Battle of the Hexes

by Lidiya Foxglove

  I think we all grimaced and Professor McGuinness said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t say corpse. I had an entire year of studies just for funeral necromancy and sometimes I am too matter of fact. I tried to treat dear Stuart with the utmost respect, though. I asked Lord Cyrus about faery practices.”

  Lord Cyrus stepped into the cave just then. “Orson and Penny wanted to pay their respects.”

  Orson leaned gently on Penny’s arm, but he was looking better. He was cleaned up and shaved, wearing clothes that were simple but fine, a coat and leather boots. The little redheaded silkie was already dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, in a restrained, faery sort of grief.

  Orson gave us a very slight bow, although the movement obviously hurt. “I wanted to thank you all for helping me escape,” he said. “And I assure you, I’ll take care of your witch friend Daisy. Aye, she’s a handful. I do half wonder what I’ve gotten myself into, but—gruagach are patient. I tried to bring her with me, but Queen Morgana is assessing the ladies now. I don’t envy them the scrutiny of her gaze.”

  “But Daisy will be all right? You’ll take her home with you? Will she be able to visit?”

  “Don’t you worry, dearie, we’ve still got to sort it all out but I won’t let any harm come to her. It’s just that we haven’t had humans in Wyrd since before any of us can remember.”

  “Poor Stuart,” Penny said. “He was a kind man. Let me see him…”

  Professor McGuinness nodded and showed us into the little room where Stuart lay, covered in white flowers that must have been conjured because it was too early for flowers. He looked very peaceful. It was somehow easier than I expected to see him, maybe because he seemed peaceful in life. Stuart always seemed to accept any turn of events calmly. Even his own death, I guess.

  Harris, Montague, Alec and Firian offered to be the pall bearers. Some of the faeries accompanied us. The night was cold up on the mountain but a suggestion of spring was creeping into the air, a kiss of humidity, clouds sliding over the moon. The procession was eerie; the people I knew hardly looked like themselves in the moonlight. Firian looked more elven than ever, and seemed older. Ignatius and Ina held hands, cloaks fluttering behind them. The faery guards began to sing softly in a beautiful language. Penny bowed her head, the color of her hair more vivid than it should be in the dark. Montague, his hair and suit black as night, held his corner with just one hand, as if it weighed nothing.

  Once again, I was stuck wearing a goofy t-shirt while everyone else looked awesome. I quickly waved a hand over myself and made the illusion of my witch cape.

  Ignatius spoke. “We are gathered here, under the moonlight, to lay to rest our old friend, Stuart Jablonsky, otherwise known as Lord Liorgan, thirteenth son of the House of Elderflower. It is a fitting house for him. As every hedge witch worth her salt knows, elderflowers turn to elderberries, and elderberries make a tonic for healing sickness. Stuart was a rebel as much as I was, but rebellion can easily turn toxic. He was a voice of reason and patience. If it wasn’t for his wise council, I don’t think I would have become a professor and then the dean of Merlin College, proving myself and biding my time…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t need to say much more. I didn’t prepare anything. I’m still drunk.”

  Ina stared at Stuart’s body. I had no idea what she was thinking. Finally, she said, “You are still the same as ever, Ignatius. I think Stuart must be a part of that. Stuart was as much a force against change as for it. Like rivers and rocks. They are always the same. When you are with him, you feel safe. I do remember that about him.” The way she said it made me think that, like my mom, her memories of a better life were dim.

  “I stayed with Stuart for two months,” Harris said. “He gave me a place to go when my home was turning to shit. I wasn’t welcome there, but I was welcome here. ”

  “He was a good master as well,” Penny said. “We were all part of the family.”

  “But he was a little too good at pretending to be a dorky warlock from Kansas, and his dancing was terrible, I don’t care what anyone says,” Montague said, getting Ignatius to laugh again.

  I waited until everyone seemed to have said their final words and goodbyes before I spoke.

