by Alexia Purdy
If he got ahold of her, he’d kill her. Or worse, drag her back to the land of Faerie where she’d be made a slave to whoever it was he worked for. I didn’t know which fate was worse, but both were pretty horrendous.
“This stone… it’s magical, isn’t it? What does it do?”
I stepped forward, reaching for the stone she now held up off her chest. The long chain it dangled from was worn, and I could smell iron laced through the silver. Most definitely to ward off faeries. She let me hold it and run my finger over its smooth emerald surface to examine its substance.
I could feel the magic within it vibrating, pulsating to life when my skin passed over it. It responded to my magic, and I could feel it repel it like water on glass. Its magic amplified as I kept ahold of it, and then finally a flicker of glamour covered both of us. She couldn’t see it, but I could. More importantly, no one of faery blood could see it. It was meant to protect her in case someone of Faerie encountered her. It would keep their glamour from sparking or melting away, therefore keeping her safe from seeing them and them from seeing her ability.
Wicked cool.
“Your mother has one like this.”
Her eyes widened to saucers and just about popped out of her head.
“You know my mother? Who is she? Where is she?”
“I’ll take you to her. She’s in hiding because there’s a bounty hunter after both of you. She’s really worried about you.”
Zena’s bright eyes shined with tears, and she blinked them back. “What’s her name?”
My heart went out to her. She had suffered so much since I’d wiped her memories. I hated myself for doing it, and the consequences of such actions were dire, but at the time I didn’t feel I had a choice. I swore to myself I’d never again do a complete mind wipe on another person.
“Let’s sit.” I led her to the tiny couch against the wall next to her nightstand. The place was so tiny, everything touched everything else and kept the place feeling cozy but also cramped. For one person, it’d be fine. Two would be pushing it.
“Her name is Rachel. She’s okay, but mentally, I don’t think she’s been fine for a long time. The stress of running all her life has taken a toll. Now, she might recover when you return to her, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up. She’s not well in the head, and I think she might be more danger to herself than the bounty hunter would be to either of you.”
I watched her swallow and run her fingers through her hair. The circles under her eyes had deepened, and I realized in the dim light of her place that her cheeks weren’t as full as they’d been before, when I’d left her in Vegas. In fact, her hair was now shorter, her skin paler, and she was a lot thinner, probably from working long hours just to pay the rent.
It made me feel like shit, but I had to remember that she had made her own way before I’d erased her memory. So what was so different now?
“Will you take me to her?”
“Of course.” I reached out and placed my hand on hers. Her slender fingers felt cool against my palm. “Just say when and we’ll go.”
She shook her head. “I need to sleep then freshen up. I can’t see her looking like this.”
I wrinkled my nose, wondering what she meant. “What’s wrong?” I straightened. Now that I was touching her, I could tell something was off. “You’re sick.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but every now and then, I get so damned tired. It’s like my energy runs out, and I have these… blackouts. I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t afford to go to the doctor, so I’ve just been slamming down the caffeine and energy drinks. It doesn’t help much.” She rested her head against the crook of her arm, sighing into it like she was relieved to be home.
“Rylan?” I called out to Soap, who was sitting at the table and staring at the television. He was watching some vampire show which was pretty popular at the time.
“What’s up, bro?” He ripped his eyes from the screen and looked over at us.
“What do you know about enchantment spells meant to weaken a person?”
Soap scratched his head. “You suspect she’s been tampered with by a faery?”
I nodded. At this, Zena bolted up to her feet, her eyes wide again. “What? I don’t remember any faeries following me.”
I reached for my pack and pulled out my sack of dried herbs and a roll filled with little vials of healing potions and other things I might need out on the road. I refilled it when I could, but usually not until I could visit my Pyren back home. Still, with a shrinking spell, I could carry a ton of supplies and not have to replenish my stock for months. I’d rather do that than backtrack for stuff. Some things only grew in Faerie. Other things were natural and available in health food or new age stores.
It was the Faerie stuff I was looking through now, racking my brain for a reversal spell. “I’m not a faery, but Soap is.” I motioned toward Soap, and she backed away toward the door. “Whoa, where are you going?”
“You’re a faery?” She pointed accusingly at Soap, who remained sitting. He knew the drill. If she was scared with him sitting down, she sure as hell would freak out if he stood up and came toward her. I wanted to slap away the amused half-smile hanging on his lips.
“Yes, I’m a faery, but I’m not going to do anything to you.” He eyed me, looking for support. “Benton is human, but he’s also a fire elemental. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re here to help you.”
“How do I know that?” She rushed toward the kitchen counter and yanked a knife out from the drawer. “You said you wiped my memory. How can I trust you?”
I held up a small baggie full of herbs. “Because I’m going to reverse the spell I placed on you. Memory charms and any night elf magical hex will be obliterated.”
“Night elf?” She held out the knife, both hands wrapped around the handle, turning the skin along her finger bones white.
