Wait, what?
“I ask that the Nazieth be permitted to come with us?” Jax interjected, and was met with a pfft from several members. Jax had no standing on the council and therefore no rights to amend a vote, not that it ever stopped him from voicing his opinion. Before I could repeat his request, Max placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I request that the fifth and ninth return to the human realm with Desmoree. They can protect the gateway from the other side.”
The council members all stood.
June raised her hand, palm out. “We vote. Will Desmoree and her husband be permitted to leave Sayeesies and take with them…” She paused and looked at Grace, then at my father. “The ninth Nazieth. All other teams will be stationed throughout the Feydom to ensure our protection, should another demon get through.”
I watched as they each took a seat. A unified vote.
Probably their first.
“Great, now you need to stand up again, I’m calling another vote,” I said arms folded across my chest.
“What is it you wish us to vote on, Desmoree?” my father asked as he and the others stood.
“You may or may not know that Jax was able to successfully trade with the yowies for opals for our sages.”
A few eyes shot to Jax, but most remained steady on me.
“The yowies, the firebirds, the equillis, they are all within the Feydom, and they are all under threat by the demons should they break through.”
“What do you want?” Gerald asked, squeezing the back of his chair with his thin, pale fingers. I’ll never warm to Gerald, I guess I hold grudges and all that. But Grace and he had grown up together and she trusted him, so I guess I needed to too.
“The council needs to call a meeting with the heads of all the creatures within the Feydom, tell them about the attack and if they need it, help them to be protected.”
“Help them? They should be helping us. We let them in, they owe us,” Gerald replied.
Fuck you, I though as I concentrated on using all my strength not to jump over the table and slap him.
“Despite your opinion on the matter, they are a part of the Feydom and are as invested in its protection as we are. They can help us as we too can help them. The yowies included. Think of how better protected the wards would be with more opal dust. The firebirds are formidable warriors, and the unicorns—you all know how helpful they can be. If another demon attacks you will need their help to heal the ones caught in the cross fire.”
“Are you done?” Maryella asked, rolling her eyes a little.
I took a controlled breath. “Yes, would you all please vote, call a meeting, do everything you can to ensure their help, and do everything you can to help keep them just as safe as the fey within our lands?”
Max sat immediately, followed by two others, Maddie and Jaz. I shook my head.
How can they be so stubborn? I went to speak again when Grace held up her hand.
“I believe Desmoree is right. We should be seeking the help of the creatures within our lands, if they agree to help us, we should agree to help them.”
Gerald looked over at Grace, a confused scowl on his face, but as she sat, so did he, all the while shaking his head.
I didn’t care why they sat, just that the vote was carried.
“Is there any other council matters we need to address?” Grace asked, looking around the table. They each shook their head. “Then let the meeting be adjourned. Without Marx, Maryella, can you see that the ninth Nazieth are informed of the vote and their duty? I assume Desmoree would like to leave immediately?”
“Yes, we would. Maryella, can you ask they meet Jax and I at my father’s house, we will depart from there.”
She nodded, and began to scribe something onto the parchment in front of her.
“Desmoree,” she called as I was about to step out of the room. I turned and she was right there beside me. “Good luck,” she said, holding out her hand. I went to shake it, but as my hand joined with hers I felt something, a piece of parchment folded between her fingers. Carefully I laid my other hand over hers to help me transfer it to my grasp.
“Thank you.”
She nodded, offering a sweet half smile before slipping her hand free from mine and walking out of the council room.
If anyone saw the exchange, they made no show of it and I slipped my arm through Jax’s and continued out the door.
“What was that all about?” Jax whispered in my ear as we stepped through the council building main doors and into the square.
“I’m not sure. Come on, let’s go get ready.”
We flew home and once I landed on my bedroom balcony, I opened the piece of parchment Maryella had slipped me.
“What does it say?” Jax asked, landing beside me.
“It’s a message from Malcolm.”
I wonder when Maryella would have seen him?
“And… ?”
“It says all the power inside me can destroy the demons.”
“But you just tried that, it took the sword to destroy the demon that possessed Marx.”
“That was only the fabled magic I used. I think this means I have to combine it with my own, and the Tanzieth magic somehow, you know… use all my power.”
“Can you even do that?”
“There is only one way to find out. Come on, let’s go hunting.”
I barely had time to throw some stuff into my bag before the ninth Nazieth were at my door. I quickly raided my father’s study for things we could use and greeted them outside.
“How are we traveling?” the leader of the ninth asked as his fellow fey behind him adjusted their weaponry. It was then I noticed each carried a small satchel strung across their bodies, sitting at their right hip.
“That’s new,” I said, pointing to the leader’s own satchel.
“Your cast, mam, it makes for carrying extra provisions far easier.”
I flinched at the ‘mam’, but grinned, knowing something I shared was being used to help the fey.
“I’m Desmoree, and you are?”
“Jud mam…”
I raised a brow.
“I mean Desmoree. So should we get this show on the road?”
