Black Heart

by Christina Henry

  I approached the water, knelt beside the stream. It was clear in the way water is when it’s been untouched by man and pollution. I was sure I’d never seen water this perfect, this silver and crisp. I dipped my cupped hand in the stream and lifted it to my lips.

  Sweetness exploded on my tongue, and it tasted so delicious that I swallowed involuntarily. The cool liquid slipped down my parched throat, and it felt so good that I couldn’t help myself. I took another drink, and another, and another, until I was lapping at the stream like a dog. I wanted to take all my clothes off and crawl inside.

  My hands were at the hem of my shirt before I realized what I was doing.

  Wait. Think. This is not the way you would normally act, no matter how thirsty you are.

  The thought was like a bolt of lightning, and it seemed to help me shake off the drunken haze caused by the water. I stood up and backed away, wiping the liquid from my mouth with the back of my hand. I’d been so worried about germs I hadn’t even considered the possibility that the stream might be enchanted. Now, too late, I realized how foolish I’d been.

  Little spots of light danced before my eyes. The trees and flowers and ferns suddenly seemed dusted with gold. All around me everything shimmered in the sunlight. Deep inside my belly, my son fluttered his wings faster and faster.

  Was it too late to reverse the effects? The first sip hit my bloodstream, making me stagger. I shoved my finger in my throat, trying to make myself gag. Bile rose, but the enchantment fought back, resisting me. I coughed, choked, but I was unable to bring up the water I’d drunk.

  I felt it coursing through me, freezing the fire in my blood. The world tilted to one side, and there was suddenly moss and dirt under my cheek. I pushed up to my hands and knees, shaking. The sun disappeared behind a cloud, or maybe my vision was just darkening. It was hard to tell.

  Sweat broke out on my forehead. My baby beat his little wings, a frantic hummingbird inside me. I sat back on my haunches, wiped the sweat out of my eyes. I tried deep breathing but the extra oxygen only seemed to make the effects of the enchantment worse. I squinted into the trees. Shadows moved there, just out of the reach of the light.

  The surface of the stream shifted, and figures rose from the water. They were humanoid in shape, but carved from liquid instead of flesh and bone. I struggled to my feet as their arms reached for me. One watery hand enclosed my wrist. I tried to shake it off, but it clamped around me with surprising force.

  “Get off,” I slurred, and swatted at the thing’s hand.

  The water creature seemed to smile at me. At least, the topographical shape of its face changed. It was difficult to distinguish actual features. It was difficult to think.

  The other creatures moved toward me. I had a sudden vision of being overwhelmed by these things and drawn down into the water.

  “No,” I said.

  I put my free hand over the creature’s, the one that was holding me tight, and blasted it with nightfire. The fire was swallowed immediately by the water.

  Of course it was. I wasn’t thinking clearly. In a battle between fire and water, fire loses. I suspected that the other tools in my arsenal—electricity, big giant sunbursts—wouldn’t do me much good against a being made of water. So I fell back on my old standby—my sword.

  I reached for it as the creature drew me closer. Its other arm went around my waist, wrapping me in its embrace. My fingers scrabbled at my back, feeling for a sword that wasn’t there.

  I looked around wildly. The metal gleamed dully in the dirt where I had dropped it on the side of the stream. The creature pulled its arms tighter, like a straitjacket around my body. Its face was pressed very close to mine. I turned my head to one side and tried to draw up my magic. Nothing.

  The water I had drunk seemed to have slowly dampened my abilities, which were born of the sun. It would have been handy to have some of my uncle Alerian’s power at that moment.

  My wings beat against my back in desperation. My feet rose an inch or two off the ground. The creature’s grip on me loosened a little, as if it were surprised.

  I took advantage, wrenching my arms out and beating my wings harder. As I lifted off the ground, the creature and its fellows threw their arms around my legs, hissing. Fangs formed in their gelatinous faces.