“Yeah. I suspect a night elf you met right before I wiped your memory has been following you around. Probably trying to get information about me.” I stood up, walked toward the kitchen, and snatched up a bottle of water from the pack she had sitting on the counter. I poured half of it down the drain. “The thing is,” I continued, trying to keep my voice calm despite the knife pointed at me, “when you’ve been mind-wiped by an elemental, dark elven magic won’t be able to retrieve any memories from prior to the wipe. It’s pretty foolproof. He probably tried to get information out of you a few times before he finally gave up and moved on. Hence the blackouts.”
“So if it’s foolproof, how are you going to fix it?”
Zena’s arms lowered. Her anger dwindled as she watched me sprinkle the herbs into the bottle, recap it, and give it a good shake.
“Well, the thing with magic is that it’s always a kind of give and take. The one who placed a charm or curse is the only one who can remove it. Anyone else will most likely fail. So since I am the one who wiped your memory, I can reverse it. I need to amplify my magic to do it and displace the funk the night elf has left on you. You see, when they try to do magic, it always drains away things that are bright and energetic. They are literal energy vampires. So since those effects are really doing a number on you, and you have no magic to recover faster or keep them at bay, I have to remove his taint.”
“I thought only the caster can remove a curse or spell. How are you going to remove what he did to me?”
“He didn’t actually do anything except drain your energy and keep you from remembering your encounters with him. It’s the drain that leaves you feeling like you’ve got a perpetual flu. This will boost your life force and undo the mind wipe.” I held out the water, which had turned a rusty red color. She made a face and turned a slight shade of green.
“Bottoms up, Zena,” Soap snickered, already back to watching the vampire show.
I threw him a look and urged her on. “You have to drink all of it. Try not to taste it. It’ll be better that way. Trust me.”
She shook her head but dro
pped the knife back onto the counter before snatching the bottle from my grip. “This had better work, or I’m so going to kill the both of you.”
She threw a stink eye toward Soap, who was making a point of ignoring her while picking his teeth. I kind of hoped she would take him out. He needed a pounding once in a while.
“You’ll get your chance to knock us out if you like. Rylan can go first.”
I flashed my teeth at him before returning to the couch, waiting for her to down my concoction.
She looked hesitant, but I didn’t blame her. I honestly didn’t think she’d do it, the way she was eyeing the fluid. It was amazing we’d gotten this far with her. Humans with the Sight were notoriously suspicious of any faery magic. But my drink was more elemental than faery. The line between magics blurred, so I couldn’t tell her it was just an elemental formula. I wished I could. I would have to come up with a Plan B if she didn’t take the drink.
If she did, bonus. It would save us tons of time explaining shit to her that she already knew. If she didn’t, it was going to be a long trip back to the Raven Queen’s catacombs.
Chapter Ten
Benton
Zena eyed the bottle, her scowl still pasted on her face.
“Here goes nothing.” She threw back the drink, swallowing and shuddering at the same time. I hoped she wouldn’t throw the stuff back up. The taste wasn’t one bit pleasant, and I felt for her as she hacked and coughed violently from the slight burn and aftertaste of the formula.
“Here, this should help.” Soap was on his feet and placed a glass of soda in front of her. His appearance made me jump, surprised he’d filled the glass so quickly.
She took the soda and also tossed it back as she turned a violent red. The soda did help, and she eventually relaxed as she downed the rest of the drink. I eyed the empty glass, wondering if he’d added any magic to it. Glancing up at him, I lifted an eyebrow, questioning him.
He shrugged before heading back to the chair he’d been occupying and began to snack on some nuts and dried fruits he’d pulled out of his supply sack. The guy was unusually quiet, and I made a mental note to ask him what was going on later. Now it was more important to see if my potion had worked on Zena’s memory.
“How do you feel?” I asked.
She glared back at me, shaking her head. “Wow. That packs a punch! You could’ve warned me.”
“I’m sorry. If I’d told you it’d be like drinking fiery dragon piss, would you have drunk it?”
She chewed on her lip. “Probably not. Good point.”
“Do you remember anything?”
She tilted her head, scrolling through things in her mind. “I can’t tell. Ask me something I probably would’ve forgotten.”
“Do you remember saving me in the alley against the night elf?”
She inhaled slightly, looking pensive. “The night elf….” She closed her eyes, looking like she was letting her thoughts wash over her anew. “Yes. I remember he almost killed you. I shouted out, and you turned and got him. You—you killed him.” She opened her eyes and looked at me, horrified. “You killed him, didn’t you?”
I nodded, feeling a twinge of guilt for the first time ever. I had never felt bad for killing an uncooperative Unseelie, even despite my encounter with a detective named Hank, who was also a human wizard. He’d asked me to try not to kill Unseelie on human territory since he felt responsible to solve the crimes. It had definitely made me change some of my violent ways. Hank had a point about not leaving a mess in the human world, littering it with Unseelie ash corpses, but sometimes things got crazy.
Everything about Faerie was crazy.
