The City on the Edge

Ronnie sat next to Sebastian on the couch while Malik reclined against the wall. There were still dark spots of dirt smeared on his skin and dusting his clothes. He’d clearly tried to wash up as best he could with a preoccupied mind. His Seer was clutched in his hand, dark with black smoke, the absolute sign that Anya’s life had ended. He had yet to speak to anyone, keeping to himself, harkening Ronnie back to her first lonely day at the house. She’d been a little girl, four years old, still covered in soot and dried tears.

Lorna lingered off to the side, rolling her own Seer between her fingers absentmindedly. It clinked on the chain with each twirl. The smoke inside was white and puffy like a cloud. It would seem that the danger had passed. It should have been comforting, but the thought only made Ronnie’s stomach churn.

The children had been dismissed, lured away by Constance and the promise of fun activities and what few sweets she could conjure. Hazel hadn’t spoken a word the entire time, letting each voice have a turn. Her patience had always been something that Ronnie admired about her. She sat with her hands folded over the top of her quilt while Ronnie finished speaking, spilling every secret she’d accumulated over the last few days.

“They think that if we find this witch, it will lead them to the vault beneath the Marble City,” she finished.

Hazel’s expression gave nothing away. “Does this witch have a name?”

Ronnie nodded. “Lisa.”

Lorna frowned. “I thought her name was Lyra?”

Both Ronnie and Lorna looked at Sebastian, who shrugged. “I thought I heard her say Luka.”

Malik sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Seriously? You three can’t remember one name?” Exhaustion colored his voice.

“Liva,” Hazel interrupted, look up at the ceiling with a wistful quirk in her smile. “Liva Lirra.”

“That’s it.” Lorna said with a snap of her fingers. “Do you know her?”

“I haven’t seen her in years.” Hazel shook her head. “This fairy is right, though. The last I’d heard, Liva was indeed somewhere in the forest. She took it upon herself to play mother to the hellhounds out there.”

“So, then, she might not be hard to find.” Ronnie felt better about the mission. It might end up being easier than she imagined.

“Not quite. Liva isn’t fond of people. She isn’t fond of their ways, preferring to make her own rules. If you go looking for her, she won’t be what you expect. She’ll play games with you for her own amusement.” The strong warning in Hazel’s voice belied the frailty of the woman. “Be careful. Liva isn’t malicious in her intentions, but she has little care for the consequences of her curiosities.” Hazel leveled her gaze at Ronnie and Sebastian. “And I have little doubt that she will find you two very curious.”

Malik pushed off the wall. “Are you really going to allow them to run off into the woods and look for a hermit witch at the behest of a rebel leader?”

Hazel smiled at him. “You act as if I have the power to tell them no.”

“We’ll be careful, Malik,” Ronnie promised. “We have an idea of what to expect. And Hazel just said she’s not going to kill us.”

“That isn’t quite what I meant,” Hazel corrected her. “Liva is a woman of duality. She bends to her own whims, be they kind or cruel. She never sets out to harm intentionally, but if harm comes as a result of her actions, she feels little remorse. In her eyes, it was meant to be.”

“We can handle this,” Ronnie said firmly.

“No,” Malik shook his head. “After what happened with Anya, I can’t just let you guys run head first into another dangerous situation. I don’t want to lose any more family. We should take this time to mourn for our loss, at least. Our family needs time to heal.”

Lorna crossed the room and wrapped her arms around him. He returned the hug just as fiercely as she gave it. “You won’t lose any more family, Malik.”

“We don’t have the time, if what Alukorra says about Sloan coming for the Edge is true. If we find this witch, if we find this key and this vault, it could return the world to way it was before.” Ronnie hoped she sounded convincing. She didn’t exactly buy into what Alukorra was selling, but it was a nice idea regardless. “I don’t want to be a prisoner to my own magic, Malik, and I know you don’t want to, either.”

He hesitated, but when he released Lorna, Ronnie knew he had already agreed to their mission. “Fine.”

“Are you coming with us?” Sebastian asked.

“No. Sloan was already here once. I’m going to stay here in case he comes back. I will not let him take anyone else. Besides, when the moon is up, I need to lay the stones for Anya’s burial. She can’t be put to rest without them.”

Lorna kissed his cheek. “We’ll be okay.”

Ronnie stood up. “We should get going. We don’t want to be running around the forest at night and it’s already midday.”

“Veronica.” Hazel held out a hand for her. In a few quick steps, Ronnie took it. Hazel opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Her brows knit and her mouth closed.

“What is it?”

“It’s just…whatever you might hear-” Hazel broke off with a sigh. She patted Ronnie’s hand. “Just be careful, dear.”