“Sure, I’m going to try to portal us,” I said, turning before he could spot the doubt on my face.
Jax saw it though. He knew I still struggled to cast portals and hold them, and now I was offering to do it for a large party, including seven Nazieth soldiers. I needed to see if I could combine the fabled magic I took from Ava with my own, and I figured trying it to cast a portal might actually mean I can hold the bloody thing open.
I drew the fabled magic from the tiny spot in the middle of my own magic. I saw my magic separate and create a path for it again, but this time I pushed my magic back. I didn’t want a path through, I needed it to connect. To combine. It resisted at first, and I doubled over a little as a spike of pain resonated through my stomach. Jax stepped closer, but I pushed my hand out to hold him back.
I forced myself to stand tall and heaved out a breath as I again mentally connected the magic in my mind. It complied, slowly allowing the fabled’s magic to seep into my own. The glistening colors of it, and the Tanzieth magic, faded to a muted mist within my own white magic, and with a little nudge, it finally filled it. I brought the combined magic to my hands, a sparkle of colors dusted my skin and I swung my right arm around in a circle, creating the cast for the portal as I moved.
The dust of rainbow swept forwards and swirled in place in front of us. It grew brighter and larger as I continued to swing my arm around and around.
Tiny golden sparks flicked around the edges and then the center of the circle flickered with an image of what looked like a train station, then a park, then what looked like an amusement park with a Ferris wheel covered in colored lights. I was trying to cast a portal to where there was demon energy, rather than one particular place, and the location kept changing as it locked onto one dark power after another.
/> “Des, you have to pick one, we can’t go through until it settles on one location, or we will be separated across them all,” Jax said, quietly into my ear.
I watched the places flick through again and when I glimpsed the white tile walls of the train station, I stopped swinging my arm and held the image. The golden sparks erupted like a fire around the large oval portal and I smiled as I felt it all lock into place.
“Go now,” I said, and the leader of the ninth went through first, followed by his team and Jax. I took in the brilliance of the portal I had finally created. It was so different to the ones Ava could make, and yet just as effective. I leapt through and the portal closed behind me, the golden sparks letting off a little burst of light as it went.
“That was something else,” Jax said, taking my hand in his.
“I did it, Jax. I combined the magic, it’s still combined actually.”
“I can see that,” he said, holding up my hand. My skin glistened in a dust of rainbow glitter.
“Cool.”
“Naral, get out the tracker,” the leader asked one of the female fey as he ran his hand over his shaved head. Then I recognized her as the guard from the council building, the one who didn’t want to let me through. So she made it back on a team after all.
Naral was not like the other fey, her hair was jet black and slightly curly. Small ringlets looped either ear, curling against her cheeks.
“So,” I began as I looked around at the others. “How many demons do you think are left?”
Jud answered. “Hundreds. About half of them have become corporeal, making them harder to kill but easier to track.”
“They are not all mist now?”
“No, but they can shed their form and revert back to their demonic aura at will.”
“Can all demons do that?”
“All that I have seen, yes.”
Naral called from a few steps away, “Jud, there is a dark energy over that way.” She pointed a stick down the empty dark train tunnel. At the end of if it, tied with twine, glowed a small orange gem.
I swear fairies look more like witches every day.
“Okay, let’s do this,” I said, taking point and jumping onto the tracks.
“Des, be careful, you can’t hear a train these days until they are right on you.”
“It’s cool, I have something for that too,” I said. “A gift from the elves.” I started rummaging around in the bag at my side. The others began to look back and forth, a little concerned. “I know they are in here somewhere. Ah, here,” I said handing out the small yellow beads. They each took one and jumped down onto the tracks.
“What do we do, swallow it?” Naral asked as she raised her hand to pop it in her mouth.
“No, no, no. You place one in your ear,” I said, holding back a laugh. “It will heighten your sense of sound, but only for threats. So we don’t get flooded with everything at once.”
“When did you get these?” Jax asked, placing one in his left ear.
“Max got them last visit. He had a lot of fun testing them too.”
A squeal rang through the bead and we all turned to face the other direction.
“That wasn’t a train,” I said, pulling the sword gifted to me by the elf king from my satchel and handing it to Jax, I needed both my hands free if I was going to focus my magic. The Nazieth pulled out their weapons too. Most held swords similar to mine, gifted by the elves after Blake took rule. But two of the female fey held guns not unlike the elephant cannon I had received from Moyeth.
One of them caught me staring. “They fire a mixture of opal and narraneesis dust.”
“Where did you get the opal dust?”
“We re-appropriated it from the walls of the Nazieth training compound,” Jud said as he took step beside me. “We figured you would approve.”
“You figured right,” I laughed, and we made our way down the tunnel and into the darkness.
A soft yellow glow illuminated the tracks at our feet, but my hands still shone with the rainbow glitter of my combined magic, and the orange stone of Naral’s wand made it possible to see where we were going. I caught one of the other female fey looking at my hands every few steps.
“It’s not normal, I know,” I said the next time she looked and she quirked an eyebrow.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare, it is just unlike anything I have ever seen. How do you do it?”
