Portal: A light fae urban fantasy novel (Arcane Realms Book 1)

by N. M. Howell

  Sunlight woke her Saturday morning. Raina lay next to the open tome. Sighing, she closed the cover and latched it tight. She didn’t think she could handle any more revelations right now. Not when she needed to go to work.

  The take out kitchen offered dim sum on the weekends, and while there was no room in the grocery store for a formal tea, plenty of customers wanted an order to go. Lee shouted at his employees, sour-faced and constantly moving around. Raina was pretty sure that meant the man was happy.

  Dim sum service ended at one, but regular customers as well as tourists still mobbed the shop. She was shocked to see a tall, dark countenance among the crowding humans.

  “Jax, what are you doing here?”

  He shoved his way through the throng and gave her the up-and-down. “Cute apron.”

  “Girl’s gotta make a living.”

  Jax shrugged and dimpled up. “I suppose.”

  “Are you here to purchase something before my boss comes over to chew us both a new one?”

  He tilted his head. “Just a question. I was hoping you had a good enough time last night that you’d like to give it another go.”

  Raina’s pulse increased. “I had a great time. Yes, awesome. When?”

  “How about now?”

  Derek wandered over, tying apron strings behind him. Upon seeing Jax, his back stiffened.

  “This guy giving you trouble?”

  Raina noted Jax assuming a tense posture. “Oh, Jax, this is my friend Derek. Derek, Jax.”

  “Hey.” Derek ignored the Dark Fae. “I’m here to relieve you. Same thing tomorrow. Except maybe busier.”

  “Thanks—”

  “I know you from somewhere,” Jax said, his visage a black scowl.

  Derek gave him hard eyes. “You know Trini? I’m her brother-in-law.”

  “Interesting. I’d heard Trini married a successful human merchant. But…” With pursed lips and raised brows, Jax pointedly looked around Kowloon Grocery before gracing Derek with distain.

  “I don’t know how many buildings and businesses you own in Manhattan, but I think we’re doing just fine.”

  Jax dismissed him. “Materialism. The measure of human success. I suppose. And where is your brother? As far as I’ve seen, Trini is alone nearly all the time.”

  “Danny travels for business. My father is getting to old for overseas trips. Like it’s any of your business.”

  And Raina thought Trini was the jealous type? She decided she’d better wave off the steaming cloud of testosterone building around them. “Okay, Derek. I’ll see you later on.”

  “You bet you will,” Derek said.

  “Maybe,” Jax lifted his haughty brows again and extended his elbow to Raina. “Maybe not.”

  Raina noted that Derek was smiling and texting like mad as she and Jax headed out.

  They wandered to Grand, heading east, with no apparent destination. Before the East River, Jax made a left, and they wandered into the Lower East Side.

  “I was born here,” he said.

  Raina wondered at the proclamation. “I thought you were from out of town.”

  He shook his head. “I’m a native New Yorker. When my parents died, while I felt fully autonomous, Dark Fae Services decided to put me in a home. I had no other family, but my parents were close with Flora’s family. I was sent upstate to live until I reached the legal age.”

  “I’m confused. Weren’t you living with Flora and her brother here?”

  Jax muttered ascent. “After the portal fell, many Shadow Fae moved here. Mostly out of involvement with the museum and academy construction. But they’re country people, and only half-Fae. This city can be a daunting place for the uninitiated. They needed someone local. Since they took me in, I sort of returned the favor.”

  They walked on, Raina digesting this. Jax paused outside a block of tenements. “They used to call this the Fae-Borhood. Shadow Fae bargained for a few buildings to call their own. No one likes to bargain more than a Shadow Fae. It became the place where humans came for enchantments and curses. Once in a while, if a human-Fae bargain got out of hand—as they usually do—immigrant mobs would show up threatening to burn the place down.

  “Those were good times.” Jax chuckled at the face Raina made.

  Although Raina chose to live in New York from a young age, she had never heard of a Dark Fae neighborhood. “Were your parents born here?”

