The City on the Edge

She was exactly how Ronnie imagined a fairy would be- petite and delicate with large, wide eyes that swirled like pools of violet and lavender. The fairy didn’t wear the black hooded uniform that everyone else did, leaving her exposed to the open air, though she seemed unconcerned. Her skin was dark, almost blending in with shadows behind her, and it made the intricate patterns of bright purple marks that were traced over her skin stand out even more as they seemed to glow in the light. Her hair was curled and each thick ringlet hung down in a twist of dark brown and pale violet. The Fair, she’d been told through childhood stories, were beautiful fragile things that never left the safety of the Glowing City and its lush gardens.

Though that bit of information didn’t seem to be entirely true now. Ronnie wondered if anything she’d been taught about the other races beyond the Edge were true. In the last two days, she’d been brought face to face with a human who treated her with a naïve kindness that she was almost certain was genuine and wasn’t that a shock, and a fairy who looked so delicate that she might as well have been crafted from fine crystal glass, ready to shatter at the slightest pressure.

“You’re a fairy,” she said dumbly, still a little too shocked to come up with something clever.

“My name is Alukorra,” came the light answer.

Ronnie stared blankly at her for a moment before she came to her senses. “I’m sorry, uh, what are you doing all the way down here in the Edge? Are there more of the Fair here?”

The smile dropped from Alukorra’s lips. “No. Just me.”

It didn’t seem like a topic she wanted to breach just yet, but Ronnie was incredibly curious. She could understand humans in the Edge. They controlled it, for goddess’s sake, but one of the Fair? A fairy, who was tied to the earth and its forces, had come to a place where magic was barren?

“But how did you get-“

“I didn’t bring you here to talk about me,” Alukorra cut her off, sharp as a blade through soft cream.

Dahlia’s words flitted to the forefront of Ronnie’s mind. Alukorra had requested this meeting. Dahlia and the others outside were acting on her orders. The thought that this tiny creature was commanding her own little army and attacking humans seemed incredulous to Ronnie. Still, the predatory side of her, cautious and aware, reminded her that image was not everything. In nature, the pretty and colorful things were often the most dangerous.

“Okay,” she said finally. “What do you want?”

Alukorra raised a hand and beckoned to something off to the side, still shrouded in darkness. Ronnie turned to watch a great hulking mass emerge. A tick of self-deprecating anger needled at the back of her mind. How had she not noticed someone else? She should have heard their heart beating. But when the figure came close, the thought was banished from her mind.

A demon, she realized as she took in the curve of its horns and the three red eyes that burned like hot coals beneath its hood. Not a heartbeat she could track.

Wait. She knew this demon. It extended an arm to her and opened its clawed hand. Sitting in the middle of its palm was a single white bloom, innocent against the leathery black of its skin. It was a moment before she recognized the crushed petals and shades of white that bled to yellow towards the center. It was from the bouquet that Sebastian had given her earlier. She’d dropped it when the alarms went off and hadn’t thought of it again. Escaping the White Guard had seemed more prudent than picking up spilled flowers, regardless of how lovely they were.

The demon bowed his head in a slow nod. Ronnie gingerly took the flower from him and he closed his hand. She held the thin stem between her fingers, feeling it give with the pinched pressure. It must have been well on its way to dying- the sweet, sugary scent from before was gone, replaced by an airy fresh aroma. It was pleasant, but not the same. Still, Ronnie was acutely aware that something from the flower was missing. Strange.

Gripping the blossom, Ronnie turned from the demon to Alukorra, who was watching her closely. “Where did you get this?”

“Bale retrieved it from the school yard. We’ve been keeping an eye on you, Veronica.”

“Have you?” Ronnie side-eyed the demon as he shuffled back, settling into a space beside Jack.

“Yes. At first, I was curious about the shifter who stopped Nyle from taking Sebastian.”

“From killing him, you mean,” Ronnie corrected her.

“Right,” she amended. “We never intended to kill him. Nyle was acting of his own accord, against my orders. He’s been dealt with.”

Ronnie raised a brow at her. “Did you kill him?”

Jack answered instead. “No. He’s one of mine, so I punished him. He’s still alive, though. Angry and petulant, but alive.” Ren made a face that suggested she preferred Nyle dead and gone, but Jack ignored her. “We aren’t trying to just slash our way through everything. We have a plan.”

“A plan that now includes you,” Alukorra added.

Ronnie looked from her to Jack and even over to Bale, who clicked his sharp triangle teeth at her, offering her words he couldn’t actually say. “I don’t understand,” she said, turning back to Alukorra.

