Nemesis

by Genevieve Iseult Eldredge

  I am not good at consoling anyone, but I look her square in the eyes. “You’re one of my people now, and I will take care of you.” I lean down and kiss her on the forehead. Tears glimmer in her eyes, and my throat tightens. This is my family, at least a part of it—Syl, Pru, Lennon, these goofy kids—and my heart aches at having to be on the opposite side.

  I clear my throat. “Come on, let me show you a few things.”

  Pru nods gratefully, and for the next hour, I show her how to call on her dark power, how to put up a Glamoury and see other Fae, how to touch the Snickleways, and find the mystical ley lines that link all magic. I tell her the history of the Yara, of the Mãe des Águas, and all their legends, while around us, Syl, Lennon, and the kids play and goof around.

  By the time we’re done and heading to our rooms to get cleaned up for dinner, I’m worn out physically and mentally. But my heart is soaring.

  I needed this. I need them.

  The war that’s tearing Faerie apart is tearing me apart too.

  In the hotel hallway, Syl and I stop at the same time. My room’s across from hers. Shyly, she reaches out, touches my hand. “See you downstairs in an hour?”

  I linger, enjoying her touch, wishing it could go on forever. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, princess.”

  Her sun-bright smile makes my knees watery.

  Swallowing hard, I head into my room. The wolf decor leaves much to be desired. The place reminds me of a slightly less pretentious Gaston’s Tavern, but the hot shower and variety of snacks they’ve left out more than makes up for it. I’m tired but I’m also super keyed up.

  Because dinner with Syl is going to be awesome. I just know it.

  An hour later, we’ll all packed in at a round table in the lodge’s Great Hall. If I thought my room looked like something out of Beauty and the Beast, this room, with its stuffed animal heads, dark wood, and other trophies, makes the other pale in comparison.

  Syl nudges me and sings off-key, “I use antlers in all of my decorrraaaatttinnnngggg…” The kids bust up, and I find myself smiling back.

  “Great minds think alike.” Stop, Roue. Tomorrow, you’re leaving this place, and you’ll have to fight her. To the death.

  “That they do.” Syl smiles softly.

  The waiters come and serve us a variety of chicken nuggets, pizza, fish sticks, fries, and fountain sodas. The delicious greasy smell is pure heaven. We dig in like a pack of starving redcaps, listening to the kids chatter on about their day. Dead tired, Pru falls asleep in her chair, head lolling on Lennon’s shoulder. Lenn doesn’t seem to mind though.

  It’s not till dessert is served that Syl turns to me. “Look, I know this is forward but…”

  But? My heart’s suddenly pounding to beat the band. “What is it?”

  “Glamma thinks she can help, but she needs some of your blood.”

  Instantly, my warning bells go off, but when I pull away, Syl grabs my arm.

  “It’s not a trick. I promise.” She’s so sincere it hurts, like looking too long at a bright light. “If you could fix things without war or anyone getting hurt, wouldn’t you?”

  “I…” I glance down at my hands. Would I? I can’t look at Syl, so I stare out the wall of windows overlooking the water park, the sun going down, casting weird moving shadows over the water. My guts lurch.

  Those aren’t shadows.

  “Get down!” I shout as the glass shatters inward.

  Screams and shouts and breaking glass turns the dining hall into complete chaos. The night peels back, and there’s Night-mare Miss Jardin. On her back is…the bain sidhe? Confusion floods my mind.

  I sure as hell didn’t order an attack on Great Wolf Lodge.

  But here they are.

  Jardin lands on the biggest table, cracking it in two with her sharp hooves as a group of school kids scatters, sodas and chicken nuggets flying. Wham! The busted table hits the ground in a puff of dust, and the bain sidhe leaps clear. In one hand, she’s got my mother’s violin. In her other…

  A Bleed bomb.

  Now I get it: Dark Faerie is attacking the fair Fae queen, and it looks like they’re not waiting for me anymore either.

  Betrayal stamped on her face, Syl turns to me. “You…you didn’t!”

  “I…” What can I say? I didn’t plan this attack, but I was planning an attack. “Syl—”

  “Just like you planned, Your Majesty!” Jardin shouts over the din. She snaps her fingers, and wham! Her fairy wind slams all the doors shut. If killing her was an option, she’d be dead meat because Syl’s looking at me like I’m Public Enemy #1. She’s never going to believe this wasn’t my plan all along.

