Chapter Six
“Are you insane?” Bea stepped in front of him. “I suppose you want to show your pet around, and take her on long walks hand in hand.” Her blue eyes shifted to me. “Really, it’s disgusting. She’s human and you’re a glass person, and did you know,” she said snickering at me. “Glass people are classified as demons…not a good combination here.” She pointed between us resting her eyes on Will. “Get over it! There’s a little more at stake here!”
Will didn’t seem fazed by Bea’s outburst. Instead, he took her by the hand.
“Trust me on this Bea; it’s not what you think. The demon trident is gone, and without an army, we couldn’t possibly get it back against the Underworld. And,” he said looking at Piper, “we can’t keep running away because one day, there will be no more places to hide.”
“Spoken like a true prince,” Loki said leaning against the oak tree Piper said was a landmerrow.
Suddenly, footsteps in the distance could be heard. They were quick and coming closer as Will expelled the sword with a flick of his hand. Piper ran her hand over the portal, erasing it, and Bea turned into her gorgon form. Loki pulled me away from them as we waited for whatever was coming.
Trudging through the snow and fallen limbs was Clive. He was bundled in a coat and long hat making him look like one of Santa’s elves.
“Clive,” Will said surprised, and lowered his blade.
Clive stopped dead in his tracks, startled as Will approached him. He was clutching something under his coat, and then slowly began to step backwards.
“You can’t have it! You misfit demons can’t have it!” Clive yelled. “The goddess of Underworld wants it…you want to harm her with it…I won’t let you!”
“He’s possessed,” Piper said with her fluttering wings behind her. “Clive, it’s alright, you don’t serve Eve. You are with us…we want to help you.” Her words were calm.
“No!” He yelled. “All I wanted was a holiday, and what did I get?!” Clive tightened his mouth, looked at each of us with pointed finger as if it was a weapon. “You, all of you, use me. The goddess would never do that. She…she said…she told me about you—all of you.”
“She won’t use you because when she’s done with you, you won’t be around to use,” Will said retracting his blade. “Eve is an arch demon, Clive, and nothing more. She twists your thoughts and uses what she can until it’s gone.” Will moved towards him, as Clive took a step away. “We don’t want to hurt you, we don’t want to use you, and we’re your friends.”
Clive’s clenched mouth relaxed, and turned into a smile. He chuckled as I could see his body ease. “You’re right.” His words were calm. “You won’t hurt me because… I’m going to hurt you first!”
Clive pulled from under his coat a large, metal, forked spade about a foot in length. It had three long tines, and carved scroll-like designs engraved in it.
“He has the demon trident!” Loki yelled, pushing me behind him and to the ground.
Clive thrust the trident into the ground, and then pulled it up laughing. “Grow my little sprouts!”
The ground shook and cracked open in several small fissures. Snow and broken limbs fell from the trees overhead.
Bea, now in full gorgon form, tried to pounce on Clive when, suddenly, several of the same fur-balls that I saw earlier, popped from the cracks and jumped on her, pushing Bea to the ground.
“Earth demons!” Piper yelled as she flicked silver dust from her hands.
The dust landed on the creatures like ash. They screeched and hissed, and then slowly, ignited into blue flames like someone threw matches on them. They ran wildly, and then rolled to the ground smothering the flames.
“Fairy dust isn’t going to work on them, sister!” Clive laughed with mad delight as a wave of the earth demons bounced behind him like ping pong balls, and charged towards us.
Piper threw glitter from her hands, and soon everything was lit up in angry blue flames. Bea slashed at the creatures, not consumed by fire, with her black dagger. She stabbed the demons right below their mouths, and flicked them through the air like she was picking flowers. The creatures slammed into the trees, and exploded into dust upon impact. It was like the whole forest was a battlefield of ice, snow, and blue flames.
I watched the spectacle as if it was a movie, and not really happening. I knew differently, and watched in horror as several earth demons came like a wall of water. The more creatures they killed, the more that came. Clive laughed continually, raising the demon trident in the air like a trophy. I gazed at it, and suddenly, felt a spark ignite inside of me. I had to get it away from him, and even felt a pang of anger that he was using it. His grubby little hands were all over it, tainting it. I had to get it away from him.
The creatures that didn’t burn up from Piper’s dust, got only bigger when they rolled to the ground picking up more leaves, twigs, rocks, and other debris that littered the ground.
I could see two large earth demons charge towards Will. I couldn’t let anything happen to him.
