The Maebown

  I let my instincts take over. Ozara hit my barrier and stopped cold. She spun and disappeared. My human eyes were too slow to follow her movements, but my other senses were locked on. She tried to find a weakness, drawing closer with each attempt. A series of flashes lit the sky to my right. Wakinyan thundered through a throng of Alliance Fae, sending dozens into oblivion with each pass.

  To my horror, hundreds of new Fae streamed into my range. In the back of my mind, I recognized Lucien. The Duende elder attacked Wakinyan when he closed the distance. Lucien was ancient, and while Wakinyan was stronger, the former had the numbers on his side.

  Ozara paid no attention to either of them. She kept coming for me. Like a frenzied dog, she grappled and clawed at my barrier, drawing closer. I’d never seen her so violent and it sent chills down my spine.

  To my left, and down at the lower level of the island, a massive dark shape crawled out of the lake, slithering through the forest, breaking mature trees off at the roots. The body of an enormous snake on thick legs, I recognized Daji, the Hulijing I’d nearly killed in the desert. From snout to tail, he was covered in the largest black scales I'd ever seen. Blazing yellow eyes punctuated his armor-plated skull. Daji roared, exposing fangs the size of swords in a cavernous mouth. His snapping jaws sounded like cannon blasts. The serpentine eyes locked on me, chilling me to the bone. He crawled toward us. Struggling with Ozara, and trying to keep my family shielded, I couldn’t divert any energy to strike him. I searched the sky. One Fae turned and closed the distance on him. Guanyin. She was the former Seelie Council member who helped me break the ice with Her-Lang and the Ancient Ones.

  At a hundred yards, Guanyin shifted, blue energy radiating off her, as she morphed into what I could best describe as a sapphire blue dragon, a Chinese dragon, with a long serpentine body, horns, and a stubby canine face. She was terrifying, but only two-thirds the size of Daji, who moved quickly towards the outcropping. It was coming for me.

  I backed toward my family, fifty yards separating us. I could hear them—my mom crying and calling my name, Mitch hyperventilating, and Candace sobbing. Their fear invigorated my anger, my desperation. The next instant Ozara struck my barrier, I wrapped her in it. She struggled to get free, but not before I slammed her into the bluff in an explosion of rock and dirt. I pressed in on her body with all my concentration, but she twisted and slipped free. I felt the attack coming, and barely had time to react.

  She hit me with Air. It knocked me off of my feet, but rather than fall, I wrapped myself in Aether and bounced off the bluff. Without injury I slid to the ground. Drevek, broken and bleeding, quivered in the rain at my feet—a stone piercing his back and protruding from his abdomen.

  “Oh, god, Drevek. What can I do?” I said, grabbing his hand.

  He forced a smile, coughing blood. “Did it work?” he asked with a horse, weak voice.

  Ozara began her assault again, drawing my attention away.

  “Yes. You did it. Zarkus is dead.”

  Drevek grimaced. “Tell Billy I’m sorry.”

  “He’s fine. What you did was so brave—you nearly got yourself killed. Just relax, I’ll get help.”

  “Not nearly,” he said, tears rolling over his blood stained cheeks. “I can’t see anything. Please don’t let go.”

  “I owe you,” I said. “Of course I won’t let go.”

  “No,” he wheezed. “I owed you, and your brother. I kept my promise to Mitch. Tell him…” His voice trailed off. His breathing slowed.

  “Drevek, just hold on.”

  His grip relaxed, and tears welled in my eyes. His energy collapsed into the palm of my hand and then he was gone. God, how many more?

  With our Aether melded, my struggle with Ozara became a wrestling match. It was clear she wanted to get her hands on me. She'd kill me if she did. I could match her with the elements, but physically, I had no chance. With each move she made, I countered, and attacked back, moving away from the bluff to keep from getting pinned down. She was winning. She anticipated each move I made, and inched closer every minute. You've got five, maybe ten minutes to figure out how to kill her. “Oh, shut the freak up.”

  “Terrified, child? You should be,” she howled. “I'll kill you slowly in front of that breed sow you call a mother, and then I'll kill your brother, and pull that seed pod from the bitch's belly before I carve her into pieces.”

  She's trying to get into your head. Ignore her.

