by Amy Sumida
We flew over the Castle of Eight; the magnificent home of the High Royals of Faerie. The eight trees that made up the fortifications and the main keep of the castle had lost their leaves, but their branches were still adorned with the bright pennants of King Cian, Queen Meara, and Prince Lugh. Very few lights shone from within the massive trunks—most of the windows and balconies were blocked by winter shutters—but there were faerie orbs hovering around the central tree as well as the guard posts along the castle walls. The castle was a beacon within the dark forest.
But Arach and I flew straight over it and toward the Kingdom of Water. The moonlight gleamed off the Faerie Sea in its gigantic basin; a siren song that was hard to ignore. Castle Deuraich passed beneath us as we continued over the black mirror of water and dipped low to admire the cresting waves that stretched toward the shore. The Water Fey were tucked safely beneath those waves; either in the dry city of Under—in its underground cavern—or the wet city of Water that rose above it. The King and Queen of Water, however, were most likely in Deuraich; the guardian castle perched on the lip of the basin.
As much as Queen Nora was a water fey now, she had originally been fire, and she preferred to sleep above the surface. She had once confessed to me that sleeping underwater was far more difficult than being there awake. A person born to breathe air had a hard time convincing their sleeping mind that it could now breathe water.
Arach and I didn't go too far over the sea; the distance we traveled would be doubled when we headed back, and we wanted to get home before daylight. So, we spun around and sped across Faerie to the only open window in our mountain-castle home. Light spilled out of it without the taint of smoke, and I was hoping the scent would also be diffused by now. Perhaps there would even be a fresh bed in the metal frame. Our staff was used to such things happening and had become adept at replacing mattresses and linens in the blink of an eye.
As we approached the window, we saw that it wasn't a new bed that awaited us but our twin sons; Rian and Brevyn. They stood at the sill; waving out at us with glee. Rian stepped onto the sill as if he was about to shift and join us, but Arach screeched a warning at him. Rian plopped back inside with a grumpy glare, but Brevyn took his hand and said something to his twin that mollified him. They were perfect together; Rian lifting Brevyn up while Brevyn grounded him.
Arach went inside first; gripping the window sill with his massive talons as he shifted back to his man-form. He leapt upward as he transformed; flowing into the room with a smooth movement that was utterly graceful. There was an art to the maneuver that I was still getting the hang of—literally. Most of the time—including this one—I ended up dangling out the window by my fingertips; waiting for Arach to help me in.
Arach chuckled as he lifted me into the room as if I weighed nothing more than a feather pillow and then slipped a heavy robe over my shoulders. When he turned to grab his own robe, I smacked his butt for laughing at me. Arach paused to cast an intrigued look over his shoulder at me. I ignored him in favor of hugging my boys.
“Why didn't you take us with you?” Rian asked petulantly.
“Because I wanted to fly with Daddy,” I said as I gave Rian's bright red hair a pat.
Rian's silky, baby tresses were starting to darken to match Arach's shade, but his eyes would always be a unique green; not quite ivy and not quite moss. Somewhere between that was sharper and fiercer. Rian was a rare Verdure; a green dragon. A fact that made Arach endlessly proud.
Brevyn's hair was darkening too—going from pale blond to antique gold—but his eyes weren't unique; they were exact replicas of Ull's. Ull had once been Thor's son, but when he died, I gave him what he'd been wishing for; a fresh start. I put his soul in Brevyn and now, he was my son. There was something strange and amazing about that.
Along with his god soul, Brevyn had acquired some god magic; magic that was tempered by his human soul. Yes; both of my sons are dual-souled beings. Rian is Fey/Human and Brevyn is God/Human. Brevyn's tempered magic is an ability to borrow other people's magic; not taking it as I do, but copying it and using it for as long as he wished. His human soul added a powerful twist; he could borrow both god and fey magic. You know how parents tell their children they can be anyone they want to be? My son literally could, and I didn't have to tell him; he knew it. In fact, he knew a lot of things; courtesy of his other magic. To help him decide what magic to borrow, Brevyn had been given the gift of sight; a gift that had helped us numerous times but which I still resented.
