by HP Mallory
It was the love of my Scotsman and the friendship of my failed guardian angel that caused me to make this difficult decision. And now that I had, the time for us to part ways had come.
Tallis slept softly on his side of the bed. I traced the silhouette of his profile with my eyes, marveling at the way the faint blue light from my cell phone highlighted the sharp planes of his bone structure. His home in the Dark Wood was waiting for him. Truthfully, it was the only place Tallis belonged. He certainly didn’t belong here, in Edinburgh, among the throngs of people busily living their lives. He stuck out like a sore thumb and I knew he didn’t enjoy it. He was too much a solitary man and the humming madness of society made him anxious. The only thing that held Tallis back from living the life he was most comfortable with was me. He’d prioritized his responsibility to protect me over his own happiness.
And I couldn’t help but wonder: Was his love for me at least partially spurred by the fact that I shared the same face as his former lover? Was I an object of atonement for his sins? Regardless, whether I owned his heart or not, he owned mine.
I kissed him one last time and shifted my weight until I was able to slide out of the bed relatively easily. My heart clenched when he rolled onto his side and reached for me in his sleep. But the way I saw it, I only had two choices: join Alaire with the intentions of finding a way to kill him myself or find Jenny and contact my mother. Either way, endangering Bill and Tallis was the last thing I wanted to do.
I had to go alone.
Chances of survival were low. Chances of success were even lower.
Even if all of this ended badly, sitting around and waiting to see what happened wasn’t an option. And neither was continuing to soul retrieve for AE as if nothing was wrong.
The floorboards creaked slightly beneath my weight. I shoved a few handfuls of my possessions into a small workout bag and changed into something easy to move in—yoga pants, a sports bra, a sweatshirt and tennies.
The familiar weight of my sword was an anchor in the raging storm of my emotions. I snuck over to the door and eased it open quietly. My eyes never left Tallis. I hoped that, when he woke up, he didn’t think of my leaving as a betrayal of his love.
I whispered a soft farewell and walked through the door. The world around me was silent as I shimmied out of the apartment like a thief in the night. When my feet touched the pavement outside, I finally felt a bit of that restlessness uncoil. Sneaking off without a plan wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but it was still something.
There was no turning back now. I’d left my cell phone on the table along with a letter for Tallis and Bill. They loved me, and I knew they’d follow me, so I begged them not to, which was another reason I’d left my phone—so they couldn’t track me.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and stared straight ahead.
###
“Do not fight me, Sorcha,” the Roman soldier hissed.
I struck out.
My palm slapped his face with a loud crack, and he dropped me. The grass was still slick from the morning fog, but I crawled away as fast as I could. I scrambled to my feet and dashed across the field.
Home appeared in the distance just as I collided with a man’s burly chest. I curled my hands into fists and rained blows down on my enemy as he easily gripped each of my wrists, immobilizing me. I glanced up at my attacker and recognized him. “Tallis!”
“What is the matter, lass?”
“He’s here! He’s after me!” I turned and pointed to the tree I’d been resting beneath, but Aulus was nowhere to be seen. Tallis looked at me as though I’d gone mad. Perhaps I had.
“I dinnae see anyone, Sorcha.”
My heart pounded against my ribs. My eyes were riveted to the tree where I’d just left the bastard. I refused to allow Aulus to use me against the man I loved. Tallis Black deserved better. If Aulus showed himself again, I feared it would mark the coming of my doom. He was as captivating and as terrifying as Death himself.
Tallis kissed the back of my hand and I attempted a smile.
FOUR
LILY
The Dark Wood
Three Days Later
I nearly stumbled as a ghost of my dreams appeared beside me. Aulus Plauntius strolled through the dead and skeletal forest with a grim expression on his face. He wasn’t real, of course. Even in my addled state, I understood what I was seeing was simply a figment of my imagination. A very realistic figment of my imagination, but imaginary nonetheless.
“Go away,” I said aloud.
Great, now I was talking to myself.
As I watched, the ghost of Aulus simply disappeared into the tree before him. I closed my eyes and shook my head. I was losing it. And I couldn’t afford to lose it.
Though daylight wasn’t something that lasted long in the Dark Wood, seeing the first glimmers of morning brought warmth to my heart. I squatted down and touched the damp soil. Several sets of footprints littered the ground as well as two sets of hooves.
“I doubt your lover would approve of you out here on your own,” a deep voice rumbled. My head snapped up, and I gripped the handle of my sword, ready to defend myself.
The Minotaur stepped into the light and, instantly, relief suffused me. The Minotaur, or Asterion as he was called, was friend not foe. He was immense, standing even taller than Tallis, and because he was only half bull, it was possible to still see the man in him. His clothing was nothing more than a loincloth that barely covered the muscular swells of his thighs. He had muscles on top of muscles and I was beyond happy to see him.
“Asterion!” I said on a sigh as I threw myself into his arms and hugged him tightly, relief building within me. “You just scared the shit out of me!”
