The echoes of voices shook me from my thoughts, and I craned my neck to listen. There was something odd about them like they were muffled, shielded. The ability to wield magic also gave me the necessary senses to hear and see all things related to magic. Even through faery glamour.
“Well don’t just stand ‘ere, give her yer jacket! She’ll rightfully freeze and won’t be any good to sell in da village. Move on!”
The other grumbled their protests but complied. Nothing like a snotty little child brat to keep warm when the cold weather didn’t really bother the Unseelie captors. It made them aware of how little they knew about humans. Still, I could see he was mad to have to help a kid in the below freezing temperatures.
I wanted to crack my knuckles, grab a hold of that scum’s neck and crack it like a walnut shell. Wouldn’t that get the night all nice and exciting for me?
These creatures made me violent, even though I thrived and lived for a fight. Maybe it was their inherent cruel nature and disregard for human life that left me wondering how they could affect me so much, even after all this time out here, alone, fighting, killing…I lived to take them down, one by one, incarnation by incineration.
I closed my eyes, pressing my thumbs into my eye sockets. I’d been up for days and there was no rest in sight. Not when tracking a nice group of banished.
I sighed, inhaling sharply as I stretched the vertebrae of my back, enjoying each solitary pop of bone shifting into place. At least I knew where they were going. I’d stalked them long enough to know everything about their operation now. It took meticulous planning to take down a group of Unseelie, especially when some of them were Sluagh fey—the most dangerous of the dark creatures of Faerie.
This part about stealing kids? Well…that was a new thing. It had spiked my curiosity and I kept several feet behind this illicit group I happened to discover by the cover of night during a hunt. There was no one who could rival my silent prowl. I was a hunter by now, focused on my prey and unfathomable. Even the magical ones, the faeries from the Land of Faerie, could not detect me. I was human, but my elemental powers cloaked me as effectively as one of them. Once, I even snuck into the Unseelie palace to save my sister, Shade.
This was a cakewalk now.
I froze in my steps as they paused to enter an abandoned church. It appeared to have seen much better days decades ago. The steeple was barely being held up by its supports, the bell long gone. Sideboards were missing and the foundation had cracks the size of Jupiter in them, running all through it like a mass of veins. Stained glass windows were all ruined, shattered by rocks and left in desolation. Even the front door, a once rich mahogany was now stripped, weathered and cracking from lack of attention.
It was a forgotten place, and the faeries were making their way in like they owned the damn city.
Once, not too long ago, I would run at them and holler into the night to grab their attention. I’d pull them out of their positions and lure then into the streets to off them one by one. I’d once been careless enough to engage in such tactics, but the scars crisscrossing my body were a constant reminder of lessons learned. Each one, a bitter memory.
The faeries were all inside the church and rustling about, not caring how loud or rambunctious they sounded. Perhaps it was the empty streets that gave them confidence to be obnoxious. There was no one left to hear the ruckus.
I made my way to the side of the church, keeping to shadows and cover of darkness. Reaching the first window, I carefully peeked inside, hoping I would see something of use. The faeries were not those of light. Their affinity to darkness made it impossible for me to hope they would light up the space around them and allow me to see the interior of the church. Not finding anything, I scanned my brain for something in my armory of spells which could help me see past the curtains of darkness prohibiting a clear view. If I couldn’t see what they were doing, it’d be like walking into a deathtrap once I set foot inside.
One spell tickled against the fibers of my memory, and I stepped away from the window sill to dig through my pack. It was a small sack tied to my waist, much like a fanny pack, but less uncool. I was all about the cool factor so I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing such a relic.
Cursing under my breath as I sifted through ingredients, I finally found what I was looking for, yanking out a knot of bilberry. It was a common root for enhancing vision for regular folks. If mixed with a faery root called evesgullen and mixed with emulsion made of a variety of natural oils, the mash would allow my retinas to reflect light even more, much like a cat’s eyes. It tasted horrid but once ingested, it worked almost immediately.
