The Maebown

  “I didn’t sense you—I thought you…” my voice cracked and I couldn’t continue.

  “I was behind Clóca.” He grinned. “I can do that now. But what did you think?”

  “You know…Chalen.”

  He grinned like I’d said something asinine. “No, not at all.”

  “Gavin, you could barely look at me—and for the record, I don’t blame you.”

  Tears welled up in his eyes and spilled over the thick lashes. “I hate what this is doing to you. It kills me to see you in pain. Maggie, I love you. That hasn’t changed. I don’t blame you for what you did—I was connected to your mind—I felt the torment. I still see the person I fell in love with—that person is standing in front of me. That’s why I learned Aether. You’re worth saving.”

  “Tse-xo-be is coming,” I whispered.

  “You know what you’ve got to do, right?”

  “Yes. Kill Zarkus first. And if I can, kill Ozara.”

  THIRTY-FIVE

  OFFENSIVE

  Bent on sending as many of them to hell as I could manage, I cleared my head and projected. Through the void, I had one thought. Zarkus. I found him in the desert stronghold. The Alliance Elders were gathered, but the vast majority of the Alliance was spread out over a large area. They were expecting an attack. They were going to get one, just not the one they planned for. I willed myself to Zarkus, trying to keep my thoughts hidden. My connection to Aether was tenuous in this state, so I had to be careful. I knew I would only get one shot.

  If my allies didn’t show up at the Weald en masse, I would be signing my death warrant. A big part of me didn’t care—Gavin knew Aether. We’d find a way to be together regardless of what happened. What I did care about was my family, and for them, I couldn’t afford to miss. As I inched closer to Zarkus, I felt Ozara. Kill Zarkus. Leave Ozara for later. Willing myself a foot from them, I had second thoughts. She was oblivious to my presence. I wondered whether I could end the war before it really got going. No, focus on Zarkus. My internal torment lasted only a few seconds. I imagined my father being in danger—Ozara’s hand wrapped around his neck. Aether arched into the middle of her back, piercing her spine and nearly making it to her chest. The Elders engaged in a collective gasp.

  She blocked the Aether from severing her body, but she was down, gasping, wide eyes, staring up at Zarkus. He was next. Aether formed around his neck like a glowing garrote, which I tried to synch shut. Ozara saved him, and lashed out blindly trying to find me.

  We struggled over Zarkus, but in flesh, even wounded, she was more powerful. She wrestled control from me and spared his miserable life. I’d missed the window. She lashed out again, Aether spinning off her hands.

  She thinks I’m here—she thinks I’m cloaked. Fine. Let’s play hide and go seek.

  “Missed me,” I projected from behind her.

  I moved a hundred yards away and took out a Pyksie hiding behind Clóca. Ozara blasted the area with Aether and then set a fine mist of energy out in all directions, like she was watering a lawn. She’s searching for me.

  Two feet from her, and just inside her Aether barrier, I attacked her again, severing an ear before she reacted. Crap, she just reacts too fast. And she learned. Her Aether shield shrank to the contours of her body. She and Zarkus wrapped the elders nearest them in a protective shield. She left many others in the open. I compelled myself into a group of Jinn just outside the barrier. My Aether wasn't strong enough to kill Ozara, but it was more than a match for the Jinn. Each time I imagined one of them hurting my father, Aether exploded in their bodies. I eliminated five before Ozara reacted, spreading her Aether to protect her fold.

  On the opposite side of the Alliance Elders, two Duende made a dash for the Seoladán. They weren’t fast enough. Their flashes backed up several others who were following them. One changed to Naeshura. I dispatched her with more ease than the Fae in physical form. One attempting to escape across the desert was next. Those following him stopped in their tracks. Some tried to go to ground, some tried to cloak. It didn’t matter. I wanted them. I had them. Only those behind Aether were safe.

  My gut told me not to go on a mindless killing spree. So I left the members of the minor clans alone to escape. Hundreds did. I decided to focus on Duende, Jinn, Seelie, Unseelie, and Pyksies. After killing enough of them to make a point, I thought I’d try to reason with the clans that remained—the Sombra Fantasma, the Ometeo, and all the others who’d been conscripted by force. I recognized two Unseelie who’d attacked me on the island when I faced Chalen. Zarkus and Ozara fought to prevent them from dying, but when they moved to help, I had completed the task and moved on. I expected to feel remorse, but my mind made me focus on the lives of the millions of humans they’d killed in the last three months. I had no pity for them.

