Chapter 26
I tried to get up. Bile rushed to the back of my mouth, a sure sign that I had a concussion.
Everything hurt, including the thorny vine wrapped around my ankles.
I managed to sit on my knees and had to take a second to regain my focus.
Arelis and Wylen had started to move again, but Tris and Kaelan were still slumped in a pile of broken pots, candles, and dirt.
I wanted to help them, say something that would let me know they were okay.
But right now, the man with the power wasn’t paying attention to me, and I figured it was much better to go unnoticed.
Reaching behind and underneath my hips, I yanked on the stupid vine until I was completely free.
With my hands pressed against the wall, I slowly crawled up to standing.
And then I threw up all over the floor.
“That is disgusting,” Saoirse said. She was almost down the stairs, and I was surprised and a little concerned that I hadn’t noticed her.
Sauntering toward me, she tilted her head to the side.
“You know, I thought I recognized you yesterday. You’re that reporter, right?
The investigative journalist who always gets to the truth of the story. ”
She’d said that last part in a mock high-pitched tone that mimicked the introduction Rothwick On Air had created for me and my reports. Saoirse was a bitch, and I wasn’t going to let her get away with it. I would do something as soon as I could move again.
Arelis was finally standing, pulling the female halfling’s attention away from me. “Ian?” she cooed. “Please stop playing around and take care of that bloodsucker.”
Ian never looked at Saoirse as he was way too focused on Arelis.
So much so that he hadn’t noticed Wylen sneaking around the edge of the room and over the bodies to gain an advantage.
Arelis darted forward, but Ian got his power out first. The vampire warrior screamed and hugged herself, trying to cope with what I could only imagine were more broken ribs.
Wylen had grabbed a large porcelain pot and was just about to smash it over Ian’s head when one of the vines from the wall of plants along the stairs whipped out and grabbed his wrist. Saoirse jerked her chin to the side, and the vine followed suit.
Wylen stumbled backward, dropping the pot and falling into the faux wall as he tumbled under the stairs.
It was the distraction Arelis needed. Ian never saw her coming. In a flash of black, Arelis jumped over Ian’s head, landed behind him, and snapped his neck before the man even had a chance to scream.
Ian crumpled to the floor, and for the first time, I saw the fear on Saoirse’s face.
Tris was moving again. So was Kaelan. Wylen slowly crawled out of the empty space beneath the stairs, brushing cobwebs off his shoulders and retying his hair back into a ponytail again.
But he didn’t stand, and I knew that last move had taken a lot out of him.
Those carvings in the wall seemed to suck out every bit of his energy, too.
And knowing what happened down here, there was no mistaking the intent of the symbols and their ability to overpower.
This was the place where the pure-bloodied fae came to die.
Arelis helped Tris and Kaelan to their feet once again, the three of them standing together like a wall as Saoirse watched. In a move so tiny I almost missed it, the halfling took a step backward toward the stairs. First, one small step. Then another. She was trying to escape.
“Oh, hell no,” I shouted, launching myself at her.
She was only a couple of feet away from me, but the space seemed to grow as I flew through the air.
My shoulder slammed into hers, knocking us both sideways.
But where Saoirse managed to grab the banister, I fell straight to the ground, landing hard on my side.
“Ow,” I mumbled, wondering why I kept attacking people like I’d been trained as an athlete.
Saoirse smiled down at me, pure evil dripping from her skin.
She flicked her hand a couple of times, and as I watched, I failed to notice a new vine snaking down around my neck.
She squeezed her hand into a fist, and I gasped as the vine tightened around my throat.
It had thorns, and it was thick, and I was barely able to notice my friends starting to surround her while she tried to kill me.
“You know, you could have joined us, Sosie,” she sneered. “I would have shown you just how powerful your gift could have been.”
“Not…interested,” I stammered through my limited breath.
“That’s really too bad,” she cooed, squeezing the vine tighter. “You would have loved…” Her words trailed off when Wylen snuck up behind her and grabbed both of her arms. He wasn’t fighting with her per se, but I had a feeling he was flooding her with that warmth that he’d once given me.
The vine dropped to the ground, and I followed right along with it. Tris was by my side in a flash, somehow recovering from that very hard hit against the wall. “Sosie, are you okay?”
I nodded, too afraid to speak. Lifting my elbow, I gestured for Tris to help me up.
It was a slow go considering the room was still spinning and my head was still throbbing, but I eventually made it.
Tris escorted me closer to the center of the room, where Wylen had forced Saoirse to sit on one of the metal plant shelves, and Arelis was busy dragging the dead halflings into a corner .
I gave Kaelan’s hand a squeeze, and he smiled back at me. “You look terrible,” I teased.
“Right back at you,” he replied, his voice a bit scratchier than normal.
The three of us watched Arelis continue cleaning up while Wylen whispered to Saoirse in a foreign language.
He kept pointing to the symbols on the wall behind the dead fae and spitting his words in her face.
I thought I heard him say “troll” once or twice, but I didn’t know for sure.
Saoirse said nothing. She was staring into his eyes, completely enthralled and probably physically unable to move.
