Hound

by Caleb James

  Liam flinched.

  Right, Finn thought as crazy memories returned. There are rules around asking questions.

  And, Liam’s not human. And, A month ago I almost got eaten by a lizard. No, wait a minute; salamanders aren’t lizards, are they? No, they’re amphibians, and who the fuck cares?

  Liam shut the door.

  Charlie pulled up a chair and faced Finn. Always more serious than his years, the young firefighter looked like someone had tromped on his grave. Liam sat at his side.

  Finn tried to lighten things. “So, what’s today’s adventure? Vampires, werewolves, that Jewish clay monster that avenges the downtrodden?” It felt forced.

  “Finn, we’ve got some shit to tell you, and then we’re heading out of town…. Out of this world, actually, and the punch line is, you need to come with us.”

  Finn braced. “I’m thinking not for a weekend on Fire Island.”

  The pair sat stone-faced.

  “Okay,” Finn said. “This is no joke, but there’s no way we’re going anywhere without you letting your family know you’re alive.”

  Charlie nodded. “We had no choice… or don’t you remember?”

  “I do. She… it was chasing Liam. And then the three of you vanished into that tree and… a month later you’re back and telling me I’m going… to…. Some help would be appreciated.”

  Charlie kept his voice low and gripped Liam’s hand. “We’re going to the Unsee. It’s where we’ve been, or rather someplace in between here and there called the Mist.”

  Finn nodded. As an FDNY Fire Marshal for over a decade, he’d heard crazy shit. Mostly when people lied to him. But Charlie was family, like a little brother. And unlike Rory, who had more than a bit of the devil in him, Charlie Fitzgerald did not embellish. If he said the sky had turned green, you’d best believe it. “I’m not blinking.”

  “It’s not over, Finn. May did something, and she’s not dead, and she’s not finished trying to be the batshit-crazy queen of three worlds.”

  Finn launched into detective mode, his earlier depression replaced with a jangled excitement. “Spill it, Charlie. I’ve been down the rabbit hole. I’ll just take it in and ask questions later.”

  “Good. So here it is.” And with Liam filling in missing bits, they spelled it out. “So there are three queens who are unbelievably old. You met one the night of all that cookie-dough craziness.”

  “Yeah, and I’m still trying to get through all the reports.”

  “Silver lining,” Charlie quipped. “I don’t think you’re going to get to those.”

  “This is really happening, isn’t it?”

  “Finn,” Liam interjected. “Go easy on the questions. Where we’re going every question asked is answered, but at a cost. It’s a fundamental difference between the See and the Unsee. Here people ask questions all the time. It’s remarkable how free people are with their answers.”

  “Yes,” Finn said. “But they don’t always tell the truth. And isn’t that another one of the differences? You guys are obliged to stick to the truth.”

  “Yes, though many of us are skilled at finding the twisty bits where truth and falsehood are difficult to separate.”

  “Smoke and mirrors,” Finn said.

  “Yes.” Liam fixed his startling violet gaze on him. “Let me tell you more of what we’ve learned and how you fit in…. Finn…. Hulain.”

  Something in how Liam drew out his name gave Finn pause. “So go on. I met the lizard queen, and I think we were all in the apartment of queen number two—Katye Summer. Though she had booked out of town.” He started to laugh. “With a frog.”

  “Yes,” Liam said without humor. “It’s Lance, her lover.”

  “Of course,” Finn replied. “You didn’t even need to tell me that. And there seems to be an amphibian theme starting to develop. Cherchez the tadpole.”

  “Finn,” Charlie said. “You got to take this stuff seriously.”

  “Sure… frog lover, cookie-dough fire. Shit! Just keep going. I won’t say another word.”

  Liam smiled, and Finn got sucked into the blond’s charisma… his glamour. Enthralled, he had no choice but to listen.

  “Yes, Katye fled with Lance. We do not know where, though I’m certain she is safe… for now. It is the third sister, Lizbeta, who seeks our help. When you last saw us, May meant to kill me. To eat me. It is how she grows strong. She dines on her subjects and steals their magic. I believe she did the same with humans, though on this side, it’s not their magic but their very lives on which she dines.”

