Interesting. Paige focused on what he said. A territory they could rule? “Where are you going to go? Canada? There is no unclaimed land in the U.S.”
“Nor in the world,” Hadwin said, turning toward her. “But were we to secede, we would no longer need to worry about the Federal government. We’d have a country of our own.”
“Secede—” What? Paige’s brain just…stopped.
The man who owned the place—
Brack Waugh. Cawli filled in information as she looked at the gathering. He’s a dragon shifter and leader of the mythos.
Mythos? One day, he was going to have to tell her the difference between mythos and ancients. But now wasn’t the time.
Brack nodded. “Many of us would lose investments. Properties.”
“We’d gain new ones,” Kendall said.
“What of the dryads?” Paige asked. They claimed entire forests. Uprooting was hard on the grove.
“Or the fae?” the fairy queen asked, nodding with respect in Paige’s direction.
“Or anyone bloody else?” Duglas demanded. “This is our home.”
Kendall stared him in the eye and shook her head. “Not any longer. The only question you have to ask yourselves is how do you wish to live?”
Secession wasn’t a light topic. It would invite civil war—
Maybe not.
Other states had tried to secede and there’d been no war.
But they’d also failed. “Who do we have who can research the reality of this?”
Brack opened his mouth to speak but the door crashed open and Daenys stumbled through, blue blood trickling down her front.
Brack’s butler came into the room, calmly stating, “The elf queen has arrived, sir.”
A dozen other elves, equally bleeding and battered filled the room.
The butler looked over at Brack, his hands folded in front of him. “Should I start a pot of tea?”
These people were ridiculous.
17
Paige stood shocked as her attendants helped her to one of the couches.
Brack didn’t even complain about the blood. He nodded at his butler who disappeared and watched as Daenys settled herself. She recovered herself way faster than Paige would have.
He is very old, Cawli said.
Whatever that meant.
Paige went to the couch too, getting a better look at the queen. Elves were powerful. Very powerful. And hidden in Underhill.
Eldora went to one of the other elves. Merry went to another and the two of them helped the wounded in only ways that witches could.
Which, okay, Paige could be doing too. But it felt like her other skills were needed here. “What happened?”
“We were attacked,” Daenys said harshly, blue spittle flying.
“What did you think would happen when you ran like cowards?” the fairy queen demanded, stepping into view, her hands fisted on either side of her.
“I was trying to protect my people. What would you know of that, Llyntomi?”
Well, that certainly sounded like a raging cat fight of entertainment, but they didn’t have time for popcorn. “Where your people?”
“Our fortress,” Daenys said, expelling a long breath.
“Who did this?” Paige was hoping she’d get particulars on where the fortress was later.
“DoDO.”
“How?” Llyntomi asked derisively. “You hide Underhill.”
Daenys stared up at the other queen, her green eyes filled with sorrow. “Not as hidden as we thought. They came with doors.”
Eldora whipped her head around. “What?”
Right. Paige hadn’t gotten to that part yet. “They have door magick of some kind.”
“How?” Eldora demanded.
Paige shrugged. “I don’t know all the particulars, but they’re mages. They use ley lines.”
A dark realization crashed over Brack’s features. He rose to his feet as the butler came in with tea. “Gather everyone,” he told the man.
The butler set down the tea calmly. “What should I say is reason?”
“Mages,” Brack growled.
The butler blinked, but no other real emotion flitted across his face. “Drink your tea, sir.” And then he left.
“I take it you’ve had run-ins with their kind before,” Paige said dryly.
Brack glanced at his sons briefly and nodded. “You and I are going to have a discussion about your wards because if they truly are mages, then they aren’t enough.”
Well, that was mildly interesting.
The next few minutes was all about getting information from Daenys with the help of her deep enemy Llyntomi. Those two mixed worse than oil and water.
It didn’t look or sound good.
Daenys no longer had control of the door leading to Underhill. Somehow, DoDO mages had cut her off. She’d barely been able to get a door open to them, and the only way she’d managed that was with the help of one of Eldora’s pendants.
Paige fingered the pendant Merry had given her. There was a wealth of information both those old witches had that could come in handy.
She’d have to send Leah to learn. And try to learn herself.
Chuck came to stand next to Paige. “You’re the face of this. What do you want to do?”
Paige didn’t know exactly what she wanted to do… “I want to get over there, open a few doors, get as many people out of the immediate danger zone as we can and root DoDO out like termites.”
Chuck nodded. “How?”
Paige turned to Eldora. “How many doors can we open?”
“If you can open one, then we have two.”
“And the amulet that Daenys has?”
“Was good for one door.”
That was unfortunate. “What about—”
Eldora shook her head. “I am not sacrificing my family to save deserters.”
Paige wanted to be upset with that, but it was a fair statement. She turned to Daenys. “Underhill is massive.”
