by H. D. Gordon
Surah stooped down to Dagon’s still-cursing head, meeting his eyes with a calm that belied the turmoil in her soul.
“I told you,” she whispered, grabbing the chin of the severed head and wrenching the jaws open, “if you came to my land I would remove your head, and then your tongue. So I guess you know what comes next.”
Gripping one of the spiral horns atop the Dark Lord’s head, Surah grabbed his forked tongue with her free hand and began to saw, reveling in the agonized screams that were soon choked off with black, sticky blood.
Tongue in hand, she dismembered and banished the Dark Lord’s body to places no one would ever look, and did the same with the tongue.
The head, however, she picked up, looking down at it with swirling black eyes. A Dark Lord’s head, like any other being, contained its consciousness, and now that she’d relieved Dagon of his ability to speak, Surah thought it best she keep it close.
Also, she was more than a bit out of her mind at the moment. She was on the verge of hysterical laughter when a cough broke through her thoughts, clearing some of the clouds that had formed over her mind.
She turned and saw Theo, his once-strong body crushed beyond repair, the life quickly draining from his face as he stared at her from his broken position.
“Surah,” he said.
Or tried to say. His words were choked off as blood bubbled from his mouth.
Surah went to him, kneeling at his side, sadness breaking through the storm that was her soul. She touched his handsome face, the emotions coming back, if only in tiny bits.
She could almost reach the part inside her that made her who she was, but not quite. Her heart was too submerged in darkness to get the full effect of all that had taken place on this night.
But even a woman blinded by dark magic would see the devotion, the love that shined out of the Head Hunter’s eyes, and Surah knew that he was dying so she could live.
Theodine Gray had sacrificed himself to save her, and Surah knew that if she survived this, his face in these final moments would haunt her for the rest of her life.
If she had doubted it before, there was no denying it now. Theodine Gray truly had loved her, and she had never done anything but shun this love.
She should feel awful over this, and yet, she felt little to nothing.
Surah held the Head Hunter’s hand in his last moments, leaning down and meeting his eyes, in which the light of life was dimming.
“Your death will not be in vain, Theo,” she promised. “Thank you for your service to my family… to me.”
Before she finished saying this, Theo’s final breath escaped him and his face went dull and lifeless, his limp, ruined body lying before her, as had so many she’d cared for.
The voice in which she had spoken to Theo did not sound like her own, and when her body moved over to those of Lyonell and Noelani, it did not feel like she was commanding it. The darkness in her had taken on a life of its own.
The mixture of Black Magic and trauma would not be easily undone.
Surah stood beside her two dead best friends, the Hunters who had protected her forever, since she’d been only a child. Noelani, her body crumpled, neck poised at an unnatural angle, who had read Surah bedtime stories and checked under her bed for monsters after her mother passed away.
Lyonell, who had always been a calm and comforting presence, allowing Surah her independence while putting himself in harm’s way to ensure her safety. His neck was also bent in an awful way, his face and body devoid of life.
She looked down at the fallen, at her dead loved ones, the memories shared with them numbering in the thousands, and could feel nothing but rage and darkness, nothing but a primal, all-consuming need for revenge.
When a hand fell on her shoulder, Surah turned without thinking and flicked her wrist, sending whoever had touched her flying.
She saw that it was Bassil as the Warlock struck the ground, his patchwork cloak flying up over his long, dark legs in a manner that Surah found hysterical.
She was unaware of it, but the laughter that issued from her throat also did not sound like her own.
“Sorry,” she told the Warlock, though the tone in which the single word was spoken indicated that she was not sorry at all. “Now’s not a good time to sneak up on me, Warlock.”
Bassil pulled himself to his feet with some effort, a cautious grimace on his dark face.
“Quite all right, my queen,” he said. His black eyes went to the head of Dagon, which Surah still held by one of the long, spiral horns. It dangled from the end of her hand with blazing eyes and a mouth incapable of expressing its fury.
One corner of Surah’s mouth pulled up as her eyes followed Bassil’s. “That’s one problem taken care of,” she said.
The wary stance Bassil had taken was beginning to annoy her, and she felt an unreasonable amount of hostility toward the Warlock. Bassil spoke slowly, the way one does to a person holding a room of hostages.
“His denizens will come,” Bassil said, nodding toward the head of Dagon. “And the Fae army will come with them.”
Surah turned away from the Warlock, retrieving her cloak from the ground where the Dark Lord had tossed it after ripping it from her body.
Dusting it off, she returned it to her shoulders. Bassil stood silent, watching Surah as if she was a questionable beast that had wandered into the backyard.
Spinning in a slow circle atop the small hill overlooking Zadira, Surah surveyed her land, could feel the eyes of her people staring out at her from the shadows.
When she spoke, her voice was cold, flat, and edged with a bit of excitement that scared the Warlock more than he would ever admit.
“Let them come,” the Sorceress Queen said. “Let them come so I can kill them all.”
Chapter 35
Charlie
“Going by portal would be a buttload easier, you know?” Aria said, looking sideways at Charlie as they waded through the dense trees of the New Jersey Pinelands.
