by K. C. Cross
I don’t really have anything to say to that, so I say nothing.
It’s all very… tedious. Everything about yesterday was easy, but today there is a strain between us.
He’s having regrets, I can tell. He’s thinking, What the hell was I smoking yesterday? Except all the sex happened before we started smoking shit.
This makes me feel worse.
But he does pull open the cathedral door for me, and then wave me through first. And I am reminded about a stray thought I had that first day I came here. When I saw Tomas on the second-story balcony and I thought he was a hot guy with manners.
“What’s so funny?”
“I was thinking about Tomas.”
“Oh.” Pell nods, then looks straight ahead again with his too-serious face.
“Not like that,” I say quickly. “I mean—” I stop and sigh. “Pell?”
He turns to me.
“What’s going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“You regret yesterday, don’t you?”
“No. Not at all. Why?” He makes a face at me. “Do you?”
“You’re acting weird. Why are you acting weird?”
“You didn’t answer my question. Do you regret yesterday?”
I shake my head slowly, then look up the stairs instead of him. “No. But everything feels off.” Now I look back at him. “And I don’t like it. We’re a team, right?”
He nods. Then he blows out a breath and his words come rushing out. “OK. I’m gonna tell you something. This book, Pie.” He pauses and shakes his head again. “There is nothing in there that can break our curse. But this is a powerful book with powerful spells. And one of them is a banishment spell. But banishment uses very negative energy. It’s a dark spell and it has a price.”
“What kind of price? And whose book is this?”
“The price is always a sacrifice.”
“Like a… virgin?”
He laughs. And I’m so relieved to see this laughing Pell, my whole body relaxes. “What is it with you and virgins?”
“Well, what kind of sacrifice are they looking for? I think this is important, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. Especially since you not only have to go inside Tarq’s tomb to get the book, but you’re the one who has to work the spell. But as far as sacrifices go, I don’t know. I’m not a witch or an alchemist. That’s something between you and the spirits where you get your power.” He points to me before I can object. “Don’t tell me you’re not a witch or an alchemist. I saw you, Pie. You saw what you did. Those moths? They come from somewhere. Where do they come from?”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I ever did any magic before I came here.”
“What do you think that bird of yours is?”
“What do you mean? She’s not even real.”
“Isn’t she?”
“She’s not here. She conveniently disappeared.”
“And what took her place?”
I throw up my hands. “Nothing took her place.”
“Moths, Pie. They took her place. That’s your magic. You did some high-level shit last night on the sheriff. It comes from somewhere. That’s how magic works. You ask the powers to help you and if you say the right things, and offer up something they want, it gets done. So… who did you ask for help when you did that moth magic last night?”
I shake my head. “No one. I didn’t ask anyone.”
He sighs. Then takes my hand and we start up the stairs.
We don’t pause at the top, just head across the great hall towards a door I have yet to go through.
“This is the greenhouse,” Pell says as he shoves the massive double doors open. “This is where we get what we need.” Then he mutters under his breath, “I really hope it still fucking grows here.”
I am unable to follow him in, so when he moves forward into the room, my feet stay planted on the marble tiles just outside. And the reason I’m unable to follow him isn’t because there’s some magic holding me back, but because I am paralyzed with wonder.
“What the actual fuck?” is what I manage to say as I gaze up at the three-story walls of glass. “This isn’t even possible. This… this place can’t exist!” I turn and look out the front windows. Picture myself walking up to the sanctuary that first day last week. See Tomas on the second-story balcony. Then I look back inside the greenhouse. Look up, where that balcony should be, but isn’t. “This… this…”
“Pie.” Pell shakes me by the shoulders. “We don’t have time for this. It doesn’t need to make sense. It’s magic.”
“But… where is that balcony that I see from the outside?”
“Who cares?”
“I care!”
Pell huffs at me. “It’s…” He looks up. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It’s like the hallways upstairs. I need to find the plant I’m looking for. Stay here while I look. And don’t touch anything. Some of these plants have anger issues.”
“Anger issues?”
But he’s already pushing his way past some overgrown branches down the center aisle.
I stay right where I am. I do not go into the greenhouse. I think I can feel those anger issues and I think that anger is directed at me because these plants are part of my job and I’ve been neglecting them.
And as if this place couldn’t get any creepier, there is a great rumble underneath my feet. The whole building… thrums. It’s not a shake, like an earthquake. It’s a… tone. It’s a wave of deep sound. Like the sound of those humming monks that people like to meditate to.
“Don’t panic!” Pell calls. “That’s just Tomas. We’re gonna need to go down there next. You can panic then.”
“What?” But my voice is just a squeak.
Pell is deep inside the greenhouse now. His voice sounds far away. I don’t quite understand the dimensions of this place, but it’s three stories tall and I can’t even see the other side. It looks like the forest we were running through in the rooms, that’s how big some of the trees are. But there are aisles and aisles of other plants too.
“I am not cut out for this.” Saying that out loud feels very necessary. “I’m not cut out for any of this. I can’t do it. I don’t know what these plants are, I don’t know how to work a spell, I don’t have any higher power guiding me or whatnot. I’m not a witch! I’m not an alchemist!”
