Slay My Soul

Max comes flying into the house, his eyes wide and chest heaving.

“Ly! Your people are coming in via portals. They are under attack!” I throw down the spoon I was using to stir the spaghetti sauce and race out the door. My heart thuds uncomfortably in my chest.

On the training field, portals wink into existence. My people are injured, and some are also dragging the dead through with them. Eve and Carino run over to me. Eve’s hand goes to my shoulder.

“Oh Ly, oh no,” she whispers as she takes in the scene. I watch her turn herself from the scene and gather herself, rolling her neck and bouncing on the balls of her feet. She spins back to the scene in front of us with her game face on. “Max, send out an alert to medical. All hands on deck!” her eyes glaze over as she calls to her mates, then clearing her eyes she looks over my shoulder and makes a beeline for a man staggering towards us. She throws his arm over her shoulder and helps him walk to us.

“Irinda!” I exclaim mortified. He is bleeding from a nasty head wound, the side of his face blackened from being burnt. His regal clothes are reduced to mere tatters and ash. Eve eases him down and he grimaces at me.

“It’s all gone brother. Don’t bother sending the troops. They are burning Faery to a crisp. There’s nothing left to save.” My face drains of color and I shake my head in denial.

“Our people! We have to save our people!”

“Those that can, are portalling in here. We will have to wait for the enemy to withdraw before we look for survivors. Asmodeus brought his full army. We didn’t stand a chance,” Irinda says tiredly. I look at him hard. How does he know the demon prince’s name?

“What do you know of Asmodeus?” I ask confused.

“I know that this was overdue karma. Our father wiped out their women.” He says matter of factly. I snarl at him. Am I the only one not privy to the dark dealings of our history and people? I turn to Eve but she has already moved and is helping my people and the med team. Her vines twitch around, sewing up cuts and assessing injuries as they decide who needs help the most. Shoving the doctors at those that need help the fastest. The witches are also using their magic to heal people as they race from Fae to Fae. I see doctors shake their heads and close the eyes of the dead. Warriors - instead of fighting, are reduced to rushing around carrying bodies. I kneel down by my brother.

“What of our sister? Our brothers? Father?” I ask desperately.

“Father’s room was on fire, we couldn’t get to him. We separated to help get our people out. The ones that we could get to that is. I haven’t seen them since.” Portals are opening less frequently. I pull away from Irinda and begin to race from person to person trying to find my siblings. Hundreds of displaced Fae litter the field. Some crying quietly, some shell-shocked into silence. A few scream for their losses or from horrendous wounds. I comfort my people the best I can, offering water, and helping to bandage wounds. Not one of them is my brother or sister. I can’t bring myself to look at the ever-growing body pile, it’s beginning to outweigh the survivors. After a while, the portals stop coming into existence. Did I miss them in my hurry? I stand and stare at the field in horror. Is this it? Is this all that remains of Faery? A mere eight hundred people out of nearly Ten thousand! Eve comes up behind me, her arms sliding around my waist as she rests her face on my back.

“I’m so sorry Ly,” she murmurs sadly. I hold her hands tighter to me, soaking up her comfort as I struggle to keep my emotions in check. How did this happen? How did Faery nearly get wiped from the face of the earth in the blink of an eye? This can’t be real!

“We have moved the most critical to the pack hospital and we have tents and beds coming to create a makeshift hospital. I swear Ly, we will do everything we can to save as many as possible. Irinda says it is too dangerous to go there but as soon as the coast is clear, we will send out search teams to look for more survivors. I want to go now and march our army but Irinda says there is a lot more than three thousand in Asmodeus’s legion. We can’t risk going in blind,” She says apologetically, with a touch of frustration. I pull her around to my front so she faces me.

“It’s ok Eve, it’s the right call to make,” I reassure her. The last thing I want is to place her in danger. “Irinda has already assured me that the risk is too high. Faery is burning. Come, let’s go see how Irinda is doing, see if he’s up to giving us any more intel.” I place an arm around her and guide her back to where I last saw my brother, only he isn’t there. I find myself starting to panic. Eve’s vines flare out, searching around her as if they have eyes before they all swivel in the direction of the body pile. My heart stutters. Please no! He wasn’t that bad! We race over to the body pile, looking at the faces of the fallen for my brother.

