“Emilia, can you hear me?” A familiar voice reached out to Emilia and roused her from from her slumbers. For a moment, she resisted the call. It was neither urgent nor worried. The voice sounded almost motherly, filled with tender concern, without the tones of alarm.
“Mom?” The words slipped out of Emilia’s mouth unbidden. Her own response pulled how out of unconsciousness and back into the world of the living. “What’s going on?”
Betsy hovered too close to Emilia’s head, so when she shot up, she narrowly missed smacking her best friend’s head with her own. “Holy shit!” Shouting as she dodged, Betsy covered her mouth as if to keep all of her teeth in her head.
From a spot on Emilia’s chest, a sleepy voice muttered. “Holy shit is right, you idiots keep it down. Gods!” Emilia stared at the front of her shirt to find Mirabel clinging to the white cotton, naked as the day she was born. She shifted as she grumped at Emilia and Betsy, but didn’t raise her head or open her eyes.
“Mirabel’s okay?” The sight took Emilia’s breath away. After her vision, she’d been certain the fairy was dead. As soon as she posed her question, her inner eye sought for the answer on its own. Right below her connection to Cary, a handspan under the center of her chest, Emilia felt a link to the sleeping fairy. Nerves sent tremors through Emilia’s body at the discovery. Mirabel had sworn herself to the Fae Queen, and based on the vision Emilia had of the Queen from Mirabel’s past, Emilia did not want to cross the woman.
Betsy burst out a single guffaw that turned into a weeping jag. “You died, Em.” Shaking as she covered her mouth, Betsy put her hands on Emilia’s arm. “I felt your heart stop, there was so much blood…” The mixture of laughter and crying continued while Emilia reached up to offer comfort to her friend.
“I’m okay now, right? No more blood, no more dying?” Emilia took the opportunity to look around the room. This was the same room she shared with Betsy — no one else stood within waiting for them or watching to see how Emilia would recover.
Betsy nodded through Emilia’s questions and over a few minutes, relayed what her friends had gone through to save Emilia. When she was done, Emilia explained what she’d found when she went looking for Cary. “How long has it been?”
Wiping her eyes, Betsy checked her phone. “Only an hour since you… died.”
Emilia rose from the bed cradling Mirabel as she did. “Then I need to get going. Cary’s in danger.”
“Emilia Olren! Are you insane?” Betsy stopped crying in an instant at Emilia’s words. “We just finished saving you, we can’t do that again.”
“I’m not letting Cary die, Betsy. I love her.”
Betsy’s ashen complexion darkened upon Emilia’s declaration. “You finally figured it out, huh?”
“Yes, and I am not going to let anything happen to her. Will you help me?” Knowing how much she’d already asked of her friend, she didn’t resent Betsy’s hesitation before she answered. She managed the shadow of a nod before a chime sounded through the dorm.
The ring vibrated the roots of Emilia’s teeth and held her fast during the announcement. “All mortal students are confined to their rooms, by order of the Sanctorum Administration. Prepare yourselves for inspection.”
“What the fuck is that, Bets?” Emilia could move again once the voice finished speaking.
Shaking her head, Betsy said, “beats me, but we did miss an assembly in the dining hall while you were out.”
“Shit. We… we can’t stay here while they search the dorms…” Emilia stood in a white cotton tee-shirt and boxer shorts. Something was missing from her outfit as she stood up and glanced in the mirror.
“Nobody wants me to fucking sleep, do they!” Mirabel vented her anger from Emilia’s shoulder. “If you’re dead set on saving your demon master, we need to get moving. And quick! Maybe put on some pants?” Emilia settled on an easy to slip on skirt and rallied with Mirabel at the door. “If they’ve activated a mortal Forbidding, then you’re pretty much screwed. There’s no way for you to get out of here. And if they already suspect you of something, then you’re double-screwed because they are going to put you to the question about what you did last night.”
“And S’ha Ren-la won’t be happy about you either, right?”
