by E.J. Stevens
“Ivyyyyyyyyy!” he squeeled.
I winced, and cast a glance at Jinx’s bedroom door, but no sounds came from within. With any luck, she was still asleep. Actually, I was probably being overly cautious. That girl could sleep through the apocalypse.
“How was your night?” I asked. “Did Forneus bring you some new movies to watch?”
On date night, Forneus usually brought over food and movies to keep Sparky busy. Nothing ruined the mood faster than a bored demon toddler.
Sparky nodded, and chattered on about the movies he’d watched. His weight on my lap was comforting, and I nearly fell asleep. Just another one of the many things I would have sworn was impossible not too long ago. I wasn’t the most affectionate person, but Sparky was a hugger, and I’d learned early on that the only visions he gave me were brief.
It didn’t hurt that his one terrifying memory ended with me as his hero. I’d rescued him from the cat sidhe, and that vision reminded me that I hadn’t screwed up everything in my life. I’d managed to get a few things right over the past year, and standing up for Sparky was one of those things. I wasn’t sure yet if bringing a demon child home was smart, or the very definition of stupidity, but I’d come to love the kid.
So had Jinx, and for that reason I knew that Forneus would use his resources to help Sparky as he matured into his powers. That was a relief, since I no longer knew if I’d be here to help, and I doubted Jinx could handle demonic growing pains on her own.
I remembered the loneliness of my teen years, and tensed, nearly crushing Sparky in a tight hug. Those years had been hell. I couldn’t imagine what they’d be like for an orphaned Tezcatlipocan demon. Maybe Marvin could help talk the little guy through it.
“You sad?” Sparky asked, pointing at a tear that had somehow escaped to run down my face.
“Nope,” I said, forcing a smile. “Those are happy tears. I’m glad to see you.”
“Happy!” he squeeled, squirming in my lap, and tugging on one of his ears.
“Good,” I said, setting him down, and patting his head. “Now watch your cartoons, while I get dressed, and I’ll find you some snacks.”
Sparky clapped his hands, his eyes going to the television screen where cartoon animals sang and danced.
I made quick work of changing into my leathers. I tugged reinforced leather pants, boots, vest, arm guards, weapon sheaths, and jacket on over a black body suit. The body suit provided a base layer that wicked away moisture, prevented chafing, and gave me an extra layer of protection against unwanted visions. Considering where I was going, the latter might just save my sanity.
I strapped on my blades, slid an extra dagger in my boot for good measure, and started loading up on anti-fae charms. Once my jacket pockets and the pouches on my military style utility belt were full, I started sliding wooden stakes into the back of the belt, and two smaller stakes into my hair which I’d twisted into a tight bun. Next, I unlocked a trunk where I kept my demon fighting tools, and grabbed a silver cross and a few vials of holy water.
I was an equal opportunity slayer of monsters.
Once I was wearing a full arsenal, I carefully locked the trunk and hid the key. Since allowing Forneous into our lives, and bringing Sparky home, we’d locked away most of our anti-demon charms and weapons. I’d kept my stash under lock and key in my bedroom, but not today. I might be focused on my journey to Faerie, but in order to reach the wisp court, I had to pass through Tech Duinn. I could imagine all sorts of nasty things living in a land ruled by the Celtic god of the dead. Encountering unfriendly demons was a possibility, and it was always best to be prepared.
I also hadn’t left Jinx unarmed. She had her trusty crossbow, the loft and office had magic wards that could be activated with one word—that had cost a hefty portion of our depleted savings, but I refused to leave my friend unprotected—and she knew where I kept the key to my trunk of charms. She was also dating a powerful demon.
That certainly had to count for something.
I tiptoed to Jinx’s room, and silently pushed the door open a few inches. Jinx was in bed, face relaxed in sleep. Forneus had his arms around her, their bodies entwined, but his eyes were fixed on me.
“It’s time,” I whispered. “Take care of her.”
