Shadowglass

Afternoon sun burns ocher through cracked warehouse windows, dragging long shadows from machinery draped with the dirt and cobwebs of disuse. Dust motes spar in crisscrossed shafts of light, a cruel cage of silent accusation, and below stands Jake, his lips locked in a flame-tickled kiss with a slender silvery fairy.

His throat bulges with the fat throb of stolen magic. The fairy’s wings judder and crackle, but it can’t escape, trapped in the cruel strength of Jake’s arms.

Jake swallows one final time and pulls away. The fairy’s body slumps to the concrete, its dulled pearlescent wings crushing beneath its weight. Its pretty head hits the floor at a strange angle, and dust filters slowly into long black hair. Glassy eyes stare, blank, extinguished like its pretty flames.

Now those flames are Jake’s. Yellow fire ribbons from his fingers to flicker out a few inches from the floor. His nails glitter, drenched in fairyshine, and he smells gunpowder.

Just like the banshee’s song. Pretty. Pointless. No help against Jinxx.

Jake slams himself onto his ripped plastic stool and fidgets, unable to keep still or dodge the unfeeling sun’s glare. Strange stolen powers gibber and struggle inside him, bickering and gnawing at each other like an ornery crowd. He’s eaten firefae, banshee, black spriggan, green spriggan, earthfae, absorbed their fickle powers into his own, and he still doesn’t understand how Jinxx tempts them, or how to stop it. About him, nailed into crude wooden crates, more creatures wail and protest and scream, waiting their turn, and the air stings with sour fear.

On the desk, the Danny’s rusty sphere rolls and giggles, sly laughter that echoes in Jake’s heart.

Jake swallows, and his guts fight him, struggling to explode. Something’s not right. His nerves quiver, and he slams his palms on his knees, the light pain a welcome solace, but only for a second or two. Evil yearning fires his blood, new and excruciating, and even though the sunset-drenched sky will not speak, he knows somehow it’s his own fault.

This is not what Shadow sent him here for. He was supposed to claim this broken city back, purge it of wicked temptation. Not drink it up and long for more.

Silence. Screeching heat. Horrid water impregnating the air like maggots. Surely this place is hell itself. But his body craves it, hungers for bone-shattering sensation, more and again and rougher and harder until he screams.

But he doesn’t scream, not now, not with Ella watching. This, too, is a new sensation, this hiding, the cunning delight of lies, and it coils tight and delicious inside him like a venomous snake.

He scrapes his teeth together and grates his elbows back and forth on the torn wooden desk until the ruts char and smoke, but it doesn’t help. The boxed creatures snarl and curse. His fingers shake, the fine hair on his arms ripples in some invisible sensory breeze, and with a disgusted snarl he jerks up and paces, raking his hair with sparking hands that alternate hot and cold. He doesn’t know what to do. If Shadow finds out he’s changing . . .

The sphere wobbles, seasick.

Jake snatches it up, and metal fins scythe open. The mirror glints at him, inscrutable. His eye reflects back at him, bloodshot blue. “Show me Jinxx again.”

The mirror snickers, and shows him.

A black cavern, blood-soaked earth and burning oil, puddles of flame shimmering green and blue. The image pans, dizzy through screeching brass doors carved with teeth and tongues.

Silver wings sparkle in firelight, a sneaky blue hand snaking out to steal. Flashes of storm-gray eyes and reddish metal claws, a fall of auburn hair, straining blue wrists in cruel chains, rich splatters of blood and a scream so deep, it hurts Jake’s lungs just to listen. A name, howled raw and broken to an uncaring heaven. Lauren. Jake doesn’t know her.

He squeezes, edges slicing his palms scarlet. “Not that. More.”

Fast-forward, noise and images tumbling, past a chocolate-skinned demon mistress with flaming purple hair, through acres of blackness and curling hellflame to the nightclub, dark and alive with sound and wrath and neon-lit smoke. Flash of diamonds, sharp demon teeth, the slick heat of a kiss, yellow claws scraping on linen and the horrid death-pleasure of losing your breath.

The mirror sighs and lingers, a slow, languorous image of the yellow girl twisted in soaked white sheets with Jinxx. Limbs entwined, wet hair tangling her throat, lips sliding swollen together.

Jake growls, the banshee’s angry magic festering in his throat. She’s very pretty. Such slim legs, her thighs dusted with gold as they wrap around the demon’s hard body. Her wings are delicate, so fine, they crumple like silk, her arms long and graceful even embracing such a foul creature. And Jinxx, earth’s golden child—so beautiful, he’s frightening—Jinxx keeps his eyes closed, like he’s pretending nothing’s happening. Like it’s all beyond his control.

Jake murmurs, his fingers fidgeting with possibilities. Maybe this means Jinxx is in her power. The power to seduce Jinxx is one worth having. But how is it done? “Show me more.”

The mirror sighs and obliges. Fast-forward, a scrabble through sun-parched city streets to a weathered house, withered plants and paint peeling in strips. Crisp yellow flame on crimson wings, a flash of bold black eyes, white fairy skin translucent in burning sun, the sharp citrus flavor of guilt. A tumble of apple-green hair, luminous blue eyes pooled with tears . . .

Frustrated, Jake shakes his head, fairysparks spitting. “That’s not what I meant. Back. Show me Jinxx's yellow girl.”

The mirror grumbles in protest. Twitching red spriggan ears, grasping leathery fingers, a meaty tongue scraping on glass.

Jake yowls, vibrant with stolen banshee compulsion, and the mirror recoils and does as it’s told. Yellow girl, laughing against broken bricks with sunshine in her eyes, the rich metal kiss of her lover.

