by Lucy Lyons
“Well, that’s new,” I quipped as I turned to go. I let Ashlynn walk ahead of me, and when I stepped through the doorway to the hallway with the stairs, a vine of ivy whipped out from the wall and wrapped itself around my wrist, pulling tight. I gasped and wrenched my arm to break free, but the vine held strong and a small insect crawled off a leaf onto my arm. It was beautiful for an insect, with translucent blue wings and a metallic sheen to its purple and green thorax. It made me think of a peacock, and I’d never seen anything that looked like it. I tried to shake it off, but it clung to my arm and the vine tightened around my wrist until my fingers turned purple.
I shifted my free hand into claws and raised it to swipe through the vine. Before I could follow through there was a stinging sensation, and the vine released me. Where the vine had held me was a thick, red welt that looked like a burn, and where the insect had touched my skin was the tattoo of the same bug, almost lifelike in the vibrancy of its color.
“Clay, are you all right? I turned to see why you hadn’t followed and that ivy had you. At least it let go, right?” she laughed shakily and I shrugged.
“Believe it or not, that’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me here. I hope you know stuff like that doesn’t happen every day.” I glanced back over my shoulder at the room with the heavy carved door and blinked. It had grown again, and the door was now far enough away that it looked small by perspective.
“Well, it might start happening every day, but that wouldn’t be so bad, would it?” a young girl’s voice said, followed by a giggle.
Ashlynn and I looked all around us, but neither of us saw the source of the comment. I shook my head and stepped up onto the stairs, only to be jerked back by an unseen force and land on my butt.
“Oh, don’t leave yet, please?” another childlike voice blurted. “We want to talk to you!” several more voices chimed in, and Ashlynn’s eyes went wide. She swallowed hard and chuckled, feigning humor, despite the fear that showed in her face.
“Don’t you want to come out? We can all go upstairs and talk,” she offered, but the first voice disagreed.
“We can’t go upstairs. It isn’t permitted,” she sighed, and she sounded so forlorn even Ashlynn softened to it.
“Well, come out, and we’ll sit on the stairs and talk, OK?” she asked. “That way you don’t get in trouble.”
A small pink face appeared, peeking around the corner, and Ashlynn jumped, then giggled. The tiny, winged creature tiptoed forward and, one by one, several others similar in appearance appeared. Ashlynn patted the stair next to her, and the boldest sat with her, staring up with her little, rosebud mouth open as she gaped up at my mate.
“What kind of Fae are you?” I asked, and the little Fae blushed and curtsied then patted Ashlynn’s knee. Ash helped the creature into her lap, where she swung her legs and beamed up at me.
“We’re the wee folk,” she announced proudly as I looked over several more fairies, some with wings, others with skin that looked like scales. “I’m a pixie. My name’s Divinity. And that,” she said, pointing at a small buoy with green skin, “is a Pip. He’s a heqet, a frog fairy. And that,” she added, pointing at a small, brown woman with a wizened face, “is Bronwyn. She’s a brownie. We live in the wild magic, and we came because you called us.”
“We called you?” I stammered, and the pixie laughed until she fell over backward in Ashlynn’s lap, holding her stomach. I shrugged at Ashlynn unsure of what I’d said that was funny, and when I glanced down at Pip, he rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“Ignore her. Pixies know nothing and value only laughter and sweet, sugary foods. Also, their heads are empty of any real thought,” he grumbled and climbed up on the stair next to me. I held my hand out flat, and he stepped up on my palm, surprising me with his heft. I set him on a higher step so I could look him in the eye without looking down on him, and he grinned and puffed out his chest. “That’s why we chose you, you know,” he said, and I sat back a little.
“You chose us?”
“No. We chose you, Clay of the Venatores, protector of the innocent.” The heqet puffed out his chest again and released a long croak when he exhaled. “You brought wild magic here and let us through. You’re a champion for the Fae.”
I sighed and shook my head. “I had no idea that could happen. Is Maria very cross?”
