Chapter 14 #2
Do you remember what I said about the ancient ones that live outside Underhill? The ones with so much power that the laws of magic no longer apply to them? The Cody is one of them, but I wasn’t near her territory. I was in the territory of someone far more dangerous than her.
He was difficult to rouse to anger—almost impossible from what I’ve been told—but he did have his triggers.
The tree I’d nearly smashed into was close to his lair, and it was ancient for its species.
Most red maples don’t live much past a hundred years, but from the size of this one, it had to be pushing four hundred easily.
That meant it was cared for by him, and that was rare. Paris’s dog Trixie’s true master—not Paris. I’m pretty sure Paris is more like her pet than anything— wasn’t known for caring for anything other than his shadow children, and even then, he was a hands-off parent.
No, I won’t speak his name. It changes with the years, but in the dumbest ways.
Trixie’s master simply changes a few letters every time he changes his identity, thinking it’ll fool people.
Over the countless centuries of his existence, it’s become unrecognizable from its original form, but it still has enough similarities to make it confusing to all of us who are old enough to have witnessed the changes.
It's ridiculous, really. He’s far too powerful for any of us to be able to do anything to him with or without his name, true or otherwise.
Names among the fae have power, both true and assumed.
Wraith is not my eternal millstone’s original name, nor is Vale my own.
We both chose these names to use for a few decades and will discard them once they start to gain too much power.
It’s the way of the fae, and I grow more bound to their rules as the decades pass.
One day, there would be no difference between me and them at all, and then there would be no hope for me to change my fate. I’d be stuck with Wraith’s curse, and I’d outlive Echo whether I managed to keep him from killing himself or not.
You see, I’d made very little progress with my attempt to use magic and science to cure Wraith and myself from his curse.
In more than a century, I’d done little more than make advances in medicine for humans.
Their lifespans had only increased from my studies, rather than me learning how to decrease my own.
The irony didn’t elude me.
Perhaps one day, after Echo died, I would stop caring about Wraith’s continued existence and kill us both.
But until that day came, I would fight to give Echo enough reason to live that he would choose to stay alive as long as possible.
In the spirit of that decision, I made my way to the church grounds to observe Echo in action.
He was a beautifully clever creature, using an economy of motion to achieve his goals. He didn’t handicap himself by falling into the fallacy of morals. His traps would cause serious damage to anyone who fell prey to them, but he didn’t place them in touristy areas.
To me, that meant he recognized the need not to kill the cash cow, while still knowing that one had to go for the throat to get the prize.
He used far more poisoned darts than he had on the previous day, telling me that he’d either perfected a particular recipe or learned something from his fight with Mavolyn.
I wanted to know which one it was. I wanted to go to Echo and ask why he did what he did. I wanted to learn what was going on inside his head. I wanted to feed from him and get the undiluted answers for myself.
Sigh.
Which was why I was keeping my distance.
I watched Echo as he worked, keeping my distance, yet still getting as close as I dared. I wanted to be close to Echo. It felt right to be with him in a way nothing ever had.
I wanted to be done with all of the bullshit between us so we could simply be together, but I didn’t know how to do such things. It was all a mystery to me how romance worked since I’d never experienced it myself. I’d never studied it.
So, I studied Echo to see if I could figure out how to win his heart.
I did nothing as the time grew near sunset. I wasn’t partaking in the hunt in any capacity other than to instill fear into the hearts of the fae to make sure they did as I ordered.
Echo’s body went still as the sun set. His energy went from busy to absolute calm as he tucked himself away to hide and watch the carnage unfold.
As the humans and the fae began their dance of wits, tech, and magic, Echo contented himself to wait and watch, biding his time until the moment was right.
Unlike the day before, he wasn’t able to find a quick path to the door.
The chaos spilled over onto the path he’d taken before, leaving him with no other options than to retreat or wade into the fray.
Of course my little danger-happy love waded in.
My body was as tense as a bowstring as I watched him duck and weave through the crowd, avoiding a knife to the back, a taser to the chest, and somehow ignoring at least three spells (harmless ones, of course.
No fae would risk provoking me). In fact, Echo was so good that my orders were almost unnecessary.
