by E. A. Copen
Sweat beaded on Khaleda’s forehead, but she managed a smirk. “You might’ve broken my wrist, but I’ve just cut off your balls.”
His eyes widened and he looked down, only to get himself punched in the chin. He fell back to the stairs, holding his cheek.
Khaleda pulled the shadow from her wrist and cradled her hand. “Who taught you to fight?”
He rose and wiped blood from his lip. “Learned at the school of hard knocks. You?”
“My father hired the best fighters in the world to teach me. Then he hired the world's best assassins to kill me. I learned fast.”
“Sounds like it.” He summoned a whip made of shadow into his right hand. “Too bad we’re only just meeting. I would’ve liked to fight you in your prime.”
Khaleda jerked as if she’d been slapped. “’In my prime?’”
“Yeah, you’re like what? Thirty-five? I mean, I guess you still qualify as a MILF.”
Her fist tightened around the handle of her knife. “You mother—”
“Whoa!” I flew in front of her face. “Kill him and we’re screwed! It’s not personal, Khaleda. He’s like this to everyone. I swear it.”
She stared straight through me, probably willing the flesh to melt off of Finn’s bones. The death stare lasted maybe another second before she took a breath and changed. “MILF, huh? Well, you’re about to kick yourself, asshole. My name is Khaleda Morningstar. I’m your aunt, and I wouldn’t want what you’ve got on offer even if I wasn’t.”
Finn gave her another once over, pressed his lips together, and nodded. “By marriage or blood?”
“Are you sure you need him?” Khaleda asked me.
“Positive.”
Finn looked left and right. “Great, I have a crazy aunt who sees and talks to people who aren’t there.”
“Finn?” The stairway light came on and Remy came down the stairs, pulling on a robe. She stopped when she saw Khaleda, immediately alert. “Who is she?”
“Khaleda Morningstar,” Khaleda said, holding out a hand in greeting.
“My crazy aunt,” Finn added.
Remy frowned and looked from Finn to Khaleda. After a moment, her features hardened. “What do you want?”
Khaleda glanced at me.
I gestured for her to go on.
She wrapped her fingers around her wrist, closed her eyes, and gritted her teeth. Bones snapped and popped back into place. She flexed the fingers on her previously injured hand before relaxing. “I have a message from your father.”
Finn couldn’t take his eyes off her wrist. “Did you just heal that?”
Khaleda rolled her eyes. “A well-fed succubus can heal mild to moderate injuries, yes. I wouldn’t have let you snap it if I didn’t think I could fix it. You’re lucky I had a snack earlier tonight, or I’d have broken both your hands for the hell of it.”
Remy came down off the stairs, arms crossed, to stand in front of Finn. “Whatever message you have from him can wait. My father died last night.”
“I’m not dead!” I protested, although she couldn’t hear me. Why did everyone think I was already gone? Granted, coming back from being declared brain dead was virtually unheard of, but I was a special case. Had no one thought of that?
“I’d appreciate it if he wasn’t brought up for a while, especially for business,” Remy continued. “I need time to deal with that. Since I don’t know you, I assume you’re a business associate of his, so I’ll kindly ask you to give me a week to mourn before you ask me to start sifting through his business.” She turned around and started back up the stairs.
“He’s not dead,” Khaleda called after Remy, taking a step forward.
Remy stopped, one hand resting on the railing. She didn’t turn around. “His body might still be breathing, his heart beating, but I know what he sacrificed to defeat Mask. He’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”
“His soul wasn’t consumed in the spell. It was shattered. He’s working on putting it back together, but he asked me to deliver a message to you in the meantime.”
Remy slowly turned around. “How do you know?”
Khaleda waved a hand toward me. “I have the unfortunate ability to see some of the damned, your father included. He’s in this very room.”
“Really?” Remy pulled her robe tighter. “Prove it to me.”
Khaleda looked at me. “He says you’re named after something called X-Man.”
“X-Men,” I repeated. “Goddammit, Khaleda. It’s a superhero franchise. Am I the only one around here who goes to the damn movies?”
