by S L Mason
“Your changeling mother didn't name you. She gave me that honor, as she should. Do you know why the Fae go through this ridiculous ritual every few thousand years? Because no one will listen to me.” He sighs and calls a sword to him, slamming it against mine.
“Don’t change the subject with your Fae lies. How do you know my name? No one calls me that, or even knows it.” My heart beats through my chest. My mother was very insistent I not tell anyone my real name. My fingers tighten on the hilt and I return the blow. The crashing of metal on metal ring out its own tune, tickling my ears and throwing sharp wakes at the walls, only to reverberate back at us.
“Ha, good girl, but you have a tell. Your hands grip tighter before you attack. You must learn to control that. Again!” Puca’s call for action is backed by an attack. He whirls the blade around and smacks me on the ass with the flat of the blade.
“You bastard!” Heat pours from my head. I raise Silver and slash down at him, but he dances away on tiptoes with glee.
“You’ll have to do better than that. Also, Fae can’t be bastards we are born of magic, not parents. I have one beginning from one Queen.” His eyes flash with mischievousness and a one-eyed wink as he whirls his sword over the back of his hand.
I huff with irritation, lunging forward with a skipping step, but he whirls around and smacks my butt. Losing my balance, I tumble forward. I tuck my head under and roll head over heels. Twisting like a snake onto my belly I use the momentum to jump into a crouching position and slash at his calves.
He leaps to the side, laughing at my feeble attempts to down him. I plant the tip of my blade into the floor for leverage and take to my feet.
Yanking Silver from the floor, I whistle the chair from across the room and slam it into Puca. His feet lift into the air and he lands on his back, coughing out a laugh.
“Oh, this is fun. But we need to move on to the hard stuff.” In a flash, he’s off the floor and slashing at me. I barely have time to raise Silver and deflect his blows.
“You don’t move fast enough. The princes will throw all of Fae and wild at you before they let you sit on the stone throne. All who benefit from the rule of wild are aligned against you. You need to learn all my tricks to survive.” Puca’s eyes align with mine, the golden hue hard as a canary diamond. He holds my sword locked in a crossed embrace, one quillion over the other.
“How do you move so fast?” I pant out, straining against him.
Puca replies, “I don’t think of where I’m going. I see myself there already.” A second later he is across the room, leaning against the wall one foot crossed over the other.
I stumble forward with his withdraw.
“The magic will bend to your will if you show it what you want.” Once again, he is standing by my side with my sword in his hand.
“Don’t think! See!” Puca throws his hip into mine. I see myself standing on the other side of the room, and I am suddenly there with my back to Puca and stumbling from the hip-thrust.
The slapping of two hands together echoes around the room, bouncing from one wall to the other. “You learn quick. That’s good since we don’t have much time. Next lesson, how to get out of here.”
Puca’s eyes change to green and a real smile plays on his lips. I see my Fae self reflected in his face, along with shades of my mother. We have to share blood.
CHAPTER 18
Both our faces curved back into reflective smiles. “Show me!” I order.
“You understand intent, yes?” Puca locks both thumbs into the loops on his leather pants, then strolls across the room to look out the window. Freeing one hand, he runs a finger across one of the crystal panes. “Looks as though you’re close…” Puca turns to face me. “Very close. This window carries surface traces. Did you do this?” His eyes search my face for the answer he already had.
“I tried to remove the window, but now it looks like my old bedroom window. I spent at least an hour on that,” I reply and cross my arms defensively.
“Close, oh so close. What were you thinking when this happened?” Puca dances around the information. Is this how all of Fae teaches: ask a question and wait for the pupil to figure it out? Why can’t it be like cooking? Add two cups of flour and one third of a cup of oil, a little sugar, butter, and voila, cake?
“I wanted to open the wall so we could float out. I was going to turn a chair into a platform and leave. I wanted to leave this room,” I retort.
