Down in Flames

by Jennifer Siddoway

  Aw, crap! What are these?

  Nathan knew more about fairy kin than I did, but before I could ask him what we were dealing with, one of them dove at me with her talons outstretched and started clawing at my face.

  “Augh!”

  It wasn’t until they were right on top of us that I could see the body of a giant bird and the head of a shrieking women. They had sharp, unforgiving talons and smelled like poultry when they came near us.

  “Harpies!” I shouted furiously. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  I grabbed a stick off the ground and swung at her angrily while another attacked Nathan from behind. Her claws wrapped around his arms and carried him off into the sky.

  I dropped the stick I was holding and called out after him in horror, “Nate!”

  I immediately released the glamour and spread my wings to fly. My jaw set with determination, I flew up after them, rising through the air when Nathan grunted, “Ugh!”

  I had almost reached him when Nate sparked out electricity and blasted the harpy holding him. The air smelt like burning feathers and ozone as she let him go and fell to the earth herself. Without the harpy holding him, Nathan started falling towards the ground.

  I gasped, shifting from aggression to desperately diving down for the ground before he crash-landed. Even with all my speed it wasn’t fast enough, so I teleported right below him and caught him. What I didn’t anticipate was his inertia, which brought us both careening towards the earth.

  We landed painfully on the ground and it knocked the wind from my lungs. “Ughhh…” I groaned in protest. “That’s not what I was planning.”

  The harpies squawked in rage as thy saw their kin fall and began diving for us repeatedly, beating their feathers at me as they flew past, trying to claw the eyes from my face. I picked up the branch I had before and handed it to him. “Here,” I told him forcibly.

  “What about you?”

  I grinned, shifting my hands into their psychic blades and spread out my wings so he could see. “I can take care of myself. You bash any of them that come near you, or zap them, I don’t really care.”

  He smiled as I leapt into the air and swung at them with my blade-like arms. I caught one of them by its wing and trimmed some feathers, just in time to see another bird coming at me. The harpy’s claws were out and fully extended, so I shook off the blade to revert my arm and grab it by the leg, swinging it around, then sent it flying into the trees.

  It was chaos.

  Down below me on the ground, Nathan swung at them with the branch like a baseball bat. After hitting one or two of them myself, they came back at me with renewed force.

  At one point, I got clipped by some of their talons, cutting a line across my cheek. I was getting tired and the continued onslaught wasn’t letting up. Despite our best efforts, there were too many of them. Somehow, they managed to wriggle the stick away from Nate and carried it off into the trees. He retaliated in the most logical way possible, by concentrating the conduction of the air around them and then grounding it. A bolt of lightning formed in the air and paralyzed four of them.

  Stunned, they fell to the ground and twitched, unable to move or fly. Beyond the trees a deep horn billowed out across the swamp and thick black fog rolled out across the water. The harpies went crazy at the sound of it and desperately clawed and crawled away in fear.

  “Nate,” I called out nervously. “Get away from there.”

  He and I both watched the fog creep closer and engulf the harpies on the ground. The minute it touched their bodies, a strange convulsing motion came over them until eventually they stopped. Dead.

  “Nate!” You’ve got to run!” I told him.

  The black fog kept reaching forward, inching ever closer as Nate broke into a run and started racing across the ground. I watched in horror as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Through the abyss of toxic clouds, a dancing satyr came skipping through the grove with thick brown fur and neatly polished hooves. He didn’t seem to acknowledge the imminent danger we were all in and held a reed flute up to his lips to play a sweet tune.

  As the notes of his song grew louder, the creature looked back at me from where he stood and tilted his head in the direction he had come from.

  What’s going on, does he think this is some kind of game? We’re all going to die! I realized in horror.

  My thoughts were jumbled and frantic, but something about the satyr made me pause. Nate tried to urge me onward, but I stopped and pointed towards the fae. “Come on, Wynn! We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Nathan, look!”

  He groaned loudly and whirled around to see what was keeping me. As he glanced back over his shoulder, the deathly fog which was creeping through the trees started to dissipate from our path. The mist swept past us and continued to fill the swamp, but swerved to avoid the musical tune, creating a pocket of safety where we stood. The song acted as some musical key that protected us from harm.

  I floated down towards the earth, where Nate, the satyr and I all met in the center. As soon as my feet touched the ground, I returned to human form so that I wouldn’t frighten him. The satyr gazed at me when I came towards him, looking deep into my eyes, but the music never ceased. He was void of any aura, like all the other fae, and continued playing his magic flute.

  Nate and I watched him slack jawed for a moment, but the satyr ignored us except to skip around in a little circle before continuing on his way. I still couldn’t tell if it was an actual interaction or just a happenstance of his dancing. I was not sure how, or why, the musical key worked the way it did, but he was headed the exact way we need to go, so I shrugged, letting out a nervous laugh and started back on the path.

  “You know what, I'm not even going to ask questions anymore. Follow him in case the fog comes back.”

  Chapter Eight

  Storming the Keep

  ML

  Nathan and I followed the satyr as it played the lute cheerily down the mossy path.

