As Mara began to ask another question, her nose tingled at a sudden shift in the air, twitching as the edges of her senses burned. Thinking back, she had felt the sensation once before just as she was about to order a drink at the bar. She turned on her heel, spotting a large gray and black cat with a white chin. “What the . . . Corvo?”
Vareck’s attention piqued at the name, eyes shifting toward his familiar. “Corvo? What are you doing here?”
“What am I doing here?” the cat said. “Are you serious? This is my realm. I like to visit. Catch up on old times. The question should be what are you doing here?”
“You’re . . . you’re actually a demon god?”
“Uh, yeah. For like the fifth time, I am a god. Don’t look so surprised. You’re the one that didn’t listen.” His tail flicked, and he turned his head turned toward Sadie. She sat gaping, the shock of seeing a talking feline clearly taking over her senses. “Hey, you. Get off my chair.” Sadie immediately stood, blinking in question as she turned toward Mara for an explanation.
She shrugged. “You get used to it.”
“Corvo is my uncle’s familiar,” Sebastian clarified.
“Demon god,” Corvo corrected.
“Banished demon god familiar,” Vareck said. “Corvo, if this is your realm, can you open a portal out of here?”
The cat’s ears twitched flat. “No. I can only blink myself in and out of this reality. My power in this form is limited.”
“What of the Okalri?” Sebastian asked. “They seem pretty keen to help.”
“The who?”
“The Okalri. That’s what Sadie named these rock creatures after they found us.”
“You mean after they ambushed us because you fell asleep on watch,” she said. “Tell it how it really it is, Bast.”
“I said I was sorry, didn’t I? Are you going to keep reminding me of that every chance you get?”
Sadie squinted her eyes and nodded as she said, “Pretty much.”
The cat trotted up the steps, trying to get a better view of the group. He hopped up onto the chair, standing on his hind-legs, sniffing the air and looking around them. “Have they been feeding you?”
“I . . . yeah,” Sadie managed to answer, looking a little pale and still not quite over the initial shock.
“Ha! Oh, honey,” the cat sympathized. “They aren’t keen to help you. You’re being prepped.”
“Prepped? For what?” Sadie said, her voice raising in surprise.
“Could be for dinner. But a blood sacrifice is more likely. They find large offerings in hopes that their god will return. Little do they know I’m already here.” Corvo’s tail curled around his front paws. If cats could shrug, it would appear he had done just that.
“Well tell them not to,” Mara cried. What could he possibly be waiting for? Were they seriously trying to bulk them up for slaughter?
“You think they listen to me? I’m a fucking cat. The damn rocks can’t tell the difference between me and a raccoon. I mean nothing to them like this. They have no idea what happened to me.” The four fae silently looked between each other, Mara’s stomach curling in. How in the world were things getting more terrible by the moment?
“Get back to the castle, then. Get Kaia, Dorian, or one of my generals for help,” Vareck said.
The cat’s fur bristled as he turned in a circle. “But I was just getting comfortable.”
“Now, Corvo!” Vareck and Mara shouted in unison.
“Ugh, fine. I’ll go get help. Try not to get eaten while I’m gone.”
He jumped down, but before his paws hit the ground, he seemed to slip away into the darkness of his own shadow.
Vareck
Once they knew they were about to be sacrificed, for Corvo of all things, the food offerings didn’t hold the same charm.
Still, Vareck’s stomach ached with the neglected nutrition of the last few days. He grit his teeth, pushing the bowl aside as he sat down next to Mara. “How are you holding up?” It was a loaded question. He understood the situation was dire, but a better way to phrase the question escaped him.
“Fine,” she said.
Vareck didn’t need to be an expert on Mara to know that the word itself was a trap among women. Even if he didn’t know that, her physical state told him the truth of it. She didn’t seem to heal the way his blood allowed, a trait of the other half of his origin. He watched as she lay with her head on her sister’s lap. Sadie idly ate the inside of dark pink, spiked fruit as she combed through Mara’s hair with her free hand. His stomach growled again, but there was no way he would even consider taking a bite of food and giving those things satisfaction.
One of the smaller creatures called out in its incoherent language, appearing to gleefully stomp over to a larger Okalri that had a bundle of wood in its arms. Some of the twigs fell out as they walked, the little one doubling back to pick them up. Vareck couldn’t help but wonder about them. Even if they looked like they were carved from stone, did they too have mates? Families? The smaller one looked as if it could be a child.
He realized there was so much he didn’t know about Corvo, even after all these years. He was his familiar. He said he liked to come here. Did he visit them to see how they were doing because he missed them? Did he create them? Or is it all something far more sinister than he could comprehend? Besides the rude welcoming, the occasional hearty grunts, and the spears . . . they seemed like innocent creatures.
“Looks as if they’re starting a pyre,” Mara groaned. “Nothing like coming all this way so we can be the blood sacrifice to a cat. Will any of you spare a few kind words as I burn?”
“Stop being such a drama queen, Mara,” Sadie snorted. “They always make a fire come evening. Every night the mountain freezes in a way I thought hell never could. It’s a good thing they found you before the land frosted over.”
Frost? Did the curse of Faerie go as far as the hell realms? Vareck breathed out slowly as the thought squeezed his heart.
He turned his face from the pair, trying to distract himself as he spotted Sebastian laying on his stomach against a rock. One of the creatures lightly pounded their fists into his shoulders. Mara seemed to notice this at the same time.
“Is . . . is that Okalri giving you a massage?” Mara asked, quirking her brow as the prince let out a soft, pleasurable groan.
“More likely tenderizing their dinner,” Vareck answered bleakly.
“You worry far too much, Uncle.” Sebastian took a long breath through his nose, rolling his shoulder before letting the Okalri continue its work. “There is nothing we can do until your familiar returns. Have a little faith in him.”
“So, this talking cat is just a normal thing for everyone?” Sadie asked.
“He’s actually kind of nice when he’s not being a brat. I mean, he has an attitude like a cat, but he grows on you,” Mara said, closing her eyes once more. The way she seemed at rest in her sister’s arms warmed Vareck’s heart. Finding Sadie brought them one step closer to his own goals. Now, he just needed to ensure their survival.
“Trust and faith in Corvo isn’t my concern. Time is,” Vareck noted. “I would rather have a plan in case Corvo gets held up. Have they made any indication that they understand our language?