Deviant Dark Dryads: A Fantasy Adventure (False Icons Book 4), page 22
“Wait. What do you mean by that?”
“The biggest part of me is still down there, which means I can feel what’s happening. The Underworld is in danger.”
“I know.”
“Of course, you would. You’re a hero, after all. But what you might not know is that if the nether of the Underworld gets corrupted then so do we, and once that happens...” She trailed off, letting that sink in. “We’ll talk more later. For now, I need to rest up a bit and you need to talk to Gare-bear. Just promise this old sack of sap that you’ll try to listen to him.”
Now it was my turn to nod. She was right, I’d come here to listen, not lose my cool. Crazy as things were, there was way too much going on for me to be egged on by a pair of deadbeat supernatural moms.
Still, there was one thing I needed to ask. “Can you at least tell me if I’m married?”
Dio snorted so hard she had to catch her breath again. I let out a sigh of relief as she then shook her head. “You know all those soap opera stories, like when the priest asks ‘hey, do any of y’all object to this union’ and then someone bursts in and screams ‘I object,’ like a crazy person?”
I nodded again.
“Well, I wasn’t there, but apparently all that happened for real, along with flaming arrows, a bunch of hoplites in drag, Cerberus, the Big Guy, and a few cousins that I haven’t seen since the great flood. Oh, yeah, and there was supposedly a fondue fountain the size of a cyclops.”
“And?”
She shrugged. “And that’s all I know, Sugah, honest. Nobody got a chance to say their ‘I do’s’ and then the doors back to this world reopened right after. It ain’t much, but hopefully, it’s enough.”
“I suppose.”
“Good, then shoo for now. This fly trap needs herself a sit-down.”
I took the hint and made my way to the door. At least now I knew I hadn’t gotten married down in the Underworld. That also explained why Wyatt was in a dress when we got back to this world. He must’ve been the one objecting. And if so...
I felt a stab of pain deep inside at the implication. He’d stepped in and stopped my wedding, gone through literal hell to keep me from making a mistake... and yet he was still lying alone in some hospital bed, while I was off doing everything under creation save be with him.
Well, no more. Once I was finished talking to Gary, that was it. I’d make it a point to be there for him. If Holly didn’t like it, well, I had not one, but two god-forged weapons to choose from now. She could have a taste of them both if she decided to stick her nose where it didn’t belong.
But first...
I stepped from the greenhouse and into the sunlight, only to instantly feel like utter crap. It must’ve been the nether. I’d been in the greenhouse of doom for too long, and my body had absorbed too much. Fortunately, I was beginning to get the hang of how things worked with my body since my unasked-for heart transplant.
I just needed to channel my full tank of nether into a full tank of... something else. Go figure, but spite was a good motivator it seemed. I simply focused on Holly’s stupid, gloating face for a minute longer and voila! The blue sparkles of my hair melted and became fiery red flames.
Within the space of an instant, I not only felt better but a heck of a lot stronger too. Now to hope my flame-on wasn’t foreshadowing things to come as I turned to face Gary in the very same meadow where I’d once bisected his mother.
You can do this, Jess.
“I saw the checks,” I repeated. “All made out to him, all signed by you.”
“Your dad freelances for Grove Industries, nothing more,” he replied, his voice guarded as he stood there. Despite being taller, having filled out, and now being half-tree, I could still imagine the skinny high school kid he’d once been.
“Okay, and that means what exactly?” I stepped forward a little but stopped as the sickeningly sweet aroma surrounding him made me feel lightheaded.
“It means I felt sorry for him, okay.” He met my gaze, the effect disconcerting with his mismatched eyes and the thorns poking out of his forehead. They’d grown bigger and decidedly more crownlike since the last time I’d seen him without his glamour up. “What the fuck was I supposed to do? He’d gone through hell. He lost you just like the rest of us, so I did the best I could without making him feel like it was charity.”
I smelled something else in the air, the scent of vanilla. Was that regret or just some new body wash? Maybe I should’ve pushed my luck and seen if I could shift into a form more suited to the taste of emotions.
No! I told myself. Keep it simple and just listen. I didn’t need to rely on my powers for every damned thing. “So, you really didn’t know about the pub?” I asked, trying to keep my voice measured and calm.
“Hell no!” He took a step back and let his face soften a little. “Yes, I wanted them gone, but not like that. Even if you don’t believe anything else, do you honestly think I want to deal with covering up a bomb blast in the middle of Boston? I’m trying to de-escalate tensions around here, not draw more eyeballs toward...”
“If that’s true, then why did Donna and Sayuri tell me you’re planning on going to war with the Magi?”
“That’s... different. The two are completely unrelated.”
My hair flared up and it took me a moment to recenter myself.
“Your dad has his issues,” Gary continued, sticking to the topic at hand as he started to pace, “but he’s a good man. I knew he hated the kushtaka, blamed them for your death, but I honestly didn’t think he’d do anything that drastic.”
“They had nothing to do with it! Heck, I’m surprised you didn’t try to get him aboard the Wyatt blame train.”
