by Sara Snow
Knowing what happened the last time I was in that palace, I had to summon all of my courage to get me to say the word.
“Füst,” I whispered finally.
All at once, I felt both everything and nothing, the sensation nearly indescribable. I tried to look at the stone in my hand to see if there was some visible magic going on, but neither the stone nor my hand were there.
I was so out of it after days of torture that I could hardly remember what it had felt like to transform before, having operated on what I could only assume was pure survival instinct. With all my wits about me this time, it definitely felt strange. I could look around, but when I tried to look down at myself, there was nothing to be seen. Just the grass below me with nothing in between it and me. It was such a bizarre feeling. I could feel myself floating, but it didn’t feel like I was restricted by the normal confines of my body. I had a form, but I didn’t know how to define what it was. I wasn’t bound by arms, legs, torso, skin, all of the usual things that defined us and gave us a self. I was freer and felt as though I could move in ways I’d never moved before, changing my shape, separating myself into parts, expanding or condensing.
I made a few experimental movements, willing myself this way and that, figuring out how exactly to maneuver this new form. When I finally felt comfortable enough, I moved myself low to the ground, thinning out to drift across the grass alongside the road as discreetly as possible, and as I crept closer to the factory entrance, I began to feel much more comfortable, moving even faster toward the gate.
I urged myself upward and over the stone wall, freezing when I noticed two demon guards pacing back and forth around the factory’s entrances. They seemed not to have noticed me yet, but considering my inexperience with this form, the thought of getting closer to them was daunting.
I debated for a moment what the odds were that the guards circling the yard would notice a wisp of smoke behaving oddly in the distance, but thinking better of it I stayed low to the ground, planning my entrance. I watched their pattern, trying to gauge if there would be an opening for me to slip around them unnoticed to slide under the door, but their paths were so tight that I couldn’t see a way through.
Paimon’s got these guys airtight, huh?
Airtight. That was when it occurred to me that in my smoke form, I wasn’t bound to the ground, I could float through the air, just as I had done to get over the wall. I didn’t have to find a door to go through, I could go in from above through the out of commission pipes and vents on the roof.
Spreading myself out as much as possible in order to make myself transparent, I floated slowly away from the ground. The higher I rose the more unreal it felt—I had never flown before and drifting through the air as a puff of smoke was so odd. I couldn’t feel the air on my skin and as gravity didn’t have any bearing on me in that form, there was no real fear of falling. Just calmly floating upward. For a moment, I almost let myself feel relaxed before I reminded myself of the mission, fixing my trajectory toward the building.
The roof was littered with all sorts of openings that were perfect for a sneaky wisp like myself to slip through. I had no idea where any of them would actually take me, considering the interior was actually a palace cloaked with magic to make it look like a factory, so I picked a random relatively large vent, flurrying downward through the air shaft until finally I was spit out into a hallway made of pristine gray stone.
I could hear the distant footfalls of a guard off to the right, but the left was quiet. I took it as a sign and hurried off in that direction, staying low to the floor to avoid detection by any patrolmen who might have surprised me. I whirred past a few, but their eyes were fixed straight ahead and none of them seemed to notice. I was relieved, to say the least.
It felt like I wandered the labyrinth of hallways for so long, wracking my brain, trying to remember any little details about the last time I was here. All I knew was the crypt where I was tortured. I didn’t have the presence of mind to try and think about anything besides Georgia before, and even now I found my mind drawn back to her. All I could think about was holding her again, feeling her warm against me. If I had a chest, I would have felt a pang of longing in it.
Suddenly, I felt something strange. It was faint and distant, but it was familiar.
It’s Georgia!
I could feel her presence, sensing her a long way off. I couldn’t place how, but it felt like I was being drawn to her, like she was calling me. I had to follow the feeling, completely unsure of where it was taking me, knowing only that the more I followed it, the stronger it got. I whisked around corners and flew down corridors chasing the feeling until I came to an intersection in a circular area. Two other hallways broke off from the area and on the empty side sat a door carved from stone, glittering with jewels and elaborate embellishments. I knew nothing else about the door aside from the fact that I felt more compelled than ever by this feeling I’d been chasing to open it.
Not wanting to risk stumbling into a demon’s trap, I floated up to the knob and wafted through the keyhole, surprised to see Georgia there, sitting on a decked out bed, strumming a guitar. She looked sad as she fingered at the strings.
The sight of her consumed me. She was right there! I could hardly believe it, yet I was so relieved. Her black hair falling over her face, her violet eyes cast down over the fingerboard—she looked just as beautiful as ever. I nearly forgot the stone’s secret word as she overtook my brain.
I didn’t have a mouth to say the secret word, but when I envisioned myself saying füst, really manifesting the word in my mind rather than just thinking it, sensation suddenly rushed back to me. The first thing I noticed was Georgia’s wide-eyed surprised face. She looked horrified, and when I looked down and realized that I was holding the stone in my hand, as physical and as ever, I realized that it must be pretty shocking to see someone suddenly just appear in your bedroom, even if it’s someone that you love.
