The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3

by J. A. Cipriano

  “It’s my job. I’m the god of war and fertility. You know that.” Sobek shook his head and sighed. Very slowly, he stood and pulled Taweret to her feet. The giant hippo swayed for a moment, her enormous belly straining against the mu-mu.

  “I know, but I’m just done being pregnant. I’m ready for this baby to get out of me. I can’t even fit into any of my clothes. I’m like a beached whale,” she cried and threw herself against Sobek in a flood of tears.

  “Aren’t you the Egyptian pregnancy deity?” I asked, and they both turned to look at me.

  “Sort of… not really,” Taweret said, looking at me and wiping a tear from her eye with one clawed hand.

  I shook my head. “Okay… but haven’t you been pregnant for like five thousand years?”

  “Yes, and I’m tired of it.” She swallowed a sob and rubbed at her stomach. “You humans whine about nine months, try carrying this around for five millennia and see how you like it.”

  “Sweetie, we’ve been through this,” Sobek said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “It’s not really in the cards for you to give birth.”

  Taweret dropped her head and made a mewling sound. “I know.”

  “How about I take you home and get you some chocolate?” he asked.

  “Okay. But I want french fries too.” Her eyes got huge and pleading as she said the words.

  “I can manage that.” He grinned at her, and she put her head against his shoulder. There was a flash of light, and the wound she inflicted earlier just healed over. One second blood was dripping down his left arm and the next moment he was perfectly fine.

  “With extra salt?” she asked with a sniff.

  “You know the doctors said you have to watch your salt,” Sobek replied in a voice entirely too comforting to be coming from a crocodile. “But I’m sure it will be fine this one time.”

  She grinned up at him, and the look she gave him made my heart twist up. I’m not quite sure why, but my eyes teared up a little. I must have gotten some dust in them or something. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, which was when I noticed the hilts of Shirajirashii. The snakes… were gone.

  Sobek glanced at me and shook his head. “I need to end this quickly,” he said, shoving Taweret behind him and taking an ominous step toward me.

  “Sobek!” Taweret screamed as Apep burst from, well, everywhere. His skin gleamed like oil as his body unfurled itself, impossibly huge even in the opaque emptiness of the white. Apep’s head reared back, hood huge against the black backdrop, tongue snaking out of his enormous mouth to taste the air.

  Apep darted forward at Taweret, huge fangs gleaming as froth spilled from his lips. Sobek snarled, leaping between the two of them in an instant, khopesh slicing through the air… and passing straight through Apep. The big snake’s tail whipped out, wrapping around Sobek and hoisted him into the air.

  “Flee, tiny god!” Apep snarled, voice like the noise that wakes you in the middle of the night. “Flee and I won’t crush your beloved.”

  Sobek swallowed, the sound of it so loud that I could hear it from where I was standing a few meters away. “No!” Sobek cried. Apep’s tail flexed, cinching down on him. The sound of shrieking metal filled the air.

  “No or yes?” Apep asked, flicking his head toward Taweret. Thousands of shadowy creatures pulled themselves from the ground around us, clenching and unclenching their claws. Their red eyes glowed like the pit of Hell itself and sizzling goo dripped from their fangs as they circled. Their features seemed to swirl, never quite becoming visible as they swarmed over Taweret, burying her beneath a heaving mass of snarling bodies.

  “Well? What is it going to be Sobek?” Apep asked.

  Sobek grunted, eyes bugging out as the muscles in Apep’s body contracted.

  “I can’t hear you, crocodile. Speak so that we may hear you and know your cowardice.”

  “Spare her!” Sobek cried, voice cracking part way. “Spare her, and I will leave!”

  “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Apep replied, releasing Sobek with a flick of his tail. The crocodile god smacked into the white with an empty thump as the shadow-creatures vanished.

  Sobek’s clawed hands clenched in fury as he stood and limped toward Taweret’s fallen form. Blood covered her body, dripping from numerous tiny wounds.

  “You will pay for this, Apep!” Sobek snarled, but he was looking right at me, reptilian eyes boring into my soul. My heart sped up, leaping against the inside of my chest like a crazed rabbit. Sobek snatched Taweret’s hand, and with a flash of light, they were gone.