  “Like a vampire,” Charlie added. “I wonder if that’s where the legends come from.”

  “It’s possible,” Liam said. “Therefore it is truth.” Liam broke his gaze with Finn, looked at Charlie, and kissed him.

  Finn was torn between looking away and fascination, and if he were honest, jealousy.

  The obvious love, the total connection between Liam and Charlie was beautiful. They fit. And he stared and waited and wondered what it might be like to experience that. You loved Rory. Yeah, and he didn’t love you back… at least not that way. Moments passed, and Finn drank in the expressions of the two men. As they parted, he saw the bond between them, a scintillating shimmer of molecules. A shiver ran down his back and the illusion shattered.

  Liam turned to him and, like nothing had happened, continued. “Lizbeta is the queen who rules the Mist. She saved me as we tumbled through the weeping tree and into her realm. She managed to tether her sister.”

  “Good. Sister May tethered and all’s right with three worlds.”

  “No, it’s not,” Charlie said. “There’s more.”

  “Of course there is.”

  Liam went on. “According to Lizbeta, May split in two. We had one here, and the other is in the Unsee.”

  Finn coughed. “Come again? She split in two?”

  “Go with it,” Charlie said. “According to Lizbeta, May in her salamander form split into two identical copies and broke free.”

  “So let them handle it.” Finn’s anger surged, and he thought of the chaos and sorrow that had swallowed the city. “We did our part. We got the one that came over here and sent her….”

  Charlie shifted in his chair. “I don’t think they can. And we promised Lizbeta we’d help.”

  Finn tugged at his close-cropped flame-red hair, gone gray on the sides. His rational mind wanted to shut this out. And much as he loved Charlie, his return made everything too real… again. The city, the media, and everyone with half a brain had put together their theory of the night of a thousand fires. Then there had been the groups, some credible, some 100 percent crackpot, who’d tried to claim responsibility. And here’s the problem—you can’t unsee what you’ve seen. He gave a humorless laugh.

  “What’s so not funny?” Charlie asked.

  “All of this. I don’t want to know any of this shit. But you can’t unsee what you’ve seen.”

  “Yes, that is truth,” Liam said. “Once made, once seen, something which was nothing now exists.”

  “That’s a bit heavy,” Charlie said.

  “It’s a central tenet of magic,” Liam explained. “It’s how something comes from nothing. When we’re taught magic, until we grasp the spell or incantation, it’s not real. I believe that it’s true here as well.”

  “You lost me,” Finn said. “And I was doing so well with frogs and multilayered worlds.”

  Liam cocked his head and stared through a barred and grime-caked window. “The human world, the See, has science where the Unsee has magic. In science a thing does not exist until you can measure it or see it in a microscope or…. Charlie’s Gran was telling me about great machines where you split apart bits of the world to see what power lies inside… nuclear accelerators. But until you do that and see the bits of creation, you don’t know if they exist. But once seen, they are now real. Someone puts a name on the new thing, which is probably ancient, and maybe wins a prize. Magic is the same. It’s pulling something
from the invisible realms and making it visible.”

  “I’m getting a headache. This applies to our situation how?” Finn asked.

  Liam nodded. His smile was radiant. “That remains to be seen. So yes, Finn, you’ve seen fairies and creatures who fled from the Unsee to the See. You’ve seen a mad queen transformed into a salamander. You’ve seen horrible destruction and death of both human and fey. None of this can be denied.”

  “Message received. And you want me to come with you down the rabbit hole. Which in principle, sure, willing to do. But here’s the rub-a-dub-dub, and correct me if I’m wrong. Doesn’t traveling between the worlds cost something? Like something big, like an arm or a leg… or your sanity?”

  Liam and Charlie nodded. “Yeah, and that’s the tricky part.”

  Finn waited. “And….”

  “We don’t have it all figured out,” Charlie admitted. “Liam and I are good because—”

  “Yeah, because you’re bonkers in love, and that’s protective. Not helping me here. I don’t have that,” Finn said with more bitterness than intended.