It enraged me that I’d missed him in all previous hunts. I’d never wasted my time in the churchyard, so I’d never seen him in action. I’d only heard of his exploits through complaints on the forum.
Eventually, Echo managed to enter the tower and pelted for the stairs. Then inexplicably, rather than lead a pursuer into it, he raced for one of his own traps and triggered it. It was the rope trap he’d been working on the day after we met.
Instead of using it for the purpose of snatching some poor fuck into the air by their ankle, Echo grabbed the rope and allowed it to propel him up and into the darkness above.
That… that absolute moron. I…There were no words.
I used my speed, the thing that allowed me to win time and time again, to race up the stairs, heedless of Echo’s other traps, because I was gone long before the consequences of triggering them occurred.
I reached the beam I’d caught Echo dangling from earlier just as he flew past it, unable to stop his ascent. I snatched him out of the air by the front of his jacket and held him against me, keeping a tight grasp on him. I was fuming and choking on rage.
If I’d allowed physics to have its way with Echo, his trajectory would have bashed his head in on the wooden beam above us.
“You absolute idiot,” I shouted, seething with an anger that far surpassed the emotions the monster inside me was able to inflict. “If you’re so eager to die, I might as well fuck you to death myself and save us both the trouble.”
I grabbed Echo by his throat, blinded by the fear that he’d nearly killed himself for the sake of a game. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing, on the steady, rapid beat of his pulse under my fingers.
I kept my hand on his neck, calming myself, continuing to focus on his pulse, the proof he was still alive.
On the ground floor, I heard Fawn whisper, “Should I blow the horn now? Or should I wait?”
Asher’s voice whispered back, “Let’s wait. If we’re lucky, Vale will kill the guy, and we won’t have to deal with this anymore.
“I’m not going to fucking kill Echo,” I muttered.
“That’s annoyingly obvious,” Echo said dryly. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to breathe right now. You could at least lift me until my toes are barely scraping the beam under me.”
“Shut up. Just… stop talking.” My heart was going crazy at the near-miss, and I needed a fucking moment, okay?
“I’m going to use the horn,” Fawn whispered. At least they were being quiet enough that Echo’s human ears couldn’t hear them.
“I’ll stab you if you do,” Mavolyn growled. “I want this over already.”
“Vale might kill me if I don’t,” Fawn stated wisely.
I wanted the game to end so I could deal with my feelings in privacy, and I mentally begged the dumbasses downstairs to blow the fucking horn already.
“You were never going to kill me, were you?” Echo asked, voice gentle rather than accusing.
I refused to meet his gaze and kept my mouth shut.
Echo sighed. “You caught feelings, didn’t you?”
I pinched my lips together, afraid that any answer would make me lose him forever.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Vale. I’m not the pony to bet all your money on.
” Echo reached up to stroke my chin. He was smiling, but it was a sad smile, and I hated it.
“I’m sorry I was an asshole to you earlier.
I freaked out when I realized things were starting to get real with you, and you didn’t deserve that. ”
I finally met his gaze and glared. Suddenly, I was the one without words, and Echo held them all. What was I supposed to say that wouldn’t ruin everything?
“I… I don’t always want to die,” Echo said, as if he was admitting a dark secret.
“Sometimes I feel small things. Hopeful things, but they don’t last. They’re always taken over by the dark place.
The place that makes me empty and numb. That’s why you shouldn’t care about me, Vale. It’ll only hurt more when I’m gone.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” I said finally, unable to keep my peace while he said such terrible things.
“I might. Even if I allow the feelings I have for you to grow, it won’t fix things. I’ll still be broken inside. The only difference is that there will be more collateral damage if I break completely.”
There were more hurried whispers below as more fae joined the conversation.
“Can you hear what’s going on up there?”
“I can’t hear shit. Ask an air-based fae.”
“I can’t. The last one fucked off to Underhill after last night. She said she couldn’t take the bells anymore.”
“Fuck.”
“I thought I heard the words collateral damage. Do you think Vale is going to destroy the tower?”
