Chapter 31 #3
“What we’re going to spend the rest of our lives doing,” he corrected.
Bel sighed, giving his temple a kiss. “You’re never going to give that up, are you?” she whispered into his ear.
“You’re not dying for me, Isobel,” he said.
She retreated enough to look in his eyes, then cupped his cheek. “Just keep your thoughts to yourself. People won’t like hearing you walk all over their beliefs.”
Sean rolled his eyes. “‘Welcome to the show’?”
She nodded. “Exactly.”
“Ah,” Kywyn said, stepping out of the tent. “I see we’re all present. Shall we walk that way?”
The Shaman heading Sean’s expedition materialized from the crowd and bowed.
Sean had spent the previous days talking with him and Bowenn, learning what to expect on the other side.
They’d wanted to send him with an entire corps of pixies, but Isobel insisted she be the one to protect and teach him.
Nish and Bowenn had argued about safety, but Isobel stood firm and, after pulling the Sovereign card, got her way.
Unbeknownst to Nish or Bowenn, Autumn was dragging David along for fun. Kywyn just wanted to make sure they were safe.
“It would be my honor to lead the Savior in his first outfit,” the Shaman said. “Would you please reconsider another party member? With all due respect, Lady Isobel, you have been to Viterra but a handful of times.”
“What greater protection could you give the heir of Sidera than me?” Isobel asked.
The Shaman bowed. “None, my lady. It’s just—”
“Between me, Lady Autumn, his father, the Blademaster, and the memories he inherited, Sean has more than enough protection.”
The Shaman looked to Sean, who only shrugged. Who was he to argue with the woman when she made such excellent points?
He didn’t need any more babysitters.
“Of course.” The Shaman bowed once more, his blue eyes dropping to their feet. Bowenn had instructed him to select a location of low risk, so he explained they were to hunt at a preselected village faire, whatever that meant. “It may be tame, but I believe you’ll find some action.”
Autumn bounced forward and pulled David to her side. “Can we go already?”
“You—” The Shaman’s face flamed as he set eyes on David. “You plan to go with them?”
His head cocked. “Is that a problem?”
“It was not approved—”
“It was approved by me,” Sean said.
The Shaman stared David down. “The warrior chieftain and Council Leader Nish should know—”
“There’s no time,” Sean said. “We’re leaving.”
After another hug from Aunt Blaire—and a warning to be careful—their party set off toward the mist. The trail was the same Sean had taken on the way in, but after months in the realm, he hardly noticed the Luster and exotic plants.
Kywyn, Isobel, and Autumn plunged into the haze without hesitation, but Sean and David paused at its edge.
“If something happens to you, they’ll kill me,” David said.
“Then let’s make sure nothing happens.”
He swept a hand through the mist. “How do you think it works? Is it a wormhole?”
“How does any of it work?”
David sighed. “Good point.”
“You ever come across an Indy before?” Sean asked.
“Not that I know of,” he answered. “None that attacked me—that’s for sure.”
They met each other’s glances sidelong.
“They’ll probably attack you this time,” Sean said.
“Good thing I’ve got the Savior on my side, then.”
Sean snorted. “Let’s do this.”
With that, they stepped into the gray, the Shaman’s village faire on their minds.
The fog was much as Sean remembered—so dense he could barely make out his own hand in front of his face. It didn’t take long, however, before it thinned and the trunks of trees became visible, less stately and ancient than the forest he’d just left.
Then the mist disappeared, and Sean found no trace it had ever existed. “How do we get back?” he asked, studying the sparse trees around them.
“You have to want to go back,” Isobel said. “The mist appears in nature. Those without immortal blood can’t see it.”
The Luster had vanished, and her hair was now simple auburn, her eyes a normal green. David’s gold hair was merely blond. Autumn’s edges no longer gleamed with light.
“It has been a time since I’ve been here,” Kywyn said, peering at their surroundings. “One forgets how dull it is.”
Sean couldn’t see it, but the Light still tickled at his senses, ready for use.
Autumn traipsed toward the edge of the trees, where the sounds of laughing crowds echoed. In the distance, past a grassy area used as a parking lot, fairway rides soared in the air, painted cheerful reds and blues and greens. A Ferris wheel spun merrily against an azure sky.
The sun was in a far different place than before. It appeared to be mid-afternoon.
The physics of it all had Sean muddled, and the niggle of a headache woke. How was any of this possible, really? Magic was like gravity—unbelievable until it was directly observed.
“We’ll always take you to places you can speak the language,” Autumn explained as they walked.
“Do others speak mortal languages?”