  With the way I’ve been acting, why should she?

  The bain sidhe zooms over to me on her fairy wind. “Do your duty to Dark Faerie. Make your mother proud.” She tosses Wasteland at me.

  The second it hits my hands, its pulsating power fills me up, its Moribund circuits whirring, chittering as the violin’s screams blot out everything—Syl, the kids, my conflicted emotions, my softer side.

  All my compassion and mercy drowns in a wave of blackness.

  I don’t see Syl before me.

  I only see my enemy.

  17

  SYL

  A Bleed is a volatile thing

  Most explode outward,

  But the worst explode inward

  The result catastrophic

  - Glamma’s Grimm

  The honeymoon’s over. Rouen’s betraying me. The dark Fae are attacking. And I’m trapped in a water park dining hall with a million innocent people.

  Not to mention my own family’s in danger.

  I jump to my feet as time seems to wind down to a crawl, Rouen snatching the evil black violin out of the air in slow-mo. It bursts with lightning, the stench of ozone and burned rubber smothering the room, so thick I choke, so bitter I think I’m going to throw up.

  Worse, her face goes blank, her eyes bleed into glowing black pits.

  Is my Roue completely lost?

  My heart doesn’t believe it, but there’s no time to argue. Miss Jardin and the bain side leap into action. Fingers dragging at the air, Jardin peels back the Shroud in shimmery-dark layers and reaches into her pocket dimension. I get a glimpse of psychedelic energies, whirling, swirling like comets colliding in the velvety blackness. Something glimmers, sinister, in the dark.

  She reaches in and pulls out a fistful of Bleed bombs.

  This is bad.

  I’m also the Queen of Understatement. Didn’t you know?

  Adrenaline shoots through me. I grab our giant round table and heave it over. Chicken nuggets and sodas go flying as the giant slab of plastic crashes to the floor. “Go! Go! Go!” I yell, and everyone scatters, the dark Fae kids squalling, leaping for cover, Lennon guiding a bleary Pru. I throw up a white-flame shield over them as they flee.

  But there’s nowhere to go.

  The bain sidhe lands in front of the doors and opens her mouth. She takes a deep breath, and the walls of the room seem to bow inward. Panic shoots through me as the air leaves the room in a pop!

  She screams.

  “Duck!” I yell, throwing up another shield—this one over the bain sidhe herself, trapping her and her wail inside. Crack! Smack! The pressure wave of her own voice hits her, bouncing her around inside my bubble like a pinball. She staggers around in there, dazed.

  Yes! But I’m not out of the woods yet.

  Ta-tink! A Bleed bomb bounces off my table into the crowd. The humans don’t know what it is, but it’s vaguely grenade-shaped, so they get the hint. The entire room explodes into a chaotic mess of screaming and running away.

  They won’t make it unless… I flame on, burning the bomb to cinders.

  Meanwhile, Miss J pulls pins and lobs more Bleed bombs into the crowd, cackling like crazy. The metallic ta-tink! of them landing, followed by an ominous tick-tick-tick, feels like the whole room is filled with old grandfather clocks.

  Onl
y, grandfather clocks don’t explode and make you change into your Fae self.

  If I don’t do something quick, everyone and everything will eidolize.

  Damn it all. Spring-boarding off the table, I leap into the air. Whoosh! Hot summer fairy winds lift me high, to where I can see all the bombs. They make black stains on my Fae-sight.

  I shout for my besties. “Pru, Lenn, get everyone out!”

  “On it!” Pru’s suddenly wide-awake and on the move. She and Lennon grab the kids, and they head toward the panicking bystanders. Lennon pulls the fire alarm.

  Weee-ooo! Weee-ooo! Weee-ooo!

  I just hope my Glamoury holds. I flame on. Tingles rush over me, and white flames pour from my hands. Just in time because click, tick…boom! The Bleed bombs explode, Faerie energy Bleeding out into the room. The tables erupt with branches and brambles, the walls explode into Faerie flowers, toadstools dotting the floor at our feet. Tiny purple lunar moths flutter drunkenly in the air.

