by Dante King
“Eiko should worry about herself,” Judyth said. “I suppose this is your doing, Lilith?”
The beautiful demon spread her arms, shrugging expansively. “I didn’t summon them here,” the Headmistress of the Infernal Academy purred. “But unlike you, I’m not about to turn down help when it presents itself.”
The two shared a look that would’ve taken an entire chapter to entangle. Decades of mistrust, resentment, and grudging respect were encoded in that soft, lingering glare. Lilith held the angelic Headmistress’s gaze, unwilling to be the first to back down.
Finally, Judyth wilted. “Fine,” she said, waving a hand. “I’m tapped out anyway. If it’s the only way we can reject the incursion, I say go for it.”
“I’m so glad,” Lilith said, clapping her hands together with extreme sarcasm, “that I have your permission!”
Judyth’s gaze sharpened. “Listen to me, you whore,” she snarled, looking like she wanted to reach for Holofernes’s flaming sword. “Some of us are capable of feeling shame and don’t just sit back watching other people do all the work—”
I’d heard enough. “Both of you quit it!” I roared, demonic power cascading through my shout.
To my shock, both Headmistresses went silent. Judyth looked stunned, while the faint echo of a smirk tugged at the corner of Lilith’s mouth.
I looked behind me at my harem. Then I took in Aztomund and Bryan, adding them to my gaze. Finally, with reluctance, I nodded at Holofernes.
“Stop bickering and tell us what we need to do,” I said, taking command of the group as smoothly as if they’d all voted me in. “We’re not going to be able to resist the Fae if we’re at each other’s throats.”
Lilith looked impressed. “Well said,” Lucifer’s ex-wife purred, looking me up and down in a way that made me shiver. Her hanging up and down, begging me to fuck her harder… “If we’re going to resist the incursion of the Fae, we’ll need to work together. Otherwise, we’ll die.”
The idea of dying didn’t seem to worry Lilith in the least. She was either very good at hiding it, or she had contingency plans. I knew which one I would’ve bet my money on.
“Holofernes said ‘another’ attack is imminent,” I said, watching as the big stone angel nodded. “I’m guessing these monsters have been coming in waves for a while now?”
Judyth took a weary step forward. “Holofernes and I have been at their front door, holding them back,” she explained. “We can’t do it any longer. They’re about to break through.”
“This liminal zone represents a transitory state,” Lilith explained quickly. For a moment, the two of them seemed like co-teachers, rather than bitter enemies. “First, the Fae have to break in. Then, once they’re here, they can create a permanent tunnel to our world.”
“There are armies on the other side just waiting for the chance,” Judyth said, horror in her eyes. “Holofernes and I have seen them.”
“Killed many of them,” the stone angel rumbled.
“But not enough,” Judyth added wearily. “They’re not going to stop, either. The only way to hold them off is to keep this liminal zone long enough for me and Lilith to resist the incursion.”
I nodded. “Keep the monsters back so you two can close the portal. Makes sense. Why haven’t you done it already?”
Judyth looked taken aback. “We haven’t had the time. The monsters attack too fast—and are far too strong. Beasts from the Fae Realm aren’t like garden variety demons and angels.”
Lilith stepped in, as smooth as butter. “Pushing back the incursion is a complicated ritual, requiring concentration,” she said, sounding slightly offended. She had the distinct ability to make me feel silly for asking questions. “In order to pull it off successfully, Judyth and I have to work together. Which means we need this entire clearing to ourselves.”
I glanced at the glowing green portal between the trees. “I need to go in there?” I asked. “I haven’t even taken a single class in demonic combat yet!”
“You’re getting a lesson in the field today,” Lilith replied with a wicked grin. “You, your harem, my demons, and Holofernes. Hold back the army of the Fae and keep them away from the portal until Judyth and I can complete the ritual. You do that, and we can keep the Fae from getting their grubby little toes into the liminal zone. Keep both our realms safe from them and their damned shock troopers.”
Sounds like a plan, I thought. With Lilith’s explanation, the idea of jumping through the portal didn’t bother me in the least. With my girls at my side, and a few powerful demons at my back, what could stop us? That troll hadn’t stood a chance. How much worse could a garden-variety Fae be?
