Chalice of Life

by R. A. Rock

  “Jayde is going to bring the Chalice back to the King with me. And you.” Nyall tilted his head, studying Ethan. “Aren’t going to stop me. Or one of these people is going to get hurt.”

  Ethan didn’t say anything but he didn’t look happy being told what to do by Nyall.

  “Nyall, please, I know you’re trying to do the right thing, but this isn’t the right thing to do,” Tess told him.

  “What in the name of Severance would you know about doing the right thing, Tessa?” Nyall said, giving her a look of disbelief. “You’re a fugitive, stealing precious ancient artifacts for your own nefarious purposes. You can not lecture me on what’s right.”

  “Nyall, please. We used to be friends.” Tess pleaded with him, wishing it didn’t have to be like this. “You’re like a brother to me. How can you do this?”

  He stared, incredulous. “How can I do this? You’re the one ruining my life, Tessa. I was this close.” He held up his thumb and pointer finger an inch apart. “To becoming the Captain of the Guard for the Light Court.”

  “You were?” Tess was startled by this unexpected information. “So why didn’t you get it?”

  “Well,” he said, his face a mask of bitterness. “The Keeper of the Scroll might have gotten killed on my watch. That might have had something to do with it.”

  Tess scowled at him. “I didn’t kill him.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s only what the King thinks happened.”

  “Nyall—”

  But he was going on. “Or maybe it was my inability to catch the person who did it, Tessa, because the murderer escaped to the Earthly Realm.”

  “Nyall, I never meant for—”

  He held up his hand and she stopped speaking.

  “And then the King gave me another task. Just retrieve a magical ring from a banished faerie. No big deal. And then someone got there first and stole the ring before I could get it back.”

  “Stars and Shadows,” Tess breathed. “That was you? Why are you using Dark Magic? You’re Light Fae, for goodness sake.”

  “It’s a spell, Tessa. Really, you should know me better than that.”

  “Right now, I don’t feel like I know you at all,” she said, but he ignored her comment.

  “The spell masks Light Magic, giving it a sheen of what appears to be Dark Magic.”

  “That’s why I got a sense of Light Magic when we were fighting the Shadows in that park in Calgary,” Ethan muttered.

  “It’s meant to throw people off the scent of who we really are. Guess it worked. Because you never had a clue. We use guns too, just like the humans.” He stopped, appearing to contemplate his words. “One must use all the tools one has available. Pretend Dark Magic, guns, whatever is necessary to accomplish one’s goals.”

  “Look, Nyall, I am so sor—” Tess started but he cut off her apology, going back to his rant.

  “And then there’s the Chalice.” He gestured to where Jayde was standing and listening in silence to their conversation. “My very last chance to prove myself to the King. My very last chance at becoming the Captain of the Guard. Because if I fail at this, I might as well go throw myself at Ransetta’s feet and beg for a job cleaning the dungeons.”

  “Nyall, you can’t mean that.”

  He pressed his lips together. “Being Captain of the Guard for the Light Court is all I have ever wanted my whole life, Tessa. You of all people should know that. And ever since it became a possibility, you have been thwarting me. Over and over.”

  “Not on purpose. I didn’t mean to, Nyall.”

  “Doesn’t matter what you intended. It’s what happened. And it’s true that we used to be friends. You were like the little sister I never had. But this is it, Tess. I can’t let you have this. If I do, everything I’ve ever wanted is going to disappear forever.”

  “But Nyall, I can’t let you have it either. I have to end the Severance. I’m the Faerie from the prophecy who’s going to do it. Our land can’t go on like this. And I need the Chalice to break the spell. You know that.”

  “All I know, Tess, is that this Chalice is coming back to the Light Court with me. And no one is going to stop me. Especially not you.”

  Tessa balled her hands into fists, feeling her nails biting into her flesh.

  “Go now. And no one has to get hurt.”

  How the hell was she going to get the Chalice from Nyall? And did she truly want to? He was right. She was ruining his life, by accident, through her actions. Could she really do this to Nyall? Her childhood friend?