“Just blow the horn, dammit,” Mavolyn ordered. “We can try again tomorrow night. I’m not sticking around for the aftermath if Vale ruins the tower over their bullshit.”
“Fine. I’m calling it,” Fawn said.
The sound of an airhorn split the air, signaling another end to another disastrous bell hunt.
I heard Pastor Jonathan shouting, “One more night! Just one more night of this tomfuckery and I swear I’ll bring the wrath of God down on you all. So help me if I don’t, you motherless fucking piles of shit!”
Our time was up, so I said, “The bells are going to ring soon, Echo. Can I take you out of here?” I finally released my hold on Echo’s throat, but my heart kicked in protest. I hadn’t been ready to lose contact with proof of Echo’s life yet.
“Where do you want to go?” Echo asked warily.
“Somewhere the bells won’t distract me.” I could have fucked Echo in my lab. That would very likely have distracted me or caused his energy to render the effect null for me, but we weren’t there yet. “The forest. The Cody won’t let the magic bother us there.”
Trixie’s master didn’t care about the bells, and neither did his children, so he didn’t do anything to negate their effect on the fae in his territory. Likely because they’d flock to him to keep them safe, and since he was a notorious loner, he wouldn’t want that.
“I’d like to see The Cody again,” Echo said tentatively.
I snorted. If Echo wasn’t careful, The Cody would adopt him, and then she’d make me jump through hoops to win him for her own amusement.
I took Echo’s words as consent and carried him away from the tower, not stopping until we crossed over into The Cody’s territory.
I took a deep breath and released it slowly. Gods, this was going to be horrible. “I come seeking asylum from the bells so I can have a private conversation with someone.”
The woods cackled in response.
Great. The Cody wasn’t going to make it easy on me. I’d brought it on myself, really. I didn’t have to be mean to her every time we spoke. I just did it because it felt good.
Now I was going to pay.
“You didn’t ask my permission before, Vale. Why the change? Could it be you’ve grown fond of your food and want to impress him?” The Cody didn’t show herself, instead projecting her voice all around us—likely to be extra creepy.
“I’ve grown very fond of him,” I said through gritted teeth.
Nothing less than complete honesty would get me what I wanted—enough time to talk properly with Echo without being harassed by The Cody.
She was whimsical and a touch romantic. If I told her what I needed, there was a good chance she would give it to me, so I forced myself to continue.
“I think I’m falling in love with him, and I need to talk to him about it somewhere safe. Somewhere private.”
Echo gasped. “L-love?”
“Do you have a problem with that?” I asked testily. “I’m allowed to have feelings, whether you want me to or not.”
“No, of course not. It’s just—”
“Will you grant my request?” I interrupted Echo because I really needed to talk to him privately, and The Cody was listening to everything.
“I will grant your request, but you have to fuck in my woods at least one more time, and I get to watch.”
I choked, and it took a long time to be able to say, “That’s the opposite of private.”
It took so long, in fact, that it gave Echo plenty of time to say, “Deal.” Thus sealing the pact with The Cody before I had a chance to stop him.
“Echo, this means we have to have sex here at least once, even if this conversation doesn’t go well,” I informed him, suddenly feeling every single year of my nearly two centuries of life. Why was life so exhausting?
“Even if this conversation doesn’t go well, I will never turn down a chance to get my hands on you again,” Echo said with a grin.
My ears went hot, and I cleared my throat multiple times.
Echo’s grin took over his face, and he teased, “Mid-eighteen hundreds. That’s definitely when you were born. You’ve got some delightful Victorian-era social conditioning. I really hope this conversation goes well so I can learn all your triggers.”
“I would like nothing more,” I agreed, fighting the urge to hide my blushing ears. “Are you still there, bog witch?” I asked The Cody.
Silence greeted me, but the air around us suddenly lit with soft, twinkling fairy fire. It was a harmless, pretty spell, used mostly for mood lighting.
The Cody was such a romantic.
“Is that a good sign?” Echo asked, reaching out to touch a trailing bit of fire and marveling when it didn’t burn him.
“She’s gone. If she were here, she would have to let us know because she’s as bound to the pact as we are.”
“Good. Then let’s talk.”