‘But I wanted to. For Gabriel.’ Faye felt the tears coming again and hugged her knees to her chest. ‘I want to help. Please…I just…’ She couldn’t explain it to them. None of them could know the horrors of Murias. Faye had finally seen them for herself, and they were more terrible than she could have dreamed.
‘I know. It’s all right.’ Penny soothed her. Manu and Simon rejoined hands without her. Now, Faye sat inside the circle. She couldn’t stop crying; her body was racked with sobs and her throat ached with remorse. She was still nauseous; she couldn’t shift the feeling, and refused to think about what Levantiana had told her. That she was pregnant. It was unthinkable.
Penny drew the circle around them in earth, air, fire and water and walked from one quarter of the circle to another, calling in the elemental powers from north, east, south and west. Despite being so upset, as soon as Penny called in the elements, Faye felt the power of earth rise strongly around her.
Faye closed her eyes as she felt all four elements swirl into the circle. As the coven started to circle clockwise, she felt the four powers wrap her in a golden light, combined of earth, air, fire and water, as if she was being wound in a ribbon, over and over. Her psychic body as well as her physical one drank up the earth, fire and air hungrily. Slowly, her headache started to ebb away, and her focus started to return.Gabriel. Gabriel. Please. Any powers that are listening. Bring him back safely to us, she implored, sending her wishes into the centre of the cone of power they were building.
The magic circle was in itself an in-between place – a created space where beings from other worlds could be invited to tread.
The feeling of being bandaged, frozen, was strange. Usually, magic was like slipping into a natural rhythm, as natural as breathing. Tonight, she couldn’t relax and let it flow through her.Her heart was that stone in the cold sea still: falling, untethered and full of fear. The grief made her magic waver and fade.
‘Powers of the elements, gods of the old ways, spirit guardians. We request your help. One of our own is lost in the kingdom of Murias. We desire your strength to help us call him home,’ Sylvia called, standing at the centre of the circle now, holding the power between her hands in a ball of golden light. She threw her head back, holding the ball of light up. ‘Powers, gods, guardians! Help us!’ she called, and Faye opened her eyes.
Lyr, Faerie King of the Realm of Falias appeared at the centre of the circle and bowed.
‘I am at your service, Priestess,’ he rumbled.
‘We ask respectfully for your assistance, King of Falias.’ Sylvia bowed her head. ‘And thank you for attending our rite.’
‘No!’ Faye cried out, but Lyr only smiled.
‘My help comes at a price, as my daughter knows. I am surprised you did not summon me yourself with the crystal wand.’ Lyr nodded courteously. Faye refused to meet his eyes, but her hands clutched at the crystal. Holding it made her more certain of her feet on the ground, and she felt the power of the earth flowing up through the mud and rock, through the trampled grass and into her feet, ankles, legs.No, no, no.
Find me a human woman to bear my child, and I will help you bring your friend home.Faye knew what Lyr’s bargain was: in return for a suitable woman to bear his half-faerie child, he’d return Gabriel to them. But the price was too high, like it always was. She had warned them.
‘We are willing to make offerings to you. Tell us what you require in return for your help in this matter,’ Sylvia continued, her voice strong and steady.
‘Don’t listen to him. He wants what they all want. A human sacrifice! Can’t you see?’ Faye cried, appealing to them, turning around the circle to make them understand. But the rest of the coven stared at Lyr raptly. Faye guessed that he’d enchanted them already. Perhaps they couldn’t hear or see her any more; perhaps Lyr was inside their minds, distracting them with their innermost desires. Sylvia was the only one whose attention remained on Faye and Lyr. Perhaps she was the only one strong enough to be able to resist his magic, or perhaps there was a reason that Lyr wanted her awake.
Lyr turned to Faye.
‘You know the bargain, daughter. It still stands.’ He was refusing to answer Sylvia.
‘What is the bargain?’ Sylvia demanded. ‘I’m in charge here. Your daughter is a part of the circle that brought you here. I’m the one you will bargain with.’
Lyr laughed softly. ‘I bear you no disrespect, Priestess, but I came here because of Faye and Faye only. We have an unfinished business, and she knows it. Think of it as a test of your loyalty to your fae family, daughter. You tried to do it without me. You failed.’ His smile was wolfish.
‘Never.’ Faye turned her head away.
‘Come now.’ Lyr stood behind her, his large hand on her shoulder. ‘What other reason is there for her to be here? You know who it is. And you have no love for her.’
Faye’s gaze darted across the circle at Mallory and then at the others; they were all frozen and unmoving.
‘What have you done to them?’ she demanded.
‘Nothing permanent. They are quite well.’ Lyr shook his head. ‘So. You tried your own way in Murias, and you failed,’ he repeated matter-of-factly. ‘Are you ready for another of your friends to die?’
‘No,’ she muttered. ‘But I refuse to let you take Mallory. She might not be my favourite person, but she’s not a whore for the taking.’
‘I am appalled that you should think I would want her as one. She will be cherished as the mother of my children,’ he rebuked.
‘The mother of a half-human sacrifice, you mean,’ Faye shouted suddenly, tears thick in her throat, furious at the way the fae treated her and other humans. Grief for Aisha struck her bones; she ached with the loss. ‘We arepeople! We have our own lives. We’re not here for your amusement or to be used as baby-making machines.’ Instinctively, her hand went to her belly.
‘Then I wish you luck in extricating your friend from Levantiana’s clutches.’ Lyr shrugged, and turned to walk out of the circle. ‘He is fully human. How long do you think he can withstand the force of her adoration?’ Lyr raised an eyebrow. ‘The faerie queens love far more savagely than the kings, so they say.’
The force of her adoration. Faye remembered the bloody whip lines that criss-crossed Gabriel’s slumped body, chained to the wall where she kept him; Levantiana’s long, sharp fingernails digging into Gabriel’s groin. Yet, she also remembered the look in his eyes as Levantiana danced with him at the ball.You’d die there, because dying would be so sweet,she remembered thinking when they had been at Fortune’s. She wondered if it would have made any difference if she’d told Gabriel then what she’d seen before; if she’d told him about the human lover she’d first seen Levantiana with. But she knew it wouldn’t. Gabriel, like any human man, was powerless against the erotic power of any faerie queen.
‘I will make the bargain.’ Sylvia’s voice was low. ‘He was…he is one of my coven. He is my responsibility.’
