by Kimbra Swain
“Nope,” he said. “Alright, is that it?”
“No, but I’ll tell you the rest later,” I said.
“What?”
“Tell me your middle name,” I said.
“No,” he replied.
“Fine,” I said.
“Fine,” he copied. He held his arm up for me to take it. I snaked my arm through his, and he walked us out in the twilight. The parking lot was filled with the citizens of Shady Grove who all took a knee at our appearance. “Holy crap.”
He dropped his arm, threading his fingers through mine. I felt his heart racing. He wasn’t used to this kind of attention.
“It’s okay,” I said. “This is what happens when you take a sword like Excalibur.”
“Can I go back in the bar and take a few shots?” he asked.
“No,” I laughed. I waved my hand trying to get everyone to stand.
Our friends and family stood around us. I paused for a moment to see if he would take over, and to my surprise, he did.
“Thank you all for coming today. We will show them what Shady Grove is about and that they aren’t welcome here,” he said as a cheer erupted from the group. “Tennyson, Troy, Astor, and Finley will divide you into groups. Grace and I will wait for their appearance. Each one of the knights will assign you an area to cover. Please keep in mind that our families are near, and those who couldn’t fight. We stand for them too.”
The knights began to direct traffic. Astor and Finley took a group of people into the Food Mart, while Tennyson and Troy took the rest into Hot Tin.
“Where is Luther?” I asked.
“Haven’t seen him,” Tennyson said as he directed traffic.
“Shit,” I said looking to the sky for the Ifrit. “If she backs out on us, this might not work.”
Levi squeezed my hand. “She will be here.”
Tabitha approached with Remy. She handed me a long black cloak like the one I used to wear to hide my fairy form. It was a prop for today because I no longer had to hide who I was. “We are in Astor’s group,” she said.
“Are you fighting?” I asked.
She pulled a long-curved blade from a sheath on her back. “Yep. I’m a doctor. I know a few things about knives,” she smiled.
“Nice,” Levi said.
“We’ve got your back,” Remy said. “Let’s take it to them.”
I nodded as they walked off to join Astor’s group. Looking toward the Food Mart, I saw Finley. He blocked the woman that he was kissing, but when he moved away, she was unmistakable with her auburn hair.
“Riley,” I snarled.
“Nothing we can do about that now,” Levi said.
She saw us staring at her, and she dipped her head. Finley noticed and ran over to us.
“I should have told you we were together, but I knew you would flip out. I promise. I've been keeping an eye on her,” Finley said.
I seethed on the inside. She had just been at my house and after Levi. Finley was thinking with his dick again.
“We will discuss it later,” Levi said trying to avert my anger.
Finley looked to me for my response. This was the impulsiveness that I needed to control. “Later,” I echoed Levi.
Finley nodded then ran back over to Riley who kissed him on the cheek, then loaded up in a car with Kadence Rayburn. They drove off without looking at us.
“The ex-girlfriend brigade. Nice,” Levi said. “There is more to this.”
“Is there?” I asked.
“Yes. I just don’t know what,” he said, watching them as they drove by.
Tennyson approached us.
“Everything is ready. Luther and Betty are on the way. Our dark friends are waiting below,” he said.
“Thank you, Tennyson,” I said.
“It is my pleasure to serve your family again,” he said. “I can’t thank you enough for what you've done for me.”
“I'm really glad we got over that first encounter,” I said.
“Grace, you come off as brash and irreverent, but most of us know your heart. That's what matters,” he said. “Levi, you look good in armor. Don’t get killed.”
“That's the plan,” Levi said.
“Grace, you still have that horse thing covered?” Tennyson asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“Horse thing?” Levi asked.
Tennyson looked at him then back at me. He realized I hadn't told Levi my plan. He nodded then ran off to instruct his group.
Levi waited for me to explain. “Middle name,” I said.
“No,” he replied.
“Okay,” I said, then pretended there was no horse thing.
“Damn it, Grace” he fussed.
“Your choice,” I said as I dragged him toward the Shady Grove welcome sign. I touched every tree between here and there, drawing in power.
“I charged this morning at the well,” he said.
I had felt him leave the house, but it wasn’t unusual for him to go for a morning run. He never went far. After last night, I was in a fog most of the morning, so I did some last-minute prep.
As night drew closer to us, I began to worry. Betty wasn’t here, and no one had heard from them.
Another late arrival was Deacon Giles and the Yule Lads.
“It's like having children,” he grunted.
We laughed as the 13 trolls bustled around grabbing armor, shields, and clubs from the back of Deacon's truck.
They didn't look formidable, but I was willing to bet they could do some damage. They geared up, then headed to the Food Mart.
Deacon stepped forward offering a twisted horn that looked like it belonged on a goat. Or a Krampus.
“What's this?” I asked.
“You needed a horn to call your hunt. I had two,” he said.
“Deacon!” I exclaimed.
“For Dylan,” he said.
I gulped, “Won't this make you off balance or something?”
He laughed. “No, but Lamar made me a prosthetic.”