  Tess felt completely torn, her guts churning.

  But what was the alternative?

  Leaving Ahlenerra the way it was?

  Not ending the Severance?

  That was unthinkable.

  She was in as tight a spot as Nyall.

  “I’m not leaving here without the Chalice, Nyall,” she told him, deadly serious.

  “I don’t want to hurt you and your friends, Tess. But you leave me no choice.”

  “No,” Tess said, holding her hands up. “Leave them out of it. Your team, too. We do this the old-fashioned way. A Korrock. Whoever wins gets the Chalice. You think you’re good enough to be Captain of the Guard in the Light Court? Then you ought to have no trouble beating the former Captain of the Guard for the Dark Court.”

  “Any day, Callahan.” His face was grim.

  “Let’s do it,” she said.

  But before they could start, the whole place was swarming with Hunters that came out of nowhere. Tess recognized them by the star on their clothing. They started shooting.

  As they all dived for cover, Tess saw Nyall push Jayde down. But clearly, the Hunters didn’t care if they hit her anymore. All they wanted was the Chalice.

  Jayde gasped and fell to the ground, blood staining her shirt.

  “No,” Finn yelled, dropping to the ground and crawling quickly on his belly until he was beside her.

  It all happened so fast that Tess didn’t even have time to react. The Hunters were still shooting at them and the Fae archers were firing back. Some Fae and some Hunters were already down. Other Fae had rushed the Hunters and there were several sword fights going on inside and outside the stone circle.

  Tess headed for Jayde, staying down and slithering and shooting her way across to where Finn and Jayde were crouched behind some of the fallen stones.

  When she got to them, she saw that Finn had his hands over the bullet holes, his eyes closed.

  “No, Finn, what are you doing?” Tess said, fear in her heart. She wanted to tear his hands away but she was afraid she might hurt him or Jayde if she did so. “You don’t have enough Starlight to heal her.”

  He didn’t stop or take his hands off Jayde’s inert form.

  “It’s not fair, Tess,” he said, his voice weak. “She doesn’t deserve this. You don’t need me to end the Severance.”

  “I do, Finn. I need you. Please.”

  “There’s only one faerie in the prophecy.” His voice was getting wispy and faint as he spoke.

  “Finn, please, stop,” Tess begged him.

  “I think that’s done it,” he said, opening his eyes for a moment and smiling radiantly at Tess.

  “I do love you, Tess,” he said and then fell down next to Jayde, his face in the dirt.

  Chapter 55

  “No,” Tess cried out, unable to believe this was happening.

  Ethan finally fought his way over to her, shooting several Fae in the process and punching a Hunter in the head. His face filled with grief when he saw Jayde and Finn lying on the ground.

  “Are they…”

  Tessa’s eyes filled with tears.

  The battle between the Hunters and Nyall’s Fae continued to rage around them. They got behind one of the huge stones.

  “We have to fight,” Ethan said, his eyes filled with sorrow. “We’ll mourn later.”

  He pulled two guns and several magazines from places where he had them secreted about
his person.

  “These have tranks as bullets,” he explained, not clarifying anything for Tess who looked at him blankly. “Tranquilizers? They’ll knock the person out but not kill them.”

  “Ah, perfect,” Tess said, grabbing the gun from his hand and shoving the clips in her pockets. She checked that the gun was loaded and peered around the stone. Three Hunters appeared and she sighted and shot, dropping two of them. Ethan fired from the other side of the stone and the third person fell.

  All over Stonehenge, Hunters and Fae were fighting with swords and long bows, with sticks on chains and those fork weapons that Tess didn’t know the names for. She saw archers shooting and Hunters with guns firing. It was a mess. So many people were going to get hurt.

  Tess shot again and again, trying to knock as many people out as possible so that they wouldn’t die or be injured in the fight. If they were on the ground, then nobody would attack them.

