Fae Magic

by Jen Pretty

  “I’m here to take you home,” I told her softly.

  She looked up into my eyes and tried to focus on my face, but she seemed to be having trouble. "Can you tell me your name?" I asked her.

  She reached out and touched my hand, took in a deep breath and sighed. “Hhhommme" she rasped. Her eyes filled with tears. I had no idea how she had any tears to cry with how parched she looked. Her lips were cracked, and her skin was grey, but she was alive. I reached out to try and help her to stand, but she was so weak she couldn't so I introduced Armond and had him scoop her up. She was so tiny I probably could have carried her, but I walked beside Armond and held her frail hand. I knew how important that connection was and it was all I had to give her.

  Once the whole building was secured, we all walked back to the SUVs and piled in. First thing first we had to get our injured hunters and the small fae girl to healers. So instead of going straight to my condo to face Joshua, we headed for the hunter's mansion. I wanted to speed time, but I needed all the magic I had to face Joshua when we returned, so the ride was agonizingly long.

  In the hunters first aid kit in the SUV there was an IV and fluids bag, so they hooked her up to it and let her sleep. I bought her some clean clothes when we stopped at a rest stop, but she was still asleep.

  When she woke at lunchtime, I gave her a sandwich I picked up from a café and took her to the ladies restroom to change. She already looked better.

  “Can you tell me your name?” I asked her.

  “Lacy,” she replied after clearing her throat a few times. It suited her tiny delicate figure, though I imagined that she wouldn’t be quite so frail if she had been fed properly.

  “How long have you been there?” I asked.

  "I don't know. A long time," she replied. A look of total sadness came over her face. "They killed my family. At least I assume they are dead if you didn't find them alive." Tears spilled from her eyes again, but she quickly wiped them away. "Master Joshua said they were still alive and I would see them again."

  "I'm so sorry," I said. What else was there to say? I knew what the loss of your family felt like and no words were any comfort. I felt such a powerful connection to her that I knew we were related but now wasn't the time to try and figure out how.

  We walked back to the SUVs slowly. Evan was standing there speaking quietly to Henry when he looked over at us he did a double take with his eyes on the girl beside me.

  Lacy scuttled into the vehicle and set her head down, already worn out again. Evan kept looking at her though like he had seen a ghost.

  “What is it?” I asked him.

  He just shook his head and laughed merrily before he walked back to his SUV texting someone on his phone. Henry and I watched him go. “He is a strange fae,” I said to Henry.

  Henry laughed and said, “indeed, he has always been a bit strange," then he followed Evan back to their vehicle.

  We finally arrived back at the Hunters' mansion late in the day, and everyone filed out and up the elevators. The house was packed now but any who weren't injured met in the conference room. The injured were seen to by the healers including lacy who had some old injuries and a few recent ones.

  Armond stood and started speaking to the group. It reminded me of Reg, and I felt the sting of tears. I hadn't liked Reg that much, but he was a good man and didn't deserve his fate.

  "We are so close to ending this war now. We will still have a purpose when it's over; keeping the peace between the races, but we maybe won't keep losing our friends and family. I think we can all agree we have lost too much. Team one is going to be on standby and teams 2 and three will take the night off. Hopefully, by morning we will all be able to take a well-deserved rest. Dismissed"

  The group cheered and began to file out. Many of them smiled at me or patted my shoulder and wished me well. They were hoping I would defeat Joshua tonight. I was just hoping not to die painfully.

  Lacy looked so much better when I saw her and Evan on my way out. She was even smiling a bit. The healers did a fantastic job, but I didn't have time to stop and chat with her because it was time for me to save the whole damn world.

  “You ready?” Armond asked as I got to the elevators to go back down to the garage.

  "I guess so," I said, "I wish my magic was stronger, but I guess it's now or never."

  He just took my hand as we entered the elevator.

  Once the doors closed, he turned to me "I know you can do this. You were born for this just like I was born to fight. It's predestined, princess."

  “I just hope I don’t get us both killed tonight.”

  He pulled me into his warm embrace, lingering even after the elevator door had opened, his strong arms loaning me his strength. He pulled away and looked down at me.

  “Let’s get this over with,” I muttered.

  We drove up to my old building, and it was hard not to feel like I was coming home. The building was the same, and the coffee shop across the street was the same, and I sighed because my doorman, Clive was still there.

  We parked around back, and I hopped out. I knew team one was close by, but they were tucked out of sight.

  The plan was for Armond to walk me up but me to go to the condo alone. We were sure there were other vamps in the area, Joshua may be desperate, but he's not stupid.

  I had been pulling magic from the earth off and on the whole way here. It was dark now, but that didn't matter, it had to end tonight.

  “Ms. Everest, I trust you had a good vacation?” Clive asked smiling at me.

  I laughed “It’s been an adventure,” I replied

  He held the door for Armond and me, and we walked through the lobby to the elevator. The doors opened immediately, and we were on our way up to my condo before I had time to change my mind. Riding the elevator seemed to take forever. Armond looked at me and raised his eyebrow. Oh. Right. I let go of my magic so we could get to my floor. Apparently neither I nor my magic wanted to come face to face with our nightmare again.