Ronnie nodded. Sebastian and Lorna were waiting by the door. Lorna held up a roll of paper- Alukorra’s map. With a final reassuring smile at Hazel, Ronnie followed them outside. The midday sun was forgiving today, frequently disappearing behind a cover of puffy clouds and taking the late summer heat with it. The seasons were turning, but the summer wasn’t quite ready to die yet.

Lorna unrolled the map and held it up. “Let’s get to it.”

***

The map led them behind the market streets and into the thick of the trees. The area was familiar enough that Ronnie could navigate without Alukorra’s markings and scribbles on the page. The scent of the trees and the sodden earth brought back memories that sank deep into her muscles, guiding her along forgotten overgrown trails. Eventually, she would have to take a peek at the map, but for now, she enjoyed the quiet nostalgia of the trip.

“Do you remember the first time we tried to steal meat from Basso and he chased us all the way out here?” Ronnie asked over her shoulder.

Lorna giggled. “Yeah. He kept threatening to pull the fangs right out of your mouth if you took a bite. Pretty sure he still wanted to sell what we took even though you dropped it on the ground.”

“Eh. A little dirt never hurt anyone.”

Happiness seeped into her core, mixing with the elation that already swam there. Ronnie looked over at Sebastian, who watched her with a gentle smile. It was sweet that he basked in her happiness. Despite the hard truths that she and Lorna had admitted to each other, their friendship was still there, firm and solid, a cliff weathering ocean storms. Ronnie had been afraid for nothing. It would be tense between them, maybe, but it would be okay in the end.

Lorna took in a deep breath and released it slowly. “Everything is fertile out here. Anya would have loved it.” Her voice trembled slightly, controlled by the sense of duty before them.

“Yeah, she would have,” Ronnie agreed. The joy in her gut ebbed away, eaten by the guilt of feeling such a thing when she should be mourning. Anya was dead. What right did she have to feel happy.

Sebastian came up beside her. “You can have both,” he said softly, nearly a whisper.

Maybe he was right, but it still didn’t feel right.

“Turn here. We’re leaving the trail.” Lorna pointed to an oversized tree sitting in the center of a circle of stones.

Sebastian toed one of the gleaming stones curiously. Lorna swiftly pulled him back. “Careful. This is a barrier tree. Witches use them to mark territories.”

“Liva is going to know we’re here as soon as we pass this tree,” Ronnie said with a shake of her head. “No element of surprise.”

“Well, not entirely. She won’t know he’s coming.” Lorna jerked her thumb at Sebastian.

“She won’t?” He asked.

“No. The trees sense magic. You’re human. There isn’t any magic in your blood. Liva must not be worried about humans wandering into the forest.”

“Ah.”

Ronnie stepped past the tree with an exaggerated gait. “We shouldn’t keep her waiting, then.”

Lorna stuffed the map in her pocket and followed after her with her chin up. The dignified witch. “It should be a straight shot to the lake from here.”

“There’s no trail from here,” Sebastian pointed out.

“Just stick close to us. There’s a reason that most people don’t come this far into the forest,” Ronnie told him. “There’s a fair chance that they’ll run into something they won’t like.”

“Maybe I should have kept that sword,” he mumbled.

Ronnie tried to send a reassuring feeling his way, but she wasn’t sure if she did it right. She had no clue how to work the two-way bond between them. Each of them were open to the emotions of the other and at times, it could be overwhelming. It would be nice to find some way to put a clamp on it, at least for a short while. It wouldn’t be fair for Sebastian to be subject to the flares of her quick temper or the pitfalls of her grief. Surely, he’d appreciate some peace from time to time.

“Do you see that?” Lorna asked.

Ronnie stopped walking. “I see it.”

Ahead of them, towering like the walls of a fortress, lay a fog so thick it could have been made of stone, entirely opaque. Bizarre, Ronnie thought as she crept toward it. The fog was completely stationary. She could clearly see the line it drew through the trees like a border.

“This isn’t natural,” Lorna muttered to herself.

She stepped up beside Ronnie and held out a hand. White light grew bright in her veins like the moon outshining the stars. She held it up to the fog and jumped when the fog reached out for her, tiny white tendrils twining around her fingers like snakes.

Magic recognizing magic.

“I don’t think it’s going to hurt us,” she said but Ronnie could hear the uncertainty in her voice. There was no real way of knowing. This wall of fog was new to them.

“Are we going in there?” Sebastian stepped up to the fog, a frown on his face. “I don’t like this. It’s never good to encounter an enemy when your visibility is lacking. It puts you at an immediate disadvantage.”

Ronnie leaned around Lorna. “Where’d you learn that?”

