Chapter 18 Darius
Suggested Listening: Tribal Nomad by Abney Park
I told my brother how this would play out, but he never listens. It’s not that he doesn’t trust my visions. It’s that his need to control makes him irrational. He deeply wants to change the future, shape it into something safer for the both of us. And while some things can still be shifted, there are other things written in the stars. And I can never tell the difference until the point of divergence, if it exists at all. But getting Puck to understand that is an exercise in futility.
Over the three hundred years we’ve been alive, I’ve learned that I cannot control him. I can guide. I can nudge. But Puck is headstrong with the backbone of our forefathers. I don’t like to fight him. So I didn’t. And now I fear our actions—or my inaction—has irrevocably altered our future. A future I saw as happy, if troubled.
“How much longer?” Puck asks.
“I don’t know,” I say again, just like I’ve said the last half a dozen times he’s asked.
This is such a mess. I had no idea how badly he’d fucked things up for us. When I peer into his future—my future—it’s no longer clear. It’s grown hazy, which means the paths are diverging. The certain future we were headed toward is no longer guaranteed. There is a path before us that leads to losing Gracie and the life we were destined for. That’s not a life I want to live. Not when we’re finally free.
The feather light creature perched on my shoulder shifts its weight from foot to foot. Currently, it looks like a tawny owl. Depending on my needs, it will change forms, allowing me to see through its eyes since my own are useless except for when I have a vision. It’s not common for fae to have familiars, and the slime and I are unlikely partners, but we’ve made it work. Together we can be more than we would apart.
I focus on my familiar’s eyesight, sending it a constant stream of thanks. We’ve been together for over a hundred years, and our bond is as deep as any more traditional familiar’s. But it doesn’t hurt to reinforce the fact I appreciate it.
“Movement,” I mutter the moment I register the shape of limbs and bodies.
Puck sighs. “Finally.”
I hear him crack his neck and bounce in place.
He’s ready for a fight. Not with Gracie, though I expect her words will draw well-deserved blood.
“Any change?” Puck asks in a low whisper.
I withdraw my conscious from my familiar and look through my own eyes that only see variations of the future. Without my focuses, it is more chaotic. Which is why I filter my sight through Puck. That alone helps focus it so I may see his path, and by extension, my own.
Seers, like me, cannot discern our own path. It is a mystery. But whatever our parents did to us in the womb linked us on a primal level. So Puck’s fate is my own.
“There is less fog. She is not alone,” I say, since I forgot to mention that initially.
He grunts and stills.
The wind whistles through the trees, bringing smog and city noise toward us.
I relish all of it. Anything that is not the seers’ chamber our parents locked me up in for years is precious to me.
“Brother?” I mutter and peer at him through my familiar’s eyes.
“What?”
“You have to stop trying to control things.”
He grunts again.
Stubborn fool.
We hear the crunch of feet on gravel before Puck sighs, indicating he can see them. It takes another few minutes before Gracie and the archdemon reach the edge of the ward at the side of the road. They must see us, since we didn’t take any measure to conceal our presence. Even with my familiar’s heightened night sight in its owl form, I can’t make out her expression.
“Puck?” Gracie calls out. “Why the fuck are there two of you? You’re… You two are twins? Brothers? What the fuck?”
“Twins,” Puck says.
“What the fuck?” she mutters again. “Whatever. It doesn’t change anything. I’m willing to make a bargain.”
My stomach knots. While neither of us would harm Gracie, there are other fae who would by virtue of our affection for her.
“Gracie,” Puck growls. “Fae bargains are dangerous. You can ask us whatever you like.”
She pitches her voice louder, speaking over him and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing. It seems that she’s finally lost a bit of the moon-calf eyes for Puck’s good looks. About damn time. His ego was unbearable. “You help me find my vampire with your particular set of skills, and I agree to hear you out. That’s the deal.”
Puck grinds his teeth so hard my skin crawls at the sound.
The vampire. Ezra.
Puck has never said anything kind about him, but my visions paint a very different picture. Ezra is utterly devoted to Gracie. I’ve seen it. I just can’t understand why Puck thinks it’s his right to deny Gracie her mates. I should have never told him what I saw. I was too in shock at the idea there was something more than that damn room for me. So in a way, this is my fault. But I don’t have his abilities. I cannot reliably help them find the vampire.
“What’ll it be?” Gracie demands.
“That’s a lot to ask just for a chat,” Puck says.
I ball my hand into a fist and nail him in the arm.