He nodded once, and closed his eyes. I slid the door shut, and made my way to the kitchen. I found a granola bar, which I stashed in an already packed jacket pocket, and went in search of snacks for Sparky. If he had food and cartoons, he’d likely stay out of Jinx’s hair for a few more hours.
I grabbed a bag of chips from the counter, and set them down on the coffee table. Forneus must have brought them over for Sparky, since Jinx and I could no longer afford the luxury of junk food.
Sparky was back watching his cartoons again, an ear in one hand, and the thumb of his other hand in his mouth as he sat curled up in the corner of the couch. I sent up a silent prayer that I would get to see the kid grow up, and then I was out the door, hurrying down the steps like the coward that I was. I’d told myself that I was protecting Jinx by keeping her out of this mess, but deep down, I knew there was more to it than that. I was also too afraid to say goodbye.
Jinx and Sparky were my family, and I was risking their happiness by going on this mission. Finding a way to control my wisp powers was important—especially if I ever wanted to come clean with the faerie courts and admit that I was still among the living—but Jinx wouldn’t see it that way.
My best friend understood the sacrifices we made to help others. She’d risked her own life to save innocent people from harm, and she knew I’d continue to do the same when the chance arose. We’d made a habit of facing down danger to help people, but if she found out I’d risked my life in the search for my father, she might never forgive me.
That was one chance that I wasn’t willing to take.
Chapter 14
Ceff and I stood waiting for Torn, who was, I hoped, being fashionably late. If the cat sidhe didn’t show up in the next fifteen minutes, it would just be me and Ceff on this mission. My gut told me we’d need Torn’s help, even if he was one of my more irritating allies.
“You look stressed, Princess,” Torn said, melting from the shadows. Show off. “Worried I wasn’t going to come?”
In fact, I had been worried. I guess I should have had faith in the fact that cats are curious creatures. Torn knew about my father’s key to Faerie, and was intrigued by the possibility of a portal that bypassed the faerie king and queens’ seal on those lands. He was here bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for danger and mayhem.
Of course, if the opportunity arose, he wouldn’t hesitate to create his own mayhem. Torn loved chaos like a pixy loves salt, it was in his nature.
“Nope,” I said. “This is my happy face.”
Torn laughed, the sound beginning in his chest and gradually shifting into a purr. Glad someone was happy. I sure as Hell wasn’t. I grit my teeth, facing the expanse of water between our position at the tip of Martin’s Point and the island floating in the distance.
“What if the sea doesn’t part like in the prophecy?” I asked, pacing back and forth.
“Do not worry, I can carry you both,” Ceff said.
He started to strip off his pants, and Torn clapped.
“Nice show, fish for brains, but I’m not riding you,” Torn said. “Ever.”
Ceff sighed, and raised an eyebrow at me. Great. This was up to me to settle.
“Cats are sissys when it comes to water,” I said, getting in a hit to Torn’s pride. “If it’s the only way over, he’ll catch a ride. He’s too curious about Tech Duinn and my father’s derelict court not to come with us.”
Ceff shrugged and began to shift into his water horse form. He didn’t have to strip off his clothes to change shape. He’d been trying to get under Torn’s skin. I’m not sure who insulted who first, but if they kept this up, we’d be lucky to all survive this trip.
Not that I was much help. I never could miss a chance
to goad the cat sidhe lord.
“You wound me, Princess,” Torn said, hand flying to his leather clad chest. “Though I should warn you, I do have my limits. Do not push me.”
His eyes went steely, and I knew the kidding was over. It was time for the claws to come out.
Oh yeah? Two could play at that game. I crouched down as if to tie my boots, and reached my gloved hand into the water at my feet. In one smooth, lightning fast move, I uncoiled, straightened, and flicked my fingers at Torn. Droplets of water hit his chest, and he hissed. The hissing turned to a yowl that raised the hair on my neck, and Torn arched his back.
“Hmmm, yes, you do oh so well with water,” I said. “Come on, Torn. If we have to swim for it, let Ceff carry me, and I’ll carry you in your cat form.”
