by Eric Asher
I grinned at her as I dug up some fresh clothes. The tatters of my old clothes were sealed inside three different garbage bags to hide the smell.
“How long can you stay?” I knew she needed to get back to Europe. There’d be another briefing at the UN, and she’d need to manage whatever fallout happened with the water witches. The last of Lewena’s followers had shown loyalty to Nudd. Gods only knew what they’d do now.
Nixie closed her eyes and her armor reappeared in stages, now clean and clear of the gore that had stained it. “Just tonight. I trust Euphemia to manage the water witches while I’m gone, but I must return tomorrow.”
I nodded and slid a belt into my jeans before donning a T-shirt with a gnome vomiting rainbows. “Maybe we’ll just stay at Rivercene, if they have the room.”
“Ready?”
I patted my pockets, checking to see what I’d forgotten as I didn’t have my backpack. I guess it didn’t matter too much anymore because I could step through the Abyss with ease.
Nixie laced her fingers into mine, and we stepped out of my apartment into darkness.
* * *
I stared at the wreckage at Rivercene when we exited the Abyss. The signs of the battle, and wounded green men, waited all around us. But the mansion itself had escaped the worst of the conflict, and it was good to see it still standing.
Stump raised his hand in greeting as we made our way to the front door. He was engaged with another cluster of green men, but I suspected I’d have time to speak to him later.
A ghost sat on the front porch, not nearly as translucent as he should be, and the old Union uniform had far more color than it should have.
“Terrence. Glad to see you’re still here.”
He nodded to me. “I have something of yours.” Terrence reached behind his back and pulled out my pepperbox. He didn’t struggle to hold it, and his hand looked as solid as the barrel of the gun he held out.
I took it and blew out a breath. “I’m guessing there’s a story here.”
“You could say that. The others are inside.”
“Are you joining us?”
Terrence shook his head. “I’m just waiting for Graybeard. He’s sailing me back to Greenville when this is over. I don’t like getting too close to that wardstone, so I think I’ll just stay out here with the green men.”
“You’re always welcome.”
With that, Nixie and I headed into Rivercene to join a cluster of our friends at the old dining room table, and to find an innkeeper who was both taller, and less grumpy, than I recalled.
The room fell into silence when we stepped inside. I expected Vicky to be the first one to reach me, or Sam with one of her bone-crushing hugs, but I didn’t expect the furry green rug of bristly fur to explode from underneath the table and tackle me with the force of a battering ram.
“Bubbles!” I spat out as the cu sith’s tongue ravaged my face. “Bubbles, no! I just showered!”
Nixie, laughing her ass off, dragged the cu sith off me, who then turned her giant pink tongue onto the water witch.
Vicky hugged me before I flopped down into a chair next to Sam, and Bubbles rested her head on my thigh a moment later. Nixie took a seat by Dominic while Gaia passed around place settings for everyone.
Zola and Luna took turns dipping their hands into a barrel of cheeseballs. I started to say something, but the side-eye I got from Zola silenced me into a mischievous grin.
There was no stopping that grin when Frank came around the corner, carrying a giant steaming pot clasped between two oven mitts. He slid it onto a trivet and rubbed his hands together.
He looked down at me and smiled. “Welcome back. It hasn’t cooked as long as it should to really develop the flavors, but it should be spicy enough.”
“It’s good to have you back,” Ashley said as Jasper took up residence on Vicky’s shoulder. Beth nodded in agreement as she stuffed a beef and cream cheese and pickle hors d’oeuvre into her mouth.
I smiled at my friends, thankful to be back on the right side of death.
* * *
Gaia left the room for a time, only to return grumbling about stubborn old trees and lamenting the fact the woodchipper in the back shed was out of gas.
“Problem?” Ashley asked.
Gaia narrowed her eyes. “Sequoia is impossible. He needs to stay rooted in one place for a time until he recovers, but you would think I’d asked him to sprout wings and fly away.”
Ashley blinked. “He’s alive?”
“For now,” Gaia muttered. “Unless I find that gas can.”
She hadn’t been back long when two fairies glided into the room and landed amid the chaos of dirty dishes on the table.
“If you change on this table, so help me…” Gaia leaned forward, narrowing her eyes at Foster.