  Ozara’s voice rumbled across the valley. “Come to us, she is projecting, but you will be safe with me.”

  “Go to Ozara, and I will cut you down. Stay where you are,” I projected.

  Ozara fumed when I blasted a Jinn who didn’t listen to me.

  “Ignore Ozara—she will get you killed. If you stay still, I will not harm you—and it’s not like you have a choice.”

  Ozara’s face nearly matched the hue of her fiery red hair. Yep, she’s pissed. She’ll definitely be coming after me.

  I recognized Ix-Chel, the bronze Ometeo who I’d found with Pele. I caught her in the open, several hundred yards away from Ozara and the Elders. “Ix-Chel, please listen to me.”

  She twisted, tears welling up in her eyes. She was petrified. Several Ometeo around her cowered away.

  “I know your clan was forced to fight for Ozara—I saw what she did to them. Please believe me—I regret that I wasn’t strong enough to stop her then. Your loyalty to her is admirable, but it is misplaced. I’m hoping you’re as rational as I believe you to be. Ozara is your enemy, not me. Do no harm to my allies, and when this is over, I will see to it your clan’s lands are restored. Harm another human and I will hunt every one of you down. Do you understand me?”

  With her mind, she wrote yes in the dirt in front of her. But she screeched, “You are the one killing today, Maebown. You have no business with this power—none of us are safe so long as you’re alive.”

  Ozara flashed a smile. Ix-Chel had to put up a front to save herself and her clan. I would have suggested she take them far away while I had Ozara pinned down, but I knew Ozara could find her. I didn’t know whether my ploy would work on the Ometeo, or any of the other clans, but if there was a chance that I helped to level the field, it was worth the time to try.

  When it was clear the Ometeo wouldn’t leave, I decided to make it more difficult for any of them to attack the Weald. I hovered over the Seoladán and used Aether to destroy it.

  “If you come after me, you’ll have to do it the slow way—exposed. And I’ll be watching, picking off as many of you as I can. There is no need to die. There are more than a thousand of you I could eliminate this instant. I don’t want to, and I won’t, so long as you leave the Alliance. I’m not the fiend your leaders make me out to be, and ask yourselves—why do Ozara and Zarkus keep sending your friends to die in the Weald while they hide here in the desert? The answer is clear…They are afraid of me.”

  “You pose no danger to me,” Ozara spat. “You are nothing but a nuisance. One that, until now, I didn’t realize I needed to eliminate. You wanted my attention, she-chimp, you have it.”

  “I was hoping you’d feel that way. Wait if you want, I couldn’t kill you today—but I’ve only known how to use Aether for two weeks. Give me two more, I beg you.”

  “You will beg for your life, your brother’s, and the life of the mongrel-bitch who shit you into blankets.”

  I projected laughter and then went silent.

  “Maggie O’Shea, I’m not through talking to you,” she said.

  I didn’t say a word. Instead I concentrated on calming myself completely.

  An Ometeo took a step and fro
ze. They all watched. I did nothing. One of them turned to Ozara. “Is she gone?”

  Ozara didn’t blush, but when all faces turned to hear her answer, I could almost feel the discomfort.

  “Maggie, I’ll burn your infant brother alive while he’s still in your mother’s womb.”

  Good lord, she’s trying to bait me. Fat chance, cow.

  “And I’ll let Chalen skin your grandparents alive—he’ll enjoy that, I think.”

  Her words were hollow, and it was all I could do not to tell her that Chalen wouldn’t be skinning potatoes, let alone my grandparents. She still refused to answer the question about whether I was gone. She didn’t know. She dropped the Aether around herself and took a few steps, leaving it in place around the others. She looked confident, but sent energy spilling across the area, attempting to locate me. I knew I couldn’t kill her, so I suppressed the temptation.

  Daji, a Hulijing elder, started to take a step. Ozara opened the Aether barrier that encased him. I nearly met the mark with my attack, causing each one of them to flinch when Aether sizzled against Aether.