  Apep turned toward me and grinned, which was weird on the face of a thousand meter long serpent. “They always say that, don’t be worried,” Apep replied before disintegrating into formless black smoke. The twin swords of Shirajirashii throbbed once, the handles returning to normal as the smoke wrapped itself around them.

  I stood there alone in the empty void of Hankyouran Shinibana and sighed.

  “That was a dirty trick even for you guys,” I said, feeling bad for Taweret as the white fell apart around me, shattering like an eggshell. “I can’t believe you summoned his ancient hormonal girlfriend just so you could attack her.”

  There was a loud cheer from behind me, and I turned to find myself standing in the dry bed of the lagoon. Evidently, without Sobek here to animate the thing with his power, the pool dried up. The denizens of Fairy were on their feet cheering and laughing as they rushed toward me.

  “How’d you do that? One minute you were both standing there looking at each other. Then he just left…” Kishi said, awe leaking into her voice as she spoke. The only problem was, I couldn’t quite figure out why she was so impressed if she hadn’t seen what had happened inside the actual spell.

  “Hankyouran Shinibana has the power to show you what you fear the most. Evidently, even Sobek has something to fear,” Warthor Ein said glancing at her over his shoulder as he put one hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay, Lillim?”

  “Yeah I’m fi—”

  19

  “Ow! Stop doing that! It hurts,” I yelled, my eyes fluttering open to see Mattoc’s face hovering just a few inches above mine.

  “Oh, so you’re awake?” Mattoc asked, his face a mask of annoyance. “It’s about damn time. Just because you collapsed on the battlefield after taking a spear through the chest is no reason to be napping.”

  I turned my head to glare at him because that seemed like a perfect reason to nap. Pain shot through my body as he came into view.

  Mattoc stood next to me, one finger extended slightly above my chest. I was in a room with golden walls, and, as near as I could tell, was lying on a bed. I tried to sit up, but it hurt so much, I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming.

  “Be careful. You’ve been unconscious for a couple days, and even with fairy magic, it’s going to take time to heal a gaping chest wound,” Mattoc said, reaching out to help me ease into a sitting position. “Let me say that again. Gaping chest wound. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “This?” I said, tapping the bandage covering the right side of my chest. Just touching it hurt enough to make spots dance past my eyes. “This is barely a flesh wound,” I finished through clenched teeth.

  “Even if it’s a paper cut, you still need to rest and let it heal. If you don’t, you’re likely to permanently injure yourself in a bad way. Hell, you’re lucky you didn’t anyway.” Mattoc looked away from me in an effort to hide the concern etched onto his face and ran one hand back through his short, black hair. “Have you even used Hankyouran Shinibana before, at all?” He shook his head. “Even Dirge only used Hankyouran Shinibana a couple times in actual battles, and she’d practiced it lots of times. I don’t recall you so much as trying it once.”

  “Well no,” I said sheepishly. To be fair, I had only been able to do the spell because I remembered Dirge using it before. Like most of the powers she gained with Shirajirashii, I hadn’t really used many of them… ever.

  “If you’re
going to cast spells like Hankyouran Shinibana, you need to practice them first. You need to spend some time with those swords if you’re going to keep pulling out moves like that.” Mattoc’s voice was firm now, like a teacher reprimanding a disobedient student.

  “They scare me, okay? Using that kind of power is what killed Dirge. I don’t want to go out that way. I don’t want to explode in the night because I was practicing some new move,” I cried, pushing myself toward him. The movement made my chest feel like a thousand fire ants decided to gnaw at my flesh.

  “Using that kind of power is not what killed Dirge. You using that power without practicing is much more likely to kill you. I swear to god, I am this close to telling your mother to just take your swords away and lock you in a deep, dark hole until you grow up.” He was glaring at me now, dark gray eyes twisted in fury that I didn’t quite understand.

  I forced myself to meet his gaze and took a deep breath. Pain surged through my body again, but I was getting used to it, and I threw a mental shield around the throbbing, gut-wrenching agony. I put up wall after wall inside my head, shutting out the wound entirely until it was little more than a dull ache.

