by E Hall
It’s go time. I trace the rune of passage with my finger.
All at once, I’m floating, flying, passing through air that’s at once perfectly still and yet alive with energy. I feel tugs and pulls like I’m connected to the strings of a marionette. Then in what could only be a few second’s time, I’m on familiar ground. The floodlights on campus pool around the administrative building.
I listen carefully for doors slamming, voices out of place, or anything unusual that might lead me to Lea and Emeric. If they were just going to be driven back to campus, they’re probably not here yet. Emeric must have paid off the guards to allow him entry and exit. Then again, he also had a getaway car on the other side of the woods. Still, something isn’t right. There’s more to this than just juvenile anarchy. Emeric said himself that this is big. If the vampires are masterminding the theft of fae shadows, they could have infiltrated the administration and police department. I’d hate to think Ivan is involved too.
I’ve made it halfway around campus when I see a prick of light flare by the auditorium. Anxiety chills me, but finding them thrills me.
The moon shines high overhead. I skulk low until I spot Lea and Emeric. He sets a trashcan ablaze, a sign, and a bench, seemingly from his hands—mage magic? She spray paints something on the wall, but I can’t make out the letters from this angle. I resist running to her and intervening. I have to trust Lea to handle this. If I interfere now, I’ll ruin her plan, whatever it is. I lean against the tree and wait.
The soft approach of footsteps on the grass from the opposite direction strains my vision. A tall woman with the outline of a distinct clipped bob appears in the firelight. Headmistress Jurik.
Her figure flickers and shrinks, replaced by the head of a bald woman shines in the pale moonlight. She wears a robe.
Emeric’s expression darkens.
An oily, female voice says, “Hello, son.”
Emeric springs and then shouts. “You wicked woman. Why are you here?”
Although I can’t clearly see what’s going on without revealing myself, thanks to my vampire abilities, I can hear perfectly.
The pair argue back and forth about deception and disloyalty.
Lea steps back as if to let them hash it out.
Emeric’s gaze lands on her as a rash of disbelief and anger crosses his face. “She helped you, didn’t she?” he asks.
Jurik, or whoever it is, says, “This is between you and me, Emeric.”
“No, it’s between me and the faetchers who will bow to me.” He practically roars. Gone is the charming reform schoolboy and in is a bloodsucking terror.
“I don’t mind the fae bowing, but I prefer they bow to me. You can bow too before you die.” The woman brandishes a slim blade. “It’s time for this to end.”
Emeric hisses. “I’m no servant. I’m the king of the Southlands and soon this entire realm. I’m going to rule this planet for eternity. In fact, Lea already agreed to render unto me her shadow, making me invincible. Isn’t that so, Lea?”
Up until this point, Lea has remained silent and still. Now, she stalks closer. A kind of confidence I’ve never before seen in her expression, a fury so fierce, pulses from her. I think she could slay demons just by looking at them.
In a swift motion, the bald woman grabs her and angles the knife at her neck.
A swelling, like a great wave, pushes at me from the inside out.
Emeric shrugs dismissively. “Take her life. Whatever. I’ll find the others.”
“I already have,” says the woman who was, but is no longer, the headmistress.
Lea struggles to get free. “Who are you? What did you do with Jurik?”
The bald woman chuckles. She doesn’t have eyebrows, adding to her ghastly look. Scars, tinged green line her face. She’s intimidating, scary even. I recall a flicker of her when Lea and I were put on probation.
“I’m Glandias. Greatest mage to ever exist. I learned a handy little interchange spell and posed as Jurik. You could say that she’s tied up at the office.” Glandias chortles. “She’d been useful, gathering the strongest fae in the Terra realm, locking them up here, the prison, and elsewhere.”
“She was working for me,” Emeric hisses.
“Why are you doing this?” Lea asks.
“Building the Shadow Army,” Glandias replies as if it’s obvious.
Emeric snorts. “And I will be leading the Shadow Army. With the shadow of the strongest warrior, I will be undefeatable.” His eyes land on Lea.
Does he mean he’s going to somehow take her shadow into himself?