  The elevator stopped, and the doors opened. We walked out, and it was dead silent. I was pretty sure Joshua had taken that phrase literally. It was never this quiet on my floor.

  Armond squeezed my hand and then let go. I glanced back at him, but he didn’t have an ounce of doubt on his face. I took a steadying breath and walked to my door, put the key in and pushed the door open. What met my eyes was horror. It was my nightmare.

  Strewn against the walls were all my neighbours but mostly just pieces of them. I started to panic.

  My breath increased, and I stopped time. If there were vamps here besides Joshua, they wouldn't be moving but back at the elevator, neither would Armond.

  “Hello, darling,” Joshua crooned before flashing so fast towards me I didn’t have time to move before he had me slammed into the wall holding me there by his hand around my neck.

  "I'm glad you came and brought a friend. I have friends too." He snapped his fingers, and a vampire I didn't know walked through the door with his arm around Armond's neck holding him up off the ground. Armond was frozen, so I pulled my magic back in, and Armond began to fight with the other vampire, but it was no use. The vampire had the upper hand and must have been nearly as old as Joshua. We had assumed the rest of his vampires would be weak and at least be slowed by my magic.

  “Now, now, hunter. You don’t want me to break your pretty little timekeeper’s neck, do you?”

  Armond quit struggling “what do you want with her anyway?” he asked Joshua. “It’s not like she will help you.”

  “I don’t know, given the right motivation, I bet I could get her help. I understand she has just a tiny bit of family left.”

  My eyes went wide. Luke was at Homeland. There was no way that Joshua could get his hands on him.

  "You see, I left you a present in the cells at my house that I knew you and your cousin wouldn't be able to resist. I had my men wait for him to zip across when he was called for, and they snatched him up," Joshua smiled his evil
smile then whistled, and two vampires came out of my bedroom with Luke.

  My heart stopped beating. I couldn't believe Luke was here. This was insanity.

  “Why?” I asked though it wasn’t directed at anyone in particular.

  “You found my sister, Lex,” Luke breathed hard holding in a sob. He was bloody and bruised. His face swollen almost beyond recognition. His arm was limp at his side and looked broken.

  “Lacy?” I asked, he just nodded “I didn’t know.”

  "Yes, yes enough with the theatrics. You know I don't care for theatrics. I now have 2 of your bonded, and you will do as I say or I will kill them. Simple as that."

  “No,” I whispered.

  “What was that, darling?”

  "I said no. I'm not going to do what you say, and you aren't going to hurt my people. Your time is up."

  He growled and started to squeeze my throat tighter until I could barely gasp for breath but I started to pull magic from the ground. I pulled it harder than I had ever pulled it before. Then, just as I was starting to see black spots, I raised my left hand and punched him as hard as I could in the nose. Fresh blood sprayed us both, and he loosened his grip just enough that I could push him back a step. As soon as I got a full breath of air, I slammed all my magic and the earth's magic out into the room. Things were rattling on shelves in my apartment, and it felt like a hurricane in my bones, but I kept pushing anyway. Joshua's face slowly morphed into a look of shock as I pulled out my dagger and slammed it straight up between us into his chest and up towards his heart, just as Armond had taught me. I pulled my dagger back out, and Joshua just stood in shock.

  I gasped to fill my lungs again and again. The other vampires hadn't moved yet, but I knew I couldn't hold this much power for long, so I turned and ran at the vampire holding Armond. I quickly stabbed him in the neck just as my power exhausted and time snapped back so hard I fell to the floor.

  I could barely move, but Armond was ready. He pulled out his two samurai swords, spun around and decapitated the vampire who had been holding him, and in the same motion he flew across the room and stabbed both swords through Joshua and into the wall behind him, pinning him there like a terrifying butterfly.

  As Armond was doing that, one of the other vampires threw Luke over his shoulder and ran out the door. I tried to go after him, but I was too drained. As I stumbled to the door and looked out, I saw the vampire open the door to the stairwell, but he didn't get any farther. Fritz was there.

  He grabbed Luke off of the vampire's shoulder and stabbed the vamp in the heart with one clean thrust of his knife. Then he dropped his knife and scooped up Luke. There was a pause as they looked at each other and then Fritz grinned down at Luke, and it seemed like they had a moment. I wondered if maybe Fritz was the reason Luke had been learning to sword fight in Homeland. I'd never asked.

  I turned back to see Armond pull one of his swords out of Joshua and finally remove Joshua’s head from his body.

  It was done. Just as Armond had promised, he was there, and we finished it together.

  I just collapsed to the ground and sat there for a moment. My apartment was disgusting with blood and bodies and bits. Hopefully, the cleanup crew could fix it. My poor neighbours though, it was too late for them.

  Armond picked me up and tucked my head under his chin then followed Fritz and Luke down the stairwell and out the back door to the SUV.

  The 4 of us got in. Was it over? Just like that? Now that Joshua was dead, Henry could jump in and control the vampires, and we would have peace. No other family would be torn apart by the evil monster of my nightmares.