“Ah!” I said looking down at the hollowed-out horn. I had intended to substitute Levi's music for the horn in the stories, but I guessed we could go the traditional route. Although, I’d think Krampus horns were pretty rare, and not traditional at all. However, some of the stories that Levi and I had read about the hunt revolved around Yule instead of Samhain. The horn would be our ode to tradition.
“Thank you, Deacon,” I said.
He bowed then joined the others.
“They aren't here. Are they still within the ward?” I asked Levi.
“No one has crossed,” he said.
“We can’t wait any longer,” I said. “Time to hide.”
Levi leaned over and kissed both of my cheeks. “I've got your back,” he said.
“You have no idea,” I replied.
“Huh?”
I laughed as I covered my armor with the cloak and pulled the hood over my head.
Levi spoke one word, and I watched him fade to nothing. “Conceal.”
I walked to the crest of the hill that once overlooked the trailer park and waited. Levi's senses stretched out to mine. I could feel what he was feeling as he stood behind me.
Voices in the distance like faint whispers on the wind filled the air.
“I hear my mother. She says she is proud of me,” he said.
“The veil has weakened. Our dead speak to us,” I said listening to the voices of our loved ones. I felt the spirit of our people strengthen. Then a voice called out to me.
“You have exceeded my expectations, Grace. Please forgive me of my mistakes. Please forgive my daughter,” Jeremiah's voice said.
“Gloriana, I am impressed by your resilience. Make him pay, my daughter,” my Father's voice called out to me.
The one I wanted to hear the most finally came to me.
“I will love you forever. Now kick some ass, Beautiful Grace.”
“I will, Dylan. I will for you and our children,” I replied to the wind.
<
br /> A duct-taped Cutlass rolled up behind me. I turned to see Cletus and Tater covered in armor made from plastic milk jugs.
“You two need to get on outta here. You can’t fight this fight,” I said.
“Well, seein’ as how we still live here, we gotta do our part,” Cletus said.
“You don’t understand,” I replied.
“Naw, Grace, you underestimate redneck engineering,” Tater said as he dragged a long piece of white PVC pipe out of the trunk of the car.
“What the hell?” Levi said.
“Oh, cool. Look Tater. Levi is invisible,” Cletus said.
“Cool,” Tater said waving his hand where he thought Levi was. “Well, this here is a Tater gun.”
“You named the gun after yourself?” I asked enthralled. These igits weren't fairies but they could certainly captivate.
Tater tilted his head. “Huh. Never thought of it that way before.”
Levi snickered.
“No, my Queen, this device shoots Taters,” he said proudly. “Big ‘ins.”
“I can’t believe you've lived in the South and never seen a Tater gun, Grace,” invisible Levi said.
“It is highly unusual,” Cletus added.
“Maybe it's a Texas thing,” I said.
“Never been there,” Tater said. “We are going to set up behind the sign over there, then surprise them when they show up.”
“Guys, I really think this is a bad idea,” I said.
“Let them. I'll keep watch over them,” Levi said.
“You won’t have time,” I said.
“You can’t make us leave, Grace,” Cletus said.
“It’s our town too,” Tater added.
“This isn't going to end well,” I said.
“So be it,” Cletus said.
“Alright,” I replied.
“Sweet. Cletus, hide the car. We don’t want any of these yahoos stealing it,” Tater said hoisting the gun up on his shoulder. He winked at me. “You gotta hold it like a bazooka.”
“Seems dangerous,” I said.
“It is, but I'll look badass doing it,” he replied as his partner hid their car behind the vape shop. I could clearly see it from where we were standing. It was like when Aydan played peek-a-boo. He put his hands in front of his face thinking he was hidden when he wasn’t.
I could feel Levi shaking his head at them. I could also feel the veil thinning even more. Darkness rolled across the waters of Trailer Swamp turning it to a black mirror with the occasional tuft of green water plants.
“Shit,” Levi muttered in my head.
A lone horseman stood in the distance on the swamp. For him and the magical horse he rode, it wasn’t water. It was solid. I stepped forward onto the water, and it turned to ice under my feet. The ice spread as far as I could see as well as under the rider. The horse did not falter on the slick surface.
Like me, he wore a black cloak that billowed behind him. I could not see his face, but I hoped it was my Uncle. Killing him here would be vengeance served cold. No return for his treacherous self.
Reaching my power out to my knights once more to see if they were poised and ready to enter the field, I received a message of confidence from each of them. The veil between the worlds weakened. One by one an army of wild fairies filled the forest outside Shady Grove. My knights and I stood at the ready. Nothing was getting in this town. Not on my watch.
Levi
“You tell the battle part,” Grace said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because guys are better at that kind of stuff,” she said.
“I did have a better view of it than you,” I said.
“Why did you have a better view?” Winnie asked from across the room. She had been home for a little while, and we had talked about her not answering her phone when we called. She insisted that she was out at the stone circle and didn’t have reception. When Grace and I tried to talk to her about Mark, she shut us down saying her relationship with him was private.
“Because your mother kept a secret from me,” I said.
Winnie laughed, “Not my mother.”
“Right?” I said.
“Enough,” Grace protested. “You had your secret, too.”
“My middle name was not that big of a deal,” I said.
