"I am here," he said and stepped from the wall.
"Welcome back."
"Thank you, Lady."
"Josie, tell Candace to come on."
"She's right behind you," she said with a chuckle and pointed. I turned around and she was sitting on the couch, little pink backpack next to her. She gave me an embarrassed wave.
"Sorry, Cand."
"It is okay."
"Yuki! Hurry up, we're going to be late," I shouted toward the bathroom. The light clicked off and the door opened, the vampire stepping from the mist of the extraordinarily hot shower she had taken.
"I'm ready."
"Let's go."
Everybody stood. Josie walked over to Candace and gave her a hug and a gentle kiss. "You be careful. Stay behind Dot."
"I will."
I grinned at the scene. "Where are we going?" I asked before turning to Jaeren.
"I believe the public house was called O'Malleys."
"The portal to Faerie is in a pub?"
He nodded.
I shook my head. "I guess that kind of makes sense."
"I know the place. We can shadow walk there if you wish to leave your car here?"
"That would be awesome." Sounding braver than I felt, the whole situation was setting off my nerves. Faerie, the shadow realm. I wanted my bed and my boys, not go on an adventure.
Shea moved over to the wall, stuck one hand into it, and grabbed my hand with the other. He nodded to everyone else. I grabbed Candace's hand, she grabbed Yuki's, Yuki made a face and held the elf's hand. I stared at Jaeren expectantly.
"What?"
"Touch the dog."
"Oh, my apologies."
He reached out a hand and put it on Dar's neck. Shea moved forward and we chained our way through the wall into the shadow realm.
My mind was having trouble processing what I was seeing. There were no colors and my living room was still there, but it was backwards and behind us. We weren't floating in darkness, but I couldn't see the ground either. I nearly panicked when Shea released my hand.
"It's okay. We just had to touch to get everyone here. We will have to do it again to leave the shadows. Everyone, do not lose sight of the person next to you."
Candace refused to let go of my hand. I didn't blame her and took comfort in her touch, too. Even Yuki grabbed the back of my shirt between her fingers. Dar moved around us and nosed the invisible ground.
I smell demons.
"Shea, Dar says he smells demons."
"All kinds of creatures get lost in the shadows. Not to worry." He stepped forward and was suddenly thirty feet away. I quickly stepped forward to catch up to him and with one step was beside him.
"Okay. That's kind of freaky."
"Time, distance… They mean nothing here."
He took another step and another after that. We followed him and I kept glancing back to make sure we didn't lose anyone. Nobody wanted to be left behind and kept pace, step for step.
"We're here."
"Where?"
"That's the shadow in the corner of the bar."
I peered through it and saw the pool table. The bar was unusually packed. "Won't they see us?"
"People naturally shy away from the darkness. We will be fine."
"Even walking through the bar with a dog and an elf?"
"That they may notice, but we will be quickly forgotten."
"If you say so."
"I can glamour us to not be seen if that is your wish?"
"Please, Jaeren. I don't need anyone talking."
"We need to get to the basement anyway. This will ensure our stealth."
We all linked hands and I felt the glamour as it settled over us like spiderwebs. I resisted the urge to brush them off. Barely.
Shea looked back and nodded, satisfied everyone was ready, and stepped through the darkness. I followed him and blinked my eyes, trying to focus. When they did, I smiled at seeing Dennis and Alista sitting in a quiet corner and laughing. I guess he had assuaged her not-so-far off the mark observations. Giving them a silent wish for luck, I followed Jaeren behind the bar and down the ancient wooden stairs.
We emerged into a dusty storeroom of sorts. The ancient waitress who had served us our drinks our second night in Cedar Falls stood before a bare spot on the wall.
"I've been expecting you."
"Drucilda."
Her glamour faded, her back straightened, and she grew twelve inches. I gasped at her beauty. She smiled at my surprise.
"You're Carol."
"That is my human seeming."
"You're an elf."
"Yes."
"Why did it take you a hundred years to bring our drinks?"
She chuckled. "An elderly lady racing about the bar would arouse suspicion. My apologies for my lethargic service."
"You work here because of the portal?"
"Nay, I own this establishment because of the portal."
"Well, I'm glad to see business is picking up."
"Aye." She gave me one more smile and turned to Jaeren. "You are ready, my prince?"
"Yes."
She turned around and ran her hand over the wall. It shimmered, the illusion blasting apart in a shower of silent fireworks.
Cool.
There was a hole in the stone wall, filled with vertical purple liquid, or light that looked like liquid. "That's the gate?"
Jaeren gave me a brief nod.
"What's the purple stuff, and don't say magic because it's not."
"That is the veil between our worlds. It is thinnest here, allowing us to pass through. The arch around it keeps it stable."
"Oh. Nifty."
"Are you ready?"
Not that I have a choice but, "Yes."
I instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand. He stopped just before stepping through and looked down, staring at the offending appendage.
"Sorry. It's just a door. No chance of getting lost, right?"
He looked up at me and lifted his hand. I let go and he sighed, shook his hand, and stepped through the veil.
You just wanted to hold his hand.
Shut your face, Yuki.
Hehehe.