  “I’m sorry, but I didn’t give you permission to leave.”

  Ozara glared, so I rewarded her with a face full of Aether. Safely behind her shield, the seared skin on her face healed and she vibrated with anger.

  Frozen in place for an hour, they tried again. Although, this time, Daji refused to play guinea pig. Ozara opened a gap and Bortus, a greasy brunette Pyskie, took a tentative step before jumping back. I did nothing. He inched forward two steps, and froze. Half a minute later he took two more, separating himself from Ozara’s Aether barrier by several feet. His bugged, dull eyes shifted nervously from side to side.

  “She’s gone,” he said with the next step.

  I dissolved his head in an instant. He flashed out before Ozara could react.

  “Nope, still here.”

  Ozara roared, “Maggie!” at the top of her lungs. “I will kill you.”

  “No you won’t, you dumb bitch, I’m right here and you can’t do anything to me.”

  “You will beg for death,” she bellowed, spittle stringing from her quivering lips.

  Before the echo died, I slipped back to my body. We needed to get ready for what was coming.

  THIRTY-SIX

  RETALIATION

  “So it has started?” Sara said, when I opened my eyes.

  “Yes,” Billy said, reading my face. “What happened?”

  He didn’t have to say Zarkus. I knew they were all waiting to see whether our plan had worked. My mouth went dry and sweat beaded in the small of my back. “I missed. They’re just too strong when I’m projecting.”

  A lie, for sure, but I didn’t feel like explaining myself. I’d been a few inches from ending the conflict. Had I been faster, had my Aether cut deeper, Ozara would have been little more than a bad memory. You’re rationalizing, dumb ass. You could have killed Zarkus and evened the playing field. I swallowed and fought the urge to draw a deep breath. Without it, my hands shook. They noticed.

  Billy managed a disappointed “Oh.” Wakinyan, Gavin, and Sara matched Billy’s tone with worried expressions. I didn’t bother looking at the humans in the room.

  “It is done. We must prepare.” Wakinyan’s voice reverberated through the room with the intensity of war drum. “Amadahy?” he said.

  “Yes?”

  “Are you prepared.”

  “I am.”

  “Prepared for what?” I asked softly.

  Wakinyan flexed his arms as he crossed them over his chest. “Subterfuge.”

  Before I could ask what that meant, Amadahy drifted through the window as an eagle, alighting on the corner of my dresser. When she cast Clóca around us, I grew confused. She side-stepped to the edge and transfigured herself into me. My hair, my eyes, my body, even my denim pants and cardinal t-shirt. It stunned me. To my knowledge, she’d never taken a human form before—ever.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, imitating me.

  “I didn’t realize I looked so weak and tired.”

  She gave me a knowing smile. “Cloak yourself, Maggie,” she said in my voice. “And close your mouth. We need Ozara to be focused on someone other than you.”

  “She’ll kill you,” I said in an emotional wheeze.

  “No, not as long as Billy’s Aether works.”

  I stared at my facsimile and didn’t say a word. I was planning to tell the Ohanzee who’d I’d picked as Aetherfae, but only later. Nothing stays a secret in the Weald. I cloaked.

  “What is the plan?” I asked.

  “For you to stop talking,” Billy said. “We’re going to do our best to set a trap. Gavin will join Tse-xo-be and your parents and do his best to stay out of sight until Ozara discovers their location—we’ve done our best to hide them all on the second island. Sara and Poseidon will stay at the original Seoladán, keeping it cloaked and waiting for reinforcements. Amadahy and the rest of us will take up a position on the second island atop the outcropping on the western edge, shielded under my Aether. We hope to draw Ozara and Zarkus there—We’re hoping that underneath Aether, they’ll be fooled by the ruse just long enough for you to eliminate one or both of them.

  “Okay,” I said

  Billy cleared his throat. “You will lie in wait—free to surprise them as you see fit. Maggie, regardless of what happens, make it count. We only get one shot at this.”

  “It’ll be easier if you could spare one more Fae—one that could keep me cloaked so that I could pick them off as they travel here.”