He hops sideways, howling and holding his arm. “Fuck. What the hell, Darius?”
“I take it to mean you’re after Puck’s particular set of skills?” I ask. “While mine might take more effort, more trial and error, that’s a bargain I’m more than willing to accept in his stead, should he be unwilling.”
My familiar is able to provide me with a mind-bending view of both my twin and the woman I love at the same time. She regards us coolly while the archdemon hangs back, content to let her take the lead.
Puck always did coddle and smother her too much. I hope he’s taking notes.
“I’ve got a fairly good idea where he’s gone,” Puck says. “We would like to be allowed within the wards. If not me, then Darius. You wouldn’t know it, but he’s blind and… We have reason to be concerned about his safety.”
The archdemon steps forward now, eyes glowing red. He places a hand on Gracie’s shoulder and she leans back against him. “What danger would you bring to our doorstep?”
“It is part of the story we wish to tell you, but it is a long story perhaps better saved for after we find your Ezra,” I say. A bit of a vision comes to me, all light and glitter. “Nephilim?”
There’s a beat of silence and I can practically feel Puck’s whole body clench. Gracie was good for him. Really good. Hopefully, she will be again.
“You’re a seer,” the demon says.
“What?” Gracie mutters.
“He can see versions of the future. It’s a rare gift,” the demon explains.
I chuckle bitterly. “Curse is more like it. But, yes.”
“Do it, Gracie,” the demon says softly.
“Fine,” she mutters.
The demon leaves her side and stalks across the road to stand in front of us. He looks from Puck to me then my familiar. “So we’re clear, this is now my home and Gracie is part of my family. That includes Ezra.”
I can’t help but grin and thrust my hand out in his general direction as I speak the same words he does, our words overlaying each other, “And you’ll hang us by our ball sacks over a pit of salamanders in the lowest pits of hell?”
The demon’s voice trails off as he stares at me.
I wiggle my fingers. “It’s Vyslan, isn’t it?”
The demon narrows his gaze at me, but doesn’t take my hand.
“Sorry. It’s just that I’ve seen you say a variation of that a dozen times. It’s a very vivid picture, I’ll have you know. I said it to our father once, and he went sheet white, which is saying something considering… Well…” I gesture at Puck. Our family’s skin is a deep, rich brown verging on true black. There are very few circumstances that would cause a shift that drastic in our coloring.
I think Vyslan’s eyebrows arch up to his hairline as he gapes at me. Ever so slowly, he reaches out and takes my hand. “So you’ve seen me?”
“Yes. Big fan.”
Puck mutters under his breath.
“And Ezra?” Vyslan asks.
“My brother and I have different opinions in regards to the future and how to handle what we know. He seeks to control it. I am content to let it happen to me. More or less.”
Vyslan points at each of us in turn. “He’s Puck, you’re Darius, and your familiar is…?”
“Isa. They’re a mimic slime. Little unconventional for a familiar, and not common at all for a fae, but we get on well enough.”
The big demon bends forward to examine Isa in their owl form. My shy familiar presses to the side of my neck, bobbing their head in nervousness.
“Isa, you’re quite special, aren’t you?” Vyslan says.
There’s this brilliant sparkle of joy from my familiar and I can’t help but grin and whisper, “Told you he was going to be my favorite.”
“There,” Gracie announces. “Come inside and let’s make a plan.”
With that, she turns and begins marching back toward the house.
I wince and watch her go while Vyslan watches Puck and I. There’s this blur of sight. A possible future. I reach over, grabbing Puck’s elbow.
He sighs. “I wasn’t going to. I don’t need the sight to know that’s a bad idea.”
“Just checking,” I mutter and pat his shoulder.
Vyslan chuckles. “Is there a future where he tried to take a swing at me?”
“Yes,” I reply.
The demon turns and slings his arms around our shoulders. “I probably said something dickish to deserve it. Not that I’d let you get a hit in. You’re still on my sweet witch’s shit list. You’ve got a lot of explaining and work to do, boys.”
I start walking toward the house and our future. The bits of vision I’m getting unbidden are becoming less hazy as the divergent paths close with each correct decision and word we speak.
“We’ve spent two hundred years waiting for today,” I say. “Puck might still fuck up, but I don’t intend to.”
My twin snorts and doesn’t deny the truth. I’ve pointed out on more than one occasion that many of our problems are his doing. But a fish cannot stop swimming because it wishes to fly. And my twin cannot stop trying to control fate, even if he’ll fail.