Magic Brew

by T. Rae Mitchell

  As we continue on, I keep an eye out for rival gangs or anyone showing too much interest in us. Any one of these lowlifes would drop a dime on us in a second if they knew about the bounty on our heads. So far I haven’t seen any shifty doings, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been spotted.

  “We should’ve taken off our colors before coming in here,” I say. “We might as well have ‘kill me’ signs taped to our backs.”

  “No way,” Knox says. “I know we’ve lost soldiers tonight, but we’ve dished out some heavy destruction. We’ve finally arrived. These colors mean death to the fools stupid enough to screw with us.”

  “Yeah, man, we’ve built a legendary rep in one night,” Hurley says.

  “Hope we stay alive to enjoy it,” I say as we weave our way through the farm market run by the faery communities. Bushels of lavender, mugwort, sweet grass, heather, and any other kind of plant or herb you could ever want, fill stall after stall.

  Finally, some good smells. I spot some blood root, something I’ve been needing to finish off one of my latest smoke blends. I’m calling it Sweet Funk, a friendly buzz designed to launch you straight into the sky and keep you flyin’ nice and easy, like a kite on a warm summer day.

  Some of that would be real nice right about now. I’m tempted to finish off my Velvet Haze roach in my pocket. My nerves are riding that hairy edge. But I know I can’t. Letting my guard down before we’re home is just plain asking for it.

  My stomach growls at the sight of all these huge bins spilling over with shiny apples, golden pears, ripe peaches and berries. I’m starving. Before I knew I had faery blood in me, I avoided eating anything from the fae world because I thought I might be part human. Gullies who eat faery food are cursed with an endless thirst and hunger. Now that I know I’m half fae, I can eat as much as I want.

  Glancing around for the merchant, I kype an apple. There’s no time to pay. I need to keep up with the others. They’re moving through the thick crowd, almost out of sight. Knox’s red mohawk is the only thing I can see over all the heads in the crowd.

  “Please, take it,” a girl’s voice says from behind me.

  I turn to look at her. She’s obviously fae, a Highborn at that. She’s got that same air of nobility about her I saw when Maddox stuck my head through the portal. Straight spine, chin held high and an unwavering gaze. Her face is inked with Sidhe symbols and hematite piercings. Come to think of it, she seems out of place here. Lowborn fae, like fauns and satyrs, usually work the farm market. Their earthy natures make them excellent farmers.

  “Uh, thanks?” I say, wondering what the catch is.

  “You’re welcome, my prince,” she says with a slight bow of her head.

  Wasn’t expecting that. All I can do is stare back in stunned silence.

  23

  Ain’t Wise To Mess With Witches

  DON’T ASK ME WHY, but I decide to play dumb. “Hate to dine and dash but you know how it goes. Places to go and servants to flog,” I joke.

  “I know who you are,” she says, circling around as she looks me up and down.

  She’s got my full attention now, and not because she’s a babe in tight jeans and a white top so thin it’s nearly transparent. “Listen,” I say, “it’s been a long messed up night, and it’s far from being over, so I’ve really gotta split.”

  She steps close, staring straight at me. “I understand,” she says, her breath sweet as jasmine. “But you should know your father would like to see you.”

  Now I’m really getting uneasy. “My father? Never met the deadbeat.” I’m not admitting to anything without knowing what her angle is.

  “That’s because he didn’t know you existed until now. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to him.”

  I admit I’m more than a little curious, but I’m not about to forget the ugly reception I got when Maddox forced my head into the portal opening into the Highborn kingdom. What if this is a trick to lock the king’s bastard son away? Or worse? Besides, I have to make sure Sienna gets that cure. “Tell Dad the family reunion’ll have to wait. Got way too much goin’ on right now.”

  Anxious to catch up with the others, I turn to leave but she stops me. “We know you’re being hunted by the warlocks. Come with me and you’ll be under King Newyddilyn’s protection.”

  I don’t like her tone. Sounds more like an order than an offer. “What about the doors? They all lead back to New York for me.”

  “You forget who your father is. You have a royal pass to go anywhere you like.”

