Torchlighters

by Megan R Miller

  The image of Lena illuminated by a gout of firelight rolled through Ely’s mind. She wondered if Lena was emotionally dead inside. She wondered if her father would be afraid of her.

  “Ely,” Dorian said, “I’m sure that’s not true. I know that I’m a disappointment to my father but I don’t think he loves me any less because of it.”

  She withdrew her fingers from his broken hand and went for the other to give it a squeeze.

  “I don’t see how he could,” she said, looking up at him now. Meeting his eyes. “If you can make someone like me love you, you can win over anyone.”

  “Really?” he asked, quirking a brow. “What was it that finally won you over?”

  “It was a death by a thousand cuts,” she said. “A little at a time so that I never realized it was happening. But when Lissel hurt you my chest burned. I have never been that angry. There was a moment that I thought you might break and I realized I didn’t want to lose you.”

  “So you’re saying I have to put myself in mortal peril,” he said. There was a trace of a smile on his face. Ely laughed.

  “That isn’t why,” she said. “It’s just what made me see it. It was already there in that stupid grin, and the way your eyes stray when you think I’m not paying attention. How you get so into your performances.”

  “Well then I suppose that was my greatest trick of all,” he said.

  “Will you disappear now? You do have a reputation for that,” she said. She managed to make it sound casual.

  “Well if I didn’t reappear what sort of trick would it be,” he said.

  She brought his uninjured hand to her lips and kissed it.

  “Do you mind if I stay tonight?” she asked. “I’m interested in some of those bad decisions you mentioned.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Hell and Bulletfire

  “Daelan City, this is the Voice of the Night speaking. I am back, and I am committed to seeing this through to the end. Some of you have taken my short-lived advice and left. That’s good. The rest of you…well, you’re in this with me, aren’t you? I have it on good authority that all trains in and out of Daelan City have been shut down until further notice.

  Some of you, if you are of able body and keen enough mind, might want to risk the wastes, anyway.

  As for the rest of you, know that I am here with you and I will not abandon you to the darkness. Stay tuned. My dayshift counterparts may have abandoned you for other city-states, but I’m down with the sun and down with this city if it comes to that.

  I can promise you that some very willful people are doing their best for you even as we speak. Now, I can’t name names, but I can tell you things are about to get very weird.

  But…this is the Labyrinth. When are they not?”

  Ophelia had put tea on to brew as the family assembled around the big oak kitchen table. Joey sat at the head with Danny at his right hand. Her seat was at his left, and left empty for her for the time being. Callum and Samael sat across from one another, with Tess beside Callum and Ely beside Sam.

  She’d come home that morning in the same clothes she’d been wearing when she left the day before. Ophelia didn’t ask any questions and Ely offered no answers. When she was ready, she’d talk, and that was alright. It was hardly the most egregious trouble any of her children had caused that month.

  She returned to the table and wrapped her arms around Joey’s shoulders. He seemed to relax into her.

  “Alright,” she said. “We know the Gate Street players were involved in this. We know House Cassander was as well.”

  “One member of House Cassander still lives and she sits with us now,” Ely said. “Tess doesn’t know any more than we do.”

  “That doesn’t mean there weren’t other aristocrats involved,” Tess said. “My father’s records are always atrocious and I doubt going through them will help us.”

  “I know where Lena has been staying,” Callum said. “But she knows I know that and I doubt she’d still be there.”

  “You don’t need to be anywhere near that woman again, anyway,” Tess muttered. “Someone else can deal with her.”

  Ophelia decided she liked Tess Cassander. Callum could have chosen worse.

  “Finding her in the first place is going to be the hard part,” Ophelia said.

  “And mean while we still have Gate Street to contend with,” Joey said. “I think leaving them as a loose end would be a mistake. We have a cast iron excuse to take care of them once and for all right now.”

  The tea kettle whistled and as Ophelia straightened she was almost sure she caught sight of Sam frowning. By the time she’d retrieved the kettle and started pouring cups, he had stopped.

