Chapter 4
Daisy
“What’s…” Daisy’s face went slack as dark clouds churned and boiled nearby.
Light flared from within before jagged forks of lightning crackled between them.
The wind picked up, whipping her hair even from within Tarian’s protective magical cocoon.
Thunder rumbled with a bone-rattling growl, so similar in pitch and cadence to Stratow’s growling laugh.
“Are we under attack?” she asked hopefully, probably barely heard above the howling wind.
Kieran could do this. He could create weather like this.
Dylan could supply the lightning so precisely that he could kill Tarian without harming her.
He could knock them all down from the sky.
Before she hit the ground, Donovan could catch her with his magic.
Together, they had the skill to save her.
They had the ability. Their power, as a group, was great enough.
No, but that is very interesting to know about the might of your crew, Tarian said. It’s always been believed that the Celestials are much more powerful than the Demigods of your world, but after meeting one of them, I always wondered if that was actually the case.
He’d met Lydia, a Demigod of Hades who had tried a power play by making a deal with the fae.
She hadn’t fulfilled her end of the bargain, whatever it was, and had lost her life for it.
She was the reason Tarian had needed a distraction at the Demigod Summit.
A distraction that had nearly killed Daisy and her family.
Lydia was a fool and not the best of her class, Daisy said, ignoring the anger from the past. That was behind her. If she needed a reason to kill this fae, she had plenty.
Gotcha. But once again, no, this is not an attack.
You can’t bring a stormback down with lightning or winds or anything to do with storms. They create the storms that invigorate Faerie.
The rain nurtures plant growth and fills the streams. The lightning’s destruction clears out old growth and leaves room for rebirth.
The thunder…well, that’s just scary, I guess.
Thunder is the sound created by the fast expansion of air around a lightning bolt. The lightning creates a shock wave that manifests as a sound wave.
The more you know, hmm?
She wasn’t sure if he knew he was reciting a tagline from some old Chester show.
I do now, he thought.
Rain fell in heavy sheets, slashing through his magical bubble. The air electrified around them, and the temperature dropped further. Lightning flickered ever closer as the clouds continued to close in.
“What are we doing?” she asked softly, her voice quivering. “Why are we riding a creature that literally creates dangerous storms?”
It’ll be okay. Tarian gave her a squeeze. Stratow will shield us a great deal, and I will take care of the rest. It’ll be uncomfortable, but it won’t be incredibly painful.
She licked her lips, not wanting to speak in her mind. Needing to have the words spoken physically for reasons she couldn’t understand.
“Is this like the time very recently when you didn’t realize humans couldn’t tolerate high altitudes?”
No. I am well aware humans can’t handle a lightning strike.
A bolt zipped down beside them with such force that the crack made her scream. Her corresponding jump nearly launched her off Stratow’s back.
I’ve got you, Tarian said, and she heard the humor in his voice. She was forever the butt of the joke in this realm. He’d pay for that one day.
Add it to the list, he said, and he’d pay for that, too.
Another bolt crashed down, striking the stormback Kayla was riding. She leaned back marginally, not at all alarmed that the lightning had struck a foot from her.
“Oh my god,” Daisy said, pushing into Tarian. That bolt had landed right between the stormback’s wings, where she was currently sitting.
It’s going to be okay—
“Stop saying that! This is not okay. This is very much…” An ominous cloud rushed toward them as though it had a vendetta. Her scalp tingled before her hair started to stand. “Oh fuck, oh god. Oh god, oh fuck. Fucking—”
The bolt nearly blinded her with its brilliance.
The air cracked with an ear-splitting boom before a flare of heat washed over her body.
The bolt landed right between her legs in the center of Stratow’s back.
Stratow, though, was not affected. His hair-fur didn’t blacken, nor did the skin show red or black underneath.
“Why?” she asked herself. “Why do they get struck by lightning? I understand the water and the natural order of things, but why do they get hit by their own magic?”
That’s…just the way it is, Tarian said haltingly, and it was clear he had never asked.
