Chapter 5
Kieran
“Just don’t…” Bria held up her hand to Lexi as the crew stepped out of the vehicles at the portal site. “Don’t fly off the handle. Let Kieran handle it.”
The portal waited just up ahead, and the surrounding area was certainly something.
It was like a superstore for realm crossers.
Horses swished their tails or ran around their large enclosures.
Goats and sheep roamed. Wagons were in neat rows off to the side, and three huge barns spread out on the other side, with tackle and other supplies.
People in actual uniforms waited near a saloon.
Across from the wagons, he could just see a counter within a rectangular building, someone ringing up a purchase.
This wasn’t just attendants helping; this was a business.
The Chesters, who were often wary of or outright hated magical people, and who tried to separate themselves from magic, were opening their arms to fae.
To a race ten times more dangerous than a magical human ever would be, at least now that this world had the Accords and the many drawn-up truces between magical and non-magical societies.
Fucking idiots.
“Don’t fly off the handle?” Lexi mumbled, her fists clenched so tightly that her knuckles were white.
“We need supplies—”
“Oh, we’ll get the supplies. Don’t you worry about that.” She walked beside the pen for the goats, looking in. “Why the fuck does anyone need a goat? What, do they want fresh goat’s milk to go with their breakfast as they journey to their lands?”
“At least they give milk—why the sheep?” Jack asked, following closely behind Lexi. His anger at the setup was palpable. Everyone’s was. “The journey is supposed to take a day at a moderate pace—are they planning on knitting a sweater in that time?”
Zorn cut right to Kieran, falling into step. “What’s the plan?”
What he was really asking: Should we let Lexi kill any fae she comes across?
If she didn’t, Kieran damn well would. It was time to ensure the fae knew they were not welcome here. As far as Kieran was concerned, it was time they figured out a way to not just monitor the portals but destroy them altogether.
“Leave the humans alive, but make it very clear that if they speak one word about our crossing, we’ll make them sorry. I’ll want information from them when we get back.”
Zorn nodded and peeled off to the side, motioning for Henry and Amber to accompany him. They were the best at shutting people up in a very short amount of time.
“Hey there.” An attendant sauntered toward Kieran as another headed to greet Lexi, their eyes scanning Kieran and Lexi’s people.
Kieran had only brought their inner crew, nearly a dozen people.
Even that might be too many. They needed to get through the Faegate and then through Faerie without drawing too much attention.
No one would’ve stayed home, though. Not even Mordecai.
He’d threatened to come on his own if they didn’t take him.
It was for the best. This team, as it was, had a staggering diversity in magic and a gut punch of power.
At the Demigod Summit every year, when they fought the crews of other Demigods, Kieran and Lexi’s team dominated.
They were masters at their various magical strengths, and they worked together better than anyone else in the magical world.
Individual Celestials might have more power, but they weren’t family.
Not like Kieran and his team. They wouldn’t be as effective.
Kieran wholeheartedly believed that. They all did.
Soon they’d be proving it.
“You folks magical?” the attendant asked, bracing his hands on his hips and squinting against the glare of the sun.
“Babe,” Kieran called to Lexi. “This man has a question for you.” Kieran stepped around him and headed for the wagons. Lexi’s magic was ten times scarier than Kieran’s. She’d get the point across way more effectively.
“Yes, we’re magical,” Lexi said, anger blistering through the magical bond she and Kieran shared, forged in intimacy and strengthened over and over with love.
“Oh well, I’m sorry to say, you can’t pass through here. This portal is for—”
He let out a high-pitched scream as Lexi’s magic whipped out.
Kieran knew she was slicing through his middle, raking against the very foundation of his being.
It was a terrifying and painful feeling, a primal fear that no one could be prepared for.
Even training against it didn’t fully chase away the complete and utter vulnerability it caused.
“We can’t pass through here?” She stopped in front of him and stood over his cowering form. “You let fae pass through here—”
He continued on. Donovan, the sun highlighting his blond hair, led two horses toward the wagons. Dylan and Boman led two more. None of the horses wanted Mordecai near them. That was the problem with being a wolf shape-shifter.
“We definitely need to shut all this down.” Thane met Kieran near the wagons. “We shouldn’t have been blind to this.”
“No, we shouldn’t have. Nor should we have been complacent about the portals on the magical side.”
