by Eric Asher
The guard at the far side of the room raised his rifle and pointed at me.
“I didn’t!”
The screams of the dying fairy filled the room, cutting off any chance of an immediate conversation. I stared at the guard, at the weapon leveled at me. Park shouted something I couldn’t hear, while the shrieks of the dying clawed at my eardrums. A darkness flickered through the shadows, and what had a moment before been a man with a gun became a man pinned to the floor with a dragon standing on his back.
Park backpedaled. Jasper roared and thrashed his head from side to side. It was the first sound that eclipsed the dying fairy. The soldier tried to curl into a ball when Jasper raised his foot from his back. The dragon stepped on the M-16 with his talons, and the gun fell into three distinct pieces. A moment later, the dragon vanished into the shadows.
Park stared slack-jawed at the uninjured soldier, the fractured gun, the remaining armor of the dead fairy, and me as the fairy’s dying wail faded away. “What the fuck just happened?”
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Okay,” he said. “How about the dragon? Why in the hell was there a dragon in here?”
“Because my friend didn’t think this through?” I said, slowly turning to the doorway where Vicky was standing with her arms crossed.
“I didn’t tell him to do that. It’s not like Jasper would just stand here, waiting for you to get shot.”
“Furball,” I said. “Get out here.”
The shadows in the corner shifted, and a small gray ball of fur rolled toward me until it reached my foot. I bent down to pick him up.
“While I appreciate your help, these are our friends.”
Jasper trilled, before turning a deep red.
“He wasn’t going to shoot. He was only doing his job. Don’t eat him.”
Jasper bared his teeth.
Aideen fluttered over Vicky’s head, and Zola pushed in behind the girl.
“What happened?” Zola asked. “Are you sure you didn’t kill her?”
I gave one quick nod. “Hell no. I didn’t even draw blood, but I couldn’t tell you what the hell happened.”
“She was possessed,” Aideen said.
Park frowned. “Are you talking about exorcist shit?”
Zola shook her head. “Not a demon. She was controlled by another Fae. The true spy could be in Falias, though Ah thought that magic was forbidden among fairies.”
Aideen grimaced. “The Unseelie Fae have a way of excusing any means, if the ends justify it. I have not seen such a clean possession in a very long time. Many parts of Faerie are warded against such magicks.”
“We aren’t in Faerie,” I said, Aideen’s words weighing on me.
“I know. The chaos this type of magic can breed is incalculable. It can be used as both a weapon, and an excuse. What concerns me more is the sheer power it must take to reach and stay with a body who was gone so deeply underground.”
“There are a great many ley lines here,” Zola said. “Would it not ease the difficulty of that magic if they were stationed beside one, or perhaps within one?”
Aideen nodded. “Zola, I thought you were just trying to get under her skin when you asked if she was an acolyte. Did you or Damian realize how much power she held?”
Zola shook her head.
“No,” I said. “But if we’re certain Drake is who he says he is, couldn’t more of the powers from that time have surfaced in this world?”
Aideen looked down at the vacant armor of the dead fairy. “I fear what that might mean.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I turned back to Park. “Take me to Foster and Sam.”
Park ran a hand through his hair. “They’re in detainment. They aren’t … She didn’t lie about that part. I’ll take you to them, but I can’t release them without being court-martialed. Then we all lose.” Park hesitated, and his voice quieted. “We haven’t confirmed with all of our bases yet, but at least some of our nukes are missing.”
“Ah believe that even if only one was missing it would be considered a crisis,” Zola said. “But I suspect the entire stockpile has gone missing …”
“Nudd’s been playing nice so he could get his spies in place.” I looked back to the private huddled in the corner of the room. “He’s in shock.”
Park glanced at the private. “Casper, get him down to the infirmary, and meet us in the cells.”
Casper nodded. Some of her formality had fled, and the only other time I’d really seen that was in the heat of a conflict. But maybe that’s where we were. Maybe that’s all they saw. Me, murdering the prisoner.