Charlie swatted at what had to be the millionth greenhead fly (a name which Aria had provided) to bite him in the past hour.
“I thought you said the Halflings have entrances to the other worlds everywhere,” he replied, stopping in his tracks to stare at the girl.
Aria pushed some of her red-brown hair out of her face. “We do, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather portal.”
Charlie continued pushing through the unwelcoming vegetation. “I told you, I don’t want to be disoriented when we get there. I’m not used to portals, especially not whatever Fae version of it you do… How much further?”
Rolling her eyes, Aria took the lead again, moving ahead of him. “Not much further, but if your old bones need a rest, we can take a break.”
“Thanks, but my ‘old bones’ are just fine.” He swatted at another fly. “My skin, on the other hand, is being eaten alive by these tiny Demon-insects.”
Digging into the small black backpack slung over her shoulders, Aria pulled out a spray bottle and handed it over to Charlie.
“Here, spray this on your arms. It helps keep them away.”
Charlie took the bottle with narrowed eyes. “Why didn’t you give this to me earlier?”
Aria looked too genuinely surprised by the question to be mad at. She shrugged. “You didn’t ask for it, and you’re not the only one with a lot on your mind. I guess I wasn’t thinking about it.”
“Did you put some on?”
“No.”
“Then why aren’t they biting you?”
Another shrug. “I’m half Fae. Nature’s kinda my homegirl.”
Charlie wasn’t at all sure what a homegirl was, but he supposed he got the context.
“That must be nice,” he commented, bathing himself in the bug spray, which smelled terrible and felt grossly sticky on his skin. But it was a price worth paying if it would cease the biting.
“Yes,” Aria said. “It is.”
Her tone was too even to be sure if this was
serious or sarcasm. She pushed through some low hanging branches and stood at the edge of a small creek, the water bubbling peacefully through the trees, lending a moist smell to the green air.
“Here we are,” she said.
Charlie stood beside her, seeing nothing but more dense forest, more green and brown, and the shallow creek.
“Okay, now what?”
Aria turned to him, her face deadly serious. “You promise to listen to everything I tell you to do before I take you in? I mean everything. The Fae Territory, especially the Fae Forest, is alive in a way that you can’t possibly understand. Every part of it is intimately connected, is one. I can shield us from the Fae Queen’s detection, but only if you listen to everything I say. Got it?”
Charlie nodded. He didn’t have to trust the Halfling girl to know she wasn’t lying about this. Those agonizing hours he’d spent wrapped in that torturous vine on the floor of the Fae Forest had shown him this truth.
It was as though the entire place was just an extension of Tristell, and she had commanded the very roots, branches, and leaves that made up the forest. She spoke, and the trees listened. Charlie would bet that vice versa was also true.
“You have my word,” he said.
Aria studied him for a moment, gaging the truth in his words.
“Good,” she said at last. “First, you’ll need to follow my movements exactly, move right behind me, keeping a hand on me at all times. You must not break contact. Also, don’t speak at all. Don’t even whisper. In fact, try not to breathe too loudly. The key is to not let the forest know you’re there. With my Fae blood, it’ll accept me as part of it, but you, not so much.”
Charlie’s eyebrows rose. This was going to be harder than he’d thought, and he’d known difficult was an understatement. “That it?”
Aria grinned, her pretty face lighting up. “Just about.”
“So you don’t want to share with me your real reason for wanting to do this? You don’t think I should know why you’re really helping me?”
For a moment, Charlie was sure the girl wasn’t going to answer, but then she sighed and pushed her hair out of her face, a subconscious action he recognized as a habit of hers.
“The part of me that’s Fae is from my mother, who’s full Faevian,” Aria answered. “She’s always lived in the Fae world, and a month ago, she went missing.”
Charlie said nothing to this, only waited for the girl to continue.
Again, she sighed. “My superiors assure me ‘the matter’ will be resolved.” She laughed without humor. “All these years serving them and that’s what they call my mother going missing—a ‘matter’.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
The look on her face was grim. “That’s what I’m here to find out, but I know Tristell is behind it.”
“That it?”
“That’s it.” She held out her hand. “You ready?”
“If we get close enough to my brother, I’m taking him out,” Charlie said.
He didn’t want to mislead the girl. He was well aware that his intentions could get them in trouble, could end very badly for them both.
“You gonna be able to do that?” she asked, ignoring the implications, apparently ready to risk it all as well. “Kill your own brother?”
Charlie had to swallow twice before he could answer, had to think of Surah in order to steel himself. He nodded.
“I don’t really have a choice, Aria,” he said, and it was the most honest thing he could have told her.
Aria took his hand, gripping it firmly with her warm fingers. She gave him a smile that was both ready and resolved.
“Then we understand each other perfectly, Charlie,” she replied, and pulled him forward through an invisible curtain, an access point between worlds.
And toward whatever fate the Fae Forest had in store for them.
The air in front of them shimmered, and a jolt of electric energy passed through him. It was not nearly as disorienting as portaling, but it made for a strange effect.
