The Maebown

  “Maggie already knows this. The most important feature of being an Aetherfae is not the ability to create Aether but the ability to wrestle control of the elements away from adversaries. The older the Fae, the more connected they are to their elements. Katarina was particularly gifted.”

  “There are older Fae than Katarina. Not many, but a few,” Gavin said, more to himself than to Caorann.

  “Yes. A few.”

  “But Katarina died,” I said.

  “Yes, it will be dangerous,” Caorann acknowledged.

  “Dangerous? No, suicidal,” I challenged her. “And it’s not just Ozara.”

  Caorann’s silvery face relaxed into a pleasant look that completely belied the seriousness of the situation. “The risk is enormous.”

  When I considered what might happen, the faces of all the Ancient Fae I’d met filled my mind’s eye. “So many have already died,” I whispered.

  “Yes, we’ve killed some, Ozara has killed some, and if we don’t act soon, there will be none left who are powerful enough to wound her.”

  The BLT I’d eaten earlier began to churn in my stomach. “Okay, so I’m going after her—how do we do that?”

  “We use a double.”

  “A changeling? But Ozara frequently does an inventory of Fae here.”

  “Yes, Wakinyan told me. We won’t be using a Fae double.”

  “Human?”

  “Yes—“

  I cut her off. “But she knows everyone here—”

  “We’re not going to use anyone here.”

  I thought about it for a second and realized that it would be easy enough to alter someone’s appearance, but there were other problems. “And what if she comes looking for me specifically? When I project, I concentrate on a person.”

  Caorann’s face remained pleasant when she asked, “Who does she usually appear to target?”

  I sighed a little. “Wakinyan. She usually appears around Wakinyan first.”

  “Let’s hope she continues. We will compel your double to act like you, and to spend time sleeping—just like you do when you project. If she projects to you and discovers the deception, we’ll devise a different plan.”

  “Before she has time to figure out I’m gone and lay waste to the Weald?”

  “There are substantial risks for everyone, Maggie. There is no way to avoid it.”

  Caorann was being honest, and I knew I had to accept the risks if we had any chance of ending this. “The double, she’ll have to be exactly like me. Every detail—”

  “Don’t worry, Maggie,” Caorann said. “We’ll be thorough.”

  “The Ohanzee aren’t coming with us, are they?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “No. Not until we engage them. I’ll be back in two days to get you. Wakinyan and Gavin will make the switch—they’ll tell you when. Go with them when they ask, but be careful. Make certain Ozara is not watching and spend as little time away from the Weald as you can. The switch must take place without Ozara knowing—we’ll be relying on you to keep us informed.”

  It sounded like a good plan, but it made me nervous. Terrified, even.

  “It will be fine,” she said.

  “And if it is not?” Gavin asked.

  Caorann looked concerned when she turned to him. “Have you learned the Water element?”

  “No, I have not,” he said curtly, visibly angered by the suggestion that I might be dying soon. He did the same thing every time I asked him to finish my journals.

  “You must work on that, Gavin.”

  Gavin turned and stared into space, gritting his teeth.

  “My friend, you are upset because you think of this life as the sum of your existence—the best of times the two of you will have together—it is not,” Ádhamh said. It was the first time I’d heard his silky voice.

  Gavin nodded and squeezed my hand. “I trust what I see is real, and I trust what you say is true, but I’m not ready for this part of our time together to be over. I waited a hundred and forty-seven millennia to meet her.”

  Ádhamh’s laugh soothed my nerves—it sounded as real as if it had come from solid living flesh. “I remember you—you came to Caorann when I died. Of all the Fae, you refused to leave until the morning Caorann went into seclusion. Your compassion for her moved me, and as a kindred spirit, I can tell you that my time with Caorann during my life was magical, but it was no more amazing than what we share now. Wherever she goes, I can follow. We are never separated now. If her time in this world ends, then together we will explore the next.”

