by E. A. Copen
I looked down at the bloodstained metal staff in my hands. “You don’t have to do this, Beth. There’s still hope for you.”
“There was never any hope for me.” She grimaced and swung her staff at my head.
I lifted mine and caught it before she could brain me. Beth kicked at my midsection, but I twisted the staff and hit her ankle, pushing it away. I hadn’t hit her hard enough to break anything, but that had to hurt. She grimaced and made a fist.
Gnawing hunger chewed at my insides, suddenly reminding how long it had been since I’d eaten a proper meal. I doubled over, suddenly weak. Beth brought the end of her staff up and hit me hard in the chin. I staggered back a few steps and she renewed her attack before I could focus, jamming the staff hard into my ribs. She pulled her staff back and turned it so she could bring the thick, gnarled end down on my head.
Suddenly, a beautiful woman in white was in front of me, holding back Beth’s staff with her sword. Remy! She slashed up, cleaving Beth’s staff in two and then across in a perfect horizontal line that would’ve taken off Beth’s head if she hadn’t jumped back. Remy’s downward follow through slice, however, caught Beth across the chest. Beth screamed. Remy raised her sword for the finishing blow.
“No!” I shouted and pulled on Remy’s shoulder at the last second.
Remy’s sword missed, the blade digging into the wooden wall beside Beth’s head. She spun to face me, expression a mix between confusion and anger.
Beth put her hands over the bloody wound. The whole front of her was stained crimson now. “Kill me! Do it, Lazarus! I deserve it.”
I swallowed and shook my head. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t let Remy kill her, and I wasn’t going to, not when she was lying helpless on the ground and bleeding.
Remy made the choice for me. She yanked her sword out of the wooden wall and slammed the pommel into the side of Beth’s head. Beth’s eyes rolled back, and her body went limp. She was alive, but maybe not for long with the way she was bleeding.
“Come on!” Remy shouted, pulling on my arm. “We’re here to rescue someone. Go find her!”
I turned my back to Beth. There was fighting everywhere. The bodies of Valkyries and fae soldiers laid strewn all over the dance floor and the stairs. For every dead Valkyrie, there had to be ten dead fae. We had overwhelmed them by force and caught them by surprise, but it was still costing us dearly.
On the right side, I spied a way up, past the fighting on the stairs. Loki was trapped there. All I had to do was climb the stairs, kill him, and all this would be over. I ran for the stairs.
A Valkyrie stepped in my way, sneering and jabbing her spear at me. Foxglove came out of nowhere and slashed at her legs. She went down with a scream of rage. “Go!” Foxglove shouted. He was covered in blood. I hoped none of it was his. He’d only just come back from the dead. I couldn’t forgive myself if he died again.
The cut in my leg burned, but I forced myself to go up the stairs. A Valkyrie threw one of Summer’s soldiers over the banister, screaming. Another soldier stabbed her in the back. Someone else hacked at her neck, bringing her down. Puddles of blood splashed underfoot. The carpet was drenched in it.
One Valkyrie waited at the top of the stairs. She charged at me but stopped suddenly when one of Declan’s arrows found her throat. She grasped at it, and fell, gurgling.
“Just you and me now, Loki,” I said, stepping over the body.
He stepped back and gave me a knowing smirk. “Not quite.”
Something moved on my right. I spun with my staff raised and deflected a spear tip just before it stabbed me in the side. I had my staff raised, ready to swing it like a baseball bat and crush the skull of whatever Valkyrie had attacked me, but stopped suddenly when I recognized my attacker. A chill ran down my spine. “Emma?”
With a growl, she thrust the spear at me again, only this time I was too shocked by seeing her to block it.
The spear sank deep into my stomach. Time stopped. Numbness spread through my body, at odds with the icy pain throbbing in my gut. Emma jerked the spear out and the numbness retreated, filling my whole body with fresh pain. I sank to my knees with my hands over the gaping wound in my belly, able to utter only one word. “Why?”