“I can’t hold this shield for much longer. We’re going to have to run!” Loki yelled as he held out his hands in front of him, fingers fanned out, and bolts of electricity encasing us in a curtain of light.
He dropped his arms and grabbed hold of me. I yanked my arm away from Loki’s hand just as Will fell to the ground with the two large earth demons standing over him.
I ran to him as something metallic flew from his hands—the sword. It landed a few feet in front of me like it was trying to reach me. I swooped in, picked it up, and ran towards him. I slashed madly at the two creatures. They screeched and yelled as I whittled them down, not giving them a chance to attack me. Twigs, rocks, and leaves exploded in one final slash of my sword.
I didn’t stop with them. Piper had several on top of her, pulling at her wings. I flung them off like flies clinging to a window screen. Soon, they quit coming until all that was left was Clive clutching the demon trident.
I turned to him as he stepped back.
“Give me that,” I said glaring at him.
He growled at me as he poked it into the ground one more time producing a large earth demon near Bea. It towered over her, and lifted its massive twig constructed arm to take a swing. I rolled to the ground and over to Bea slicing the creature’s arm off before it could attack her. And I continued slashing until it was gone.
I then turned to Clive again. He rushed towards me with the trident pointed at me. In one quick swipe, I sliced through Clive taking his head clean off.
Everything fell into silence as I stood there, holding the sword at my side. It was like I wasn’t there. I couldn’t have possibly done all of this.
“Eliza,” Will’s voice pulled me from my dazed trance.
“What have I done?” I asked rhetorically, my voice was barely a whisper. I didn’t blink as I looked at Clive. His dead body was the only proof of what happened. “I killed him,” I said looking up at Will. His pale eyes gazed at me gently. “I…I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never done anything like that before. I killed him…”
“Well, I do have to say that’s pretty good for someone with no training,” Loki said standing on the other side of me. “Very acrobatic, and quick little thing, aren’t you? You’re almost like a killing circus performer, aren’t you kitten?”
“You saved us, and protected us,” Will said turning me to face him. He placed his hands on my shoulders and studied me with his flickering eyes. “It’s clear to me now what you are.”
“Where’s the trident?” Bea asked searching the ground with Piper by Clive’s body. Everyone turned to her. “It’s not here, and it was in his hands. He was swinging it all over the place, and it should be here.” She lifted his decapitated body like she was picking up a large garbage bag, and giving no respect to his remains. “For Heaven’s sake!” she said with disgu
st, throwing his corpse to the ground.
I could feel bile rise in my throat watching the green blood dripped from the body. I ran as quickly, and far as could until I stopped and threw-up beside a tree.
Will followed, and looked at me with worry. I was glad I didn’t throw-up all the spaghetti I ate earlier. I stood up, and leaned against the tree closing my eyes. Snow began to trickle from the branches above, and stung my skin with its iciness. I wrapped my arms around my stomach wanting nothing more than to run away from everything.
“Are you alright?” He asked with his voice filled with concern.
“No,” I replied truthfully. “I just turned into a killing machine, and murdered your butler.”
“He wasn’t the butler, and, he had this on him.” Piper held up a business card.
“It’s blank,” Will said looking at her.
“No, it isn’t, not to me.” She flipped it over. “It has Fae writing on it. And it’s done in runes, which is an ancient writing hardly used anymore, and, only visible to real fairies—like me.”
“Well, what does it say?” Loki asked.
Piper looked at it. “It seems Clive was more than just a house attendant for quite some time. He’s part of some organization called the Fellowship of the Heart.” She flipped the card over then looked back at Will. “That’s all it says, nothing more.”
“Fellowship of the Heart,” Bea questioned. “I’ve never heard of it, and I don’t think Eve would name any of her secret thug groups Fellowship of the Heart.”
“It sounds more like some church named by humans, but I don’t think Clive was into things like that.” Loki gazed at the card over Piper’s shoulder.
“Eve is behind this. I know many want the trident for its power to either have control over their enemies, or extract the magic right out of it. This is how she works, and who else would want the trident more than her?” Piper asked quickly looking over her shoulder at Bea. “I know she’s still your mother, Bea, but I’m just saying…”
Bea glared at Piper with eyes like ice as she folded her arms over her chest and cleared her throat.
“No, not anymore, she disowned me, and I don’t think if she had a secret group wanting to get the demon trident, she would name it Fellowship of the Heart.”
“Why not, it’s the perfect disguise.” Loki nudged in front of Bea. “Eve’s cunning. Do you think she’d name her group something like the Underground Divas, and give out membership cards all over using that name? No, she’d use something like that so it wouldn’t raise any red flags.” Bea started to walk away, but Loki stepped in front of her again. “She was the one that gave herself to darkness, not you.”