Hindsight.
With the others readying the supplies, Kieran filled the doorway of the cashier station and found a female attendant shaking on the ground behind the counter.
She could hear the screaming from the attendants Lexi was using to make an impression.
A man huddled against the wall, in the middle of purchasing supplies.
Various items and tags lay strewn about the counter.
“Rounded ears,” Thane said, looking around Kieran. “Human. Non-magical, too, or else they wouldn’t be serving him.”
Kieran stepped in and grabbed the man by the shirt. He hoisted the man up the wall, holding all his weight with one hand. A Demigod’s excess strength sometimes scared Chesters more than magic.
“Why are you here?” Kieran asked in a growl.
“I—I…I…I…” The man was reduced to sobs. “My h-house. I want m-my house b-back.” He heaved, retching into the air. “D-d-deal. M-make a d-deal. I-I got passage. I-I-I got p-passage.”
“To where?”
“R-Ruby kingdom. Ruby! Please. P-please, don’t hurt me.”
Kieran lowered him an inch, looking back at Thane.
Kieran knew the names of all seven kingdoms—eight, including the overarching Diamond kingdom—and their affinities for the natural elements of Faerie, having studied with Zorn the moment he’d heard they might have a fae problem.
This was the first he’d heard of fae infiltrators from the Ruby kingdom, their element aligned with fire.
He wasn’t sure what they’d wanted with Daisy, only knowing it had something to do with those magical stone and crystal items, but other factions of fae were working their way into the human realm for different reasons.
This guy had gotten passage, and that had to be granted by royalty.
Fae were looking for desperate humans with which to barter. The gods only knew what they wanted.
Shivers washed over Kieran at that thought. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good for the human realm.
“Only a fool barters with fae,” Kieran told him, dropping him to the ground. “You might get your house back, only to realize you unknowingly granted them to stay, as well. Or something much, much worse. Dealing with their kind never ends well. Now get out of here. This portal is closed.”
Kieran stood back. When the man didn’t move, Kieran gave him a light kick in the thigh. The man started, scrambled up, then went running.
“What could fae want with a magic-less human?” Thane asked as Kieran stepped out again. He didn’t bother sparing a word for the cashier. Either the other attendants would fill her in, or Zorn would be in shortly to handle it. Lexi had done the heavy lifting.
“Same thing as Daisy?”
“Right, but what did they want with Daisy? We all handled those chalices or whatever they were. Why her specifically?”
“The easiest way to get information on us?”
Thane shook his head as Kieran followed one of the wagons around to the back.
“None of the fae have had any interest in our territory or our faction. Can’t be that.
When they worked with Demigod Lydia, they dealt with her directly.
They made a deal, she forfeited, and they rummaged through her memories before they killed her.
They don’t have much fear of Demigods, so why choose a magic-less Chester who didn’t work in our office and didn’t have access to all our secrets? ”
Kieran was at a loss. “I really have no idea. None. The fae in this world don’t make any sense, other than if it’s to collect magical items. That, at least, has some logic to it—an end game. Dealing with that Chester in there? What’s the point?”
Thane scrubbed his hand through his unruly hair as they heard a voice from off to the side. Mordecai, staying quiet and out of the way. Suffering from his grief for his sister. He’d stay reserved until needed, and then he would dominate. That was his way.
“A toy,” Mordecai murmured. “Non-magical humans make great toys. They can’t fight back. They aren’t as dangerous as magical people.”
He was quiet for a beat as Lexi passed, arguing with three ghosts from home. They wanted to come along.
When she was again out of earshot, Mordecai continued.
“They made a mistake with Daisy, though.” He pushed off the side of the cashier building.
“Daisy isn’t less dangerous than magical people.
Because of her upbringing and constantly having to assess the danger around her and find a way to kill it before it kills her, she’s ten times more dangerous than magical people.
Than you, Demigod Kieran. Than even Lexi.
She’s at home in the shadows, has no moral hang-ups where survival is concerned, and knows how to manipulate people, spy, and play games.
She won’t ever break. Not ever. She won’t give them the satisfaction.
If there is one human in all the world they shouldn’t bring into Faerie, it is my sister.
She’ll burn that place to the ground and wonder why we took so long to show up and join her in dancing around the flames. ”