“Carter!” she hissed once she seemed to have fought off her fight or flight reflex. “Holy shit, you scared the fuck out of me!”
I could only laugh. She was so cute and seeing her now, knowing that she was ok was like a breath of fresh air. Georgia’s face slowly relaxed, her eyes narrowing to shoot me a playful look of annoyance.
“That is not funny,” she said, trying to suppress a smile and a laugh unsuccessfully. “How would you like it if some freak just appeared out of thin air in your room unannounced?”
I forced my laughter to subside, wiping a tear from my eye. “I’m sorry.”
I crossed the room to her bed, crossing one leg to sit facing her. She set the guitar aside and turned herself toward me.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
“I… It was weird, I just had a feeling. Like I could sense where you were. Almost like you were calling out to me.” I hoped she didn’t think I sounded insane, because saying it made me feel a little crazy. She went wide-eyed, and when she opened her mouth, I half expected her to call me a whacko.
“I was,” she said. “Well, sort of.”
“What?”
“I mean I was sitting here thinking about when you were coming to join me and sort of just telling you to hurry up and come already.” She nodded to the guitar. “I was working on a song that made me think of you and just wishing that you were here.”
I hadn’t exactly realized it before, but that feeling that she was describing was exactly what I’d felt in the hallway—calling me to hurry and come join her. My mouth fell agape. I didn’t often find myself speechless, but I was struggling with words.
“That’s… I can’t believe that, that’s amazing. Georgia, it’s like… I don’t know, like we’re linked somehow. That’s exactly the feeling that was guiding me here.”
“You know what’s crazy? I kind of could feel that. I didn’t know how to interpret it, but every time I wished you would come for me, I got the feeling that you were, like it was reassuring me somehow. I don’t know how to put it i
nto words,” she replied.
“Our bond is getting stronger. That has to be it.”
She smiled and I took her hand in mine, but before I could say anything else, she leaned in to kiss me, gentle and loving. I reached up to gently hold the back of her head, and where my palm rested against her neck, I could feel her pulse racing. I smiled against her kiss.
“Your heartbeat is fast,” I observed.
She scoffed, but remained playful. “Well what do you expect when a man appears out of nowhere in front of you unannounced?”
“I’m sorry, I’ll knock next time before I turn into smoke and sneak into your room,” I joked.
I couldn’t resist taking her face in my hands, smoothing my thumbs across her delicate cheeks, relishing the feeling. She was warm and smelled sweet, like vanilla. As intoxicating as ever.
She continued on her annoyed tirade, though quieter now, softer, melting into my touch. “You can’t just come into a girl’s room without warning. What if I had been naked and you just barged in here?”
“I would have preferred that,” I said, brushing a few rogue strands of hair off of her face.
She fell silent, watching me as my eyes darted between her eyes and lips. They slightly parted, and it almost seemed like an invitation. Either way, I took it, dipping in again to take her mouth against mine. It was hungrier this time, that connection between us setting off like wildfire, both of us feeling the same thing from the other—need.
I had to pull back before I let it get out of hand, my hands falling to hold hers atop our knees. She seemed disappointed.
“We don’t have much time,” I said.
She nodded, understanding, giving my hands a loving squeeze. She was biting her lip and I could tell something was on her mind.
“What is it?” I asked.
“I just missed you. A lot,” she said. “I’m glad you’re finally here.”
“I missed you too, Georgia. I’m sorry I kept you waiting.”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re here now,” she said with a smile. She stood from the bed. “You said we didn’t have much time. What did you mean?”
I rose with her. “The spell on the castle that scrambles the layout to keep you limited to this area weakens at night. It’s going to be at its weakest right around now. If we want to sneak around and dig up any information, we should do it now while we can go through the halls without just ending up right back here.”
“Amazing, how’d you figure that out?”
“Olympia,” I said, to which she responded with a knowing nod.
“Love her,” she commented, heading for the door. “I actually have a pretty good idea of where to start looking for answers. You won’t like it, though.”
I should have known that Paimon would keep all his secrets in the one place I really didn’t want to revisit.
“The crypt?”
She made a sympathetic face. “The crypt.”
“Well, no point crying over spilled milk. If the information is there, then that’s where we go.” I wasn’t going to cry per se, but the feeling of anxiety that spiked in my chest definitely wasn’t fun. Georgia seemed to sense my apprehension.
That damn emotional connection of ours won’t let me be discreet, huh?
“It’s different this time, Carter. We have the advantage now. And I’ll be there with you,” she said.
She was right. It wouldn’t be like last time. I took a deep breath.
“Let’s get going, then. Don’t want to waste this perfectly good opening, right?”
The door wasn’t nearly as heavy as it seemed and I watched Georgia crack it open with relative ease and silence. She made a move to peek out, but quickly ducked back when she heard footsteps approaching.
“There aren’t usually guards walking around this area. Paimon must have increased security because of the spell’s weakness.”
