by E. A. Copen
Something told me a solution was exactly what they’d ask for in return for the escort to the door a second time, and I didn’t have one. Well, I did, but it wasn’t an easy one, and it would require spending even more time out of my body.
When we reached the North Pole, signs of the battle were everywhere in the dawn. Blood stained the snow alongside huge streaks of black. Abandoned swords lay in snowdrifts, and the black smoke of funeral pyres stretched high in the sky. Several fae in green robes walked among the pyres, singing and making gestures that must’ve been religious in nature, though I wasn’t familiar with whatever religion they were attached to.
Klaus’ sled landed quietly, away from the house. Several elves limped out to unhook the reindeer and clean the sled while we climbed out.
Nate scanned the battle aftermath, his attention settling on the fallen Krampus lying face down in the snow. “I think I know what that is, but what’s with the black goo?”
“Maws,” Emma said, hopping down from the sled.
Nate raised an eyebrow.
“They’re Mask’s servants,” I explained.
“But aren’t you Mask?” he asked.
My mouth opened and closed before I looked to Guy for an explanation. “He’s right, sort of, isn’t he? I mean, I have a piece of Mask inside me, so why were those things attacking me if they’re my servants?”
“First of all, you’re not Mask, so they’re not your servants.” Guy climbed down with a grunt. “Second, I don’t know. Maybe if they bit you, they could somehow merge with the piece of Mask that’s inside you, making it stronger. Maybe they’re drawn to you because of it. Hard to say. The very nature of creatures like Mask and his servants is that their goals don’t generally make sense to grunts like me. They don’t exactly hold weekly meetings to discuss their plans with me, you know?”
“I just assumed…”
He stood up taller, back rigid. “What? That because we’re from the same place, we all know each other? That I had some secret understanding that I wasn’t sharing with the class? Kid, I might be from the Nightlands, but I’m still in the dark about how some things work. I know what I know, and that’s all there is.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” I grumbled.
Guy snorted. “Yeah, you did. But I’ll let it slide. Just do me a favor and quit trying to lump me in with them. I ain’t anything like Mask. I ain’t anything like any of them. Not anymore.”
Nate cleared his throat. “I’m going to need a base of operations. A warm base with good lighting and access to a reliable power grid.”
Klaus nodded. “I can get you that.”
“I’ll help,” Emma offered and sped up to keep pace with them.
They walked toward the house. Guy moved to follow, but I grabbed his arm, holding him back. Emma stopped to give me a questioning look.
“I’ll catch up in just a second,” I promised. “First, me and this guy have to have a chat.”
She didn’t seem happy to leave me alone with Guy, but she did it just the same. Guess she trusted me enough to know I wasn’t going to do something stupid. Well, not too stupid anyway.
I pulled Guy aside and as far out of earshot of any living thing as I could.
“What’s the big idea?” He jerked his arm away.
“We can’t go straight to the Nightlands,” I said.
Guy’s upper lip twitched. “I thought you said you wanted to get rid of Mask.”
“I do, but the two gods that control the door to the Nightlands, Ereshkegal and Nergal, are going to want something from me. They can’t just let us through without payment, and I think I know what they’re going to want.”
Guy crossed his arms. “I’m listening.”
I explained my logic to him and my plan.
“You’re crazy,” he blurted when I was done. “But you know, sometimes crazy gets the job done. I like your angle, kid. There’s just one problem with it.”
“And what’s that?”
“You assume these gods will want to be in the same room as each other.” He cupped his fists together and blew on them before continuing. “Most gods hate each other in my experience. Even the ones that don’t, barely tolerate the others. Getting this many gods together in one place is a lot to ask. Not only that, but it’ll take time. Time is the one thing you ain’t got, not if you want this done before your big day.”
He was right. We’d be cutting it close, but it was the only solution I could think of. “After the ritual, we need to see Samedi. Indulge me that much. If Samedi refuses to take the message, then that’s that. We tried. Nergal and Ereshkegal will just have to deal. But if he does take the message and agrees to set the meeting, then we have to make good on our promise to solve their problem.”