  Hoping for a miracle, or at least a successful Jedi mind trick, I held my hand out toward Lucifer’s sword. Nothing happened. I couldn’t be so lucky.

  The weight of the water creature was pulling me down again. My legs felt like they were about to separate from my torso. I had no sword, no magic, only the force of my own will.

  I would not be killed by a bunch of water demons. I would not die alone in this unknown place. My wings flapped. I pounded on the heads of the creatures with my fists. And then suddenly I was free, soaring above the stream.

  The creatures spat and shook their fists at me. I went up just high enough to be safely out of reach. I still felt the effects of the water and didn’t think it was a good idea to go flying all over the place at the moment. It seemed too likely that I would get tired or dizzy and come tumbling out of the sky. And there was no one here to catch me.

  Plus, I wasn’t going anywhere without my sword. I flew to a nearby tree and settled into the crook of a branch, my back pressed against the rough bark. The water creatures twisted and writhed on the surface of the stream like a mass of snakes. I heard them hissing their frustration. They obviously couldn’t leave the water, so I was safe enough in the tree. For the moment.

  I’d already had enough of running from the Retrievers. As soon as I could, I was going to hop out of the tree, grab the sword and make a portal to bring me back home. It seemed ridiculous for me to run around on an alien world encountering new things that wanted to kill me instead of just dealing with the thing that wanted to kill me in my own home.

  I relaxed against the tree, ready to wait for the creatures to give up and disappear under the water again. I blinked, and it was night.

  My body felt as through it had frozen in position. My eyes were gritty. I realized I had fallen asleep in the tree. I was lucky nothing had come along to eat me while I snoozed. I shifted on the branch, my legs dangling on either side of it, and waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

  You never fully realize how dark the night is when you live in a city. In Chicago there was always light coming from somewhere—a streetlamp, a traffic signal, the headlights of passing cars. There are patches of deep night in a city, but there is always relief somewhere nearby. In a forest, away from the artificial glow, there is no such relief. The sky had more stars in it than I could have imagined.

  I was slowly able to distinguish the shapes of things in shadow. Here a tree, there a rock, there the glistening water of the stream reflecting the starlight. I flexed my fingers. The sleep had restored my magic as the enchantment had dissipated.

  My stomach rumbled and I felt a powerful urge to pee. I was pregnant, and I had biological needs that had to be met. But I didn’t want to jump down and potentially attract the water creatures’ attention. If they woke up before I managed to get the sword back, I’d have to wait them out again, and who knew how long that would take?

  I peered into the darkness, trying to catch a glimpse of the sword on the ground. I thought I saw a flash of the hilt, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t my imagination. The sword was on the far side of the stream. I’d been able to see it from my perch in the tree when the sun was up.

  But the landscape seemed to have shifted in the dark. I wasn’t sure exactly where the sword was now. There was nothing for it. I was going to have to get closer and hunt around. At least I would be able to fly above the surface. The water creatures would not have another opportunity to grab me.

  I was about to lift off the branch when I heard something large moving through the brush. Something very large. It snorted, and I realized it was only a few feet from me. I froze. I couldn’t tell what direction the sound came from.

  The nigh
t was a place of deception, a place where predators thrived. It didn’t seem like a very good idea to fly around attracting attention, especially as it wasn’t safe to assume whatever was nearby didn’t have wings. I’d been chased by plenty of monsters that flew.

  And even if it didn’t fly, it could have giant tentacles to snatch me out of the air. No, it was best just to stay still and wait. And hope that the creature passed by me in the dark without noticing my presence.

  The creature snuffled around, knocking aside branches and brush. Heavy footsteps padded in the dirt. It felt like the air was getting hotter, getting heavier. It smelled smoky, like the remains of a charcoal barbecue that had burned out. The creature scraped against the tree that I sat in, and the whole thing trembled.

  I grabbed the branch with both hands so I wouldn’t fall on top of the thing’s back. I could just make out a broad expanse topped with a ridge of triangular scales.

