CHAPTER 21

Mike stood next to her and concentrated on the sand by her feet. He was able to command it to form into a metal rod without the seat, so he created one out of the sand on the ground, then picked it up and screwed it on.

He sat next to Lily and put his elbow up on the bar. "I'll have what she's having."

The bartender made the drink and handed it to Mike, who sipped at it.

"Wow, these are good." He saluted the bartender and turned to face Lily, his earlier sense of fatigue gone, his head suddenly clear. "A bit has happened today. We found out that Cecilia is being held captive by the faerie queen, and now we're trying to do research so that we can open a portal to the faerie realm and convince the queen to give her back."

Lily spat out her drink, spraying the counter with multicolored drops of syrup. The drops sprouted legs and chased each other around until the bartender soaked them up with the sweep of a towel.

"Holy shit, Romeo, do you have any idea what you're going up against? You're going to try to sweet-talk the queen of the faeries? Are you insane?" Lily wiped her mouth off with one hand.

"Hey now, I don't see what the big problem is. I'm planning on having Beth help, too. We'll be very diplomatic." For now, he mentally added.

"Oh no, there's a big problem. If you thought demons were deceptive, then you need to understand that she's who we look up to when it comes to deception through words. The fae have been around much longer than demons. In fact, they were one of the first things created after the Old Ones were sealed away. I would argue that trying to convince the faerie queen to do anything she doesn't already want to do would be like staring into the sun and trying to convince it to blink first."

"You really think it will be that difficult?"

Lily nodded. "Here's something you need to understand. Demons can't lie when asked directly, it's supposed to be a throwback to when they were angels, part of the price for their fall, really. You get to be a prime douche-bag, but you still have to tell the truth when asked directly. The faerie queen not only gets to be a capital cunt about everything, but she will flat out lie to your face. The fae will claim that Fairie Law binds them, but guess who makes the laws? She thinks it's hilarious, being able to openly fuck over mortals with her magic. It's pretty much a game for her to sell you on your own misery, then watch you suffer the consequences of your agreement. The only things the fae can't break are vows or bargains done in writing. And even if you make a deal with her, she will try to nail you in the fine print."

"She sounds super nasty."

"Yeah, well she didn't used to be that way, but it's a hard fall going from being revered like a goddess to being the subject of tall tales and shitty children's cartoons. At least, that's my assumption."

"Hmm. The guy she sent here said that there was a deal about having someone here to escort the Caretaker to the underworld. That must mean the Architect made such a deal, right?."

The succubus laughed. "If that's the case, then the Architect must have been one hell of a negotiator. What could he have traded to the queen to get her to agree to something like that?"

"I have no idea, but maybe I'll ask her."

"Yeah, well, don't expect to walk in with your usual strategy of fucking up and then getting lucky at the last second. Honestly, the queen is someone you need to be very careful around."

"Sofia said something similar."

"Yeah, well, she's been around a long time too, so perhaps you should listen." Lily slammed the rest of her drink. "Enough talk about the faerie queen. Are you ready to show me what you've got?"

"I am." Mike cracked his knuckles and stood up. He walked away from the tiki hut and looked up the hill behind it. His home was on top of the hill, a permanent fixture of his dream world. "I've been working on this one for the last couple of weeks. Let's see what you think of it."

"I'll sting you if you start to wake up." Lily leaned back against the bar, tapping her fingers on the wood.

"Appreciate it." The Dreamscape could only be accessed while he was having a lucid dream, and even then, too much mental effort on his part was enough to wake him up. The training sessions with Lily helped immensely, but they only did them once every week or so, and he had honestly forgotten they were going to have one tonight.

In his mind's eye, he conjured an image of the Jabberwock in his front yard. The distant palm trees shivered, and he willed it into existence, pretending it had been there all along, only unnoticed. The distant beast pushed its way through the trees, loping toward them like a drunken dog, its tail dragging behind it.

"Wow, starting with the big guns already?" Lily hopped off her stool and waited for the beast to kneel down in front of her. "Not bad. The size is about right."

"Thanks." It was much harder to create replicas of living creatures. The first couple of weeks he had tried to do it, he had ended up with an assortment of animals that were mostly teeth and fur, but little else. After studying some anatomy books, he had been inspired to work on his own version of the Jabberwock, and had worked his way up from tiny lizards to the beast that now sat in front of them.

"Does it have a rope for a tail?" Lily leaned over to look, and Mike groaned. Sure enough, instead of a thick, reptilian tail, it was dragging a giant braided rope behind it.

"I mean, a rope isn't that bad." He tried to remember what the Jabberwock's tail looked like in the real world, causing the beast's head to briefly turn into a ball of static. "Shit, I can't seem to hold it."