Mixing the herbs together, it was a messy concoction. Bits of it stuck to everything. Stuffing the finished mixture into my mouth, I chewed on the mash, grimacing at the rancid taste. After letting the ball of herbs slide down my throat, all I had to do was wait for it to work. Wiping my hands on a small hand towel, I hoped the oily mixture wouldn’t stick too much to my skin. I already smelled like a dentist office. Satisfied they were wiped clean, I stuffed the towel away and peered up into the street.
A ripple in the atmosphere appeared, morphing the world into clean cut lines which increased in brightness the longer I stared. It made me repeatedly blink, feeling my eyes tingle as I adapted to the new vision. Not a moment too soon, the annoying tingle stopped while I crouched by the window once more, ready to test out my new super vision.
Movement inside confirmed that the faeries were still there. The kid was whimpering softly in a corner, hiding their face. I couldn’t tell how old they were. The light wasn’t strong enough for me to tell. Even straining my eyes as I squinted to get a better look at the perpetrators inside, the kid is the only one out of my line of vision.
“When he’d say he was coming, Spiff?” one of the Unseelie asked.
“Past midnight, when the moon is highest in the sky. Don’t you listen?” the other Unseelie muttered, his mood far from joyous. “Argh! Make it shut up! Its constant whining is giving me here an ache in the skull the size of behemoths!”
“Shh!” His partner shushed the kid. It quieted down momentarily but resumed their constant, whimper-cries moments later.
I shook my head. Unseelie like this had no patience and would probably start whipping the kid soon enough. The thought made my blood boil. No one deserved to be tortured, let alone kidnapped from their bed in the middle of the night. I wanted to run on in there and sever the faerys’ heads with one fell swoop of my Empyrean blade.
I just might do that if they didn’t learn to get out of the human realm.
Taking that as my cue to infiltrate their shelter, I turned away from the window and yanked out my fire sword. It gleamed in the moonlight, ready to slice through any offender. Sharp enough to cut stone like butter, it was more than just a blade. On command, I could make it light on fire, which made for an excellent incendiary tool to disintegrate my enemies.
I already knew two faeries I was going to love using that feature on.
Making my way to the front of the church, I eyed the frail steps. One missed step and the whole front porch would crumble from the unchecked decay of rotting wood consumed by termites. Eyeing the door, I realized the knob was broken and was most likely not locked. This gave me the confidence I needed as I pulled my shoulders back and sucked in a deep, calming breath.
It’s time for a faery roast!
I gripped my Empyrean blade tightly in my hand, ready to ignite it with one mental gesture. It was bound to me and could read my thoughts at all times. Together, we were a synchronized killing machine, adept at offing any amount of Unseelie faeries with a precision any expert swordsman would envy.
It had trained me itself, and I had absorbed the skill of each wielder before me like a blood imprint memory it passed down to each firstborn male of my family lineage. Its energy and knowledge belonged to me until the day I died and passed it on to my heirs if I had any. If I died before then, it would go to my younger brother, James, who also was a
Fire Elemental with powers beyond any normal human.
I didn’t have any plans of dying anytime soon.
Chapter Three
I waited at the door, ready to push it in and blast my way through the Unseelie scum when something made me pause. Movement to my right had me swinging my eyes to focus on someone running away towards the back of the side street that ran along the other side of the church. It wasn’t the only shadow I saw scurrying about, and I clenched my fingers around the hilt of my sword, wondering if I’d been surrounded.
Was I being ambushed? I couldn’t tell because the perpetrators were running away from me, towards the windows. Plus, if they were human, my glamour cloaking wouldn’t be visible to them at all. I was basically not there if someone was to pass by at this moment and throw an incurious glance my way. This was how I could walk around the human realm without being seen, and it came in handy when I truly wanted to disappear from the world.
I shrugged. The new arrivals were probably some hooligans roaming the night and looking for something juicy to loot. I doubted any of them saw me. A little company never bothered me.
