by Heloise Hull
“It won’t be so bad,” he continued. “She’s incredible. Eventually, you’ll even come to love her yourself.”
Was he really mansplaining to me how I was going to feel about all this? I don’t think so. “How did she die, Luca? You said it was for you.”
He ignored me, but his back stiffened.
“You killed her, didn’t you? And now you feel guilty. Was it on purpose?”
“Of course not!” he shouted, the candles reaching higher for a second in response to his anger. “It was an accident.”
I grimaced. I’d hoped my hunch wasn’t right. A crazy, guilt-ridden man who could call the denizens of death was a dangerous foe indeed.
Luca began to pace. “Our first child was born sickly. We tried everything, but nothing helped. Necromancers don’t always raise the dead, you know. Sometimes, we heal or merely commune with the departed. My wife and I decided I would try to heal our daughter before death completely claimed her.”
Luca stopped moving to stare at me intently, trying to get me to understand. Like he truly believed I’d jump on board with the whole body-snatching ritual if I grasped the depth of his sadness. “Except, I rarely used my powers. I wasn’t prepared when something darker emerged. Something that took them both. I transversed the realms for years before I found my wife’s soul. I’m so close now.” He dragged a finger down my chin and cupped my face like a lover. “Your sacrifice will never be forgotten, Ava. Perhaps we’ll name our next daughter after you.”
“That’s a really sad story, Luca, but you can’t steal someone else’s life.”
He turned and began putting the finishing touches on his preparations without responding. So the conversation was over.
Without drawing too much attention to myself, I studied my options. Outside, Coronis was pounding at the veil with her powerful beak, but despite the force, it barely made an impact. Clearly, I couldn’t count on any help from them until the veil broke.
I had one advantage. Luca didn’t know I had powers, and the moon was almost in full view through the tiny window over his sink. A sliver of a moonbeam crept across the planks getting closer to my feet. Soon it would be within reach, and I could use it as a trigger to access my moon magic.
It was a last resort. The only other time I had called on the moon, it almost burned me alive. I got the feeling my body couldn’t take another round, but my choices were limited. Would I rather go back to being half-alive? Twenty years with Jim was enough.
The moonbeam crept closer, and I said a silent prayer. To whom, I didn’t know, but I asked them to protect my boys and to watch over my new friends on Aradia. I’d miss them, but I also felt the need to protect them.
I took a deep breath. It was time to fight back, to fight against all those men who thought they could take what they wanted from women without their consent. To rise and overcome.
I moved my foot a few inches to the left. The moment it touched the moonbeam, I felt my whole being supercharge.
Luca felt it too, and his eyes grew wide. “You are not a MILF?”
“No,” I said, my body practically crackling with magic. “And you picked the wrong Mamma to mess with.”
Something pulsed and the cord binding me began to turn green. As it sprang to life, it unfurled from my body and slithered toward Luca.
He tucked the jar under his arm for protection and shot off a spell. Black smoke poured from his fingers and withered the ends of the vines before they could reach him. The rot traveled along their length getting closer and closer to my body.
“Impressive,” he said, smoke continuing to pour from his fingers. “You will make a worthy host.”
I ground my teeth together, unable to answer and hold off his magic at the same time. More black tendrils attacked, and I concentrated on keeping them at bay.
But there were too many. As they came, I heard voices whispering and crawling over each other. I got the feeling each tendril represented a ghost forced to do Luca’s bidding.
One touched my shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I heard it whisper as my skin turned cold.
“Me too,” I gritted out.
Others swirled around my body, covering me in a thick ghost fog. The smell of death and rot gagged my senses.
Luca lowered his arms. “You are powerful, Ava. I’ll give you that. But I have all the ghosts of Aradia under my control.”
He returned to his work as my magic struggled against the ghost bonds. I wracked my brain, trying to remember what I had learned about ghosts since my arrival. I wished I had my girls here to help me. They could guide me and fight beside me, but they were still stuck outside the veil.
Something dripped on my head. I looked up but didn’t see anything. There was another drop. Then a third. The wet rolled down my face and onto my lips. I licked them and they tasted of salt. They tasted of the ocean.
Thessaly.
When I looked up a second time, she was ensconced in the archway of the door with a finger to her lips. She must have bypassed the veil completely by traveling through liminal spaces. Checkmate to the demon.
As subtly as possible, I gestured to my arms. Thessaly nodded and dropped, somersaulting from the ceiling and landing with a slight splash.
I flinched, but Luca was too absorbed in his ritual to replace his wife’s soul with mine to notice. I wasn’t sure what that would entail, but it didn’t sound comfortable. He said I wouldn’t die, but would her soul kick mine out eventually? Would there be a battle? I’d like to think my soul wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Thessaly finished her examination of my bonds. “The only way to break these,” she whispered, “is to break his hold on the ghosts.” Then she smiled. “Fortunately, that’s something I can do.”
She returned to the ceiling, floating above me in a way that only worked for demons. “Don’t worry, Ava. You are the She-Wolf of legend, and I am a demon. Together, we are formidable.”
I took a deep breath and centered myself. It was time to bring the flood. Literally.