“I know. But you will,” Alukorra said as kindly as she could around the determination in her voice, leaving her tone layered with careful strain. “I know that you have what it takes to help us succeed. I wasn’t sure at first, but the compassion you showed Bale has convinced me. He’s actually quite pleased you came. I think he’s fond of you now.”

Bale made another clicking noise and Jack nodded, making Ronnie wonder if he understood what the demon was trying to say.

“Tell me, Veronica, do you know the origin of magic? Where it comes from?” Alukorra asked.

Ronnie was thrown by the question. After being chased by the White Guard through infected streets and being hauled to the Rust for a secret meeting in a rickety warehouse by a group of hooded individuals, a history lesson was the last thing she’d been expecting.

“Um…” It took her a moment to collect her thoughts. “It comes from you. Your people created it. The Fair were the first supernaturals.”

Alukorra tilted her head with a small smile, as if the answer Ronnie had given was one she’d been expecting. “Not quite.” Alukorra spread her arms wide and stepped around her lightly. Sunlight shone over the winding marks that spiraled up her arms, making them glow. Ronnie half expected her to flit through the air, just barely grazing the ground, but she noticed that the signature wings of the Fair were missing from Alukorra.

Perhaps she just doesn’t want to draw too much attention, she thought.

“You see,” Alukorra began, “the Fair didn’t create magic. We cultivated what was already there. We have always been attached to the earth and its energies. When my ancestors discovered what was flowing through nature, and how to harness it, we made the decision to share it with the world. Gifts are meant to be shared. The other races took to it like the Mer to water. They connected with it, welcomed it like the night welcomes the moon. The supernaturals were born wielding their incredible abilities, but,” she lowered her arms, “one group received nothing from magic.”

“Humans,” Ronnie said.

Alukorra nodded. “Yes. For some reason, their bodies and their spirits are just too disconnected to absorb the flow of magic. They’re cut off.”

“And because of that,” Jack bit out sourly, “they cut us off.”

“After Marla’s Battle. I know the history. What does this have to do with me?”

“Veronica,” Alukorra stepped close, so close that Ronnie could smell the fragrance of flowers on her skin. “How would you like to become a full shifter?”

The retort vanished on Ronnie’s tongue like water under a hot sun. How would she like it? She’d love it. It was all she wanted. Her fingers curled and uncurled. Her claws shrank away. For a moment, she imagined herself in the form of her ancestors: powerful beings who could leap through the air in a whirl of torn cloth and flesh and come back down in a coat of fur and unparalleled senses. She imagined the raw strength that her kind had been known for, still resting in the clutch of her muscles but kept out of her reach as if she were grasping at steam with wild fingers and expecting to hold on.

Alukorra wore an understanding expression. It was mirrored by Jack and Ren and Bale- victims of a people who thought that if they couldn’t have something, no one else could either.

As nice as it sounded though, as beautiful of a fantasy as it was, Ronnie knew it was impossible.

“It’s a childhood dream,” she said to Alukorra. “How do you expect to change that?”

Instead of answering her, Alukorra looked up at Jack and nodded her head. Ronnie watched as Jack slipped his heavy black cloak off and handed it to Ren. He lifted the sink fabric of his shirt up and over his head and without hesitating, stepped directly into the thick beam of sunlight.

Ronnie gasped, tensing and jolting forward to push him out, but Alukorra stopped her with a firm hand on her arm.

“He’s burning!” she nearly shrieked, memories of Valerie begging for help and sizzling like frying meat flooding into her mind.

“No,” Alukorra said calmly, “he isn’t.”

Ronnie’s head snapped to Jack so quickly it made her neck twinge. Her sharp eyes roved over his face and exposed chest- still ashen and clear and not burning under the bright light.

“But,” she let out a breath. “I don’t…he should be…” she trailed off.

“Veronica.” Alukorra turned her around to meet her gaze. “It is possible to free magic. To give it back to supernaturals.”

Humans had held magic in their greedy hands for centuries and yet here was Jack, a vampire, standing brazenly in the midday sun without the slightest wisp of smoke to herald what should be an agonizing death.

Ronnie’s eyes slid over to Ren and the vampire seemed to read the question in her eyes. “I can’t do that,” she said, shaking her head. “Only Jack.”

“How?” Ronnie asked.

“I reconnected with magic,” Jack explained. “I touched the source and regained everything that the humans had taken from me. It can be done, Veronica. For everyone, from the Edge to the Glowing City and all the way down to the Corals. We can free supernaturals.”

If she hadn’t seen him standing there in the sun with her own eyes, she’d have told them all to get lost. But she had just witnessed a miracle and it sparked a longing in her core. Their words were honey and she devoured them, let them sink into her, feeding the dormant beast that strained and writhed under her skin where she couldn’t reach.