Stepping back, I kicked the door in with a little too much force for a decrepit disintegrating door for it exploded into a puff of dust and splinters. I coughed and ran through the cloud to avoid swallowing down a spray of wood dust.
The Unseelie were frozen with mouths agape as they stared at me. They truly thought they weren’t being followed? I almost felt sorry for them. How could they not be? They were loud and unorganized. Easy targets if you asked me.
“Let the kid go, and I might not off you,” I demanded. I held out my Empyrean blade and gave them a show of lighting the flames. They curled over its edges from one end to the other.
The smaller of the two Unseelie scrambled to their feet and rushed toward the back of the church in hopes of some escape. The tall one narrowed its eyes at me and snarled.
“Human, you don’t have any business here.”
“I’m not all human if you catch my drift. I got every bit of a bone to pick with you,” I snapped and started forward.
The tall one shook its head and headed toward the rear of the church as he studied me carefully, as if to memorize my face.
“You don’t want to be messing with us, yer know. I fear ya’s going to get what’s coming fer ya, Elemental.” He tossed a tiny marble sized disc in my direction, shining his dark, rancid teeth riddled with black tarry stains. The disc landed on the floor after a few skips across the wood and came to an abrupt stop two feet from me.
Afterwards, the Unseelie shoved his way through a back door and disappeared from sight along with his comrade. I stepped forward to run after him but rammed right into an invisible wall. The force of my body slamming into it was enough to send me flying back, landing in a heap on the ground. My sword flew from my fingertips, spinning underneath a row of old, rotten pews.
Okay… wasn’t expecting that…
I felt my head where a subtle ache was starting to throb from the back of my skull where I’d taken out a chunk of wooden floor with my fall. Man, these places were not built to last. Termites were likely eating away at these planks like a feast. I shoved my body from the floor, feeling slightly dazed from whatever force field I’d run into. I stepped forward again to feel for it, but it was gone. Instead, I peeked down to see the same disc the Unseelie had tossed my way and caused the shield, now sitting between my boots.
Curious, I bent down and plucked it from the floorboards and peered at it. It was pulsating, and I could feel the slight energy still resonating from it.
A figure popped out from the side window, glancing between me and the kid still tied up in the dark corner of the church near the podium. Still holding the dark sphere, I scanned the room for my sword and swiped it up.
“Stop right there!” I called out to the second figure, who was now stealthily untying the kid in the corner. I held out my sword toward the two, ready to ignite it when I heard another person behind me gasp.
I jerked my head toward them as I heard them scream.
“No! Don’t!”
My sword ignited and I felt the sphere in my hand expand quadruple its size. I held it up to see it increasing in mass while growing brighter with each passing millisecond.
I had a really bad feeling about this.
Sensing the danger, I pulled my arm back and flung it toward another window with shattered stained glass. Before it hit, another person who’d just entered the room jumped at me, sending me flying onto my back once more. A loud knock sounded as my skull cracked on the edge of a pew. Losing my sword as I fell, an explosion rang above our heads, rushing across the church in a violent wave before the accompanying flash disappeared just as quickly as it occurred.
I found myself staring up at the stars of the winter sky through a wide hole in the ceiling. Puffy clouds scattered above, watching me as my vision swayed. Even the occasional twinkling star seemed to smile in my direction.
Ringing screamed in my ears, but my body failed to respond. I watched one particular star twinkle brightly until it pulsed into darkness, flashed once then faded behind one of the clouds. The moon shone brighter than I’d ever seen it before, sending a warm, mellow comfort into my chest. All right before the world darkened and siphoned away, I heard the voice of a stranger.
No. Not a stranger. A lover. One with lips as soft as petals and skin made of moonlight. I knew her, didn’t I?
“Benton! Are you okay? Geez…crap! Wake up! Come on man!”
The night swept across the sky, swallowing every tiny prick of light until all was cloaked in black.
