Black City (A BLACK WINGS NOVEL)

by Christina Henry

  “How do you know I have enemies?” Puck said.

  “You’re related to Lucifer. You have enemies.”

  “The question is not if I will leave him like this, but will you?”

  “Why is this on me? It’s your spell. It’s your deal.”

  “Ah, but now that you have interfered in the magic, it’s your deal, as you say. I no longer have the power to release it.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

  Puck’s eyes twinkled. “I suspect that you need to do whatever you did in the first place, and just keep doing it until the spell is unleashed fully.”

  10

  SOMETHING FLASHED IN MY BRAIN—NATHANIEL RISING above me, naked and straining. I could feel my face turning red.

  “There has to be another option,” I said.

  Nathaniel looked at me. “Would it be so terrible?”

  “This is not a conversation I want to have with your father looking on,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “He is in danger as long as the spell is incomplete,” Puck said, and he looked like he was enjoying this immensely.

  “You are an incredibly powerful being of old,” I said. “I find it just a bit absurd that you can’t wave your hand and fix this.”

  “Even I have no control over the rules of magic,” Puck said. “You put the key in the lock. You must be the one to turn it.”

  “Madeline,” Nathaniel said, and he approached me with his hands out.

  He reached for me, pulled me close, put his face to my ear. I was sure Puck could hear anything we said, but it was nice that Nathaniel was willing to establish the fiction that we were alone.

  As soon as he touched me I felt the thrumming anticipation that had haunted me ever since we’d first kissed. It may have been the compulsion of the spell demanding that I finish what I started, but it felt like a sickness, like a disease. I didn’t love Nathaniel like I’d loved Gabriel, but I wanted him more, and I hated that. I hated that I burned for him and there was no love between us.

  “Madeline,” Nathaniel said, his voice low in my ear. “If you do this for me, it will not mean that you have to choose.”

  “Nothing could make me choose before I was ready,” I said.

  “And it does not mean that we must…culminate our relationship,” he said. “We need only to blend our powers together as we did before.”

  I shook my head at him. “You know and I know that we wouldn’t be able to stop. And once we’re done, who knows what will happen? What about my baby?”

  “Your baby would not be harmed,” Puck said loudly.

  I looked around Nathaniel’s shoulder. “Excuse me, this is a conversation between Nathaniel and I. You could at least pretend that you can’t hear.”

  Puck held up his hands in surrender and went into the living room. He sat on the couch and flipped through a celebrity gossip magazine that Beezle had picked up somewhere.

  “I do not trust Puck, but I don’t believe that he would allow your child to come to harm,” Nathaniel said.

  “Because my baby is a bargaining chip with Lucifer,” I said bitterly.

  “Whatever the reason, your baby will be safe,” Nathaniel said. He lifted my chin so I would look him in the eye. “I would not harm you, either.”

  If I didn’t do this, then he could come to harm. Everything in me was straining toward him. It was probably inevitable, but…

  “I can’t do this now,” I said. “Not with an audience. Not with J.B.’s life in the balance.”

  Nathaniel nodded, and he bent his head to mine. The kiss had a gentleness that I didn’t know he possessed.

  “When we bring J.B. safely home, then,” he said. “We cannot wait much longer. And I would be a better ally to you against the vampires if my power was complete.”

  I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but it was difficult not to feel like I was being boxed in. If I slept with Nathaniel, I didn’t want it to be for this reason. I wanted to choose, and like so many other things in my life I wasn’t allowed.

  I moved away from Nathaniel. Puck gave the appearance of someone very absorbed by the latest celebrity breakup.

  “Can you let everyone else in the house?” I said. “I want to get this show on the road.”

  “As you wish, my niece,” Puck said.

  He waved his hand, and the back door opened. I heard it slam against the kitchen wall. Beezle flew in, followed by Chloe.

  Beezle looked furious. “What in the name of the Morningstar is going on here?”

  “Where are Jude and Samiel?” I asked.

