Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
A figure sprang from the shadows and toppled me to the ground. My teeth rattled from the impact. As my attacker attempted to pin me beneath him and snatch my purse, I bent my knees and kicked out, buying myself precious seconds to scramble to my feet.
My adrenaline spiked from the shock, and fight or flight took over, awakening the dormant part of me that I kept hidden.
I jumped to the top of a headstone and expanded my wings.
As I launched myself skyward, he lunged again.
My wings caught the air with a snap, and I twisted, but his claws raked my pant leg and dragged me to back to earth.
“Give it to me,” he demanded. His eyes glowed like foxfire in the cemetery gloom.
I opened my purse and retrieved the stun gun I’d brought from the island. “Take this instead.” I jammed the device into the side of his neck. He collapsed on the ground, convulsing.
“Since when do the fae resort to petty theft?” I asked. At least I knew it wasn’t me they were after .
The stunned faerie reached for my ankle. I stamped on his hand. “Stay down,” I said.
He looked up at me, forlorn. “Kill me, then. Plant me deep. Let me join my people who sleep beneath this stolen ground.”
“Good grief. Always so dramatic.”
“I shall fade into shadow, into root, into the hungry earth itself.” His voice reverberated as he spoke, still affected by the stun gun. I resisted the urge to prod him again just to stop the nonsensical babble.
Sensing movement behind me, I spread my wings and flew skyward.
From my vantage point above, I watched as five more figures burst from behind tombstones and brick mausoleums, creatures of thorn and shadow that shouldn’t exist under iron-rich city skies.
Their faces were too long, their ears too elegantly arched, their limbs jointed in too many places.
These were no courtly fae with high-tea manners.
They were older, wilder, from the places between this world and the Sídhe.
I’d encountered them many times in my previous life. The occasions were never pleasant.
As I was out of reach, they fixed their attention on Vale.
The demigod remained perfectly still, every muscle coiled tight.
His father’s blood gave him speed and strength beyond mortal ken, but I’d bet good money it was his mother who’d taught him patience.
His hand inched toward the blade hidden at his hip.
“Your one o’clock,” I shouted, anticipating the first strike. I tucked my wings and dove.
Vale moved like liquid lightning, his blade singing as it carved a silver arc through the first attacker. The first faerie shrieked, a sound like tearing silk, but two more pressed in.
I hit the nearest one like a thunderbolt; together, we crashed into a headstone.
The marble cracked. Before the faerie could recover from the blow, I unleashed my serpents.
They hissed in chorus, tasting the problem in the air.
The faerie gaped at my serpentine crown, and I met his burning gaze with my own.
Stone spread like frost across his pale limbs. His mouth opened in a silent scream as his body calcified. I pushed off and launched myself back to the safety of the air.
Vale had dispatched another opponent and was engaged with two more, his bladework elegant and brutal. But another one was circling, possibly looking for an opening.
I folded my wings and dropped into a spiral, my serpents writhing in anticipation.
The fae scattered, but one was too slow.
My serpents struck like vipers, fangs sinking into the creature’s shoulder.
Paralysis venom, one of the gifts of my darker nature.
The faerie staggered, and Vale’s blade found the creature’s heart a moment later.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded. I only wanted defense, not death.
“What does it look like? Saving you.” Blood ran from a gash on his forearm.
“I had it under control.”
“Not from where I’m standing.”
“Then you might want to consider an eye exam for nearsightedness.”
“You have wings,” he said, accusatory.
“Only when they’re needed.”
“Gorgon mother. Mage father. What was your grandmother, a butterfly?”
“Some Gorgons have wings. Your father must’ve skipped that lesson.”
He hefted the handle of his blade. “Ready to finish this?”
We moved together, a new partnership forged in a single battle. Vale went low and fast, drawing the two remaining fae into his deadly dance. I went high, my wings carrying me over the combatants toward the brick mausoleum and the lurking faerie.
My opponent raised a hand, and thorny vines erupted from the earth, seeking me like hungry serpents. Headstones cracked wide open as the vines broke through them.
Bring it on, faerie . I’d faced far worse than plants. I banked hard and twisted through the gaps in the writhing mass.
A centuries-old oak groaned as the faerie pulled too much earth around it. He was stronger than he should be in the mortal realm, drawing power from roots that ran deeper than any grave. If that mammoth tree went down, we were all going with it.
