by Elle Casey
“Whoa, what is this place? Is it the Elysian Fields?” I’d been there once before, and I’d had a kind of allergic reaction to all that beauty. Hopefully dragonfire was good for that illness too, otherwise I was screwed. Sam and her magic were a really long way from here.
“We are near the portal to the Overworld.”
I sighed in frustration. “Oh. Okay.”
“Why does that displease you?”
“Because. If it’s the same Overworld I know, there’s a real turdbasket waiting at the door for me.”
“What is a turdbasket? I feel the emotion but do not know the word.”
“It’s a guy who thinks he’s the universe’s gift to all the realms but who really isn’t at all. He’s more like a curse.”
“I will eat him.”
I sighed with the heavy responsibility of doing the right thing. “No, don’t eat him. He has a dragon companion and she’s pretty badass. She’ll probably kill you for it.”
“Who is this dragon?”
“Heryon? Ever heard of her?”
He said nothing. He just angled his body downward, and I held onto the horn to keep from having to lean back too far. My hair flew out above me as we went down at a steeper and steeper angle. We were almost to the point of being totally nose-down when Othello finally straightened and leveled out over a valley. There was a nice flat spot to land on, and at the end of the green field there was a big tower of rock, a cliff face of sorts. A dark triangle marked an entrance to what I could only assume was another cave or maybe even the portal itself.
“Is that it?” I asked, staring at it, wondering if I could see anything inside from where I was … like maybe Ben’s big, fat head blocking out the view of the fire from his dragon standing behind him.
“Yes. This is the portal.” Othello moved forward on four legs from that point, each one making his whole body undulate left and then right, up and then down. I could have fallen to sleep to that rhythm it was so soothing, except for the fact that I was suffering from panic at level nine out of ten by this point. Ben. Overworld. Portal. Shitstorm.
When he stopped about fifty yards from the entrance, I cleared my throat, suddenly very nervous. “I, uh, think maybe I should wait for my friend. The pixie.”
“He will not come.”
“Why not?” I looked behind me, sure I would see the tiny speck that was him breaking through the clouds any second.
“He is not permitted.”
“Not permitted by who?”
“By Heryon. The portal guardian.”
“Ohhhhh … so you do know her.”
“Yes.”
“And you know Biad too, then.”
“I do know Biad. She rides with me today.”
I sighed. “I’m not Biad, Othello. I told you before; I’m Jayne the elemental. Remember?”
“You must enter without me.”
I let go of his horn. “Really?”
“It is how she wants it.”
“She, Heryon or she, Biad?”
He didn’t answer me again, and it was starting to get really frustrating.
“I thought we were a team,” I said, freaking out that I was expected to do this thing alone. A dragon wingman sounded like a great idea right about then. It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that talking about entering a portal from afar and actually doing it felt very different when it was going down.
“It is how she wants it.” He dipped his head so I could slide down the side of his face. Fearing his next step would be to shake me off and send me flying, I slid down the groove behind his eyebrow and landed on my feet in the soft, loamy ground. The smell of fresh grass filled my nostrils. Normally that would have made me feel happy, but today it just made me more nervous. It reminded me of all the battles that had been fought in beautiful meadows around the fae compound.
I thought about all those battles and what we’d been fighting for. Freedom to be who we were. The safety of our people. Our very futures. Nothing had changed, really. I was still fighting for the same things today. I patted him on the face, resigning myself to the fact that this was a done deal; I was going to the portal, and I was going alone. “Thanks for the lift.”
“When you want, as you want, where you want. I am always there.”
I felt a surge in my heart, of warmth and dedication coming from this beast of a dragon. It was nice. Not quite enough to ease the fear completely away, but it was enough to make it possible for me to put one foot in front of the other and advance toward the darkness that lie ahead — toward the entrance to the Overworld.
“Wish me luck,” I said under my breath, taking one last glance over my shoulder looking for Tim. I wanted the dragon to be wrong, but all I saw was empty sky.
“You do not need luck. You have everything you need with you.”
I don’t know how I did it, but I did; I kept on walking, never once pausing or turning around, all the way across that last stretch of valley and into the entrance to the Overworld. The darkness closed in around me and shut out the day behind. For the first time in a long time, I was totally and completely alone.
“Hello?” My voice sounded like I’d spoken into a thick blanket. No echoes in this cave, I guess. “Hello? Heryon? Ben?” It was a sad day in the world when I was looking forward to hearing that guy’s voice.
I moved farther inside. Warm air blew up from my ankles, but it made me shiver. I had no idea where it was coming from or what it was coming from. For all I knew I was inside the mouth of a dragon. “Yoo hoooo … anyone home?
Chapter Thirty-Seven
I WALKED FOR A REALLY long time, and that struck me as completely inconvenient and rude. “Who makes the entrance into heaven a long, boring, dark road? What happened to the light at the end of a tunnel?” It was only a weird glow from my dagger that made it possible for me to see anything. The tunnel was small, not something Othello could have fit through. No wonder he told me I had to go alone. The walls were slick and black, as was the floor. I walked carefully to be sure I wouldn’t slip.
“Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work I go…” My whistled tune came back to me slightly off key, which made the whole tunnel even more creepy, so I stopped. Reaching up to wipe the sweat from my head, my hand made contact with the tuft of hair that used to be my bangs. “Oh shit.”
I hated Ben, which is why I didn’t want to give him any fuel to fire the mockery I knew he’d come at me with. I slowed down as my fingers busied themselves with trying to hide my horrible hair accident. Hair that should have been hanging down on the sides of my head was moved to the front; I tried to weave it in with the bang stubble to make it look like I meant for it to be that way. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. I snorted. And maybe he wouldn’t notice monkeys flying out of my butt too. A girl could only hope.
The path in front of me lit up more. I thought for a moment it was some sort of light shining from up ahead, but then realized it was my sword, glowing even brighter as I moved on. “Uh-oh.” It was never a good sign when a demon sword got excited. I took the dagger out of the small sheath and watched as the blade got longer and thicker. “Go-go gadget boner sword,” I said softly, my heart filling with dread.
This made no sense at all, but arguing about it in my head wasn’t going to change anything. I had a choice now; I could turn around and run back, or I could move forward and find out why a sword that was supposed to only glow when demons were around was shining like a beacon in the dark of an Overworld portal.
Errrgh! Why me? Why can’t I be the one stuck over by Othello’s cave, clueless about what’s going on? For once, I selfishly wanted to let someone else enter the danger zone instead of me. But when I tried to think of who I’d choose to do that, the only names I could come up with were Leck, Maléna, and Ben … and for sure none of them would volunteer to take an arrow for me. So that’s it. It’s me. Just like it’s always been and always will be, because I don’t let other people do my dirty work for me.
“Time to
pixie up and find out what the hell is going on.” I took a deep breath and moved forward, but now with my back against the tunnel wall on my right. No need to make myself a big, fat target right in the middle of the hallway, right? I can be smart about this. I think.
I walked diagonally, crossing one leg over the other. It took a lot longer to get where I needed to go moving this way, but I felt like I had a better chance at stabbing someone before they stabbed me. I kept on going for what felt like ten minutes but was probably only two. That was when I started to hear more than just my footsteps.
The sounds hit me before the visuals did. At first I thought someone was building something out of metal inside the Overworld, but then as I got closer, I realized it wasn’t construction I was hearing; it was fighting. Steel on steel. Sword on sword. People were crying out in pain and anger.
“What the fuuuudge…,” I whispered to myself. Since when do they have battles in the Overworld? I instantly became furious when the answer came to me. Ben. “Motherfucker!” I hissed. You give the guy one job. One job! And this is how he manages it. He’s there less than a year, and he’s already managed to get the angels wanting to tear each other’s heads off. Totally typical. I knew it was a mistake to let his sorry ass into the Overworld. That fae council was going to get an earload from me when this was all over, that was for sure. Assuming I made it out of this mess.
I paused, resting a hand on the wall. Did I really want to go in there? Join the fray? Hell no, I didn’t. But what else was I supposed to do? Go back and tell Othello I wimped out? Go back and tell him I didn’t find anyone, that heaven was empty? He’d light me on fire for the first story and not believe the second.
I hadn’t been a fae for long, but I knew somewhere deep inside me that a fight in the Overworld was not something I was supposed to walk away from. I had a duty as a dragon companion and a member of the fae community to at least see what was going on, so I could report back and get the reinforcements necessary to make things right. Fucking Niles. Fucking Robin. Fucking fae always making me feel guilty for wanting to run away. I seriously thought about quitting faedom that day, but then I remembered sitting in the vice principal’s office with Brad Powers in the waiting area next to me, and I changed my mind. Being extraordinary meant making extraordinary sacrifices, and that was what I was going to do.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I STEPPED UP TO THE end of the tunnel and peeked around the corner. I had heard the sounds, but that little bit of information was not enough to fully appreciate what I was dealing with. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of beings were involved in the mess that the Overworld had become. Angels with wings of white and black were spattered with blood. Dwarves and elves, pixies and ogres, fae of every kind I’d ever seen in the Here and Now were on the ground fighting, both with weapons and in hand-to-hand combat. Everywhere I looked, I saw anger and hate and the use of force, one fae against another.
“Fuck me sideways and inside out,” I whispered to myself, taking it all in. I had to get back. I had to tell Othello to fly to the others so he could explain to them what was happening. We didn’t just need reinforcements; we needed the entire fae community over here to fix this crap.
A giant beast of an ogre punched this smaller fae and sent him flying. They were the closest fae to the tunnel, so I shouldn’t have been surprised when the body came right at me. I jumped back into my hiding spot just in time to keep from getting flattened.
I stared at this ass-kicked fae for a few long seconds, shocked at what I was seeing. His body was broken and bleeding, his face swollen. When he opened one eye and looked at me, I nearly vomited when recognition triggered deep in my brain. The word didn’t want to come out of my mouth. “Ffffff….”
He lifted his head. “Jayne?” My name was just a whisper on his lips, and it ended with a moan.
