Armageddon Rules

by J. C. Nelson

  “I’m not the first person to wake up with a hangover, a headache, and a tattoo they don’t remember signing up for. I like your attitude. I had some time to think on the way back, and I think Payday George is right. Those runes the enchanters gave me, they’re coordinates. You feed them into a portal, they open it to the right place.” The more I said it, the more sense it made. Almost always a dangerous sign with magic.

  Echo sounded tiny and distant without his case facing me. “Marissa, the only fortunate thing about this situation is that you lack the ability to activate a portal.”

  “I bet I can do it.” Ari nodded to me. “Seal Magic? Wild Magic? According to you, I can do both.”

  “Fairy Magic. You cannot open that portal or empower it without the power of a fairy. Even you, Arianna, are not capable of doing that.” Echo sounded satisfied. “Accept that Fairy Godfather is gone. Take what he’s left to you, and do something magnificent with it. Liam will return in a few short days, and you can live your life together.”

  At Liam’s name a wave of joy washed over me. With poodles and apocalypses and murderous queens, I’d lost track of the days that went by. Six days felt more like six years. Then I remembered the reason Liam went in the first place. “And he’ll still be cursed. I need Grimm. He owes me a cure and some answers. I promise the cure will be the easy part.”

  “In my opinion, I doubt that even Fairy Godfather can remove that curse. Call it healthy self-doubt; though at the time I was recorded, he was more optimistic.”

  “Was he?” That settled it. Lying about my birth control? Lying about being able to remove Liam’s curse? Regardless of the cost, I was going to have it out with the Fairy Godfather. “If Ari can’t punch our ticket to ride, I’ll find a fairy who can.”

  The look on Echo’s face nearly stopped my heart. “Marissa. You must not involve another fairy. You are used to the Fairy Godfather. You have no idea what the others are like.”

  Ari flicked his screen with her fingertips. “Hello. M went three rounds with Fairy Godmother and won.”

  Eli’s words came back to me, leaving me queasy. “I get the impression that’s not something to be proud of.” I explained Eli’s comments, without the arrogant attitude. How he’d implied that I hadn’t defeated Fairy Godmother as much as allowed what was left of the Black Queen to consume Fairy Godmother’s power.

  Ari watched me with narrow eyes, her forehead furrowed in thought. “That thorn tree always did creep me out. Like it was watching me while I practiced. Echo, how could Grimm let something that dangerous stick around?”

  Echo sighed. “If Fairy Godfather believed anything there were a threat to you, he would have destroyed it long ago. I’m happy to see some humility on your part, Marissa, but you fail to grasp your situation. You have killed a fairy. What makes you think any of the others would allow you within ten miles?”

  “I used the Root of Lies. Or it used me.”

  “And do you think the other fairies know that? Or do they only know what Fairy Godfather told them? Would he tell them the truth, leaving you open to revenge, or allow them to believe what they wanted, and fear you?” Echo closed his eyes.

  If I listened, it was like having Grimm back. Except that Echo wasn’t Grimm, at least not all of him. Not enough of him. “I’ll ask Grimm once I free him. Now, about that portal. I almost got frostbite the last time I went to Moscow, so it’s Portland or bust. I hear the fairy there is grumpy, but I bet if I pay with magic up front, I’ll get exactly what I want.”

  Ari nodded. “I’m with you.”

  I reached to flip Echo’s case shut, and the hinges froze. On-screen, I think Echo was almost in tears, if fairies could cry. “Is there no way I can persuade you to give up this madness?”

  “I need answers. I need his help. I need Grimm.”

  Echo nodded, as if he’d expected my answer. “I have fulfilled my purpose, my dear, verifying your identity. I would, as Fairy Godfather would, prefer that you honor my advice. But I know you better than you imagine. Take my case to the demesne portal, Marissa.”

  I picked up the case and walked to the back of the Agency, to our storage room. Here, beneath orange-and-green linoleum with a floral pattern, Grimm had a block of onyx set into the concrete. I ran my fingers over the stone circle, tracing the runes that lined the edges. Grimm’s demesne portal, capable of transporting me to his home realm, if I dared go.

