changeling chronicles 03 - faerie realm (27 page)

“Looking into the giant hole,” I said. “Doesn’t have anything to do with you, does it?”

“Get out of the way and we won’t have to hurt you. You aren’t supposed to be here on our territory.”

“Want to check out the pit?” I asked. “You’re more than welcome to.”

One gave me the finger, and they both glared at Vance. “You, Mage Lord, are gonna pay for what you did to us.”

Vance moved at the same time as I did, the Mage Lord placing himself between Anabel and the shifters. His blade flashed, but they both moved at the same time.

Fur exploded along their skin. One jumped, claws skidding, and hot breath blew against my neck.

My elbow shot back, catching him in the throat. The impact jarred through my arm, but gave me the chance to grab for the sword I’d brought. I’d picked two, neither of which felt like Irene, but they’d get the job done.

I swung the blade at the shifter’s head. The beast ducked and leaped, knocking me forward. The combination of my own speed and the shifter’s unnatural strength sent us both flying backwards. I landed on my back and kicked him off me before he could pin me down. The shifter leaped again. I ducked, rolling on the ground, my blade cutting into his flesh. He landed heavily beside me, roaring in anger.

The ground gave way, crumbling.

Shit. I backed away, but too late. He’d knocked a whole section of ground loose, and I couldn’t stop myself from falling. My hands scrabbled at the packed earth, but I fell too fast—far too fast. Air whipped past. Light flared up around me as my magic reacted in response.
Come on. We’re close enough to Faerie—

My back hit solid earth. I gasped for breath, the wind knocked out of me. Roars rent the air, the sound of shifters fighting. I lifted my head, cursing. I’d dropped my sword.

Then I saw what I lay on, and fell against the packed earth wall. I’d have screamed, but the sight of the giant…
thing
curled up on the floor of the pit knocked all words from my tongue.

A huge, scaled beast lay in the foetal position—indefinably huge. The size of my flat. Bigger. Its clawed feet, pulled up to its chest, could have shredded me into five pieces with a casual swipe. Wings like giant leathery tents lay slack behind its huge, muscled back.

Sleeping… giant god. Or close enough. A squeaking noise escaped me. I didn’t dare scream, or speak aloud. Climbing out was beyond me, and if I so much as moved close to the creature, it might wake up.

Dragon…

The sound of a sword being unsheathed rent the air.

Layers of faerie glamour peeled away, revealing the beautiful form of the Lady of the Tree, standing beside the creature’s head.

My jaw dropped.
Don’t,
I mouthed, losing my head completely. As though the mad old faerie would ever listen to reason. What was she trying to do,
kill
it? Why bring me here?

“Give me your power,” she said, beckoning with her free hand. “Or I’ll kill him.”

“You can’t kill a god,” I said, stupidly. My voice was hardly a whisper. She was totally batshit. Thanks to her, we were all going to die.

“Its power has diminished with the ages,” said the Lady. “But killing the shifter god… I’d hate to think what effect it would have on those who share its blood. I hear they’ve been affected by the tremors already…”

Holy shit. This creature was the reason the shifters kept losing their minds?

“Why the hell would you stir up a god?” I hissed at her, trying to keep my voice low. “I thought it was the veil you wanted. Or the sword, the life-drinker.”

“I can’t use the sword to open the way into Summer without the combined strength of both Summer and Winter. I need
all
your magic, human. What you gave me was enough to come back to this realm, but not enough to traverse all the realms.”

Guilt mingled with the horror brewing inside me. Because of me, she’d been able to come back. Because I’d let her take my magic, she’d broken the bonds keeping this monstrosity contained.

“I’m not convinced.” Shit. I couldn’t kill her, with magic or without it, and god only knew what opening a way into the Grey Vale would do to this volatile shifter creature. This primeval, scaled… holy shit on a stick.

I knew who shared this creature’s blood.

“You’re lying,” I said quietly. “If all you wanted was my magic, you might have challenged me anywhere else. You could have threatened the shifters in any one of a thousand ways if you’re half as powerful as you claim to be. What do you need this god for?”

Her pleasant smile twisted into a demonic grimace. “Vengeance.”

