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THEREN

Fae Realm

“I’m a catoptromancer without a mirror,” I explain. “Though I use blood magic in battle and have other spells at my disposal, that’s nothing compared to what I can do with a reflection.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Dragan demands.

“As Unseelie, I draw my power from the darkness, and you are the King of Shadow ,” I hedge, hoping the stone brute will catch my meaning without my having to actually say it.

A mirror of pure shadow would be my ultimate weapon, aside from my spear staff. With my army now at Variant’s beck and call, I need whatever help I can get. And at the moment, that help comes in the form of Dragan.

I wish it didn’t.

“You want me to craft you a mirror of shadow?” he asks.

Pyre shifts uncomfortably and I understand why. Our magics may be on the same spectrum of light and dark, but on different scales of taboo. I’m wary of him, as well—even as I begin to respect his craft. Baron, however, walks a frail line between what he was and what he will become.

Like Eilish, he hasn’t matured into his powers and could stumble past the point of neutrality and end up swimming in inky black darkness until he’s swallowed by the abyss.

So could I and so could Cambion, but I’m ready for whatever comes next.

Only now do I see I have more in common with the necromancer than I initially thought.

“It will take time, but once it’s complete I will take you to the grimoire,” I promise. “It lies in a parallel between our world and another, a pocket realm of sorts that can only be accessed by mirror gating.”

Dragan’s mouth pulls into a tight frown. “And how do you know this?”

I smile. “Because I was the one who put it there.”

The gargoyle whirls around, wrapping his fist in the front of my tattered robes. I lift my hand to keep the others from interfering.

“Why?” he demands.

“Myerdoth’s witch asked me to,” I continue.

“She knew I was the only one who could protect it, and I’ve done so for many years.

Imagine what would have happened if Morrigan had gotten her hands on it.

You already saw what Variant can do to the gargoyles.

They’d be mindless slaves, forced to fight against their king.

Is that what you would’ve wanted for your kind? ”

With a low growl, Dragan releases me, and we resume our trek toward the succubae breeding grounds. As we scale yet another peak, I notice there are more ruins like those we found in the mountains.

“There was never a forest here, was there?” I ask, looking over at Pyre. His sightless eyes bore into me as he gives a steady nod.

The ground is littered with bones and armor, as though a great battle took place under the mountain.

Charred earth rests beneath the trees that have grown here to hide the truth.

Silvanus must have come here, trying to obscure what really happened.

I grab Baron’s dagger from his belt and slice open my palm.

The blood floats in the air like paint against an unseen canvas as I draw the symbols of a recall spell. Images begin to flash all around us, becoming more solid as I summon an illusion of the past.

Fire falls from the sky. Succubae scream out in agony as they flee for their lives.

Lamia stands there in her armor, ready to fight beside her female warriors, when a large shadow eclipses them.

The Incubus. Throwing his head back, he releases a roar that causes the volcano to erupt, spewing a river of molten lava that flows across the mountaintops.

It scorches the succubae hiding in their homes.

Cries echo up towards the sky as Gildlorthoine, the lost King of The Succubae, lays waste to them all.

His sword of flame sweeps low, severing heads and cleaving through armor.

Lamia retreats with her daughters, abandoning her people to be slaughtered.

The illusion breaks.

Dragan takes a deep breath. “Lamia said she and Variant were responsible for the extinction of her race…”

I hand the dagger back to Baron and seal the cut on my hand with a quick spell. “After Gildlorthoine destroyed most of the mountain, Silvanus planted this forest. He must have been the one protecting Eilish’s father. But something had to have triggered the Incubus’s rage.”

“Perhaps the loss of the one he loved,” Pyre suggests.

“If Maeline was killed, it would have sent him into a rage. Eilish says she sensed Silvanus’ presence the day her family was murdered by the Cockatrice.

If the Cockatrice told Gildlorthoine, that would explain why he killed the succubae.

He couldn’t bear to breed their numbers anymore without feeling as though he betrayed her. ”

“But Gildlorthoine abandoned Eilish and her mother,” Baron says.

“For their protection,” Dragan replies in Pyre’s stead. “Lamia would have seen his love for Maeline as a slight to her and her daughters. She would have gone after Eilish and her family if she’d known. Silvanus forcing him to disappear and hiding all of this is what kept them alive for so long.”

I kick aside a pile of volcanic rock and bones, then dig through the ash with my fingers until I hit something smooth and metal.

Pulling the item from the wreckage, I see it’s a crown.

The others hover nearby, gawking at the sheer size of the thing.

It easily expands the width of my shoulders, and I’m larger than both Baron and Cambion. Dragan lets out a long whistle.

“If it comes down to telling Eilish’s father that we’re all having sex with his daughter, I’m not going to be the one to fight him,” Baron says. “I’ll leave that for Silvanus.”

The vampire’s sarcasm isn’t much appreciated by Pyre and Dragan, but I chuckle at the off-handed statement, nonetheless. Even though I love Eilish and I’ve never stopped, hearing this news doesn’t bother me. I’ve long known what she is and what that means. I would never be enough for her.

Shaking his head, Pyre forges on. Heat begins to radiate from the volcano, causing sweat to soak through our heavy clothing.

I run my fingers through the hair that clings to my forehead and sigh. “None of you ever chooses an easy quest, do you?”

“Nah, if someone isn’t captured or close to dying, then what’s the point?” Baron responds.

