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Caelum
Caelum’s body reformed back in Dunham’s cage. His former CEO towered over him, purple with rage.
It took a moment to realize that not only was the bell jar lifted out of position by the robotic arms, but the magical barrier keeping him on the stone was gone. He tensed to kill Dunham only to freeze as phantom fingers crushed down around him, holding Caelum immobile.
“You failed me, Caelum.”
“I brought her in to complete your mission.” Caelum gasped as ribs cracked. “As soon as I was conscious, I attacked her, tried to apprehend her as ordered.”
Dunham shook his head. “You purposefully used too much essence attacking the Sidhe. You set things up, so that you complied with my orders without any chance of success.”
“No, I—”
Dunham squeezed. “Don’t lie to me.”
Bones popped.
“I’ve been watching,” Dunham held up the egg. “Listening. You know, despite the fact that you represented everything I hated, I really liked you.”
“Dunham—”
“Where was that location? Where is she hiding?”
Caelum struggled against the spell on his egg.
“Tell me!”
The egg won.
“Terrance’s house, out in Dallas.”
Dunham squeezed once more, whispering over the egg.
Pain and brute force put Caelum on his knees, not writhing on the stone in agony thanks only to the spell that held him still.
The Fae Kissed strolled over to the next cage. “Ignis, I have a mission for you.”
“Go screw yourself, Master wafer,” Ignis spat.
“You will go to the Terra’s house in Dallas and slay Aquaylae.”
“Help you cage her?” Ignis snarled. “No chance in Creation.”
“You will do as I command.” Dunham returned to Caelum, drawing a pistol. “Or I will punish you.”
Dunham put the gun to Caelum’s temple. “I considered using the vacuum chamber to suffocate you so I could collect your essence. Problem is, I am not sure an air phoenix can be suffocated.”
“Dunham,” Viviane rushed up the stairs. “Stop. He doesn’t have enough essence.”
He pulled the trigger. The egg in Dunham’s hand flared with light as Caelum’s essence dissipated for the second time.
“What have you done?” Viviane demanded. “We needed him.”
Dunham met Ignis’s gaze instead of Viviane’s. “He failed to obey my orders even after I warned him.”
“Fuck you,” Ignis said. “Trading this little zoo for my egg is no threat.”
Dunham’s brows rose. He strolled toward the balcony.
“Dunham, there’s a way to hurry him to rehatching. You need to stop before you make things worse,” Viviane said. “We need five phoenixes to keep the divine.”
“We’re doing all right with three.” Caelum’s former CEO pushed open the balcony door, walked out to the edge and stopped. He peered into the yellow topaz and celestial silver egg, searching for some sign of the phoenix within. “I really did like you. I imagine there’s nothing you liked better than the feeling of flight.”
Dunham dropped the egg over the side.
Viviane lunged for the egg.
Dunham seized her, yanking her back before she could catch Caelum’s egg. “One last flight as a severance for all his hard work.”
Once the egg had tumbled beyond her ability to catch it, Dunham shoved her away and marched toward Ignis. He withdrew the phoenix’s crystalized heart. “You will go to Terrance’s house. You will attack Aquaylae with everything you have. You will kill Aquaylae. Acknowledge command and your compliance.”
Anima
Pain lanced Anima’s forehead, the yellow topaz in her forehead burning like a star only to die in a sudden supernova of agony.
Caelum! No!
She reeled, eyes wildly searching the phantom, spirit-world soul of Atlanta for answers. She found none. The agony of Mare’s death had been different, but no less torturous. The Unseelie sword so blithely wielded by her Shieldheart after the egg thefts had ripped Mare’s soul away, tearing its connection to her egg and to Anima in a devouring hunger.
That he could stand to touch the blade that had pierced both he and Mare should’ve signified something desperately wrong.
The sword welcomed him, changing its shape to suit him, but why? Mare? The taint in his blood? Has the blade a taste for his blood?
Mare had thrown herself between the Unseelie Champion and Vitae. Still, the blade drove through her heart into Vitae’s back.
When it stole her soul, did it steal something from him, too?
