by H. D. Gordon
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.
And then the crazed Sorceress Queen let out a scream of rage that scorched the sky.
CHAPTER 56
CHARLIE
Surah cried out in a way that made Charlie look 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, just 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 had left only the Fae Warriors who had made it through the portal before it closed, and Surah and the Great Cats had 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 Surah, his tongue thick in his throat. “Whoa, there, darlin’,” he said, wary. “Your fight ain’t with her.”
Without blinking, Surah flicked her wrist, and in the next instant 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 that 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, teleporting out of sight to only Gods knew where, murder clearly on her mind.
CHAPTER 57
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, and 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 some bad Magic. You should take off that Stone.
Surah responded in kind, her voice 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 should 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 58
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 all color, and she looked like she might be sick.
“Just teleport 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, pining silently over a woman he had never thought he would have.
Now he was here; outside the Sorcerer 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 only stared at him as if she didn’t want to say what she was going to say next, but had to. “Hundreds 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 miles away now, as if it had happened in some other lifetime, rather than just a little over a week ago.
And if he could not, Gods help them all.
Aria opened up a portal in the earth, 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 turned and was looking 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 59
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. Destroying. Searching. 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 Warriors 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?”
Her arm flung out before she even realized she was moving, and Surah launched her left sai into the chest of one of the Fae Warriors, 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 Warriors 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, and she swooped down at Surah the way a hawk might descend upon a mouse.
Surah’s sais were in her hands again in the space between heartbeats, and she rolled out of the way of Tristell’s strike, preparing to impale her 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. “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 moved to stand over her, lifting her clawed foot and setting it atop Surah’s throat, crushing out the air.
A grin pulled up the Fae Queen’s face, her sharp teeth flashing behind her 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.
The last thing Surah felt was the warm gush of blood that washed over her hands. The last thing she saw was the shocked looked on Tristell’s face.
And the last thing she heard was someone calling her name, but it must’ve only been in her mind, because it was spoken in the voice of Charlie Redmine.
And then the darkness swallowed her whole.
CHAPTER 60
CHARLIE
The night dragged on for an eternity, and by the time the sun finally rose over the horizon, Charlie had been convinced a new day would never come.
It was as if time had stood still, drawing out the horrible happenings. It had seemed to him that the rain would never stop, the sky would never lighten, as he sat at Surah’s bedside and waited for her to open her eyes. Prayed to the Gods that she would open her eyes.
But time was a funny thing, a construct of the mind, not existing outside of the consciousness, and it was the part of us that kept going, no matter the circumstances under which we physically and emotionally stood. And the new day had come, the sun beginning to rise with utter accountability, as if all the events of the previous day equated to nothing. Lost in the fabrication of time.
Really, all of these thoughts were just to keep him off the real things he was avoiding pondering. Like the fact that Surah might never wake up. Or how he had stabbed his own brother to death.
The last time Charlie had cried had been as a child. On the day after his parents had died. He remembered because he had promised himself he would not do so ever again, could not take the vulnerability it made him feel. And so he had not shed a tear since, not in nearly a thousand years.
And, yet, as he sat here staring at Surah’s face, at her still, unresponsive body, thinking about how everything had gone so wrong and could never, ever be put right again, he felt like he could cry. He felt like he could cry until the sun refused to shine.
Someone behind him cleared their throat, and Charlie was jerked out of his thoughts. Turning his head, his body slack in the chair, exhausted by emotion, he saw Bassil, the Shaman, standing in the doorway. He was holding a guitar in his hands.
Charlie turned back the way he’d been facing, didn’t respond.
Bassil entered the room and shut the door behind him. He took a seat in the chair beside Charlie’s and set the guitar down next to him. Silence hung for a moment while both of them sat looking at the unconscious Sorceress Queen laid out before them. There was a heaviness in the room that one could feel on their shoulders.
Samson was lying at the foot of Surah’s large bed, and Charlie had the distinct feeling that the tiger was contemplating eating him, and that maybe that wouldn’t be any more painful than what he was feeling now.
“You are not helping her condition, Charlie,” said the Shaman, in that deep, calm voice of his. The words were not spoken with any malice, only stated as fact.
Anger boiled up in Charlie with a haste unusual to him. But then, these were not normal circumstances. “You’ve already told me that,” he snapped. “I don’t get what I’m supposed to do.”
“Try again,” Bassil replied.
“I tried all night!” Charlie yelled, and Samson lifted his head off his paws. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, failing. He managed to lower his voice to a reasonable level. “I played the song. I played it a thousand fuckin’ times. I poured my heart out, professed my love in a million different ways.” His shoulders sank and his voice lowered to a whisper. “And she hasn’t woken up. She hasn’t batted an eye.”
Bassil’s face remained relaxed, a small crease in his dark brow the only indication of his worry. “There’s someone who’s offered to help,” he said.
Charlie looked up now as Aria entered the room. Her face was somber, lacking its usual light, and she looked as scared as a mouse entering a cat’s lair. With the way Samson was looking at everyone, he supposed this wasn’t too far from the truth.
“How can you help, Aria?” Charlie asked, and hated himself for the desperation that rode his words. He’d already allowed the Halfling girl to give so much, and here she was again.
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Aria slowly approached the bed where Surah lay, as if Surah might jump up and bite her at any moment. She rubbed Sam between the ears with such ease that the cat just let her—which was a surprise to everyone in the room. A pained look came over Aria’s face as she looked down at Surah. She bit her lower lip so hard Charlie thought it might bleed.
“I’m an Empath,” Aria said, her eyes locked on the sleeping Sorceress. “Most Halflings are to some extent, but my ability is stronger than most. We call it The Touch.”
She paused, and Charlie only stared at her as if she’d spoken some alien language. Like most others, Charlie didn’t know much about Halflings, and he’d never heard of an Empath.
“It means I feel what others feel… directly,” Aria continued. “I feel things just as strongly as those near me.” A tear rolled down her cheek and she swiped it away quickly, her gaze still stuck on Surah. “I can absorb emotions.”
Charlie opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. He didn’t know what to say to this. Finally, he managed, “Are you sayin’ you can pull the darkness out of her?” he asked, and again hated himself for the hope that filled his voice.
Aria shook her head, and Charlie was simultaneously relieved and despaired.
“Not out of her,” she said. “She’s under a blanket of Magic so thick I can’t get through.” She looked up now for the first time, her green eyes meeting Charlie’s. “But you,” she said, “I can pull some from you. I can take away the dark emotions you’re feeling right now. They’ll come back after a day or so, but I can take them for now.”
“Why would I let you do that, Aria?” Charlie said. “Why would I want to subject you to this? You’ve already done so much. I already can’t ever repay you.”
Aria smiled sadly, more tears spilling down her face, but her shoulders squared and set. She gestured at Bassil. “Because the Shaman tells me that love is the only thing that’s powerful enough to fight Black Magic,” she said, “and you can’t produce the amount of love needed to save her with all the guilt and heartache you’re feeling over your brother.” She paused, took a deep breath, wiped the tears from her face, and held out her hand. “So let me take it, old man, and then you can play a song for us.”