  I pushed the combined Aether high, giving her a slight opening, and smashed two slabs of rock around her as she tried to dash a little closer. Her connection faltered for a split second, just long enough for me to fry her skin off with Quint. Flesh peeled from her face, but rather than show pain, she smiled through blackened, burnt lips. “Nice move. My turn.”

  With our Aether locked, she fought me for control of the energy in the rock beneath my feet. As I committed more of my attention to the ground, Air hit my shield with tremendous force. It carved huge chunks of the bluff away before I countered. Air was my best element. She should have known better. The blast shattered the stone she stood on and she went to her knees. I struck again, flattening her into the rocks.

  I glanced over to the Ohanzee. They were swarmed by Alliance Fae, each in a struggle to survive. A Jinn, Seth, in the shape of what looked like an Anubis, grappled with Tadewi. Tadewi was powerful, but no match for him. She sliced at him with Air and then Quint. He deflected both and scorched the left side of her body with glowing orange energy that plunged deep in the earth after she fell away. In a plume of rock and mud, she rolled on to her back and attempted to attack again. I called out her name when Seth sank his next attack into her chest. She winced, and turned to pure white light. Flash.

  Before Seth could turn around, Pavati materialized behind him. Her deceptively thin arm passed through his shoulder. She flung him to the ground, and spun like the blades of a blender, shredding his defenses. Just as I thought she had him he countered, Quint wrapping around her waist. I felt panic as she struggled to free herself. The Quint disappeared below her skin and she shrieked in agony.

  A disembodied hand separated Seth’s jackal head from his towering human body. Sinopa uncloaked and helped Pavati to her feet. Seth’s head, eye’s wide and blinking, rolled across the ground a few feet from his body. His death flash came with a crunch, as Sinopa stomped his skull flat. Pavati spun and picked out another Jinn. Plasma hit Sinopa, but it only made her angry. The Duende attacker fled across the lake with Sinopa in pursuit.

  My enemy recovered. I tried pulsing Aether to throw Ozara off balance. When she stumbled forward, I managed to pierce her veil with Air, covering her body with lacerations. She formed Clóca and stopped the breach. She was prepared for me the next time I tried it. Stalemate.

  Behind her, the black dragon reared its head over the edge of the bluff, just fifty feet from my family. Candace grabbed Mitch and Mom and pulled them back, placing herself between it and them. Ozara smiled and attacked me with everything she had, drawing my attention. “Anytime now, Maebown.”

  I struggled to break free from Ozara so I could kill the beast. She fought just that much harder, cackling. “It is no use.”

  Where is Tse-xo-be?

  Half roar, half scream, like the sound of a locomotive coming to a screeching halt, the Daji stiffened and fought to keep from being pulled off the outcropping, grappling hook claws dug into solid stone. Something yanked him backwards, causing sparks as its nails scraped back across stone. A fountain of molten red Plasma erupted in front of his head, coursing into the stormy sky like a volcanic eruption. I felt the heat on my face. Daji twisted and fell free, crashing through the trees below, snapping them off at the ground. The blue dragon, Guanyin, had her teeth sunk deep at the base of his long neck. She flicked her tail, spearing the daggered end through his spine. The black serpent’s body twisted hard and flexed. Guanyin bit down trying to maintain her hold, but his damaged flesh gave way. She ripped out a Volkswagen-sized chunk of flesh from
his neck, and fell backwards.

  His roar sounded like a ship’s horn. He twisted his head and attacked with a torrent of Plasma. She countered with arching shards of orange Quint. The two substances sizzled and discharged white electrical energy that glimmered off their armored scales. His neck began to heal, and he lunged. Guanyin flung a barrage of Quint at his head, causing him to duck. It was a mistake. She met his move with a thrust of her tail. The armored end pierced his barrier and speared him through the soft tissue under his jaw. Like a dance, they twisted together, him trying to dislodge the spear, her trying to force it deeper.

  Then, in the oddest sight, Freya materialized. She took the shape of a tiny winged sylph. He slashed and attacked, but she was too fast. Guanyin shifted her body and forced him to stand erect. Freya darted right, spun around his neck, and removed his head. Given the size he’d taken, I expected a larger flash. In any event, that was another dead Alliance Elder. Ozara was beginning to run out.

  She pressed even harder, forcing me back against the low bluff. Stone barbs jutted from the surface, but I felt them coming. Each turned harmlessly away from my body. Two hundred yards away, Pele took shape, shielding herself from obstacles hurtling through the air. “Help them,” I said, looking at the Ohanzee, who were terribly outnumbered.