  I set Echo’s case down in front of the portal.

  “Listen to me, Marissa. Your presence will attract the guardians of the focus point. Negotiate if at all possible, and please, be careful to change as little as possible. The limits on Fairy Godfather’s powers are for your protection as much as his punishment.” Echo’s screen began to glow.

  “How exactly does this work?”

  Echo stopped concentrating for a moment. “I am a microscopic sliver of the Fairy Godfather, my dear. Split off to serve my purpose. By definition, I am Fairy Magic. It was a pleasure serving you, Marissa. Whatever you find, whatever answers you learn, never doubt that he acted in your best interest.”

  Echo’s screen flashed white, and a beam of power shot from it, illuminating each of the seven runes. The portal activated, tearing into space before us like a rip in my slacks. Echo’s screen went dark, and the briefcase smoked at the edges.

  I ran to the hallway and yelled. “Rosa. Get your shotgun, get in here.”

  She waddled down the hallway, looking at me like I was something she’d stepped in.

  “This portal goes someplace special. I need you to make sure that nothing comes through it behind me.”

  Ari stood in front of the portal, staring at it. “M, you won’t believe how pretty this is.” It never occurred to me that portals might look different to people with Spirit Sight.

  “Let’s do this.” I briefly considered going through my special ammo. I could punch a hole in an ogre, no doubt; kill a werewolf or head cheerleader, no problem. I didn’t have anything designed to take down fairies. I did, however, have a couple of aces in the hole. “Blessing? Curse? Bus leaves in thirty seconds.”

  The foundations of the building shook slightly as my harakathin arrived. Most of the time they slept in their cat beds at home, content that I wasn’t going to try to escape. Taking portals without them had proven to aggravate a couple of creatures with real anger management issues.

  Ari flinched and threw up her hands. “Sweet Kingdom, M. What was that?”

  “You’re the one with Spirit Sight, and you’re asking me?” I took Ari’s hand and stepped through, feeling that gut-twisting moment when the world shrank to the size of a pinprick. Then we rocketed out the other side, landing face-first in the dirt.

  Before I could even pick myself up, the ground shook. Then a voice like bells and thunder shook me. “Who enters the sacred plane?”

  Twenty-Nine

  I’D BE LYING if I said I didn’t consider running back through the portal. Some people will tell you running from things never helps. I’m guessing most of those people have never met a “thing” with more heads than teeth and a sincere desire to devour your spleen. In those cases, running helps a lot.

  Problem was, I needed to be here. Why it is that a portal never ended at a nice walkway like in an airport, I couldn’t say. This one dropped me off on the top of a stone step pyramid. Once I stopped kissing the pale gray dirt, I couldn’t help thinking that the focus point was a real dump.

  The entire place looked like a volcanic wasteland, except that instead of regular slag and lava flows, large blocks of quartz, enough diamonds to buy Neiman Marcus, and other gemstones jutted from the ground. On each side of the pyramid, a guard ascended toward us.

  One glance at a face with more tattoos than Beth told me the guards were fae. It figured, since I once heard the fae were like children of the fairies. I always thought of it as a metaphysical “children” kind of thing, until I learned about the Black Queen.

  Step after step, the guards approached, each holding the
ir hand out, palm facing me. Each held a pulsing egg of brilliant white light nestled in their hand. When the fae went to war, they didn’t go clubbing people with sticks or swords. From those palms, each could summon a beam of white light that would rip your skin off, then smear your soul across the ground.

  “Friendly?” I glanced over my shoulder. Somehow, Ari arrived on her feet, dainty as always.

  “I’m guessing not, M. Stay close—I’ll protect you for as long as I can.” Ari clenched her firsts, and for the first time since the apple, she drew in magic. Before, it always felt like standing in a stream, with water running across me. This was more like a pressure washer on my skin, or like I was standing at the bottom of the ocean.

  The guards finished their leisurely climb and ringed us on all sides.

  “I’m here to fix the Fairy Godfather. Someone has—” My voice died in my throat as the lead guard raised his hand, and the bead of light in it began to glow brighter. Those eyes, cold, boring almost through my skin, told me what would happen. I was so much meat, soon to be spread across the ground like raw hamburger.

