Winged Warriors

by Elle Casey

  One of the witches spoke up. "She has herself wrapped in her elements. We cannot help her if we cannot get inside her head."

  Sam looked at me. "Is this true?"

  I nodded, not exactly excited about the getting-in-her-head part of this plan. "You can't expect me to come in here without any defenses at all."

  Sam sighed like she was tired enough to take a twenty-four hour nap. I knew exactly how she felt. "I'm going to try to explain to you what's going on, even though I think it might be difficult to understand," she said.

  When she said that, I wondered if she was one of the fae who thought I was slow. I looked at Tim for confirmation, but he didn't give me any indication either way. "Fine, go ahead," I said. "I'll do my best to understand."

  Sam dropped her head and started pacing back and forth as she recited what she knew about my situation. "As we understand it, at some point in your journey, you made contact with a dark spirit who somehow managed to inhabit a part of you. Temporarily. This is what caused you to act out of character in the dining room earlier." She stopped pacing and looked at me. "I had hoped this wasn't the case, because you were acting fine up until that point…but now there's no doubt in my mind."

  My throat went dry at that. I knew exactly who she was talking about. "Torrie," I said.

  Sam started pacing again but kept her eyes on me. "Excuse me?"

  "It had to be Torrie. I don't know about the dark spirit thing, but he's a demon, and he definitely got up close and personal. When I got time slipped, I was sent back to my house, and he grabbed me and held onto me and made his presence inside my stepfather known. His eyes glowed red, and he told me there were no witches to help me there." I had tried to block the memory from my brain, but it was right there in technicolor for me to not enjoy all over again. My entire body broke out in goose bumps.

  "And then what happened?" asked one of the witches—Sylvia. She seemed like she actually cared, her voice very sweet and calming.

  I searched my memory for the answer to her question. "Well, I got drugged up by an EMT, and then I was sent to a mental hospital where I was drugged up about three or four more times, and then I escaped. And I eventually got back here. That's kind of the whole story." I shrugged, because I knew no one would be satisfied with my lame attempt at clearing things up.

  Sam looked at the witches, and although they said nothing that I could hear, I got the impression they were doing a lot of communicating. They were probably like the green elves, able to somehow chat without actually speaking out loud.

  "Has anyone ever said anything to you about a demon prophecy?" one of the other witches asked.

  I looked at Sam as I answered. "Yes. You weren't there, Sam, but when I went back to my house the first time, when I was with our friends and Céline,—I paused to look at Finn who nodded—, "we were fighting a demon named Torrie, and he told us that there was a demon prophecy, and the prophecy said that I would have to have sex with a demon and then I would have a demon baby that would somehow be the beginning of the end."

  "And did you have sex with this demon?" asked one of the female witches.

  "Ew, of course not." Just the idea of doing that made my lady parts feel like they were shriveling up and trying to hide in my bladder. Daemon junk? Huh-uh. No. Just no. Dis-gus-ting.

  "Is it possible you were impregnated while you were under the influence of these drugs?" Sharif asked.

  It suddenly felt like somebody had forced me to swallow a giant lump of lead…like I'd just ingested an entire cannonball. My stomach and then my entire body instantly felt fifty pounds heavier at hearing his words. My ears started to burn and ring. Everybody was staring at me as I tried and failed to digest the idea that I'd actually been raped by an evil creature as hideous as the beast that had possessed my step-father Rick the Dick. I hadn't even been given the chance to fight back.

  Tim flew to the edge of the circle, his arms held out wide. "Don't panic, Jayne. I know that look on your face, and I don't think we need to panic right now. We can panic later if necessary but let's just figure it out first. Chill, baby, just chill."

  I blinked a few times. Tim's words and voice were breaking through the emotions that were starting to build. My hand went to my belly. The first time Tim had told me I was pregnant, he had acted like I was about six weeks along or so, and we had both assumed it was with one baby. Then he'd felt the vibe in my body again later and told me there were two. Had I somehow managed to get pregnant a second time without knowing it? Or had the part of me that went back to my old life been impregnated by a demon while the part of me that stayed with Spike also got knocked up by him? Was it possible, then, that when the two pieces of me came together, I became one, but the two babies became roommates?

  The odds of that happening were boggling my mind. I was pretty terrible at math, but even I knew the chances had to be slim. But then again, the math I learned in school functioned in a world where magic didn't exist, where everything was ordered and predictable and never changing. Unfortunately, that was not my reality anymore. I lived in a realm where a person's being or soul could be split into pieces and survive in two different realms at the same time and then come back together again and be as one. I lived in a world where people turned into wyverns and ogres and elementals after putting on a piece of jewelry and reciting a magical poem. And I also lived in a world where just a half hour ago, I got angry enough to nail my roommate to a wall, and I knew for sure there was something else inside of me causing that to happen. I would never do that to Tim unless I were being influenced by a dark spirit.

