Shadow of a Doubt

by Hunter Blain

  “Stop him from what?” I asked, fearful of the answer.

  “I don’t have the knowledge on the subject to complete the picture. But what I can say confidently is that whatever he is doing, it can’t be good.”

  “Taylor told me that the Shadow Court wants to cast the universe into darkness. We thought I was the key to making that happen.”

  “Oberon promised to let you live if you gave him the gauntlet,” Locke said.

  “He doesn’t need me to attain his goal. He has his key now,” I said. “Besides, you remember what he said at the end.”

  “Not entirely. I was trying not to die at the moment.”

  “What did he say?” Depweg asked. I filled him in about how Oberon had subtly mentioned that I was going to die no matter what by him killing all humans on Earth somehow.

  “So, what, is he going to cut the world tree down or something?” Depweg asked. “What would that do?”

  “I don’t exactly know,” Locke said while deep in thought, “but if the tree connecting all reality together is destroyed…”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, throwing my hands up. “I’m having some trouble believing some Norse fairy tale about a damn tree holding the nine realms together.”

  “Said the vampire to the werewolf and warlock,” Depweg countered.

  “I…” I started, holding up my index finger as if to make a point. Letting it drop, I relented, “Point, match, Depweg.”

  “Let’s use the same logic from the stories we have heard as compared to us,” Locke thought aloud while grabbing his chin between thumb and forefinger.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

  “We know the stories about things like vampires and werewolves that are told by mortals are drastically overfantasized and altogether wrong. I mean, John, you are wearing a silver crucifix.” The three of us looked at my silver pendant sitting brightly atop my black shirt.

  “Lilith damn it!” I said as a finger found a hole in my brand-new shirt. “I just got this stupid thing.”

  “On the clearance rack,” Locke added curtly before finishing, “But you see my point. Now, we need to take what we know and weed through the lore.”

  “Maybe I’m just a big, dumb idiot with a ripped physique, but what does this matter?”

  “I see where he’s going,” Depweg said, leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen. “Maybe the tree itself doesn’t actually hold several planes of existence together, but does, perhaps, act as a doorway.”

  “That theory holds water,” Locke said. “It could be the power source that allows for portals, or maybe it acts as some sort of beacon for the Fae whenever they shift planes.”

  “Ah, I get it,” I admitted. “The Fae could use the tree to traverse the mortal plane. That would explain how Lily always managed to pop in wherever we were.”

  Locke and Depweg both looked at the ground in thought.

  “Let’s assume it is some sort of access for anywhere on, at least, Earth and Faerie; how could Oberon use that against us?” Locke mused.

  A thought burst to the front of my mind like a gunpowder explosion. I snapped my fingers, stood up, and said, “I got it! He will use the tree to free the drow army. We know, or at least it is said, that only the High Fae can shift planes at will. So Oberon’s army wouldn’t be able to use the tree because they are just normal Fae.”

  Depweg straightened from the doorframe as the conversation grew in energy and excitement. He added, “But what about the Shadow faeries?”

  “The ones you can’t see, except their eyes,” I breathed out with unfocused eyes. My mind played the image of purple mist flowing up to the sky to chase us. Countless eyes had made up that mist and had almost killed me and the hunters. A subzero hand ran chilling fingers up my spine, making me shudder.

  “Yeah, what about them? How could they get through but not the, what did you call them, drow?” Depweg asked.

  “He brings up a great question,” Locke said. “I feel like we are on the right track but are missing a key piece to the puzzle.”

  We all stood for eight or nine minutes, desperate for any thought to emerge. As the adrenaline faded from our conversation, I started to yawn. I plopped back on the couch, closing my eyes as I did. Something bothered me that I couldn’t put my finger on.

  “A lot has happened tonight,” I said, feeling the lack of energy. “I need to eat. How much time do I have before dawn?”

  Depweg looked at the clock on the wall.

  “That can’t be right…” he muttered to himself. Then he walked into the kitchen and glanced at the green digits on the oven and microwave. After confirming the time, he walked quickly to the window and peered outside. It was as dark as midnight outside.

  “What?” I asked, growing worried with how he was acting.

  “It’s a quarter past nine,” Depweg said, returning to the living room to pick up the TV remote.

  “What?” I repeated. “How can that be? I’ve been up for several hours. Hell, the drive here alone was over an hour. How can only a few hours have passed since sundown?”

  “It’s a quarter past nine, in the morning,” Depweg confirmed as the television sprang to life, displaying a local channel with nine o’clock news scrolling across the bottom of the screen. A man and woman wearing formal clothing that looked like it belonged in a sci-fi movie had stern faces as they read the news.

  “Turn it up,” I said, standing back up and taking a step closer to the TV.

  Depweg pressed a button on the remote, and the newscasters’ voices grew in volume.

  “…are theorizing that an unexplained phenomenon has created a perfect solar eclipse spanning the entirety of the globe. Experts are perplexed at the lack of a physical astral body blocking the sun,” the male newscaster said.

  “We have breaking news as we go live to our correspondent, Michelle Gonzalez,” the female announcer said.

