Secrets & Shadows

We reached the top of the stairs and looked around. There was no sign of Siren anywhere. We weren’t distracted for too long so she couldn’t have gone too far. At least I hope not. The air outside was beginning to cool as the sun began to set showing off an orange and purple horizon that looked like a scene from a Bob Ross painting.

“Shit,” said Cassandra. “Any idea of where to start looking for her?” She looked at me waiting for an answer. I thought for just a moment and realized that I still had Siren’s picture in my jacket. It has since become a little wrinkled so I smoothed it out as best I could.

“Can we try using this to scry for her?” I suggested.

“Will that work? It’s just a picture.”

“Worked for me last time,” I said as I pulled out my amethyst crystal. Holding the crystal above the picture, I concentrated on Siren, as well as everything I remembered about her; her smell, her embrace, her voice. The crystal above the photo began to slowly rotate. First it pointed to the north, then east, then north again and in a few more random directions. Everytime it started to lock on to her position, it dropped down again and changed directions like a broken compass.

“Damnit!” I exclaimed. “It won’t lock on for some reason.”

“I told you it wouldn’t work,” Cassandra said.

“I think we may need to split up and look for her the old fashioned way.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right.”

Cassandra looked up and down the street. The street on which The Tavern faced traversed north and south. The nearest intersection was about a hundred yards in each direction. In between there were a few alley ways attaching to the next block.

“You take north and I’ll take south,” she said.

“Good idea,” I said. We started to run off in opposite directions when I stopped and turned. “Cassandra, wait!”

“What is it?” she asked. “Aren’t we kind of in a hurry?”

I took the ring off my finger and unfolded it to show Cassandra the isolation sphere. “I need you to enchant this.”

“What the hell is it?” she asked.

“This, hopefully, is our secret weapon against this Abyss Walker,” I explained. “It’s an invention of my mother’s called an isolation sphere. It needs to be enchanted with a few different magics in order to work.”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll try. But we probably don’t have much time like you said.”

“It’s important,” I said. “We may not have another chance.”

With that Cassandra pointed at the ringed sphere with her wand. The tip began to glow green along with her eyes. She gently tapped the ball with her wand and the Eye erupted in emerald light.

“Whoa,” said Puck with awe. He was fluttering next to me and was utterly entranced as to what was going on.

When the light dissipated a few seconds later. Two of the rings now glowed next to one another, the first silver, the second now green. I folded the Eye back up and paced it back on my finger for safe keeping.

“Alright, now let’s go,” I said. “Send up some flares or something if you find Siren.” Cassandra gave an affirmation and ran off in her designated direction. “Hey, Puck.”

“Aye, Sir?”

“Do me a favor. I know it’s a long shot but, can you try and feel out Siren with your magic?” I asked.

“I don’t know if I can, Sir,” he said. “But, I’ll try.” I held out my hand for him to sit down. He sat with his legs crossed with his hands on his knees and eyes closed. I felt the magic radiate from him as he was trying to seek out Siren. “I think I can sense something, Sir,” he said.

“Is it Siren?” I asked a little too eagerly.

“No, it’s something dark,” Puck gasped. “It’s that Thing!”

“The Abyss Walker?” I asked. “Where do you sense it?” Puck pointed towards the direction that Cassandra was headed. Dropping my hand Puck hovered in place as I looked out to where he was pointing. I started to jog in the direction Puck had indicated while he followed close behind. Fireworks began to rain down from the same direction. Cassandra must have found Siren. This combination had bad news written all over it.

I ran faster and got to Cassandra a minute later. We were about halfway down the street to the next intersection and turned left just to end up deep in an alleyway.

There was Siren cowering in the corner of an alcove that contained a couple dumpsters. Her hands on either side of her head as if she was attempting to keep it from splitting wide open. She was crying and screaming in pain. Due to her natural bard skills and singing ability, every scream was an ear piercing high note that made Cassandra and I cover our ears. Random empty glass bottles cracked and shattered with her scream. The pain from her voice was so intense I thought my eardrums would burst at any moment.

Large splotches of white began to appear on Siren’s skin and hair, as if some unseen hand dripped white ink on her. The splotches attempted to spread and meet each other but seemed to vanish nearly as fast as they appeared.

