Chapter 20
The trip through the line with Al had been silent. He was on edge but I couldn't tell why. He wasn't scared of the Druchii but there was something bothering him.
"Spill it. I know there's something you aren't telling me. I'm going to risk my life to end this mess so you better give me my dying wish." I said looking Al up and down as we stood in what looked like the cemetery of my church but in the ever after.
Al made a quick decision. "Fine. There is a good chance you won't make it out alive. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen."
I had a feeling that it was something along those lines but I felt a lot better knowing Al had my back. How did I get here? I use to fight demons. Now I fight with demons. "How about we get this over with?"
Al moved closer to me and we were jumping another line. This one felt different. Old. It almost had a smell like nature, leaves and sunset. It reminded me of Trent. I had definitely never been near this line before. We dropped down behind a stone wall that was surrounding what looked like trees. Trees in the ever after?
"Where are we?" I whispered to Al my curiosity getting the better of me.
"The Druchii have held this land for thousands of years. Demons have never been able to get past these walls. Lets hope you're the first." Al whispered back.
"Swell." I sighed.
"Have more confidence in yourself Rachel. You're a demoness. You can do anything. The rules don't apply to you. You were born to make the rules, just as Newt does." Al explained.
"Really?" I was interested now.
"Are you always dumb as a rock? How have you lived this long?" Al threw his hands in the air. "You can walk through this wall. Just make a rule that you can and it will happen."
"Fine." I snapped at him. "I say that any demon that wants to walk through this wall and into the Druchii stronghold can."
Al pushed his hand against the wall, nothing changed. He sighed. "Tap a line and make the rule in the collective."
"Oh!" I felt stupid now. I hadn't even thought of doing that. I closed my eyes and did as Al told me. Once I had blocked out all the other voices I was hearing I concentrated on having mine heard. I knew I was only talking in my head but that all demons would be able to hear me. I felt Al's presence in my head also, when had he done that?
'All demons that want to walk through the wall to the Druchii stronghold can now do so.' I said it and there was complete silence before I felt something ping back into me.
"It's done." Al said. He lifted his hand and pressed it against the wall only it fell right through.
"Holy shit!" I exclaimed. "I did that!"
"Now hurry up and get in there and say your curse." Al pushed me forward shoving me through the wall.
I fell to my knees on the other side. I lifted my head to see I was in a forest. It was beautiful. There was a stream running through the center and it's noise was calming. There were trees as far as I could see. Wild flowers were everywhere and it smelled like summer. I gasped as Al grabbed me and yanked me to my feet.
"Is this what the ever after should look like?" I asked still in awe.
"It did at one time." Al sounded sad.
"Where are they?" I asked him, still looking around but not seeing anyone.
"They're here. I feel them. That tingle going up your arms, that's them." Al said.
"I don't feel it." I looked down at my arms as if they had the answers.
"You spend too much time with elves." Al snapped.
I had horribly dirty thoughts of Trent pop into my head and Al turned to look at me feeling it. "You and the elf?"
"Shut up." I said and concentrated on hearing or feeling something. I finally heard it. Over the sound of the stream I could hear voices. Lots of voices.
"Now they know we're here." Al said taking in the look on my face knowing I had found them. "Do your spell before they come."
I tapped the line ready to do the spell but I felt dizzy. Something wasn't right about the line. It was too heady, I felt drunk. "Al I think-." I couldn't even finish my sentence and I fell to the ground.
"Shit." Al said reaching down to help me back up. "It's wild magic. The line is made of it and we're at it's creation point. It's stronger here. You've been able to work with your elf with wild magic, yes?"
"Yes." I slurred.
"Then channel, spindle, damn send it my way. Push it back out. Do whatever you do with him to make your sexcapades work. Then remind me to buy you a cake love." Al grinned.
"Suck my toes.." I started and couldn't finish, the line felt too good.
"I do believe you just made a pass at me." Al was getting way too much enjoyment out of this. I felt him start to pull some of the energy from me and I was able to stand again.
"Thanks Al." I was able to say a full sentence now.
"It feels quite nice love. Do keep sending it my way." Al smiled showing his blocky teeth.
I could feel the path the energy was taking to loop into Al before spilling back into the line and I pushed a little more into him.
"Mmmm, do it again." Al was still holding my shoulder with a look of complete bliss on his face.
"I'd rather not." I squeaked hoping this didn't turn into Al making a pass at me.
Al cracked one eye open. "This is nothing. I had Ceri for a thousand years. Now do your curse."
"Good point." I pushed some more his way and I finally slowed the flow when I felt him stiffen. That was his limit. Thank god it was not anywhere close to my capacity.
