by H. D. Gordon
Black Heart cried out in rage, and for a moment, Charlie thought that the dagger he’d thrown at his brother’s chest had hit home.
Instead, Black Heart batted away the blade as though it were nothing, not even having to touch it, just flicking it away with magic.
The cry of anger Black Heart gave was due to the fact that the portal in the sky letting in the Fae Guardians was closing, cutting off a good percentage of his force.
Charlie did not waste the moment of distraction, he charged his brother and made contact, tackling him to the ground, landing a hard right to Black Heart’s jaw that Charlie felt in his own gut.
It terribly wrong to be directing such force at his kin, but there was no way around it. Only one of them would leave this fight alive.
Charlie was knocked back several feet by an invisible blow to his solar plexus, the air whooshing out of his lungs painfully as his brother regained his feet and used more magic to lock Charlie’s arms to his sides.
Panic filled him as Charlie found he couldn’t lift his arms, couldn’t move. Black Heart was holding him magically in place.
“You never could take me without magic,” Charlie spat, his heart aching a bit at the thought that these would likely be the last words he spoke to his brother.
Black Heart pushed his dark hair out of his face and swiped at the blood on his lips, his green eyes—the same emerald as Charlie’s—as pitiless as a Demon’s. He stopped when he reached Charlie and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Charlie tried to shake off the touch, but could not get his muscles to obey, so he only stared at his brother with all the fire he could muster.
Looking down, Charlie saw that Black Heart was holding a sharp knife in his hand, the tip of it resting against the fabric covering Charlie’s chest.
“I never wanted it to end like this, Charlie-Boy,” he whispered, and as he did so, the hand holding the knife reared up, preparing to drive itself deep into Charlie’s chest.
But something struck Black Heart from behind, hard enough to make his eyes widen and his head hunch down between his shoulders. Out of what Charlie was sure had to be pure reflex, his brother turned to see what had struck him.
Black Heart’s attention was only diverted for the smallest of moments, but it was enough. Charlie found that he could move again, and before he could change his mind or think about the consequences, he jammed his dagger into his brother’s neck, driving it in all the way to the hilt.
There was a moment then when the entire world froze for Charlie Redmine, a moment before the body of his older brother trembled and went limp, a moment before life as he’d known it forever melted away.
Just a heartbeat, really. A heartbeat before he became the murderer of someone who shared his blood.
The last someone who shared his blood.
Michael’s eyes rolled and met Charlie’s, surprise and realization clouding over his face.
In this moment, the noise of all the happenings around them faded away, the cries of those fighting and dying, the howling of the wind, the spattering of the rain.
And for a small slice of time, it was just Michael and him. Just Charlie and his big brother.
Then blood bubbled out of Black Heart’s mouth, carrying with it his final words. They were but a whisper, but the sound of them would haunt Charlie’s dreams in the days to come.
“Didn’t think you had it in you, Charlie-Boy,” his brother said.
And then he was gone.
Chapter 54
Aria
Aria Fae stood in utter awe as she watched Charlie Redmine drive the dagger she’d given him deep into his brother’s neck.
The Sorcerer’s scarlet blood sprayed into the open air in a way that Aria found oddly cinematic.
But when some of it splattered over her face, she could only stand where she was and gape. She had saved Charlie’s life for a fourth time, if she had counted right, but who could say?
She was frozen to the spot, her mind at a standstill. All the craziness surrounding her melted away, and all she could see was Charlie. The look on his face just then would never really leave her mind.
Watching him kill his brother had been much like watching someone drown a part of their own soul. And her heart hurt for him.
As Aria Fae slipped out of the moment, the world swimming back to her attention, and she looked around the battlefield on which she stood, the bodies of Fae Guardians scattered everywhere, the scorched spots where the Demon’s bodies had finally turned to dust, her heart hurt for them all.
Words her mother used to be fond of saying came to her then: In war, there is no victor.
Aria could see the truth of this now. She could feel the truth of this in her bones.
The thought of her mother brought tears to her eyes, and she blinked to clear them. As she did this, one of the last remaining Demons swooped down on her, and she only had time for her eyes to widen before it reached her.
Then there was a flash of black, and just before the creature could touch her, it was tackled out of the air by one of the largest cats Aria had ever seen. The cat tore at the Demon with razor sharp teeth and claws, flinging bits of it this way and that with a ferocity that was somehow spectacular for the pure nature of it.
The cat was an enormous panther, easily three times the size of any Aria had seen in the human world. Her jaw hung open as she watched the beast tear the Demon to shreds.
As she looked around at the Sorcerer Territory, she realized there was so much about the supernatural world that she knew nothing about having lived with humans most of her life.
In the time it took for this to happen, Aria turned and saw that there were hardly any Demons or Fae left alive, and those that were still alive were either being torn apart by a big cat or skewered by Surah’s sais.
Bodies.
Bodies were everywhere.
After a while, as the deaths of all those who’d stood against the Sorceress Queen were ensured, a silence fell.