“Who are you looking for?” Irinda asks from behind me, and I have to fight to stay upright. I spin and see my brother getting tackled by Eve in a hug.

“Jesus Tinker Belle, don’t scare us like that!” She admonishes him.

“Only if you stop with that ridiculous nickname!” He huffs shoving her off him.

“Never going to happen,” Eve grins.

“I was looking for our family, but they aren’t here. Sorry if I startled you,” He apologizes to me. “But I fear they did not make it out.”

“Oh, my God! Look!” Eve breathes, pointing to the far side of the field. My head swivels to look for danger, only to see a portal with multiple figures staggering from it. I rush towards them. There are men carrying a body. A woman supporting a man. A woman carrying a child and there at the end is my brother Cassius and my sister Kyana. Between them, they are carrying a man who I am praying is my other brother Uriah. The portal closes. The med team shoves past me, quickly assessing the newcomers. I see my brother and sister lower the man between them to the ground. The doctor closest to them kneels down, checking for a pulse. He shakes his head and moves to look at my sister's injuries. I look down and see Uriah's sightless eyes staring at the stars. Horrible injuries mar his body.

“They did something so we couldn’t portal. It was a massacre. We had to keep moving and evading until we found areas we could portal from,” Cassius says, looking at our fallen brother.

“It’s gone, all of it. They burnt the fields, the trees, our homes, and even the heart of Faery. Nothing is left. The animals, the people, they are all gone. We are all that remains,” my sister says between sobs.

“How many made it?” Cassius asks.

“Somewhere around eight-fifty are alive, but the number continues to drop. Some have wounds too severe to survive,” Eve informs us. “The med team are trying to stabilize as many as they can.”

“What are we going to do?” Kyana wails. “We have no kingdom, no homes!”

“We have our King and Queen,” Irinda says. “Faery is wherever they are. We mourn our dead and we create a new kingdom.”

“With less than a thousand people?” Kyana scoffs. “Hardly a kingdom.” Eve’s vines start waving about in agitation before they wrap around the tree’s nearest to us and plunge into the dirt. The ground vibrates with energy and the trees glow softly as the limbs wriggle and distort.

“What are you doing my Anam?” I ask worriedly. Her head pivots towards me, her eyes are pure white and unseeing.

“Bringing Faery home,” she says, but her voice is layered with the voices of many. Mikyda and Accassus come up behind her placing a hand on her shoulders. The glow increases.

“Feed Faery!” Mikyda yells at us. I put my hand in Eve's and immediately feel my energy tugged. Cassius, Kyana, and Irinda join in placing hands on available shoulders. More Fae come forward from behind and the glow becomes a glaring light as hundreds of us network our essence and feed it to Eve. Both Light and Dark Fae for the first time stand united as they combine their magic to make a new home.

I don’t know how long we stand there. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours, but the blinding light suddenly dies out and leaves behind a wonderland. Houses as far as the eye can see, are made of majestic trees. Vines writhing among the branches. A phoenix flies among the flowers that are popping up and a silver stag prances away into the woods.

Darius strides over to where Eve stands, swaying tiredly between the dark Fae. He picks her up bridal style.

“So, you leave me to build a house for you when you can build a kingdom with the flick of your wrist,” he laughs.

“Sorry,” Eve slurs, snuggling into him as the vines retreat to her wrists. Darius starts to carry her towards the house and the gathered Fae take a knee, fisting their hands to their hearts and murmuring ‘thankyou my Queen.’ I turn to my siblings.

“Let's get those who don’t require further treatment to their new homes and settle them in. If you guys want, you can sleep at our house,” I offer.

“I think I would like to find our new home and get our people sorted. Go to your Queen Ly. She needs to rest and your presence will calm her,” Irinda says. I nod and head after Darius. Murmurs of ‘my King’ reach my ears.

King! I’m now the fucking King of my people and Eve is my Queen. Faery isn't lost to us after all, Faery is right here. Home is where the heart is, and Eve holds mine. Eve is my home.