Pell suddenly appears, pushing his way through the aisle towards me. “I got it,” he says, holding up several large, bright red flowers.
“What are those?”
“These are how you can get inside the tombs.” He pauses to lift his chin up, like he’s proud of himself. “I have never shown this to a caretaker before. Grant used to ask me about it all the time.”
“It’s a secret?” I ask. Pell nods. “Maybe I don’t need to know?”
“You do. You need to go in the tomb and you can’t do that, only I can. But I can’t see the doors. So this is a substitute for me.” He smiles now. Like this is great fun. “Well”—he holds up one finger—“we need one more thing.”
I look down at my feet. “Tomas?”
“Yep.” He pauses. “No. We don’t actually need Tomas for you to enter the tombs. We just need a few of his scales.”
“Dragon’s scales? This spell calls for dragon’s scales?”
“And bloodhorn.” He points to the flower.
“Wait. How come you can’t just go get this book? Tarq is your friend. You seem to know what you’re doing and—”
“I can’t see the doors.”
“But I can’t walk through them!”
“You can’t walk through them without me.” Once again, he points to the flowers. “This is how you do that. And the scales.”
“So why can’t you just use that stuff and go in yourself?”
He shoots me a look that says, Yesterday I thought you were cute, but today I think you’re being slow on purpose. “It’s not a spell to see doors, Pie. It’s a spell to walk through them. H
ow can I walk through them if I can’t see them?”
I want to keep this fight going and insist this makes no sense, but unfortunately for me, it kinda does. “Well, this sucks. Why isn’t there a spell to see doors?”
“Take it up with whoever makes the rules around here. When you find that asshole, let me know. I have a few complaints myself. Now, let’s go. We need to have this spell ready before the sheriff comes back.”
Pell leads me towards the back of this side of the sanctuary. It’s the same direction as the dining room and the kitchen, but we end up at the top of a winding spiral stairwell made up of stone.
It leads to a dungeon.
The rumble under my feet is stronger here at the entrance to Tomas’s lair. But that’s not even the most concerning thing about this little dragon scale hunt.
It’s the smell.
I have to stop breathing, that’s how bad it is.
Pell pauses at the top of the stairs and looks over his shoulder at me. “Are you OK?”
I’m covering my mouth with my hand, trying my best not to breathe through my nose. I just nod. Because I can’t even lie. I’m not ready for this, I decide. I’m not ready for what Tomas really is.
Pell puts a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t think of it as him. It’s not him. He will not recognize you. And he won’t even remember this when we see him again.”
I swallow hard. “OK.”
“I would go down and get them myself, but this is a two-person job.”
I nearly piss myself when I realize he needs my help here. Because up until this very moment I had figured that I’d just be here for moral support.
“Pie?”
“Pell.”
“Did you hear me?”
I nod.
“I’m gonna need you to distract him so I can get close enough to grab the scales.”
This is when I notice he’s holding a giant pair of… “What are those?” I point to the tool he’s holding.
“Scale extractors.”
“Mmm-hmm.” I just nod. Because I got nothing for that.
“Don’t worry.” He holds them up in front of me and snicks them open and closed a few times. “I got this part.”
My composure breaks. “You’d better, Pell! Because what the actual fuck is happening right now? I’m supposed to distract a dragon while you yank out its scales! It breathes fire, right? It’s gonna fry me, isn’t it? And oh, my fucking God, that smell! What is it?”
“It’s old eggs,” Pell says.
I actually gag on his words. Pell pats me on the back. “Just… breathe through your mouth. We can get this done, Pie. I’m pretty sure we got this.”
“Pretty sure?”
“Come on. We’ll be fine.” Then he grabs a torch off the wall and we begin our descent.
What we’re doing is a very bad idea.
And that thought just keeps running through my mind as we go down, down, down into the depths of the sanctuary. The smell is freaking bad and I spend most of the trip holding my breath, so that by the time we pause on the bottom, I’m lightheaded from lack of oxygen.
But that rumble—no. That growl….
I let my breath out and for a moment I can’t even remember how to breathe in.
Then, the next thing I know, flames are shooting out towards us.
Pell throws his torch and yells, “Pick it up! Distract it! I’m going on the—”
But I can no longer hear his words. Because the monster in front of me right now is no hot guy working out on a balcony. He’s no dragon chimera getting high with us and playing truth or dare. He’s not the man who showed me how to use Grant’s kitchen spells, or the friend who made steaks for dinner.
He’s not him.
That’s what sinks in as Pell disappears. And suddenly I understand why all those old fairy tales and storybooks make the dragon out to be the evil monster.
Because the dragon is the evil monster.
Tomas is red. I’m not talking some reddish-brown color. I’m not talking some bright valentine-heart color. I’m talking hellfire red with a healthy dose of orange and yellow. I’m talking rivers of lava flowing over brimstone. That’s what color he is.