  When I was finally able to speak again, my throat felt raw and my voice was hoarse. "I think it's possible it could have happened. I was unconscious for hours at a time. And the person who was running the mental facility was a nasty ass silver elf named Malena who has always hated me and who has been with Torrie for most of her life…or at least he was in love with her for most of her life and she was happy to use his emotions to accomplish her goals."

  Sam came over and put her hands on my shoulders, staring at my face. She looked like she was searching my expression and my eyes, trying to find some deeper truth in there.

  "It's all I know. I'm sorry it's not more specific."

  She nodded her head and spoke softly. "It doesn't need to be any more specific than that. The magic will tell us the truth. Are you ready?"

  I nodded. Nobody wanted to know the truth of what was going on inside my body and in my world more than I did. "I'm ready." I let my elements go because I didn't want anything interfering in the witches' spell.

  Tim was trying to get to me past the circle of branches, but he was running into resistance; something was blocking him. It reminded me of when he had tried to enter the B&B on the Isle of Skye, where Judith the Fate had used a spell to keep him out…some kind of pixie-be-gone spray.

  Finn and Becky wore confused expressions as they walked up and tried to do the same thing. Finn dropped his weapons and slammed both palms up against an invisible wall standing between us. He and Becky were yelling, but I couldn't hear anything but the sounds of the witches chanting.

  Scrum just stood and stared at the witches, his hands clenched in fists at his sides. My guess was that he was silently berating himself for letting me enter the circle without him. I was forever making his job ten times more difficult than it should have been. Poor kid. I hoped that some day I'd be able to make it up to him.

  Sam's hands slid down my arms and grabbed onto my fingers. "This is not going to hurt, but it isn't going to be pleasant either."

  "Oh, shit…" Those were the last words I was able to get out before the power of their combined magic hit me right in the chest.

  CHAPTER TEN

  MY VIEW OF the forest disappeared, and I was suddenly in a swirl of gray and black smoke. It only lasted for a few moments before it faded out and I was back in the same forest, but everything was slightly different. The color of the trees was slightly dulled, the grass was no longer green b
ut a gray color, and the witches around me were just hazy specters. The only thing I could see clearly was Sam, but she wasn't really Sam anymore. She was staring at me but seeing nothing. Tim's comments about Tony and Spike being zombies raced to the front of my mind. "Sam, is that you?"

  Her lips were moving and she was mumbling something, but I couldn't understand what it was. I was reaching up to grab her and shake her when something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

  There were two figures, small ones, jumping up and down off to my left. I turned to see them more clearly. There were two children—one boy and one girl—who looked to be just a few years old. They were picking things up out of the field and throwing them awkwardly and laughing, clapping their hands with joy. As I watched a bit longer, I realized that the little boy was selecting stones for the little girl and handing them to her and then they would see who could throw the farthest.

  It seemed like innocent child's play until the little boy picked some flowers and handed them to the little girl in his fist. She reached out and slapped his hand, causing him to drop the blooms. He started to cry, but soon his expression changed to one of anger. A small flame started at her feet, causing her to stumble out of the way.

  Dark clouds immediately formed overhead and a torrential downpour started immediately, putting out the flames. Wind roiled around the two, causing the little girl's hair to turn into knots. They stood facing one another with legs spread and arms stiff at their sides. They were angry, and although they were only small children, they were clearly very powerful beings who were upset with one another.

  And then a woman appeared. She had short brown hair and was smallish in size, wearing a white tunic and jeans with weapons strapped to her legs. I didn't recognize her until she got closer. She lifted her arms above her head as she walked toward the children, and all of the elements that had surrounded them disappeared. The children and this woman were suddenly back in the green meadow, and everything looked like nothing had ever happened.

  The children turned to face her, and their shoulders slumped in defeat…or maybe shame. They stole glances at one another as she approached. My heart seized up when I realized that the woman I was looking at was me. She was my future self, on a day when I would have hair again and two small children. The woman who was me stood there with her hands on her hips, scolding the children who'd been misbehaving.

  The little girl bent down and picked up the broken blooms and pointed at the little boy. He gestured at them with the saddest expression, and I knew he was saying that he'd thought he was being nice by giving them to her. But I also knew what that little girl was feeling when she saw him pick those flowers. It was not a kind gesture in her mind, to take something that belongs to the earth and destroy it just for her pleasure.

  They were too young. They didn't understand. It would be their mother's job to teach them right from wrong, to teach them about kindness and respect. And to teach them how to be kind to one another and every living thing on earth.

  I was having a really hard time breathing as I watched and absorbed this vision of my future life. I was going to give birth to two elementals. The four elements would once again be split into two. And they would be wielded by children? Did this mean that my children were the Forsaken? Now that would be something. How in the hell was I supposed to defeat the evilest creatures on earth when they were my own kids? I looked at their angelic faces. No. It can't be. There was no way those two little beings of light could be what everyone had been talking about. But I could see how the Forsaken would want these two angels in their clutches. They would be so easy to manipulate. And they were friends now as babies, but they could easily become enemies. And I thought divorced parents and shithead step-fathers were the worst things that could happen to me, family-wise. Geez, talk about family drama.

