by ERIN BEDFORD
“The Reaper?”
“Yes,” she nodded, “it won’t just be the residents that you will have to watch out for but the Reaper himself. You are going into his domain and he does not take kindly to visitors. Believe me, I know.” That sadness in her eyes came back again.
“I see what you mean.”
“So, are you, Katherine Nottington, willing to take the chance, that by saving them, you, yourself, may not come back out again?” she shook her head in warning, “And trust me when I say, nobody here would dare try to get you out.”
Chapter 12
Chess
“I WASN’T ALWAYS the Reaper,” Eugene started, turning away from the prince’s form to move off to the side into a darkened area not reached by the torchlight. “The Reaper is not someone who is born into the power. It is passed down from generation to generation and when my time came I did not want to go.”
As he approached the statue, a light flared to life in a bowl next to him. The statue came to life under the glow of the light and what I saw made me gasp. The statue had the exact likeness of the UnSeelie Queen herself. She blinked down at the Reaper and smiled. The smile had so much love and devotion in it that I had a sneaky suspicion that I knew the story he was to tell.
“Do you know how the shadows came to be?” the Reaper asked me, not turning away from the statue of the queen.
“I only know that they were Fae cast out from our world. When they were sent here is when they conformed into the evil thing they are now.” I peeked over at the prince from the corner of my eye as if speaking about them might make him wake.
“I suppose it is best to start at the beginning then so you can understand better.”
“I would appreciate that.” I nodded my head in consensus. The whole picture would be delightful, especially since up until this point Kat and I had only ever gotten bits and pieces of the original story. Knowing the whole of it would make it easier to defeat the shadows once and for all.
“There was once a time when the Fae outnumbered the humans, and as you know, we Fae survive on the dreams of humans, thus making our long-term livability depressing at best. So, the queens came together with their best advisers to figure out how to increase the human population.”
“Many of them wanted to send some of our Fae out into the human world to breed with the humans,” the Reaper paused in his story to give me a lopsided grin, “back then we were quite fertile and could easily fix the imbalance between our two species.”
“But,” I interjected, “that doesn’t make sense. Why would we go mate with humans that would just make more half-bloods, and Fae cannot feed on the dreams of other Fae for very long? So, they would just be making more humans we couldn’t feed on.”
“Ah, but half-bloods dreams are different than a full-blooded Faes dreams. The thing that set the Fae apart from the humans is our inability to work out our issues inside of our minds. It is probably why so many Fae end up being petty and selfish.” He shrugged like it wasn’t really important. “But the majority of half-bloods would inherit the human ability to dream full vivid dreams that are full of wonder and imagination. Things we Fae could never hope to create on our own.” I opened my mouth to point out once more that the dreams of half-bloods were poor substitutes for human dreams, but he cut me off, “Now they were aware this was not a permanent solution. That it would take years for those half-bloods to breed with other humans and thus so on and so forth.” He waved his hand in front of him in a continuous cycle.
“Eventually, the humans would catch up to us in the long run, thus ensuring the survival of our species. The whole of the group was in agreement that this was the best of plans except for one.” The Reaper’s face clouded over with a kind of hatred I had never seen on another Fae’s face. “Moradoc.”
“Who?”
“Of course, you would never have heard of him, since his name has long been erased from our history. An attempt to hide the evil that came from him. Not that it helped.” His hand reached up to stroke the face of the queen’s before he dropped it to his side and turned to me.
“Moradoc believed that mating with the humans was an abomination. That we would sully our line, our magic, by daring to fraternize with what we saw as food. He proposed that we gather the humans up like cattle and force them to procreate so that we may have enough food to go around, as well as the benefit of feeding straight from the source. We all know what can happen when we do that,” he leveled his gaze on me.
Feeding on human dreams from a distance was easy enough and gave plenty of power to any normal Fae. There were some Fae though who only wished to feed directly from the source and that could become a problem. Taking power from the dreams of humans can be tricky and hard to control. It takes a great deal of power to make sure that we only take what we need without killing the human in the process. Otherwise, the human population would drop and then eventually we would cease to exist. So, doing what this Moradoc guy wanted to do was a huge no-no. Fae have been cast out for less.
“So, as you can imagine they shot down his idea, and that didn’t make him very happy. He deserted his place as an adviser, and they thought they had heard the last of him. The queens’ moved forward with their plan to increase the human populace and for a while, it worked. The human race began to triple in size and became such an overwhelming number that we were no longer in risk of ever running out of food.”
“But while the queens’ celebrated their victory in saving their people, Moradoc was waiting. Biding his time until he could get what he wanted. Moradoc did not simply want to enslave the human race to save our people; he wanted power. He did not want to stay a lowly adviser; he wanted to take over all of the Underground. Combining both sides so that he was the supreme ruler. To do that, though, he needed power. Power, in which, he would not find in the Fae realm.”
“He rallied his supporters and tried to sneak into the human world to take the power he needed to succeed. This was before we had the nice reception area we have now, back then we were able to simply go in and out of our world and into theirs without a Between to stop in. That was created later. The queens’ only learned of his plan as he was making his way into the human world.”
