The Angel's Fall (The Fay Morgan Chronicles Book 6) (5 page)

The three squids exploded in quick succession.

Their tentacled bodies spattered widely, hitting the basilisks and the witches with squid jelly. We were saved from the disgusting mess by my dome shield.

“Thanks and well done,” I said, glancing at Lucifer.

He lay fallen on the ground, curled in on himself. He shivered and convulsed as he grew older and frailer.

“The rest we best do without your father,” I said to Merlin, and quickly threw some spells at the witches, small and violent ones that they easily batted away.

“Father?” Merlin cried out.

“Focus,” I said.

Merlin uttered a deep growl and hit his wooden staff on the ground. He must have pulled it out from his black bag that held many such staffs.

This one was a good choice, for light flooded out of it. Light, yet not light. A blinding and viscous fluid shot toward the two basilisks. While a person could not glance at the serpentine creatures’ eyes, Merlin’s spell shot straight toward those eyes and glommed onto them.

One of the basilisks screamed and struck forward blindly. Its massive head bashed against my shield.

The invisible bubble around us shook but held.

The great snake crashed into it again, and again. As the basilisk rose back up for a fourth strike, my shield made a tinkling sound and broke apart.

The blinded basilisks both rose up, making hissing, choking sounds as they towered ten and then twenty feet above us. They shook their heads as the light burned their eyes, hotter and hotter.

I worked on activating another shield while Merlin thumped his staff on the ground and yelled, “Small deeds!” More light, this time purple and rippled, flew upward at the beasts.

The lavender spell hit the basilisks and wound around them like a hundred smaller snakes. The great beasts thrashed up and backward, trying to get away. The purple spell intensified and the streaks of purple, hundreds of them, flowed over the creatures. Making pained keening sounds, the basilisks slithered swiftly away in the wheat fields.

I checked on Merlin. He looked red-faced and covered in sweat.

And Lucifer? He sat on the ground, glancing around in a confused way.

They were both fine. For now. I had just finished tweaking a self-protection spell to make it work for all of us when one of the witches cried, “Enough of this!”

She raised her hand high and dropped a palm full of pebbles.

The stones didn’t fall, but rose into the air and turned into dozen of long arrows. The witch pantomimed shooting a bow, and the arrows arced across the sky.

“
Rhwystr,
” I cried and my shield bloomed above us, half a second before the arrows rained down.

The arrows were well made and magic-tipped. They flared orange as they hit the barrier.

My shield did not stop them, but slowed them down. One by one, the arrows fell down on us.

One hit my arm. A warm sluice of blood flowed down my forearm.

Another hit Merlin’s hand.

Both witches laughed. One of them threw more pebbles into the air and turned them into arrows. She threw them at us.

I grabbed a bobby pin and held it high. “
Rhoi’i gorau i
,” I muttered.

The arrows stopped mid-air, and fell down into the field a moment later.

“More and worse, sister,” one of the witches called out.

“Yes,” the other responded and began to weave her hands through the air, gathering magic for her next spell.

“Stop that,” Lucifer muttered behind me. He sounded like a grumpy old man.

“Father, don’t,” Merlin said.

“Don’t protect my son?” he said. “I have been waiting too long to help you.” I turned to see him raise one shaky hand toward the witch. She staggered backward as Lucifer’s pulse of magic hit her. She tried to open her mouth, but where her lips had been, there was only skin. Her eyes went wide and she turned and fled into the field.

Lucifer laughed and fell over again. Liver spots erupted on his hands and face. “That’s for hurting my son with arrows,” he called out.

“Gods. He seems to be enjoying this even as it kills him,” Merlin muttered. “Father. Promise: no more spells.”

Lucifer nodded and yawned. He lay down as though it was as good a place as any to take a nap.

Merlin and I turned our full attention to the only one left: the last witch. She stood in a miasma of dark magic, swaying from side to side and muttering.

“My sister. You will pay,” she said with a strange and echoing voice that repeated itself.

The air filled with the smell of charcoal and wood dust. The witch stomped one foot, and a fire, strangely black and flickering, surrounded her. It started burning the stalks of wheat near her. Blood dripped from her mouth and she cackled and hissed. The flesh on her face and bare arms began to split apart.

This wasn’t a witch merely doing her Queen’s bidding. She was out for vengeance.

Every witch kept a spell like this on their person. For the worst time. The end of times. This sort of spell was a nuclear weapon that would kill anything and everything in its vicinity, including her.

How to stop it? I had no idea.

The witch coughed and laughed as her hair caught fire.

“Gods,” Merlin murmured. “What can we do?” He dropped to his knees and opened his infinity bag. He began rummaging around.

Think, I ordered myself. What do we have? I dragged my eyes away from the fiery and grotesque sight of her blistering skin, her burning fingers, and the malignant magic that billowed around her.

A protection, maybe? A strong one? Stronger than any I had. A teleportation? I didn’t have any that could take all three of us.

The witch’s heat filled the air, burning my hair and skin. Her voice turned into a terrible piercing shriek and what could I do? What did I have that could—

Merlin pulled out a… Frisbee? An orange Frisbee.

“A deadener,” he said. “Throw a witch net at her, and I’ll throw this right after.”

I eyed the plastic orb and then the witch. “You’ll have to hit her,” I said.

“Is now the time to question my athleticism?” he asked.

I grabbed the net tucked into my bra and flung it into the air toward the witch. It was made to fly toward any magical source and cover her in a sticky net. “
Clawr
,” I cried as it hit her and wrapped around and around her burning form.

She tipped over and fell to the ground. It didn’t stop her spell: nothing could. Her last spell built and billowed around her. Soon it would explode.

