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Elena blew him a kiss and he completely failed to put a lid on the vast swell of delight and contentment that rose from inside him.
"Busted," said Jess smugly, as she reached to take Elena's hand and sparks went off in Elena's head.
They seemed to exist in a state of orgiastic wantonness wherein the slightest touch would precipitate yet more enthusiastic rutting. The double bed proved to be a little on the small side to accommodate the three of them in whatever they wanted to do. Which was quite a lot.
***
Elena returned from a visit to the local corner shop for some supplies only to discover Alan taking Jess from behind in the kitchen. Jess stood with her legs apart and her head resting on her arms on the counter.
Elena tossed the shopping on to the kitchen table and loitered in the doorway for a moment before shucking off her underwear and retreating into the living room to settle into one of the chairs to watch. She briefly considered going to kneel in front of Jess but decided to look forward to the delicious prospect of being invited to clean up afterwards instead.
She hooked a leg over the arm of the chair and lifted her skirt to gently massage her mound. The problem she decided, was that being entangled with two such gorgeous creatures, there seemed little point in not taking advantage of every opportunity.
As it happened, both Jess and Alan looked sideways at the same moment, their eyes fixing on the junction of Elena's thighs. She opened her legs a little wider and teased the lips of her sex apart with her fingers, then slipped two of them inside.
Jess licked her lips. Alan reached under her to cup her breasts and roll her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers. Elena could feel the erotic charge building and thought they could probably do with some encouragement.
Rising to her feet, she sauntered over and offered the anointed fingers to each one in turn. Abruptly things ratcheted up, and Elena laughed giddily as Jess slapped the worktop in front of her. She climbed up and lay back with her legs apart, as Jess went to work.
"Ah!" she murmured, and Alan grinned at her.
And the Queen was present, hovering just on the edges of her consciousness, seemingly content merely to observe, puzzled, as if this notion had never occurred to her. Then all thoughts of the avatar were driven from her head, as the trio's auras merged and twined, their joined ecstasy lifting her into places undreamed of by Kublai Khan.
***
Later, Alan and Elena lay looking up at the ceiling while Jess pottered in the kitchen making a half decent attempt at coffee. Elena's insistence on food as a marker of civilisation had rubbed off on her.
"The Queen was there," Elena said quietly.
Alan was immediately alert. "She was there!"
"Say what?" came from the next room. "The Queen is a Peeping Tom?"
"No! Not like a voyeur! She doesn't understand what we're doing or why."
Alan laughed. "I guess she doesn't. This isn't how the narrative is supposed to play out. We're all supposed to be willing participants in a route to power, not the sexual Olympics!"
"We're willing participants alright!" Jess chuckled as she came in with the press and three mugs.
"But that's the point, isn't it? Not only are we inverted from the MMF of the popular myth, but no matter the love angles in the Arthurian legend, none of them feature a menage à trois with Merlin, Arthur, and Morgan le Fay. We're not acting out the script."
"Is that then, perhaps, why your futures' are opaque?" Alan asked.
Jess blanched and Elena looked at her in bafflement. "What does that mean?" she asked.
"It means that there are so many possibilities in our future that the auguries can't tell which one is more likely. They're blind," Jess said.
"And after the last couple of days," Alan continued grimly, "I think mine will be too. That means Control will probably consider me to be at best rogue, and at worst hostile."
"Wait!" Jess exclaimed, "Why didn't Mariam tell me any of this?"
Elena raised her eyebrows. Who? More unknowns.
"Either she doesn't know, or she's involved," said Alan. "I'd assume the latter if I were you. Now it seems that a bigger plan might be in play."
"Which is what?" Elena said in alarm and rising panic.
"That, I don't know, but there's more than a whiff of co-incidence about events."
Jess sat down. She'd assumed that all the weird things that had happened since they met were a consequence of Elena's latent powers stirring. Now it seemed there were darker possibilities.
***
... who's better than that
The safe house 2am, 2 nd June
In the middle of the night, Elena sat bolt upright. Her shock was such that Jess and Alan came awake with her.
"What is it, love? Another bad dream?"
Elena's eyes were wide in the half-light. "The Queen is speaking to me!"
Alan appeared at the door to the bedroom. Jess put her arm round Elena, "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Elena said, faintly. "It's like she's in my waking mind."
