by E. A. Copen
“Who says?” Xipetotec sneered. “You’re the one who decided you didn’t want to fight me.”
“By that same token, you also chose not to fight me. I mean, you could’ve just killed me instead of pulling in a champion.”
Xipetotec ground his teeth. His fingers dug into the armrests of his wheelchair. “Fine. Name your champion, although I don’t think it will help you.”
I looked up at Fenrir. “I killed Typhon and Ikelos. If I were whole, I know you wouldn’t challenge me. You know what that makes you, wolf-boy? A coward. I’m glad I don’t have to dirty my hands fighting a cowardly wolf.”
Fenrir’s growl shook the ground.
“Your champion,” Xipetotec shouted. “Who will you have fight and die for you, Horseman?”
“There’s only one person aside from me who I’m absolutely sure can take you, Fenrir. I know she can kick your ass because she could kill ten of me with her eyes closed if she wanted.” I stood up straighter as Fenrir leaned in. “I name Remy Beau Kerrigan, the Summer Queen and my daughter.”
Chapter Eight
THE SUMMER QUEEN, mused the Titan. I WOULD BE HONORED TO ACCEPT THAT FIGHT. WHERE IS SHE? He looked around, stretching out his massive neck to see.
Xipetotec whirled his chair around, making a show of doing the same thing. “Yes, I don’t see her. Where is she? I’d like to get this over with.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “Well, I’ve got to go get her, but I’m sure she’ll be okay with it.”
Xipetotec stopped turning his chair to give me the side-eye. “You would risk your only daughter so willingly?”
“If you’d seen her in action, you’d know she eats Titans and shits fire. She might not even break a sweat fighting your guy.”
I didn’t want Remy to fight Fenrir, although I was fairly confident she could take him. I hoped that by talking her up, Xipetotec and Fenrir would get cold feet. Or, well, that Fenrir would. Xipetotec’s feet were probably already cold wherever they were. Anyway, I had hoped just putting her forward would make Fenrir back off, but I must’ve misread him. He almost seemed eager to fight.
“Besides,” I added as nonchalantly as I could, “if you kill her, I can at least rest easy knowing her boyfriend the Shadow King will avenge her death. Either him or her entire court. Risky business, fighting a Faerie Queen.”
AND YET YOU HAVE SLAIN TWO. Fenrir cocked his head to the side. I AM MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU, MORTAL. IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME SINCE I HAVE HAD A REAL CHALLENGE. I ACCEPT THIS ONE.
“No,” Xipetotec, shouted. “She’s not here. The fight must be tonight. Otherwise, you could just leave and never come back. You might even bring a whole army to fight in her place. I can’t expect you to honor your word either, so don’t suggest it. Name another champion, one more readily available.”
Fenrir turned on Xipetotec and growled in his face, knocking the wheelchair over. I HAVE ACCEPTED THE TERMS OF THE BATTLE ALREADY. DO NOT FORCE ME TO KILL YOU. I WILL FIGHT THIS SUMMER QUEEN. He turned back to me. IT WOULD NOT BE EVEN IF WE WERE TO FIGHT A BATTLE OF STRENGTH AND SKILL, HOWEVER, AS I AM FAR LARGER THAN SHE, AND SHE LIKELY HAS MAGIC AT HER DISPOSAL. THEREFORE, I PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING: A BATTLE OF WILLS.
I scratched my head. “Battle of wills? How’s that work exactly?”
I WILL PROVIDE THE MEANS. YOU MUST CHOOSE AN IMPARTIAL JUDGE TO WATCH OVER THE BATTLE.
I sighed. There weren’t many people I know that would be impartial. At least, I hoped not. Just about everyone I knew liked me. I mean, what was not to love, right? If I chose someone who would skew the results in my favor, Fenrir would reject them. Who did I know who liked me enough to help, but not enough to lie to save me?
I tapped my chin, thinking for a long time. “Adelard the tailor,” I said at length.
ADELARD IS A MEMBER OF YOUR COURT. HE WILL RULE AGAINST ME. HE’S FAR FROM IMPARTIAL.
“You obviously haven’t met the guy. He hates my guts.”
Fenrir shook his head. I CANNOT ACCEPT YOUR WORD ON THIS.
