Page 22 of Moonlit Guardians
“It was long time ago,” she says with a wave of her hand as if the particulars don’t matter. “Noni help you, but she still angry.” The house brownie climbs onto the table, gesturing for me to sit.
“Noni, did you ever see a dark male that looks fae but isn’t?” I ask. “Someone who shifts into the form of a hideous beast?”
“Oh! You mean the cockadoodle?”
“The cockatrice, yes,” I snicker as I lift the tea to my lips.
“Noni seen him.”
“What do you know about him?”
“Him reads from a big book and say scary stuffs in the dark. Noni get scared, so she leave. When Noni return, she see him on your throne and think he big stupid chicken. Then all the Unseelie Court have different leaders and Noni hurry to tell Master. Noni love her Master.”
“Can you describe what the book he was reading from looked like?”
“It big.”
“Anything else?” I ask with a tight lipped smile.
“Black and purple on the outside. Red words on paper.” Noni sits on the table and pouts in deep thought. “Oh! It make smoke when he say the words.”
I set the tea aside and reach for the food, not wanting to offend the tiny creature even when I have no appetite. “My suspicions are true, then,” I say, more to myself. “The cockatrice has my father’s journal.” I take in a deep breath as the truth dawns on me. Abedon and Elioth were working together before Morrigan and Silvanus trapped Abedon within the Hall of The Gods. It was once a light place, but it was later known as the Tomb of The Gods, because it was the same place where the gods were slain by Abedon during his first siege.
Noni scurries around the table nervously, causing the teacups to rattle.
“What else did you see Noni?” I ask. “I need to know so I can make sure nothing bad happens again.”
Noni sits on the edge of the table. Much closer to me than before and twirls her finger around a chestnut curl. “Noni see them hurt you. She see the Midnight Queen do bad stuff and tell the soldiers what to do and then talk to the naughty king about hurting us little fae.”
“The naughty king,” I repeat. “You mean Variant?”
She nods. “Variant.”
“Did the recipe for the talisman and theThrestcome from the book?”
She bobs her head once more. “And the ice knife used to hurt Mr. Vampire and the mirror Silvanus gots to hold Morrigan’s power and… some other stuffs Noni can’t remember.”
“The spell used to trap Variant and me? Did that come from the book?”
Her eyes open wide.
Morrigan has been using the teachings of my father’s dark magic as if it were her own. She used the very thing she swore to protect me from in my youth to control me.
“Morrigan is a fraud and a liar,” I say as I stand up and move towards the window to get air as the panic overwhelms me once more, but, instead, dizziness takes over and I fall to the floor. Searing pain in my abdomen moves through my body. I am still unwell and my services to Eilish may have pushed my healing back by a few days. Noni hurries over and takes a look at my injuries.
“Why you no ask Noni to heal you?”
“The mages already…”
She sticks her little tongue out at me. “Silly mages don’t heal like Noni.”
I stand long enough to collapse onto my bed. Noni climbs up using handfuls of bedding to get a firm grip. She pitter patters over and prods along my ribs with her tiny fingers. “Tell me more, Noni. Tell me what has been happening here before I arrived?”
“Well, they all been learning about what happened to them before they all came to The Veil. Fae was being killed so Morrigan can make her necklace with the big stone. The naughty king’s soldiers catch all of them and Master the only one who could save them, but saving them hurt him. When they in the palace, the pretty angel get taken by the naughty king. She cries a lot when she talk about what happen. He took away her control.”
I feel each word like a slug to the chest.
“Soldiers raid houses and take the angels’ wings, fae kept in cages, folks getting killed cause they don’t bow.”
