Broken Fae

by Caroline Peckham

  "That's how King is doing it," I murmured, leaning so close to Gabriel that my chin was practically on his shoulder.

  "This says the spell requires the vessel - the Fae stealing the magic - to consume a potion before speaking the words which can bind the magic of another to their own. The power transfer can also be made more successful by including the addition of more Fae chanting another spell to make sure that none of the magic escapes during the crossover," Gabriel murmured as he read the words through the glass and I slid my hand onto his thigh as a shudder ran through his body from handling the dark object for so long.

  "What kind of potion?" I asked curiously.

  "It's fairly simple, but..."

  "But?" I pressed.

  "But it requires the fresh blood of a Vampire, the more powerful, the better," Gabriel went on and my stomach writhed at the idea of that. "I guess it has something to do with the fact that Vampires can take magic from the blood of other Fae and transform it into their own. This spell must somehow make use of that gift.”

  "You think he's got a powerful Vampire helping him out then?" I asked with a frown.

  "There aren't any Vampires in the Black Card," Gabriel replied with a frown as he shook his head. "I haven't figured out why yet, but maybe it's got something to do with this?”

  "Gabriel," I gasped, gripping his arm suddenly and making him drop the book to the floor before him in surprise as a thought occurred to me. "What about that crazy asshole who chased me all around down in the tunnels beneath the well?" He was a Vampire and someone had definitely put him down there and denied him use of his magic.

  Gabriel chewed that idea over for a long minute before nodding slowly. "I think there's a good chance you're right. But that means that we need to get that creepy sonofabitch out of there to make sure King doesn't have easy access to his blood source anymore.

  "Then let's do it," I growled fiercely, not even feeling any fear at the idea of heading back down into those tunnels with that creep because all I wanted was to do something valuable and get closer to the truth about my brother.

  So if removing that psycho creep from the maze of tunnels beneath the school was what we had to do to make a firm strike against King and the Black Card, then that was what I was going to do.

  The Night of the Solarid Meteor Shower…

  M y hands were shaking as I sat on my bunk, watching the sun set beyond my window as I thought over my plan again.

  Tonight was the night. It was the full moon again and the Solarid Meteor Shower was taking place too. There was a bit of a party taking place to watch the shower down by Lake Tempest, but it was more of an excuse to get drunk and start hook ups than really watching the shooting stars. But I planned on watching them alright. I planned on chasing them too, the moment I had everything in place, I was going to disappear and by this time tomorrow, my 'body' would have been found and news of my death would be spreading amongst anyone who cared.

  I wished I could have told Ella about my plan, but to make sure it worked I had to get away from here clean, anyone who checked up on her and Mom could only find grieving family members. There was always the slight chance of Cyclops Interrogation if King got so much as the slightest suspicion that I'd faked it. I knew too much and I was too free with my actions. He’d never let me get away willingly, so there couldn’t be a single trace of evidence to what I’d done.

  Over the past few months, I'd worked hard to build up King’s trust in me, taking part in more of his rituals and plans without having my memories stolen and having my leash loosened at every step until I was certain that the tethers to my soul were thin enough to snap.

  When he asked me to do something, I no longer leapt to attention but could put it off before I followed through, use my own judgement. I was as free as I believed I was ever going to be allowed to be and that was going to have to be enough because I couldn't keep offering up miserable souls at his altar.

  I was hoping that I could get everything in place tonight to sabotage his plans, but everything that I'd done so far to achieve that hadn't worked.

  The book I'd stolen from him had enraged him to no end. Mr Hoskins had faced the consequences for that stunt and by the time I'd realised that he'd taken the fall for losing it, he was already dead. Tied to a stake in a field out beyond the southern limits of the city and burned alive. The news reports I'd read claimed he was tortured before his death too. It made me sick to my stomach to even think about it. That death should have been intended for me. And though I felt guilty for him taking the blame, it was hard for me to truly regret it. Hoskins had been a loyal member of the Black Card, always recruiting lost souls to the cause even without King asking him to and tying them to a life they couldn't have possibly understood and at least with him gone, some of his intended targets stood the chance of escaping this fate.

  The frustrating thing was that though King lamented the loss of the Magicae Mortuorum book, it hadn't stopped him. He'd performed the power stealing spell on the full moon enough times to know it by heart. Though I was certain that losing the knowledge the rest of the book had to offer was causing him plenty of issues.

  I'd tried reading the thing myself, but all I'd managed to do was make myself violently sick by holding the dark and disturbing book in my hands for too long. It was impossible to decipher the text inside it and I sure as shit wasn't going to trust anyone enough to ask for help with it.

  The few friends I'd had here at the academy had slowly backed away from me since I'd joined the Black Card. Or maybe it had been me who had backed away from them. In fact, there was no maybe about it. Even once the ties on my tongue and hold over my actions had been loosened, I hadn't made the effort to re-establish those friendships because I knew there was no point anyway.

  I was going to fake my own death. I couldn't tell any of them that, so the least I could offer them was as much distance from me as possible so that it didn't hit them too hard when I was gone.

