Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 1, After the Fall (33 page)

Ben's grip nearly crushed my knuckles and his voice was shouting in my ear, but I disregarded all of it.

Next came Leck, who I pictured being swallowed up by the Earth, and left to feel the pressure of the creatures who walked above it, pressing down on him until no more breath could reach his lungs.

Last came Maléna.  I laughed maniacally as I pictured her engulfed in flames, her face melting away from her skull, the fire turning her from fae to ash in a slow and painful torture I designed just for her.  I felt nothing as her traitorous black demon-screwing soul disappeared from this realm.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

BEN'S HAND LEFT MINE AND his elements followed a moment later.  Then the pressure of his mouth was on my lips, and I couldn't think about the destruction or hatred of those who'd acted against me any longer.  I felt myself enveloped in warmth again, but it was different this time.  Now it felt like healing and sanctuary instead of like an angry mess lashing out against the world for the wrongs done to me and my friends.

His lips left my mouth, and he rested his forehead on mine.  "Let your elements go, Jayne.  We need to figure out what's going on."

"But they're going to kill us."

"No, they're not.  I'll protect you."

"How can you do that if you're paralyzed?"

"I'm not anymore.  I'm fine.  Open your eyes and look at me."

I didn't want to, so I resisted at first.  But his refusal to take no for an answer and his increasing pressure on my upper arms as he squeezed them made me respond.  As my eyes opened and let the light in, focusing on the space around us, I realized we were no longer out in the middle of a strange meadow.  We were in his room, and it was just the two of us.

I stepped back away from him, looking around in confusion.  "What the hell just happened, Ben?  Did I just imagine that entire thing?  How did we get here?"

"The battle with Maléna and her cronies?  No.  Unless we were both part of the same nightmare, I believe it was entirely too real."

"We were in a meeting before, though, right?  With the council?"

"Yes."

I wiped my hand under my nose, taking another step back from him as I tried to gather my thoughts and memories into a cohesive frame of reference.  "Thank the universe, because I was starting to wonder if I'd suffered some permanent brain damage from that green shit."

Ben's eyes flicked over to his crystal decanter.  "You drank the absinthe for real?"

"Yes.  And before you get all pissy about it, I just want to say that I'm sorry and I'll never do it again.  I'm pretty sure I'm suffering an allergic reaction to it right now as punishment."

A banging on the door interrupted our conversation.

Ben loped over, throwing it open to reveal Dardennes, Céline, and Jared.  Tim came flying in over their heads.

"Jayne!" he yelled zooming over and hovering two inches from my face.  "Talk to me, Goose. Tell me you're okay!"  He came up to my eyeball, reaching out as if to take my eyelashes in his hands.

I leaned back.  "Get away, lunatic.  I'm fine."

"Phew-ey,
what is that
smell?"
he said, waving his hands rapidly in front of his face.  "I haven't smelled that odor since ..."  He gasped and froze in midair, dropping a couple feet almost to the ground before his wings started working again and brought him back up to my eye level.  "No!  You didn't!" he yelled, buzzing over to the decanter.  He landed on the table next to it and walked around it, eyeing the offending liquid carefully.

Before he could report back that he noticed some of the disgusting drink missing, the rest of the group entered the room and began speaking all at the same time.

Ben held up his hands for quiet and everyone immediately settled down.  "We know you must have a lot of questions, as do we.  May I suggest we sit and relax while we figure this out?"  He gestured towards his conversation area, which was way too close to his alcohol stash for my comfort; but before I could complain and offer another option, they moved to comply.

I took a space on the chair directly in front of the decanter, deciding a body-block was my best bet at distracting anyone from looking at it.

Another knock at the door came and Ben went over to let Red and Niles in.  I noticed Ivar with them too, but the ogre took up a position outside the door and refused Ben's invitation to come inside.

"What did we miss?" growled Niles, moving his stubby legs over in our direction so fast they were nearly a blur.  I worked hard not to laugh.

"Nothing.  We've just arrived," said Céline.  She turned her attention to me.  "Are you okay?  We were so worried."

