Tears of Life

by Shea Balik

  Even Mingus said that he didn’t eat any of them, preferring to cook his own meals from ingredients from the garden. If Oluf had made anything remotely like veggie bacon, there was no way anyone at that table would have eaten it.

  “Hmmm,” Dermot said exaggeratedly with his nose wrinkled as if trying to make the best of it. “Its good, you should try it.”

  Then Arne whirled to face Oluf. “How could you take away my bacon?” he demanded.

  It was all Oluf could do not to burst out laughing. But somehow he held it together and pointed his spatula at Mingus. “It wasn’t me. Mingus wanted to help make breakfast and he decided to switch things up this morning.”

  Then Oluf spun back around to the semi-overcooked eggs that he’d forgotten about. Good thing they weren’t needed because no one was going to eat them.

  “You know, if you had been down here at six this morning, you could have been the one making the bacon instead,” Mingus told him. “Do any of you realize that Oluf has to get up by five so he can start preparing all the food for the day?” Mingus asked as Eirik, Ryley, and Brandr walked into the kitchen.

  All three wore expressions of curiosity when they saw Mingus standing by the island, waving around a serving spoon as he lectured everyone. “Which would be fine, except after dinner and the dessert you all demand of him, he has to come back into the kitchen to clean so things will be ready for the next morning. Last night, he went to bed at eleven.”

  Eirik stood there just inside the kitchen door looking at Oluf in question. But he didn’t say anything, mainly because Mingus wasn’t done.

  “That is six hours you give this man to himself. Six,” Mingus repeated in case they were deaf. “I get that we are in a battle with the Fae and we all have to put in hours of training each day to make sure we can fight them off, but you’re asking this man to also cook and clean the kitchen for you a minimum of three times a day.”

  Mingus was starting to shout as his frustration of the situation was increasing with every word. Deciding the best course of action would be to stop it, Oluf was just about to interrupt when Arne made the big mistake of saying, “But that doesn’t give you the right to make veggie bacon instead of the real thing.”

  “Oh shit,” Dermot murmured as Mingus’s sky blue eyes turned dark as he glared at Arne.

  There was only one way to end this. Oluf placed his hand over Mingus’s mouth just as he had opened, most likely to yell at Arne. “Okay, calm down. First of all, Mingus is right. Things need to change around here.”

  He took his hand away from Mingus’s mouth and thankfully he didn’t start yelling at Oluf for being so high handed.

  “In what way?” Eirik asked as if he really wanted to hear what Oluf had to say.

  Oluf pointed between himself and Mingus. “We’ve been discussing it. Hrafn came up with a good idea the other day.”

  Hrafn, Teagan, Gillie, and Tess walked into the room, followed by Wylie and Fritjof. Teagan glanced at his lover. “What idea? You didn’t tell me there was a problem with Oluf.”

  Hrafn blushed and leaned closer to Teagan to whisper something in his ear. Based on the wicked laugh Teagan responded with, Oluf could only imagine shortly after they’d gone on their picnic, Teagan had come into the barn to find Hrafn for some ‘alone time’.

  “Anyway,” Oluf said. “Hrafn suggested I make more casseroles that can just be heated up throughout the week, instead of just during the ritual times that take me away for days at a time.”

  “You won’t be going anywhere now that you found Mingus,” Brandr reminded him a little bitterly. Since Tess had mentioned Logan’s name on their way to save Mingus, Brandr had been a lot more irritable. It was as if Tess saying his name had triggered something within Brandr, causing him to start searching for any trace of the last of the druid friends.

  “That might be true,” Mingus said. “But it doesn’t mean he should have to slave away in the kitchen from before dawn until nearly midnight either.”

  Mingus crossed his arms over his chest, as if daring any of them to contradict him. No one did. Not even his parents who had just joined them in the kitchen.

  “Anyway,” Oluf said. “After talking with Mingus we’ve decided that on Sundays, I will make the majority of the meals for the week and freeze them.”