That was the power of Wylen’s magic. The ability to subdue.
“Oh,” I said out loud, suddenly piecing it all together. This was how Wylen hunted. He didn’t beat and kick his prey into submission. He soothed them into it willingly.
“What?” Tris asked.
I shook my head. “Nothing.” When I saw his suspicious look, I added, “I’ll tell you later.”
“Is Malakai really gone?” Kaelan asked, choking back tears.
Like she’d just remembered her friend, Arelis stiffened and glanced up toward the small window. Her sharp eyes then focused on Wylen and Saoirse, who were having their own little interaction, before looking at me and Tris. “Are you two okay?”
“Yes,” we said together.
“Good.” Back to her usual self, Arelis ran out of the basement so fast I only felt her tailwind.
Kaelan shook his shoulders. “I will never get used to that.” He looked toward the window. “I really hope Malakai is all right. Gil would never forgive himself if Malakai were killed because of him.”
Standing between the two men, I reached out and wove my fingers in theirs. Tris gave me a squeeze, and Kaelan nudged my shoulder, whispering thanks in my ear. “What now?” I asked Wylen.
The blond fae looked at me, and I immediately felt my heart break.
Since he started touching Saoirse, he’d aged fifty years.
Dark circles surrounded his wrinkled eyes, his skin sagging on his face like he’d lost a bunch of weight.
And his hands were spotted with age and time that hadn’t really passed.
Wylen focused on Saoirse again, standing to his full height even though I could see that it took a lot out of him. He was holding something in his hand. “Where did you get this?” he commanded.
Saoirse just stared.
“Sosie?” Wylen waved me over, so I walked around the shelf currently holding the enthralled halfling and stood next to him. “See if you can make her talk. Find out where she got this.”
He shoved a pendant into my hand that he must have ripped off the empty chain now hanging around her neck.
It was half the size of my palm, made of a purple stone with what looked like diamonds surrounding the inset.
When I looked closer, a small spiral of light danced inside the stone, and no matter which way I turned it, the light never disappeared.
“Whoa,” I breathed. I had a sinking feeling that this pendant wasn’t from our world at all. Had Saoirse been to Ashtabulah?
Looking down at the evil halfling, I did my best to wrap her in my fog. It wasn’t easy because my head still didn’t feel very good, but with Wylen’s calming ability and my persuasion power, we just might be able to pull this off.
“Saoirse, where did you get this pendant?” I asked her.
In slow motion, she turned her head toward me. “Beyond the gates,” she whispered.
I looked up at Wylen in surprise. “Someone from Ashtabulah gave this to you?”
“Yes.”
Wylen covered his mouth and began to pace. I was starting to learn that this was his thing when he got upset. Granted, his movements were much slower, but it still put a healthy dose of fear in me. If Wylen was anxious …
“Where is Gil?” I asked. Saoirse just shook her head. “Where did you find all of the fae?”
“Around.”
“Who told you about them?”
She tilted her head from side to side like she was listening to her own soundtrack. “The thing that lives under the bridge.”
Shit. I’d been right. “Are you talking about Razi?” I noticed Tris shift when I mentioned the troll’s name.
“Am I?” she whispered.
“Who gave you the pendant?” Wylen asked again.
“The most beautiful man in the world.”
“Why?” I cut in.
“To get the Bladesmith.”
It had sounded like another blabbering, but the way Wylen reacted had me on edge. “What is it?”
“It’s the queen.” He looked at me wide-eyed and completely taken aback. “She took Gil.”
“Your queen is a beautiful man?”
“No, no.” He shook his head. “That’s her consort.”
“People actually call him the most beautiful man in the world?” Kaelan made some kind of noise, and Tris huffed a laugh.
“Not people . The fae. And yes, that is how Oisín is known by his people.” Wylen scratched his head and held out his hand. I dropped the pendant in his palm, and he swore. “The queen knew this whole time.”
“Is she the one who sent you?”
Wylen seemed to think about that for a moment. “At first, yes, I thought it was under her orders. But…” He shook his head like it would clear his mind. “But I guess I just assumed.”
“And we all know what happens when you assume,” Kaelan added with a faint laugh.
Wylen didn’t get it. He stumbled to the side, and I barely caught him before he collapsed to the floor. Tris rushed to my side and took most of the fae’s body weight. “Come on, buddy. Let me help you out of here. ”
“What about her?” Kaelan asked, pointing to Saoirse. The woman could barely hold her eyes open anymore.
Wylen sighed, giving me a look that I didn’t understand.
Pity? Sorrow? He stepped away from Tris and took a deep breath.
Weaving back and forth, he finally fell to his knees in front of Saoirse.
He reached forward, taking her head in his hands.
She shuddered as that relaxing energy moved through her like a good dose of drugs.
Wylen hummed a beautiful song, the notes slowing down as his own energy waned.
Saoirse’s eyes focused only on him, enthralled with his power and his beauty.
The song hit a high note I was surprised Wylen could reach followed by a cadence of two notes back and forth, back and forth.
On the third set of notes, Wylen whipped his arms to the side and broke Saoirse’s neck.