A Touch of Fae

by Lauren Dane

  Lee’s face grew tense. “How do you know?”

  “I just do. He stole it. Freya said that another served the demon lord. It makes sense that it would be Bron serving him, it, whatever pronoun is appropriate for a demon.”

  “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions,” Lee said. “We don’t know that he stole it for the demon lord.”

  “Oh for god’s sake! I just TOLD you that he did. I know he did. You’re not the only one with gifts, Amelia Charvez! My gift says that Bron stole it for the demon lord. Bron hates Con and he hates humans, he stole a book that will enable the demon lord to unravel the Compact. That will divest you of your power and leave the innocents unprotected. Even if I didn’t have the gift of intuition, common sense could put two and two together.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just don’t want it to be true. We’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop all of this time. So tell me why you think it’s true.”

  Em swallowed her anger, mollified by Lee’s statement. Jayce and Con had taken a step back during the brief, angry exchange and now relaxed and gave a brief nod of hello to Alex and Aidan, who’d come to stand in the hallway behind Lee. “Okay, I get that. But as you are so fond of saying, I am a scholar and I’ve spent years doing research on dark magic and nearly a year’s worth on this very book alone. This book has the power to create chaotic magic. It can unravel the foundations of magical agreements. I know the danger this book poses, I know the danger this Fae poses and I know that Bron MacAillen is in league with the demon lord and is out to use that book to hurt this family.”

  “She’s right. The queen wanted the book back for that very reason. Your family isn’t the only group in danger from the magic in the book, all compacts and agreements based on magic are, including ones that the Fae have entered into,” Con said, putting a hand on Em’s shoulder, feeling her tension ease at his touch. He hadn’t jumped on her claim that Poul had been Dark Fae earlier when Jayce had. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed in her power, but that he was shocked by the very idea that any of the Queen’s Favored could be a traitor. When she’d thanked Jayce for believing her right away, Con had felt ashamed. He wanted her to know he supported her completely.

  Lee sighed. “I do believe you. I just don’t want it to be true. Losing Tante Elise was just so awful, along with nearly losing Alex and Aidan. I don’t want to live that again.”

  Em nodded and the sisters hugged and the four men let out a long sigh of relief.

  “Well, what do we do?” Lee asked.

  “We wait. If what I recall is correct, the demon lord or his servant will have to face you to break the Compact. He’ll need your blood. If we can hold him off then grab the book, we may be able to vanquish him this time.” Em looked to her sister. “You think you’re up to vanquishing a demon lord?”

  “Hell no! Who the heck is ever up to something like that?” Lee said, pushing her hair out of her face. “We need to get Maman over here, two witch dreamers are better than one. She and I can dreamwalk to see if we can’t locate this Bron and figure out what he’s up to.”

  Lee went to the phone while Em introduced Alex and Aidan to Jayce. A month and a half had passed while they were away this time and even though it had only been a week for Em, she’d missed New Orleans and her family quite a bit. Despite their overbearing nature, they were still her family.

  “Maman will be here in a few minutes. Let’s get something to eat while we wait,” Lee said.

  Aidan winked at Lee, gave a mischievous grin and looked at Em. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve tasted Fae blood, would you share yours with me?”

  “NO!” Con bellowed and Em jumped. Lee smiled at Con’s possessiveness.

  “Aidan, I really don’t want you to make my sister come. I know it’s just food to you but still, there are lines a girl doesn’t want to cross with her sister,” Lee said dryly, going along with the tease.

  “He makes you come just by feeding?” Em asked, fascinated.

  Lee gave a smile and took Em’s arm as she led her from the room. “Yes! And let me tell you…”

  The conversation trailed off as Con scowled at Aidan.

  “Oh, please, Con. I don’t desire Em that way. She’s a beautiful woman but she’s my sister! I love Lee and no other woman makes me feel lust. I just wanted her blood, the climax is just a pleasant side effect.” Aidan said with a smirk. He would have liked a sip of Em’s blood but truthfully, he’d fed from Alex and Lee earlier and was quite sated, he’d just felt like twitting Con to see his reaction. He was pleased to see the Fae so possessive of his bride.