"I'm fine," I said, my stuffy nose making me sound ridiculous.  "Other than seriously messed up sinuses."

"I don't recall you being sick in the meeting," she said.  "I'm sorry for not noticing sooner.  Perhaps we can find some herbs to help you."

"She wasn't sick earlier," said Ben, staring at me.  "She got that way while we battled Maléna and her pack of traitors."

"Tell us," prompted Dardennes.  "We had no idea where you all disappeared to.  We've been searching the compound and exterior high and low.  We'd already come for you here once, but didn't find you the first time.  It was Tim who alerted us to your presence."

Tim flew over and stood on the arm of my chair.  "Heard ya in here.  I was going to knock but then decided reinforcements might be a good idea."

"Good thinking, Tim," I said.  If he'd been caught up in that shit storm earlier, he'd be dead right now.  I was grateful for his caution.  If I'd killed him by accident I'd never be able to live with myself.  Even the passing thought of it made me get a little choked up.  I cleared my throat a couple times so I wouldn't embarrass myself.

"We were transported out of the meeting by one of Maléna's witch friends.  They had some sort of spell planned for us that Maléna was supposed to deliver on the wind.  But something happened they weren't expecting, and it didn't affect Jayne like it did me."

"What did it do to you?" asked Red.

"I was paralyzed and cut off from my elements."

Even Niles looked a little bit shocked at that.

"I cannot believe she would do such a thing," said Céline.  "I am ashamed to call her my sister."

Dardennes patted her on the hand.  "Don't say that.  We don't know what exactly is happening yet.  Let's wait to judge until after we hear everything."

Céline sniffed, her eyes suspiciously wet as they looked at me.  I could practically feel the apology beaming out of them.

Ben continued.  "Jayne was fine, although her nose got very stuffed up," he looked at me, a faint smile playing on his lips, "and she just took over for both of us.  She used her elements as shields and then, believe it or not, took my elements and used them too."

"That is not possible," said Niles, banging his hand down on the couch cushion he was standing next to.

"Apparently it is.  It only worked when we were physically touching, but it was she who commanded Wind and Fire, not me.  I was as helpless as a babe."

"That is an interesting way of wording your condition," said Red, a look of extreme concentration on his face.  "There is a very ancient spell, one I have not seen used in a very long time.  It renders the victim helpless - as a babe, so it has been described."  He looked over at me.  "And yet it did nothing to you.  How curious."

"It made my nose all stuffed up.  That's not nothing.  It's kind of irritating, if you must know."  I could feel a tickling coming from deep in my sinuses.  "Does anyone have any tissue.  I'm about to sneeze, and I'm almost afraid of what's going to happen when I do."  I'd had too much dragon's whatever to drink, I'd just annihilated at least five fae after inhaling some toxic fumes, and I still had no idea where the hell I'd been or how I'd gotten there and back.  I could sneeze and blow up the compound at this rate.

"Did he say that the spell was sent to you on the wind?" asked Tim, now up near my ear.

"Yeah.  It was like a yellow smoke."

Tim flew up into my face, making me go cross-eyed he was so close again.

"Get away, spaz.  I'm trying to listen."

Red was talking about the spell again, but I couldn't concentrate on what he was saying because of Tim's antics.

"I just need to look at something," he insisted, flying by my mouth now, laying horizontally on his back and zooming back and forth under my nose.  He looked ridiculous.

"Seriously.  Go away or I'm going to make you my badminton birdie."

"I'll be right back," he said, flying up into a corner of the room.  I couldn't believe it when I saw him disappear into a crack in the stone.

Why, you sneaky little bastard.  You have a tunnel from Ben's room to mine. 
My face blanched as I wondered how much spying that little turd had done not only here but wherever else he had his little hidey holes.  My eyes narrowed as I thought about his secrets.  He was so going down the next time I got my hands on him. 
Roommates' honor code, my ass.

When I was focused back on the meeting, Ben was filling them in on the fight.

"I couldn't see anything other than the elements.  You'll have to ask Jayne what exactly happened."

All eyes turned on me, making my face get warm with embarrassment.  I wondered briefly if I were going to be prosecuted, and if self-defense was a valid law in the fae world.