It was so deep, so complete, that it seemed to Aria as if the earth and the heavens were pausing, and she found that she was having trouble breathing steadily.
Such devastation had a way of wearing at one’s soul.
At least it’s over, Aria thought.
But then the crazed Sorceress Queen let out a scream of rage that scorched the sky, and Aria realized she’d called it too soon.
Chapter 55
Charlie
Surah’s scream of rage was so intense that Charlie looked up from the body of his dead brother.
It pulled him out of the trance that had befallen him, away from the cliff of despair that he had been standing out on.
The battle, it seemed, was over. The portal had been closed. His brother was dead. The Demons he’d been controlling were also dead.
Charlie had crushed the small wooden box that had fallen out of his brother’s cloak under his boot, not liking the looks of the thing, and like magic, the remaining Demons had turned to dust that was then washed away by the rain still falling and falling.
That left only the Fae Warriors who had made it through the portal before it closed, and Surah and the Great Cats made short work of them, though Charlie had been too engulfed in his own deeds to notice.
But he noticed now.
The sound that came from Surah was too full of darkness not to capture him, and as he looked into the eyes of the woman he loved, he couldn’t seem to find the Surah Stormsong he knew anywhere.
“Who closed the portal?!” Surah screamed, and it was as if the voice had come from an angry goddess, shaking the ground with its force.
Magic flew from her fingers in sputtering sparks, and her face was free of all color, her eyes a swirling black. The Black Stone around her neck throbbed and glowed, its power blanketing her in a darkness through which it was hard to see.
Charlie’s heart jumped when Surah approached Aria, stalking over to the Halfling girl with a menace that made Charlie jump between the two.
He held his hands up to the queen, his tongue thick in his throat. “Surah,” he said, wary. “Your fight isn’t with her.”
Without blinking, Surah flicked her wrist, and Charlie was thrown into the air, knocked aside with her magic. He scrambled to his feet as Surah bore down on the girl, his heart sinking in his chest.
To his surprise, now it was Samson who came between Surah and Aria. Charlie couldn’t hear what the tiger was saying, but he knew the two of them were communicating in the telepathic way they had.
Whatever Samson told her made her eyes narrow and her hands clench into fists.
For a split second, Charlie thought Surah was going to strike out at Samson, which was so unthinkable it scared him more than he cared to admit.
But then Surah snapped her fingers, blinking out of the battlefield upon which so many of her slain foe lie, portaling out of sight to only Gods knew where, murder clearly on her mind.
Chapter 56
Surah
Charlie was in front of her.
Standing between her and the Halfling girl who had likely closed the portal Surah had opened.
Taking Aria’s side. Had he fallen in love with the Halfling while she’d been away, trying to save the kingdom so that they could be together?
It would be just like a man to do so. She flicked her wrist, knocking him out of the way.
If Charlie chose the other side now, that was his folly. Surah was the Sorceress Queen, and she was done playing games. She could not allow traitors to be amongst her, be they Halfling, Sorcerer, or even a man she’d thought she loved.
At this, a small voice within her whispered that she still loved Charlie Redmine, but the ringing in her ears, the anger in her veins, the darkness in her heart, easily drowned it out.
Then, Samson was standing in front of her, his amber cat eyes locked on hers, his familiar voice sounding in her head.
“Leave the girl, my love. You’re in the throes of bad magic. You should take off that stone.”
Surah’s voice was colder than Sam had ever heard it, though she was not aware of this.
“She closed the portal. I could’ve ended this right here, could have killed them all, but she closed the Gods damned portal.”
“You did end it, love… No more death needs to come on this day. Look around, Surah. Enough have died. The girl didn’t mean you any harm… You need to take off that stone.”
Surah felt a bitterness toward the beast that surprised her, even in her crazed state. Maybe he was right about the Halfling girl, but he was wrong about something else.
More death did need to come on this day.
She told him as much and then blinked out of sight. Black Heart was dead, but there was a certain fairy bitch that still needed dealing with.
And if Surah had to burn the entire Fae Forest to the ground to get to her, then so be it.
This shit would end today.
Chapter 57
Charlie
“She went to the Fae Forest,” Aria said.
She gripped Charlie’s arm when he gave no response, and said, “Charlie, we have to go after her. Surah went to the Fae Forest, and she’s going to kill everyone in it. We have to stop her.”
Charlie heard the words the girl was saying, but he couldn’t make sense of them. His mind was too wrapped up in all that had transpired, his body numb in the aftermath.
Aria slapped him across the face hard enough to make his jaw clench. She watched him for a moment, ready to jump out of the way should he retaliate, (which, of course, he would not) and when she saw he wasn’t going to, held out her hand.
“We gotta go after your girlfriend, dude,” she said.
Charlie saw now that her pretty face was drained of color, and she looked like she might be sick.
“Just open a portal for me,” he said. “I’ll go.”
Aria continued holding out her hand, shook her head, rainwater flicking off the tips of her hair.