I hated prophecies, and that made what happened next even more difficult.
“Mother,” Brevyn held his hand out to me.
He'd only started calling me “Mother” within the last month, and Rian had—of course—followed his example. It made the twins sound older, and that hurt my heart a little, but it was also adorable; especially when Brevyn said it with such a serious expression. Except I knew what his serious expression meant this time. Brevyn had seen something in a vision and wanted to share it with me. That bit wasn't new; Brevyn had been sharing his visions with me since he was a baby. It made me feel a little better that I could be there with him—that he didn't have to face the future alone—but it also scared the bejesus out of me.
“Is it bad?” I asked my son as if he were the parent.
“Yes,” Brevyn said grimly.
At least he was honest.
I glanced up at Arach and saw him scowling with anger and anxiety. I had no idea who he was angry at, or if even he knew. Perhaps he was simply upset that our lives never seemed to flow forward peacefully but had to be tossed over rocks in a violent storm.
“Okay.” I held out my hand to Brevyn. “Show me.”
Brevyn put his little hand in mine and instantly, the bedroom disappeared. I was walking with Brevyn down an uneven road; so uneven that my steps wobbled with it. It felt strange too; sort of squishy. In the way of dreams and visions, I knew it was Brevyn beside me even though it didn't look like him. He was a fully grown man with dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes; the complete opposite of who he was. Except when Brevyn turned those alien eyes toward me, their dark depths flashed with his true blue.
“Brevyn?” I asked.
“This isn't us, Mother,” he said grimly. “This is another mother and son, and they are not good people. Look.” He waved his hand around us, and I instantly recognized the landscape. “And here.”
Brevyn motioned beneath us, and my eyes widened. We were on the road to Hell; the very same one I had walked with Luke and Azrael. The joke I made then came back to haunt me. The road to Hell wasn't lined with dead puppies or diamonds; it was lined with dead demons. Our walk was wonky because we strode over dead bodies; demon bodies sprinkled with snow and ice. I started to tremble when I strode over Cid in his demonic form; his dead, frozen eyes staring up at the burnt sky of Hell in accusation—as if the Devil himself had done this to him.
“Keep walking, Mother,” Brevyn said.
And so we did. We strode forward resolutely. The demon dead dwindled to a few scattered corpses; arms outstretched toward Luke's abandoned mansion. No bats flew overhead and no gargoyles perched on the roof. The snow had drifted up to and over the house; covering it in a blanket that should have made it look softer, more welcoming. Instead, it just looked cold. Empty. I knew as we opened the front door that neither Holly or Luke would be there. I would have been thankful for that, except that I knew the reason for their absence.
The King and Queen of Hell were dead. Long live the new King.
I didn't want to look, but my head swiveled slowly as if pulled by a noose. I stared at my son in horror. All vestiges of Brevyn had disappeared. A monster stared back at me.
I knew monsters. I had a special place in my heart for those whose horrifying faces hid golden souls. But this was a different kind of monster; it's opposite. A beast with a beautiful face and a black soul—several souls actually. Ice crept up my legs; freezing me in place. I couldn't escape the beast; couldn't run when it opened
its mouth wide... wider... wider still. All I could do was watch as skeletal hands reached for me from within the black depths of the monster's evil maw; clawing at the thick black tongue and sharp teeth as a chorus of screams burst from his throat.
I jerked away from Brevyn and out of the vision; gasping for breath as I did so. The bedroom was back; with Rian and Arach staring at Brevyn and me expectantly. But I wasn't looking at them; my gaze was focused on the air before me and the frozen breath I'd just exhaled.
Brevyn's visions were getting stronger.
“Do you know what it means, Mother?” Brevyn asked me calmly.