I have to act now or else the thing I never told Lea will die on my tongue...and likely so will we. I charge from the trees and lunge for the legs of the woman named Glandias, taking her down. The knife sails onto the ground. I scramble after it. Without hesitating, I pivot and with all my strength, drive it into Emeric’s chest. There’s something poetic about a vampire killing a vampire.
Three pairs of eyes stare at me, not expecting that sudden move.
Emeric grips the handle and pulls it out. Dark liquid spills from the wound and he goes still. Seemingly frozen and then shudders.
Lea steps closer to me.
Glandias watches her son carefully.
The air is still. Not a hair blows. No one exhales. It’s almost like time stops for a click.
A chill runs through Lea. “This isn’t how it goes,” she whispers. “He should have immediately turned to ash.”
A haze hangs in the air surrounding Emeric. From it, forms a somewhat spectral duplicate of the vampire. He’s not quite as solid when contrasted with the original Emeric. The vampire mage hisses, “I learned from the best. Who’s the Supreme Mage now, Mother?”
Glandias frowns with disgust.
The two Emerics lunge. One holds Glandias’s arms behind her back and the other presses the knife into her neck. She releases an explosive blast, throwing them to the ground.
Lea picks up the knife and with perfect aim, lands it in the heart of the second Emeric.
Dark, blood-like substance drips from the blade. It gathers velocity, falling through oxygen and nitrogen and carbon dioxide. There’s an alchemy of matter, air, and evil on this dark night that I wouldn’t believe if I weren’t witnessing it.
A third Emeric takes shape from the blood. The original Emeric’s wicked smile stretches tight across his face while his clones await his command. One lunges at Lea, restraining her. I’m about to go jiu-jitsu master on him when another Emeric tackles me.
In the seconds that have passed, mother and son engage in combat. Several more Emerics appear with every drop of blood spilled. The original one calls to the replicas of himself, “Go, destroy, maim, loot, pillage.”
They obey and disperse.
Are they demons? Some other abominations? A putrid scent hangs in the air.
Still restrained, we struggle against Emeric One and Emeric Two. Lea looks sharply away from the scene and her mysterious blue eyes land on mine as if she’s wondering the same thing.
“You defied me,” Glandias says.
Emeric sneers. “You made it this way. This is your fault. I’m merciful enough not to force you to continue to live with your wrongdoing. Goodbye, Mother.” He raises the blade.
Before it lands, Glandias disappears in a cloud of black smoke.
I blink a few times. I’d pretty much give anything for this to be a long, terrible nightmare.
“She’ll be back.” Emeric stalks over to us. “For now, where were we?”
Emeric One twists Lea’s hair. She tries to wiggle away.
Emeric Two grips mine and tugs my head sharply back.
Where are the CAs when you need them? You’d think with all of this commotion they’d have this situation on lockdown. Unless they were called off.
Emeric clicks his tongue. “Naughty, naughty, fae. You just can’t help yourself, can you? You tried to kill me with a stab to the heart. That would’ve worked if I were an ordinary vampire
or an ordinary mage. Soon, I’ll be imbued with fae shadow magic, making me indestructible.”
“Where will that leave me? Shadow fae?” Lea asks.
“Something like that. You’ll always be remembered as my mistress of mayhem.” He chuckles darkly.
“I’ll never be your anything.” She sneers.
“Except the source of my invincibility. I’ll live forever so I can bear witness to the collapse of this dominion. I want to watch it be torn apart and crumble, to see the oceans wash away the cities. Then when the buildings and trash pollute the water, I will set it alight. I want people wild in the streets, running to me for liberation. I will bring the end of law and the beginning of chaos. And part of your shadows will be within me, reveling in what you helped ruin.”
He’s vile.
Lea’s eyes light up, twin fountains of dark flames, hatred.
He takes her hands in his. “You and I, for all eternity, ruling these worthless humans. Whatever we want, it’s ours, Leajka.”
Just like that, her eyes glaze over. She leans toward him with a private look as if he’s finally convinced her. No, he’s entranced her. He’s a mage, which means he can use her true name to control her. I learned that in one of the classes here.
