by Brie Tart
“Tommy and Hellion left Brooklyn, and hopped from place to place as Tommy investigated everything he could about Grandma Ellie’s disappearance and how she died. He wanted to figure out what took his sister. He wanted to find out why.”
“What he find?”
“He found out...” Helen paused, unsure if she should confess the rest. She wished Tommy would have told her sooner. Why deceive her child the same way? “He found a whole bunch of bad creatures out there. There’s a whole secret world of them hidden from us by crazy powerful magic. They’re like Tinker Bell or your mermaids, but mean and twisted. They hurt and kill people like us, just because they want to. Uncle Tommy saw that and got back at them. He hunted them and made them pay for it.”
Lucy puckered her lips in intense thought, her whole face screwing up. She must’ve been trying to wrap her mind around something big. “Pa only get bad ones, right?”
“Far as I know, they’re all bad.”
“But not all people bad. Not all doggies bad. Not all kitties bad.” Lucy counted off a few more of her favorite animals in her tangent: octopuses, dolphins, hedgehogs. “Not all magic bad too, right?”
“I guess, kid.” Helen stroked her daughter’s hair as she mulled over the girl’s point. Yoel was half one of them, and he’d saved her life plenty of times. Maggie at the Tabby Cat Cafe had been sweet. Her cat, Teague, even helped a couple times. She filed that philosophical debate for later. “The ones Tommy looked for were definitely bad. But he tried hiding it from Hellion to protect her. He couldn’t protect her forever, though. He found out secrets about what happened to Ellie, that a big bad creature had stolen her and done horrible things to her. It made Ellie think that she should change herself, that she should change Hellion.”
“How’d she change Mam?” Lucy grabbed her mother’s hand and held on tight.
“She made me into Hellfire, baby. The scary fire and the moving fast and the red haze and the weird extra strength, that’s all from your grandma.” Helen forgot the pretense of making it a story. Her hand trembled in Lucy’s. “She...she wanted to make me into something else. She didn’t finish ‘cause Tommy barged in and found me. It’s thanks to Uncle Tommy I’m still here and not gone like my mom, or worse.”
Lucy pawed at Helen’s cheek, wiping something away. They were tears. The dam had crumbled quietly while Helen talked, each word chipping away at her resolve.
“He should’ve told me. I could’ve helped.” Helen stared into her little girl’s face as all her secrets spilled. “But no, he went and tried fixing it all by himself.”
“Mam...”
“I’m sorry, baby girl.” Helen squeezed her daughter to her chest, her muscles shaking with the restraint she put on them because she wanted to hug so much harder. “They got him like they got my mom. He’s not coming back.”
“Never? But if Hellfire gets bad guys, she’ll get Pa.”
“No baby. He’s gone. He’s… dead.” Helen’s voice broke and everything came in a rush. “Even if I find them and make the bad people go away like he wanted, he’s still never comin’ back.”
Lucy went quiet. Her little nails dug into Helen’s shirt and held on. What must that girl be thinking? She had probably heard plenty about death from stories. Dylan’s comic-book plotlines with all their resurrection and universe corrections couldn’t help Lucy understand what it really meant. Eventually she would understand.
Helen cradled Lucy for as long as the girl would let her. That sweet child was the only pure, untarnished thing left in her life. She promised herself then, no matter what happened with her and Dylan, she’d never let her Diamond Girl go.
* * *
Helen slept in Lucy’s bed that night, curled up with her little girl under the covers. It was a deep sleep that gave her blessed nothingness and rest. The night before, she’d expelled all the pent up secrets and bad feelings. Sleeping cleansed her and made her ready to kick ass in the morning as she watched cartoons with Lucy.
Lucy occupied herself scribbling sketches and scrunching her face at them. She tore up each one and started over. Helen let her daughter take out her tantrum on the drawings before suggesting Lucy do something else. The girl always refused, fiercely putting crayon to paper as she tried again. They spent the rest of the day like that until the next morning. Lucy shook her mother awake and held up a colored masterpiece. Helen moved it by the light.