“Lance, what’s going on?” Cassandra said in between Siren’s screams.

“Her body is attempting to awaken into the true form of a Prana Vampire,” I informed her. “If she’s allowed to awaken it could be bad news. Especially since she doesn’t seem to be in control of herself.”

Cassandra attempted to get closer. With every step she took towards Siren, wisps of black clouds surrounded the singer and began to intensify the closer Cassandra got.

“Don’t come closer!” Siren ejaculated. Cassandra backed away slowly. “I can’t hold it back anymore. Please, run away! Both of you! I don’t want to hurt you!”

“We’re not going anywhere,” I said calmly. I reached a hand out and slowly inched myself towards her. Tendrils of dark clouds began to surround her once again.

“We’re here for you,” I added. “We want to help.”

Siren looked up at me, her eyes shone with a pure white essence. “Please, help me,” she managed to say. “I don’t want this anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “What is it you don’t want?”

Before Siren could answer her body became rigid and the black cloud tendrils enveloped her and grew. The black mass continued to grow into the form I recognized.

“Lance,” Cassandra called. “What in the seven hells is THAT?”

“Remember that thing I told you about that was killing people and trying to kill me?” I said. “That’s it.” The Abyss Walker stood towering over both Cassandra and I, and growled. It was a sound so guttural ‘growl’ doesn’t even describe it well.

“Well, what do we do now?”

“Run!” We both broke out into a full sprint. Puck screaming his little head off in fear that turned into an orange blur that flew beside us.

We wove through the alleyways and gangways. Between the backsides of buildings and down other alleys to gain some distance. We needed a place to stop and process what to do next so we took a few sharp turns and hid behind a dumpster.

“Cassandra, do you have some kind of veil or masking spell that can hide us from this thing?” I asked. Without a word she gave a grandiose wave of her wand and a large, thin, silvery sheet dropped and covered us completely then faded away. The Abyss Walker ran right by us without so much as a second look.

‘I hope there isn’t anyone around to get hurt,’ I thought to myself.

“Alright, Lance,” Cassandra chimed. “What’s your big plan now?”

My mind was blank. I had absolutely no idea what to do. I was at a complete loss as to what to do next. I felt completely helpless. “I don’t know,” I admitted. “Last time I was up against it I couldn’t put up much of a fight. I only walked away because it was just an illusion Leanan Sidhe made so she could ‘save me’.” I began to panic and pace back and forth biting my nails.

Just then a cold wind began to blow forcing me to use a hand to close my jacket. The alleyways were acting like a windtunnel, funneling the air to make it blow harder and colder.

“Well, well, well,” said a familiar Irish voice. “What have we here? A couple rats trapped in a corner, under a blanket with no place left to run?” The crimson haired woman appeared in front of me sounding like a comic book villain. “Not you of course my dear,” she added, gesturing to me.

“Speak of the devil and she appears,” I said. “I wouldn’t think that you could see through our veil. What do you want?” I asked.

Cassandra and Puck were both frozen with shock and fear at the sight of the Fae. Puck’s fright was obvious, tiny Summer Fae were always fearful of powerful Fae of the opposite faction. But Cassandra was scared for other reasons. No one had seen under her veils before, nor should they be able to. It was pretty concerning to me as well. This wasn’t right.

“Oh, I’m just making sure my little beastie is doing well and making sure they aren’t hurting you, my Dear,” Leanan Sidhe said in a matter-of-fact voice.

“What is she talking about, Lance?” Cassandra asked as she turned to me.

Suddenly I realized the answers she gave to my questions at home. She really had told me everything. All I had to do was listen to what she was saying. Just like Puck said, “read between the lines”. She said that whoever had woken it up was someone close who had feelings for me. She didn’t mean emotionally close, she meant physically close! And by ‘a lion in a cage’ she probably meant that it was just sitting and waiting to come out and attack. Gods I was such an idiot!

“It was all you,” I said. “You sent the Abyss Walker to begin attacking people in town to draw me to you. All so you could forge some kind of contract between us that I would stay with you. Is that right?”

“Very perceptive, my darling,” she praised. “Yes, I did it all.”

“What did Siren mean when she said she ‘didn’t want this anymore’?” I asked.

“That little girl used a speaking board to contact me,” Leanan Sidhe said. “Or did she not tell you that?”