"Jayne, please tell us what happened.  We are not here to judge you.  We know you are not a vicious person."

Ha, ha.  Don't bet on it. 
I thought about the angry visions I conjured while I sniffed a couple times, trying to breathe around the blockage in my nose, giving up when it didn't work right away.  I ignored the tickling that grew more intense with each minute and prayed they wouldn't decide I needed a one-way ticket to the Underworld for what I'd done.

"Well, I didn't see what
actually
happened ... only what I wanted to have happen."

"How is that?" asked Red.

"I use visualization to control the elements.  That's the key you know."  I looked over at Ben and he winked at me, encouraging me to keep going.  "So I pictured the elements kicking their asses, basically.  I'm not sure if I killed them or not, but just so you all know, it was totally self-defense.  They were going to kill us, I'm pretty sure."

"No one is accusing you of anything," said Dardennes.  "The rules of engagement in this type of situation are quite clear.  Maléna knew the risks when she issued the challenge."

"Pfft. 
Do those rules allow for sneak-attacks?"

Dardennes smiled.  "Not generally, no."

"She's a cheater.  Why am I not surprised."  I was feeling less and less guilty the more I learned.

"What I don't understand is why the spell didn't affect Jayne," said Red.  "If it is the spell I am thinking of, it is powerful and foolproof.  Neither she nor Ben should be here right now."

"Do you mean ...?" said Céline, shock in her expression.

"They should be dead," he said simply.  "It's meant to incapacitate so the death blow can be delivered.  It has been used effectively against all manner of creatures in the past.  Perhaps you have heard the tales of Nightshade's Lullaby."

"No!" gasped Céline.

Dardennes just shook his head, looking supremely disappointed.

Even Niles looked disturbed.  It was one of the few times I'd seen him looking anything other than pissed off.

"What's that?" I asked.  "It sounds badass, whatever it is."

I noticed some movement up in the corner of the room, and out of the hole in the wall came not only Tim but Abby and Willy, too.  Tim had Willy by the hand and was dragging him behind in the air.  Willy didn't look very happy.  He kept trying to reach up and disengage himself from his dad's grip, but Tim wasn't having it.

"Did I just hear Nightshade's Lullaby?" he asked, landing with Willy on the table next to the decanter.  

I had to turn around to see him.  I shot him scolding looks and jerked my head to the side, trying to signal him to move so he wouldn't attract so much attention to the absinthe, but he ignored me.  I gave up and brought him into the conversation.

"Yes, they said Nightshade's Lullaby.  I guess it was the spell they used against us."

Tim let out a low whistle.  Abby's hand went up to her mouth and she shook her head slowly.

"I take it this is a bad thing," I said, reaching up to rub my nose.  My eyes were starting to water with the terrible twinges I was getting up high in my nasal cavity, almost near my forehead.

Willy kept tugging on his dad's hand, but his eyes were on me.  He would not stop staring at my face.

I reached over and nudged him gently on the butt so he'd quit it, but it didn't do any good.  

He grabbed ahold of my finger and tried to use it as leverage to get away from his father.

"Stop it, Willy, or I'll give you a spanking," threatened Tim.

"You'll do no such thing," said Abby, frowning at him.

"I. Want. My.
Polly balls!"
yelled Willy, ignoring the threats from his father and the protective measures coming from his mother.

I was completely mystified as to what they were doing in here with their baby.  It seemed kind of like this meeting had some R-rated stuff going on, what with me talking about killing off bad-guy fae and all.  I was no parent, but it seemed like maybe they should have left him in the other room.

Dardennes reached into a bag at his waist and pulled out a handkerchief, handing it to Céline and gesturing at me.

I leaned over and took it gratefully from her, wiping under my nose, trying to keep the dripping at bay.  No way was I going to honk the schnoz right here in front of everyone, but at least I could keep stuff from running down my face.  I nodded at Dardennes in appreciation.

"Polly ba-ha-haalllls!" wailed Willy.  "I want my polly baaaalllss!"  He went from distraught to angry and back again, obviously in full freak-out mode over his toys.