by Eric Asher
Aideen arched an eyebrow, opened her mouth to speak, and instead just muttered to herself. She undid the straps of Nixie’s greaves and checked the skin beneath. Pale flesh waited below.
“Perhaps a bit pinker than normal,” Aideen said, “but I think you should see a full recovery. I hate to think what might have happened if Shamus hadn’t been there.”
Nixie flexed her hand and traced the lines of her face that had been scarred. The skin felt smooth again, and only a ghostly hint of pain lingered.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Vicky reached out and took the Eye from Zola. “It doesn’t feel like the heart. When I held the Heart of Quindaro, I could almost feel its power, its age. I can’t really explain it.”
“The Eye of Atlantis has to be unlocked for anyone other than a water witch to use it,” Nixie said. “But the key hasn’t been seen since the city fell.”
Zola hesitated. “And how then do you propose we use it?”
Nixie gave her a knowing look. “A gift from a fire demon. Hidden in an old book few people know how to read.”
“The Book that Bleeds?” Zola asked. “Even Ah can’t read all those pages, girl. What the hell am Ah supposed to do with that?”
“Speak the incantation. I’m sure Damian gave it to you, didn’t he? In case something went wrong? In case one day you needed a weapon against the water witches?”
Zola looked away for a moment before returning her gaze to Nixie. “He said to never use that spell because it could kill every one of you.”
Nixie inclined her head. “It is dangerous, to be sure. I was somewhat surprised he didn’t try to use it against Lewena.” She took a deep breath. “What Vicky holds in her hand is the other half.”
“But you’ll be okay?” Vicky asked. “If we manage to save Damian and he finds out you’re dead, I don’t think that would go very well.”
“If we save Damian and any of us are dead …” Nixie said, letting the words trail off as a small smile lifted her lips. “I think that would be a very bad day for Gwynn Ap Nudd.”
“Let’s just make damn sure none of us are dead,” Zola snapped. “You saw what happened to him in that battle with Hern. We lost him in earnest. Dragged into the Abyss by Gaia, like some kind of waiting room for his own demise? And if what Terrence said is true, and Ah’ve little reason to doubt that ghost, and Damian is trapped inside of that thing … He knows where he is. Frozen, unable to move inside his own body. And is he witnessing the atrocities that his own body has committed?”
“I don’t know,” Nixie said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“And you remember how torn he was when he worried he might be a dark necromancer like Philip Pinkerton?” Zola rifled through the box, clearly looking for something. “Do you remember how much that tore him in half? Even if we save him now, Ah don’t know he’ll be the same when he comes out of this.”
“It’s better than letting him die,” Vicky said. “I couldn’t live with myself if we just let him go.”
Zola took a deep breath. “Me either, girl. Me either.” She paused and pulled out a small folded sheet of colorful paper. Translucent blood dripped from it for a moment, and then it was gone. “Hold the book upside down? Aperio tectus vene—”
“That’s the one,” Nixie said as she frowned at Zola. “Did Damian write that incantation down on a brochure?”
Zola’s lips twitched. “Looks like it, girl.”
Nixie may have been several centuries older than Zola, but something about the old Cajun referring to her as a girl felt more amusing than disrespectful.
“What’s next?” Nixie asked. “What do you need from me?”
“You’ve already done more than any of us could have asked,” Vicky said.
“Mmm,” Zola said, nodding her head. “Ah agree with Vicky. You should go home. There’s no more you can do for Damian right now. You won’t be doing any of us any favors if you lose control of the water witches. Or worse, if you have a fallout with the United Nations.”
“Home … it doesn’t feel like home without Damian.” Nixie studied the back of the gauntlet on her left hand. “It doesn’t feel like home without any of you there. Alexandra and Euphemia are like sisters to me, but there is still an emptiness that I can’t explain. Some of that felt filled in Atlantis. I don’t know if that makes any sense.”
Zola reached forward and patted Nixie’s knee. “Ah think you’ve explained it just fine. Sometimes family is more than what you have by blood or marriage. And it would do us all well to remember that. It will get you through the darker times.”
