CHAPTER FIVE
EILISH
The Veil
Darkness creeps across the ground like fog in the early hours of dawn. I wade through that darkness until I find a small hovel surrounded by large stones that obscure the light of the rising sun. The scent of crisp apples and dewy grass fills my lungs as steam coils from my mouth with each breath. Snow gently flutters to the ground, and I hear my boots crunch on the frozen stone beneath my feet.
“Ellie!” someone calls in a small voice. It’s familiar and yet not, but I follow the sound as though I’m drawn to it. I step inside and bask in the warm candlelight spilling through the room, breaking up the shadows. A woman with cascading silver hair sits at the table with a young child.
“Ellie! Did you go to the city again?” the woman asks, concern lacing her voice. She stands up and approaches me. Suddenly, warm hands frame my face as she stares deeply into my eyes. I feel loved here. This woman... I don’t know her name or what she means to me, but I know she loves me and I know… I know she’s dead. And so is the child by her side.
“Solya, go fetch a blanket for your sister. She’s freezing.”
Sister? I have a sister? Why can’t I remember her? And this woman with the silver hair must then be my mother?
The woman who holds me tenderly, my mother, begins to fade. Her skin cracks like fragile porcelain and she turns to dust before my eyes. Solya screams and I run to her, but I’m too late. She clings to my blouse, weeping as she cries out for me to save her, but I can’t.
I don’t know how to. I don’t know what’s happening. All I do know is… I’m scared.
I shoot up from my bed, sweat glistening on my heated flesh as the nightmare slowly recedes to the corners of my mind. I feel like I can’t breathe, so I stand up to open the window. Flumph squints at me, worry clear in his beady little eyes.
“You been dreamin’ again? Or it somethin’ else?” the sprite asks.
“A memory, I think,” I respond as I remember my mother’s eyes. “A memory of my mother and sister.”
“I didn’t knows you had a family,” he says.
“Neither did I.” I lift a hand to brush the sweat-tangled hair from my eyes and breathe in the fresh air that filters through The Veil.
“Tell me ‘bout her?”
“She was beautiful,” I say in a haunted tone. “Silver hair and blue eyes. I think she was an angel. My sister... she didn’t look like my mother. She had dark hair.”
“Were she a succubus like you?”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t able to see much of her. But…”
“What?” Flumph climbs up onto the windowsill.
“My mother and Solya are dead. I don’t know how I know that… but I… just do.”
“You sures?” he asks and eyes me narrowly.
I nod. “It was this feeling I had—like I knew they were no longer with us. I think they died before the balance was disrupted.” Part of me hopes that memory never returns. Yes, I want to know who I am and what my life was like before I walked up to Anona’s precinct, but there’s so much going on now that looking back seems... pointless. Whatever happened, happened. I sigh. “Anyway, that’s what the dream was about.”
“Well, if ya need me, just holler.” Flumph flutters across the bedchamber and into the bathing room. I turn my back to the window and watch my companions as they rest. Fighting to get the Midnight Queen was much harder than any of us expected, and some of us were injured in the process.
My head throbs and I leave the bedchamber to find Noni. I push open the door to her room and find her hovering over the Midnight Queen. “How is she?” I ask.
The house brownie shakes her head. I move to sit on the bed and press my hand to Morrigan’s forehead. She feels hot. “I was hoping to find her awake,” I say as I glance down at the beautiful woman. “There are still so many questions I want to ask her.”
“Why pretty angel want to ask questions?” Noni asks, her large eyes like saucers in her face.
I shrug. “I need answers— we need answers, if we’re going to finish this mission.”
“What the mission?”
“I thought it was to simply stop Variant, but there seems to be so much more going on now. Stopping him won’t restore the balance or repair the damage that’s already been done.”
Noni blinks her cerulean eyes up at me. “Midnight Queen not getting better without her power. Noni will do her best but Master still not feeling good, either.”
I reach over to the bedside table and take the rag from the bowl, squeezing out the excess water before dabbing Morrigan’s forehead. Her fever seems to come and go, but there’s no telling when she’ll wake up. It’s been two nights since we rescued her and my mind is prickling with curiosity.
Why did she keep me safe for so long? Who am I to her? What will happen once Variant is stopped?
So many questions. My mind is plagued by uncertainty.
