One of the Huntsmen raised his hands as though to attack Josephine, but Sophie cried out, “No! Don’t use fae magic against her. It doesn’t work and it somehow makes her stronger. I can’t quite see why, but that’s what happens.” She looked directly at Michael when she said “can’t quite see why,” and he took that as his cue.
He reached into his pocket for his keychain with a four-leaf clover on it. One side effect of his adventures in the Realm, including being elf-shot and cured and being under a spell or two, was that he could see past all fairy glamour, especially with the aid of a clover. Even Sophie couldn’t see what he could.
As soon as he got a look at Josephine without her glamour, he cringed and dropped the clover back into his pocket. What he saw was something that didn’t even look fae. It once might have been, but it had been warped and twisted into some kind of Gollum-like being. There were traces of a fae beauty that had degenerated, even if it hadn’t aged. Most of the flesh had melted away from her face, leaving her cheekbones in sharp relief and her eyes sunk into hollows. Ugly, lumpy scars ridged her arms and neck. The scars looked like she’d had something inserted into her skin and it had formed a capsule of tissue around it.
He wasn’t sure how to convey this to Sophie in a way she’d find useful. “What have you done to yourself?” he asked. “I’ve heard of body modification, but wow.”
If Sophie was able to read between the lines of that, then he’d be really impressed. Josephine apparently took it as an insult. She moved toward him, glowering, and raised her hands. In that moment, when her guards were distracted, Sophie shifted her weight, throwing all her force against one guard, shoving him into Josephine. The moment he touched her, he screamed and jerked away, his skin smoking in strips where he’d come in contact with her.
Everyone in the throne room stared at that. Even Sophie paused for a moment before regaining her wits and dashing to Michael’s side, away from her captors. “She’s got something inserted under her skin, doesn’t she?” she asked.
“Looks like it. There are lots of lumpy scars.”
“I know what she’s doing,” she said, loud enough for everyone in the room to hear her. “She’s using iron magic.”
Fifty-three
The Palace
Next
Sophie couldn’t believe it had taken her so long to figure it out. “She’s inoculated herself against iron,” she explained. “A little bit of iron stuck under the skin, a bit at a time, over centuries, and eventually a fairy might be able to tolerate being around iron. It’s like an extreme form of allergy shots. Now that the iron’s taken hold in her blood and become part of her, she’s using its power. That’s why she’s been so hard for me to fight. She’s something we haven’t seen before. She must have done the same thing with human food, eating a little at a time until she could tolerate it, but it’s changed her.”
As much trouble as Josephine had caused, Sophie couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She couldn’t imagine being exiled to a place where everything, including the food, was poison to her, with the poison becoming more pervasive through the centuries. She’d seen what iron did to the fae and had to admire the fortitude of someone who could force herself to tolerate that pain in order to become stronger.
But that didn’t mean she had to let her win. Those centuries of exile had clearly driven Josephine quite mad. She was a danger to both the Realm and the human world.
“Then what do we do?” Michael asked.
Sophie tried to think, but she didn’t think fast enough. Josephine send a blast of power at one of the Huntsmen who drew too close to her, and he cried out in anguish as he fell. “The humans need to protect the fae,” she shouted, moving ahead of the group and gesturing the Huntsmen to move back. Eamon stayed next to Emily. Sophie started to tell him to get out of the way, but it occurred to her that he’d also been inoculating himself, in a way, and was probably better equipped than most fae to be able to resist Josephine’s magic. Mrs. Smith, Athena, and Amelia moved into place to shield the fae.
Most of Josephine’s fae allies stared at her in horror, and some of them moved behind the humans, including both of Sophie’s former guards, one supporting his injured colleague. Maeve slunk out through the door to the kitchen, and Sophie figured they could catch up with her later, since she couldn’t leave the palace.
Nana, apparently noticing that Josephine’s people were deserting her, raised a hand, and the palace doors opened. An army of fae poured in, rushing toward the dais. “I won’t let you harm my people,” Nana said, her voice steely.
“Your people? How can they be your people? You are nothing like them. Let me show you what I can do to your people.” A shock wave of power radiated from her. Sophie and her grandmother, along with Athena and Amelia, managed to get a shield up. But it wasn’t enough to shield everyone, and fae around the throne room yelped in pain and collapsed, rubbing at their skin like they were being burned by iron. Even Eamon winced from his position behind Nana and Emily. If the newly arrived fae had planned to help Josephine, they were stopped in their tracks by her attack. Sophie suspected Josephine had just lost all her allies.
“I have an idea,” Mrs. Smith said. She grabbed Michael’s arm. “Come with me, son.”
Sophie missed having his reassuring bulk by her side, even though she knew he wasn’t helping with the shield. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mrs. Smith pulling a bag out of her shopping cart and starting to distribute some kind of dried herb to the fae. Sophie wasn’t sure if it protected them from iron, but it did seem to ease their pain. At least, the cries and groans were easing.
Josephine showed no sign of letting up. Sophie wondered if she had any limits. Was it possible for her to use up the power she was channeling from the iron in her body? And if so, how long would that take?