  The hideous little troll looked to Ozara, ignoring me. “Do I have your word?”

  “Yes,” Ozara snapped. “Keep yours.”

  “What?” I cried.

  Pele turned to the Ohanzee. Faster than my eyes could follow, she disappeared into the middle of them. She killed three before Billy shifted his attention and forced Aether in her direction. He missed. She materialized next to three more. The Quint fluttered at the end of her hand like a ribbon, until she snapped her wrist. Then it resembled a bullwhip. All three died with one flick. Ozara laughed. Pele turned toward a group of five, they all fought valiantly, but nothing they could do affected her. She spun away, her mahogany eyes twisting from side to side. She launched into the sky, but like she had been attached to a bungee cord, snapped back to the surface with a splat. It caught Ozara’s attention. Her attack weakened.

  Pele scrambled to her feet, cradling a shattered arm. Two of her clansmen dropped to the surface beside her. They were muscular, towering Polynesian-looking mountains of flesh. The first splintered into several pieces, like ice hitting a hard surface. The second was still crouched when Pele blew backwards into the bluff, disappearing as it collapsed around her. The rubble exploded and she came out radiating heat. Everything combustible around her burst in to flames. She swirled her arm above her head, drawing lighting across the sky to one point. It twisted into a vortex, so bright it lighted the island like a summer day. As she spun her arm, the bolts twisted into a bluish white rope, and uncoiled toward the earth.

  Ozara lunged at my family. Our Aether disengaged. I pushed back against her, when the barrage of lightning struck my shield. The power was overwhelming. I could deflect, but I couldn't stop Ozara. Pele’s attack was so bright, so ferocious, I couldn’t sense anything. Panic threatened to make my heart explode. Take the lightning away from her.

  I sent my senses to the sky and ripped the lightning away from Pele. The little troll moved toward me. At the same time, Ozara streaked toward my family. Instinct forced me to erect a shield in Pele’s path, leaving my family exposed. Then I felt something that steeled my resolve. Gavin wasn’t dead after all. Aether met Aether. Gavin and Ozara locked in a one-sided battle. Sara landed behind Ozara and joined Gavin’s attack. I turned my attention, briefly, to Pele. I tried to enclose her in Aether, but struck something unseen. Bastien. Shit.

  I dropped my connection to Aether and Bastien fell backwards, shaken, but not mortally wounded. Pele rushed toward him, and once again, she dangled in the air before slamming the ground in a shower of mud and rocks. More of her kinsmen intervened, one creating Amber. It rolled out, making contact with everything, melting Clóca like butter.

  Ozara advanced on Gavin after knocking Sara off the cliff. “No, you don’t,” I growled.

  Fury amplified my connection to Quint. I opened her from the base of her neck to her tailbone. She stumbled, turned and shrieked before retaliating. She hit me in three places at once. With invisible fingers, she gripped my arm, but I forced it away. Then she turned, and stared at something behind me. Amber exposed Tse-xo-be. He carried Sean in one arm, and blocked attacks with the other.

  “Impossible,” she gasped. Her eyes shifted to Bastien who flicked Pele off the island like swatting a fly. She sank in the lake where Poseidon was waiting.

  Ozara turned back to me, and then shifted her eyes to Zeus, who was cutting through Rogues and Unseelie like a lawnmower. Wakinyan flashed through the sky, scattering the Duende, the Sombra Fantasma, and the Jinn. Dana and Her-Lang led the Sidhe and Ancient Ones through the heart of the old Seelie faithful.

  The tide had turned. We were winning and I knew Ozara was going to shift—I could tell by the look in her eyes. “No,” I screamed, forcing myself past her barrier, trying desperately to connect to her flesh.

  She deflected and tried to force her shield out further. I had missed. She was going to disappear and there was nothing I could do to stop her.

  Just as Ozara began to phase out, she stumbled forward. With a look of utter shock, she turned, grasping the side of her head. Protruding through the translucent green barrier, I noticed a hand clutching red hair and an ear. Ozara closed the breach and severed the arm. Just beyond the film of energy, Ozara’s flesh lay in the outstretched palm of Amadahy’s hand. Inside the barrier, Amadahy clutched her wrist. She still looked like me when the Clóca fell. Amadahy twisted her head, looking at me, and then looking down at her severed hand. Ozara pounced on her back, slamming her fist into Amadahy’s body. The Ohanzee winced, but focused on the severed hand, almost willing me forward. I connected to it with my invisible fingers, pulling it across the rain-soaked plateau. Ozara ripped her hand free and stared at me. Amadahy crumpled to the rock surface and collapsed into a flash.