Torn relaxed, leaned one hip against the railing, and licked his lips.
“Ah,” he said, eyes alight, trailing fingers along the beads of water trickling down his skin. “You just want me in your arms. Admit it.”
Ceff let out an angry snort, and stomped his foot. He’d finished shifting, and was now an imposing, beautifully muscled creature. Torn should know better than to mess with him like this, especially when he was going to be shifting into a teensy, little kitty cat.
Then again, I knew better than to antagonize Torn. Our chances for success were greatly reduced if I pissed off our one ally on this mission, but I just couldn’t resist. We hadn’t even left Harborsmouth, and we were at each other’s throats. I shook my head, and sighed.
We were all doomed.
Chapter 15
I shouldn’t have worried about the doorway to Tech Duinn remaining under water. The druid Béchuille was a lot of things, but a liar wasn’t one of them.
At the strike of the witching hour, my ears popped as magic pressure built and crashed around us. My skin tingled as the sea parted, exposing sandy ocean floor that ran like a ribbon from Martin’s Point to Donner Island.
“Wow,” I said, letting out the breath I’d been holding.
That’s me, always the eloquent one.
“Now this is more like it,” Torn said, rocking back on his heels.
“I would have preferred to swim,” Ceff muttered, narrowing his eyes at the churning sea.
I’d convinced him to shift back to his human form after he’d tried to nip at Torn’s shoulder, and got a claw across the snout for his trouble.
The water parted unnaturally to our left and right, revealing a pathway that led out to the island. The pathway was narrow, walls of water towering over our heads, and I suddenly wished that Ceff had brought a few of his water fae friends along. Ceff could use his water magic to keep me from drowning in the short-term, but it was a long walk to the island.
Too bad we were keeping this mission under wraps. Revealing a secret backdoor to Faerie, and the fact that I had my father’s key, would put a price on our heads that none of us needed. Plus, the general fae population still thought I was dead. Now was not the time to reveal the truth of my survival.
No, for better or worse, we were on our own.
“Ladies first,” Torn said, waving a hand at the magic pathway.
I frowned, but strode forward.
“Thanks a lot,” I said, breaking into a jog.
The faster we got this over with the better.
“Always the gentleman,” he said, following me when the magic held.
I snorted, shaking my head. Yeah, right.
I kept a wary eye on the water as we picked our way over rocks and debris. Some of this debris was wreckage from ships lost at sea. If the ocean could do this to a ship’s hull, what would it do to flesh and bone? I had a newfound respect for Ceff’s home as I continued on.
I ran, Ceff scouting ahead and Torn on my heels. There were no spotlights or the sound of news helicopters. If the spell that parted the waves was like most magic, humans would subconsciously avoid this area, never realizing that something existed outside their normal lives.
I frowned, glancing again at the creatures swimming alongside us. Although the creatures were aware of us, they couldn’t reach us on the pathway. That didn’t keep me from running with a blade in each hand. Aside from the claustrophobia, this seemed too easy.
“Anyone else wondering when we’ll hit quick sand, or get swallowed up by a sharknado?” I asked.
“Can someone remind me why we didn’t just rent a boat?” Torn asked.
“Kaye said we should stick to the druid’s prophecy as much as possible,” I said.
I flashed him a hard smile, but I had the same doubts. What did make sense was the witch’s argument about the entrance into Tech Duinn. The pathway would lead us to an underground doorway that was only revealed on the summer solstice. If we took a boat or had Ceff swim us across, it was plausible that we’d never find the way inside.
Of course, I was cursing Béchuille’s prophecy as we ran. She’d mentioned the spell lasting until the waning of the moon, which wasn’t the most accurate timetable. The seas parted on the witching hour, but even keeping one eye on the moon, there was no way to know just how much time we had left.
“We must hurry,” Ceff said.
Within seconds, the sound of hooves hitting rocks and hard packed sand pounded in my ears. Apparently, my boyfriend was also concerned about our timetable.
