The Castle of Water and Woe

by Steffanie Holmes

  “What did you do?” Corbin’s eyes narrowed.

  “I didn’t do anything you didn’t do, Casanova,” Blake grinned. Seeing Flynn’s incredulous look, he added. “I saw a documentary about Casanova last night. Anyway, we all lent our power to strengthen the wards, but Maeve was the one gave them the extra jolt they needed. Well, she and I did.”

  “Huh?” Corbin narrowed his eyes.

  “You felt that gush of power after you blew your load into her earlier, right? That was Maeve’s and my power – intensified by our revels and leeching off your power – leaving us to strengthen the gateway.”

  I rubbed my arms, where my earth magic had hummed so intensely only an hour before. That certainly sounded like what had happened. Maeve’s power had yanked mine from my body, and the blast that sent us flying was certainly the most powerful thing I’d ever experienced.

  “That’s a pretty big deal. Why did you keep this secret from the rest of us until now?”

  “No secret. I only had the idea when Maeve told us she wanted to fuck us all. I told her about it and she agreed to try it. The rest of you were a bit distracted but we figured you’d be fine with it, seems as it’s for the good of all humanity.”

  “We were all there. I didn’t see you discuss it with Maeve.”

  “Neither,” Flynn frowned.

  Blake sighed. “You’re going to get all dramatic about this, I know it. You did see because Maeve and I discussed it spiritually. You know, inside our heads.”

  “Fiddle de-dee,” Flynn murmured.

  “You can’t just decide things without any discussion or input from the rest of us,” Corbin growled. “What if something went wrong? What if—”

  “I knew you’d get dramatic.“ Blake shrugged again. “You’ve got to relax or you’ll pop a testicle and Maeve will have no use for you. It was just an idea, a hunch. Nothing went wrong. Our wards got strengthened. Maeve and I now know how to combine our powers. You should be throwing me a party.”

  “But—”

  Blake grabbed the edge of his towel. “I need a shower and an entire bottle of Rowan’s strawberry body wash. I’m going to be a while. Better have that party ready when I’m done. And I want balloons!” He slammed the bathroom door behind him. The latch slid into place.

  Corbin’s face was so red, I worried he’d explode.

  I glanced at the locked bathroom door. Everything Blake said made perfect sense, and if what Corbin said was really true, Blake and Maeve had solved our problems for the immediate future.

  And yet … I remembered the huge stack of curry Blake purchased this morning, and his sudden desire to return to nature, and the empty sleeping draught jar Maeve pulled out of the recycling the other day. I knew I hadn’t placed it there. Even if I’d emptied the jar – which I hadn’t – I would have washed it for reuse.

  Did all this mean anything? Was Blake up to something?

  FORTY-TWO: MAEVE

  “Strike!” Arthur yelled, swinging his sword at my head.

  We were outside in our favourite spot at the bottom of the apple orchard, slipping back into our old pattern of master and student as though yesterday hadn’t really happened. I’d found Arthur as he slipped into the bathroom this morning, and had to fold my hands across my chest so he couldn’t see how turned on I was by his shirtless self. I told him I needed to practice my swordfighting, which was true. But really, I needed to make things right with Arthur.

  After the fivesome and my mother’s portrait changing again, a day by myself was exactly what I’d needed. I’d curled up in my room, pored over photographs of my parents and Kelly on Facebook, cried until my eyes ran dry, and realised that I’d freaked myself out yesterday because I was afraid about what I’d started with the guys, with us all together. It wasn’t about the sex, although that was amazing, but about how I’d opened my heart to them. I wasn’t just trusting one guy, I was trusting five of them, and that had been a little overwhelming, especially when I’d realised I couldn’t even trust that the paint on a canvas would stay where it had been put.

  A late-night snack of Blake’s leftover curry and a good night’s sleep did wonders to ease my fears. I didn’t have any filthy dreams. Perhaps I’d got it all out of my system earlier.

  At Arthur’s command I lifted my own weapon from its guard at my waist, throwing my weight behind the strike as my steel slammed into Arthur’s sword. My strike caught his sword too near the tip at the wrong angle, and he wound it under mine, easily shoving my blade to the side and thrusting the tip of his sword at my head.

  “What did you do wrong?” Arthur asked, his blade hovering an inch from my throat.

  “I …” My heart thudded in my ears. “I lifted my sword, instead of swinging it.”

  “And why is that bad?”

  “Because of timing.” I struggled to recall the tenets of sword fighting Arthur had taught me. “I don’t have time to lift my arms up to meet your blade at the right point before you get to me. That’s why my sword caught yours too close to the tip.”’

  “Bingo.” Arthur grinned, sliding his sword back. I dropped my arms, my muscles trembling from the workout. God, it was good to see him grin.

  Arthur tossed me a bottle of water. “Let’s take a break. We’ve been practicing for two hours.”

  “Only two hours?” I grinned, plonking down next to him in the grass. “I could go for four, easy.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “That so?”

  “Admit it, Aragorn. I’m a fast learner.”