As they passed through whatever invisible barrier separated the Fae Territory from the human world, the Pinelands melted away and were replaced by the Fae Forest.
A shiver worked its way up Charlie’s spine as he took in the smells, the sounds, the pastel-colored trees, and light pink fog hovering over the ground.
Vines very much like the ones that had tortured him here less than a day ago climbed up every surface, making a gnarled labyrinth, a sea of otherworldly vegetation.
Whereas Sorcerer Territory resembled the human world geographically, (the biggest difference being magic in place of technology) the Fae land was unique to itself. There was no place in all the realms like it, no other Territory that carried its unique forms of life.
This was no doubt thanks to the Fae that called it home, as their connection with the biosphere was deeper and more intimate than any other creature that walked the earth. It was like something out of a dream.
Or in Charlie’s case, a nightmare. His heart kicked up in pace and he swallowed past a lump that had risen in his throat.
Aria turned her head, her hand still holding his, and put a finger to her lips, reminding him to stay close and silent. She crouched low, moving with an ease particular to the Fae race. Charlie mimicked her movements, half expecting the very branches of the peculiar trees to reach out and grab a hold of him.
Get your mind right, he told himself, and concentrated on the task at hand with more effort than he preferred.
Moving through the Fae Forest with Aria was a totally different experience than it had been when he’d been here before.
Before, the life that was this place had seemed to pause, to watch him the way a guard dog watches a passerby who ventures too close, with half-hooded eyes and slightly bared teeth. The Fae Forest had a feeling to it, and as an outsider that feeling was maleficent, threatening, imposing.
Now, with Aria by his side, shielding him with her Fae blood, or whatever it was she was doing, the experience was entirely different. The forest clearly accepted the Halfling girl, opened its arms to her without a thought.
It was pleasant, smelled of clean air that maintained a comfortable temperature. The pink fog floating along the forest floor was no longer a menacing entity, as it had been when Charlie had been held captive.
Now, it simply swirled around his boots, parted as he passed. The hair on his arms stood on end. He knew how deceiving appearances could be.
As they passed through the forest, Fae children darted among the trees, zipping past them and shaking free puffy leaves and rustling the undergrowth.
They swung from the canopies, leapt from branch to branch not unlike monkeys in the human world. They balanced above, their clawed feet clutching perches and slanted eyes blinking rapidly as they stared out from all around.
As he had been the first time he’d encountered the Fae children, he was struck with a sense of sadness for them. However this mess his brother had brokered between the Fae and the Sorcerers turned out, the ones most affected would be the children, on both sides of the battle lines.
Charlie knew this because he had been but a child when war had torn his life apart. So his heart hurt most of all for the wee ones, and a newfound rage toward his brother filled him. Michael had suffered right beside Charlie as a child. How could he be responsible for such terrible things?
Because Michael was no longer Charlie’s brother. He was Black Heart now. Charlie held tight to these thoughts as the question Aria had posed to him earlier played through his head.
You gonna be able to do that? Kill your own brother?
Aria came to a sudden halt in front of him, and he had to break free of his troubling thoughts quickly to keep from running into her.
Her small hand tightened around his, and she stooped lower to the ground, the pink fog and undergrowth swallowing her up. Charlie followed her example, his senses on high alert.
There were two voices coming from up ahead, and t
he hair on the back of Charlie’s neck stood on end as he realized he recognized them.
One belonged to his brother, the other to Tristell the Fae Queen.
Aria sank lower still, sidling over to a nearby tree with a thick bush growing at its base. She lay flat on her belly, disappearing completely into the pink fog, waving her free hand at Charlie, who followed suit.
Cold sweat broke out over his brow. The last time he’d lain on the ground in the Fae Forest, he’d been tortured, wracked with agony for hours that had lasted lifetimes.
Suddenly, he felt foolish for coming here, for thinking he had a chance at accomplishing what he’d set out to do.
He shoved this fear away. He was here now, and his life was not the only one on the line. Charlie had to try. If he could put a stop to his brother here and now, maybe he could end this thing before entire Territories were devastated.
His brother’s voice boomed loud enough for Aria and Charlie to make out his words, jerking Charlie from his thoughts once again.
“How could he have escaped?” Black Heart thundered, his voice was so dark and full of rage that Charlie swore he felt the earth shudder under his chest.
A high-pitched, gratingly familiar voice screeched back, “What is Michael accusing me of? He thinks I killed his precious brother? Yes! That’s what he thinks! That I killed his precious Charlie-Boy while he was away!”
The way she said the nickname practically dripped distain. “I told Michael, I left his brother right here!”
There was a grunt of anger followed by a whooshing sound, like something moving quickly through the air, and then another whoosh as something flared bright up ahead, near where the voices were coming from.
Tristell let out a screech that almost made Charlie drop hold of Aria’s hand to cover his ears. Luckily, Aria held tight, shooting him a look. They needed to maintain contact so she could keep his presence hidden from the forest.
This cacophony was followed by silence. Aria crept forward slowly, pulling Charlie along with her. They were less than ten yards away now. Charlie held his breath, straining his ears to listen.