With a Golden Sword (DFZ Changeling Book 2), page 30
Valente nodded, but even that gesture was hard to get past his head’s magical ban against lying. He trusted and believed in Lola with all that was left of his heart, but she’d said the same thing seventeen times now. He’d never stop fighting at her side, but it was getting harder and harder to believe.
That was a critical weakness. Fairy magic depended on belief. If he let his faith in Lola waver, it would undermine everything they were trying to do. He had to believe it would work, and he was focusing on doing just that when Lola’s hand landed on his shoulder.
“I have to get going,” she said, looking at him with a soft expression that didn’t match her current face. “But I was wondering, when this is over, do you want to get dinner?”
He tilted his head in confusion, and her tourist’s face began to turn red. “I know you don’t eat actual food,” she said in a rush. “And the only restaurants left in Victor’s dystopia are corporate chains, but I still thought it might be nice to get out for a while. You know, just the two of us.”
Her hopeful look at the end nearly killed him. At any other point in Valente’s life, the invitation would have been a dream come true. Lola was seeking him out, asking for his company. It was what he’d wanted from the first moment he’d seen her shining through the darkness of their life under Victor, but…
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Watching her face fall as he spoke hurt worse than anything Orlando had done to him. Valente would have taken the words back right then if he could have, but his voice refused to work, because any denial would have been a lie. It wasn’t a good idea for them to be alone. If it was just him and Lola, all the caution in the world wouldn’t be enough, and she’d be the one to pay.
“Let’s just focus on the mission,” he said, praying she didn’t notice the desperation in his voice.
“Yeah, sure,” she replied flatly, making him wince under his disguised helmet. “You keep this road on lockdown. The more idiots we can redirect away from Victor’s stupid multi-cathedral, the better our chances.”
“You can count on me,” he said, which was the absolute truth. Even if his only role in this plan was to sit on his bike and direct tourists into a fairy’s maze, he would do it to the best of his ability. It was the only thing he could give her now, but it still stabbed when she walked away, her frumpy tourist body slumping like a deflated balloon.
He almost got off his bike to chase her before he caught himself. His hand still shot out, reaching after her as if he could snatch it all back. It was a stupid, pointless gesture, but at least the sight of his hand was a good reminder of what was at stake. Even with Lola’s beautiful magic all over him, his fairy eyes saw the truth. Under the bright yellow of his costume’s fake glove was another: his own hideous, blood-stained gossamer, falling apart.
Only his fingers at the moment thanks to Simon, but the sight was still enough to make Valente drop his arm at once, clutching his numb hand against the handlebars of his fake bike as the ringing in his ears got worse and worse. He smacked his helmet a few times to make it stop, locking his eyes back on the empty road he was supposed to be watching but was suddenly shaking too hard to focus on.
There was no point in getting upset, he reminded himself. Dwelling on problems only made them worse, and it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known this was coming. Everyone had told him a knight couldn’t survive without his king. He’d thought he’d dodged that bullet when Simon brought him back from the dead, but Valente should have known he’d never get that lucky. He wasn’t a true fairy. He wasn’t even a beautiful blend like Lola. He was a hack job, a headless man stapled to a dead monster, and now that the knighthood oaths were no longer forcing it to function, Valente’s head was doing what all dead things did. It was rotting. Rotting like roadkill right off his shoulders, and he was rotting with it.
His black gossamer, which had once been so cold, was tepid and numb. He didn’t feel pain or temperature, didn’t get hungry, didn’t sleep. He was more like a ghost now than he’d ever been as the Black Rider, but uncomfortable as it was to feel death creeping over him, that wasn’t actually what Valente feared. Rotting alive was still better than being Victor’s slave, but he was terrified of Lola finding out.
She’d been so happy when she’d woken up and discovered they were all alive, though not as happy as Valente. He’d had his freedom, had his life. The only part of his paradise that was missing was Lola, and then, like a miracle, she’d come back. He hadn’t even cared that Victor wasn’t dead. The day she woke up, there was nothing Valente believed they couldn’t do. Then he’d taken off his gloves to touch her and noticed that his hands were falling apart.