“Um.” Mareth lifted a claw. “One problem. If you complete this ritual and ‘resist the incursion’ or whatever, does that close the portal?”
“It would be a poor ritual if it didn’t,” Judyth said, huffing and puffing. The poor Headmistress had fallen so low she leaned on Holofernes, depending on her hated rival to stay upright. “That’s the entire point, succubus!”
I saw the problem the same moment Mareth voiced it. “Then how are we supposed to get back out of the Fae Realm? If you close the portal, we’ll all be stuck!”
Lilith stepped forward and put a matronly arm around the shoulder of her ‘niece’. “Now now, darling, never fear! I wouldn’t leave one of my husband’s dear little offspring in the lurch! There will be a short period after the ritual where the portal remains open, but in a state of near-collapse. Once the ritual is complete, Judyth and I will enter the Fae Realm and pull you all out. Just in time for the portal to close in the Fae’s face!”
A vicious grin spread across the Headmistress’s face. I wasn’t looking at it, however—for the moment, I only had eyes for Judyth. A terrible idea had just occurred to me.
All of us were going into the Fae Realm. We’d be depending on the two Headmistresses to pull us out.
What if Judyth decided to leave Holofernes behind?
The idea flickered behind her eyes like a firecracker going off. She hid it well, but I knew from the way her face grew as stony as a statue’s that she’d just made a decision. One that would have consequences for the Celestial Academy.
She’s going to leave him, I realized. Am I okay with that?
The guy could fight. But he’d nearly killed me—and he’d threatened me with eternal torture. Leaving him in the Fae would rob the Celestial Academy of its most powerful angel, but it’d also be a huge load off my mind. And I was sure Judyth would appreciate being able to rule the Academy without his interference.
I decided to play it by ear. We’d see how things went in the Fae.
“Prepare yourselves!” Lilith spread her arms and summoned lightning, moving with the kind of drama only an ex-wife of Lucifer himself could truly claim. “Judyth and I will close the portal behind you and begin the ritual. Fight hard!”
I glanced over my shoulder, gauging my group’s readiness for battle. Troll blood stained Christina’s smooth skin, and her bared fangs looked hungry to sink into Fae flesh. Next to her, Mareth’s demonic transformation was almost as gruesome. Only Maddie still looked mostly human—and as I met her gaze, she gave me a nod that let me know she was good to go.
As we approached the portal, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with the big stone angel.
“You wish to kill me,” Holofernes said simply.
I didn’t bother denying it. “You almost killed me,” I shot back by way of explanation. “And you threatened my girls.”
The angel nodded gravely. “I understand this. The Headmistress wishes to kill me, as well.”
I frowned. “I didn’t realize Lilith cared that deeply about the faculty at the Celestial Academy.”
Holofernes slowly shook his head. Was that a smile on his ancient face? “Wrong Headmistress,” he rumbled, his gravelly voice the closest thing to humor the angel could muster. “My death would make things far easier for Judyth. I am an... impediment to her rule.” The colossus squared its shoulde
rs, readying itself for battle. “I expect, then, that when the portal begins to close, you will not aid my escape from the Fae Realm?”
I met the angel’s stone eyes and shrugged. “I’m not really sure what I’m going to do, other than spill a whole lot of blood in the next few minutes.”
To my surprise, Holofernes chuckled. “That is good. Know this, heir of Lucifer—I care not for my own safety. I will not hold back. Once the battle begins, I will venture as far out into the Fae Realm as I am able and kill. Until the ritual is complete. Even if it means the Headmistress will be able to secure my separation from the Celestial Realm.”
I didn’t know how to react to that. Was this guy always so damned serious about everything?
“That’s good,” I said, giving him an awkward pat on the back. “Keep focused on the mission.”
“Indeed.” Holofernes drew his flaming sword. “To arms!”
Still unsure of what I was about to face, I locked arms with my harem and leapt through the portal.
Chapter 16
For a few seconds after we stepped through the portal, I was sure Judyth and Lilith had made some kind of mistake.
