Institute of the Shadow Fae Box Set

by C. N. Crawford

  I vaguely registered the other knights arriving as I stared down at the ruined paper.

  A touch on my arm called my attention away from it, and I looked up at Melusine’s sickly face. Her lips were parched, and dark circles hung beneath her eyes. She smelled faintly of vomit.

  “Where’s your dad?” she asked.

  I shook my head. “I’m sorry. We didn’t find him. We have a lead, though. Someone named Aenor, Flayer of Skins. Does that ring any bells?”

  Her expression looked dejected, and she held up her hands, addressing the rest of them. “No death angel. I see no death angel, no father, and I put two and two together. We’re screwed. We’re all gonna die—”

  “Shhh…” I cut in. “That’s not good for morale. I’m working on it.”

  She pulled her cloak around herself more tightly. “Who’s in the void?”

  “Turi and Niall.”

  “I need to lie down and get some rest before he throws me in.”

  As she stumbled away, Nyxobas stalked toward me. I eyed him with surprise. Why was he studying me so closely? Even if he was in my lover’s body, he unnerved me completely. I gave him my best back off glare.

  The look did absolutely nothing to put him off, which I suppose made sense, since he was a night god who’d fallen from the heavens and lived tens of thousands of years in Hell. My narrowed eyes were not going to strike fear into his heart.

  When he was just a foot away, he stared down at me. “Life and death mingle within you,” he said, his voice the oddly dissonant sound of young and old people speaking at once. “The beginning and the end. Seeds growing from the ashes.”

  What do you say to that? “Okay. Thanks.” This wasn’t helpful information. But maybe he could help with something. “Do you know anyone called the Flayer of Skins, by any chance?”

  His attention darted back to the portal, where the ice began to crack.

  Of course he didn’t provide any useful information. The gods never did.

  A fist hammered at the ice—then another. Both Niall and Turi were fighting their way out. I would stay just long enough to see their heads breach the surface.

  My fists tightened. “Is there a less grueling way you would test the knights? They’re very sick.”

  His attention remained on the cracking portal. “It refreshes me to feel your spirits in the void.”

  “But they’re dying. They’re your servants.”

  “Fix it, then.” His voice seemed to come from a million miles away.

  Simple as that. Just—fix it. “How?”

  He whirled, then he cupped my face with his icy hand. Emptiness spun through my body as I stared into his glacial, silvery eyes and took in his stark beauty.

  He leaned in and whispered, “You know how this ends, don’t you?”

  “It ends with us imprisoning Baleros.”

  His breath was a frigid breeze on the shell of my ear. “It ends with Ruadan’s death.”

  The words crashed into me like a wave. Ruadan had said that Nyxobas didn’t lie. He knew the future, and he spoke the truth.

  “If you know so much, why don’t you help us?” My fingers tightened into fists. “It’s not going to happen. I won’t let it.” My promise felt like a lie. What control did I have over any of this? “He’s your grandson,” I added, although I knew he didn’t care.

  Shadows writhed around him, obscuring his face.

  I backed away from him, surveying the other Shadow Fae again. Barry looked like he was going to be sick. He held a hand over his mouth, hunching over while the two knights fought to break out of the ice.

  At last, a booming crack filled the air, and a large fissure split the ice.

  I tried not to think about Nyxobas’s prediction, but I felt like the world had been pulled out from under my feet.

  At last, a hand slammed through the ice, piercing it completely. Within moments, Turi was hauling himself out, and he rolled onto the grass. On his hands and knees, he vomited up blood, and I winced. Niall was out a moment later, heaving for breath, his body convulsing as he scrambled to find purchase on the ice.

  I rushed over to him and grabbed his arms, pulling him out of the shattered ice. As soon as his legs were clear, the ice melted away, steam rising into the air.

  Nyxobas was already scanning the knights for his next victim.

  I wasn’t doing much good here, watching this. And if Ruadan wasn’t available to help me learn about Aenor, I’d have to try to discover this information on my own.

  Behind me, another knight whimpered as Nyxobas gripped him by the throat, ready to slam him into the cold.

