by Elle Casey
“Sometimes we must make hard decisions and leave things as they are. Other times we must upset the balance. You will find yourself at a crossroads many times in your life. Will you take the easy path or the difficult one? Or perhaps take neither and instead retrace your steps?”
“Tell me about the prophecy,” a voice said from off in the distance.
I could not locate the source of the demand. I lifted my head and sniffed the air, hoping to catch a trace of her signature in the spirit element swirling around us. “Who are you? Who dares speak to me from afar?” No answer came and no signature was present, so I turned my attention back to the more immediate concern. I stared at the vision that stood before me. Jayne Blackthorn. Mother to the fae. Pawn in the game played by fae who had no business taking part in her destiny.
The little bit of me that was still inside my head got confused. Where am I? Why am I looking at myself? Who have I become? I tried to pull back, but something was holding me in place.
The me I was looking at spoke. “I’ve never taken the easy path in my entire life. And I’ll never go backwards. Never.”
I laughed inside, knowing I was full of shit. I went backwards all the time, never learning my lesson the first time around. “Lie.” As the witch, I leaned forward, something inside me bursting to come out. The piece of me that was this old, angry woman didn’t want these things to be shared. As her, I tried to hold them back, but in the end, I knew I would not be successful. Not with the other forces working against me, pushing me to do what I did not want to do, what I felt was wrong for this young fae girl.
“Pay the toll with the blood of a troll, or pick the path to stay the wrath, choose the first, and dark days you will find, choose another and be gone from time. The cries of many will weigh you down. The cries of one will bring Lycurgus round. The blood of the Mother will bring them late. The tears of the Father will seal their fate.”
A stinging sensation on my face and a nasty taste in my mouth yanked me out of the witch’s body. The witch’s seething emotions muted to zero, the ballroom disappeared, and the vision I had of myself standing there exploded into several shades of red before fading out to a dull gray and then, eventually, black.
Chapter Twenty-Six
TINY FOOTFALLS ON MY FACE. That’s what woke me up.
“She’s fine. She just needs to recover,” Sam said.
“I don’t like this. Did you see her pupils? Look.” My eyelid was pried up by a pixie standing on my left eyebrow. “Oh. Wait. They’re dilating now.”
I blinked, causing him to lose his balance and fall ass over teakettle onto my cheekbone. “Whoops. Sorry, Tim.” I meant it, too. Having him there playing doctor and sounding concerned after what I’d gone through being in that witch’s head made my soft spot for my pixie roommate even softer than it already was. He was like my two-inch-high papa.
He stood up and dusted himself off as he rose in the air. “No problem. I’m good.”
“Back up, would you? I can’t see you when you’re that close.” I angled my head up to find Spike there. My head was resting in his lap. “Oh, hey, Boyfriend.”
He grinned. “Hey, Gorgeous. You feeling okay?”
I nodded, kind of lying, but knowing he needed to hear me say it. “I’m fine. How about you guys?” I looked around at all the faces hovering over mine. “You guys good?”
“What’s wrong with her?” Scrum asked, looking at Jared with concern written all over his face. “Why is she being so nice?”
“After effect of the herbs,” Sam said. “Don’t freak, it’ll wear off.”
Scrum sighed. “Phew. Good. I was worried there.”
I frowned, feeling a scowl coming on too. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Scrum grinned. “There she is.” He walked away, leaving me confused and vaguely pissed off.
“Can you sit up?” Jared asked, walking over and leaning down with his hand out.
I took it and grunted out my answer as I sat up. “Yup.”
Spike helped me get situated on a large fallen log, and we waited for everyone to gather around before Jared began speaking. I noticed the sun had gone down quite a bit and the air was a lot cooler than it had been before I’d gone off into La La Land.
“Sam and Felicia, if you could explain to us what happened, that would be a great place to start, probably.”
I looked at Sam and she seemed normal. Felicia, on the other hand, looked a little weird. Every time she glanced at me, she looked away again really quickly. When I stared at her, she got up and moved closer to Tony, almost hiding behind him.
“What’s her problem?” I asked Tim out of the corner of my mouth.
“She’s scared of you for some reason. What’d you say?”
I shrugged. “No idea.”
Sam stood.
“I guess we’re going to find out, though.” Tim floated down to rest on my knee.
Sam began speaking while looking at Jared, but then quickly shifted her gaze to me. “I tried to put her under as herself, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t remember the words said to her.”
“So, you didn’t succeed, then,” Jared said, sounding supremely disappointed.
“I didn’t say that.” Sam’s words were sharp, causing everyone to look up and then around at each other. No one knew what the hell was going on, except maybe Felicia, and she was turned almost with her back to us at that point.
“I’m sorry. Please proceed with your explanation.” Jared rested his forearms on his knees and rubbed his thumb around and around on his opposite palm. It was the only hint I had that he was worried about something.
“As I was saying, she couldn’t remember anything when back there as herself.”
“Do you know why?” Tony asked gently.
“I think someone was blocking her memory. Her ability to go back, actually.”