I closed my eyes and opened my mouth to say the curse when I heard another voice. A familiar one. One even Al recognized and opened both of his eyes.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Al asked looking at me with pure anger.
-x-x-x-
"I don't know! I just left him in my kitchen. You tell me?" I asked Al.
"That's why you don't collect nasty little men!" Al bellowed.
Well if they didn't know we were here before, they sure did now. Within seconds we were surrounded by figures that were gray and shriveled. They looked like really old people with no clothes. They pegged about a seven point five on my weird creep o'meter.
"Bloody hell." Al said loudly waving his hand and dropping four of the figures.
"Al stop! I have to know where Trent is." I grabbed his hand before he could drop the other two.
"Answer the demoness now or you will be just like them." Al threatened.
"The center of all." One of the figures answered and then dropped to the ground to match the rest.
"That does not sound good." I looked at Al.
Al had a look of wonder on his face. "It's where the ever after was created. We've never been able to fix the ever after because the Druchii have been hiding it this whole time. I think you will need your elf to finish this."
"Maybe I can fix more than one thing today." I said as I walked further into the forest wondering what I would need Trent for.
Al followed and I hoped it wouldn't be long before other demons had heard my rule and would come. I was worried at how Trent ended up here. He had promised me he wouldn't follow.
-x-x-x-
Al and I walked for a long time. I lost track of time and just kept moving through the forest. We didn't encounter anyone else but I could feel their presence all around us. It would have been a comforting feeling if I didn't know it was the Druchii probably waiting to make a move to take us out. Al was whistling the same song over and over again and I found myself humming along. Nothing about this day was going to be normal. Al abruptly cut off his tune and we stopped in front of the biggest tree I had ever seen. I expected to see it surrounded by Druchii but there was no one. The part that really bothered me is we had both heard Trent yet he was no where to be seen. Can the Druchii make themselves sound like someone else?
Al turned to me. "I can't touch the tree. It was where the ever after sprouted from and only someone that was not here when it was created can touch it."
"Why? That doesn't make sense. You helped make it. Why can't you touch it?" I asked staring at the tree not understanding how this was going to solve our problems.
"It is just the way it is." Al sounded sad as he spoke. "There is more to the war than you know Rachel. We have kept that a secret all these long years."
I tried not to look at Al. I didn't want to see this vulnerable side to him. I just wanted to end this mess with the Druchii. I moved forward to the tree and I felt it's power press against me. "There's a line that runs through it?"
Al nodded but didn't explain. "Do the curse Rachel. End what has gone on for too long with the Druchii."
It wasn't like Al to be so calm about things. He seemed to be tired of the struggle over all the years. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do but I felt like I was being pulled by the tree. It was like a voice inside was calling me forward. I wondered if Al could hear it too? I went to set my hand on the trunk of the tree when I fell through it. I stumbled and I was standing inside of the tree. It reminded me of Jenks' stump short of the rooms and furniture.
"Al?" I called out. He didn't respond and I knew he couldn't hear me. I wasn't sure what to do. I was inside of the tree, but the line wasn't running through it. The tree was the line. It pulsed in all directions but it felt like I was standing in the calm of a storm. I could tap the line but I didn't feel like I needed to. It was everywhere. I felt like I was part of it. It wasn't the same as standing directly in a line but this was more of I had merged with the line and become part of it.
I could see every line that had ever existed. I could even see the old lines through the desert that we had driven past on the way to California. I could see the line that I had made. It was broken and leaking and all the energy was pulsing the wrong way. I reached my mind out to fix it. I pulled the energy back into myself but it didn't feel overwhelming. Somehow being in the tree was filtering all the raw power of the lines. I mended all the holes and gaps and pushed the energy back into the line I had created. It lit up like the forth of July and then pulsed the reddest I had ever seen a line. It looked like the lines that had been created with wild magic.
It gradually went dimmer the longer I stared at it but I also realized it was no longer leaking. Had I really fixed the line? I wouldn't know for sure until I talked to Al or Newt but I had a feeling that I was done with that problem. Now onto the bigger one. I reached out to the old lines that ran through the desert. I could feel the hum of old power waiting to be awoken. I pushed as much energy as I possibly could through them and my breath whooshed out of me as they hummed back to life. They were glowing more brightly than I had ever seen any line glow. It was the hum of raw wild magic. I felt the earth shake and heard crumbling around me but I couldn't stop now. I just hoped Al would be ok.
I was ready to do the curse that would stop the Druchii. I pushed my thoughts out trying to sense where the Druchii were and strangely enough I could pick them out through this part of the ever after. I could tell where each one of them were and they were all right here trying to get into this tree.
