by Eva Chase
I sagged back in the seat and closed my eyes. As I inhaled, the herbal smoke of the incense filled my lungs. My soul loosened within its shell of flesh. I cast myself up—and into the sprawled body behind me.
My spirit cringed the second I dipped into the dark fae’s shadowy body. Every inch of her being made my consciousness burn. But that was why I needed her. All that dark essence would disguise my small soul hiding inside her.
Her own awareness stirred faintly as I settled into her mind. I could control her body easily, if not comfortably, while she stayed unconscious. If my knock-out spell faded before I’d done my job here, my sight-riding was going to become a lot more difficult.
So I’d better get going.
I opened her eyes. There was Emma’s body, slumped in the driver’s seat, dribbling blood onto the car floor. Nausea trickled through my spirit without reaching the dark fae’s stomach. Her essence approved of that sight.
Testing the woman’s limbs, I eased myself onto my feet. The sunroof opened when I gave it a sharp yank. I climbed out, slid down the back window, and walked out of the alley.
I had an appointment with the Darkest One to keep, even if she didn’t know it yet.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Even with my new dark fae suit, as the woman I was wearing had so poetically referred to my human form, it would have been stupid to go charging into the middle of a crowd of dark fae. I ambled up the sidewalk across from the park slowly, watching the activity in that makeshift enclave.
The walk from where I’d stashed my car had given me plenty of time to familiarize myself with this body and its reflexes. The dark burn still nagged at my spirit, prickling through all my thoughts, but dully enough that I managed to ignore it. I could appreciate the fact that the wind’s chill seemed to brush right past my dark fae shell. No wonder she hadn’t thought anything of walking around with nothing more than a thin trench coat over her old-fashioned blouse and slacks.
My hand drifted to the trench coat’s lower right pocket. My fingers ran over the hard line of the narrow shard of glass I’d picked up on my way. I couldn’t have brought my light fae enchanted knife with me and expected no one to notice, but that temporary blade would work just as well.
I passed a few dark fae who’d wandered farther across the park’s lawns. None of them gave me a second glance—or even a first, in most cases. The dark fae liked order, and they usually found it much easier to maintain if they kept to themselves,—unlike the light fae, who preferred to live in groups with all the chaos that came with clashing wants and personalities.
In my original time, the dark fae had all given respect to the Darkest One, but they hadn’t banded together in anywhere near these numbers. She must have called on every dark fae that could reach this end of the country in time for her grand act of destruction.
As I approached the hedge garden, a dark fae elder who was more shadow than figure stepped out to meet me. My host’s heart jumped in response to my apprehension, but the man merely looked me over with a curl of his lips and said, “Straighten your shirt. Our lady wants to see us at our best.”
Ah. My host’s blouse had gotten a little rumpled in our fight. I smoothed her hands over the cool silk, and the elder nodded approvingly. There was no hint at all in his expression that he’d sensed anything off. No wonder. The dark energy encasing me felt as if it was outright gnawing away at the edges of my soul.
That didn’t mean the Darkest One wouldn’t notice. A little more time for my soul to settle in before I sought her out would work in my favor. Especially because I had another concern to address first.
“Has the king come looking for his friends yet?” I asked.
The elder frowned. “Have you not eyes? If he were here, our lady would make no secret of it.”
I could also appreciate the dark fae tendency toward speaking their minds instead of rambling off into vague poetics. I clasped the fae woman’s hands in front of me, resisting the urge to twist my fingers together. A dark fae wouldn’t fidget. “Perhaps if we caused them more distress, he might feel the urgency of the situation.”
“Humans don’t sense feelings that way,” the elder said. “They are duller than most animals. He’s barely fit to hold our lady’s conjuring. But he will come. They also have no self-control.”
He drifted away without giving me a chance to ask any more questions. Well, he hadn’t been all that helpful anyway. I drifted along the fringes of the park, looking for another opportunity.