“Zola did talk to Koda,” Vicky said.
“Don’t remind me,” Zola muttered. “That damn ghost will be the death of me.”
“Did you learn more about gifting Gaia’s powers to Damian?” Nixie asked, leaning forward.
Zola pursed her lips and picked up a dark green crystal, not unlike a shard of quartz, but shot through with flecks and streaks the color of blood.
“Is that a bloodstone?” Luna asked, licking orange cheese dust off her fingertips.
“Tessrian’s bloodstone,” Zola said. “And Ah’m afraid we’re not getting around talking to that old demon again.”
“The Burning Lands?” Nixie asked.
Zola inclined her head. “Koda believes at least one of the artifacts Gaia needs is in a vault beyond the Sea of Souls. So Ah guess Ah’m stuck asking that damned parrot for help.”
Nixie wasn’t sure if Zola was more irritated with the idea of going to the Burning Lands, or of having to go there with Graybeard. Either way, she fought back a smile.
The old Cajun sighed and reached into the chest at the base of the coffee table again. “Might as well get this over with.”
“Oh, that’s gross,” Luna said, still not breaking her rhythm as she stuffed another handful of cheeseballs in her face.
Zola grimaced as the Book that Bleeds poured translucent blood across her hands. It pooled on the coffee table and dripped to the floor, only to vanish an instant before it hit.
“Is this safe to use in the presence of the children?” Aideen asked.
Vicky cocked an eyebrow and Luna finally stopped crunching on cheeseballs.
“Ah, yes, I mean the young adults?”
“Better,” Vicky said.
Luna narrowed her wide eyes and swiveled her ears back and forth. “I forgive you.”
“We’ll know soon enough.” Zola turned the Book that Bleeds upside down and spoke the incantation, “Aperio tectus veneficium!”
The book writhed in her hands, and Nixie cringed at the smoke and ear-piercing whine that rose from the bloody book. A sliver of silver slipped from the binding, red hot as it crashed down and sizzled against the coffee table. The book stopped moving, and Zola slid it back into the trunk with a shiver.
“Ah don’t like that thing. Not one bit.”
Thunder crashed above them before a sickly orange light from outside turned the entire room a grotesque shade of pumpkin. Nixie’s hand slid to the dagger sheathed at her ankle.
Vicky lit a soulsword.
Aideen stalked to the door.
Luna set down her cheeseballs.
Something roared as shadows and flame lashed out from behind the old oak tree. Nixie cursed and lunged ahead of Aideen.
The broad blackened horns of a fire demon swung side to side in the early sunset. Nixie’s heart stuttered in her chest until she recognized the symmetrical teeth and angled snout. As she watched, the horns curled in on themselves and healthy flesh slid up the legs of the demon, discoloring until a leather apron materialized around a barrel-chested torso. When it was done, Mike the Demon stood before her, hammer at the ready, and relief on his face.
“No fight then?” a smaller woman asked as she stepped out from behind Mike. Sarah, the little necromancer, someone who knew how to get into some serious shit when they were still alive was how Damian had put it.
“Nudd’s balls,” Aideen muttered, snapping into her smaller
form and flopping onto Zola’s shoulder as she slid past Nixie.
Jasper peeked out from under the coffee table, looked around the room, and then retreated back into the shadows.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Zola asked, reaching out to Mike for a hug as they met at the bottom of the stairs to the porch. “And where the fuck have you been?”
“Someone unlocked the Book that Bleeds,” Mike said, wrapping her up in muscled arms. “I was worried it might not be one of us.”
And there it was. Just those words calmed the unsettled fear in Nixie’s gut. Mike was still their friend. Those demons in the Abyss were something else, something darker, and nothing like her friend and ally.
“Sarah and I have been in and out of the Burning Lands. It’s been left in upheaval since Prosperine was slain.” He glanced up at Vicky as he released Zola.
Vicky rolled her eyes. “You can say Prosperine out loud. I won’t have a seizure.”