  The world exploded.

  At least, that’s what it looked like. The chalk on the ground blossomed into clouds, and the leader of the fae went flying into the darkness, head over heels. To my right, something dragged a guard down the stairs, his head bouncing on each step. I never saw what happened to the one on my left, but the one behind me, I get nightly visits from when I dream.

  He hung in the air, arms and legs stretched out, twisted in ways that flesh never should. Then his body slammed into the ground with a sound like a wet rag.

  In ten seconds, something had killed four fae guards. I glanced back to Ari, wondering if witch mojo was really this strong. She cowered behind me, her face pale as the dirt. “Marissa, what did you do to them?”

  “I didn’t touch them.”

  Ari backed away from me, almost falling down the pyramid steps. “What did you do to your blessings?” She frowned for a moment, then scooped up a handful of dirt. Cupping her hands, Ari blew into them. A cloud billowed out, past me, and when it settled, I understood.

  On one side of me hulked a creature the size of a delivery truck, squat and wide. The dust only gave it general shape, but the sheer size made it clear why Ari feared them. On the other, a thin creature, whose bulbous head looked three times the size it should have, rocked on its heels.

  “I think I know why I couldn’t see them in their cat bed,” said Ari.

  “Blessing, curse, don’t hurt Ari. Take a break. Extra cat treats for everyone tonight.” The clouds on both sides shrank, then lurched toward me, disappearing. I glanced at Ari. “Gone?”

  “Inside you.”

  I’d gotten somewhat used to the idea of foot-long, tiny creatures anchored to my spirit. They used to go everywhere and cause no end of trouble for me. Now that I knew what they looked like, perhaps sleeping in and ordering out was better for everyone.

  “Pacci.” The word swept over me, lulling me like a full bottle of wine. Ari, on the other hand, brushed it off like someone had once again called her “bitch.” I tried to turn, but my arms quivered like jelly, and my body moved in slow motion.

  About then, I realized that Ari was kneeling. When I finally completed my slow motion 180-degree turn, I knew who I’d see.

  “My blessings were not meant for this.” The Fae Mother stood, two steps down on the pyramid, so tall that her head came even with mine. Dressed in a gown that looked like dandelion gossamer spun into fabric, she took another step upward. “You should not be here.”

  “Please. I’m here to help Fairy Godfather. Someone has altered his power. He’s frozen. I came to fix it.” The spell she’d spoken slowly wore off, leaving me tired. I once thought the Fae Mother queen of the fae. Once I’d had time to do some research, it turned out I greatly underestimated her position. Separate from the courts and intrigue of the lesser fae, she possessed foreknowledge that rivaled Grimm’s own, if you could divine the meaning of her words.

  “You are the second to invade this plane. The others paid a high price for their folly, but the damage to Fairy Godfather was done.” She rose to the final step, standing two feet taller than me, looking down.

  Ari rose and stepped to my side. “Why didn’t you fix whatever they did?”

  The Fae Mother tilted her head to one side for a moment, thinking. “Princess, I pay a price for knowing what will come. I cannot interfere.”

  That was my cue. “Show me what they did. I don’t know anything about the future, and interfering is what I do best. Ari’s not bad at interfering either.” In this case, someone had interfered with Grimm, so I wasn’t sure that counter-interference actually counted. If it did, that was fine by me.

  “The princess may accompany us to the focus point, but only you may accompany me when we enter it.” The Fae Mother fixed her eyes on me, then glanced back to Ari.

  “That’s not fair.” Ari sounded like a grounded teenager.

  “When you make partner, we’ll see about a field trip to some far-flung world, I promise.” I followed the Fae Mother’s outstretched hand and hopped down the pyramid, two steps at a time.

  Seen from the ground, the landscape looked even more destroyed than I’d thought. Crystals rose in waves from the ground, breaking the barren landscape into a thousand pieces, like a shattered mirror. The Fae Mother glided past me, her feet not quite touching the ground, and we followed.

