Tears of Life

by Shea Balik

  “Go ahead,” he goaded her, which shocked her just enough to stop her in his tracks as she had pushed off from the counter. “It’s exactly what that Fae did.”

  Okay, so was he acting rashly when someone literally had been coming at him with a knife? Yep. Would it earn him some sort of straight jacket if anyone found out? Oh yeah. Hell, Mingus would probably gladly strap himself down if he hadn’t already been terrified and nearly killed a few days ago.

  Not to mention this morning when the Unseelie showed up. Followed closely by Kyleigh’s gleeful discussion on what the Fae do to humans. Rationality wasn’t exactly his friend at the moment. If anything, Mingus was entering crazy town on his way to Looneyville.

  “Oh wait,” he said as he held up his hand. “Let me turn around, so you can stab me in the back just like the Seelie.”

  Was he actually stupid enough to do that? Hell no. But it did make Kyleigh take a step back to the counter and place that knife down.

  “I’m not the Fae,” she insisted.

  “Then don’t act like you are,” he demanded.

  He lifted his arm and pointed to the living room where she’d just done her best to freak him and the kids out. Mingus just wished she hadn’t done such a good job.

  “What you did in there was cruel,” he told her. “As to your point when I first walked in here about a lecture on telling kids the truth. What part of that story you told was the truth, huh?” he challenged her, which was risky since he didn’t know all the truth about the Fae, but he knew enough.

  “They do enthrall people,” she insisted.

  With his back killing him, Mingus decided it was time to get off his feet. It hurt, but he did everything within his power not to show her the pain as he sat in the chair Oluf had put pillows on for him earlier.

  The relief when he was able to relax was instantaneous. Oh, it still stung like a bitch, but at least it wasn’t killing him any longer. “Maybe,” he said once he felt he could speak. “But that isn’t all you told them, and realistically, you damn well know it would be nearly impossible for them to get close enough to enthrall any of you without one of the many people who risk everything to protect you from intervening.”

  “Their immortal,” she shouted, which had several of the Vikings and druids running in to see what was happening, including Oluf.

  The man was stunning as he came up to stand next to Mingus as if he were going to guard him from the big, bad girl. Good thing Kyleigh was no longer holding a knife.

  “Immortal or not, they are doing everything in their power to keep you safe and you damn well know that,” he shouted right back at her. He once more pointed to the living room. “You lied in there.” That was one thing he wasn’t going to let her off the hook for.

  “Worse,” he told her. “You did it with the intent of making everyone scared. You claim not to be Fae, but in my opinion you might as well be.”

  “I don’t…” Cullen started to say, but Ulf put a hand on his arm to stop him.

  “That’s not what…” Kyleigh started to say, but Mingus wasn’t going to let her play that ‘poor me’ game.

  “Isn’t it?” he challenged. “If you weren’t trying to scare everyone, then why lie? Why make it so much worse than it is?”

  “He’s right,” Dermot said. “You told them the Fae would make them eat other humans.” His voice was filled with disgust. “Why? There are no accounts of that ever happening.”

  Finally, the first tear dripped from her eye and rolled down her cheek. Real emotion. Something Mingus had feared he wouldn’t get from her.

  “They killed my parents,” she whispered. In the next second she wiped the second tear from her face and glared at everyone in the room until her gaze landed on Mingus. “No one was there to stop them then. So save your platitudes about how they wouldn’t be able to enthrall us, because no matter how much all of you keep telling me you will do everything you can to protect me, it still might not be enough.”

  “That’s true,” Mingus admitted. “But there are no guarantees in life. That doesn’t make what you tried to do to those kids, to me, any better. Life isn’t fair and if anyone ever told you differently, they lied.”

  Her eyes narrowed on him and her fingers twitched as if she wished she had the knife in her hand again.

  “Now, the question is, what are you going to do about it?” Mingus asked her. “Because scaring little kids is pathetic and isn’t going to bring your parents back from the dead.”

  Kyleigh let out a gasp of outrage. “How dare you?”

