Dark Illumination

by Hadena James

  “It’s been asked. No one remembers seeing a member of the Fey in town.”

  “Well, damn,” I frowned and picked up the pizza boxes. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Two

  Dawn was coming. I had gotten used to feeling it before I saw the lightening of the sky. Even miles apart, I had enough of Gabriel’s magic stored to feel it. I sighed heavily with the dawn.

  Anubis looked at me. The pizza was gone. Nothing had happened. I had tried not to be bored, but it had been damn near impossible after the first three hours. I needed to pee as well. Anubis had suggested I squat at the side of the car, but I had a bit of dignity left.

  He started the car. The motor sounded loud in the dark morning. I closed my eyes.

  “What now?” I asked quietly.

  “We get a couple hours of sleep and then we attempt to find the Witch involved.”

  “Do you realize that the Witch could be hiding in parts we can’t go?”

  “What do you mean?” Anubis gave me a brief glance.

  “Look around, Ani. This isn’t just a small town; it has a whole cut off community.” I pointed out the black buggy being pulled by horses coming down the road towards us.

  “Amish? You think the Witch could be Amish?”

  “It happens.” I didn’t know if it had really happened before, but there was always the chance that a genetic fluke created a Lesser Witch, even with the devout.

  “Should we pull them over and ask?” He gave me a small smirk.

  “Uh, yeah, that will go over well. A Demon and a Vampire interviewing a group of Amish about a Witch who is summoning a troll to eat livestock, I can’t even imagine how that conversation begins.”

  “Badly,” he gave me another quick look.

  “Yes, I could see them trying to trample us with their horses.” The buggy passed us. I saw one of them start a prayer. We couldn’t convince everyone that we weren’t evil.

  “Would a Witch be able to find safe haven among the Amish? Even if they were born there?”

  “Honestly, I would say no.” I answered him, stretching slightly in my seat. “However, I don’t know all the secrets of the Amish. I’m not sure anyone that isn’t Amish knows all their secrets. For all we know, they stole all the cursed items from our basement.”

  That gave me a thought. Fleeting, but enough for me to grab onto it. I turned in my seat to look at him.

  “Could an object cause the summoning of a troll and keep it hidden?”

  “Unlikely,” Anubis shook his head. “You know how cursed objects work, it would have to be specifically designed to do only that or it would have to be Pandora’s Box. Since we know where Pandora’s Box is and we know it is safe and sound…”

  “Where’s the box?” I asked, not as convinced as he was.

  “Built into the Council Table. It can summon anything, even extinct creatures and the things of nightmares. However, that giant chair that holds your father, the seat is the lid of Pandora’s Box and the rest of the box is contained between the legs. It is why his chair looks more like a throne. However, that is classified information, very few Elders even know about it.”

  “Back to square…” My mouth fell open as a giant creature exited a gravel road directly in front of us.

  “I don’t have to pee anymore,” I said.

  “You better not have urinated in my car!” Anubis didn’t sound happy.

  “There’s a troll,” I said in my defense as Anubis exited the vehicle. He was shouting something. The something was lost when the troll opened his mouth and roared.

  Fenrir exited the woods. His fur was sleek and black. His head was thrown skyward and I knew he was howling even though I couldn’t hear him.

  I exited the car after Anubis. I had no idea what to do. I dug out my cell phone and dialed Gabriel’s number. I couldn’t hear his ring tone or anything else through the phone. I was hoping he figured it out as I held the phone up to the troll to make sure the sound was coming over the speaker.

  The troll moved slowly, unwieldy, like he didn’t know how to work his body. That was when I noticed the magic. He reached for Anubis, who easily moved out of his grasp. The magic that surrounded him was dark blue and seemed alive.

  “Keep him busy!” I yelled to Anubis as the troll stopped bellowing.

  Moving away from the troll was a long, thin wisp of that magic; it flowed through the air above us. I started running towards its source, Fenrir at my heels. My head was up, tracing the blue line of magic. Fenrir had his teeth bared, nose to the ground, trying to sniff out whatever it was that I saw.