  I was still hooking up with Cindy Lou, but the distance between us was growing too and though it hurt to let it happen, I hadn't been trying to fix it for that reason. In all fairness, I wasn't sure why she was so accepting of my shitty behaviour, but I wasn’t quite decent enough to cut her off either.

  If I'd been a better man, I would have broken things off with her. But I could admit I had been selfish in that one small thing. It felt like I was alone so much these days and getting any kind of contact with someone I cared about was difficult. I'd been heading home a little more when I could, but it was only ever for an hour or two in the evenings because King almost always had something happening on the weekends. So all I could really manage was to check in on Ella and Mom from time to time, offer out fake smiles and hope that it didn't hit them too hard when the news of my death came out.

  It killed me to have to put them through that, but I just had to make sure my death was believable. The last time I'd seen Ella, I'd squeezed her tight and told her that she was my little angel and she was destined to fly high and soar away from this place one day soon, foolishly hoping she might read between the lines of that obscure statement and figure out that I still had a plan to get us out of here. But I knew that was a dumb hope. Tomorrow, she'd hear about my death and I knew it was going to crush her more surely than anything else in this world ever could. We were everything to each other. And I just had to hope that she would be able to forgive me once it was safe enough for me to reach out to her and get her to come join me wherever the fuck I ended up.

  So yeah, I'd been a selfish dick when it came to Cindy Lou and I'd kept on meeting up with her, needing that contact of her hot skin against mine, the feeling of our bodies coming together. And if anything, the more distant I seemed, the rougher I was and the flatter the tone I used with her when taking part in her Dragon roleplay bullshit, the harder she screamed for me. So I guessed she was getting something out of this beyond a sucky boyfriend. I just wished I could have been a better one to her.

  My Atlas pinged and
I pulled it from my pocket, finding an email from Lorenzo waiting for me, begging me to meet him and telling me that we needed each other, that we were practically family and that I couldn't keep holding out on him. The dude sounded like he was trying to get me to meet up because he actually wanted my company. But I knew better. He was just after more Killblaze.

  Months of supposedly weaning him off of the stuff with the Kiplings' weakened doses of the shit didn't seem to be doing anything to lessen his cravings for the drug. If anything, he was more desperate for it than ever, no doubt aching to get a stronger dose like he'd been used to before my meddling.

  I shot him a message back, telling him I'd be there soon, and I pushed myself to my feet and crossed the room. I had a secret hiding place concealed behind a Solarian Pitball League poster on the wall and I quickly opened it up, disbanding the illusion hiding it as I reached inside to grab the little vials of Killblaze within it before pocketing them and heading out to meet Lorenzo.

  I walked along the corridor and started down the stairs just as my Atlas buzzed again, this time with a text. My mouth felt dry as I saw it was from King and I quickly opened it to read what he had to say.

  King:

  The full moon is tonight, don’t be late.

  As if I could forget the full moon. My whole world revolved around bringing victims to his monthly suicide gatherings and I was in a constant state of feeling sick and guilty for the part I was forced to play in bringing poor, hopeless Fae to his fucked up little cult meetings.

  On the plus side, the last two Fae I'd brought him hadn't chosen to take their lives and had been sent back to their miserable existence with their memories wiped with dark magic. I was hoping that I'd managed to help give them enough to want to live for because I'd been making it my fucking mission to do so with them whenever I was sent a new target. But of course, tonight there was another victim all lined up.

  Marnye Tabolt was a sad and desperate soul, but I'd been working hard to try and save her too. The problem was that I wasn't confident my efforts had made any difference with her, and I had the sick and desperate feeling that if she came out into the woods tonight to meet with King, she wouldn't be walking back out of those trees.

  I licked my lips as I tapped out a reply, wondering if there was even the slightest chance that I could stop this from happening just by telling King that in my opinion she wasn't a good candidate. My heart pounded with fear at the lie I was about to tell, but fuck it, how would he ever find out? And even if he did, he'd think I was dead by then so I didn’t need to worry about it and this might be the one chance I had to save that girl.

  Gareth:

  I’m not sure she’s ready. Shouldn’t we wait?

  My heart raced as I lingered on the stairs, terrified and excited all at once as I waited to see what he would say in reply to that. He clearly trusted me now, the binds he'd placed on me were so loose that I knew my thoughts were all my own these days. He bought the idea that I was all in with the Black Card, so surely that would have earned me a bit of respect? At least enough for him to listen to my opinion on something like this.

  King:

  I don’t have another month to spare as you should know by now. Meet me at midnight as usual or you’ll pay in her place.

  Shit on it. A whinny of fear escaped me as I leaned back against the cold wall, ignoring a few freshmen as they passed me and hoping they didn't look too closely at me and notice the utter dread passing through my flesh. That motherfucker terrified me. Sometimes he seemed so nice, so reasonable, but I knew it was bullshit. This right here was who he was. A monster who would eradicate anyone who tried to stand in his way. I quickly shot back an appeasing reply in case he got any ideas about coming to find me to drive his message home.

  Gareth:

  Okay, I’ll be there.

  I sighed in relief when he didn't reply, taking that to mean he was satisfied by my answer and blowing out a shaky breath as I headed on down the stairs to Lorenzo's room.