"Oh my God Al!" I shrieked. I didn't know if he had gotten away but I've come too far to stop now. If I've learned anything by watching all the sacrifices my loved ones had made it wasn't to give up when you were about to win. I was out of time and I needed to do the curse.
"Finire regulam, eorum accipiemus veneficus, facere hoc totum iterum!" I yelled. I felt dizzy and light headed as the energy surrounding me seemed to pass through me. It wasn't the same as the power of lines but it was wild magic singing through the air to me. It called at me to follow it but I was afraid. Al didn't say this would happen. I didn't know what to do and I knew I couldn't walk out and ask him. I resisted the urge and it seemed to subside. Then the smut hit me. I fell to the ground screaming feeling all of the raw lines from the tree run through me. I had never felt such pain, all I could do was scream.
"I take this!" I finally got out but it did no good. This wasn't the kind of curse I could just accept smut for and that would be the end of it. I was altering the ever-after forever and I wasn't going to make it out of this tree. My vision blurred and everything went black as I screamed hoping the pain would stop.
-x-x-x-
I cracked one eye open to see Trent sitting in front of me. I tried to move and I couldn't. I screamed in agony as I realized I could still feel all the lines running through me. I was lying on the ground inside of the tree. I didn't know how Trent had gotten there but he was trying to tell me something only I couldn't stop screaming to hear him.
He shook me trying to get me to snap out of it. It hurt too much. I started to close my eyes hoping to pass out but he shook me again not letting me. I gritted my teeth and bit my tongue to keep from screaming.
"Listen to me Rachel." Trent started seeing that I was making an effort to listen to what he had to say. "Al said you have to seal the curse to make it final. You have to seal it."
"Don't." I screamed again. I was trying to tell him I didn't know how. "Know."
He reached out and took my hand and I felt some of the lines go into him. He didn't yell but dropped to the ground next to me as his body shook from the force of the lines. It was enough to take the edge off of me that I could hear Al in my head.
'It's about damn time Rachel!' Al bellowed. 'Seal it and the pain will stop.'
"I don't know how." I said outloud but I know he could hear it in my thoughts.
'Use your elf. That's why they had him. His blood helped create it and you can't seal the curse without him.' Al explained.
"Trent, I need a knife. Do you have a knife?" I asked knowing he could hear me but not expecting his to respond. I know he was in a lot of pain giving me the ability to think. His right arm twitched and that was enough for me. I dug through his pockets on the right side of him not finding a knife but finding a pen. This was going to hurt a whole lot more but it would have to be done. I didn't know if this would seal it but I knew it had something to do with our blood. I pulled the pen out of his pocket and stabbed my left hand until it bled. I took Trent's hand and did the same.
I gripped our hands together until our blood had mixed then pressed our palms to the ground. "Ista maledictio signatus est!"
The pain of the lines disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. I could feel it all around us but it no longer hurt. I felt like I was part of the lines again. Trent was sitting up and pressed his palm to his jeans to stop the bleeding. "Are you okay?" He asked me.
"It's done. I fixed the ever-after." I said feeling tears roll down my face. It hadn't been my intention to do that when I came here to perform the curse but I felt like it was my only chance. I had brought the lines back to life in the desert and I was hoping to see some major changes in the ever-after when I walked out of this tree.
I could feel Al in my thoughts again so I knew he had to be right outside of the tree. 'It worked Rachel. You did it.' He said.
Trent reached out and hugged me not caring that I was covered in dirt and our blood. "Rachel, I love you. Don't ever scare me like that again."
I cried harder. I never thought I would hear those words from Trent. Drunken confessions mean nothing but this, this meant something. He hugged me tighter as I cried not really expecting me to say anything.
"I love you too." I sniffled in between sobs. He tilted my face to his and pressed his lips softly against mine. It was the most tender kiss he had ever given me and it was exactly what I needed to calm down.
"Let's get out of here." He said and picked me up. I let him cradle me and I dropped my head against his chest. I had had enough for one day and I closed my eyes and breathed in the delicious scent that was Trent.
-x-x-x-
I opened my eyes and I was in a room I had never been in before. The bed was quite comfortable but it looked like the walls were made out of dirt? I sat up but it was too dark to tell. I thought I smelled burnt amber but I also smelled cinnamon and leaves. Trent. I looked on the side of me and he was asleep in the bed also. I was wearing a nightgown I had never seen before and someone had bandaged my palm. It was still pretty sore from being stabbed with a pen repeatedly but it was better than being dead.
I shook Trent trying to wake him. "What?" He mumbled not really fully waking.
"Trent, where are we? Wake up!" I pushed him harder and his eyes snapped open as he came to a full sitting position.