Ok, who else was there? I made a mental list of everyone I knew and started crossing people off. After a few minutes, there were only a few names left. Most of them didn’t like me enough to help, but there was one person who had offered to help me in the past and didn’t like me all that much. “Detective Brad Drake,” I said.
Fenrir looked at Xipetotec, which didn’t do him much good since Xipetotec was still on the ground, trying to get himself back into his wheelchair. The wolf Titan rolled his eyes, nudged the god into the chair with a paw, and flipped the chair back up with a paw. DO YOU KNOW THIS PERSON?
“I don’t,” said Xipetotec, righting himself in the chair.
“He’s arrested me twice,” I said. “But he’s in on the supernatural and has a hard-on for justice and doing the right thing. The guy would put his own mother in the slammer if he thought she’d committed a crime.”
The wolf nodded. He SOUNDS LIKE A FAIR JUDGE. WE SHOULD LOCATE HIM.
“About that…” I looked at the sky. I didn’t know what time it was, but the sky had lightened from pitch black to steel blue. It’d be just another hour or two before the sun was up and I had to use that time to find a decent place to hide. Preferably wherever Remy was. “I kinda lost my Spark too, so I can’t be out during the daytime. There isn’t a lot of time left before dawn, so…”
Fenrir snorted and nodded. FINE. THE BATTLE OF WILLS CAN BE POSTPONED FOR FORTY-EIGHT HOURS MAXIMUM.
I cringed. “I’ve kind of got plans.”
“You’re a disembodied spirit!” Xipetotec screeched. “How can you have plans?”
“Contrary to what you may believe, you’re not the only asshole who wants to kill me.” Even though I didn’t have a headache, I rubbed my temples as if I did. “What about tomorrow night?”
Fenrir tilted his head to one side and looked at the sky. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO LOCATE THE SUMMER QUEEN, AND SECURE HER AND A REFEREE BY TOMORROW? THAT’S SHORT NOTICE.
Dammit, he had a point. As soon as the sun came up, I’d be stuck wherever I was, and I had no idea where Drake was. I needed more time to prepare.
Fenrir stretched his front paws and yawned. IN ANY CASE, IT WILL TAKE ME SOME TIME TO GATHER THE NEEDED MATERIALS. I PROPOSE TWO NIGHTS FROM NOW, RIGHT HERE. IS THAT SATISFACTORY?
“Guess I don’t have a choice, do I?”
Fenrir made that hacking sound dogs sometimes make before they throw up.
Xipetotec ground his teeth. “I’ve waited a year for my vengeance already.”
THEN WHAT IS ANOTHER TWO DAYS?
The god scowled and crossed his arms. “Very well, but I’m adding a stipulation. If you don’t show up, I’ll Name a new Pestilence. The virus that just swept through New Orleans will be like nothing compared to what Pestilence will do. Don’t make me do that, Horseman. Come back and die with honor.”
Much to Xipetotec’s displeasure, I left the plaza without fighting his pet Titan and without getting the piece of my soul back that I so badly needed. Worse, I was out of time to search for the Spark if I wanted to get indoors and talk to Remy. I’d have to find time to do that in between fighting Gaston and watching Remy mop the floor with Fenrir.
Two of Spot’s heads were asleep when I made it back out to the street. The left head was busy licking the front of a hotel. He stopped as soon as he saw me and nipped at the ears on the other two heads to wake them. They rose groggily, and Spot got up on all fours before shaking and wagging his tail.
I hung my head. “No luck here either, and it seems I’ve got two fights now instead of one. At least I don’t have to do the second one on my own.” I sighed and started down Poydras Street. “We have to find my kid, Remy. Not only do I need to talk to her about a meeting with Khaleda and remind her she needs to be ready to fight to take back Faerie, but now I also need her to fight a Titan for me in a battle of wills.”
Spot whined.
“I know. I wouldn’t have put her forward if I’d known it was going to be that kind
of fight. I figured she’d be able to choose her own weapons. She can kill people with a touch, Spot. All she’d have to do to beat Fenrir was bop him on the nose, and he’d be playing dead permanently.”
Spot immediately flopped to the ground dramatically, four doggie legs stiff in the air, tongues hanging out the sides of his mouths.
