by WB McKay
"This was not the deal," said Clarissa. "You said you'd do battle."
"And I will," I said. "First, you give up Ava." She shook her head. "Come on, Clarissa. You're done. Give it up."
"I will never be done," she declared. "You'll see."
"Why are you doing this? What the hell did my sisters and I ever do to you?"
"The banshees never did anything to me. They were merely a convenient target." Clarissa began to pace, the point of her sword trained on me. "You, on the other hand, enjoy the favor of The Morrigan." The Morrigan. I freaking knew it. "Everyone else saw what you did as evidence of your skill, but I saw your liberation from Faerie for what it was: a rescue by The Morrigan. She saved you, though you did nothing to earn her favor."
I matched Clarissa's footwork. She wasn't moving to attack. She was working herself up first. "You love The Morrigan, don't you?" I asked her.
"Love," she scoffed. "You know nothing of my devotion."
Oh, fae. I'd thought repeatedly about my encounter with The Morrigan in recent weeks. Her appearance had little to nothing to do with me. "The Morrigan doesn't care about any of her children. I was abandoned like the rest. She was drawn by the battle, and maybe the involvement of her cult. Not me. You can love The Morrigan until you're blue in the face, locked up in jail. You can give her everything, drain every last drop of blood from your body, and she will not care. Not at all." Damn, but I felt bad for her now.
Owen circled closer and let out a rush of flame. Clarissa ducked, but she didn't need to. The fire had been five feet away. She patted her hair to put out imaginary flames.
"I understand now," said Clarissa. "The Morrigan rejected you, tested you, and you gave up on her. Your miscalculation will not be mine. You'll see." Clarissa shifted her weight. This was it. I waited for it, watching her eyes until they darted for the glyph closest to her right.
As loud as I could, I shouted, "Right!" and before Clarissa could do anything more than jump at the sound, flames poured down over the glyph she'd meant to use to get away. I couldn't tell what shape he made from my vantage point on the ground, but the earth shook with a boom before a continuous stream of fireworks shot into the sky. Owen was a dragon on a mission, and with a flourish of flames on the glyph next door, the earth shook with a boom before imploding. A geyser of gravel erupted in a steady surge, pouring back in on itself only to come up again in a continuous cycle. Again, the implosion stayed within the boundaries made by the glyph.
I'd told him he could do it.
Clarissa shrieked and ran behind a nearby tree, like that was going to save her from an angry, fire-breathing dragon. Sure.
"You could give us the hostage and this would be over!" I shouted over the ruckus caused by the implosions.
Owen blew a burst of flames her way. He was careful to get close enough to scare her, not burn her. We didn't want her dead. There was no telling what would happen to Ava if Clarissa died while Ava was still in the pixie pocket. Owen had tried to research that while he'd been in Volarus, "just in case", he'd said. "Pixies are overly secretive about how their pockets work," he'd informed me. I could have told him that. It made more sense than ever in our current situation; they were avoiding murder by people looking for their missing property.
Owen continued working on the glyph nearest her tree, making sure she'd have no other teleportation glyphs within easy distance. There was no telling what glyphs did what, but it didn't matter if we changed them all.
A tunnel of blue flames shot into the sky dangerously close to her tree, and Clarissa shrieked. A heavy rumbling echoed through the sky in a rhythm I could only associate with laughter. The rush of smoke from his nostrils made the thin trails that sometimes snuck out his human nose seem like nothing.
She poked out from behind the tree, now with the scythe gripped in her left hand. She must have stashed it back there. "You know you won't get your friend back if you kill me!"
"Do we know that? I don't think we do." I didn't bother shouting, I thought she knew what I had to say. Still, I kept an eye on Owen. As calm and focused on the job as he seemed right now, and as much as he knew that killing her might ruin our chances at getting Ava back, I wasn't sure he wouldn't lose it in the moment. I was surprisingly committed to Clarissa's arrest. That wasn't something I was used to. My job wasn't focused on justice. Normally, I brought in dangerous objects, keeping people safe from whatever they might do. I might arrest someone on a case involving wrongdoing, but again, that was typically to keep people safe. This case was different in so many ways, but especially in that I carried a responsibility for justice. By not calling in FAB, I'd taken that responsibility solely on my own shoulders. Clarissa needed to pay for her crimes, and I had to make sure that happened. If she died during my attempt to arrest her and recover the scythe, she'd never have to truly answer for her crimes.
