Demon soul crossroads wi.., p.12
Demon Soul (Crossroads Witch Book 2), page 12
“Sluagh research.”
All I can do is look at her and wait.
A little smile tugs at Cassie’s lips. “Right, I know. I wrestled with that one too. But then something occurred to me.”
She raises an eyebrow, but I still don’t get it. “As in...”
“As in, what do we know about the sluagh?”
I think for a moment. “They’re body snatchers.”
Cassie nods. “Of a sort, yes.”
“Soul eaters.”
“Absolutely.”
A few seconds pass as she waits for me to come up with more. It’s almost like she doesn’t quite want to say it. For that same reason, I make the connection. “They’re considered to be a type of demon.”
Cassie raises her eyebrows, saying nothing more as her eyes urge me to go on.
Oh. Is she thinking what I think she’s thinking? “From Faerie.”
“Bingo!” Cassie says. “So, if you were trying to learn more about body-hopping, soul-eating, supernatural fuckwads from Faerie, what would you do?”
Yep, she’s totally thinking what I think she’s thinking. “Go to Faerie?”
“Exactly. Why it took us this long is beyond me.” She shrugs. “But, whatever. Ready?”
I can’t say that I truly know Cassie. In fact, I wonder if anyone can. But it still seems so like her to leave someone less than thirty seconds to prepare for visiting an alternate dimension. “As in now?”
Light flares at Cassie’s fingers. “Why not? The beautiful thing about portal-popping is that we can get back in a jiffy. Unless, of course, something has changed in the last few weeks. Did I ever tell you about the time when the Seelie controlled all magic in Faerie?”
I shake my head.
“Didn’t think so,” Cassie says. “Yep, only they could use magic. Which meant a one-way ticket for me. I was stranded for months. Ended up being a kitchen slave. Then I ended up fighting in a freaking war. Okay, well, enough about that. Here we go.” She thrusts out her hands and a spinning circle of light blooms to life before us. Within it, I see a completely unfamiliar landscape. “You or me first?”
Is she serious? She looks serious. “Um, maybe you?”
Cassie nods. “Okay, sure. Just being polite.”
Without a look back, Cassie plunges through the doorway she just opened. So, I can either turn back and flee or follow after her. I remind myself that I’ve followed Cassie through portals many times now. I also remind myself that she took us all to Silvermist. That doesn’t exactly help, considering we almost got killed by a dragon. All the same, I step through.
“And here we are.” Cassie gestures toward our surroundings.
My eyes pop wide. We stand in the middle of a forest unlike any I’ve seen before. Some trees have purple bark and orange leaves, while others have green bark and blue leaves. And those are just the first trees I notice. A quick look around shows all colors of the rainbow.
Cassie chuckles. “I know. It takes a minute. By the way, check out that sky.”
I look up to see a field of violet, full of puffy pink clouds. I keep blinking rapidly as my eyes do their best to calibrate. My mouth drops open in awe. “It’s beautiful.”
Beside me, Cassie speaks softly. “I know. Isn’t it?”
Something about the way she says it makes me turn to her, despite everything around me. She’s always so guarded, but not now as I hear the wonder in her voice. Plus something more. Connection. That’s what it is. I sense that part of her thinks of this as home.
It takes a few moments before Cassie brings her eyes back to mine again. “So, here’s what I’m thinking. Let’s assume that Felkerus and Bloodhound haven’t given up on finding you. Let’s also assume it’s only a matter of time until they do.”
I open my mouth to speak, but Cassie holds up her hand to stop me. “Yeah, I know. For some reason, they didn’t take the bait last time. Keyword being ‘reason.’ As in, they might just have one in mind.”
Not exactly comforting, but she’s almost certainly right.
“So, what are you thinking?” I glance up at the trees, pretty sure I just heard something rustle the branches.
“Well, the one thing we know about the sluagh is that we don’t know that much about them. So, I thought it might not be a bad—”
“Did you hear that?”
Cassie frowns. “Hear what?”