The pixie giggled again, but Pip shot her a stern look, and she stopped herself before she fell back again.
“The High Fae have been away from fairy for too long, unable to bring any of it here with them as they planned. That’s why so few have stayed here.” Divinity explained. “You brought fairy here, which means some Fae will love you and others will hate you because you succeeded accidentally when they failed after great effort,” she finished with a shrug of her little pink shoulders.
“Great,” I huffed, and Pip leaned forward and patted my leg reassuringly.
“Wild magic cannot be tamed, wolf witch,” he stated simply. “The High Fae have become too human, always trying to bend everything around them to their will.” He shuddered and patted the wall. “They force themselves to endure iron and technology to be ‘modern’ and slowly fade because the wild magic can’t reach them. You, with your log houses and celebrations of life, blood, and flame are the old ways. They honor us and our magic, the life force of the Fae.”
Ashlynn sighed beside me, and I glanced over to see her holding Divinity up to her face as the pixie kissed her on the mouth, her entire face pressed against my mate’s full lower lip.
“You should rescue your mate before Divinity seduces her,” the brownie at the bottom of the stairs directed. A reptilian-looking fairy with green-tinged scales harrumphed and folded his arms crossly.
“Blood pixies always trying to make humans love them,” he muttered and stormed off. I gently extricated Divinity from Ashlynn and set her down next to Bronwyn as Ash made a sound of complaint.
“Don’t worry about Baldur down there either,” Pip added. “He’s been in love with Divinity for centuries, and she doesn’t even know he’s alive.”
I felt a shudder as power lashed out at us from above, and Pip ducked with a gasp as the other wee folk scrambled to hide around the corner.
“You’d better go now, wolf witch,” Bronwyn commanded.
“Clay,” I corrected her, and her small, round face beamed up at me.
“You’d better go, Clay, and take your lady with you. You have our mark now. If we need you, it will tell you. If you need us, simply call for us, and through that mark, we’ll hear you,” she explained. “You’re one of us now, like the hellhounds of old. You’re our champion, and the wild magic will always heed your call.”
I helped Ashlynn to her feet, and she shuddered like she was waking from a dream. I led her up the stairs, met at the top by none other than Portia and a cadre of Red Daggers, whose hands hovered near their weapons as she eyed me suspiciously.
“Just what do you think you were doing down there?” She demanded, and I grinned at her and held out my arm so she could see my tattoo.
“I went to show my fiancé, Ashlynn, the hole we’d entered the tunnels from and got attacked by a vine and what has to be the prettiest bug I’ve ever seen.” Portia’s face blanched, and I heard a gasp from among the Daggers. “It apparently like me so much, it left behind this tattoo. Do you like it?” My grin stretched wider at her consternation until I thought my face would split. “Is it time to speak to the council?”
Wordlessly, she nodded and pivoted, storming past the other fighters and leading us up the stairs to Maria’s office. Ashlynn gasped as we climbed the stairs, and I glanced over at her, just to see a vine trailing up the handrail and over her hand. No bug appeared, but a wild rose bloomed just over her hand and then imprinted itself into the back of her hand as she cried out in pain. Portia stumbled coming back down the stairs, and I caught her, but it was too late to stop the flower from tattooing Ashlynn.
“What have you done?�
� she whispered, looking at us both in horror.
“We brought back the wild magic so you won’t fade now,” Ashlynn replied, patting the Cetan’s cheek before I could warn her. Portia hissed and jumped back, but in typical Ashlyn fashion, my mate simply flipped her hair back over her shoulder and kept walking.
“Look, the magic chose me too. Do you like it?” she asked, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glowing with pure joy.
“Are you that happy because the magic liked you or is the magic making you happier than you really are?” I asked, and she blinked rapidly, trying to follow the question.
“You’re an idiot,” she finally replied. “Does that answer your question?” I laughed and offered her my arm as we approached the top landing of the staircase and stood in front of Maria’s glass door.