A cold chill took over my whole body. It wasn't exactly a cold chill, but I didn't have a better way to describe it. I raised a hand over my head, palm flat out to Owen, telling both him and Patricia I'd felt her presence. Once Owen stopped lighting up glyphs and moved to hover over Clarissa, now completely isolated from any glyphs she might use, I pulled the charm free of my pocket.
"Last chance!" I called as I approached. "Open the pocket."
"Not going to happen!"
Well, I had to respect someone who held their ground in the face of all that surrounded her. As I walked around the geysers of gravel, circles of flame, and eruptions of fireworks, the heat and the sound so close to my person had me pulling on my big girl boots.
Clarissa, who'd been crouching at the base of the tree, stood to stare me down. I considered leaping the short distance between us to pin her down and cuff her, but she had her sword in one hand and the one holding the scythe hovering near her fanny pack. I wasn't ready to fight her around all these active glyphs. Not yet. I pulled a charm from my pocket and smashed it in my fist. Clarissa jumped back into the tree, but when nothing appeared to happen, she laughed. "Looks like your toys are ineffective."
I ignored her, focused on the ghosts at my side. The people I was most glad to see were Lex and Xandra, the two pixies. "Do you know what to do?" I asked.
"We do," said Lex, "but we need you to swear never to use this again unless it's life or death."
"Yes! I already told Patricia to pass that promise on to you."
Clarissa thought she was being sly, but the moment she'd let go of the scythe and leaned it against her body she'd had my full attention. The scythe was Clarissa's most frightening weapon. Having my soul cut free from my body and absorbed by a power-hungry witch didn't sound like a worthy end. Clarissa used her free hand to slide her fanny pack around her waist and reach behind her to grab for the glyph bomb. I dodged to the side at the last second and ran behind the closest gravel geyser.
The ghosts stayed with me. Cold tickled at my ears as the sisters whispered instructions. I knew they did it on purpose because I walked through ghosts every day without that awful feeling ruining my days. I figured the pixies knew they had to tell me, but they also knew they didn't have to be nice about it. Fair enough.
I peered around the glyph and found Clarissa, tip-toeing on the other side. I sheathed my swords and kept pace behind her, not wanting to engage until I was sure I understood the pixies.
My head pulled away from Lex's words. "Really?"
The pixie nodded gravely.
"Well, if you say so." I don't know why I believed her. Maybe because it seemed to make too much sense as a system for pixies.
The gravel made enough noise to cover my approach, but once I was right behind her, she flung a glyph bomb over her shoulder. I cocked an elbow into her back and dropped us both to the ground. Frantically checking my body for black ichor, forgetting that I'd already be feeling immeasurable pain if it were touching me, it took me a moment to notice the little red body writhing on the ground.
"What the fuck is that?" It was gaining its footing, and I got on my knees, unw
illing to let go of Clarissa but wondering how I was going to fight this thing without losing her. It was only about two feet tall, but it was on four legs and its mouth took up its whole face. I didn't see any eyes, but its forked tongue flicked out to taste the air, and it's head turned directly toward me. It bared a double row of needle-sharp teeth and let out a menacing growl.
"It's—I—"
"Good time to lose your words," I snipped.
It clacked its teeth. Maybe it had ears hidden behind those massive jaws, because it did not seem to appreciate my attitude.
I wrapped one hand in the material of Clarissa's jacket and the other got a firm grip on the waistband of her jeans, and then I yanked her up and around to use her as a shield. "You made the little monster, you fight it."
She heaved her weight back against me, and when that did nothing to loosen my hold, began screaming nonsensically.
I guess that answered any question about how bad this little fucker was going to be.
I backed us away, keeping a watchful eye on the monster and the glyphs bursting around me.
"Please, please, no," begged Clarissa. She swung her sword limply in front of her, and dropped the scythe at our side. The ground seemed as good a place as any for it.
"Maybe you should have thought about this before creating a damn monster. How did you even do this?"
"It pulls magic from around us to create a being."