“On humanity.” Oh, how original. It’d dent her pride to have to rely on the Sidhe to cause havoc and kill everyone in the city, so sure, wake up a sleeping god. That wouldn’t backfire at all.

“Don’t.” I raised my weapon-free hands. “Seriously. I don’t think you realise what you’re messing with. If you die—”

“I have the life-drinker,” she said. “I’m immortal. I can’t die.”

She brought the sword down.

Blind panic shot through me and I ran to meet her, hardly aware I’d grabbed my sword until it clashed against hers. The metal was cleaved in two, falling apart in my hands, but I’d stopped her stabbing the sleeping dragon.

“You can’t open one realm without opening a way to the others,” I told her. At least, by this point, I was certain that’s what would happen. Messing with the veil would have consequences worse than a faerie invasion this time. And she didn’t care.

“It’s too late, human,” she whispered. Her sword sung with bright-green magic, tendrils swirling around the sleeping beast. “I command the power, and it commands me.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.” I edged closer. “Come and fight me in the Grey Vale. You said it’s where my power functions the best.”

I needed to get my hands on her. I didn’t know for sure how her own world-transferring power worked, and it was entirely possible I’d burn to a crisp if I touched her. But the walls were breaking down already. Now I looked beyond the sleeping creature, I saw the shimmering of the Ley Line above its huge form. We were on the brink.

In other words, it wouldn’t take much to cross into Death here. Preferably without waking the sleeping dragon on the way.

I kept my eyes on the Lady’s and not on the beast. Seemed ridiculous, because I had no weapons and my magic wasn’t worth half of hers now she had that big-assed sword.

But I did have one thing.

My feet left the ground in a leap that cleared the giant’s sleeping head. I collided with the Lady from the side, narrowly missing the sword, and magic flooded the air. Her sword glowed, feeding on the magic streaming from my hands, but I’d already grabbed her free hand as her body locked into place.

I fell into Death. Grey smoke curled around me, and sensations disappeared. This time, I didn’t linger. I saw the bright light, the path unravelling before me, and aimed directly at it.

I landed on my feet this time, and so did the Lady. Her sword pointed at my heart.

“Finish it here in the Vale, human,” she said. “You get your wish.”

“Not quite.”

The screaming spirits surrounding me rose in a crescendo, and my second’s advantage allowed me to fall back, through Death again.

The Lady’s enraged scream followed me back to the land of the living.

I crashed backwards into something solid. Not giant-god solid, but muscular-human solid. Vance.

“Ivy.” He steadied me. “What the devil is
that?”

I almost said,
your ancestor.
That would not be wise. The giant beast remained in position, sleeping. Nothing had changed in the last thirty seconds, but no trace of the Lady remained.

When she came back, she’d be pissed as all hell and ready to raise a god and smite the earth.

“Trouble,” I said to Vance. “She’s trying to wake that creature up. I stalled her by pushing her into the Vale, but she’ll be back. Her talisman’s with her.” We had a few minutes at most. I turned around and kissed him fiercely. “You need to go. Get everyone away, unless you have a way to contain an enraged shifter-god.”

“That’s what it is? You can’t stay here.”

“I’m not. I—Vance, you know what I have to do.” I couldn’t look at him. “I can’t win. Not now she’s this powerful. My magic can’t stand up to hers. And if the veil opens where she is, it’ll split along the Ley Line and we’ll die.” I took a breath and finally looked him in the eyes. “There’s only one way to win this. I need a talisman of my own. I have to go back to the faerie realm.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Vance went very still.

“We don’t have time to argue,” I said. “She might get back before I do. Hell, time passes weirdly in Faerie, so she probably will. She’ll wake that thing up if she can. Her magic can break wards, break iron—anything. I need to get into the Grey Vale, grab a weapon, and strike her down. I can do this. I understand it all now.” Blue light flared along my arms, igniting my whole body. From the reflection in his eyes, I knew he could see it.

He nodded. Once.

I didn’t dare move towards him in case I lost my nerve. Instead, I stepped back, and the veil claimed me.