Shea was giving me a curious look. Not exactly jealous, but not exactly happy, either. I leaned over and kissed him on his forehead. The smile he gave me back was enough to make my heart skip a little beat.
Turning back to the portal, I stepped through and my stomach spun around in sixty circles before my feet touched the ground in the middle of a blue-grassed clearing in the woods.
Quickly glancing over my shoulder, I sighed in relief as the rest stepped through the veil. This side, it was encased in a stone arch with elvish runes. We'd done it. We were Underhill.
Other than the clearing, nothing else was visible save for the purple-hued sky above us. It had been dark when we left, but it was still midday in Faerie. "What time is it here?"
He pointed at the fiery disk directly above us. "Noon in this elfhame."
"You have time zones?"
He shook his head. "Immortal, and yet still so human."
"Thank you."
"The royal grounds are this way, " he said and strutted toward the woods.
I don't think he meant that as a compliment. Dar nosed my butt to get me moving.
I know. I just like keeping him on his toes. Still not letting go of Candace's hand, I followed behind him, looking at the trees that were almost like the ones back home. Some kind of Cedar, but fluffier with reddish sprigs.
"Witch! Witch!" I stopped and looked around, not seeing anybody, but wincing as the declarations of my lineage kept erupting around the clearing.
"Begone!" Jaeren glared at the trees around us.
A murder of crows, mostly black with the odd white one, rose from the branches and flew away from us.
"Freaky."
"I do not like it here. I feel…smaller."
I looked down at Candace. "Nope. You're still taller than my belly button," I
told her with a wink. She actually came up just past my shoulder, but I wanted to see her smile. She didn't disappoint me.
"I feel the same," Shea said softly, rubbing his arms. "I may have elven blood flowing through my veins, but not enough to keep me from feeling that I don't belong here."
"You're standing at my side. Where else would you belong?"
He blinked at me, and I swear to the goddess, his eyes got a little moist. It was only fair, he did the same thing to parts of me, too.
I'm going to throw up.
Shut up, Yuki.
A group of elven archers separated themselves from the trunks of the trees around us and knelt in formation before their prince. He raised his hand in greeting.
"Welcome back, my liege," the foremost said and stood.
"My thanks, Allendyr."
"The king received your message."
"Renlynn is not king as of yet."
Allendyr blushed nervously and noticed me watching their exchange. "You have brought the guests."
"Aye."
He turned and gave a signal to the elvish guards behind him. I wish I could have said I was surprised when the back two rows drew their bows and pointed at them, and the front row drew metal shackles from bags slung at their waists. With the way things had been going for me lately, I wouldn't have been surprised had they fired.
"Jaeren…"
"Allendyr! These are my guests. Stand down."
"I have my orders, my liege. Your brother has been crowned, and it is him I must obey."
"You know not what you do!"
"Only what I must."
The manacle-bearing elves surged forward. I sighed in resignation, holding my hands out before me.
Want me to teach them a lesson?
I thought about Yuki's request and decided against it. Twenty bows with arrows were pointed at us. The slightest provocation might set them off. I could probably stop most of the arrows, but somebody might get hurt. Or dead. No. We'll play along for now.
I didn't like the smirk of the elf striding toward me. Something felt off about the whole situation. I changed my plan.
Yuki?
Yes?
Run for it, but only if you think you can move faster than the arrows. At least one of us will be free.
I do not wish to leave you.
I know. But do it anyway.
As you wish.
One moment she was standing behind me, the next she was in the woods and gone.
"That was most unwise, witch," Allendyr said and strode forward, drawing his dagger. He was stopped by a wicked right cross from Jaeren.
"You will not harm her."
"My prince?" He rubbed his jaw, and stared at my elf in shock.
"I am now her protector, as commanded by the goddess. The goddess who bade her journey into our lands. You wish to raise her ire?" Jaeren nearly frothed in anger.
Allendyr was smarter than he looked. He shuddered and shook his head, sheathing his blade.
The elf with the manacles stopped moving toward me. He didn't seem too keen on locking me up, either. "Sir?"
"I will not resist. You may bind me."
"Bind her friends and keep your weapons upon them. Kill the dog," Allendyr snarled to the guard.
Dar shifted into his hellhound form and growled, stepping in front of both of us. Things were not going well for the elves. Jaeren chuckled and stepped back next to my familiar.
"You would defy the king, my prince?"
"The king has been misinformed. I will deal with him when I return to the castle. You are dismissed."
"I am sorry. I have my orders," he said and turned. "Kill them all, spare the prince. If possible," he added almost as an afterthought.
I guess he would rather risk angering a goddess than pissing off his king. Jaeren's brother must be a real peach.
But, just like that, my elf's world came crashing down around him. His own brother had cast him aside for some reason. I almost felt…bad…for him.
Dar gutted the unarmed guards holding useless shackles in front of him. It was enough to draw the brunt of the fire from the elven archers. It gave me enough time to throw shields over us. I wasn't in time to completely protect Dar, but he didn't seem to mind the few arrows that had gotten through and pierced his chest and face. The wounds weren't deep enough to kill, until they exploded.
Elfshot.
