“The first time I changed? Wait… I went to my glen, my safe spot. The place where Silenus and I met and—” Alyx stopped midsentence, blanched a little, and then quickly picked up the thought again. “And there’s a large fern bed there. I had crawled up into it and pulled the leaves over me as a blanket.”
“So, somehow, you slipped to your glen. But you must have come back,” I said, astounded.
“If I go back to the glen where Silenus and I first met, I bet the bastard would come. Once he’s there with me, maybe I can grab him and teleport both of us or trick him into following me.”
I was a little proud of him. Alyx had thought of a way around Aradia’s price without sacrificing any of us. But there was at least one hole in that plan of his.
“Alyx, you haven’t mastered slipping yet. Attempting to drag someone with you can’t be easy.” I didn’t really know the ins and outs of Satyr abilities.
“Well then, we’d better start practicing,” he said.
“Mistress Aradia, may I ask?” the Watcher queried.
“You may, Watcher,” she replied.
“If Alyx brings the Satyr demigod here, surely you would have the magical abilities to bind him?” the Kasadya asked.
Aradia hesitated, then wryly smiled at the Watcher. “I do, and I can.”
“Then with your brilliance, we may stand a chance.”
“Why thank you, Watcher.”
“So then, if Alyx brings Silenus here, he would then be bound by you and unable to move. Will you also be able to spill his blood?” the Watcher continued.
“I’ll do that,” I said, curling my lip to expose a little fang. “He has tormented me for the longest, and before he dies, I want to see the look in his eyes as his life drains out before him. I want to watch his face contort when I rip that necklace from around his neck and pocket the soul vial that belongs to me. I will do this. I will end him.”
“Hold up,” Hemming said. “So, we are dependent upon Satyr-D’Alae-Incubi boy here to time warp, and then for freaky witch-woman to bind him to the spot…assuming Silenus won’t slip his own ass out and then what?” He sounded skeptical. “How does the rest of the spell go? How is this Soul Door opened?”
“That part I will teach the girl,” Aradia said confidently and winked at Jenae.
“I don’t like this,” Hemming said. “And what are you going to do once this door is opened? Who exactly are you bringing through?”
Aradia glared at Hemming and finally answered very succinctly, “My sister.”
Hemming and Aradia were locked in a staring contest. Hemming broke contact and glanced away.
“I still don’t like this.”
“What choice do we have? We’ve already been gone too long. Silenus is going to know that we’ve travelled outside his territory without permission.” I was a little terrified but just a little excited too. The thought of possibly being free was almost uplifting, like we could get away with this crazy plan.
I turned to the Elementalist. “And what are you going to do with our parasites? That was part of the deal, right? You would remove them?”
“I will remove them, but only if I get to keep them,” she stated again, coldly.
“That is just fine by me,” I said.
No one disagreed.
ARADIA HAD SAID she could only remove the parasites from one person a day. She said that it took too much magic to do more than that, so we camped out, which wasn’t comfortable at all, given that there were eight of us in a one-room cottage.
We had been out in the side yard during the first extraction. Aradia wanted Jenae to go first, and the screaming was horrid. Apparently, getting the vile creatures out was just as painful as them going in. The shrieking had completely destroyed Alyx’s ability to concentrate.
“I can’t do this with that going on!” he said, frustrated. “It sounds like Aradia is killing her.”
Another piercing scream ripped through the air just as Alyx began yet another attempt to meditate. His brows furrowed, and he shook his head from side to side. He stood up from the stone bench we were sitting on.
“Come on, let’s get away from here. I can’t do this while listening to her scream,” he said.
“You know, if you can’t find the trigger to make you slip, this whole plan is going to be useless,” I said.
“You know I know that, right?” Alyx said as he glanced back at me, annoyed.
We walked in silence for a long time, heading deeper into the forest, until we came to a copse of trees that was dense enough to block out Jenae’s screams. We fought our way through the thick bramble of shrub and brush and came across a natural clearing. Together, we sat down on a large boulder. A beam of sunlight shone through the clearing, warming the rock and the area around us.