Jess and Alan exchanged glances. "What is she saying?"
"I'm not exactly sure. I'm going to try talking back."
"Be careful," Jess begged.
Elena looked wry. "If you have any primers on dealing with psychic possession, I'm all ears." She closed her eyes and sank into the darkness.
'What do you want?' she whispered.
If the Queen could have been said to have had a face, its eyes would have narrowed.
'Is that a trick question? I must complete the narrative.'
"But I don't want to."
Her voice was clipped and precise. 'What you want is unimportant. My objective is to heal the Folk. To dismantle barriers and reconcile enemies. By force if necessary.'
"Sounds more like you want to bring the Folk to heel."
'You will surrender to me.' The Queen ordered.
Elena bridled. "No, I don't think I so."
There was an explosion of rage. 'YOU WILL-'
"No. Back in your box." Elena found it immensely helpful to think of doing just that. There was some thumping from inside the box, but the lid stayed shut. For the time being.
***
The safe house 3am, 2 nd June
Later the same night, in the dreamscape, the Queen attempted a coup.
Elena abruptly found herself running across a wide open plain pursued by what she was fairly sure were ostriches. At this point she couldn't turn her head to find out because she might stumble and fall, and that would be bad.
It made the usual weird sense of a dream. As a child, she and her parents had gone to a wildlife sanctuary and her father had sat her on his shoulders so that she could see properly. This had put her at the level of an adult ostrich's head, and she remembered being thoroughly intimidated by the enormous bird, its head on one side, inspecting her, calculating whether she was worth making a grab for.
She could hear the drumming sound of her pursuers' feet and feel her own laboured breath in her throat. Even as she absorbed this, analytical brain observed that, as ostriches could manage 40mph on the flat, there was no way she was going to outrun them.
This being Elena's third or fourth excursion into the altered reality of her head, she was starting get a handle on how it operated. It had to be a close cousin of lucid dreaming and analytical brain thought she should be able to exercise editorial control.
She turned to face whatever was chasing her but never got to find out, as at a stroke she was engulfed by a sandstorm. Lightning flickered in the gloom and Elena struggled to stay upright in the howling gale. She had the distinct impression it wouldn't be good to lose her feet.
A shout came through the tumult. "Elena!"
Elena shaded her eyes. "Jess!" she bellowed, and a dark shape emerged from the chaos. To Elena's bafflement, Jess resembled a character from her favourite SF book as a teenager.
"What are you wearing?" she shouted over the roar of the wind, conscious of the absurdity of the question.
"This is your head we're in. If you think this is a desert world, then I'll need the right kit to survive here!"
"Now what do we do?"
"The Queen's trying to overwhelm you. We resist."
As she spoke, the ground trembled and Elena was on the verge of panic, remembering the fearsome desert creatures from the story.
"Oh no you don't," Jess gritted, as the psychic onslaught increased and heads down into the tempest, they braced each other. Then Alan was there, gripping their shoulders and the Queen screamed in frustration.
Abruptly all was still, the Queen's cry echoing and fading among the tall buildings of a deserted city street. Under a full moon, Jess shimmered in a sequined cocktail dress while Alan sported a trench-coat and a rather fetching fedora.
Elena caught sight of herself in the polished plate glass of a storefront window. Intriguingly she was dressed in a man's tux, her hair styled up and away from her face. Very Marlene Dietrich. She angled her shoulders to one side and then back again and decided she rather liked it.
Alan held a cigarette by the filter between thumb and forefinger. Taking a drag, the coal glowing bronze in the shadow of the brim of his hat, he blew an impressive plume of smoke and then tossed it into the gutter. "I don't smoke!" he said, aggrievedly.
"You do here!" Jess laughed.
Elena started to apologise, and he waved her away. "Is she gone?" he asked.
"Yes. And I don't know where."
Jess was admiring herself next to Elena in the window. She put her hand through Elena's arm. "I could wear this for you if you like it. Although -" She reached down and drew two stilettos from her stockings, "I don't think much of the accessories. But we're just right for an evening at a speakeasy!"
Elena looked her up and down and raised one eyebrow. "Yeah, maybe." She shook her head.