  * * *

  I THINK I know why the Fae Mother chose to glide. After several hours of walking, my feet hurt. We’d been following the same trail through the nowhere so long that the pyramid where we’d arrived looked like a dot in the distance. Finally, I called for a break, walking off to the side of the path to sit on an outcropping of sapphire. “Can you summon a magic carpet or something?”

  Ari shook the dust from her shoes and massaged her feet. “There’s no carpet around here. I could probably conjure some thread, then a tiny loom, and then you could weave it into a napkin. That, I could make fly.”

  “Any sign of my little friends?” I hadn’t felt my blessings move since the Fae Mother spoke.

  “Nothing. And if that’s little, I’d hate to see them when they’re all grown up.”

  For an hour, the only sound was the patter of our own feet and the quiet sigh of wind. When I stopped to dump the rocks from my shoes, something caught my attention. I stood up in the quiet and listened as a chill ran down my spine. “You hear that?”

  Ari looked up, and around. “Mmm-hmmm.”

  I closed my eyes and waited, listening, until I heard it again. A sound like the wind whistling over a pipe. “Hey, any idea what that is?”

  The Fae Mother waited, eyes closed, on the path ahead. “Something lost.” She didn’t open her eyes.

  Again the noise came, leaving every hair on my body standing up, in fear or awe, I couldn’t say. “Stay here. I’ll be back.” I wandered into the alien desert, led by my ears. The sound, when it came, reminded me of a child crying and a crystal wind chime at the same time.

  The noise set my teeth on edge, drawing me toward it, until I’d circled an outcropping a couple of times. That’s when a spark of light drew my gaze to the crystal in the center. There, in the middle of a pillar of quartz, a creature of light danced.

  Imagine if a rainbow had a child with a ballet dancer. Or a laser gave birth to a flock of butterflies. It moved in the pillar, bouncing endlessly from edge to edge, at times almost looking like a figure, at other times, a cloud of light, drizzling down the edge of the crystal. It saw me, and called, with that plaintive wail.

  It nearly killed me each time. Not physically. Emotionally. The sheer sadness of its lonely cry made me angry and depressed at the same time. I reached out gently, brushing the side of the crystal, and it surged forward, a hairbreadth from my fingertips.

  “M?” I turned to see Ari standing, her jaw open.

  “You were supposed to stay back on the path. How am I going to find
it?” I fought to keep my eyes on Ari as the creature called to me again. Ari too shuddered at the call, but the look on her face was near ecstasy.

  “I asked the Fae Mother if it would be okay, and she said it was better that I see now. What is that?” Ari joined me, reaching out without fear to almost touch it.

  “No idea. But it’s sad, and lonely. Blessing and curse don’t think it’s a threat.” Though my harakathin almost always slept after exerting themselves, I’d know if this thing meant to threaten me.

  “Have you never seen a wish?” The Fae Mother’s voice sounded like she screamed in my ear, even from a dozen yards away. “Not even in the mirror?”

  I shook my head. “Fairy Godfather stopped handing them out a while back. Said what most people needed were solutions, not wishes. I never realized a wish looked like this. That they were alive.”

  “Your harakathin are alive. Curses are alive. Why would a wish be different?” She gestured with her hand as though it were obvious. “Princess. Look at it with all your sight.”

  Ari flinched at the word princess. I’d have figured it would be the reference to her eyes. She squinted, staring, with her brow furrowed, then hunched shoulders, and glared in determination. A moment later, she opened her eyes, her mouth open like a tiny “o,” and gasped. “That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “What does it look like? Because it looks pretty good from here.” I pried my fingers out of her grip—she’d started to crush them.

  “I don’t know how to describe it, M. It’s like all the possibility in the world, rolled together, and it’s all of those things at once.” She turned toward me, her face split by a smile that had to be painful. “M?”

  “Yes?”

  Ari reached out her fingers to brush my face, as though she’d seen me for the first time.

  “Got something on my cheek?” Given the massacre that happened when we arrived, odds were I had fae blood everywhere.

  “No. I don’t think I ever saw you before. Not like this.”

  “Will you claim it?” The Fae Mother interrupted our almost sister bonding time, her head nodding toward the wish.