I ground my teeth together. Some lines were blurred in our alliance, and I prayed they wouldn’t become a breaking point. I needed to keep my temper in check. Three deep breaths brought the throbbing pulse in my ears back down.
Park led us into a hallway before opening a well-hidden door in the stone. The rocky surface swung open silently, and we followed him down a winding metal staircase.
“Don’t you have an elevator?” Vicky asked.
“We do,” Park said. “But it’s on the other side of the bunker, and it’s a long walk to get to it.”
“Girl,” Zola said. “You’re far too young to be complaining about stairs. Get another hundred years on those bones, and then you can come talk to me.”
Park hesitated for a moment before he shook his head and continued down the stairs.
I was beginning to wonder just how deep the stairwell went when we finally came to the end. It had to have been at least three or four stories beneath the earth.
Park glanced back at me. “There’s something else I haven’t told you. I don’t know if you already knew or not. There are some very old ruins under this land.”
“There are ruins across much of the state,” Zola said. “Civilizations have come and gone, and been driven out and slaughtered.”
Park nodded. “That may be, but not like this.”
He pulled the door open, and I glimpsed the golden stone lining the hall before us. At first, I thought Aeros might have arranged the rocks, and perhaps helped straighten them out or cleared the way of dirt and mud, but I’d never seen him build anything like this. Massive stones, ground down and polished until they almost shone. It was like marble, but there was only one place I’d seen stone like it. The Royal Courts of Faerie.
My voice came out a mix of awe and confusion. “What the hell is this?”
“I was hoping one of you could tell me,” Park said, gesturing to the walls. “A section of it was a prison of some sort. We added some bars, and UV lights for the vampires, but the rest was already here.”
Aideen’s curiosity soured. She glared up at Park. “You locked Foster away in this place?”
“He’s safe,” Park said, but his eyes flashed between Aideen and the hall. I didn’t miss the crease in his brow, and worry warred with anger in my gut again.
Aideen’s lips curled into a snarl, and her hand moved toward the hilt of her sword. She stormed off down the hallway, exploding into her full-size form a second later, a glittering shower of fairy dust sparkling in the light that I now realized was emanating from the walls.
She pushed past Park, leaving a thin layer of fairy dust smeared across his uniform.
I let my vision slip, focusing on the energy around us, and the dead. I didn’t stifle the gasp when I realized what was flowing right through the place.
“Aideen,” I said, calling to her retreating form. “We’re standing in one of the biggest ley lines I’ve ever seen.”
“Of course we are,” she said. “How else would the Mad King have sent a piece of Faerie into another world?”
My easy gait faltered. So it didn’t just look like the stone I’d seen in the Royal Courts. This place was of Faerie, and I wondered, was it a piece of the courts themselves? But if the Mad King had sent that, it meant this place had been beneath the earth of Missouri for millennia.
“It is part of the prison at Gorias,” Aide
en growled. “Meant to house war criminals, kingslayers, and the thieves of children. This is not a place for the Demon Sword.”
Park started to say something, but Aideen took a sharp turn, before taking two more and leading us down a narrow hallway.
“How do you know your way through here?” Park asked.
“Because I was here, when it was still part of Gorias. I locked monsters away in this place. Those we couldn’t kill, or those who were awaiting their date in the Court.”
I blew out a breath and turned toward Park. “A long time ago, this place used to be in Faerie. Two or three millennia back, they had a war with their king, the one you heard them refer to as the Mad King. He had the ability to create portals, and he owned the hand of glory before I did. Before Philip did.”
“So, Gettysburg wasn’t the first time someone pulled something through from Faerie,” Park said.
“Apparently not,” Aideen said, coming to a stop before an iron-barred cell. It wasn’t simply a cell, though. The bars ran across the floor and ceiling as well, looking like they’d been knotted into squared-off spirals. Even something as small as a fairy would have a hard time negotiating through them to escape. Unless they were ironborn, the touch of that metal could kill.