  Where else could I find out about Aenor? If my parents knew her, perhaps she’d been in Eden, too. Or maybe she’d visited before the worlds had closed for good.

  I started pacing, the cogs in my mind turning.

  There was only one other person in the Institute who’d lived in Eden. And while he might be mad, Demented Mike could have some answers buried in his addled brain. He’d been there when our world ended, and he’d been there before.

  I shadow-leapt over to Melusine, who lay on the grass, and I gently tapped her shoulder to wake her. She blinked, her dark eyes taking a moment to focus.

  “Melusine?” I asked softly. “Do you know anything about a potion or tonic that could help clear someone’s addled mind?”

  “Of course I know something like that.” She started to stand.

  I stopped her with a gentle hand. “Just tell me how to make it, then go back to sleep.”

  “In the herbarium, you’ll find mandrake, dragon’s blood, a gryphon’s saliva, and Earl Grey tea.”

  I blinked. “Earl Grey?”

  “I know, it’s disgusting, but it’s a necessary part of the spell. Boil it all together into a tonic, and it will clear the patient’s head.” Her eyes were heavy-lidded, and they started to close again.

  “Wait, Melusine?”

  “Yes?”

  “If Nyxobas leaves Ruadan’s body any time soon, tell him I went to find Demented Mike.”

  “Sure thing.”

  A smile curled my lips. If this tonic worked, it would bring about my first meaningful conversation with someone from Eden in over ten years.

  Chapter 114

  I clutched the warm brew and hurried down the hall toward Demented Mike’s room. In Eden, he’d been one of my best friends. Two years older than me, but tolerant of me following him around. He’d wanted to be human, for some bizarre reason, and he used to teach me all the dirty words he knew.

  In the hallway, moonlight streamed through the peaked windows onto the floor, and I glanced for a moment at the trials going on outside. With any luck, they’d all be over soon.

  I pushed open the door to his room, and light beamed in from the hallway. He lay flat on his stomach in the dark, his palms pressed against the flagstones. His cheeks had the pinkish hue of fever, and sweat beaded on his face.

  Shit. The plague magic was still pulsing around the Institute, infecting people. And Mike had caught it.

  He turned to look at me, his eyes wide, and he snarled. “I Gmm, the Noe I Ainml I called Nma please…” he hissed from the floor.

  He was speaking fragments of a demon tongue he must’ve picked up in the shadow void. I had no idea what he was saying.

  “So, I brought you some hot tea.” I left the steaming mug on the floor, and he scuttled over to it on his hands and knees. “I think it might help things a bit.”

  He lapped tea from the cup like a cat. Then, he looked up at me, his eyes wide. “Here I kad Amman roots ktzsnc embers shhhh krditzsmtz I demon mrrnkg aisa hee cnhnma miracle.”

  I sat on the edge of his bed, and light from the moon beamed into the dark room. “Okay, so, I would love to reconnect with you, Mike, but I think we have a little work to do to get you back to your old form.”

  He slurped the tea. “Darkness….”

  “I know. It was bad in the void. I’m sorry.” I closed my eyes, trying not to think of wh
at might’ve happened to the others I’d killed. I had to keep it together right now, long enough to save the Institute. “Mike, does the name Aenor ring a bell?”

  He sat up now, and he stared at me. He took another long sip of his tea, his clouded expression clearing a little. I waited with him in silence while he slurped it.

  “I have some questions to ask you, when you’re ready.”

  “I … a darkness.” He cocked his head, looking suddenly more alert. “There were no other fae in the void. Just me. I heard people speaking to me, even though you weren’t there. I heard you speaking to me sometimes. The gods are hungry for souls, and they care for nothing else. They think the souls of others will fill the emptiness … but it never does. One god, split into seven, tormented ever since. In the hell worlds, we feel the pain of the gods.”

  He stared at the floor, lost in his thoughts.

  “I met some other demons after a while.” Another sip of tea. “They kept me company. I learned bits of their languages. Then, after an eternity passed, I saw you.”

