Clash of the Otherworlds: Book 3, Portal Guardians (21 page)

"No, I don't.
 
I know you're a Fate, and I know you use them for dark magic, but I don't know why."

I nodded.
 
I wanted to know the why, too.
 
The hows were too dangerous for anyone to know.
 
We needed to end that practice as soon as today.

Maggie shrugged.
 
"The Fates do as needs must."

"Cut the crap, Maggie," I said, already irritated with her.
 
"Make sense and stop wasting our time.
 
I have a pixie to track down."

"Why do the Fates need to use mimickers?" asked Samantha.

"One cannot accurately control the destiny or fate of a fae without a piece of his soul.
 
It is the way of things."

"But why would you want to?" I asked.
 
"What about free will and choices and stuff?"
 
I hated the idea of Maggie directing my life.
 
I was pretty sure she and I had different values at the very least.

"The fae brought this upon themselves.
 
I am merely doing what I can to save them from their own folly."
 
She crossed her arms over her ample, droopy boobs and rocked, back and forth, back and forth.

"What did the fae do that made you have to do this?" asked Samantha in a much nicer voice than I was capable of using right now.

"Is it story time now, my dearies?" asked Maggie, cackling once again.

We both just stared at her.

"Fine.
 
You two are a couple of wet blankets, anyone ever tell you that?
 
What I do, what I've done, I've done for the good of this world."

"Which is ... ?" I prompted.

"Many years ago, more than I care to count, a young fae girl fell in love with a brash and conceited young fae."

"Céline and Torrie.
 
Yeah, we know this part."

"And this male fae, Torrence Silverthorne we'll call him, was ready to throw his entire life away, his whole future, to be with the one he loved.
 
Or the one he thought he loved."

"So what did you do?"

Maggie shrugged.
 
"I did nothing.
 
But a witch did something.
 
Something that upset the balance.
 
And that's what started this whole mess."
 
She poked her crooked, lumpy index finger at both of us.
 
"The one I've been trying to fix for a thousand years, that
you
and
you
have been getting in the way of since the day you walked into my forest!"

"Us?" asked Samantha.
 
"How so?"

Maggie held up her finger and thumb.
 
"I was this close.
 
This close
to fixing this, and then you two came along.
 
Now I don't know how I'm going to get it all back."
 
She threw her hands up and then rested them on the arms of her chair.

"Tell us," I said, resisting the urge to reach out and touch her.
 
"Maybe we can help."

She snorted.
 
"Pfft.
 
Not very likely.
 
Everything the two of you touch turns to newt dung."

I frowned at Samantha who was giving me the same look back.
 
I mouthed the word,
Youch,
at her, making her smile.

"So tell us what you did and how it got screwed up by your lovely granddaughters," I asked, pasting on my happy smile.

"This young fae girl, we'll call her Céline just for the purposes of this story, she went to this witch ..."

"...Who we'll call ... ?" I asked.

"...Red ... or whatever you want, it doesn't matter ... And she asked him for a spell."

My forehead dropped into my hand.
 
"Please don't say it was a love potion."

"She asked him for a love potion, if you will.
 
But maybe it was a bit more than that, because its design wasn't merely based in love.
 
It was the changing of destiny, of fate ... the control of things that should not be controlled by those without the vision or the power to manage the ... side-effects."

"Side-effects?" asked Samantha.

Maggie waved her hand all around her body, face, and room.
 
"Voilà ... side-effects."

I looked over at Samantha my eyes bugging again.
 
"Damn, Samantha. Sucks to be you."

She frowned at me.
 
"Shut up, elemental.
 
Continue, Maggie."

"So the spell was given, the spell was executed, and Torrie failed to follow his heart.
 
But the denial ate away at him, eroded his inner light, until he accepted just a little too much darkness into his soul.
 
He made some very bad decisions, was prepared to make some even worse ones, so it was determined that the only way to manage the situation was to banish him from the Here and Now and fix what was left."

I felt a chill in my bones.
 
"But where did he belong ... I mean, technically."

Maggie shrugged.
 
"Probably here.
 
He did not die as a fae normally does."

I dropped my head into my hands.
 
"Oh, fuck a bag of dicks."

"What'd you do?" asked Samantha.

I lifted my head up, my smile back in place.
 
"Well, I have good news, then!"

"What's that?" asked Samantha, not looking especially excited about what I was going to say.

"I fixed that little miscalculation.
 
Torrie is no longer in the Underworld where he doesn't belong."

"Where is he?" asked Samantha.

"Here.
 
In the Here and Now."
 
I clapped my hands together and rubbed them quickly.
 
"So what else can I help with?"

"As I said," deadpanned Maggie, "you've done nothing but turn my life into goat innards since you arrived."

"Newt innards.
 
You said newt innards," corrected Samantha.

"Are you sure it was newt innards?" I asked.
 
"I think she said newt dung.
 
Yeah, newt dung."

"No, I'm preeetty sure it was innards, not dung."

"Enough!" yelled Maggie.
 
"Do you want the story or not?!

We both nodded.

"Back in the good old days, we Fates rarely intervened in the natural Order of Things.
 
Most fae stayed on track and used only the smallest, most harmless amounts of magic in their day-to-day lives.
 
But this spell ... this one requested by Céline and the one concocted by Red ... it was something entirely different.
 
And we knew that once they had a taste of that power, well, it was only a matter of time before they abused it again and again.
 
Power does that.
 