  “Thank you, Stephanie and Geoff. I have with me Dr. Lance Heinrik, who is an astrophysicist with a specialty in yellow dwarf stars,” Michelle said as she turned her body to regard the man next to her clad in a worn-looking brown suit jacket complete with elbow patches. He had a black bowtie with red dots on it. “Doctor?” she said as she moved the microphone in front of the astrophysicist.

  “Um, yes, um, thank you,” Dr. Heinrik said with an Americanized German accent. “What we are experiencing is a rogue black hole that, for unexplainable reasons, has placed itself squarely between the sun and Earth. All light is being sucked into the phenomenon which, at best guess, is around the size of a basketball. The intense gravity, even by such a small event horizon, is trapping all the light from the much larger sun, preventing the sun’s rays from reaching the surface of Earth.”

  “And how will the black hole impact those of us on Earth?” the reporter asked with practiced calm, even though she was practically talking about the end of our world.

  “Uh…without the warmth and light from the sun…we-we’re all going to d—” the transmission switched back to the reporters sitting at their desk, scrambling to shuffle through the blank papers that newspeople had as props.

  The male reporter, Geoff, put a finger to his ear, regained his composure, and looked at the camera while crossing his hands in front of him before he said, “Thank you, Michelle. Coming up next: is the government tracking you using social media algorithms? Find out after this commercial break.”

  Depweg pressed a button and the screen went black. We all sat in stunned silence for what felt like several minutes, staring at the black screen which reflected our own blurred faces back at us.

  “That’s what he did with the armor and tree,” I drawled out as I ran my palm over my face.

  “What do you mean?” Depweg asked.

  Locke picked up on what I was saying and explained, “He used the tree to find a point in space and created a black hole that was just big enough to swallow all light heading for Earth, but small enough to not destroy the solar system.”
<
br />   “Oh…fuck…” Depweg gracefully added to the conversation.

  Oberon’s last words to me held a new terror. I had no idea how long I could survive without consuming blood. I knew it took less than a week for me to start getting hangry, but I didn’t know if that was because of my desire to keep my well of power fully stocked or because I would die without it. I guess I could sleep like Ulric had on more than one occasion; but that would only delay the inevitable. All life on Earth would end without the sun. The irony of that sentence was palpable to a vampire.

  The shower was shut off in the master bathroom, and Depweg, Locke, and myself all exchanged glances with one another. It was funny to me that our biggest problem right now was how to tell Joey what we had just learned, as if in doing so, it would become a reality.

  Joey came out of the bedroom and stopped by the couch in which Locke and I were once again sitting on. He looked around and no one made eye contact with him.

  “What?” Joey asked.

  “Um…” I started before Depweg spoke. It made sense for him to break the news, considering he was his pack leader.

  “A lot has happened since we were imprisoned, Joey. Long story short, the Faerie king has somehow created a black hole between Earth and the sun, effectively cutting us off,” Depweg said with militaristic determination, refusing to sugarcoat the situation.

  Joey didn’t say anything. After he had sobbed on my shoulder, his face had become a blank canvas, devoid of any emotion except for the scowl that had appeared when he had buried his brother.

  “So what do we do?” Joey asked matter-of-factly, seemingly unfazed by the apocalyptic news we had just sprinkled on him.

  “We are going to Faerie,” Depweg said, glancing my way. In that brief moment, I knew he was relenting to the rescue of Ludvig and Magni. We were going to need all the help we could get to save the freaking world.

  16

  “What’s the plan?” Locke asked from where we stood around the kitchen island. I had drawn a map of Faerie as best I could remember from my dull, mortal’s memory. I was confident in its general accuracy, but only barely.

  Depweg had taken control over the situation, so he said, “First, we all need as much energy as we can possibly consume. I’m to the point where I think Plan Wild Card is perfectly reasonable.” My eyebrows went up in surprise as I realized what he meant.

  “What’s that?” Locke asked.

  “It’s where we invade Huntsville prison and feast on the most violent offenders,” I informed him. “We came up with it as a last-ditch emergency maneuver. The number of prisoners in there that meet our criteria is more than enough to replenish all my reserves. Then the weres feast on the remains. Hell, you can steal their souls as well. These guys are the worst of the worst. Child molesters, murderers, rapists; all ripe for the picking.”

  “Okay, good,” Locke agreed.

  Depweg continued, “Once filled up, we make our way to Valenta’s to grab some of the artifacts John just told us about.”

  “Then take the portal at the back of his basement to face the Shadow Court,” I said, dumping the rest of the flashlights from H-E-B on the counter. We split them up evenly after testing each one. “Make sure to light up whatever you want to kill before attacking. Joey proved that even the goddess, Lolth, can be hurt as long as bright ass light is on her.”

  “That means we need fire,” Depweg said.

  “I got that covered,” Locke threw in confidently.

  “And lots of it,” I added.

  “Any color preference?” Locke said with a mischievous smile.

  “As best as we can figure, Da and the hunters will be contained at the base of the castle. We will have to open the front gate somehow.”

  “Oh shit,” I exhaled while standing upright, my head dizzy with my realization.

  “What is it?” Depweg asked, still all business.

  “I-I lost my powers in Faerie. I was a fucking mortal, heartbeat and all. I don’t know if you guys will have your powers either.”