But then there’s the matter of my companions. I no longer fight my connection to Baron, but Dragan and Cambion still try their best to keep their distance. I turn to the house brownie as a question occurs to me. “Noni, have you met any angels before?”
She shakes her head, causing her curls to bounce. “Noni never meet any angels. Just you. But she know lots of demons. Why you ask?”
“What about a succubus?”
“Oh! Noni know lots of succubus-es. Well, she did, before they disappear. Noni even met a Incubus before. He was real handsome. Eyes real black and skin all pale, but him’s wings... they was huge! Like a bat, but Noni don’t see him for a long time.”
“An incubus?”
She nods, her eyes growing even wider. “He was a king,” she explains. “When he left, the succubus needed to feed from regular fae, because he wasn’t their master no more. Noni meet Incubus in the mountains once. She like him. He big and scary like Master, but he nice to Noni. That the last time Noni see him.”
It’s hard to imagine anyone could dislike Noni. “I never knew there were males like me,” I say. “No one ever mentioned it.”
“No males, just one. And he disappear long before the succubus disappear.”
“What were they like?” I ask. “The succubae that you met.”
Noni sits on the edge of the bed and swings her feet. “When Noni meet one succubus, she know she not meeting them all. One ain’t never like the other. Everybody different. Some mean, some nice, some big, some small. Even Noni ain’t like other brownie. Most brownie are tricky, naughty things that get into lots of trouble.”
“Then the succubus you met wasn’t nice to you?”
“No,” she answers. “But, just ‘cause one succubus ain’t nice, don’t mean they all not.”
We fall quiet once more, focusing on bringing down Morrigan’s fever.
“Midnight Queen need her powers back.”
“None of us can leave until the others are healed,” I reply. It’s for the best. We need this break—we need to rest and to heal. And there’s no better place than in The Veil, because we’re safe here.
Noni teaches me a trick with my healing magic—how to channel it into one specific place so I don’t drain myself so easily. It helps, and it also reminds me that I haven’t seen Pyre for some time. When the Midnight Queen’s fever subsides, I head into the corridor and make my way down the stairs.
Pyre is nowhere to be found. The fire still crackles nearby, filling the small cottage with warmth and it brings back tendrils of my dream. I close my eyes and see the face of my mother again. She looks like me.
A hand touches my shoulder, startling me, and I turn around to face Pyre. The necromancer appears pained. His face is contorted into a tight frown, his skin ashen and a bead of sweat trickles down his temple.
“Why are you up at this hour?” he asks, his voice sounding rougher than usual. “You need your rest as much as the rest of them do, Eilish. Go back to sleep.”
I can’t. Not when I’ve seen his condition. “Pyre… what’s… wrong with you?”
He glances down at the floor as if it has an answer for him. “It took much of my Necromantic energy to shape the Oluri ,” he answers before taking a deep breath. The Oluri was a glass sphere that acted as a portal, allowing us to exit Variant’s castle and return safely to The Veil.
“This… weakness is to be expected,” Pyre continues.
“Because the Oluri captured a piece of your soul?”
“Yes, exactly.”
I swallow hard as I look at him. He seems to be crumbling by the second. “Pyre…”
“I don’t need your pity.”
“Not pity. Concern,” I reply reassuringly. “What can I do? You risked your life to help us. Let me return the favor. No matter what it is... Please.”
He stares at me and for a moment, I forget he’s blind “Are you willing to trek through the dangers of The Veil?”
“If doing so saves you?” I ask before nodding. “Yes.”
“I must go to the Echoing Spire.”
“What is that?”
“It’s the place where The Veil’s magic pools. As the guardian of this world, I can tap into its power and restore my strength. But I can’t get there alone. I was hoping Baron would have been well enough—”
“I’ll go with you,” I interrupt as I start to worry my lower lip.
“What is it?”
I look up at him, craning my neck, because he’s so tall. “We have to leave without the others knowing. They would never allow me to go, and I don’t intend to argue with them.”
***
CAMBION
The Veil
I’m here in the darkness and yet I can’t find the entrance to my garden, the place I visit when the reality of my fate is too consuming. I can’t get there and so I can’t get to her , to Eilish. Not the real Eilish, of course, but the part of her I can’t deny. My life would be much easier if it were Aima or someone else. This world, however, has never been kind to me. What makes me think the planes of the fabricated world in my mind would be any different?