Alan reached to put his hand on her shoulder. "Well done, kid. You fought the narrative again and you won. Again."
'This time.' Elena thought.
***
The safe house 9am, 2 nd June
The following morning Elena dried herself off after a shower. The contrast between the sheer ordinariness of towelling her hair and the hyper-real encounters in her dreams gave her a sense of dislocation. She sat on the edge of the bath and tried to take stock.
Over the past year, the fabric of her life had become unravelled. Before she met Jess, she'd been a mundane woman doing mundane things. Her lips twisted bitterly; even the word to describe it had become freighted with new meaning.
In short order she'd fallen in love and become entangled with the girl from a different branch of humanity, one with paranormal powers, only to discover that she had those same abilities, and to have to go on the run because they had met a man and formed a union that was seemingly some sort of threat because it conformed to the themes of a myth! It felt like that there should be a pause for unhinged laughter, because should she write it all down it would look like the ravings of a madwoman.
Her old life and beliefs were upended, and the shocks just kept coming faster. It didn't help that her newfound awareness of nearby emotions swirled in her head like a kind of psychic hangover, or that the Queen was ever present to some degree, sometimes no more than an aftertaste, sometimes hovering over her shoulder like her least favourite schoolteacher.
Absently she stared at her image in the mirror of the vanity unit. Her hair was catching an odd reflection, and she tilted the mirror to get rid of it. When it obstinately stayed put, she peered over the windowsill to see where it might be coming from. However, it was thick fog outside. Elena turned back to the mirror and inspected her hair closely. A lock was now silver, and she stared at it in mounting horror.
"Jess! Jess!" she screamed, and moments later there was a frantic rattling of the door handle.
"Elena! What is it?" Jess shouted.
Convulsively Elena reached out to flip the catch and her partners fell into the bathroom. They found her clutching her hair, wild eyed.
She held the traitorous strands up to them and they stared.
"What's happening to me?"
"I think the Queen is leaking in," Alan said, gently.
Elena shivered. The Queen always wanted in.
"I can't go on like this," she said miserably, arms wrapped around herself. "She's going to win eventually. I can't keep her out for ever."
***
The safe house 3pm, 2 nd June
By mid-day the sun had burned the fog away and the temperatures rose to the point of having to open the windows to get some ventilation. Alan stood by the front window looking down into the street. The phone he'd got from the new Nick was a lump in his pocket. He'd not used it, fearing that it too was compromised in some way.
A delivery truck pulled up outside and Alan looked at it thoughtfully. The depot for that outfit was round the other side of the M25. He switched the phone to silent and ran for the front door.
At the bottom of the stairwell he stopped and peered cautiously out of the entrance. He couldn't detect the presence of the driver. Snatching a quick glance down the street and finding it empty, he walked smartly up to the driver's door which luckily happened to be by the pavement. It wouldn't be locked; these guys were on too much of a timetable.
He opened the door a crack and pushed the phone under the driver's seat. Closing the door as quietly as he could, he walked nonchalantly back to the apartment.
***
"You did what?" Jess exclaimed.
"It'll buy us a bit more time if they think we've already bolted. There's a supermarket about a mile away, I'll get another one there. Their CCTV should be easier for you to disable."
"Me to disable? Why don't I buy the phone and you do the secret agent stuff?"
"Because it was my idea. C'mon, Jess, work with me."
***
While Elena dozed, the two of sat in the living room. They prayed she was safe from the Queen for a while.
"I'm really worried about her." Jess' concern was a dark blue ribbon writhing around her.
Alan pondered for a moment as he stared unseeingly at the sunshine glinting off the satellite dishes perched on the houses in the distance. Then he sat up and turned to her. "I want to try something."
"What?"
"I'm going to try aligning myself with the Shadow."
Jess was shocked. "Alan, no!"
He scooted closer to her and took her hands. His expression was intense. "I think - no, I'm all but certain - it will have an answer for Elena. It wants the Queen but not at the cost of Elena's life. She's possibly the best chance it's had in more than a millennium. I have to try this, for Elena's sake. For ours."
Jess overflowed with concern and hope as she stared into his eyes. He took her worries in and she calmed. "I'll have you and Elena to ground me. That should help me find my way back."
