Destroying the Fallen Read online

  “Well we can’t be sure, so the fur is the best way we have.”

  “Jax, it is the only way we have. And that’s why I had to. There isn’t enough to return everyone’s magic, but there is enough to return yours, my father’s, and that of the other Tanzieth on the council.”

  “You called them Tanzieth, you hate that term.”

  “I do, but as long as they are without their magic, that’s how the Stalisies see them, and if I want to make a real change and bring the fey together then they need their magic.”

  “Do you think the council will agree?”

  “I do, and hopefully soon. The yowies should let me have more fur so I can return the rest of the Fey’s. You know, after they realize the fey are not trying to push them out of their home again.”

  Jax lowered his gaze to my shoes, and though they were stunning deep blue Louis Vuitton’s, I knew it wasn’t their brilliance that stole his attention.

  “Spill, Jax, what is it?”

  “They started mining again.”

  “What?”

  “It’s in the far caves, away from where the yowies live.”

  “That’s beside the point, I gave my word we would trade for the opals, why the hell are they mining for it?”

  “The yowie’s price was too high, according to the council, so they voted to overturn your ruling and began mining yesterday.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “You weren’t here, you were off with Ava and the firebirds. I figured you wouldn’t mind if it didn’t disturb their home.”

  “Jax, the caves are their home. Imagine if someone came in and started ripping up the far fields, would that be okay because the house isn’t on those fields?”

  His brow creased and his eyes lost their gleam. “I never thought of it like that. Des, we should talk to the council again, ask them to withdraw.”

  “Well it’s a good thing that’s where we are headed then, huh?”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Hold on one sec.” I knelt down and opened the pouch again. There were now five strands left and the council members without magic totaled only four. I picked up my spell book and whispered my name to open it. Then I slid out one strand and slipped it inside the front cover of the book. “Okay, come on,” I said, waving my hand over the floor to conceal the hidey-hole once more.

  We made our way down the hall towards the study where we ran into Marx. He was the young man I appointed to help keep the votes of the council and inform the interested parties of their decisions.

  “Hi, Marx. Sorry we can’t chat, we have a meeting to get to,” I said as I phased back. “Wait, shouldn’t you be going too?”

  “I just came to say goodbye.”

  “Goodbye, why?” I asked, “Where are you going?”

  His face lit up with a wide smile, his eyes sparkling, “I met a girl. She’s human, so I’m going to live with her there for a while.”

  “Wow, that’s awesome, congratulations,” I said. I’m going to have to appoint a new fey to assist the council.

  Jax pulled him in for a bro hug. “Congratulations, Marx, that’s great news. When do you leave?”

  “Now, actually. I just wanted to say thank you to you both. After what we’ve been through here, looking at what you guys have gave me hope that one day I could have it too. Never guessed it would be in the human realm but hey, Sarah is worth it. She isn’t even freaked out about my magic.”

  “That’s great, you’ll have to bring her through to meet us... when you’re ready of course,” I said, giving him a hug.

  “I will. Thanks again, Des. Good luck at your meeting.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, I think I’ll need more than luck, though. Let’s just hope I don’t blow anyone up.”

  Marx shook his head. “Well I better get going to see Maylea. See ya.”

  Marx dashed down the hall and we continued towards the study.

  Heading through to the garden we were married in, I phased back to my fey form and lifted from the ground in one swoop of my wings.

  “Um, aren’t you forgetting some...” Jax began, but then recognition sparked. He closed his eyes, transformed, and then slowly opened them to take in his returned fairy form. Dazzling pale blue wings like enormous oak leaves spread out either side of him. His clothes disappeared, becoming a shimmery, pale blue chest plate and soft flowing silk like pants. For someone who spent most of his life without magic it came so naturally to him. To most of the Tanzieth. It would have been torture to gift it all to me. But they did.

  Jax lifted into the sky to join me and we soared through the air towards the center of the Feydom and landed right outside the doors to the council building. The voices inside were already getting pretty loud. I phased back to my regular form and raised a brow to Jax when he hadn’t yet done the same.

  “What?” he asked, shimmying his shoulders a little so his wings billowed out behind him like a cape.

  “Seriously, Jax, lose the wings.”

  With a crisp nod he transformed, and we walked through the doors together.

  “Mam, can I help you?” a female Nazieth guard asked, blocking our path up the hall towards the meeting room.

  “No thanks, I’m headed to the meeting. I know the way.”

  “Sorry, mam,” she said, this time raising her hands and bringing a warm orange glow to her hands. The Stalisies made up the Nazieth guards and could do all sorts of casts.

  “Look I don’t know who you are but...”

  “Naral. My name is Naral, and you are Desmoree, and I have been asked to prevent anyone from entering the meeting. I can’t afford to mess this up. I just can’t.”

  “I mess up all the time, it isn’t that bad. Now let me though, that request clearly wouldn’t apply to me. I am supposed to be in there already”

  “I can’t. Look I’m a Nazieth, you know what a Nazieth is right?”

  I nodded with a raised brow. Does she seriously think I don’t know what a Nazieth is?

