Guardian Of The Grove (20 page)

T
wo weeks had passed
since we returned from Tucson. Alby had been confirmed as the guardian of the grove, and tonight was her coronation. We would be leaving shortly to attend it and show our support. This would be the first time that the Ascendancy and a grove of the Fae would be working together. We had a common enemy now, and that was all it took for us to renew an old relationship. That and my best friend from high school was now in charge of the grove.

Adam had decided to come with us, and he was bringing Henry. I was surprised to learn they were a couple and had been together for as long as anybody could remember. The rest of the party would include April, Marcus, Sarah, and myself. I wasn’t sure how to act at something like this; it was the first time I had ever put on a tuxedo in my life. Everyone assured me that it would be a very formal event and that I wouldn’t look out of place.

I finished dressing just as a knock sounded at the door. April came in, and my breath caught in my chest. She looked ravishing. The light wispy yellow dress made her red hair stand out. Her pale skin toned down the bright color of the dress perfectly. Looking at her was as if the most beautiful woman you had ever seen just stepped out of the sun.

I must have been standing there with my mouth open because April stepped forward and closed it for me. She ended my embarrassment by giving me a kiss on the lips. “You look amazing,” was all I could think of to say.

She reached out and straightened my bowtie, and then she looked up into my eyes. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

For some reason, I couldn’t stop smiling. Tonight was going to be special, and I was walking in with a goddess on my arm. April had left the door open, and Marcus came in. He looked as if he felt just as out of place in a tux as I did. He had two things going for him that I didn’t—his bowtie and his socks were bitchin’. I mean it; he had some kind of very bright blue design against the black, and it looked really cool. I looked down at my own socks and wondered if I had time to steal a cooler pair from his room.

My mom came in next, trying to steal the show. It was like every person who came into my home was the next step up in fashion. She had on a long black dress. It was elegant in the front, but the back dropped just past her waist. It was an interesting style. From the front, she looked elegant and modest. From the back, modest wasn’t a word you could use to describe it. Her long black hair had been plaited, and she wore the long ponytail pulled around to the front. She looked as if she had stepped out of a magazine.

Adam and Henry came in next, looking like mirror images of each other. Standard black tuxedos, just like mine. They looked conservative and dignified. With all of us in the room and ready to go, Adam opened a portal in my doorway. Alby had let him set up a matching portal on the other side for use during this event only. After tonight, it would be dismantled, keeping their home safe from outsiders.

We stepped through the portal and found ourselves in the grove. The huge oak tree spread out in front of us. The lights hanging from the ceiling had all been changed to have different colors shining down on us through the tree’s branches. The massive cavern was filled with people. A band was playing something to dance to. People were mingling about. Our appearance garnered a few suspicious looks, but most of the Fae just ignored us.

The music stopped, and every head turned to face the throne. Alby walked in from the side of the room. She was in a bright green and silver dress. The silver was laced under the green, making it look like sunlight coming through the leaves of a tree every time she moved. She looked beautiful. She stopped under the throne and waited. One hand rose to her necklace, and the trunk of the tree behind her opened.

A bright yellow light filled the space, and then shifted to a more subdued glow as a figure emerged from the tree. She walked forward, stopping next to Alby. The people around us murmured a name—Erecura. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. She had long dark hair that hung to the middle of her back. She wasn’t wearing any clothes, at least not in the traditional sense. Vines wove themselves around her legs and waist. Leaves and flowers sprouted around certain areas, leaving her modest. She smiled at Alby and then looked out at the gathered crowd.

“It has been too long since I have come to your grove. I am delighted to have been invited to crown your new guardian. May the grove always prosper and grow.”

She turned back toward Alby, pulling a silver circlet from somewhere. Alby knelt before her, and Erecura placed the crown on her head. Erecura reached out a hand and lifted Alby up from the ground. She whispered something to her that none of us could hear. Alby turned to face us, and her smile beamed down on everyone in the cave. “People of the grove, tonight we rejoice and celebrate the life of Shalana. Tomorrow we walk into the future refreshed and whole.”