My stunned silence was apparently enough of an answer for her.

“Yes, just before the most recent journey with her, now late, companions she was having doubts about herself and her abilities. She used the board while alone and inadvertently summoned me to her. She wanted more power and confidence. She told me about her troubles and mentioned her upcoming journey across your country. So I told her in a few days I would grant power to her. I knew that if I bonded the Abyss Walker to her, you would eventually find each other, somehow, which would lead you to me. Once that happened I was sure I could convince you to stay.”

“Why would you do something like that?” asked Cassandra. “What if Siren’s band didn’t come out this way and this thing killed people all over the country? Lance would never have known about it. Are you insane?”

Leanan Sidhe hovered in place, her wings fluttering, barely visible, reflecting what light was left in the sunset. Her hand to her chin in a thoughtful pose.

“Quite possibly,” she said. “Wouldn’t that be a lovely notion?”

I narrowed my eyes at the menacing Winter Fae. “You didn’t actually enchant that item I showed you. You knew my plan before I did, didn’t you?”

“Indeed,” she said. “I figured your plan was somehow to seal away my creature. And you’re correct, I gave no such enchantment to your trinket.”

“So you want me to kill Siren and run as a fugitive to Faewild to be with you, acting as my sanctuary. Is that all?” I accused her.

“Precisely!” Leanan Sidhe said cheerfully. “Isn’t it a marvelous plan?” She clapped her hands together giving herself a small applause.

I thrust my right palm towards her and launched a cherry red, baseball sized fireball at her, which she dodged with ease. The fireball hit and burned itself out on the building behind her.

“Well that was certainly rude,” she said with a sneer.

Puck began to whisper in my ear. “No,” I said. “That was inconsiderate. What’s rude is to say, ‘Go ndeine an diabhal dréimire de cnámh do dhroma ag piocadh úll i ngairdín Ifrinn’!”

“Indeed,” she said coldly. She flew over to me and slapped me across the cheek with the back of her hand. “I do hope that you survive, My Love. Good luck!” She flew up to the rooftops and disappeared from sight.

“Puck,” I said. “What exactly did I tell her?”

“May the devil use your backbone as a ladder to pick apples in the garden of Hell!” he said casually.

“Please remind me not to take your advice again, Puck.” The ground began to tremble as I peered around the corner. I saw the Abyss Walker approaching, still searching.

“Shit!” I exclaimed hearing the stomping come slowly closer. “Since Leanan Sidhe didn’t actually enchant our, now, not-so-secret weapon, it isn’t going to work!”

“What are we going to do then?” Cassandra asked. “Just play cat and mouse until we’re dead? It’s not like we know another Fae-,” we both looked at each other then to Puck.

“Uh, why are you staring at me?” Puck’s eyes flickered between Cassandra and I as he backed himself to the nearby wall. I peered around the corner of the alley wall again. The Abyss Walker was sniffing and prowling around like a wild animal.

“Puck,” I said. “I’m going to need some major help from you. So much help that this could repay your life debt.”

The little Fae stuck out his chest. “Anything I can do to help, Sir!” he said with the utmost confidence.

“I guess there’s only one thing I can do,” Cassandra said, pulling two vials from her belt. One was blue and the other green and as she opened both they gave off the most repugnant stench to ever crawl into my nose. It had a smell bad enough to taste, (which by the way smelled and tasted of sweaty ass, wrapped in week old burnt, leathery bacon with notes of rancid milk).

Puck plugged his nose as I attempted to recover my olfactory senses by covering my mouth and nose with both my hands. “UGH!” said Puck, repulsed. “What are those?” I tried my best not to vomit.

“A durability potion and stamina potion,” she said. “To make sure I don’t get tired out and to give me the durability of a comic book superhero.” She drank each of them down, one after the other as if she was taking shots of her most hated liquor back at The Tavern. She did what she could to keep them down. The look on her face showed that her body was trying to purge them from her stomach. After a few seconds she managed to take control. “And for the record they taste as bad as they smell.”

“Aren’t potions supposed to, I dunno. Taste and smell better?” I asked.

“Well what were you expecting a concoction of freeze dried animal parts and herbs supposed to smell like? Fucking strawberries?”

“Of course!” Puck said. I rolled my eyes.