  “Really? Can I see it?”

  She smiles. “Nice try, but I’m the pass.”

  I pretend to think about her offer. “No thanks. I’m done trusting power-tripping dudes who say they can protect me when all they really want is to stick a knife in my back.”

  “King Newyddilyn is nothing but honorable.” Her fair skin darkens to the color of stone and the pale blue of her irises shift to a stormy gray. “How can you prefer the company of demons and Unseelie scum to that of Highborns?”

  “Watch yourself,” I say, my voice dipping into a growl. “That scum you’re talking about happen to be my brothers and sisters. I trust them with my life.”

  “What about the vampire warlock? You trusted him like a father, yet he betrayed you. What makes you think the others won’t do the same at some point?”

  The hairs on my arms stand on end. She knows too much.

  “I’ll take my chances with them over Highborns any day. What makes you think I would ever want to join the assholes who put up the Wall? Your kind’s been screwing us over for centuries.”

  “We do it to protect the world. You’ve been inside too long to see that.” Pink flushes back into the stony pallor of her skin as she takes a deep, calming breath. “A word of warning. Don’t wait too long to accept your father’s invitation. You won’t be welcome if you become Unseelie, though I sense you’re well on your way.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She jabs me in the chest with a long, pointed finger. “All fae are born Seelie, each born with a clear, clean heartstone, and we must work to keep them that way. If you use your heartstone’s power to kill too many times, or for the wrong reasons, the crystal turns black. And there’s no coming back from that. You’ll become just another Unseelie lowlife.”

  “Wouldn’t be the end of the world. All my best friends are Unseelie and I like them just fine,” I say, thinking of Hurley, Knox, Pandora and Nyx.

  “There’s a reason for that. You’re drawn to the fae in them, but if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit to being repulsed by their Unseelie ways.”

  I glance away, wanting to argue, but knowing it’s true. It’s why I’ve always resisted diving in deep with Nyx.

  “If you become Unseelie, your father will spurn you just as you’ve spurned the pixie shadow elf.” She pauses, watching me with eyes narrowed. She must be telepathic like Nyx and her sisters. How else could she know so much about me?

  “You wouldn’t want that, would you?” she asks after a moment.

  I didn’t think I could care about being rejected by a father I never met, but part of me does. A lot. “I can’t control the crystal’s power,” I admit. “I’ve done things without knowing how, or what I was doing with it.”

  “Another reason you need to come with me. There’s much you need to learn about your heartstones’s true nature. You come from royalty. The Highborn blood running through your veins charges the crystal with more power than ordinary fae. You must learn how to wield that kind of power or it’ll ruin you.”

  Her offer’s tempting. No Highborn has ever stepped foot in New York or the public part of the market. That’s what’s kept them a mystery to us and it’s why they’re built up in our minds as untouchable.

  “Using your heartstone’s power to destroy distorts its energy, until its only purpose is killing,” she says, her eyes falling to my chest as if she’s using x-ray vision to see the crystal.

  Everythin
g Duil'dir said about the light being directed by what’s in the heart and not the mind makes more sense now. “I get it, but how do I put a cap on the crystal’s power if my life’s in danger?”

  “Don’t let the hatred in. It’s the force behind all destruction.”

  I laugh, dryly. “Well that’s it for me then. I kind of hate everyone who’s been tryin’ to kill me tonight.”

  “Anger is justified and fine as long as you allow your heart to take the lead. That’s where you’ll find your defense and protection.” She looks me over, then shakes her head. “But I think you’re right, hatred will get the best of you in the end. Especially when you confront the one who hurt you the most.”

  She’s on the money there. Just thinking about Maddox fills me with the blackest fury and loathing. “I don’t think I can control myself if I ever see him again,” I confess. “He deserves to die.”

  She nods. “Then hatred will consume you and your destiny will be firmly set upon the Unseelie path until the day you die. Unless you can find some way to forgive him.”

  “Yeah, when hell freezes over,” I say, turning just in time to see Knox break through the crowd and lope toward me.