She sighed. “Comic books. Nerdy shit. I don’t know. Just please believe me, so he’ll shut up.”
Finn tilted his head to the side. “That does sound like him.”
Remy still didn’t seem convinced. She crossed her arms and came to the bottom of the stairs, standing toe-to-toe with Khaleda. “What’s the message?”
“You’re the Summer Queen, right?”
“I am.”
Khaleda slapped Remy hard enough that it made her stumble back a step. “Then quit whining and act like it.”
Finn immediately put himself between Remy and Khaleda, ready to defend her if necessary. At least he had the sense to do that.
Remy put a hand to her red cheek. Her eyes watered as she glared at Khaleda, but not with tears of pain. I knew dangerous female rage when I saw it.
“Whoa! I didn’t say that!” I moved in front of her.
Khaleda waved me away, never taking her eyes off Remy. “Your people need you. Mask still controls Summer and Winter. This victory here on Earth? It’s nothing, pointless so long as Mask still has holdings in Faerie. Since he can’t fight, your father needs you two to pull your collective heads out of your asses, armor up, and go free your people.”
“We came here to get an army,” Remy said. “Or at least some help. Instead, I lost the best asset I had. Sir Foxglove sacrificed himself to save this city. I have even fewer allies now than when I came here, and an even slimmer chance of liberating Summer, let alone breaching Winter’s defenses.”
“If you’re going to fight the new Winter Queen, then I’m happy to pledge myself and my allies to your cause. My army is small but strong. Twelve highly-trained soldiers from Manus Dei—all of them former special forces from around the world—one Fallen, and a legion of lesser demons. Roughly five thousand troops that I am happy to pledge to your cause.”
Finn whistled. “That’s a pretty hefty force. What do you want in return?”
“Your father struck a deal with the Shadow Queen many years ago. He gave his continued service to her based on the promise that she would provide armies for me in the future. I understand that Shadow’s armies are decimated, but I’ll take anyone you can spare.”
Finn shook his head. “You’ve already got more men than I do.”
“It’s not enough. I intend to claim my father’s throne for myself. To do that, I must first defeat the combined armies of Beelzebub and Leviathan, and then another Fallen named Remiel. The Shadow fae are fierce fighters, each one worth a dozen humans, and Summer’s knights are legendary. I ask you to honor my brother’s alliance. And if I get to stab the Winter Queen in the process, it’ll be a good day.”
“Why?” Remy asked.
Khaleda gave Finn a warning look and extended a hand to Remy. “Let’s just say I owe Noelle a rematch.”
Remy took her hand, and Khaleda pulled her to her feet. She brushed herself off and fixed her robe where it’d come loose. “If you’re willing to help us take Faerie back, I don’t see how we can refuse. Right, Finn?” When he didn’t answer, she looked over to find him staring at her chest. She punched him in the arm.
“Ow! What was that for?”
“I said, right, Finn?”
He rubbed his arm. “Oh, right. Of course. The Shadow Court will honor its agreement, provided we can get the terms in writing.”
Khaleda shook his hand. “I’ll have my people draw up the terms for you to go over.”
I g
runted and crossed my arms. “Since when do you have people?”
She ignored me. That was the problem with being a disembodied spirit only one person in the room could see. If she chose to ignore me, everyone else got to by default.
Wind hit the trash bags covering the window, pushing them aside just enough that I could see the sky. It had turned a deep purple with the first streaks of pink slashing across the horizon. I was out of time to find somewhere to spend the day. “There’s just one more thing, Khaleda.”
“What is it, Lazarus?”
I cringed. How was I going to put this delicately so I didn’t sound like the worst father ever? “I kind of need Remy to fight a Titan for me.”
“You’re an idiot,” she spat.
Finn looked straight at me and back to Khaleda. “What did he do now?”
“Hey, I take offense to that,” I protested. “Khaleda, for once, just repeat exactly what I say, would you? And don’t hit anybody.”
She sighed and listened to what I had to say before muttering, “I need a drink. You two, follow me. You’ll need one too.”