  The Wakeful, the rare people who can see Faerie magic, go crazy. One lady goes down, and the crowd leaves her. The Bleed washes over her, and she eidolizes, her nose elongating into a snout, her hands to claws, her eyes becoming bright dark pools. Dark Faerie just gained another buall bob.

  Then, it gets worse.

  Because these Bleed bombs? They’re different than the one on Brown’s Island.

  Whump! In a shivering shockwave, the Bleed bombs’ energy reverses. Where they first pumped Faerie magic into the mortal realm, now they suck it back out. The pressure changes, my ears aching, and with a huge sluuurrrrp! the bombs drag everything toward them, opening up swirling black vortexes as they suck everything back into Faerie.

  Everyone pulled in will be lost, trapped forever in the Snickleways. No way out.

  Nope. Not on my watch.

  My white flame hits the crowd, washing harmlessly over the people while purifying the Bleeds. I work hard, burning hot to heal the vortexes. Sweat crawls into my collar. Slowly, slowly, they grow smaller, popping out of existence.

  The whole time, Rouen’s standing in the middle of the chaos, holding Wasteland. Waiting.

  But what for?

  Craaaaack! The bain sidhe shatters my shield with a scream. The air around me warps. My ears pop. I have time to regret that I didn’t bring Laguna, because her scream-wave hits me, catapulting me into the ceiling.

  Crunk! I leave a Syl-shaped dent, and then fall back to the floor. “Oof!” All my wind goes out.

  The bain sidhe and Miss J toss more bombs into the room while the crowd bottlenecks at the doors, fighting to get out. A few clamber out the broken bay windows and try to make the thirty-foot leap. Pru, Lennon, and the kids help them. Water funnels and curses and glowing claws fly, and pride swells my chest.

  But I can’t afford to get distracted because tick, tick, tick! There are too many Bleed bombs and only one me. I rack my brain. OverHill.

  I’ve seen Rouen harness the power of the Winter realm. Maybe I can do the same.

  I breathe out and close my eyes, reaching deep for the wellspring of Summer inside me. “OverHill.” I call on the power of my realm. For a long moment, nothing happens, and then whammo! Summer rushes through me, so hot I think I’ll spontaneously combust. It lifts me off the floor, hot winds gusting around me. My white flames pour out, hitting the Bleed bombs as they explode.

  A million things happen all at once.

  The Bleed bombs detonate, and Faerie energy Bleeds outward in waves. My Summer fire hits it, “healing” the Bleeds, smoothing the Faerie trees and psychedelic toadstools back to a boring lodge dining room, plastic seats, and fake wooden tables. My white flame also soothes anyone who partway eidolized, easing them back into their mortal forms.

  I’m just about to call it a victory, when tink-tink!

  Jardin tosses a Bleed bomb right at Pru, Lenn, and the kids. They’re helping a group of middle schoolers climb out the window to safety. Pru’s got her hands full, lowering down two boys. Lennon sees the bomb. I see it all click in her mind.

  “No, Lenn!”

  My Lennon might not seem “normal” to some folks, what with being ace and all, but she’s got a spine of steel and a heart of gold. Like a soldier in a war zone, she jumps on the bomb as it explodes.

  Faerie energy hits her dead-center.

  Fear spikes through me as she falls to her knees, bones breaking as she eidolizes. But into what? Cables and cords rip from her deck, wrapping her up in glittering circuitry. Her screams tear at my heart. I windwarp in, but with a dull whump, the pressure changes as everything that isn’t nailed down in a ten-foot radius gets sucked in. Chairs, plates, broken glass, garbage cans…

  Lennon.

  My fingers brush hers. Then she’s sucked into Faerie. “L-Lenn!” I’m stunned, heartbroken. I can’t believe it.

  Pru stands up, tears in her eyes. “Syl?” Of course she thinks I can fix this.

  I do magic, right?

  But I can’t. There’s no way to know where Lennon ended in up Faerie. No way to track her.

  Lennon’s gone. As good as dead.

  “Lennon!” Pru breaks from the others and charges toward the black scorch mark where our bestie vanished.

  My heart torn to pieces, I look to Roue. I’ve always looked to her these past few years. Whenever anything bad’s happened, she’s been my rock.

  But my Roue is gone, and Dark-Rouen stands in her place, her fingers hovering over Wasteland as it pulses like mad, humming with hunger.