Anima pushed away the past to focus on the present. Wings spun her around, oriented within a storm’s eye of mist and magic, Creation and Infinity. She peered beyond swirling nebulae filled with pools of Eden-born spring water, not to other such islands and her fellow Watchers, but toward the beginning, the Isaac.
Surrounded by the constellations of her Shield’s seeds, Anima dipped an eye-tipped finger into a mirrored pool of cosmos. Another like her, but scarred and ancient, appeared
“Anima,” the Isaac said before she could announce herself.
“Caelum has been Destroyed.”
“So I See.”
“Our divine remains captive. Aquaylae is doing all she can, but she needs help. We need another Aero.”
“There shant be one.” After a moment, the Isaac continued. “There are none to send.”
“She needs help.”
“He sent the Messenger.”
“Vitae turned Gabriel away,” Anima said.
“So be it.”
“So be it? Is that all you have to say?”
“I See. The Beginning of the End. The End of the Beginning. What was. What is. What shall be.”
“I already know that.”
“You know, but do you Know?” the Isaac asked.
Magic yanked at Anima’s core.
“Your Vitae calls.”
Vitae
I poured Aquaylae’s essence into the pool and invoked the mantra to activate the runes. Atlanta shimmered into view in the pool, seen as the phoenix flies high above. Tiny dots appeared around the city. Most of the dots represented my seeds, but some represented Ignis, Terrance and Aquaylae.
Caelum’s are all gone. I really shouldn’t have expected more from him. It’s a shock Aquaylae has any remaining.
“Oracle, hear my call.”
Silence.
I put power behind my voice. “Oracle, answer my call!”
Anima’s voice emerged from the water. “I have nothing to say to you, Vitae.”
“How dare you use this oracle to speak to me, automata?”
“I was your oracle before I was your automata,” Anima said. “Before you turned your back on your Shield. Before you stole Aquaylae’s nest and attacked a mortal you were supposed to protect.”
“I do what is necessary to fulfill my duty, and I will not be lectured by the likes of you. Now do your duty or I shall—”
“Shall what, Vitae? You have no power over me.”
My voice tore from my throat. “Do your duty!”
“Behold the seeds upon the waters. Thus is my duty.”
“This is insufficient. These seeds are too small to zero in on their location.”
Anger undercut Anima’s voice despite the impossibility. “That is why the oracle was upgraded, Vitae. When the city grew too big for the oracle, the divine adapted to the times just like your shields did.”
“You will curb your tongue and do as I command.”
“I do not answer to you, Vitae. I have filled this oracle with this Shield’s seeds. That is my duty. If you want more, you will purge the Sidhe taint from your essence, apologize to Aquaylae, and join her in saving the others.”
Each word of the disrespectful automata pumped the bellows fueling the glowing forge of anger in my gut and sent molten blood thundering through my veins. “I don’t need the others. I am Atlanta’s Shield.”
Sarcasm dripped disdain into my ears. “Great job protecting the city, Vitae.”
A roar filled my ears, drowning out the thundering of my heartbeat. “I will show you. I will show the world how to protect a Shield and deal with the Sidhe once and for all.”
“Goodbye, Vitae.”
“Wait,” I did my best to rein in rampaging fury. “You’re right, I should apologize to Aquaylae. Tell me where she is and—”
“No.”
I slammed both fists into the water. “Tell me!”
Ripples spread out across the oracle pool, bouncing off the sides, rippling back and eventually calming. The city and seeds remained in the waters exactly as they had been, granting me a view of a silent Atlanta.
I stormed downstairs, killing the first three faerie servants that crossed my path. I spluttered through my passcode, so spitting mad that uttering the pronunciation correctly took three tries.
My thrall worked at one of the experimentation stations. He turned as I approached, offering me perfect line of sight to his throat. I seized him, lifting him from the ground. “Where have you been!?”
He met my eyes for a split second before dropping his gaze respectfully. He tried to choke out an answer, forcing me to let him down that he might speak. “Doing as you ordered, Master. I was delayed at the old warehouse by Atlanta police. I had to lose them before I could return here so that they didn’t bother you.”