Alyx glared up at the light. The last few days together I had noted that his facial expressions waffled between rage and awkwardness. Right now, he seemed to be particularly angry, or maybe upset. I wasn’t sure.
“Okay, we need to talk,” I said.
Alyx immediately appeared uncomfortable.
“Do you remember when Alicia dragged you into your mother’s shop, hogtied? You were foaming at the mouth you were so angry, and that rage seemed to be directed at me. You’ve also morphed not once, but twice, and every demon I know runs off of anger and hate.
“You’ve been put through Hell. Every time I look at you, I can see the fury in your eyes. I know that hatred hasn’t gone away. The demon ire within you is going to burn hot for a long time, so, come on, out with it. I have to be around you. You’ve marked me, whether you wanted to or not, and now whenever you’re not around, I’m anxious and distressed, and I have no idea how you feel. Are you connected to me too because of this thing?” I pointed to the red brand. “We need to clear the air, so…let’s talk.”
Alyx studied me, his irises shifted to the incubi snake slits. The colours mesmerized me as the iris swirled from light emerald to blazing topaz.
“I am still angry at you, but it’s not your fault. The whole thing is nobody’s fault except for maybe Silenus. I hate him. Everything he’s done to me…to you, to Jenae.” Alyx rested his head in his hands. “You know right before Alicia killed Mom, she cast a spell.”
“Oh, I remember. It killed me to watch you like that. And then to have Alicia infect you again, and what she did to your mom. I keep saying it, Alyx, but I really am so sorry, for everything that’s happened. But I don’t know what to do—if there’s anything I can do to fix this.”
“It’s okay, Dati. That word Mom said, that spell—it was a Ukrainian word. It means ‘to be still’, but it’s more than just being motionless. It’s more about being calm. Except as a spell, it forced my mind to be calm. The anger left me for a little while. And then Mom shared with me everything you had showed her. That glow in the room—that was Mom sharing her vision. I saw everything. Including every moment you sat beside those hideous pods where I was trapped. It’s pretty clear you care about me. I should be the one to apologize, not you.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“So you’re not angry?” I asked, incredulous.
“Oh, Hell yes, I’m angry. I’m angry all the time. Sometimes it burns so hot all I see is red and all I can think about is killing anything within my reach. That’s not me. How do you deal with this?” Alyx closed his eyes. “Is it going to be like this forever?”
“No. It will subside a little, but it takes time. I can help you, if you want me to,” I offered, hoping desperately he would say yes.
“If we get through this mess with Silenus, I’m going to need you to teach me a lot of things,” Alyx said. His eyes appeared so sad when he said his father’s name.
“He is malicious and cruel,” I added.
“He’s a sick fuck, Dati. Remember I said that I’d met him in my forest? In my place that was supposed to be safe? Do you know what he did…what we did?”
“Did he…well, he is Satyr. Did he touch you?”
“Yeah. He did. He did a lot more than touch me. I didn’t know, Dati. You have to understand; I didn’t know he was my father! I wouldn’t have let him. I would have killed him. I will kill him,” Alyx spat.
“I believe you. I believe you’d kill him, but we have to be careful. He’s so powerful. The things I’ve seen him do over the years, and the things he’s made the rest of us do. We’re all tainted because of him. You just bring him here, and I will end him. I will do that for you,” I said, a burning need to protect him intensifying inside of me. “You just have to get him here.”
“I just have to learn how to do this slipping crap.” Alyx leaned over and bumped me, shoulder to shoulder, a gesture of friendliness. “We have to be free of him. We can do this.”
“I’m not as sure of that as you are,” I said, “but I like your enthusiasm. You want to try teleportation again?”
“Yeah, let’s do this.”
“Okay, then.”