  “No, they emigrated from the Kingdom of Schwarzwald back in the day. Bargained their way over, as my father told it. They bypassed the Ellis Island experience apparently, and just set up shop with other Dark Fae. They had connections with human families. Fairy Godfathers, they used to be called. Some were locked in by some magic bargain, some just early Moth-Boys, before that became a thing.”

  Raina wondered how long ago that was, but given the secrecy the Fae kept about their ages, she didn’t ask. They wandered up Columbia Street arm in arm. Her feet felt light as she marveled at the touch of his muscular limb.

  Jax related a few memories, mostly boyhood pranks. Raina noted he didn’t talk about his parents. Heading along Houston, Jax stopped and gave her a grave look.

  “I have a serious question for you.”

  Raina’s heart skipped. “What’s that?”

  “Do you like hot dogs?”

  Both of them cracked up, and Jax led the way to Katz’ Deli where they ordered from the superlatively cranky staff. The packed delicatessen made Kowloon Grocery seem deserted by comparison.

  “It’s the one element of human cuisine I neither question nor understand,” Jax said as they walked north, chatting and eating. Raina didn’t say much about her own past, only partially pretending to be embarrassed by her parents’ situation. She let Jax believe their issues were financial, not that they were trapped in another dimension through the fault of the Dark Fae.

  Jax seemed happy enough to talk about his own past as they walked Second Ave past the East Village and Gramercy Park. At East 22nd Street, Jax turned them left. The narrow street was one-way, the traffic a little quieter. Under leafless trees and buildings that ran right up to the sidewalk, they moved west, talking, or walking in comfortable silence. He stopped where Broadway made a diagonal intersection, looking up at the Flatiron Building.

  “It’s amazing how this city, how this human construction, seems so very permanent,” he mused.

  As he squeezed her hand, Raina could only think about how things were hardly permanent. In one night, a portal that had stood for centuries crumbled under the hands of the Dark Fae. Hands just like the one she was holding

  20

  As evening fell, they found themselves in Central Park. Jax walked her to a favorite place, the Wagner Cove Pavilion, a few hundred yards west of the Academy on the lake.

  “Funny, I thought I wanted to be away from the place.” He gazed through the trees surrounding Cherry Hill Fountain at the roof of the museum and academy.

  Raina didn’t think it was particularly funny. She definitely wanted to be away from the school. “It’s always nice in the park. Even if it is mostly artificial, it feels… wild, I guess.”

  A horse-drawn carriage clopped by on West Drive, passing Strawberry Fields. While the dusk was blustery, the day had been dry. They sat together in the little pavilion, Raina snuggling into Jax’ warmth, the two of them facing away from the academy.

  “It’s getting a little chilly,” Jax said. He removed his light jacket and draped it over her shoulders. Raina breathed in the heady smell of him, his cologne, soap, shampoo and the essence that was simply Jax.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  “You don’t talk much about yourself, Rainara.”

  Raina hardly knew who she was anymore. She pushed away the confusing thoughts of the previous day out of her head during this meandering date with Jax. His one statement threatened to bring it all back in a rush.

  “There isn’t much to say.”

  Jax’ hand touched her face. “I doubt that very much.”


  He guided her into a kiss.

  When their lips merged, the moment lingered into a strange and wonderful eternity. The lap of the water, cries of birds, distant rumble of traffic, heat of contact, the increasing pressure of their embrace all merged. Raina felt she were sinking and floating at once. The touch of his tongue felt electric. She filled herself with his touch, his scent, his beauty. It felt like the kiss lasted for hours, and only microseconds.

  He pulled away.

  “Do you hear that?”

  Raina took a deep breath, gathering her senses. Muted, as if stuffed with cotton, came the clamor of bells. “What is that?”

  “Trouble.” Jax rose, climbing up on the back of the bench to scan the campus.

  “What is it?”

  Jax ignored her, jumping to the ground. “Not again. Damn it.”

  He raced toward the fountain. Raina ran to catch up.

  “Stay back, Rainara!” Jax whirled on her. “Stay down!”

  Like hell. She ran after him, past the fountain, down a footpath to the campus.