  “They’re trying to break one of the windows from outside,” Beezle said. “I told them not to bother, but they were getting a little crazed when they couldn’t open the door.”

  “Will you go and get them, please?” I asked.

  “Why? They’re probably hanging outside your bedroom window with a rock as we speak. And now that the spell is broken—”

  As if on cue I heard the sound of glass shattering, and Jude’s triumphant cry.

  “You’re going to fix that window,” I said to Puck. “I am not sleeping in a room with duct tape over the window frame in the middle of January.”

  “Of course,” Puck said.

  “You’re awfully compliant all of a sudden,” I said.

  From the bedroom came the further sounds of glass falling to the floor, and the thump of Jude’s boots. Samiel grunted, and I imagine he was having a hard time squeezing his wings through the frame.

  “You are going to have plenty to deal with when we arrive in Titania’s kingdom,” Puck said. “Our other issues can wait. If you survive.”

  “I am not going to be defeated by Titania, so don’t worry. We’ll have plenty of time to take up our issues later,” I said.

  Jude and Samiel came panting into the room. Both of them looked like they were loaded for bear.

  “The crisis is over,” Beezle announced.

  His eyes darted between Nathaniel, Puck and me, and I could see him working things out. I gave him a look that warned him not to say anything.

  Jude appeared slightly deflated by the news that he didn’t need to hit anything. “Are you all right?”

  “That’s a complicated question,” I muttered. “Yes, I’m unharmed.”

  What happened? Samiel signed.

  “Puck wanted a private word,” I said.

  “Did he have to stop all of us from entering the apartment?” Jude growled. “We thought he was killing you in here.”

  “My apologies, Judas,” Puck said.

  Jude stiffened at the sound of his old name. He seemed to focus completely on Puck for the first time, his nostrils flared.

  “I know you,” he said, and sniffed the air. “I know you of old.”

  “Perhaps you do,” Puck said.

  Great. Now Puck had some kind of connection to Jude, too. It was starting to feel less like chance that we had all come together. Some fate was pulling all of us—me, Nathaniel, Samiel, Jude, maybe even Beezle and Chloe—to these ancient ones, to Lucifer and Puck and the animosity that was older than the earth.

  “Can we talk about this later?” I said to Jude. “I want to get J.B. and get home so that I can take down Therion.”

  “If you will follow me,” Puck said, and made a portal in the air. “You must all hold tight to one another. We are going through the old ways, and if any of you lets go, you could be lost forever.”

  Puck reached for my hand, and Nathaniel took the other. Jude reluctantly grabbed Nathaniel’s hand, and Samiel’s. Chloe made up the end of the chain.

  “You guys look like one of those preschool walking buses,” Beezle said. “All you need are the little waist leashes.”

  He flew toward me and stopped in midair. “Whoa. Where did you get the Catwoman pants?”

  “You just noticed?” I said, my ears burning.

  “Well, yeah, because there’s no pocket for me to nap in,” Beezle said, settling on my shoulder and diggin
g in his claws.

  “How about you try to stay awake during the rescue mission, just this once?” I said.

  “Children,” Puck said, and he entered the portal, pulling me with him.

  This portal wasn’t like the usual ones. Normally when I entered a portal I felt like I was being mashed in a blender. This was a pathway through the universe, a place that no human would ever see. Beneath our feet all the worlds looked like a necklace of jewels. We were draped in a veil of silence, and the stars spun around us.

  Chloe and Jude both gasped. Chloe was the closest thing to a human that we had on our team. Even her work as an Agent had not prepared her for this.

  “This is what’s behind the Door,” she whispered.

  I felt a moment of panic. She now knew one of the secrets that the Agency tried to keep from the Agents. Would that put her on Sokolov’s hit list, too?

  Then I realized that just associating with me was enough to put her life in danger. It didn’t really make me feel better.

  “Hold tight,” Puck said, and we were descending.