“She can’t answer you, Lazarus.” Loki stepped in front of me to caress Emma’s cheek with the back of his hand. “She doesn’t even know who you are. Not anymore. Now she belongs to me. Just as the others do. She is my Valkyrie now, and obeys only me.”
“Bastard,” I ground out between clenched teeth. “I’ll kill you.”
“I’m afraid this type of magic isn’t so easily undone.” He smirked. “Kill me, and she’ll never get her memories back. You were warned, Lazarus. You came too late.”
Beth stomped up the stairs, a stolen sword in hand. She was bleeding from the head. She looked at me with murder in her eyes but didn’t attack, going instead to Loki’s side. “We must go.”
He nodded. “Good luck, Lazarus. I’ll be in touch with those last two names you owe me.”
Loki strode through a door on the balcony with Emma and Beth following after.
I stared after them while the battle raged all around. I’d failed. All my planning, all my hard work… I’d come at Loki with everything I had, and still the bastard managed to be one step ahead of me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Remy sent for a healer to close my wound. The mage did what she could for my body, but there was no helping the broken heart. I just kept seeing Emma’s face over and over as she stabbed me, trying to find proof that Loki was lying. She’d looked at me with absolutely no recognition. Cold. The same way she’d looked at criminals on the street. He was right. She didn’t know me. Unless I played along with Loki’s plan, she never would again.
We hadn’t even found a way to take Loki down. Attacking Loki like that wouldn’t work a second time. This time, we’d had the element of surprise on our side. He hadn’t been expecting us to show up. He’d be much more careful from now on, which meant we had to find another way.
“How are you feeling?” Remy knelt on the bloodstained floor next to me, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear.
I licked my dry lips. “Oh, I’ve had worse,” I lied. “You should’ve seen me after my fight with Kellas. This is nothing.”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t free your friend.”
I swallowed. “I’m not giving up. I can’t. Emma is…”
“She’s more than a friend, isn’t she?”
“Not anymore. I mean, she was. She really liked you. Used to sing to you.”
Remy shook her head. “I don’t remember. I wish I did, but I don’t.”
“Anyway, even if I’d been able to help her, we couldn’t be together.”
She glanced at Foxglove, who was moving among the injured, trying to assess the damage. “I understand.”
He patted one of the troops on the shoulder and looked up, nodding to Remy with a smile.
I cleared my throat. “I’m not going to stop trying to free her. Of course, now it’ll be more difficult. The police still want me. They think I did something to you and to Jessica. Detectives Codey and Drake are going to throw my ass in prison once they find out I’m back in town.”
“I may be able to help with that.” Remy wrapped her hands around mine. Her fingers still seemed so small and delicate next to mine. “I know of a good lawyer.”
“I don’t know if a lawyer will be good enough.” I shook my head.
“What evidence do they have?”
Good point. There were no bodies since Remy and Jessica hadn’t really been hurt or killed. At worst, they were going to try and pin kidnapping on me, but they couldn’t get me for kidnapping my own kid, and they couldn’t prove I did anything at all to Jess.
“Nothing,” I answered. “But there was a witness. Someone my fetch stabbed when you were taken.”
“I can have someone remove the specifics from her memory,” Remy said with a nod. “It’s a small th
ing. Painless with no side effects.”
I turned my head to look at Jessica on the floor below as she helped hand out supplies.
Remy followed my gaze and sighed. “Lazarus, we can’t stay here. On Earth. Either of us.”
My heart sank. I closed my eyes. “I was afraid of that.”
“Faerie needs me. Summer needs me. It’s my home now. This place, this city, it all feels too foreign to me. I need to be where I can do the most good, and that’s in Summer.
“What about her? Does Jessica even know she’s from Earth? That she has human parents waiting for her? Nate and Leah don’t have magic.”
