Mad Magic

by Nicole Conway

  My heart pounded—or at least, I thought it was my heart. Something was tugging at my neck. I looked down to see that there was a strange lump under my clothes. My mother’s necklace slipped free of my shirt collar, levitating and pulling straight toward the open doorway as if it were being drawn in by a magnet.

  I closed my hand around it, bringing the heart-shaped ruby close enough that I could see the tiny engraved runes on it. They were radiating a pulsing red light in rhythm … like a heartbeat.

  That eerie feeling tingled through me again—the sense that someone’s aura was here with me, so close and strangely comforting. Why? What was it about this pendant that made it feel so alive?

  The words burst from the depths of my memory, making every joint in my body lock up.

  Fir Darrig found some way to make himself immortal.

  Oh god … could that really be it?

  Slowly, I turned around. Through all the chaos and magical explosions, I saw Fir Darrig. He was still wrestling with the fire-breathing dragon version of Zeph. Our eyes met briefly.

  Then he noticed what I was holding.

  All the color drained from his face. His eyes went wide in horror.

  The pendant’s pulse had begun racing faster, as though with fear—the same fear I could see on his face that very moment. He hadn’t made himself immortal. At least, I suspected that hadn’t been his original intention. Somehow, he’d bound his life, his very heart and soul, to this little trinket. Then he’d given it to that princess.

  He had literally given her the most precious part of himself—but that hadn’t swayed her opinion at all when it came to crowning the new faerie ruler.

  And now I knew. This little heart-shaped necklace was why no one could defeat him. This was why everyone thought he was immortal. His life was magically tied to it. His body would regenerate over and over, no matter what you did to him, just like his earthen monsters, so long as this necklace was still intact. Even the wound I’d cut into his side had already begun to heal now. That shouldn’t have been possible. Iron was supposed to hurt faeries beyond the ability of their magic to repair it.

  Fir Darrig let out a panicked scream as he bashed past the ice giant. He hurled his spear through the air, ramming it straight through Zeph’s chest. It made a horrible, gory sound as Zeph crashed back to earth, the spear pinning him to the ground.

  “Zeph!” I screamed, pitching forward and almost losing my focus.

  He was still snarling and cursing, yelling my name and trying to reach for me while pinned under the staff. Jack landed and began trying to pull it out to set him free.

  Fir Darrig sprinted for me at blitzing speed, his wings spread wide and his teeth bared.

  There was nowhere to run. I was going to die. Unless …

  I stumbled back and caught myself against the gate.

  I held the necklace out toward the open doorway again. The big heart-shaped ruby floated in the air as it was pulled in toward the darkness beyond the Fibbing Gate. I could still sense it pulsing. It was such an innocent, delicate feeling.

  But there was nothing innocent about the person it belonged to.

  “No!” Fir Darrig boomed desperately.

  I met his gaze. “Enjoy hell, you monster.”

  Then I closed my eyes tightly … and let it go. The necklace shot out of my hand and was sucked through the gateway. The darkness swallowed it whole.

  Once it disappeared, the whole door began to shudder. The staurolite stones rattled, and the hinges groaned. Darkness licked out from beyond it, boiling over like black smoke from a cauldron. A wisp of it slipped past me, zipping out and dissolving into the night. Weird …

  The ground tremored as the eyes of the gargoyle handle began to glow bright red. The door was closing. I backed away, staring up as the Fibbing Gate began to deconstruct. The runes melted away like liquid starlight. The staurolite stones crumbled and turned into dirt. The door closed with a deep, resounding boom.

  And then Fir Darrig hit me.

  Just like before, I went flying several yards before landing in the snow. I sat up in a daze. Eldrick clamped his jaws around one of his hind legs, trying to hold Fir Darrig back.

  The crack of a whip snapped in the cold air. Eldrick’s father drew his chariot close enough to snag the business end of his whip around Fir Darrig’s arm. He yelled at his ghostly horses, and together they kept him at bay while I got to my feet.

  As I stood, my fingers brushed against something solid. It was the same object I’d hit my head on when I landed. Buried in the snow, I closed my fist around the hilt of my mother’s iron dagger.