In the back of that tangled mass of metal was a tiny platform made of wood. And on that platform lay the unmoving form of my friend.
Concern and dread boiled up in my gut. “What’s wrong with him?”
But a second before that dread turned to rage, Foster ripped a massive snore.
I blinked at the fairy, wondering how such a thunderous noise could come from such a tiny body.
Aideen breathed a sigh of relief. “He needs more space than that. At least get a larger piece of wood.”
Park nodded. “I’ll see to it.”
“A larger piece of wood?” Vicky asked. “They should be letting him out. Jasper could get him out.”
“No,” Aideen said. She gave Vicky a small smile before nodding to Park.
Vicky’s lips twitched into a frown. “Why?”
Jasper chittered on Vicky’s shoulder, and I had little doubt he was wondering the same thing.
“Because our alliance is fragile,” Aideen said.
“What does that matter?” Vicky didn’t hide the blatant tone of irritation in her voice. “We’re less vulnerable without anyone holding us back.”
“In some ways,” Aideen said. “But we share this world now. It is not right for the Fae to rule the commoners.”
Park nodded slowly. “And humans can get rather violent about that sort of thing. It’s best to keep what alliances you have. You never know when you’ll need them.”
Vicky rolled her eyes. “Oh gods, he sounds like Carter.”
I barked out a laugh, thinking about what kind of conversations that old wolf must’ve had with Vicky when they were running in the Ghost Pack.
Park typed something into his phone. “They’ll have a bigger platform down here for him shortly. I’m sorry, Aideen. I didn’t realize.”
She nodded. I half expected her to give Park some kind of verbal forgiveness, or indicate her understanding, but all he got was the nod. I wondered if he knew her well enough at that point to understand how angry she was. And how angry she had a right to be.
The thought sobered me. “Where’s Sam?”
“Down here,” a familiar voice rasped. The hot glow in the old stones around us was enough to create a dim reflection on Frank’s bald head. His voice was gruff, but he didn’t sound stressed.
Frank’s words grew more heated and his hands balled into fists. “Look at what they’ve done to her.”
“Frank,” Park said. “I told you, no one will hurt her.”
I squeezed Frank’s shoulder and then pushed past Park. I was done listening to excuses and concerns for our alliance once I heard the fear picking at Frank’s voice. I jogged down the hall, Jasper now rolling beside me, having left Vicky behind.
Sam huddled in the back of the cell. A small travel umbrella was opened above her head, reflecting the harsh light of the ultraviolet assembly. The lamps looked more like a cannon.
“Damian’s here,” Frank said.
Sam cursed under her breath. “I’m fine, Demon. Don’t kill anybody.”
“Fine?” My voice cracking with rage, unable to keep the words from turning into a growl. “Fine! You’re locked in a dungeon of a lost city, dead in the middle of a ley line. You might be many things, but you’re not fine.”
Sam tilted the umbrella back a hair. “I’m good enough. Don’t attack them. I can do this, Demon.” Jasper rolled toward the gate, but he stopped outside the bars. His black eyes roved up and down them, focusing on the lamps in the corner.
“I’m fine.” She held her hand out as if asking Jasper to stop. Her flesh was blistered. She’d sustained more damage than I’d ever seen the sun inflict on her. Whatever these lights were, they were damned powerful.
I slowly turned to Park. He hesitated when he met my eyes, but instead of turning away, or trying to make excuses, he hurried to the cell. I watched him as he looked inside, as Sam lowered the umbrella a bit more, revealing her blistered cheek and a blood-red eye.
Park exploded with a string of curses. “I don’t know who the fuck did this, but they’re done. I will end them.”
Vicky caught up with us, and her breath hitched when she saw Sam.
I ground my teeth and bit off my words. “Jasper, take out the lamps.”
Before anyone could protest, a jet of blue fire exploded from the furball, and a moment later, the UV lamps fell to the floor as so much slag.