“You have great aim.” He passes her the knife. “Now, you can kill Tyrren.”
A terrible smile blazes across Lea’s face. “Good idea. First, just one kiss, Emeric.”
The words run roughshod over my heart. She’s tricked me. They’ve been in league with each other this entire time. Whatever good is left inside of me hardens, turns to stone, and then crumbles.
Emeric’s lips move toward hers.
When they’re an inch apart, she mumbles, “I’ve been studying grim magic too. You’re right. I just can’t help myself.”
Lea’s mouth opens wide as if to scream and magic blasts from her. She looks brutal and wild. She’s revenge embodied as she flares red hot magic at Emeric. She produces a heavy gale with the force of her own energy and her hair blows behind her, unleashing her potency. Her fingers claw the air. The other Emerics produced from his grim blood flurry toward her from the darkness as if she’s summoned them. They explode into a million shadowy parts.
The real Emeric, pale and ghostly, looks horrified as she casts magic in a ring around him, closing him in a blazing cage. Her retribution is written into the angry angles of her face. Her sharp movements. The mastery she has over the power she’d once feared. If she continues, the world will soon be rid of Emeric.
“He’s mine and so are you,” an oily, female voice shouts. Glandias has reappeared in a curl of gray smoke.
Lea doesn’t hear over her rageful roar.
She doesn’t see Glandias’s approach.
I lunge at the bald mage, muscles clenched, teeth bared. I somehow miss, landing hard on the ground. Glandias is more ephemeral than solid as though she’s moving within the cloud. She stands between Lea and me.
In one great gale of power, Glandias grips us both. We fall with the mage into cloud and smoke.
Chapter 21
Leajka
I wake up to dim overhead lighting illuminating a stained ceiling and crumbling cement walls. No windows. The scent of decay suggests this is an abandoned building. I sense that I’m not alone.
Complicated instruments and beakers containing sinister liquids are on a nearby metal table.
I blink my eyes as pieces of the last hours return. I try to fit them together like a puzzle and fail.
Jurik sent me to retrieve her son.
I found Emeric in a warehouse and managed to get him back to campus.
Jurik somehow transformed into a mage named Glandias and is actually Emeric’s mother.
She sought to destroy him...and they both want to use me as a weapon—Emeric wanted my shadow for himself. Glandias’s plan is less clear.
Tyrren appeared and tried to help me.
Now, I’m here. Where is he?
The clock on the wall stopped at four p.m. at some other point in time. I have no idea how long I’ve been here or where here is.
My stomach rumbles with hunger.
I push to sitting atop an examination table.
My appetite vanishes. Nerves take their place.
The filthy tile floor has a drain in the middle. There isn’t anything in here that I could use as a weapon, but then again, according to what I’ve recently learned, I am a weapon. However, right now I feel weak, limp, and like the fire and iron that exist in me, prompting me to rise up and fight for my freedom have been depleted. I feel spent and exhausted and my mind filled with fluff.
A single, golden cuff with strange writing rings my wrist. Its polish stands in stark contrast to the decrepit room. Unlike regular handcuffs, there’s no keyhole. And unlike regular handcuffs, it seems to suppress magic because my attempt to blast it off does nothing.
Firing frost fae magic at Emeric was like a release of something so great, so vast, I feel invigorated even though whatever happened when Glandias reappeared has left me feeling like a wrung-out rag.
She emerges from the shadows. “Lea, you are a strong, clever girl. We got off to a rocky start. You had quite the ordeal yesterday. I regret to say that I had to break you.” She wears a self-satisfied smile.
“You’ll never break me,” I hiss.
She clucks her tongue. “I suppose you’re right. I won’t break you, but I will rend your shadow.”
“Only demons can take shadows.”
“Lucky for you, I’m part demon.” Her grin is wicked. “Mages can layer curses. For instance, my son was raised as a mage, turned into a vampire, and wanted to add fae shadow to the roster. I have to give him credit. He’s clever for having figured that out.”
My blood stills and I take note of the exit and shadowed, out of sight spaces. I must establish an escape route.