  “Well I was on a squad, and I stuffed up, so now I have to work my way back. This is the last step to being back in with a team so please, I can’t let you through. I was told no one enters.”

  My eyes narrowed. “I understand, but you have to realize, I will be going to that meeting.”

  The glow to her hands grew a little bigger but it vibrated as if she was struggling to hold it. I brought up my shield but pushed it off me, instead I threw it loosely around her. If she noticed, she made no show of it. When I took a step to go around her and she tried to block me, I shrunk the shield down to fix her in place and squash her growing power blast.

  “Sorry, Naral, at least this way you didn’t actually let me in,” I called back to her as Jax and I made our way up the rest of the hall.

  My father was red faced. “It isn’t right!” he yelled at them.

  Seriously, when are they not yelling at each other? Maybe this whole council thing wasn’t as good an idea as I thought?

  “What isn’t right?” I asked walking towards them. “The fact that you broke my trust in this council, or that you’re destroying the yowie’s home again?”

  Grace held up her hands to hold off the others as she stepped to greet Jax and I. “Desmoree, it’s far more complicated than that. The opals are essential to the operation of Sayeesies.”

  “Then we barter for them like I said we would.”

  “They asked for too much,” one of the others said.

  “Well if we need them so bad then the price couldn’t have been too much, what did they want?”

  “Each sale was different. Sometimes they would ask for fruits traded weight for weight. Then others wanted potions and casts done for them,” Max answered.

  I frowned, “What is so high about those prices?”

  “There is no consistency. We asked for a price list, a table of weight conversion, they declined, so we began mining from the other side of the caves,” Grace continued.

  “You broke their trust. W
e told them we would trade, and because you don’t like it you decide to overrule my arrangement?”

  “You had no right to make that deal,” Grace said, her voice harsher than it had been a moment before.

  “I had every right. Without their help the mouth of hell would have flooded the earth with demons until no human remained. Wait. When did you join the council? Where is... ?” I waved my hand around unable to recall her name.

  “Tarlini disappeared a few days ago. I apparently held the next highest votes.”

  “Where did she go?”

  “We expect she moved to the human realm. Her things were gone, as were her pets.”

  “Pets?”

  “She kept datherin. Look, Desmoree, you created this council because you didn’t want to rule. We held a vote, the majority voted to mine.”

  I looked to each of them, none but my father met my eye. They all had voted to overturn my deal?

  “Why vote yes? You know what it’s like to have your power taken from you?”

  My father rested a hand on my shoulder. “It’s because they know that they agreed. They gave up their magic once, they didn’t want to give up what little link to it they had left.”

  Harold, one of the younger council members stood. “That brings us to the main reason we are here. Desmoree, you did not use all of the yowie fur to complete the cast and this council will decide what is to be done with what is left. We have decided that the remaining fur will be used to return the Tanz—”

  I shot him daggers and he stuttered over the word, pausing to rethink his choice.

  “To return the fey’s magic that was so honorably gifted to you.”

  “There isn’t enough to do that, and besides, we don’t have enough of the potion yet either. So how about you vote to get on that, otherwise when I give the magic back someone can just come and take it.”

  “How much is left?” Grace asked.

  “Four strands. I want to return the council member’s magic first.”

  “Only four, are you sure?” she pressed.

  “There were five but I used one already.”

  “You did what?” she asked, her nostrils giving the slightest flare.

  “I used it to return Jax’s magic. I didn’t have to tell you there was any left at all, I could have just used it for whatever I wanted.”

  “But you did tell us, and it was up to us to decide on its use.”

  “Look,” I said, slumping into one of the large black chairs that sat around the ridiculous round table. “Even with the fifth piece it isn’t enough. I would need an entire bundle to return it all. Let me return the half of the council who are without power. Then you guys can withdraw from the opal caves, hold up my deal, and maybe they will give us some more.”

  Jax sat in the chair on my left and my father sat on my right. A place was added for Jax after only the second meeting, mostly because they didn’t like it when I spent the meeting sitting in his lap with his arms around my waist. I thought it was great.

  The others looked back and forth from one another before the ones without magic took their seats. The motion was passed, I had won the vote. Now how to get them to stop undoing my bloody deals? I thought as the others reluctantly sat.

  “Do you need anything to return our magic?” Max asked, ignoring the sour faces of the objectors.

  “Nope, just this,” I said, holding up the pouch with the four strands inside. I pulled out each strand and held the small bundle between my thumb and forefinger. I did as I had done before, searching for their magic, their power. It came easily, the yowie fur was a perfect conduit for the magic transfer. The strands went back between my fingers, turning to ash as the transfer completed. I blew lightly on the small pile of dust on the table and smirked as it dissipated. No trace remained of the fur.

  “Done.”

  They sat smiling like Cheshire cats. Each of them looking at their hands, their arms, each other. Externally they looked no different, but I was sure they felt their power.

  “Are you going to test it out?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  Each of them stood and moved a few steps from the table, then phased. My father’s smile spread the width of his face. He was the first to return to his normal form and retake his seat, the others shortly followed.