The brain-farting stutter I had for a second there left me in a flash. “Falco, oh my god!” I ran over and dropped to my knees, ignoring the pain of the stone digging into my skin in favor of staring into the face of one of the sweetest green elves I’d ever known — one whose life had ended way too soon and for the stupidest of reasons: a great, big, fat misunderstanding.
He smiled. “You came.”
I looked at him and then over at the entrance of the Overworld. Just one step inside this tunnel and anyone would see me, any of those marauding demon-possessed maniacs. Do I dare risk dragging him farther back? The injuries I saw seeping blood said No. Not worth it.
“What the hell is going on out there?” I asked, desperate for him to answer me.
He took his time, experiencing difficulty with keeping his eyes open. “Invasion. Angry dragons. Couldn’t fight them off.”
“Do you mean the portal guardians?”
“Others too,” he said, his eyes closing.
“Falco!” I shook his shoulder, not wanting to hurt him, but needing him to stay awake to talk to me. “Don’t go to sleep.”
“Not sleeping. Dying…”
My eyes bugged out of my head. “Dying? How can you die? You’re in heaven for shit’s sake!”
“All is fair in love and war.” He smiled slightly.
“Oh, hell no. Hell to the no on that!” I was touching his body all over, trying to find the source of his pain, of what was draining the life out of him. I kept telling myself that if I could find it, I could fix it.
“Water,” he croaked out, his hand flopping around by his side.
I looked where he was struggling to get and found some sort of canteen, but when I disconnected it from his belt, it started leaking everywhere. There was hardly anything left in it by the time I’d worked it free.
“No! Why?!” I screamed at the canteen. “Hasn’t he suffered enough?!” Then I remembered my cup — my dragon treasure cup that I had in the satchel at my waist. I tipped the canteen away from its leaking end to try and preserve whatever was left and scrambled around with the leather of my bag, trying to open it up and get the cup out. I found it blind, my eyes glued to Falco, and brought it out over his chest. “Just hold still, Falco. I’ve got some water for ya.” My hands were trembling like mad, but I was able to wedge the cup on the ground between his arm and his ribs, holding the leaking part of his canteen over the vessel. “Just one more minute.”
“Jayne?”
“Yep.” My eyebrows were cramping from all the frowning I was doing. There was almost no water left. Just ten drops if I was lucky. Why I thought that little bit of water was going to make a difference, I didn’t know, but all I could hear in my head was me saying that Falco didn’t deserve to be dying and thirsty. Everyone should be comfortable when they died. He’d already gone out once with an arrow to the chest during a fight; a second time of that crap seemed really unjust to me.
“It’s okay.” His hand came up and rested on my arm.
I nudged him off. “No, it’s not. Stop moving and stop being so nice. You’re going to tip my cup over.” I threw the useless canteen off to the side, and it bounced off the wall making a really loud noise. Grabbing the cup, I held it up over him. Staring at it, I noticed as my hand with the scale touched it, it glowed red again instead of green. It gave me an idea.
I sat on my butt, wanting to put as much of me in contact with the ground as I could. Please don’t let me fuck this up. Time to bust a rhyme…
“Earth element, come to me here. And bring that other element that I hold dear. Together you work to bring this man life. Together we work to end this strife.”
A rumbling came from beneath me, something I was sure the entire fighting mass outside the portal tunnel had also felt; it was too much like an earthquake to be missed. Then the cup started to shake, even though I was holding onto it really tightly. The water level inside rose.
“Quick! Take a drink!” I said to Falco when the level had almost reached the rim.
His eyes opened wide and he struggled to sit up. I put my free hand behind his head and lifted as best I could. Some of the water dropped onto
his chest and he gasped.
“Drink! Hurry!”
He closed his eyes and tipped his mouth toward the cup. I lifted it to his lips and pressed it against them, the liquid sliding forward.
“What are you doing?!” boomed a voice from the entrance to the tunnel. I could see the outline of a small figure there, bent over and holding a cane.
Words leaped to my lips and flew out as I tried to focus on both her and the cup at the same time. “Bubble shun! Bubble shun! Put it on us, let it be done!” Water splashed into Falco’s mouth at the same time a Green bubble of protection came over us both and turned our little world the color of the grass in the valley behind me.
Everything went in slow motion from there…
Falco’s throat moving up and down as the water traveled from his mouth to his stomach.
A flash of white light coming out of that old lady’s cane and sizzling toward me.
Screams emitting from Falco’s mouth as his body bucked up once, twice, and then a third time.
A brilliant green and blue glow bursting out of every one of Falco’s wounds, blinding me and making me fall backwards where I hit my head hard on the stone.
The cup falling out of my hand and rolling away, spilling water as it went.
And then blackness.
A dark void came and surrounded me so deeply and so completely, I was sure I was going to fall and fall and fall into it, never to return.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
IT WAS THE SOUND OF crickets that brought me out of sleep. I smiled, wondering how I got so lucky to have nature’s alarm clock waking me inside my room. Abby had really outdone herself this time. I was going to have to thank her…
“Uhhhhh,” came a moan off to my left.