Mirabel’s eyes widened and she buzzed over to Emilia’s lips. “Holy shit don’t say that name. I mean, ever! And yes, she’s going to be pissed when she finds out… everything. Fuck! We both need to get out of here.”
Knuckles rapped against their door, as if the inspectors had begun with Emilia and Betsy’s room. With her back to the door, Betsy hissed, “What do I do? Let them in?”
Mirabel waved her hands about and wove an illusion over the room, hiding herself and Emilia. “Lie! Try to buy us some time!”
Betsy nodded while Mirabel turned to Emilia and pressed her hand into Emilia’s cheek. The little fairy’s voice spoke loudly into Emilia’s mind. “You’re not leaving here without transforming.”
Emilia frowned and shook her head. “Then we really are screwed, because I can’t transform.”
Shaking her head before Emilia finished speaking, Mirabel said, “I’m pretty sure you’re just being a big dumb lunk about that. You should be able to shapeshift into anything, but I bet physical contact would help. Here. Try it now.” Without further warning, Mirable laid a gentle kiss against Emilia’s lips.
Eyelids fluttering, only the door opening next to them shook Emilia out of her shock enough to try what Mirabel had suggested. Where Cary had tasted of spices and heat, Mirabel tasted of bubblegum and passionflowers.
On the inside of her mind, in the center of her being, Emilia recalled the sensation of pouring her life into Mirabel. The magic in her body responded, wrapped itself about the fairy, but the last step was broken somehow, as if that particular image weren’t enough. Distantly, Betsy spouted lies to Boris and the other masters gathered behind him, one of who’s voices sounded exactly like the man from the black spire last night.
Ready to give up, Emilia’s mind traced itself back to the first time he turned her into a frog. She had to imagine her shapeshift, she had to want it more than anything else. Opening her eyes to stare over at Mirabel’s naked form, Emilia found a vast inner font of concern for the fae. Not only that, but she found envy and interest there too. What Emilia wouldn’t give to float about on translucent butterfly wings, shooting from distraction to distraction with hardly a care in the world. Such pale skin, such lovely curves, all of Mirabel’s exposed parts called to Emilia. At the end, she needed only to remind herself that she wouldn’t ever see Cary again if she didn’t rescue her before nightfall today. Erzuli had said that, Emilia was certain of it.
Need and imagination poured over Emilia and shook off her mortal form like the billowy skirt she had on. Rather than abandon her clothes, she absorbed them into her, taking the blue and gold batik with her and using the fabric to craft her own dragonfly wings. Though not a perfect reflection of Mirabel, Emilia could see how she was the same height with the same pale skin as the fairy.
“Ha! I knew ol’ one horn’s tricks would work for you. Now we need to get the fuck out of here without them catching us!”
As she spoke, the administrators pushed their way into the room. Betsy had made her best effort at putting the men off, but they didn’t buy it. Boris began to weave a spell in the air, one that made Mirabel squeak and grab Emilia’s hand. The illusion faded from around them as they sailed by Boris’s head, Mirabel delivering a light tap on his horns as she passed.
With the speed fairies could manage in flight, none of the administrators searching for them could keep up. And true to Mirabel’s prediction, they passed out of the dorm without trouble, skiing by the prohibition against mortals.
“Hot damn! To the archway before they seal that off too! Quick quick!” Mirable led with her hand wrapped around Emilia’s, who, despite the danger and thrill of the flight, could not quite tear her gaze away from Mirabel’s feet or the small spot of hair between her legs. Blushing through the wind coursing against her face, Emilia hid her cheeks and her eyes so she could stare at something else. To do so took a supreme act of will.
They hovered to the edge of the Sanctorum, floating up to the passage Emilia had found when she left the area astrally to hunt for Cary. “Can we squeeze through here?”
Mirabel nodded. “Yeah, but this is your first time, so be sure to tuck you wings, arms and legs. You super don’t want to get your bits cut off flying through the keyhole.” To demonstrate what she meant, Mirabel wrapped her wings around her body and crossed her arms over her chest and her ankles one over the other and flew like an arrow through the gap in the field around the Sanctorum.