Maybe a fae a little less mature, a little more eager to please. The body around me wasn’t that young. I’d guess, from the gritty tingling of the energy around me, she had at least five hundred years. Who could I exert a little authority over here?
Ah ha. A slip of a fae man with only the thinnest shadow clinging to his skin was entertaining himself by blackening the leaves on the side of a hedge, one by one. He smirked to himself in delight as he killed another. My light fae sensibilities shuddered, but I made myself walk up to him.
“You there,” I said in a firm, even voice. “I heard we’re holding humans at our lady’s request. I have a taste for fear tonight. Where are they tucked away?”
The young fae blinked at me, looking startled that anyone had bothered to so much as talk to him. Then an even more wicked grin split his narrow face. “I saw them brought in,” he bragged. “They’re in the basement of the boarded-up bar down the way.” He pointed, and then raised a careful eyebrow at me. “Perhaps I could join you.”
I gave him my best darkly imperious stare. “I prefer to indulge alone.”
The young fae deflated. Then he turned right back to his hobby of murdering leaves, so I left him to it without the slightest bit of guilt. Other than maybe over my inability to rescue the hedge.
A few blocks down the street, I spotted a bar that indeed had plywood boards nailed across its windows. Someone had spray-painted various swear words and a comically large penis on the wall. Lovely. I ducked around back to the alley there.
Glooms coated the bar’s back door and windows, but they parted when I stepped toward them. Apparently this dark fae body got me full access. I knelt down to peer through the barred window that gave a view into the basement. If our friends already had dark fae company, I’d have to strategize around that.
It appeared the dark fae hadn’t thought a full guard was necessary. The glooms and whatever magic they’d cast around this place would keep any wandering human beings away for the time being, and probably would have stopped me from tracing the three figures inside if I’d been trying to by my usual means. All the full fae wanted to be on hand for when the big show started, no doubt. Keevan, Izzy, and Priya were alone in the dim concrete room.
They’d been locked up in separate cages like the kind you might have crated a large dog in, a foot of space between them. Shadow magic coiled around the locks and the borders of the room. Priya was huddled in the corner of her cage, hugging her knees, but her eyes were open and wary. Keevan and Izzy had pressed up against the sides of their cages closest to each other.
When I first looked in, they had their arms stretched between the bars, hands clasped in the space between them. As I watched, Keevan murmured something to Izzy. She nodded, and he raised his hand to caress her cheek. She leaned into his touch, her lips forming a tight smile.
My heart squeezed. Maybe that was just friendly comfort. Or maybe Keevan had finally found the courage to tell Izzy how much he cared about her. Either way, I was torn between gladness for them and a pang that I was never going to have another moment like that with Darton.
I couldn’t afford to waste time on mourning what was done, though. If our friends were still prisoners when I took down the Darkest One, there’d be nothing stopping her minions from killing them—in light knew what sort of torment—as revenge.
I eased open the back door and crept down the steps to the basement. All three of my friends tensed as I reached the bottom of the stairs. Keevan and Izzy pulled apart. Keev
an shifted forward in his cage, as if he thought he could some how defend her from behind those bars.
The less I said, the better. I started with Priya’s cage, closest to me. She stared at me as I dipped my hands into the shadows binding the lock. They wisped eagerly around my host’s dark fae hands, and my spirit winced. Ignoring the deeper jab of discomfort, I twisted the dark energy to my will. It fit into the lock—and clicked the mechanism over.
Priya’s eyes grew even wider when I tugged the door open. She braced herself against the back of the cage, but I left her and moved to Keevan’s. As I bent those shadows, an acid chill hazed over my thoughts. I gritted my teeth against the burn and moved on to Izzy’s cage.
By the time I’d unlocked it and swung the door open, my mind was reeling. It took all my energy to pull myself stiffly upright.
“Go,” I said, pointing to the stairs. “Get out of here, as far as you can.”