  Several minutes later their mother arrived with the other Charvez women in tow, guarded by a coterie of men.

  Em stood forward. “Maman, you and Lee should dreamwalk. I will ride with you.” She turned to her brother-in-law. “Alex, I think you should as well. The rest of you should just keep an eye out, be on guard. Simone,” Em said, turning to her cousin who was also an empath, “you will feel the difference if this Fae approaches. Jayce and Con feel a certain way, yes?” Simone nodded. “These Dark Fae, they give you that feeling in the pit of your gut that the dark ones bring.”

  Simone nodded again, understanding exactly what Em meant.

  They turned back to Lee and her mother, who’d drawn a protective circle. Em and Alex stepped into it and the circle was closed. The room gave off a bit of electric shock as the magic was focused.

  Alex and Em each put a hand on the shoulders of the witch dreamers and Con felt the magic roll through the room as they cast their consciousness outward.

  Em watched as her sister and mother traveled in dreams, hovering just above the collective unconsciousness of those in the surrounding area. She kept her senses peeled for anyone who gave off the signature that the Dark Fae seemed to emanate.

  They saw nothing, but Em felt a faint darkness, the stench of something truly evil just beyond their vision. The coldness of it seemed to slide down her spine, making her slightly nauseated. After a time they came back to themselves. Em looked at her mother and sister and stopped them as they began to break the circle.

  “No. Wait.” Em looked about and then to Simone. “Did you feel anything out of the ordinary?” she asked her cousin.

  “There is something not quite right but I can’t put my finger on it. It isn’t close enough for me to really get a lock on.” Simone shrugged.

  “It’s here, but they are just out of our range. I can feel it but it’s as if they are behind a wall.”

  “Why can’t we break the circle?” Lee asked.

  “You’re the key, Lee. As the current witch dreamer, as the strongest of us, you are the focus of the Compact and the one that the spell must be cast upon to break it.”

  “How do you know this, mo fiach? The book is not in your language,” Con said.

  Em shrugged. “I read it today before he took it and I did the research. It just…I can’t explain it but it just made sense to me. Like with sifting, as it’s happening I just understand it. I want to be sure that this demon lord isn’t nearby before we break the protective circle.”

  She looked around again. “Maman, let me out but reseal the circle when you do.”

  “No! Damn it, Em! Do you think it’s here and if so, why the hell do you want to put yourself in danger?” Con demanded.

  “I’m not in danger, well, I mean, we all are, the entire city is if the Compact gets broken, but it’s Lee and Maman who are at greatest risk. I just can’t feel as much inside of the circle, it keeps magic out. I need to hear better and it has to be done outside this protective circle.”

  Con gave an exasperated sigh and Aidan patted his arm. “They’re all like that, Con. You may as well get used to it now. There’s enough magic in this room to protect her. Let her do her job.”

  Em smiled and stepped out of the circle and felt it close behind her. “The wards, they’re so strong, I’m going to go to the door.”

  Con and Jayce followed her along with Grandmere and
Simone. Em opened the door and took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting her shields come down. The sheer volume of sensation made her take a step back, Con put his arms around her and she leaned back into him, reassured. She felt the wall, knew somehow that it was holding the presence of Bron and his master out.

  She looked at it, examining it, figuring it out. She walked back inside and closed the door.

  “He’s here, as is the demon. They’re using a spell of concealment. I can see it but I don’t have the magic to break it.”

  “Em what if we join and you can guide me to it, I can take your knowledge and we can break the spell that way?”

  “That just might work, Lee. We’ll have to be ready for whatever gets thrown our way.”

  “You don’t think we should just wait for them to make the first move?” Lee asked.

  “The longer they have the book the more dangerous it is for us. We need to get that book back and to vanquish the demon once and for all.” Em looked toward the door. “They’re getting closer. I can feel them now, even through the wards. Shall we try this or not?”