Trident in hand, he’d been ready to stand and fight if this was some kind of trap. But now that our biggest enemy was time, with the threat of the spell collapsing tons of water on our heads, he shifted into the better known kelpie form. In his horse form, he was nearly as fast on land as he was in the water, which meant he was our best option for hauling ass out of here.
He stopped in front of me, pawing impatiently at the sand. I hesitated, but Ceff was right. We were running out of time. I slid my knives into their wrist sheathes, and leapt onto his back.
“You coming, Torn?” I asked.
“Fish breath isn’t the only one who can shapeshift, Princess,” he said, a glint in his eyes.
His flesh rippled, and he sprung forward, a scarred tabby cat landing beside us. He flicked an ear, and started to run, leaping over rocks and debris with ease.
Ceff’s muscles tensed, and then we were galloping so fast, I had to close my eyes against the vertigo that threatened to knock me over. Apparently, it was possible to get motion sick while riding a horse through a cavern of moving walls of water. Who knew?
When we came to an abrupt stop, I cracked my eyes open and smiled. The rocks that made up the base of Donner Island were so large that they may have been put here by giants. I swung down from Ceff’s back, striding forward to run my gloved hands along the boulder at the end of the path. It didn’t look any different from the other hunks of rock, but I could feel the magic that pulsed beneath its cool surface.
“This is it,” I said. “The doorway to Tech Duinn.”
“So what are we waiting for, Princess?” Torn asked, shaking as his fur became smooth flesh once again. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning. “Let’s go visit the Dark One.”
I nodded, raising my gloved hand. I wrapped my knuckles on the stone three times, and took a step back. With an ear shattering grinding of stone against stone, the boulder lifted to reveal a dark void.
I hesitated, squinting into the darkness. I took a deep breath, preparing to ask Ceff if he was ready, when a roaring was met with the smell of saltwater, and the ground tried to knock me off my feet.
Mab’s bloody bones, the walls of water were falling. Tons of water came crashing down, and a sleek, muscled shoulder barreled me through the portal. Then everything went black.
Chapter 16
“So this is Tech Duinn?” Torn asked, spinning in a circle. “I hope there’s more to it than this.”
I knelt on the ash covered ground, coughing up a gallon of seawater. Ceff had used his water magic to hold most the crashing ocean water back long enough for us to make it through the portal, but it had been a close thing. Now he sat beside me, shak
ing off the last of his transformation from horse to man.
He moaned, and I grit my teeth. It didn’t normally take this long for him to shift, but he’d used up a lot of magic getting us all to safety. Not that Torn was about to say thank you. He gave Ceff a disdainful look similar to the ones cats give their human companions when they’re impatiently waiting for their dinner.
Something roared to our right, and flames shot up through the darkness.
“You just had to say that, didn’t you?” I asked, flashing a scowl at Torn.
He smiled, his teeth gleaming in the darkness.
“Now that looks like something interesting,” he said.
He started walking, and I shook my head. I coughed one more time, and stood.
“We should probably keep an eye on him,” I said. “You okay to walk?”
“I will be,” Ceff said, coming to his knees.
He looked pale, but he didn’t wobble when he finally stood.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked, fidgeting with my gloves.
If I was careful, I could give Ceff my shoulder to lean on. So long as our skin didn’t touch, I’d avoid any visions. Although I’d become used to experiencing Ceff’s memories in private, visions were incapacitating, and we didn’t have time for that. Not with Torn running off to poke the nearest pixie nest.
“Tell me you love me, and that you will never come that close to dying on me again,” he said.
“I love you,” I said. “But you know me better than to stay out of trouble. I may not seek it out like Torn, but danger has a way of finding me. All I can promise is to do my best.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” he said.
“That’s why we’re here,” I said. “I’m no good at sneaking around and playing dead. We find our way to Donn’s hearth, use the key to open the portal to Faerie, and find whatever clues my father left behind. With any luck, we’ll find a way to control my powers, or a lead on where to find my father. Who knows, maybe he even left a “how to train a wisp princess” manual behind.”