  A stegosaur? I thought. Nathaniel, just where in hell did you send me?

  The animal continued past the tree, and it seemed to go on forever. Whatever it was, it was a lot bigger than the skeleton of the stegosaur at the Field Museum.

  I stayed still and tried to breathe quietly. I was up pretty high, at least twenty feet off the ground, but I could have reached out and touched the tip of the creature’s scales. I didn’t want to tangle with anything this size. I didn’t want to engage in another battle if I didn’t have to.

  Truth be told, I was getting pretty damned sick of fighting. I wasn’t the kind to run, but I was starting to feel like there had to be more to life than bludgeoning things. The gigantic creature’s tail dragged in the dirt, and it was finally past me.

  Unfortunately it headed directly for the stream. I wasn’t getting my sword back as long as this thing was hanging around.

  The gigantic animal stopped moving. Had it smelled me? I tensed, ready to fly away and come back for the sword later.

  The night was lit by a burst of flame. Something squealed in pain, and the air filled with the acrid scent of burning flesh. I was deeply grateful that I hadn’t tried to fly away when I heard the creature in the forest. The burst of flame had illuminated the creature’s head, and I now knew that it would be able to catch me whether I was in the air or on land.

  It was a dragon.

  The dragon crunched noisily on its crispy prize. Bones cracked and muscle squished as it ate. Instead of making me sick, I was reminded of my own hunger, which had not yet been addressed.

  The creature seemed to take forever to eat. I hoped that it wouldn’t decide to nap there by the stream, because my bladder was starting to protest. After a very long while, the dragon finally lumbered to the stream and took a long drink.

  I heard it slurping and wondered whether the water would enchant the dragon as it had me. Apparently not, because a few moments later the dragon beat its heavy wings and soared into the starry night.

  I jumped down from the tree, using my wings to drift to the ground, and attended to my needs with great relief. Soon the baby would start pressing on my bladder all the time. I wondered how that would affect my ability to deal with the almost-daily threats to my life. I didn’t think any of my mortal enemies would stop trying to kill me just because I said, “Hang on. I’ve got to pee.”

  And mortal enemies I had aplenty. Titania, the High Queen of Faerie, ranked number one right now, but Focalor was still lurking around somewhere waiting for his chance to strike. Focalor had gone to the trouble of helping my father, Azazel, rebel against Lucifer. He’d kidnapped and tortured Gabriel once and tried to sell my bodyguard to Amarantha as a stud. And he’d tried to have me killed many times over. There was no way he was going to just forget about me, not when I was instrumental in making sure he did not get what he wanted.

  Amarantha had proved a tenacious foe despite the fact that I had already killed her once. And surely the vampires would be sending assassins my way soon in vengeance for the complete and utter destruction of their brethren at my hands—which had been caught on live television.

  Then there was the pending problem of Lucifer’s new progeny, conceived in death and currently growing inside Evangeline’s belly. Now that Alerian had risen, it seemed the millenniums-old power struggle between Lucifer, Puck, Alerian and their mysterious fourth brother was starting anew.

  You didn’t need to be a seer to know that Evangeline’s child was going to be a factor—or that Puck and Lucifer were going to do everything they could to drag Nathaniel and me into this mess.

  All of that didn’t even take the Retrievers into account, which were the reason why I was in the middle of a jungle on an alien world trying to avoid getting eaten by a dragon or drowned by malicious water sprites.

  When I ran down the list like that, it was hard not to feel depressed. And my group of friends had shrunk rapidly. No matter how magically powerful I became, it was still a lot nicer to know that I had my super team at my back. Now I didn’t have a team at all.

  Well, hanging around here won’t solve anything, I thought. I was going back. I’d take my chances with the Retrievers and the Agency. Maybe Lucifer would even show up and throw his weight around for a change. That would be nice.

  I was hardly the helpless princess in a tower, but it would be refreshing if someone else rode to the rescue once in a while.