I dodged the writhing vines and pelting rocks to hover a foot above my opponent. “Look at me,” I commanded, my voice carrying the weight of ancient curses. Of obligations I’d been too young and naive to understand.
The faerie tried to avert his gaze, but I asserted my will, pulling his face back toward mine.
His eyelids quivered as he tried in vain to shut them.
We locked eyes, and I felt the familiar zing of satisfaction as stone crept up from his feet, racing up his legs, across his long torso, freezing his expression in eternal surprise. The vines collapsed, lifeless.
Behind me, I heard Vale’s final strike, then blissful silence.
I descended slowly, my wings stirring the mist as I landed beside the stone figure. Vale limped over, breathing hard, his blade dripping black ichor. “That’s all of them.”
I surveyed the cemetery to make sure. “They’re fae,” I said, my serpents settling into watchful alertness around my head.
“Well, I didn’t mistake them for werewolves.” He observed my head. “Nice hair, by the way. Green suits you.”
I retracted my snakes and wings and returned to my human form. “Why do you think they attacked? Territory dispute?”
“Can’t be. The fae were driven out of this region centuries ago.”
A common occurrence once the Fates decided that humans were easier to control than the more powerful ancient fae.
The trio made the world uninhabitable for the older species, aiding humans with advancements that forced the fae into a realm entirely their own.
Iron was the nail in the fae coffin. The more iron objects humans produced, the less powerful the fae became, until they finally admitted defeat and evacuated.
It wasn’t often I crossed paths with the fae; even now on Evermore, there wasn’t a single one of their kind.
They tended to remain in the Sídhe, with the exception of a few types, including the rebellious ones who refused to concede defeat and vowed to reclaim what had been taken from them.
The thought gave me an idea. I spun around to find a dead faerie I hadn’t turned to stone. I crouched low to the ground.
Vale trailed behind me. “What are you doing?”
“Following a hunch.” I pulled down the collar of his shirt and there it was. A mark in the shape of a Celtic knot on his chest, right over his heart. I released the material and stood. “You’re wrong, Vale. This is a territory dispute.”
“You gleaned that from a Celtic knot tattoo?”
“I’ve seen that mark before. These fae are members of a rebel group. They call themselves Thornborn. ”
“Never heard of them. What’s their goal?”
“To extinguish the human race and reclaim the mortal lands.” The first attacker had felt entitled to more than my purse. He would’ve happily taken every piece of me.
“And you know this how?”
“I’m a reader, Vale. You’ve got that nice library. You should try it sometime.” I shifted my focus back to the fae. “If you want to interrogate the statues, I can undo the curse, but you’ll need to secure them in a safe place first.”
“I have people who can undo it. You finish what you started.” He moved the slab, revealing the tunnel entrance.
“What about the other bodies? We can’t leave them like this. It’s disrespectful.”
Vale balked. “Heaven forfend we disrespect the fae that tried to kill us.”
“This is your territory. I assume you have a cleanup crew at your disposal.”
“Of course. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you.”
Vale contemplated me. “You fought well. I think you might be overqualified for Evermore.”
“You only say that because you haven’t seen the havoc our aging population is capable of wreaking.”
He glanced at the tunnel. “I’ll be here when you’re finished, then I’ll walk you to the dock.”
“I don’t need an escort.”
“These dead fae beg to differ.”
“Key word is ‘dead.’” In truth, I wanted time and space to think.
It was a short ride back to Evermore. The walk to the dock would give me valuable extra minutes to process the day’s events without interruption.
Knowing the Neighbors, once I returned to the island, there would be nothing but interruptions .
“You’re in my territory, Miss August. That puts you under my protection. As you said, it’s right there in my title.”
“I appreciate the offer, but if I can’t walk alone through downtown Savannah, then I have no business working as a security officer on Evermore.”
“Fair enough,” he said.
“And next time you want to meet,” I said, “choose somewhere boring, like an active volcano.”
My comment coaxed a wry smile out of him. “Now where would be the fun in that?”
I climbed into the hole and down the earthen staircase to the ancient tunnel below.
It took me fifteen minutes in the tunnel to locate the mark. A Celtic knot carved into a wooden post, buried beneath layers of colorful graffiti on the stone wall.
Thank you, Harriet .