  “Scheisse,” Depweg cursed in German.

  “What are we going to do, then?” Locke asked.

  I leaned over and whispered in his ear before standing straight again.

  “What?”

  I leaned in again and repeated what I had whispered before straightening yet again. When he looked at me, I motioned with my hand for him to say what I had asked him to say.

  “Um, okay. Um, what do we need?” Locke asked with a confused look on his face.

  “Guns,” I said in my best Keanu. “Lots of guns.”

  “Agreed,” Depweg confirmed without giving my epic quote the recognition and praise it deserved. “I have a collection squared away that I had been building ever since…that night,” he finished. I could see Locke shift uncomfortably where he stood. He cleared his throat once while keeping his eyes on the crudely drawn map before us.

  “I was wondering where all those Sigs that we stole—I mean, borrowed—from those soldiers had gone.”

  “Armor, weapons, and ammo. I’ve added varying melee weapons as well. All silver and/or iron infused.”

  “I have a collection of alchemical grenades I have been working on. I can catch anything on fire, even water,” Locke added helpfully.

  “Neat!” I exclaimed, happy with myself for remembering what Faerie had done to my abilities BEFORE going in. Then I shuddered at the thought of almost leading the last of my friends to their unwitting deaths at the hands of Shadow faeries. The lack of one simple thought could have cost us everything.

  “Right. We’ll swing by my storage unit to get the weapons and armor, then wherever Locke needs to get his,” Depweg said.

  “No need,” Locke spoke as he turned to face the back counters of the kitchen. He swung his arm in a perfect circle, and the air wavered before fading out. There, juxtaposed to the clean, crisp kitchen, was a wall of wooden shelves against stone. On the shelves were numerous devices that I had no idea what they were for. Locke reached up and grabbed an entire shelf of handheld orbs that contained a black-and-green powder. He began placing them into a bandolier that appeared across his chest and waist, filling each slot until he looked like he was ready to cosplay at the nearest steampunk convention. The leather straps perfectly held the grenades in place while offering protection against accidental damage—which I was all for. I wouldn’t want to be in the car when we hit one of those bumps on the dirt road leading out of here and then BOOM, Tesla fire coffin.

  As he finished, Locke waved his hand in the opposite direction, closing the portal to his stash. The cabinets and countertop were returned to their normal, HGTV state.

  “Show off,” I said while simultaneously being mildly impressed.

  Locke smiled at the compliment before returning his gaze to the map.

  “The throne room is here,” I pointed at the center of the castle. “I would expect Oberon to be there.”

  “Why?” Depweg asked.

  I was thrown off by the question. “Be-because that’s what bad guys do? I don’t know, man.”

  “So we are going to play this like Oberon is just sitting in his throne room, like the boss of a video game, rubbing his hands together maliciously?” Locke asked facetiously.

  “Well…when you say it like that,” I said, trailing off. I stepped back from the island and leaned on the counter behind me, crossing my arms as I did.

  I inspected Joey then. It was hard to see the once young, playful Joey in such a somber mood. Frown lines were now permanently etched into his forehead. His muscles had already began filling back out from when Depweg had made him eat before we started over the plan.

  Depweg continued, “We don’t know where he will be. He might not even be on that plane. The plan of attack doesn’t change, regardless. We get in, careful not to engage for as long as absolutely possible, get the hunters, and get out. Since we can assume they will be in the dungeon, we can go cell by cell and do a quick search and rescue for Da. If he isn’t there, we mak
e our escape and plan the next move from the safety of Valenta’s,” he laid out with proficiency. “One last thing,” he added as we began to move away from the island, “expect the unexpected. Improvise, adapt, and overcome. Don’t get caught like a deer in headlights.”

  I quickly stifled a chuckle that tried to escape as I pictured the Bear Grylls meme at his comment.

  We stepped outside and I made my way to the Tesla, calling out, “Shotgun!” as I did.

  Locke cleared his throat obnoxiously, and I turned to see him standing in the clearing between the house and the driveway. “Make a circle. There’s enough of us here for this,” Locke ordered.

  “For what?” I asked as I turned from the passenger side of the car and walked toward the group. As I stepped into place, completing the circle, there was a slight pop in my ears. Locke began chanting as he stuck his hands out to either side of him, reaching for the hands of the dudes who stood next to him. I recoiled back, not wanting to hold my bros’ hands. I was a man, damn it, and men didn’t go around holding other dudes’ hands.

  Without breaking his concentration, Locke shook his hand in midair, signaling that I needed to grasp it. With a sigh and a chip to my manliness, I grabbed his hand and the hand of Joey, who stood next to me. We completed the circle, and the ground began glowing purple between us. I gawked in awe as a frame made out of bones and covered in those weird, glowing runes rumbled from the dirt. It extended into the air, the size of a normal doorframe, and began to fill with bones that flew from the ground as if drawn by a magnet, forming the door. Locke stopped chanting as it became complete.

  “You can let go of my hand now, John,” Locke said with a smile. I threw his hand away and wiped the clamminess off on my black jeans as if I had touched something wet and sticky on the edge of the trash can.