Ink, Sex, Magic Pt. 05

"Alice! Tess!" My father was kneeling down by her side, shaking her gently while tears rained down his face.

"I couldn't stop him- Sylas. Just like I couldn't stop Balor. I'm so sorry, Da."

"Oh, Alice." Kiernan lifted my mother's body and laid her down gently crossing her arms over her chest. Then he picked me up, running his warm hands over my cold body. "You didn't do anything wrong, my love. Teague is going to take you and-"

"No," I said, pushing him away and standing on my own feet. "I'm not running away."

"You've done all you can do, Alice. Please, save yourself."

"It's too late for that, Kiernan."

Seeing that the athame, slicked with my mother's blood, was laying nearby and I took it before sprinting towards the railing that Balor and Telesius had jumped over.

"Alice, no!"

The new spell-work around my ankles absorbed most of the impact of my landing, though I still hurt one of my knees in the fall.

When I stood, I took in several things at once. The first was why the ship had tipped so dramatically- an ever-widening whirlpool had formed off the bow, and from it emerged tentacles and claws, hideous faces and leviathan covered in scales, spines, spikes and slime. Balor was watching as they rose, calling them forth, and Telesius was maintaining a forcefield around his Master. His bag, however, was not next to him- it had been placed in a chair well away from the side so it wouldn't go overboard. Crumpled over several feet away was the lifeless body of Haku's apprentice, Teague.

Soon the rest of the UnderGround crew had followed the action down, Dother and his battalion were closing in on their sides and I was left in the middle to take the initiative. A blast of frigid air hit me in the face when I opened Telesius' Gladstone bag. The chorus if souls' voices, which blended together like white noise from a distance, became individual whispers swirling around me, pleading for help while I dug around. The inside of the bag was rather larger than it should have been and I nicked myself on several sharp instruments during my search.

"Leave that alone, girl, before you kill yourself!" Telesius shouted, having noticed that I was pilfering his case.

But I'd found a black box made of carved obsidian and I knew what was inside before I even opened it.

"Put that back! You have no idea what you're doing."

"I know exactly what I'm doing- getting rid of your old Mistress' brood once and for all!"

"You don't have the power to destroy something so evil, girl!"

"I know," I stated levelly. "But I can heal them."

Dother couldn't be around Sylas' healing magic because the tattoo binding him to his vessel was vulnerable to it. I might not be able to destroy their Phylacteries, but with my mother's elaborate tattoos, I could heal them like any other scar. Holding the stiff, dry pieces of ancient skin, I focused on filling their Darkness with Light and restoring the blackened remains to their original pureness. Behind me, I heard Dother screaming as my magic erased his Mortal ties.

"You bitch!" The barrier fell as Telesius went into a rage. I prepared myself to counter, but before he got to me, Kiernan, Jack, Haku, Devasha and Morrigan interceded.

Having seen what I'd done with the Brothers' Phylacteries, Balor must have realized that he'd underestimated his new wife's resourcefulness. Knowing that he had to put a stop to my defiance, he strode towards me, though I could tell that his advance was without purpose; I flashed the blade of the athame by my side to further diverge his paths of thinking.

The Water Scroll has a passage on how to strike down an opponent in one beat within the rhythm of a battle: Realize when the opponent has not yet determined what to do, strike directly, as fast as possible, without moving your body or fixing your attention. The stroke with which you strike an opponent before he has thought of whether to pull back, parry, or strike is called the single beat. I remained poised though not still, armed but not readied to attack, waiting until he was close to me but not his decision.

When that moment came, every buffing tattoo my mother had given me seared as they activated, and I launched myself and struck the athame into the heart of King Balor's evil existence- his Baneful Eye. I could see that the blood of the Tuatha De on the blade acted like a poison, and I glued myself to him as I twisted it in deeper, even as ichor ate at my skin like acid and his crow familiar pecked at my face.

But then he was swatting me off like a fly and grabbing the knife's handle with his mighty hand. I rose and readied myself to charge him, but I didn't need to: Sylas, radiant and magnificent in his Kitsune form, raced past me, grabbed Balor by the throat with his teeth, and carried him out into the sea. Not caring if I fell over as well, I ran to the side and gripped the railing while I watched Balor disappear down the funnel of the whirlpool, still being mauled by a silver-white fox with seven tails.