“With Moradoc in captivity, they debated for days and weeks about what to do with him and his supporters. The UnSeelie Queen wished to kill them all, but her cousin, the Seelie Queen, did not want to shed any Fae blood. The Seelie Queen struck a deal with my father, the previous Reaper.”
“He would take Moradoc into the Shadow Realm and keep him there in exchange for one of them to provide an heir for his son, me.” His lips twisted at his explanation. “You can imagine I wasn’t too thrilled to be traded off but when I met the queens’ everything changed.”
“How did you end up with the UnSeelie Queen? I mean, not that I’m complaining, I’ve meet the Seelie Queen and of the two I would have chosen the same.” The White Queen as Kat liked to call her was a heartless bitch that had put her own daughter up to be sacrificed to fix her mistakes. If I had the choice between two crazy queens, I would most definitely choose mine.
“There wasn’t really a choice to me. While Tatiana was beautiful and definitely interested, she was already promised to another, and I wasn’t about to get in the middle of a prior arrangement, even just for one night of pleasure. But Mab.” The sigh he released showed so much longing in it that it made my own heart ache for Kat.
“She was everything to me the moment we met. She’s the reason I didn’t want to become the Reaper when my father’s time was done. I spent several glorious years with her, in which, we conceived our child.” His dark blue eyes turned to where the prince lay. “When the time came for me to leave and take my father’s place, I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay and raise our child and be with the woman I had fallen for even through our strange meeting.”
“I was prepared to tell my father no, that I would live my own life, and he would just have to find someone else
. As you can imagine, he did not take my decision happily. With Moradoc in our realm, he needed me more than ever. If Moradoc wasn’t such a threat then maybe I could spend more time with my family but that wasn’t the case.” His eyes narrowed, his lips becoming a tight line on his face. “Not to be put down by my father’s words, I came up with a plan. I snuck into his storeroom where I knew there was something that would help me change my fate. You’ve heard of the tree of life, correct?”
I nodded. Kat had told me of the tree that had called her back to the Underground, but I’d not seen it for myself. The tree that had also helped her die and come back to herself. The same tree that was now nonexistent.
“Well, the original tree had long since perished and left behind a few seeds in case there was a great time of need.” He shrugged. “I was young and naive and thought my need was great enough that it justified using those seeds.”
“I stole my father’s seeds and snuck into the UnSeelie Realm where I was to meet up with Mab. She showed me a grove in the Orchard that we could plant them so that nobody would find out what we had done.” He laughed bitterly running a hand over his face. “I was such a fool then, thinking my actions wouldn’t have consequences. That I was helping not just myself, but everyone in the Underground.”
“Mab, bless her, has an affinity for plant life, much like your princess. She was able to cultivate the seed, forcing it to grow to full height without having to wait the millennia it would have taken.”
I cut him off, my mind catching up to where the story would surely end. “You used the fruit, didn’t you?”
The guilty expression that passed over his face was all the answer I needed. From what I had heard nothing good ever came from wishing on the fruit from that tree. It never gave you exactly what you wished for, it’s interpretation much different than what you intended to happen.
“I wished that Moradoc and his followers would disappear. That I might finally be free to live my life as I chose. The tree granted my wish.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes downcast. “I came home to my father to see if it had worked only to find out Moradoc had vanished into thin air. My father was beside himself and had no idea what happened. That is when I pleaded for him to give me more time with Mab, and with no other reason to make me stay he granted it.”
“But it wouldn’t last. Not long after I had returned to Mab’s side did a messenger come to me of my father’s demise. My wish did indeed get rid of Moradoc, but it had made him and his followers something intangible, allowing Moradoc to somehow figure out how to harness the power of the Shadow Realm. He took the darkness meant to keep the dead from straying into himself and with it his followers. They became what you now know as the shadows.”
“Not, living or dead, they can feed on the Shadow Realms energy as if they were feeding on human dreams. Sending them back here was one of the worst things your princess could have done. Thus, why I had to put my son to sleep. With him in solid form, the shadows are easier to contain and keep from devouring all of the Shadow Realm and its power. But I can’t hold him forever. Eventually, he will overpower my spell and then seek vengeance once more.”
“That is why I ask you to save him.” The Reaper said finishing his story. “You are my only hope to get my son back and to right the wrong I had so selfishly created from making that wish.”
His story made my mind whirl. There was so much information that I had never believed could be true. Everyone, including myself, believed the Shadows were created because of the Seelie Queen sending them to the Shadow Realm, but it hadn’t been that at all.
While Tatiana had indeed done some deplorable things, she was only trying to clean up the mess that was made by someone else. Meaning she wasn’t as cold and heartless as everyone thought her to be. That Kat thought her to be. Kat had based her entire relationship with her mother on this one thing alone, and she needed to be set straight but first, there was more to do.
“Say I do decide to help you, how would I even get into his mind? And how would I get out again?”