“Actually, it was Uncle Levi,” Winnie said.
“Yeah, I suppose it was,” I conceded.
“Well, tell the story of the battle. I was too little to remember,” Winnie said.
“Even if I tell it, I’m sure Grace will say I’m telling it wrong,” I said.
Grace rolled her eyes across the room from us. “I swear not to say anything unless you get something completely wrong,” she said.
Her definition of completely wrong was probably not my definition of completely wrong.
“Alright,” I said.
Thinking back on that night, I knew it was a pivotal point in my entire life. It changed the course of who I thought I was and who I was going to be. Which was probably why Grace wanted me to tell the story of the battle. It wasn’t just a battle between Shady Grove and the Wild Hunt. It was a battle within ourselves to accept the responsibilities that we had taken up. To become the leaders that Shady Grove, the Exiles, and the Otherworld needed.
Standing behind Grace, I trembled at the sight of the mounted horseman. His black stallion’s eyes glowed blood red, and his sword gleamed in the darkness. I also felt Grace’s confidence. She didn’t waver.
As the wild fairies formed on each side of the leader, I could make out our competition. The first I recognized were the Red Caps. I’d seen their kind before when Grace fought Lysander right after I moved to Shady Grove. They looked like Greasers from the fifties but had nasty bloody teeth. At least a dozen or more large Ogres towered above the front line of fairies which included two grindylows, trolls, sluagh, ankou, and goblins. They teetered on their toes waiting for the order to charge. In all, there was a force of five hundred.
“Don’t lose heart now,” Grace said.
“I’m with you,” I said. It was all I could say because my heart had dropped to the bottom of my stomach looking at our foe. I was supposed to lead this charge, and I didn’t even have a horse. Horse.
“The horse thing?” I asked. Grace giggled but didn’t answer.
I felt cold power rush past me to her. She uncovered her head revealing her platinum locks and unicorn crown. She lifted her hands up and shouted, “Stop!”
Time stopped and the rabble froze in place.
A light flurry of snow filled the air as her voice carried on the wind, “I am Gloriana, Daughter of Oberon, heir to the Winter Throne, Queen of the Exiles. This is my home and my people. You will turn back.”
The horseman shook off her magic and answered, “You dishonor the dead. The Wild Hunt has come to claim you,” he said.
“We will not yield!” she yelled.
“So be it,” he growled. From a sheath attached to his back, he pulled a black-bladed sword. His armor and banner were also black with no emblem or markings. He rode along the front-line dispelling Grace’s magical hold on his fighters.
In the legends, a black knight wasn’t always a bad being. Sometimes it was just a person who wanted to conceal their identity. I assumed that this knight was hiding something as well. I could only guess at who he really was.
Looking more closely at the soldiers, I realized these weren’t normal Wild Fairies. Their faces decayed with rot, and their clothes hung from their thinning bodies. They were the dead.
“Fucking wild fairy zombies,” I said.
“Eddie will be pleased,” Grace replied. I had forgotten the deal we had made with the ghoul. Grace was right. His people were going to love this. If we survived that long.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Yep,” I answered holding Excalibur in my hands.
She lifted the horn of Krampus and blew. The rider turned abruptly to face her. Grace blew the horn again. Its haunting call ec
hoed through the town.
The rider laughed, “You have no hunt to call. We have already summoned it.” The specters laughed along with him.
A wail floated on the breeze becoming louder and louder. Looking over my shoulder, a woman walked toward us wearing rags. They fluttered in the wind against her green skin and white stringy locks. The cry reverberated as if we were in a small room instead of the center of town.
Betty's lament pierced our ears, and I spoke a spell. “Dampen.” The keen softened, but from her yowling face, I could tell that Betty screamed louder.
“What is the meaning of this?” the rider demanded.
Grace ignored him lifting the horn once again, she blew another haunting call. I stepped out from behind her, dropping my concealment. Excalibur sang in my hands, vibrating a chord produced by my tattoo.
Grace dropped her cloak revealing her armor underneath. Her tattoos flared brightly. When I stepped up next to her, I looked at my own skin explode in blue swirls matching hers.
“You will surrender,” she demanded of the rider.
“One man with a sword, even one such as the Great Sword, will not stop the Hunt,” he said.
“I’ll call your Hunt and raise you another,” she smiled.
Two bright portals opened on each side of us. The residents of Shady Grove stepped through following our knights. Each one held their swords at the ready, and Troy leveled his guns at the mob across from us.
Grace's tattoos spread to each person, painting us like warrior Celts.
“It is not a Hunt! You have no leader! No rider!” he scoffed.
“Levi?”
“Yeah, Grace?”
“That horse thing,” she said.
“Yeah,” I answered impatiently.
“It’s actually a unicorn thing,” she answered.
My stance faltered as I looked toward her. She grinned, then shifted to an armored, white unicorn with glistening blue swirls and a crystal horn.
“Grace,” I protested.
“Levi, you will never hear me utter these words again,” she said, nudging me with her snout.
“What words?” I asked.
“Ride me,” she said.
There are things that women can say that cause an involuntary reaction in a man. I fucking reacted.
