Chapter Thirty-Four

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“You know, this guy really is fantastic at making me hate him without even having to meet him first,” I commented to no one in particular. “Like, top tier punchability. Five of five stars, would stab in the kidney again.”

“I did tell you it was a mansion,” Lily reminded me.

“Yeah, but that can include a lot of things,” I pointed out. “Some people, for example, do mansions that are tasteful and understated. Or at least aesthetically tolerable.”

Cormac, surprising absolutely nobody, had done none of the above, and wasn’t making even the most cursory gesture towards subtlety. That mansion sprawled, and I was pretty sure there was actual statuary out front. He had enough lights on that it was easy to tell even at a distance that some of the trim was actually, literally gilded. It was the kind of mansion that even other rich people look at and wonder whether this degree of posturing was necessary.

Hell, maybe especially other rich people. Wealth, I thought, had some things in common with other forms of power. People who had enough of it to make them a force to be reckoned with didn’t need to flaunt it anymore. You still lived well, sure, but this kind of ostentatious display felt more like someone who very much wanted to convince people and wasn’t sure the reality would do so. Someone who was rich enough they could do this, but also confident enough that they didn’t need to, might be particularly unimpressed.

It would stand out anywhere. Slapping it down at the edge of a half-abandoned industrial park, just far enough into the trees to not actually hide it from anyone who was really looking, just made it feel even more gauche.

It also felt oddly creepy to me, the more I looked at it. This wasn’t a place where things like that belonged. And after dark, Fairywood felt pretty fucking spooky; there were no streetlights, no people. The snow was almost completely pristine, clearly showing just how little traffic this area got. We were far enough away that I had to use binoculars to see the place, and yet somehow the degree to which it felt wrong here was still…eerie.

“Oh, hey,” Saori said, jolting me out of that line of thought. “They’re here.”

“Finally,” I grumbled, putting the binoculars away and turning to watch the maenads approach. Considering that they’d been the ones in a rush and I was the one who had to make a few stops on the way, it felt kinda ridiculous that we’d gotten here almost twenty minutes before the maenads.

Turning, I saw them coming. Anyone would have seen them coming. Even if this place got traffic, a beat-up old van without any windows attracted notice at the best of times. The fact that whoever was driving obviously had no idea what they were doing just made it more pronounced.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” I sighed. “This situation started out ridiculous, and it’s somehow still managed to become more so at every turn. Fuck’s sake.”

“I think they might actually be worse at this than you are,” Saori agreed, watching the erratic movements of the van. She considered for a few moments, then added, “Okay, maybe not that bad. They haven’t actually crashed yet. But definitely worse than Capi.”

“Thanks for that vote of confidence. Though I feel I should point out that at least I know I can’t drive.” I stood up and stretched my back. Sitting in the snow for twenty minutes didn’t pose any kind of actual risk to me, but it hadn’t helped my mood.

Capinera herself drifted towards us from where she’d been keeping watch on the other side of the lot we were using as a rendezvous point. Her movements were interesting to me; she was as graceful as the first time I’d gone into a fight with her, but she was more animated, quicker. She didn’t feel as sad to me as she often did, an impression that was reinforced once she was close enough for me to see her expression.

Maybe she’d taken my words to heart when I commented on whether it was wrong to enjoy violence. If so, I wasn’t sure whether I should be proud or apologize.

Mostly just a giddy lunatic who gets off on the adrenaline rush, as Gwydion had put it. Mostly. I had a feeling those words were going to haunt me for a long time.

Eventually, they parked the van. They hit the post of a defunct streetlight in the process, in a completely empty lot.

“Okay,” Saori acknowledged. “They might be worse at driving than you. Which is not something I ever expected to say, but here we are, I guess.”

I took a deep breath, and let it out. “I really want to bite someone right now,” I muttered, too quietly to hear.

Lily cleared her throat. “Do you want some gum?”

I paused and turned towards her. “Um. What?”

“Gum,” she repeated. “It’s not as good, but it’s better than nothing.” Apparently I looked as nonplussed as I felt, because the vampire smiled. “I know this may surprise you,” she said. “But you aren’t the only one who sometimes wants to bite people.”