I sat there, watching him with his eyes closed. His T-shirt was tight, muscles bulging as he wriggled on the rock, trying to find a comfortable spot. Light reddish-blond hair on his arms gleamed in the sunlight. Just looking at him made me feel warm inside, a feeling I had never felt in the three hundred years I’d lived. So many things I missed out on, having served one malevolent being.
Right then and there, I promised myself that once this whole monstrous scenario was over and I was free, I would be exploring all the things I had been forbidden to do. I wanted to know people and not live in fear that Master would slaughter any human who knew what I was. I desperately needed to see other parts of this earthly world and not be tethered to Master’s territory. Getting the rest of my soul back and finding a way to heal the two pieces together fell pretty high on a list of things to accomplish. But mostly, the possibility of never having to sully another child made for the most pleasing of thoughts. Well, almost the most pleasing.
Alyx. Thoughts of being with Alyx and being free to do whatever I wanted with him. That was the best possible outcome of all of this.
“Could you stop thinking so loud?” Alyx mumbled. His Incubi telepathy had apparently tuned into me. I had only heard him telepathically once before—just after his emergence from the soft white cocoon.
Alyx cocked his head at me, sporting a wickedly impish grin as he said inside my head, We could experience all those things together.
Maybe Alyx’s anger at me was really gone—at least for now.
I glanced at Alyx as his smile continued. It was the same smile I’d seen back when I first saw him at his mother’s bookstore.
“You know, it’s not nice to read people’s minds when they think they are having private thoughts,” I said smugly, although I was more than willing to share with Alyx.
“It’s not like I have a choice. It’s almost like you’re throwing the words right at me.”
I could feel Alyx mentally nudging me, pushing an image into my head of him and me—the two of us, wrapped up in a very strange position—and it made me blush but also made me incredibly excited.
“Why you dirty little demon,” I said, but was only too happy to comply with his wishes.
“Ugh, this isn’t working, at all,” Alyx said opening his eyes and beaming at me. “Now you’re the distraction.”
“Maybe we’re going about it all wrong,” I said with a sudden thought.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe you need a reason to slip… Well, what if you were trying to find me?”
“Still not sure I get it.”
“Trust me?” I asked.
“Okay,” Alyx replied cautiously.
“Close your eyes, stay out of my head, and let me leave. Then try to find me. Slip to where I am.”
Alyx peered at me through half-closed eyelids and arched an eyebrow, with that mischievous grin. “Hide-and-seek. I like it!” He closed his eyes, grinning ear to ear now. “Okay, go.”
As quietly as I could manage, I scampered off the rock and broke into a run, disappearing in the forest, dodging trees, and attempting to be as stealthy as I possibly could.
Glancing above my head, I discovered a rocky outcrop: a perfect hiding spot. I ripped off my shirt and scrunched it into a ball, holding it tight in my hands, while flexing my shoulders and unfurled my wings. Muscles that hadn’t been used in a long time stretched as my wings flapped. I was unsure if they would hold me up in flight. I hadn’t tried flying since Silenus snapped me like a twig.
It took a couple of good beats and some adjustments, but I managed to flap my way up to the rocky outcrop.
The sun beat down on me. I lay bare-chested against the granite slab with wings tucked in close. Like a reptile, absorbing its heat, I kept as flat and hidden as possible. The warmth felt good and therapeutic. Heaving a deep sigh, I relaxed, waiting to see if Alyx could find me.
Time went by, and then a lot of time passed. I started to get a little antsy, wondering if I should abandon the game and go search for him, when I felt a cerebral prod that reminded me of him ever so slightly.
There you are. Alyx spoke in my head.
Out of nowhere, black smoke formed in front of me, wisps and tendrils, swirling and coalescing. The smoke gathered, growing into a small cloud. With a hiss that reminded me of water hitting a hot pan, Alyx’s body emerged. It happened quickly, from a gentle puff hanging in the air to Alyx forming right in front of me.
He smiled at me with a wicked grin.
“Found you.” He eyed me up, appearing tantalized by my naked torso. “Oh man.” He reached out and ran his hand across my chest. “I’ll be happy to come find this.”