Nor did Stratow offer any explanation, not that she could feel or understand.
They can somewhat control where the lightning hits their bodies.
Usually, they like it in the center of their backs, between their wings, where it is striking the others.
But Stratow is redirecting it so you are safe.
I am minimizing the electrical discharge and the corresponding heat.
The human world had its oddities, but Faerie was a weird fucking place.
The human world definitely has its oddities.
So many and so strange that I began keeping a journal to remember them in years to come when I am closed out of that realm.
Obviously, that was before I realized I’d have to die to set right the fissure I created.
I find the human world so much more interesting than this place.
She shook her head, closing her eyes as another bolt struck. This one hit another of the stormbacks. The winds persisted, shoving at her from one way, then another.
How did your birth create the fissure? Just because you have—had, I guess—more power than most?
You still remember? he asked quietly.
Your being a Celestial? Yes. Hopefully I will forget this journey when we’re through, though. I’m concerned I’ll definitely be afraid of heights at the end of this horror show. And I haven’t even looked down!
His cheek brushed against hers. You’re a stranger and you’re not from my past, but it is nice to know your memories won’t be stolen.
That I can tell you of my past, of the good times, and you will keep them—for now.
He took her hand, turned it over, and placed a kiss on her palm.
He curled her fingers to trap the sentiment inside.
By the end, you will almost certainly hate me.
Remember, I have no choice but to play my part in all of this.
My cruelty, and my indifference, will be necessary, and it will be brutal.
This is the light…and it will balance the incredible darkness I must become.
She pushed aside his warnings. His regrets. They meant nothing to her. She’d chosen this path; she’d weather what came. Literally, it seemed. She wasn’t afraid of his darkness and thought it was sweet that he kept trying to prepare her for his personality change.
She put her hands on his thighs to comfort him.
She didn’t know what it must be like to essentially be a ghost. She was displaced from her family, but she knew they’d remember her.
She knew they’d lament her passing. She didn’t know how she’d find comfort in all of this if she didn’t have them to think back on.
Continue with the court info, please, she murmured.
They didn’t get there until after dark. Nervous adrenaline had started the second Tarian mentioned a descent into the kingdom.
She hadn’t opened her eyes the whole time, and not because of the slow downward flight and surprisingly soft landing.
It was because she was full of uncertainty about what was to come.
She knew what everything looked like, thanks to Tarian’s shared images, and given his perceptions seemed dark and twisted and ominous, she knew seeing it through her human eyes would be downright nightmarish.
It was best she didn’t create terror before there was a cause.
“Thank you, Stratow.” Tarian put his hand on his heart as he faced the large creature. “You’ve saved us much time and effort that we greatly needed.”
Rain pelted down from the stormy skies, obscuring their limited vision within the darkness.
They all stood in a field at the back of what was presumably a large castle.
Only a sliver of a moon lit the sky, and very little light came from strange globes glimmering in the distance.
What seemed like vast and enormous steeples rose out of the murky darkness way above them.
Daisy stood off to the side on shaky legs.
I enjoyed our time together, little human, Stratow told her with mental words.
It was a wonderful surprise. I’d like to know more of your kind, I think.
So free with your words and thoughts and emotions.
I look forward to seeing you again someday under much brighter circumstances.
Watch yourself in there. You are our unlikely hero.
In you, great things will manifest. I feel it in the winds.
What a lovely, positive outlook. She could get used to sentiments like that when faced with a shitstorm.
Her teeth started to chatter from the cold. “Th-thanks for the ride. Sorry about screaming so much when you were changing course.”
His deep, growling hum signaled his laughter. Thank you for the entertainment. Fae like Tarian need a reminder that they are not as great as they think they are. They are merely fae, nothing more.
Tarian’s brows pulled together.
The others said their goodbyes and thanks, and then they turned away, presumably to allow the stormbacks privacy as they organized their return to the skies.
The ground was flat and somewhat sandy, with nothing in the way to impede her feet. She followed behind the others, in a loose cluster with tense bodies and tight shoulders. They were not happy to be home.