“It’s some of that helpful military advice my brother would give me.”

“I’m going in.” Lorna took a deep breath and disappeared through the fog. Ronnie lost sight of her right away. Worse, she couldn’t even pick up her honey scent. She’d been completely cut off.

“Lorna?” No answer. Damn. Anxious nerves quickly turned to panic. Ronnie grabbed Sebastian’s hand and charged through the fog after her.

Cool, she noticed, like standing out in the rain. The fog ghosted over her skin, leaving a chill behind that lingered even beneath her clothes. Above her, leaves and branches jostled as something skittered and leaped through the tree tops, chittering down at them. Ronnie looked up, but all she could see were dark shapes darting around. She had an idea of what they were and she certainly didn’t want to be caught beneath them. She wasn’t the only predator in these woods. She had no desire to encounter a horde of slinks.

Even so, she tugged Sebastian a little closer and clamped down on her fear as best she could. Her claws pushed free from her fingers and she forced her senses to sharpen in the clouded environment. Pick out the familiar. She knew Lorna intimately- her breath, her scent, and her heartbeat. She could pick her out in any crowd.

“Lorna!” she called and waited. Listened.

Sebastian’s heart beat wildly next to her and his panic set fire to her blood. How could she have been foolish enough to let Lorna wander off by herself? Sebastian squeezed her hand and Ronnie felt his panic recede just a bit, enough that it eased some of her pressure. He was trying to put a wall up, she realized, and she squeezed back, grateful for his instincts and the clarity they brought.

A shrill scream split through the fog and pierced Ronnie’s ears. “Lorna!”

She took of running in the direction of the scream, pulling Sebastian along behind her. He stumbled but managed to keep pace. Over the crunch of leaves underfoot and the excited chatter of demons above her, Ronnie could just make out the trickle of running water. A stream?

The fog thinned around them and in a few steps it had vanished entirely. The crackling leaves beneath her boots turned into the clack of rocks smacking together. Ronnie stopped running, her feet sliding on the loose stones. The trees were sparse now and opened up to a lagoon. A gentle waterfall flowed down from a cliff into the basin that formed the lake, the water almost as clear as the sky. A mirror, still and undisturbed, in the center of the forest.

Impossible.

Ronnie tried to recall the map in her mind. The lake should be much further north. They’d only been running for a few minutes. They’d only just left the familiar trails that circled the Edge’s marketplace. There was no way that they could have crossed miles in minutes. The magic needed to sustain a spell like that was immense.

Liva isn’t bound by the same rules anymore, a voice reminded her. She touched the essence of magic and freed herself from those chains. Jack’s words came back to her and she spun around, letting go of Sebastian’s hand. The fog retreated behind her, back in the trees, as impenetrable and forbidding as it was when she first saw it. Ronnie didn’t know what kind of spell this was but it both impressed and frightened her.

“Someone’s over there,” Sebastian said distantly. “Across the lake…beautiful…”

He seemed so far away that Ronnie almost missed what he said. A calm settled over her, a calm that wasn’t her own. It came so suddenly that she had to flex her hands and shake her head just to keep from passing out. She turned around.

“Sebastian, what’s wrong?”

Her words caught in her throat. Sebastian was wading out into the lake. On the other side, gliding across the water without making a single wave, was a woman. Her blue hair hung down like a shower of rain, disappearing into the dark water with the rest of her. Her voice whispered like the wind chiming through the trees, lulling Sebastian into a state of pacification. Her slender arms cut through the water smoothly as she swam to him.

A mermaid.

Ronnie rushed at him. “Sebastian!”

The mermaid noticed her and dove beneath the water, surfacing just as Ronnie reached Sebastian. She dug her claws into the back of his coat and tugged him out of the water. The mermaid erupted from the water, her arms out and waiting, her mouth open wide to show rows of pointed teeth. She managed to grab his arm and wrap her webbed fingers around his sleeve. Ronnie lashed out with her free hand, slicing through the thin flesh of the mermaid’s arm.

Silver blood coated her fingers and the mermaid shrieked, a song of pain that made the water churn around her. She let Sebastian go and he tumbled to the ground with Ronnie. The mermaid dove underwater and, in a ripple that carried across the lake, emerged on the other side, basking on a partially submerged bolder to nurse her wound.

“I’m impressed,” a voice said smoothly. “She usually gets whatever she wants.”

Ronnie turned to the voice. A woman stood next to a twisted tree that had taken root in the lake bed, naked save for a long cloak that hung loosely from her shoulders and waves of white hair that curtained the swell of her breasts. Lorna peeked around her.

“I found Liva,” she announced awkwardly.