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“Tor, something is wrong. He is trying to say something.”
Tor’s pale, purple hand strokes the glass, matching Theo’s outstretched hand. I try desperately to read his lips as he yells. The glass is too thick or enchanted to keep the sounds in.
“Theo, I promise we’ll save you! We’ll get you out of here.” Tears run unchecked down Tor’s face as he stares helplessly at his brother. He turns to me, face ashen. “Caelan, we need to go in! We need to—!”
All at once, I see Theo’s eyes widen in terror before he drops away from the window. A loudhissbehind us startles us both, a black cat leaping from its spot on the wall on the pond, stalking towards us. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s a cat. Maybe? It doesn’t look like any cat I’ve ever seen. Larger than a house cat, with glossy black fur and a menacing swagger. It’s the eyes, though, that are the most unsettling. Otherworldly bottomless, black eyes glittering with stars never stray from ours. Almost… hypnotising.
Lead floods my limbs. I can’t move. I am not sure if I’m even breathing. But I am aware of Tor’s trembling next to me, as he rushes to my side. He is drawing in energy the same way he had in the Woods. I canfeelit. The hundred percentnota cat hisses again. Louder this time, a painful wail piercing my eardrums. A small voice in the back of my head questionswhyI am scared of a stupid cat. I could probably boot it from here back into the Woods, but that is the stupidpart of the brain that usually gets people killed, because this is very definitelynota cat.
“RUN! FOR THE LOVE OF THE GODS RUN!” Edith’s screeching, followed by a loudboom, breaks the standoff between us and the demon beast.
Edith’s screams snap me out of whatever hold the not-a-cat has over me, and with no more hesitating I grab Tor’s hand, yanking him with me, just as he sends a little blast of magic at the cat. He manages to put the damned thing in its own bubble. Not sure what that is going to do, but at least it isn’t following us as we leg it back through the winding maze.
My lungs are burning as we run for our literal lives. From what I am not sure, but I am really not keen to find out. Tor is right on my heels, never faltering, Edith gaining on us within earshot, along with more booms and rumbles, the air wrinkling and bending with the magic.
Panting, we finally reach the end of the maze, almost tripping when the pebbled path gives way to soft grass, but we still keep running, the pounding of our feet on the grass in time with the thundering blood in my ears. That is, until we hear Edith’s shriek. Unable to leave my friend behind, I stop, causing Tor to slam into my back. Tor clings to my arm to keep his balance, and I wrap my other arm around him, trying to keep him safe as we turn as one to face the unimaginable.
Suspended in the air, surrounded by a blinding golden aura, is Edith. Her head has fallen back, her arms and legs lax. Her body is limp. Lifeless. Below her is… I don’t even know what. The being looks not unlike the holograms in the books I used to get as a kid. The kinds where you would look at it from one angle and it would look like one image and from the other something else. But thisthingis the different beings all at the same time. At once, she is an old crone, decrepit and aged. Haggard rags hang from her emaciated body. But in the same blink she is an ethereal golden fae, tall and elegant, floating in shimmering gossamer waves. She is both; she is neither. She ispowerfuland, most importantly, she ispissed.
And then it—she—notices us. As one, Tor and I back away from the awesome and horrifying being as she floats towards us. One of us stumbles. Is it me? Andboth of our asses hit the ground, but still we continue to shuffle back and away, hands and feet scrambling. Her head twitches as she takes us in.
“Oh, look.” I can’t contain my wince as her disembodied voice echoes around us,inside of us. It is everywhere all at once, pressing on my skull. “Another gift for me.”
Her eyes narrow in on Tor and I reach for him, grasping his shoulder, trying to pull him to me, but fear makes me shaky and I fumble for my grip. My clumsy attempt is enough to turn her attention to me. Her eyes narrow and she raises her hand.
Fire shoots through my body, and I would scream in agony, but I no longer have control of my body as I rise, like Edith, up and away from Tor. I can feel him trying to pull me back to him, but his touch is like acid burning my skin. I think I am screaming now, but I can feel nothing but piercing pain consuming me.
“You can’t fucking have them, you fucking bitch!” Tor lunges to his feet, and now I can no longer see him.
I feel the ripple of the being’s laugh. “It is not them I am after… But you… You will be perfect. Once I dispose of this here.” Unimaginable pain rips through my body and I become very aware, at that moment, that I am about to die.
“No, you fucking don’t!” Tor’s scream is the last thing I hear, before power pulses beside me and everything goes gloriously black.
Caelan
Gods, exactly, how muchdid I drink last night?I groan, then wince as the sound reverberates through my skull, and then winceagainas the movement causes even more pain. I haven’t been this hungover since… well, probably ever. Am I even hung over? I don’t remember drinking last night.
Despite every thought causing the pulsing throb in my brain to get worse, I try to wrack my brain about what happened last night, or better yet, where in the ether I am, but come up completely empty. My mouth is dry like cotton and my throat is killing me. If I didn’t think it’d cause me to black out in pain, I would try to find some water or something. Instead, I just lick pointlessly at my lips and try to get some movement back into my body.
Ok. Maybe I’m not hungover. Maybe I’m injured? Or sick? That would explain why everything hurts so damn badly. It feels as if every bone in my body has been broken twice over. But if I’m injured, where am I? With tentative fingers, I stroke the surface beneath me. It feels soft, cushiony. Am I on a couch? I poke some more. I definitely seem to be sprawled on a couch, one far too small for me, making my neck ache. I take a deep breath, feeling it burn in my lungs. The air smells earthy, herby, familiar.
Am I at Edith’s? That would explain the monster hangover. She had probably been experimenting again, and I was the latest sap sucked in to try her deadly concoctions.
Well, she better have a fucking cure because I feel like I’m dying.
Somewhere in the house, I hear a crash and some stumbling. A door creaking open and finally someone, probably Edith, slumping to the ground next to me. Blindly, I reach out and pat her frizzy hair in an attempt at greeting her.
“Caelan, what in the name of the Gods did we do last night? I feel like death all over. I am surprised I didn’t wake up in the bog.” Her voice is hoarse, like the time she spent the night screaming along with her favourite band when they played at Twin Heads.
Braving the worst, I crack my eyes open ever so slightly and peer out the corner of my eye at her head, where it rests on the edge of the couch.
“I was kinda hoping that you could answer that. I can’t move.” If I mumble just right, it doesn’t jar the blinding pain rocketing through me.
Edith raises her head and peers at me, her already usually pale face an unsightly grey colour. “You look like shit.” Her chuckle is breathless and all I can do is raise an eyebrow back at her.
“So do you, hag. Go make me a brew to get rid of this hangover. What did you give me last night?”
Her brows pinch as she frowns in confusion. “I actually have no idea.” She looks around the room. “Is it bad that I don’t remember what we drank? Or, um, how we got here. Oh shit, we didn’t have sex, did we?”
