Maléna was the first to speak. “Hello, council members. We bring you greetings from the Dark Fae community.”
Dardennes spoke for all of us. “Thank you. And we bring you greetings from the Light Fae community.”
Everyone turned to Chase, anxious to get down to business and probably worried this was some sort of underhanded trick planned by the other side. I stole glances at Ben and saw that he was looking at me and my cloak. I turned back to Chase, not happy that Ben had caught me checking him out. I had to admit, his cloak was impressive. It fit him and his elements perfectly. I wondered if he’d always been on the council or if his was a recent appointment like mine was. I thought I remembered Becky telling me he wasn’t on it.
“Thank you for coming,” said Chase. “I wish it was under better circumstances.” He paused for a moment and then said in an almost majestic voice, “I bring you greetings from the Overworld.”
The muttering began almost immediately. I could tell it was a mixture of surprise and doubt, if I was reading facial expressions correctly.
“Who are you, to be representing another realm?” asked one of the Dark Fae – a witch by the looks of his tunic.
“I am known here as Chase. In the Overworld I go by the same name. I am an angel of the Second Order, Silver House. I have been sent to assist the fae in sealing their realm against invasion from the Otherworlds.”
“What invasion? You’re the only invader who’s proclaimed himself,” said one of the Dark Fae.
“Not true. You may confer with Ben. He has seen the demon, Torrie.”
Eyes on the Dark Fae council turned to Ben; and oh boy, was I glad I had already fessed up about Chase and the demon to my group. A few of the Light Fae council members stole glances at me, giving me looks that said I had chosen well. I breathed a sigh of relief over the fact that I hadn’t done something wrong by Chase in sharing his secrets.
“It’s true,” said Ben. “Jayne and I sent a demon back to the Underworld when we were recently in Florida together. But I believe he will be back.”
It was interesting to me that he hadn’t already informed them about the demon. But the fact that he didn’t elaborate now, and tell them about my near-miss demon baby impregnation, was even more intriguing. I couldn’t decide if he was just sticking to the relevant facts, or actually trying to protect me. I was disturbed that my brain was leaning towards the latter choice. I was way more comfortable with Ben being on the bad guy list than the hero list.
“How are these demons getting in?” asked Red. “And the orcs? Are they coming from the same place? Or do we have to shore up several breaches?”
Tony and the other gray elves would have been proud of old Red. He was asking all the right questions as far as I was concerned.
“That is for you to discover. I am not privy to all of the facts. I only know that without working together, you will fail; and failure cannot be an option. Not only will you all find your entire species at risk, you will also see how quickly the humans fall.”
“We need the humans,” said a green elf on the Dark Fae side. “But how are we supposed to protect them and ourselves at the same time? We don’t have the numbers for that.”
“Together, Light and Dark fae have everything they need,” said Chase. “Apart, they do not.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Maléna, turning to face him with anger in her eyes. “You are connected to their elemental. This is just an elaborate ruse to force the Light Fae agenda on our people!”
“You’re the one forcing agendas!” I yelled, unable to control myself. “And kidnapping fae! And torturing them!”
She turned her anger on me, whipping around and breathing heavily. “You!” she screamed, “have no right to be here, changeling!” The wind rose up suddenly, swirling fallen leaves and dried blades of grass around.
Several fae on both sides backed up, dread in their eyes. I could see that even her own people feared her. Or maybe it was just her tantrums they didn’t like.
I pulled The Green into me more fully, drawing Water from the nearby air. The colors of my cloak began to swirl in earnest, turquoise sparkles rising to surround me.
Off to Maléna’s left was Ben, his cloak coming alive as well. He wasn’t looking at me though, he was looking at her.
Maléna raised her arms up slowly, getting ready to launch some sort of assault against me when Chase’s angry voice slammed into all of us, dispelling the negative emotions that had begun to build.
“ENOUGH!”
And then the most amazing apparition appeared where Chase was standing, and I dropped my connection to Earth and Water like they were a couple of hot potatoes. I was suddenly in the presence of a beauty so great, and so unimaginable, I became partially detached from reality. I felt like I was floating in a never place, a space in this dimension that didn’t really exist.
Chase stood in front of us, a foot taller, with a huge set of white wings spread out behind his back. They were so big, and stretched so far, they seemed almost as majestic and imposing as the tree he stood beneath.
Gasps of surprise and awe burst forth from everyone there, me included. The pictures I’d seen of angels and descriptions I’d read of them in books didn’t do this miracle I was looking at one bit of justice. They hadn’t even come close. I almost cried with the simple beauty of it. It was in this moment that I began to believe it was possible Chase would not be staying in the Here and Now with me when this was all over. He was simply too miraculous for this world.
Nobody said a word. Chase stayed frozen in place, displeasure clearly displayed on his face for nearly ten seconds at least, before he carefully drew in his wings to rest behind him. I could hear the feathers brushing up against one another, some of them making flipping noises, belying their sturdiness. His wings didn’t disappear completely, but they seemed a lot less intimidating when they were all folded up. Now, at least, we could all breathe.