So it was made of… the stuff powering the glyphs around us. Good. Good times. I wasn't worried.
The monster followed us. Clarissa had gotten her shrieks under control, now she whimpered in time with the strikes of the monster's jaws. I wasn't sure why it hadn't attacked yet. I didn't think it was because it wouldn't. I suspected it was acclimating itself to this new world.
I let go of the waistband of Clarissa's jeans to grab my enchanted handcuffs. Clarissa didn't fight as I clicked them around her wrists. That'd keep her from performing any magic, at least. I unclipped her fanny pack and let it drop to the ground. She seemed happy to let me take her sword, which I placed near her fanny pack.
Patricia clucked her tongue at my side. The pixies chittered in her ear. "Any help?" I asked.
"I thought you'd never ask," said Patricia, and then she disappeared.
I led us between two glyphs closer together than I would have liked, hoping the monster might fall into the flames or the gravel geyser on either side. No such luck. It definitely knew where I was.
I bumped into Owen and squealed. Humiliating.
"It's okay," he said.
"Take Clarissa and get out of here," I said to his back, but he ignored me and just kept walking away. So frustrating. I could fight the thing if my hands weren't tied, but I'd lost Clarissa too many times to risk letting go of her now.
Owen had snuck around the glyphs and crept up behind the monster now. He didn't even have a weapon. What in the world was he thinking? I let go of Clarissa, who took the opportunity to knock me around in her efforts to get behind my back and use me as a shield. Fair play.
I drew Haiku and stomped my feet to make sure the monster's attention stayed on me. If I could convince it to run at me, all the better. With Clarissa clinging to my back, I knew exactly where she was.
"C'mere little monster, that's a nice hell beast," I cooed.
Patricia popped back into existence and walked right into the monster. It snapped its jaws, running in circles. "It formed of fire magic," Patricia calmly explained. "The cool chill of a ghost is highly unpleasant for something formed of fire magic."
Owen dragged his foot in a curve in front of him, moving to the side all the while. "Owen," I hissed. "Get back." He ignored me, continuing to move around the monster while it wiggled around, desperate to escape the cold. Owen closed the circle and took a deep breath.
"Stay back," he told me.
"What are you going to do?"
He winked. And then he drew a line in the top of the circle, like I'd suggested for creating the apple. And the ground in the circle exploded.
Dust blew in my eyes and my ears ached like nothing else, but I turned around and grabbed both of Clarissa's arms before she could do anything while my senses were down.
"Bomb," yelled Owen.
"Oh really?" I asked him. "Is that what that was?"
"You cut me!" yelled Clarissa.
"That's the least of your problems," I told her. I hadn't meant to cut her, but I hadn't put Haiku down when I grabbed for her, either. It was barely more than a scrape on her arm. She'd be fine. "Should have fed you to your monster before blowing him up."
My eyes watered up, helping to clear the dust enough to see the small crater within the lines of the glyph Owen had drawn. The monster was gone, though I expected if forensics dug around, they'd find a few of its many teeth.
Clarissa wrenched her arms against the handcuffs. Apparently she was worried about those now that she wasn't facing down her little monster. I put pressure on her shoulders and gently kicked the back of her legs, urging her to go down. Her knees hit hard and she let herself fall back on her butt. Still, she flipped her head to the side and managed to look above it all. "You really make me want to free your friend, you know that?"
"You go from whimpering coward to haughty princess at the drop of a hat. Do you know that about yourself?"
She swished her hair again.
"Yeah, all right." I tucked Haiku back in her sheath. "Let's see about this. Hmm. You look like a rib woman."
"What?" asked Clarissa, but I didn't answer. I reached out with both hands and dug my fingers into her ribs. She jerked wildly, her whole body writhing in an attempt to get away from my tickling fingers. With her hands cuffed, she couldn't do much to fight me off and soon she dissolved into a fit of giggles. I kept tickling until tears rolled down her cheeks and a swirling cloud of light appeared to my left. Ava fell out of the portal a couple of seconds later, a short sword clutched in her hands. Apparently Clarissa had stored a spare weapon in there. That was shortsighted of her. Ava swung it wildly, letting out a wild scream. Thankfully, she caught nothing but air.
She was terrified, but she was alive.
