Black City

“I know,” he said.

It was like we were in the grip of insanity, both of us knowing that our lives were in danger, that we had friends depending on us to keep them safe. And even with all of this I still could think of nothing but him, his heat, his skin.

Then there was a terrible cry floating on the wind, from far and away across the field, and that sound was finally enough to break the spell of lust.

I saw black shapes rising from the trees, and the harpies came screaming for us.

Their cries permeated my blood, danced over my nerve endings. It was the most horrible sound I have ever heard. It was the sound of death on wings, death without mercy.

“How far away are the others?” I asked Nathaniel.

“They are ahead of us, but not far enough.”

I couldn’t risk turning around to see. The harpies were moving fast, much faster than I would have thought they could, and I needed to be ready. They were still far enough away for their faces to be indistinct, but they were no longer formless blobs. I could distinguish their heads from their bodies and their wings.

My magic had flared high when Nathaniel had lifted me against him, and I was still riding that surge of power. I felt more than prepared to take out some harpies.

“They are only a little ahead of us,” Nathaniel said. “We are over the foothills of the mountain now.”

That was what flying could do for you over walking. It had taken us hours to get halfway across the field on foot, and in a few short moments in the air we had covered the remainder of the distance.

The harpies screamed as they came closer. I could see their faces now, and I wished I couldn’t. They were the faces of beautiful women, but contorted by a hate so fierce that it made them horrible to look upon.

I let loose the fire that blazed in my blood.

The vanguard fell screaming and smoking to the earth. Their sisters took up the cry with twice the ferocity, and I thought my eardrums might burst. I let the flame pour from my hands, and harpies plummeted to earth. The air was filled with stench of burning flesh and the howls of burning women. But still there were more, and more. There was a stream of harpies flowing from our wake back to the forest, and it seemed to have no end.

“How much farther?” I said, still loosing flame, still burning harpies with all the power I could muster.

“It’s farther away than it looks,” Nathaniel said.

“There are so many of them,” I said, and I wondered whether we would make it in time.

“Madeline,” Nathaniel said, and he put his lips on my neck.

I felt his magic flow from the place where his mouth touched, felt his power twining around mine again. And as it did, there was a blaze, as there was the first time our powers had touched. Heat blasted from my hands, uncontrolled, and then everything seemed to explode.

We were blinded by white light, and for a moment I was afraid Nathaniel would drop me. But he held me close, and my arms wound around his neck, my power spent. We hovered in the air, our eyes closed against the light.

When the light seemed to recede I opened my eyes and looked over Nathaniel’s shoulder toward the harpies.

The harpies were gone. So was the field, and a good portion of the forest. The path we had walked was a blackened husk.

“What about the others?” I asked, panicking. “Were they caught in the spell?”

“No, you maniac,” Beezle said beside me. “Although it was a near thing. You should have mentioned that you were going to set off a nuclear bomb.”

“You told me to play to my strengths,” I said, nudging Nathaniel so he would shift me back to our original carrying position. Jude, Samiel, Chloe and J.B. were floating in the air several feet ahead of us, and they all looked a little shocked. And smoke-smudged.

“So I should have expected you to reduce all animal and plant life for miles around to ash?”

“Yes, you should have,” I said. “That’s pretty much my M.O.”

“Titania’s going to be really mad at you now,” Beezle said as we started forward to join everyone else.

“Like she wasn’t mad before?”

“These faerie queens seem to take it amiss when you burn down their forest and their creatures,” Beezle said. “Remember when you killed Amarantha’s Cthulhu-thing and her giant spider?”

“Barely,” I said. “I’ve burned so many things it’s kind of all blurring together. And Amarantha was ready to be pissed at me before that, just as Titania is.”

“Then stop antagonizing her,” Beezle said.

“Maybe she should stop antagonizing me,” I said. “Before I wipe out her whole kingdom.”

“Dark side,” Beezle said.

“I am not going dark side,” I said impatiently as we flew along toward the top of the mountain.

“If you’re not going dark side, then you’ve definitely decided to adopt a scorched-earth policy for dealing with your enemies,” Beezle said.

“And why shouldn’t she?” J.B. said.

We all stared at him in surprise. J.B. was pretty much a rule follower. He was usually one of the first to chastise me when I killed someone or burned something to the ground. Of course, that may have been because he’d have to file paperwork about the incident when I was an Agent. Now that I was no longer an Agent, paperwork didn’t apply.

“She shouldn’t because she’s getting a reputation for being ruthless. No one will want to ally themselves with her if they think she might go crazy and blow them up at a moment’s notice,” Beezle said.