Acid floods his veins, bitter on his tongue, and his bones ache. He rejoices. Jealousy. Not just unease or apprehension or vague happiness. A real, raw emotion from hell.

Urgency hastens his pulse. This yellow girl is surely the key. He must find her, examine her, suck out her secrets. He peels his hungry gaze away and snaps the mirror shut.

“Ella!”

Jake studies her with fresh glass-warped cynicism. Still wearing the same dusty clothes, her dark hair clumped from lack of combing. He still hasn’t forgiven her, and she’s worried. She doesn’t want to be alone. Please him, she’s thinking. Make him remember he needs me. Give him everything he wants, and maybe he’ll take pity on me.

He’s thought like that himself on so many occasions, prostrated himself under an unfeeling sky with silence for reward. Punished so many times for asking too many questions, for staring too long at the stars, for asking the insects where the sun goes at night. He knows now to call that emptiness pain.

He knows now that the sky lies. Shadow lies. Jinxx is not weak but near invincible. Pain is not evil, rather food for the soul. The world is not steeped in suffering, but immersed in sensory pleasure. And rather than condemning the creatures to torment, all that emotion and sensation make them happy.

The sky is false, and Jake is alone. Abandoned. Expendable. He was never meant to succeed. This mission was punishment, just like everything else, for too many questions, for always asking the wrong things of the wrong people. Something is most surely wrong with him.

It’s called curiosity, and he won’t ever give it up. No matter how they brainwash him.

He owes Shadow nothing. He need no longer obey.

So why fight Jinxx? Why not just stay here and drown in sweet reality?

In his mind, the earth shudders and opens up to suck him away.

Ella blinks, her pretty mouth trembling. “Yes, Jake?”

His heart softens. He is her sky, her watcher, her protector. He’ll not be so cruel. He’ll not lie to keep her obedience. She doesn’t deserve this treachery.

He reaches out to her, and shyly she slides dusty fingers into his palm. He smiles gently, covering the rage that squeezes his heart like a vise. He’ll still search for Jinxx. Jinxx has answers, can show him how to survive in this delicious place. But a demon won’t give his secrets up willingly, not to an ancient enemy. “We must seek out this yellow girl Jinxx chose.”

Ella nods eagerly. “We shall.”He points to the stinking, yelling crates. “First, we shall examine our creatures. Then, I shall wash you. Then we can begin our search.”

He bends for her kiss, and this time when he kisses her in return, she doesn’t protest. Her soft lips squash a little under his, warming the seductive taste of rebellion.—Bite,— whispers the mirror slyly,—lick, swallow,— and a rush of burning blood melts his resolve’s cold shell.

Her fingers shake in his flame-rippled grip, and she fidgets. “Must you wash me, Jake?”

“I like to look at you. I wish to make you even prettier. Don’t you want me to?”

She blinks shyly. “If you wish it.”

She still doesn’t understand. She has her own wishes now. He squeezes her little hands together. “But do you wish it, Ella?”

Confusion clouds her face. He kisses the crease between her brows, and that rebellious taste flares stronger. He smiles, free at last, and tilts her chin up to bring her lips to his.

A shocked moment, and then her warm lips spark alive into a feverish kiss. Jake trembles against her, his body awash with strange needy sensation. She doesn’t taste of flowers and breeze and raindrops, the bright comforting taste of home. She tastes of flesh, hot and glorious, her lips smooth and supple on his, her tongue emerging shyly to rub against his. He sighs into her, sharing their breath, and the little sound she makes in her throat tastes of bewilderment and fresh desire.

But she breaks off, her breath heaving and scarlet flooding high in her cheeks, and avoids his eyes.

He knows now what wanting involves. So easily fed, this need. He reaches for her, his body burning.

But she shakes him off with all her strength. “No, Jake. It is not right. I do not wish it.” Her flushed face tightens in disapproval, and she runs, her footsteps disappearing into the gloom.

“Ella. Return.” He clenches shaking hands and calls out to her, the fairy’s stolen sparks fingering his skin. But she doesn’t turn. She won’t obey him. Something is broken. He hurries after her, out into the dirty alley where broken glass glints orange in fresh sunlight. Hot summer breeze caresses his face as he searches left and right. She’s gone. Hiding. From him.

Jake licks stinging lips, still wet from kissing her. Her taste lingers in his mouth like an accusation. His newfound pride hurts, bruised by her rejection. He could find her, punish her, twist her naughty body to his will, make her hurt and cry and bleed to wash his dignity clean.

The fact that he even thinks that forces a strangled scream of fury from his throat. He whirls and grabs the mirror, ripping it open with a vicious squeeze. The glass glints at him, uncaring, and steals silent black fingers toward his misbegotten soul.

A sly caress inside him, soft and dark like midnight feathers. His will wilts, parched by her absence. What is there, without that perfidious sky? Without her? He is alone. Alone, and lonely.

The mirror cackles, triumphant.

The sound coats his courage in fresh steel. He is not alone. He still has purpose. He will stay in this painbright world that fires his blood, and nothing Shadow can do will stop him. Jinxx has answers, and Jake will have them. He must.

He wills his stare stronger, his eyes blazing back at him from the glass like sapphire frost. “No.

Obey me. I am stronger here. Obey.”

The mirror squirms in the clutches of his death-blue gaze and relents with a petulant snivel.

Impish thing. Defeated, or just giving in for now? Jake frowns. He knows capitulation. He’s been there himself so many times, the reluctant smile, the modest lowering of eyes, the whispered acquiescence in return for freedom.

But no matter. Purpose served.

Jake smiles at his new servant, and flame flickers from his teeth. “Good. Never mind the other creatures for now. Find me the yellow girl.”

The mirror whimpers and obeys.

Notes

Hope you enjoy my Baby Bats!!
- Grimm ;)