  “I’m sorry.” Guilt twisted inside me. How did I explain this to him? “Thing is, it turns out I’m a death angel, and I didn’t know. And when the fae army invaded, um … a whole bunch of death magic exploded from me and killed everyone by accident. I’m not yet sure what happened to the others, and I’m just trying to put together the pieces and find my dad to help me.”

  He drank another sip. “I know what happened. The voices told me in the void. It’s okay. You weren’t in control of it. I understand. The gods are in control. They’re always in control. And the gods will have their souls.”

  We were getting somewhere. Coming to Demented Mike was the best idea I’d had in a while.

  “Do you know what happened to everyone else?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Of course. Your father brought them back from the dead.”

  My heart leapt. The first good news I’d had in ages. “My mum, too?”

  “Everyone but me. He could never find me. I fell in too deep. I started turning demon fast, machalail grumm slut puppet.” He closed his eyes, taking another sip of the tea. “Only you could find me. Your powers are like his, but maybe stronger. Both of you can lift this illness I have. This death magic. And as long as you both live, you can raise each other from the grave.”

  Alive. Despite everything happening, I beamed with joy. “Okay. This is good. This is helpful. Do you know why Eden is empty? We opened the portal and we found only graves.”

  He shook his head.

  “Do you know where my father is?” I pressed, desperate now.

  “Eden.”

  “I couldn’t find him there.”

  Hope bubbled in my chest anyway. My mum was alive. Everyone I’d killed in Eden was alive again. I’d find my family again. I was certain we could get my dad to help us cure the Shadow Fae—and to imprison Baleros forever.

  “Mike, have you ever heard the name Aenor?” I asked. “When I went into Eden, I couldn’t find my parents. But I did find a note from them that said to find Aenor. I think she must be someone who can help me. Then I can get you back to your family.”

  He traced the rim of his teacup with his fingertip. “Aenor. Aenor. Aenor,” he muttered. “Flayer of Skins, Scourge of the Wicked.”

  “Yes! That’s her. How do you know her?”

  “She visited your father sometimes. Before the worlds closed for good.”

  “Where would I find her?”

  He frowned. “I don’t remember what she looked like. Just that she smelled of honey and soil. And lemony flowers, and mossy limestone. And she gave me a human finger bone. She sells them, I think.”

  Aenor, Flayer of Skins, who reeked of honey and dirt and sold human bones. She sounded lovely.

  “I’m tired. Noe I Ainml.” Mike closed his eyes once more and curled up on the floor, muttering to himself in Demonic. His teeth chattered.

  I pulled the soft wool blanket off the bed and covered his shivering body with it. I crossed to his window. From here, I had a view of the Tower Green, and Nyxobas was gripping another knight by the throat. I couldn’t even see who it was. Melusine, maybe? He hurled them into the void and another brutal trial began.

  I turned to rush outside. I had a few more facts to go on now, but I needed help interpreting what they meant.

  Chapter 115

  I crossed out onto the Tower Green once more, and the sound of shrieking pierced the night calm. Nyxobas stood before Barry, whose face had gone completely white, his body rigid. Barry opened and closed his mouth a few times as if he were trying to speak. His lumen stone glowed faintly under his shirt.

  “Do you have something to say?” Nyxobas’s voice sent a chill snaking up my spine.

  “Had no control,” Barry stammered. “You know. You know. You know. I had no control. Baleros controls me.”

  Nyxobas grabbed him by the throat, and Barry started to choke. He was still trying to speak, and he was able to get out the words “necklace” and “control.”

  I caught my breath. That necklace around his throat—the one I’d seen in the dungeon—had Baleros given it to him?

  Before Barry could utter another word, Nyxobas hurled him into the portal.

  Barry’s body sank beneath the watery surface, and the necklace along with him. Cold magic rushed over my body like an icy wind. Then, I stared as the earth began to close again, the ground trembling. Grass and soil shifted and sealed over the portal.

  So. That was our traitor.

  An interrogation would have been useful, but that was not how Nyxobas operated.

