by Maya Daniels
It was all Lazarus’s fault. The evil radiating from him was unmistakable. Her body stiffened and shifted. Her tail lashed out behind her, sending Lazarus flying back, slamming into the walls of the palace. Bricks crumbled as he went through them, making a hole in the wall big enough for Artemis to walk through in her shifted form. She was done waiting for the right moment. She had nothing left to lose.
Ivy came running from the palace doors and dropped to her knees next to Raphael. Artemis reached down to grab her and fling her away, but the other woman lifted the bow and arrows, handing them to her.
“Go! I’ll do what I can to try to save him! Go kill that monster!” Ivy pushed the bow higher, and as soon as Artemis snatched it, she turned to Raphael. “Stupid vampire. I told you to trust her and wait!” she mumbled at him as Artemis watched the golden glow start to flow from Ivy’s hands into Raphael’s chest. Ivy looked up, frowning. “Go! What are you waiting for?”
“If he dies…” Artemis growled, making Ivy’s skin pebble with goosebumps.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ll find me, kill me, blah, blah…Go! I’ll do everything I can to keep him alive!” With a tight nod to Ivy, Artemis turned around and advanced on the hole in the wall.
Stepping through the ruined wall, she had to slightly bend her head as her entire shifted body passed through. Slinging her quiver over her shoulder, Artemis pulled an arrow out and nocked it. Her eyes searched around, seeing overturned cots, chairs and tables as well as the few weapons leaning on the far side wall. An off-duty guard room, most likely. The open door got her attention, and her eyes started glowing in the dimly lit place. The hunt called to her nature.
“Hey, Lazarus!” she called out loud enough that even those fighting outside could hear her words as they echoed off the walls as she headed out to look for him. “Where did you go? We have unfinished business to discuss!”
She heard sounds from up ahead, like the dragging of feet and bumping into things. Her smile turned feral. Excitement pumped through her veins as the evil surrounding Lazarus swirled in the air like a trail of smoke left behind him, pointing in his direction like a glowing sign. Artemis chuckled as her six legs started finding holds between bricks and her body was lifted off the ground. She climbed the walls, scurrying ahead, following her prey. She was bloodthirsty, and only one creature could quench her thirst. She just had to find him.
The deserted hallways looked like they were shrinking as Artemis crawled the walls and ceilings, following the trail of shadows Lazarus was leaving behind. It occurred to her that it might be a trap and that he was leading her to where he wanted her, but at the moment she was willing to follow him to her death, just to get her hands on him. The colors around her seemed brighter, almost like every object she passed radiated a life of its own. As the shadowed trail got thicker, the life glowing from everything around her got muted. She realized that the shadow was feeding off the bright glow around her.
Reaching the wide winding stairways, she scurried faster toward the upper floors and with a sharp left turn, headed towards Lazarus’s rooms. Of course he would hide there. Who knew what he had hidden in those rooms that no one was allowed to enter? Even his consort was not allowed there; Ivy’s rooms were next to his, but she never set foot there. Slowing down, she crept up slowly towards the closed double doors that in her shifted form appeared warded. A red glow, like a border, surrounded them, pulsing like a wall of fire. Getting as close as she could, Artemis stopped debating her options. If she knew Lazarus at all, he would expect her to go barging in straight through those doors.
“Artemis!” The hissing whisper got her to lash out with her tail on reflex, almost breaking the partially-open door behind her. So much for subtlety.
Narrowing her eyes, she slowly crept towards it, gripping one arrow in her hand. She was aware that she couldn’t walk through that door in the form she was in. Her body was too large. Gripping the doorframe with all her legs, she extended her torso through the door carefully. Artemis wasn’t sure what she had expected, but seeing Fern shimmering like a ghost in the middle of the room with his arms crossed was definitely not it.
“Shift back and come in, please!” Fern spoke softly although his face showed the impatience he felt. “I’m stuck in this stupid room and can’t do shit right now!”
Artemis looked around the room carefully, wondering if it was some trick Lazarus was pulling to get her to shift back to her human form. Nothing would surprise her coming from him. She glared at Fern while weighing her options—ignore him and go to the doors to reach Lazarus, or see what was going on with Fern first.
“It’s not a trick, Ivy pulled me here. I know my body is in the human realm.” Fern rolled his eyes as Artemis’s glare intensified. “Your mate said my body is with Iris, whoever she may be,” he supplied helpfully.
At hearing the name and the mention of her mate, Artemis shifted back to her human form, dropping lightly on the balls of her feet. Slipping inside the room, she closed the door behind her but didn’t step closer to where Fern stood. He hadn’t moved an inch.
“What’s going on?” she growled, still holding the arrow in her fist. “How are you here?”
“Did you know Ivy was a seer as well as a dreamweaver?” Fern’s question made her look at him incredulously. “Yeah, neither did I!” he grimaced. “That woman is playing some dangerous games, I can tell you that much.”
“What kind of a games?” Her chest was rising and falling faster. Urgency was pulling her to go finish what she’d started with Lazarus, but she also needed to know if leaving Raphael with Ivy was the worst decision she has made.