  “Edge, what’re you doin’?” he says, frowning at me.

  “Grabbed something to eat,” I say, biting into the apple I’ve been holding. The moment my teeth break through the skin and sink into the crisp flesh, the sweetest, most heavenly juice fills my mouth. It’s practically orgasmic. Suddenly I’m devouring the apple like I’ve got a major case of the munchies after smoking one of India’s Candy Bomb cigars. I glance down at the apple core. So this is what faery fruit is like. I’ve really been missing out.

  “Douchy move, man,” Knox says. “You had us worried.”

  Wiping the juice off my chin, I glance over at the Highborn fae with a smug smile, proud of my gang’s concern and how they’ve got my back. But she’s gone. “Hey, did you see where the hot girl went?”

  Annoyed, Knox looks around for her. “Dude, seriously? That’s what you’ve been doing? What’s with you tonight? First Nyx and that gullie, then the pixie, and now there’s another one?” He shakes his head. “Zip up the fun stick and get your head in the game. I mean the big head here. Feel me?” he says, flicking me hard on the forehead.

  “You wouldn’t say that if you knew how little fun’s been had tonight on that end of things,” I grumble.

  “Yeah, yeah, tell it to someone who gives a shit,” Knox says as he leads the way through crowds thick with all kinds of elves, gnomes, nymphs, silkies, elementals and tree trolls.

  He stops in front of a tented kiosk and steps inside. Before I enter, I check to see if anyone’s watching our movements with too much interest. With all this activity, it’s nearly impossible to pick anything out. Giving up, I slip past the silk drapes into a dimly lit interior.

  Nyx and Pandora are off to one side, communicating silently with each other. Pandora gives me the stink eye. Terrific, Nyx must be complaining about my refusal to leave Sienna behind.

  Giving them a wide berth, I walk over to Zulu and Hurley. Sienna’s still passed out, lying on the floor next to his feet.

  Zulu seems back to normal. “I see the witch fixed your sorry ass,” I say, glancing over at her. She’s cloaked in a black hooded robe, her back turned to us, working at a table filled with herbs and colored bottles of elixirs and nostrums.

  “I’m like a cockroach,” Zulu says, flashing a proud grin. “Damn hard to kill.”

  “Yeah right,” Hurley says. “Before she gave you the meds you were beggin’ to die.”

  “True that,” Knox says. “I was embarrassed for you.”

  Zulu frowns at him. “That was the newts talkin’.” He looks at me. “The witch says they were poisonous. She’s amazed I lived long enough to get here.” He beats his chest with a fist. “I’m golden now though. And ready to rumble.”

  “Good, cuz we’ve still got some ground to cover before we’re home free,” I say.

  The witch walks over to us. Her pale face is scarred with the faint, crescent moon symbols of the White Coven. She looks to be about my age, but as with all white witches, her long hair is prematurely gray and the whites of her eyes are stained red like someone who’s cried for a lifetime. Word is it’s from the sacrifices and hellish trials each witch suffers when she’s initiated into the coven.

  Her dark eyes lock onto me, a piercing gaze that reminds me of Duil'dir. I suppose the wise have that in common, they seem to be able to see more than the rest of us. “You are at an important crossroads,” she says after a moment. “Do you know this?”

  Breaking their telepathic conversation, Nyx and Pandora turn to listen. Zulu, Hurley and Knox fall silent and close in behind me. My pulse jitters, making it hard to keep my cool in front of my crew. “Maybe,” I answer lamely.

  “You face a choice that will carve your fate in stone,” she continues.

  Hurley steps up beside me. “What’s she talkin–”

  “Shut it,” Nyx says, cutting him off with a jab to his ribs.

  Fuming at her, Hurley rubs his side.

  “The events of the day have triggered the wheels of war into motion,” the witch says, solemnly. “This choice you face is at the crux of whether good or evil wins in the end.”

  “Whoa, that’s heavy,” Hurley says.

  “Look, you’ve got the wrong guy,” I say, refusing to accept the burden she’s trying to heap on me. “There’s nothing special about me. I’m just tryin’ to survive like everybody else.”