  Gavin seemed to relax—everything but his grip on my hand at least—but he didn’t say anything else. I pressed my fingers into the back of his wide hand and leaned against his shoulder until I felt him react and press back.

  The moon crossed overhead as our conversation drifted to other things. For a while I forgot the world was in chaos and ignored that I was in the company of two Fae, and a human spirit who’d taken his last breath two thousand years before I was born. For a few hours, I was just Maggie O’Shea and Gavin was the guy I loved more than anything.

  “We must leave,” Caorann said in a gentle voice. “Perhaps fate will allow us to meet here when the danger has passed—I would very much like to make this a regular part of my existence.”

  It was a pleasant thought, so I clung to it. Ádhamh said goodbye and disappeared. Caorann asked Gavin if we could have a few minutes.

  There was an awkward silence between Gavin and me, but he stood and walked into the darkness in the direction of the driveway.

  “Maggie, I know you don’t want to upset him, but I can tell there is something on your mind.”

  “Great, that means he knows, too.”

  She smiled and took physical form. “Likely.”

  “I can create Aether when I project.”

  Caorann’s mouth went slack.

  “Well, that’s the third time in my life I shocked a Fae to silence.”

  “That’s terrifying…amazing, but terrifying. Who knows?”

  “Only Billy knows for sure—he told me to keep it from everyone.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “That’s very good advice.”

  “Tse-xo-be and Bastien might know. They were there when it happened by accident the second time.”

  “I see,” she whispered. “You said second time?”

  “Yes, it first happened as I was entering my body, just before I stopped projecting, back when I discovered the Alliance had sent assassins to Ireland. Everyone in the room seemed to think I just had my eyes closed.”

  “Can you control it?”

  “No, that’s the problem. When I try to control it, my connection disappears. When I am in danger, or someone I care about is in danger, it just happens. I took out three Alliance Fae who were attacking Billy.”

  Caorann seemed giddy and anxious. “We will work on this gift when I come for you. Do you realize, if you can hone that skill, learn to control it, you could end the conflict?”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  INVINCIBLE

  Dawn crept toward the Weald while I slept. Just after daybreak, when the sky lightened from deep cobalt to violet, Gavin tightened his arm around me the moment I opened my eyes. “Are you talking this morning?” I asked him.

  “It wasn’t me who stopped talking last night,” he grumbled.

  “I’m sorry—I needed to see her alone.”

  “Hashing out another hair-brained plain to get yourself killed?”

  “And here I thought today would be a good day.”

  “If you make it to sundown, it’ll be a good day,” he rumbled.

  I rolled onto my side and looked him in the face. He propped his head up on his knuckles, smoldering brown eyes piercing me.

  “You know I have no choice? Right?”

  “I know you think you have no choice.”

  I huffed. “Well, when you find another alternative, be sure to let me know.”

  His eyes glassed over and his face reddened as a wave o
f heat filled the bed. He was angry and I felt pangs of guilt.

  “Okay, I’m sorry,” I said, hoping his face might soften. It didn’t. “I’m only doing what I think is best.” The lid I’d been keeping on my emotions jarred open, and I felt my throat tighten. “I’m so confused, Gavin. The world is spinning out of control around us and this seems like a good plan.”

  He winced, grinding his teeth, and growled. “I hate the plotting. We’re doing it hoping to outsmart the Alliance, but they’re a step ahead—don’t you see that? Regardless of what we concoct, they’ve had centuries to consider it and create a contingency.”

  “They might not have a plan for everything—”

  “No,” he barked. “That’s just it. They do. The only thing Ozara may not have contemplated is how powerful you’ve become, and I’m not even comfortable making that assumption.”

  It was hard to breathe. Tears had begun to pour over my lower lids as despair seeped to the surface. I wiped the bed linens across my face. “Crap.”

  The lines across his forehead disappeared as he relaxed. “Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m so stressed,” I moaned.