  He placed an arm around Mingus and Oluf’s heart swelled when he felt the man he had fallen head over heels for lean into him. “I will still cook a few meals fresh, but for the most part, all of it will be meals we can heat up as we need them.”

  “And,” Mingus glared at everyone in the room. “No more leaving dishes out. Everyone helps clean up the kitchen. Oluf and I will handle Sunday since we’ll be doing a lot of meal preparation, but the other days, everyone takes a turn at doing all the dishes, which includes unloading the damn dishwasher,” he growled out at the end.

  The ache in Oluf’s cheeks were because he was grinning like a fool. That Mingus would stick up for him so adamantly was beyond anything Oluf had ever hoped for from a partner.

  A high pitched scream nearly shattered Oluf’s ears. As one, every person in that room took off out the door to find out what was wrong. Kyleigh stood out on the front porch staring beyond the mountains on the far side of the valley where a man, no, not a man… a Fae flew, or would it be floated? It wasn’t like he was a bird, or wearing a cape.

  In fact, he was completely upright as he came closer to the house. Kind of the way Wylie’s magic had been able to pass Oluf when they’d arrived at Mingus’s house that first day. The only difference was, seeing this guy, knowing who he was, made it much more creepy.

  “Get the kids down into the basement,” Eirik yelled, pushing Kyleigh, as well as Meghan and Nessa who had been with her, toward the front door.

  Thankfully, that had been all it took to get them into motion as they grabbed Bryce and Tess’s hands, while Kyleigh picked up little Gillie since his three-year-old legs wouldn’t get him down the stairs very fast.

  There was a magic room that had been set up for the Druids to be able to practice in, which was locked and unlocked by their magic. There was no guarantee the Fae wouldn’t be able to get in, but it was the safest place they could think of unless it ended up failing, which they wouldn’t know until a Fae tried to get inside.

  “He’s an Unseelie,” Dermot whispered. “Why would an Unseelie, all by himself, come and attack us?”

  They all stared as the man with the dark hair and even darker eyes come closer.

  “Shouldn’t we perform the ritual?” Wylie asked. “He clearly got through an opening in the Veil somehow.”

  “And who knows if there’s more we can’t see, like the Seelie that are invisible?” Bjorn added. “For all we know there is an army behind him.”

  Yet, none of the druids started the spell. Nor did any of Oluf’s friends brandish their swords. They all just stood there, staring, as if transfixed.

  “Is it possible that all of us are enthralled and we don’t even know it?” Mingus whispered. “Because, I gotta tell you, this standing here just waiting for hell to break loose, isn’t sitting well with me.”

  “Me neither,” Teagan said. “Yet, I find myself unable to do anything about it.”

  Wylie lifted up his arm and shook it. “And we can move. Then why aren’t we?”

  It was a damn good question. One that none of them seemed capable of answering. When the Fae was less than ten yards away, every cell in his body screamed at him to prepare. Yet, when he started to lift his arm to pull out his sword, he only got his hand to about his chest before he put it back to his side.

  “He has to be enthralling us,” Oluf told the others. “Even though I want to pull out my sword, I can’t.”

  To his shock, Mingus tackled him. The moment he hit the ground, that instinct that told him to prepare had him reaching for his sword, this time unsheathing it.

  “Don’t look at him,” Mingus warned Oluf as he tackled Arne who had been the closest to him.

&n
bsp; Just as Oluf had done, Arne now had his sword out. But when he turned to face the danger head on, Mingus hissed out his warning and Arne, like Oluf, was doing his best to look, but not at the oncoming threat.

  It was as Mingus slammed into Eirik that the Fae clapped his hands slowly. “Very smart,” he called out. “But I promise you, I mean you no harm, for now.”

  That sounded ominous, yet Oluf heard the ring of truth to his words.

  “All I ask, is that you give me a chance to speak, and then I will leave you in peace.” Onyx colored eyes stared at them. “Again, for now.”

  Even though the Fae had released them from whatever spell he’d had them under at first, no one moved against him. At least this time it was their choice. At least, Oluf hoped that was the case.