I smiled and patted his chest. “Good boy.”
He got up and drooled all over me.
I shook the drool off as best I could, and we got moving again. Without something to use to track her, Spot wouldn’t be able to help me find Remy, but there was only a handful of places she’d go, right? She didn’t know her way around New Orleans, and Nate had said she’d shacked up with Finn. They’d go somewhere they thought was safe, somewhere familiar.
Paula’s. The bar had a little apartment on the floor above it, and both of them knew the place was the headquarters for the Court of Miracles. It was as close to a castle as the court had ever had. They’d also spent some time there alone just a few days ago while Josiah was exorcising Mask from Foxglove.
To get to Paula’s, we had to make our way through the Quarter. Thankfully, I was a disembodied spirit, and Spot was a giant. Neither of us was bound by things like roadblocks and barricades, which were still up around the French Quarter. It looked like some of them had come down, and none of them were occupied by armed guards anymore. Things would be getting back to normal soon.
The bar was just a few streets over from the Quarter, but technically outside it. Located down a dingy alley with an unlit sign, Paula’s wasn’t exactly a place welcoming to tourists and newcomers. If you didn’t know how to find it, she didn’t want you there. It kept the clientele small, but loyal. Weren’t many places that close to the Quarter that you didn’t have tourists wandering in and snapping pictures constantly.
The windows were dark in the bar, but a faint light poured through the blinds in one of the upstairs windows. Someone was there and awake. Problem was, they might not be able to see or hear me. I might need Nate of Khaleda to act as a go-between. Nate would be the smarter choice, but he was keeping guard over my body.
Besides, Khaleda was right there. I would’ve missed her if I hadn’t taken a second look, crouching on the roof like a gargoyle. What the hell was she doing there? She hadn’t noticed us yet, or she would’ve moved.
“Stay,” I told Spot and floated up behind her.
That close, I could see she was doing more than crouching. She had a whole bunch of equipment out—powders, tinctures, and liquids in tiny bottles. She’d mixed several of them in a small bowl. Lavender liquid swirled and sparkled, turning the center of the bowl into a window that let her see straight through the roof.
I leaned forward so that I could see what she was looking at. Remy was fast asleep in the bed, curled up tight. Meanwhile, Finn was in the middle of the room doing what looked like some modified form of tai chi. By modified, I mean he would do a move, and then his shadow would perform it after as if it were a separate entity. He was practicing his magic, which was fine, but did he have to do it naked?
“Ew, gross,” I said.
Khaleda snarled and turned, her fingers curled like claws to swipe at me. As she moved, she knocked over the bowl she’d been peering into, spilling the contents on the roof. “Dammit, Lazarus,” she hissed in a whisper. “Look what you made me do!”
“I’m not the one creeping on my nephew.”
“I wasn’t creeping.” She started picking up the overturned glass vials and putting them back into the open box in front of her.
“Then what do you call watching a naked man do magic tai chi with his shadow.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Just because someone’s naked doesn’t make it sexual. To be honest with you, after everything I’ve been through, I barely noticed. To me, bodies are just bodies.”
She had a point. As a succubus, I imagined she’d seen her fair share. “Still doesn’t explain why you’re hiding on the roof. If you wanted to talk to him, why not just go knock on the door?”
“One could say the same about you, you know.” She finished putting the last bottle back in its place. “And I don’t want to talk to him, at least not yet. I just wanted to know what sort of person he was. I needed to know if he was like me.”
I hadn’t thought of that. If he had the same powers as Khaleda, Remy was in danger with him.
Khaleda closed the box and lifted it with a strap to sling it over her shoulder. “Thankfully, he doesn’t show any signs of being an incubus. I suppose one needs to be at least half-Archon for that to be the case.”
I let out a relieved sigh.
“What are you doing here?” Khaleda asked, standing. “Shouldn’t you be off collecting pieces of your soul?”
“Time isn’t exactly on my side. Things have gotten complicated, and I need somewhere to hide while the sun is up. I also needed to talk to Remy, so I thought…”
Khaleda folded her arms. “You thought you’d come and spy on her. And here you were getting on my case for spying.”
“It’s not like that! But it is good luck you’re here. I don’t think she or Finn will be able to see me. I was right in front of them just after all this happened and they didn’t notice me. I’ll need an intermediary. I was going to get Nate, but he’s probably still at the hospital watching over my body.”
