by Amy Sumida
I tried to pull my hand away but he wouldn't release it.
“Azrael, you're hurting me,” I said calmly.
“Am I?” He instantly released my hand but looked far from contrite. “I'll have to be more careful in the future. Both of us will.”
All right, Faerie God, challenge accepted, I thought to myself. Threats weren't going to work with me. In fact, they only gave me more confidence. He wouldn't threaten me if I wasn't getting through to him.
But my confidence began to falter as our battle of wits continued and the Faerie God proved unfailingly triumphant. I began to realize that Azrael and I might actually lose—an outcome I hadn't allowed myself to contemplate. And with that realization came the question: could I truly keep my promise and stay with him if it meant abandoning all of the other people I loved. No, I couldn't do that but... I couldn't give up on Azrael either.
Our love had grown over centuries as he visited my soul in the waters of Hvergelmir—the Well of Souls in the Norse territory of Niflheim. Azrael had transported me there as a favor to Odin but his scythe wouldn't release me into the well of another pantheon and he had to remove my soul from the blade by hand. That touch had affected both of us deeply and he returned to me over and over, to speak with me while I swam in the waters, waiting to be reborn. And when Odin had found a way to put my soul in the body of an unborn child, Azrael had let go and tried to forget me. He had resigned himself to never being with me again. But fate had reunited us and we had overcome a lot to be together. I would be damned if I let him go now.
So, I kept trying and the magic kept putting on a show. I'm not sure how long we were down there. The Faerie God kept shifting the sunlight to moonlight and we'd nap together a lot, making time seem even hazier. But it couldn't have been more than a few days or perhaps a few hours. As I said, I was a little distracted. You don't realize how much you rely on clocks and sunlight until you're without them.
Finally, the Faerie God led me out of the earth and we ascended to the main floor of the castle. Once there, we heard a clamoring coming from outside the castle walls. Someone was shouting, using a speaker to magnify their voice.
Clothed in darkness again and crowned, Azrael and I went out to the battlements to see what the ruckus was about. The clearing was full of soldiers camouflaged in the colors of the fey forest. I frowned at that, wondering again how long I'd been below the castle with Azrael. The soldiers aimed their guns at our walls as if they posed an actual threat. In their center stood a collection of well-dressed men. I didn't see any vehicles in the clearing and the forest looked thicker than it had been before, which made me think that they had hiked in on foot. One of the men held a megaphone and lifted it to his mouth when he saw us.
“I am General Kassey,” he spoke normally now that he had our attention. “I have the surviving members of NATO here with me. They want to discuss a ceasefire. Are you willing to speak with them?”
Azrael took a deep, considering breath and let it out slowly.
“You wanted peace,” I reminded him. “These are the people who can give it to you.”
“No, Carus,” he said in his deep, resonant voice. “They don't hold the power anymore. It is I who can give peace to them but I'm not certain that I wish to anymore.”
“What does that mean?” I snapped. Then I replayed the General's words in my head. “Azrael? Why did he say 'surviving members?' What has happened to NATO?”
“We are stronger than they are,” he said flippantly, without answering my question. Then his eyes flared and the drawbridge lowered. The portcullis lifted as he called down to them, “Only the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may enter. If you are brave enough to do so, I will discuss the terms of a truce with you.”
There were over twenty people there who weren't dressed in camouflage and they all stepped forward to cross the drawbridge.
Azrael held his arm out to me. I took it with an annoyed glare, and he escorted me down the steps and into the courtyard. Once the members of NATO were through the gate, the portcullis lowered and they looked around themselves uneasily. Honestly, I was shocked that they had agreed to meet with him without their guards. These were people who ruled countries and they had just put their lives in Azrael's hands without a second thought. It reeked of desperation.
What the hell had been happening while we were underground?
“You will not be harmed,” Azrael assured them. “I don't attack people who offer me peace.”
I grimaced at him and whispered, “That was an unnecessary barb.”
Azrael shrugged and smirked. “I am not the diplomat here.”
One man separated himself from the group and strode up to us. “I am Jacob Lopez, President of the United States of America.”
“I am Azrael Morningstar, God of Faerie.” Az held out his hand.
“Morningstar? Isn't that... ?”
“Yes?” Azrael prompted gleefully.
“Never mind.” The President cleared his throat and shook Azrael's hand. “Thank you for meeting with us. I know we've had a rough start and I hope we can get past that.”
“I hope so as well. This is my wife, Vervain, Goddess of Faerie.”
I held out a hand. “It's an honor to meet you, Mr. President.”
“The honor is mine, I'm sure,” President Lopez said automatically.