  “I know. So am I,” he whispered.

  “Really? Stress? You?”

  He chuckled. “Yes. Even me.”

  “What am I supposed to do, Gavin? I don’t know. Beyond Caorann’s plan, I don’t have anything.”

  A long sigh escaped from his chest. “You follow her plan…I don’t have any alternatives.”

  “You’ll support me?”

  “I will, but I don’t have to like it, do I?” he said.

  “I hate it when we argue.”

  A devilish grin twisted his full lips. “It’s hardly an argument when it’s completely one-sided.”

  I laughed, and sniffed loudly. “Well, I’ll go a little easier next time, just to make it fair.”

  Gavin rolled back into the pillow and laughed. He intertwined his fingers behind his head and I slid over, putting my right ear in the valley between his pecs. The warmth of his skin had me pressing my cheek into his muscles. As he breathed in and out, I ran my finger over his full lips. “I’d like to lay here all day.”

  He smiled, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “I’d like that, too.” He shifted his eyes to mine. “When this is over.”

  “Yeah, when this is over.” I tried to sound sincere but it came out sounding skeptical.

  He closed his eyes, and wrapped his arms around my waist, sliding me up his body until my face was next to his. “I’d do anything to keep you safe,” he whispered.

  “That’s mutual,” I said.

  A deep chuckle resonated in his throat. “I keep forgetting you’re a Maebown.”

  “I wish I could forget, sometimes.”

  “Do you really?” he asked with a puzzled look.

  I pressed my forehead into the flesh of his neck, just above where the muscles angled into his shoulders. “Of course I do. Who wouldn’t want to spend the rest her life in your arms. Why would you ask that?”

  “For no reason other than to hear you say it. To hear your voice. The cute smile you get on your face—the one you try to hide—is ambrosia to me.”

  “Oh, god, you like that smile?” I felt my face blush.

  He spun me onto my back and pressed his body on mine, pinning both of my hands to the pillow above my head. My heart went into spasms as every nerve ending in my body came to life. With his nose just millimeters from mine, he said, “I like your everything.”

  “We should argue more often,” I whispered.

  * * *

  “They are trying to draw us into the open—divide us into small groups to make us vulnerable,” Aphrodite said to the gathered Fae.

  “Is it that bad?” Wakinyan asked.

  “Is what that bad?” I interrupted when I reached the bottom of the stairs.

  Aphrodite’s crystalline blue eyes shifted to me. “The virus—the Alliance engineered it to survive in the open air, through extreme heat, extreme cold, and with no moisture.”

  “So it is Fae…” I muttered. I knew the answer before she said it, but the confirmation angered me nonetheless.

  Aphrodite nodded. “It is engineered—no doubt. Like other viruses, it exists within cells, inserting itself into the host cell’s genetic material, forcing the host to reproduce the viral material. This one is particularly frightening because of how quickly it hijacks the host—and the types of cells it can manipulate. Humans contract it through any contact—through the skin, breathing, or by swallowing. It uses any number of carriers to spread from victim to victim, including microorganisms. We estimate that a quarter of the world’s population will be infected in two weeks. In two months, ninety percent.”

  “Then they’ve won?” I asked, stunned.

  “No, they have not,” she said in a reassuring whisper.

  “But they have set a trap,” Wakinyan added in a less reassuring tone.

  “The virus can be neutralized, and those infected can be treated—if we can get to them soon enough—but it will require direct intervention. This is beyond human science—your species has never seen anything like it. Animals and insects have contracted it, but are not affected.” She shifted her gaze from Wakinyan to me. “Your scientists are baffled—it even absorbs into the genetic material of plants and remains there until it is consumed. Processing, cooking, and normal food preparation does not destroy it. In effect, the Alliance is making the entire world poisonous to your species, and your species alone.”

  “Is there no way to reverse it?” I asked.