“You know, Luca,” I called out. “Death is a kind of liminal space.”
“That is true, especially for a necromancer,” he allowed. “The boundary is not as clear as the living believe.”
“Then you should’ve known better.”
He stopped his ritual, finally truly surprised. “What should I have known?”
“That demons inhabit boundaries and a veil can always be pierced.”
A sharp scream pierced the room. It chilled to the bone.
“What have you summoned?” Luca shouted, whipping his head around.
Thessaly catapulted onto Luca and filled his senses with sea water. Instantly, the ghost hold broke, and I was free.
I lunged for the jar, but even two against one, Luca still had the upper hand because he was willing to do things we wouldn’t. His black magic seeped through Thessaly’s water, scalding her wherever the droplets hit. She cried out in frustration.
Luca flung Thessaly off of him, and magic sparked from his wrists. She barely managed to dodge his next attack and flew up to the rafters.
“Ouch!” My pocket grew hot, blistering me. Aurick’s jacket.
I pulled it out and tossed it in the air while sending a shot of mother magic at Luca’s chest. Immediately, the jacket expanded, doubling in size as it clung to him like a little headless torso. It was almost cute.
He screamed as the coat bit into his arms, restraining him as the sleeves tied themselves into a knot behind his back. He was still potent with his mouth, and right now, he was hurling spells that ricocheted around the tiny apartment, blasting books and empty bottles of wine. I needed to creep closer if I wanted to secure the jar from under his arm.
“We are matched, Ava,” he yelled. “You felt the sparks. You are meant for me!”
Blood ran down his face, but his eyes were still lit with madness. Like a cornered animal, he seemed more dangerous than ever. He closed his eyes and began to sling spells, chanting at a rate that would
make rappers sweat.
“You mean my body. Not me,” I corrected him. I powered forward, absorbing spells as I went until I was close enough to grab Luca around the neck. A clear bubble encased him from head to toe. It crackled with energy, giving off scents of sage and juniper. Luca’s face screwed up in a rage as he tried to bang his forehead against it to little effect.
“I’m going to need that jar,” I grimaced through the pain. Magic leached into my body from the moon. Tiny hairs rose on my arms and neck as Luca howled.
Punching my hand through the bubble felt like sticking my whole arm into a vat of molasses. I grappled for the jar as Luca twisted and turned, held by my magic and Aurick’s coat. Inch-by-inch, I pulled it free.
Maybe I should have felt honored that he wanted me for my body. Or maybe just pissed. In fact, I was both of those things, but I was also sad for him. My stupid She-Wolf mother’s heart felt his pain deeply. “Luca, I hope you find the tranquility you so desperately need.” With that, I smashed the jar to the ground in the middle of his flaming circle.
Silvery wisps escaped like curls of steam in Rosemary’s very best latte macchiato. Their voices rang in harmony until they exploded apart, forming the shades of ghosts I knew so well.
Piero had his doublet buttoned in the wrong holes, the Roman Centurion had lost his sword, and his mastiff howled plaintively at the moon. So many others I had never seen before spilled out of the jar, their essences freed. Finally, the crusading Knight emerged. He looked beleaguered but shot straight toward his woman. They embraced, the Knight crooning and petting her hair as the woman sobbed. If my mind wasn’t quickly trying to shut down against the magic coursing through my cells, it would have been sweet.
“I can’t hold it much—”
And then, I passed out.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Something cold woke me. It seeped into my bones like a damp trickle and invaded my senses. My arms felt like concrete, but the coldness made me want to move, to sit up, and to rub vigorously against the chill.
“She’s waking,” a strange voice said. “Now stand by while I secure her with the Gordian Knot.”
Another voice, blurry but familiar, vibrated in my chest. Aurick. And he was furious. I could hear it in his tone. “It could have waited. I would have vouched for her until she woke naturally from stasis.”
“She needs to answer for her crimes,” came the response, curt and inhumane.
It felt like he was talking about me, but that wasn’t possible. I hadn’t committed any crimes.
Vague forms began to take shape in front of me. I saw the stranger bend down, and something biting touched my arms.
I groaned, but the pain disappeared a moment later when Aurick knocked the man’s hands away. “Is that necessary?” he snapped. “She can barely open her eyes.”
“Be careful, Aurick. You are interfering with official business. She used god magic.”
“And as I’m sure you’ve already noticed, Ava Falcetti is hardly a god.”
“Then explain how she did it, because the Council is dying to know.”
Out of slitted eyes, I watched the man wave his hand around a slumped figure, bringing it to a floating position. Luca.
That meant I hadn’t blacked out for days this time. Whatever that cold substance was, it shocked my whole system into waking only minutes after breaking the jar.
Luca merely looked sad now, like an empty husk. His bloodshot eyes were as hollow as the deep spaces beneath them, bruised and blackened from too little sleep and too much dark magic. Which was kind of how I felt. The Gordian Knot glowed blue on his wrists, and it looked painfully tight.
I turned my head the barest millimeter. Rosemary and Coronis were there, hovering in my peripheral. I didn’t see Thessaly. Maybe she was hiding again, waiting.
“Tell the Council we all vouch for her,” Rosemary said. “You can’t take her away.”