Foster let out an exasperated breath, flew into the room with the piano, and exploded into his full-size form. I grinned at the fairy as I stood up, and he wrapped his arms around me, the embrace of an old friend, one I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed.
At which point, I sneezed. Violently. Much to Foster’s amusement.
Aideen landed on my shoulder and patted my cheek. “I’m not going to do anything so dramatic as Foster. I think Gaia has enough glitter to pick up.”
Foster laughed before snapping into his smaller form and gliding back to the table.
I held my hand out and Aideen hopped down from my shoulder to look me in the eye. “It’s good to have you back.”
“Thank you.”
Zola harrumphed. “It’s all right, but it was a pain in the ass to get you back, boy. You do something like that again, we’ll just leave you in the Abyss.”
Gaia slowly nodded. “The Abyss does grow tiresome after a time. It is not a good prison. I am glad to be free of it.”
I exchanged a grin with Vicky.
“Fair is fair.” She raised an eyebrow. “It was a pain in the ass.”
Laughter echoed around the table and I held onto that moment as long as I could.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
In the days that came, things were gloriously quiet. A truce, even should it be temporary, came between the factions of the water witches with the fall of the Mad King. With the return of the world’s nuclear arsenal and the death of the Fae who stole them, a great many nations stood down, the bluster and rhetoric fading. The Unseelie retreated to Faerie, and though a few dark-touched were spotted in the north, most had vanished.
It gave me time to think about what had happened. About what Nudd had compelled me to do. There was a small part of me that feared some other being might be able to tap into the darkest parts of my power. But it was a part of me, an aspect that would be there until the day I died, so it was a threat I had to live with for the time being, and leverage in our favor when I could.
I flipped the page on the Book that Bleeds and sank into one of the overstuffed leather chairs in the reading nook at Death’s Door. The soft padding of cu sith claws on hardwood echoed below while Foster and Aideen argued with Frank about what happened to his latest bag of Oreo cookies.
I’d never forget what my family and friends had done to pull me back, to save Sam and Vicky. They gave me the strength to move past what had happened, to not take the blame for that which was out of my control. It lessened the guilt, but it didn’t take it away entirely. A part of me believed that guilt should remain, as both a warning and a reminder of what power lurked inside the mantle.
One day, I’d need to track down the gateways Nudd had used. Find the paths to the puppet masters who pulled the strings of the Unseelie Fae and the dark-touched. But for now, for this day, I was home.
Note from Eric R. Asher
*Dramatic pause* Well, that brings us to the end of The Books of the Dead! Huge thanks for sticking with me through this crazy story. It’s one I’ve wanted write since I first started piecing this series together back in 2009. I’ll be back with Damian and the misfits in the future, but for now I’m going
to take a nice long nap.
If you’d like an email when each new book releases, sign up for my mailing list. Emails only go out about once per month and your information is closely guarded by hungry cu siths.
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Also by Eric R. Asher
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The Steamborn Trilogy:
Steamborn
Steamforged
Steamsworn
The Vesik Series:
(Recommended for Ages 17+)
Days Gone Bad
Wolves and the River of Stone
Winter’s Demon
This Broken World
Destroyer Rising
Rattle the Bones
Witch Queen’s War
Forgotten Ghosts
The Book of the Ghost
The Book of the Claw
The Book of the Sea
The Book of the Staff
The Book of the Rune
The Book of the Sails
The Book of the Wing
The Book of the Blade
The Book of the Fang
The Book of the Reaper*
The Vesik Series Box Sets
Box Set One (Books 1-3)
Box Set Two (Books 4-6)
Box Set Three (Books 7-8)
Box Set Four: The Books of the Dead Part 1
Box Set Five: The Books of the Dead Part 2 (Coming in 2020)*
Mason Dixon – Monster Hunter:
Episode One
Episode Two
Episode Three
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About the Author
Eric is a former bookseller, cellist, and comic seller currently living in Saint Louis, Missouri. A lifelong enthusiast of books, music, toys, and games, he discovered a love for the written word after being dragged to the library by his parents at a young age. When he is not writing, you can usually find him reading, gaming, or buried beneath a small avalanche of Transformers. For more about Eric, see: www.ericrasher.com
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