I yanked him into my arms and hugged him tightly. I couldn't let him see my tears. My brave son who faced such nightmares with the calm resolve of his ancient soul. What kind of fresh start had I given Ull? Had he been better off as the God of Justice? But what would have happened to Rian and me then? If I hadn't placed Ull's soul in my unborn son, would my child and I have survived Ptah's attack? I didn't think so. My breathing calmed and my tears dried as I realized that Brevyn had been meant to be here. This life would have its difficulties, but it would also have its rewards. Who was I to take that from my son?
“I'm okay, Mother,” Brevyn said gently. “The visions don't scare me.”
“Of course they don't.” I eased back and stroked his hair proudly. “You've got the soul of a warrior.”
“I know,” he whispered and winked at me.
I gaped at him.
“Do you know what the vision means?” He asked me again.
“I think so,” my voice had gone shaky. “And it has nothing to do with you or Faerie.”
Arach and Rian both exhaled in relief.
“I know,” Brevyn said. “But what about Grandma Holly and Grandpa Luke?”
“I'm going to make sure they're okay,” I assured him. “And your vision will help me.”
“It will?” Brevyn asked hopefully.
“What about Grandpa and Grandma?” Rian asked with panicked eyes.
“They're going to be fine,” Brevyn said confidently to his brother. “Mommy will take care of them.”
My heart sped up. Brevyn's slip—calling me Mommy instead of Mother—meant only one thing; he was scared. I took a deep breath and caught the scent. I hated it when my babies were scared. It made me scared too... and very angry. Ah; so that was why Arach was furious; he had scented Brevyn's fear.
“Hey,” I took Brevyn's hand. “They're going to be all right. I promise you. And I'm going to tell them that you helped save them.”
Brevyn finally smiled and it was like sunshine on my soul. “Thank you, Mother.”
“Thank you for being such a brave boy.” I hugged both of my boys to me but the face I turned up to Arach was full of fear I'd taken from my son.
Chapter Twenty
Later that night—after Arach and I had put the boys to bed—we laid on our new mattress and talked about Brevyn's vision.
“What do you think it means?” Arach asked me.
“I think that Athena was right; this is about Luke,” I said. “Someone is trying to take Satan's power, and they're doing it through his demons.”
“Is that possible?”
“Normally, I would have said no; that no god would be able to take another god's power. In fact, if you had merely told me that someone was going to take Luke out by stealing demon souls, I would have said it had to be a witch.”
“Someone like you,” Arach murmured.
“Someone stronger than me,” I corrected.
Arach made a scoffing expression. “No human is stronger than you.”
“You never know,” I said. “But it's not a human. The man in Brevyn's vision was definitely a god; a god who could take much more than the three magics that I can.”
“Not necessarily.” Arach's brow furrowed. “You can take three different magics; this god is taking one type of magic that has been split into several demi-gods.”
I blinked and processed. “Right; that would make it easier.”
“Easier, but still impossible for a god,” he said. “It's hard enough for them to kill each other; to steal another god's magic just can't be done.”
“Brevyn's vision seems to be proof that it can,” I pointed out. “A path lined with dead demons and an empty hell-mansion? That sounds like the demon souls were a means to an end; the path to power.”
“I agree,” he said. “If only the vision had given you more information.”
“It did,” I said. “I know it's a mother and son working together, and I also know what the son looks like. The man I saw in the vision matches the description given to us by the families of the possessed. I'm certain that I just saw Reginald MacKenzie, and he definitely wasn't Scottish.”
“What was he?”
“Something exotic,” I mused. “Dark skin, swarthy; I think he was Indian.”
“Native American?”
“No; the other Indian. From India.” I blinked in shock. “It's a Hindu god.”
“We just killed a whole lot of those.” Arach shifted a grim gaze my way. “Weren't some of them demons?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “That's an interesting coincidence.”
“I doubt that it's a coincidence,” he muttered.
“We considered Yama as a possibility,” I went on. “He's dead, but he had this tool that could harvest souls.”
“What kind of tool?”