  “I don’t know if I mentioned,” Ely said, “but I do have a good idea where the tunnels are. If you still want to do that, we can easily put it into practice. Ms. Cassander is a licensed summoner and there’s an angel that owes me a favor.”

  Ophelia raised an eyebrow at her daughter. Ely smiled.

  “That’s all the explanation we’re getting, isn’t it?” she asked.

  “I’ve been taking a lot of social cues from a magician lately as it turns out,” Ely said. “This is one secret I won’t be revealing.”

  “The boys have been ready for this for days,” Danny said. “That push back the other night only got them more riled up. If we’re going to strike we should do it soon.”

  “That night was a disaster,” Sam said.

  “You did good,” Danny said, firmly.

  “He’s right,” Joey said, looking to Sam. “You did what you had to do, fought smart, and we came out alright. So I’m thinking our first step is this assault. We prepare for tonight, as the wisp lights come on.”

  “That should give us enough time to consult the Nightingales,” Sam said.

  “Alright, consider that your job,” Joey said. “Take money, we can’t afford to be giving away secrets right now. What are the most pressing things we need to know?”

  “Where Lena is,” Callum said. Tess started to open her mouth and he quickly added, “because she’s dangerous and I’m convinced she has all the information. And also, if it turns out she is family, that’s going to make this awkward.”

  “I don’t see why it should,” Ely said. “Blood or not, she’s never acted like family.”

  Ophelia stayed quiet and considered the situation as they talked. Her tea was sweet and just the right amount of hot. She’d meant what she’d said. Whatever Callum decided, she would support. The girl was a child of Joey’s, even if she wasn’t Ophelia’s.

  She was probably supposed to feel something about that. Uncomfortable, maybe, when faced with the evidence that Joey had a past? Except she’d already known that. Angry that this girl who had taken her son from her once already might be allowed to walk because she was blood? Somehow Ophelia didn’t feel like that would matter in the end.

  Maybe she should feel some need to protect the girl. After all, that made her a part of Joey, and she loved him.

  There was nothing. It was just another fact. Like she knew enough for it to make her think about it, but not enough to bring an emotional response to the surface. All Ophelia knew was that, in harming Callum, this girl had made it impossible for her to ever see this as gaining another daughter.

  She already had that, anyway, an intrusive thought whispered. She could see how Callum and Tess were with one another. Callum looked at the girl the way Joey always looked at Ophelia. It was an inevitability.

  “Everyone here should know that blood doesn’t make family,” Joey said, finally, breaking her out of her thoughts. She wondered if it had cost him anything to say that. There was enough conviction on his face.

  She took his hand and gave it a small squeeze.

  “Then it seems to me the plan is for Sam to go to the Nightingales, Ely to get in contact with this angel that she mentioned and this evening we free Gate Street,” Ophelia said.

  Joey chuckled.

  “Say it like
it’s easy,” he said, and leaned over to kiss her.

  “I say it like that because I know it won’t be,” she said. “But we’re all together right now. I wouldn’t tarnish that moment with this kind of negativity.”

  Callum, on her other side, reached over and took her hand. Joey smiled, and gripped Danny’s and all around the table they made a circle from their interlocked fingers. There was something empowering about that, and the silence that followed.

  It was broken with a spray of glass and an impact. Out of the corner of her eye Ophelia could see Danny’s head dip. Her Hellwatch training kicked in and she upended the table. Tea went everywhere, dishes shattering on the floor as Samael and Elysia came around to duck behind it.

  Ely. Callum. Sam. Joey. Tess was here, too. Danny…Danny was lying face down on the floor with a pool of blood creeping out around him. The moment felt surreal. Joey reached out and pulled at Danny’s jacket, dragging him back behind the table.

  When he turned him over the extent of the damage was obvious. The entry wound had been small enough that Ophelia couldn’t see it through his hair but the exit wound was right between the eyes.