Remy frowned. “Is it that bad?”
Khaleda slid behind the bar, picked up an unlabeled bottle from the middle shelf, sniffed it, made a face, and put it back. Only the top shelf would do for her. Joke was on her. Paula just refilled the top-shelf bottles with the cheap stuff whenever she could. Didn’t stop Khaleda from pouring six glasses and placing them in front of her. She downed one of them, grimacing before she gestured to me. “He says he needs her help to get a piece of his soul back.”
My daughter shrugged. “I’ll help however I can.”
I was touched until I watched her face fall with Khaleda’s next words.
“The idiot has several duels set up for the same night, two nights from now. For one of them, he wants you to be his champion. Apparently, you get to fight a Titan in a battle of wills.”
Remy put her hand down on one of the glasses but didn’t pick it up. “Which Titan?”
“Fenrir,” Khaleda answered.
Remy picked up the shot and drank it.
“Nice to know people still care,” I grumbled.
Khaleda refilled the glass. “Feel free to say no.”
Finn ignored the shots Khaleda had poured and opted to climb over the bar and dig in the ice bin for a cold beer. “If you don’t, he probably won’t be able to put his soul back together. He’ll be dead for good.”
“But if I agree, I could lose.” Remy swallowed another shot and cradled the empty glass in her lap with both hands. “What exactly does this battle of wills entail?”
Khaleda looked at me.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Fenrir said he’d take care of it, and that it’d be fair. And you can tell Remy I didn’t know it would be a battle of wills when I agreed to it.”
“Should I also tell her that you had a chance to get your soul back and you turned it down?”
Remy’s head shot up. “What?”
“Don’t twist it.” I gave Khaleda the most threatening look I could muster. I’d only told her that part to explain why I needed Remy’s help. It wasn’t like I could’ve just ripped out Xipetotec’s soul anyway. I could’ve tried, but Fenrir would’ve attacked me. The wolf Titan hadn’t shown up there by chance. He must’ve been hiding. The duel was Xipetotec’s backup plan.
She totally ignored me. Again. “He refused to kill a lame god. That was how it came to champions. He felt guilty over yanking the soul out of an evil god just because he’s in a wheelchair.”
“It’s wasn’t like that,” I protested.
Finn put his bottle on the end of the bar and slid onto a stool. “That’s Lazarus for you. Dude’s got a weird sense of morality, but at least he’s got one. For what it’s worth, Remy, you can probably take Fenrir. Your dad’s killed two Titans, and you’re way more stubborn than he is.”
“Thanks.” Remy rolled her eyes and picked up another drink.
“No, I mean it. Look at how much power Lazarus has, yet he barely uses any of it. You’re stronger than him, and you know how to use it to your advantage. Fenrir won’t know what hit him.”
Remy pressed her lips together in thought. “Say I do win. Say he does get all the pieces of his soul back and we do win in Faerie. Imagine everything works out exactly the way he wants it to. Then what?”
Finn shrugged. “We reclaim our respective thrones and pull together to help Khaleda win hers.”
Khaleda raised a drink to Finn, who returned the gesture.
Remy turned on her stool toward Finn. “But what if we have to kill Noelle? There will be more imbalance in Faerie. There will always be a war to fight, battles to win. I’m tired of fighting, Finn. I just want to bury my loved ones and live my life in peace.”
“Hey.” He reached out and patted her hands gently. “We’ll get there. This is how we do it the right way. This way, future generations don’t have to struggle as much as we have.”
Khaleda eyed the two of them and snorted. “Jesus, young love is so disgusting. Quit eye-banging each other and let’s get back to the matter at hand. Are you going to help your old man or not?”
Remy sighed and took the last shot. “He may be stupid, but he’s my dad. Of course, I’ll fight for him.”
“Thank you,” I said to Remy though she couldn’t hear me.
Khaleda clapped her hands together. “Great. Now that’s taken care of, we can move on to the fun part.”
“What’s that?” Finn asked.