***
Jess gently shook Elena awake. "Alan wants to try something, love, but we have to anchor him. Can you handle it?"
Elena looked up at her with haunted eyes. "I'll try anything. Just get me out of this."
Alan came and sat on the edge of the bed. "I want you to hold my hands and think of me. No matter what I say or how I react, you have to remember who I am. Do you think you can do that, Elena?"
She looked puzzled but nodded. "I think so."
They moved to make a triangle and held hands and Alan closed his eyes.
Then a very curious thing happened. Elena could feel Alan's presence becoming fainter, almost as if he was receding. He was still there in the background, but he was washed out, like a newspaper that had been left in the sun. Conversely, something else was coming forward, something darker, something predatory. Elena regarded it warily.
It looked at them out of Alan's eyes. "You're not the Queen. And you're not the Sword."
"Elena is only lately come into her powers. The Queen cannot occupy her without killing her," Jess stated, not quite looking it in the eye.
The Shadow inspected Elena. Tendrils of deep purple and silver curled out to her. The Queen's presence firmed in response and Elena quailed. The Queen's frustration was palpable. The Shadow's head tilted. "You fear my Queen."
"Of course," Elena forced out through chattering teeth, "I don't want to be her or be like her."
The thing that wore Alan's skin laughed. It didn't sound much like laughter, more a noise made by something that had heard it once.
Jess shivered. She couldn't tell if this was going well or not, and she prayed that the Shadow wouldn't turn his attention to her. She pulled her emotions back to the thinnest layer above her skin and tried to make herself invisible.
The Shadow was speaking again. "But you are her. My Queen would be unable to manifest at all if you were not a fitting vessel. If you want to survive you will have to accommodate her and come to appreciate the darkness within you."
Elena blinked and thought about this for a moment. Then a sudden impulse took her and without thinking she said, "Can I negotiate with her?"
The dark avatar regarded her. "In the realm of the mind, all things are possible."
"In that case, I want you both to leave me alone for a while. I need to talk to Jess and Alan. Then I will contact you and try to understand what you want." Elena said, unsure as to how contact would take place but with more determination than she felt.
The Shadow laughed again. "Yes, my Queen."
Elena felt the psychic pressure abruptly lessen and both the Queen and the Shadow were gone.
Jess fell back on the bed, taking great gulps of air. Alan looked dazed, but Elena felt as if in some small way she had started to gain some control. She rolled off the bed and went to the kitchen where she filled the kettle and dumped a couple of teabags in the pot.
Alan appeared and she went to him and took him in her arms. Even to a neophyte like Elena, his aura radiated fragility, and she rested her head on his.
"Thank you. Thank you so much. I can feel how much that cost you," she whispered into his hair.
"It was a bloody stupid idea," he muttered. "He could have ditched me at any time and there wasn't a thing anyone could have done about it."
"But what is he?" Elena demanded. "What are any of the avatars?"
He shook his head. "I've no idea, but I don't want to let him back in my head in a hurry."
Jess came haltingly into the room, and they welcomed her into the comfort of their collective.
"I've never been so terrified in all my life," she mumbled into Elena's shoulder. "They could have eaten us alive. I don't understand why they didn't."
Elena had a sudden flash of insight. "Because it's better if we're willing," she said. "Back before the Enlightenment, the idea of possession must have been an accepted reality. Shamen would even have welcomed it. We're different. The idea of giving ourselves up to a story sounds nonsensical. It's one thing to see it on the silver screen but it's quite another to actually be the story."
"Oh, you're back to normal alright," Alan murmured, and they all chuckled. A little laugh, a release of the godawful tension of the last few minutes.
***
The safe house 8pm, 2 nd June
That evening, the three of them made themselves comfortable on the bed and held hands.
"How do we do this?" Elena asked.
"Let us carry you, love. If we're all going to inhabit the same scenario, then we'll have to let our boundaries go a little. You'll have to trust that we know what we're doing."
Elena shivered. "And the Queen?"
"Once we've got the thing stabilised, you'll have to invite her," Alan said.
Elena heaved a sigh and closed her eyes. She felt herself sinking into darkness. Then the falling sensation slowly eased, and a faint light appeared. She became aware of solid ground under her feet and then the shapes of trees formed. In just a very few seconds she stood at the edge of a forest.
