Dark Fae

by Shannon Mayer

  Dark Fae

  “Who so loves believes the impossible.”

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  1

  “I’m sorry. Quinn, please believe me that I thought I was doing what was best for Ashling. What you asked of me!”

  I kept my back to Bres, unwilling to look him in the eye. How could he think he could possibly know what was best for Ashling? She was my sister first. I’d been the one to chase away her nightmares, to sit at the table after school, and help her with her homework, and to comfort her on Darcy’s bad days. He’d only just found out she was his half sister; there was no way he could possibly care for her as much as I did.

  We were waiting on the edge of the Banshee Queen’s bower while Fianna attended to Luke. My hands clenched, along with my stomach. It seemed that everyone around me was doomed to some horrible death or suffering, and the guilt sat heavy on me making me feel as though I was a plague on those I loved. The worst part was that I couldn’t save either Ashling or Luke, and there was nothing I could do to heal the wounds I was causing by being the “Chosen” one. I didn’t have the ability that Ashling did. Glancing at the entry way to the bower, I was grabbed by another twist of fear. The last view I’d had of Luke was one that left little doubt as to the deadliness of the poison coursing through his system. His blue eyes were dull, barely grey now, cheeks sunken, and he had skin the shade of bread dough.

  I wished that Lir was with us. But he had gone, left me alone with Bres, and all those feelings swirling between us. I understood that Lir had a job to do, responsibilities that required his attention. Making an attempt to wake the old gods to face Chaos was no small task; it was one that had to be done. That didn’t mean I wasn’t still wishing Lir was at my side instead of Bres. At the very least, his presence would take the strain off me in trying to ignore Bres while secretly wanting to throttle him. Not to mention that I felt safe with Lir; for the first time in my life, I had a parent who cared for me. I snapped off a branch of huckleberries, the tiny red fruit vibrant against the all-green bush. Plucking them off one at a time, I popped them in my mouth, as if I had nothing better in the world to do

  “I’m busy, leave me alone,” I said between bites of the tart, red fruit.

  “Quinn, look at me.” His Irish brogue was more than a little tempting, my body swaying towards his voice, and I hated that it drew me in. I glanced over my shoulder.

  “You made yourself very clear before.” I couldn’t stop the flush that lit up my face. No doubt I was bright red. Without knowing what I’d been doing, I had Called Bres in a dream, and all but thrown myself at him. To be fair, I thought he had feelings for me, but after what he’d said, I knew that I’d only been fooling myself.

  His words reverberated through my head.

  I can’t save you both.

  It’s Ashling or you.

  You’ll kill her.

  Bres’ lips tightened and he looked straight up into the treetops, the muscles in his neck flexing. As he spoke, he looked away from the trees and back to me. “I said those things because of what I saw, what Chaos showed me. I saw ta battle between you and Ashling. I saw you take her head. I know it was in ta future, but I didn’t want to believe. That’s why I said what I said. How could I protect her from you if I . . .” He shook his head.

  Anger, hurt, and more anger flared up. “If you what?” I stalked towards him, feeling my power rise up under my skin. “You thought you’d treat me like crap and that would make it easier for you? You thought that if you beat me down with your words I wouldn’t be able to stand against you?” He started to speak, but I went on, not giving him a chance. “You thought that I would be able to kill her? Yeah, awesome. Goes to show how well you know me, and her. Ashling knows I won’t hurt her. It’s the rest of the world that’s trying to kill us, not each other.”

  Bres didn’t back up as I’d advanced on him, and I was toe to toe with him. “You know, you had a lot to say before.” I said, “What’s the matter now?”

  “I was wrong. Chaos has fooled us all, and me. I’ve lost my chance with ta one person I wanted ta most.” His voice lowered, and with it, his head as if he was going to kiss me.

  The slap seemed to surprise us both. His head snapped to the side, a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth spraying out. My hand stung, tingling all over.