  I wasn't sure that what I was being shown was going to answer anybody's questions, but it did clarify some things for me. The babies in my belly were probably only the size of walnuts right now, but they would grow into powerful fae in their own rights with their own souls that needed to be cared for and protected. That would be my job as their mother, and nobody was going to stand in the way of that.

  I didn't know if the demon prophecy was meant to have produced this little boy or this little girl or both of them, and I very well could have been a virgin when the demon got to me—I remember that was an important part of his prophecy. I had been thrown back in time to a point where I hadn't yet met Spike, so all the pieces to that prophecy were technically there. But no matter what, that stupid demon bedtime story was not going to stop me from doing the right thing and loving my children and teaching them right from wrong.

  Ben's words echoed in my brain again. All I had to do was the right thing, and I knew what the right thing was in pretty much every situation. It wasn't always the easy choice, but the right choice was the one that always nagged at my conscience. I guess it was that divine guidance that Ben had mentioned that told me on some sort of gut level which way I should go. It meant there was somebody looking out for me. Maybe it was my guardian angel Chase or maybe it was somebody at a higher pay grade, but ultimately, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I listened to my gut and then followed through with what it told me to do.

  I was seeing more clearly now, thanks to Sam and her friends. And now it was time for me to find the answers to their other questions so I could wrap this up and get on with the task of freeing our world from the evil that was trying desperately to take hold. I took a deep breath and blew it out before calling to my elements. Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water, I have seen my son and my daughter, one day they will wield the elements true, but for right now it's just me and you, let's clear the air and douse the magic, I need to talk to these witches before things get tragic. The misty visions cleared and the forest came back into full focus. Sam shook her head, her faraway gaze replaced by the intense glare she usually wore.

  "We saw the vision," she said.

  I nodded. It was mighty convenient, not to have to repeat that crazy story for them. A murmuring started among the other witches. I held out my hand to stop them from conjecturing. "Clearly we have a situation on our hands."

  "What did you see?" Tim asked.

  "Tell us what happened," Becky said. She looked down at the branches like she was considering walking over them. I gestured for her to join me and she scampered over them and came to stand by my side. She held onto my hand, lacing her fingers through mine. I squeezed her to let her know I appreciated her support. Finn grabbed his weapons and joined us as well. Scrum came and stood at my back. I checked over my shoulder and saw him looking at each witch individually. He was suspicious. I didn't think he had anything to worry about, but I was happy to have him there. Tim came over without a word and stood on my shoulder. I didn't feel forgiven, but I felt like we might be on the right track, at least.

  "So, the deal is that I have twins right now. One is a boy and one is a girl, and they're both going to be elementals."

  "Gee whiz. You aren't playin' at this mother thing, are ya?" said Finn, grinning.

  "Spike is going to be so excited," Becky said. Then her voice dropped. "If we can get him out of the Gray, that is."

  "We're getting him and Tony out, don't you worry about it." I said this with full authority in my voice because I wasn't going to rest until it happened.

  "I believe the Forsaken will use your children for their own purposes," Sharif said.

  I nodded. "I think they're going to try, but they're not going to succeed. Because they're going to have to go through me to make that happen, and I'm not going anywhere."

  "And me," said Sam. She shifted her stance so that she was standing next to me and facing the other witches. My friends and I created a united front. I felt like it could be us against the world if necessary. I just hoped it would never come to that.

  One of the witches spoke up. "How will we stop them?"

  Sam held out her hand at me. "We h
ave an elemental who wields all four elements, and this is the only fae power strong enough to send a being into another realm." She looked at me. "We will help you with the magic."

  I tried to laugh. "I hope so. Because I'm pretty sure I can't do it on my own." I wouldn't even know where to begin.

  Sharif looked around at his witch buddies. "So, what's next? Where do we go from here?"

  "Into the Gray," I said without hesitation. "I'm getting my friends out of there, and then I'll help you find the wyvern. After that, we'll figure out where these Forsaken are going to show up, and we'll head them off at the pass." The plan was coming to me as I said it. It seemed so simple: Step one, get friends. Step two, find door to Forsaken Land. Step three, lock door. Boom. Game over.

  Sam stared at me silently for little while, but then she gave me a brief nod. "I can work with that."

  "Me too, if I have a vote," Finn said. "I can have Robin and every single green elf in the forest here in about ten minutes if you think that'll help."

  "Robin's okay?" I asked, ashamed that I hadn't asked after him sooner.

  Finn frowned. "Why wouldn't he be?"

  I could spend the next five minutes telling him how I brought Falco back from the dead and how Robin sacrificed some of his life energy to make that happen, but I didn't bother. Apparently, me wiping the Overworld clean had fixed that little issue. "Never mind. I don't think we need them now, though. Let's take care of the Tony and Spike rescue thing and then move on from there."

  He nodded.

  "How are you going to get into the Gray?" Becky asked.

  "I hear Brad is the man to talk to on that."

  Even Sam cringed a little. "You could try," she said, not sounding very confident.