Someone pulled me back and wrapped his arms around me. Kiernan. "It's almost over now," he whispered in my ear. "Come with us, we have to close it before dawn."

I knew what he meant, so I went with him seeing that Telesius was presently engaged with a cacodemon and a chimera. But they wouldn't hold him off for long.

On our way back up to the altar where I'd just been married, I saw with horror what remained of Morrigan's body, but I was in too much shock to comprehend her death. The candles were burning low, but not yet out. Kiernan signaled for us to fan out and each stand at a point of the pentagram. Devasha, mastering her grief, took out an athame, invoked the four directions, then used the tip to cut open her thumb. After passing the knife to her left, to Haku, she made a bloody thumbprint at the apex of the point, and we copied her each in turn until Devasha held the knife again.

After pointing the tip to the sky, she stabbed the ground and the entire pentacle burst into flame. With her steady, lovely voice, Devasha began to chant I didn't recognize or understand but knew all the same. Soon I was one of five voices singing a canticle, imploring the ancestors who had given humans magic- all of our ancestors, and the sky and earth that birthed them, and the Form and Void from which they'd come, that had once been Song and Silence. We called on them now to undo the unholy marriage made there, to close the door that it opened before its evil could be unleashed. I offered all that I had, my humanity and my eternal soul, my virtues and sins, my light and my darkness.

Please, hear us.

As our power manifested into a column of pure light and the whirlpool gathered strength, a funnel formed between the altar and the sea. The water began to boil, and the Fomoiri, still being birthed from it, grabbed onto the sides of the boat, pitching us all off our feet. Slowly, the current was reversing directions and dragging them back in- and us with them.

"We have to go!" Devasha shouted over their hideous cries. But as she turned to run, she froze, spluttering, bright red blooming from her heart. Her body fell, a knife sticking in her back, and Telesius was behind her.

"Devasha!" My voice was lost in the vacuous tornado we'd created. Kiernan, Jack and Haku began gearing up for another fight, and so did I.

When Sylas enhanced my demon trap, allowing him to bind a Caorthannach (a fire-spitting demon) to it, he told me both how to release it to fight for me and how to recall it should it survive once the fight was over. Telesius had covered it with his tattoo-salt-peter, but I had my mother's ink now and I knew she had a similar one. Praying the same chant would work, I activated the tattoo. With a terrifically blinding pain, a hole rent open in my leg, slavering jaws snapping eagerly as it widened, and a pair of sleek black direhounds burst forth. They were Cwn Annwn- Hellhounds- and they were hungry.

I pointed at Telesius and ordered, "Sic 'em boys!"

Seeing my guard dogs tearing his way, Telesius grinned and opened his jaw wide to meet them. The three creatures began rolling around the deck as the flames from the altar spread, teeth clashing and ripping.

"Alice, come with me, now, there's no more time!" Kiernan shouted over the din, holding out his hand.

He was right.

"I love you, Kiernan!"

And I invoked the trap as well as every tattoo that I could, and crossed the ford, running through the fire with preternatural agility. Though badly wounded, the Cwn Anwnn heard their Master's call and bounded after me, dragging Telesius with them. I closed my eyes, knowing that I was going to see my mother again, and Devasha and Morrigan and Teague and even Sylas and one day, in the far future, my father, and my love. And I hurtled myself into the infinite sea.

***

In another reality, I'm sure that was the end of my story. Fin. Fade to black. Perhaps, in another, I then fought Telesius as we fell through the Rabbit Hole and into the Underworld, a la Gandalf and the Balrog in the Mines of Moria. After smiting my enemy, I would return with snowy white hair and a badass staff. And in yet another one, I'd never been born and my parents were still madly in love, running Sectio Divina.

But in this one, I was lucky enough to have my own Fellowship: As I flew in the air to make my final sacrifice, and the portal to Annwn was closing, Haku summoned a Water Spirit to scoop me up and then, safe in my father's arms, the UnderGround crew took a liferaft out to an idling motorboat captained by Seraphine Angel.

