This can’t be good.
“After all of us found each other… after Samara… we were angry and wanted revenge. Wanted to make her pay. Wanted to reverse the spell.”
“Makes sense.”
“We knew she was too powerful for us, so we needed to find something that would help us make it an even playing field.” He pauses for a second, then continues, “We found the Book of Maldor and in it we learned about the Mist of Morreux and Pandora’s box. So Jax and his brother. They aren’t blood brothers, but they grew up together and were- are- nearly inseparable… anyway, they went out looking for the Mist of Morreux. It led them to the Jungles of Joran. But this wasn’t any regular jungle. It has powers and magic laced throughout it. But it also had something bigger. Helsgardian soldiers from the Seelie Court.”
“They were protecting the box?”
“Yes. Jax and Brady barely escaped with their lives. They ended up in a small town outside of the Jungle walls and came across a poor beggar man. He spoke of a boy who had a ring box that caught some mist and said it sometimes talked to the boy. The boy's father thought the devil was inside the box and made the boy throw it in the trash, but instead the boy sold it to the beggar man for two quid. The same beggar man they were talking to.”
“They traded the Book of Maldor for the ring box of mist, hoping it was, in fact, Morreux. The beggar man said he had never opened it to verify, but he often heard the voice the boy talked about. He was happy to be rid of it. They pushed themselves getting home and were tired. One night while Jax was sleeping, the voice of the mist became too loud and Brady tried to quieten it. No one knows exactly what happened, but the Mist of Morreux was freed from his box and flew into Brady, where he’s been ever since. It wasn’t a lot, so it took some time for it to get a foothold on him, getting stronger and stronger. When they got back, we all realized what had happened.”
“Not before?”
“No. Jax beats himself up that he didn’t notice it earlier. But our guess was because it’s just a small fraction of the mist, it was weak, so it took some time to grow powerful enough to show symptoms in Brady. We noticed he started getting paler, weaker, more irritable. It was like the mist was literally sucking the life out of him. Brady would beg us in one breath to save him and the next he wished for us to kill him. So we eventually made the hard decision to lock him in iron chains, hoping it would slow the mist down long enough for us to find a solution. Emmett’s been feeding him his blood, to help heal him and regain his strength.”
“But it’s not really helping anymore,” Emmett sighs.
“That’s what Jax and I were talking about last night. You can possibly help Everlee.”
“Me?”
“With your light… I was doing some research.” He pauses, waiting for a jab, then realized Jax isn’t here, so he continues, “and you, true fae, have all kinds of powers.”
“Yea, but I can’t really control them.”
“We can try to help you. If we can get the mist out of Brady and into Samara, then it will feed on her, killing her.”
“Morreux was powerful. Why wouldn’t it just strengthen her?” I ask.
Callum chimes in, “We don’t know what it will do.”
“But we have to try something!” Knox yells, then reigns himself in. “If we lose Brady, we lose Jax.”
My heart aches in my chest at Knox’s admission. Even though he and Jax give each other a hard time, there is an undeniable, unbreakable love at the foundation of it all. These men… they are worming their way into my heart and… I can’t. How would loving four men really work?
Knox continues, “Look, all I’m saying is that we can search through texts and find some way for her to extract the mist out of him… once it’s free, it will go into Samara.”
“Knox,” Emmett starts, with that tone you know won’t be reinforcing any kind of idea. “You’re saying that we have to get Brady and Samara and Everlee in the same room. Everlee will have to figure out a way to fight off Samara, while at the same time extracting a powerful wizard fae, whatever he is, from Brady, without killing him so that it will fly into Samara?”
“Yes.” The look on his face is of an innocent, wide-eyed boy. Not the man in front of me. He wants it to be true and simple and doesn’t want to face the reality that it’s anything but. He’s hopeful, always positive, so why would this be any different? He needs to believe this can work. If he doesn’t at least believe that, it will break him. Because he isn’t wrong. From what I’ve seen, if we lose Brady, even though I’ve never seen him, I fear we’ll lose Jax. And I don’t want that to happen. I was finally able to chip away a bit of his hard exterior last night. I can’t, don’t want to, lose him.
JAX - CAUGHT IN A WEB
Theheavywoodendoorsfeel like thousand-pound weights under the palms of my hand as I push them open. There is no one at the front desk, which is not unusual in the early morning hours, just an odd thing to see. When I push the next set of doors open, the lights are on and the room is large and empty. It’s always weird to see this room in the light. In the dark, it’s filled with mystery and intrigue and a bit of the forbidden. In the light, it just looks like a bland, open room with a bar on one side and doors around it. It’s almost cringy.
“Hey!” a voice shouts to my left.
I jump, not expecting to see anyone here, but find Harlow behind the bar, wiping down glasses. “Hey.”
“Are you looking for Samara? She just got in. I’m usually on my own for hours in the morning, and now I have both of you here.” She laughs and continues cleaning glasses.
I don’t know much about Harlow. Only that she’s a harpy and a good worker, though she keeps to herself. Historically, harpies have been treated badly because the Gods used them to do their bidding, but she seems different. Maybe? It’s hard to say.
“Yea. She wanted to meet with me about something.”
“Sounds ominous. Do you think it’s about that girl?”