***

FLUMPH

Desolate Border

I sees Pretty ride off toward the sands, sneakin’ out.

An’ then I grabs my boots an’ stuff my little foots inside, ready to go after her.

I forgettin’ somethin’, but I can’t remember what.

By the time I’m catchin’ up, I hear her hummin’.

She usedta hum that tune when she had them nightmares ‘bout her mother an’ sister dyin’.

It real creepy, an’ she actin’ all sketchy an’ whatsnot.

I don’t want her to sees me ‘till I knows what she up to.

“I should have never started all of this,” she say, but to no one. Great! She talkin’ to herself now!

Theys all crazy. Maybe it ‘cause they big. ‘Cause us little guys ain’t all that crazy, not like this.

“Grow up, Eilish!” she shout to herself. “Stop blaming everyone for your problems. Morrigan was right.”

MORRIGAN? THE MOTHER HEIFER AIN’T RIGHT!

She ain’t right ‘bout nothin’. What Pretty thinkin’, goin’ off like this?

Why she say the Mother Heifer right? Somethin’ ‘bout this don’t sits well with me.

I ain’t likin’ this one bit. If that mangy wench done said somethin’ to Pretty that makin’ her go all crazy, then I wanna kill her.

Even more than I already did. I wanna pokes her eyes out with my hands an’ use ‘em to decorate my room back at the stronghold.

First, though, I gotta see where Pretty goin’.

My ass is sweatin’ like a nightmare! Why Pretty gotta go wanderin’ through the desert like some sort o’ moody teenager?

But it too late now. I already out here, walkin’ along the hot sand, hatin’ that I didn’t bring Noni along.

‘Least she woulda poofs us further ahead so we don’t gotta walk so much.

My wings ain’t even workin’ right in this awful weather.

The sun is a fuckin’ dick today, scorchin’ my back an’ head ‘till I feels like I’m bubblin’ in some stew.

I thinkin’ she lost, ‘cause she ain’t gots no map or nothin’.

But then she touch somethin’ an’ it shimmer like a curtain o’ starlight.

This ain’t good. Though it look pretty, I know a gate when I sees one.

‘Specially after Cambion opened the one to Earlann. Pretty step through it an’ I follow her, ‘cause she ain’t ‘pose to go places on her own. Not when the others are so far away doin’ fuck all.

It ain’t too scary over here on the other side, but I still don’t likes it all the same.

It snowin’ here. We on some sorta mountain or somethin’, but not at the top. We by a lake.

It ain’t a big lake, but bigger than me.

A small little house built beside it, an’ I start gettin’ a rumbly feelin’ in my belly.

Not like I hungry or anythin’ like that, but the sorta rumbly that mean we ain’t ‘pose to be here. Pretty startin’ to look all scared- like an’ that don’t mean nothin’ good, either.

Without Noni, I can’t poofs to the stronghold.

I gotta leave Pretty… I don’t wanna, but I gotta.

She shouldn’t be here on her own. I knows that, but what choice do I gots?

I turn ‘round an’ flys back to the gate.

It all shimmery an’ stuff still, so I hope it don’t close before I get back with one o’ the giants.

Back into the fuckin’ desert I go, flappin’ my little wings fast as I can ‘till I reach the outpost. One o’ them mercenaries with the shifty eyes lookin’ at me all pissy-like.

“Give me a ride back to the king,” I tells him. “I a valuable member o’ the Giants of The Vindication or whatever. They needs to know what goin’ on, an’ if they finds out that you ain’t helpin’ me, you gonna be in a fuck ton o’ trouble.”

I climbs up on him’s shoulder before he answer. The mercenary get on him’s horse an’ ride fast. I can feel my bit o’ hair flutterin’ in the wind. It dryin’ my sweat, even though it smell like hot ass an’ gots all kinds o’ sand flyin’ into my eyes.

When we stop at the front gate, I hurry through the market an’ right up them big fuckin’ stairs that always make me tired just lookin’ at them.

Kolvar give me one o’ him’s “you ain’t ‘pose to be here” looks an’ I flips him off, shovin’ right past him ‘till I sees the elf sittin’ next to the horse king.

“Hey! Pretty gone, an’ you sittin’ here shovin’ your face with eats?”

He glarin’ at me all scary-like, but I ain’t too scared. I get up on the table an’ stomp right over to him. Noni scurryin’ in from another room. She don’t like when I get in the elf’s stupid face, but I don’t care.

“What are you talking about, Flumph?” he say. “Speak plainly.”

“The angel done snuck outta here an’ it don’t look like she’s gonna be comin’ back anytime soon.”

“Eilish left?” He stand up an’ him’s chair fall back. It crash to the floor, hurtin’ my little ears.

“That what I said!... MY NEW CROSSBOW! That what I were forgettin’!”

Noni sigh an’ pulls me off the table. She draggin’ me outta the big buildin’ an’ all the way to my room. We stops by my bed an’ she throwin’ my clothes at me. That another thing I forgot.

“Where the hell you think we goin’?”

“If Mr. Cambion is leaving, then we go with him. Get dressed, Mr. Flumph. Noni going to get the others. Mr. Kolvar and Miss Aima will want to come. Noni thinks we have to fight again. Master ain’t here to help, so we help,” the brownie say. She gots her chin up an’ her armor on in no time.

“But I don’t want to fight no more! They got lots o’ big people now! I ain’t gotta.”

“We help our friends, Mr. Flumph.”