“I’ve been tracking you for some time, Lily. And you’re going the wrong way.” Though his bullish face was impassive, I could hear the smile in his voice.
“How do you know where I’m going?” I demanded as I pulled away from him and frowned up at his large brown eyes. I could only wonder what he’d look like in his purely human form. The only way he could turn back into a human was to eat meat, something he’d been denied during his time as Alaire’s prisoner.
“Call it an educated guess.”
“So, where am I going?”
“To the Underground City,” he answered.
I frowned and rolled my eyes. “That’s pretty obvious, right?”
He smiled at me just slightly. “You’re going to the Toy Store to see Jenny so you can contact your mother.”
“How did you know that?” I asked but then didn’t allow him the chance to answer. “What are you doing here? I thought you were still guarding the gate?”
“There are plenty of strong beings capable of protecting the gate. One of them was eager to prove his worth, so I let him.”
“How did you find me?” I asked, wondering if this meeting was mere coincidence or if he’d purposely come after me.
“Bill contacted me and said he feared you’d run away. Looks like you proved his fears correct.” Asterion nudged me aside and lifted my bag onto his broad back which was covered with the same soft brown fur as the rest of him. Well, except for his chest. That was simply skin and revealed his human side.
“Well, I’m fine,” I said, holding my chin up high. “You didn’t have to come after me.”
He glanced at me and shook his head. “You’re doing a terrible job remaining hidden, Lily.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means Tallis is already tracking you, and the same can be said about Alaire.”
“How do you know that?”
“How do I know anything?” he answered with a shrug, as if the question were a stupid one. For all I knew, maybe it was.
###
Asterion and I walked for another two hours before we decided to rest. We sat down beneath a skeletal tree and I reached inside my bag for a bottle of water which I quickly downed. As I learned from Asterion, he was going to e
scort me to the gates of the Underground City and then he’d be on his way. I couldn’t explain why, but there was a part of me that didn’t believe him.
I looked up at him and studied him for a few seconds.
“What?” he asked finally.
I eyed him narrowly. “How were you able to find me?”
He paused and looked down at his large, human hands before looking back down at me. “I am... drawn to you.”
“Drawn to me?”
He nodded and grew quiet again.
“What does that mean?” I asked although I had a good idea because I felt drawn to him as well, I always had.
“I don’t know how to explain it, exactly but suffice to say… I felt something from the moment I first saw you. It was almost like a link of sorts… a link binding us together. I simply paid attention to that link and followed it to you… here.” He swallowed as he looked at me with haunted eyes and I wondered if the ‘link’ he felt between us was anything like the link I felt to my sword.
“Then your body just guided you to me?” I asked.
He nodded. “Like I said, it’s hard to explain.” Then he cleared his throat and caught my eyes in his. “I think you feel it too.”
He held his soul in his eyes and his heart on his sleeve. He was right—I had felt something upon my introduction to Asterion—some sort of soul attraction that made little sense to me at the time and still made little sense because, aside from this encounter, I’d only met him once.
Not that any of that mattered.
“I do feel it, but,” I started.
“I know you’re with Tallis,” Asterion interrupted, voice low.
“Yes.”
“And you love him?”
“Yes, I love him.”
“It is as I assumed,” he said and gave me a small smile that couldn’t hide his disappointment.
“But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel something for you,” I started. “Because I do.”
“Then you feel this… link between us?” he asked, suddenly interested in the conversation more than before.
“Yes. I felt it from… the moment I met you, though it didn’t make any sense to me.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me, either.”
I nodded and then swallowed hard. “Whatever this is, Asterion, it won’t and can’t go anywhere,” I admitted, wanting to somehow make the weight of his obvious emotions a little bit lighter. I wasn’t sure if I succeeded but it was all I could give him.
“I understand.”
“Thank you… for that,” I said and smiled up at him as I patted his hand. He held my hand and wrapped his fingers around it. He was warm.
“My feelings are my own responsibility, and I understand that, Lily,” he started. “I called Bill when I felt… something was off.”
“Off?”
He nodded. “I could feel that something wasn’t right where you were concerned. So I called Bill to make sure you were okay and he told me you were missing so I made it my mission to track you, to make sure you were okay.”
“What if I’m not missing?” I asked with a shrug.
“Obviously you came here of your own accord and I can only imagine you left Tallis and Bill behind to protect them.”
“That’s correct,” I said.
“And it was stupid,” he said as he looked down at me with an expression of frustration. “You should never have thought to come on this trip on your own. You know how dangerous the Underground City is and you know how dangerous Alaire is.”
“I’m not in the mood for a lecture, Asterion.”
“You can’t go up against Alaire without help, Lily. Even with help, your chances of defeating him are near impossible.”
I shrugged. “Who said I wanted to defeat him?”
He eyed me with interest. “Go on.”
“No,” I answered, realizing I’d already said too much. “It’s not your business what I’m doing and though I appreciate you coming after me, I don’t need a chaperone.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“You said you were only taking me to the gates of the Underground and then I was on my own,” I recited.