“Right,” I sighed. “Dacnomaniacs all around tonight, I guess. You know, screw it, why not.”

And thus I ended up chewing on a piece of gum while walking up to Ekaterina. It was the classic unnatural bubblegum flavor with way too much artificial sweetener, and honestly, it felt appropriate. That added bit of absurdity really completed the moment.

“Kyoko,” Ekaterina said, while a few other people were piling out of the van and getting themselves together. She at least seemed to be taking this more seriously than when she ambushed me. She even had armor, and between her, Saori, and Capinera, I was feeling pretty underdressed. Lily wasn’t wearing armor, not even armor as basic as my biker’s leathers. But she was also already dead, which probably changed some priorities.

“Ekaterina. Glad you could make it.” I tried to keep my voice reasonably polite. I was not confident that I succeeded, but I tried.

“This the place?”

“Yup. Massive, idiotic mansion a few lots over, you can’t miss it. Just didn’t want to be visible from their door. It’s partway up the hill over there.” Said hill was a big one, enough so that the mansion could perch partway up and have a substantial amount of hill both above and below that patch of level ground. The cul-de-sac parking lot had a road connecting down to the old, abandoned highway, a section of it which was actually usable. Barely. Other than that, there was no street access

“Makes sense. It’s his style. You’re all going in?”

I glanced at Lily, who shrugged. I looked back at Ekaterina. “Yeah, think so. Probably one other.” I hadn’t seen Shadow since we got here; it had drifted off into the woods, saying it wanted to scout the area before the assault started. But I was guessing it would turn up again.

Ekaterina nodded. “Five, then. And six of us. Hm.”

I paused and stared at her. “You’re kidding. Six? There are, like, twenty of you.”

It was actually Saori, of all people, who responded to that. “Yes,” the kitsune said in a tone of exaggerated patience. “And if Cormac sees thirty people walking up to his door he’ll bolt. Not like any of us is going to be locking the area down so he can’t get a portal open.”

“Exactly,” Ekaterina said, not sounding thrilled about it. “And he’s too much of a coward to stand and fight. But if he has the advantage of numbers and home ground, his pride won’t let him run.”

“Oh. Right.” I grimaced. “Lily, you said he had a few people with him, right?”

She shrugged. “Haven’t been close enough to tell tonight, but when I scouted the area the first time, yes. Not less than eight total, probably more. The building is also warded; I don’t know exactly what the spells are designed to do.”

“I can get through the wards. I might be able to get you through as well; it will depend on the details.” Capinera’s voice was almost startling, she’d been so quiet up to that point. There was an assurance in it that was a little unsettling; she might not be sure about the rest of us, but she was utterly certain they wouldn’t stop her, personally. She was still speaking softly, but there was no hesitation there.

“I can probably break them if necessary,” I added. I wasn’t nearly as sure as she sounded; this was all very new to me. But I was guessing that if Cormac was strong enough for his wards to stop Thorn, the sword would already be in his hands and I would be very dead.

“Sounds like a plan,” Ekaterina said. The maenad sounded excited, which probably made sense; she’d been nursing this grudge for decades. “Go through the trees, I think. They’ll see us if we cross the lot.”

Capinera cleared her throat. “There are a number of traps in the forest. I do not know whether you will all be able to reliably avoid them.”

“If we walk right up, we’ll be easy targets,” Saori countered. “Open space, great sight lines in that parking lot. We’ll be eating sniper fire the whole way.”

“Both good points,” Ekaterina admitted. “Hm. You can get through the trees safely, though?”

Capinera shrugged. “It’s possible that there are traps I did not notice, but those I did see I can bypass, yes.”

“Can you take anyone else? Because I don’t think Kyoko will do well in the frontal assault plan.”

“Hey,” I objected. “Frontal assault is kinda my thing. I can’t sneak worth shit, remember?”

“You also don’t have a helmet,” Saori pointed out, leaving the “dumbass” portion of the sentence implicit. It still came across very clearly. “And you’d be the focus of fire because of course you would. She’s right.”

“It should be possible,” Capinera said, returning the conversation to something resembling a topic. “Not many, but escorting one should be possible.”

Ekaterina grinned. “And that’s both our ways in. We create a distraction, you go in and break the shell open for the rest of us. Sound good?”