“Alyx, you did it!” I said, grabbing him by the shoulders as my wings flexed straight up.
“Yup, and I think I know how.” No anger emanated from him. Instead he was radiant, confident, and beautiful. “It took forever! At first I gave up and was trying to find you, like physically, and looked everywhere. But that was crazy because I wasn’t learning what we need to do. So I stopped, thought about where you were, which got me thinking about you, which is when I kind of got all excited. I wanted to be near you. That want…. that’s what pulled me here,” he explained.
“You wanted me?” I asked, surprised.
Alyx’s irises turned bright gold. “Oh yeah. I don’t like being away from you. There’s a pull inside of me when you’re not around. It’s really uncomfortable. It must be from the Incubus mark.”
I didn’t want to show it, but I was disappointed by Alyx’s comment. I had thought briefly that he had wanted me, and not because of some supernatural branding, but because he liked me.
His smile turned impish. “Um, so are you gonna lose a piece of clothing each time? ’Cause that would make the game even more fun.”
“Game it is then.” I agreed to the terms, suppressed my disappointment for now, flexed my wings out, and leapt from the cliff, catching the updraft and soared deftly over the top of the forest, gently landing on firm ground but concealed by the trees.
The black smoke of Alyx’s slip came within a minute, then the hiss, and there was Alyx, smirking.
“I do believe you owe me a piece of clothing, please,” Alyx chimed proudly as he held out his hand.
I tossed him a shoe, one that had been modified to allow for the bone spurs, which broke through each of my heels. Alyx’s face registered intense disappointment.
“I get a shoe? That’s no fun,” he said.
“You’re going to have to work for this.” I winked at him and took off again, faster and further this time.
We played until the sun went down, which set just in time as I was down to a pair of skivvies.
Alyx could now slip to wherever I was. The trick was to see if he could manage the same task, but with anyone—not just me.
Back at the first rocky outcropping we had started off at, I redressed myself as Alyx tossed me back all the clothing he had collected, playfully miffed we hadn’t played out the game to the point Alyx had obtained a
ll of my clothing.
We excitedly chatted about the next steps of our industrious and mutinous plan against Silenus.
“I want you to try and find Hemming,” I suggested.
“Okay, I think I can do that. You know, you all feel different. You all smell different too, but you feel different to me in my head. You’re firm but warm. Hemming is hard and gritty, like sand.”
“So go to him. Find him, then come back here to me,” I said, not really wanting him to go anywhere.
“Okay. Give me a second.” Alyx closed his eyes and dissolve in front of me. Whispers of black trailed away from his body until that hiss sounded…and then he was gone.
Excision
DATI
Hemming was second to have the silvery minions excised from his body. It had been an overly vocal experience for everyone within earshot. I can honestly say, I had never heard Hemming scream.
After the operation, Alyx and I spotted Hemming’s demon wolf lurking about the forest several times. Hemming healed much faster while in beast form.
But that had been yesterday. It was my turn to have the parasites removed, and until Aradia sent for me, I spent my time with Alyx. Within the space of three days since discovering the trigger to slip, Alyx had mastered the teleportation talent wickedly quick. He had even developed a snatch-and-grab technique. On more than one occasion, he had erupted in a puff of smoke in front of me, only to pilfer a book I was reading or snatch a piece of clothing, and then combust and disappear.
I encouraged him and wanted him to practice. He needed to become adept with the Satyr ability in order for our devious plan to work. I had my selfish reasons, of course. I wanted my soul piece back, and there was the ever burgeoning possibility of freedom. But more than any of those reasons, I wanted to have some sense of certainty that Alyx would be able to stay out of harm’s reach. And having been Silenus’s slave for so many years, I was more than fully aware how far Master’s reach extended.
Aradia and Jenae spent much of their time together in secret. But to her credit, Jenae used every spare moment dedicating herself to studying spell casting, chants, and symbols. Her grimoire was constantly out, and she pored over the book, absorbing everything it had to teach her.
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