The door swung open the moment we hit the top step, so we walked right into the meeting. I bowed low at the waist to accommodate the High Fae who were already seated and added a bow at the neck for Portia as she took her seat near the end of a row near us and the door.
The room was set up in a U shape with Maria, Onixys, a Fae I didn’t recognize at the head, and various other High Fae seated at the tables down the sides. Honestly, I didn’t recognize most of them but knew enough of them from classes both those I taught and those I attended that I wasn’t as afraid of the reputation that may have preceded me.
“Clay, there’s something different about you, dear,” Onyxis cooed when I was finished bowing to all my betters. “That run must have been even better than I thought it would be.”
“I need to speak to the council about the wolf’s betrayal of the High Fae,” Portia interjected, and Onyxis shot her a glare as Maria raised a hand to silence her.
“The half-sister of the defendant can air her objections after the wolf has spoken,” Maria declared, and I took a few steps into the room.
“I know you wish to speak to me about how I found Circe and what she was doing, but I think Portia’s right. I went down to the sublevel and found a great wooden door with ivy all around it. I was told that fairy is coming here. That you will all be saved from fading because we brought wild magic back.”
Onyxis’s face was, for once, unreadable. Maria looked shocked, and I heard murmurs of fear and dismay from all around the room.
“Who told you wild magic will save us?” Maria asked when she found her voice. I held up my arm and showed her my tattoo, and Ashlynn jerked her hand away from me so I couldn’t stop her from baring hers as well.
“The wee folk told me, and I know that they spoke the truth,” I replied.
“And far more plainly than any of you have,” Ashlynn added. I silently cursed her confrontational personality but bit back a rebuke.
“You assume it’s the truth,” Maria corrected. I shook my head and Ashlynn made a rude noise.
“Your Fae attacked their own to steal magic because your magic is fading away, and the weakest are feeling it the most. Circe had to switch to us—mutts you said they call us?” she asked, glancing sideways at me. I nodded and she continued, “Because you no longer had enough magic for her to steal.”
“At least, that’s what Circe believed,” I amended, trying to soften the accusatory tone. “I thought I was being attacked, but I learned I was simply being named. This mark is the mark of wild magic. I knew what touched me the moment the vine slid over my wrist because it was the same magic the wolf communicates with, the same that we taste on the wind when we hunt.”
Ashlynn took a step forward and Red Daggers leapt in front of her to protect the Shedu, which only made her laugh as she sidestepped them like she was the breeze and they were stone. She stood next to Onyxis and held out her hand for the vampire queen to examine.
“You love the return of our power, Night Mother. You are the champion of our kind. Do you accept this token as a boon or have I been damned by a flower?”
Onyxis beamed at my mate and put her arms around her in a gesture I’d hardy seen among humans, let alone any of us preternatural types. We slept in piles, but hardly ever just held one another, and yet, here was the scariest creature I had met, and she treated Ashlynn like she was a proud mother.
“It sets you apart as lesser Fae,” Maria replied for her. “But it is not a damning mark—simply one that sets you apart.”
“But what about Circe?” I asked. “She was driven to do what she did by your own self-defeating pride. The High Fae may be the most powerful, but you’re also the most vulnerable.”
“Oh, and what would you do about that, wolf?” Portia cried out from her seat. “You come here and threaten us and expect us to let you leave?”
“Your sister called you a pompous, self-important, fake Fae justice warrior,” I replied, turning sideways so the Fae at the head of the table and Portia could both see me speak. “She was doing terrible things, but she was right.” I held up my arm and turned a slow circle so everyone in the room could see the tattoo. “Portia is barely civil to us when she needs us and cruel when she doesn’t. Yet the wild magic will still come to her just as it will to all of you if you return to nature and let fairy be born here in the United States.”
There were murmurs of assent, and understanding dawned in at least some of their faces as I watched.
“Why are you so afraid of the wild magic anyway?” asked Ashlynn. “Aside from a pixie who wanted to make me fall in love with her, the wee folk are just the sweetest creatures I’ve ever met.”