  She and Ethan stayed behind cover of the stone until a Hunter snuck up behind them and attacked with a long bow. Ethan exchanged blows with the fighter until Tess managed to get a new magazine in her gun and shoot him.

  Then Ethan grabbed her and jumped straight up. They were standing on the top of one of the stones, which was three times her height, and she let out a scared sound that she instantly regretted and clung to Ethan’s arm.

  “This is a real shit show,” Ethan said, not noticing Tessa’s discomfort.

  “Yeah.”

  “We’re not going to win by fighting.”

  “No,” she said, trying not to look down.

  “I mean, look at this,” Ethan said, making a sweep of the arm that wasn’t holding Tess. And she clung tighter, making a small sound in her throat.

  “Are you okay?” he said, studying her.

  “Mm hm,” she said, trying not to seem as afraid as she was.

  “I have an idea that would stop all this,” Ethan said.

  A thought occurred to Tess in the midst of all this craziness. Maybe she was afraid of heights. Maybe the Dark Court Healer just hadn’t wanted to be thrown in the dungeon for suggesting that the Captain of the Guard was scared and so he had told her she had inner-ear balance issues.

  “You have an idea,” she repeated, not quite paying attention. What with her focus being split between her fear of being up so high and the revelation that she was scared—and it wasn’t her inner ear.

  “Yes, but you’ll have to trust me and help me.”

  “Done,” she said. Shit. She was scared of heights. And she wasn’t ashamed of it. “Now can we please get down from here? I’m scared out of my mind.”

  “You’re afraid of heights?” Ethan said like he couldn’t believe it.

  “Yes, yes. I admit it, okay? I’m freaking out right now. Just tell me what to do and we’ll do it. I want to stop the fighting and get the hell down from here.”

  “Hold on then, Stars.”

  “You bet,” she said, grabbing his torso and holding on tightly. “Let’s bounce.”

  Of course, when she used the slang term that meant to get out of here, she hadn’t expected him to literally bounce so high. He jumped again, the leap taking them across Stonehenge and all the fighting and landing them outside the circle. He grabbed one of the shovels Nyall’s people had been using and handed it to Tess, who took it.

  “Why do I need this?” she asked. “And where are we going?”

  “We’ll be right back,” Ethan promised. “This next jump will land us next to the stone we need.”

  He pushed off again, landing far away from Stonehenge at a rough-looking, lumpy stone that Tess would never have thought could be of any importance.

  Ethan moved quickly to the stone and put his arms around it.

  “The humans call this one the sun stone,” he said, straining as he lifted the huge thing and set it to the side. “But it’s more aptly called the Star stone.”

  “Why?” Tess said, observing in amazement.

  “Do you trust me, Tess?” he said. The look in his eyes showed her that he knew how loaded the question was for her.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Then dig here,” he said, going to the stone and fiddling with something.

  Did she trust him? Strangely enough, she did. So Tess started digging. After about twenty shovelfuls, she hit something.

  “That’s it,” Ethan said and he used his hands to uncover a stone with carvings to look exactly like the original Stonehenge. There was a complete circle and then a small inner half circle. Ethan put his hand in the half circle and pressed hard, pushing down physically and sending magic into it as well.

  “What are you—”

  Suddenly, Stonehenge lit up.

  “That’s done it,” Ethan said, excited. “Let’s go.”

  Tess wrapped her arms around his waist, and he held her against him as he jumped twice, bringing them back to Stonehenge.

  On all the rocks were glowing runes—not ones she recognized from home—made by ancient humans maybe? They were created by someone who knew what they were doing with magic, anyway.

  Tess didn’t know exactly what Ethan was planning but his little light show had stopped the fighting anyway. The Hunters and the Fae were gazing at the stones and the runes that were bright and humming with magic.

  Wait a minute.

  “Is there more magic here than there was a minute ago?” Tess asked Ethan. “Or am I going crazy?”

  “You’re not going crazy,” Ethan said. “Stonehenge is an amplifier. Nyall was right about that. But he was looking in the wrong place for the activation switch.”