  CHAPTER 13

  As Mingus had heard the others speak about being unable to make a move against the Fae coming toward him, Kyleigh’s voice telling him about being enthralled came to mind. Although, nothing of what she said was happening, for according to her they would become nothing more than puppets, the fact was, something, or, in this case, someone, clearly was controlling them.

  As Wylie had pointed out, it wasn’t that they couldn’t move, just so long as it wasn’t against the Fae. That had given him an idea. Mingus figured if he just turned around, the spell over him would be broken. But just as he wasn’t allowed to do anything against the Fae, he apparently wasn’t able to look away either.

  That left him with a crazy plan. Moving sideways he charged at Oluf, knocking the man off his feet. Oluf’s arms had gone around Mingus’s body as if he were instinctively protecting him from harm. That, in turn, forced Mingus’s body to rotate just enough that he was no longer looking at the Fae, breaking the spell that was over him.

  Oluf, who already had his sword in hand before he even stood up again, clearly had the same thing happen to him. “Don’t look at him,” Mingus warned as he tumbled into Arne.

  It wasn’t until he’d run into Eirik, knocking him out of the spell he too was under, did the Fae drop his power over the rest of them completely. But his words of reassurance that he meant them no harm weren’t exactly comforting when he kept ending his sentence with, ‘for now’.

  That had to mean he did intend them harm at some point. So did they hear him out, or start the ritual and kill him before he made it back to the other side of the Veil?

  As much as he thought the latter option the prudent one, Mingus couldn’t deny he was curious. For a Fae to assumingly come alone into their world to speak to them was… well, intriguing. He wasn’t sure about the others, but Mingus was willing to hear him out.

  He just prayed he wasn’t making the wrong decision, which apparently, the others had made as well, for they were standing there waiting for the Fae to speak.

  “Thank you,” the Fae said. “It has come to our attention that you plan to seal the Veil for good.”

  He stared at them as if waiting for some sort of answer but since he hadn’t asked a question, Mingus wasn’t sure what he was hoping they’d say. He sure as hell wasn’t about to tell him their plans. Based on the silence from the others, neither were they.

  “The Unseelie wish to extend an offer,” the Fae told them. By the way everyone shifted just the slightest bit, everyone else was as uncomfortable with this as Mingus was.

  It didn’t sit right with him. Between everything he’d learned, as well as what his friends had told them that they’d discovered, Mingus didn’t believe for a moment that the Fae, especially the Unseelie, would ever make an offer without a huge catch.

  “It has been decided by the Unseelie Court in an effort to punish the Seelie for their misdeeds towards us, that we agree with your efforts and would like to help you.” The Fae once more fell silent. Several minutes ticked by where he almost appeared to be waiting for some sort of response, but until they heard the plan, why would he think they would respond?

  That’s when he saw it. The tiniest flash of triumph in his eyes. He wasn’t waiting for a response. “He’s stalling,” Mingus said softly.

  “Okay,” Eirik said just as quietly. “But why?”

  “Is it possible there are others we can’t see that are planning to attack?” Wylie said out of the side of his mouth, making it tough for them to understand but at least the Fae, who was farther away, didn’t hear him either.

  Mingus glanced around. He had this feeling, but he couldn’t quite place it. Like there was something he should have noticed. A patch of orange peaked out from under the rocking chair nearby.

  Pretty Baby.

  She was hiding, but her gaze was glued to the Fae and nowhere else. Mingus’s gaze went across the yard to the horse pasture. When they’d first came out they had been neighing nervously. Now, they had an eye on the Fae, but were otherwise calmly grazing.

  To the right of the house where they set up the temporary chicken coop, the chickens, who had been clucking noisily and fluttering about when the Fae first showed up, were currently pecking at the ground for food, unconcerned with what was happening.

  “The animals are too calm for that to be the case,” Mingus told them.

  “Then why is he stalling?” Oluf asked from right next to Mingus. “Why distract us if not to fight?”

  Mingus was shaking his head. It made no sense. Even if the animals couldn’t see more Fae, they would have been able to sense them. So what was the plan? Why come here with some elaborate hoax? What, other than attacking them, could the Fae want?