“The part where we all get to stab someone.”
Chapter Ten
Remy got dressed while Khaleda called someone named Malphas using the bar phone. Paula would be pissed if she found out. She didn’t let anyone use the bar phone for personal business – or even court business, for that matter. You had to be bleeding buckets and need an ambulance if you wanted to use the bar phone, and even then, she’d probably just tell you to go walk it off.
Shortly after her phone call ended, a rental pulled into the lot, and a nerdy-looking blond guy got out. He wasn’t much to look at, maybe five nine and a hundred eighty pounds if you put a few rocks in his pockets, but what do you expect from a pencil-pusher?
The minute he came through the door, however, Remy’s attention snapped to him, and she frowned. “He’s dead.”
Malphas stopped and adjusted the pile of folders he had under one arm. “You’re astute. The body I’m inhabiting has expired, yes. That’s a recent development. I’m afraid the strain of carrying a Fallen along with the trip here was too much. I’ll need to find another body soon.” He dropped the folders on the bar and fiddled with them until they were back in a neat stack.
Finn gave Malphas a quick once-over. “I expected the Fallen to be bigger.”
“In my true form, I’m terrifying,” Malphas promised. “However, it makes dealing with humans difficult. I find they give their trust more willingly to other humans who are less threatening.”
Khaleda smiled and took the stack of folders from Malphas. “His bodies are carefully selected to be non-threatening and not too attractive.”
“Humans tend to feel uncomfortable when they’re made uncomfortable,” Malphas explained. “This body was easily overlooked, but just attractive enough to be appealing, and large enough to discourage confrontation but small enough that most other males don’t consider him a threat. It’s unfortunate he died. I was getting attached. Soon the body will start to decay, and I’ll have to find someone else.”
“Ever consider possessing a fae?” Finn asked, leaning on the counter.
Remy glared at him.
He shrugged. “What? It seems like a natural solution. Fae don’t decay, even in death.”
“We also don’t die unless special circumstances are met,” Remy said through gritted teeth.
Malphas frowned. “I don’t think a fae body would be ideal. You have a strong intolerance for iron. Well, most of you do. No offense, but it’s an easy weakness to exploit. I can’t be of
service to my queen if I’m incapacitated by something as simple as a nail.”
“You won’t be useful to her with rigor mortis, either,” Remy pointed out.
I floated around the room on my back, bored by all the posturing that was going on. Remy and Khaleda had been trading indirect jabs ever since they decided to work together. Finn was oblivious to it, and every time he opened his mouth, he just made things worse. That’s what happened when you got two strong-willed women in the same room, especially when they were both used to getting their way. If they’d been men, they would’ve traded punches and gone for beer already. The catty back and forth was getting bad enough I almost wished I’d found somewhere else to hole up for the day.
With the sun just about to peek over the horizon, though, there wasn’t time for me to get anywhere else but maybe the building across the street, and it was just an empty warehouse. Since I didn’t need sleep, I’d be bored out of my mind there with no one to talk to. At least at Paula’s, I could talk to Khaleda. Not that she’d listen.
The one thing no one tells you about being a spirit is how hard it is to watch everyone get on with their lives while you’re stuck. While Finn, Remy, and Khaleda got busy making plans, I couldn’t do anything but watch. I couldn’t give my input, couldn’t object, couldn’t affect anything unless Khaleda chose to listen to me. Even if I had something to say, I had to think twice about speaking because of how much effort it was just to be heard. It really forced me to slow down and consider how much difference my being around really made.
I’d thought I was protecting everyone around me and that without me, everything would fall apart. I was the Pale Horseman, after all. Everyone always seemed to need me. Now that they didn’t, it kind of stung.
While Khaleda pointed out various places on the contract to sign, I just floated around the room, thinking of all the things I wanted to say and do when I got back to my body.
The front door suddenly burst open.
I let out a manly shriek and scampered for a shadowy corner as the dawn light poured in around a small crowd that’d gathered in the parking lot. Somehow, none of us had noticed them. Everyone at the bar looked up.