“Council matters are not your matters, harpy,” the man responded coldly. “Now, if you would all stand back, I would like to finally do my job.”
He knelt over me, his long, leather duster brushing my face while he clamped shackles tied in intricate knots to my wrists. They glowed blue on contact. I cried out, my body jerking against their bite, but he didn’t loosen them. “Aurick, I suggest you do your duty, too. Take the necromancer to the Council to answer for his crimes.”
“This isn’t over, Manu,” Aurick said. “I will follow Ava to the Council as soon as my duty is done.”
“I look forward to sparring with you,” Manu replied. “Especially when the Council finds out your mind has been clouded by lust.”
Aurick’s jaw ticked at that. Wait, did that mean he had feelings for me?
“You’re just going to let him take her?” Coronis exclaimed.
“I have no choice. And neither do you,” Aurick said. Even from my position, I saw the warning in his eyes.
Then, Nonna came up behind him, and I saw rage in hers. “We’ll keep watch over your kids,” she promised as Manu jerked me to a floating position next to Luca.
I tried mumbling thank you, but my mouth wasn’t working yet. My brain was even further behind, stuck in a fog of extreme fatigue. I had noticed she said kids instead of boys, though. Just in case.
“Wait, I’m not dead,” I managed to croak.
“No, Mamma, you’re very much alive.” Nonna patted me on the hand, and for whatever reason, that little gesture pushed me over the edge and I began to cry. I couldn’t help it. I knew it was crazy and that I’d only just met these people, but they had become my family. It didn’t matter if one was a demon, or a harpy, or a mummy. They felt like home, something I’d never really had before. I couldn’t be arrested now!
“You did good, Mamma. You protected your town.”
“We’ll find you,” Rosemary promised, her face full of anguish. “And get you out of this mess. You still owe me mornings at the bakery!”
That was the last I heard from them before my body bounced, Manu dragging me across a barrier. Away from Aradia, away from reality.
His fingers dug into my bicep as I winced in my fog. “Now, you are mine, godling.”
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Thank you!
Ready to continue the adventure? Snag the next book in the series, Making Midlife Madness, on sale for $3.99 or free in Kindle Unlimited.
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It took Ava forty years to discover her identity. It took the Council ten minutes to decide she was a threat.
I survived my forties long enough to discover I’m cursed. Figuring out how to break the curse is a whole other problem.
My arrival in Aradia set off a series of unexplainable events—the veil breaking down, ghosts arriving by the shipload, and Aurick becoming… beautiful? Now, the dying god has finally started dying, and everyone fears his re-birth.
Fortunately, I have my new found powers and my Siren Squad to help me. Only, I still have no idea how to actually use my powers, and the Council arrested me on sight.
At least, I don’t have time to think about my ex or to wallow in my misery. In fact, getting divorced at the age of forty doesn’t seem so hard anymore.
There’s nothing like an angry archon hell-bent on global destruction to give me a little perspective.
Making Midlife Madness is the second book in Heloise Hull’s Forty Is Fabulous adventure series. It’s for all those who believe that finding your true powers late in life is a blessing, not a curse—even if it turns out you’re actually cursed. If you like Paranormal Women’s Fiction or Urban Fantasy, you’ll love this series.
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NOTE: If you don’t read the short story, you won’t miss anything in the main arc of Making Midlife Madness. It simply deepens the relationship between Ava and the god in the cave. But if you do choose to read it, please know the novella is grittier than Ava’s story thus far. Be prepared for blood, sex, glory, and even an ancient Roman recipe for honey fritters. If you’re cool with that, then carry on!
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Thank you for taking a chance on a new author! I hope you enjoyed your first ticket to Aradia and are looking forward to your next. If so, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. I know you’re inundated with pleas for this all of the time, but it’s for a good reason, I promise! Your thoughts and words help other readers find new favorites and help me continue to write. They’re extremely important.
Afterword
So how much is true? Believe it or not, most of it! Aradia is the name of a book written in 1899 about a group of Tuscan witches. (And my source material for Nonna’s cleansing spray in Chapter 6!) Alternatively, it’s the name for the revival of a Tuscan goddess, while Arcadia is, of course, another name for the land of the Fae. Don’t worry. It will all play out in books 2, 3, and 4!
As you can tell, I’m fascinated by words and plays on words. The She-Wolf, or lupa, means a female wolf in Latin, but it’s also slang for a prostitute. The same sort of etymology plays out in the Greek word, troia. A female pig, but also a whore. Even English has this overtly misogynistic play on words. Bitch. A female dog and, well, you know the other. On one hand, nurturing and on the other, vindictive. Just like a beast. We’re taking these words back, friends.
If you’re curious about my inspiration for Aurick, search for images of the Yingpan Man. The university website below is an excellent source, but be forewarned of graphic mummy images! Estimated to be nearly 6’6, Yingpan Man was in his mid-fifties when he died at a Silk Road trading post. The man was extremely wealthy and a “clotheshorse”. In fact, he liked fine fabrics so much, that among his many grave goods, he was buried with a miniature chest full of clothing that he kept on his stomach, as well as a bronze, kneeling warrior.