  “It’s true,” Liam said. “This was not my idea, Finn Hulain.” His pronunciation of Finn’s name was again slow and deliberate.

  Finn looked Liam dead-on. Jesus, he’s hot. “We’ve been through enough. You can just call me Finn.”

  “Yes, Finn Hulain.” Liam held his gaze. His violet eyes were both beautiful and disturbing.

  He’s trying that glamour thing. He wanted to look away. His head had the thought, but his neck wasn’t following the plan.

  Liam persisted. “Not my idea, Finn Hulain. But Charlie’s Gran’s. She saw what I should have but did not…. Finn Hulain.”

  “Enough!” Finn said, having a Pee-Wee Herman moment—That’s my name, don’t wear it out. “What’s with the Finn Hulain crap? I know my name.”

  “Not its significance,” Charlie said. “Gran saw it, and Lizbeta, when we told her about you, said it is no coincidence. You are a part of this. Possibly the most important part.”

  “In Fey—the Unsee,” Liam explained, “we have no coincidence. What you call coincidence or fate is magic’s smoke.”

  Finn braced, though gazing on beautiful Liam eased his nerves. Charlie is one lucky man.

  Liam smiled as though reading the wander of his thoughts. “In the human world, magic is stuffed into children’s stories, and even when it exists for real, you block it out or call it something else.” He waved a hand toward the stack of reports on Finn’s desk. “Even now you try to spin gold back into straw.” He sighed. “You’re not alone, Finn. Millions saw magic, terrifying magic that night, and the walls between the realms were the thinnest they’ve been since the Mist was formed. May nearly succeeded. She’s not done, and you… Finn Hulain, are not a coincidence. You are part of this, child of Hulain.”

  Finn again felt the shudder down his back. He fought the urge to scream. He wanted done with all this madness, and in truth, just moments before Charlie and Liam had arrived, he’d again thought of ending it. And like a mantra, I wouldn’t be the first, and I wouldn’t be the last. “So we went through that craziness four weeks ago. Tens of thousands lost their homes, and hundreds died. You vanish into… the Mist. How long have you been planning this?”

  “The same night,” Liam stated. “Though once in the Mist, time works different. It’s true for all three realms.”

  Finn wondered, If I throw them out, maybe none of this is real. He forced himself to look away from Liam to Charlie. His chest ached. This was family, and…. He looked at the mountain of case files still to be processed. Not going anywhere. And yes, they needed to be done so people could battle with their insurance companies, who were raising a holy stink about not paying for damage when the cause was undetermined. “I’m not saying yes or no. I need to talk to Gran, ’cause if she’s the one who’s saying I should come with, I need to know what the fuck I’m getting into. And you still haven’t answered my question. Ever since I started hearing all this… whatever the hell this is, like rule one is you can’t travel between the worlds without something awful happening. You’ve got your magic love thing, and I guess if you’re half human and half something else, like Alex Nevus, you get a free pass. None of this applies to me.” He gritted his teeth. “I have no love. And I’m pretty sure if I was part Tinker Bell, I’d know by now.”

  Liam inhaled. “There is a third way.”

  Finn waited as Charlie and Liam exchanged glances. “Well?”

  Charlie hesitated.

  “Spit it out.”

  “You won’t like it.”

  “Say it.”

  Charlie looked at the floor and then at Finn. “Sacrifice.”

  “What?”

  Liam clarified. “A sacrifice, Finn, a willing and knowing sacrifice. Someone takes the hit so someone else makes it through.”

  Three

  REDMOND’S HEAD reeled as Lizbeta Summer, queen of the Mist, bared her soul.

  “My sister is not one but has split herself in two. She means to retake the Unsee and attempted to do the same with the See. She failed there but will not stop. I have tried. She is beyond reason, perhaps she always was. I need your help, Redmond. I need you to hold her here, or at least the half that was returned to me. I need you to treat the madness that consumes her. She is broken and beyond reason.”

  Redmond seethed. “She should be put down.”