Priya had already edged out of the cage. Keevan and Izzy followed suit, looking bewildered. Priya’s forehead furrowed. My former roommate took a step closer to me, her eyes narrowing.
“Emmaline?” she said. “You’re in there, aren’t you? It’s got to be you. This doesn’t make any sense otherwise.”
Swine crud. “Do I look like an Emmaline to you?” I said, motioning to myself. “Weren’t you listening? You have to get out of here before anyone else comes.”
My refusal to admit who I was didn’t stop Priya from beaming. Keevan’s expression relaxed too. Izzy grabbed his hand.
“What can we do now that we’re out?” she said. “How can we help stop them from getting to Darton?”
Sodding hell, his friends were stubborn. “If you want to help Darton, the best thing you can do is make a run for it,” I said, dropping most of the pretense. “You’re the bait. You’re the only reason he’d come here. Find him and the fae hunters, and show you’re okay so he’ll stay put.”
Keevan made a scoffing sound. “While you’re running around here in someone else’s body with who knows what kind of crazy plan? I don’t think so. If you’re here, then Darton will be coming too.”
I didn’t intend to be here much longer, but if I told them that part of my plan, I had the feeling they’d insist on sticking around too, while trying to talk me out of it. Instead I motioned to the stairs again. “It doesn’t matter. Just get going. I don’t know how often the dark fae have been checking on you.”
Finally, they started moving. Keevan and Izzy hurried up the stairs. Priya paused for a second to bob her head to me.
“Whatever you’re doing, good luck with it, Emmaline,” she said in her bright voice. Then she darted up after the others.
I looked around the room, but I couldn’t see any way of hiding their escape, not without using my light fae powers and drawing so much more attention to this spot. As soon as anyone came by, they’d realize someone had let the prisoners out. I’d just have to hope that fact would work in my favor. If the dark fae were busy trying to figure out where their hostages had gotten to, they’d be less likely to notice me making a move on their “lady.”
My friends were already out of sight when I emerged from the bar’s basement. I wandered down the alley, which ran behind the backs of several stores, and meandered around the next few blocks. Gradually, I made my way back to the park. The roundabout route both gave my soul time to recover from the dark magic work and should have prevented anyone who saw me return from realizing where I was coming from.
I ambled by the hedge garden again. None of the dark fae drifting between them looked at me with any suspicion. Time to work my way closer and figure out where exactly my ultimate target was lurking.
I headed down one of the walkways between the hedges—and my host’s pulse hiccupped. Panic flashed through my mind. Her spirit was twitching, deep in her head beneath my awareness. I hadn’t managed to knock her out for anywhere near long enough.
The sense of her soul, like a fizzing thundercloud beneath my mind, stabbed up at me with a sudden blow. I pressed down at her with all of my will, but that left my control over her body shaky.
Her feet stumbled. She fell against the side of the hedge. I wrenched her upright while still grappling with the angry spirit trying to unseat me.
If I’d been alone, I could have risked a quick spell to silence her, even for just a little longer. I staggered around and found two older dark fae studying me.
“You seem unwell,” one said with a frown. “Is something the matter?”
My tongue tangled before I manage to wrestle back full control over it. I stomped down on the fae woman’s spirit with all the strength in my soul.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Completely fine. Just not used to being in such a large crowd. I think I’d better step aside for a few minutes to clear my head.”
The excuse might have worked if my host’s soul had been just a little weaker. I made to stride past the two fae and their apparent concern, and she smacked my consciousness with a punch of energy that threw my coordination off all over again. I jammed my will back down on her, but at the same time her body swayed. It fell to one knee.
The other fae grasped my arm to help me up. “You look more than just overwhelmed to me,” she said. “We’ll take you to our lady. Whatever’s wrong with you, she’ll know how to cure it.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Take you to our lady. The words echoed through my mind with an even deeper cold than that brought on by the dark fae presence around me.