  “Reverse? No. However, if we were not at war and so badly outnumbered, we could neutralize the virus in a day. The Fae who created it knew your kind would be powerless to stop it—they expect us to intervene. The Alliance knows that if we do so, to be effective, we will have divide into small bands to cover as much ground as possible. Given the current situation, we can probably stop this one in a week’s time—twenty or thirty thousand casualties.”

  The words, this one, rang in my mind.

  “Even that is optimistic,” Wakinyan said. “Not everyone in the Coalition will agree to help, and many will not want to help. The enemy may be predicting that collectively we will do nothing.”

  Zeus said what I was thinking. “And what is to stop the Alliance from unleashing another virus or something worse next week.”

  “That is true,” Wakinyan said. “If I am being conservative, we can expect to lose fifteen or twenty percent of our numbers stopping this threat. If we don’t move soon, those numbers will go up as it will take us longer to contain it, increasing our exposure. Each new event will have the same impact. In a month, if we simply react to each threat and fail to eliminate the Alliance, they will decimate our numbers to the point that we will be unable to stop them.”

  “Is there no way to combat it with a counter-virus?” Gavin asked.

  Aphrodite shook her head. “One of the humans at the CDC is considering that option—I compelled her to focus her work on a particularly promising virophage, but there is no time and she’s in Atlanta—the facility is heavily damaged. Given a week or more, I could create one, I’m sure.”

  “That long?” Gavin asked.

  “Yes. Creating a virus that only attacks the target virus, and one that has no side effects on the host cells, is infinitely more complicated than what the Alliance has done. We do not have enough time. The good news is that for us, at least, it is quite simple to render the virus harmless in the host cells and then restore the damaged material. Any Fae who has learned to heal can accomplish that in a few seconds. The problem is that four or five thousand people are becoming infected every hour, and that number is growing exponentially.”

  “Do we know where the Alliance is massed?” Zeus asked, turning to me.

  “Give me a few minutes,” I said.

  * * *

  Candace, Sean, Ronnie, and I sat in the basement, not saying much, as CNN updated us on everything that was going wrong
. The media reported on the War, the spread of the Green Death, as they were calling it, and the natural disasters. If that wasn’t enough, there were reports of hysteria, mass suicides, and pockets of violence all over the world.

  “Why are people so stupid,” Candace whispered to herself.

  “They’re terrified. We know what’s going on—they don’t. For the average person, this looks like all the biblical plagues happening at one time,” Sean said.

  “Just imagine what would happen if they learned the truth,” Ronnie said.

  Candace, Sean, and I nodded in unison.

  “What time is it?” Candace asked.

  “Five minutes ‘til noon. Five minutes later than the last time you asked,” Ronnie said.

  Candace nodded, her eyes closed. “Sorry. I can’t help myself.”

  “It’s okay, we’re all nervous,” I said.

  Sean pulled Candace closer, and she plunked her head into the crook between his shoulder and chin. Ronnie squeezed my hand. “He’ll be fine,” he said.

  “I know. I won’t let him out of my sight.”

  The screen changed to a scene from the war in Russia. The images flashed before us, constantly changing the light levels in the dark basement. Like a strobe light, it made the four of us appear to move in slow motion. China, according to the correspondent, had made gains against Russian troops for the second day in a row.

  “Who knew the Chinese would side with us,” Ronnie said, as the correspondent talked about intense fighting.

  “Gavin, Wakinyan, and Zeus,” I responded. “The Russian clans sided with the Alliance—they tried to compel the Chinese government. Big no-no. I’m sure Her-Lang is furious—this looks like payback.”

  “It’s horrible,” Candace said.

  Sean nodded. “But it would have been much worse if the Chinese had joined the Russians.”

  I glanced at my watch. “It’s noon.”

  Ronnie killed the television and they grew quiet. It was time for me to project—to follow the Ohanzee and the Olympians into the real war zone, the one the human race was oblivious to. “If anything at all happens, you shake me until I wake up. Promise?”