  “I still can’t believe Professor Jablonsky and Lord Stuart are the same person,” I said. “But it also makes some weird sense. To me, he was a teacher, and a good one. He really tried to help me understand the lessons. I hope I’ve done them justice… I need to speak to him, one last time. If you could give me a minute alone…”

  “Of course,” Ignatius said.

  My friends retreated into the trees, just close enough to keep watch over me.

  I put my hand over Stuart’s cool, lifeless ones, which were clasped over the flowers. “Stuart,” I said. “I know you always told me not to be attached to the dead. I know I need to let you go. But I need you, just this one more time, to help me. I call your spirit to me…”

  The fabric of reality seemed to shift slightly, the forest around me growing darker. I no longer heard the soft murmur of Alec and Montague having some background conversation. Tiny lights winked out of the trees like fireflies—or lures into some other world. Stuart opened his eyes and looked at me from lowered lids.

  “Oh, Charlotte,” he said, with a smidge of frustration.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I needed to call you. I need you to summon the ghosts—“

  “I know,” he said. “I know your plan.”

  “Will it work?”

  “It’ll work.” He sat up, the flowers falling away from his hair and arms. “It’ll work, because you’ve done the work. But it’s not the only reason you called me, is it?”

  “Well…I mean, I…” I frowned, knowing the answer he wanted. “Look, we weren’t even with you when you were killed. Ignatius didn’t get to say goodbye to you or anything. You died just like that. And it feels like my fault.”

  “It was not your fault,” he said. “I chose my own path. I’m old. You’re young. Better the younger generation live on. You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from them, and get better and better, and wiser. Hopefully, you’ll have a nice long stretch of peace to enjoy your circumstances.” He pressed his fingertips together. “Well…I can’t linger long. I do need to tell you something. I’m afraid you’ll take it too much to heart, but it needs to be said.”

  “Uh-oh.” I started to feel a sense of dread.

  “Charlotte, what is the lesson I taught you? The one lesson, above all?”

  “Um…there is no way but forward?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know I just got that from a yoga video…”

  “What else?”

  I twisted my hands. “When someone dies…I have to let them go.”

  “That’s right,” he said softly. “It’s the hardest lesson you will ever learn. But it’s the path to becoming a Wyrd witch. A great sans-pareil. A white necromancer. All the potential within you.”

  “And I…I didn’t listen. I brought Harris back. So did I ruin everything, when I did that?”

  “No, no,” he said. “But you can’t do it again, Charlotte.”

  “I know.” I couldn’t look at him. “I know it was…against what you told me. I just couldn’t let him die like that…”

  “Grieving hurts,” he said. “But you can’t magic your way out of it. You would have moved on without Harris. You were supposed to let him go. Death is very serious and should never be tampered with.”

  I started to cry. I was so embarrassed; I tried to stop. But I had tried so hard not to think about seeing Harris die. As soon as it happened all I could think was that I had to fix it. It couldn’t be true. Couldn’t be real. Everything I’d learned went out the window. Who could resist saving someone they loved?

  “I know,” Stuart said. “There isn’t a person in this world who doesn’t understand how hard a decision that is. I’m glad Harris is still with you, but…part of the reason I’m here is because Harris lived. Nothing comes with
out a price. You haven’t really paid a fair price, so I’ve paid it for you. You will miss me, and you’ll see Ignatius missing me, and it will hurt, and I need you to feel it and let me go.”

  “Oh god, it is my fault! You died because I had to pay a price?”

  “It was my choice,” he said. “I wanted to save all of you. Just do your elders justice. I know you’re more than capable of it.”

  I was shaking now. This isn’t fair! I thought. This is too hard. Why do I have to go through all of this? You’re a faery, you said yourself you don’t feel emotions like we do, so you don’t even understand how hard this is!

  Chosen One. I heard Harris, in my mind, the snap of those words—an insult on the surface, but admiration deep down.

  Being chosen was never going to be easy. It was something I had to choose, too, and I had chosen this. I had more than one chance to go back to my old life, and I never did. I couldn’t. This meant something to me. This mattered. And if I was going to live a life that mattered, if I was going to choose this, I had to be stronger than a normal person.