Jaeren pulled his sword from the air in front of him and pulled the dagger from his belt behind him with the other hand. His intended target had been Allendyr, but Yuki got to him first, ripping his throat from his neck in a spray of blood. He did cleanly slice through the arrow that had been about to stick into her unshielded back, though.
When I saw Shea, my first instinct had been to jump in front of him, thinking his stature made him an easy target. I'd spent a lifetime in his memories, I'd seen him deal with those who intended me harm. I shouldn't have been surprised when he lifted his arms and shadows rose up and wound around the elves closest to him, dragging them down screaming through the earth beneath their feet. Their own shadows had become their undoing. I shuddered and made a silent note never to piss him off…
I looked around for something to use. The one thing my mother and grandmother had failed to mention about Faerie was the abundance of magic in the realm. It was literally everywhere. Witches lived in the human world and generated the very magic they used within their bodies. We had something not unlike a battery inside of us, a well of power. If we used it all, it became empty, but we slowly refilled it over time. There…standing, surrounded by limitless power, I felt like a god.
I drew the power into me and split the sky above us while reinforcing our shields.
Faerie had been referred to as Underhill since the dawn of time. Its plane literally sat below ours, sandwiched somewhere between the mortal realm and Gehenna. I'm sure there were literally thousands of planes, most of which had never been seen or explored.
With the human realm above us, when I unthinkingly split the sky above us, I literally tore through the veil separating the planes. A good portion of a largish building, two cars, a fire hydrant, and several tons of asphalt and concrete came crashing down upon the elves. Our shields were enough to save us from the edge of the urban shower. The elves, however, weren't as lucky.
"What did you do?"
"Looks like I squished 'em," I answered Jaeren in a state of shock. "Or, most of them." A few archers in the back line escaped death, but not injury. I debated finishing them off but decided to let them go. There was no way the king didn't know we were here, anyway. The limitless power thing was more than a little scary. I was kind of glad the mortal realm had little to no magic to speak of. Witches would be monsters.
"How? How did you rip through the veil?"
"I don't know. My only intent had been to split the sky above us in a show of power. I didn't realize that Underhill was really under a fucking hill. My bad."
"You can touch the magic."
"Around us?"
He nodded.
"Um…yeah." I reached out and scooped a handful out of the air in front of me, setting it alight in a flare of fire. "It's everywhere."
"No witch–" His sentence was cut off as he fainted to the ground in front of me.
What the hell am I and what the hell is going on?
∞ ∞ ∞
I silently vowed not to cause Jaeren to pass out around me as a joke anymore. Unfortunately, that hadn't saved his consciousness this time. He was staying asleep longer each time it happened. I was afraid he wouldn't wake up sometime in the future if it kept happening.
The elven sun had gone down over the horizon and the rest of us were huddled around a campfire in the ruins of Elm Street for warmth. After Jaren had passed out, I sealed the veil with a bit more magic and some serious intent. I didn't need any humans falling into Faerie. I'd even sent Dar through the rubble, looking for any survivors, human or elf. Luckily no humans had been above us. I brought new meaning to the name Ce
dar Falls. Hopefully, they would just chalk it up to a sink hole and move on with their lives. The insurance companies were going to be pissed, though.
The second thing I'd done, was draw forth a foot-thick shield around the clearing. Nobody, elf or crow, would be getting through that until I let it go, and that wasn't happening until Jaeren woke up and we came up with a game plan.
"I think we should go home."
I nodded at Candace. Our welcoming wagon had been less than welcoming. "I wish we could. We will be avoiding the castle, though. The Lady bade me go to Faerie to see something I needed to see. However, she did not say it was in the castle."
"Unfortunately, there is little else in this elfhame but the castle and the surrounding city." Jaeren sat up with a groan, shaking his head.
"Welcome back," I told him, skipping the teasing.
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry, Jaeren."
"It would seem that power has changed my brother somewhat. We have never seen eye to eye, but this… This I cannot forgive."
"I'm sorry I wrecked your clearing, too," I said, motioning to the half of a building sitting skewed on the grass beside us.
He chuckled. "How is your familiar?"
"Which one?"
"The beast."
"Which one?"
Har har, Yuki said in my head.
"Dar?"
"He's fine, but cranky. The elfshot exploded and left some nasty wounds, but he healed."
"Good. He is a far better protector than I."
"You didn't do so bad yourself. I know Yuki appreciates you."
"Yep. I'da been a vampire on a stick. Thanks, elf."
"You are welcome."
"So, what do we do now?"
"I would agree with your little friend. We should go back to the human realm."
"I wish I could, but I'm afraid the goddess would just send me back until I do what she wants."
"It is not for me to decide what you do. I merely guide," an amused voice said from behind.
"She's right behind me, isn't she?" I couldn't feel her behind me, not with all the magic surrounding me.
Jaeren and Yuki nodded, wide-eyed. Even Shea gave a quiet gasp and bowed low.
I sighed and turned around on the clump of sidewalk I'd been sitting on. "I'm sorry," I said and bowed my head to a glowing Candace.
Fourth Rite: A Reverse Harem Tale (Lovin' the Coven Book 4) Page 16
