Chimes At Midnight (The Grimoire Chronicles Book 3)
Page 17
"Like hell!" Samantha said as she and Crwys made their way around the bricks and junked merchandise. I picked my way as well, and Kyle and Scylla joined us all and we went up the steps.
The apartment looked okay, though I had no idea how the structural damage would play out. I mean…the lower half of the building just took a hit!
Grey stood outside of the bedroom and Ripp'n Jack, looking very disheveled himself, held a gun on the wolf, though Grey continued to bark at him.
Be careful, I said to her.
He doesn't frighten me. But you need medical attention. Sam needs to nullify that curse or you're not going to last much longer.
Eh… I shook my head. I didn't feel all that great and I knew I was running on adrenaline.
"All of you stay back!" Ripp'n Jack said.
"Seriously?" Crwys said. “There’s nowhere to go, Ripp’n Jack. You’re surrounded. And I don’t plan on letting you off easy in a bottle this time.”
"Rip," Scylla said as he moved with Kyle toward the agitated Djinn. "What are you doing? You had the opportunity to go anywhere you wanted. And you came back here? What the fuck for?"
"Because of them." He pointed at Crwys and Levi. "And her." And he pointed at Sam. "I earned a body. I did what that stupid little pretender wanted." He pointed at Brendi, who'd made herself look normal again, dressed in her white shift. She walked without problem in this world, a sign she really wasn't Faerie. Not completely. "I want my reward."
"There's no reward here. You have a body. Use the one you have."
"Don't you get it, Scylla?" Ripp'n Jack said. "We can't keep these bodies because they're aging. They're not immortal like us. They'll age out and you know what else? We'll die when they die. No more continuing. No more life. We'll go back to the Well."
"You don't know that."
"Yes, I do. The same way I know that bastard you keep helping is the one that killed your sister!"
I blinked at him, unsure I'd just heard him right. How had he known…and then I closed my eyes. Of course Ripp'n Jack would know. He'd had Mike's memories, and I'd told Mike about the fire in the Cairn. He'd seen me when Thomas Rhymer brought me home. It wouldn't take the Djinn much to put it together.
"No…" Scylla shook his head. "Dags is just a Goblin. He couldn't have made that kind of fire."
"Just a Goblin?" Ripp'n Jack's eyes widened as he gestured wildly with the gun and laughed. It looked like he was coming unhinged. "Have you not been paying attention, you stupid fuck? He's got a book in him. Not just any book, but the book. The Grand Grimoire is part of him. He possesses spells collected over centuries, spells that his kind"—he pointed at Crwys, who stood in front of Sam—"created. I'll even bet that book contains the Tetragrammaton. Remember that one? The one that destroyed our lives?"
"That's enough, Djinn," Crwys said in a low voice.
Scylla looked at me. Then he looked at Ripp'n Jack and back to me. He swallowed and I could see the war inside of him through his eyes. "Is it…did you do this? Do you have the Grand Grimoire inside of you?"
"Yes. It's fused to my soul. I didn't lie about that. It's what saved my life when I was dying."
"And you…set fire to the Cairn that day?"
I took a very wobbly step forward. "I set fire to a Cairn, yes. I didn't know what else to do…I was being held by a Changeling, Medbh's Changeling, and I needed to escape. I swear I had no idea I'd hurt anyone, Scylla."
"But you knew…when I told you on the veranda—"
"I realized it when you started telling me about it."
"And you didn't say anything."
"I was going to, but we were interrupted and I—"
Scylla's demeanor changed in that instant as he shoved Kyle away and started to come after me. I didn't have anywhere else to go and I didn't have the strength. I would let him do what he had to do. I'd killed his sister. It was an accident, but it was there. And I felt I needed to own it.
Crwys moved fast, as did Levi, and within seconds, Scylla was down and unconscious on the floor. I hadn't seen what they'd done, but Levi stepped back, wiping his mouth. Crwys looked at me and I saw a red-amber fire in his eyes. "He'll get over it."
"No," I said. "He won't."
Another movement and the sound of a gunshot.
Ripp'n Jack dropped like a house of cards, straight down. He lay on the floor of the apartment as sirens broke the sudden quiet. I looked over at Mike, still holding the smoking gun. Crwys moved slowly toward him and took it, wiping it on his shirt.
Mike pointed to the body. "There's your captain's perp. He’s the one that killed those people. He’s the one that blinded the one and burned the other. He deserves the damnation that’s in store for him. Your captain and King can leave me alone now."
