Old Friends
Jack!" My voice came out unrecognizable, nearly an octave higher. Part of it was terror, but most was a reaction to the thick, acrid smoke, solid as a fist, shoving its way down my throat. The air filled with it as the lake behind us became an inferno.
I could barely see Jack, his hand my only lifeline in this nightmare. "Get ready!" he shouted, and with a dizzying twist the landscape warped. We still stood on the same blasted plain, but far enough away to be out of danger. Tendrils of smoke clung to us like living things, and I tried my best to brush them away.
I watched as the dark clouds undulated sinuously up, blacking out the red night sky. The lake burned evenly, a single body of flame, the Dark Queen's boat barely more than a pile of fire now.
Jack put his hands on his hips, surveying the scene with a satisfied nod. "That turned out much better than I'd hoped."
"Please, let's leave!" If we could still see the chaos, we were far closer than I wanted to be. I could imagine what the Dark Queen's midnight gaze would feel like if she found us. My skin crawled-with fear or anticipation, I couldn't tell. Neither was good.
"What's your hurry? Let's take a moment to bask in the satisfaction of a job well done."
"I didn't want to do that!"
"No?" He cocked his head and raised his eyebrows. "I thought you hated the fey."
"I do, but that doesn't mean I want to run around the Faerie Realms lighting everything on fire!"
"What's the point in hating something if you aren't proactive?" He put his arm around my shoulders, steering me to look at the inferno with him. "You can't tell me that's not satisfying, not after what you saw. Faeries care about very few things, but they're quite fond of their little trinkets. That boat was a particular favorite of hers, not to mention the entire lake. All the centuries she spent crafting this landscape, then poof! One excellently thrown firebomb, and you've made her feel anger and pain more deeply than she's probably ever known. And far less than she deserves to know."
Watching the flames, it was as though the lingering smoke wove its way into my chest, dark and seeping, replacing my fear with anger. He was right. They deserved this. They deserved far, far worse than this.
I narrowed my eyes until the brilliant line of fire was all I could see. Come to think of it, it was exactly what this landscape needed. It belonged here.
I turned to Jack. "What else did you have in mind?"
His face burst into a dimpled smile. "I knew you weren't useless. A quick stop to gather more supplies and-"
"You."
We both jumped in shock, turning around to find the source of the horrid, rasping voice. Something crouched, feral and twisted. Wild and matted hair half covered sunken features. What had no doubt once been fine clothes were now filthy and torn beyond recognition. But then I found the eyes-her eyes. Ruby red eyes. Ruby red eyes that had once gone with a voice like shattering glass.
Fehl.
The last time I'd seen her had been in Lend's kitchen, when Vivian tried to drain the life from her. She'd gotten away but was apparently much worse for the wear. Gone was the ethereal, disconnected grace of the fey. She was a thing gone wild, her eyes feverish, her movements jerky and darting.
"You did this to me."
I held up my hands, taking a step back. "No, I didn't. I'm sorry, but-" I paused. I wasn't sorry. Fehl had squirmed around her binding IPCA rules to work with Vivian and bring me to what she thought would be my death. What nearly had been my death. Besides which, I saved her life that night by stopping Viv from draining her entirely. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have. I stood straighter. "I seem to recall you bringing this on yourself."
She let out a laugh, somewhere between a croak and a cough. "Yes, a job well done and well rewarded. But if I finish-if I bring a prize back to my queen-she'll love me again. She'll fix me." Fehl stood up straight, grimacing as though it hurt.
"You broke a faerie?" Jack edged away, not taking his eyes off her. "A little warning would have been nice. I don't want to die now that things have finally gotten fun."
"Relax," I snapped. "We're not going to die. She can't hurt me."
Fehl laughed again, a hint of her old glass coming through. "Little girl, you've no idea what I can do."
"Can you handle her?" Jack asked, and I realized that, for the first time since I met him, he sounded scared. I didn't want to know what he'd faced at the hands of faeries. Faeries like Fehl. I wasn't about to let him get hurt again.
I stretched out my fingers, wondering what a faerie would feel like as I watched Fehl shift back and forth on her feet, twitching like a cat waiting to pounce. It wasn't wrong, it couldn't be wrong, to take some of her soul if it meant protecting myself and helpless people like Jack. It wasn't much different than what IPCA did, anyway. I was like a human Tasey.
Fehl snarled, then jumped forward, covering the distance between us faster than I thought possible. I dodged, but tripped and fell back in my haste to get out of her way. She overshot, sliding along the ground before whipping around as I scrambled backward on my palms, trying to get more space between us.
She bared her teeth at me in a sick grin and stalked slowly forward. Jack was behind Fehl now, frowning as he watched. I wanted to scream at him to run, but he was probably in shock. Why didn't he make a door away from here? I couldn't get up without giving Fehl an opening to attack me. I wracked my mind, desperate for a plan, when it hit me.
"Denfehlath!" I shouted. "Stop!"
Her eyes went wide with fury as every muscle ground to a complete halt. She stood, motionless, frozen before a jump. I might have lost the ability to control Reth when he tricked me into letting him pick a new name, but I still knew Fehl's name. Too bad for her.
I stood, dusting my hands off on my pants. "Don't move." I held back a gloating grin, watching Fehl's tortured face. She was within inches of the vengeance she'd craved for so long, but there was nothing she could do. Jack walked over to me and looked at frozen Fehl as though considering a sculpture in a museum.
"Interesting. IPCA won't give me any faerie names. I'd always wondered about named commands." He turned to me. "Well, what now? Are you going to leave her here?"
I considered it. My fingers twitched at my sides, and I was hyperaware of the extra energy, the ever-present tingling, and the cool, flowing sensation that sometimes rushed through my veins. I could see the glow from Fehl's chest, far brighter in faeries than in vampires. Maybe, to teach her a lesson, just a little . . .
Someone cleared his throat behind us. "Evelyn. I thought I felt you. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company, my love?"
My heart sank to my stomach. Bad timing, thy name is Reth. I turned around to face him, heartbreakingly beautiful, if rather comically out of place in this hellish landscape with his white Victorian suit and golden hair. He looked disdainfully at Fehl, tsked softly, then glanced at the still-raging inferno.
"My, you have been busy today, haven't you?"
Jack nudged me with his elbow. "Don't suppose you know his name, too?"
"No such luck," I muttered, still bitter.
Reth frowned at Jack, the expression doing nothing to sully his perfect, lineless face. "What are you doing here, boy? I believe Dehrn is looking for you. Something about stealing her books of lore."
Jack glared, a petulant set to his lips, but didn't answer.
A shriek, crackling with more energy and destructive power than any fire, reached us from the direction of the lake. "Time to go." Jack grabbed my hand and the landscape twisted away from us, leaving Reth and a frozen Fehl, her eyes screaming the fury that her body couldn't. I felt a stab of anger at losing my chance to-
I needed to stop thinking about it. She couldn't hurt us now, and that was the point. That was the only reason I'd even considered touching her.
We stopped and I sank to the floor of Jack's room, sighing with relief at all the bullets we'd dodged. "I can't believe we got away with that."
"Nor can I," Reth answered, holding a dirty sock at arm's length. "Still, always lovely to have guests."
So much for getting away with it.