by H. L. Burke
“Well, at least there’s some positive to this whole ‘insane Fey trying to rip open the sky’ problem.” Auric sniffed.
The invisibility spell formed a dome about them like the surface of a soap bubble. They climbed to the edge of the treeline, and Auric’s heart jumped to his throat. There stood the Soulsnatcher, less than ten feet in front of them. She stared straight at them, and for a panicked moment, he was certain she could see them. Then she began to pace, waving her hands and mumbling to herself.
“Looks like she’s not quite getting the rift-opening spell done,” Iris whispered. “Her symbols are off. Soulsnatchers were never good at advanced magical manipulation. They have a few simple tricks, generally, and that’s it.”
Hope kindled in Auric’s chest. “So she can’t do it?”
“Oh, she’ll most likely do it eventually, through brute force and dumb luck, if nothing else. Magic works best with precision, but if you can’t pick a lock with it, you can usually find a way to break down a door.” She let out a long breath. “This does give us some time, though. Look.” She pointed to the far side. “It’s Lotta and Jericho. Let’s buy them some time.”
Auric drew his magician’s tools. He tapped the stylus on the side of the tablet, trying to think of what spell would be the most distracting. Rill had invented one he particularly liked. Yeah, that would do it, plus it would hopefully put what they were fighting for in the forefront of Jericho’s mind. He worked the symbols into the wax. With a burst of lavender scent, light raced across the tablet.
A fiery phoenix exploded from the air in front of him, its wingspan the length of two men across. It wheeled into the air, swooping at the Fey who gave out a fierce ear-splitting scream.
“Try to catch her!” Auric hissed at his mother. “Containment spell or something.”
Iris raised her hands to work a spell, but the Fey threw her own arms forward. The phoenix crashed into the trees above their heads. Sparks rained down on them. Auric yelped and dove on top of his mother, shielding her with his body.
Fire sprang up in the dry grass around them. The air filled with the odor of burning pine needles, wood smoke, and a harsh scent like the air after a lightning strike.
“Stupid humans!” the Soulsnatcher shouted. “Let me finish this.”
The flames grew. The heat softened the wax in his tablet. “We’ve got to get out of here.” He pulled Iris to her feet.
Still protected by the invisibility spell, they darted away from the grass fire.
“Where are you?” The Fey snarled. She whipped her hands forward. The flames followed her, bursting in flares that collided into the trees like rockets.
The Soulsnatcher froze and spun around. Auric followed her gaze.
Lotta!
Lotta stood beside the tower of glass, exposed.
“Don’t you dare!” The Fey pushed against the air. A gust knocked Lotta several feet back. Lotta scrambled to her feet, only to have a second blast of hot air slam her into the tower.
“Lotta!” Auric yelped.
Jericho sprang from the shadow of the beacon, quire and stylus in hand. Golden bands of energy flew forward like a net. The Fey deflected them like they were spider-threads. She spun her hands together as if rolling clay between them. Green energy shaped between her fingers into an orb made of glass similar to the beacon. She cocked her arm back to hurl it towards Jericho. The tall young magician stood protectively over Lotta, scrambling to get a second spell onto a new quire.
“Stop it!” Iris’s fingers twitched, and the Soulsnatcher jerked about as if pulled by a rope. The invisibility shield popped.
Shaking herself free, the Soulsnatcher glared at Iris. “Ah, the High Fey Witch finally shows her face. Here to watch me finish off your family? I’ve already consumed the girl child.” She pointed towards Auric. “Him next?”
“You haven’t destroyed Rill, and you’d know that if you gave it any thought.” Iris glared. “The body you’re in is still whole. Let my daughter go and return to the Fey Lands.”
“I think not, though I could use a change in garb, and apparently you’ve stolen my children.” The Fey eyed Lotta who moaned and sat up. “I might use hers next. Gorgeous form.”
Auric’s stomach twisted. “Over my dead body.”
“Acceptable.” The Fey winked. “Though I’d rather use your form for my soulmate, once I’ve drawn him into this world …” She turned and examined Jericho. “Or that one. I do like the height … but the blue eyes on the shorter one are nice. If only I could mix and match bits and pieces of both of you.”