  “No, she is my sister, and no… just no. You are a doctor. You treat those with afflictions of the mind. I have heard of your work with the most incorrigible of villains.”

  She is impossible. This is impossible. Worse still, the smell that wafted through his tower’s open windows—fairy fire. She is close. He tried to block out the intoxicating scent and focus on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—hearing the tale of the three sisters from one of them. “She was one and now is two….” He struggled to recall incantations and spells from his decades of training. But the one that came to mind was not an esoteric magic of higher learning but something taught on his mother’s knee—a nursery rhyme of magic: “With a mickle and a care I will go into a hare.”

  Lizbeta was frantic. “Not a hare, a salamander. A giant and vicious creature.”

  Redmond pondered her response and her tone. “Not a salamander, my lady, not truly. Those do not devour our kind and grind our bones and steal our magic. The shape is salamander, but what your sister attempts goes beyond that.” He stood and drew sigils in the air. This madness must end. It helped… some, but the smell of fairy fire and his years of addiction weakened his knees. His fingers shook as they traced symbols of magic and power.

  Lizbeta watched, her lovely face etched with tears and fear.

  He traced signs for the three realms, one next to the next: the See, the Unsee, and the Mist. He looked at Lizbeta. “You said May has split in two. You are wrong.” He wondered if this would be a revelation. He wondered how much she hid, whether out of habit or deeper purpose. “There is a third piece of her. Tell me of that.”

  Lizbeta nodded.

  So not a surprise, Redmond thought. “Without it she cannot be whole. Without it she cannot rule the three realms.”

  “I swear it was just the two pieces. I saw her split apart. I tried to stop her, but two only, and one is back, chained in the Mist. Damaged. Dangerous. I need your help. I cannot contain her much longer.”

  His gaze narrowed. She does not know. How is that possible? “There is a third piece. It is necessary for this to make sense. It is why she has failed. One who is not whole cannot rule the three realms. The trick is to find the piece that could bring her true power and destroy it. Unless, of course….”

  “I cannot kill my sister. But….”

  Redmond looked at her. “Give voice to the ‘but.’”

  “But… your words hold truth. Something forgotten.”

  “Speak.”

  “Love. There was a time my sister May loved, though anyone else would struggle to find that emotion in
her strange relationship.”

  “The tale of the Hound.”

  “Of course, and not a tale… though at times he had one.” She chuckled. “He was glorious to behold.”

  Redmond nodded. “More than a cautionary tale.”

  “Very much so, and how and when all of this began.”

  “Finally.” He abandoned his sigils, which glowed and then vanished. He sank back into his chair. “You must tell all if I am to be of use. Do not decide what is or is not important. Speak without care.” His voice soothed and lulled her. “Let go of caution and inhibition. Tell me all. Speak of the Hound.”

  She nodded. Her expression softened. “May blames me, and Katye as well. In truth she is not wrong, though she never understood our purpose. It was never to hurt or to harm her, for she is our sister, and we love her.”

  Redmond resisted the impulse to say She is a monster who should have been put down centuries ago. “Tell me what you and Katye did.”

  “We tricked her. And as is fair, she returned the favor. Although the perfect symmetry of it all, my banishment into the Mist and Katye’s into the See to be with her sometimes human, sometimes frog lover, Lance, ’tis a twisted fate.”

  “Yes. I see that,” Redmond added. “Three sisters, three realms, one to each. Because in truth, as three you are one, but as I now understand, at least two of you are no longer whole.”

  She pondered. “Yes, May split in two… and you would have me believe there is a third part, but I was there when she birthed a second salamander self.”

  “It’s not what I meant.” She twists my words. What are you hiding? “It’s more fundamental, but your story brings us to that point. Tell me of the trick. Tell me of the Hound.”

  Lizbeta, lulled by the tenor of Redmond’s voice and his curious brand of persuasion, not exactly a glamour but a sense of safety, that all is well and all secrets are best shared. “The stuff of legend and truth. My beautiful, albeit deadly, sister May…. Maeve, Mab, we have all worn different names. Just as the Hound sheds his mortal form and is reborn.”