The other men and women came forward then and introduced themselves. Leaders of Italy, France, Canada, Iceland, Germany, it went on and on. They all greeted Azrael respectfully and warily, their eyes widening when he spoke their languages to them.
“Please, come inside.” Azrael waved them toward the castle.
As Azrael led the large group through the castle corridors, I glanced back to see their shocked expressions as they surveyed the odd décor. Several world leaders were walking behind me. NATO was there. In a faerie castle that had sprouted from the ground like corn. Because my husband had asked it to. Yep, this was happening.
“Right through here.” Azrael opened a door and took us into a room.
Our feet thudded across stone. I looked down, then around in surprise. The furniture, although exquisite, appeared human—a large meeting table with many chairs, a standard sideboard topped with a Chinese vase, bookshelves stocked with books, and a painting on the wall. It looked like a Monet. I frowned at the painting and then at my husband.
“I thought our guests would be more comfortable in this environment,” he said to me.
“What other environment is there?” the President of China asked sharply.
“One more natural,” Azrael said and waved at the chairs. “Please, sit down.”
Az took the head of the table and I sat on his right. The humans cautiously sat in the remaining seats, their eyes pinging around the room as if monsters might appear at any second. I suppose that was a reasonable fear.
“Refreshments?” Azrael waved his hand toward the center of the table.
Several trays appeared down the long table. They held glass decanters full of crimson liquid and wine glasses. Azrael poured me a glass, then lifted a winged brow at the people who had yet to reply.
“They may not have understood you,” I reminded him.
“They understood,” Azrael said to me as he watched them. “I've set a translation spell on them so that we can communicate without any confusion.”
“You're not supposed to eat or drink anything in Fairyland,” the British Prime Minister blurted.
Azrael nodded. “My wife believed the same thing when she first went to Faerie. I assure you, the wine is safe to drink.”
“As long as it isn't made out of apples,” I muttered.
“Faerie?” the Prime Minister of Norway asked in English—or perhaps that's just what I was hearing. “It's a... place?”
“It's another realm,” I explained. “The Faerie Realm is connected to this one and has been for thousands of years. Well, hundreds of years Earth-time, thousands of years Faerie-time.”
�
��Faerie-time?” another world leader asked.
“It used to be different from ours—faster. But now, it's caught up. You know what? Never mind that.” I waved my hand. “Faeries mingled with humans once and then... well, humans turned on them. The Fey closed the paths that connected the realms rather than go to war with the humans, and the paths stayed closed for many years.”
“Until now?” the President of Romania asked.
“They've been open for a few years now.” I glanced at Azrael, wondering how much of this I should tell them or how much he'd let me tell them. Az nodded so I went on. “The Faerie Realm has been growing. Its magic seeped into this realm and we've been trying to stop it. That's why all of those magical places popped up all over the world and then suddenly disappeared. It was us—our attempts to wrangle the magic back to Faerie. We got it down to five locations but the tool I was using to absorb the magic—”
“I'm sorry.” The President of China held up a hand to stop me. “Magic?”
“Are you really questioning the existence of magic after all you've seen?” I asked him.
“There are many ways to trick the mind. Stage magicians have been performing such illusions for years.”
“Are there any magicians who can raise a castle from the ground in seconds?” I shot back. “Or any who are bulletproof? Or there's this.” I turned away from the table and blew a stream of fire over my shoulder.
The humans flinched and drew back.
I held up a calming hand. “I didn't mean to frighten you, just make a point.”
“What are you?” the American President asked. “I'm sorry; that sounded rude. But you keep saying 'the Fey' as if you aren't one of them and, frankly, I've never heard of a fire-breathing faerie.”
“No, it's fine. I think that's a perfectly reasonable question.” I waved off his apology and Azrael's irritation. “I am Fey. There are many fey races. I'm a Dragon-Sidhe—thus, the fire-breathing.”
“A dragon,” the President of China whispered, his scoffing tone turning into reverence.
“That's right.” I grinned at him. “From what I've heard, your ancestors treated mine fairly well in China.”
“Dragons are real.” He gaped at me.
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Dragons are real and some of them are faeries. But I'm also human.”
“You're human?” the President of Slovenia asked dubiously.
“She is,” Azrael growled, his eyes starting to glow.
“Azrael,” I whispered as I laid a hand on his thigh. “It's okay; I'm not offended.”
Azrael continued to glower but the glow faded from his eyes.
“All right, let's not get distracted from our purpose here,” President Lopez said as he held up his hands. “You two are faeries and also humans. That's good. It's great actually. That means you can sympathize with us.”
“She is also human,” Azrael corrected. “I am not. I am—”
“Az!” I cut him off. “Perhaps one thing at a time?”