“What are you planning exactly?” I asked Cassandra, concerningly. I looked back again down the alley. It appeared the monster took up our scent, or rather the lingering smell of two disgusting potions, and was headed our way.

She placed the empty vials back on her belt. “I’m going to distract it while you get that new toy of yours enchanted,” she said walking off.

“Like hell you are!” I grabbed her arm. “I’m not going to send my friend off just to get hurt. Maybe even worse! This all happened because I was an idiot teenager. It was my fault that I found her, stayed with her and made her get attached. I don’t want you paying the price for my stupidity. I can’t afford to lose you,” I really didn’t know what I had said until it was already out in the open. I never realized I actually felt this way about her before. For the first time since I met her, I saw her not just as a companion or a friend, but someone completely and totally invaluable to me. Someone I could not go on without.

Cassandra gently touched my hand that was gripping her arm and I let go. The stomping was even closer now. “Lance,” she said softly. “You defended me when I was defenseless. You stuck by me when I was alone in the world. You even defied The Grand Coven just to free me. It’s my turn now. We share a special bond after all. This is the least that I could do.” She bridged the arm’s length gap between us with a short jump and locked her lips onto mine. The kiss we shared seemed like an eternity. It was only broken with the shaking of the ground and a lion-like roar.

“Enchant that sphere, Lance,” she said. “Then we will see what happens next time!” She gave a wink, waved her wand, dispelling the veil that hid us all and turned and ran around the corner. Green light flashed as she slung spells at the creature to keep it occupied.

“Alright, Puck now’s your time to really shine,” I said, turning to meet him.

“But I always shine when I fly,” he replied. I slapped my face into my palm.

“I meant...never mind,” I said. “What I need now is your help.” I took the Isolation Ring off of my hand and opened it up. “I need you to enchant this with your magic.”

Puck looked at it cautiously. “I-I don’t know, Sir,” he said nervously. “It’s cold iron, I can’t touch it like you and Cassandra.”

“You don’t need to touch it, just do what we did with her restraint spell,” I instructed, “put your hands over it and imbue it with your magic.”

“I’ll try, Sir!” Puck with his hands shaking put them over the sphere, which compared to himself was huge. He closed his eyes and concentrated. His hands began to glow with an orange light and so did the sphere. Puck began to strain, putting every ounce of magic he had into this little sphere, being careful not to actually touch it. There was a bright orange flash and the Eye continued to glow with the same hue momentarily before the light dissipated. Three of the four rings now had their own unique glow.

“You did it, Puck!” I cheered.

“Woot!” Puck said, thrusting his fist into the air. “I’m gonna go lay down now, Sir. I’m exhausted.” With that he gently lowered himself down to the ground and fell asleep. Afraid I would lose him, I picked the little guy up and placed him in my jacket pocket.

“That’ll do, Puck.” I muttered gently, patting my pocket.

I heard some rumbling and roaring in the direction that Cassandra ran and headed towards her. I rounded a few corners before I saw the one-on-one battle between The Abyss Walker and the witch. I caught the battle right in time to see the monster swat my friend with its arm sending her flying into the nearby brick wall. She came down on all fours spitting blood. Her hair was a mess and there were several vials broken or missing from her belt.

“Cassandra!” I shouted, running over to her.

“I’m alright. This looks worse than it actually is,” she panted. I helped Cassandra back on her feet. “Did he do it?”

“Sure did,” I said looking her over. “Good thing you took those potions. So who’s winning?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she said. I looked from the Abyss Walker to her. The monster was standing just as tall and menacing as Leanan Sidhe’s illusion made it look. “I have him right where I want him.”

Cassandra ran off back into the fray and I followed close behind. She whipped her wand around herself and threw random spells at the creature. Green flames flew through the air and struck the Abyss Walker with no harm being done and as it swatted her back again like an annoying fly. I attempted to catch her but we both just ended up on the ground. We got up, and I gently gripped her shoulder.

“I’m tagging in,” I said. I opened my left hand and began to accumulate the surrounding electricity in the air. The air cracked and arced around my hand. The feeling of holding onto raw electricity was a powerful feeling. Controlling an element that no mundane person, outside of Nicholas Tesla could tame.