  At the same time, the roar of an engine rattled the trees. Raina saw an old, nondescript van veer off Terrace Drive, tires screaming with the turn. It raced at Jax, nearly running him down. With an unintelligible curse, Jax leapt back, nearly falling with his effort.

  The van sped off toward the gates of the museum. Jax jumped to his feet, limping but still moving faster than Raina. Ahead, the van screeched to a halt at the broad steps.

  Dark Fae in security uniforms leapt to the walls surrounding the school. Racing along the narrow ledges, they converged on the opening, and the idling van. As she and Jax neared, Raina saw that the plates of the vehicle were obscured by mud or paint. The rear doors flew open.

  Raina half-expected to hear the report of guns. Instead, intense, faceted red light swarmed the vehicle in painful highlights. She recognized the spell, a Panoply Rubicund—the red armor of magical defense.

  While it meant that the Dark Fae converging on top of the wall could not attack the van, it also meant the men in the van could not launch offensive Frey Spells. Raina thought it was a standoff. Until one of the guards on the wall shouted and pointed.

  “They’re coming out the main doors!” The man made a gesture with both fists. Solid green light formed before him, a perfect globe of energy. Others on the wall followed his lead, each forming an identical Targe Viridescent—a defensive shield. Apparently, whoever was coming out of the school was magically armed to the teeth.

  Until now, Raina had never realized how much Dark Fae fray spells looked like human martial arts. Each man made the exact same motions. She watched as the guards thrust their left arms out, bent at the elbow, fists becoming flat, palms in. Right arms went straight up in fists. They were preparing offensive spells as well.

  Fireworks blasted the doors open. Pelts Sonorous and Strafes Plangent sparked and rebounded with showers of fire, the explosions shaking the ground.

  “That’s Bright Fae magic!” Jax shouted at her. “Take cover, Rainara, for the gods’ sakes!”

  Could it be? Raina ran closer, shielding her eyes from the glare as Targes Viridescent took the brunt and intensified to solid greenish light as bright as welding torches.

  She understood the strategy of both sides even before the Light Fae emerged from the building. They would wear Panoplies Rubicund of a vibration sympathetic with the one surrounding the van. It would allow them access even while protecting them from offensive Frey Spells. Two lines of armored men would surround several offensive casters, protecting them while allowing an attack.

  The Dark Fae took to the higher ground, hoping to get an angle on the attackers. It was the strategy that led to the taming and breeding of nithedrakes and wyverns. While the offensive Light Fae were protected from all sides, they were vulnerable from above.

  The raiders in the school couldn’t be Light Fae, despite the mastery of supernatural bombardment. Without magic flowing from the portal, they would have withered like flowers without the sun. She knew that the raiders from before were human, Light Fae sympathizers like Derek. But how did they cast Light Fae spells?

  Three guards fell off the walls, the exploding Fray magic overwhelming their shields. Jax stood on the other side of the van, shouting orders.

  “All of you, Stroke Flaxen! Knock their armor down before they reach the van!”

  Out charged the invaders, red, gem-like energy surrounding the two lines of four men on the outside. The line inside consisted only of two men. They picked out the guards closest to the gate, the ones with the best angle. Each man cast a spell. From the first in line, she detected nothing. The second emitted a shriek that climbed in pitch and volume. A shaft of pure white light flashed like lightning, crashing with a splash of energy into the man on the left side of the gate. The Dark Fae’s Targe Viridescent collapsed under the Impale Strident. With a scream, the Dark Fae fell from the wall.

  The remainder of the guards chanted with one voice, right hand fingers splaying and turning. Pale yellow embers hailed down to crackle against the red armor. The collective Panoply Rubicund lost its sharp edges, melting like translucent wax. Still, the men moved fast. There was a chance they could make the van.

  With an echoing crack, the first raider’s spell slammed into the guard on the right of the gate. His shield erupted in shards of flaming power. Raina knew the Bludgeon Typhonic would have crushed the guard’s bones without a raised shield. Still, the unconscious fall from the wall would do that as well.

  Raina wanted to join the fight, to aid the Light Fae, or human sympathizers, or whoever they were. But the days of casting a Panoply Rubicund to bolster their armor were long gone. She could only stand and watch.