  “You are, actually. I didn’t think you’d take to this. None of the other guys are interested. Corbin gets all tangled up trying to think his way through every movement, and Flynn just wants to run around yelling quotes from The Three Musketeers.”

  I shrugged. “A lot of it’s just physics – figuring out where and how to hit the blade to force an action. Of course, it’s hard to remember physics when a crazy sword-wielding Viking is coming at you. But I’m getting there.”

  I leaned in, drawn by the curl of Arthur’s lips, by the sharp intake of breath as I came closer. His beard grazed my chin. I touched my lips to his.

  Arthur drew away. “Maeve …”

  My body ached for him to touch me. “You don’t have to do the group thing, but I thought—”

  He looked away, shaking his head. He touched his elbow, and I noticed he wore long sleeves today, rolled up to just under his elbows, hiding the scars I’d seen there. “I can’t.”

  Disappointment surged through me. “I just thought … you and I …”

  Arthur stared directly at me, fire blazing in his eyes. “You’ve every right to be with and do whatever you want with whoever you want. But I … I can’t be part of it. Not with those guys. I can’t share you, okay?”

  “But what it—”

  “No.” Arthur turned away. He drew back his fist and slammed it into the trunk of the apple tree. I winced as the whole tree shuddered and bits of bark flew off in all directions. Smoke smoldered from the trunk from where his hand had hit.

  Arthur stepped back, breathing hard, staring down at his hand as though he’d barely noticed the punch.

  “Okay,” I held up my hands. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Not your fault. I don’t want to force you to choose. If it’s them or me … I know what the answer will be. So I’m just going to take myself out of the equation—bloody hell!”

  I leapt back as a flame exploded on the grass beside me, making short work of the wicker basket filled with sandwiches Rowan had given me for our lunch. I grabbed the water bottle and emptied it over the flames until they fizzled and died out.

  Arthur grabbed my shoulders. “See what happens when I’m around you? Maeve, you have to promise me this. I know you’ve got this hunger gnawing away inside you, but please, you’ve got to control it around me, okay? If we have to stop ourselves, I might not be able to do it.”

  I don’t want to stop. But I nodded, “I’ll try, but this magic is in
me, too. It’s pretty hard to deny, especially when you’re there looking all hot and Viking-like.”

  Arthur leaned back, wiping a layer of sweat from his brow. “Maybe we should call it quits for today.”

  “Are you going to be okay to hang out with the guys and me and not be all surly and emo?”

  “I’m gonna try.” He stood up and held out his hand. I took it. He threw the swords over his shoulder and we walked back in silence. As we neared the castle, I noticed Blake coming up the path on the other side of the topiary maze. As soon as he noticed us, he ducked into a briar bush, which had to hurt like buggery.

  Odd. I wonder what he’s doing?

  We kicked off our dirty shoes and went into the kitchen. Rowan stood behind the island, rolling out a sheet of cookie dough. “Chocolate chip biscuits will be ready in twenty minutes.”

  “Chocolate chip cookies,” I corrected him, leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek. Arthur’s hand tightened in mine, but he didn’t scowl or stalk away. “Where are the others?”

  “Flynn’s trying to teach Connor how to play video games in the Great Hall. Corbin’s in the library.” Rowan darted a glance out the window. “I have no idea where Blake is.”

  I wondered again if I should say something about Blake hiding in the bushes, but what could I say, exactly? He had lived in a tiny forest with a bunch of fae his entire life. His ways weren’t our ways. Maybe leaping into briar bushes was a totally normal thing for him, and I didn’t want to give the guys another reason to suspect him, not when everything was just starting to feel … right.

  We went into the living room to find Flynn balancing Connor on one knee, explaining to him the intricacies of the using the controller to decapitate zombies. Considering Connor hadn’t even mastered aiming food at his mouth, I thought it was a little ambitious. On the couch behind them, Jane read a magazine and sipped a glass of wine. She looked rather pleased with herself.

  I sat down beside Flynn. Arthur sat on one his favourite beanbag and picked up the other controller. “What do you say, Connor?” he grinned. “You and I can gang up on the big boss.”

  “You’re both ridiculous,” I said. “Babies can’t kill zombies.”

  “That’s some serious trash talk from someone who hasn’t killed a single zombie, don't you agree, Connor?”

  “I bet I can do better than a baby. He doesn’t even have hand eye coordination.”

  “Oh yeah?” Flynn tossed the controller in my lap. “I think you’re all mouth, no trousers. Go on, Connor and I want to see what the famous High Priestess can do.”

  “That’s not fair! I’m not even wearing trousers!” As I scrambled to pick up the controller and figure out which buttons moved what on my character, a zombie thrust its hand into my man’s stomach, pulled out his intestines, and ate them.

  Flynn fell over laughing, and Connor clapped his hands and giggled. Arthur reloaded the game and patiently explained how all the controls worked.

  “I thought you said fighting was all about physics,” Arthur grinned.

  “It is in real life. This is two dimensional and there are zombies. I don’t understand the appeal.”

