Mistfall (11 page)

“I think not,” he simply stated. “Perhaps it
would be best to leave you here for awhile. Some time in total
isolation may open your mind to the proposition I have for
you.”

I took a page out of Luca’s book. I turned my
back to Abel, a sign of disrespect, and said nothing in return. I
must have struck a nerve, because he retaliated with a parting
comment that shook me to my core.

“Magdalene, I don’t believe you have been
properly introduced to the Captain of the Aelfadl and my oldest
son, Luca.”

My heart plummeted twenty feet into the
ground, but I stood stock still. Now I knew why Luca wouldn’t look
me in the face. Abel, amused at his duplicitous son, turned and
left, with Luca in tow. The grinding stone door closed and resealed
me in my tomb.

Melissa crossed my mind soon after they left.
Luca told me that he was letting her stay at his place. Now knowing
what Luca was, I could only assume she was dead.

I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, but
forced the feeling to return to the pit of my stomach. I would cry
for her later. Right now I needed that as fuel to my fire. First
chance I got, I would run Luca through with whatever sharp object I
could find, shish kabob style, his father shortly thereafter.

I decided that, in the meantime, my new abode
needed a little sprucing up. I had a few reasons for doing this.
First, I needed to test the capabilities of my magic. Second, it
would irritate Abel. Thirdly, this place was depressingly gloomy.
If I was going to spend eternity down here I would at least be
comfortable.

I weaved my magic into the empty space.
Chairs materialized, a bed sprung from thin air, and books flew in
the air like birds, finding their perch on a bookshelf that had
grown from the ground up, moments before.

Twenty minutes later, I had all the trappings
of a quaint English cottage. A fire was even roaring in the
fireplace I added at the last minute, chasing away the chill of the
damp stone. The dark desolation of the oubliette was gone.

I reached into my pants pocket and pulled the
compass out. I’m glad I listened to my gut. Otherwise Hailz would
now be a servant of the Elf King. Against my better judgment, I
rubbed the compass and spoke her name. The walls weren’t about to
answer me back and I needed a little perspective.

Hailz apparated, leaving a thin film of
sparkly covered dust over my just finished work. My future snake
skin purse took a look at my surroundings and laughed heartily. “So
you’ve finally been betrayed by the one who was desperate to earn
your love only a day ago.”

I rolled my eyes. “Does this dungeon look
like a token of affection?”

“You’re not dead,” Hailz pointed out.

“Irrelevant.”

“Is it now?” she asked as she slithered
around the room, inspecting the walls, floor, and ceiling.

I crossed my arms. “As much as I adore our
usual verbal sparring, I summoned you here for a reason.”

Hailz stopped perusing my selection of books
and looked at me like I was stupid. “I can’t get you out of here. I
assume you already know that, your Iblian magic being stronger than
mine.” I swear, if she had hands, the word Iblian would have been
in air quotes. Needless to say, the sarcasm was dripping heavily
off of her venomous fangs.

I sat down on an overstuffed couch. Time
spent with Hailz was aggravating at best. I could at least be
comfy.

“I summoned you here because I need your
opinion,” I told her.

Hailz quit moving and became eerily quiet.
Great, now she decides to shut up.
Her eyes became cloudy
and her body stiffened. If I didn’t know better, I would have
thought her dead. No such luck for me, she was only molting.

Out of the transparent skin appeared a young
woman, mid-twenties, and rather pretty. She was a bit shorter than
me and had strawberry colored hair. Hailz’s eyes retained their red
glow, a side effect of spending too much time in Hades.

She stretched her newly grown limbs and
plopped down on the seat next to me. “That’s much better. I haven’t
had appendages in some time.”

I pointed to the husk on the floor. “You
can’t clean up after yourself? Hope you’re toilet trained,
otherwise you can leave right now.”

Hailz snapped her fingers and the papery
leftovers disappeared into thin air.

She shoved me with her shoulder. “I don’t
know why you’re so grouchy.”

“Prisoner,” I replied shaking the imaginary
chains on my wrist.

She tilted her head to the side. “Well, there
is that,” she admitted.