  The raiders made the gate, with the guards above having no angle of attack, and casting their spell to disintegrate the magic armor took all their attention. Too late, she understood Jax’ plan. He jumped from behind the van, directly in front of the charging marauders’ path.

  Legs wide, arms held before him, angled at the rushing men, a sound like a thunder crack boomed from Jax. The remainder of the red armor blew away. It was the fiercest Slash Bellow Raina had ever experienced. A sonic blade passed through the first men in line. While the two outside raiders shrugged the attack off with their dissolving armor, the man in the middle fell to his knees with a scream.

  Panoply destroyed, the guards above struck with offensive spells. Still, the raiders ran on, piling into the van as the last of the red armor vanished. Intense flashes and deafening blasts rocked the academy, the park.

  Only one raider remained, the other one on the offensive. He cast an Impale Strident—directly at Jax.

  Jax crossed his arms, going down on one knee, hands palms-out as if in surrender. Raina knew he wasn’t giving up. When two overlapping blue oval planes appeared, she knew he had cast the last-ditch effort of Fray Spells, the Adargo Dire.

  Rarely could such a hastily cast shield spell do much. In this case, it didn’t. The Impale Strident bowed and cracked the adargo’s planes, and Jax flew across the narrow path to crash, unconscious, on the grass beyond.

  The van burned rubber, the last caster staggering under the attack from above. He was pulled in by waiting hands and the vehicle swerved and squealed away. On the pedestal, the man Jax had taken down rose to his knees. Sweating and panting, he flung pointless, ineffective spells at the remaining guards. They scaled the walls and rushed him, with three casting a Snare Torrid. The attacker shrieked as he tried to pull it off, the invisible strands of the net burned, growing hotter as he struggled.

  Raina ran to Jax’ side. Spitting grass and dirt, dark skin further darkened by bruises, he rolled to his knees. A line of split skin ran down the center of his face, bleeding a little. Without the desperate shield, it would have been much, much worse.

  Groaning, he stood. “I told you to take cover,” he said, and marched up the pedestal steps to the captured man.

  Raina followed. Only six guards remain
ed conscious, and these surrounded the man on the ground. While he tried to remain still, any pressure against the net sizzled back with heat. The raider lay face down, curled in a fetal position. The back of his black shirt rode up, revealing the glowing lines of a Bright Fae glyph.

  Jax stalked around the man, fists clenched, breathing hard. His eyes went dark, features drawn like a predator’s around his bared teeth.

  “Light Fae scum!”

  To her shock, Jax kicked the helpless man in the kidney, right on top of the tattoo.

  “Jax!”

  Fury in his gaze shut her down.

  Jax grabbed the half-conscious man by the shirt, lifting him. The enchanted snare only acted on the victim it was cast upon. With his other hand, Jax removed the mask.

  “Human!” Jax spit on the ground. “Who are you?”

  The man didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer, Raina saw—he was unconscious.

  “Who are you?” Jax bellowed, shaking the man. His motions became so violent, one of the guards stepped in.

  With a hand on Jax’ shoulder, he whispered something. Jax took a shuddering breath and looked up. His vision panned back and forth, finally stopping on Raina.

  “Raina, I’m sorry. Are you hurt?”

  Hurt didn’t begin to describe it. She took a step back, and then another. A crowd of humans had gathered, drawn to the spectacle of Fray Magic. She shouldered her way through and walked out of the park with her head down.

  Still, Jax’ words rang in her ears.

  “The Fae won’t stand for any more attacks on us,” he addressed the crowd. “First the portal, now the academy. No more! We’ll stand this no more!”

  “No more!” Someone in the crowd shouted.

  Raina hurried her steps.

  “No more!” Another voice shouted.

  By the time she reached Terrace Drive, the voices joined in a chant.

  “No more! No More!”

  21

  Days later, Raina left her last class. Her heart was a cold, sodden weight in her chest. She couldn’t blame Jax. Not really. Light and Dark Fae had been enemies for a very long time. She had no doubt that, not so long ago, she had been filled with the same hate she’d seen in Jax’ face.