“It’s a long story,” I said to the responding shh from Jud. He had moved ahead of me and was now holding up his hand to halt our progress.
“What is it?” I whispered as I came to stand a breath behind him.
“A demon, see? Over there.”
“I don’t see anything,” I said, squinting in the dull light. “Are you sure?”
Naral held up the wand and the orange glow was throbbing. “We are sure.”
“Look at the yellow lights,” Jud said, and I did. I followed the yellow lights along the tracks and then I finally saw what they did. The small yellow lights that flanked the tracks on the right side looked like they were being turned up and down like they were connected to a dimmer switch.
“Do you think there’s only one?” I asked, my fingers twitching with the rise of magic.
“No idea,” Naral answered. I took a step and Jud caught my arm.
“Wait.”
“I’ve got this,” I answered, shrugging off his arm. I clenched my fists and let the magic swell in a ball around my hands. Then I threw my hands forwards, sending the magic towards the shadow.
The squeal came again, this time as my magic hit the demon. The rainbow of light illuminated the entire tunnel and we were able to watch as the demon shot up in a jagged black spike, then exploded into ash.
“Wow, Des, you did it,” Jax said as the light from the magic slowly disappeared. “Do you feel okay?”
“I feel great, why?”
“Um…”
“What?” I asked as the tunnel grew darker.
Jax grabbed my arm and I shook my head to try to clear the dizzying buzz that had overtaken it.
“Woah, what a rush.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jax asked, still not releasing my arm.
“I’m fine, it was just like, I don’t know… when you stand up too quickly. Seriously, I’m fine.”
“Good, because here comes more,” Jud said, holding his sword at the ready. The bead in my ear warmed and screeching erupted up ahead.
The Nazieth rushed forwards, attacking the space with their weapons. I drew up the magic again and threw it towards another dark mist curling above them. The wand had become a strobe of orange light and Jud screamed at Naral to put it away before Naral was knocked back by a swirling mist and the wand went flying towards the tunnel wall.
I cast the telekinesis cast and reached for her with my mind. To my amazement, it worked, I caught her and the wand in midair, just before they hit the wall. I lowered her to the ground.
“Thanks,” she called, then looked at the wand still suspended in the air. “You take it,” she said.
I thought of it retreating back to me and the wand floated through the air, flashing safely in my hand a moment later. I shoved it into the satchel and turned back to a possessed lunging towards me.
I dodged it just as another mist rose up between me and Naral. It reached for her but she leapt over it, landing and spinning to slice through the demon mist sending it solid. It shattered under another of her blows.
A cold vice gripped my leg. Black mist curled around my ankle, creeping its way higher. I focused my magic, allowing it to rise as a rainbow sparkling mix and then pushed it out towards my leg. The demon mist shot out in solid spikes, one piercing through my calf, before it exploded into ash. I squealed as the once cold pain shot through my veins. Falling to one knee I looked for the wound, but found none. The spot where the demon sliced into my skin still ached.
“Des,” Jud called as he moved to come towards me. But he was caught by a thin snake lik
e mist, it wrapped around his ankle, causing him to hop on one leg as he struggled to swipe at it with his sword without injuring himself.
Someone flew across the tunnel, smacking into the curved brick wall with a sickening thwack. I breathed a sigh of relief when they climbed to their feet, and drove a dagger through the mist that was dragging Jud further into the dark.
Something slick hit my neck and I twisted on my knee as the mist circled me. I flung a ball of magic up but it was only my magic, and the mist separated, letting it pass and disintegrate on the wall behind it. It rushed towards me, sending me sideways towards Jax. Barreling into him, we fell to the ground. A rush of cold air saw another demon mist fly around Jax and I. I focused my magic, combining it like I had done before and sent it towards the churning mist. It illuminated, shot out in solid black, jagged spikes then exploded to a fine dust. I leaned on the wall to steady myself as Jax went after another that was headed our way. I tried to refocus, to regain my control, but my eyes blinked closed for longer and longer.
When Jax sliced through the last of them we stared bleary eyed into the blackness for a moment before anyone spoke.
Finally Jed broke the silence. “It was like they were waiting for us.”
“What do you mean?” Jax asked.
“Don’t you think it was weird? I mean, the first one was like bait. It didn’t attack us, it waited for us to confront it, then the swarm attacked. It wasn’t one dark energy the reports were about, it was a collection of demons. Why would there be so many in one spot, and in of all places, a train line?”
“You may be right, but let’s not be so quick to dismiss the reports. I for one know there are some pretty big demons that came through the gateway. But I guess it is weird. There aren’t really many opportunities for possession down here,” I said, looking back up the tunnel to where the light from the station could still be seen. “Maybe they wait here for people to arrive at the station, or attack the ones on the trains themselves?”
“Desmoree, why did you pick here?” Jed asked.
“I was trying to find the biggest concentration of darkness. There were a few options, but finally this place stood out with the most dark energy.”
Enchanting the Fey- The Complete Series Page 65