  As the trees began to clear and the air became easier to breathe, our guide took the flute from his lips and tucked it in a bag. The enchanted song had stopped and he looked back at me with misty eyes. “If you’re seeking refuge, children, I suggest you go inside.”

  “Please, we have to find the Tree of Life. Will you help us?”

  “I have already done my part,” he responded with a smile. “This is where I leave you.”

  “But...”

  Suddenly, Nathan reached out to touch my arm and get my attention, pointing off into the distance. “Wynn!”

  I turned and asked him, “What?”

  “Look.”

  I followed his gaze, but it wasn’t until that moment, when I looked up, that I saw the fortress ruins in front of me. The toxic fog had distorted the view while we were walking and it hadn’t become visible until then. It was a welcome sight after the atrocious harpies from the swamp and the smell of rotten garbage. A thick watery moat surrounded it with only a single bridge to get across. It was wide enough for two people to cross it side by side, with vines crawling up around two sides to form a rail to keep you from falling into the water.

  My jaw fell open at the sight of it and I turned back to the satyr in gratitude. “Thank you! How did you ...”

  But he was gone.

  “Where did he go?” I asked, looking around for the cloven footprints.

  Nathan shrugged, looking forward to the land beyond. “I think he was leading us here.”

  As we came up to the bridge, I looked down at the filthy moat and crinkled my nose. We looked at one another nervously, taking each other’s hands as a sign of solidarity before crossing it together. It quickly became clear that the rail had been placed there for a reason. Our shoes scuffled across, the wood creaking loudly underfoot.

  I gripped the vine firmly and continued onward, even as the bridge below me started waving dangerously. Inch by inch, we made it across until landing safely on the other side. We had barely caught
our bearings when I felt a sort of pressure passing through me like an invisible forcefield. My glamour disappeared immediately and Nate raised an eyebrow at me, confused. “Why did you do that?”

  My skin became dark and scaly, with boney claws at the end of each hand.

  Looking down at my arms in shock. My jaw fell open slightly and I turned to him and said, “I didn’t.”

  “Then why are you all scaly now?”

  Before I could respond, a feisty angelic creature came running out from the stone archway with a flaming scimitar in his hand. He was petite in stature, coming up only to my shoulder, but when he saw my demon, he became even more incensed and came barreling across the ground towards us.

  The cherubim.

  I tried to summon an energy ball, but as I focused the power into my hands it fizzled into nothing. The energy I was harnessing wouldn’t coalesce the way I needed it to, it was shapeless and unresponsive to my attempt. What? No, don’t do this now! Come on…

  The cherubim were getting closer, so I frantically tried again but with similar results – my powers weren’t working. This was the absolute worst thing that could happen; I’d be worse than useless without my powers to protect myself. My heart raced as it dawned on me that I was a sitting duck, everyone was counting on me and I was without a weapon.

  As one of the cherubim approached, I dove out of the way into a summersault and avoided his attack. The angel was furious and launched himself in the air, coming down with his sword that crashed into the earth like thunder. “Demon scum! How dare you set foot on this holy land!”

  “Nate, you’ve got to blast him!” I called out in a panic, scrambling to my feet. “My powers aren’t working.”

  “What? You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  I didn’t have time to respond before two more angels came running out from around the bend, with their swords in hand, ready to attack. “Nathan, duck!”

  He whirled in time to avoid the flaming sword that came swooping across his head. Nathan groaned, repositioning his glasses as sparks flew from the corner of his eyes and brought his hands low in front of his chest. An electric bolt of energy erupted from between his hands and he released it with a crackling burst to land on the angel’s chest.

  The cherubim fell back stunned and landed hard against the grass, dropping his sword safely out of reach. When his companions saw what had happened they let out a war cry and charged us. “There’s two of them!”

  “I don’t think we can take all of them,” I shouted. “We’ve got to run!”

  Nathan nodded, sending one more blast of lighting towards them and came running after me. His charge left them incapacitated for a moment and we were able to get past through a stone archway that led into a clearing. The grass along the clearing was brighter and more neon green than it have been in the Mortal Realm. Above the tops of the trees and framing the landscape of the fortress walls was a lavender colored sky.

  The colors, sound, and even the air felt cleaner – crisper, more distinct. I could sense magic in the air around me. Even as we were running past my fae blood recognized this place on a cosmic level that marked it as home. Nate must have felt it too. I was aware of his every movement, when he stiffened I felt the hairs on his arms stand up.

  Fae and mythical creatures poked their heads out in the distance, from behind moss covers and crumbling stone. One tree directly in front of the entrance had the shape of a young woman, with her hands and face reaching out into the beyond, screaming as if she’d been petrified in time.

  “Come on, we’ve got to find the Tree,” I told him urgently. “They’re going to come after us again as soon as they recover.”

  “Okay, but what’s going on with you?” he wheezed out desperately. “The glamour’s gone and now you can’t use any of your powers?”

  I nodded. “That about sums it up.”

  He cursed aloud while looking around at the castle ruins. “That feels like something Nadia should have warned us about before we came. It’s a pretty big deal when we’re going up against a hoard of angels.”