  You have to remember that you are stronger now, Quinn. Cora whispered to me from the back of my mind. My grandmother had been a five-foot-long snake when we’d met, because of a curse. She’d died protecting me; then I’d almost died, and when I’d come back from the other side it was with her as my guide. The whole relationship was weird, but it worked.

  He probably is sorry.

  “He probably should be,” I said under my breath. The whisper of bushes parted and the low hum of voices pulled my attention around.

  Fianna, the Banshee Queen, stood across from me, her long white hair floating on some unseen breeze, as her deep soulful brown eyes, as wide as any deer’s, looked us up and down. I pulled myself together and walked away from Bres.

  “How is he?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “He has a very short time. The poison is different than the Banshee poison you were infected with. Aednat was very old, very powerful. The toxin from her bite is beyond fierce.”

  “Can’t we Call someone? Someone who can Heal? Ashling Healed me through the mirror, we could do the same for Luke,” I said, already wondering where the closest mirror might be.

  “It is not so simple, Quinn.” She spread her hands out in front of her, the spider web woven skirt she wore billowing with the slight movement. “This poison that he carries within him, you cannot heal. We can only make him comfortable until the end.”

  Her words didn’t really register. Not right away. Because it wasn’t possible that Luke wouldn’t get better. He was my friend and maybe even something more, something I was only just beginning to appreciate. He loved me more than I loved him, but I had been trying to catch up, had thought I would have time to, not to mention that I needed his help. Without him, how would we convince Nuadha and the Tuatha to help me? There was no way they’d trust Bres, and I was an interloper. Luke was the key to making that happen.

  Bres’ hands rested on my shoulders from behind. I wanted to fling them off, but I suddenly had no strength in me.

  “Fianna, I don’t understand. What do you mean we just make him comfortable until the end?” My mind refused to see what she was saying, balked at the truth they were trying to show me.

  You know what she is saying, Luke is – I blocked Cora out, shut her down before those words slipped through my mind.

  Fianna stepped forward. “You should go see him, before it is too late.”

  Like in a dream, I stepped forward, the words settling on me like weights, wrapping around my neck, squeezing the air out of me. Everything around me slowed down: my movements, even the air.

  My eyes focused on Luke, laying prone, his eyes closed. I waited for him to breathe, and counted the seconds. I started to panic when I got to thirty, then forty. I dropped to my knees, and it was as if the impact of my body hitting the ground reminded him to draw breath, a deep rattling, wet breath that smelled sour, like poorly fermented wine, and vomit.

  I took his hands in mine, shocked at how cold they were. “Blankets, don’t you have any blankets for him?” I asked, looking up to see Fianna and Bres staring down at me.

  She shook her head. “Feel his face.”

  Laying his hands on his stomach, I slipped my hands up to his face, and quickly snatched them back. He was literally burning up, though he showed no signs of it anywhere else. His face was paler than before, without a hint of colour.

  “There is nothing we can do now,” Fianna said. “Soon his ance
stors will come and guide him home.”

  “That’s not true,” Bres said. “What about ta Cauldron?”

  Fianna spun to face him, her skirt swirling outwards, skimming across Luke’s face. I wondered if he could feel or hear anything, if he knew he was dying. This was all my fault.

  I doubt it. Likely he floats as you did between old memories.

  Fianna’s voice was sharp. “Do not fill her with false hope. It has been hidden away. No one has found it in years. Searching for it would be a waste of her time.”

  Bres’ voice was tight, clipped. “I say that you are wrong. Ta Cauldron was always kept within the bounds of the Enchanted Forest. Mayhap you don’t want to be helping us, maybe you be on ta side of Chaos.”

  Fianna and the Banshees around us gasped and, in the silence that followed, Luke drew another rattling breath, the sound filling the tense air. Looking over my shoulder, I eyed Bres as he locked eyes with the Banshee queen.