The sun is rising. I can sense it. Though my eyes aren’t open, I feel heat slithering through the darkness. The sun isn’t the same in The Veil as it is in the realms. Here—in a world trapped between life and death—the sun isn’t as bright, nor does the sunshine last more than a handful of hours. Day is fleeting and night reigns supreme. The spectrum of color that bleeds into the spirit world is vibrant and enchanting.
I blink and see Noni sitting on my chest. She looks nervous as she fidgets with the hem of her small tunic.
“M-Mr. Cambion? Noni don’t mean to wake you, but she worried. She real, real worried.”
“What’s wrong?” I ask, sitting up from the pillow. Noni slides down my torso and lands in the blankets that gather around my waist.
“Noni know you real kind to fae like her, so she wanna tell you, but... Oh! Noni not very good at keeping secrets and this a big one. Master will be angry, but he not thinking right.” The little creature tugs at her chestnut curls and chews her bottom lip. Her eyes flicker anxiously around the room.
“You can tell me. If Pyre’s in danger, I need to know.” I help her up and lean against the headboard, feeling the pain in my chest as I wince. In the battle with Variant, when we freed Morrigan, Variant came for me and lanced my chest with his blade. He would have killed me if Eilish hadn’t pulled me out of his way. “What is it?”
“Master is gone. He leave before the sun come and he take the angel with him... er. No, that not right. The angel take him before the sun come up, but it be Master’s idea to go. Noni heard him talking to the angel.”
“What?” I ask in alarm. “Where did they go?”
“They go get his powers back. It a long way from here.”
“Where?”
“Across the spirit world, where Master tell Noni she can’t go.”
“Then you don’t know the way there?”
“Noni no know the way.”
I jump from the bed, carrying Noni with me as I limp over to wake Dragan. The big brute squints his eyes at me and gives me the middle finger. I shake my head. “Get up now. Eilish is gone.”
That gets him up and moving, just like I knew it would. Dragan searches high and low for his clothes, asking me a million questions I don’t have the answers to, while I awaken Baron. The surly vampire is no easier to deal with than the gargoyle, but I’ve grown somewhat accustomed to their bullshit.
“What do you mean, she’s gone?” Dragan demands, eyeing me narrowly. He bends over to take a deep breath and then holds his side as though he’s in pain. He probably is in pain—just like the rest of us are. The fight with Variant took a lot out of us all.
“I mean, she’s gone,” I respond with a shrug. “And Pyre is with her.”
“You’ve got to stop smoking whatever roots you elves like to—”
“I’m serious.”
“Fuck! Then we’d better get our asses moving,” Dragan responds and I can see the worry in his eyes. Whatever distrust he harbors toward the angel half breed, one thing is obvious—he cares about her.
“None of us is in any shape to go after her,” I say, pointing out the obvious. “You can barely walk and I can barely even stand up.” I take a deep breath. “Not to mention the fact that none of us knows where to go.”
“What do you mean?” Dragan demands.
“Noni doesn’t know where they went.”
“Fuck!” Dragan says and bashes his fist into the wall, shaking the whole house.
“If she’s with Pyre, she’s safe,” Baron says as he appears in the hallway.
CHAPTER SIX
DRAGAN
The Veil
I’m nervous for Eilish, as much as I wish I weren’t.
I keep replaying Revenant’s words—that Pyre will keep her safe. I only hope it’s the truth. Regardless of the frustrating and confusing relationship between Eilish and me, I want to protect her and keep her safe.
I don’t understand why I care so much, after realizing what she is-- succubus . But, I do and I can’t help it. And that bothers me because it’s a sign of weakness. Caring about someone else hurts you—it affects your decision making in a negative way. You can’t think clearly or logically.
I don’t know if it’s owing to my anger with myself over Eilish, but I feel different. I don’t want to lose my will to fight, but each day I feel like I’m drifting away from the man I used to be. Not the King of Shadows, the betrayer, or even the man who killed the last of the succubae... I feel like I’m drifting away from myself, from Dragan, and everything I thought I was.
I can see changes in the others, as well. Revenant is more cautious and even a little bit optimistic. His newfound friendship with the necromancer, Pyre, seems to be giving him some type of purpose. Even Flumph, despite his complaining, has found some sort of meaning to his life. Cambion is, as usual, too concerned with whatever’s going on in his own mind to notice the outside world.