A blocky car with sharp edges drove on an open, flat desert with red clay rocks in the distance. In the driver’s seat sat a man in a trench coat and fedora, a brown line of beard around his mouth. The passenger side had a tall woman with black lines hanging from her head and a red, orange, and yellow outline. Helen squashed Lucy into a bear hug. Her eyes stung.
“Stop squishin’.” Lucy let out a woosh of air when Helen loosened her grip.
“I love it.” Helen swallowed the lump in her throat as she set Lucy down.
“Mam’s not sad no more?”
“You made that just so I’d feel better?” Helen folded the drawing into a neat square and slipped it safe in her wallet. She’d never get enough of that girl.
Helen’s phone went off, its digitized guitar lick signalling a text message.
“Daddy?” Lucy perked toward the noise.
Helen pulled her phone out of her pants. The number didn’t have a contact attached to it, which ruled out Dylan. It wasn’t attached to any past history either.
“I found that information, Come to the shop tonight.” it read. Had to be Yoel.
“No, hun. It’s a friend,” Helen said as she tapped her reply. “Can’t. Babysitting.”
A pause, then three dots appeared under her message. His reply came with another chime. “Where is he?”
“No idea,” Helen typed. “Didn’t say.”
“How long will he be gone?”
“A week.”
“I’ll come to you. Send me the name of the hotel and your room number.”
Helen paused over the screen. She looked back to find Lucy reassembling the comforter into her bed fort. Lucy shouldn’t stay at the room alone. Did she trust Yoel enough to let him come around her daughter? Giving him access to that kind of leverage would have serious risks. But she needed to know how deep Dylan went. They couldn’t talk about it over the phone. Someone could listen in.
She messaged back with the name of the motel. “At the pool.”
CHAPTER 18
Lucy squealed and charged to the plastic bags in the corner where they kept her clothes. While Lucy dug through them, Helen pulled her hair into a messy bun and put on a pair of cheap aviators from the end table. She slipped the first oversized t-shirt in reach over her tank top and went to the mirror. Dylan’s superhero shirt softened her figure. The new hairstyle and sunglasses changed her face enough that no one should recognize her from a passing glance.
Helen’s phone went off soon after Lucy finished changing into her swimsuit. Yoel’s message announced that he’d arrived. Helen hiked Lucy up on her hip and went to the pool’s fence as Yoel emerged from a black taxi in the parking lot. He had on his own little disguise: a flat cap and the same bomber jacket he’d worn at their Lennan Sìth hunt. Helen spotted the subtle bulges in the fabric where he stored his small arsenal this time.
She swung the gate open and took her daughter to the corner of the shallow end. “Stay under four feet, alright? I’ll be watchin’.”
Lucy squirmed out of Helen’s arms until her feet hit the water. She kicked into the three foot area. Even though Lucy could barely touch the bottom, that never kept the girl from splashing toward the deep end when she could.
Helen squatted on the lip of the pool and kept half her attention on her daughter with the other half watching her periphery. The few plastic chairs were taken by a small family. A mother and father soaked up the midday sun, while a teenage boy watched something on his smartphone.
“That one’s a girl-sized fish.” Yoel hadn’t even made the gate squeak with his approach. He sto
od at Helen’s right with his hands resting in his pockets. “Is she yours?”
“Yeah, that’s my Diamond Girl. Her dad’s been giving her swimming lessons since she could walk.” Helen couldn’t resist a proud smile until she reminded herself why Yoel was there. “Speaking of her dad…”
“Remember our last talk, when I got that unpleasant visit?” Yoel knelt beside Helen and lowered his voice to a whisper.
“Yeah. It’d be pretty hard to forget.”
“What I do for my side, he does for his side, plus a little more. From what I could find, he was a changeling originally kidnapped from North Wales during the seventies. From there, he was raised among the Seelie and trained as an infiltrator, spy, and assassin until the late nineties. After that, I found a few sparse mentions of his career working for the Seelie High Council. Then six years ago, he vanished.”