“If you’re wondering if anyone is coming to your rescue? Don’t count on it.”
“What did you do with Tyrren?”
“He’s being put to use.”
A shiver winds through me.
If it’s true and no one is coming, which wouldn’t be entirely surprising, I’ll rescue myself. I go deep into the center of my being, to the core of my inner ice and fire. Despite the cuff around my wrist, I’ll access my magic. I’ll get out of here and find Tyrren.
Glandias glides over to me. Her skin is pale and powdery, marred by green scars on her face, but her eyes are hard and dark. She gazes into mine and places her hands on my shoulders.
An unnatural jolt moves through my skin, muscle, and into bone. The energy feels like fingers poking and trying to find something, but I hold fast to the flame within and use it to fend off whatever it is she’s doing.
“I’m mage...and was gifted with fae and demon blood. I see you’re resisting me. The warded cuff prevents you from using your magic externally, but not internally. Interesting. Must’ve been how you defended yourself against Emeric.”
Very interesting. I assume since she’s not pure demon, the way to rend my shadow isn’t instinctual like it is for the scum I’m all too happy to slay. This buys me time.
“There’s much for me to learn about fae. Glad I have countless of your kind to use as test subjects.” She cackles.
I scowl.
She tilts her thin, bald head. “I’d argue that it’s all for the greater good.”
“Whose good? I don’t see anything positive happening by you creating an army of fae.”
“An army of shadow fae,” she corrects. “An undefeatable, immortal army. That’s where you come in. With your shadow, together with the others, backed by unseelie and vampire traits—I will rule the realms.”
“Like I told Emeric, I’m not immortal.”
“Once you’re shadow fae, there’s nothing that can destroy you.”
Inside, I burn as hot as the sun. My skin is as cold as the tundra. Meeting with Amelia, coming to terms with my nature, being unseelie fae and her telling me that I
always have a choice gives me an idea. “Have you thought of the consequences of that, Glandias?” I ask.
“Death, destruction, untold power.” She levels me with her gaze. “Of course, I have.”
I lift my chin and meet her eyes. “Good.”
She flattens her lips as though not sure what to make of that comment. “With an undefeatable army, I too will be undefeatable.” She leans so close that I see every crevice in her pale face. “Emeric’s problem, Leith, and even Rikurd’s problem were that they thought too small.”
I only recognize Emeric’s name.
“My plans are much, much bigger. And the best part, no one will see what’s coming.”
No, she won’t see what’s coming.
She grips my arm. I jerk it away.
Just because I know what’s coming, I won’t make it easy. I dig even deeper, calling forth the light inside of me. Gathering as much of it as I can, I experience its warmth, radiance, and unique texture. I familiarize myself with the very best parts of me. I imprint them in my mind, my heart, and my entire being.
Glandias examines me and hovers her hands over me as though trying to find my shadow.
I summon thoughts of purring kittens, hot cocoa, driving on summer days with the windows down and loud music playing, dancing with Tyrren to the Beatles, reading, long showers, warm oatmeal on cold winter mornings...
There’s a tug toward everything I’ve lost and the pain I’ve experienced. My mother saying goodbye. The fae encounter when I was a child and their torment. The attack sophomore year. Being sent to reform school.
“Ah ha,” Glandias says as though she detects my shadow self. “You can’t hide from me, Leajka Vladikoff. The real you is worthless, shameful. Unseelie, unruly. A vile, horrible creature bent on mayhem, pain, ruin.” She practically coos the words.
Part of me wants to believe her. Part of me used to believe her. But I know the truth. The flames of my righteous anger are stronger. I give her a solid sneer.
I divert my attention back to the best parts of me, my life. The lessons learned, the ways I’ve grown, and the strength I’ve gained.
“There are plenty of fae to practice on. I usually let the demons do my dirty work, but you are a prize among the fae as part of the prophecy. With your history, you’re the one most inclined toward shadow work. Not cooperating strengthens my case, strengthens your shadow.” The skin above her eyes, where her eyebrows should be lifts as though she has an idea. “Emeric, my son, despite his shortcomings was on to something. Make you commit crimes, desensitize you...”