“That’s why we’re afraid,” replied the High Fae that sat on Maria’s left hand. “For all the merry wee folk you have met, there are creatures of nightmare the sight of which could strike you blind with terror.” Ashlynn paled, and I gaped, unsure of what to say. I licked my lips and pushed out with my magic, sharing it with the Fae in the room as though they were my packmates, including Portia, the unknown High Fae judge, and Maria.
“When nightmares attack,” I reminded them, “what you need, is strength, not weakness, champions, not noblemen.” I shielded myself again and stifled the smile that threatened to emerge at the sighs of pleasure from some of the Fae. “The nightmares always find their way to you eventually,” I added. “So when they come, it’s better to be prepared to fight than pray they simply pass you by.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The room was quiet for a moment, but I got a nod from Onyxis, who I got the feeling had been giving this very same argument before she was imprisoned and her people failed to save her. For the briefest of moments, I wondered if she was the author of the attacks in the first place, to punish her people for leaving her to the mercy of her greedy children, but discarded it. If Onyxis wanted to punish the Fae, she would simply have run them over by mutts like us.
“You’re suggesting we give leadership of the Fae to the wee folk. Is that what you’re saying?” one pale, thin man asked.
I thought of Divinity and shook my head. “No, I’ve met a pixie. That wouldn’t work either,” I admitted. “But they deserve a seat at the table, a representative for each of their kind, just as you sit here today.”
“You’re going to need a bigger table,” Ashlynn quipped, and I coughed to cover a surprised laugh as I saw Portia shoot daggers at my girl from her eyes.
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” I confessed. “The Fae that tortured and killed the Pooka was Portia’s half-sister. She hates the way you’ve made her see herself, and all that hate turned her against anything Fae, full-blood, wild blood, or half-blood. She said she was going to give magic to all humans so that magic wouldn’t set you apart or make you special.”
I glanced around the room at the Fae. Some were impervious to my judgment. Others I found staring down at the table in front of them like it was the most interesting thing in the entire world.
“I’ve learned that there’s enough magic in the world to sustain your people if you stop trying to live like humans and invite fairy to come to you. It’s already begun in your very own basement, and this dojo could become a real refug
e for the Fae instead of a symbolic one.”
I gestured to Ashlynn, and she trotted back to me, taking my hand with hers. As I glanced down, the insect tattoo on my forearm scuttled up and over to the flower on Ashlynn’s, and she gasped and blushed, looking away from me and shaking her hand until it returned to its former position. I wanted to ask what she’d felt that had made her uncomfortable, but looking at our audience, it seemed prudent to wait until we were alone rather than admit ignorance about the tattoos in front of the already jumpy Red Daggers.
There were gasps and chuckles from those in attendance, and when I glanced at Portia as we exited, I saw that same conflicted look on her face that seemed to be her new normal. She wanted to hate us and did. But every time we bailed her out in one way or another, it made her decision to hate more difficult to balance with her sense of honor.
“I don’t hate you, Lady Cetan,” I told her as we passed, quietly enough that she might have been the only one to hear. “I value your strength and your skill. If and when the nightmare realizes that fairy has returned, I will fight by your side or protect you.” I bit my lip as I chose my next words. “But come after my people or try to lay false blame on us, and I’ll kill you without remorse.”
The last wasn’t true. I felt remorse with every deer, squirrel, and fish that we killed. I’d felt remorse for every vampire I’d taken out since meeting Nick, even though they were made in his defense or sanctioned executions of murderers. I simply didn’t take life and death that lightly. But she was afraid of us, and if we hoped to succeed, we needed those who would undermine us too afraid to do so. I felt the truth in what the Fae had said. In fairy, as in all things, there was always balance. If I could stand in the court of the Fae, then somewhere in the shadows was a court of the dark. In short, contrary to my fondest wish, we were in no danger of running out of enemies, and the worst might be yet to come.