He gritted his teeth at the mention of Wyatt but quickly covered it up. “To be fair, I wouldn’t mention him around your father either. Let’s just say there was plenty of blame to go around.”
Guess the holidays were going to be extra complicated, especially with little James around, but that was an argument for another day. “Why would my dad even think the kushtaka were involved?”
Gary shook his head. “He didn’t say, and I never pushed him. But there’s no doubt he hates them with a passion, and I think we can both guess why.”
“Even if he does, I’m still half-kushtaka!”
“Not to him you aren’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Did you know he had you tested every year right up until you started school?”
“Tested?”
“Yeah. He told me all about it. He wanted to make sure there was none of their... influence inside you. And what do you know, good old Wyatt had the means and the contacts to make that happen.” He inclined his head. “Doesn’t that like, squick you out at all – knowing he and your dad were buds long before you two...?”
“Do not change the subject,” I growled, surprising myself with the intensity of the anger that bubbled up.
“Sorry,” he said, holding up his hands. “Anyway, it was all a waste of time, and do you know why? It’s because of the way demihumans are – this weird trait all of us have. We’re effectively human... until we’re not. We can live our lives as normal as can be, but if you expose us to enough weird shit then this is what you get.”
His silvery-white eye began to glow, while the thorns on his temples grew even longer. As if in response to this, the doors to all the greenhouses opened, and multiple, green-cloaked dryads stepped forth and began to gather around, their faces obscured beneath their hoods.
There came a sound from behind me and I turned to find even Dio wasn’t immune from this effect. So much for resting. She’d come to the doorway and was now peering out at us. Although in all fairness, maybe she just wanted to make sure we weren’t busy punching the crap out of each other.
“Your dad never found out by the way,” Gary continued. “I mean what actually happened to you. What my aunt... what I did to you. He thinks you died as a human who just got sucked into all the crazy stuff going on five years ago.”
“But that’s not the truth,” I snapped.
“It’s what your dad wanted to believe so I let him believe it. It was better than telling him you wanted to play superhero so badly that you ran off alone to fight the vampire queen and got killed. And it was a hell of a lot better than telling him about Dís-One and how your kushtaka side was finally starting to blossom.”
I should’ve been angry, but instead felt my whole being deflate. Was that what my dad feared above all else? Was he afraid I was going to become a monster like my mother? Was that it? Had he simply shifted that loathing, that blame, to the creatures who were just like my mom? And like me.
“Blossoming? Hah! That’s a good one coming from a twig.”
What the hell?
One of the green cloaks whipped back her hood to reveal a freckle-faced redhead with a punchable smirk. Holly! What was she doing here?
From the greenhouse behind me, there came a gasp. “Ilex, is that you?” Dio asked. “I thought you were dead.”
Ilex? Before I could respond to either that or Holly’s sudden presence, another of the green-cloaked dryads – this one standing opposite my mother’s position – likewise removed her hood, revealing an all too familiar wooden mask.
But how?
“She might not be dead yet, dear sweet Dionaea,” Ash said smugly, flicking her fingers and summoning her spear from thin air, “but the day is still young.”
Chapter Thirty-Three: World War Witch
“You!”
Gary’s inhuman eye flashed brightly and the ground beneath our feet began to rumble. A moment later, massive snow-white vines erupted from the earth and coiled around Ash’s body. They lifted her from the ground, compressing tightly, and pinning her arms to her sides.
“Impressive, for a sapling.” She struggled against the vines, but they held her fast – much to her surprise judging by the confused way she cocked her head.
“I’m not that skinny little kid you treated like crap, Mother,” Gary spat, his focus entirely on her – ignoring Holly who stood on the other side of the clearing.
“I can see that,” Ash replied. “Still, strong or not, you’re only a little boy pretending to lead the Grove.”
“Wrong. I am the Grove!”
The ground shook even more violently, and then it was as if all the trees and foliage in sight leaned in toward us, blocking out the sun above and leaving us steeped in shadow.
“Ooh, a little mood lighting,” my mother purred from where she stood.
I turned to face her, but Dio was already on the move – the sun no longer a concern.
She stepped over to Holly, throwing Gary one quick concerned glance before taking my mother’s arm in her own. “Come on, Ilex sugah, this isn’t our fight. Let’s take a walk while the family reunion is going on. You can bring me up to speed on where you’ve been all this time.”
I watched as she led Holly away, deeper into the Bates estate. “Wait! That’s not who you...” My voice trailed off to silence as the shadows behind Holly filled with malevolent red eyes – all of them staring my way. It was only for a second, no more, not even enough for Dio to have noticed, but the warning was obvious.
“Tsk-tsk,” her voice whispered in my ear, as if she were standing right next to me. “No spoilers.”
She continued to walk with Dio as I stood there debating what to do. I could follow them, or I could stand my ground here. Despite him currently having the upper hand, I wasn’t convinced Ash wasn’t playing possum with Gary. If I left now and she decided playtime was over...
Screw it! Dio can take care of herself.
In rough shape or not, she was still a dark dryad, one with roots in two worlds. Even if Holly tried something, she’d be okay – hopefully.
Ash, on the other hand...