  “Danny,” Joey said, one hand on each side of Danny’s face. “Come on. Move, say something.”

  He wasn’t moving. Ophelia had seen enough dead that she knew he wasn’t going to. Another gunshot broke the air.

  “Joey,” she said.

  Joey swore under his breath. “What the hell is going on?”

  “We’re under fire,” Ely said. Her voice was deadly calm.

  “Everyone get out of the kitchen and stay low. Keep away from the windows,” Ophelia said.

  “No windows in the cellar,” Joey said. He was already moving before anyone could respond, struggling with Danny’s body. Callum took up the other side to help. Ophelia manifested her wings and held her ground.

  “Go,” she said. “I’ll be right after.”

  She began to beat her wings and kick up air. She waited until all of the children had cleared the door to move herself, and once she reached it, shut and barred the thing behind her.

  Sam was in the process of lighting some candles and Joey had laid Danny out on his back. Callum was watching with concern written plainly on his face as Ely stood behind him with her eyes down. She had already caught on. Callum hadn’t.

  Tess was up the far steps similarly barring the exterior door, as if from a storm. Ophelia felt herself give a shallow nod.

  “Did anyone see anything?” Joey asked. His voice was slow and measured, dangerous. She could see a glistening sheen of unshed tears in his eyes.

  “There was a woman outside,” Tess said, returning. There was a tremor in her voice. “I caught a glimpse of her after the gunshot but before the table went over.”

  “Was she the one with the gun?” Joey asked.

  “I think so, it was very fast,” Tess said.

  Wordlessly, Joey stepped over to the left side of the room. He stepped along the straw covering the floor until his boot impacted on a hollow space. He opened the trap door and soon vanished into the crawlspace, passing up weapons.

  A few feet away, Danny’s body stared sightlessly up into the ceiling.

  “Samael,” he said, holding up a semi-automatic. Sam tore his eyes away from the body and reached out and took the gun. The next one went to Callum and Joey’s head peeped above the crawlspace to look at Tess.

  “You know how to shoot?” he asked. He was already handing her a pistol.

  “Safety, hammer, trigger,” she recited. “I’ve never had to fire in a situation like this, sir.”

  “Well, if there’s only one, you probably won’t,” he said.

  “How likely is that?” Tess asked.

  Callum started laughing. It was the strained kind of laugh that came with stress and no real outlet for it.

  “Not as likely as it’ll be after we’re done,” Joey said.

  “Do we head out through the house or out the cellar door?” Ophelia asked. “I have to go back in for my claymore either way.”

  Joey took a moment. He knelt beside his brother’s body and closed his eyes with his index and ring knuckles. Ophelia waited, one beat then two, as Joey got two one-sigil coins to place in his brother’s eyes before he got back to his feet. There would be time for proper last rights later, but some things were important.

  “If you’ve got to go that way, then we’re going that way,” Joey said. There was no room for negotiation in his tone. Unspoken was a clear and resounding, ‘we will not lose anyone else’.

  “Sam and I could go ahead outside and do a flyby,” Ely suggested.

  “You’ll do nothing of the sort,” Ophelia said.

  “She’s right. Stick together until we figure the situation out,” Joey said.

  “Okay,” Ophelia said. “I’ll take point and cover from the kitchen door. Go right through and to the steps, stay low and don’t stop no matter what you hear. We can meet on the second floor landing, there are no windows there, but be careful.”

  “Ophelia’s covering you from the front. Kids go first. I’ll take up the rear,” Joey said. She nodded to him and started up the steps. Her wings were already beating as she opened the door and stood to the side. Her wingspan was impressive; she could nearly shield the entire walk from the cellar door to the entryway with them.

  She could see figures moving around outside, and under the sound of her wings beating hear them calling to one another. At least five voices, maybe more.