My heavy boots cause the boards beneath my feet to creak as I search for Noni. She shakes her head and clicks her tongue in disappointment when she sees me up and moving.
“Mr. Dragan, you should be resting. Noni take care of you.”
“Thank you, Noni, but... I need your help with something,” I say, hedging around the subject. I can’t go after Eilish and Pyre because Cambion was right—I can barely walk. Furthermore, no one knows the way to the Echoing Spire. So, I have no choice but to stay here and wait for their return. In the meantime, there’s some unfinished business I need to take care of, and I’m not familiar with the other areas of The Veil.
“What Shadow King need Noni help with?”
“I need to see Thoradin,” I say. “Do you remember when we talked about him?”
Thoradin was my lead Centurion and my friend. He was killed and Noni told me his spirit was in The Veil.
“Oh, yes. The big stone man. Noni like him.”
“Can you take me to him?” I ask. When Noni nods her little head, I can’t help the smile that lands on my face. She pats my cheek and scurries off to grab her coat.
“Winter coming soon,” she says. “Will be good to be prepared for it.” Noni leads me outside.
“When did you first see Thoradin?” I ask her.
“When he first come here,” Noni replies. “When Master busy, Noni like to help spirits find their way to a place where they be happy.”
“How do you take them to this place?”
“There be portals that help Noni get around. She use the portals to take the spirits.”
“Is that where we’re going?”
“Yep! Noni take you there.”
She scampers alongside me. I look around the forest, taking in the landscape. I’ll never get used to this place. Not when the trees are bare and towering over me, backlit by an endless sky filled with millions of swirling galaxies. Here, I don’t have to worry about turning to stone. That’s when I remember Pyre’s promise—that he’s working on some type of magical elixir that will keep me from turning to stone while we’re in the realms. I can only hope he’s successful. As it now stands, the only reason I haven’t been doomed to my gargoyle form is owing to Eilish. There’s something about her light and dark magic that allows me to keep my mortal form.
We arrive at a stone slab surrounded by a circle of rune-marked rocks. I have to take a break and rest after the walk. It wasn’t far but it’s exhausted me, all the same. I lean on a large outcropping of dark rock and breathe in deeply.
Noni takes a piece of chalk from the small pouch that hangs around her waist and begins scrawling symbols on the stone.
“Stand back, Mr. Dragan.” She hurries over to my side, hand fisted in my pant leg, dragging me back a few paces. With a few whispered words, purple light flares at the heart of the stone slab. It crackles like lightning and breaks open like shattered glass.
“Come. Quick, before it close.”
That strange feeling of cold reaching down into my soul rushes through me as I step beyond the portal. My vision briefly goes black before clearing once more. I stand in the center of what appears to be a graveyard. Noni climbs up my side and onto my shoulders. She stretches one arm, pointing to a cave partially hidden along the rock face of what appears to be a canyon.
“The stone man in there, Mr. Dragan.”
I follow Noni’s lead once again and head towards the cave. Spirits roam the graveyard and I wonder why Thoradin chooses to stay in such a grim place. “Noni, did the stone man say why he remains here?”
“Him say it remind him of home. And he protect the spirits here.”
We come to the mouth of the cave and Noni rubs her hands together quickly, causing sparks to fly. A tiny ball of fire appears in her palm and she smiles victoriously. I walk deeper into the cave until I reach the back. Something shifts. Something large. Then, I see it: Thoradin’s face appears among the stone. His eyes open and he steps into the light, removing the magical camouflage, his gargoyle stone breaking apart as his mortal form appears.
“My liege.”
“I come as a friend, Thoradin. Not your king.”
Despite my words, Thoradin takes a knee and lowers his head. “I’m sorry I failed you,” he says.
“You didn’t fail me. I failed you,” I say as I reach out and wrap my fingers around his upper arm. “I wasn’t the king I should have been.”
“You were always a good king to me, liege.”
I shake my head, as my old friend notices Noni and holds his arm out to her. She walks over to him. It’s strange to see the gargoyle pick the little brownie up with such gentleness. He regards her with something akin to affection and friendship.
I walk with them through a secret passage in the cave and come to an outlook above a large valley.
I shake my head and inhale deeply. “You weren’t supposed to die.”
“We all set out on this journey knowing death was a possibility,” he says and his tone is flat. “The outcome is unfortunate, but I wouldn’t change what happened. I died so that others could live. I see it as a fair trade,” Thoradin huffs. “After the balance is restored, I’ll cross over into the afterlife. All the spirits here will, unless we choose to stay, I suppose.”