  Armond set me gently in the passenger seat and strapped me in. I was actually kind of surprised I was still conscious. I could still feel the slight tremor of the earth’s power running through my bones, maybe that’s why I was still awake.

  I looked over my shoulder as Fritz slid into the back seat still holding Luke. They were cute.

  “So your sister, huh?” I asked him reaching back to hold his hand.

  “I thought she was dead. I can’t believe l never looked for her. It’s all my fault she spent so long trapped there. Master Evan realized it was her as soon as he saw her.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Fritz said gently “not even the hunters knew about that place until Lex ran out of there. You would have never found her, even if you searched. We all assumed your family was dead too.”

  Armond got in the driver’s seat and started it up. Time to go home.

  The drive was fast. I wanted Luke to get to Lacy, and nobody else seemed to mind. When we pulled into the garage, there were a lot of people in there. Before we even parked the vehicle doors were opened, and there was cheering and clapping echoing off the walls in the garage. The noise was overwhelming, but then Armond was there holding me up and leading me to the elevators. Luke and Fritz were behind me, and I knew we needed to get Luke to a healer fast.

  “Conference room in 20,” Armond said loudly enough to be heard over the hoard of hunters.

  He took me to my room and set me on my feet. "Are you ok?" he asked, pushing my hair back and tucking it behind my ear.

  I gave him a half smile. "I will be. I think I just need some time for it to sink in. The monster who killed my family is dead, and it seems kind of surreal."

  "Ok. You don't have to come to the meeting if you don't want to. Maybe find Luke and make sure he and lacy are ok while I take care of the hunters. The hunters are going to need support now to stop killing vampires. With Henry in charge of the vampires, they should all behave for the most part so the hunters will need to find new lives to live." He explained

  “I understand. You will also need to find a new path,” I smiled “I might be able to help actually. My corporation has been considering going into the private security business. Maybe we could find the hunters who want to stay on earth jobs in the human world.”

  He laughed "God, you are brilliant. I'll make the suggestion casually and see what kind of interest there might be. None of us require money to live as we have had good investments for many years and hunters have always been fully provided for, but these aren't the type of fae to retire on a beach.”

  I laughed at the image of these men on a beach. No, that wasn’t happening. “Alright,” I said.

  He scooped me up and hugged me before letting me down and walking out to have his chat with his hunters.

  I changed into comfortable clothes and walked down to the medical room. Lacy was sitting close to Luke chatting and smiling, and they looked so happy.

  Luke noticed me and waved me over. Lacy swung around and beamed at me too. They look so much alike now that they were both healed. Lacy was still very thin, but I was sure Margot and my favourite kitchen lady would fix that.

  “Our hero returns,” Luke said playfully.

  "I don't know about that. It looked like Fritz might be the hero you are looking for," I said playfully back. He went beet red, and I laughed and poked him.

  Lacy laughed too when she saw his face.

  “So, what’s your plan now?” I asked Luke.

  "Well, I was thinking I'd like to stay in the city instead of going back with Master Evan. I think I can find work here and that will keep me close to you. I'm hoping Lacy might want to stay too" he said turning back to his sister.

  "I spoke to master Evan, and he thinks I should split my time between here and Homeland so I can learn to control my magic." She said

  "Oh right. What's your magic?" I asked. She smiled. "I'm a seer, but I see the future of anyone I touch. Joshua brought me to you when you were unconscious, and I saw you kill him. I lied and said you would lead him to victory." She laughed. "He was so pleased."

  Unbelievable. This girl, the cousin I didn’t know I had, probably saved my life.

  “Thank You,” I said. Then I stood up “I better go see how Armond is making out with the hunters. When my condo is cleaned up, Armond and I can show you two around town.”

  “That wou
ld be great. Thanks. See you later,” Luke said.

  As I was walking the hall away from the medical room, I ran into Fritz heading that way.

  “Hey, is he awake?” he asked me nervously. It was too adorable.

  "Yes. See for yourself. I mentioned your name, and he blushed pretty hard," I replied.

  Fritz blushed too; this was going to be so much fun.

  As he walked past me, I was still laughing at him. I noticed Armond behind him.

  “Are you torturing my second in command?” he asked looking stern and fighting not to smile.

  "Oh Ya. It's entertaining."

  "That's good." We both laughed and then he sobered. "The elders want to speak to you. They gave you a week to recover and then we have to fly to Italy to speak with them. They have some news about another land that might have magic users and seems to have designed a portal to earth. It's probably nothing dangerous," He didn't sound entirely convinced though.

  I decided to file that under ‘future Lex problems’ because right now I just wanted to go and eat and then sleep for a year.

  “Ok. Come on. Let’s see if Margot was able to teach the kitchen staff how to make her stew.” I said.

  As we walked towards the kitchen, he slung his arm over my shoulder and tucked me in tight beside him. I hoped that the future would be quieter but had a feeling my adventure wasn’t over yet.

  Book Title Copyright © 2018 by Jen Pretty. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Jen Pretty

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN-978-1-7752906-0-5