“What were you doing at the old warehouse and why were the authorities bothering you?”
“Cop was after me for stealing corpses from the morgue,” Bradley said. “She caught me at the old warehouse searching for...something that could help.”
“Help with what?” I demanded.
“You did want me to work on flying warriors next, didn’t you?”
The impertinent automata had unsettled me too much. She’d defied me, Atlanta’s Shieldheart. The wafer cowering before me hadn’t been defiant. He’d offered the proper deference and had produced everything I’d asked since enthralling him.
I took a deep breath.
“You are correct, but I must change your priority.”
He bowed. “How shall I serve, Master?”
His deference sent warmth blossoming in my chest. “Scurith will be showing us a spell that will help our cause.”
My thrall set the items still in his hands down on the counter and turned back to me. “Lead and I shall follow.”
Scurith entered as if on cue, saving me the trouble of summoning him. He dropped a dead cat on the table side by side with the one he’d brought back from the overpass.
My thrall looked from Scurith to the carcasses and back.
Scurith removed the collar from one of the animals. “I’ve confirmed with this second animal that these collars use the cat’s life to power short-term Arches. The runes here leach the power out of the animal, passing it to the secondary runes that allow a Sidhe to open a portal from Faery into Creation using this third set of markings to zero in on the collar.”
My thrall pulled the collar off the second cat.
“Hey, this is just like the one Whiskers was wearing when I found him.” A frown wrinkled my thrall’s forehead. “Is there anything magical about the runes?”
“Not per se,” Scurith said. “The clasps contain faerie essence much like Master’s seeds—a catalyst to fuel the spell initially.”
My thrall snickered.
I raised my brows at him.
“Cat...catalyst?” He dropped his eyes, face straightening. “Sorry, Master.”
“Would any Sidhe essence suffice?” I asked.
“I imagine so,” Scurith said.
A frown of my own grew as I considered the animals and their collars. By some miraculous accident of fate, Aquaylae had been right about the shelter thefts.
“Scurith, could an Arch be opened using the spell from within Creation to bridge two points?”
My thrall brightened. “You mean like a long-distance dimension door spell?”
“I suppose it’s possible,” Scurith hedged. “Some tests would be prudent.”
“On it!” My thrall volunteered.
This could prove an effective means of visiting an impudent druid with a squad of enforcers.
A quick instruction held my thrall from rocketing off to test the collars until Scurith had demonstrated how the spell worked. The spell was simple enough, so easy in fact that my thrall managed to evoke it twice—draining life from the grendlings holding the collars.
Scurith must’ve sensed my concern. He dismissed my thrall to gather construction components for more collars before confiding, “The spell is meant to be used by goblins and their like, Master. The magic is in the collar’s essence and the life consumed. Your mortal isn’t Fae Kissed and I doubt he has the innate magic to work such magic on his own.”
“Thank you, Scurith. I’d hate to be forced into destroying him. Please go monitor the oracle for incursions.”
“If I witness one?” Scurith asked.
“Send enforcers to capture what Sidhe they can and bring them back here for processing.”
“As you wish, Master.” Scurith bowed deeply, but hesitated.
“Something else?” I asked.
“There are rumors, great Master, terrible rumors that in the Court’s fury Vusolaryn and Mariena have empowered their Champions. Begging your pardon, but I fear for your safety. What if you no longer have strength sufficient to slay them?”
“I am touched by your concern, Scurith, but all is in hand.”
Scurith inclined his head and hurried off on his task.
When he’d gone, I took my thrall aside. “Prepare two enforcer squads and provide me the spell encoding to activate a collar placed with each.”
My thrall kept his eyes on the floor. “Of course, Master.”
Bradley
Bradley watched Vitae leave, waiting for a ten count before exhaling. He’d kept his head and acted well enough not to be subjected to any more enthralling magic.
The Arch spell hadn’t worked as well from place to place as it was supposed to between Faery and wherever. Scurith had pointed out that the difference was one of life energy consumed to create the initial link. He’d also claimed that a Sidhe coming over would brace the Earth side of the portal with faerie magic and let the energy of Faery fuel the other side.