She conjured up an brown, leather ottoman to
rest her feet on. “You know something, you’re a horrible host.”

I just sighed. When and if I get out of here,
I had planned a trip to Hades to return Hailz to Iblis, quite
possibly in pieces. I could have gotten up and made it by hand, but
was weary of Hailz. I conjured up two cups of steaming, hot chai
tea and assorted scones. I made sure they were full of fat so it
would go straight to her hips. Petty, I know, but it made me feel
just the teensiest bit better.

“Okay.” I turned to Hailz while she ate. “Why
does Abel have jinn magic?”

She choked on the buttery pastry. “What?!?!”
she replied in between gasps.

“Abel. He’s using jinn magic,” I
repeated.

She laid down her scone on the plate and
waved her hand in the air, dismissing me. “Impossible. You have led
a rather sheltered life. He probably just has a Witch in his
employ.”

I threw a biscuit at her head. “As much of a
country bumpkin you may think I am Hailz, I know the difference
between a Witch’s spell and our magic.”

“Oh please, tell me all about it.” Her tone
was patronizing and I really wanted to slap her in the face with a
fish.

I abruptly stood up. I was fuming and needed
to move around otherwise we’d end up at each other’s throats. Then
I’d never get the information I needed out of her.

“I tried to attack Abel,” I told her. “My
magic was deflected by an invisible wall.”

Hailz yawned, bored with the topic. “Very
telling Mags. Again, a Witch.”

I put one hand on my hip and pointed at her
with the other. “Damnit Hailz, let me finish! A Witch’s barrier
spell would have a tell tale shimmer. This had nothing. If I hadn’t
tried throwing lightening at him I would have never known it was
there. So genius, who else’s magic do you know that leaves no
signs?”

Her jaw dropped.

“That’s right,” I continued, “no one else’s
magic besides our own.”

She jumped up at attention. “That’s imp… No.
But how?”

“Hailz, do you know something you’re not
telling me?” I asked.

Her voice dropped an octave. “It’s impossible
that he has a jinn you cannot overcome.”

My mind reeled at the thought. Hailz was
right. Had Abel used an Ifrit or Marid, I would have easily broken
through the invisible shield that had protected him. Was it
possible that there were others of my kind that had escaped the
god’s wrath?

I wanted to ask Hailz, but she had other
plans.

“Thanks for the tea, have to go, good luck,”
she rambled off and disappeared, adding more dust to the oubliette.
My guess was that she was tearing through the Earth to inform Iblis
with the new turn of events.

My suspicions were confirmed, but where did
that leave me? I still wasn’t sure what I was up against as far as
that invisible wall was concerned. Plus, I was still trapped in
this awful hole in the ground.

Abel wanted something from me. What that was
could be anyone’s guess. My best course of action, I decided was to
rest up. What comes next may just take every ounce of energy I
had.

It took the Keebler Elf three days to come
back and see me. I will say this; I ate and slept well those few
days. Aside from the strange dreams I was still having of John,
which I was starting to remember more clearly, I couldn’t remember
the last time I was so relaxed and refreshed.

Santa’s Little Helper wasn’t expecting the
Otherworld’s most finely furnished oubliette. Abel rubbed his hands
together in agitation, but said nothing of it. My subconscious was
pointing at him, singing “neener, neener, neener.”

“What’s up Abe?” I casually tossed at him.
“You don’t mind if I call you Abe?”

WOW. If he could shoot lasers out of his
eyes, I would have been a pile of pixie dust.

“It’s Abel, King Abel and you would do well
to remember it Magdalene.”

Despite my predicament, with three days of
R&R I was back on top of my game. Calling me anything other
than Mags wouldn’t bother me now. I just smiled while he worked out
the tense jaw muscle that had begun to twitch in time with his
heartbeat.
That’s where Luca got it from.

Abel worked out the muscles of his jaw with
his hand. “You can listen to my offer or remain here for eternity,”
he said.

I let off a few pot shots to the left and
right of him to see how far his “shield” extended. They were
absorbed as direct hits, but to the left and right, they hit the
stone wall behind him, leaving scorch marks as proof.