Emilia sucked in air as a gong sounded behind her. Pulling her wings in tight with her fingers, she ignored the sound and flew through the hole in space and time. Her body stretched and warped as alien geometries tugged at her and distorted the very fabric of reality. Passing through this gap in the astral was utterly unlike passing through physically.
A tiny hand shot back into the gap and pulled Emilia through as the warpage of space chased her through the interior of the Sanctorum and back out into the real. “Goddamn, they sealed the place. You almost got stuck in the stuffing!”
“The stuffing?”
“Don’t ask. If you get lost in that mess, you never come out again. Teehee.” Mirabel pirouetted midair and ended pointing at Emilia with her chest bouncing in the breeze. “Where to? And you are welcome to keep staring at my hot bod! I know you want me!” Mirabel slapped her ass with one hand while cupping her breast with the other.
Emilia blushed hard enough that she feared she might swoon, shook herself and pointed in the direction of the compound where they’d taken Cary. “That way. Let’s go!”
Mirabel’s fingers were chilly in Emilia’s hand, but that might be due to the warmth radiating from Emilia’s embarrassment. The last thing she needed was a new romantic entanglement while she still hadn’t professed her love for Cary. Emilia found it odd that she wasn’t concerned over Cary’s safety, as if Erzuli’s assurances meant nothing could harm Cary as long as Emilia reached her before the sun went down. And the morning was brought and fresh about them.
“Well this is sour-fucking-pickle.” Mirabel paced the side of the building where Emilia had followed Cary’s lifeline the night before. From two stories up, the wall she’d torn open in the astral looked pristine and undisturbed.
When Emilia concentrated on the stone, her eyes lost focus and the lines of magical force glowed in the morning sun. They were unbroken in this light and as strong as reinforced concrete. Tapping her fingers against the wards, Emilia felt a static charge grow beneath the pads. This was different from the wards she’d broken through the previous day with her magic. Whatever had changed might try to bite her back the way the altar of testing had her first day in the Sanctorum.
“What are you waiting for, absorb these wards away and let’s bust this place open!” Mirabel hovered behind Emilia, watching her study the surface.
“This feels like the magic cast on the Altar of Testing. Something about this feels like a bad idea.”
Mirabel dragged Emilia away at those words. “Shit! Why didn’t you say something!” Switching with Emilia, Mirabel cast a simple vision spell on herself. “Most wards are simple and dumb as mortals.” She tapped the concrete and sparks flew from the contact. “Ugh, make wall storng. Ugh. Make wall shrap. Oog.” Mirabel sighed as her hands traced the lines upon the concrete, “but some wards are pieces of art. Clever little puzzles meant to trick the careless into blowing themselves up. These kinds of wards work even against ancient, inscrutable powers like the Consumption. The harder you try to smash, the harder the wards smash back. If you try to Consume such wards, your power is turned back on you.”
“Oh, that makes sense. Then what do you do?”
Mirabel snorted. “Boris will kill me for showing you this, so maybe let’s make this our little secret.” She continued to trace the runes on the wall and the maddening shift and dance settled. “You just have to follow them, like a maze with your fingers. Break the walls of the maze, and you might get a little shock, a small taste of the ward’s power. But as long as you find the repeating pattern, you can unlock them, like a key.”
“That seems super obvious!”
Mirable shrugged and lazily kept her finger along the wall. “Everything seems obvious when you explain it, duh. But you’d be lit up like a careless electrician if you tried this. It takes a gentle… ow!” A loud spark jumped to Mirabel’s hand and she giggled at herself as she turned her attention back to the concrete. “The main problem, of course, is that the people who set these wards already know we’re here messing with them now.”
“Shit! Can you hurry?”