  Standing there, Bres faced Fianna down. “Quinn needs Luke. He’s her future. We have to save him before we go after Chaos. There’s no telling what will happen if Quinn tries to face her alone, without Luke.” He paused. “Not to mention he’s ta only one that Nuadha will trust enough to follow into a battle with Chaos.” His words settled over me. Bres was fighting for me, though that meant I was going to be with someone else. A dull aching throb started deep in my heart, but I ignored it, doing my best to push it away. His words echoed my earlier thoughts. We needed Luke more than just my aching heart.

  Fianna put her hands on her hips; she let out an exaggerated sigh. After several seconds of staring at Bres, her eyes narrowed, she finally shrugged. “Fine, but if she fails, and the world falls, it will be on your head. I can take you to the place that crosses over, but it will mean your death and hers. I do not want to be the one to end our singular hope against Chaos.”

  Luke’s fingers were icy, as if he’d been dunked in water and then set in our freezer back home that kept the ice cream so hard we couldn’t scoop it out. I shook my head knowing that the tangent my brain was running off to was an attempt to escape the truth. Luke was dying.

  “I can’t just let him die, not if there’s a chance we could save him,” I said. Guilt clawed at my guts. It was my fault that Luke was dying, just like it was my fault that Ashling had been taken by the Fomorii in the first place. I couldn’t save Ashling, but maybe I could save Luke. Bres nodded his agreement.

  You don’t have that luxury. You have other things you must do. Luke understands that; he wouldn’t want you to put your life in danger for him.

  I didn’t answer her. I just put Luke’s hands back on his chest, and then stood up. There was no longer any hesitation. I couldn’t be afraid, not when the people I cared about were dying around me.

  “Let’s go to this place, Fianna.” I knew that this was only the first step. We still had to find the Three Smiths in the hope that they could make a new Excalibur, a weapon that would be the death of my sister. Suppressing that thought, I steeled my resolve. Save Luke first, get the sword after. Don’t think about the final step, not yet.

  You are a fool, girl.

  I nodded, but didn’t answer her. I didn’t need to. Fool or not, I was doing this my way.

  2

  As we prepared to leave, a willowy Banshee bolted into the Queen’s bower. She was shaking, and sweat dripped off the edge of her chin. Her eyes—a beautiful hazel—were huge and dilated. Fear radiated around her, infecting the other Banshees. The entire group began to shift, distancing themselves from the messenger. “Calling mirror,” she whispered, handing a silvered mirror over to Fianna. I recognized it; it was the one Aednat had brought me to Call Ashling on.

  The thought of Aednat made me sick to my stomach. I’d killed her. Only a few short days ago I’d been like any other twenty six year old. How could it be that, in that time, I’d changed so much that not only was I capable of killing someone, but of killing Aednat, who reminded me so much of Ashling. Aednat had brought out the protective side of me, but I had still killed her, without hesitation. Me. I’d ended her life. Squinting my eyes shut, I took a deep breath, held it, and then let it out slowly. The world had spun on me, flipped my perception of it inside out, and I had to change in order to survive the shift. That didn’t mean I was happy with that fact.

  Fianna accepted the mirror and swirled her hand around it. The silver-edged Calling mirror slipped from her hand but didn’t fall to the ground. Instead it hovered in mid air, shimmering and bending as it flexed its borders. The mirror stretched until it was about two feet wide and nearly six feet tall, large enough for a person to see her entire outfit. Or, in this case, it was large enough for Ashling to be completely visible.

  “Ash!” I shouted, starting forward in excitement. She had perfect timing. I’d broken through the mirror once, which had allowed Ashling to heal me. Maybe she could do it again for Luke.

  “No, Quinn, it isn’t her anymore.” Bres said, the urgency and fear that laced his voice stopping me. “Look at her, really look at her.”

  The same strawberry blond curls, the same petite figure, the same eyes . . . no, that was the difference. Her eyes, once the colour of new spring grass had darkened to the green of mold and damp things. Things shuffled and shimmered in those now darkened irises. Her head remained half cocked to the right, as if she was listening to music only she could hear. She stepped forward, her joints jerking and popping as if she were a marionette. I couldn’t stop myself from stepping back. I knew that mirror could be passed through, I’d done it myself.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” I said.