  I realized I was standing under a tree in the dark, woolgathering. It would be a fine thing if I was attacked because I was spacing out instead of getting on with my business.

  I flapped my wings, ascending high enough to be out of the reach of the grasping water creatures. I flew over the stream, landing on the far side, looking for the glint of metal in the darkness. I didn’t see it.

  Maybe I’d miscalculated. Maybe the sword was a little farther up- or downstream. I was leery of getting too close to the water. I didn’t know whether the sprites woke up only if you drank from the stream, or whether they lay in wait for anyone who approached. It didn’t seem smart to risk it, but my memory told me the sword was pretty close to the water. If I wanted it, I’d have to get closer.

  I crept cautiously toward the flowing water, and almost immediately felt an overwhelming urge to drink it again. I slid backward in the dirt, and the impulse passed. Interesting. The stream exerted a pull on anyone who had drunk from it before, so that if by chance the sprites’ victim escaped, they would not be able to do so again. I hadn’t experienced the same compulsion when I was flying, so the enchantment was probably limited to the ground close to the stream. I lifted up again and approached the stream as before. I felt like myself, no pull to drink water that would try to kill me.

  Ha! I thought. At least I’d managed to outsmart at least one trap. A second later my elation faded. I’d seen the gleam of the sword in the darkness.

  It was in the water.

  2

  I MUST HAVE BEEN BORN UNDER THE UNLUCKIEST star there ever was. I couldn’t even drop a sword in the dirt without its retrieval turning into a minor saga. The blade flashed as the water ran over it, so tantalizingly close. But I knew as sure as I knew my own name that if I put one fingertip in there, the sprites would be upon me.

  I floated back to the shore and settled down in the dirt, just out of reach of the spell. I wrapped my arms around my knees and stared hard at the stream, willing a solution to present itself.

  Everything went blurry, and I wiped the tears out of my eyes. I figured I had a right to cry. I had been hounded out of my home. I was hungry, tired and pregnant. And I wanted my sword back.

  That sword had saved my life in the Maze, and countless times after. And if I left it here, it would be gone forever, because I was most definitely not coming back to this place again.

  There had to be a magical solution that didn’t involve putting my hand in the water. I had already tried and failed to draw the blade toward me like Thor calling Mjolnir.

  My skill as a firestarter was completely useless against water. The truth was I’d never learned to do much with my
power except smash obstacles in my way.

  Think like Lucifer would. There was both danger and wisdom in such a thought. Lucifer was a master of subtlety, a trait that I did not seem to possess. Subtle magic did seem to be required here.

  On the other hand, thinking like Lucifer even for a moment opened a door that I wasn’t sure I could close again later.

  You could just leave the sword and go home. It’s just a piece of metal. Maybe Lucifer will have another one made for you, this time with an auto-return feature.

  That hardly seemed likely. Lucifer had put a bit of himself inside that sword, and he had done that for a reason. He certainly wouldn’t give any part of his power away again, especially not with Evangeline leaning over his shoulder.

  My many-greats-grandmother bore no love for me. She doubtless felt even less kindly toward me now that she had lost both her eyes and one arm as the price for passing from the dead back to the living. Despite the fact that the price had been set by the universe and not by me, I was sure to get blamed for this. I always get blamed for such things.

  No, I couldn’t leave the sword behind. It was more than a bit of metal. It was a powerful magical object. More than that, it was mine. I didn’t easily give up anything that was mine.

  And the idea of being defeated by a bunch of sneaky water monsters did not sit well with me at all.

  Grabbing the sword out of the water was out of the question. But what if I moved the water? Could I even do that? The enchantment on the stream was very strong. If I tried to shift the water, it would probably fight back. Still, it wasn’t as if I were trying to divert the whole body. I just wanted to move the water around the sword so I could safely grab it without being grabbed myself.

  Trouble was, I’d never tried to do this kind of magic. I wasn’t really sure where to start.

  Think subtle. Think like you did when you exorcised Amarantha from J.B.