Erecura waved to the party and walked back toward the tree. She stepped into the light and disappeared. Alby touched her necklace again, the light faded and the trunk closed. The music started playing again, and people began to cheer. April and I wound our way through the crowd until we reached Alby’s side. Her circlet was amazing. It was two separate pieces of silver that wrapped around her head in a very Celtic way. The front dipped slightly down in a triangle, and there was a diamond set into the silver. It wasn’t a lavish jewel-incrusted crown, but it would have put those to shame.

Alby stepped away from a few of her guests and came over to talk to us. “Jackson, April, it’s so good to see you.” She gave each of us a hug and smiled. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

“We wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” I said.

“You look amazing,” April said.

“It’s easy to do when you have a team of people working to make you stand out. I already miss my jeans.”

“Tell me about it,” I said.

April laughed at both of us. “Enjoy it while it lasts. Who knows the next time we will get to dress up for a fancy party.”

“It won’t be too soon, if I have my say about it,” Alby said with a wink. “I hate to leave you guys, but I have to make my rounds. Dance and have fun. I’ll try and catch you before you go.”

“You heard the lady,” I said, taking April’s hand in mine and leading her out to the dance floor. “It’s time we saw some of those moves.” I pulled her close to my chest and smiled as the music played around us. We swayed to the sound, and I kissed her gently on the lips.

“What was that for?”

“I was just thinking there was no one in the world I would rather share this moment with than you.”

She kissed me again. “You know, sometimes you say the sweetest things.”

Did you hear that? I was moving up in the world. I’d gone from fumbling blindly at things to say to women, to being sweet. It was a step in the right direction. April felt perfect in my arms, and the night couldn’t possibly get any better. I looked around the dance floor and saw Marcus off to the side with two Fae women, teaching them some kind of complicated dance move. My mom was out on the floor, dancing with a man I hadn’t seen before. Adam and Henry were sitting at the edge of the dance floor, sharing a drink and watching over all of us.

The air by the entrance to the grove started to shimmer and sparkle. I thought it was a cool trick for the party, before people started to scream and move away from it. Everyone from my party ran toward the danger instead of away. That was kind of what we did. “What’s going on?” I asked Adam.

“I’m not sure.”

The light started to pull in on itself, changing colors until it was a dark crimson red. The grove’s guards circled behind us with their silver spears. Smoke started to pour from the cloud of light, and then in an instant, it was gone. A woman stood before us in a bright red dress. The neckline of the dress plunged just past her belly button, while the back of the dress rose up to frame her head. She had a crown on as well, but in every way that Alby’s was beautiful, this crown was aggressive and wrong.

Cold laughter spilled from the woman’s lips. “Sorry to disturb your party.”

Alby pushed through the guards to stand with us. She looked into the woman’s eyes. I could feel the tension brewing between them. “Who are you and what do you want?” Alby shouted in a commanding voice.

“You may know me as the voice of the abyss, but for now, you may call me Casandra.”

“Why are you here?”

“I’ve come to give you a warning. All of you who stand with Adam and the Ascended will perish. We will not rest until the pathway is cleared for the rising of my master. Tonight will be your only warning.”

Adam stepped forward. “Demon, be gone. None of us are interested in your worthless prattle.”

“Then let me leave you with a gift to commemorate the moment of our meeting.”

The cloud of red smoke appeared again and seemed to pull in on itself. The demon, as Adam had named it, was gone. A scream sounded from the other side of the room. Five red clouds had formed, and each one of them disappeared, leaving a fully transformed demon behind. They were as breathtaking as they were terrifying. The demon in the middle was massive, with red fur and the head of a bull. It took my brain a second to catch up, but he was exactly how I pictured a Minotaur would look. Beside him were two massive scorpions, their eyes searching the room for prey. The other two, I had no idea what to call them. They were floating orbs with one eye that swirled around, looking for a target. The orbs had tentacles that lashed out at anyone who got too close.