“That’s when he started working for Uncle Tommy’s agency.” Helen massaged her temples as a headache started. “That explains why I saw him meeting with you-know-who a couple days ago.”
“What? The Owl Lord came here?”
“No, I tailed Dylan and caught them talking.” Helen rubbed her empty neck. “By the way, I need another one of those necklaces.”
“I’ll start working on it as soon as I get back.” Yoel pinched his eyebrows together. “Do you know why he left?”
“After he found out about the bounty on me, all he said was he was going away for a little while to fix the trouble.” Helen surveyed their surroundings. The mom and dad had started talking with each other about a home renovation project while the son kept his nose glued to his phone. Lucy did her “mermaid splash” at the edge of the five foot area. Helen let out a shrill whistle. “Back over here little lady!”
Lucy pouted as she dog paddled over to Helen. Then she locked eyes with Yoel and widened her distance from him.
“Hello, Miss.” Yoel tipped the brim of his cap. “You swim very well.”
Lucy stayed quiet as she latched onto the ledge, hovering by Helen’s feet.
“It’s alright, Luce. He’s my sidekick. Like I’m Batman, and he’s Robin.” Helen winked.
Lucy squinted at Yoel, apparently examining him. “What’s he called?”
“You mean my name?” Yoel raised an eyebrow at the girl.
“No.” Lucy pointed at Helen, then herself. “Mam’s called Hellfire. I’m…” She glanced to her mother. “Mam, what’s me?”
“You don’t get a superhero code name ‘til you’re older.” Helen jerked her thumb at Yoel. “He’s Scribbler.”
“‘The Scribe,’ not ‘Scribbler’,” Yoel corrected. “And certainly not Robin.”
Lucy puckered and shook her head.
“Not very good, eh?” Yoel tapped his chin. “Why don’t you help me come up with a new one?”
“You got powers?” Lucy inched toward him.
“A little, but my real power comes from the books I read,” Yoel said.
“And your gadgets,” Helen added with a smirk.
“Book-Man,” Lucy blurted.
“I’d say it has potential,” Yoel said, his eyes laughing despite his restrained smile. He side-eyed Helen. “Certainly better than Scribbler.”
Helen play-punched Yoel’s shoulder.
Lucy swam from the edge of the pool, apparently satisfied. As she headed to the four foot section, she flipped under the water and kicked her feet above the surface.
“Impressive.” Yoel took off his glasses and wiped off the water droplets that splattered on them.
“I think she likes you.” Helen snickered. “That’s her power move when she wants to show off.”
When her daughter was happily splashing out of earshot again, Helen’s shoulders sagged. Her chest burned as she mulled over what she should do. Dylan said when he got back he’d salvage their relationship, but before she could go back to do any salvaging, she had to find out what part he had to play in Tommy’s murder. She had to find Ailpien and figure out how to get rid of him. She had to do so many things in the span of a week while he was gone.
“You obviously have a lot on your mind,” Yoel commented, lowering his voice back to conspiring levels.
“I don’t know what to do with this,” Helen admitted. “I thought if I had something on him, I could confront him and…maybe rope him into helping us. Or tail him some more and see if he had any other crap to do for Ailpien.”
“If only we knew where your uncle was originally investigating when he was caught.”
“Somewhere in upstate New York, but Dylan took the car, so a road trip’s not an option.” Helen groaned, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. “Not sure how I feel about Lucy going along with that either.”
“And finding an outside babysitter could leave her vulnerable.” Yoel pursed his lips. “This is a conundrum. I could go out there and see what I find, then report back. I still have a few days until my personal problem catches up.”
“If you go out there, I’m coming.” Helen dug her nails into her jeans. “It’s my score to settle. I’m not gonna be sidelined.”
“I suppose you could set a trap to lure out informants. You’d make attractive bait.” Yoel’s attention flicked up to Helen’s bun before it settled on Lucy splashing in the water. “That still leaves the conundrum of how to take care of her, though.”