“Not unless you enjoy the smell of fried fairy, no. But get ready. The wards under these will require your special touch. In the meantime, practice trying to trace the upper wards with your eyes. It’ll help you.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Emilia had to cast her own spell to see the runes and paths of the wards clearly. Once she did, she could tell that several layers of runes protected the exterior of this place. Beneath the newer, silvered runes, she could see the ominous dark ones she’d found the night before. Based on the tugging at her chest, Cary was still in the same place. Emilia avoided following that line too far, lest she absorb more of Cary’s pain and end up hurt again. What she and Mirabel intended to do about the final defenses of this place remained to be seen. They could worry about that once they breeched the outer bailey.
A soft pop announced Mirabel’s successful escape from the maze of runes and symbols on the outside of the wall. The upper layer of runes turned faint, though as soon as they did, Emilia could see them brightening again. “Are those coming back?”
“Yes, that’s a pretty hard to pull off trick, so we need to hurry. Do your thing girl. This time, try to take the magical power into your self. Don’t shunt it into Cary.”
“How did you…”
“I watched your whole dumb astral projection. Cary probably couldn’t help it, but she drained a good deal of your magical energy, likely because you were trying to pull yourself closer to her. So don’t do that right now. Or even at all until we free her, okay?”
“Check.” It felt counterintuitive to shut herself off from Cary, and Emilia could sense that the best she’d manage was to narrow the path between them, like the opening to a balloon making a ridiculous noise. But she would take what she could get. As soon as she’d set the clamp on the link between her and Cary, Emilia reached out and touched the concrete wall.
For an instant, the defensive runes tried to snap at her, but Emilia had already thrust her Consuming power deep into this wall. The fact that she’d done it astrally the last time meant this time was much easier. She didn’t feel so much as a twinge as a flood of power exploded into her. Her body couldn’t hold the sheer volume of power, so she redirected it into Mirabel and along the link to Cary, heedless of the danger in doing so.
Mirabel moaned ecstatically as Emilia filled her with Prajna. Somewhere in the glorious burst of power, Emilia had grabbed Mirabel around her waist and the little fairy had wrapped her legs around Emilia’s own hips. Leaning her head into the nape of Emilia’s neck, Mirabel shook with the pulses of power as Emilia drained the black lines of their magic, then the silvered reflecting lines. Soon the concrete was as mundane as any building, but Emilia wasn’t done. Even without the runes, they wouldn’t be able to penetrate this building, not without weapons or demolition equipment. But Emilia’s power fed just like it would have fed from the lifeblood of a person.
Pieces of concrete crumbled under her hand as she drained its essence, its very atomic cohesion. Fine grey ash drizzled from the holes her fingers poked into the concrete as Mirabel threw her head back and screamed in pleasure. She rocked her body against Emilia’s as she did.
“Oh hot damn girl. Let’s do that again sometime.” Mirabel struggled to catch her breath as she fanned herself. “Man, I hope that was as good for you as it was for me.”
Emilia flashed her a grimace. “Mostly it just itches. I’d… let’s get in through this hole before someone comes looking for us.”
Mirabels’ neck was flushed red as she panted and shook herself. She followed Emilia into the dark hallway without another comment, though she occasionally trembled, which Emilia could feel from where she held Mirabel’s hand.
The doors on the sides of this hallway all lay cracked opene, and voices emerged from all of them. Mirabel’s… state ended abruptly as she stiffened. A woman in the throes of childbirth screamed from one door, while another woman groaned in agony, begging Emilia to end the pain. The former was a voice Emilia had never heard before. The latter belonged to Cynthia. What did it say about her that Emilia was more drawn to Cynthia’s voice and to the chance to end the evil bitch’s life?
The fairy clung to Emilia as they floated down the hallway, moving slowly so as to avoid surprises. “I could save them, Emilia. I should save them…” Mirabel wandered toward a door from which Betsy and Max cried out for Emilia’s help. Her astral journey through this place had left Emilia immune to the traps behind these doors.
Emilia grabbed Mirabel’s hand and pulled the fairy to face her. “They died, Mirabel. None of them yet live.”
“Just one, Emilia, just one could be alive still. I swore I’d help them…”
“Mir of the White Belle, your children have died. You know this as well as I do, for I have seen it.” Emilia’s voice spoke with a second throat, high-pitched and more fae-like than the one her shapeshifted body used.