  “Don’t get too comfortable, I want to ask for a vote,” I said, standing and moving behind my chair. As was protocol, they each followed my direction and stood awaiting my request.

  “I want you all to sign a decree that the deals made with the fabled creatures will not be overturned in the future by any vote of the council.”

  ‘Des,” my father began. “What if one of them becomes a threat?”

  I hadn’t thought of that—crap! “Okay, then only I can go back on it, and after my death, my heirs will inherit the right and my seat on the council.” Yes, that would work. For now.

  They muttered under their breaths and shot looks to each other as I gripped the back of the chair, awaiting their decision. If four of them took a seat, my request would be passed with me breaking the tied vote in my favor. If I did not receive enough votes now, I would have to wait until the next meeting to ask again.

  Max took his seat beside me quick enough. Madie Lorn sat next. She was such a petite woman, late forties with old Hollywood beauty. She hardly said a word, and almost always was jotting down something in her notebook.

  I need two more.

  June Orlan pulled her chair out. She was a short stocky woman, with dark brown hair that sat in a braid down her right shoulder. I hadn’t had much interaction with her outside of the council meetings, but when I had seen her in the streets of Sayeesies she was always surrounded by her seven children. I remember thinking she was nuts, but now, after Ava, I get it.

  “I believe we should honor the deals made on our behalf,” June said, then she sat and folded her hands in front of her. I looked at Grace, her expression went from confusion to frustration and then something in between anger and sadness. With a deep breath, she sat down too.

  “The motion is passed. Take your seat,” she said and the others sat heavily, making a point of their objection to my request.

  “May I have a scroll please?” I asked before remembering my run in with Marx.

  “Oh, right. Marx is gone. I guess I will get it myself.” I walked over to the desk he usually occupied. There were a handful of blank scrolls piled up on the side of his desk. I grabbed one and went to sit back down.

  I still hadn’t convinced the majority of the council they could fit far more information in a notebook than a scroll. Maddie got it. She was one of the few in the Feydom who had things brought over from the human realm. Fascinating beings, she had once called them. I mean, the fey traveled to the human realm all the time, they could grab a few notebooks from any store and the paper could be enchanted just as the scrolls were done. I got that a computer would be useless at holding a binding cast like the one I was going to work into this decree, but think of the shelf space you would save if the scrolls were all converted into notepads? I’ll have to remember to bring it up again later. Or just grab some notebooks next time I’m there. Prove I’m right.

  “You forgot a pen,” Max said, but I held up a hand.

  “For this, I don’t need a pen,” I said, which granted me more than one confused frown. Jax smirked beside me. He knew I had been practicing projecting my thoughts onto scrolls with my magic. It was an old practice I found the teachings of written on a scroll that had been masked by Traflier’s magic. Apparently, a scroll written in magic was far harder to alter or break. It was also the reason no one noticed the alterations Traflier did to the other scrolls.

  I focused my magic and then thought about all I wanted my decree to say. I sent the words from my mind, through my body, and out my hovering hand to spill out onto the scroll.

  When I raised my hand, the lettering gleamed in dazzling silver on the sepia paper then settled in a mild grey like aged ink. The decree was in Engli
sh, and was surprisingly longer than I had anticipated, and at the bottom of the page was a section for eight signatures.

  I passed the scroll to Max. He pulled an imbued pen from his jacket pocket and signed without reading. He trusted me without question. Next was Harold. The youngest of the council members at only twenty-seven, Harold was recently married to a sage and they were expecting a child in a few months. He skimmed it, then peeked up at me, scrunching his forehead up and deepening the small scar on his left eyebrow that cut a perfect diagonal line through it.

  One corner of his lips went up, then he signed too. The others followed with quick glances and slight skimming from each. Then Grace, she took the longest to sign, and just when I thought she might not, she picked up the pen.

  I took the scroll. “Thanks, I guess we will be off now.” I stood from the table and Jax followed.

  “Just one minute, Desmoree,” Grace began as she stood and moved to behind her chair. “I wish to request that Desmoree be sent to the yowies to request enough fur to return the other’s magic. I would like to add that she should do everything in her power to obtain the fur for the good of the fey.”

  The others stood, nodded to her behind their chairs, then each one sat—my father included.

  Crap.

  “Fine, I’ll go, but you have no idea the damage you have done with your return to mining. Be sure the fey are out of the caves before I get there.”

  They nodded and Jax and I left.

  We flew back to my father’s house in Landown. The moment we crossed the border of his land, I calmed instantly. That was until I heard her scream.

  “Ava!” I called out as we zoomed through the air. My eyes landed on her in the gardens in front of the house. She was holding her head as she knelt on the grass in front of a closing portal.

  “Ava, what’s wrong?” I asked as I dropped to the ground beside her and lifted her head in my hands. Her eyes were squeezed shut. “Ava, what is it?”

  I sat on the ground and pulled her into my lap, looking at her energy, her magic, I was shocked to find it swimming in dark waves throughout her body.