  I took a shuddering breath. I could cry later, when I was safe. When Merlin College was ours.

  “Good job,” he said. “I’ll do what you need me to do now. It will probably take me a full day to bring the spirits here. Hold off the battle until you feel the change in the air. Get some sleep.”

  “Stuart—! Penny said there was someone you loved. Do I need to tell someone…?”

  “I would rather you didn’t,” he said. “She’ll certainly hear the news. But she fell in love with someone else. A human. A human who was a lot cooler than me. With a guitar.”

  “Oh! Ohh.” Stuart loved my mother.

  “Goodbye, Charlotte,” he said. “I won’t see you again. But we are all connected, always.”

  “Goodbye, Stuart—oh—oh…wait…”

  But I had no reason to make him stay anymore. I guess he knew that. He just smiled and settled back down into the peace of death, his spirit fading away like a dream I’d woken from. I whirled away, back to the living.

  Firian folded me into his arms, Montague piling on behind me. I shut my eyes and mastered my emotions.

  “It worked,” I said. “The spirits from the Haven will be here. Give him twenty-four hours, he said.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “They’re aware we are here,” Lord Cyrus said. “A twenty-four hour delay could benefit them as well, because they are awaiting their own reinforcements.”

  “This is easy. Sabotage the mountain roads,” Ina said. “A few landslides could destroy any chance of help getting in within moments.”

  “That’s true,” Ignatius said. “No one gets in, no one gets out. Some witches and warlocks can travel through Etherium, but that can be difficult to do. The magical planes aren’t so straightforward. It’ll give us an edge. No spirit needs a road.”

  Trapped? Great. I didn’t love being trapped. But no one had any better plans, so it was settled. Ignatius volunteered to lead a road-destroying mission, Cyrus assigned him some backup, and the rest of us were ordered to get some sleep.

  I have to admit, when I saw our beds, I realized how exhausted I was. I went to the mattress and flopped on it. The bed linens smelled like sunshine and the feather-stuffed pillow was soft and inviting.

  I could feel the presence of four men standing over me, staring at me.

  “I have a meeting with Wyrd,” Firian said.

  “Oh, so you’re leaving?” Montague said.

  “Not yet.” Firian pulled my shoes off my feet. Then my socks. Then he rolled me over onto my back and leaned over me. “You must be tired.”

  “Yeah…”

  “But it might be our last night alive.” He crawled into bed beside me and gave me a kiss.

  “You don’t have to convince me,” I murmured. “I’m the one who wanted to get frisky before the funeral. I’m just tired, but somehow I have a feeling I’m about to get a lot more tired before I sleep.”

  “It’s the first time we’ve all been together,” Montague said, giving my shoulder a few gentle nips.

  Alec, Firian and Montague were all surrounding me in the bed by now, barely taking turns to kiss and caress me. I could quickly lose track of who was touching me where, except they all had a different feel to them. Montague’s skin was cold while Alec burned hot. Firian’s touch always had a lightness to it and it always felt right, like he knew what I was thinking. Alec was more dominating. My familiar and my incubus both had different ways of knowing what I liked. Montague was more of a predator; I’m sure he tried to consider what I wanted, but in the heat of the moment he just wanted to sink his teeth in me.

  Harris hovered back, his arms crossed. Firian slid a hand up my shirt, exposing my bra to view.

  “She’s not on birth control yet,” Harris said warningly.

  “We’ll be careful,” Montague said.

  “You don’t have to worry about it.”

  “That is the one perk of being a vampire, yes, although I’d trade in an instant for having a child,” Montague said. “Still, that isn’t what this is about. Are you feeling shy now?”

  A blush crept into Harris’ cheeks as he said. “No!”

  “Harris has never been that great at sharing his things,” Alec said.

  “Oh, please,” Harris said. “That’s a rich person cliche. I can share. I’ve already shared with Monty. And Firian…not that I invited him.”

