Fairy Tale: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 3) (18 page)

“Is it me or is it you?” Caleb sang as he stepped past me in one lithe motion and gestured defiantly at Mattoc. My ghost staggered backward, falling to one knee as the music changed again. White light fell down around Mattoc, and the melody changed to one of pity; a low, whining hum that echoed within the room.

“These thoughts eat at me… I… I… I…” Mattoc’s voice was pained, straining as he fell to his knees, arms reaching out to me in one desperate gesture.

Caleb turned away from him and swept toward me, catching me in his arms as I tried to go to Mattoc.

“Are you bound to what they say?” Caleb cooed. “Are we both bound to what they say?”

“I will not go this way,” I cried, pain and fear filling my voice as I looked past him toward the fallen form of Mattoc. “I will not go this way,” I repeated, falling forward against Caleb as the world spun under my feet.

Chapter 21

A whirlwind that carried the scent of springtime daffodils lifted me into the air as rose vines descended from the ceiling and wrapped around my arms in a flurry of white and pink rose petals.

I screamed as sharp, dagger-like thorns pierced my flesh, spilling drops of my bright red blood on the marble floor. My legs kicked uselessly in the air. Blood dripped down my flesh and with each drop that struck the ground an explosion of power burst outward. Fairy magic thrummed in the air, humming in my ears like a buzz saw. The vines lifted me higher, my body swaying like a bloody marionette.

Caleb tried to take a step toward me, but the whirling power pushed him backward. He slid along the slick marble unable to stop himself despite being the Blue Prince. Blue flames exploded out around him as he struggled to keep the unseen force from carrying him away.

Some of the guests scattered, but most watched, open mouthed, as crimson and ebony roses bloomed along the ceiling. The smell of pine trees and fresh cut grass wafted through the air as the banquet tables dissolved. Spruce trees sprung from the ground in their place, enormous and massive as they stretched up to the ceiling.

“What’s going on?” Mattoc cried, and I turned my head just enough to glimpse him trying to stand out of the corner of my eye. Roses wrapped around his body, pulling him to the ground beneath their bulk. Pain flashed across his face as he struggled to move.

“The wild magic is free. We must warn the Queens!” cried a golden-haired Sidhe as he turned and tried to run across the dance floor to the entrance. The ground beneath his feet shifted, roiling as the dragonfly’s wings began to beat beneath the surface of the stone. He stumbled, windmilling his arms for balance as the giant stone dragonfly pulled itself free of the ground like a butterfly pulling itself free from its cocoon.

Its glittering gold and silver body swung around, knocking the Sidhe off his feet and throwing him across the dance floor like a rag doll. The dragonfly rose into the air, its multifaceted eyes darting to and fro as it surveyed the room. I screamed and tried to throw myself to the side as it flew by me, but the rose vines held me tight, thorns tearing into my flesh as I struggled.

A breath of winter swept through the room like a gust of frozen wind, crystallizing the floor and ceiling alike and covering the roses in a thin layer of frost. The frigid air struck the enormous dragonfly full on and stopped it cold. Ice swarmed over the creature, wrapping around its immense wings and dragging them to a standstill.

Heat exploded past me, slamming into the tumbling creature in a burst of white hot flames. The dragonfly’s carapace shattered, sending chunks of gold-flecked stone flying outward in all directions.

I turned my head toward the source, straining against the roses struggling to keep me from moving, and gasped. The Queen of the Hot and Bright was lowering her smoking hand. Her flesh took on the glow of afternoon sunlight and her hair billowed around her as though moved by an unseen breeze.

Beside her, the Queen of the Cold and Dark was grinning that cheshire cat grin I’ve seen her use before. Snow radiated outward from her along the marble floor and frost clung to her hair and eyelashes, flashing like tiny diamonds in the light.

“I suppose your ‘Physics’ magic really works,” the Summer Queen said, and her voice rolled over me like warm maple syrup and butter.

“Perhaps we should combine the forces of our power more often,” the Winter Queen replied with a glance at her counterpart. “Now cut them free.”

Winter and Summer Sidhe surged forward in a mass toward Mattoc and me, weapons brandished.

“No! Stop!” Caleb cried but even as he said the words, the roses grew thicker and hoisted me higher into the air spattering my blood across the floor. Roses the color of twilight sprang up from the blood, growing into a dense forest of thorns and petals. It surged forward, swallowing the guards in a flurry of thrashing, writhing vines.