Samedi wouldn’t refuse to carry the message to the gods. That was his job, and a Loa couldn’t outright refuse to do his job. At least not as far as I knew. Sure, he might whine and complain or try to wriggle his way out of it with a bargain, but he’d never refuse.
“You drive a hard bargain, kid, but I can’t say you’re wrong. The supernatural world needs this. It’s been a long time coming. Who knows? Maybe you’ll wind up doing some good for once.” He backhanded my chest, just enough to rattle me and paced off.
Snow crunched under my feet as I took a few steps after him. “Guy, does that mean yes? You’ll help me get to Samedi first?”
“I’ll do what I can, but that’s your area, amigo.” He waved at me without turning around.
I took my time going into the house, despite the cold. After all, it wasn’t like I was eager to die, even if it was temporary. Talking to Samedi was often like trying to convince a cat to go on a walk. Pointless and frustrating. But he’d come if I called him. He was waiting for my call anyway. Soon, it’d be time for me to hand my power over to Nate, and Samedi knew it.
Instead of going straight inside, I walked around the house to the little heated barn where they were triaging the wounded. In Faerie, the fae remained largely unchanged and immortal. About the only way to kill them was with iron. Most of the rest of the time, they just remained in whatever deformed body battles left them with.
Except when Remy was around. Something about Remy changed the way Faerie and the fae worked. Whenever she was near, they could die. I didn’t know if that was because she shared blood with me, or some unique trait of her own. How close did she have to be? How grievous the wound? All questions without any answers. It didn’t matter. She’d been there during the attack, which meant there were dead fae, and she was nearby now, which meant there were dying fae.
Rather than go into the house, Nate had found his way to the triage station to assist however he could with the wounded. He was busy assessing a nearby patient with a grim expression.
“Whatever pain relief you have, give it to him,” Nate ordered and moved to the next.
I stood at the entrance to the tiny shed, just watching. I wasn’t any help there. If anything, I was in the way. Yet I still couldn’t tear myself from the room. This is my fault. All these soldiers are hurt and dying because of how I handled the situation. I should’ve been more careful. I should’ve known.
A soldier with a tourniquet around his thigh gasped and the tourniquet split. Blood spurted from a wound, coating the floor around him in a fraction of a second. I should have been disturbed, or at least mildly nauseated by the scene of the soldier as he bled out, yet all I could think about as the medics rushed to save him was how hungry I was.
No. I squeezed my eyes shut. I know that’s not me. It’s you, and I won’t let you gain any more ground.
Mask’s laughter echoed through my mind. You can’t stop me. You’ve already ceded battle after battle, giving me more control with every passing day. My roots are too deep in your psyche now.
A lance of pain cut through my skull. I hissed and gripped my temples. “We’ll see how deep those roots are soon enough!”
It wasn’t until I saw Nate staring at me that I realized I�
��d shouted it. He stepped away from the dead fae, his front coated in blood. The soldier had bled out. Was that my fault too?
Rather than try to explain I wasn’t talking to them, I lowered my head and walked back out into the cold. My breath came out in little clouds. When I was a kid in the cold, I used to pretend I was smoking whenever I saw my breath. As an adult, I knew better. Thinking of those times, though, reminded me of Josiah. No one had heard from him in a while. He’d even missed my disastrous bachelor party.
I looked up at the twilight sky, thinking there had to be a way to find out if he was okay or not. Maybe his troll friend would know, but I didn’t know how to get in contact with Reggie. “I could’ve really used your help on this one,” I muttered and trudged inside.
My borrowed boots were covered with snow, so I left them by the door with everyone else’s shoes and wandered into the house. We couldn’t start the ritual until Nate was there, and he probably wouldn’t come inside until he’d done whatever he could for the wounded. That meant sitting on my hands for a while, at least an hour or two.