“You can’t take either of them. I had them all ingest rosemary. With that still fresh in their system, you’d be burned within them.” Iris crossed her arms. “You have one last chance. I’ll help you open a rift to the Fey Lands. You can leave this world alive. Just let my daughter have her body back.”
“Or what? If you attack me, you kill her. No, I’m not stupid enough to leave this body. It’s all that’s stopping you from slaughtering me.” The Soulsnatcher tossed her head. “We’re at a bit of an impasse, it looks like.”
Iris reached for Auric’s hand and pressed it. “Auric, get to Lotta and Jericho. Take care of the family,” she whispered.
A chill cut through him. “What are you going to do?”
Ignoring him, she stepped out of the trees, approaching the Soulsnatcher. “I have something to offer. My family took the rosemary. I very intentionally did not.”
Auric’s stomach clenched as his brain caught up with Iris’s plan.
“Rill is fading. Soon her spirit will depart, and when that happens, her body will die. Take me. I am full High Fey. Harness my ability to use magical forces and my memory of spells, and your rift will open with ease. Just let my family go.”
The Fey’s gaze flicked up and down Iris. “You’re older than I like, but a High Fey is a tempting form. I suppose I can bottle my soulmate until an appropriate vessel for him becomes available. Easy enough.” She grabbed Iris by the shoulders. Energy flashed between them, and Rill’s body crumpled to the ground. Iris stood, eyes vacant, for a moment. Green light coalesced in her palm, forming a glass bottle in her grasp.
Auric’s heart shattered.
Rill didn’t move. Jericho darted forward and scooped up her body. Iris’s eyes lit up. She raised her hand, energy crackling at her fingertips.
“Stop!” Auric dashed through a teleportation spell. The world skipped forward beneath his feet, bringing him right to her back. He shoved her. The Fey hit the ground, the energy of her spell absorbed by the dirt.
“Hurry!” he shouted.
Jericho and Auric sprinted across the open space and jumped behind the glass pillar. A wave of energy swept towards them. Lotta dove beside them, and they huddled together as the magic shook the beacon.
Lotta winced. “What now?”
Rill moaned softly in Jericho’s arms. Jaspyr wiggled out of the sling and nosed at her face, yipping, apparently none-the-worse for having shared his body with his mistress.
Auric hazarded a glance around the beacon. The Fey swept her arms in great circles, sending splinters of green glass swirling about her like hailstones.
“No more interruptions!” she shouted.
Auric swallowed. This wasn’t over yet. He grabbed Jericho’s arm. “Get Rill to safety. Lotta and I will take down the beacon and stop her from making the rift.”
Jericho glanced from Rill to Auric. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. The best thing you can do for me right now is keep my sister alive, all right?”
“Be careful.” Jericho hoisted Rill up and took off into the trees at a gallop.
Auric glanced at Lotta. “You ready to blow things up?”
Lotta’s head bobbed up and down like a fishing float with an eager trout on the other end.
“All right. I’ll keep her off you. You destroy this beacon … with that she’ll be trapped here, and then we can focus on getting my mother back.” He kissed her l
ips before bolting into the open.
The Fey eyed him, her expression of contempt unnerving on Iris’s usually sympathetic face. “Do you really think you can stop me, little Aurry? Do yourself a favor, take your girlfriend and run away. Even your mother didn’t think you were a match for me, otherwise she wouldn’t have given up her body to spare you from facing me.”
“I can’t let you open that rift. It will poison the whole village.” His fingers tightened on his stylus. He just needed to keep her eyes off Lotta long enough for the engineer to set the charges.
The Fey’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see.” She pulled one hand backward. The grass beneath Auric snapped away like a table cloth yanked from under dishes. He catapulted back, skidding across the exposed dirt on his rump, his tablet escaping his grasp. Lotta gave a muffled screech. She landed next to him, gasping for breath. The dynamite flew from her hand into the trees where it exploded with a bang.