The Swift Ceridwyn went down that night and the lives of Tessa Ceridwyn Cavanaugh-Arrowood, her stepson, Thomas Arrowood and twenty-four others were lost. They'd sent no calls of distress, but after an unusually dense fog, coast guards say they saw a yacht engulfed in flames nearly get sucked into a whirlpool. Many people had seen a strange lightning storm over the ocean- some of them even thought they had seen enormous creatures silhouetted against the sky. But no one saw a small craft speeding away from the conflagration, slicing silently through the night, with neither oar nor wake to betray its uncharted voyage.

***

When we were alone later in his bed, naked in each other' arms but not engaged in anything sexual, I told Kiernan that I saw Balor at the Cellar Door, the night I graduated.

"Did you see him too?"

His silence was all the answer I needed.

"So you knew who he was and didn't say anything?"

"I didn't know why he was there yet, and it wasn't like I could have taken him on by myself; or taken you anywhere he couldn't follow."

"But once you finally figured it out, you let me fall into his trap, didn't you?"

"I thought it was the only way to banish him. He was determined to take you no matter what- the only way I could think to get the upper hand was to let him think we were oblivious."

"So you made the plan with Sylas for him to betray me to Balor and kill my mother? Just so I could get her tattoos?" Seraphine had explained that Sylas and my mother had devised a powerful spell which allowed her tattoos to transfer to me at her death if we maintained physical contact.

"No. Tess and Sylas came up with that scheme all on their own. They told me that Tess would get you off the boat and Sylas would remain to fight. But I suppose they flipped the script on me. And so did you."

I shrugged. "You should know by now that I don't like to play the damsel in distress anymore."

"Those days are all behind you now, I see now. As are the ones we had together."

"What do you mean?" I turned myself to face him and I knew just what was going to happen next.

"Don't worry- I'm not leaving you high and dry. I'm putting the house and UnderGround in your name- I'm sure Haku will stay on and help you assemble a crew."

"Where are you going?"

"I'm not sure yet. I might pay my respects to the Motherland before going wandering."

I knocked his hands off of me and sat up. "You piece of shit coward," I said, my voice shaking.

"What?" Kiernan pushed himself up as well, appearing thunderstruck. "I thought after everything I've done and couldn't do, that you'd be better off without me in your life."

"Why- so I could be by myself? Get to know what it's like to lose my parents, my lovers and some of my closest friends in one fell swoop? Or maybe you thought I'd shack up with Bruce and get him to take your place?"

"Alice-"

"Justify it however you like, but it's a pussy cop out. Can't you just be man enough for once to tell me you don't want me anymore?"

"Because that's not true. And maybe it's a coward's way out but I don't know what else to do to make things right."

"If you still love me, and you want to make things right, don't walk away. Take me with you- there's nothing left for me here."

"Then you want to come with me and give me another chance?"

"With all my heart."

***

I wasn't ready to make love again for a while, and then one night when we were in bed, I started kissing him and running my hands over my man's perfect body, surrendering myself to his embrace. Kiernan was especially gentle, patiently coaxing out my pleasure and delaying his own. After lavishing me with his tongue and plying me with his caress and loving words, he mounted me and I willingly took him inside.

"I want you to cum inside me, Kiernan... I need to be yours again, please." I savored the sensation of his cock moving in me, the surge of ecstasy every time he rolled his hips, grinding my clit and rocking my g-spot.

"Come with me, love," he cried raggedly, his strokes deep and desperate for our release.

And I dissolved into the pleasure only he could give.

***

Devastated by the deaths of his wife and son, and believing they had used the Ceridwyn that night to have an illicit tryst, Bruce decided to return to his home state of New York. In a way, I wish I could have told him otherwise, but I couldn't have explained how I knew; and at least he thought they'd died doing something they loved, even if it was each other. My stepfather hugged me for a long time when I dropped him off at Sea-Tac for an early flight. He said that he knew I'd be fine without him, but that if I ever needed him, for anything, I need only ask.

"Next time I see you, maybe you'll let me give you your first tattoo."

Bruce laughed softly and said, "Your mother beat you to the punch a long time ago." And when he turned around to bare his toned back for a moment, I saw a large American Traditional piece depicting a sailing ship. He had no way of knowing it, but worked into the design was an anti-possession seal rendered in magical ink. If only she'd given one to Thomas.