“Here goes nothing,” Merlin said, and threw the Frisbee.

It wobbled as it flew through the air and then hit her fallen form.

She exploded.

The deadener absorbed much of it, but the rest of it spilled out messily.

We flew up and backward, moving against a wall of air, rage, and fire.

I landed hard in the wheat field. The spell still worked all around me. I curled into a ball and held my breath. Any of this magic I inhaled might cause untold havoc. Magic crawled over every inch of my skin, stinging and wild.

I didn’t dare open my eyes.

Slowly, it died away.

I breathed and sat up. Around me lay a scorched field, still smoking from the spell. My dress was half burnt and falling off. My skin was red and inflamed. But I was better than I had any right to be.

Near me sat Merlin.

His face was covered in ash. He nodded toward me with a haunted look.

“Lucifer?” I asked.

“Over here, children,” he said. He lay on the ground, unmoving.

“Are you okay, Father?” Merlin asked, slowly getting to his feet and walking to him.

The ever-more ancient man smiled. “I seem to be intact for the moment,” he said. “And that was the most fun I’ve had in years. Centuries, probably. But look at the both of you.” He slowly sat up, wincing and groaning. “Arrow-wounded. Burnt. That won’t do. There is still a long journey for the both of you.”

“We’re fine, Father. Don’t—” Merlin began.

Lucifer blinked. He did nothing more than blink, and my arm was healed. My clothes were in pristine condition. My skin turned its usual pale pallor.

“That was unnecessary,” Merlin said. He too looked fully repaired.

Lucifer looked visibly withered from the spell, but said, “A trifling thing. Let a father help, in whatever small way he can.”

We heard a keening sound. I felt the dank menace of more creatures heading toward us through the fields, but could see nothing. Not yet.

“Well then,” Lucifer said, letting Merlin help him to standing. “There are more things that need doing and none of us should tarry. I need to tidy the place up before….” He sighed and gave his son a long look. “Soon, Merlin. We will speak more.” The old man blinked a couple of times and frowned. “We will, I meant to say, things will happen? I think. Now, I must put my house in order, if only I can remember it all,” he said vaguely and turned and walked away from us.

“Think he’ll be okay?” Merlin asked.

“No. I’m not sure. But I don’t think anything will truly harm Lucifer in Hell,” I said.

Merlin nodded. “Yes. And I have a guess he won’t be around, not for much longer.”

“Agreed.” I didn’t have time to ask him how he felt about that.

The sky blinked into grayness, and some of the dark shadows that touched the horizon bled into the far edges of the field. It took longer this time to revert back to normal.

“Strange, that,” Merlin said. “Shall we?”

I nodded and I reached into my pocket. I pulled out the old compass that had once belonged to a pirate captain. She had given it to me in thanks for saving her in a storm, and I’d kept it for many decades, knowing at some point it would be an excellent house for a powerful spell. The spell I’d imbued it with was a tricky and clever thing, made of land and earth. I hoped but did not know if it would be able to get its bearings inside this strange realm. With an unspoken hope lodged in my throat, I opened it and saw the needle was finally holding steady as it pointed at whatever passed for north in this realm.

“It worked,” I said. Something tight within me loosened. Without this spell, our chances of getting Lila out of Hell were much, much worse.

“Excellent,” Merlin said. “I am off to be the diversion.”

I looked at him. As per our plan, it was time for us to part. But would we meet again? We controlled nothing within this realm, and so many surprises had already hijacked us today. I drank in the sight of his rumpled and bright-eyed self.

“It is time,” I agreed and let out a long breath. I didn’t want to be alone here. I didn’t want to lose him.

Merlin stepped close. “You will go to make your assessments, and I will provide some mayhem and chaos to distract from your mission. We will meet again. Soon.”

I nodded, unable to look away from him. “Thank you. For coming here.”

He leaned forward me and kissed my cheek. Chaste, for a moment, before his arms wrapped around me and he kissed me, full and well, on my lips. I kissed him back, tasting and holding this man whom I had always loved, ever since I was scarcely more than a child. This kiss, this last embrace, was too short an infinity.

A wild shrieking reverberated from the fields around us.

I clutched the compass to my chest and uttered, “
At fy nghalon
.”
To my heart.

The spell flared, and all the pieces of magic I’d set within it began to work with redundancy after redundancy, to find Lila and take me to her. I'd spent a whole sleepless week working on this spell after making great lists of all the different ways that a place like Hell might be able to keep me from Lila.

The compass began to burn cold and hot as it sparked white magic, but I kept it pressed against my chest. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, fighting against my instinct to fling it away.

“
A power too great and terrible
,” Merlin murmured. “Luck and love on your journey, lass.”

I heard a popping sound, and breathing through the pain of the burning compass, I opened my eyes to see Merlin doubling, then tripling, and dividing again until there stood twelve copies of my wizard in a circle around me. All of the Merlins smiled and winked at me.

I smiled back. The eleven Merlin golems would obey the simple rules of dispersing widely and creating mischief wherever they went. The real Merlin would be, hopefully, able to work his way to Lila and me, as he searched for ways to get us all out of Hell.

“Luck and love,” I repeated to the wizard, and at that moment my own luck bloomed, for my spell worked, and I was transported away.

7

You Have to be You

The spell led me to my heart, and I materialized in front of Lila.

Her mouth dropped open in surprise.

I stood in a bedroom with a large white bed set against a wall with a thick glass window. Sunlight streamed in. Posters for ugly-looking metal bands were tacked to the wall, and magic books lay strewn across the bed, opened and earmarked. Black clothes erupted from a small wooden dresser.