Lotta fumbled for her revolver. Auric gasped as she aimed it at his mother’s body, but another flick of the Fey’s hand sent the gun flying. A second flick hit Lotta in the face, and she collapsed, cradling her chin, blood trickling from her lip.
Rage spiked in Auric. He still clutched his stylus in one hand. He’d lost his tablet, but he just needed something the energy could ground itself through. He felt about on the ground before his fingers met with the cold, smooth surface of a rock. He didn’t want to kill the Fey, for to do so would end Iris, but if he could make a containment spell strong enough, it might be able to hold her in place. Keeping the rock behind his back, he tried to work the spell without looking at it.
The Fey stomped towards Lotta. “I had planned to just open the rift, but I’d best be rid of you pests first. I don’t want you getting in the way, after all.”
Auric finished the spell. Light sprang up around the Fey. She growled and spun her fingers in circles. The magical energy shattered into shards of silver glass. She picked one of these up and held it over Lotta like a dagger.
“No!” Auric screamed. He flung himself in the way. The blade came down, slicing into his shoulder. He cried out as hot pain seared through his torso.
“Auric!” Lotta wailed.
Auric fell to his knees. Blood dripped from the wound, but it wasn’t deep … still hurt. Still hurt a lot. Lotta grabbed him about the chest and yanked him to the side as a second strike swiped by his neck.
“Get out of here!” he hissed.
“Never!” Lotta’s jaw clenched.
The Fey tossed the dagger into the earth beside them. It exploded, knocking them both several feet in different directions. Auric landed face first in the ground. Ears ringing, he spit out dirt and rolled onto his back. The Fey approached Lotta.
Where was his stylus? He’d dropped it. His hands groped for the rod, only to meet with the handle of Lotta’s revolver instead.
He stared at it. He couldn’t. He had to find another way.
The Fey raised her arms. Lightning sparked at her fingertips. Lotta covered her face, wincing against the anticipated blow. Auric screamed at the top of his lungs, aimed, and shot.
Chapter Twenty-Three
In that moment, as the red blood spread over the white of her apron, all he could see was his mother in that face. Even knowing that the Fey had her fully under control, that she’d been about to take Lotta’s life, that Iris had given herself willingly to spare Rill, his spirit cracked in half as she crumpled to the ground.
The glass bottle fell from her grasp and shattered. Golden light swept over her, and a smile flitted across her face. “Auric,” she whispered.
He scrambled to her. Gathering her up in his arms, he held her head against his chest and crammed his hand over the wound in a desperate but futile attempt to stop the bleeding.
“I’m sorry.” Tears blurred his vision. “I’m so, so sorry. Mother, please hold on.”
“The Soulsnatcher’s gone.” She winced. “This isn’t your fault, Auric. I prayed you wouldn’t be the one to take the shot, but only to protect your heart. Oh, my precious boy, please, don’t blame yourself.”
Lotta stood over them. “Can I help? I know a little nursing. Is there something I can do?”
“You can take care of my son,” Iris whispered. “Put him back together for me, Lotta. He needs you.” She raised a shaking hand to Auric’s cheek. “You are so much like your father. I’m looking forward to seeing him again.”
Auric’s arms shook. He opened his mouth, but the words wouldn’t come. Her hand fell to her side. The light died from her beautiful blue eyes, and Auric’s world collapsed on top of him.
Sobs wracked him. He buried his face in his mother’s hair and wept. Why hadn’t he found another way? There had to have been another way. This was his fault, and he didn’t deserve to draw breath.
“Auric.” A hesitant touch tickled his back.
Lotta.
She’d asked him to marry her. He’d said yes, but how could he plan for a happy life now, with what he’d done?
“Auric?” she repeated, her voice more urgent.
He closed his eyes.
“Oh, please don’t be broken. Auric, please! Please, I don’t know how to fix this.” She knelt beside him, her fingers twining into his hair, her cheek pressed to his as he wept. “Please, Auric, please. I know this is my fault. I know I should’ve been the one to take the shot, but you have to … you have to forgive me. I can’t live if you hate me.”