This time, I hold up my hand for her to wait. We both listen, but nothing happens. I gesture to the canopy of leaves above us. “Could have sworn I heard something.”
Cassie shrugs. “Birds, probably. Or lizards. Faerie is big on lizards. So, like I was saying, we don’t know all that much about the sluagh. But we do know they’re originally from—”
“There!”
“No, here,” Cassie says. “They’re originally from—”
”I know what you meant. I meant right there, when you were talking. That time I know I heard—”
The branches overhead rustle again, unmistakably this time. First on one tree, then another. Within seconds, the entire canopy starts shaking. My eyes widen as I see why. “What the hell are those things?”
Cassie keeps her gaze fixed on the branches above. “They look sort of like monkeys.”
I stare up in horror. “They’re huge. Plus, they have six legs.”
“And they have those weird monkey-feet hand things on all of them,” Cassie observes. “How weird.”
Weird? That’s her reaction? The scene around us just transformed into a freaking nightmare. The monkey creatures start spilling out of everywhere, some crawling out on branches, others skittering down tree trunks, while others swing from tree to tree on strands of webbing they shoot from their stomachs. Like that's not gross.
It doesn’t exactly make things better when they all start screeching, their collective cries rising objection to our presence.
“I swear I’ve never seen those things before.” Cassie keeps looking around in fascination. “Hey, I wonder if that’s where the name ‘spider monkey’ came from.”
One swings right past my head and I let out a scream. I scream even louder when a giant one plummets to the ground less than three feet away. It rises up on four legs, using the other two to beat on its chest with hands that should be feet. Since the last scream didn’t do the trick, I top it by screaming three times louder.
“Definitely time to boogie,” Cassie says.
Ya think? Maybe we should stick around to see if they beat us to death.
None of these words come out of my mouth. Instead, I stare at Cassie with my eyes popping out of my head. She steps back and swings her arm through the air, somewhat casually it seems to me. But there’s nothing casual about the blast of force that follows. Spider monkeys tumble back in all directions. Cries from the trees reach a fever pitch, but Cassie’s magic buys her time to open a portal. She grabs hold of my arm and pulls me through, closing the portal behind us.
I spin around and stare at her. “Where did you just take us?”
I meant it as a somewhat reasonable question, but my words come out more like a terrified shriek.
“I meant to take us to the forest just outside of Scintillia.” Cassie shrugs and adds, “Minor miscalculation, obviously.”
Minor? The next time Blair plumbs my mental depths for shit that scares me to death, I know exactly what she’ll be finding. Thanks so much, Cassie.
“Anyway, we’re here now,” Cassie says. “That’s all that matters.”
Honestly, I beg to differ, but Cassie is my ticket home again. Better not to argue or she could ditch me in a forest full of monkey goblins. “Where’s here?”
Only then do I recover enough to look around. We stand in a field of grass tall enough to reach our knees. That it doesn’t amaze me that the grass is bright blue speaks volumes about the trauma I just suffered. To one side of us there’s a forest, to the other a city. The city looks to be miles away, which makes me wonder where the roads are, not to mention the suburbs. But what I stare at is the forest.
“Is that…?”
“Totally different forest,” Cassie says. “Free of spider monkeys. At least, the last time I checked.”
My brow furrows. “So, that could be the same forest.”
Cassie shrugs again. “Technically, possible. A sudden infestation would explain a few things. Doesn’t matter. We’re going there.”
She points toward the city.
“That being...”
Cassie sighs. “Scintillia. As I just said.”
Does she not realize we’re at least five miles away?
Apparently, she reads my expression correctly. “Look, realm-slipping is an art, not a science.”
Not to be a bitch or anything, but if that last act was art, she should seriously consider embracing science. For reasons of not being left with the monkey goblins, I don’t say this. Instead, I say, “Of course.”
“Next stop, Scintillia,” Cassie says.
Either that or some alien planet. But what I say is, “Okay. Cool.”
Cassie goes to open another portal, then stops and says, “God, what was I thinking?”