"Ava, stop!" I shouted, holding my hands up. "It's all right. You're safe."
Her peridot eyes swept over the scene and stopped on Clarissa. Her face contorted with a rage I'd never have expected from her. She drew back the sword, angling it for the witch's chest. At the last second she jolted back and let the weapon fall to the ground.
I heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Ava. That would have made a hell of a lot more paperwork for me."
Ava met my eyes. Fury still raged there, and terror, but it was all fighting the lost look of someone who'd been beaten up one too many times.
I knew that look.
Forgetting about Clarissa for the time being, I leaped up and hugged Ava with the force of my whole heart. The briny scent of her magic was a balm to my worries. "It's not too late for me to tell the homicide agents she died in battle, if you want."
Another pair of arms wrapped around the both of us. Owen kissed the top of his sister's head.
I ended the embrace and held Ava at arm's length, her brother latched to her side. Her nose twitched, making her look like the world's oddest bunny. "I'll be fine," she told me. I didn't miss that it meant she wasn't now. It would have to do.
Owen picked his sister up, giving her a proper bone-crushing hug. "I thought I'd lost you," he whispered.
Ava, her feet dangling, returned his hug just as fiercely and then patted his shoulder. "Put me down you oaf."
He continued to hug her for another thirty seconds, but Ava didn't voice another complaint. I watched them with one eye focused on Clarissa and a firm hand on her arm. She wasn't fighting the restraints, but I didn't trust her. I wanted to get her into FAB's hands and out of my mind as soon as possible. I was beyond ready for this case to be done and over with.
"We need to do something about these glyphs," I said, looking around. Between the bomb affec
ting my hearing and the gravel geysers still churning, I couldn't have told you if I was yelling or whispering anymore.
Owen surveyed his handiwork. He then raised his hand, palm up, and closed it into a fist. All the flames died in an instant and I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness.
Show off. "That doesn't take care of the gravel geysers," I told him.
"Gravel geysers." He nodded. "Good name." He bowed his head. "I'm on it."
"Hey!" I called after him. "Be careful."
He'd told me before that only the fae who started a glyph could dismantle it, or I'd have gone to help him. I was sure he knew what he was doing, but still, I worried. I could just picture him toeing the edge of the glyph to mess up the line and losing a foot in the geyser. He smirked back at me like he knew what I was thinking and kicked his leg near the glyph. I flinched. "I told you I've got it!" He bent over and picked up a handful of dirt and gravel and tossed it at the line. The geyser dropped, the ground barely disturbed, like nothing had ever been there.
"Wow."
Clarissa cringed.
"Oh, is that a problem for you?" I asked her. "Don't like it when other people use glyphs, do you? How rough. Lucky for you, you have much worse things to worry about." I tugged on the cuffs, leading her off to the side. I needed to find a quiet place to call Art and have him bring a team in, and also inform him of everything that had gone on. He would be sorry he missed it. I turned back, thinking to pick up the scythe where I'd dropped it, but Ava had picked it up and gripped it tight. If I was her, the weapon would have made me feel safer. The ghost charm must have worn off because I couldn't see who she talked to. "Hey!" I called to Ava. "Tell Patricia I appreciate her help!"
"She says to inform you that she was human and a simple 'thank you' would do just fine."
I didn't bother explaining to Patricia that I'd still feel the obligation of a thank you. She was friends with Ava; she probably already knew.
Clarissa and I wound around glyphs, careful to avoid them in the dark. I hadn't realized how many of them had been the gravel geysers until the fires had all gone out. Soon, the rest of the glyphs would be extinguished, FAB would show up, and I could go home. I almost couldn't believe this case was over, even if I didn't yet have the resolution I wanted. That resolution was unlikely to ever come. Cases where people died were like that. No matter what I did, Daphne and the reaper were still gone. Still, I had other questions. What had inspired Clarissa to start following The Morrigan? And what did she think was going to happen? Did she think she'd fight me and The Morrigan would show up to save me? Or that she'd swoop in to praise Clarissa once she bested me in a fight? I was tempted to ask Clarissa myself, but that'd be better done by the agents who did that kind of thing later. I thought I knew Clarissa well enough at this point to know I couldn't trust anything she told me.