We’d left the forest and entered a damned Disney movie. We stood on an emerald green hill beneath a clear blue sky, with a silver castle stretching against the horizon in the distance. Colors were stronger here, supersaturated like an old technicolor cartoon from the 1930’s. The sound of a babbling brook reached my ears, and I realized we stood next to a narrow bridge crossing a creek.
My entourage recovered more swiftly than I did. Holofernes took off like a rocket, his majestic wings spread in flight as he soared toward the castle in the distance. Mareth scanned the horizon for threats, while Christina and Maddie both seemed as enchanted by the realm in which we’d found ourselves as me.
“This is the Fae Realm?” Christina asked, stroking the side of one of her wings. “This doesn’t seem to match the description at all!”
“I... I swear I’ve seen this place before,” Maddie stammered. “When I was a little girl, I used to have these dreams about being a princess…”
“Both of you shut up!” Mareth snapped. The vehemence in her tone shocked us all. “Don’t touch anything. Literally everything in the Fae Realm is a trap!”
Maddie wasn’t listening. Nostalgia overwhelmed her; she looked as if she’d stepped right back into her childhood. “There was a fluffy bunny who played on this bridge,” the angel murmured, stroking the wooden guardrail with tears in her eyes. “Oh my gosh, I’m remembering so much! He loved tea, and tea parties. What was his name? Mr. Fluffles? Something with fluff—”
It was as far as Maddie got. The bridge’s wooden guardrail snapped free, wrapping around her wrist like an octopus’s tentacle. With a whoop of surprise, Maddie was tossed over the side and into the water.
“I tried to warn you!” Mareth screeched, rolling up her schoolgirl sleeves. “Damn it, that thing’s got her!”
I didn’t think—I acted. With a grunt, I tossed myself off the hill, tucking my wings against my body as I plunged into the water. I hit with a splash, sinking beneath the surface as the wooden thing pulled Maddie deeper beneath the water.
Wait. It wasn’t water. Whatever this stuff was tasted sweet, like candy. I shrugged it off and dived deeper, reaching for my powers. Maddie hadn’t had time to prepare before being pulled under—her mouth opened and closed in panic, her muscles straining as she fought the wooden monster.
My fireballs refused to ignite in the sticky, sugary substance. But nothing stopped me from using my claws or my tendrils. I tore the wood to splinters, then one of my tendrils snaked out and snatched Maddie’s wrist and tugged. We broke the surface of the strange water with a gasp, Maddie clinging to me like I was a piece of driftwood after a shipwreck.
“This isn’t my dream!” Maddie’s eyes were wide with destroyed innocence. “It’s a nightmare!”
As she spoke, the liquid around us began to turn solid. The harder we fought, the more we got stuck in it. Within moments, it had turned the consistency of gelatin, then crackled over like hard candy. The two of us were stuck.
Aztomund and Bryan’s heads appeared over the bridge. “Did you get her?” the beetle-bodied demon asked. “Oh good, you got her—”
Something slammed into Aztomund. A half-dozen figures landed on the bridge, engaging the two demons in combat. They moved too fast for me to make out any features—if I weren’t stuck in a river of candy, I could have blasted them and tried to identify them from the cinders.
“Luke!” Maddie tensed against me, doing her best to point. “Look!”
I followed her finger toward the castle. My heart sank into my stomach.
An entire army bore down on us. The figures fighting Bryan and Aztomund on the bridge were just the vanguard of a much larger force. Hundreds of sharp-eared figures in forest-green robes marched in formation, silver swords and longbows at the ready. Elves. Real life elves. In front of them, a line of trolls that could have been the family reunion of the guy we’d killed in the clearing rolled over the hill, slamming the ground in unison to form a marching beat.
“Fuck,” I gasped, my jaw dropping open. We had no chance against this many enemies. We’d never hold them back long enough for Lilith and Judyth to do what they needed to do. “Got to get out of here…!”
We struggled against the candy-coated river, to no use. The surface of the river had frozen solid; the ripples preserved as sugary contours all around us. Maddie and I were trapped inside of the Everlasting Gobstopper, with no way out.