“I think everything we know about Ivy is a carefully crafted façade. She’s a seer, that much I know for sure. She told me everything about what you’ll be going through in the human realm. Including finding your mate when no Fae has found a mate for centuries.”
“That doesn’t tell me much!” Artemis waved him away. “She could be cunning enough to have spies in the human realm following us around if we cross the portal.”
“She helped me walk through the portal so I could talk to the witch. I was told I must do that if we’re all to survive what’s coming. Forgive me if doing what felt right was inconveniencing you, your majesty!” He glared, daring her to say something. ”Ivy knew the exact moment you would be walking past this door with your mate and she knew she had to pull him into this room so Lazarus wouldn’t see him.” Fern lifted his chin stubbornly, reminding her how much he hated it when she doubted him.
“For what reason? What’s in this for her? No one here does anything just for the sake of helping, Fern. Including you!” she pointed the arrow at him, but seeing him shimmer made her realize how stupid that was and she lowered it.
“Whatever her reasons, she hates Lazarus as much as you…if not more. That should be enough for now,” he persisted.
“And you’re here how? And why?”
“The oath I gave to keep the secrets Lazarus showed me almost killed me. I don’t know who Iris is…”
“She’s the witch that you got cozy with. A changeling, to be more precise,” Artemis supplied, cutting him off. Fern glared at her, so she rolled her eyes and motioned for him to continue.
“As I was saying,”—he cleared his throat—“Whoever it was, they managed to hold me frozen in the state I was in. I cannot express the pain in words. Then this light showed up in the darkness that wrapped around me like a blanket. It took the pain away and started pulling me towards a door. I was so grateful for the agony to end that I would’ve followed the devil himself anywhere. When I opened my eyes, I was standing in this room, like a ghost, and Ivy was standing in front of me. I was in this state… I don’t even know what to call it. That’s when she told me that she’s a seer and she knew all of this would happen. She was ready to help us, to make sure Lazarus was no more.”
Artemis listened to his every word and felt uneasy about this whole revelation. But thinking about it now, what choice did they hav
e? Ivy had better keep her promise for Raphael to be alive. If not, she would beg for a death that will never come. Beggars can’t be choosers at the moment, so she was willing to let things slide and not look at the gift for faults.
“Now what?” Artemis searched his eyes. “You stopped me from getting to Lazarus so I could hear the story of how poor Ivy was a nice woman and she tried to help?”
“You can be such a bitch!” Fern hissed, clenching his fists at his sides. “I stopped you so you wouldn’t fry yourself when you tried to walk through those doors!” He flung his hand towards the doors to Lazarus’s rooms. “He warded those doors especially against you!”
“So how do I get in?” Her heart picked up speed. “And I don’t mean to be a bitch. You just always rub me the wrong way,” she added as an afterthought.
“Don’t I know it,” he mumbled, shaking his head. “Open the door that leads to the bathroom. Ivy left a cloak there she got from who knows where. She said covered in that, you’ll be able to walk through the doors with no problem.”
“And we trust Ivy so much now…” Artemis snapped but walked towards the door and opening it, looked around. There was a cloak draped over a chair right next to the door, as if Ivy knew Artemis would be reluctant to walk around and search for it.
“Do we have a better option?” Fern asked from behind her.
“No.” Grabbing the cloak, she lifted it up to see it better. “I don’t suppose we have.”
With a deep sigh, Artemis opened the cloak and flung it over her shoulders before pulling the hood over her head. It was pooling down at her feet, covering her completely, and a comforting feeling, almost like an embrace, covered her from head to toe. There was nothing more to say until she’d dealt with Lazarus first, so without delay she grabbed the handle and opened the door.
“Oh, and Artemis?” Fern called out making her lift the hood and look at him over her shoulder. “Kill that fucker and get me out of here. Please!” he pleaded with his eyes as well as his words. Taking a deep breath, she nodded once and walked out of the room.
Anxiety made Artemis clutch the cloak tightly as she started walking towards the doors. Her mind kept going back to Raphael, but the bond they shared let her know he was still alive. It didn’t make the fear for his life disappear, but it was at least comforting to know that he was not gone. She couldn’t even entertain that idea at the moment, it was too crippling to even think it as a possibility.
In her human form she couldn’t see the red glow around the doors, but as she walked closer and stopped in front of them, she could feel it prickling her skin. Where her face was visible under the hood, it felt like she was standing too close to a blazing fire. Bending her head low to stop the sting, Artemis pushed the cloak towards the intricate door handles, gripping them through the fabric and pushed with all her might.
The massive doors swung open, hitting the walls hard enough that the hollow thud made her chest vibrate. The room was so dark that she couldn’t see more than a foot inside it. A horrid stench assaulted her senses and she gagged, swallowing the thick bile that rose up. Parting her lips, she breathed through her mouth as her feet moved silently across the threshold. The urge to shift was overwhelming, but she kept moving forward, straining her ears to hear anything that would tell her where Lazarus was. If he’s even still here, she thought gloomily.
“Impossible!” The hiss coming from her right made her jump away in the opposite direction, expecting a blow to follow the words.