Her words jolted through him. “Me? Hate … hate you?” He stared at her.
She nodded, tears brimming in her perfect brown eyes. “You wouldn’t have had to take the shot if I’d been quicker, if I’d blown up the beacon. This is all my fault.”
He stared from her to his mother’s face. Iris looked so peaceful. There was no malice in her last expression, only rest. He gently lowered her body to the ground.
“Lotta, no, if anything … Mother knew this was going to happen.” He remembered her words before they’d faced the Fey, that it could be hard on him, that she knew he’d make the right choices. He closed his mother’s eyes and turned away. “She didn’t take the rosemary because she always planned to offer herself for Rill. Perhaps she didn’t know I would be the one to pull the trigger, but she … she did this because she loves Rill.”
“And you.” Lotta gently caressed his cheek. “She loved you so much, Auric, and I’m going to take care of you for her. I swear. I’m going to take you some place beautiful where there are beautiful things and I’m going to hold you close and never let you go and … and make love to you all the time.”
In spite of himself, a laugh escaped him. “Make love, huh? Not have intercourse with?”
“Probably both.” She flushed. “Please, please don’t be broken.”
“I might be a little bit, but maybe you can put me back together.”
***
Jericho had never been so torn in his life as he rushed from the hilltop with Rill in his arms and Jaspyr bouncing behind him. He needed to go back, to help Auric, but he needed to get Rill somewhere safe.
Something exploded behind him. He skidded to a halt and looked back, Rill still clutched against his chest. Lights flashed. Then a gunshot rang out and all fell silent. He drew a deep breath, panting for air.
Was it over? Was Auric all right? What about Iris?
“Jerry?”
His whole body stiffened at the beloved voice. He glanced down. Rill’s eyes fluttered open. She looked like Rill, she felt like Rill, but after all he’d been through, part of him couldn’t believe he’d fought through to get her back.
“Where am I? What happened?” She frowned.
He eased her onto the ground. Jaspyr hopped up and nosed her face, his tail wagging. Yes, if Jaspyr was confident this was really Rill, Jericho could be too. He brushed her hair from her face. “We got you back. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I … I was in Jaspyr, but I felt weak, fading. Then something changed, and it sucked me back into me. I�
��m not sure.” She put out a shaking hand and stroked his cheek. “I’m back, though. I’m me again.”
“Yes, you are.” He gently touched his lips to hers. The contact stirred something in him, and his hold on her tightened. He pulled her into himself, moving his mouth against hers, trying to absorb her, to bind to her so that nothing could tear them apart again. She kissed back, yielding to him yet somehow leading him, bringing him deeper into her with every breath. Her arms surrounded him, and his soul regenerated, healing the wounds that had formed over the last several days until all was warmth, and strength, and Rill.
Finally, he withdrew and played with her soft, flaxen hair. “I almost lost you.”
“Almost, but not quite.” She smiled. “Oh, Jerry, being apart from you and the twins ...oh, the twins! I want to hold them so badly.” She glanced around. “Where are Auric and Mom? Are they all right?”
His throat tightened. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re not sure?” She tried to leap to her feet but staggered back against him. She closed her eyes. “We have to make sure they’re all right. Where are they?”
“You aren’t in any state to be fighting a mad Fey.”
“I can’t just leave Auric and Mother to face her alone.” She gripped his shoulder. “Magic doesn’t demand physical strength, only mental energy, and I’ve never been sharper. Please, we need to make sure they are safe!”
Jericho paused and listened. The only sound was the rustling of leaves in a light, natural breeze, and the magical energy had faded from the air. Perhaps Auric had triumphed.
“We’ll go cautiously. Can you walk?”
“I think so.” Leaning heavily against him, she got to her feet. He kept one arm around her waist.
“Rill, I need to prepare you. It sounds like everything has quieted, but when I left the hill, your mother and brother … please, just brace yourself.”
She blanched. “Let’s hurry.”
In spite of her claim to be feeling much better, Rill barely made it up the hill. Jaspyr stayed in her shadow, eyeing her with concern in his glowing eyes.