Concentrating the power into my fore and middle finger’s tips I pointed at the Abyss Walker’s face and let loose a bolt of lightning, hoping it didn’t go wild. The bolt hit its target and the monster roared in pain and anger. It began to take a back handed swipe at me to my left side. I put my arm up to block the damage to my body or face and muttered a spell. The Abyss Walker’s arm slammed into mine and thanks to the spell I had just cast I stayed put. My feet anchored to the ground.

After it checked my arm, the beast grabbed it, jerked me up and threw me into a nearby wall. The throw, luckily, wasn’t hard enough to cause any major bodily damage, save for bruising and a good deal of pain. I fell to the ground and tried to catch myself with my hands. I fell towards my left with the searing pain of a red hot poker being shoved into my left shoulder. It had been dislocated from the throw. I slowly got up, keeping the Abyss Walker within sight.

“Cassandra, I need you to distract it!” I said.

“Distract it?” she said. “How? If you didn’t notice I was just getting my ass kicked.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something, but I have an idea to weaken it.” I planted my feet and began to concentrate all the magic I could possibly muster into myself. Cassandra threw a myriad of different spells and incantations at the creature in an effort to draw its attention.

Meanwhile, as I pulled all the energy I could that surrounded me and pulled into my body, I opened myself to everything I could so that it could flow into me. I remembered what Cassandra told me, “we share a special bond”. I did all I could to focus on that bond that she and I shared. The pressure inside of me was almost unbearable. It felt as if I was going to explode at the smallest of breaths.

“Lance!” shouted Cassandra. “Whatever you’re trying to do, hurry the fuck up!” More emerald colored magic was launched towards the monster, which seemed to have little to no effect save for pissing it the hell off.

Every second that I took to pull more energy into me, the more painful and intolerable it became as the magic inside attempted to push its way out explosively. Finally, I was at the point that I couldn’t possibly take in any more and began to focus everything into my good hand.

“Ahh!” I heard a scream. The Abyss Walker had Cassandra by the hair and lifted a few feet into the air. Her nose was bleeding, clothes were torn here and there and her potion bandolier had come off at some point. The only thing she clung to was her wand as she feebly beat at the hand holding onto her with her own.

“Hey, Ugly!” I shouted in a totally original taunt. The monster turned towards me, dropping Cassandra in a heap on the ground. “Why not pick on someone your own size, huh?” Again, totally original.

I lifted my right hand up and faced my palm and finished focusing the magic from my body, to my chest, arm and hand. My palm glowed in a pale blue light. The power, held back by a hair trigger, was immense! I’ve never held such an awesome force.

The mountainous creature started towards me and I just let go of it all. The pale blue light blasted the Abyss Walker and it staggered. The bolt just kept on going from my hand. I never thought that this would be so hard to control. It took everything I had to not let my body implode on itself.

The creature kept on taking the blast of arcane energy as it began to stagger backward and grunt and roar in pain. I wasn’t sure how much longer my body could keep this up. I felt like just letting this consume me just so I could stop holding on. The pain was just too much. I couldn’t do it after all. This was it.

Suddenly I felt arms around me and a faint voice, “it’s okay.”

It’s okay?

“You got this!”

Do I? I really don’t know. I don’t think I can keep going. It hurts so much, I just want the pain to stop.

“Don’t worry, you can do this. I’m here now and I got you. It’s okay.”

I’m not sure what came over me, but I was able to hold up for just a little while longer and push the last of the arcane energy out of me. As the light faded and the dust settled I could see the Abyss Walker’s corporeal form waver and show Siren’s body within.

With the raw arcane power no longer in my body, I was weak. I nearly fell over but Cassandra kept me up. Her words of encouragement and power helped push me through.

“What the hell was that?” Cassandra asked. “That magic, I’d never seen anything like it before.”

“It was arcane magic,” I said. “I got the idea from the illusion that Leanan Sidhe used. I’m just glad that it actually worked. Nothing else did the one time that I went up against it.”

“Did we do it?” Cassandra asked. “Is it dead?”

“Not quite yet,” I said. “It can’t die exactly, but the hard part is over. I got one more idea to pull out of my ass that I hope works.”

“What’s your next idea?”

“We gotta hit Siren while we can. We have to stop her heart.”

“Lance, we can’t!” Cassandra protested. “We’re already in enough trouble, do you have a death wish or something?”