  “I dare, because just a few minutes ago, you decided to take your anger and your fears out on me by terrorizing me with partial truths and outright lies.” Mingus tapped a finger against his chest. “That was unfair to me and to the others. And what I’m doing about it is calling you out on your bullshit.”

  “Look, Ky,” Cullen started, but she cut him off.

  “Don’t. You were there. You could have stopped them from killing my parents but you didn’t,” Kyleigh screamed. “You didn’t do anything.”

  “I was saving you, Meghan, and Bryce,” Cullen told her, his voice harder than it had been a moment ago. “I’m sorry your parents died, but I’m not sorry for doing what I had to do to protect you three.”

  “You should have died instead,” she cried out. “It should have been you, not them.”

  The room went silent for several minutes.

  “Maybe,” Cullen told her. “Maybe I should have been the one to die, but as much as I loved your parents, they never would have been able to save you. In the end, we all would have died.”

  Mingus hadn’t meant for things to get so out of control. He’d known Kyleigh was filled with a lot of rage. He could feel it radiating off of her when she had been talking about the Fae. He just hadn’t realized it hadn’t really been directed at the Fae, but at everyone else.

  The thing he couldn’t figure out, was why? It was possible she was suffering from survivor’s guilt, but it seemed to him that her anger went far deeper than that. It was as if she was holding all of them responsible for what had happened to her parents.

  In a way, he got that. If it had been his parents, Mingus might have been just as angry as Kyleigh. Except… all the others in the room did lose their parents. He was fairly sure all of them had watched at least one parent die. Yet, they didn’t lash out like Kyleigh did. Nor did they blame anyone but the Fae.

  He started to stand, but Oluf kept him in his seat by placing his hand on Mingus’s shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going?” Oluf asked him.

  He pointed to the sink full of dishes. “Since Kyleigh didn’t finish them because of me, I thought I’d start scrubbing.”

  Oluf rolled his eyes. “No. I will start scrubbing, and you will rest.” Then he leaned down and kissed Mingus’s cheek. “But I appreciate the offer.”

  “I knew she blamed me…” Cullen started to say but then rolled his eyes at his own words. “What am I saying? She is constantly blaming me, but there was nothing I could have done to save her parents.”

  “She knows that,” Ulf said as he drew his love in for a hug. “In her more lucid moments of conversation, she lets me know that she doesn’t really blame you.”

  Arne let out a laugh. “Really?” He pointed in the direction she’d stormed out. “Because it sounded like she blames us all.”

  “Or she blames herself,” Mingus said. “Maybe it’s time to get her into some counseling.”

  Cullen nodded against Ulf’s shoulder. “We’ve been discussing that, but who can we send her to? I mean, if she tries to tell someone that monsters came through the Veil that separated the human world and the Fae realm, killing her parents, she’s going to get locked up.”

  “Good point,” Mingus agreed. “I’m sure if we put our heads together we can come up with something.”

  “I hope so,” Cullen said dejectedly. “Because her anger is only growing.”

  “In the meantime,” Oluf said as he dried the
last plate. “What would everyone like for lunch?”

  Mingus did a double take at the stack of dishes now done. “How did you do that so fast?”

  There was that sexy wink Oluf sent his way. “I told you, practicing for more than a few centuries tends to make things a whole lot faster.”

  “I vote for something with bacon,” Arne called out as the others headed upstairs to shower.

  “Seriously?” Eirik said. “You had almost that entire platter to yourself at breakfast. How can you want more bacon?”

  “It’s bacon,” Arne said as if that explained everything.

  If anyone said anything else, Mingus couldn’t hear them, as they were too far away.

  “What about you, sexy?” Oluf’s use of the word sexy had Mingus’s face heating up.

  Unsure how to handle that kind of attention, he found himself stuttering. “O-oh, I-I-I me-mean.” He dropped his head when he couldn’t seem to get a word out without tripping all over himself. Blowing out a long breath he looked back up at Oluf and tried again. “I would love to have one of those vegetarian dishes you were talking about this morning, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  Oluf came over and squatted down next to him so they were at eye level. “For you?” he said with a grin and another one of those heart melting winks. “Nothing is too much trouble.”