  When the portal had sealed over completely, I glanced at Nyxobas—still the pale, gleaming eyes of the god and tattoos that shifted over his forearms.

  His pale eyes were locked on me, and my chest hollowed out. Then, the violet in Ruadan’s eyes returned, and I let out a breath as the real Grand Master returned. The other knights were sitting around the sealed portal, shaking in their cloaks.

  Melusine clutched a hot cup of tea, her hair drenched. “Good. That’s over. Barry was the traitor, and we can all move on with our lives.”

  “Our very short lives,” said Aengus through chattering teeth, “considering we are about a day away from death. Where is the Horseman?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know yet. I’m still working—”

  “Then you have to try to help us!” shouted Aengus. “At least try.”

  “And if I make it worse?” I asked.

  “Don’t make it worse,” said Aengus.

  Ruadan’s body had gone completely still, and his violet eyes burned in the gloom. “I know that you have the power within you, but you might not be ready just yet. It’s your choice, Liora. We can still try to find Adonis.”

  I rubbed a knot in my forehead. “I’ll try. I just think I’ll need alcohol.” Then, I stared at the grass in the courtyard. Something wasn’t sitting right with me. Something besides my upcoming task. “But, I’m not quite ready to move on from the Barry situation yet. I mean, don’t you think Baleros could have sent someone more competent than Barry?”

  “He was talking about his necklace,” Melusine added from over her tea. “Something about control. Like it wasn’t his fault.”

  I glanced at Ruadan. “So you didn’t give him that lumen stone? I saw it on him in prison. Just for a moment.”

  Ruadan shook his head. “That necklace didn’t come from us. Charmed, probably, with powers of mind control. Barry was a pawn.”

  “The necklace was beaming with shadow magic.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I just don’t feel like this is the whole answer. Maddan said the traitor was someone I knew. He said that Baleros had a powerful ally. Barry was neither of those things.”

  The night wind toyed with Ruadan’s hair. “I’m sure that wasn’t the entirety of Baleros’s plans. Everyone will remain on high alert until we’ve locked Baleros in our dungeons forever, chained with iron.”

  I breathed in deeply. “When Nyxobas is i
n your body, do you remember what he says?”

  “Most of it.” Then he frowned, his body still. “But he said something to you, and it’s a blank. I can’t remember it at all. What was it?”

  When I thought of Nyxobas’s prophecy, I just wanted to wrap my arms around Ruadan and keep him close. I wanted him in that hot bath with me forever, locked away safely in his room. And most of all, like a lioness, my instinct was to destroy anyone who would come near him. I longed to tear their flesh off their bones, to turn their bodies to dust. I even wanted to destroy Nyxobas for what he’d said.

  My love for Ruadan was a raging fire.

  Darkness coiled around him. “What did he say to you?” he pressed.

  It didn’t matter, because I wasn’t going to let him die, no matter what the prophecy said. “He just said that we faced danger. Nothing we don’t already know.” After Ruadan’s insistence that I trust him, the lie tasted like poison in my mouth.

  But the thing was, Ruadan had a tendency to try to sacrifice himself—just like he had at Hampton Court Palace, when he’d tried to give himself over to Baleros. If Ruadan thought this was the ending—that he was destined to die—he might rush into it. I saw no reason to hasten that option.

  “Look.” I gestured at the knights, who were sitting on the grass, most of them shivering and sweating at the same time. “Let’s get them all inside to the hall. I’ll have a bit of whiskey to calm my death instinct, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Now, please,” said Aengus. “We don’t have time for you to fruitlessly search the world for your father. My fingers are about to rot off. I think the tips of my toes have started to go necrotic.”

  I glanced around at the Shadow Fae, all of them silent, staring at me. A painful-looking lump had formed on Aengus’s neck, and a red rash had climbed over Niall’s face.

  Already, I could feel the wings at my shoulder blades aching to come out.

  So I was supposed to cure them, but I had no idea how. Right now, I felt about as competent as a dog sitting at a desk with a pencil to complete his income tax returns.

  Would instinct take over and show me the way, or would I simply kill everyone in the city?