Maybe I should get some sleep, I thought, staring through an open door at a spare bedroom made up in red and green. My stomach growled, and I immediately gave up on the idea. If I slept or lowered my guard in any way, Mask could reveal himself. He might take over my body and make me raid the fridge in search of raw meat, or worse, hurt someone I cared about. I had to stay moving. There’d be plenty of time to sleep when I was dead.
Eddie, Klaus, Jack, and Emma were in the living room, huddled together near the fireplace. Aside from the fire, the only light in the room came from the drooping decorated evergreen in the corner. White lights raced in a spiral down the tree, illuminating wooden nutcrackers, silver bells, and figurines of birds perched on its branches. A single gift wrapped in jolly red paper sat under the tree.
“Where’s Guy?” I had no idea why I asked after him. It wasn’t like I needed him for anything, though I was trying to keep track of him. As helpful as he seemed, I still didn’t trust him enough.
Klaus whispered something to Jack, who nodded and walked away, avoiding me completely.
“Probably out back somewhere.” Klaus grunted and sank into his armchair. “We’ve decided you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to die.”
I scanned their faces, trying to deduce what was up. “Every minute we stall, you’re in more danger. Mask gets more dangerous. Why put it off longer than you have to?”
Klaus started to answer, but Eddie swooped in to put an arm around me. “Why don’t you help me in the kitchen, dear?”
I gave Emma a questioning look. Just what were they up to?
“I’m going to go get cleaned up,” Emma said without acknowledging my confusion.
Klaus nodded. “Sure thing. I’ll have the elves show you to your room.”
Eddie pulled me into the kitchen before I could protest and put a scrub brush in my hand. She pointed to a small pile of dishes and set me to work. I frowned at her as she tied an apron on and went to work, pulling things out of the fridge and cabinets. Milk, eggs, sugar, flour… Looked like Eddie was about to do some baking.
“You didn’t drag me in here just to do the dishes, did you, Eddie?”
She smiled and set up a trio of mixing bowls. “You’re a sharp tack.”
“Don’t insult me, Eddie. I know something’s up. What’s going on? Why stall what we all know needs to be done? Was it Emma? She’s worried about me, right?”
Eddie sighed and started measuring out dry ingredients. “We’re all worried about you. Dying is no small thing, not even for you. Especially when your plan relies on getting gods to cooperate toward a common goal.”
I stopped scrubbing the pan I was working on. “How do you know about that? Did Guy blab already?”
She chuckled. “No, nothing of the sort. It’s hard to keep secrets from me, young man. Or did you think Klaus maintains his own Naughty and Nice lists? That man doesn’t have an organized bone in his body. All you men want to do is rush off to fight things. It leaves us women in a rough spot, you know. We want to help or stop you, but you don’t listen. One of the most difficult things a woman will ever do is watch her loved ones suffer from the sidelines.”
I went back to scrubbing the pan, thinking about what she’d said. I knew it was hard on Emma, going through all this. Everything that’d happened was difficult, but I didn’t know what else to do. I was trying to get rid of the Pale Horseman mantle, to set up a simple, drama-free life for us. No matter what I did, though, I had the awful sinking feeling that the drama of the supernatural world would never leave us alone.
“What’s a guy supposed to do?” I asked. “I’m trying. It’s not like I invited Mask in. None of this is on purpose. The only way to stop it is to do nothing, and that’s not who I am. Emma knows that. And she knows I’m trying to fix it. It’s just not fair. She deserves better. I wish I could give it to her.”
“Sweetheart, she knows you’re trying. She wouldn’t still be here if she didn’t think you were.”
“What then?” I turned around. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. The only thing in this world I’ve ever wanted was to protect the people I love and to be happy. That’s what caused this mess. Life was easier before I got involved. Maybe things would be better if I just kept my head down and pretended not to notice everything wrong with the world.”
Eddie raised an eyebrow. “You really think you could do that?”