“Do you want to go to the afterlife?”
“I do,” he nods as he turns to face me. “But only if you let me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You need to release me, liege, and everyone else you lost.” He grows quiet for a few seconds and only the wind whistling through the trees speaks to us. Then he faces me once more and speaks again. “You must let go of the past and the mistakes you made. The war isn’t over, my liege. It never was.”
“We have a real chance now,” I start but Thoradin shakes his head.
“Variant is not the real threat.”
I eye him with interest. “What do you mean?”
“Someone else pulls Variant’s strings.”
“Who?” I ask.
Thoradin shrugs. “I don’t know, liege. I see truth in bits and pieces here. It comes on one wind and is stolen by another.”
After a few more minutes with my old friend, Noni and I make our way back through the cave. We stroll slowly towards the portal and Thoradin stops us right before we cross the threshold.
“One last thing…” he starts as I turn to face him. “Death is never the end,” he promises. “Baron and I are proof of that.”
***
FLUMPH
The Veil
“Wake up! Wake up, Mr. Flumph!”
That fuckin’ brownie squeakin’ in my damn ear again. She do this every mornin’, but it extra annoyin’ this time. I shove her ass off me an’ giver my tough face, lookin’ all mean-like. She don’t understand. She never do. It make me mad, but Noni always givin’ me them sad eyes. But I ain’t gonna be walked all over again. Nope, not when I a badass with my fuckin’ crossbow.
“Mr. Flumph, Noni going to the Unseelie Kingdom.”
“What the hell you talkin’ about? Why?”
“Cause Noni not hear anything for a long time. Master say if the Unseelie quiet, that no good and Unseelie must be checked on. But Noni not allowed to go by herself. She want Mr. Flumph to go with her.” She wiggle herself off my bed an’ I wanna throws a pillow at her for wakin’ me up. I jump down an’ slip my fuzzy little toes into my new boots.
Least the necromancer know how to treat us sprites. I been misstreated since I started helpin’ these fuckin’ giants. It nice to finally gets some damn respect ‘round here. Noni follow me down the hallto the kitchens, wheres all the good shit is. I take out them sweetrolls while she hobbles her ass right up to me. That smile, real creepy-like. “No! I ain’t goin’.”
I goin’.
Next thing I fuckin’ know, I’m halfways across this stupid forest an’ on my way to the portal that take us right to the Unseelie Kingdom. Right where I don’t wanna be. “Can’t believe I let you talks me into this stupid shit!”
“Come on, Mr. Flumph. It an adventure. Noni love adventures.”
“You ain’t the one flyin’ with a brownie on yer fuckin’ back!”
“Noni heavy?”
“Well, you ain’t light, that for sure!” Actually, she is light. I guess Shadow Dick was onto somethin’ when he say I like the sound of my own complainin’. I got a real sexy voice, so‘course I do! Good thing I asexual, otherwise I be up to my fuckin’ neck in naked people tryin’ to get a piece o’ Flumph.
Noni take us right to the front door o’ the big freaky castle. She outta her mind if she thinks I goin’ in there. And then, whatta you know? I’m actually fuckin’ goin’ inside.
Theren and his big dumb soldiers don’t even sees us, ‘cause Noni can make us all invisible an’ whatnot, but it still scary as fuck. She take me right into some weird meetin’ in a big echoey room where Aima an’ Assface—er, Kolvar the satyr—kneel before Cambion’s fuck-head brother. Then, I hear some real fucked-up shit.
“Aima Nafliari, former advisor to the throne, I hereby sentence you to execution by soulfire . Kolvar Zylioth, Chieftain of Banefire Horde mercenary clan, you are sentenced to the same fate. Let the judgment be passed and may the gods turn a blind eye to your suffering as you face the executioner on the full moon.”
That only three days away! Fuck. Fuck. Shit. An’ more fuck!
Noni gasp. We hurry back to the portal, an’ she cryin’ real hard-like.
“What a soulfire?” I ask.
“It burn the spirit, Mr. Flumph. That mean no afterlife, no rebirth, no soul, no Veil, no nothing. Just... just nothing but darkness. Noni don’t like nothing . It not natural. There’s got to be something, Mr. Flumph. Come on. Noni tell the others.”