  I went over a slight hill. Anubis and the troll were out of my line of sight, but I could still hear them. The magic continued further down the road, further away from us. I ran harder.

  There was an audible pop. The line of magic snapped, disappearing from above us. I stopped for a second. Fenrir stopped as well.

  The world went silent. The noises the troll had been making were gone. No birds, no crickets, nothing moved. Fenrir seemed frozen in the silence.

  I closed my eyes, letting the memory of the magic take control of me. I took off again, trying to to follow the paper thin tendrils of magic. My mind had it, even though my eyes didn’t. I ran blindly forward, following a memory.

  The pain that hit me, blindsided me. It slammed into my chest. I was forced from the ground, my feet kicking worthlessly as I was airborne. I came down on a chunk of gravel and felt my skull fracture in a small spider-web of cracks. Blood oozed from my ears. I felt it running down my cheeks. My muscles danced.

  I opened my eyes to darkness. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t hear. All I could feel was the electricity that still tormented my body.

  I knew very few Witches who could control electricity. Even fewer that could harness it and use it as a weapon. My body was trying to heal the damage as the electrical current created more.

  I twitched uncontrollably. I could feel the magic. It was definitely a Witch and one with a great deal of magic, but I didn’t imagine they spent much time with Elders. There was lots of anger in the magic. Repressed and lashing out was my guess.

  The magic began to recede. I stopped twitching. My body began to heal. By the time Anubis showed up, I could hear. My vision was still gone, but I didn’t need it much at the moment. I coughed once, clearing my throat. It ached from the muscle spasms it had just endured.

  “Bren,” Anubis was frantically calling my name while Fen bayed next to me.

  Gingerly, I touched my ears. The blood had stopped flowing. It was drying into a tacky crust on the side of my head. My eyes were still bleeding freely though. I could feel the blood as it ran down my face; hear it drip from my cheek bones onto the ground. The world seemed impressively loud.

  I held up my hand to get Anubis to stop talking. The sound of his voice was grating, jarring. It made my head hurt. I felt the bones in my skull begin to mend.

  “She’s hurt, bad,” Anubis shouted to someone.

  “How bad?” Gabriel’s voice came to me. He sounded close. My message had gotten through.

  “Blind at the moment, I think it ruptured her eyes.”

  “What?” Ba’al’s voice joined in.

  “I don’t know. She took off after something, told me to keep the troll busy. Fen came with her. The troll disappeared. Then Fen began baying like the devil was chasing him. I rushed over and found her. She was twitching and bleeding. I don’t know if she can hear or see.”

  “I can hear,” I croaked. “The jerk hit me with a lightning bolt. That is some serious magic. I don’t think I could do it. No, I know I couldn’t do it. Dangerous magic.”

  I felt the world swim a bit. Stars of color were blossoming in my head. I was going to need a healer of some caliber to fix this damage. Magical damage isn’t like a fall from a high building; it takes more work to heal. The magic has to be drained.

  “Call Magnus and Leviathan, we are going to need them.” I told anyone there.

  “Bren, are you ok?”r />
  “Magnus is going to have to remove the curse. Levi will have to heal the damage. Do not call Lucifer. He will raise hell over this.”

  “What do we do, Bren?” Ba’al asked.

  “Motel. I need a dark room and some cold packs for my eyes. I need to stop bleeding. My skull and eardrums have healed. But the Witch cursed the lightning bolt to blind me. Magnus will need to break the curse. Levi will need to do the healing. He is the only one, besides the obvious choice, strong enough to do it.”

  “So tell Levi he can’t tell Lucifer. Got it,” Ba’al made a loud noise.

  “And stop with the noises. I can hear everything like it is being blasted through an amplifier.”