  Lee held out her hand and Em got back into the circle. Lee looked to Alex. “Honey, make a protective circle for everyone in the room. I want all of you to get inside of the circle and don’t break it, no matter what.”

  “I’m coming in there with you, Em,” Con said determinedly and he came in as Alex walked out.

  “Lee, let’s open up a hole in the wards to let them in and then Maman, you close them, locking them inside. If we aren’t successful, at least the wards will hold them for a while,” Em said.

  Lee nodded and as soon as the other circle had been closed, she turned to her sister and pulled out a cutting blade and sliced her palm, her mother’s and then Em’s. She wrote symbols on their arms and spoke ritual words and felt the link form. Of witch dreamer to Em’s particular kind of intuitive magic. She was something more than just an empath and together, the three of them formed an incredibly powerful unit. Lee was amazed at how much her sister knew, how much she felt and her respect and admiration for her grew knowing Em swam through that level of data every moment of the day. She understood what Em had been talking about regarding the wall around the others and put that in reserve as she focused on the wards, opening a hole and then stepping back to wait.

  She didn’t have to wait very long. Through her link with Em she felt the approach, and the miasma of the demon lord’s power made her stagger. Em held her hand out and she joined with her sister and her mother. The power flowed through them like a live circuit and Alex watched with cautious eyes, taking it all in, waiting and ready to aid in any way he could from the other circle.

  “They’re coming,” Em whispered and Con stepped in front of them and pulled out a deadly looking sword.

  “Remember, a ghra, Bron is responsible for killing my father. He is my namhaid, my enemy. Let me take care of him. Know that there is no way he’s getting near you. He will not harm you while I have breath.”

  She quirked up a corner of her mouth in a smile. “Do what you gotta do, big guy.”

  He snorted a laugh and turned back around.

  The air shimmered and suddenly Bron and the demon burst into the room. The demon had cloaked his appearance and was looking like a human, er, sort of like a used car salesman from those old television commercials back in the Seventies, Em thought, distracted and felt Lee’s momentary amusement at the thought. She also felt her mother begin to knit the hole in the wards back together.

  “Nice work on breaking the concealment spell, witch,” Bron said and looked at Con. “Conchobar MacNessa, it’s a shame to see you hiding behind a witch’s circle. Are you afraid of me?”

  Con barked a laugh that was so menacing that it made the hairs on Em’s arms stand on end. She knew the level of his grief over his father’s death but she hoped it wouldn’t make him stupid. Bron MacAillen was one thing. The dude in the polyester suit standing behind him was another. The evil rolled off him in waves—it made Em nauseated.

  “Demon, begone from my home and from this realm,” Lee said calmly.

  Em studied them, waiting.

  “I have waited hundreds of years to be free of the geas the bitch goddess put on me, to be rid of you once and for all. Angra failed but then your sister there did my homework for me and found the very tool of her family’s destruction.” The demon pulled out the book. “Ah, the irony of it all. I plan to kill them all one by one so that I can feast from your guilt and grief as you watch, helpless,” it said with a slimy leer and Em’s skin crawled. Her mother squeezed her hand in reassurance.

  “Oh jeez, are you going to talk us to death or what? What is it with you bad guys anyway? I’ve never heard so much B-movie dialog in my life!” Lee said and Em barked out a laugh.

  “I feel like we’re in that Michael Jackson video for ‘Beat It’. Think we’re gonna rumble?” Em said and she and her sister sang the words and imitated the choreography, laughing at the blank look on the face of the demon.

  Aidan shot a look at Con who just shook his head while Alex rolled his eyes.

  The demon growled. “Oh, sorry. It’s just that, well, I mean, I’m sure you’re scary and all, I can feel the ickiness flowing from you, but your disguise, well, you look like a late-night television commercial circa 1977. Isn’t that robin’s egg blue plastic suit kinda uncomfortable?” Em asked and Lee burst out laughing again.

  The demon continued to look perplexed by them.