  “I don’t see why you care so much,” I snarled and tried to push him, but he stepped to the side and seized my wrist. The chill of his touch traveled down my arm like a bucket of ice water.

  “I don’t want to die, you hapless twit. I may be a ghost, but you’re my anchor. What do you think happens to me if you bite the big one? One way ticket to Nowheresville.” Mattoc let me go and put his hand on my shoulder. “Look, I’m not saying to put a lid on it. I’m saying to practice these kinds of spells before you use them in battle for the first time on Vampire Founders, Fairy Queens, and Egyptian Gods. Even you have to admit that using them for the first time in those situations is a terrible idea.”

  He was right, but I didn’t want to admit it. Pulling power like that through Shirajirashii was something I could do because I remembered how Dirge did it. But when I did it, well, it was more like that one time in your life when you needed to use algebra. You know you need to find X, but you don’t really remember exactly how to do that.

  Dirge practiced those moves ad nauseum. She could have done most of them in her sleep with muscle memory. I couldn’t. I stumbled through it in my head and guessed my way through it, relying on Shirajirashii to know what it was supposed to do. It was a situation that made it even more likely I would blow myself up and take everyone around me out too.

  “Fine,” I growled through clenched teeth. “I’m not saying you’re right, but I’ll practice some of the spells.”

  “I guess that’s all anyone can ask.” Mattoc sighed and rubbed his face with his free hand. “Now hurry up and get dressed or you’re going to be late.”

  “Dressed? Late? I just woke up like five freaking seconds ago.” I glanced down at myself and knew instantly, I needed a bath… among other things.

  “Which is good because the Fairy Queens are throwing a ball in your honor and you are expected to go.” Mattoc pointed at a clothing rack on the far side of the room. It was filled with fashionably chic dresses of every shade and material. Next to it was another rack filled with shoes.

  My eyes widened, and I made a sort of mewling sound as I tried to close my mouth. “I’m going to step out and summon your hair and makeup people,” Mattoc said with the hint of amusement in his voice. I glanced at him as his broad shoulders vanished through the door. “And no, you can’t keep, and by keep, I mean steal, anything. I think it all turns to pumpkins at midnight, anyway.”

  I wanted to glare at him, but he was already gone. I mean I didn’t plan on stealing anything even though there were so many shoes and dresses, it made me want to stuff them all in my spirit pouch and walk away whistling. Lillim Callina wasn’t a thief, but right now, well, she was definitely thinking about it.

  “Excuse me, Mistress,” squeaked a tiny voice that reminded me of a sparrow’s song.

  I turned to see a tiny woman about the size of a Barbie doll fluttering a few feet in front of my face on gossamer dragonfly wings that beat impossibly fast. She had giant solid pink orbs for eyes in a face framed by spikey bubblegum pink hair. A silver stud protruded from her nose and silver rings adorned her eyebrows.

  “Hi,” I said a little too quickly.

  She paused, quirking one eyebrow as she studied me very carefully, thumb and forefinger rubbing her chin in an appraising gesture as she bobbed around me. “I can work with this,” she said to no one in particular before screaming over her shoulder at the top of her lungs. “Everyone in here quick. We need the Cinderella Express II, STAT!”

  At least fifty more creatures ranging in all styles and colors swarmed into the room coming toward me armed with paint brushes, ribbon, and scissors. I wasn’t sure what they were planning on doing to me, but there was no way I was going to enjoy it. I shrieked and tried to throw myself away from them but the first pixie seized me by my bangs with both hands and eyed me very carefully.

  “Don’t fight, it will only make things worse for both of us… but mostly you.” She narrowed her pink eyes at me. “And unless you want to go to the Fairy Queens’ Ball looking like Wednesday Addams Barbie, I suggest you make things as easy as possible on us.”

  20

  I wasn’t sure whether to feel ridiculous or beautiful. The pixies did me up in a lavender strapless ball gown that laced up the back so tightly that it felt like I was going to suffocate. The dress reached the floor but there were so many folds and trusses, it was hard to imagine it as a traditional hem. Lavender roses were pinned at the waist of the dress with diamonds glittering inside.