“Send for the Winter Breaker,” the Winter Queen called, and her voice split the air like an arctic gale.

“No,” Caleb said and, for a moment, everyone stopped and looked at him. Blue fire engulfed his body as he took a step away from me and the roses. The entire forest of prickly flowers almost seemed to sigh in relief as he did so, and his power flared. Now that he’d stopped trying to approach, the wild magic no longer held him back. “This is wild magic, and we cannot hope to control it. We cannot bargain with it, nor can we fight it.” Caleb shook his head and the flames around him died out abruptly. “Whatever it is here to do, must be done.”

“And what is that, Prince?” the Summer Queen sneered, putting her hands on her hips and gazing at him defiantly. “What has it come to do?”

“When was the last time wild magic was alive in the heart of Fairy?” Caleb asked, ignoring her question as he swept his arms around the room.

“When, indeed?” The Keeper of the Wild Hunt’s voice smashed into the room like a freight train as he stepped from the pillar of darkness that greeted me earlier. His ebony hair was done in a set of twin braids that fell down his back like the tails of some giant beast. He was still wearing his black leather pants but now he also wore a poncho of rich blue silk that seemed to shimmer as he moved. “A millennia? Two?” He leaned down close to the queens so that his face loomed before both of theirs. “It’s two, isn’t it?”

Neither Fairy Queen spoke, and the Keeper nodded at them. “Your silence is answer enough.” He gestured around him. “Everywhere I turn I see stone and metal. Are you trying to imitate the humans? This is Fairy. We are endless forests and thrashing oceans, not marble walls and golden ceilings. You should embrace the wild magic.”

“The wild magic cannot be controlled. If it runs loose it could unmake our Courts,” the Summer Queen said.

“And what do you have that is so worth saving, Sidhe? You could not even defend your kingdom without outsiders to fight for you.” The Keeper poked the Summer Queen in the chest with one huge finger. She stumbled backward and would have fallen if the Winter Queen hadn’t seized her arm and held her upright.

“We didn’t need them,” the Queen of the Cold and Dark snarled, baring her teeth like an angry lioness as white fog roiled around her.

“Oh? Is that true?” The Keeper stood back and tapped his cheek in mock thought. “So tell us then, Queen of the Cold and Dark, where are Warthor Ein and Kishi Al Akeer?”

A chill slithered down my spine. Not one of those, “oh it’s cold in here chills” or one of those, “I’m really scared” chills. No, this was one of those, “someone stepped on my grave,” chills. It oozed over my skin and made me suck in a breath. The rose vines wrapped around me loosened, just a little, as if I was finally starting to understand something.

Where were Kishi and Warthor? They should be here, right? This was a ball in honor of saving Fairy, and they had been right there. I mean Caleb was here, but he was basically a god and could be all “I do what I want,” and no one could stop him. Mattoc was corporeal right now, but he was still bound to me in a soul-to-soul sort of way. If they took Mattoc, I’d have known.

But Warthor and Kishi? They could be in some deep, dark hole somewhere, and I wouldn’t know. I’d been so preoccupied with dresses and makeup that I never stopped to wonder where my friends were. Some friend I was.

Then again, this was Warthor Ein we were talking about. He chewed up monsters and spit them out. Kishi wasn’t exactly a slacker herself, either. They’d gone toe to toe with the Goblin King and the Winter Queen with effort, but not impossible effort. Who could put them in a deep dark hole? No one, that’s who.

I let a slow breath escape my lungs and turned my attention to the Fairy Queens. They were still silent, which was odd. Shouldn’t they have been like, “They are on their way. Kishi is being dressed in such splendor that when she enters the room all eyes will turn to her and Lillim won’t even exist because she’s so beautiful and funny and…”

But they weren’t doing that. They weren’t even talking. The Keeper smiled, a wide grin that spread his tire-sized lips to reveal a set of shiny teeth. “You don’t want to say that they are in a deep, dark hole somewhere, do you?” he said with a wink at me.

Oh my god. Could he hear my thoughts? That was a creepy thought. No. He couldn’t do that, right? I mean… what number was I thinking of?

“Four,” he said casually. He leaned down until his huge, beach ball-sized head was inches from the Fairy Queens. “Go on. Tell the Dragonslayer what you have done to her friends.”

