way through to help you get home. I had to get you back. I’ve missed you so much. An hour ago…’ He choked slightly. ‘An hour ago when I felt the borders start to weaken further, I knew it was going to be fine. I knew you’d find a way. You always do.’ He leaned forward and kissed my forehead. ‘You’re amazing.’ Inexplicably, he then wiped away a tear.

  I stared at him. He obviously did know me rather well. After all, I really was amazing. ‘Who are you?’ I inquired.

  He laughed and hugged me again, even tighter than before. Over his shoulder I gazed at Morgan in confusion.

  ‘Father,’ he mouthed.

  I pulled back. Huh. No wonder he was so stately and good looking. And pleased to see me. A million questions sprang to my mind but instead I shook myself. Family reunions were all well and good but I had to get back; I had to be in Manchester. The people there needed me.

  ‘How do we get back there?’ I asked. ‘I have to help them. If there’s magic all across the city then…’

  The man who was apparently Daddy Dearest shook his head. ‘You can’t. The borders are closed for good now. The magic surge caused by the sphere opened them just long en
ough for all the trapped Fey to return. But they won’t open again. You’re all back here for good.’

  I swallowed, my stomach dropping. ‘But…’ I briefly squeezed my eyes shut. No. No matter how much I wanted to be there, I didn’t belong in that demesne. No faeries did. The problems our presence had caused would have repercussions for generations. I dragged my gaze across the forlorn band of people across the border, feeling sick. In effect they were struggling because of me. They might be alive but they’d still almost died because of me.

  Morgan growled under his breath. ‘Stop it.’

  I jumped. ‘Stop what?’

  He turned to me, his green eyes holding mine. ‘All of us were there. What happened in Manchester is on all of us, not just on you. We’re all to blame. We all have to shoulder the burden. You might not remember it but you used to argue until you were blue in the face that we didn’t belong in that demesne and that we shouldn’t visit it at all. You were right all along.’

  Yeah, I had been right all along. I didn’t exactly feel vindicated at the moment though – not when it had so obviously been my efforts which had hastened, if not caused, almost outright disaster.

  My father – whose existence still seemed difficult to get my head around - stroked my hair. ‘You’ve been so brave,’ he murmured. ‘And so good.’

  ‘I’ve been a bitch.’ It was the truth.

  He smiled at me. ‘You always were headstrong.’ He dipped his head. ‘I like to think of it as assertive intelligence and bracing wit.’ He winked. ‘Your mother would be proud.’

  I was going to have to spend more time with him. He was good for my already enhanced ego. And with any luck, he’d be rich too. I smiled in vague reassurance that I wasn’t about to spend the rest of my days parading around in a sack-cloth and ashes and looked around. I could see Artemesia embracing an older couple. She looked tired but otherwise alright. Paeonia was on her knees and sobbing. Other Fey I recognised were kissing the ground. Vandrake was clutching his chest in relief, the perpetual ache of faery-induced homesickness gone for good.