  Feeling that cold metal in my hand made courage surge through my body. I turned toward Fir Darrig and ran—well, it was more like fast limping. I couldn’t stand up straight anymore without the pain in my ribs bringing me to my knees.

  “Josie!” Zeph’s voice called out to me an instant before I felt his arms close around me from behind. “Are you suicidal? The Fibbing Gate didn’t work! They can’t hold him forever—we have to get out of here now!”

  “No!” I screamed as I struggled to fight him off. “I can do this! Let me go!”

  Zeph squeezed me harder and growled in my ear. “Stop it. I won’t let you kill yourself.”

  “I’m not,” I growled back, twisting so I could look him in the eye. “Didn’t you see? He’s mortal now!”

  He obviously hadn’t seen because Zeph just gawked at me in bewilderment.

  His hesitation gave me a chance to wriggle free of his arms. I ran for Fir Darrig, blade in hand.

  Fir Darrig shouted furiously, and reared on his hind legs. When he stamped his front paws down again, it sent out a concussive shockwave of magical energy that threw Eldrick and his father off at once.

  Then he turned on me. Murder blazed in his eyes. He leapt through the air with his wings spread wide and his claws outstretched.

  I braced for impact and squeezed the dagger in my hand. Behind me, Zeph was yelling.

  It was too late.

  He couldn’t save me now.

  Fur and feathers smothered me. Something sharp—claws or fangs—dug into my shoulder. I clenched my teeth, squeezing the dagger’s hilt and ramming it upwards with all my might. The musky, coppery smell of blood flooded my nose. I couldn’t tell whose it was—mine, Fir Darrig’s, or both.

  Then an unbelievable weight crushed my body into the ground.

  White hot agony shot through me. I pushed and shoved, anything to get that weight off my ribs. It didn’t work. I couldn’t breathe or scream. Something hot and wet, most likely blood, started soaking my clothes.

  I was running out of air. No—this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. I’d come so far. I couldn’t die like this—suffocating under Fir Darrig’s giant carcass where I couldn’t even call for help.

  All of a sudden, Fir Darrig’s giant body rolled off me. Cool air rushed in, and I sucked in a frantic, deep breath.

  Zeph, Eldrick, and Jack stared down at me, their human faces all showing a similar look of horror.

  I slumped back onto the cool ground. I managed a hoarse laugh.

  “You really are crazy,” Zeph’s voice cracked as he pulled me up to my feet. His brow quavered as he looked me over like he was trying to decide if he was going to shake me or kiss me.

  “I-I’m okay,” I rasped.

  He yanked me in and hugged me tight against his chest. “You are … the most … I can’t even …”

  “I know,” I whispered as I draped my arms around his waist. “Sorry about that.”

  “Never again.” He was trembling as he buried his face in my hair.

  I petted the back of his head. “I promise.”

  For a moment, everything was quiet. And that’s when I felt it—something like a stirring deep inside. It started out small, like a quiet whispering melody in my mind. But as he held me close, it grew stronger. It was a simple coupling of chimes, and yet much more. Their perf
ect harmony hummed through my chest, deep in my bones, seeping into my soul. My eyes welled up. It felt like my soul had touched his somehow. They were entwined—woven together and never to be separated.

  Our heart-chord.

  “Zeph, I …” My voice caught as tears ran down my face. “I can hear it.”

  He pulled back slightly, his eyes searching me. Then he drew me in again, his lips meeting mine with triumphant excitement.

  Someone cleared their throat behind us.

  Pulling apart, we both turned to look. I hadn’t noticed that everyone was gathered around us.

  Freddy and Camilla looked like they were about to drop with exhaustion. Hank was picking twigs out of his hair. Jack was wiping soot off his feathery white wings. Despite that, most of them were giving me these weird little grins. Even Eldrick’s father had an odd, approving smirk on his lips.

  “I guess I’ve been out of casting for too long,” Freddy panted.

  Camilla gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm. “It seems both of us have, sweetie. We’re a tad out of shape.”