“We have done nothing
with
them,” the Queen of the Hot and Bright cooed, and her voice filled the room like a living thing. It made my skin sweat and images of a sweltering desert complete with the bleached bones of unfortunate animals and circling vultures fill my mind.

“They
chose
to go with the Morrigan,” the Queen of the Cold and Dark murmured in a voice so low that I didn’t hear it so much as I felt it on my skin like fog rolling in before a storm.

“Chose, eh?” The Keeper smirked, and the Queens’ faces went blank and empty. It was the face of someone who was trying to hide something. “And why did they choose to go with the death goddess?”

“It was their choice,” the Queen of the Hot and Bright hissed through clenched teeth.

“Strangely, that doesn’t answer my question,” the Keeper said with an amused lilt.

“We don’t have to answer your question Keeper,” the Queen of the Hot and Bright spat and waved him off with one hand. “Don’t you have some bones to feed your mongrels?” She turned toward one of the Sidhe in her entourage. “Go and fetch the Keeper some bones for his dogs.”

“Are you being serious right now?” The Keeper sighed and shook his head. He turned, glancing up at me. With a flick of his wrist, the roses unfurled around me. The thorny press against my skin lessened as the roses set me down beside him. He put one massive hand on the top of my head and smiled. It was one of those sad smiles, one that told me he wished it didn’t have to be this way.

A surge of heat exploded through my body, rushing over my skin like liquid hot magma. I swallowed, sucking in a breath that smelled like fall leaves and apple cider. The world around me swam, tumbling away until I was standing out beyond the gates again. I could see myself, collapsed on the silty ground that had once been Sobek’s lagoon.

The Morrigan stood over me, one hand clutching Nemain. Drops of green liquid spilled from the tip, scalding the sand a few inches from my head. Her other hand was raised, palm outward in the universal sign for “stop.”

“If you come any closer, I will end her,” the Morrigan said. Her voice was cold and strangely quiet.

Warthor gritted his teeth. His hands curled into fists, but he made no movement forward. Kishi took a step back, her left hand edging toward an opening in the side of her armor where the hilt of a sword was tattooed on her flesh.

“Why are you doing this?” Kishi’s voice was a mixture of confusion and anger. “She just saved you.”

“That was very nice of her.” The Morrigan nodded toward me like I was a prom dress the night after the dance; still special and full of good memories but having no immediate use. Now I was something to be dealt with, to be put away. “But her task is
over
. Your task is now to begin. You must venture into the mound of Crom Cruach and destroy him. He is the one who summoned Sobek here. Now that he knows we cannot fight Egyptian magic it will not be long before he summons someone else to conquer Fairy.”

“Which sounds great and all,” Kishi sneered, “but why are you threatening Lillim if we don’t go with you?”

“She controls Apep, the great darkness that devours the sun. Crom Cruach has already shown his affinity for Egyptian Deities. If she went in there, he might be able to use Apep against us all,” the Morrigan said.

“And she won’t let us go without her,” Warthor finished. “So you would kill her to ensure she couldn’t come.”

“I would. Or you can choose to go on your own. In which case, I won’t stop you.” The Morrigan shrugged her shoulders.

Warthor sighed and screwed up his face with his hand. “So how do we get to the mound?” he asked.

“I will take you there.” The Morrigan grinned, and it reminded me of the way a crow looks at a corpse just before it pecks out an eyeball.

The Keeper lifted his hand from my hand and the scene melted away as I turned to glare at the twin Queens of Fairy with murder in my eyes.

“So this whole party has been a charade to keep me busy while you send my friends off to their deaths?” I snarled, reaching down to where my swords should have been and realized I had no idea where Shirajirashii was.

“Calm yourself, Dioscuri. If you use that tone again we shall pluck out your tongue and use it to lick our feet,” the Queen of the Hot and Bright said with a casual, almost indifferent tone.

“And before you get any bright ideas,” the Queen of the Cold and Dark glanced at her counterpart, “we were going easy on you before. How do you people say it? We weren’t even in our final form.”

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath so I wouldn’t leap forward and strangle the Queen of the Cold and Dark with my bare hands. As I exhaled, I sent my power outward, searching for Shirajirashii. I felt the ping of its power buried so deeply underground that it was like the faintest echo in a huge canyon. I reached out toward that pinprick of recognition and curled my lips into a grin.