He shook his head. “I lied.”
I inhaled deeply and then glared at him. “This isn’t your fight, Asterion.”
“I’m not leaving,” he repeated and stood up, pulling me with him. Then he led me toward an overgrown path that seemed to trail off in several different directions. “I want to help you.”
“Help me how?”
“Help you find Jenny and make sure you get in touch with your mother. Then I’m going to find Uriel and I’m going to free him.”
“Uriel is imprisoned in a dungeon somewhere,” I started, shaking my head.
“I’m well aware.”
“That’s a death mission, Asterion.”
“I don’t care.”
I breathed in deeply and focused on the ground as my head started to ache. There was just so much going on, so much I worried about, so much I didn’t understand.
“I know of a small group of rebels and refugees, not far from here,” he started.
I looked up at him and frowned. “Okay.”
“I believe we should go to see them.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll be able to help you?”
“How?”
“Their leader is powerful and she’ll have the ability to cloak your whereabouts from Afterlife Enterprises and Alaire.”
“I’m not hiding from Alaire.”
“Why?” he asked as he stared down at me. It was then that I realized he was still holding my hand. I pulled it away and shoved it into the giant pocket of my sweatshirt.
“Alaire keeps telling me that I have to choose sides,” I explained.
“Choose sides?”
I nodded. “I think he meant between himself and someone he called The Forsaken…” I started as Asterion immediately retreated into himself, wearing the expression of someone suddenly worried.
“The Forsaken,” Asterion repeated. “I haven’t heard that name in a very long time.”
“Well, apparently Alaire’s pretty afraid of this guy waking up and seeing how Alaire and AE have been managing the Underground City. Apparently Alaire doesn’t think The Forsaken would approve of Alaire’s brand of government.” I took a breath.
“You can’t think to join Alaire?”
I shook my head. “I will never join Alaire, but he wants me to.”
“You’d be giving yourself back to his brand on imprisonment. That’s a bargain you will never win.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then what is your plan?”
“My plan is to find Jenny and to warn my mother about Alaire. Once I can make sure my mother is safe, then I need to… think.”
“Think?”
“About my next steps. If what Alaire is saying is true, it sounds like things in the Underground City are coming to a head.”
“They are. And that’s the exact reason I need to free Uriel. He’s powerful and I need him on my side.”
“Your side?” I repeated. “Then you’ve taken sides?”
“I have.”
“Not Alaire’s obviously.”
“No.”
“Then you’re on The Forsaken’s side?”
He shook his head. “I’m on the side of good, Lily.” He paused. “And I would ask you to join me… after you take care of your mother, that is.” He grew silent. “That brings me back to the subject of Alaire.”
“I hate the subject of Alaire.”
“I know, but it’s an important one, all the same.” He took a breath. “If you aren’t siding with Alaire, Lily, you’ll need help. You’ll need to meet the leader of the rebels so she can help to keep you hidden from Alaire.”
I nodded, figuring this was coming next. “How many of these rebels are there?”
“A couple hundred from what I understand, but that was quite some time ago.”
“And you’ll take me to them?”
Asterion nodded.
###
BILL
“Chill!”
“I cannae chill when me Besom is out there on her own!” the Yeti thundered in response.
“Yo, this is all your fault anyway,” I said with a shrug.
His eyes narrowed. “What are ye goin’ on aboot?”
“While you were all busy bein’ your fuckhead self, she was tryna get you to stop brushing her worries aside an’ actually get it through yer fuckin’ skull that she needed you!”
“Needed me?”
“Yes, you dumbass!” I railed at him, shaking my head ‘cause he really was as dumb as he looked.
“I dinnae oonderstand.”
“Dude, Lils is more insecure than a before girl on a weight loss commercial.”
“Why?”
“Um, ‘cause her body is changin’, yo! Haven’t you noticed it?”
He dropped his head to the side like a dog does when it’s lookin’ at you holdin’ a stick an’ wantin’ you to throw it real bad. “Aye, I noticed there were… certain changes she was goin’ through.”
“Right. An’ she wanted you to acknowledge the fact that she was changing. Like, literally, dude.”
“I did notice somethin’ aboot her appearance, but I didnae think it was important.”
“It was happenin’ right in front of yer face the whole time an’ it was scarin’ her. She thought she was like gettin’ possessed by this Self thing or her sword or this Sorcha chick…”
“Sorcha?” Conan repeated like he knew the name and he frowned real deep.
“Yeah.”
“Did Lily confide this in you, stookie angel?”
“She didn’t have to!” I answered with a frown but she had a few times. “Ain’t you never paid attention when Nips sleeps? She talks more in her sleep than she does when she’s awake!”
The Yeti growled. “I’m a heavy sleeper, meself.” He paused for a lil while and then looked at me. “Did she say how she knew of Sorcha?”
I shook my head. “Nah, just that she was havin’ all these weird dreams an’ visions an’ shit an’ I guess this Sorcha chick was part of ‘em.”