“Sharp, Georgia,” I commended.
She scoffed at me. “I’m not just here to be beautiful and badass, I have a brain too.”
I threw my hands up in a gesture of peace. “Of course, of course.”
“My beautiful brain has a plan, if you want to hear it.” she mused. “Go ahead of me. Shift into smoke and make sure there are no guards in a hallway and signal me when it’s safe. I’ll hide myself at each intersection and you’ll let me know if we can keep going or if I need to stay hidden until a guard passes. Then we’ll repeat that until we find the crypt. Paimon’s goons have to be keeping tabs on me, so if they see me wandering the halls again, they’ll know we’re up to something. Plus, if anyone sees you that’ll just poke a hole in the entire plan.”
“Your brain really is beautiful,” I joked. “Alright. How about I puff myself up big if it’s safe and I flatten myself to the floor if you need to hide?”
“Perfect,” she said. “Let’s do it.”
I pulled the stone from my pocket. “Füst.”
That familiar strange feeling overtook me and I felt my form leave me with only the whispering curls of smoke that now constituted my being. Georgia was beaming.
“Woah, that’s so fucking cool!”
I had no real way to respond, so I simply took the compliment and waited while she cracked open the door. I slipped out, surveying each of the three hallways, waiting for a guard to pass out of the one in the center. When he was gone, I puffed myself up large and waited for her to follow me. I decided quickly that we’d try the left hall first.
As we approached the first corner, I could see her duck behind a pillar as I floated forward. The coast was clear, and upon my indication she followed me and we continued on. The system became smooth as we went—her hiding seemed to become automatic and at any notice of a guard, she was quick to shield herself from sight. On a particularly close call, the patrolman had startled me as he rounded the corner toward us, stepping right through my smoke form. Georgia was quick, though, concealing herself imperceptibly behind a decorative curtain draping down to the floor.
It felt like a while that we searched through the castle that way until we came upon a long descending staircase that broke off from the main hallway. Georgia hid and I floated down, careful to stay close to the ground, and noticed a door at the end of it with an armed guard standing out front. It struck me as odd that someone would be guarding a single room when none of the other rooms we’d passed along the way had been guarded.
The door itself looked like iron, sturdy enough to keep anything out that shouldn’t have been inside. I could barely remember the last time I was in this palace, but the distinct memory of being dragged down stairs, banging my knees along the way with a bag over my head came flurrying back into my mind. I’d have shivered if I could. This had to be it. I hurried back to Georgia, who was patiently waiting behind a large mounted bust of a particularly horrific looking demon, staying close to the wall to avoid notice. Manifesting the word füst, I regained my physical form next to her.
“What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“There’s a guard in front of the door. I think it’s the crypt.”
She nodded. “I do remember going down a flight of stairs just like this last time. Pretty sure I remember this guy,” she said, rapping her knuckles against the grotesque statue. “I think you’re right. What do we do about the guard?”
That was a good question. She and I both wracked our brains for a minute. If we wanted to keep our presence a secret altogether, we couldn’t just kill him. We had to think of something much more clever. Something innovative. Something—
“I’ve got it!” Georgia whispered excitedly, pointing to some drapes just down the hall from the stairway that were hanging what I would consider to be dangerously close to a mounted torch.
“Oh I know exactly what you’re thinking,” I said, eying her deviously. “Your brain really is beautiful.”
She took a performative bow, cockily accepting the praise. “I’ll hide here, you take down the torch, make it look like it fell. Maybe if you can loosen the mounti
ng on the wall it’ll look like an accident. We’ll light up the curtain, you turn back into smoke, and then when the guard comes up to see what’s going on, I’ll sneak down into the crypt. You’ll need to meet me there so you can unlock the door from the inside for me. There’s no way Paimon would leave a door guarded and unlocked, that’d be stupid as hell.”
“You think a fire will really keep him occupied for long enough?” I asked.
“We’ll make sure it’s big. Would you want to be the guy who let a demon king’s castle burn down?” she asked. “He’ll have no choice but to try and put it out, and I don’t see any fire extinguishers laying around here, do you?”
I gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “What am I leading the Venandi for when our little tactical genius is right here?” I teased, completely glossing over the fact that I wasn’t currently the group’s leader. She’d know eventually, I told myself. It wasn’t important at the moment.
I quickly went to work. The torch in question was heavy and made of iron, so wrenching it from the wall was a bit difficult. In the process, though, I managed to knock the screw securing it to the wall loose and all it took was a few rotations to get it free. I let it roll into the middle of the hallway, hoping to enhance the illusion that this was a loose mount that just finally fell.
I held the torch to the base of the curtain, but the fire wasn’t spreading as quickly as I wanted. It wasn’t nearly enough to draw the urgent attention of the guard. I was starting to get frustrated when suddenly, flames whooshed across the curtain, even the embroidery dangling from the curtain rod taking light. I turned to see Georgia wink at me while her pyrokinesis worked wonders on the curtain, the fire quickly becoming unmanageable.