  Was his face getting hotter? Mingus was sure he was about to see smoke coming off his skin at any moment.

  Oluf’s chuckled as he leaned in and kissed one of Mingus’s cheeks before murmuring, “Fucking adorable,” said his face must have looked like it was on fire.

  CHAPTER 8

  “Is anyone else feeling like something is… well, off?” Oluf couldn’t explain it but he was sure there was someone watching him. Not anyone he knew, but still, there were eyes on him, he was sure of it.

  “The Seelie,” Eirik murmured softly.

  Right. “Sorry, I forgot you mentioned this happening.” The past two rituals his friends, when performing the ritual near their home in Colorado, had the same experience. It had ended up being that Seelies had come through the Veil early and were able to be invisible.

  “It’s okay, Oluf,” Tess said as she came up to him with her arms up as if she wanted to be picked up. Once he’d done as she silently requested, she cupped her hand at his ear and whispered, “They aren’t as strong as the others were.” Then she frowned as she glanced around. “But they’re getting ready to attack.”

  Oluf set her down and pulled his sword. That made Tess giggle. “Silly Oluf. Swords don’t hurt them.”

  Figures.

  Then she leaned away from him, her back arching quite a bit, as she whispered something into Eirik’s ear.

  “Hrafn, Arne, to the air,” Eirik yelled. Hrafn was a raven and Arne was a Bald Eagle. Somehow their sight was acute enough in bird form for them to be able to pick up on the light the Seelie refracted even though they were invisible to everyone else.

  ““Lasadh,” several of the druids said at once, causing the bonfire they had been stacking with wood to ignite in a roar of flames.

  A cry overhead signaled to Teagan, who formed a twenty-foot dirt wall, followed by Dermot doing the same with ice. Then a funnel cloud swept through the mound of ice and dirt, carrying it far away.

  “What the…” Mingus said in awe, his jaw dropping as he watched it repeated a moment later.

  Wylie grinned at him as he led Mingus to the bonfire. “Yeah, I’ve been getting them to work together. But now it’s our turn,” he said as they stepped up to the flames next to all the kids, as well as Ryley, Kegan, and Mingus’s parents.

  “Ready to begin?” Ryley asked, even though he didn’t wait for an answer as he started the couple of steps that led the beginning of the ritual.

  Oluf stayed at their backs to make sure they were safe, although what he was supposed to do when he couldn’t see the enemy, Oluf wasn’t sure. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.

  “Listen and watch Hrafn and Arne,” Eirik told him. “They’ll sound out a cry, then look at where there is a Seelie coming.”

  Oluf glanced up just in time to see Hrafn get knocked out of the sky. Teagan ran to his side, covering his body when Tess yelled, “Watch out, Teagan.”

  Arne tried to cry out, but was hit by something, too. He was able to shake it off, probably since he hadn’t been caught off guard, but then he was hit again, just as Dermot was knocked off his feet.

  “Shit,” Eirik yelled. “Guys, Dermot is unconscious. Hrafn and Arne are no longer able to fly. You need to hurry or the Seelie are going to stop you and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  “Go take the children inside,” Rogan said as Elsie continued the ritual. “We’ll finish here.”

  “We can’t,” Ryley said. “We need everyone if we hope to seal that damn Veil.”

  Their words never stopped, even as one would speak. The spell was being cast, but Oluf wasn’t sure it would be soon enough.

  “I can feel them close,” he warned.

  A flash of black, white, and orange raced across the yard and leapt, landing against Mingus’s chest. “Pretty Baby,” Mingus cried out. “Did they hurt you?”

  Oluf felt his eyes widen at the question. There were so many things wrong with it, he wouldn’t have even known where to begin.

  And it only got worse, when Mingus stopped reciting the spell, turned and glared out past Oluf’s shoulder as if he could see the Fae that had dared to scare his cat. “Which one, Pretty Baby? You tell Daddy which one scared you and I’ll take care of it.”