I couldn't hold it together any longer then and let go. I was too overwhelmed with sadness and disappointment in myself to hold on. There were voices that, again, called my name, but I was too far gone to care.
Epilogue
DAGS
In my travels through Alfheim, which had been very brief on both instances, and confined, I'd seen the garden of the Obsidian Court, and that of the Emerald Court. The palaces of Medbh and Morgana. So I assumed that each of the queens and their kingdoms had their own palaces and gardens. And I was right. But there was also a place in the center of the four kingdoms. A central garden known only as Wynder. It was in this place, an island of beauty in the middle of the realms' destruction and chaos, that the four kingdoms met to discuss business of the realm.
And it was there where I waited, dressed in something out of a Renn Faire, with a long white shirt, some kind of blue vest, and dark pants tucked into knee-high boots. I thought I looked ridiculous. Mike said I looked princely.
Great.
Mike was there with his daughter, who was now on a lengthy probation. Her shenanigans were under review, and from what I gleaned from Brendi, the review could take some time. She might even succeed in becoming a Faerie by then, to which Mike had firmly stated, "Over my dead body, young lady."
The center of this garden was set out in a square, with a throne on each side. I stood in the center as music played from the white, crystalline walls of the place. I watched as Brendi took her place, dressed in white and black. The Emerald Queen, Morgana, came out in emerald green and pink and took her throne, then came a dazzling blond in silver and white took her place in the Silver throne. This was Tzariene, the Summer Queen.
And last came a dark-haired woman, dressed in reds and ambers, trailed by two golden wolves. She stopped in front of her throne and stared at me. I stared at her. This was the woman I'd seen in Mike's garden that day. The one who'd given me the pendant I wore around my neck.
With her head held high and her back straight, she picked up her skirts and strode toward me. Her wolves remained at her throne. When she was closer, I beheld the woman of my fevered childhood dreams, though I'd long forgotten her cat-like eyes and her long pointed ears. She was taller than me, but not by much. She took a last hesitant step toward me and stopped. "It is good to see you."
I nodded quickly, unsure what to say. After all, this ceremony was to acknowledge me as a Goblin, which seemed to be some big thing. But all I wanted was answers.
She took another step to me. "You do know, I never wanted this for you."
I nodded.
"I wanted you to have a normal, human life."
"Too late for that now, huh?" I made a nervous laugh and swallowed.
"Are you prepared to take the mantel, Darren?"
I smiled. "As far as I've agreed to it. Have the others also agreed to my conditions?"
"Yes. You will continue to live as you choose in the Human Realm. But you will also have duties here. And you will have to hone your magic so it doesn't continue to grow so wild."
She meant my Faerie magic, and not the book. We didn't talk about the book. I nodded to her.
"Tzariene is taking lead for now, as Brendi grows into her throne or until Medbh ret
urns to us." She smiled and lowered her voice. "Not that we're really that eager to have her back."
I laughed nervously. And she laughed with me. "All right."
"And now…I'd like to do something…something I haven’t been able to do in years."
I blinked at her. "What's that?"
She rushed at me then. It wasn't a far distance and she collided with me with her arms thrown around my neck. I did the same as we stood in the center of the garden, hugging each other. I reveled in her smell, a scent that brought back blurry memories of my childhood. Of laughter and walks in the woods, of education in plants and herbs and in the secrets of life.
She pulled back just a bit and kissed my forehead. "Welcome home, my son. My only child."
"Mom."
"I love you."
I hesitated, but I did feel it as I said it. "I love you too."
We hugged again and I realized that through the fanfare and the falling cherry blossoms that it was here, in Oona's arms, that I felt finally, at home.
GLOSSARY
I am not an expert in the Sumerian language but I am fascinated by it. The following list explains the meanings as the words are used in the book, but not necessarily how they're used in the language itself.
Isatum - Fire
Batiltu - Stop
Elu - to lift up
Saplu - to put down
Sihirtu - All
Ati me peta babka! - Gatekeeper, open your gate for me!
Belu - close their eyes
Petu - to reveal
Immaru - light
Etu - to be dark
Alka - come
Nasaru - guard
Seheru igisum - diminish gift
About the Author
Phaedra Weldon is a writer and mother of one. Born in Pensacola, Florida, Phaedra was raised in the lush, green southern tropic of Georgia. She grew up on southern ghost stories told while eating marshmallows around campfires, or on the back of pick-up trucks in the middle of cornfields on chilly October nights. Phaedra currently lives in the South with her daughter.
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