This time, crossing over was so smooth, it must be down to the Ley Line. The hazy uncertainty of being weightless lasted only seconds, and then I stood on a familiar silver-leafed path.

This path sloped upwards into a clearing, where a magnificent castle stood at its peak.

It was a trick. Of course it would be—I’d seen Avakis’s castle fall apart. I’d brought it crashing down myself. Faerie was screwing with my head again. I’d bet everything I owned that what I needed was inside the giant illusion of a castle sitting on the hilltop. You could have fit three copies of Vance’s manor in the space it covered. Fearsome and turreted, it extended as high as the canopy, with as many as a hundred rooms inside. Its alabaster stone gleamed with a blue sheen, reflecting the magic which sustained it.

It’s not real.
Avakis’s magic was mine now. But Faerie could play any trick, and it had decided to throw me back into the place where all this started.

I took a few deep breaths and approached the castle. No time to linger, no matter what else Faerie threw at me. Arched doors invited me inside, swinging open without me having to touch them.

The castle’s lights came on as soon as I entered. The hall looked the same as ever. High ceiling. Stone walls. A long balcony extending above a staircase. I stared for a moment at the place where my doom had been sealed. I could pinpoint the exact spot on the cracked stone floor where I’d dealt the killing blow.

Magic flared from my palms, swirling around me in an incomprehensible dance.

I turned to the left. The weapons room lay there like last time, too. Its door opened. Swords, knives, daggers, maces… every type of weapon imaginable hung from the walls.

“You picked the dagger last time,” a voice whispered. “You tricked me.”

“You’re not him.” The words came out automatically, but nothing held back the shiver of fear at the sight of Avakis leaning casually against the door. Six feet tall, slender and inhumanly attractive, he wore the same black and silver armour as last time. His silken black hair flowed to his armoured shoulders, and a gleaming blue-tinted silver blade gleamed in his right hand.

“So I have to win it from you.”

I wasn’t a weak sixteen-year-old prisoner any more. I’d picked the dagger, but at the time, I didn’t have a hope of fighting while carrying the full weight of a proper sword. I’d had to use trickery to win.

This time, I could fight Avakis as an equal. Though whatever this creature imitating Avakis was, it surely couldn’t have his magic.

One sword stuck out to me. Even the dents on the hilt looked familiar. Irene. A pang shook my heart. Faerie had created an exact image of my sword. But it wasn’t the same. Irene had melted. Just one more reason to kill this fucker dead.

I picked up the imitation of Irene. “If I win this fight, I get to keep your sword.”

“Very well.” A chill ran down my neck. He sounded exactly like Avakis, every melodic inflection tapping on my spine like piano keys. “If I win, Ivy Lane, Faerie claims your magic back.”

“Won’t happen,” I said. “Besides, my magic doesn’t belong to Faerie. Unless you’d like to tell me who Avakis stole the magic from in the first place.”

No answer. The imitation of Avakis glided back into the entrance hall. The same place we’d fought last time.

I’d been scared shitless before. The echo of that fear persisted even now, but this situation didn’t even compare. I’d been at rock bottom, the lowest you could possibly go. Not anymore.

I had a world—more than world—to fight for this time, not just my own life.

Irene in hand, I took the first swipe. My instincts sped up under magic’s power, and I knocked the Avakis-imitation onto the defensive immediately. His sword clashed against mine, and I swiped to the side, cutting at his wrist. Doubtless this version of Irene wasn’t made of iron—it couldn’t be, if Faerie had created it—so cutting him wouldn’t be enough.

Not that I ever pulled my punches.

Duck, swipe, parry… I was far, far more skilled than last time. That, coupled with my faerie enhanced speed, put me on an equal level with this bastard. But the fight wouldn’t last forever. I needed to take him down.

Which meant using magic.

I let go of the sword with one hand, conjuring a torrent of energy, and threw it at him. Not-Avakis swept aside, eyes narrowing, and launched into a fresh assault on me. I stood my ground, blocking his every swipe, throwing magic left and right. He couldn’t block both at once.

My next attack caught him in the side, knocking him to the left. My blade slid into his armour. I slashed again, but no blood flowed from the wound. Instead, his body went transparent.