I looked around and saw that everyone but me seemed okay again – not ready to start world war three. Maybe they were all jazzed about seeing a real, live angel – but all I could think about now was how I was going to have one hell of a time figuring out a way to convince anyone he should be permitted to stay. Even I could see with this brief display of otherworldliness that he didn’t belong here. He was something or someone so different from any of us – why would he even want to stay? A dark melancholy settled itself across my shoulders. I looked at the ground, hoping that denying myself his beauty would make it easier not to cry.
“Do not argue anymore in my presence. It defeats your purposes here and you do not have the luxury of time to indulge in your petty jealousies.”
When did Chase get so damn intelligent and old-sounding? I looked up at him again and saw the most serious look on his face I’d ever seen there. I started to feel like I had fallen in love or lust, or whatever it was, with my father for shit’s sake. This thing, this crush I had on the coolest guy in the world ... no angel, was going to hell in a hand basket, as my grandma used to say.
“I believe we can agree to work with the Dark Fae towards this common goal and put aside our differences for as long as it takes,” said Dardennes.
“So can we,” said Ben.
Chase responded, his voice stern and deep. “It will not be enough that you merely agree to work together. You need tighter bonds than simple agreements and well-intentioned promises. Your families have been apart for too long. It is time to end this feud between your races and live as one again.”
We all looked at each other. I leaned in towards the werewolf-man standing next to me and whispered, “What’s he getting at?”
He shrugged back at me, just as lost as I was.
“You must officially unite your houses. Light to Dark and Dark to Light. It shall begin with the Mother and the Father. Jayne and Ben! Step forward!”
Chapter 33
My eyeballs nearly fell out of my skull. Everyone’s head turned two times – once towards Ben and then
once again towards me.
I took two faltering steps backwards towards the path. “What the fuck are you talking about, Chase?” I felt like I’d landed in an episode of one of those bizarre black and white Twilight Zone episodes that were on the sci-fi channel at weird hours of the night.
“Chase ... ” said Ben, confused, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Looking at Ben’s expression, I could tell he wasn’t in on this; he was as in the dark and clueless as I was. It made me feel a tiny bit better, but that small measure of joy disappeared when Chase began talking again.
“The only way the fae will continue in the Here and Now without becoming extinct is by moving to Oneness again. What was done five thousand years ago to drive you apart must be undone to bring you together. The Mother and the Father will unite to bring the magic back to your people; to connect you once more to the power that is in the elements when they exist as one whole, working in synchronicity.”
Chase paused, looking at me and then at Ben. His wings unfolded again, slowly, ever so slowly, until they were fully extended – so radiant and white they appeared to glow. “Jayne and Ben, step forward and be bound.”
I took one more look at the impossibly beautiful Chase, who was breaking my heart by telling me, in front of the twenty most influential fae on Earth, that he didn’t want me.
I saw all the fae standing around and acting like it was acceptable for me to follow the orders of a possibly crazed angel.
I looked over at Ben, standing there looking like a little boy who’d just had his favorite toy taken away.
And I ran.
Chapter 34
I ran as fast as my feet would take me. For a moment, I could feel it; I knew what it was like, finally, to run like Spike and the twins. I was practically teleporting like Becky. I was racing in the wind like a mindseye arrow shot by my friend Finn. I could do all these magical things now ... but I couldn’t muster the loyalty and steadfastness of Tony and Scrum, to sacrifice everything I knew, everything I was, for these fae. I just couldn’t.
I ran blindly, not knowing where I was headed or when I would get there. But I realized I had arrived at my destination when I found myself, out of breath, at the base of the tree called the Ancient One. I was standing in front of the door to Maggie’s place. Maggie ... the witch who I’d locked inside her house not that long ago, to escape another mess I’d gotten myself into. Oh, how I wished this current predicament were of the same caliber. But oh, no. This one was so much bigger, it was almost funny. I would have laughed if my heart hadn’t been so thoroughly broken.
“Who’s there!” came Maggie’s cranky, scratchy voice from inside. “Who’s standing outside my door, breathing like a warthog in heat?!”
“It’s me,” I said, sinking down to the ground. “Jayne. Please come out and zap me with everything you’ve got. Put me out of my misery.”
I fell backwards to the forest floor, opening my eyes to look up at the canopy of trees above me. It was dominated by the branches and leaves of the Ancient One – the biggest tree I’d ever seen in my life ... the tree I’d communed with once, and then forever after had sensed the presence and power of in my link with The Green. I could feel it now, its energy humming below the surface of the earth I lay on; and I knew it could feel me too.
The door opened slowly, creaking loudly as it went. Maggie’s grizzled face appeared along with her mess of sparse, scraggly, gray hair. She had one of her rats in her hand. It was huge and dirty-looking.
“You. Girl. You locked me in my house.”
“Yeah. I know.” I sighed. “I’m sorry about that. I was just trying to give my friends time to get away so you wouldn’t turn them into toads.”
“Truth! Partially the truth, anyway.”
Maggie’s lie detecting talents were working, apparently.
“Okay, I also did it just to piss you off.”
“There we have it. The entire truth. Good for you.”
I turned my head towards her, my hair rubbing in the dead leaves beneath. “You’re not mad?”