Mirabel’s eyes were wide and dominated by white when she turned back to Emilia. “That’s right. You do know… I’m sorry, Emilia.” Her wings drooped as Mirabel forced herself to look away from the door. The sight punched Emilia in the chest, hard enough to steal her breath away. She’d lived through Mirabel’s pain. Emilia hated the people who dared do this to Mirabel in the moment, setting aside what they’d already done to Cary.
Emilia patted Mirabel’s hair the same way the fairy had done for her. “It’s behind us now. All of the pain and failure. I’ll help you get through it if you promise to help me.”
Tear-streaked eyes looked up at Emilia and Mirabel snorted. “Of course…”
The change in the air pressure warned Emilia that something approached them before it struck. Her cotton dragonfly wings vibrated a warning at the pending assault, which made Emilia wrap her arms around Mirabel and drop to the ground.
A claw lashed out and ripped gouges from the nearby wall. The space around them rippled and the opened doors that had been trying to lure Mirabel and Emilia into their aphotic depths. Mind crushing blackness distracted Emilia from the creature slashing at her for an instant, but she recovered and rolled away with Mirabel in her arms before it brought its foot down on the two fairies.
Mirabel squirmed out of Emilia’s arms, “I’m good now. Let’s murder this punk!” The sword Mirabel wielded, that had not been noticeable anywhere on her person until then, flashed into her hand, illuminating their attacker.
It was a stooped, dark red beast with horns that curved toward each other on the top of its head. A dark field that sucked in light clung to the creature’s bare body, swishing through the air as if it were a robe. Emilia had no sword she could wield agains the demon, but her weapon was her very flesh.
While Mirabel commanded the demon’s attention, Emilia flew around it, making sure to stay out of its line of sight in the process. Emilia didn’t need to say anything to Mirabel. The other fairy darted around to keep the demon’s back to Mirabel as she grabbed it from behind with both hands.
She poured her will into her Consumption, driving her power into the demon and past its unholy defenses. A power flared against Emilia, but it did not try to reflect her own magic back onto her. Rather it too succumbed to Emilia’s consuming magic.
The demon faltered as Emilia drained it of its magic. In the process, she watched as it overlooked Cary’s torture and flensing, saw through the monster’s eyes as it relished the pain it inflicted on Emilia’s love.
Any change at mercy the creature might have had vanished in the moment. Where Emilia had restrained herself from killing Esme, though ultimately had failed, she gave up all pretense with this fiend. It wailed as Mirabel stabbed it with her magical blade while Emilia sucked out the last dregs of its magical power. The nugget at the end of the demon’s magic, it’s very life essence evacuated its body faster than even its magic.
Before Mirabel could strike her finishing blow, Emilia Consumed the demon’s essence. She looked on as a small coterie of demons, among them Grigo and Esme, requested the demon’s vengeance against both Cary and Emilia.
Cold fury built within Emilia’s chest. She could have ended Esme, she should have ended the perfidious Temptress. Emilia would not make the same mistake a second time. The demon’s memory informed her that its light-draining robe was an object of power akin to Mirabel’s blade. Blazing with power, Emilia darted to the ground and snatched up the robe.
As she did so, the illusions of the doors around her faltered and disappeared. Clarity she’d not possessed even in her astral form filled Emilia’s sight. Truly, the opened doors to her right and left were filled — as much as that word applied — with nothingness. They opened into an empty void that consumed its victims as surely as Emilia’s own power.
Behind her, the dead fiend’s body reduced to ash as its robe shrank to fit Emilia’s form.
“Holy shit Emilia, you straight murdered that guy!” Mirabel sounded chipper now, as if the exertion had freed her from the spell of the empty doors. She avoided looking at them while she congratulated Emilia, but Mirabel sounded better after the battle.
“We make a good team! Thanks for distracting him for me!”
Mirabel winked at Emilia and giggled. “You have no idea how often I’ve done that. Nothing is more distracting than a me with a big honkin’ sword!”