  Ozara scrambled across the ground trying to fetch the flesh. We fought like two dogs over a scrap of meat. Amadahy would not die in vain. It was so macabre, struggling to gain control of an ear, but that would keep the bitch in physical form. Tse-xo-be and Bastien came to my aid, one forcing shards of stone into her hands and knees, the other piercing her barrier with Quint. Her stomach torn open, Ozara backed up and deflected their assaults. That gave me time to claim the grisly trophy. I snatched it and shoved it in my pocket.

  Ozara fumed, her eyes wild. Her attack missed Bastien, Aether gouging a basement-sized hole out of the plateau. She whipped the green energy around towards Tse-xo-be. I tried to intervene, but couldn’t quite get past the wall of energy she erected. My heart skipped a beat when Aether closed on Tse-xo-be. Under layers of Quint, Plasma, Air, Earth, and Water energy, he deflected. As Aether pierced each layer, he formed another just behind it. She was Aetherfae, sure, but he was so strong. He laughed at her. Her burst of energy didn’t connect with his flesh, but it did blow him off the outcropping and into the lake.

  I managed to connect to her Aether, tore open a pinhole-sized opening and punctured her cheek with Quint. Her attention focused exclusively on me.

  The predators became the prey. The change caught Ozara’s attention. She spun and began picked off Coalition Fae. I looked back down at my hand, and glanced over to Gavin and my family. “It ends now.” You don’t know how to kill her. “I’m a quick study.”

  I channeled the elements and focused on the narrow gap between her shoulder blades. I let my barrier collapse back to within a few inches from my body. Ozara filled the void, and as she did, I struck her exactly where I aimed. Aether pierced her back and I dragged her to me. She tried to spin as I reeled her in, so I pulled harder. At twenty feet, she severed the connection and turned, snarling.

  Channeling Air, I tried to pierce her again. It failed. She tried to cut my head off. I deflected. She clawed at my barrier.
I tried to crush hers. Like before, our Aether melded. Ozara struggled to free herself, as I had been doing. When we ripped apart, Gavin directed a blast, but it didn’t faze her. A split second later, he dispatched another Unseelie who tried to get at my family.

  Ozara struggled forward a step, clawing wildly, her hands a blur as she fought to get past my shield. I tried to wrap her up again, but our Aether merged, leaving both of us struggling to gain the upper hand. As we wrestled, the oddest memory played. In my mind’s eye, I saw myself across the lake. Billy was there. He was teaching me to channel energy. I pushed the recollection away, and tried not to panic when Ozara closed the distant between us to less than ten feet. I pushed her back a few inches and tried to overpower her again.

  The memory came back. It was of me touching a young oak tree. With death flashes all around us, I struggled to keep my mind in the present. Why am I thinking about that day? Billy’s voice, born of memory, haunted my thoughts. He told me the tree was dead because I’d drawn too much energy. Dead. Oh my god.

  Ozara lurched forward as I reversed the pull. Our energy was connected, and I pulled hers to me. We fought, she pulled away as I dragged her closer. Her eyes showed fear for the first time.

  “I have you now, bitch.”

  “If I go, so do you,” she said, pulling her hand back like a bolt in a crossbow.

  Gavin called my name. I heard him call to me a second time as Ozara thrust her hand into my body. The connection was exactly what I needed. In physical contact, I could drain her even faster. We sank to our knees. Her bright amber eyes grew dim and turned dull brown. She fought for air. I didn’t feel pain, though I expected it, but I could feel her claws in my abdomen, flexing and tearing. My legs went numb as I slid my thumbs into her eyes, pulling more energy. She lost control of Aether, then she slumped forward, her forehead against mine. Her hand, buried deep in my body, went still. I pulled energy, ignoring the burning sensation that gripped my lower body. Something ripped her away. Though a dense, bright fog, I recognized the shape of a giant black leopard. Billy. He shook her by the neck, flinging her limp limbs like a rag doll. Then she disappeared into a small ball of white light. The flash was blinding. Everything went black.