She shrugged, coming more fully out of her house. “Not anymore.”
“Well, feel free to get mad at me now. Maybe you want to cast a spell on me. Make me like Sleeping Beauty or something so I can sleep for the next hundred years and skip this part.”
“What? And let you miss all the fun? Ha!” she barked out.
I snorted in half-anger and half-sadness. “Fun? You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me. I don’t call an arranged ... binding ... fun. No. No way. I call it ... positively medieval.”
Maggie came over, slowly and painfully bending down until she had lowered herself into a sitting position next to me. After she had arranged herself and caught her breath, she said, “You have been called.”
I looked at her with a frown. I didn’t know if we were talking about the same thing.
She repeated, “You have been called to a binding ceremony, yes?”
“Oh. Yeah. Yes, I’ve been called. I guess.” I looked back up at the tree above me, trying to find some solace there, staring into the complex patterns of leaves overlapping other leaves with little pricks of sunshine peaking between them.
“And what is the problem?”
I turned my head to face her. “Are you seriously asking me that? ... What is the problem?”
She shrugged but said nothing.
I got mad at them all over again. And her for acting like it was totally reasonable when it wasn’t. “I’ll tell you what the problem is. The problem is, I am not interested in being bound to anyone, but most particularly to Ben. Ben is a bad guy. Ben is a bad person. Ben is the last fae on this friggin planet that I would choose to be bound to. I’d rather be bound to a buggane for shit’s sake.”
Maggie held up a finger, waving it slowly back and forth at me. “Ah, ah, ahhhh, be careful what you say. I have a very wicked sense of humor, or so I’ve been told.” She smiled at me and I swear to all that is holy I saw something flicker at me in there that did not look good at all. She leaned in closer to me and whispered softly, “Liiiiie ... ”
I swallowed hard, and looked back at the sky, my face now a few shades paler. “Okay fine. I wouldn’t rather be with a buggane. But it’s true I don’t want to be with Ben.”
“We do not always choose our destinies. Or if we do, we forget our choices made before coming to this realm and must realize the rightness of them later – after the pain has been suffered.”
“That means nothing to me, Maggie. I started this life as a human. My destiny was either to become the lawyer my dad wanted or the homeless person my parents feared I would be come. Or maybe prostitute or something. I don’t know. But being a fae was never part of the original plan. I’m flying by the seat of my pants here.”
“No. You are incorrect!” she shouted, a couple specks of spittle flying out of her mouth.
I jumped in fright, not expecting such a strong reaction. I slowly sat up, pulling leaves and twigs from my hair without even really thinking about it.
“Maggie ... why do you think you know so much about me? And why aren’t you zapping me right now when I know I deserve it for messing around with you before?”
She smiled at me, showing off her few remaining rotted teeth, cocking her head to the side so she could see me better out of her one good and unclouded eye. “Because. It would not do, for me to zap my own granddaughter, now would it?”
My world started to spin and go black around the edges. I fell back into the leaves again, fighting the waves of dizziness and then nausea that threatened to overtake me. I gag-coughed a few times, trying to get my breathing back on track and my heart back to a normal rhythm. Gasping for air, I said, “Holy shit, Maggie, for a second there I thought you said I was your granddaughter.” I looked over with my watering eyes, in time to see her shrug her shoulders.
“I can see you are happy about the prospects. Good. I am too. You are a noble girl, if a bit rough around the edges.”
> “Me? Rough around the edges? If that’s not the pot calling the kettle black ... ” I sighed at the utter ridiculousness of it all, “Anyway, Maggie, I appreciate your sick sense of humor, believe me, I do. But you’re like a thousand years old or probably more. There’s no way you could be my grandmother.”
“There are some generations between us, to be sure. But you are of my line, there is no doubt about that. You and another young lady you know, quite well I think. You wield The Dark of Blackthorn, just as my other granddaughters did before you, just as yours will after you are gone. It is your destiny.”
“What? What girl? Becky?”
Maggie said nothing; she just stared at me, shaking her head no.
I sat up slowly and looked down at the dragon tooth that was in the sheath on my leg, under my now very wrinkled and messy cloak. I threw the edge of the turquoise cloth aside so I could pull the weapon out. I ran my fingers along the edge of it, still feeling the thrill of knowing it was a powerful relic from a long-ago place and time. I slid it back into its holder and returned my attention to the haggie old crone in front of me.
“If it’s not Becky, then I have no idea who you’re talking about. She’s the only girl around here I know. Other than the twins and Céline ... or Celeste ... ”
She shook her head again.
“There is no one else.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“So what does all this mean, Grandma?”
“It’s Maggie! Do not call me that. It makes me feel old.”
I coughed really loud and long to camouflage the laugh that burst out of me.
Maggie narrowed her eyes at me. “Speak.”
“Okay fine,” I said, my eyes sparkling with barely contained mirth, “I hate to be the one to break this to you – but Maggie, you’re old as dirt. And not much prettier.” I bit my lower lip and raised my eyebrows up, wondering if I’d been successful in pissing her off enough to earn a spell that would send me to la-la land.