It'd been all downhill from there. He’d gone straight back to Simon to see what could be done, but the problem was with Valente’s head, not his human soul. The best the blood mage could do was patch him back together, but there was no stopping the rot.
He’d almost told Lola then. Part of him, the cowardly part that was afraid to die, felt that she should know, if only so he could say goodbye. But the rest of Valente, the better half, refused to put that burden on her. As her copy had told him in the mailroom, all Lola had ever wanted was for everyone to be alive and safe. If he told her what was happening to him, he’d ruin that. He was going to die whether she knew or not, so until he actually keeled over, Valente was determined not to let her down.
Not that he was doing a good job so far considering how she’d just left, but there was no way Valente could keep his secret if he let himself be alone with her. He only had to hold out a little longer. If Lola was right about her plan, today might be the day the Hero died, and then he could fall apart in peace knowing he’d helped give her a world without Victor. Valente was telling himself to be satisfied with that when he felt something slide between his numb fingers.
He jumped a foot off his bike. His first thought was that the decay must have been even worse than he’d realized if someone had been able to get that close without him noticing, but the street was empty when he whirled around. Even the few businesses that had survived Victor’s purge were pulling in their signs and closing their doors in preparation for the Hero’s daily miracle. Valente was searching the emptiness with what was left of his feelers for the culprit when he realized the thing was still in his hand.
Dread spread through what was left of his body, bringing back a bit of the Rider’s cold as Valente looked down to see a memo pad clutched in his yellow-gloved hand. It was the same kind he used to write on when he wasn’t wearing his head, a rectangle of soft gray recycled paper held together with a flimsy wire spiral. The tiny notebook was so cheap, it didn’t even have a cover, which was how he saw the word written at the top of the first page in shaky pencil.
HELP.
Valente dropped the thing like he’d been bitten. He hadn’t touched a notepad since Lola had dropped a piano on him, but it was clearly real wood pulp, not gossamer. Since pads of paper didn’t just appear out of thin air, someone must have slipped it into his hand. It was the only plausible explanation, and yet…
Valente bent over, snatched the note pad off the pavement, and held it right up against his disguise’s face so his glowing eyes could see it through the visor of the motorcycle helmet that was hidden underneath. He stared as hard as he could, but there was no mistake. That was his handwriting.
He searched his pockets, feeling for the golf pencil he used to carry that had clearly been used to write the message, but he didn’t find it. Valente hadn’t thought he would. Just like the paper, he hadn’t carried a pencil since he’d gotten free, but if both the pad and the pencil weren’t his, where had the message come from?
He spent the next half hour trying to figure it out, but he was still as confused as ever when the Hero’s Hall lit up behind him, its stained-glass windows shaking with the roar of the crowd inside.
Want More Books?
Lola is only the latest addition to the DFZ. I have plenty more titles of all sorts for you to enjoy! Keep paging forward to see my top picks for new readers or visit www.rachelaaron.net for the full list, and, as ever, thank you for reading!
Nice Dragons Finish Last
As the smallest dragon in the Heartstriker clan, Julius survives by a simple code: stay quiet, don't cause trouble, and keep out of the way of bigger dragons. But this meek behavior doesn't cut it in a family of ambitious predators, and his mother, Bethesda the Heartstriker, has finally reached the end of her patience.
Now, sealed in human form and banished to the DFZ--a vertical metropolis built on the ruins of Old Detroit--Julius has one month to prove to his mother that he can be a ruthless dragon or lose his true shape forever. But in a city of modern mages and vengeful spirits where dragons are seen as monsters to be exterminated, he's going to need some serious help to survive this test.
He just hopes humans are more trustworthy than dragons.