The elf queen nodded.
Paige also kinda remembered stories of other kingdoms and a big wooded area or something? “Are there places your people can hide until you return?”
She nodded again.
They couldn’t extract. They didn’t have those kinds of resources. But maybe—just maybe—they could relocate. She Turned to Eldora and Merry.. We set up doors around the area, protect them with wards—no matter what Brack says—and then leave instructions for others to find us as they can. “
Merry quirked her brow. “That’s your plan?”
“In a nutshell, yes.” Why did Merry make her feel like a stupid little girl?
Daenys clamped her pink lips shut tight, her green eyes narrowed. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Paige didn’t know anything about elves. They looked a lot like people to her. “Thank me when we’ve done something good.”
Maybe she’d be learning before Leah. “Eldora? Teach me door magick?”
Eldora rose to her considerable short stature. “If had come to me sooner– no matter. You’re here now.”
Eldora taught Paige to open a door, mostly.
Paige tried to pick it up quickly, really she did. She would up more listening to her grumble about how she was a terrible student. Alma had said the same thing. Repeatedly and with a lot more curse words. Eldora was short, but she still managed to pack a punch with her tongue even without cursing.
”It’s location. It’s fighting me.” She just couldn’t figure it out in her head what that felt like. When she cast a location spell, she could usually get a really great sense of location—if the spell even worked, which it didn’t always. But this time, “It’s like there’s something interfering, like a static of some sort.”
She fought that static, pulling and twisting at the interference and the earth rumbled.
Eldora shot her a look. ”What exactly do you think you’re doing?
&n
bsp; “Um.” She hadn’t called on earth or on fire, so she didn’t know. “Sorry?”
“Feel the land. The plants the trees, the animals, the sky, earth, all of it. Listen.”
She closed her eyes and found her center. She stopped fighting the static and just tried to listen better. She eventually caught a very pale glimmer of what Eldora said she needed.
Opening the door wasn’t anything special. She’d done this a hundred times when sending demons back to Hell. She just hadn’t realized this was what she’d been doing.
Stepping through her own door, though. That was a trip that made her dizzy. For a brief moment, she was literally in two places at once—maybe three if she counted the place the door stood as a third?
When she stepped through, though, it was…
War. Elves ran, fought and died.
DoDO surged forward, fell back and died.
This place didn’t have sun, but there was light. Vines were everywhere—on the ground, in the trees, overhead. The buildings were built out of the vines and the buildings were immense. They made the downtowns of the human world pale in comparison.
It looked like a more impressive version of that elvish city in Lord of the Rings. The one with the dark hair, not the white headed chick. Yeah. Okay. She wasn’t a Lord of the Rings fan.
Paige wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do exactly. Well, no. She had the plan. She realized now that it was a mildly crappy plan that didn’t take into account the fact that they’d be stepping into a war zone.
“Mom!” Leah shouted behind her.
What the fuck? Paige spun on her heel and stared at her daughter and Tyler in horror. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Eldora waved her off as she turned to her small army of Blackman witches and started giving them orders.
Leah had the audacity to ignore Paige and head over to listen to Eldora!
No. Nonononono. That was unacceptable.
Paige marched over to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to tell her to go home.
The girl turned to her, her face full of gritty resolve and just stared her down like an alpha would.
There was no alpha push. It was a hundred percent Whiskey stubbornness, and it hit Paige right in the gut.
She swallowed, realizing that her kid was starting to become an adult. She didn’t want her to, not here. But where? They were heading into war and shielding her from that wouldn’t do any of them any good. “Tell me the twins didn’t follow.”
Leah smiled. “Tyler did but we made everyone else stay at home.”
Well, at least there was that. Paige turned to Tyler. “You make sure that Lee is safe while she’s focusing on the door. Help as many as you can, but when you’re pushed—and you will be—” Blessed Mother, she was a terrible aunt and mother. “—you protect Lee. She’s the least experienced out here.”
Eldora sighed after sending the others off. “Not the least, but certainly one of them. Come. You’re with me,” she told the Whiskey kids before looking at Paige. “Go do your—” She waved her hand around. “—thing.”
Right. Whatever that was.
She knew what that was. And it was time to remind everyone else, too. She had unique abilities and some unique approaches to handling situations like this.
She reached for her magick, her hands zipping out like arrows with lines attached to them and grabbed two DoDO agents. Before she realized what she was doing, a door was opened and they were pushed through.
To Hell.
Yeah. She’d just sent them to hell. It was like dialing the Stargate with the only address she really knew.
Eldora was right. She needed to practice this.
But not now.
The noise overwhelmed her and focused her. That was something a lot of people didn’t talk about. The fact that in all that noise, a person struggled to hear things, and could hear a pin drop next to the at the same time. The outside noise was so overwhelming, but that something inside the brain flipped and made it easier to remain alive somehow.