  “There are no more to spare—Ozara doesn’t know about Tse-xo-be, so she won’t miss him. She would expect Gavin and Sara to be protecting your family. She may be curious about Poseidon’s absence, but she will expect the rest of us to be here. Drevek will take an animal form and stand with the Ohanzee elders. So while my Aether is in place, we hope, Ozara will not notice the ruse.”

  As he explained it, I realized he was right. Ozara knew exactly how many were here, and she would not draw close enough until she believed it was safe.

  “I’ll do it,” Sean said.

  Billy said, “You don’t know how to create Clóca, or an energy field for that matter. It won’t work.”

  “You can compel me to learn,” he said.

  Candace frowned and her face seemed to grow several shades darker.

  “We do not have the time—” Wakinyan started.

  “It wouldn’t take long,” Billy interrupted. “I can teach him, but I think that is a huge risk, Maggie.”

  Sean glanced awkwardly over to where I was hidden under Clóca. “Allow me, Maggie. I want to help.”

  “Once it begins, if we get separated, you’ll be unprotected.”

  “Listen to Maggie,” Candace said with agitation in her voice.

  He smiled and dragged her to his chest. “Do not be afraid.”

  “Don’t be thick—of course I’m afraid. You have no business in this fight. They’ll—”

  “They’ll do whatever they’ll do,” he interjected softly. “Please do not ask me to do any less than I’m capable of doing. If Maggie needs my help, I intend to give it to her.” He embraced her.

  With her face mashed into his chest, she mumbled, “Both of you better come back—alive, and in once piece.”

  “Of course we will,” he said. “I promise.”

  * * *

  With Sean at my side, I watched as Gavin and Tse-xo-be disappeared into the bluff with my family, Candace, Ronnie, and their families. The energy barrier Tse-xo-be created was nearly flawless. They disappeared into the bluff and vanished. Even with my heightened senses, I could only tell where they were when I concentrated. I took some ease in the fact that I knew where to look and what to look for, but I would have given a million dollars for something to put a little wetness back into my mouth. It had been a long time since I’d prayed, but I found myself praying their hiding place would be enough.

  Sara and Poseidon disappeared up the hill at the o
riginal Seoladán. From the second island, I sensed nothing but the cool early autumn morning air, trees, and the breeze that rustled the green leaves that neared the end of their time. I felt the rain, too. It had been falling for hours, torrentially at times. Billy, Amadahy and the Ohanzee took a position close to the triangular rock that protruded from the outcropping, the stone where I’d taken my Air trial. Billy wrapped them in Aether, but took a subordinate position to Tze-xo-be, Zeus, and the Ohanzee elders. It was convincing. Amadahy held her hands in front of herself, as the others stood casually. For all practical purposes, it looked like me casting an Aether barrier. Sean and I hid at the edge of the bluff, two hundred yards opposite the Ohanzee, with my family two hundred yards beyond us.

  “Can you wrap us?” I asked.

  Sean conjured Clóca and wrapped it in a layer of Air energy as we huddled in a craggy split in the bluff. I settled into the crevice behind him and projected. I made one loop over the Weald. I sensed nothing except the Billy’s Aether barrier. Time to hunt.

  I concentrated on Ozara and streaked through the distance between us. I found her with two former Seelie guards, Letus and Jerard, hulking Fire-inclined henchmen the Seelie had used as enforcers. They cast a thin film of Fire energy around a tiny little house in the desert. She’s going to project. “The hell she is.” Letus died as Ozara slipped into the front door. She spun and raced to Jerard, who huddled in a defensive pose. Ozara sheathed herself in Aether and attempted to do the same to him. I got there first. She screeched in anger when his blond head rolled backward off his singed stub of a neck and flashed out.

  The tiny girl in the house screamed and I could hear her parents fumbling to get to her. Despite my best effort to stop it, the house ignited. My tether yanked me so hard I thought it might rip my mind in two. The family’s horrific cries pierced the roar of the fire and grated on my nerves to the point I felt like my soul was bleeding. I launched Aether at Ozara, but she blocked it and laughed. With invisible fingers, she pulled the little girl through a window, her hair and clothes ablaze, kicking and screaming as fire boiled the skin off her flesh. Hate paralyzed me.