  “That’s what you get for choosing the scholar’s path.” Jack grinned at them impishly.

  The conversation died as we stared across the quiet battlefield. All over the snowy hills around my family home were piles of dirt, rocks, and roots. Without Fir Darrig, the spells that had fused them together had fallen apart. Spriggans and moorhounds were reduced to nothing but heaps of earth. That’s all that was left of his army now.

  Well, except for Lumi … but she was nowhere to be seen.

  Before us, Fir Darrig lay motionless on the snow. My mother’s dagger was sticking out of his chest, right over his heart. I barely remembered stabbing him as he’d fallen on me, but there was no denying the evidence.

  Seeing him that way was a relief. It was over. He was gone. He couldn’t hurt anyone else I loved. And yet … I wondered how something so innocent, a beautiful gesture of love, could have gone so terribly wrong. My eyes wandered to Zeph, who was still gripping my hand as though he were afraid I might try something else reckless.

  What was going to happen to us? Could a faerie and a human really be together and everything work out?

  Little by little, Fir Darrig’s body turned gray like stone. It reminded me of the way Zeph’s body had changed when the curse was draining his life away. As soon as all of Fir Darrig had turned that color, his body crumbled into a sparkling chalky dust.

  In the end, all that was left of him was a little powdery, silver ash and my mother’s dagger.

  I reached down to pick it up and carefully dusted it off.

  “I don’t understand,” Eldrick muttered quietly. He was the only one who wasn’t smiling. “You stabbed him once before and it only slowed him down slightly.”

  “It was the necklace,” I said as I looked at Camilla.

  She tilted her head to the side in confusion. Everyone else looked puzzled, too. I tried to explain. The more I did, the more the mood seemed to shift. Everyone was staring down at the pile of silver dust left where Fir Darrig had been.

  “As long as the necklace endured, he couldn’t be destroyed.” Eldrick’s eyes were a piercing shade of gold now when they gazed at me. It gave me chills. “What a clever girl you’ve turned out to be.”

  I blushed. “I wasn’t even sure I was right. I just hoped I was.”

  Camilla gave a shaky sigh and leaned against her husband. “It’s a good thing I remembered to give you those things. Imagine if I’d forgotten!”

  Freddy stroked her hair. “Now that’s what I call good luck.”

  She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Or a small touch of destiny.”

  “This is never going to work. No one is going to believe that you’re my Ben.” I was halfway hoping a car would hit me or maybe I’d get kidnapped. Anything, really, as long as it kept me from having to go to school today. I knew there was humiliation in store for me unlike anything I’d ever faced before. We were just walking down the sidewalk and people were already giving us funny looks.

  “Relax.” Zeph was as blasé as ever as he walked hand-in-hand with me toward the school. I was the only one who knew it was him, though. He’d whipped up another disguise to explain why my legal guardian had been so absent … and also why I’d been missing so much school lately. He seemed confident that this would work, but I wasn’t convinced anyone was going to buy that my legal guardian was a famous movie star. This was ridiculous, even by his standards.

  I guess I had forgotten how good Zeph was at being ridiculous. He sold some wild story to the principal and Ms. Grear about how he couldn’t be available because he was filming a new movie. Then he told them I had fallen down the stairs at my apartment and broken some of my ribs, so he had insisted I come stay with him in L.A. until I had recovered. Of course, they bought it. They ate it up like a fattening dessert. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but I still couldn’t believe it.

  The principal was apologetic and eager to make accommodations for me to make up all the work I had missed so I could still graduate on time. Ms. Grear looked like she might be sick. I guess she didn’t like having to face the reality that Ben did exist.

  Zeph worked his magic on them like a pied piper. Meanwhile, I sat in mortified silence while the entire faculty took turns finding excuses to peek into the meeting room where we were talking. They were obviously starstruck and looking for a chance to get a glimpse of the famous actor. It was absurd, so of course Zeph loved every second of it.

  As we left the school, I gave him a good punch in the arm. My ribs were still sore though, so it probably hurt me more than it did him. Camilla had shown me a healing spell to help speed things along with my recovery, but it didn’t do much for the pain. “First Joe Noble, and now this? Are you trying to make sure I’m treated like some kind of freak show attraction?”

