The Undead Pool

“Like?” Newt waved a hand in the air, and hair spun down from her head in a wave. “When does like ever enter into good sex?”

“Why does everyone assume I’m having sex with him?” I said, exasperated.

“Because he’s an elf, love, and elves are very good at it.” Newt eyed Al and Trent across the distance, her brow creasing when Al shoved Trent, pinning him to a rock as he whispered threats into his ear. “Why do you think Al spent all that time with that elf? Ceri, wasn’t it? It wasn’t because he loved her. Oh, wait a moment, it was . . .” Her eyes unfocused, then cleared. “The tea is rancid. Have a cookie.”

I looked at the plate of cookies that shimmered into existence, lips parting when I realized they were still soft—almost warm—and that I could smell a faint hint of chocolate under the heavy burnt-amber stench.

Newt took a cookie, waving it about as she talked. “It’s not the sex, it’s the magic. You’ve tasted it. I can see it in you. I pray that you’ve not drunk so deep you’re caught.”

Alarmed, I looked across the broken earth to Trent, standing defiantly under Al’s harangue.

“Elven magic is a sweet, sweet addiction.” Newt said the words softly, hardly breathing, watching Trent with a scary longing. “You think it has no cost because there’s no smut, but she always wants payment.” Her black eyes came to me. “Their Goddess is a trickster. You align yourself with her, you may as well end your life now. It will be nothing but misery and betrayal upon betrayal until the bitter end, where she laughs and collects your soul to make new eyes for herself.”

I thought of my dream of a thousand purple eyes with wings. Slowly I took a bite of the cookie, wondering where she’d gotten them. “You, ah, know about the Goddess?”

“Of course I do. I was there when we killed her.”

Leaning forward, I brushed crumbs from myself. “Then she’s real?”

“Oh, she’s real. The only reason we beat the elves off was because we convinced them she wasn’t.” She pointed her cookie at me. “An elf who doesn’t believe in his magic can be bested. One who believes will always survive. That’s why Al is upset that wild magic is being pulled from your ley line. Coupled with belief, it’s stronger than demon magic, though none would admit it.”

I thought about that as she put the cookie in her mouth and bit down. She cringed, as if having not wanted to do that, and then she froze, actually tasting it. Fingers trembling, she ate another bite. “This is a good cookie,” she whispered.

“Then my line is leaking wild magic,” I said, looking at it.

“No.” Blinking fast, she reverently took another bite. “Someone is pulling wild magic from between the spaces, and your line is small and remote. Easy to manipulate. What are you going to do about it?”

I thought about the world she lived in where a chocolate chip cookie was grounds for reverent tears. This had to end. “Find out who and why and tell them to stop.”

“Good.” She pushed the plate at me. “Have another cookie.”

“You have them,” I said, and she smiled at me.

Her black eyes lost their focus as she gazed out over the broken ever-after, the wind kicking up dirt devils from under the rocks. “You know why Al kept Ceri for so long? Taught her everything he knew?” she said as she watched Trent and Al.

“She was a showcase for his talents as a maker of fine familiars,” I said, knowing it was false even if it was what he’d once told me.

“He was trying to find a way to give her children,” she said, lost in a memory. “He’d never admit it now. Kill you for even mentioning it. He was delirious when he told me, dying from that aura burn he got from Ku’Sox. The fool looked for the better part of a thousand years through magic and science, knowing it might be the only way that he could have her as more than a slave. I suspect if he had succeeded, he would have fought us all to the grave rather than let her go, but when he failed, he simply . . . walked away.” Newt fixed her black, unblinking focus to me, and my breath caught at the sudden glint of lucidity. “It took that long for his hope to die. We are a stubborn people.”

Uneasy, I looked away. I’d loved Kisten knowing that there’d never be children between us. It hadn’t seemed to matter, but I suppose when your species was barren, children would carry a lot of weight. Enough to end a war, perhaps.

“Elves are dangerous, Rachel,” Newt said, and I pulled my thoughts from Kisten’s smile. “Wickedly clever. Powerful. Alluring. And in a moment of weakness, trust comes ill to the unwary. When they practice, their magic seeps into every corner of their soul, able to lift you up beyond what you ever imagined. Are you sure you’ve not had sex with your elf and just forgotten?”

Unhappy, I shook my head. “He’s going to be married by the year’s end.” And then, it wouldn’t matter.

“To you?” she said, shocking me.

“No, another elf.”

Newt settled back, dragging the plate of cookies closer to her. “More elves. I don’t understand this. You free us from Ku’Sox only to enslave us again.”