  A few moments later we stood in a lush garden, surrounded by flowers so rare and beautiful that they could not have existed in my world. The air was scented and heavy and shimmering with gold dust.

  “We just got dropped into a scene from Legend,” Beezle said. “Where are the unicorns?”

  Everyone had released hands except for Puck, who still determinedly clung to mine. I felt a current of magic strung between the two of us.

  “What are you doing?” I said, tugging my hand.

  “Giving you a boost. You will need it to find J.B.,” Puck said. “You are blood of my blood, and that makes a connection between us. My power can help strengthen yours.”

  “Don’t try any funny business,” Jude growled.

  “I would not think of it,” Puck said, his eyes dancing.

  “You’re stronger than Titania is,” I said softly. “Why do you stay here, pretending to be her subordinate?”

  Puck let go of my hand and touched the tip of my nose with his finger. “Just because you are blood of my blood does not mean you get to know everything.”

  “What does he mean by ‘blood of my blood’?” Jude said, looking from me to Puck.

  “Later,” I promised. “Take us to J.B.”

  “I cannot do that,” Puck said.

  “Why not?” I said. “What are we here for, then?”

  “If you want him, you must find him,” Puck said.

  He was the mercurial Puck again, the court jester. I felt unsure of my ground with this Puck. His changeability made me feel that his loyalty was for sale. Perhaps it was, when he was here.

  “I’m not here to play games,” I said.

  “Faeries love games,” Puck said. “And so, a quest.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “What kind of quest?”

  “Your prince is somewhere in the kingdom. To gain treasure, you must have the courage to seek it,” Puck said.

  “Is he in the castle?” Beezle asked. “Because I am going to be pissed if we go running all over the place and he was inside the whole time.”

  “He is not in the castle, although you are wise to ask,” Puck said. “It is the sort of thing a faerie might do. No, he is outdoors. If you can overcome the obstacles in your path, you may return home with him.”

  “Is he alive?” I asked. If Titania had killed him, I would take down this castle brick by brick and destroy everyone in it.

  Puck considered. “Technically.”

  I didn’t want to consider what kind of condition J.B. might be in. I didn’t want to think about how badly Titania might have hurt him in order to hurt me.

  “What did you do—beat him up and then throw him out there somewhere, broken?” I said angrily.

  “I did not do anything,” Puck said with a wounded air.

  “You’re no angel, either,” I said.

  As far as I was concerned the courts were just as complicit as their leaders. The courtiers who did nothing were more interested in keeping their own butts protected than in justice, even if some of them did object to Titania’s choices. I’m sure Nathaniel—and even Jude—would have said I was naïve to expect otherwise. But I had been a part of Azazel’s court, however briefly, and much to Azazel’s consternation I had never bent to anyone’s will except my own.

  “No, I am certainly not an angel,” Puck said, and he disappeared.

  “Well, this is a fine thing,” Chloe said. “He drops us here, tells us we have to find J.B. and gives us nothing to go on.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “And Titania is probably watching us in her crystal ball, laughing her ass off.”

  “So what do we do?” Chloe asked.

  “First, we find a way out of this garden,” I said.

  There was nothing to see except the high stone walls that surrounded the greenery, no hint of what might lay beyond.

  “Find an exit,” I said. “Spread out. Everyone look for a door.”

  “And then?” Beezle asked.

  “Start looking for J.B.,” I said. I looked at my palm, which still tingled from the magic Puck had given me. Would this “boost” make it easier for me to find J.B., or would it make it easier for Puck to track me, or use me, or otherwise do something I did not want? It had happened so quickly I didn’t have a chance to object.

  “That’s your plan?” Beezle asked.

  “Pretty much,” I said. “I’m not sure what else to do right now.”

  “All I know is that you’ve been extremely lucky to have survived this long,” Beezle said. “How long do you think your luck will last?”

  “It better last long enough to get us home in one piece,” I said, running my hand along the stone wall behind the foliage to check for an exit.