  After another two quick deaths, Arthur and I managed to corner the zombie queen in the corner of the dungeon. (Admittedly, it was mostly Arthur’s doing). He went at her with his mace, but she flung some kind of acid at his eyes and blinded him, so he just ran around in circles screaming, which is totally not what a blind person would do in that situation, but was still damn funny. The zombie queen turned to me. I tried to throw my morning star at her, but I got flustered and ended up mashing all the buttons. Instead, I dropped a takeaway cup of coffee on the ground (why was my character carrying around coffee in the middle of a zombie invasion? This game lacked internal logic.) and the zombie slipped on the puddle and fell over and impaled herself on a meathook.

  YOU HAVE TRIUMPHED. The screen flashed in blood red letters. Flynn burst out laughing.

  “What the hell just happened?” I demanded.

  “You just won,” Arthur grinned. “You just beat the zombie queen with a cup of coffee.”

  Flynn was laughing so hard tears streamed down his face. “I’ve never seen the like of it. Never in my life—”

  A phone buzzed on the table. Flynn grabbed it and glanced at the screen. “Maeve, it’s yours. From Arizona—”

  I tossed the controller at Flynn and grabbed the phone, holding it up to my ear. “Hey Kelly, wait until I tell you how I just smashed this zombie …”

  “Maeve, it’s not Kelly,” A male voice echoed in my ear. “This is Pastor Tim speaking.”

  Pastor Tim – the guy who replaced Dad at church and kicked Kelly and I out of our childhood home. What did he want, to ask us where we stored the garden tools?

  But I didn’t say that, because it wasn’t Pastor Tim’s fault that he got the church’s house my parents no longer needed, and it especially wasn’t his fault that hearing his voice brought up memories of my parents that made my throat close. “Can I help you with something, Pastor Tim?”

  “I wanted to call you because I’m not sure if anyone else has thought to. It’s been a bit of a strange night and we’re all very shaken up. Your sister is in the hospital.”

  My heart stopped.

  “What … what happened?”

  Flynn must’ve noticed my tone change. He dropped his controller into Connor’s lap and slid down beside me, his hand on my back, warm and reassuring. He lifted one questioning eyebrow.

  “I’m not really sure how to say this… it was such a shock… such a shock.”

  “Tell me so I can be shocked, too.”

  Pastor Jim’s pause made my heart sink to my knees.

  “I’m running our annual overnight camp for troubled teens, and Bob and Florence sent Kelly along because she’s been acting out a bit at home. She didn’t show up for the evening bible study, and when we went to the cabin to look for her… she was passed out on her bunk. We think she swallowed some pills.”

  FORTY-THREE: MAEVE

  My heart plummeted from my knees right into my feet. “She … what?”

  Pastor Tim cleared her throat. “There was an empty pill bottle in her hand. I’m sorry, Maeve.”

  I swallowed hard. I couldn’t breathe. I sucked in air, but it didn’t seem to be able to move past the lump in my throat. Kelly… swallow pills? That didn’t make any sense. That wasn’t her…

  And then I remembered yesterday’s phone call. Kelly’s weird voice. The way she went on about my sex life and how she was a disappointment to our parents. The way she finished with that heartfelt goodbye, the way she said she’d finally do something to make everyone proud.

  My heart was already on the floor, but the rest of my organs followed, leaving me an empty, hollow, numb husk. A husk whose sister had just tried to kill herself.

  “Where is she?” I demanded. “What hospital?”

  “They’re taking her to Phoenix General. But I don’t know if—”

  I hung up on him and opened my phone’s browser. I tapped frantically, scrolling to try to find a phone number for the hospital.

  Shit, Kelly. How could you do this? Why did you do this? Please be okay.

  “Maeve, what happened?”

  The wifi cut out, and my phone stuck mid-search. “Bollocks!” I yelled, banging the phone against the coffee table until Connor started bawling. I checked the screen. Great. Now there were black lines zigzagging across the screen. That wasn’t better. That wasn’t getting me closer to finding out what the hell happened to Kelly.

  “Why won’t this thing work?” I yelled, tossing it on the table and grabbing for the phone poking out of Flynn’s pocket. Connor opened his mouth and bawled. Jane bundled him out of the room, her concerned gaze boring into me.

  “Oi!” Flynn grabbed for his phone and held it out of reach. “I’ll let you use this, but first you have to calm down and tell me what’s going on.”

  “It’s Kelly!” I yelled. “He said she
’s in the hospital. He said she swallowed a bunch of pills, like she… like she tried to…”

  I couldn’t even say it. I couldn’t even conceive it. Angry, frightened tears spilled over and rolled down my cheeks.

  Flynn’s face transformed. He held the phone out and opened the browser. “What’s the name of the hospital?” he said.

  I told him, and he looked up the number on his browser, then rang it and held the phone up to his ear. I tried to grab it, but Flynn stood up and walked over to the hallway entrance. He poked his head out the door and yelled up the stairs. “Guys, you need to get down here, now.”