I raised my hand. “That makes sense, but I’ve got a couple questions.”
Amy raised an eyebrow—which I suspected meant, “You’re raising your hand? No one else did.” I put it down as Samita said, “Yes, Nick?”
“You mentioned that you were looking for confirmation that it was the same creature and not an alternate. Did you get that from the book?” Continue reading Everybody’s Got One: Part 7
I clicked on the email.
All it said was “You know what to do,” and underneath that sentence there was a link to a Dropbox folder. I hesitated for a moment and then clicked on it. It opened to a web page that listed only one file in folder. It was called “Exposure.mpv.”
I’d heard of the video format. It only ran on the associated player and only worked once. No one knew who had designed it. The Double V forums were certain it was a known tech genius, but couldn’t agree on who.
Daniel’s bed creaked, and I heard him walk up behind me as I sat at the desk. “Maybe we should get Izzy. It’s only going to play once, and she’s got a great memory for sounds.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 48
Artaxus pulled himself entirely on to the ledge before I’d worked out a plan for our dive. I knew I didn’t want to get in reach of the dragon’s claws or in range of his breath.
“Laser?” I asked Haley.
She muttered the word, “Aiming,” only barely loud enough for me to hear, followed by the crackle and hum of the laser firing.
It hit the dragon’s back like her other shots had, destroying the creature’s scales, and cutting into its hide, cauterizing the wound even as it made it.
Artaxus’ head whipped around and he blew flame at us, but we were too far away and moving too quickly for the fire to do any real damage. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 41
I assumed Artaxus was roaring out of frustration. If so, it was understandable. He probably couldn’t see very much. I couldn’t see much either.
In the time we’d taken to get the van and transform it, Vaughn must have created a fog bank. It surrounded the park, or at least the portion of it that people were in, reaching the nearest shops, turning the streetlights’ illumination into a diffused glow.
It wasn’t a bad idea. At the very least, it took arrows out of the equation. Goblins could still shoot, but they couldn’t deliberately target anybody.
Well, not unless they had amazing hearing—which I couldn’t rule out.
I looked over at Daniel. “Do you know what’s going on out there? We have a plan, but all we know is that everybody is outside in the park. We were basically going to take out the leaders and go on from there, but we didn’t include dragons in the plan.”
Not giving Daniel a chance to reply, Haley asked, “And why aren’t they coming to investigate all the noise?”
Cassie looked toward the hole in the wall, into the shop, and (I’m assuming) out of the shop’s front. “She’s right. They’re not.”
Daniel closed his eyes. “Give me a second. I’ll find out.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 34
Amy came through first, hitting the far side of the hallway with her back, or technically with her armor. Izzy came through along with her, readying another punch, her mouth curled in a snarl.
Her punch hit Amy in the jaw—she’d lost her helmet somewhere—and I heard her jaw break. Her head hit the wall hard enough that visible cracks spread out at least six feet, her red hair spreading out behind her.
The Cabal’s soldiers were tough, but I’d seen them die. If Izzy kept on hitting like that, Amy wouldn’t be able to stand up to it. Besides, however Amy siphoned off other people’s powers, she might not have gotten the total package. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 33
And then things got weird. Well, they didn’t become instantly weird, but soon enough.
Amy had put a spell on me that allowed me to see in the dark, and more importantly to see through illusion. I hadn’t seen anything when I looked at Daniel because he wasn’t an illusion, but as he sensed my memories I sensed his.
As I connected, I knew without doubt that there were illusions in his mind. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 32
Daniel’s mask covered all of his face but his mouth and chin, making it more difficult to read him, but not completely impossible.
He stopped biting his lip, leaving his mouth a straight line.
“Daniel,” I said, “look inside my head. You’ll be able to tell what’s really going on in seconds.”
He didn’t say anything for a second, but then… “They told me you’d say that. I can’t. It’s not a fairy invasion. You’re all demon possessed. You may not believe it, but I’ve been shown the evidence. I need you to go with us, and we’ll bring to someone who can cure you.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 31
Chunks of the rock wall flew in all directions, both into and out of the shop. Worse, a huge slab of rock from just above where Amy and Izzy broke through waited until after the initial crash to fall.
It came to rest inside the hall, its lower end wedged against the remains of the shop’s rear entrance.
Noting that the chunk of rock was not only between us and Daniel, Cassie, and Camille, but also between us and the exit we’d planned to use, it was time to re-think that part of the plan. I wondered if we should follow Izzy and Amy out of the shop they’d wrecked, but that question was answered quickly in the negative. Continue reading Faerieland: Part 30
Samita furrowed her brow as she thought. “There are spells best done with a multitude of bodies for sacrifice, or simply to add to the metaphysical weight of the ritual.”
“The more people, the more power?” Vaughn sat on Haley’s dresser. Haley’s eyes flicked in his direction, but she didn’t say anything.
Samita’s mouth tightened, “Not… exactly, but that can be true.”
Amy had taken off her helmet when the door shut. She swung it in her left hand, “I don’t see any sign that Adam’s been trained as a wizard. I looked into his room a little, and we both know everyone in the magic program. He’s not in it.” Continue reading Faerieland: Part 29