  “An amplifier?” Tess said.

  “This isn’t just a pile of inert rocks like the humans think. It’s a magical site, Tess.”

  The Hunters were looking worried as they sensed that something beyond their training was happening. The magic began to build until Tess could feel it humming in her bones.

  “The Fae needed certain places on Earth where they could do magic, and though Stonehenge has a lot of magic, it wasn’t enough for the spells they wanted to work.”

  Ethan led her to the very middle of the circle where the humming seemed slightly less.

  “Stonehenge isn’t the only amplifier. It’s just one of the few that have survived.”

  The Fae were more concerned than the Hunters as they could feel the magic building in the stone circle. Some of them started shouting to get out. And the Hunters, assuming correctly that the Fae knew something they didn’t, also began running out of the circle.

  “That bottle prison Nyall has to trap you two in?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s not the first I’ve seen.”

  The fleeing people were running into each other and tripping and falling, then getting up again. Tess began to worry, not for herself but for the Hunters and Fae that might be harmed by whatever Ethan was doing.

  “Ethan.”

  “There’s an amplifier in the middle east too,” Ethan said as if he hadn’t heard her. “For some reason, the Fae that lived in the middle east thousands of years ago had a really bad habit of popping people into bottles.” He shook his head at the thought. “And lamps, when they ran out of bottles.”

  “Ethan,” Tess said his name again louder. “This isn’t going to hurt these people, is it?

  “What? Oh. No, probably not. It’s a magical blast. The amplifier sends a cleaning burst of magic first before it’s ready to use, and that’s going to happen in a few seconds. Don’t worry. I’ll shield us.”

  “Ethan, wait. But what about—”

  At that moment, there was an enormous sonic boom, a shockwave of magic traveled out from the colossal slabs of rock, and a rainbow of colors exploded from the stone circle up into the sky. Ethan pulled Tess down and protected her with his body as magic filled the air and rained down on the bodies now littering Stonehenge.

  Chapter 56

  When the magic settled, Ethan stood and Tess jumped to her feet, furious.

  “What
the hell, Ethan? How could you do that?”

  “Do what?” he said, honestly confused.

  “Risk all those people’s lives.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You didn’t know if that blast would kill them or not. And you didn’t care.”

  “So?” He really didn’t see it.

  “You’re being so selfish again. Protecting us but not caring about all the people who might be harmed by your actions.”

  Tess felt so disappointed. She’d really thought he was trying to change. Ethan’s face was dismayed as he realized what he had done. But it was too little too late.

  She shook her head and turned away from him.

  “Ah, good,” Nyall said, coming from around one of the stones. “You’ve cleared out the trash.”

  “Nyall, you bastard,” Tess said. “Why are you still standing?”

  “The same reason you are, Tessa. I had protection.”

  “Shit, he always has a protection spell on himself.”

  “No surprise there,” Ethan muttered but Tess ignored him.

  “Time for the Korrock, Nyall,” Tess said, focusing on what she needed to do. Get the Chalice. Though who would carry it now that Jayde was—Tess pushed the thought away. She would help those who had fallen once she got the Chalice.

  She would somehow figure it out… without Finn. Though she had no idea how she would manage without him. He had become so integral to her life. But she shoved that thought away too. Focus, Tess.

  First, she had to win the Chalice from Nyall in an ancient Fae duel called the Korrock.

  The rules were no weapons, no spells, no one else interferes. They would create daggers—called shkeeyun—from their own Starlight and fight with them until one of them was dead or surrendered.

  Nyall already had his formed. Tess closed her eyes and pulled Starlight from inside, shaping it into the sharpest form she could manage. They faced off.

  “No weapons, no spells, no one interferes,” Nyall said, giving Ethan a look.

  “And if I win,” Tess said, “I get to keep the Chalice.”

  “Of course,” Nyall said. “I am a Fae of honor. But if I win, I too get to keep it.”