“We all learn one or two. Usually we steal clothes and transportation, coin if we have to.”
“Seems inefficient,” Sean said. “I asked Bowenn why there are no contacts on this side, and he couldn’t give me a good answer.”
“No one stays in this realm more than twenty-four hours,” Autumn said. “All the magic feeds directly into the ley lines, so it’s hard to absorb Luster here. Being here drains you.”
Minor problem. He could set up outposts. Supplies shops. He could find dedicated living spaces and vehicles, accounts with money, phones ready to go, weapons if needed.
With adequate provisions, they might actually make a dent in this centuries-old war. Ideas flourished, and when he looked up next, David was coercing them through the gate because they had no money for tickets. The place was crowded. Loud. Fried food and cigarette smoke lingered in the air.
Isobel hooked an arm around Sean’s elbow. “It’s best to sneak up on them. If they see the light in your eyes, they either run or they attack.”
“And remember,” Autumn added, “it’s easiest if you’re touching them. You get your hand over their heart and shove the Luster inside. They won’t survive it.”
“Fantastic,” David said in his dry tone. “Excuse me, ma’am, I can’t look you in the eye, but can I touch your chest?”
She laughed and grabbed his hand. “You can do it from afar, too. It’s just harder.” They trekked off toward a row of food trucks.
Sean and Isobel followed a few paces back, and Kywyn pulled up the rear.
“Watch,” Isobel said, her gaze on someone in line for the Tilt-A-Whirl. She slipped away and casually approached a man whose eyes weren’t quite right. The purple light was impossible to see from his distance, but Sean sensed something wrong about the guy.
She nudged a woman away and, pretending to stumble, pressed her hand to the guy’s chest. He grunted as he fell to his knees. Isobel apologized, then melted into the crowd, reappearing at Sean’s side.
“See? Covert and easy to disguise,” she said as the man rose to his feet, looking dazed but shooing away the strangers trying to steady him.
A grin erupted across Sean’s face, and he bounced on his toes, eager for his chance. Lhynion had done this thousands of times, but a simple memory didn’t count. Sean wanted to experience it himself, wanted to see the light fade from their eyes.
His first quarry took the form of a young girl, hopping in the line for the racer slides.
Sean flexed his hands and set out for the hunt, circling the girl until he approached from behind.
Once he was within distance, he tripped into her back.
She staggered forward, catching herself on a metal railing so Sean could press his hand over her spine.
Like he’d practiced, the Luster soaked from the air into his hand, and he crushed it into this human’s body, dispelling the creature within.
She cried out as it happened, the pained sound piercing the air.
“Bro,” someone yelled. “What the hell?”
“My bad.” Sean retreated with haste.
The girl held a hand to her chest, and the strange inhumanity evaporated from her eyes. Her expression clouded in confusion.
Did the humans remember what they’d done while possessed? Or did they black out and wake up with no memory?
Either way, it would mess a person up. Why was all of this so broken? It was yet another thing he’d need to fix to do this properly. As he headed back to Isobel, Sean decided he’d start with a recovery task force to help humans who’d been possessed and determine further needs from there.
Kywyn gripped his shoulder. “Try it a few more times, and then we’ll move on to distance hunting.”
And so it went. The place wasn’t crawling with purple-eyed freaks like that club in Vegas, but they were frequent enough that Sean surprised several more over the next few hours. Throughout it, he noted a gradual flag in his energy, like he’d gone too long without eating or sleeping.
Kywyn chuckled at Sean’s yawn. “Takes a lot of energy, doesn’t it? It’s why we don’t allow people to hunt for more than a day at a time.”
“Makes sense. Still feel like it could work, though, if we played it right.”
“You see that man over there?” Isobel gestured toward a guy crowding a girl against the back of a food truck. “Try to get him from here.”
Sean raised his hand toward the man twenty paces away. For a brief moment, he considered everything that could go wrong.
Misfire.
Too little Luster.
Poor aim.
Attacks from somewhere else.
“Aim true,” Isobel murmured near his ear. “And let it go.”
A faint blue light glowed between Sean’s fingers as he drew the Luster in, then forced it away. The moment it hit, the guy staggered, and Sean reveled in his success.
But then the man whirled, searching the crowd for the culprit, his gaze still very much inhuman.
“Shit,” Sean said.
Purplish eyes landed on him, and the guy’s mouth stretched into a slash of a smile. It drew the attention of several others with a strange catcall.
Bel sighed. “And this is when we prepare to fight. This part is always inevitable, unfortunately. Be careful, okay?”