Saori was grinning too. “I’m great at distractions,” she said.

“You cause distractions whether you mean to or not,” I pointed out dryly. “But yeah, that seems like the best option we’ve got.” It also seemed insane, but at this point, I was pretty sure we weren’t getting a plan that didn’t. And not only because the people doing the planning included Saori and a maenad.

“I’ll go with the team out front, if you don’t mind,” Lily said. “In case there are traps on that approach as well.” She wasn’t grinning, but from what I could tell, a reserved smile from her carried as much weight as Saori’s manic grin. It figured that detail would occur to the security expert.

“Let’s go,” Ekaterina said, and as simply as that, the attack was on.

---

At first, it was very mundane for me. Capinera told me to follow her exactly, and not to distract her. So I didn’t have to find a path, and there was no conversation. I had enough spare attention to think.

I was grinning, I realized. It was an honest one; I felt excited. Capinera did too, I could tell. Not for the first time, I wondered whether I was a bad influence on her, whether my involvement in her life would be the thing that pulled her away from the path she had chosen. I had been the one who encouraged her to permit herself pleasure in this kind of thing.

Also not for the first time, I wondered whether Gwydion’s assessment of my safety with Thorn was accurate. I was looking forward to the adrenaline rush, sure, but there were darker elements in it as well.

I didn’t like deep thoughts. I didn’t like where my thoughts went lately.

Focusing on the walk again, I noticed something…interesting. I wasn’t aware of any traps; I was entirely relying upon Capinera to keep track of those. But following her was easier than I would have expected. Pittsburgh was basically in a temperate rainforest, and the random patches of forest in the city showed that. They were typically dense, with thick undergrowth. They were a chore to navigate. This forest was not an exception.

But it wasn’t hard. The undergrowth was present, but it never seemed to present an obstacle to me. Branches didn’t get in my way. The grass and bushes didn’t tangle my feet. It was surreal; nothing really seemed to be happening. I wasn’t consciously doing anything, and I didn’t see the plants moving, but things just…worked.

Hope’s words, too, were etched into my memory. We look around and realize that the things we are capable of are not the same as they once were. We can do things that would be impossible or even unimaginable for the person we once were.

It felt like a much longer walk than it actually was. I was so lost in so many thoughts that it was a surprise when we reached the building. Capinera held up her hand, and I pulled up to a stop, blinking as I looked at the wall right in front of us.

“Hold up,” she said absently. She was looking at the mansion, and specifically at a window on the second floor. I could feel faint stirrings of magic, blackberry-scented energy just barely powerful enough for me to feel it. I couldn’t tell what she was doing, but it seemed to be interacting with the wards somehow.

Those, I could feel just fine. The magic felt very distinctive, a green tone like spring grass mixed with a heavy, musky smell I couldn’t place. There were threads of something else in it, something cold and dispassionate that made me think of a surgical theatre. The result felt strange, and it felt strong.

Capinera stood like that for less than fifteen seconds before nodding. “They’re not bad, but there’s a flaw in the targeting system,” she said. “I can get through, but it won’t work for you, you’re not fae enough for this trick.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Front door needs opened too. You can hit them from behind then.”

“Yes,” she said simply, and I could feel more subtle stirrings of power. I didn’t spare them any attention, though. With a plan like this, I had to just trust that the people with me knew what they were doing, and focus on my own part.

So I was already slipping around the mansion. I hugged the wall, figuring that would both keep me out of easy view and away from any traps. It seemed unlikely they would place any so close to the area they used themselves.

I was moving quickly now, my heart rate picking up, the world slowing down. The approach to the building had been slow enough that I hadn’t really had much adrenaline flowing, but it was definitely hitting now, and hard.

I’d been hearing noise from the front for a while now, but hadn’t really tried to parse out details. I’d definitely heard gunshots, and lots of them. That was sufficient on its own to guide me to the distraction team.

Who were, at this point, a short distance out from the house. I saw them when I came around the corner, and it looked like they were all still up. They hadn’t gotten close to the building yet, but at a glance, it looked like that was intentional. Nothing was on fire yet, so apparently Saori had been relatively restrained with the distraction this time.