“Source?” she asked. A part of her was still hesitant to simply take them for every word. As incredible as it was, there had to be something as equally unpleasant in the mix.

“When the humans constructed the Marble City after Marla’s Battle, they built over part of the gardens of the Glowing City, taking them from the fairies,” Alukorra didn’t bother to mask the bitterness in her voice. “In that garden was the source of magic. The Fair always protected it and the humans built their city over it and locked it away in a vault. The source of magic is beneath the Marble City.”

Perhaps it was because Ronnie had never really considered magic as a whole before, but it took a moment for the weight of Alukorra’s words, and what they implied, to connect in her mind. Alukorra and her people knew where the source of magic was. If Jack was the example, then it meant that the source could undo centuries of unjust suppression against the supernaturals of the world. It would be like time moving in reverse. Vampires able to walk in the sun without burning. Witches able to cast spells without it costing them years off their lives or their sanity. Demons able to speak their words of power. Merfolk able to walk on land without dying. Shifters fully transforming as they were intended.

Ronnie closed her eyes and let it wash over her. When she did, Sebastian’s smiling face appeared, curious and kind and unsure. She opened her eyes again.

“You still haven’t said what this has to do with me or Sebastian.”

Alukorra took a deep breath and met Ronnie’s stare with one of her own. “The vault can only be opened by one of Marla’s descendants. It’s how the humans have kept it locked away all this time.”

“And you need Sebastian for that?” Ronnie was skeptical, but Alukorra nodded. “Why can’t you do it the way you did before?” She turned to Jack, who was shrugging back into his shirt. “You said you touched the source. So you’ve been in the vault already.”

“Yes, but it was extremely difficult,” Jack said. “The way we did it before won’t work a second time.”

“We?”

Jack sighed. “There were five of us before. Me, your father and two friends. A human that we happened to trust opened it for us.”

Ronnie stiffened at the mention of her father. She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry, but no.” Ronnie thought of Sebastian and what turning him over to these people could mean. She didn’t know him. She didn’t owe him anything, but deep down, a part of her felt the need to protect him. And who knew if what they were spouting was true. There could be some other reason that Jack could stand the sunlight.

It was laughably ridiculous even in her own mind. What other reason could it possibly be?

“A human opened the vault? One of Marla’s descendants?” Ronnie asked, picking Jack’s words apart. “Who?”

Jack shook his head. “We promised to never reveal who he is until he wants us to do so. Honestly, I don’t even think he survived.”

Malik’s motto for the children repeated in her head: if it’s too good to be true, don’t trust it. “I can’t help you.” Everything sounded far too neat and fantastic to be believed.

Ren stepped forward, lips curled up over her fangs. “Do you not understand what’s being offered here, little girl? The opportunity in front of you?”

“Ren-” Jack began, but Alukorra cut him off.

“No, Jack. Veronica has every right to turn us away if she wants.” Alukorra’s gaze was penetrating. “Besides, in the end, she’ll be back. And she’ll bring Sebastian with her.”

Ronnie grit her teeth. “What makes you think I’ll even see him again?”

Alukorra reached out, her slim fingers dancing along the side of Ronnie’s face as she tried to lean away. “I know that there’s already something between the two of you, rising up like a sapling from the fertile earth, ready to bloom. You two will find each other again. Make no mistake of that.” Her voice was soft but her words were sharp.

“What do you mean?”

Alukorra stepped back. “You can leave now.” She gestured to the door Ronnie had come through. “Collect your witch and return home.”

Ronnie took a hesitant step back, glancing from Alukorra to the others. Bale bowed his head at her and Jack gave her an awkward sort of wave. Ronnie didn’t waste any more words on them. She turned on her heel and walked briskly towards the door. Her fingers were wrapped around the handle, ready to wrench it open, when Alukorra’s voice called out behind her.

“And be careful out there. I’m certain that coming events will bring us face to face again soon.”

Ronnie didn’t turn around to look at her. She pulled open the door and stepped out into the sun, surprised to find Lorna waiting for her outside of the building she’d been carried into by Dahlia and her helpers. She seemed fine now as she stood on her injured ankle. It wasn’t even wrapped. Was it still injured?

“Are you okay?” She asked as she met her.

Lorna nodded with a smile that didn’t quite reach her cheeks. Her brow was furrowed. “I’m fine. I guess.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here.” Ronnie didn’t stop to check her over. She grabbed Lorna’s upper arm and hauled her away from the Rust as fast as she could with promises to explain everything when they made it home.