  Mingus froze. His gaze fell on Teagan. Then he looked back at the Fae, who kept glancing at Teagan in particular. Teagan was a distant relative of a family that had destroyed one of the Unseelie families. Had they come for him?

  But again, there was no one else nearby. Pretty Baby’s laser-focus on the Fae they could see told him that. Then her head whipped around to the door. Her eyes went wide as he back arched as if prepared to fight.

  “Tess,” he whispered. “They must have found out.”

  For she was the daughter of Teagan’s Fae ancestor. More importantly, she was mortal.

  As one, they ignored the Fae and raced into the house. Boots pounded onto the basement stairs making it sound like a herd of elephants were charging down them. It would have probably been better to come in silently, but since they had no idea if Tess had already been taken or not, no one was willing to waste a second on stealth.

  Eight Vikings arrived in the basement, swords drawn as they fanned out around a partially opened door. A door that was rarely opened at all as the druids no longer used what was deemed as the ‘magic’ room.

  It was created by a Fae that no one was sure was still alive, who was cursed at the same time as the Vikings had been. The one task they had all been given was to help protect the druids as they found a way to seal the Veil like their ancestor, Aed, had attempted.

  When the Vikings had built this place, Fen had used one of the training rooms in the basement and encased it in magic. This allowed druids to come into it and practice without the risk of hurting anyone else. It is where they’d sent the kids after finding the Unseelie headed their way.

  Built with Seelie magic, they had hoped the Unseelie wouldn’t be allowed in. The open door told them they were wrong.

  Bursting inside, Mingus felt the power that surrounded the room flow through him. It was almost as if the energy wanted to know if he was friend or foe. Shaking off the odd sensation, Mingus found the kids sitting in the far corner huddled together.

  All except for Tess.

  “You’re a bad man,” Tess shouted.

  Mingus looked in the direction of her voice, which was in the other back corner of the room to find Tess zapping a pair of Unseelie who were currently spinning around and around as if they were tumbling around in a dryer.

  Then she looked right at Wylie. “They were trying to take me,” she said indignantly.

  If the situation weren’t so damn serious, Mingus might have laughed. That a five-year old could turn two adul
t Unseelie into toys was hilarious. That those two Fae had every intention of taking said child? Yeah, not so funny.

  Wylie didn’t even hesitate. Wood began to fly into the room at a speed that would have knocked Mingus out if he’d gotten in the way. Less than five seconds later, a pile sat in front of them and every druid spoke the same word. “Lasadh.”

  Flames erupted as they began to chant. Their voices became one as they stared at the two Unseelie, who Tess had stopped from spinning to watch what would be their imminent death.

  With each line, their eyes grew as they struggled to get away. But with the help of the room’s magic, Tess, who was half Seelie, was able to keep them there.

  And as they said the last word, the Fae collapsed before turning to ash. Cullen called the wind to carry the ashes from the room and out of the house.

  Mingus doused the flames of the bonfire and between Wylie and Cullen, they swept the mess outside with their magic. When the room was clear again, each kid had run to someone for comfort, but the adults continued to stare at each other.

  Without saying a word, Mingus would bet they were thinking along the same lines. What happened was bad. No. So much worse that bad. For it meant the Fae were willing to cheat to win. Until they could seal the Veil on Samhain, which no one was entirely sure they could, they weren’t going to be safe.

  More importantly, they might lose one of the kids. Because no matter how hard they tried, there was no way to protect them at all times.

  After several minutes of silently communicating with each other on the importance of vigilance, they dispersed. Those who had kids hoped they would be able to offer them comfort and a feeling of security, even if the adult knew damn well that wasn’t possible.

  Mingus and Oluf were still in the room when everyone else had left. That’s when they noticed Kyleigh was still crouched in the corner, her arms around her body as she rocked back and forth.

  Rushing to her side, Mingus knelt down next to her, as did Oluf. But before he could say a word, she bit out through gritted teeth. “They enthralled me. I told you there would be no way for you to prevent that from happening.”