Emilia ruffled Mirabel’s hair, and the fairy wiggled into Emilia’s hand gleefully. The change in atmosphere and attitude was palpable as they walked down the hallway. At the end of this path, Emilia expected to find Cary. She worried that her magic and Mirabel’s knowledge might not be enough to stop whatever they found there.
Based on her experience the previous night, something scarier than the demon they’d just fought lurked in that room. And its power damped the bright mood Emilia shared with Mirabel.
Facing that door, Mirabel raised an eyebrow as Emilia hesitated. “What’s wrong?”
“The boss is behind here. Cary too. I think I can feel them both.” The demon Emilia had consumed was bound to the monster behind this door in a way that Emilia couldn’t quite enunciate.
“If it’s another demon, we’re gonna roll it up and smoke it!”
“What if it’s something else?” Emilia hated asking the question, hated the delay. But fear clamped her arms to her sides and kept her from reaching out and opening the way ahead.
“Here, let me magic us up then. We should do that anyway. Watch me so maybe you can do this yourself later!” Mirabel twinkled as a garment of light washed over her. This was no repurposed glove, no homespun hand me down like she’d worn before she met the Fae Queen. This was a ball gown made from tiny sapphires, rubies, and purple gems Emilia had no name for. The gemstones gathered at Mirabel’s chest and midriff as if they would protect her like armor from damage. A crown completed her outfit that likewise covered her ears and the top of her head.
“What is that?”
“These are my Vestments. You’ll learn about them eventually. They work kinda like my sword… sorta.” Mirabel waved her hands in the air as if to erase her comment. “That doesn’t make much sense, I get it. Just rap that black robe around you and try not to get hit.”
What little confidence Emilia had fled before Mirabel’s words. Before she could demand further information from the fairy, Mirabel cast a second spell. This one covered the two of them in a glittering field Emilia recognized as the same one Mirabel used to activate her illusion magic.
After a shimmy and brief examination of herself and Emilia, Mirabel nodded and said, “good, now you should be about two feet away from yourself and a little lower.” Mirabel darted up to the location she’d indicated and waved her hands in the air. “Try to keep that in mind as you move around or you’re gonna get squished. Got it?”
Emilia nodded and grinned at Mirabel, despite the danger. “They know we’re here.”
“Yup. Your job is to save Cary. My job is to keep the bad guys busy while you do that. Once Cary’s free, get her to join the fight. Or we might all die!” Mirabel sounded awfully upbeat, considering the danger they faced. “Come on, no reason to let them prepare any longer!”
Emilia nodded and focused her power on the door before her. She couldn’t use her power without touching the intended target, not yet. So she needed to be ready. As soon as her fingers contacted the door, the golden runes across the surface flared to life. Once again, these did not turn her power back against her, but still tried to sap her will. If not for the magic and life force she’d drained from the fiend back on the hallway, she might have succumbed to the runic ward’s draining. But Emilia had a vast supply of power she could use to turn her own magic on the door’s wards.
Though her thoughts felt sluggish and her power took forever to kick in and begin draining the magic from the door, only a few seconds passed before the door started to smoke and buckle from her magical assault. “Ready?” Emilia felt the door’s substance wan, so she braced her wings to blow it open.
“Let’s go!”
At Mirabel’s signal, Emilia thrust her hands into the doorway and yanked. A section of the metal folded inward like foil and the two fairies darted into the black room. At the distant wall, two women hung from dark hooks. Behind them the stones had been stained black from constant blood loss.
The creature who stood before Mirabel and Emilia was wrapped in thorns, with black feathered wings dripping with ichor that sizzled as it struck the floor. Mirabel cried out, “Shit! A Fallen! Get them while I distract it!”
Both eyes had been cut from the figure’s sockets, which bled the same black ichor that dripped from its wings. As it moved, Emilia saw that it had two spare sets of wings, one of which emitted steam as the black blood dripped on them. They looked almost grey, stained from the dark fluids that infused them from the upper wings.