  Callum was the first one through, and his steps weren’t alone. Her back was to him and she had to assume he had Tess along. Ely was nearly silent as she went, but Ophelia knew her stride as well. Sam didn’t wait for her to make it all the way to the other side before he started. There was a heart stopping beat or two after Sam had gotten to the stairs before Joey appeared, and touched her on the hip.

  “Come on,” he said.

  She knew at once what had happened. He’d needed a moment. He was allowed to have one.

  Life goes on whether you like it or not.

  Callum was watching down the stairs as she and Joey approached. It took Ophelia a moment to realize why Ely’s back was to them. She had a pistol in her hand that Joey hadn’t given her and was looking down the other end of the hall.

  “You’re clear,” Ely said, without looking back.

  “Come with me,” Ophelia said, nodding to her and starting past. Her wings were folded against her back and Ely manifested her own once Ophelia had passed her. “Sam, watch our backs. Joey, there’s at least five outside, assume more, try and make a plan while we’re gone?”

  “We’ve got a plan,” he said. “We’re gonna shine some shoes.”

  Ophelia gave him a nod over her shoulder and slipped into their bedroom. Ely kept the pistol in her hands and trained it on the window, wedging herself just beside the door.

  “I’m going to need your hands in a moment,” Ophelia said. She was prying her breastplate off of the mannequin she kept it on. “I wanted you to know you’re handling yourself well and I’m proud of you.”

  “It wouldn’t do to panic right now,” Ely said. “No one is.”

  “This is different,” Ophelia said. “They came at us in our own home.”

  “I promise you I’m okay,” Ely said. “I’m upset, but I have a direction to point that right now. I know you understand what I mean.”

  Ophelia did. She rolled a shoulder, making sure everything was secure where it was supposed to be, before taking her claymore off the back of the mannequin and shifting it between her own shoulder blades.

  “If you need a couple of seconds, now is the time to take them,” Ophelia said. “It’s not going to stop for a while once we walk out that door.”

  Ely nodded.

  “Do you ever have to take time?” she asked.

  “All the time,” Ophelia said. “There’s no shame in it. Your father just did.”

  “I think I’m alright,” Ely said. The pistol was in her hand
again. “Let’s not leave the others unguarded any longer.”

  Ophelia couldn’t help but smile before she shouldered the door open. They emerged into the hall just in time to hear Joey’s gun go off.

  “Fall back,” Ophelia said. “We can get out through the bedroom window and bottleneck them in the hallway.”

  “This is why I married you,” Joey said.

  Her claymore came free with a long ‘shing’ of metal and she beat her wings once to meet him at the end of the hall. The bottom of the stairs was clogged with bodies, and the rest of the assailing folk had cleared out of the entryway. All of the windows around the front door had been busted out and the walls were riddled with holes.

  Somewhere behind her, she heard a window open. She got a vice grip on her anger and exhaled. She could see where Ely was going with this. It wasn’t a bad plan.

  “Have you got the choke point?” Ophelia asked.

  “Yes,” he said, giving a nod. Callum stepped in as Ophelia stepped back.

  “Be careful,” she said, leaning in to kiss Joey on the cheek before she fell back for the bedroom window. Ely leaned around the open window just slightly, using the mirror to see and nodded to Ophelia as she approached.

  “I can see their sniper,” she said, softly. “She’s in the watchtower and she isn’t looking this way. Movement will catch her attention and my pistol doesn’t shoot that far.”

  “I’ve got her,” Ophelia said. “You and Sam go around the front. Remember to keep your wings beating to disrupt their fire. Do you have blades?”

  Sam wordlessly produced a knife. Ely nodded, slid her tiny pistol back into her coat pocket and drew a knife from her arm sheath.

  “Alright,” Ophelia said. “Be careful. I love you both.”

  “Love you too, Mom,” Sam said.

  “You be safe, too,” Ely said, breaking her stare on the mirror to look at her now.

  “I always am,” Ophelia said. “Wait five seconds after I go, then you go.”