  Snowflakes made of still more diamonds patterned the dress, making it so every time I took a step the light would catch them and make me sparkle. My hair was curled so it sort of bounced around my face. If that wasn’t enough, they covered my eyes in smoky eye shadow with just a hint of purple, and painted my lips with nude lipstick.

  Still, I couldn’t help but blush. This was the most dressed up I’ve ever been, and I wasn’t sure I had the whole pretty princess look down. I bit my lip, resisting the urge to blush in embarrassment, barely, and glanced back at Azrael, the pink pixie.

  “I look hideous,” I said, turning away from the mirror and shutting my eyes to keep the tears inside. “Everyone’s going to look at me and think I’m a painted troll.”

  “Everyone is going to look at you and think you’re lovely,” Azrael cooed in her sparrow song voice. “And I’ve seen a painted troll. You look nothing like that.”

  “I don’t believe you,” I said, swallowing back another sob.

  “Girl, I’m going to beat you over the head with my hairbrush if you don’t stop whining,” Azrael screamed in exasperation. “You have no reason to be upset.”

  “My arms are all muscular and gross. I have these muscles on my shoulders sticking out that I don’t even know what they’re called. I look like the top of a soda bottle.” I turned toward her and whatever I was about to say next was lost as I stared into the face of Caleb Oznek.

  His mouth hung open at a weird angle as his eyes roamed over me. The scars on his cheek were plainly visible because his normally scruffy hair was styled into one of those spikey hairdos that reminded me of skateboarders. He was wearing a lavender shirt and tie beneath a black suit that hugged his body so tightly that I knew it must be fitted.

  “You look amazing,” he said. His voice was strangely husky and strangled at the same time. He reached forward and took my wrist in one large hand. His touch sent a wave of heat rushing through me. My knees went a little weak, and my heart sped up as he slid a corsage with a single white rose and a single lavender rose onto my wrist. I looked at the ribbons trailing off the thing as he took my arm in his, pulling me so close to his body that I could feel his warmth.

  “Are you sure?” I squeaked, half-surprised I was able to speak at all.

  Caleb grinned at me, and it was like a baby bird taking flight for the fi
rst time. “You are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. They say Helen had a face that launched a thousand ships. Well, you’d launch a thousand armadas.”

  “I didn’t know you were going to be my escort.”

  I felt heat rise on my face, and as he led me out of the room, I put my head against his shoulder. I knew he was supposed to give me compliments because he was my boyfriend, but at the same time, I wasn’t usually complimented on my looks. Call me shallow, but it was actually kind of nice.

  “Who else would it be?” He sighed and shook his head in that way that made me think there was some sort of problem.

  “The Prince doesn’t like, it does he?” I asked and felt him stiffen just a little as we walked.

  “Not really, but only because he doesn’t want to get sucked into the affairs of Fairy. It has nothing to do with you,” Caleb said as we came to an immense door done up in gold and silver filigree. Rubies and sapphires the size of my head were set into the door to depict the image of two women sitting on thrones. The doors swung open onto a ballroom at least as big as a football field.

  The floors glittered with flecks of gold and silver that laced through the white marble in the design of an enormous dragonfly. Huge crystalline chandeliers, hung from enormous rose vines, cast a soft natural moonlight over the entire room.

  The place was packed with Sidhe, pixies, elves, and other fairyland creatures I didn’t recognize. The entire left side of the room was filled with large buffet tables covered in delicacies I couldn’t begin to describe let alone identify. The smell was enough to make my tummy rumble, and I wasn’t sure when the last time I’d eaten actually was.

  Caleb smirked and glanced from me to the buffet table. “I’ll go get us something before you start drooling,” he said as he disengaged his arm from mine and headed off toward the food.

  I wanted to shout after him not to forget to get some of the purple cakes at the end, but before I could open my mouth, something huge and black stepped in front of me. I looked up and up and up. The creature, if you could call it that, resembled a pillar of darkness rather than a humanoid form. It reached out one wispy tendril and took hold of my hand. A strange tickling, like a feather brushing over my skin, ran up my arm as I stared into the gaping blackness before me.