Remy shook her head. “Imagine what it’s like for us. The only life we’ve ever known was in Faerie. Our childhoods here, our parents… We couldn’t function here. This world, the way it works, it’s too confusing, especially for a gentle girl like Jessica. She’s good, sweet, and kind. I fear if she were forced to come back here and live, it might kill her.”
“And she’s in love with Declan.” I nodded toward Jessica below as she embraced Declan.
Remy was right. Bringing them back into the human world after growing up in Faerie would be too much of a shock. In Faerie, they’d been protected. Here, they’d be expected to live as adults who understood the danger in the world. With no formal education, no identity, and no medical history, they wouldn’t last long before someone would take advantage of them. Their best chance at a long, happy life would be to stay in Faerie. But how was I going to break that to Nate and Leah?
“At least introduce her to her parents. Nate is a good guy, and Leah deserves to know.”
Remy nodded. “I’ll ask her if she wants to meet them.” She pulled me to my feet. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad I finally got to meet you. The real you. You’re much more of a badass than I thought you’d be.”
I smiled and pulled her into a hug. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you as you were growing up,” I said, stepping back. “I’d like to still be a part of your life now if you’d let me.”
“You’re welcome in Summer anytime.”
“No offense, but I was kind of hoping we could get together here, say once a week? I’ll buy you dinner.”
My daughter’s smile was dazzling and bright. “Absolutely.”
By dawn, I was sitting in an interrogation room at the precinct downtown, a well-dressed middle-aged guy at my side. Detective Drake sat across from me, reading a prepared apology statement while Codey scowled.
The lawyer had gotten them to drop all charges against me in record time, even the charges for my escape. On review of the security footage, she pointed out that I hadn’t made the attempt, but was kidnapped from prison where I was being held without access to counsel, which was apparently against my constitutional rights. I’d never seen the police scramble so fast to make an apology.
Leah too had recanted her testimony, saying she must’ve confused me for the person who’d come to attack her. Remy’s mind-erasing fae must’ve worked pretty quick.
“Still doesn’t mean you’re innocent,” Codey grunted when his partner lowered the paper. “We’re watching you.”
Drake turned his head. “How about some coffee, Codey?”
Codey glared at his partner a moment, then got up and stormed out of the room.
Detective Drake folded his hands on the tabletop. “I know something is going on. You did something, and sooner or later you’re going to explain everything to me. Maybe not today, but someday.”
“Will there be anything else, Detective?” asked my lawyer, standing. “Because if not, my client has a life to start putting back together.”
Drake studied me as if the answers to all his questions would pop out of my head. “No, no further questions. You’re free to go. Keep your nose clean, Lazarus.”
From the station, I caught a ride up to the hospital and met Remy and Jessica in the food court. They stood when they saw me coming.
“Is he coming?” Jessica asked, her voice practically trembling. “I’m not so sure this is a good idea. You did tell him about me, didn’t you, Mr. Kerrigan?”
I nodded and pulled out a chair for her to sit. “I called him earlier and explained it to him over the phone.”
Nate had taken the news well, considering. I tried to explain to him that time had passed differently for Jessica, practically a whole childhood in the space of a week, but he didn’t seem to understand. He asked if he should bring her diapers. I’d told him maybe flowers would be better. Nice summer flowers.
I had just ushered Jessica back into her seat when I saw Nate stop a few tables away. He held a bouquet of bright yellow daffodils in one fist. Nate scanned my face, then looked at the girls. His eyes must’ve been the size of dinner plates.
He approached the table cautiously. “Jessica?”
Jessica flashed a nervous smile. “You must be Nate.”
Nate looked at me.
“Come on, Remy. Let’s give them a minute.”
Remy and I strode away from the tables and back toward the food stalls. “They’re going to be okay,” she said, probably more to reassure herself than me.
I nodded. “What about us? How are we going to do this?”
