Night Finds (11 page)

Rather than the bedroom I was expecting, it looks like we step into a broom closet, brooms included. I know I mentioned this having to be quick, but I would have at least hoped for a bed.

“Obviously, we are not sleeping together. I have no choice when it comes to Sylvia, but my heart belongs to another, even if that person is comatose.” This must be a safe room. I don't envision Sylvia checking it out very often.

“I take it the love you have for Adeline is why you remain in Sylvia's clutches,” I say figuring she is the comatose one.

“Partly. Sylvia sullied Fae magic so no one could harness any resistance to what she wanted done. Me and the others are too weak to do anything against her. Believe me; we tried in the beginning. At one time, she kept more of us guys around, but the more we acted out, the more she decided we weren't all really necessary. I was the main force fighting against her, but she couldn't kill me.”

“Because of her revenge plot against her sister?” Alex asks.

“I don't think my death would matter a whole lot as far as that is concerned. It would still hurt Addie whether I was forced into slavery or dead. The spell that keeps the true queen in slumber requires me to have a child with another. Don't ask why it is set up that way. It has never made sense to me, but that is what Sylvia claims.”

“My bet would be it is a transferring of love spell. Your love and devotion is keeping your Queen alive. Sylvia is betting that if you have a child, even one that you created against your will, that your love will then be divided between Adeline and the child. She must be banking on that little weakness being enough to finally do her sister in,” Gabe explains his theories. They might sound logical to someone that hasn't been in love before, but to me it is a bunch of hogwash.

“I am in love with two men and the love for one doesn't diminish what I feel for the other at all,” I point out.

“Correct. The heart may only be a definable size, but it has the ability to hold great amounts of any emotion. Sylvia's is full of hate, whereas Killian's here is not. She doesn't understand that and probably never will.” I guess Gabe is some kind of emotions expert.

“Why doesn't Sylvia just kill you? That should sever the tie.”

“I have asked myself that question many times, but Sylvia insists I stay alive and father this child. The magic used for the spell is not something I am familiar with. I think there is more to it than just the love aspect of things.”

“Do you think your love would truly just disappear if you were dead?” Gabe argues.

“How did Adeline get in the state she is now?” I ask curious. I have pieced together she was powerful before her deep sleep.

“Sylvia had an accomplice in the kitchen. They poisoned Addie slowly over a week. She kept getting sick, but we couldn't figure out what was wrong.” I am glad I don't have a staff that cooks for me. I barely trust the guards not to slip me something.

“What about the accomplice, is he or she still around? Maybe they can give us a hint on what we can do to counter its reaction,” I suggest. I am sure it is something he has thought about over the years already.

“When I am allowed to carry my blade, it is very swift in doling out justice. I cannot kill Sylvia because of her wacked out Sluagh power, but the cook is long gone. She didn't have any useful information. She would have told me if that were the case.”

“What is the plan then?” If he needs me to kill Sylvia, I have a few guards I may be willing to turn over my knife to, but she does have information I need. “Do you know where my dad has been staying?”

“Yes, she fixed him a place in the Dark Forest because she thought he would like the woods, being a wolf and all,” he answers.

I wonder what gives this forest the special designation of being called dark when the rest of the world wasn’t exactly sunshine and tulips.

“Not good,” Traves says in my ear. “No one comes out of the Dark Forest the same. It is in the Forbidden Zone.”

“Sylvia ate most of the things that inhabit the forest in her quest for more power. I think there are a couple left that could be considered dangerous. I wouldn't worry about them though. With a group as large as yours, they would be wise to stay away.”

“There is supposed to be a large group keeping my dad hostage. Do you think they could have teamed up with any of the beings you speak of?”

“Couldn't say. I don't really know what is in there. As far as my plan goes, do you think you can lift the curse or spell that is keeping Addie asleep?” Killian questions.

“We left the witch with the power in the other room. I don't know what she would be able to do. She has already indicated that the magic is really week around these parts and she is saving hers up for our battle.”

“But you are the one that called out to the earth and brought her back from the death. I don't see how that would be any different with Adeline. I can already feel the earthly magic starting to recharge. If Addie was awake, she could harness it and make it grow. I don't think it would take her long to be back to full strength, at least I hope not. I really want her to have a chance to avenge herself.”

Why do people have to keep requesting things from me that I don't think are possible? It didn't used to make a difference, but now I kind of regret having to tell them no.

“We can try. I am just learning about these angel powers. Maybe Gabe is a better person to assist. He is a card carrying member of the angel society.”

“I would assist only if necessary. Our powers come from within us and you need to learn how to use them. At the same time you are learning just what you can do; you have to learn when it is right to use them. Do you think this is a time where an angel should step in?”

He has already mentioned that a lot of people not born with the power end up abusing it or just burning themselves out. I can do a lot of things without an extra wave of my hand and I have people like Hilda around when I need a little extra magic boost, so I don't think I will fall into that category.

“I believe Sylvia needs to be stopped. She murdered her own people to advance her position,” I state the biggest point in the pro column for helping.

“Using their souls as fuel may not be considered murder by everyone,” Gabe points out, causing me to give him a questioning look. If you steal someone's soul and leave just a husk behind, I am pretty sure that equates to murder. It does in my book anyway.

“Even with your illogical point in consideration, you cannot condone any of the actions we have heard Sylvia taking. You are an angel, for God's sake. Death and destruction shouldn't be in your DNA.”

“The destruction maybe not, although that can be debated, but death is a part of life. It has to happen or the world would not be able to sustain itself.”

“I don't think death is helping this world sustain itself at all if it put a bunch of its inhabitants to sleep like it did the pixies because of lack of food. I want to try. You cannot talk me out of this one with your weird logic.” I am ready to get this done. I hear the Dark Forest calling me.