She shifted the strap on her shoulder. “Well, I did want an introduction, although this wasn’t exactly how I planned on that happening.”
Spot suddenly barked, drawing Khaleda’s attention.
“Spot! You’re back!” She grinned and took a dive off the front of the building, sticking the landing perfectly.
Spot slid to a stop in front of her and rolled over on his back, giving her his belly to scratch. ‘
“Who’s a good Hellhound? Who’s a good boy? Oh, yes! You’re the best puppy, aren’t you?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Here was one of the fiercest women in the world, brought up to be Lucifer Morningstar’s personal assassin, gushing over a dog like a ten-year-old. Just goes to show even the scariest person has a soft spot.
She finished rubbing his belly and turned back to snarl at me, “What are you looking at?”
I didn’t bother hiding my grin. “Nothing. Just wishing I could’ve recorded that. Bet it’d go viral.”
If looks could set fires, I would’ve been burning alive. “There are two rules that hold fast in this world, no matter what else changes. First, always carry protection, both the sharp and pointy kind and of the latex variety, as you never know which one you’ll need. Second, never trust someone who doesn’t like dogs.” She spoke another command word to Spot.
The three-headed monster regained his color and physical form, but also shrank to a more manageable size. Two of his three heads merged into the center one. For a minute, he looked like a terrifying nightmare monster with six eyes and three tongues. The next, he was the fattest corgi I’d ever seen. He let out a long, loud fart and deflated to a normal weight.
Khaleda pinched her nose. “Disgusting. What’d you feed him?”
I shrugged. “He licked a few windows and might’ve eaten a few palm trees, but I didn’t feed him anything.”
“Let’s just get this over with.” She tugged down her tight leather top, slid her hands over her hips as if smoothing something there, and walked to the door.
I went ahead of her. The bar was empty, of course, and it didn’t look like anyone had been there since the last time I’d held court. The chairs were still set up in the familiar semi-circle. Two dusty glasses sat on the bar from where I’d demonstrated Foxglove’s possession to Paula using a rum and Coke.
Khaleda pushed aside the plastic in the window. Finn had shattered it while tackling Foxglove when he showed up, and the best fix Paula’d had time to come up with was some thick, black plastic trash bags.
“Hey,” I said to her as she dusted herself off, “Paula has this place warded against intruders when sh
e’s not here. How come you were able to just come right in?”
She gave me a doubtful look. “Give me some credit, Lazarus. I wouldn’t be a very good assassin if I didn’t know how to get past a few weak fae wards.”
“Good point.”
A shadow moved next to my head. Before I could process what was happening, a huge black spear made of shadow formed and flew straight at Khaleda’s head. She stepped aside, dodging it with ease, and smiled. “You’re going to have to do better than if you want to hurt me, little man.”
“Call me ‘little man’ again,” Finn said from the stairs as he spun another ball of shadow in his hand, forming it into a sharpened disc, “and I’ll have to stoop to your level.”
“Tell him who you are and what you want,” I said, floating between them. “There’s no reason for you two to fight.”
Khaleda ignored me, dropped the box on her shoulder, and tugged two obsidian knives from her belt. “Come on, pretty boy. Let’s see what you’re made of,” she said and charged on ahead.
Chapter Nine
Watching two people fight when you want both to win is nerve-wracking as hell. If Khaleda killed Finn, we’d lose the only remaining weapon against Mask. We needed him to close the seal in Faerie. Of course, if he killed her—which seemed more likely considering Khaleda probably didn’t want to kill her own nephew—I’d lose the intermediary I needed to talk to Remy. Not only that, but if Khaleda had followers in her ongoing quest to become the Queen of Hell, they’d probably be pretty pissed too.
Khaleda feigned a swing at Finn, prompting him to dodge the other way. He almost pushed himself right onto her other knife. When he realized it, he pulled the shadow from the wall and stretched it between two fists like a garrote. Khaleda tried to stab him in the gut, but he managed to get the shadow wrapped around her wrist. A sharp twist and bone snapped. The knife clattered to the floor. Khaleda muttered a curse.
“Surrender,” Finn commanded. “I win.”