His eyes are black. And then, suddenly, they’re not. They’re yellow. Not some sunshine yellow, either. They are sickly green-yellow. The color of a disease.
He opens his mouth and that stench… it’s not just the den of filth he lives in. It’s not just the nest that reeks of demons. It’s him.
He exhales poison.
And his teeth. Yellow-orange and blue-gray. Sharp. So fucking sharp. Like shark teeth.
I’m stuck in place. My feet have no chance of moving. Ever again. So when he opens his mouth, this is all I see. And it’s like… 4-K fucking ultra-sharpness and clarity. Because this isn’t some sci-fi special effects going on here, this is fucking real.
The fire. His mouth is wide open, so I see it. It lives inside him. I watch the tiny flame as it ebbs back in his throat, and then I move. Because it grows.
I truck up those stairs so fast, I take four steps at a time and get around three bends before the flames catch up with me. They shoot up the wall and this is when I notice that the walls are black. They are charred with dragon fire.
But even so, the fire licks at my clothes and then… I am on fire.
I scream and pat at my back, but it’s no good. I have to rub up against the stone walls to smother it.
The dragon roars down below and the entire stairwell shakes. It’s not some deep-bass rumble. It’s fucking shaking. Parts of the walls actually begin to crumble.
I’m in shock. I can’t even move. I just press myself up against the stones and look straight ahead at the opposite wall, waiting for the next barrage of fire.
It doesn’t come. In fact, things calm down a little and I can take a few breaths. I no longer care about the stench. To hell with the stench, my mind is only on the fire.
Then, from down below, I hear Pell calling for me. “Pie! Pie!”
Shit. “I’m still here!”
“Come down a little. Let him see you so I can get past him. I’m done. I have the scales. But I need to sneak past.”
“He’s going to fry you!”
“No. He’s not. He can’t. I’m made of fire too. But he can eat me. And I’d rather not be eaten today, Pie! So distract him!”
I’m burned. I know this for sure because my back is screaming in pain.
“On three,” Pell yells. “Let him see you. Ready?”
“No!”
And then all I hear is, “Two!” Like where the fuck did one go? And something comes over me. I have to do this or Pell will be eaten. So on three, I actually find myself back down at the bottom of the stairs, waving my arms around and yelling at the dragon, who is not looking at me, but behind him where Pell must be.
“Hey! You disgusting smelly shitbag! I’m over here! Look at me! Come get me!”
At first, I think, Well, that’s not gonna work. Because the dragon doesn’t move. But then its head—that massive, armored, spiky head—slowly, like ever so fucking slowly, turns in my direction.
And I see it again.
That tiny flame that will unleash the fires of hell.
And I scream like a stupid teenager in one of those predictable horror movies. It’s shrill and, yeah, I’m embarrassed. But I do not freeze, so I don’t care what I sound like. I run. And again, I take those steps four at a time and even though my legs are burning with effort, I go fast and I get one spiral further up than I did last time.
But even so, the flames catch up with me. Lick at me. Tease me. Taunt me.
And then they burn me.
Pell comes rushing up through them and grabs my hand. Pulling me up more and more twists of the stone staircase until the fire is gone and the heat is mostly tolerable.
And then I pass out.
When I wake I’m lying on my stomach, topless, on the lounger inside the apothecary, and Pell is rubbing that cooling lotion f
rom the steam cave pots all over my back.
“You’re gonna be OK,” he says, his fingers gentle as he applies the cream. “He got you good, but this will take care of it.”
I don’t want to look. I really don’t. But it’s impossible not to see the burned flesh covering my right shoulder.
“Does it hurt?” Pell asks.
I manage to croak out a, “No.”
“Good. Then I got the cream on in time. It’ll heal up.” He pauses, then lets out a long breath. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I made you do that. It was—”
“Necessary,” I finish before he can. “You got what we need?”
He nods. Then he gets up, walks over to the closest apothecary benches, and picks up three giant red things, which I’m going to assume are scales.
Pell walks back over to me, bends down, setting them on the floor just below my eyes so I can get a good look at them. And then he resumes his care of my back.
I just stare at them for a little while, enjoying his attention as I study all the different colors in the red. There is silver in there. And yellow. And green. Even some blue. “Wow. They’re pretty.”
“They are. These things are worth like…” He pauses to think. “Fuck. These days? I don’t really know. Millions, possibly billions of dollars. That book we’re gonna get, this is why it’s so special. Everything in that book runs on dragon scales. And he’s the last one. Tomas is the last living dragon. So even if other magical people have these spells, we’re the only ones who can use them.”
“Pell, why couldn’t Grant break the curse?” I have to turn over a little to see him. But my back really feels great from the lotion, so it doesn’t hurt. “If the spellbook is that powerful, surely there is something in there that can free you.”
“Grant never got a look at that book. It’s inside Tarq’s tomb, remember? You still have to go get it.”
“Shit, I forgot about that.”
“I never trusted Grant. I never trusted any of them, actually. But especially Grant. He was way too nice when he came here. Way too eager to please me. And that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
“How’s it supposed to be?”
“Me trying to please him. Eros, remember?”