Out on the horizon, a single dark figure dropped into the front line of trolls.
A bright white flash lit up the valley.
When Maddie and I could see again, we could barely believe our eyes. Holofernes stood in the vanguard of the Fae’s army, wreaking absolute havoc. His flaming sword elongated with every swing, cutting through the ranks of elves and trolls with a brutal, savage efficiency. Blood soaked the grass around the stone angel as he plunged into the front lines, dealing death with every step.
The Angel of Vengeance was an army all to himself. For a second my heart felt like it was lighter than a feather as I believed we could actually turn the tide.
Then the army broke around Holofernes, forming two forks that headed for the river and the portal beyond. The Angel of Vengeance could kill as many of the Fae as he wanted—they had far too many for him to stop. He’d blunted their assault, but dozens of troops still swarmed toward us, in numbers too great for a small force to stop.
I saw Maddie make the same mental calculation as me. “It’s hopeless,” she said in a little voice, her heart breaking. “The Fae are going to conquer our world.”
The look on her face broke something inside of me. Raw anger flooded my veins. I raged against the unfairness of it all, of being sacrificed to no purpose. Not being able to defend myself as a swarm of magical creatures assaulted the people I cared about.
My vision went red. “Fuck! This!” I snarled, my voice barely recognizable as human. “I’m not going down without a fight!”
Fire streamed from my fingertips. Demonic power flooded my veins, more than I’d ever dared pulled into my body before. My tendrils extended into the candy river, piercing it with veins of liquid fire.
The hard shell around Maddie and I melted away into a thick, sticky slurry like candied napalm. I shrugged it off, spread my wings, took to the sky, my angelic girlfriend held tightly in my arms. The stuff stretched and sizzled, but finally we were free.
“Don’t you dare land on that bridge,” Maddie warned me with a laugh. “I’m not letting Mr. Fluffers get a second crack at me!”
I wouldn’t let that happen. Besides, we had more important things to worry about. Like Bryan and Aztomund fighting off a half-dozen elves.
These creatures were more of the Keebler variety than the Lord of the Rings type, short and stocky and strangely cute. But there was nothing cute about their sharp knives and bows. I threw mysel
f into the fray, spitting fire from both hands and my mouth as I burnt the elf trying to stick Bryan in the back into a smoking crisp. Maddie karate chopped a second one, knocking it unconscious and into the brush.
Soon, both demons were free. Aztomund wiped his spear in the grass, cleaning the blood from its tip. “Tenacious little fuckers,” the beetle-bodied demon snarled, turning to face the next wave. “You get the impression this place is seriously cracked, Luke?”
“Tell me about it,” I said. “It’s like going to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory on acid.”
“And having one hell of a bad trip,” Maddie said, spreading her arms. A flash of light exploded in the space between her hands, and when it faded, she held a golden bow of her own. “Woah, that’s new. And awesome! Let’s get these assholes, baby!”
We had one major advantage: the river. While falling into it was a major obstacle, the only way for the Fae to get across was to either cross the enchanted bridge or take their chances on the semi-solid surface of the candy.
Two trolls rolled to a stop on either side of the bridge, scanning it with their beady eyes. After a moment, they both rolled down the slope and onto the candy. Seizing my chance, I soared over and unleashed a fan of flame across the river, boiling the hard, sugary surface.
The river melted to slurry beneath the troll’s feet—and kept right on melting. Stuck in the swirling vortex of syrupy green gloop, neither of them could break free. They sank beneath, only their bare stone backs poking out from the surface as they drowned in pure sugar.
“That,” I said, shaking my head, “is the sweetest way to die!”
“Tell me about it.”
The voice made me jerk my head. Christina floated next to me, her black wings carrying her on an updraft. Her gorgeous features contorted into a demonic visage that was somehow even hotter than her human form, her horns elongated down to her shoulders and her tongue lolling somewhere around her cleavage.
“You would not believe how wet I am watching you murder these Fae,” the demoness panted. “Can I suck your dick while you kill them off, baby?”