Sophie turned to see that the other enchantresses were still hanging back. “Come on, we need your help,” she called to them. She didn’t know if just three more people would make a difference, but the extra manpower wouldn’t hurt.
“But, defending the fae?” one protested.
“Fighting a fairy,” Amelia countered. “You already noticed that Josephine was never really one of us. She used us, and we nearly let her co-opt our whole society.”
“And do you think we’ll be safe once she makes her way past the fae?” Athena added.
“Enchantress against fae is an awfully old-fashioned way of looking at it, anyway,” Sophie snapped, losing patience with territorial disputes in the face of imminent danger. “Our job was to keep the throne empty, but that nearly killed the Realm. The current queen is descended from both enchanter and fairy. You’re in no danger of her intruding on the human world. But we are in big trouble if her reign is threatened. Now, join us, or you will have to deal with me.”
She didn’t know if it was her logic, her tone of voice, or the look in her eyes that persuaded them, but they finally joined their power to the shield. They seemed to have successfully blocked Josephine from attacking all fae present.
But Josephine didn’t show any signs of tiring. If anything, she was growing stronger. “I’m afraid that just blocking her power is feeding it back to her,” Sophie said, fighting the despair that threatened to overwhelm her.
“We need to dissipate it somehow,” Nana said.
“Or suck it into something—or someone,” Athena suggested.
But what? Or who? No one with any fae blood. That much iron would be deadly, even to Nana, Sophie, or Emily, whose fae ancestry was far removed. There weren’t a lot of people Sophie would trust with that kind of power if there was a chance that absorbing it would give or enhance power. And what would that do to the person who absorbed it? Would it be dangerous?
“Mrs. Smith!” she called out. “What do you know about channeling power?”
The wise woman paused in tending to the ailing fae. “There are a few plants that might be able to take some of it, and with that much iron in her, she should be pretty magnet
ic.” She returned to her cart and rummaged around a bit, coming up with some plastic zip-close sandwich bags filled with dried leaves. More rummaging, and she had a handful of what looked like refrigerator magnets. She dropped one in a bag, pressed the zipper to close it, and said to Michael, “How’s your throwing arm, son?”
“I’ve played a little baseball.”
“Anyone else?”
“I played fast pitch as a girl,” Athena said.
“I can throw a bit,” Emily said.
Mrs. Smith distributed the bags as she added magnets, and they started pelting Josephine with them. Not all the magnets were strong enough to stick, especially in places where the iron was deep within Josephine’s skin, but some did cling to her, and if the situation hadn’t been so serious, it would have looked rather silly as the terrifying mutant fairy flailed at flying magnetic sandwich bags.
Sophie could feel some of the power weakening, but Josephine was nowhere close to spent. As soon as she stopped fending off the magnets, she’d still be able to take them on, and they had no good way of fighting her.
“Could a person safely take some of it?” Sophie asked Mrs. Smith.
“It would take someone different,” she said. “Not an ordinary human. But not someone who already has power. It might burn out the existing power.”
That didn’t help much. Where would they find a person who was neither ordinary nor magical?
In the meantime, Josephine was getting angrier. “You humans,” she snarled. “I have had enough of you, living among you all those endless years. You’re weak and powerless, and you don’t even know how to respect your superiors. And then you had to go and take over my Realm! What do I have to do to get rid of you?”
“If you’re unhappy wherever you go, have you considered that maybe you’re the problem?” Sophie asked.
“No! You’re the problem,” Josephine screeched. “You’re ruining everything!” Abruptly, she broke off her attack on the throne room in general and aimed it all at Sophie.
Sophie was more human than fae, but she did still have fae blood, and while Josephine’s power had weakened, it was still there. Sophie felt herself faltering under the attack. It burned, making every nerve in her body feel like it was on fire. She couldn’t summon any kind of magic, either fae or enchantress.
Suddenly, the attack ended, and when Sophie’s vision cleared, she realized that Michael had moved in front of her, shielding her with his larger body and taking the brunt of the blast. Beau rushed the dais, barking and snarling, and he was able to get beneath Josephine’s defenses to bite her on the ankle, distracting her from her attack. The enchantresses got there a split second later, protecting both Sophie and Michael.
But maybe not soon enough. Michael staggered, and Sophie caught him, holding him upright. He recovered a second later, but he didn’t look great. Sophie kept her arm around his waist, and he leaned on her. Beau trotted back to them and raised himself to brace his front paws on Michael’s leg so he could lick Michael’s hand. Sophie found herself smiling in spite of the gravity of the situation. They really did have a little bromance going on.
The fae were recovering from being under attack, now that the worst of it was aimed elsewhere. “Now’s our chance,” Sophie cried out. “If we all join together, we might be strong enough.”
The fae looked at the enchantresses, who glared back. “Do I have to bang your heads together to get you to cooperate?” Nana chided.
One of the Huntsmen attacked first, sending a burst of power at Josephine, followed by Emily, who grinned as her magic joined the Huntsman’s. Soon, everyone else joined in. Even with her superpowered magic, Josephine couldn’t resist the combined forces of fae and enchantress as wave upon wave of magic assaulted her. Mrs. Smith joined in, waving some kind of torch. Sophie’s skin tingled from the proximity to that much power in use. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like on the receiving end of it.