  She’s silent a moment. As much as I want to, I can’t pull away from her red stare. “Why deny your true power?” she says at last. “It’s time to stop running and accept who and what you are.” Her gaze slides to the others standing around us in a circle before turning back and locking on me again. “You don’t need them, you only think you do. They’ll hold you back if you let them.”

  “You’re out of line, witch,” Knox says, firing up his fists.

  “Extinguere,” she says with a slight flick of her wrist.

  The fire in Knox’s hands snuffs out. Shaken, he staggers back.

  Zulu rushes in behind Knox before he trips backward over a chair. “Chill, man,” he tells Knox. “Take it from me, it ain’t wise to mess with witches.”

  The witch gestures at all of us dismissively. “Leave now.”

  I glance at the bottle of thick red liquid she’s holding. “Is that for her?” I ask, pointing at Sienna. “Is that her cure?”

  The witch nods.

  I hold my hand out. “What do we owe you?”

  “A promise,” she says.

  Don’t like the sound of that.

  “Sure. What do you want?” I’ll promise anything at this point. I just want to get Sienna fixed up and get back to Magic Brew.

  “Promise you won’t kill again.”

  I stare at her incredulously. “Are you nuts? There’s a bounty on our heads. It’s kill or be killed out there!”

  “There are better ways,” she says. “You know this.”

  Everyone but Nyx and Pandora are looking at me with suspicion. “I can’t control it,” I mutter.

  “Would somebody explain what the hell’s goin’ on?” Hurley says.

  I gulp, searching for the best way to tell him I’m a Highborn prince.

  “Cat got your tongue, Edge?” Zulu asks, his jaw tight as he stares at me with a knowing look.

  I almost forgot he was about to call me out before he got too sick to talk.

  Nyx steps into my line of sight and shakes her head slowly. Is she trying to tell me Zulu only thinks he knows?

  “No? Nothin’ to say?” Zulu says when I keep quiet. He turns to Knox and Hurley. “I can’t believe you suckers haven’t figured it out yet. Edge here’s one of those sissified Seelie faeries we can’t stand.”

  Fear locks me up. This is the moment of truth, where I find out if they turn on me.

  Hurley frowns at me. I can see him thinking, and it looks
like he’s getting angrier by the second. “Huh. That explains a lot,” he says, his eyebrows shooting up with a look of realization.

  “Yeah, sure does,” Knox says as he lights up a smoke, sucking in the nicotine like it’s pure oxygen.

  “Why do I keep hearing that?” I ask, completely puzzled. Nyx had the same reaction.

  Hurley slaps me on the back. “It’s okay, dude. We won’t hold it against ya. Much.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Zulu grumbles, clearly disappointed his announcement didn’t have the effect he was hoping for.

  I don’t know whether to be relieved or offended.

  The witch thrusts Sienna’s cure into my hand. “At dawn, take her to the furthest reach of land you can find and hold the bottle up to the rising sun.”

  “Can’t get any further than Coney Island,” I say.

  She nods. “Have her drink the potion the moment the liquid turns blue.”

  “That’s all?”

  “Yes,” the witch says, “but only if you make it there by sunrise. Otherwise, her transition will be permanent.”

  24

  Distortions of Darkness

  “YOU’RE DREAMIN’ IF YOU THINK we’ll make it back in time. Sunrise is only an hour and a half away,” Zulu says to me as we head to the nearest exit. “Just cuz we’re closer to home, don’t mean there won’t be any less eyes on the streets.”

  “Yeah, the rails will be crawlin’ with unfriendlies,” Hurley adds. “Anything could happen between here and home. Hate to say it, but I think the odds are stacked against savin’ your girl.”

  “Lovin’ the team spirit,” I say, frustration knotting my muscles as I shift Sienna’s limp form to a more comfortable position on my shoulder.

  Picking a piece of tobacco off his tongue, Knox shakes his head at Zulu and Hurley. “Boys, boys, you’ve lost sight of the obvious. With those bikes, we can choose any route we want through Brooklyn.”