“Officially, we’re allies with the Court of Miracles now. I’ll be talking to my advisors to verify this, but I believe that means we can come to each other’s aid if ever one of us is attacked. You and I can trade information, goods, allow our people to move freely back and forth…”
I stopped walking and turned to face her. “I mean you and me. Where do we go from here? I always thought I’d have years to get to know you. A dad is supposed to know his daughter. All I know about you is that you’re scary good with a sword, and you look better in a dress than me.”
Remy laughed. “Try on a lot of dresses, do you?” She started toward one of the stalls. “I suppose we’ll just have to get to know each other. Ask questions.”
“Do you still hate pink?”
“Despise it.”
“Cats or dogs?”
“I’m more of a cat person.”
“Chocolate or vanilla?” I nodded to the menu at the ice cream place we’d stopped in front of. Before she could answer, I grinned and added, “Hell, why not both? I owe you a couple years’ worth, don’t I?”
Remy and I collected our ice cream cones and wandered slowly back to the table, arriving just in time to see Jessica and Nate part with a hug.
“Same time next week?” I said to Remy.
“You got it.” She planted a kiss on my cheek and left to check on her friend.
Nate was shaking when he came over to me. “Leah can’t know.”
“What do you mean she can’t know? You really think it’ll be better for her to think Jessica is missing?”
Nate shook his head. “She’ll blame herself either way. This—a near grown-up Jessica—is going to be too much for her mind. It’ll break her. I can’t do that to her. She’s suffered enough.” He put his hands in his pockets and scuffed a shoe along the floor. “I can barely take it. I don’t know if I can do this anymore, Laz.”
“It’s okay. You and Jess can take it slow and—”
He shook his head. “It’s not Jessica. It’s magic. Gods. You dying every other day. I just can’t do it anymore. I’m sorry, Laz. I need…I need to walk away. Not just for me, but for my family. This went too far.”
I remembered when Beth said she wanted out. She’d walked, but I pulled her back in anyway. I couldn’t do that to Nate. If he wanted out, I had to let him go live his life and never speak to him again. That hurt, losing my best friend, but it was the right thing to do.
I nodded solemnly. “I understand.”
“We can still go fishing, though, can’t we?” he said quickly and pushed his glasses up.
I forced myself to smile and lie. “Sure, Nate.”
I left the hospital, unsure of where to go. Maybe Emma would be at her house and I could stop there to talk to her. Chances were good she wouldn�
�t be. Even if she was, she wouldn’t remember me.
I could’ve gone home, but all of Remy’s baby stuff would still be strewn around the house. I’d have to pick it all up before I could lay down and relive all the memories of things I never got to do with her. That would hurt too bad.
So, instead of checking in on Emma or going home, I took a cab out to Paula’s. It was dusk, and the soft yellow light coming through the picture glass window was a welcoming sight. Even the half-burned-out neon didn’t look so bad after the day I’d had. I grabbed the door handle and pulled it open.
The bar was packed full of regulars, but Josiah and Khaleda were there too, sitting at the bar talking to Paula. Everyone stopped chatting as soon as I stepped inside.
Josiah turned around on his stool and toasted me, drink in hand. “Looks like you survived. Am I to assume we’re good to go for phase two of our plan?”
I nodded.
“About time,” Khaleda grumbled. “I was beginning to think you’d get to have all the fun without us.”
I pulled the door to Paula’s closed behind me, sealing out the night. “Everybody gather around. We’ve got lots to talk about. And bring your glasses. The Court of Miracles is in session.”
THE END
Dark Horse
Lazarus Codex Book Nine
Chapter One
It was the hottest day on record in New Orleans, the power was out, and some asshole was knocking on my door.
The first three things I realized as I woke up from my alcohol-induced nap didn’t seem to have anything in common until I sat up and peeled yesterday’s paper off my face. The headline urged folks to turn their air conditioners down just a few degrees to ease the pull on the city’s power stations and prevent the brownouts rolling through the city all week. Guess nobody listened, because the brownout had become a blackout. Not even the ceiling fan was still running. What that had to do with the impatient pounding on the front door was anybody’s guess.