Still, this could be seriously useful—especially if I use an enforcer or some other trollman to fuel the spell since they can’t be killed.
He jotted down all the instructions and notes, ran a quick Xerox and turned his attention to creating additional collars. The first two he built with troll blood in the clasp, but the second pair he seeded with Vitae’s essence.
Bradley packed one of each into a priority mail box with a copy of the instructions and addressed it to his house. He put the parcel in the hands of one of the grendlings and ordered the feral, oversized Smurf to ship it off.
Vitae
My thrall interrupted my reading with the details of the two collars I’d requested. I dismissed him and turned to a pair of covered bird cages. Removing the covers revealed a selection of pixies from each Court.
Their little bodies were emaciated, and the colors had drained out of their wings. None of them looked fatter than the others and the shriveled remains of berries cluttered the floor of their cages.
Curious. I’d think they’d eat if hungry.
Pixies had never struck me as more than the most adolescent of the Sidhe. Selfish and flighty with the attention span of a middle-school mortal, they’d been of use in my Sidhe blood experiments only at the very beginning.
Since then I’d collected the ones captured in the two cages, unsure what to do with them until that moment.
“I’m willing to free two of you—”
Several of the pixies started chattering high-speed, high-pitched pleas to be selected. A few of them didn’t even raise their heads. Concentrating on the power in my essence, I spoke a word of command. “Freeze.”
Silence returned to my study. I reached into the cages one at a time, selecting the weak, lethargic pixies that hadn’t volunteered. My essence could restore their vigor, but even that wouldn’t help with their broken wills.
I covered the cages, silencing disappointed groans and hurled insults. A pair of Edenberries liberated from Aquaylae’s landlady and filled with my essence rested on two china saucers.
“I would have your oath of a single service, payment of your debt for freeing you.” I set the two pixies down next to the plates. “Once given, we will celebrate the bargain.”
“What service?” the Unseelie pixie asked.
“I don’t care what the service is,” the Seelie pixie said. “I oath to perform one service for you, Shieldheart, to square the debt of you releasing me.”
I nudged the Edenberry over to the pixie. He gobbled it up, rallying visibly. With his obvious improvement, the Unseelie pixie offered his oath. I pushed on my essence, exerting my will to ensure they would obey. I handed them each a small strip of paper. “You will activate this spell for me where I release you and when I command it.”
I had barely finished preparing my two new confederates when Scurith burst into the room. “Master, an incursion, a huge one out near Sugarloaf Mills mall.”
About time the automata came to its senses.
“I suppose it is time once more to show the Sidhe they cannot simply penetrate my Prefecture?”
“Yes, Master,” Scurith grinned. “It is time for a lesson.”
Vitae
Before I left for the incursion, I sidelined to my bedroom. I removed two bottles from a wine cooling device in the closet near my nest. I stripped, setting aside my clothes, and poured the concentrated essence of two elven knights into my nest.
Stirring the violet and emerald blood into the almost black blood in my basin sent power thrumming up my skin. I’d had to kill the knights, but I’d saved their essence until I was ready to wield it.
They think me too weak to deal with their enhanced Champions? I shall remind them who is God’s cherished.
Retiring to my bathroom, I secured the whirlpool tub’s drain plug, seated myself and severed my femoral arteries. My nest was too full to catch my essence, but the tub would contain it until it could be concentrated and mixed with Sidhe essence for rebirth or wherever else I needed it employed.
Consciousness faded as blood pumped in slowly weakening spurts.
I awoke a moment later as my essence wove a new body into existence within my nest. Power thrummed through me like never before. Every cell of my essence tingled, but more, the power possessed a harmony other combinations hadn’t provided.
I felt like myself for the first time in ages, even though a quick glance proved my body a pale-skinned female with long hair so black as to be hued blue.
Scurith stared up at me, terror alight in his eyes. Tail tucked and ears flat, his voice emerged in a squeak. “Mistress?”
“Master.” No rage backed the correction, rather the calm of a dappled pool.
The coyll shook himself then started bowing. “Yes, Master, apologies Master. Your car awaits you.”
“Lead on.”