Sam let the umbrella fall and looked up at Vicky. “I’m fine, kid. For now, just … trust me.” Sam waited a beat, and when no one moved, she turned her head toward me. “Okay?”
The muscles of my jaw flexed, but I nodded.
“Let me heal you,” Aideen said.
Sam shook her head. “Stay away from the bars. I’m good.”
Zola had been watching silently. She cracked her knobby old cane on the floor with a brutal strike. Everyone turned to look at her.
“Ah don’t know what this game is, First Sergeant Park. You have earned our trust, and I hope we have earned yours. But this …” she said with a nod toward Sam. “This is cruel. If you tortured a human like this, you’d be held accountable in the highest courts. You’d be branded a traitor. And a very long time ago, in an age Ah sometimes do not care to remember, the only ones who sank this low ran slaves.”
“Zola …” Park started, cringing under her gaze.
Zola held up her hand. “No. If you intend to torture supernaturals, or enslave them, you’re no better than Nudd.”
“It wasn’t my doing,” Park said through gritted teeth. “Some things are above my ability to control.”
“I suppose you were only following orders,” Zola said, and her voice held a weight that spoke worlds.
Vicky stepped closer to the old Cajun. “We can’t leave them here.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Sam said.
Vicky’s brow creased, and she shook her head.
Aideen’s wings sagged a little. If I hadn’t known her so long, I might not have noticed. “Sam is right, little one. Our alliance is young, and while not everyone is on our side, Park and his people are. Give them a chance to resolve it promptly.” She eyed Park, who nodded once.
“Go,” Sam said. “Frank is here. We have friends here.”
Frank grunted.
Vicky wrapped her right hand around one of the bars and leaned in toward Sam. “This is bullshit. You change your mind, these won’t stop me.”
Sam smiled up at Vicky. “It’s good to see you, kid.”
Aideen didn’t hesitate. “Now, make for Falias. We need to speak with our allies there and take stock of the situation. I doubt it was a coincidence Nudd held the press conference before the eastern gates.”
I patted Frank on the shoulder and looked into Sam’s cell. “If the
situation changes, you let me know.”
She nodded and leaned back into the wall.
I turned away from the cell, trying to wipe the vision of Sam and Foster behind bars from my mind, an exercise in futility. “Vicky, you’re coming with us. I’d feel safer knowing you’re not taking Jasper for another joyride.”
“Next time, answer your phone,” Vicky said.
Sam let out a weak chuckle from her cell. “Go. Tell me what you find. Get me out of here, Damian.”
“I will.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
We returned to the entrance to the archives. Casper had rejoined Park as we exited the hallway with the cells. Seeing where they’d imprisoned Foster and Sam had fractured my confidence. I took two slow breaths to calm the rising rage.
Casper eyed me, hesitating before she asked, “What next?”
“Falias,” Aideen said, back in her smaller form and perched on Zola’s shoulder. “We have allies there. They may have information we desperately need.”
“What do you need from us?”
“Get our people out,” I said, “and make sure they aren’t tortured in the meantime.”
Zola drummed her fingertips on the head of her cane. “Ah think what Ah’d recommend is using that seeing stone to ferret out any more spies among your ranks. You are clearly not so secure as you thought.”
Park nodded. “That’s a good call. Casper, organize an inspection. You’ll either find more people who are possessed, or those who don’t show up will tell us as much.”
“I could stay and help them,” Vicky said.
I shook my head. “You’ll have more fun with us, kid. Unless you think Drake’s going to attack them again?” I raised an eyebrow.
“How could I know that?” Vicky asked. “I don’t think he would, but fairies are weird.”
Zola let out a slow laugh. “Not all fairies, girl.”
“We’ll take the Warded Ways by the old church,” Aideen said. “It’ll take less power, and I’d like to conserve as much as I can for our arrival in Falias.”
“Expecting trouble?” Casper asked.