  “Here,” Jude called. He was in the far right corner of the garden, beckoning.

  I trotted toward him as the others converged on his position. Jude silently lifted some protruding tree branches out of the way to reveal an arch cut in the stone, and a forest beyond.

  “There are probably trolls in that forest,” Beezle said as we hurried out of the shadow of the castle and toward the shelter of the trees.

  “Yup,” I replied.

  “Giant spiders, witches, other things we’d rather not encounter,” Beezle said.

  “Yes,” I said, drawing my sword as we reached the tree line. “Jude, you go in front. Then Chloe, then Samiel. Nathaniel and I will watch our backs.”

  Jude nodded and took the lead. We all kept tight in line as the forest closed in around us.

  “We’re probably going to be running for hours in fear for our lives,” Beezle said.

  “No, I’ll be running. You’ll be carried. Is there a point to all of this?” I asked.

  “No, I’m just looking for something to complain about because I’m hungry,” Beezle said.

  “Well, knock it off,” I whispered, because these woods seemed like a place where you talked quietly. There was menace in the air, a feeling of unfriendliness.

  “I’m going to change,” Jude said.

  A moment later, his clothing fell to the ground and a wolf stood in his place. He trotted ahead of us, his nose pressed in the dirt.

  We followed a rough trail through the trees. All around us was lush green foliage and moss. It looked a lot like the woods in every episode of The X-Files, that Pacific-Northwest-rains-all-the-time kind of woods.

  It was very humid. The heavy moisture filled the air with the scents of bark and loam and green growing things. I could tell Jude was having a hard time getting a fix on any one scent because he was running all over the path.

  “What’s he trying to follow?” Chloe asked, pausing for a moment. She looked a little wilted. Her vivid purple hair was flattened by the heavy air and her face was pale and sweaty. She leaned on Samiel’s shoulder and closed her eyes.

  “I’m assuming he’s looking for J.B.’s scent and can’t get a fix on it. We can’t stop,” I said.

  �
��I know,” Chloe replied, her eyes still closed. “Aren’t you beat? You’re the one who’s pregnant here.”

  “I think I’m getting used to running around while exhausted,” I said. “And I slept for two days before we got here, so I’m a little perkier than usual.”

  “Well, I am definitely not accustomed to this much exertion,” she said tiredly. “I sit at a desk most of the time.”

  “Stick with her long enough and it will seem normal to be chased by monsters while tired and starving,” Beezle said.

  “We’ve got to move,” I said.

  Chloe straightened with obvious reluctance and opened her eyes. “Hey ho, let’s go.”

  I glanced down the path toward Jude. He wasn’t there.

  11

  “JUDE’S GONE,” I SAID.

  Samiel raised his fists. Chloe pulled a dagger out of the small of her back. I had no idea she carried such a thing. A ball of nightfire appeared on Nathaniel’s palm. Beezle flew off my shoulder.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “Up to see what I can see,” he said.

  Without speaking we all turned around so our backs faced inward in a tight circle. And we waited. The others were looking all around the woods, but my eyes were skyward, waiting for my gargoyle to return.

  For a few minutes nothing happened. Then I saw Beezle flying back to us as fast as his wings could carry him, his little face set in tense lines. Before Beezle could reach us, Jude burst out of the woods from our back trail, running flat out and barking. He sprinted ahead of us again, his yips and growls telling us that we needed to hurry.

  “Whatever you do, don’t fly,” Beezle shouted, as he landed on my shoulder. “And run!”

  None of us needed to be told twice. Something large was behind us. It crashed through the woods, making the ground shake. Chloe stumbled ahead of Samiel. He scooped her up easily and tossed her over his shoulder, running all the while. Samiel is exceptionally strong.

  “Put me down, you idiot!” Chloe shouted. “I can walk!”

  I’m sure Samiel could feel the vibrations of Chloe’s shout in his chest even if he couldn’t hear the words, but he chose to ignore them. He ran at a dead sprint, right at Jude’s heels.