“I know there are casualties in war,” she said, “but there are children in that forest, Charlie, and if Surah goes on a rampage, they’ll be the first to die. I’m coming with you. We have to stop her.”
Charlie closed his eyes for the smallest of stolen moments. He cleared his mind, pushing away his doubt and horror and grief at all the things that had happened this day. He wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotten here.
It seemed to him that just yesterday he’d been keeping bar in the countryside, minding his own business.
Now he was here; outside the capital city on a battlefield of dead Fae and more Great Beasts than he’d even known still existed. The woman he loved was insane with dark magic, a danger to all she came near.
He opened his eyes, met the gaze of the Halfling girl. “Just send me, Aria. I’m gonna stop her.”
Aria stared at him as if she didn’t want to say what she was going to say next, but had to.
“Thousands of Fae children, Charlie,” the Halfling girl whispered. “What if you can’t stop her? What if there’s only one way to stop her?”
“I won’t let her hurt the children, Aria. I promise,” he said, though he knew in his heart that this was not a promise he could make, and the look that came to Aria’s face said that she knew this, too.
The truth was, if Charlie couldn’t stop Surah, if Charlie couldn’t bring her back from the darkness she’d become lost in, then no one in all the realms could do so, and she was lost forever.
He could only hope that his love for her could break the hold black magic had on her, could free her from the chains its hate and vengeance had wrapped around her, as he had done once before in a cave in the jungle.
That day seemed like a million years ago now, as if it had happened in some other lifetime.
And if he could not bring her back, Gods help them all.
Aria opened up a portal, and Charlie was about to step through when a deep voice sounded in his head.
“Bring her back, or don’t return at all.”
Charlie looked into the amber eyes of Samson, the fur around his mouth covered in gore, his long tail held low.
He nodded at the Great Beast and went after the woman he loved.
Chapter 58
Surah
Surah moved through the Fae Forest with complete abandon, cutting down the trees, burning down the smaller vegetation with a swirl of her wrist, the fire catching and spreading, smoke filling the warm air.
Searching.
Destroying.
She would burn every bit of this place to the ground if she had to.
“Tristell!” she called, her voice echoing through the trees. “Tristeeeeelll!”
She was met with silence. The only sound that of small creatures scurrying deeper into the woods, the occasional squeal or squawk as the growing flames came too close.
The Fae Queen was a coward. Surah formed a fireball in her hands and launched it at a really tall, really old tree for which she did not know the name, but the puffy leaves that covered its branches went up in flames instantly.
“Tristell!”
Moving forward, she saw them coming through the trees, and retrieved her sais from their holsters. She eyed the Fae Guardians encircling her, and shook her head in disgust.
“You coward!” Surah called. “You would have me kill the last of your soldiers rather than face me yourself?”
Surah launched her left sai into the chest of one of the Fae Guardians, who dropped dead on the spot. With a flick of her wrist, the weapon was back in her hand.
“That’s another one,” Surah said, the flames in the trees growing more intense by the moment.
Rather than attacking her now, some of the Fae Guardians were trying to put out the spreading fire.
Surah sheathed her sais and formed another fireball between her hands, launching it at a large tree and staunching any progress the Fae had made at containing the flames.
“I’ll burn this entire Territory to the ground, Tristell, and everything and everyone in it!�
� Surah called out. “You wanted a fight? Now you’ve got one. Come out and face me, you coward!”
There was a rustle in the trees, and Surah looked up to see the Fae Queen perched on a branch high above her head. Her slanted eyes were burning as brightly as the growing flames around them.
“You foolish Sorceress bitch!” the Fae Queen screeched, and as she did so, her enormous feathered wings unfurled on her back. She swooped down at Surah the way a hawk might descend upon a mouse.
Surah rolled out of the way of Tristell’s strike, preparing to impale her with her sais from behind.
But the Fae Queen was faster than expected, and she took to her wings again and struck out with the sharp nails on her hands, raking Surah across the eyebrow, drawing blood.
Surah swiped it away with her sleeve as it began to drip into her eye.
Tristell landed on her feet again, standing opposite Surah. The two queens squared off.
“Weak without your magic,” Tristell spat. “And even weaker with it. What a worthless species you are. You can’t control yourself.”
Surah’s head was spinning with exhaustion, and her vision went blurry for a moment. She reached up and touched the spot where Tristell had scratched her, and realized that she must have had some sort of poison on her fingertips, because it was getting harder to concentrate, harder to stand.
A moment later, Surah fell to the hard floor of the forest. As she did so, Tristell stood over her, lifting her clawed foot and setting it atop Surah’s throat, crushing out the air.
The Fae Queen grinned, her sharp teeth flashing behind red lips. She opened her mouth to say something, but what that something was, Surah would never know.
Because she wasn’t completely paralyzed just yet, and Surah used every ounce of strength she could muster to drive her sais into the Fae Queen’s stomach, effectively killing Tristell and the unborn child within.