Chapter Four
I knew her once. A long time ago, in another life, maybe another body. I wasn’t sure, but I was certain she was different from the others and never quite fit in. Quite a lot like me. She had dark brown eyes with a hint of green hugging the edges of her irises. I wouldn’t have really noticed her or given her a second’s thought, but since my sister Shade had revealed her powers to us and my mother remembered her own magic of elemental fire after a long spell of forgetfulness, she was hard to ignore. I was made to study the art of being an Elemental Fire Warlock in the hidden Pyren of my home, where all our family’s magical history was held—secret and safe from the world.
Now, she stood out more than any other soul.
“What’s that for?” I asked
“You’ll see.”
The memory of her handing me one of her pens at school one day rolled through my mind. I remembered feeling the warmth of her skin against mine, the sensation of it, like silk so soft brushing my skin. I didn’t know her, but she’d picked me out of the crowd to hand me a pen for no apparent reason. She had kept walking too, never looking back.
I didn’t follow her. Just as fast as she stopped by, she was gone. She was nowhere in the halls past the clumps of kids rushing to their next class. I couldn’t find her, and I had excellent tracking skills.
I didn’t even know her name and now, she was gone. She wasn’t in any of my classes, I would’ve noticed her sooner, but I’d seen her around before. It was somewhat humbling that I could walk around all day long, a human anomaly of magic noticing everything, and yet, failing to see anything at all.
How had I missed a faery in my own high school?
Studying magic with my family in a school of its own allowed me to start to recognize the difference in others—the ones with magic. Some humans had sparks of it, tiny embers of power laced throughout them like tiny symbiotic organisms while others were so latent, they might as well lack any tie to magic whatsoever. The few who were aware of their powers tried their best to fit in, regardless that they would never be able to. Hiding under weakly woven armors of glamour spells which did nothing to alleviate their suffering from extreme iron sickness, these few faeries never passed my scrutinizing examination.
I could tell who wasn’t human, and I was only a junior in high school at the time.
Now, over a year later, no one coul
d hide a crumb of magic on their person from me because I could detect it better than anyone I knew. I was a human magic detector, in a literal sense. I could sniff magic out from miles away, and it wasn’t always pleasant.
Once I graduated from high school, unlike my dear classmates, I was not heading to college, university, or trade school. Nope, I was already a seasoned veteran warrior in a magical world called Faerie. Even though I was fully human, I was anchored to magic since I was descended from one of the oldest magical Elemental families in the world.
It wasn’t easy being awesome.
Plus, it wasn’t easy staying off the radar when it came to magic. Especially with me. Yet, she’d done it. Eluded me in every way with whatever means possible. She’d done it, without batting a pretty eyelash at anyone. Especially me.
I needed to find her, know her, and talk to her. There was no method to this madness. It was an emotional pull I couldn’t control, an urge I couldn’t deny, and an itch that begged to be scratched.
Unfortunately, the very same power that helped me fight my foes also allowed me to see the quality of difference in everyone. People were no longer just surfaces to gaze at. No. They turned into actual orbs of light who breathed in and breathed out, radiating energy like it was vaporized and drifted about us in the air, aerosolized. I could feel more and more of people’s emotions as my magic grew. Feelings…emotions…everything people were usually shielded from by the lack of ability to see anything more, safely ignorant to the world of magic.
Not me. I was bombarded by the feel of it all shocking my system and pummeling every atom of my body with the energy each and every soul emitted, including those who held a shred of power within them.
It was both exhilarating and disturbing at the same time.
But, I’m ahead of myself here…I meant to remember this girl. This dark hazel brown-eyed beauty stood out amongst all the energies bouncing around the classrooms, teasing me with their coy ability to hide. Hers was stronger than anyone else’s I’d ever encountered, excluding my own. I often wondered if she had seen past my shields before I had eventually learned to control and create them to keep the outside world from bashing me in with its endless bombardment of energy.
Faery Tales: Six Novellas of Magic and Adventure (Faery Worlds Book 3) Page 38