“Just trust me, I have a plan.” I turned and faced Cassandra. “As long as you’re there with me.”

“Of course I am.” She helped me up and readied her wand as I raised my right hand once more. Electricity arched on the witch’s wand and the same from my hand.

“On three,” I said. “One…”

“Two,” Cassandra continued.

“Three!” we said in unison. Twin bolts of lightning shot at Siren’s body and it went rigid. After just a few moments, her body went limp and the Abyss Walker’s gaseous form released itself from her body. Siren’s body fell limp to the ground.

“Cassandra go get Siren!” I shouted. I pulled the isolation sphere off my hand with my teeth and opened it as fast as could with one good hand. I gripped it and pushed what was left of my own magic into the sphere. A flash of light leaked from my fist when the enchantment had completed.

“NO!” screamed Leanan Sidhe as she came down from whatever perch she had planted herself. “How could you do this, my Love?”

“I’m not your ‘love’, Leanan Sidhe,” I said coldly. “Never have been, and I never will be. You’ve only ever spellbound me to your will and planted thoughts and feelings into my head. I hate you. I curse you!” I don’t like cursing others. And I really don’t like being the bad guy when it comes to relationships, no matter how toxic and underhanded they may be. However, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel bad when I could see the instant her heart shattered into a million pieces. This is the consequence of forcing someone to love you, sudden and inevitable heartbreak.

“Fine then,” she said. “If I can’t have you, then neither will she!” (Talk about cliche villain dialog). Her eyes began to glow. Before she could charge up an attack the shapeless form of the Abyss Walker began to surround the Winter Faery and tried to engulf her. Leanan Sidhe flew around trying to avoid it and attempted to concentrate on killing me. But the vaporous creature kept moving around her, trying to make her its new host.

Finally I saw my opportunity; the Abyss Walker had surrounded Leanan Sidhe and had her full attention as it tried to absorb her and use her as its new host.

Judging the distance, and how I was going to lob this with a bum arm, I tossed the isolation ring at her and the Abyss Walker. The object hit the two dead on and both screeched a terrible cry. Something between nails on a chalkboard and a soprano soloist from the Vienna Boys Choir hitting that difficult high note the instant he hit puberty.

Cassandra and I doubled over and covered our ears. I did my best with one working arm, which wasn’t much at all. A moment later it had stopped and all that was left was the sphere on the ground glowing in a white flickering light.

“Shit! Siren!” I shouted as I ran over to Cassandra to help. Cassandra had Siren on her back and had attempted to perform CPR.

While Cassandra was pushing air into Siren’s lungs and attempting to massage her heart, I found a piece of wall to lean against to check out my shoulder as quickly as I could. It didn’t seem too far dislodged, despite the searing pain every time I touched it to examine it.

“Asphodel, belladonna,” I said as I took a deep breath and very painfully grabbed and lifted my dislocated arm over my head and pulled to the right as hard as I could and heard a pop. I held my shoulder as I attempted to rotate it. It didn’t hurt nearly as bad and the motion felt smooth so it would do for now.

Cassandra had done about a few minutes worth of chest compressions before I ran back over. I rubbed my hands together and pushed a minute amount of magic between them. I summoned more electricity, but not nearly as much as before. Just enough for a quick shock.

“Tear her shirt off so I can get at her chest,” I said. Cassandra did her best to rip off Siren’s shirt exposing her bare chest. I placed my left hand on her upper right chest just below her collarbone, and my other hand on her left side, but about a hand’s width under her armpit. “Get clear!” I shouted before arcing electricity between my hands, crossing her heart.

We alternated between CPR and my magic defibrillator hands a few times before Siren coughed and started breathing on her own. She eventually sat up and I gave my jacket so she could cover her bare upper half.

“What happened?” she asked in a small voice, confused.

“Well...kinda hard to explain but-,” I began.

“He killed you,” Cassandra said, interrupting my very detailed set of events. Siren looked at me in dismay.

“I kinda had to!” I said taking the full blame. “If I didn’t you would have had a fate worse than death, maybe. I know I would have one. But hey, we took a long shot and it worked!”

“You mean you had no idea if reviving me would even work?” Siren scolded.