"Rachel? What's wrong?" He asked reaching out for my hand.
"Where are we?" I asked him again.
"We're in the ever-after." He said simply and laid back down.
"What?" I shrieked jumping out of the bed. I was in full panic mode. Why were we still in the ever-after? Had I done something wrong with the curse? Did I change something that made it so we can't go home? What had I done?
Trent was out of bed a second later and very distracting since he was only wearing a pair of silk boxers. "Rachel, calm down it's ok. This is your room. Al had it added on to his for you. We are in Al's house I guess you could say. We aren't stuck here. You were out of it and needed to sleep and Al said you have your own room so we just came here."
"Ok." I took a deep breath. Al gave me my own room. That was part of a deal before he just followed through with it. "Why didn't you just take me home?"
"I thought you'd want to see when you woke up." Trent said with a smile on his face.
"See what?" I asked.
Al popped in probably hearing our voices and knowing I was up. I glared at him seeing him eye me up and down knowing where the nightgown had come from. He grinned.
"Get dressed love. People to see." Al was far too cheerful. He snapped his fingers and I was in my working leathers, a halter, and some nice black boots. Trent also was suddenly in a suit to match the color of my shirt which of course was purple, Al's favorite.
The next thing I knew we were jumping a line to the surface? Why on earth would we go up there? Only when I finally took it in I could see why. Every demon I had ever met was on the surface. It wasn't the same ever-after. It was covered in trees, grass, flowers, water flowed, and the buildings were no longer crumbling. The best part was there was sun. There was sun in the ever-after.
As soon as the other demons noticed me they flooded me with handshakes, hugs, and even some kisses. I had done this. I had truly fixed the ever-after. I began to cry again seeing it restored to it's original state. My happiness was short lived seeing Newt approach us.
Trent moved to the side of me taking my hand in his. Al was beaming so proud of his student he was telling everyone, not paying attention to Newt. She stopped in front of us and Al's smile faded.
"I told you to kill them all." Newt said calmly.
"I found a better way." I responded.
Newt tilted her head and seemed to ponder my answer. "You have fixed the lines. All of them."
"She fixed them all?" Al asked with surprise.
"Yes, even the ones in Arizona. She did it. She saved us." Newt said but she didn't seem too happy about it.
"And what of the Druchii? I took their magic. They can not defend themselves against you." I said to Newt.
"They have been dealt with." Newt smiled.
I didn't like her answer but there wasn't much else I could say. I didn't do what she had told me to. I had found another way. It was the only way I could live with myself. I nodded to acknowledge I heard her.
"You did well Rachel. Take you elf and go home. We'll see you on your weekly visit." Newt said. "I have some business to discuss with Gally."
Al reached out and touched both Trent and I and sent us back to the church. We dropped in the kitchen. It was quite crowded. Ivy, Quen, Ceri, David, Jenks, Bis, Belle, Nick, Jax, and almost all of the pixies were waiting for our arrival. Everyone burst into noise at once and I couldn't take it. I just started to cry happy that we had made it through. Trent wrapped me in his arms and I felt a little more calm but I didn't want him to let go. I just wanted to be alone with him.
"Please, get me out of here." I whispered in his ear.
He ushered me out of the kitchen and told everyone I just needed a moment. I was fine and just needed some time. We made our way to my bedroom and he grabbed my hands.
"Lets get out of here." He smiled. "Adferte ad me ire per."
I didn't have time to ask where we were going as I felt the wild magic sweep us into the line. We popped out in a forest that looked vaguely familiar to me.
"Where are we?" I questioned.
"Where it all began." Trent answered quickly taking my hand and walking me through the trees. We came into a clearing and I could see a lake and a dock and the sun was still high in the sky.
"Oh my God! Trent we're at camp?" I smiled at him.
We kept walking down to the dock. We both removed our shoes and rolled up our pant legs sitting on the end of the dock, toes dipping into the water. I snuggled up against him but I didn't feel cold this time. He wrapped his arm around me as he had so many years ago.
"This was really sweet Trent. I can't believe you brought me back here." I said meeting his beautiful green eyes.
"I really want us to give this a chance Rachel." He reached out and ran his finger along my jaw.
"Me too." I said and really meaning it. I had never been great with the whole relationship thing but Trent truly knew me. He was my best shot at making one of them work.
We sat there for hours. We talked about our past, sharing things that neither one of us knew about the other. We talked about what we wanted for the future and where we wanted this to go. We even spoke of marriage as a possibility. We sat until the sun set and a chill settled around us. I felt Trent tap the line and warm me.
"You never did teach me how to do that." I laughed.
"I promise. I could show you so much." He smiled.
"Cool." I smiled back.