Josephine’s skin started to smoke around the bits of iron, and she shriveled, shrinking in on herself. Her glamour was gone, leaving her bared as a hideous, deformed creature. Sophie couldn’t bear to watch it any longer. “Stop it!” she cried out. “That’s enough!”
They all looked at her like she was crazy. “Soph, what is it?” Emily asked.
“Look at her, she’s beaten. This is just piling on now. And she is family.” She and Michael exchanged a glance and went together to kneel beside what was left of Josephine, lying broken on the ground. Sophie held out her hand to Michael, who seemed to understand what she wanted and got a knife out of his pocket, opening it before giving it to her. Working quickly and gently, Sophie excised the iron from Josephine’s body, magically healing the wounds as she went along. With each piece that was removed, Josephine looked more and more like a regular fairy and less like the creature she’d become.
When she was done and Josephine was still lying dazed on the ground, Sophie looked up, addressing the crowd that had gathered close to watch. “I can see why my ancestor was reluctant to sentence her sister to death, but a death sentence would have been more compassionate. Josephine did what she had to do to survive, and I can hardly blame her for that.” Addressing Nana directly, she said, “Do you have a safe place you could put her? Let her live in the Realm. After this display, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about her finding enough allies to be a real threat.”
Nana went over and helped a shaky Josephine to her feet. “I’ll see what I can do for her. Come on, honey, let’s get you some good food. It’ll probably taste better without all that iron in your blood.” As she walked away, leading a surprisingly docile Josephine, she said over her shoulder to Sophie, “Nice way of handling that. Now, be a dear and wrap things up, okay?”
Sophie stood and glared down the assembled fae. “I hope no one has a problem here. Can we go at least a month without someone else trying to take over the Realm? It’s getting old. Now, we need to repair the barriers between worlds since we can’t trust you fae to behave yourselves. The human world isn’t what it once was and they aren’t prepared to deal with you.” Whirling on the enchantresses, she added, “And you can see that it’s never as simple as human against fae. Please spread that throughout your organization. We all need to work together in the future to make a better world for all of us. Well, better worlds.”
Amelia grinned at this. “That sounds like a very good idea.”
“Is she fae?” one of the other enchantresses asked warily. “I thought she was one of us.”
“Oh honey, I’m not one of anybody,” Sophie said. “And if I’m going to be part of any organization, it’ll be a new one that’s about cooperation. Now, I believe we have a market going on out there.”
The fae didn’t need to be encouraged to celebrate, and within seconds, it was as though nothing had happened. Most of the assembled fairies rushed outside, any divisions between them forgotten, and soon the sound of lively music drifted in from the terrace. Sophie felt the shakes that came after a sudden release of tension and looked around for a chair before she fell. Michael didn’t look much better than she felt. In fact, she had to catch him when he swayed, and since no chair was handy, she sank to the floor, bearing his weight. “Mrs. Smith!” she called out, sure the wise woman would know how to help him, then sounding harsher than she intended, she snapped at Michael. “And just what were you doing back there? Trying to get yourself killed?”
“I was trying to help you,” he said, moving so that she now sat leaning against him, within the circle of his arm. “You needed someone without power who was different, and isn’t that what everyone keeps telling me I am? Who else could have done it without dying? And obviously, I’m not dead.”
“You could have been,” Sophie said, furious at the tears that stung her eyes.
Mrs. Smith came to kneel beside them. She caught Michael’s chin in her hands and stared into his eyes for a moment. “Well, this could be interesting,” she said.
“Interesting how?” he asked.
<
br /> “You may have just become an honorary fairy.”
“A what?”
Sophie extended her magical senses, and she detected something different about him. “You’ve absorbed some fae magic,” she said.
“Does that mean I have power?” he asked, sounding somewhat alarmed.
“I’m not sure,” Mrs. Smith said.
“See, this is why you shouldn’t have done that,” Sophie said.
“If he hadn’t, you’d be dead, dear,” Mrs. Smith said. “Now say thank you to the man who saved your life.”
Sophie looked up at him, suddenly feeling shy. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Though if you’re a fairy now, maybe I shouldn’t say that.”
“I don’t think I’ll be very orthodox,” he said with a grin. “And you know I couldn’t let her kill you. I’ve lost too much already.” His arm tightened around her, pulling her closer against him, and she let herself melt into his embrace for a moment, drawing strength from his closeness. It was just his cop instinct, she told herself. He’d have thrown himself in front of anyone. But he had mentioned her as someone he didn’t want to lose, and that was enough for now.
Fifty-four
The Throne Room
Next
Emily gave her sister a few minutes to sit snuggled up against Michael. They looked awfully cozy, and they’d been through a lot. When she thought they’d had enough time to recover a little, she made her way over to them. “Anything you need me to do?”
Sophie looked up at her, her face drawn and pale with exhaustion. “Do you think you could track down Maeve in the palace? I’ve about had it with her, and I think Nana should do something about her.”
“That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Eamon, want to come with?” She didn’t wait for an answer before heading out, but he followed her. “Where do you think she’ll hole up?”
A Kind of Magic Page 28