“Honestly, no I didn’t,” I admitted. “I mean, I have no idea how your biology works. I took a gamble!” I was getting kinda frustrated at why someone was complaining about saving their life. But, I did kind of understand having to kill them first. Doing something like that without someone’s consent first was kind of rude.

“Thank you, Lance,” Siren finally said, adjusting my jacket on her shoulders.

“Uh oh,” said Cassandra. Her voice dripped with doom. “I don’t think we’re out of the woods just yet.”

I looked up and I saw a large black dog, similar in size and long fur to a golden retriever, walk up the alley way. On its back a barn owl was perched.

“What’s so bad about a dog and an owl?” Siren asked.

“That’s no dog,” said Cassandra. “That’s a Church Grim. It’s a symbol of doom and death for witches!”

“Oh please,” said the dog in a grizzled Clint Eastwood-like voice. “I haven’t doomed anyone in centuries. I work for the Grand Coven and the bird is with the Magic Council. By the way, Reginald?” The supernatural canine turned his head to look at the owl. “Will you get off my back? Your talons are digging into me.”

The owl, I assumed to be Reginald, fluttered down and apologized. “Quite sorry there, Seamus,” he said in a British accent. “Riding around on your back just makes me feel so important! I suppose I just got carried away with my grip.” Reginald cleared his throat. “Ahem, as my colleague Seamus so eloquently put, he represents the Grand Coven of Witches and I represent the Magic Council.”

Yeah, this can’t be good.

“We regret to inform you,” Reginald continued. “Both Oracle Witch Cassandra and Sorcerer Lance Frost were to be arrested on charges of killing the Prana Vampire, Nina “Siren” Williams.”

“How did they know about Siren?” Cassandra whispered to me while Reginald spoke. To which I shrugged.

“You were also to be brought up on charges of releasing the prisoner, one Oracle Witch Cassandra, of a containment spell. Or as you mortals would put it,” The owl pointed a wing at me. “Assisting with a jailbreak,” then it pointed at Cassandra, “and violating parole.”

“Well, I suppose we kinda knew this was coming,” I said. “Let’s get this over with.” Cassandra and I began to walk slowly towards the animal pair.

“Wait!” Siren said. “You can’t! They helped save me. You can’t just take them away. Where’s the justice in that?”

“No one said anything about taking anyone away, young one,” Seamus said. Siren grumbled a bit in reply. All I could make out was, “damn dog.”

“What do you mean?” I said in bewilderment.

“He said we won’t be taking anyone anywhere,” repeated Reginald.

Cassandra, Siren and I all looked at each other. “You won’t?” We coincidently said in unison.

Reginald sighed. “Again, no we won’t. I used the past tense. You WERE to be arrested. I was about to say, before I was so rudely interrupted, that the charges are to be dropped due to you both restoring the life that was taken. As well as confining the faery Leanan Sidhe, (the winter court is quite upset with her), and doing due diligence in taking care of this being of the Myst, which saved countless mortal lives. So to make a long story short; you’re on somewhat of a probation.”

“Remember,” Seamus began in his grizzled voice. “We will be keeping an eye out every so often. Don’t make them regret their decision.”

“Oh, and we will be taking this,” Reginaled fluttered over to the glowing sphere which held the Abyss Walker as well as Leanan Sidhe, grabbed in one of his talons and flew off.

“Hey!” I shouted at the owl as he quickly ascended. “That’s mine! It’s an heirloom!” He was too far away now to hear me.

I sat and slunk down next to Cassandra and Siren. Puck was finally awake and was sitting on Siren’s shoulder. He apparently left my pocket at some point.

Even though we won, it still kind of felt like a defeat to me. There was too much lost for it to really be a victory. Why did winning have to make me feel like shit?

“So,” started Cassandra. “Did we just get away with murder?”

“Pretty much,” I said. “Just seems like we got a slap on the wrist and probation for the rest of our lives.”

Cassandra reached out and touched my hand. “It could always be worse,” she said with a smile, inching closer

“Very true,” I said, moving closer still. “This all could end with something cliche. Like a romantic ending of some kind.” Cassandra and I leaned in, smiled and gave each other a light kiss.

“Get a room you two!” Siren said teasingly.

“Why would they need a room?” asked Puck. “They have this whole big space!”

I sighed. “Shut up, Puck.”