“Your thoughts of ‘home’ on the surface cloud you. Push it away. I promise, when you win, we will return to the surface for your mother.” His piercing gaze leaves no question of the truth behind his words.
“My mother is dead.” I lock my jaw down on the lie as the butterflies begin swooping around in my belly.
Puca threw his head back and barks out a laugh. “Your mother is safe and sound in the basement of a house down the street from your old home. I know because I put her there, along with that man she loves.” He opens and closes his mouth, dryly smacking his lips in distaste. I gasp at his revelation.
“You, you put them there?” I sputter.
He waves his hand in that, oh-so-irritating Fae fashion of dismissal. “Of course. You don’t think Janice and his cohorts would have let them live without my intervention, do you? My only regret was your early exit. I was late, both times.”
“Both times?” Toddler questions again.
“Yes, I meant to retrieve you that first night, but you’d already been spotted. I had to wait. Deston has watched me for centuries looking for Alice.”
My thoughts run wild with his information dump. Wracking my brain, I dig back to that first night. I thought I saw a horse, but it had only been a shadow.
“You were down the other alleyway from me? The black horse. Why were you coming for us?” I step back, bracing myself for a fight as my heart rate picks up.
Puca sighs and runs his fingers through his black curls, then shakes his head in a horse-like fashion. “I promised Alice I would come for her and the baby when the Queen was dead. I was going to take you and train you myself. But I was too late, and Janice found you first. I put your mother somewhere safe and went looking for you. Without a magic trail to follow you made it difficult. The past isn’t important, however, you need to move forward. Focus on the task at hand: winning.” He waves his hand over the window, and it shivers and splits. The wakes move out from a circular opening in the wall to reveal my old room.
Puca steps to the side with an inviting arm. “Do you want to go here?” His thumb pushes off his index finger and snaps the room away. The portal now opens onto Sorensen's kitchen. “Or perhaps here? We could greet my daughter and be on our way.” He cocks an eyebrow at me with a half-smile.
“Or perhaps you prefer this one.” His fingers snap again. There, huddled on the stone floor, sits Janice covered in blisters. He lifts his head enough to crack a swollen eye at us.
Leaping through the portal, I land at his side. I plant both hands on either side of his face and lift his limp head. Misshaped bruises color his reddened skin, caused by the heat emanating from the metal behind me.
I whip my head back to the portal. Puca stands on the other side, his face barely registering a thought or feeling.
“If you want to come back, you will need intent. Don’t think it, see it.” The portal slams closed, a gruff laugh echoing in the background.
Agh. “You Fucking Bastard.” My scream echoes around the cell, bouncing from one wall to the other.
Turning my ire inward, I search Janice’s face.
“Are you okay? What can I do to make it better?” I inquire.
Janice’s eyes roll around in his head, and his muscles flex with pain. I examine the walls and door, they all wake with iron. The stones have reddish veins running through them, a telltale sign of raw iron ore. The door is held together with iron brackets, rivets, and screws. The entire door frame is an unbroken iron band with hinges built into the surrounding the stone opening.
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sp; The burning heat from the poisonous mineral bores into my back, leeching away my strength.
“You should leave me here and return. Puca will help you win.” Janice coughs, and his lips crack, blue blood is scabbed at the edges of his eyes.
I gaze around the cell. Small fungi grow in haphazard places, some fresh and fragrant, others withered dry husks. As I touch a fingertip to a small mushroom, it disintegrates to nothing more than dust.
Lifting Janice’s face in-line with mine, I choke out, “You know I can’t leave you here. Deston said he’d kill you. This cell will kill you.” I rub my thumb back and forth across his reddened jaw, searching for something—rejuvenation, maybe.
Janice’s full lips pull back to a weak smile. “You didn’t submit, did you?”
I crack a smile with trembling lips. “You should know me better than that. I’ll never bow to him, not if I can win.” My eyes roam over his face, hoping for something more.