“Who would do that?” Spike asked. He reached out and took my hand, and I was glad to have it. I felt safer with his skin against mine, as crazy as that sounded.
“I think it was the witch at the B&B. She didn’t want Jayne to be able to hear it again.”
“Continue,” Jared said, standing. He paced while Samantha talked.
“I didn’t have a choice. I had to get the information she was trying to keep from us.” Sam looked around nervously.
“Just tell them,” I said, figuring she just needed some encouragement. They were kind of putting her on the spot. “It’s not a big deal. Trust me, I was there.”
“What do you remember?” Sam asked.
I shrugged. “I went to the ballroom and …” I had to think about it for a few seconds. “Uhhh ….” Bits and pieces of memories started floating in, but every time I tried to focus on them, they flitted away just out of reach.
“Good. Just …” Sam waved me off. “Try to keep your mind empty like that. I’ll tell the story.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “Jayne went back into the ballroom, but not as herself. She went back in as the witch.”
My heart stopped beating for a few seconds. Did she just say what I think she just said? I didn’t need to ask the question out loud, because I already knew the answer. Of course she did that. We told her to accomplish a mission, and she did it, just like Sam always does. Anyone who ever wanted to accuse me of flying by the seat of my pants and taking big risks better talk to Sam first. She kicked my ass in that department. Must be something in our DNA…
“That was a great risk,” Jared said, censure in his tone.
Sam’s face went really red, but before she could respond, I stood. “Hey! I don’t want to hear any of that shit!”
Everyone looked at me in shock, Jared included. I held out my hands to help calm myself down. “Listen, we told Sam to do something, and she did it. She shouldn’t have to apologize for her methods.”
“But…,” Scrum tried to interrupt, but I cut him off.
“No buts. We know what she does, we know she has the power, and we can’t question her
when she uses it for us or she’ll get to a point where she won’t do it anymore. And I’m pretty sure none of us want Sam to cut us off from that or from her, right?”
Everyone nodded, including Jared.
I looked at Sam, my next words for her. “I trust you, Sam. You did the right thing. I was nervous going in, but I did what I did because I knew you had my back.”
A sad smile twitched up the corner of her mouth, but I knew her misery ran too deep for my platitudes to fix. Fucking Jared. As soon as we got back to the Here and Now, I was going to have a little talk with him about breaking hearts and creating home-grown terrorists. All people like Ben and his ilk needed to win Sam over would be a little bit of respect and some well-faked love and she’d probably fall for it hook, line, and sinker. She was done with having her heart broken, and I didn’t blame her for her bitterness. Hell, I was half the reason it was there in the first place.
“What did you find out?” Jared said, his voice much softer.
Sam stared at the ground as she spoke. I would have gone over and held her hand, but she probably would have punched me in the face if I’d tried. “The prophecy was delivered by the witch, but I’m not sure if she wanted to deliver it.”
“She didn’t,” I said, remembering that part suddenly. “She tried to stop the words from coming out, but she was forced to share them. I think she’s the one who kept me from returning to myself with Sam’s spell here. She didn’t want me to get a second chance.”
“A second bite at the apple,” Tony said, thinking hard about something.
“Yeah. Whatever.”
“So what was it?” Finn asked. “Don’t hold us in suspense.”
Sam turned to Felicia. “You memorized it. I know you did.”
Felicia sighed and slowly turned around. “I did. How did you know?”
Sam shrugged. “Spell.”
Felicia rolled her eyes. “Great. Thanks.”
“Good job, babe,” Tony said. “We can work on this one together.” He gave her an encouraging smile that removed some of the unhappiness from her expression.
Felicia stood and put her fingers in the top of her pants pockets. Swaying back and forth, she recited the poem like she was in front of a classroom and getting a grade for it.
“Pay the toll with the blood of a troll, or pick the path to stay the wrath, choose the first, and dark days you will find, choose another and be gone from time. The cries of many will weigh you down. The cries of one will bring Lycurgus round. The blood of the Mother will bring them late. The tears of the Father will seal their fate.”
“So after you heard that is when you cut your arm?” Becky asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I thought about cutting the troll, especially when I thought Tim was in its belly, but then I just couldn’t do it.”
“I think you made the right decision,” Scrum said. “Killing someone who’s innocent isn’t the right thing to do no matter what.”
“It’s not always that simple,” Jared said distractedly. “Let’s think this thing through. Tony, help me out.”
Tony nodded.
“The first thing mentioned is a toll. Do you think that means to get to the portal?”
“To it or through it, possibly,” Tony said, his eyebrows drawn together in concentration. “But the alternative, not using the blood of the troll, stays the wrath.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Becky asked, hiding behind Finn a little. “We want to avoid wrath.”
“Who’s wrath?” I asked, but nobody had an answer to that one.
“Choose the first and dark days you will find,” Felicia said. “That was the next line.”
“Which she didn’t do,” said Tim. He flew up to give me a high-one. “Good job, roomie.”
I smiled. “Thanks.”
“Jayne chose the second path,” Jared said. “How did you know it was to cut yourself?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but Felicia beat me to it. “The blood of the Mother will bring them late.”