I brace myself as she rubs her hands together. First, she cups them over her ears. When she withdraws them, her ears are tall and pointy. Even though I saw her fae ears when I first started training with the Shadow Order, I still can’t keep from staring.
Cassie seems to get it. “I know, right?” She hooks her hair behind those puppies and adds, “But you can’t beat it on a windy day.”
Before I even have a chance to think, she steps forward and cups her hands around my ears.
“Ow!”
“God, you’re such a baby.” Cassie steps back and appraises me. “Cool. Now, you won’t stand out.”
Meaning what, exactly? Presumably, I now have elf ears, but how do I know I don’t otherwise look like Jabba the Hutt?
“Ready?” Cassie says.
I just stand there and wait, hoping for the best as she opens yet another portal.
Chapter 10 - Amaya
Thankfully, this time we arrive on the outskirts of town. We're next to a farm, where a guy with pointy ears is just then feeding his pigs. Well, I guess they’re pigs, except for the fact that they’re green with four eyes and horns. Not surprisingly, the farmer's mouth drops open at seeing us suddenly appear from out of nowhere. I stare at the nightmare pigs, starting to miss the spider monkeys.
Cassie offers an apologetic wave. “Sorry! Didn’t mean to startle you.”
The guy wipes pig slop on his pant legs and stares for a moment. Then, his eyes go wide again as this time he does a double-take. “I know you. Aren’t you the Fae Witch?”
Cassie smiles happily, apparently used to being recognized. “That’s me. Those are some fine looking singswine you’ve got there.”
The guy beams back at her. “Why, thank you!” He turns to his pigs and calls out, “Look, girls! Don’t you know who that is?”
Their snouts buried in muck, the four-eyed pigs look up at him.
The farmer says, “Well, come on, then. Don’t be rude!”
The pigs lift their snouts from the trough and start trilling notes in the air. Okay, cool. Green, four-eyed, horned pigs that sing. Like that’s not weird enough, they’re actually not half-bad, especially as they start to harmonize. What’s even weirder is that I’m pretty sure I recognize the tune.
I turn to Cassie. “Is that—?”
She nods. “Bohemian Rhapsody. It just caught on around here.”
She doesn’t explain why, or how that could be possible. Instead, she turns back to the farmer. “Please don’t tell anyone you saw us.” In an exaggerated whisper, she adds, “We’re here on top secret business.”
He nods respectfully. “Of course, Fae Witch. Whatever you say.”
As Cassie opens another portal, she mutters, “Not sure what’s going on today. Something keeps messing with my calibration.”
I try convincing myself there’s nothing to worry about. After all, she doesn’t seem worried. Should she be? Based on what we’ve experienced so far, my guess is yes. Still, we step into another tunnel of light, this time stepping out into an alley that smells like death.
“Okay, way better,” Cassie says.
I gag.
For a moment, Cassie looks puzzled. “Oh, right. They’re still working on the sewage system in Gorgedden. They’ll get there eventually.”
I cup my hand over my nose and mouth. “Gorgedden?”
“Home to the Unseelie. Once a slum, otherwise known as the Bottom. It’s being gentrified now that the Seelie are no longer in power.”
She strides toward the street and, this time, I’m more than happy to follow. Thankfully, the stench fades as we soon encounter a scene teeming with life. Music with Celtic tones drifts through the air as people ride past in carriages and on horseback. My nostrils flare at the scents of wood smoke, herbs and grilling meats. Those aromas are underscored by others more subtle and sweet, suggesting freshly baked breads and possibly cakes. But what makes the strongest impression are the people I see around us. It’s not the unfamiliar look of them, but instead how relaxed they all seem. Some stand talking and laughing as children play at their feet, while others partake of foods being sold by vendors cooking over open fires. No one appears to be bustling along as if driven by pressing business. And, of course, none stare at their phones. My first impression is that they seem so untroubled, as if it never occurred to them to let life pass them by.
Cassie smiles, seeing the look on my face. “And those are the Unseelie,” she says. “Once blamed by the Seelie for all the troubles in Faerie.”