The older fae ignored my hasty attempts at humbleness—“Really, I’ll be all right. She has so much to occupy her without bothering with me.”—and ushered me farther down the paved paths between the hedges. There was no way I could protest more, not without giving away that I wasn’t supposed to be there at all. Any real dark fae would have seen a chance to be attended to by the Darkest One as the highest possible honor.
The chill in the air, both supernatural and physical, thickened as we went. It seemed to enliven my host’s soul. She shoved at me, and I shoved back, only just managed to keep my feet moving one step after another at the same time. Her eyelids stuttered. Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to speak. I snapped back control at the last second.
I could still do this. Maybe I hadn’t meant my plan to proceed quite like this, but I’d wanted to reach the Darkest One. I’d just have to make do with the circumstances I’d been given. All that mattered was keeping my head—my host’s head, really—long enough to see my intention through.
We came around the end of a hedge. A wind whipped over me that jittered through my host’s nerves and nearly froze my spirit solid. Breath caught in my host’s lungs with both her awe and my horror.
The Darkest One had fashioned herself a throne of sorts out of dead, twisted branches from the hedges. Its jagged form sat by the edge of the stone tile dais that overlooked the lake.
My greatest enemy perched on it, her narrow eyes glinting as dark as the water beyond her. They were the sharpest part of her body. The rest of her ancient figure seeped like living shadow over and between the brambles in the hazy shape of a tall, elegant woman. Her gray hair drifted around her wavering face like a storm cloud on the verge of bursting. Power thrummed off her even as she sat completely still.
“What’s this you’ve brought me?” she said in an arch tone. Her voice was as cool and dry as autumn leaves long fallen.
“Apologies for disturbing you, great one,” one of my supposed helpers said with a tip of his head. “This young one appears to be experiencing some strange distress. We hoped you could find the cause and see it gone.”
The Darkest One shifted forward, tendrils of shadow streaming off her body as they clung to her throne. Her hazy lips pursed. My host’s soul squirmed beneath me, wriggling and jabbing to try to break free. I rammed her down with a mental pummel, and her body stumbled forward. But that was okay, because I still had enough coordination to dig my hand into her coat’s right pocket. My fingers closed around the l
ong shard of glass.
“I bring a gift,” I gasped out. “For my lady. Shatter this body, shatter her darkness!”
As the words spilled from my lips, I whipped the blade of glass out of the pocket and stabbed it at my host’s throat. A surge of magical energy swelled through my mind—
And the dark fae spirit hurled herself at me in the last moment. Her arm jerked just an inch to the side. The glass sliced across the side of her neck. Pain lanced through the flesh, but I’d missed the killing blow.
“Halt,” the Darkest One said before I could regain control. A magical vice locked around my host’s body. My host’s lips froze, parted. Freezing air tickled over her tongue. My soul shuddered, and the Darkest One’s magic clamped around it too.
I couldn’t even attempt a leap back to my own body if I’d wanted to. I couldn’t do anything except hold there, staring. Together, my host’s spirit and mine watched the Darkest One approach us through unblinking eyes.
I wanted to cringe back from that dark, fathomless gaze, but I couldn’t so much as shiver. My greatest enemy stopped a few paces from where my host stood like a statue. She cocked her head, shadows trickling to the side with the movement. Her lips curled into a smirk. She let out a low chuckle.
“My dear Merlin. You’ve finally shown your face. Well, not your real face, but it’s your soul that matters the most, isn’t it? The same soul that sealed me away for all those wretched centuries. But what have you done with that ridiculous human body you’ve been inhabiting?”
Her gaze fell to the shard still clenched in my host’s hand. The edge of it had broken the skin of the fae woman’s palm. Blood was beading along it and dripping down its length, untethered by the spell that had frozen the rest of her body.
“Ah,” the Darkest One said. “Even you would know better than to try to make a sacrifice solely with someone else’s life, wouldn’t you? We can’t have any of that mischief here. You won’t be dying until I say it’s time, little halfling abomination.”