I shrugged. “That’s pretty much it. I know it didn’t make much sense, but I figured if blood paid the toll and my blood was mentioned too, maybe it was the better option. At least I wasn’t hurting anyone innocent against his will.” I imagined the guilt I would have felt slicing the troll open and not finding Tim inside; that would have haunted me for the rest of my life. It’s one thing to cut the nutsack off an orc trying to kill me; it’s a whole other thing to gut a fat troll baby. I glanced over at him, but he was still snoring away. For some reason, he was looking cuter to me. Maybe because all kids looked cuter when they were asleep. Or I was still high on that herb.
Jared ran his fingers through his hair, making it stick out all over. He was clearly frustrated, and I felt bad about that, but there was nothing I could do. I’d made decisions under pressure, which is never a good thing with me. I would have been happy to have his advice at the time, but it wasn’t being offered. “So we’re guessing about a part of the prophecy and we have the other half still unsolved.”
“It mentions Ben,” Felicia said, kind of cringing when she saw the look on my face. I wasn’t happy about him and me being mentioned in the same breath from the mouth of a witch. I wanted my past with Ben to stay in the past and never be part of my present or future again. “The tears of the Father will seal their fate.”
“And the blood of the Mother will bring them late,” added Sam.
“What about that part about crying? And Lycurgus?” Tony asked. “Is Lycurgus a person or a place or something else?”
Felicia obliged him with another partial reading. “The cries of many will weigh you down. The cries of one will bring Lycurgus round.”
Something was tickling the back of my mind. “Uhhh…” I tried like hell to remember what it was, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
“What’s going on?” Spike asked, linking our hands together. “You okay?”
I nodded, feeling desperate, like I had to tell them something important. “I, uhh… I … shit. I can’t remember.”
Tony was about to say something, but whatever he was going to share was drowned out by the sound of a ship’s sails going by. I frowned. I’d heard that sound before recently. When was it?
A shadow passed overhead, and I suddenly remembered where I knew these things from; it was when Ish had found me on my back in the dust, when I first appeared in this realm. I heard a ship’s sails, a burst of hot wind that blew dust into my eyes, and then his footsteps in the grit. I looked up as the form of something massive soared overhead, and it all came together for me.
Dragon! Othello was here.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
EVERYONE GATHERED INTO A TIGHT circle, the guys on the outside and the girls sandwiched in the center.
“Isn’t this kind of sexist?” I asked, trying to see over the back of my boyfriend. Everyone was faced in the direction we’d seen Othello fly.
“Vulnerable targets in the middle, expendable, stronger assets on the outside, Jayne.” Finn said. “You know how this works.”
“Pfft, please. You don’t even have your bow and arrows.” I called to The New Green and pictured a bubble of power around us, imagining the fire from a dragon coming at us and bouncing off. Keep that fire element way the hell away from us. A quick, excited pulse in the element’s connection had me believing it understood what I wanted and was looking forward to doing my bidding. It was kind of unnerving to deal with an element that was so humanlike. I much preferred the more staid, almost boring presence of the Earth element back in the Here and Now.
“I can still put a hurtin’ on anyone trying to touch my girl,” he said.
Becky hugged him from behind. “That’s my brave man.”
I rolled my eyes. “You know your girl is just going to disappear into thin air if a bad guy gets anywhere near her.”
“Shhh, Jayne! Stop being so mean,” she said, pinching me.
I pinched her back, but didn’t say anything.
Ti
m came flying toward us from the direction the dragon had gone, out of breath. “He’s here! The dragon’s here! And he’s a big one, too.” He landed on my shoulder, gasping for air.
“Why are you so out of breath?” I asked.
“Too much sulfur. Had to hold my breath while I was near. Hard to be aerodynamic without proper oxygenation.” He grabbed onto my hair and leaned over by my ear. I could feel little puffs of his breath hitting my lobe. “The kid’s a freaking master, I’ll tell you that. Got flamed for his trouble, but didn’t stop him. He threw up a shield and boom, still had his hair after.”
“A shield?” I asked. “Where’d Ish get a shield from?”
“Don’t know. You can ask him yourself. He wants you to come.”
I had to work at swallowing the glob of spit in my mouth. “Are you sure?”
“Yep. Good luck.” He patted me on the head and flew over to sit on Jared’s shoulder.
“You’re not coming?”
Tim shook his head. “Nah. Gotta hang out here. Keep an eye on the peeps. Make sure they don’t get themselves in trouble. Keep my ears open. You know. Spy stuff.”
“What’s going on?” Tony asked, turning to face me.
“Tim says the dragon wants to see me.”
“You can’t go alone.”
Jared turned next. “I agree. You can’t go alone.”
I wished I could just go along with what they were saying and agree that I should have at least five escorts with me, but I knew better. I’d seen what those dragons could do to someone they didn’t like: entire dwarf skeletons in a pile of dragon poop? Yeah. No thanks. Not a fate I had in mind for my friends. “None of you have armor or weapons to protect you. I have a bubble around you, but I can’t guarantee it’ll hold up if he’s determined to fry your butts.”