It corrupts."

We both nodded again, eating her story up.

"And so as bad spells do, this one went south, taking Torrie with it.
 
A desperate and still very much in-love Céline came to us, the Fates, begging for us to intervene.
 
And that's when we saw our opportunity."

"Here's the yucky part," I said, nodding at Samantha.
 
"You watch."

Maggie ignored me.
 
"We agreed to return her love to the proper realm if she agreed to collect pieces of the souls of every fae alive and deliver them to us.
 
And she was nearly there, too!
 
A thousand years in the doing!"

"Seems to me like she went a little overboard," I said, lifting up my boxes.
 
"What ... were these extra credit?" I asked, holding up two of them.

Maggie shook her head.

"Why did you need them?" asked Samantha.

Maggie shrugged.
 
"It is quite difficult to control the fates of others and their use of magic without a piece of them in the spell."

"Why not hair?!" I yelled.
 
"Couldn't you use a lock of hair or a fingernail for shit's sake?!"

"Souls are reusable.
 
We are nothing if not thrifty."

I nearly gagged on that one.
 
"You are so fucking ... evil!"

Samantha stood.
 
"Yeah, this is not right.
 
This is wrong.
 
Souls are sacred."

Maggie struggled to stand too.
 
"Souls are sacred, agreed, but we do not damage them!
 
As you can see they are well cared-for, in individual safe boxes and organized, and each and every one of them is happy and healthy!"

"But their ours," I said softly, "not yours.
 
You can't have them.
 
We won't let you."

She leaned over and stared me down.
 
"And are you going to be the one to stop the power mongers?
 
Are you going to be the one to control the magic?
 
Pfft!
 
Hack-tooey!
 
You can't even brush your own teeth without putting someone into a coma."

I stood up, incensed but unable to come up with the best insult for the situation.
 
This was a first for me.

"Oh yeah?" said Samantha.
 
"Well, at least she doesn't play around with newt balls for a living!"

I held up my hand for a high five.
 
"Sing it, sister," I said, never taking my eyes off Maggie.
 
"Okay, old lady.
 
We've heard enough.
 
We'll be back for those souls, make no mistake.
 
And I'm taking mine with me now.
 
You keep your greasy fingers off my soul, you got that?"
 
I pointed at her face.

I started to leave, but Samantha grabbed my arm.
 
"Don't you want to ask her about the pixies?"

"Hell, no.
 
I'll find them myself.
 
I have an idea."

Maggie snorted.
 
"Shall I begin mixing the anti-coma spell now?"

"No!" I yelled at the entrance to her house.
 
"Start mixing the Only-As-Ugly-As-A -Buggane's-Ass-Spell because you need a serious makeover!"

And with that I stepped outside and slammed the door behind the both of us.

"Well."
 
Samantha laughed.
 
"You told her.
 
I think."

"I've had better insults, that's true," I admitted as we walked away, our feet shuffling through the dried, crunchy leaves.

"That wasn't bad though, off the cuff like that.
 
I'll give you a six point five.
 
Maybe seven."

"Thanks.
 
I'll take the six point five.
 
I was only going with six myself."

"Your standards are too high."

"You know what?
 
That is probably the first time I've
ever
heard that in my entire life."

She laughed but said nothing the rest of the way back to the compound.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SAMANTHA FOLLOWED ME BACK TO my room where we found the whole Miami crew plus Scrum waiting for us.
 
Becky was on us like flies on poo, beating Spike to the first hug.

"Oh my god, you guys, what happened?"
 
She grabbed me in a squeeze first and then Samantha.
 
Both of us patted her on the back, smiling over her spazziness.
 
Tony waved at me over her shoulder, and I winked at him.
 
His scorched eyebrows and hair were beyond hilarious, but I couldn't muster the laugh it probably deserved because I knew how close he'd come to being much worse off.

Becky wasn't done with us.
 
"Seriously, Céline took off out of here crying her eyes out - that was freaky.
 
And then Anton came looking for you, and so did Red.
   
Don't even get me started on my boyfriend's missing hair.
 
Everyone's in an uproar.
 
We're supposed to bring you to see them in Anton's office as soon as you get back."

"Y'all done stepped in the shit now," said Finn, shaking his head - a cap now on it and pulled down low, probably to mask his lack of facial hair.
 
"I ain't never seen Dardennes so spittin' mad.
 
Ever
.
 
Like, never ever."

I rolled my eyes, ready to let him know what I thought about that whole thing, when there was a banging on the door.
 
I looked at my friends in a panic, stepping over towards Spike who moved to stand slightly in front of me.
 
"I'm not ready to go anywhere yet!"

Scrum moved to my other side.

Jared strode over to the door.
 
"Don't worry about it.
 
It's not them."
 
He pulled the door open and let Aidan in.

The wolf wasted no time in coming over and pushing past Spike to hug me so tight I almost couldn't breathe.
 
"Hey," he said gruffly.
 
"I am so sorry.
 
I can't believe I let them get the jump on me."

I patted him on the back.
 
"Don't worry about it.
 
They were very sneaky about it.
 
They got all the pixies too."

He pulled back and then turned to glare at Samantha, pointing at her.
 
"The wolf has a quarrel with that witch."

I took his finger and pushed it down to his waist.
 
"Put your shit away, wolf.
 
I've forgiven her, so you're not allowed to hold a grudge."

"Yes, I am," he said, huffing out a few wolfy-sounding breaths in her direction.