  Ashling sneered at me. “You should listen to Balor’s weakest link. He is actually helping you stay alive, more than he could do for your little sister.” Her voice was heavy and thick, as though she were speaking underwater and I was only hearing the echo of it. She snickered. “For now. Soon this world will be mine as it should have been from the start. Chaos will reign.”

  Ashling’s voice and words wreaked havoc on my heart. Lir had been right. He’d told me before he’d left that seeking out Ashling would end the only chance we had at stopping Chaos. Seeing her now, I knew in my heart that he was speaking the truth; Ashling was gone forever.

  Fianna stepped up to the mirror. “Why have you called us Chaos?”

  Ashling, Chaos now, began to pace in front of the mirror with that odd jerking movement. “I want you to do something for me, Banshee Queen.” Her eyes flickered over to mine, those dark shadows behind them made my skin crawl.

  “What is that you would ask of us, but more important, what would you give us in return?” Fianna said, clasping her hands in front of her body.

  Chaos flung one hand towards me and I flinched. “That one is prophesied to end my life. I doubt she has it in her to complete the task.” She laughed, her mouth opening so wide the skin at the edge of her lips stretched to the point of splitting.

  My spine stiffened and I squared my shoulders. No point in denying that, at least, a portion of what she said was true. As soon as we got Luke healed, I refused to believe there was any other option. I was going after Chaos.

  Fianna turned and lifted an eyebrow at me. “Yes, I can see that she has already decided to end your life.”

  The air around us shifted, becoming far cooler than any summer air should be. Bres stepped up beside me and bent to my ear. “This is about to get bad.”

  Chaos snapped her fingers and the entire screen filled with half her face, that strange shifting eye mesmerizing me. “You, Banshee Queen, will receive everything you always wanted if you do one small thing for me. You will rule this Dark Isle with no interference. I will leave you and your people in peace.”

  The only sound was Fianna’s skirts, swishing as she walked towards the mirror. “For what task will I receive these honours?”

  Chaos smiled, a half smile on the mirror, and a parody of Ashling’s beauty rippling her skin. “You will kill that one.” She dipped her head
towards me. No surprise there. But what shocked me was that Fianna didn’t say she wouldn’t. My gut tightened and my muscles tensed. Chaos went on. “A little task, easy for you and your Banshees. Already one of her protectors is dying and the other, well, he could prove a fun aside for your . . . ladies.”

  Bowing her head, chin to her chest, Fianna seemed to be thinking over the request.

  “You can’t!” I burst out, unable to contain the words. “You can’t possibly trust this creature!” Even as the words escaped my mouth, I cringed. Creature. Was that all Ashling was to me now?

  “SILENCE!” Fianna roared. Then, “Restrain her.”

  Ah, shit.

  The Banshees swarmed around us, before I could do more than draw my dagger, never mind cast a Barrier. Bres pushed me ahead of him and we started to run, barely making it out of the bower before Banshees surrounded us, far too many to fight and survive.

  “Hold!” Fianna commanded and we all froze, outside the bower, away from the mirror. I could still see the single eye, a small speck in the corner of what had once been Ashling’s brilliant green orbs was all that was left. It was already hard to think of her as Ashling. This was what the prophecy was about: I wouldn’t truly be killing Ashling, I’d be killing Chaos, that is, if we were able to get out of this current bind.

  Bres bumped up against me. “Call to Ashling.”

  I tipped my head up to look at him. “What?”

  “Call her, see if you can get her to respond. There’s a small chance she’s still in there.” He made a slight motion with one hand and the Banshees around us growled.

  My heart thumped, pain coursing through it instead of blood, of that I was certain. “And if she can’t hear me?”

  Bres lowered his head, a single tear dripping from one eye. “Then I’ll help you kill her.”

  3

  My throat tightened to the point of closing off the words that wanted to spill up and out. My fingers curled around mine and Bres tried to pull me into a half hug, but I jerked away.