  “Her heart… It’s time!” The bain sidhe pushes her forward. “Heartstring her now.”

  Roue steps in, facing me down with that black violin.

  I don’t back down. It’s time we ended this.

  I blow out a breath and summon my white shield. Whoosh! Hot breezes blow around me, forming a bubble. I push it outward, gently pushing the people, Pru, the dark Fae kids—everyone who isn’t involved in this war—out the doors. I don’t want any innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire.

  A flick of my wrist, and my fairy wind slams the doors closed. A second flick melts them shut.

  I shake out my hands. Time to settle this. Once and for all.

  I square my stance into a power pose, hands on my hips. “I’ve had enough of your shit, Dark-Rouen.” I point at her for good measure. “I’m going to knock you silly—and out of my girlfriend’s head for good.”

  I mean every word. I will fight her, even if it breaks my heart even more.

  Because that fight Roue and I’ve been avoiding since we first met? It’s on.

  18

  DARK - ROUEN

  How much will it take?

  How much evil and darkness

  Before your light turns to fire?

  - “Burn me,” Euphoria

  This is it. After all the near misses and almost-battles, Syl and I are actually going to fight for real. Granted, I pictured our showdown happening somewhere more fitting, like in the throne room or one of the Faerie castles, all of our people around us.

  Not in a water park dining room.

  But Lennon’s gone, sucked into who-knows-where in Faerie by the Bleed bomb’s freak implosion. My heart seizes, and my hand falters on Wasteland’s bow.

  That wasn’t supposed to happen! None of this was.

  Lennon was my friend, and I never would’ve ordered an attack on a room filled with innocent mortals. Syl’s scream of rage pierces the dark haze around my mind.

  Just in time too.

  Zzzorch! Sudden fire explodes outward at me as Syl ignites a fiery-bright aura around herself, her hair turning to white flame. I dodge, throwing up a crackling violet shield. A blazing sun, she faces off against me.

  Fair Fae queen against dark Fae queen. Like our people want. Winner take all.

  “Bring it!” she cries, voice raw with emotion.

  But what about us, what we want? No, I can’t think of that. I must do this to save my people. Squelching my own crashing heart, I step in, lifting the black violin to
my chin.

  Tears stream down Syl’s face, the loss of Lennon written there in pain and agony.

  Wasteland howls for her heartstrings.

  “Do it!” Jardin screeches. “Heartstring her!”

  I mustn’t falter.

  “Make your move, Dark-Rouen.” Syl looks super badass, the wind in her red curs, her grey eyes steel and fire. Like that first night I saw her. She flexes her hand, and a ball of flame burns even hotter. “I’ve got a sunbolt with your name on it.”

  My heart skips a beat.

  A part of me chills with terror, but another part is so hot for her. Get ahold of yourself, hormones.

  Jardin steps to my side. “We’ll both take her.”

  The possessive snarl rips from my throat. “The freezing hells you will. Back off.” I flick a glance at the bain sidhe. “Both of you.” I don’t need any backseat drivers. They back down. They might’ve jumped the gun with this attack, but I’m the queen. They don’t dare disobey when I’m standing right here.

  And now I’ve got real problems, because Syl’s not a sleeper-princess anymore. She’s a Summer queen.

  Fwoosh! Sunfire rips across the room, circling me in fire. Even with my shield, the heat on my skin stifles and swelters. Sweat pops out on my brow. I leap out of the circle, shooting lightning as I go. Syl dives behind a table. My lightning crashes into it, exploding outward in wood splinters.

  When the dust clears, Syl’s gone.

  Where—

  Wham! Her kick hits me in the side, and when I turn, she flames on, a meteor ripping toward…not me. The violin. She’s targeting Wasteland. She knows about my plan. I curl in on myself, protecting the instrument.

  Her fire hits me like a fist, catapulting me across the room. Slam! I hit the wall, and the entire building shudders.

  Weee-oooo! Weee-ooo! The alarms break through my concentration. They’re still going. Beneath them, I can hear the first responders arriving in their trucks, lights flashing…

  I’m running out of time.

  I step from the wall, and crack! Her flying punch drives me back. Bricks fall around me, and I kick them toward her. The violin’s got no strings, but I can still sing. Violet lightning lashes around me as I lift my voice.