Artemis couldn’t fight her instincts anymore, and since she was already past the warded door, she shifted, ripping the cloak in the process. It fluttered to the ground like a feather. Now she was able to see in the thick darkness, and she coiled up for an attack.
Lazarus was perched on the edge of his bed, holding a glass vial with sparkling liquid inside it. His left wing was hanging limply at the side, like someone had tried to rip it off his back. Pride swelled in her chest knowing that Raphael had managed to do such damage when he attacked. His right wing was slowly mending as she watched, letting her know that whatever it was in that bottle was for healing. He stood frozen, staring at her with wide eyes as if he couldn’t believe she was really standing inside his rooms.
Everything her eyes could see was covered in webs and some black sticky goo that was sliding and dropping like chunks of mud. It must be where that horrible smell was coming from, Artemis concluded, before looking back at Lazarus. He had already poured the liquid over his wing and straightened, standing up from the bed.
“I have come to learn that everything is possible nowadays,” she told him conversationally as she pulled out one of her arrows. Her glowing eyes reflected off his face as she watched him sneer at her.
“Nothing is possible for you anymore!” With those words, he launched himself in her direction.
Flipping around, she avoided colliding with him, but her legs were moving slower because of all the gunk on the floor. Lazarus crashed with a resounding boom into the wall behind her, making what seemed to be a chest of drawers break into pieces from the impact. Artemis let her wings lift her off the floor as she hovered a foot off the ground. Even with the high ceilings, the rooms weren’t large enough for her to move freely. Seeing her chance, she threw the arrow at him with the same speed as if she had used her bow. His roar of pain as it embedded itself in his shoulder was like music to her ears.
Artemis pushed herself towards him while he was reaching behind to rip the arrow out, and she grabbed the hand that was pulling on it. She pulled, too, as his scream echoed everywhere around them. His wings must have healed, so her other hand grabbed the closest one to her and she ripped it from his back with a sickening sucking sound that split the air a second before his scream almost burst her eardrums. She found herself flung back away from him as he flipped her off him like an unwanted shirt. Her body crashed into the bed and the whole frame broke, making Artemis drop to the floor along with it. Still holding onto the massive wing in her hand, she dropped it on the sticky floor and watched, horrified, as it dissolved into the sludge like it was a part of it. Her legs wiggled, trying to find traction so she could lift herself up when Lazarus turned towards her, his face contorted with pain and hatred.
“You stupid fucking fool! We need those damn humans or we will all die here like trash!” Lazarus roared, taking measured steps towards her. “If we have nothing to feed on, we’ll all die, you included! You think the whole realm turned gray in a day? You think I’m the worst monster you’ve seen in your life? Oh, how I pray to be there to see your face the day when you realize I have done everything to assure this realm’s safety!”
Artemis kept moving slowly, lifting herself up as she watched him warily. He held her arrow in his fist, and she hoped she’d be able to grab it. It felt wrong to have him touch it, like he was touching her soul. Lazarus saw where her eyes kept flicking and a cruel smile blossomed on his face.
“Just like with your precious weapon, you whore! We are connected to all living things. We feed off their energy to stay alive. We cannot feed off our own, so we destroyed this realm. If that portal doesn’t open, we’re all doomed!”
“And you didn’t think of that before you killed my mother and made the humans close the portal?” Artemis snapped at him while she felt sick, thinking about the idea of feeding off living beings.
It wasn’t like it was any different from what the vampires did, but it sure sounded wrong. With the Fae, they were unaware that their life was being consumed with each second. No wonder the humans made sure the portal closed. Was that what I was doing while walking around in their world? The thought floated in her head, but she pushed it away.
“I didn’t do anything but take what I was entitled to! We are the top of the food chain. Humans are there to please us. They do it willingly!”
“I’m sure they willingly die!” She told him dryly as she finally stood up. “Just like you will die willingly now!”
Lazarus was so preoccupied in his speech a
bout humans that he didn’t expect her to throw herself at him or to have pulled out two more arrows from behind her. As they collided face to face, she watched his eyes widen in surprise as she felt the arrows sink through his skin and embed themselves so deep it would take her several tries to pull them out. She hugged him, holding him close as her smile grew. The shocked expression on his face was the best gift he could’ve given her. The green glow from his eyes started fading as the air wheezed from his lips.
“You fool!” he whispered. “I gave my soul to keep the real monsters at bay. Look around you! This was the price I paid to keep our home safe from the demons that were trying to connect a portal to our realm. The cave will open now…All of you will die when no one can hold the back portal closed!”
She frowned at him, but his lashes fluttered and closed as he went limp in her arms. Angrily she dropped him on the floor and bent down to take hold of the arrows. Pulling a few times, she dislodged them from his chest and looked around. A chill filled the air, and she walked out of the room without even thinking of the wards. Luckily, they must have dissolved with his death. Stopping just outside the doors, Artemis looked back over her shoulder. This should’ve been a happy moment, when she finally found her mother’s killer. Lazarus was no longer in the room. His body had vanished and she remembered the way his wing dissolved in the gunk, making her shiver with dread. Instead of a moment to celebrate a victory, why did it feel like it was just the beginning of a horrible nightmare?