I was grinning. A thought was enough to bring Thorn to hand as I darted forward towards the front door, too close to the wall for a sniper above me to get an effective shot in. Even if they’d been quick enough to track my movement, and right now that would be pretty impressive. It only took a few seconds to reach the door. I could hear gunfire all around, but nobody was targeting me, and I had enough time to work.

It felt natural, when I flicked the restraining catch open and drew the sword. The movement was smooth and fluid. As soon as it slid free of the sheath, its power was no longer confined by that sheath, and the world seemed to pause. The shooting paused, from both sides, and time seemed to stand still for the span of a breath.

I hadn’t asked anyone else if they could perceive this momentary pause. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. But I could definitely see the impact. The whole group waiting for me out front shifted their posture slightly, like the arrival of Thorn on the battlefield demanded respect even from those who didn’t know why.

I turned towards the mansion, grinning. I wasn’t sure what I was looking at, not really. I could feel the nature of the power in these wards, but their purpose was beyond me. Capinera’s subtle bypass was out of the question for me. But brute force could work wonders under the right conditions, and I’d been told that the force I was holding was pretty close to unstoppable. So, rather than anything clever, I just stepped up and slashed at the door, a simple overhand strike.

It was…a strange sensation. A little like when I’d cut through the barrier back in Nephele’s dungeon, but with noticeable differences. The resistance felt a little more rigid, a little more like hitting a wall rather than trying to push two magnets together.

But that didn’t actually make it harder. Thorn hit the spell hard, and I could feel metaphysical cracks spreading through the ward. The second strike carved through the magic with only slight resistance, no more than an ordinary blade might feel from the oak door it was carving through at the same time.

It worked, sort of. I could tell that the sword had damaged the magic severely; the curtain of grass-green power wrapped around the building had a sort of ragged hole in it where Thorn had ripped the spell apart. But the ward was much larger than that hole, and the rest of it was still mostly functioning.

And, more to the point, the process of ripping through the magic had involved significant structural shifts in how the magic was arranged. This, in turn, had a consequence that I probably should have seen coming. I’d been told that wards usually had landmines built into them, after all, which responded to the spell being forced out of its existing position.

I felt three of them triggering now. The first two were harmless; the triggered spells’ structure had also been sliced through too much to function. The third…well. It was not as bad as it could have been, I supposed. It could have hit me with the kind of telekinetic force that had broken practically a quarter of Saori’s bones a few months ago, for example. That would have been worse.

This was just enough kinetic force to feel like I’d been hit by a truck, rather than actually damage me as though I had been. I went flying backwards, literally flying at least a couple feet above the snow. The world spun chaotically around me, and I had no idea which way was up. The fall was predictably nasty.

But there was a good amount of snow to cushion it, and I had a lot of adrenaline to work with right now, even without the giddy bloodlust of holding Thorn. I’d dropped the sword, which was probably good, all things considered; I’d really rather not die from stabbing myself during a fall. That would be embarrassing.

The adrenaline was still enough that the pain was distant, unimportant. As soon as I had my bearings, I was moving again. Saori gave me a hand up, and I thought she was saying something, but my hearing wasn’t remotely up to telling what. I just started towards the mansion, at speed, and apparently that was a good enough idea for her to fall in next to me rather than try to stop me.

Admittedly, it was Saori, so that meant essentially nothing. But still.

The rest of the group had clearly been ready, and apparently I’d done enough damage to the ward before I went flying, because they had already broken through into the house. I’d opened the literal door for them, too. Contributing!

Inside, I didn’t take the time to look around. I could hear screaming ahead, which meant that was where I needed to be. I got the impression of an ornate house, the product of an interior decorator with more money than taste. The carpet was firm enough to provide good footing, and there didn’t appear to be any combatants in the entryway. At present, that was all the detail I needed.

There had been combatants here. I stepped over a few bodies; two looked human at a glance, and there were another three that were shaped more like dogs. None were still moving. The maenads had been thorough. The smell of blood was overpowering. I kept moving, and turned a corner, and saw an open hall that had to take up a large portion of the mansion’s interior. It was, at present, the site of a chaotic, brutal melee.

I grinned, called Thorn back to me, and ran into the fray.

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