  Chapter Three

  My eyes were burning in the sockets. They were still bleeding. Someone was holding a cloth over them. It was cool and damp to the touch. Every so often, it would be changed, another cloth replacing it. The new cloth was always cooler than the old.

  No one was talking. They hadn’t talked since I told them to stop. Or if they were, they were not doing it in my room. I could hear nothing but the sounds of the heater and the occasional shuffle as the cloths were replaced.

  My uncles all know how to make an entrance. Levi did it in grand style. I was positive he kicked the door down.

  “What in the fuck happened?” He bellowed.

  “Stop talking,” I told him. “It hurts to hear anything. Your voice included. Love you.”

  “Bren,” his voice was much softer this time, calmer. The sight of his niece must have touched a nerve. I wasn’t sure how bad I looked, but I was guessing the piles of bloody rags were enough to stifle his pent up frustration and replace it with anxiety.

  “I will need you to heal my eyes, Levi. It is going to hurt you a great deal. They will feel as though they have caught fire, shrunk, and leaked all the fluid from them. You might be blind temporarily, but you are the only Demon aside from myself and my father that can do it and take the pain. First though, Magnus will have to drain the magic from the wounds. I can heal everything except my eyes. Once the magic is drained, I’ll be able to help a little, but there’s just too much. It will take me a day or two to do it alone. This is going to hurt more than when Uncle Beezel got sucked into the tornado.”

  “I understand and am willing,” he whispered to me.

  “Leave us,” I told whoever was taking care of the cool cloths. “I must have a moment alone with Levi.”

  They said nothing, just stood and left. I heard their feet shuffle to the door and for the first time, the ruffle of velvety wings. Ba’al had been my caretaker. It would have made me smile had I not been in so much pain.

  “Uncle, I think Magnus can break the curse, but the damage done while we wait on him is going to be horrific. You do not have to do this.”

  “Bren, I would never leave you in this state just because it might cause me a bit of pain.”

  “Levi, it is a Witch. The pain, the curse, it is magical. It will hurt longer, be more intense than normal pain.”

  “I know and I am still willing to heal it.”

  “Thank you, Levi.”

  “Is there anything else I can do for you while we wait?”

  “No, they hit me with magic. It is a part of me for now. I can track them using that, once I am out of this bed.”

  “Magnus was in conference with the UN when he got your call. It may take him a while to get here. What do we do about the blood?”

  “I have plenty to spare. My body is replenishing it as fast as I lose it. Keeping it mopped up is the important part. I can’t break the curse because it is me that was cursed. They knew it was me that they cursed. It was aimed at me, specifically. They didn’t randomly attack a Witch. They specifically attacked me. If it had been Fen, he’d be healed by now. Same with any of the others, but they knew I wouldn’t be able to break the curse myself. I do not think they have dealt much with Elders, but I think they have plenty of experience with Witches.” I stopped myself from saying what was on the tip of my tongue, it sounded paranoid even to me.

  “You think they specifically lured you here with the troll to attack you?” Levi asked it.

  “I think it is something to consider. They managed to curse a spell and send it at me. They managed to harness lightning and create a curse and send it at me. It takes a great deal of control to do that. I couldn’t have.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Fight magic with magic. If they can hurl electrically charged curses at me, then I can harness some of their own magic. Use it to track them, use it to fight them. It is what I do.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” I took a deep breath. “My power is not mythical, not unknown. It is a bit amped up for my bloodline, but that is all. My mother probably couldn’t do it, but Daniel could. Magnus could hurl the cursed electrical spell, but he couldn’t use the magic to track down its origins. They made a mistake.”

  “It was a fatal one for someone who understands how Witch magic works,” Levi answered. He replaced the rag over my eyes.

  “I have another question, one that has nothing to do with this case.”

  “Of course.”

  “What happens if I am challenged, like I did with Chiron?”