“I do what I have to do to keep the human realm and the Faerie realm safe. There was a war going on, and tons of the Unseelie and Sluagh alike escaped the boundaries of Faerie while the wards were damaged by an Ancient Unseelie King named Arthas and his descendant, Queen Aveta. I’ve had to round up these escapees. They were wreaking havoc across the earth, and I had to either return them to Faerie or fight them to the death.”
She nodded, her eyes full of terror, fear, or just an overwhelming sense of wonder. I wasn’t sure which one it was. I fidgeted and hoped she wasn’t going to have the breakdown I feared was coming. It was a possible side effect of the potion, but she might get lucky and not experience it at all. I crossed my fingers.
“I remember everything now. I remember seeing you on the L-train in Chicago. You were with two women.” She focused back on me and drilled her eyes into me. “Who were those girls?”
“They were my friends. Sary of the Vyn people and Braelynn of the Guildrin clan of faeries. They assisted me on my last mission.”
“Where are they now?” She waited for my answer, and I felt suddenly exposed. It was very unusual for me to speak to anyone about my life and people I know. Sary had been more than just a friend, and I’d wanted more than she could give. The thought of the fiery red-headed princess made my heart ache as I cleared my throat.
“They’re back in Faerie. They have other things they have to do.”
“Let me see your hand, Benton.” Zena reached out, beckoning for my right hand. I gave it to her before remembering what sort of human she was.
Humans with the Sight didn’t necessarily have magic of their own, but that didn’t mean some couldn’t develop powers. She could read palms, something I’d never looked into. And she could sense dangers nearby, like when she’d found me fighting the night elf. I watched as she scrutinized the lines on my palm and wondered to myself just how talented she was. There were human powers that were not of Faerie, and she could have any one of those extrasensory abilities. It was something a faery—or someone like me—would never detect since it wasn’t based on magic, and that was something to fear.
“Your heart is bruised. Your spirit, faltering. There are promises made and promises broken. Your family is burdened, yet you fight to help them, even though it will do no good.”
“Palm reading won’t tell you much.” I gently pulled away, knowing she was done. “It’s not going to let you know much more beyond that.”
“It can tell me enough. I am also an empath. I could feel your emotions heighten when I read your palm. It’s how I make some side money to pay the rent.”
“You’re pretty good. Maybe you should see what Rylan’s palm says.”
We both looked over at Rylan, who was staring at Zena with cool, emerald eyes. “Faeries are notoriously hard to read, but if you want to, I’ll let you try.”
Zena nodded, and we traded places. As she took Soap’s hand into hers, I noticed her intensity as she read his palm. She was different from any human I’d ever met, and it left me unbalanced. I wasn’t sure if I was enamored of her or wanted to run out that door faster than I’d ever run in my life. She was an oddity of nature in more ways than one. A beautiful and unique oddity. There were things about her that vividly emblazoned themselves in my head, yet she was still broken and missing pieces I so desperately wanted to help her replace.
One by one, I wanted to fill the holes with something more than either of us was capable of in this space and time. Maybe together, we could heal our fractured souls and move on with our lives. Something told me she was capable of such a feat. Hers was a life in the throes of destiny, much more important than mine. It was no wonder a bounty hunter was searching for her at this very minute, ready to end her short life before she fulfilled her purpose. I wouldn’t let that happen, even if it killed me.
After a few moments of silence, she peered up into Soap’s eyes, tears glistening with a furious sorrow.
“Your heart bleeds for someone you can never have, but your life will lead you far from her, even when she cries to have you at her side. Your destiny is uncertain, and there will be more pain before it’s all over. Great loss… and blood. Your past will collide with your future before it ends, but if you can hold on, the end will be all you ever wished for.”
Soap gaped, horrified at her prediction. It was not wha
t he’d expected, but he didn’t pull away from her. Instead, he closed his mouth and leaned forward, looking deep into Zena’s eyes. “Is it the truth?”
She nodded.
“I know. My heart has already bled dry for her, but she does not love me. I believe there will never be another after her. She’s made sure of it.” He slipped his hand out of hers, got to his feet and headed for the door.
When it had clicked softly behind him, I peered over at Zena, gulping down my apprehension. “What was that about?” I asked.
She shrugged and shook her head. “Beats me.”
Chapter Eleven
Soap
I wanted to smash something. Anything would do. The girl Zena was right with all her predictions. She’d been talking about Shade. How little did she know how right everything she’d said had been. Just thinking about my beautiful Shade made my blood boil and my chest ache. I missed her embrace. Now she belonged to another, and there was nothing I could do about it no matter how hard I tried.
“Dammit!” A couple near me jumped, and I swiftly apologized as they hurried across the street to avoid me.
“Sorry,” I offered, but the couple was already at the far curb, skirting away from me as quickly as they could.
I frowned, slumping my shoulders and exhaling while I scanned the streets of the northern end of Las Vegas Boulevard. It was a more run-down area, unkempt and dirty. Papers, leaves, and debris clogged up the drains along the edges of the road. The place felt eerily forgotten, and a shiver ran up my spine as I looked about.