Once again, I can’t help but notice the change in her tone. The Cassie I’ve come to know has always seemed brusque and edgy, almost spoiling for a fight. Not here, it seems.
As we start walking, I say, “Tell me more about them.”
She thinks for a moment. “I guess the word is ‘genuine.’ With the Unseelie, what you see is what you get.”
In that same instant, a group of people burst out laughing at a shared joke. The sound is joyous and pure, nothing about it suggesting that the source of their mirth was at another’s expense.
“They seem so happy,” I say.
Cassie nods. “They are happy. Even when they were oppressed, they didn’t let the Seelie steal that from them.”
“I can see why you fought for them.”
Her eyes meet mine. “You would have too. I see that in you.”
It’s such a nice thing to say, and it takes me a moment to recover. “Thanks,” I say softly.
Cassie glances over again. “Just calling it like it is.”
As we keep walking, I think of that connection I sensed here for her. How her eyes and voice softened as she thought of happy memories. I think of the things that Maeve and the others talked about. I’m not sure if I’m overstepping my bounds, but still I ask, “Is there someone here for you?”
She hesitates for just a moment, then nods. “Yes, there is.”
“What’s his name?”
“Esras.”
“Nice name.”
“To go with a nice guy.”
I wonder if I should leave it at that, but something tells me she’d like to talk about him—that he’s on her mind all the time. Like Kai is for me. “I heard he’s a prince or something.”
Cassie’s eyes gleam with amusement. “So, there’s been gossip, has there?”
I shrug. “Maybe a little.”
I think back to my first day at the Shadow Order, when Maeve told me what she knew about Cassie, how both of us were scared of her. I remember when, days later, we made jokes about the rumor that she’d broken up with her boyfriend in Faerie. I feel bad about it now. Sure, we were afraid of her. Intimidated and curious. But that doesn’t make it right.
“Yeah, I figured there had to be. Scary veil bitch and her mysterious off-world boyfriend. How could there not be?”
I have to laugh. “Did you just say ‘veil bitch?’”
Cassie raises her eyebrows. “What? None of you used that one? I would have.” We both laugh, then Cassie says, “Anyway, Esras is more like a king. Well, technically, co-regent. He and Revlen rule Faerie these days.”
I try to take that in. “So, like, they rule the entire realm?”
“The whole thing,” Cassie says. “Well, I suppose there might still be some hostile outposts. But I’m pretty sure that, by the end, we won most over to our side.”
The reality sinks in as we keep walking. She actually fought in a war here. She helped change the destiny of Faerie. While I was curious before, it’s only now that those things I heard about seem real.
“So, you and Esras fought side by side.”
Cassie nods. “Along with Revlen and many more.”
This is the second time she’s mentioned that name. “And, like you said, now Revlen is co-regent.”
Cassie appears to see right through me as a smile tugs at her lips. “Yep, she and Esras rule together.”
For a moment, I wonder if that’s part of the problem. Still, I’m hesitant to ask more.
Cassie decides to fill me in anyway. “Just like a king and queen, even though they’re not married. And, no, there’s nothing between them. Just in case you were wondering.”
It’s so like Cassie not to pull any punches. All the same, heat rises to my cheeks. All I can think to say is, “Wow, that’s pretty progressive.”
She chuckles, then gestures toward what’s around us. “And that’s Faerie. Kind of like if you blended who we should be with who we were two hundred years ago. Think of it that way.”
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m guessing there’s a lot to think about. The reality of the situation strikes me again, that we’re now in some other word entirely. But to Cassie, this is familiar territory, a place she could call home if she chose to.
“Do you think we’ll see him?”
She knows who I mean, of course. Still, a moment passes. “It might be better if we didn’t. At least, not right now. We don’t need any distractions.”
She averts her gaze, but not quite in time to hide how she feels. Namely, that part of her wants to see Esras very much, while another part of her thinks she should remain distant. Clearly, she cares for him, so what’s keeping her away? I can’t help but wonder if this woman, who always seems so fearless, fears something after all. What is it that’s haunting her?