  I sighed, beating my wings behind me to fly across the fortress. “Maybe she didn’t know,” I suggested hopefully. “Nadia’s powers are fae, like yours, so they probably weren’t affected.”

  Nathan groaned as he charged after me, running as fast as he could through the rocky terrain and rubble. “Great, well that’s one more thing we’ve got to deal with,” he shouted below me.

  It made sense to me now that I thought about it. A demon had broken inside and tempted Eve to eat the apple. I bet the angels put a forcefield here to keep any demons from getting back inside, and if they did, at least they wouldn’t have any powers.

  Crap, I bet that’s probably the case.

  I didn’t know of any spells that did that though, they either cancelled magic completely or not at all. If they were going to cancel out infernal energy, it would have negated divine power too.

  Behind us, I could hear the angels coming. Their angry cries rose over the hill and I grabbed Nathan by the arm, pulling him through a stone archway that opened to a cheery grove.

  I looked up in awe as we crossed beneath it and saw a beautiful silver stream flowing between the castle rummage. A massive tree grew from a tiny island in the center of the river, with low hanging branches overgrown with fruit – all of it rotten, growing sickly from the very start. The grass, water and land surrounding it, all appeared to be polluted with the same corruption.

  “What is that?” he asked me, dumbfounded. “Is that what we’re looking for?”

  “No, that’s the Tree of Knowledge.,” I told him quietly. “Its magic was stolen the moment Eve took a bite of its fruit. They probably never thought it would disintegrate when she and Adam left.”

  “Okay, we’ll keep looking.”

  “Wait!” I stopped him, breaking a small branch from another tree beside me. “Take this with you.”

  I wanted to remember this place and all its beauty, and who knew if I’d ever be able to return. In some small way, it served as physical validation that this experience had actually happened. He looked down at the bough I was handing him, with silver tips on every leaf, and stuck it in his backpack. “I’m not even going to ask.”

  I sensed one of the angels creeping around the corner and silenced him with a look. They were speaking an ancient language I did not recognize at first, but then one of them reverted to English.

  “Where did they go?”

  “Imbeciles!” another cried. “Go and find them, they can’t have gotten far.”

  I heard the wind and movement of them running another direction and peeked out. Nathan glanced over at me and nodded before we slowly followed them around the corner.

  “What’s your plan?” he whispered quietly. “It’s not like they’re going to leave the Tree unguarded, and you don’t have any powers now.”

  I exhaled nervously and nodded. “I don’t think they do either; it’s part of the anti-magic barrier. They were surprised that you had power after crossing the bridge. Only fae can use their powers inside the fortress.”

  He nodded slowly. “You think that’s why I’m still crackling?”

  “Yep. All they have is brute strength.”

  “They’re also trained fighters, Wynn! I didn’t bring any weapons here, did you?”

  I scoffed at his naivete. “We don’t need them. You’re better equipped to take them on than anyone else I could think of. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. Maybe I can get them to listen to me. If things turn ugly though, zap the hell out of them, okay?”

  “Alright…”

  Deftly, Nathan and I crawled along the grass at a reasonable distance, careful to not make any noise. We followed the Cherubim around the mossy rocks and garden path, until coming to a second courtyard that the river ran through as well. Even in its dilapidated state, the grounds were lush and green – nature in its purest form.

  It was completely different from the one before, with a pattern of
stones that circled round the giant tree.

  The Tree of Eternal Life.

  The tree had golden leaves and bark pale as ivory with blossoming flowers on its branches. Unlike its companion, this tree was full of life and radiated a faint tremor of magical energy through the air, renewing the environment. It was surrounded by a low hedge that marked its boundaries, and at designated points a warrior Cherubim stood waiting. Although they were small in stature, coming only up to my shoulder, with flaming scimitar’s in their hands, they practically vibrated with the intensity of the realm’s best fighters.

  One of the cherubim with dark skin saw us coming and drew his sword. The others quickly realized what was happening and unsheathed theirs as well, setting their stance in front of us defensively. “Whoever you are, children, we suggest you return to where you came from.”

  “Whoa, there’s no need for any of that,” I told them calmly, raising both my hands to show I was unarmed. “We don’t mean you any harm.”

  The diplomacy of my statement was greatly minimized by the scaly black skin and wings marking me as a demon. I could see in their eyes how my words fell flat, their preconceived notions about my kind telling them that I couldn’t possibly be speaking the truth.

  “Anyone who enters the Garden is an enemy to us,” another stated firmly. “You will not take the fruit!”

  “We’re not here for that. We,” I signaled to Nate and me, “do not want the gift of Eternal Life. All I need is a branch from the Tree.”

  The dark-skinned angel, who was the most vocal of the three, flexed his right hand and it transformed into a golden, mechanical replica. It clinked against the metal of his sword as he gripped the hilt and prepared himself for battle. The one beside him laughed, her blue eyes shining menacingly beneath her auburn hair. “No one has been granted access to these sacred grounds before. Your very presence here is shameful. Leave, or we’ll be forced to kill you.”