People screamed and shouted and roared and generally made a lot of noise.
Bullets were flying everywhere. The DoDO agents really didn’t have a problem using semi-automatics.
On people who only had clouds and air to defend themselves with.
There were a lot of dead elves lying on the ground of all ages. Many more who were wounded and not dead and in a worse state, their faces twisted as they tried to figure out how they were going to stay alive, or as they reached toward someone they obviously cared about and were trying to help them stay alive.
Paige had to tune all of that out. She couldn’t afford to become emotionally invested in anyone, no matter how hard it was to step over the form of a toddler wounded and crying in the street. If she stopped to help that toddler—and he wasn’t alone—then others would be much worse off.
That one act was going to haunt her. She knew that. She emotionally pushed the immediate impact away, but she knew it’d raise its head.
Later.
And that was fine. It was the price she would pay.
Her witch hands pulled DoDO agents through the gates to Hell as quickly as she could. And while she was doing that, she called on the elements and used them to push other agents back, sending them toppling, giving the people being mowed down by the bullet spray a chance to recover, to gather their people and flee.
It focused the attention of the agents on her.
Good for the elves.
Bad for her.
She wasn’t alone for long. She’d barely had a chance to throw a few tornadoes—yes. She was throwing tornadoes at these guys. When had that ever been at thing? She didn’t know, but she wasn’t going to stop and ask, either,—at the agents when a few dozen elves scrambled to fight beside her, throwing their own magicks at the agents.
Their magicks were different as well. They were combinations of elements, much like the tornadoes which were a mix of water and air and fire. The elves didn’t simply use air. They used air and fire, or water and earth.
The tides were turning.
One DoDO agent stepped out from the rest and held up his hand, telling his agents to stop. He stared at Paige as both sides entered into the temporary cease fire. “Ms. Whiskey. What a surprise.”
Paige didn’t know to the agent. They all looked alike with the riot gear on. The only person she’d ever known in the DoDO was Mario, and she was starting to get the impression that he wasn’t that high on the totem pole.
The man smiled a sick smile. “You shouldn’t have come, though.”
“That’s what all the bullies say.” She was a little surprised that he didn’t ask where his people were being sent.
She hoped that it didn’t mean that they had ways of just opening new doors and coming back, but she didn’t know why she would hope that. They had door magick, too. But their doors worked differently. If their magick was tied to ley lines, then maybe they could just come out of Hell without a scratch. No problem.
That was a problem for her. She needed them to remain in Hell for as long as she could keep them there.
“This isn’t a war you can win.” He looked around him as doors opened all over and more DoDO agents poured through.
Oh, shit. Time to get out of there.
“We have the advantage,” he said with his cold, sickly smile. “And the President will be so pleased when I hand her your head on a platter.”
It was rather unlikely that he was going to get that chance.
“Retreat,” she said in a low growl.
The elves with her didn’t balk. They retreated, shouting in their own language as they moved.
They didn’t move to help. They just fought with everything they had.
Paige stepped over the toddler again, but this time—she couldn’t help it—she opened a door underneath them with the location of home and let them fall through. She didn’t know if it would work.
She didn’t know if they would make it. Others fell through with them in the short span the door was open. It didn’t work great. Doors to Hell? Sure. Doors to anywhere else?
Not so great.
And while she’d been focused on that, she’d let a few agents slip past their lines.
Their bullets hit hard.
She knew she’d been hit. That was all that made it through her focus. She put her magick back into place. She pushed. She hit. She opened doors to Hell and shoved as many people through as she could.
They weren’t going to make it though. That was clear.
There were too many dead. Too many wounded. Too many DoDO agents. The original plan would have been okay if she hadn’t forced DoDO to call in reinforcements.
Paige had just handed DoDO the elven fortress.
18
Paige sent out a hurricane gale force wind, sending DoDO agents flying backwards. Some crashed into the walls of vines and toppled through. She’d never wished so hard for concrete in her life. With concrete, their bodies would have broken at least a little.
More elves joined them.
Eldora came behind her and shouted in her ear, “Move back. We’re spread too thin.”
“Retreat and close the doors behind you,” Paige shouted back.
Eldora disappeared, hopefully to spread the word.
Paige needed to keep the main focus there on her. Not great for Leah and Tyler and anyone else who was stuck behind them. But…
Better for the rest of the elven city. They could still escape. Underhill was massive. They could get into the woods. They could hide in other areas. But the fortress or city or whatever was lost.
Super Douche, which was what she was calling the leader, was getting upset. Each time he advanced with his bullets and his artillery thinking he’d get the advantage, the more he lost ground.
That surprised her too.
Until his mages put their semi-automatics down—or let them hang from slings—and took up their magick instead.
This was the first time Paige got to experience their mage magick.
And it wasn’t awesome.
Whiskey Storm Page 15