J. Nelson - Free Agent

He screamed as it crawled up him, leaching out of the apple shell like an ooze and devouring him. As it did, he stumbled backwards. How he ran, how he moved at all, I can’t say, but his wailing trailed off up the staircase.

“Burn,” said the queen, and I realized too late she had gathered another spell. Not ice. Fire. The hellfire wreathed her hand like a thing alive, and I knew Ari was too weak to block it.

“I don’t think so,” said a voice from the dungeon tunnel, and Liam came running out. His wrists had cuts from the manacles, and the marks on his face were probably all bruises. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

The queen glanced at him and flicked her wrist, letting the flame go. It leaped out at him, wrapping his form, so hot I had steam burns from the ice melting. The hellfire raged and leaped across the furniture, burning the dirt and wolf bodies. In the inferno, something moved.

Liam came out of it wrapped in fire, clothed in it, covered in it. He shook his hands, wringing the flames from them like water.

He glared at her, his mouth pulled back in a thin smile. “That tickles.” In his voice I heard the curse speak. “I’ve got a little fire of my own.” Smoke began to billow from his mouth as the fire welled up inside him.

I pulled the trigger.

I’ll never know how she got the first spell off in time, catching the bullet. Anything else, I think she’d have stopped cold, but this was no apple tossed by an angry woman. I shot her with a magic bullet, designed to kill magic things, and it didn’t stop, it slowed down. As it did, the bullet changed, becoming something like a tiny death reaper.

The queen screamed and with a surge of power threw the bullet into the stone. So I gave her another one, right between her eyes, and again she caught it. With each spell, she changed. White streaks rippled through her hair like water, and as she forced the bullet to the side, wrinkles dripped like rain down her face.

“I’ve still got one more.” I carefully put the sight on her chest.

She ran, and I wasn’t about to waste my last bullet on a bad shot. Liam grabbed me and nearly crushed me in a hug. The fire raced along him but felt cool to the touch.

He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “I have these dreams. I used to think they were dreams. Dreams of fire and rage and destruction.” He let me go for a moment but kept his head close to mine. “I would wake up and tell myself it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Then you showed up and it’s trolls and wolves and people with guns, and I needed it to be a dream.”

Outside the hall, I heard the screams of wolves and the sound of armored feet approaching. Help was on the way. I considered how the rest of this year had gone, and I knew it was more trouble.

“I can hear inside it. I remember. Did you mean what you said there?” I couldn’t speak, I could barely nod, and then he swept me up into those arms so I could smell the smoke on him. “Then I don’t want it to be a dream anymore.”

“Ahem,” said a voice, and I looked back. The hellfire had gone out, and Liam was very naked. I also didn’t appreciate where Jess was looking, and I’m pleased to say Ari had found a convenient speck of dirt on the ground to study. About then the wolves came back, and they brought company. Big company in suits of armor.

“This day just doesn’t quit,” said Jess. “I’ll deal with the wolves, you three go find the queen.” The armored creatures marched forward, clattering swords and shields. I felt in my purse for another clip and shivered as the Root of Lies caressed my fingers. I’d have to ask Liam to burn the thing later.

Liam walked toward the wolves like he was going out to greet friends. “You know, up until now my curse and I haven’t agreed on much. When it comes to you, we’re on the same page.” He glanced at me, and his eyes shone as if they were on fire.

I think for a moment the alpha wolf considered running. Did I mention that wolves were stupid? It leaped at me and Liam caught it like a bug, slamming it into the ground. A growl came from deep in his chest, and he swung it overhead by the arm, slamming it into the ground again. He wrenched over like he was vomiting, and fire belched out, blanketing the wolf.

Liam looked up at me, a tiny drool drop of fire hanging from his lip. “Get out of here. I’ve got serious mood swings.” I had trouble understanding because his teeth were changing.

I ran for the tower, and realized that Ari limped along behind me. “Ari, stay here. I’m going after the queen.”

“Not without me. I’ve got a score to settle with her.” She wiped blood off her cheek and ran after me.

I helped her up the staircase, looking back to see my boyfriend one last time. He was mostly dragon now, and even though he had scales and horns and was ripping the entrails out of a wolf, he made my heart thrill. “Grimm,” I said, and there was no answer. “Grimm, are you there?”

When he spoke, his voice broke up. “She knows you are there, Marissa. Hard enough to keep in contact at all.”

“The Seal is here. Ari can feel it.”

His voice came through louder this time. “My dear, that’s not possible. The fae would have simply taken it.”

“Grimm, she’s hiding it. Even you can’t sense it here. How would the fae?”

He paused for a moment, long enough that I thought perhaps we’d lost our connection. “A locus. She’s joined her demesne to the castle, creating a locus of power. It’s like a black hole for magic, it would conceal even a fairy. If you can get the Seal far enough away, the fae will be able to sense it and they’ll come for it. They won’t be able to put it back in place, but they’ll stop the fighting. They have already begun their attack.”

“Fine. One Seal, coming right up.”

“Get going. I’m going to tell the fae you have the Seal and are bringing it to them. Don’t make a liar of me.”

IT SHOULD BE a law that if you put in a tower, you have to put in an elevator. At one point, the castle had a large lock of golden hair, but the cost of detangler spray and a bout of lice spelled the end for it. Any way you look at it, a staircase that long was a violation of common sense. How you’d get a princess in a wheelchair to the top, I had no idea.

It didn’t help that Ari was worn out from her spell battle. After the first three-dozen landings, we came to one where a door lay open. Two goblins sprawled on the floor, their heads split open.

Ari gestured. “That’s where they were keeping me.”

I looked inside. Standard princess prison cell. Rose-scented stationary was a dead giveaway. “Wait. You killed two goblins?”

She blushed. “I meant to knock them out.”

“Use the flat part of the axe next time.”

She held up her hand, as if reaching for something. “The Seal’s near here.”

We followed the stairs on up, and I threw open the last door. We stood at the railing, on top of the old castle tower. To the east, I saw the lights of magic like fireworks at ground level, blinding sweeps of white light, as the fae swept their death magic to and fro, and red explosions as apples rained down on them. Ari pulled my hand, hauling me back inside.

She had her eyes closed. “When Moth—when Gwendolyn hit me, it nearly knocked me out. I realized I can see magic without using my eyes.” I had a brief shiver as I thought of the Isyle Witch and her eyes without pupils.

She reached into the stone. “Here.” It rippled under her fingers. Something clicked, and a hidden door swung open to a room that would have hung in the air beyond the tower. Inside it, a lightning storm raged a thousand times over. As I looked at it, I realized it was only one ball of lightning. It was the Seal. The walls and floors were mirrors.