If Gary and I teamed up on her, we could end this here and now. If so, then maybe I could convince him to join me against Holly. With neither of them around to influence our lives, we might even be able to talk like two normal people again.
This was the best outcome I could hope for. The real question was whether I had a chance in Hades of making it happen.
♦ ♦ ♦
Back at the main event, the other robed acolytes quickly fled, no doubt realizing this battle punched way above their weight class – leaving me, Gary, and Ash alone outside the circle of greenhouses.
“You shouldn’t have come back,” Gary growled.
“Stupid boy. I never left.” Ash took a deep breath, then the vines holding her withered and fell apart – as if they’d aged centuries in the span of a second.
“How...?”
“I lived here for sixteen excruciatingly long years, child. Did you honestly think I spent all that time drowning my sorrows in expensive martinis? No, I made it a point to leave bits and pieces of myself behind in every tree and shrub on this property – tiny seeds, meant to remain dormant until such time as I, their rightful queen, called upon them, and in case you forgot, a queen outranks a prince.”
That wasn’t good. Phil had said this place had secrets that would tilt the odds in my and Gary’s favor. However, if Ash had been as thorough as she claimed, then I couldn’t imagine it would make much of a difference.
“I guess we’ll see about that,” Gary told her.
“We’ll both see about that,” I said, stepping in. “Pretty sure a prince and hero combo outranks a queen bitch.”
Whatever misgivings remained about Gary’s relationship with my father, there was no conceivable reality where I’d sit on the sidelines while he faced off against his mother alone.
“Stay out of this, Jess,” he replied rather unsurprisingly. “This is my fight.”
Growing up, my aunts had always warned me about the fragility of the male ego. Guess they weren’t kidding. “It’s our fight. She’s manipulated both of us.”
I’d been certain the thought of a team-up between us would unnerve Ash, especially considering his new prince of power form. To my surprise, though, she began to chuckle instead. Then she removed her mask and tossed it to the side, revealing a big smile on her scarred face.
“Oh, please do. Strike me down with her help. Prove to the others that you’re a false prince to go along with this False Icon.”
“What are you babbling about?” he asked.
“Oh, this.” She reached into a fold of her armor and produced a small rectangle of plastic, a remote of some sort. She then pressed a button on it before crushing it in her palm and tossing it away like trash. “In case you’re wondering, all the estate’s security feeds are now being piped directly to Grove Industry’s mainframe. Like I said, I didn’t spend all those years in this wretched place simply drowning my sorrows.”
“So what?” he replied. “Who do you think controls that mainframe?”
“Why your precious Sayuri of course, who even now is reasserting her loyalty to her true queen by rerouting that feed to the phones and tablets of every dryad and Aigeiroi currently awake.”
“Donna won’t...”
“Do anything to stop her,” Ash interrupted. “Yeah, it would seem she’s been having second thoughts as to your leadership as of late.”
“What?!”
“So again, I say feel free to attack me with your false hero. Prove to the Grove once and for all that you’re nothing more than a spoiled child playing at being a prince.”
♦ ♦ ♦
I followed Gary’s eyes as he scanned the surrounding area, spotting multiple security cameras that all seemed trained on this spot. Ash might’ve been bluffing, but somehow, I didn’t think that was the case.
No. She’d not only come prepared but had waited for me and Holly to be there as well. No way was her appearance a coincidence. She was no doubt hoping to goad her son into fighting me lest he look weak in front of the others, like this was some sort of half-assed Secret Wars.
Gary, however, didn’t seem quite ready to believe her yet. Whereas I’d been on the run nonstop for days, he’d been holed up here in his love nest, blissfully unaware of what had been happening outside, by his own admittance. “Donna wouldn’t turn on me, not for you.”
“You think so? Poor Donna Nopales, so desperate for Aigeiros’s remains to be returned after so long, but not so stupid that she’d failed to realize the cataclysm you’re marching them all toward.” She turned toward me. “That’s why she allowed you to see as much as you did, because I told her to.”
It served as a harsh reminder as to what they’d been doing when I’d stormed Grove Industries... or been allowed to storm it. One of the other reasons I’d come here to confront Gary. “The Magi.”
“Yes. At least the how and the why of it.” She smiled. “Donna might be hot-headed, temperamental, and more suited to a sleazy dive bar than a seat in the executive lounge, but even she realized that our dear Gare-bear here was marching his people inexorably toward a fight – an unwinnable one I might add unless a seasoned warrior such as myself were to step in and lead the effort.”
“You’ll never lead us again,” Gary barked. “I...”
“I believe we’ve already covered this, child. You may not be willing to believe it, but that doesn’t change the fact that far more of the Grove are still loyal to me than you might think.”
“Then he’ll do things differently,” I said, turning toward him. “In a way that won’t lead to a war with the Magi. Right? Tell her. We can find Aigeiros some other way. One that doesn’t...”
Gary met my eyes for a moment, before turning away. “You... don’t understand, Jess. It’s... complicated.”
“Listen. I know she means a lot to you all. But I’m sure we can figure out some way to track her down that doesn’t involve...”