He'd helped us settle our financial affairs- like selling Kiernan's properties and claiming my material inheritance from my mother and, by extension, Sylas- so we could cut the rest of our ties to Seattle. We decided that we would join Jack and Seraphine in Ireland, where they invited us to stay in their charmingly rustic manor as long as we wanted. Haku, who was moving back to Hawaii at the end of the season, threw a massive send-off party.

Jen came with us, though I'm pretty sure she spent the night with our host because she didn't ask for a ride home. It was hard to say good-bye to her, but she made me promise that one day we would get together again, and until then, we'd keep in touch. "Best Bitches forever, remember? Don't make me hunt you down," she teased, misty eyed.

Before we left, a small package was delivered to me, postmarked in Tokyo a couple of weeks prior. Inside was a letter written in spidery script:

Alice,

I trust this will reach you after I am gone, and that by now you know the true extent of my many shortcomings, and your many strengths.

Many years ago, when I was grieving the loss of my wife, Madame Clara said that one day I would love a woman who would truly make me happy again, but only for the blink of an eye. And after that eye opened and closed, I would have choose one of us to put on the altar of sacrifice, or neither of us would survive.

I always thought that woman was Tessa, and I sacrificed myself accordingly. But now I see it was you, Alice. You made me happy when I'd long forsaken the notion- and for that I will be ever grateful.

Do not forsake your own happiness anymore, my dearest, and never forsake love- no matter who it's with.

Always yours,

Sylas

Beneath this was a gold charm in the shape of a fox, with a pearl resting on its tail. When I went to pick it up, I felt a sudden burning sensation on my leg. I looked down and watched the ink of the tattoo Sylas had given me, that still had a faint cut across it from using it to send a signal, transform. It settled into and remained an image of the full moon over the water, its reflection the shape of a heart. I put the miniature fox on my charm bracelet, and Kiernan actually seemed pleased.

***

None of us really discussed it beforehand, but when Kiernan and I moved to Ireland, we ended up sharing Jack and Seraphine's massive bed most nights. And perhaps it was the counter-balance their personalities provided, the equal exchange of pleasure, our trust and total transparency- but for whatever reason, Kiernan shared me on occasion without his former jealousy or possessiveness. I would feel jealous myself, when I saw him enjoy another woman with attributes I would never possess, and allowed my ego to get the better of me- but for the most part, it was a huge turn on.

Not only their beauty, but knowing that that was what we looked like when we fucked: That was how he looked behind me, on top of me, filling my pussy, worshiping my body, taking and losing control. I think he might have felt the same way, when I caught him watching me getting fucked by Jack with a wickedly pleased expression on his face. The harder his brother fucked me, the more satisfied he appeared to be, until he was overcome by such an intense orgasm that it seemed to circle around to the rest of us in turn.

And with Seraphine, I discovered the bliss of being with another woman- my fingers in her silken hair, her soft lips on mine, her touch slow fire, her sex the sweetest flower. We fell in love with each other in our own way, to the point where I found myself getting jealous watching Jack fuck her even while Kiernan took me from behind. I wanted to be filling her, filled by her, linked by our feminine essence. And my father sat back and let me match their rhythm, helping me rub my clit and play with my tits. Jack and Seraphine saw us watching them, and we began mirroring one another in a sort of fuck-feedback loop until we were all cumming in unison.

And I think we all fell in love a little deeper.

Epilogue.

Jen and I texted frequently- me giving updates on our current tour through Europe, and she telling me about her latest dalliance. But when I was entering the third trimester of my pregnancy, and still hadn't spilled the beans, I decided to call her at what I hoped would be a good time. And it seemed to be, because she let out an ear-piercing squeal when I broke the news.

"You're pregnant! Oh, congratulations, Ali! How far along are you?"

"Sixth months now. I'm huge!"

"What! You'll have to send me pics when your belly button pops out- that's how you know it's done. Boy or girl?"

"We want to keep it a surprise. Only our midwife knows. But whatever it is, it's going to be big."

Jen laughed. "Well, it is Kiernan's, right?"

"Yes," I whispered, old shame creeping up again.

"You're sure?"

"Of course!" I was slightly taken aback by her question. We had always used protection if Jack ever penetrated me, so I was undoubtedly sure that it was Kiernan was the father.