It opened its mouth to scream, but Mirable moved her fingers in a twitching, stochastic motion. A clarion horn blared over the unknown monster’s voice, drowning it out with Mirabel’s volume. Despite her magic, a portion of the Fallen’s voice still reached Emilia’s ears.
Blood ran freely down her cheeks as the room tilted precariously. Across from her, Cary and the temptress Esme winced from the sound. Emilia hated the demoness and hoped she ached from the awful words of the Fallen, but she pitied Cary. The sight of the woman she loved in agony drove Emilia forward, across the room to save her.
A swipe from a flaming sword missed Emilia as she flew. A second swipe neared her and Emilia froze for fear that she would sail into the weapon’s path. Instead, a massive clang resounded through the room as Mirabel caught the Fallen’s attack on her own magical blade. “I said I got this! Go now!”
Emilia aimed herself at Cary and sprang forward. Blood covered her from head to toe, shiny and grotesque where the raw flesh underneath poked out. If not for Cary’s condition, Emilia would have struck out at Esme then and there. But Cary was a bigger priority.
Raising her head, Cary wept tears of blood as she spotted Emilia. “Oh sweet Boundary, you shouldn’t be here.” Emilia had nothing to say to that as she pressed her hands to Cary’s cheeks.
Magic flowed from Emilia then, ending her fairy transformation, drawing the night black light stealing robe into her as she shifted. Power flared around her, chasing away the encroaching darkness of the room and sealing Cary’s injuries as Mirabel dueled the fallen behind them.
Emilia only had eyes for Cary, who’s perfect skin slowly reknit itself under her ministrations. Without their link, Emilia would not have been able to do this, and she’d already braved death to save Cary once. The battle behind her became meaningless in compared to what Emilia had already faced. “I love you Cary. I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.”
It was the most important thing after healing the demoness. Emilia spoke the words mind to mind, heart to heart in a magical way that could not involve any level of deception. For a pregnant, horrifying moment, Cary didn’t reply. “I love you too, Emilia Olren.”
Emilia could breathe again and a massive well of love and compassion opened up within her. For the first time, she could sift through Cary’s memories, though most of the images were fractured and beyond her understanding. Some of them were not, among them the knowledge that the tortured demoness next to Cary wasn’t in fact Esme, but her tiny sister and another victim of the Fallen Angel fighting with Mirabel.
The knowledge they battled a Fallen Angel did nothing to slow Emilia. As if her fear had already reached the red line and topped off its capacity, she set the information aside and turned to the other victim. With one hand on Cary’s cheek, Emilia extended her hand to Dorcas and thrust her power into the Temptress.
As she did, she received brief impressions from Dorcas’s mind. The Temptress had feelings for Cary and in that bright shining moment of gnosis, Emilia didn’t mind. Her own illusions had been stripped away and Emilia recognized that she felt parallel feelings toward Mirabel. Perhaps urgency forced her to ignore the complications and entanglement of her love life, but in the midst of saving Dorcas’s life, Emilia did not care about or mind a rival for Cary’s affections. In truth, she had to admit a bit of attraction to the Temptress herself, especially as she witnessed directly how innocent and kind the demoness was.
Emilia’s power flared bright enough to cast shadows onto the blackened wall. The light from her magic faded. Cary and Dorcas stood up and wrapped themselves around Emilia as the fight with the Fallen angel grew more desperate. It struck at Mirabel with one hand, its wings buffeting and swinging down at her while it turned its eyeless gaze on the other three.
“My charge is complete. The targets have assumed the position, master…” The Fallen Angel opened its mouth and Emilia screamed. A dart of light shot from the opposite side of the Fallen Angel as a crawling darkness emerged from its mouth.
Hideous shrieks, weeping and other terrible sounds exploded from the Fallen Angel’s maw along with the morass of creeping darkness. Like a blob from a horror movie, the creeping darkness slithered toward Emilia and the three other women. As it reached them, Mirabel grabbed onto a lock of Emilia’s hair. Blackness stole Emilia’s conscious mind as the morass touched her.