“I wasn't trying to talk you out of it. I actually think it is a wise move, but I do have to make sure you understand the ways of the universe,” Gabe says smiling. I feel like he wants to pat me on the head. If he makes any kind of move in that direction, he is getting a boot to the knee, allowing that I can lift my leg that high.

“Great. Where is your sleeping queen? We can find out if my mojo is up to snuff.”

“She is down the hall. I am the only one that still visits her, so we shouldn't run into any trouble. Sylvia is so hopped up on me having a baby that she probably took one of her other slaves to play in her quarters. I think that even though she keeps us alive, somehow sleeping with us gives her some extra strength,” Killian says and opens the door.

“Like a succubus,” I say and let out a deep breath. I hate succubi. Maybe I can figure out a way with these new angel powers to eradicate them all. Talk about burnout.

“I haven't ever met one personally, but from what I have heard, it would be similar.”

“I wish I hadn't been introduced to one as well, but thankfully mine is back down in Hell and I hope she is being roasted on a daily basis.”

“I think the dwellers from down under were barred from visiting here, but you never know. If someone calls out to them, they are much more likely to answer than someone from Upstairs. We get calls all the time, but only a third of them are really life or death situations and I have already voiced my opinion on death being a natural part of life. Most of the time, people are just going through a little bump in the road and need to learn that life isn't always easy, but in the end, all the battles you fight turn out to make up a life worth living.”

Gabe is getting deep and I can think of better times to get into the meaning of life. Killian is leading us farther away from the dining hall where we left everyone. Since we aren't in the presumably safe closet, I don't want to start up on a Sylvia is an evil octopus chant.
I have the same problem Hilda does with having to come up with inventive ways to say bad words without really saying them. If one were to replace octopus in my thought with the dirtiest, most horrific word they can think of, they might be close to the word I was really thinking.

“Here we go,” Killian says while he opens a door.

Inside we find a woman lying on top of a large platform in the middle of the room. It looks like the classic fairy tale sleeping princess setup. I take it Killian has put himself in charge of looking after Adeline because I highly doubt Sylvia would do something like this.

Killian walks over to the woman and brushes his hand through her hair. “We should probably hurry. Sylvia will know we are in here and start heading this way soon.”

“That's great. If that is true we probably only have a matter of minutes to try this,” Sebastian says.

“So what do I do? Do the three of us need to be touching like we were for the grass reawakening?” I ask ready to move this along.

“You can do this yourself. It is really no different than what you did before. You will probably prefer to be touching her since you are still in training. All you really need to do is find the angel place inside of you and bring forth its healing powers,” Gabe instructs.

Oh yeah, that doesn't sound lame at all. Fine. Maybe this will count towards me getting my halo. I make my way over to the body and get a good look at Queen Adeline. I can tell that her and Sylvia are sisters from the slope of her nose and the rest of her facial features. Poor lady, no one deserves to be put in this state, except maybe her sister, and half of the Collective and a succubus that will remain nameless. Okay, so maybe there are some people, but I highly doubt she was one of them. Not if she has a decent guy like Killian still pining for her.

I lay my hand down on Adeline's chest. I don't sense a heart beating under my hand. “You sure she is actually alive?”

“Yes, your friend wasn't wrong about us sharing a connection. While she is in this state, my heart is beating for her.”

I think he has Gabe beat on the award for the lamest line. I have the touching part down, now I just need to find that special place inside of me. Just how am I supposed to find that when I am on a deadline? I start concentrating as hard as I can, searching for my elusive angel mojo.

“Feel,” Gabe says trying to be helpful. One of these days I am going to write a book on how to actually accomplish the task of being helpful and I will make sure everyone I come in contact with gets a copy.

All I am really feeling is a clammy lady with no heartbeat. I really think the lack of one is messing with me. “Come here, Killian. You said your heart beats for her, prove it.”

He moves closer so I can put my other hand on his chest. Sure enough, I feel the tempo I was missing. Not only that, but there is a second softer beat that accompanies it as they tap out their tale of love. It is about time I got in on the lame line action.

The puzzle before me starts unraveling and I can see this doesn't have to be any more complicated than me transferring energy from one to the other. I find it very similar to a mad scientist bringing a monster to life. I don't want to fry her brain or anything, so I take things as slow as I can with the threat of an evil Fae barging in at any second.

It only takes about thirty seconds for me to start feeling a beating under my right hand. I take that as a good sign and give one last little boost to hopefully propel the sleeping queen into consciousness.

“Killian,” I hear very faintly.

“I am here, my love. As always,” he replies and practically pushes me out of the way to get to her. I take it this angel business doesn't see a lot of gratitude.

“What has happened?” Queen Adeline says coming even more alert. I think the caffeine is starting to kick in. “Why are we in the guest's apartments?”

“I will explain everything fully later. First, you need to harness your power. Your sister will be here any second and her dark power may injure you. I don't think she will be able to put you back to sleep, but she is able to do other horrors,” Killian replies.

“My world. What has happened to it?” The queen isn't going to take things lying around anymore. She bolts up and closes her eyes.

“Killian, you were supposed to be working to kill her for good, but instead I find you waking her up. I should have known better than to let you walk around on your own. I believe that is going to need to be punished,” Sylvia’s voice says and I turn to see her standing in the doorway.

Time to see if Adeline can draw enough power to face off against her sister. After witnessing her looking dead just a couple of minutes ago, I am not looking forward to the outcome. Just to be on the safe side, I sidle over to Sebastian and slip the Panoptic knife into his hand.

“Use it if you need to,”
I instruct and prepare for the fireworks.

Chapter 11

Someone has a lot of explaining to do

“Sylvia, what are you doing here? Will someone please explain just what is going on? And who are all these other people?” I cannot blame the woman for having a lot of questions, but now really isn’t the time.