Abel, it seems, is one of the silent, angry
types. Those kind of people tended to be the most volatile. That
was good because it meant he could be distracted.

“Just checking,” I said, shrugging my
shoulders. I expected a backhand or something, but Abel stayed
where he was, fisting and unfisting his hands in anger. He wanted
to hit me; I could see it in his eyes.
So what was stopping
him?

“I tire of your constant disrespect,” he said
stiffly. “Would you really give up your freedom in order to spite
me?”

I winked at him. “Sure would. It’s been great
seeing you, but I have plans. Toodles.” I dismissed him with a
wave, sat down on a chair and turned my attention to the latest
gossip magazine.

Oh sweet Goddess, the look on his face was
priceless. He looked as if he had been slapped, yet he did not make
a move towards me and I knew why.

Right before I had flippantly waved him off,
I realized that the barrier that protected him worked both ways. He
couldn’t hurt me without exposing himself.
Was he afraid of
little ol’ me?

He quickly turned on his heel and left. I
wasn’t too worried when I was once again sealed in this tomb. He
had already tried to make me an offer twice without ordering my
execution. He’d be back.

I didn’t see Abel again for weeks. That
didn’t mean it was a quiet couple of weeks. About an hour after
Abel left, two of his Aelfadl soldiers came and paid me a visit.
They must have been new recruits because they only lasted about ten
minutes and I wasn’t even armed. I left them tied up together with
a pretty red bow for their buddies.

I’ve never viewed what I am as a curse. At
times it may have tried my patience due to the difficulties it has
presented. But, in situations like the one I was in, it was good to
be me. My magic was one of the most powerful out there and hard to
defeat.

Hailz stopped by a few days later. Iblis’s
feathers must have been ruffled by my incarceration because Hailz
was rather civil and helpful helping me form an escape plan. Once
we figured out how to get me out of the oubliette, Hailz informed
me that I was currently being held in Abel’s castle, in
Ireland.

“I figured that out on my own,” I told her.
“Abel would want to keep me close.”

“That puts you at a disadvantage,” she
pointed out. “The castle is heavily guarded. You’ll have one hell
of a fight waiting for you once you get out of this room.”

“Not to mention, I’ll still be stuck in
Ireland.”

“Do you know what makes Fae villages so
awesome?” she asked, leaning back against the wall and folding her
arms.

“I’ve never been in one. I couldn’t even
hazard a guess,” I admitted.

“Portals. Fae villages have portals.”

She went on. “In the ancient times, when the
Fae still fought in wars, their villages were virtually
undefeatable. When one village was infiltrated, thousands of Fae
would pour into the portal from other villages to defend the
one.”

“That’s impressive,” I told her looking up
from a map of the area surrounding the castle. “Let’s say I pull
this off. How do I even gain entry into the village?

“Not to worry, I’m friends with the village
leader,” she mentioned, pleased with herself.

“Sounds like a one-sided friendship to me,” I
commented on her less than sociable demeanor. “What does this Fae
get out of it?”

She straightened up with a big grin on her
face and winked at me. “Me,” she stated.

“Ugh. Too much information,” I groaned,
dropping my head into my hand.

“You asked.”

I raised my head. “Do me a favor Hailz. Once
this is all over and you aren’t bound to me anymore, please, please
go back to being the psychopathic killer I love and hate you
for.”

“What? Are you scared we’re going to become
BFF’s for life?” she teased.

I laughed as I imagined that friendship. The
body count we’d leave in our wake would cause overcrowding at the
local cemetery.

I wasn’t afraid of becoming friends with her.
The truth, well, was a bit darker.

“No, you don’t have to worry about that,” I
assured her. It’s just that eventually one of us is going to kill
the other. If we keep at it the way we are…” I trailed off, not
sure how to finish the sentence.

“Ah, I see. You’re concerned one of us may
make a mistake, pull a punch, or worse, feel guilty over the
other’s demise.”

“Pretty much,” I said.

You could hear a pin drop as we stood there.
Hailz’s lack of a snarky retort told me that she was a bit
apprehensive of the direction our relationship was going. I kicked
at the ground with my shoe while she stared at the cracks in the
ceiling studiously.