  “Harris, that isn’t nice,” I said.

  “Fuck being nice,” he shot back. “Anyway, don’t worry about me, all I said was not to get her pregnant.”

  “Actually…I don’t care,” I said. “If we make it out of this alive, I don’t mind if I was pregnant. We’d be ready, wouldn’t we? We’d have graduated, sort of. It should be easy for five people to raise a baby.”

  “Music to my ears,” Alec said. He took off his clothes and stood before me like a god with a gym membership. “That means I can finally have you the way I need you.”

  I reached for his cock to tease him with my mouth, but Firian stopped me and pressed me back down into the bed. “Charlotte, we have to talk about your physical favoritism of Alec. No wonder Harris is over there moping.”

  “I’m not moping.”

  “Firian,” Alec said. “I’m happy to share.”

  Alec took my hands in his and kissed them both before he wrapped them around his thick neck and freely, almost casually, open my legs and split me down the middle with the length of him. I wanted to say I wasn’t quite ready, but sometimes I wanted what I wasn’t quite ready for. He was still in pain when he slid inside me, and I felt his cock twitch as he broke into a sweat. He pushed my body against Firian and we both ended up falling into a spoon position.

  “Slow down,” Firian said. “She’s not quite relaxed enough. You’re still aching, aren’t you?” He ran his fingers over the yellowing bruises on my arms. “Our poor witch has been through a lot.”

  Alec stopped moving and just let me adjust to his size. His breath was still quickened and I hoped he wasn’t in too much pain either.

  Tears stung my eyes as I clung to Alec and felt Firian’s hands wrap around my arms. He nudged my chin toward him, kissing me, and slowly reached into the small warm space between me and Alec to part my petals with his fingers, teasing pleasure out of me very slowly, so my body seemed to melt around Alec. Montague sat on the bed behind Firian so he could reach in and tease at my nipples, rubbing and caressing my breasts.

  My level of sensory stimulation quickly heightened as the four us relaxed together, and I let my entire body go, becoming a part of them. They touched me, teased me, kissed me, their groans and sighs tickling my ears. I got so wet between the legs that when Alec started to flex in and out of me again, there was an audible sound of slick friction.

  “Oh, shit, you’d better get on with it,” Montague said.

  Firian took me in back now; I was ready to feel the overwhelming fullness of both of them together.
They lifted me up so I was still close between them but held up by them, losing the grounding of the mattress, Alec lifting up one of my legs so they could both go deeper.

  I screamed, loving every moment of it. I really needed this.

  As Montague kissed my neck and Firian nibbled on my ear, hands still brushing all my erogenous zones, or maybe ever inch of my skin was an erogenous zone at this point, I looked out and saw Harris still just sitting on the sidelines.

  “Harris,” I breathed. “You don’t…want?”

  “I want,” he said. “I want very much.”

  “So…come here…” I held out a hand.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Harris

  I don’t know why it bothered me.

  I mean, sure, on one hand, I wasn’t exactly raised to assume I’d be sharing my future wife with my best friends. But it wasn’t bad, not in theory. I liked knowing that if I died, my girl wouldn’t be left alone to fend for herself in the world. I liked knowing that I didn’t have to be everything for her, because talking things out? Emotional support? That was never going to be easy for me. My family didn’t talk and I didn’t want to start.

  This arrangement made a lot of sense, assuming you had a girl who could handle the four of us.

  Charlotte clearly could. I was starting to think Charlotte could handle anything. Killing demons, summoning spirits, torture, group sex…all in a day’s work.

  Why did I hold back?

  Fuck, I kept thinking about Stuart. That wasn’t a good thought. Unlike the others, I’d actually lived here for two whole months. I saw Stuart reading big stacks of books on necromancy so he could get a better idea on how to help Charlotte, and making trips to Wyrd to try and butter up the faery queen. He didn’t say much about what he was doing, but the clues were there anyway. He was welcoming without being nosy, and if I asked him a question he immediately stopped his work and gave me his attention.