"Super fun, fast paced, urban fantasy full of heart, and plenty of magic, charm and humor to spare, this self published gem was one of my favorite discoveries this year!" - The Midnight Garden
"A deliriously smart and funny beginning to a new urban fantasy series about dragons in the ruins of Detroit...inventive, uproariously clever, and completely un-put-down-able!" - SF Signal
The first and most popular DFZ series, complete at 5 books.
Try it now in audio, print, eBook, or Kindle Unlimited!
Minimum Wage Magic
The DFZ, the metropolis formerly known as Detroit, is the world's most magical city with a population of nine million and zero public safety laws. That's a lot of mages, cybernetically enhanced chrome heads, and mythical beasties who die, get into debt, and otherwise fail to pay their rent. When they can't pay their bills, their stuff gets sold to the highest bidder to cover the tab.
That's when they call me. My name is Opal Yong-ae, and I'm a Cleaner: a freelance mage with an art history degree who's employed by the DFZ to sort through the mountains of magical junk people leave behind. It's not a pretty job, or a safe one--there's a reason I wear bite-proof gloves--but when you're deep in debt in a lawless city where gods are real, dragons are traffic hazards, and buildings move around on their own, you don't get to be picky about where your money comes from. You just have to make it work, even when the only thing of value in your latest repossessed apartment is the dead body of the mage who used to live there.
"A catchy title, a plucky protagonist and a maximum effort by the author, honestly readers can't ask for more in the urban fantasy genre."- Fantasy Book Critic
"I love what Rachel Aaron has done with this novel to expand her stories within this unique world of her creation. I have developed a trust in her ability to write engaging stories of great characters which I feel most comfortable and eager to spend time with, and this book is no exception." - TS Chan
Try it now in audio, print, eBook, or Kindle Unlimited!
Forever Fantasy Online
Forever Fantasy Online is the gritty, battle-filled tale of a raiding guild vs the world featuring rules-driven combat, incredible tanking, and the good side of guild drama!
In the real world, twenty-one-year-old library sciences student Tina is invisible and under-appreciated, but in the VR-game Forever Fantasy Online, she's Roxxy--fearsome warrior, respected leader, and main tank of a top-tier raiding guild.
In the real world, James is a college drop-out drowning in debt, but in FFO he's famous--an explorer who's collected every item, gotten every achievement, and done every quest.
Both Tina and James need the game more than they care to admit, but their favorite escape turns into a trap when FFO becomes a living world. Wounds are no longer virtual, stupid monsters become cunning, NPCs start acting like actual people, and death might be forever.
In the real world, everyone said being good at video games was a waste of time. Now, stranded and separated across thousands of miles of new, deadly terrain, Tina and James's skill at FFO is the only thing keeping them alive. It's going to take every bit of their expertise--and hoarded loot--to find each other and get back home, but as the stakes get higher and the damage adds up, being the best in the game may no longer be enough.
“Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach have written an amazing story and a realistic LitRPG.” - The Fantasy Inn
“Forever Fantasy Online is definitely a book for the gamers among us.” - Fantasy Book Critic
“Excellent characters, an engaging story and geek humour. What more can one ask for?” - TS Chan
Try it now in audio, print, eBook, or Kindle Unlimited!
About the Author
Rachel Aaron is the author of over twenty novels both self-published and through Orbit Books. When she’s not holed up in her writing cave, Rachel lives a nerdy, bookish life in Broomfield, CO, with her perpetual-motion son, long-suffering husband, and far too many plants. To learn more about Rachel and read samples of all her books, visit rachelaaron.net!
© 2023 by Rachel Aaron. All rights reserved.
Cover Illustration by Luisa Preissler
Cover Design by Rachel Aaron
Editing provided by Red Adept Editing
As always, this book would not have been nearly as good without my amazing beta readers. Thank you so, so much Linda Hall, Julia, K Stoker, LJ Andrews, Sally Jenkins, Javier Rentas, Nancy Wise, Sarah Braun, Judith Smith, and Christina Vlinder.
Y’all are the BEST!
Rachel Aaron, With a Golden Sword (DFZ Changeling Book 2)