My shoulders slumped. “No.”
“That’s why she loves you, you know? Because you’re a good man. The people we love see the good in us when we can’t see it in ourselves. Spend enough time with the right people, the truly good ones, and they’ll bring that out of you. You’ll do more than you ever thought yourself capable of. That’s the magic of connecting with other people, Lazarus. Simple, but so important.”
“I still haven’t heard any suggestions for what to do.”
Eddie grinned and waved a rubber spatula at me. “What you do with a girl like that, young man, is marry her as fast as you can. You don’t wait for the seating chart to be perfect, or for the right flowers or the right dress. Perfection is an impossible dream, invented by the imperfect to excuse procrastination.”
“But—”
She cut me off, this time with a whisk. “Unless you’re about to tell me a seating chart is more important than your fiancée, you’d better shut up right now.”
I snapped my jaw shut.
Eddie’s warm smile returned. “Now, don’t you have something better to do?”
I dropped the sponge into the water with a splash. “I’m sorry, Eddie, but you’re going to have to find someone else to do your dishes. I need to go see Emma.”
She beamed. “That’s a good boy.”
A few moments later, I found myself sitting in the guest bedroom on the freshly made bed, my hands folded, feet tapping nervously.
The door opened and Emma stepped in, still toweling her hair dry. “Lazarus?” She peeked behind the door as if checking for someone else. “What are you doing here?”
“Emma,” I said, standing with as much confidence as I could muster, “I don’t think you should finish that seating chart, or argue with the florist, or rearrange the dance music for the sixth time.” I took the towel from her and tossed it aside so I could take her hands in mine.
“Laz, what on Earth—”
“Marry me, Emma.”
She looked around again. “I already said yes.”
“I mean right now. Tonight. Before I have to go save the world from myself one more time. I know it’s sudden, but—”
Emma’s lips closed over mine. That shut me up and sent every other thought out of my head. After a moment, she stepped back, all smiles. “I was starting to think you’d never ask.”
Chapter Twelve
We set up a small ceremony. Well, as small as Klaus and Eddie would allow. Legally, all that was required to be considered married in the state of Louisiana was
a marriage license, which we’d already applied for and had back home. Technically speaking, the marriage was supposed to be performed in Louisiana, but as long as two witnesses signed off, no one was going to question it, especially with a little Christmas magic to help cover any gaps in the law.
For a few hours after the announcement, the house was a flurry of joyous movement. Klaus and Remy set anyone well enough to get around to the task of decorating the main room with streamers and bows. Eddie began putting together a wedding cake and a small feast, but also stole Emma away to dress her up.
When I lamented to Klaus that I didn’t have anything nice to wear either, Jack clicked his tongue, shook his head, and said, “That won’t do. Let me make some calls. I’ll take care of everything.”
I had no idea what he planned to do, especially since we were stuck at the North Pole, of all places. There wasn’t exactly a Men’s Warehouse at the mall to rent a tux from. Yet an hour later, he ushered me into a small room where I found Adelard and his wife waiting.
“How’d you get here?” I asked the diminutive goblin as he hobbled over, pushing a garment cart.
He gave a derisive snort. “Do you want to know, or do you want to put on the suit I’ve been working on?”
I guess some mysteries are better left unsolved.
His wife—a talented spider seamstress with four arms and four legs— pinned the suit in a few places to make final alterations while I stared at myself in a big mirror. My haggard face had seen better days. Several superficial cuts on the side of my face were healing, and there was at least one bruise. At least I’d been able to get a shave so I could look presentable.
“Oh, what’s wrong, sweetie?” she asked.
“Just nerves. Emma’s family is going to freak out when they hear, and we already paid for a lot. It isn’t going to be easy to get that money back. It’s probably long gone. Plus, my house is a wreck, and the market is down. I’ll never be able to sell the damn thing now.” I rubbed my temples.
“Hold still, dear.” She tugged my arm down gently.