His eyes lock with mine. “Leave me here, go back, train, live, and save us all. Please, Sarah, I’m just one life. Think of all the others—Arty is still alive. Win and save him.”
My heart speeds up, and my smartass reply clogs my throat. “No, you aren’t just one life. … if I lose you like I lost Nick. I… I can’t give you up too. Who would I be if I didn’t at least try?” I falter, and my teeth close on my lower lip. I can’t say the three little words, I just can’t.
I push the hair back from his brow, and it reveals cracked and oozing skin. The blood follows his hairline, leaking into his ears. I lean over and kiss his forehead, breathing in the scent I’d come to know so well, grassy vetiver and spice. His fingers are blackened with iron exposure, looking no different than when I’d first healed him. A pressure forms inside me. Deston can’t win, he can never win. Tearing my eyes from Janice, I pull back. This isn't going to get us out of here.
Coming to my full height, I turn, searching the weakest chink in the wall. All the wakes scream back at me. Deston had chosen well. This cell was impenetrable. A normal Fae would never be capable of escaping. Craning my neck, I take in the ceiling; it’s a good 30 feet above with only two wood beams crossing the open area. Both beams wake back iron. Deston had worked it into every square inch. Damn him.
Janice lays on the floor with the iron beating at him. My own skin gains a pinkish hue in reaction to our surroundings. The iron will work its way into my system, weakening me the same way it had him. The longer I stay, the higher my chances of losing.
Don’t think, see. A vision of my old bedroom bloomed in my mind. That is what I pictured before I changed the window and my mind. Where had I gone wrong? I keep staring at the walls, hoping the stones will change. My desire is for my surrounding to morph, perhaps tearing the stones open.
Magic wakes beat the iron rhythm into my flesh, sapping my strength and cooking my tender extremities. Blinking away the aching heat, I steal one last glance at Janice's prone form.
See. Raising my hand, the picture I bring to mind is of the wooden tub with the daisy showerhead raining cool water in Deston’s castle. Power blasts from my palm, tearing a portal hole in the stony wall. I whistle Janice’s form into a floating lump and push him through with me. The portal slams shut behind us, cutting us off from the power of the iron wakes.
I dash into the main room only to find it empty. Puca, you asshole. Surveying the vacant space, I find nothing. Not a note or hint of where that duplicitous, pointy-eared equine went.
I return to the washroom and Janice’s floating form. He can’t stay here. Where can I take him to keep him safe?
Nowhere, the world holds no safe places. Pulling the vision of my old bedroom, I allow it to fill my mind’s eye. Picturing the light-filled window again, I lift my hand and press my intent into the world around me. The space in front of me rips open a shimmering portal and I drag Janice through behind me.
The sun is up and beaming through the glass panes. Instinctively my arm arches over my face for protection. Janice groans in pain. I picture myself by the window and find myself there in a flash. I yank the curtain closed, but the oppressive sun finds its way through cracks, the radiation sending out crushing wakes.
“We can’t stay here,” Janice whispers. I move to his side as he slumps to the floor.
“Can you stand? I’ll take us anywhere you feel is safe,” I whisper back while listening to my old home and all its little sounds for trouble.
Janice labors over his reply. “Puca, take us to Puca. He’s the only one strong enough.” He pants with pain, the sun working almost as fast as the iron.
“He’s the one who left me in that cell with you. Why would I trust him again?” I scoff.
“The Fae way of teaching is by fire. Live or die, whatever power you have, you earn. How did we get here?” Janice’s swollen eyes take in our surroundings.
“I opened a portal, something Puca was trying to teach me,” I reply, coughing. I can’t take much more of the solar radiation.
“You opened a portal? Only Puca can travel this way-how is that possible?” Awe laces his voice.
I whistle the comforter over the window, hoping the extra barrier would protect us. I arrive back at Janice’s side in time to stop his fall to the floor.
“Take me to Puca, he’ll keep you safe.” Janice’s head lolls to the side and onto my shoulder. “Do you trust me?” he whispers.