Zola nodded slowly. “We may need to discuss the Burning Lands a bit more. An odd place for a honeymoon, though.”
“Does this mean you got the Eye?” Sarah asked. “You’re really going to try to re-anchor a blood knot? I wish I could see that. Now that would be a honeymoon. You all are crazy. My kind of people.”
Mike pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.
“Better crazy than dead,” Vicky muttered, punching Mike in the arm. “Hey!” she squawked as Mike picked her up into a bone-crushing hug of her own.
“My god, you look old,” Sarah said.
Vicky looked down at herself and frowned.
“No, I just mean we must be getting old. So old.”
Mike smacked his lips and ignored the next full minute of Sarah explaining just how old he was. “As to the question? You have the Eye of Atlantis?”
“Luna could you—” Zola started.
The death bat zipped inside, shouted something about a fire, and then reappeared. “Fire’s out. Coffee table is a little, uh, scorched.” She flicked her thumb and sent a small blue orb spiraling through the air.
Nixie caught it at the bottom of the short stairs and held it up to Mike.
“You have the tools now,” Mike said. “You must unlock the Eye if you mean to use it.”
“What about you?” Nixie asked. “Is this going to kill you? Your oath?”
Mike shrugged. The most infuriatingly vague response he could have possibly come up with. “It shouldn’t. As long as you don’t use the Eye to turn all of your undines to stone?”
“I think I can resist.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
They gathered behind the cabin, taking up random seats around the ring of stone Aeros had raised so long ago. Zola studied the silver metal with the incantation on it.
“I thought you said this would be a fallen art.” She raised her eyes to Mike.
“I assume it fell out of the book?” the fire demon said with a straight face.
Zola groaned. “You did not just say that. This is Fae magic.”
“It’s older than that,” Mike said.
Aideen paced back and forth on Zola’s shoulder. “I’m going to be very upset if we blow up.”
Mike held his palms out. “I promise no one will explode.” And, as an afterthought, he added, “Today.”
Zola sighed and held up the Eye of Atlantis. “What the hell else are we going to do?” Without further warning, she spoke. “Omnia Caritas Destuit!”
The Eye cracked in her hand, tiny fissures racing around the surface until the shell collapsed, and a brilliant ball of blue energy remained. It still looked like the Eye of Atlantis, but where before it had appeared more like a marble, it now seemed more like a tiny blue sun.
“It’s beautiful,” Sarah said.
Wisps of pale magic lifted from the edge of the Eye and swirled about it like a hurricane, only to settle once more onto the blue surface.
“Two cores,” Zola said. “All we need now is the third.”
“And an anchor,” Nixie said. “Gaia said we’ll need an anchor for the blood knot.”
Zola nodded. “Ah know, girl.”
“Gaia said …” Nixie trailed off. “Gaia said Damian is fading. We only have a few days at most.” She didn’t miss the shiver that ran down Vicky’s spine.
Aideen cursed.
“Buck up,” Zola said. “That just means we have to hurry.” She frowned at the Eye of Atlantis. “And perhaps split our focus up more than Ah’d hoped. Ah doubt Nudd will sit idly by.”
Nixie nodded. “Considering what attacked Puerto Rico today, he’s already done being idle.”
“What happened in Puerto Rico?” Mike asked.
Luna started tapping on her phone, her claws still clicking across the screen as she used the pads of her fingers. “Here.”
Nixie could hear the newscast start up as Mike and Sarah watched in ever-increasing shock.
“Ah’ll speak with Koda and Happy,” Zola said. “They’re in contact with the Society of Flame about some other potential anchors. They need to know our timeframe just closed up on us.”
“We can help,” Vicky said.
“I’ll do anything for a can of cheeseballs,” Luna said as she almost purred.
Vicky raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to end up with high blood pressure by the time we get you back to Camazotz.”
“Foster needs to know what’s happening,” Aideen said. “I’ll return to Falias. Morrigan should know, too. Heavens knows what’s coming.”