Adam shouted out, “Get these people out of here.” Alby nodded to the captain of her guard and then started to move the Fae out of the room. The rest of the guard rushed forward to engage the demons. Word had already spread, and more guards rushed out for the side entrances of the cave and started to swarm around the demons.

We didn’t bring any weapons with us at the request of the Fae, so we were going to have to rely on our magic. I looked at April as she pulled two daggers from inside of her dress. “What?” she said, as she started cutting around her dress, exposing the blades’ holsters on her thighs. “It’s too bad. I really liked this dress,” she mumbled, ripping the torn fabric away from her legs, and then she kicked off her shoes. Marcus stood next to me, and a growl from behind let me know that Mom had taken things into her own hands as well.

I looked at Alby, and one of the guards handed her a spear. She gave me a quick nod. “Nothing comes into my grove without my say so and lives.” She reached toward her necklace, and I could almost see the power swirl around her. She aimed the spear at one of the floating eyes, and sent it hurtling through the air. Her power augmented her throw, and the spear closed the distance in less than a second. It pierced the eye, and the orb fell to the ground. Some of her guards rushed in and began stabbing at it. One down, four to go.

Alby reached out for another spear, and I knew the other floating eye was in for the same fate as the first one. That meant we needed to focus on the Minotaur and the scorpions. I tossed a ball of fire at one of the scorpions, and it just washed over its carapace, leaving it unharmed. It did accomplish one thing. It got the creature fixated on me. It started to scuttle forward, moving faster than I thought it would. Then again, it did have eight legs and two giant claws to power itself forward.

I dodged to the side as one of the claws snapped to where I had been standing. A silver streak moved past me just as the stinger was coming down. It knocked it just far enough to the side that I remained unharmed. One of April’s daggers flew through the air and plunged into the scorpion’s eye. It started thrashing wildly about, knocking people to the ground. One of the Fae ended up with a stinger in his belly before Adam stepped forward and ended the creature. He called on the earth in the cave and brought a massive rock from the roof of the cave down on its back.

The scorpion let out a screech, and its legs kept striking out even though it was pinned to the ground. The guards rushed in and started hacking at its limbs with their spears. Eventually the creature’s struggles stopped as it was hacked to pieces. The other floating eye was down, as well as the remaining scorpion. That left the Minotaur to deal with. It roared and sent a group of five guards flying even as we turned toward it. The beast was bleeding from several wounds already, but all they seemed to do was stoke its rage.

The massive beast lowered its head and slammed into a group of guards, crushing them beneath its hooves. I couldn’t just watch anymore. I summoned a sheet of ice and then cracked it, sending the razor-sharp shards into the creature’s back. The ice cracked against the beast’s back, and again, I only seemed to enrage it further. It turned its gaze on me and lowered its head to charge.

Steam bellowed from the Minotaur’s nose just before it started to run. Marcus summoned massive vines from the ground, entangling the beast’s feet. Henry stepped forward, and the cavern floor moved and swallowed the creature’s hands and feet. The Minotaur howled in rage and thrashed against its bindings, but couldn’t break free. Adam formed a blade of fire around his hand and rushed forward. He plunged the fire into the Minotaur’s neck again and again. Blood spilled out around him, and the room grew silent.

All of the demons were dead, but groans of the injured started to fill the space. “Marcus and April, see what you can do for them. Try and get to the most wounded first,” I said.

Henry limped forward. “I’ll do what I can as well.”

My mom stepped by my side and shifted back into her human form. She was naked, her dress lying in pieces on the ground. I swung my coat off and put it over her shoulders. I knew that she didn’t mind being nude, but I hadn’t had the chance to grow as comfortable with it as she was. She smiled at me. “Just like your father.”

Alby walked over to us, and Adam was the first to address her. “I’m sorry. It seems as if our presence here resulted in this attack.”

“I don’t think so. I think she would have attacked us anyway. Because you were here, more of our people will live.”