  “Uh, I don’t think he gets it, Em,” Lee said and sighing looked back to the demon. “So, Leisure Suit Larry, do you and your little dog Toto have something to awe us with or did you just plan to make us pass out from your stank?”

  “Good one,” Em said.

  Their mother sighed. “You two, behave and focus on your work, please.” She turned back to the demon and Bron. “I never could get them to stop with the wisecracks.”

  It was Con’s turn to laugh.

  “Prepare to die, witches, I will enjoy sucking the marrow from your bones,” the demon said and everyone laughed.

  Em was glad to have lightened the moment. Beneath the jokes she could feel her mother and sister’s fear. It was impossible not to be terrified when you knew what was at stake.

  The demon roared and shook off the disguise. He was truly horrifying to behold and everyone got quiet for a moment.

  “Wow, much better, Larry,” Lee said. “But two words for you—dental care.”

  Even Bron had to hold back a laugh then.

  “Here it comes,” Em whispered. “I’m going to look inward and focus, I’ll feed you what I find out. Be ready because the magic he unleashes will begin to work immediately.”

  Lee and her mother squeezed Em’s hand and Con did some wicked cool move with the sword, slicing the air, causing Bron to wince. Jayce did the same in the other circle.

  Before they could do anything else, the demon impaled Bron on a long talon and he slumped to the ground with a surprised look on his face.

  Con started forward. “CON! NO!” Em shouted and he stopped.

  The demon laughed and the sound was truly horrifying.

  Bron looked up at it. “You promised,” he croaked.

  “I lied.”

  It opened the book and began to speak. Em saw the magic flow out of its mouth. It appeared to her inner eye like a geometry problem. She hated geometry but gave a second’s worth of thanks to her father for insisting on that tutor. She began to weave her way through it, sensing its makeup, the cornerstones of its construction. Lee picked up on it and began to aim her own defensive magic there. Alex used his magic to attack the demon, trying to keep it at less than full strength.

  Em felt her sister’s magic begin to get weaker and her mother chimed in, doubling back on the spell Lee was working to combat the chaotic magic. The problem was that the very nature of the spell the demon was weaving was that it was anti-magic magic, like a double logic puzzle. Each move caused a countermove that brought the spel
l back, zipping around the defense.

  Em burrowed deeper into the magic to try and figure out a way to fight back that would end up making Lee even stronger. She felt her sister and mother getting weaker, the demon’s spell getting stronger. She had to force that to the back of her mind as she burrowed deeper, examining the magic until she saw the answer.

  “Repeat everything it says, counter the spell with the spell!” she said to Lee urgently.

  Lee looked wary and then took a deep breath and nodded, trusting her sister.

  The spell got stronger and Lee faltered. “Don’t stop! Damn it, Lee, trust me,” Em urged.

  Their mother sent her power through Em and into Lee and Lee gave a last burst, meeting the spell the demon was laying, copying his words, his intent. Suddenly the magic became bright, intense. They all felt the magic being sucked from them and then just as suddenly it came rushing back, filling Lee and her mother up to overflowing.

  The demon faltered and the magic, not having a place to go, began to drain out of it and into the witches in the room.

  “Now! Vanquish it now or it’ll be too late!” Aidan yelled.

  Con walked out of the circle and Em yelled for him but Lee and her mother held her tight, making her stay in the circle, Lee continuing the spell and Alex working his magic to weaken the demon. Jayce broke through the other circle and together he and Con approached the demon.

  It looked up and saw them approach. Jayce raised his sword but the demon lashed out with its magic. Con used the demon’s split in concentration and plunged the sword into the neck of the demon as Jayce hit the wall. The demon screamed in pain and panic and Lee continued the spell, her mother joining Alex in the vanquishing spell.

  The demon, spewing some kind of ichor, grabbed Con, who gave a scream of his own but Jayce was there and suddenly the demon had no head. A sickening thud sounded as the decapitated body hit the ground.

  Lee broke the circle but kept connected to Em and her mother. They sprinkled salt on the demon’s body as Alex and Marie completed the vanquishing spell. The demon’s body shimmered out of existence.