His breath skimmed my lips, and I turn into it. The sensitive flesh at the end of my nose brushes against his. My eyes find his violet orbs eating into me. The heat from the sun pales into the background as fire from my belly sweeps through me. My heart pounds in time with the heart I find under my hand.
“I trust you,” I barely breathe those three difficult words.
His hand snakes behind my neck, pulling me to his warm lips. My eyes close as I melt into his embrace, exposing my longing for him as if it was an open wound.
His lips work over mine, down my jawline to the hollow of my neck. A moan escapes before his lips find mine again. I return every demand, with one of my own.
I am molten lava, hot and fast moving. But not all of the heat is my own, and the real burning inferno of the world radiates into us. Janice’s hands find the small of my back and move down to the swell of my buttocks pulling me to him as his mouth works over my throat.
Janice pulls away, laying a kiss on my forehead. “We must leave, the sun will kill us if we stay much longer above ground.” Anguish laces his husky voice.
“Five minutes, I only want five minutes to enjoy this moment” I whisper back. Then my lips find his and our lovers dance begins again. I move with him our hands finding each other. I want to stay in this moment with the fire of the sun burning all our problems away.
My lips still and I snuggle into the hollow of his neck breathing in the scent of him. Janice’s knee’s give out and I struggle to hold him upright.
“I guess it’s time to go.” His voice is thick and labored.
I thrust my hand out in front of me. There before us is Puca’s barn, along with a few horses lingering about.
“When did you decide?” Janice inquires.
“When I saw your burnt hands. You injured yourself for me. You trusted me, the rest is a river in Egypt.” I pull him back into a standing position. Biting my lip, I stumble over my words. “What about you?”
He smiles. “When I saw you jump the first fence. You were fearless. Even after missing the second fence and I pulled you lose tearing your pants, you never gave up the fight. You saw the odds and never backed down, defiant to the core and beautiful.”
I pull us through to stand in front of Puca’s barn.
The slapping of skin meets us.
“Awe, good girl. I see you even brought your friend.” Puca’s twinkling, canary-colored eyes finish the picture of arrogance that made the man. He sashays from the paddock post to stand in front of us.
“You’re an asshole. You left us there knowing full well what would happen if I couldn’t get out.” I
raise my hand to smack him, but he catches my wrist and holds it in a vise grip.
“Fae don’t teach the human way. You will learn or die. What do you think the challenges are about? We are teaching you. Life is not safe; I cannot and will not coddle you. There is too much at stake. You are not the only one with something of value to lose. No matter what choice I make there will be a loss,” Puca’s yellow eyes glow with a sun-like brilliance.
Our faceoff does Janice no good as he slumps against me. Puca whistles and one of his horses canter over.
“This is Horatio,” Puca informs me, all the while running his fingers up and down the diamond between the big hazel eyes. “Horatio will take Janice to my home, where he will be safe.” Then Puca hums a ditty, placing Janice on the stallion’s back.
Janice leans over and our lips meet for a quick kiss.
Puca pats Horatio on his hindquarters and the horse moves away with
Puca holding my arm, keeping me in check. I flash him a fierce snarl.
“Trust me, granddaughter. He will be safe. We must return before you are missed. They will bring you one final meal. Tomorrow begins the race to the throne.” Puca releases my arm, only to shove me through a new portal.
The hardwood floor meets my ass, bruising my tailbone. I hop up into a fighting stance. Puca steps through, waving me off.
“Stop doing that and maybe I could get five minutes to trust you,” I grumble.
“Don’t leave the confines of this room. Deston will be alerted to your status. Only the princes know where the final race will be held, so only they can take you there. Deston must arrive with you.” He waltzes around the room and bathroom only to shift on his heels by the window. Gazing into the dimming twilight of Fae, I watch as his Fae marking slowly takes on their glow, a light gray tone. I should have known it would be his color— so much about him is black or on the gray scale.