Azrael took my hand from his thigh and lifted it for a kiss. “As you wish, Carus.”
I cleared my throat and looked back at the world leaders. “I know this must be a lot for you to accept, but if you can get past the fact that we have magic and you don't, you'll see that we're not so different from you. We are people like any others, we just happen to have evolved in other ways.”
“People like any others?” the Chancellor of Germany growled. “You have nearly destroyed our planet!”
“I have saved your planet,” Azrael calmly corrected. “You are the ones who have nearly destroyed it.”
“Hold on, what do you mean, 'nearly destroyed?'” I asked the Chancellor.
The man frowned at me. “As if you don't know.”
“Azrael?” I looked at my husband.
“The magic has grown.” Azrael shrugged. “I couldn't stop it.”
“What do you mean, grown?”
“It's expanded.”
“Over Texas?”
Azrael sighed and then admitted, “Over the world.”
“The entire world?” I asked in horror.
“It reappeared in the areas it was in before and several more. The entire world isn't covered but most of it is.”
“What happened to your promise?”
“They attacked us. The magic responded aggressively.”
“You're saying that you couldn't reel it back?”
“This is not the time for this argument, Vervain,” Azrael said firmly—a warning in his tone.
The members of NATO watched us intently.
“This happened while we were under the castle but you knew, didn't you?” I whispered. “You knew but you didn't tell me.”
Azrael looked away guiltily.
“What has it done?” I demanded furiously. “How much has the magic changed Earth?”
Azrael only pressed his lips together stubbornly.
“It's no longer the Earth,” President Lopez answered me. “Strange plants and creatures have overtaken it. From rural towns to the largest cities, nowhere is safe. Even the oceans teem with beasts that have made them dangerous to traverse. People are hiding in their homes, most of them out of work and desperate. Many have resorted to looting to survive. We've tried to distribute food but there simply aren't enough resources.”
“Why don't they eat the fruits and vegetables that must be growing in abundance?” Azrael asked.
I gave him my are-you-fucking-kidding-me look.
“Some are,” the American President admitted. “But most are afraid to. They're getting desperate and that means that they're attacking each other. Gangs and militant groups started sprouting up. I've had to initiate martial law.”
“Sons of Anarchy,” I whispered in horror.
“Anarchy is exactly what we're trying to prevent,” President Lopez said bleakly. “Some nations are managing it better than others. I'm afraid that America is not faring so well. Even with our soldiers in the streets, it's hard to keep our people safe. Especially since some of them have been transformed like the plants and animals.”
“Not transformed—Deformed!” the President of Slovenia hissed. “Changed by your magic into mutants.”
“Did you just say mutants?” I growled.
“My wife doesn't like such... derogatory words,” Azrael said smugly as he laid his hand on mine.
The President of Slovenia cleared his throat and looked away.
I slid my hand out from under Azrael's and put it in my lap. He shifted a narrow-eyed side-look at me. I met it with a glare. Did he really think I was going to hold his hand and make goo-goo eyes at him after he completely betrayed me?
“Let's try to keep this civil,” Lopez said to the other world leaders. To us, he added “We need to know why you're here. You said that you tried to send the magic back to Faerie. That sounds to me as if you wanted the Faerie Realm to remain separate and the Fey to remain a secret. Yet, you've announced yourselves to the world and let the magic overtake us. What is it that you want? How can we reach a compromise?”
“A compromise. Yes, that's what civilized people do.” I glared at Azrael.
“Cease, Carus,” Azrael said in a tone that brooked no disobedience. “We will discuss this later.”
Azrael's eyes flashed and a sliver of fear sliced through me. I looked away. His hand went into my lap and reclaimed mine, squeezing it in further reprimand before he refocused on our guests. I seriously considered using my ring but I worried that the Faerie God might take out his fury on the surviving world leaders.
“We are here because the magic refuses to leave,” Azrael said to the humans. “We have even attempted to close the Faerie Realm again but the magic here kept reopening the paths. That is the way of such things.” He shrugged as if it were as inconsequential as a rainstorm ruining a picnic. “I drew the magic together, consolidating it here so that I might govern it and use it to help the Earth instead of run rampant over it. But then your soldiers attacked us, President Lo
pez, and I got angry. I reacted violently, perhaps too violently.” He slid me an apologetic look that shocked me. “The magic reacted as well—both to my anger and the attack. It broke free of my control and spread.”
“Fucking Americans,” someone down the table muttered.
“He turned a man into a deer,” President Lopez snapped at the others. “The general in charge may have acted rashly but I understand why he did so, and I'm certain that all of you would have done the same.” He glared at them. “A deer!”