  He laughed and ruffled my hair. “Just go ahead and thank me. It’s like ripping off a Band-Aid. It’ll only hurt for a second.”

  I tried to scowl at him, but I just couldn’t. I loved that wry, smug grin on his lips. I loved the way he walked with his arm draped over my shoulders so that my side was pressed gently against his. He handled me more carefully now, and I loved the way he leaned down to plant a firm, scratchy, stubbly kiss on my cheek.

  I only had a few weeks left until high school graduation. After that came Eldrick’s formal coronation and the official dissolving of the two faerie courts. Things were going back to the way they had been before—the way they were supposed to be. A king I had chosen because I knew he could be strict, stern, fair, just, but compassionate and loyal would now rule a united faerie court. Eldrick really was the best candidate, and so far, he seemed to be flourishing in his new role.

  Eldrick had extended a personal invitation to Zeph, Freddy, Camilla, and me to attend his coronation ceremony that would reveal him as king to the rest of the faerie community. He’d invited Hank, too, but the old shaman insisted he’d had enough faeries to last him a while. He was taking a vacation, or so he claimed. Honestly, I think he just didn’t want to wear a suit and tie.

  Weeks passed like a blur. The day of my high school graduation seemed to come a lot sooner than I expected. Fortunately, I managed to catch up on all my schoolwork before then. Not having to worry so much about being kidnapped by an ancient, evil faerie opened up a lot of free time for me. Being the one who killed Fir Darrig gave me quite a reputation. I wasn’t to be trifled with, so for now, they left me alone. Not that I believed for a second it would stay that way for long. I was the vessel, after all. My life would always be complicated and dangerous.

  On the day of the ceremony, I walked across the stage and accepted my diploma with my head held high. I wasn’t crazy Josie anymore. I was a lot of weird, bizarre things—a popular boy’s girlfriend, the kid of a famous actor, a faerie’s princess, and an aspiring sorceress—but I wasn’t crazy.

  That was enough for me.

  Zeph sat in
the audience along with the rest of my mismatched, would-be family. Freddy had on an expensive suit and tie and Camilla was wearing a dainty cocktail dress, pumps, and lace gloves. They looked like a rich couple on their way to the horse races. Hank had come, too, but he still dressed like a scary biker Santa Claus. Some of the other parents sitting near him in the bleachers stared, obviously a little concerned. It didn’t help that he sat right beside a boy who looked like he was about my age—an abnormally beautiful, cherub-faced boy with shaggy platinum hair and eerie yellow eyes. They made an odd looking pair. Still, I was glad to see Jack again.

  I looked for Eldrick sitting with the rest to them … but he wasn’t there. I was determined not to let it get to me. I hadn’t expected he would come, after all. He had a lot of responsibilities now. His people were looking to him for answers and guidance. There were things he had to deal with that were a lot more important than a high school graduation.

  I was a little nervous as I made my way outside the school gym to meet up with everyone. Zeph had mentioned that we were all going to lunch afterward to celebrate. All the families and graduates began flocking to the gym exits. I was getting pushed around by all the people trying to funnel through the doors when I felt a hand on my elbow. I looked up just in time to see Zeph looking down at me with a weird, proud smile on his lips.

  “Like a little lost lamb,” he chuckled as he pulled me close and guided me outside. “Nice hat.”

  I blushed and pulled off my graduation cap. “Where is everyone?”

  “I told them to go ahead and leave. They’ll be meeting us for lunch,” he answered quickly—too quickly. He was hiding something. “We’re gonna stop by the apartment first. I gotta grab some stuff.”

  “Where are we going? I’m starving.”

  He wouldn’t look me in the eye. “It’s kinda far. Hank’s gonna drive us, though.”

  My stomach was doing anxious somersaults as we walked home together. I couldn’t figure out what he was up to, and it was actually starting to make me worried. He sure was going to a lot of trouble, and now it seemed like everyone else was in on it, too.