  I'd barely even knocked on the door before he was wrenching it open, pulling me inside and throwing it closed again behind me.

  "Have you got it?" he asked, desperation lacing his tone and I didn't know if I should feel like a crappier person for giving it to him or for wanting to refuse to. Fuck this shit. Who the hell would want to be a slave to a chemical that screwed with your mind like that?

  "Yeah, man," I said with a resigned sigh as I dipped my hand into my pocket to grab him a vial of the foul drug.

  My fingers knocked against the test tubes and they clinked together as I caught hold of one. Lorenzo's eyes flashed silver with the Wolf in him and he slammed into me before I could even fully comprehend what was happening.

  My back hit the bunk behind me and pain sliced through my body as Lorenzo clawed his hands into my pocket, his fingernails ripping the skin from the back of my hand as he fought to get his hands on the Killblaze.

  "I need more than one hit tonight," he snarled as I tried to fight him off.

  I threw my palm into his chest loaded with a blast of air magic and he was knocked back a few steps but he launched himself at me again, his entire body weight crashing into me as he knocked me to the floor.

  The sound of breaking glass filled the room as my Atlas was crushed beneath us and Lorenzo howled in triumph as he managed to rip my pocket open and snatch a handful of the vials of Killblaze before I could do a damn thing about it.

  He was off of me in a moment, the fight between us forgotten in favour of his prize as he hurriedly shook the test tubes to activate the crystals inside before popping the lids on three of them one after another and jamming them against his nostrils as he snorted the drug down deeply.

  "Are you kidding me right now?" I yelled as I got to my feet, snatching the remaining vials of Killblaze up off of the carpet before he got any crazy ideas about taking even more of the stuff. "You could fucking die taking that much of it!"

  Lorenzo began laughing maniacally as he flopped down on his bed, his body twitching sporadically as he groaned in pleasure.

  "What a way to go, though," he slurred and I pushed my tongue against a welt on my lip as I tasted blood.

  I was so fucking pissed that it was tempting to just storm out and leave him there to overdose if that was what he wanted so damn badly, but I was too much of a nice guy to do it. Or maybe I was just a fucking fool.

  "Have you ever taken three hits like that before?" I asked, moving forward to nudge his foot with mine when he didn't answer. "Lorenzo?" I snapped and his dilated pupils swung my way as the smile slipped off of his face.

  "I took five once," he murmured. "Wanted to die..."

  Shit on it.

  My mind raced as I tried to figure out how fucked this situation was. But Dante had told me recently that the dose was down to half its original potency now which meant he'd only really taken one and a half hits. I knew enough Blazers in the Black Card who regularly took two, so I was fairly confident he'd be okay, but I was still concerned.

  "I'm going to call your cousin," I told him, pulling my Atlas from my pocket and cursing as I found a huge crack running down the centre of the screen. Luckily it still seemed to be working though, and I quickly dialled Dante's number as my gaze stayed locked on Lorenzo.

  But before the call could connect, the damn thing bleeped at me to let me know the battery was dying and the screen turned black.

  Fuck my luck.

  "I'll have to go find him," I ground out, mentally calculating how much time I had left to pull off this plan of mine and deciding that I could fit in a trip to warn Dante about Lorenzo's condition before I needed to set up my 'death'.

  I turned towards the door, but the sound of Lorenzo's voice made me pause.

  "When I joined the Black Card, I was looking to replace my family," Lorenzo breathed, his eyes rolling back in his head as the Killblaze took effect. I made a move to leave the room, thinking he'd passed out, but he spoke again before I could go. "But it's not a family, is it?
I thought I'd feel that love again by joining them, but I wish I'd never pulled at this thread. King doesn't love us...he just uses us...we're nothing to him. Nameless faces in an empty crowd of nothing. Replaceable. Irrelevant. Trapped and alone. I should have warned you not to join up, but he would have killed me. I think he will in the end anyway..."

  My gut twisted at his words and I wished there was something I could say to erase the truth of them. I'd joined the Black Card to help him, though I'd promised Dante never to reveal the truth of that to him. And now I was going to run, abandon him and never look back. But what other choice did I have? I needed to get myself out of this situation and I needed to get Ella free of this city before it dragged her down too.

  I'd already hidden all the papers she'd need to run alongside a chunk of the extra money I'd been able to earn since clearing the debt Old Sal had been holding over her head. I had a bank account filled with the money Gabriel Nox had been sending me too which I could empty when we needed it. I’d even left the Magicae Mortuorum book for her to bring when she came to meet me. I couldn't risk having it at school, but I was certain something like that would fetch a high price if I could find the right kind of buyer and made sure no one could catch me with it.

  Everything was set. And after tonight, it would all be underway.

  Lorenzo really had passed out now and I said a silent goodbye to the troubled Werewolf who had been a friend to me even if I'd been paid to keep his company.

  I jogged upstairs again with my heart thumping to a solid beat. Knowing that everything I'd planned for my escape hinged on tonight was making me twitchy, but that was okay. It would all come together. It had to.

  My busted lip had dripped blood down onto my white shirt and I cursed Lorenzo beneath my breath as I jogged back to my own room to change.