  It was surreal when Pretty Baby stared to the right of Mingus and let out a howl that he wasn’t sure even Ulf, in his wolf form, could have managed. It was impressive and downright terrifying.

  Mingus’s gorgeous sky blue eyes, darkened as if storm clouds were blowing through. The ground shook slightly. Birds, who had most likely been hiding in the trees for protection from the battle, took flight. Deer, squirrels, and even mice ran as fast as they could around the house and away from front part of the home.

  A rumbling sent vibrations through Oluf’s body as he braced for whatever was to come. He looked in the direction the animals had come from, but towering trees blocked him from seeing what it was.

  Hrafn and Arne had shifted back into their human form. Arne quickly scooped Dermot up into his arms, while Hrafn turned to Eirik and said, “I don’t know what’s coming, but my raven was demanding I fly. We need to leave.”

  Mingus’s lips tugged upward in a smile that send chills down Oluf’s back. “Mom, Dad?” he called out. They reluctantly stopped their chanting to face Mingus. “Grab the kids and get to the second floor, now,” Mingus demanded.

  With Dermot still unconscious, Arne took him inside too, but the rest of them stayed outside. The druids restarted their spell, but Ryley had made them start from the beginning because there had been too many interruptions.

  They had only managed the first three words when a wall of water came barreling toward them. “Brace yourselves,” Mingus called out.

  Exactly how he wanted them to do that, Oluf had no clue. Neither did anyone else as they glanced around for something to hold onto. But before they could even take a step, the water that had to be fifty feet high washed over them.

  It was weird. No. It was downright bizarre to be able to remain standing on two feet as water plowed into him so fast and hard that it left him breathless. All around him fish were caught up in the wave of water, as well as any other animals that hadn’t managed to flee in time.

  But before he could really take it all in, the water rushed back out, leaving them standing there as if it had never come to in the first place. Oluf wasn’t even wet.

  All jaws were so low, Oluf was sure there would be bruises from them hitting the ground.

  “Stop your gawking,” Mingus said. “That wave might have gotten rid of the Fae for now, but they’ll be back.” Then he turned to the wood that, although no longer burning, also wasn’t wet
.

  Not a drop of water could be seen on the logs. But Mingus was right, and the druids quickly got the fire restarted and begun the spell once more.

  “Uhm.” Bjorn looked from Mingus, to Oluf, then back to Mingus again, before glancing all around as if to find proof of what they’d witnessed. “Anyone want to tell me what just happened? Because, I would swear a tidal wave came, soaked us, nearly drowned us, yet when it left, so did every drop of water.”

  Oluf was shaking his head as he watched the man he was seriously starting to care a lot about stand with his friends and complete the spell that would seal the Veil.

  “Do you think he really managed to have the water pull the Seelie into the lake?” Ulf asked even as he kept looking up as if expecting to suddenly see one of the invisible Seelie.

  “I have no idea,” Oluf said. “But they don’t seem to be attacking and the spell is nearly complete.”

  He could hear the last few lines being started even as Oluf and his friends continued to have their guard up. It was a bit… daunting to think Mingus had that kind of power at his fingertips. Sure, he knew today, the day Mingus turned twenty-one, he would receive the magic of his ancestors, but…

  Oluf was still shaking his head as he tried to deal with… “Shit,” he whispered. “That was… intense.”

  “Although, I do appreciate that he kept us dry when it was over,” Fritjof said. “The other day, when they were practicing, Ryley accidently set my clothes on fire. There was no saving them when he finally managed to put the flames out.”

  Eirik let out a noise somewhere between a snort and a laugh. Fritjof frowned at him. “It wasn’t funny. I only have one extra change of clothes since we didn’t know we’d be staying so long.”

  No one had known. Well, Tess had. But she hadn’t informed them of that until after the fact. Probably a good thing, because Oluf would have lost his damn mind to know that Mingus would be in that much danger because they had waited so long to come.

  “There, my Pretty Baby,” Mingus cooed to the damn cat that was glued to Mingus with his claws embedded in his chest. “Now all those mean, nasty Fae are gone and you’re safe again.”