“Leave that up to me. I will help you get inside my son’s mind, but once you are in I’m afraid,” he paused and shook his head, “I won’t be able to help you get out again. If you clear Dorian of the Shadows then he will wake up and you will come out on your own but if you don’t…”
“I’ll be stuck there,” I finished for him. I’d heard stories similar to this and it was easy to guess the outcome. I stared down at the prince’s form, my face scrunched in concentration. What was I going to do?
Chapter 13
Kat
GOING INTO THE Shadow Realm would mean I would be alone. Which normally wasn’t a problem. In the past, I had never had an issue being alone. I actually thrived on it.
Even in college, I hadn’t been one to go out and party. I preferred to sit in my room and read. It wasn’t because people didn’t try to be my friend. More like I had a low tolerance for bullshit, and the longer I was friends with someone, the more drama came with it. So I had come to the conclusion that being alone was better. At least, at the time.
Now, I hardly got a moment to myself. There was always one crisis after another. One Fae or another that needed my help. And with Alice living with me, she was always bringing Hatter or some other poor Fae home. It made it hard to keep to myself.
I suppose I could have hidden in my bedroom until they had all gone, but then I’d be in there all the time and god damn it, it was my house. Well, technically my grandmother’s house but by relation that meant it was mine.
So, if I was so good with being alone why was the idea of going to the shadow realm by myself so worrying? Was it because it was unknown territory? I could go to the Seelie court alone because I had been there before with others. But the Shadow Realm? That was a whole other ball game.
I could ask Mop or even Trip to come with me. I knew they would drop everything to help me. But I also knew this was my mistake that needed to be fixed. I couldn’t drag them into it.
Alice would probably offer to come with me if I told her where I was going, but I knew I couldn’t let her. She had Hatter and the other Fae that needed her help. Besides, someone had to stay behind in case something went wrong. I could end up stuck there forever and then where would the Fae be? No, Alice needed to be there so the government didn’t try to force the Fae into camps or the stupid registration law they were trying to pass.
Being on my own wasn’t all that bad. It meant I got to make all the decisions. Which was also a negative in a way, because now I didn’t have anyone else to lean on. It was all up to me.
Yippee.
I could have delayed going. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere, but I wanted Chess back, and if there was a chance that Dorian could be saved I had to try. I had no idea what awaited me on the other side or if I would just be dropping into a black pit of nothing. The Shadow Realm was supposedly where the Reaper lived. Which meant that it was kind of like the other side. Or it could be heaven. Or hell. With my track record it was more likely to be the latter.
Not letting myself stall any longer, I took a deep breath and got ready to step through the mirror only to be stopped by an annoying buzzing in my pocket. Confused for a moment at the feeling, I realized it was my phone and pulled the somehow miraculously not dead device into my hand.
It was Alice. Wonderful. I hadn’t let her or anyone else know what had happened with Chess and the mirror or that I was going to the Shadow Realm. I could just imagine how much she was probably freaking out since I never came home this morning.
Taking a deep breath, I pressed the button to accept the call, “Hi, Alice, how’s it going? Did you and Hatter have fun last night?” I decided to start with talking about her in hopes that she wouldn’t ask where I was. If I got her uncomfortable enough maybe she would hang up and leave me alone for the rest of the day. I had worlds to adventure to and people to save god damn it.
“Don’t give me that,” she snarled
over the phone, clearly on to my ploy. “Where the hell are you?” Yelling and things smashing could be heard in the background where she was.
“I’m exactly where you left me, at Chess’ of course.” The beauty of cell phones was she couldn’t tell if I was lying or not unless I somehow lost my ability to cover the lie in my voice. Which, to be honest, wasn’t likely.
“No, you are not, you big fat fibber,” she snapped, her voice becoming haughty.
I crossed my arms over my chest and ignored the curious look Mab was giving me. “I am not. I’m standing right in Chess’ living room right now. The purple and pink explosion is making me want to have an aneurysm just so I don't have to look at it anymore.”
“No, you aren’t. You know how I know that?” she paused waiting for me to deny it once more, but I held my tongue. “Because I was just there and you were nowhere to be found.”
“Then we must of just missed each other,” I chimed in, still holding on to the hope of keeping her out of this.
There was silence from her for a moment, though there was still a ruckus going on in the background that I was sure I needed to ask about at some point once I got out of my own sticky situation. After a moment or so, she let out an aggravated sigh, “Fine play it your way. If you are there then you can easily get home now. We have a situation.”
Frowning, my brows crinkled together. “What do you mean a situation?”
“Hey! Stop that, leave those alone!” Alice shouted out of nowhere, confusing the hell out of me. “Sorry, that wasn’t meant for you.”
“It sounds like there is some kind of party going on over there. Did things go better than you planned last night with Hatter? Or am I missing something?”
She let out a short laugh. “Ha! My romantic night was cut short when we had some unexpected visitors.”
“Oh really? I’m sorry to hear that, I know how much you were looking forward to getting it on with your lovey,” I teased her, though my apology was sincere. Getting private time lately was hard to come by, so when we had a chance to get it, we grabbed it by the balls and didn’t let it go for anyone or anything.