“A cord of some kind.”
“Like a noose?” Arach asked.
“Could be.” I shrugged. “Or a lasso; to loop around a soul and pull it free.”
“Interesting indeed,” he murmured. “I'd look into his family if I were you; any surviving relatives.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “I'll do it first thing in the morning. I have other plans for tonight.”
I pulled my dragon closer.
“No teasing this time, A Thaisce,” Arach chided me. “We just got this bed.”
I smiled wickedly as I laid back onto the fresh mattress with him, and Arach groaned in both irritation and anticipation.
Chapter Twenty-One
I didn't return to the God Realm right away. I know that seems reckless and cold, but I'd be going back to nearly the exact time I'd left; which meant that time I spent in Faerie was a bonus. While the murderer and all of Luke's demons were essentially on pause, I could do some investigating from here while I spent some time with my family and faeries.
And Dexter.
“Dex!” I exclaimed as he jumped on top of Arach and me. “Where have you been?”
A soft whine alerted me of another presence in the room. I looked toward the door and saw another Dexter standing there, but this one was a little smaller and had a rounder face. The nurial in the doorway had gone through an early shift. Normally, nurials were black-furred animals with six, long, delicate legs, a lion-shaped body, a fox-like face, crimson eyes, and curling horns near their droopy ears. When mature, the males had a thick ruff of fur around their necks too. This nurial was either a young male or a female because it didn't have a ruff. It was also pure white with pale blue eyes; the nurial winter coloring. Dexter was still black; it was a little early for either the Fey or the creatures of Faerie to start shifting. And not all of them did, even when the time was right. A winter transformation has become a badge of honor among the Fey; a far cry from what it began as.
“Who's your friend?” I asked as I sat up.
“I don't think that's his friend.” Arach took a long sniff. “She smells very similar to Dexter.”
I inhaled deeply. Arach was right; she was female and her scent was nearly identical to Dexter's. The nurial at the door backed up a step as I stared at her. Dexter jumped off the bed and circled behind it to push the animal forward. The fact that Dex had gotten a wild animal to come inside the castle in the first place was amazing. That it was standing there while a couple of dragon-sidhe sniffed it was even more so. It spoke of deep trust; not in us, but in Dexter.
I started to tear up.
“A Thaisce,” Arach said gently as he pulled me against his side, “I love your gentle heart.”
“She's his daughter,” I whispered and looked up at Arach. “Isn't she?”
“I believe so,” Arach said. “Don't make any sudden movements; let her come in on her own.”
“Okay.” I sniffed and tried to look friendly. “Hey, sweetie, you're safe. No one's going to hurt you here.”
The female nurial whined and nudged Dexter's face. Dex huffed and pushed her inside the room. Then he ran ahead of her and plopped on his bed as if to show her what cool digs he had. The girl looked a little lost standing in the middle of the bedroom by herself and it took all of my willpower not to get up and comfort her. But that wouldn't have been a comfort to her; it probably would have sent her running. So, I waited, and she took a wary step forward; her eyes on Arach the entire time. Oh yeah; she knew where the danger was and who it was.
“It's okay,” I crooned to her again. “Dex, go help her.”
Dexter looked up at me and then went back to his daughter. He stood between her and us as a barrier and walked with her to his bed; a miniature version of Arach's and mine. Dexter is a large animal, and he took up most of the bed. His daughter had to lie tangled in his legs and across him a bit. But the little family looked happy and comfy when they were finally settled in.
“I think we're going to need a bigger bed,” I said to Arach.
“It would seem so,” he agreed with a smile. “Perhaps we can put them in the boys' room; she'll be more comfortable around the children, I imagine.”
“You've been looking for an excuse to move Dexter for a long time now,” I accused Arach.
“Yes,” he said without guilt. “And this is the perfect opportunity.”
“Damn pragmatic dragon,” I muttered. Then I looked back at the newest addition to our family. “Do you think she was cast out as Dexter's mother did to him?”