Bea looked away, and then back at Loki. “It’s the past, and I suppose it could be related to her.”
“Well, guys, the trident is gone. What now? Where should we start?” Piper asked as I sneezed.
Everyone looked at me like I had said something I shouldn’t.
“Let’s get somewhere warmer,” Will said wrapping his arm around me.
“And where would that be?” Bea asked.
“Iethia,” Will replied.
Will had everyone go back to the old hotel and get the things they needed. The place was littered with dead bodies—all the guardians I had seen earlier conversing as Clive served them drinks. I tried not to look at them, and Will curled me in his arms.
“The sight bothers you?” He asked taking notice as I tried to hide my aversion.
I looked up at him as he glanced over at the fallen guardians before we went down the hallway.
“Yes, it’s terrible…” I said as his eyes were filled with curiosity rather than repulsion at the scene.
We stood in the hallway away from everyone, and the aftereffects of the horror that happened just an hour before.
“You…you don’t feel that way?” I asked. “I mean you don’t understand—death, and what it means when someone dies.”
He took in a deep breath. “Glass people live a long time, and when our power is low, we simply transform ourselves, but most of our memories are lost in the process, only a few important ones remain.”
I shook my head trying to fathom what he said, but I couldn’t think past what had happened.
“If it bothers you, then we can leave another way.” His voice was sincere.
I looked up at him as Piper came down the hallway. “Here’s a coat you can wear. It’s one of mine so for my convenience, there’s two small slits in the back for my wings. I pinned them shut.”
“Thanks,” I said putting it on.
“I’m going to check on Loki because if I don’t, he’ll want to take the kitchen sink with him,” Piper said turning with her wings folded behind her and poking through her blue velvet coat.
“What about Rosie’s body?” My voice trembled, and I tried to contain my tears.
“What do you mean?”
“We need to bury her,” I said quickly. “Or at least burn her body.”
Will’s face turned sour. “Why would you do that? Isn’t that desecrating to the body?”
“No, humans bury or burn their dead as finality to their life. It’s done out of respect.”
Will glanced down the hallway then back at me. “If that’s the proper thing to do for Rosie, then that’s what we shall do.”
I couldn’t go in and see Rosie’s body. I wanted to remember her the way she was. Will and Loki took her out, and I stayed inside. I glanced around the room feeling I knew Rosie well, but at the same time, I didn’t. Her secret life, secret responsibilities, were a mystery to me.
I looked around the room at all of the books wondering about all the things Rosie knew when something buzzed on the floor. Startled at first, I stepped back and then it buzzed again like a missed call from a cell phone. I moved some of the debris, books and shards of glass carefully away to discover it was the glass tablet, and it wasn’t broken. I picked it up, and it had the same swirling blue background with an alert of a message flashing back at me.
“Eliza, are you ready?” Will asked as I stared at the tablet.
“It’s a message from Atlantis.” I gazed at it as Will stepped beside me.
“What do I do?” I asked, and looked into his pale eyes.
He looked at me then back at the tablet. I was happy it was intact, and now we had a safe haven to escape to.
“If you answer it, they will tell us where to take you for transportation, but if you don’t, then we can go to Iethia.” His words were soft, and his eyes flickered like ice glistening in the sun. “Piper, Bea, Loki and I, can’t go with you. We are forbidden to travel there without a variance.” He looked down at me as I gazed at the tablet waiting for a response. “I can’t decide for you, but I can offer you another option. The Alliance can protect you, no doubt, but I can show you what you truly are.” His words were tantalizing to me. “Eliza, I want the choice to be yours, but I want you to know there is something more to you. I could feel it the first time I ran my fingers across your mark.”
“What is it? What did you feel?” I couldn’t believe I was asking.
“I think you were chosen by Lyra to be my protector. I don’t know how or why she did it, but I know. It’s clear to me after what just happened in the woods. You fought like a single glass army,” he said with a smile.
I looked down at the flashing tablet. Atlantis, another world, and a secret world that I’d be safe in, but would I ever get to leave? What would be expected of me, and would I still be hunted by demons? I then looked up at Will. It would be dangerous to follow him, but then again, no one ever said discovering the truth was a safe thing.
I let the tablet fall from my hands to the floor, and finished it off with a stomp of my foot. It cracked and the light went out. There was no turning around now.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, Eliza Thorn, I promise.”