  “The chances of that are very slim, Brenna. Few lieutenants face an Overlord and win. You did. Your survival proves that you are stronger than Chiron. You were stronger than an Overlord. We think they are the end all, be all, of our genetic best, but the truth is, there is always someone stronger. To challenge you would most likely be a death sentence for the challenger. What we have been trying to make you understand is that you didn’t just kill Chiron; you killed an Overlord in mortal combat. You killed a Centaur, one of the strongest of the breeds. No Fey would stand a chance, even Morgana is slightly afraid of you now. Ba’al, Lucifer, Anubis, Gabriel, Fenrir and Pendragon would have a chance against you, but anyone else…” He took a deep breath.

  “No, Brenna, a challenge against you would be suicide. The Circle and Pendragon can control your Demon powers to some degree, but not your Witch powers. Those are not of Elder origin. Pendragon has no power there. Besides, Pendragon has admitted that you are as blank as Lucifer to him. He gets none of your magic, even the Demon magic is beyond his abilities. You are like the Brothers, immune to him. You and your siblings are all immune. Since your cousins are not, there is significance in it.”

  “How do I deal with Chiron’s death?”

  “However you need to deal with it. I have not had to experience what the Overlords have. I have never taken a life. I do not know what to tell you to do with that. If you need to feel guilt and remorse, do so. Weep for him, if you must. But you will need to deal with it or you will become as tortured as Fenrir and the rest of them.”

  “Grieve for the loss of his life,” the idea seemed foreign. I had never considered that an option.

  “Grieve for the loss of any life, why make an exception for Chiron? Sure he was a bastard, but even bastards are missed after they are dead. It is not weak or wrong or even unnatural to grieve for the loss of an enemy. Warriors of old did it all the time, hence the burial of warriors by their enemies.

  “And let’s face it Bren, like it or not, you are a warrior. I do not know your exact place in this battle, but it is not that of a pawn. You will lead us, you will command armies. You will kill many. And as all good warriors do, you will honor their memories by grieving.”

  That was a suggestion I understood. I could grieve the loss of life. Death was always so tragic. Even Chiron did not deserve death. He forced himself and me into the situation. I did what I had to do at the time, but now, it was over. I had taken a life. I would grieve for both of us when I had the time. It might even make me feel better. If it didn’t, I hadn’t lost anything.

  Chapter Four

  Levi and I sat in silence for the rest of our time alone. He would occasionally replace the cloth that covered my eyes. The first time, he let out a small gasp a
nd took a picture with his phone. My guess was to show me later.

  None of the others rejoined us. For whatever reason, they seemed to be keeping their distance. I couldn’t even feel them outside the motel room.

  I don’t know how long we waited for Magnus. It seemed like forever, but that was a relative term to be sure. It was probably only an hour or two.

  “Holy Mother of…” Magnus said as Levi moved the cloth. I hadn’t seen it. I hadn’t seen anything since it had happened, but by everyone’s reactions to it, I was guessing it was bad.

  “Can you break it?” I asked him.

  “I think I can, but it isn’t going to be pleasant. That’s some dark magic there,” Magnus slipped into an Irish accent as he said “dark magic”.

  Dark magic was the Witch’s equivalent of evil. Any spell cast with the intent to do serious damage was considered dark magic. Anubis’s curse was the worst any of us had ever seen, since it was tied to his soul.

  “But you can do it?” Levi asked more emphatically.

  “Aye, it’s going to hurt like hell though. She’ll probably be blind for a while yet. I don’t imagine it will heal in an hour.”

  “That is why I’m here.”

  “If you heal her, Levi, you will be blind and I’m not sure it would work.” Magnus’s hands were suddenly on my face.

  “Break the curse; we’ll deal with the aftermath.” Levi assured him.

  His hands were warm, warmer than they should have been. After a few moments, they felt white hot. My cheeks were burning now along with my eyes. The first push of power came. It filled me; it filled the spell that was blinding me. I could feel the magic expand in my eyes.

  I had never felt anyone break a curse put on me. I had broken a curse or two on other people, but to feel it done to me was completely new. I didn’t like it.