“That could work. And the other thing...” Helen took a deep breath, picking apart her logic. A risky idea hovered on the tip of her tongue. “You know how to handle yourself against these guys. If anybody could protect Lucy, it’s you. We plan a trap I can pull off by myself. You make sure nothing happens to my girl.”
“You...would trust me with your daughter’s safety?”
“I don’t got much of a choice if I want to end this.” Helen searched every pore of Yoel’s face for a tell or sign he would turn on her. “Can I trust you with that?”
“There isn’t any magic forcing me to keep promises, if that’s what you mean.”
“I get it. That’s not what I’m talking about. Are you my friend or am I being an idiot?”
“Am I the best person to ask about that?”
“Everything you’ve done proves you’ve got my back. Either you’re duping me like a pro, or you’re the real thing. But I need to hear it from you. I need to know you get how big this is.”
“I appreciate the gravity of what you’re proposing. She’s an innocent in this, and I would protect her with all of my resources, my skills, and my life if necessary.” Yoel gained that same open conviction he had after talking to that wannabe lawyer Hellhound, Kate. He never blinked or fidgeted as he spoke every heavy word. “Whether you believe me or not is up to you.”
“Yeah, everything’s up to me, ain’t it?” Helen let her next breath out slow. The trap plan was dangerous, but it was something. Something was a concrete concept she could hold on to instead of wondering at all the abstract unknowns of the future.
“Say all of this does work out the way you hope, with everyone alive and no permanent maiming. If you can’t reconcile things with your boyfriend, I have an open office space and an air mattress,” Yoel offered. “For what it’s worth, I hope you two manage to work it out and keep your family intact.”
“Already asking me to spend the night, huh?” Helen nudged him with her elbow.
Yoel’s stoic mask covered the open belief in his face. “It’s always good to have options, Miss Carver.”
“Pretty sure after all this you can call me Helen.”
“I’m hoping after all this I won’t see you again, and your little family can anonymously retire to somewhere sunny.” Yoel stood up, adjusting his jacket around its bulges. “I’ll save calling you by your given name for if everything goes wrong.”
“Thanks.” Helen wiped at the damp spots on her thighs from Lucy’s playing.
Lucy came up from her underwater escapades and swam back toward Helen and the pool’s stairs.
“Done already, baby girl?” Helen reached
out to pick Lucy up from the water.
Lucy stayed quiet as she turned to the row of lawn chairs.
Helen turned with her. The mom laid back with a little drool dribbling from her mouth. The dad snored with his chin hanging against his chest. Helen had dimly noticed their chatter stopping a few minutes before, but she assumed she just didn’t hear it as well over Lucy’s splashing. The teenager was sprawled back with his arm hanging limp, and his cell phone laid on the wet ground with a cracked screen.
Helen grabbed Lucy into her arms as she looked around the fence. Thin, empty air surrounded her.
Something shimmered on her right, then her left. Two more glimmering spots hopped over the gate.
An ambush.
Yoel got the cue fast and reached into the lining of his jacket. He pulled out a beat up leather sheath with Helen’s machete and tossed it at her.
Helen caught it in one hand and tossed Lucy at him with the other.
All four of the shimmers advanced on Helen at once.
Helen whipped the machete out as her fae sense kicked in, and her gut churned. Why hadn’t she noticed the Hidden Folk earlier? Had she been too distracted, or had they hidden themselves better than the last two she fought? Either way, the fire spreading through her demanded their blood in the pool’s chlorinated water.
Her first swipe hit home in solid flesh. A scream tore from the glistening figure. Steaming blood splattered across Helen’s chest.
Yoel took out a bowie knife with a blade as long as his hand and tucked Lucy under his arm. Lucy squirmed against him, crying, “Mam! Mam!”
A string of cars passed without slowing down. The fae must be hiding them from sight. Her and Yoel were on their own.
Something sliced into Helen’s calf. Her next swipe veered off target. She shifted her weight to her other leg as her magic-fueled adrenaline dulled the pain.