Nixie reached out to Zola who handed her the Eye of Atlantis. It brightened at the touch of the water witch and the fresh scent of the sea washed over the clearing. She took a deep breath before handing it back to Zola, and the smells of the firepit were all that remained.
“I entrust this to you. It is our most sacred artifact, one never meant to leave Atlantis. Whatever you need to do to save Vicky, do it.”
She met Zola’s gaze, and the deep brown of the woman’s eyes promised everything they didn’t say aloud.
Zola slipped the Eye of Atlantis into a pocket inside her cloak, where the blue light vanished entirely.
“Since you’re here,” Zola said, tugging on Mike’s arm. “Why don’t we talk about vacationing in the Burning Lands.”
“You’re going to drag them into this now?” Aideen asked from her perch on Zola’s shoulder.
“Drag them in?” Zola asked. “They’ve already been there. And recently!”
“We have no idea what they might have planned. What if they’re planning something else to help Damian?”
“Nonsense. They aren’t Sunday Soldiers. Ah’m sure they’d march right back into the Burning Lands to help Damian.”
“Ooo, sounds fun!” Sarah said, following the pair.
Mike tripped up the stairs after Zola. “Wait, what?”
Nixie turned back to Vicky and Luna. “You two keep an eye on them.”
Luna nodded.
“Sure,” Vicky said. “And you try not to break up the United Nations and sink the world into chaos, yeah?”
Nixie blinked and gave Vicky a slow smile. “I’ll do what I can.”
“You leaving now?” Luna asked. “We have a pond. Do you sleep in ponds? I don’t know much about water witches.”
Nixie grinned at the death bat. “I have to go, Luna. But watch over our friends, will you? We’ll meet again soon.” She waved to Vicky and Luna before running her fingers across the back of the gauntlet and stepping into the Abyss.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Nudd stood in darkness. There were few things that could unsettle the old king, but being at the mercy of an Unseelie Fae’s magic was certainly one of those. There were some incantations that the Unseelie had mastered, magicks that Seelie Fae, and even those who lay somewhere in between, could not use effectively.
So instead, Nudd waited in shadow. The nauseating swirl of the Warded Ways would have been a welcome sight in that place. Instead, there was only silence and darkness, until something in the sha
dows breathed.
“Your gambit has failed in Atlantis,” a voice said.
“My Lord,” Nudd said. “It is not a failure, only a delay. The undine retrieved the Eye of Atlantis. It is exposed, almost within our grasp.”
“You were given instructions that should you summon one of the crawling chaos, you would unleash it upon the world in full. Confining it to that flesh crippled it, and led to the death of a creature of infinite age.”
“Once the weapon is retrieved from the Abyss—”
“Your weapon is lost. Your promise nearly broken. Open the gateway between worlds and let us through, or the dark touched vampires at your side will become the least of your worries.”
“Of course, my Lord. The incantation is nearly complete. Once the construction of the gate has been finished, you will be welcomed into this world.”
The voice in the darkness growled. “See that it is so, Gwynn Ap Nudd. Our Unseelie allies warned us that you were deceptive, and our patience is not infinite. See this done.”
Nudd tried to respond but no sound would come, as if the very air had been ripped from his lungs as his body was pulled back through the Unseelie gateway. He slammed onto the stone floor of his throne room, monolithic columns sweeping up beside him, and two chanting Fae standing to either side.
“Welcome back.”
Nudd struggled to his feet and made his way back up to the throne. He took two deep breaths, steadying himself, unwilling to show any crack in his façade to the Unseelie Fae. The eldritch gods thought it was Nudd who had failed to retrieve the Eye. But his plan had gone perfectly; it was the Unseelie Fae who failed.
They’d failed to penetrate Atlantis, failed to steal the Eye at the surface, and only one of them had even managed to survive. The eldritch gods promised Nudd an army to march behind his weapon. But the dark touched and the Unseelie Fae had failed again and again. Even if he succeeded, Nudd wondered if it was time to seek help elsewhere. If the time for old alliances had come and gone, or if the seals should be thrown wide, and the ancient gods of destruction loosed upon the earth once more.