Chapter 2 #2
“You acted like a monster,” Ava said, and immediately regretted the harshness in her voice when she saw him flinch. “I’m sorry. I didn't mean…But Serrik, you can't just kill every fae we encounter. Especially not if they're as confused as we are about what's happening.”
“I will kill more, Ava. I will kill every single one of them I come across. And I will refuse to feel remorse for it.” He turned away from her. “They are cruel. And if you do not think they will take every opportunity to spread their cruelty through this world, you are sorely mistaken.”
Ava looked at the humans again. The mother was holding her children close, whispering something that might have been prayers or might have been reassurances.
The businessman was staring at his hands, which seemed to be flickering between flesh and something that looked like tree bark.
The effects of whatever the fae had done to them were clearly ongoing. “Puck, can you undo what they did?”
“I—uh, I can try. I mean, it’s Unseelie magic, and I’m a half breed.
My magic is a bit unpredictable if I try to use all of one or the other.
” He scratched his head. “But I can give it a whirl, I suppose. The boundaries between self and other, between dream and reality, they’re blurry.
I guess I can try to use that to my advantage. ”
“Try, Puck. Please.” Ava frowned. She had to have hope that something, somehow, in some way, could be fixed. “Please.”
Puck approached the humans. He reached out toward the elderly man, his hands glowing with soft light. “I’ll try to take back the dreams. But fair warning, old guy—some gifts, once given, cannot be entirely withdrawn.”
The old man looked up at Puck, his silver tears still flowing. “Will it…will it stop hurting?”
“No clue, buddy.” Puck shrugged. “But that’s why I said ‘try’ and not ‘do.’ Sorry, not a Jedi. Just a half breed fae bastard.”
The old man nodded, though now he looked considerably more confused than before. Puck placed its glowing hand on his forehead. The silver tears stopped flowing, but the man's expression didn't change—he still looked like someone who had seen something beautiful and terrible.
“The dreams are quieter now,” he said. “But they are still there. I don't think…I don't think they will ever truly go away, will they?”
Puck moved down the line to the other humans, and while he was able to reverse some of the effects of the child-fae’s attempt at “play,” it was clear that none of them would ever be entirely the same.
The businessman's hands still flickered occasionally between flesh and bark. The children clung to their mother with the wide-eyed terror of those who had seen too much. “I’m sorry,” Puck muttered. “My kind can be real dicks sometimes.”
One of the children sniffled. “Mister? Mister, are you the Puck from the play?”
Puck grinned. “The one ’n only!”
“I played you last year…” The little kid wiped his eyes.
“I know, I just didn’t want to say anything and make you more nervous.” Puck crouched down in front of him. “I never miss a performance. I’ve seen every single one.” He smiled and reached up, poking the kid in the nose. “You were fantastic. I can never remember that line in act three, either.”
The kid smiled sheepishly, looking down at his feet. “Thanks…” He chewed on his lower lip. “Um…Mr. Puck Sir?”
“Yeah?” Puck smiled. “What’s up?”
“The scary ones were talking, and they…they were talking about how many of us they were…they were going to hunt.” The child stared down at his feet. “Are fairies evil?”
“No, they’re just like the ones in the play.. Sometimes we can be silly. And do silly things. It’ll all be okay in the end.” Puck mussed up the kid’s hair. “I promise.” He pointed back at her. “That’s Ava, and she’s going to make everything better.”
“Really?” The kid’s tone instantly perked up.
“Yeah.” Puck smiled brighter. “We’re on a quest!”
Fuck.
Serrik shot Ava a look. All she could do was shake her head. This wasn’t helping her argument that all fae shouldn’t be wiped off the face of the planet.
“Where are these hunting fae now?” Serrik asked the child.
And instantly the child was ducking back behind his mother. Whatever courage he had gathered up to talk to Puck was instantly gone the moment Serrik addressed him. Honestly, Ava didn’t blame the kid. Serrik was terrifying and had just slaughtered three fae without breaking a sweat.
“They’re—” It was the mother who answered, though not much braver than the kid. “They’re farther downtown. Closer to the Public Garden.” The woman pointed.
Serrik turned on his heel and started walking without another word.
Puck started after him. “C’mon, Ava.”
Ava looked at the humans they had helped—if what they had done could be called helping. They were still traumatized, still changed, still lost in a world that no longer made sense. “We need to get these people somewhere safe. We can’t just leave them here.”
Puck stopped next to her and leaned in close to whisper. “There is nowhere safe. Not anymore. The city—the whole world—is alive with nightmares and magical horrors they’re not prepared for now.”
As if to emphasize the point, the ground beneath their feet began to pulse with that same bioluminescent pattern they had seen in the streets. The bus stop's flowering vines began to grow more rapidly, reaching toward the humans with what looked like deliberate intent.
“Let’s go.” Puck sighed. “We can’t save them all.”
With a sinking feeling in her chest, she followed after Serrik. Puck walked beside her. She hated it. Every ounce of it. But he was right. When she caught up to Serrik, she had to ask the question she didn’t want to know the answer to. “Are you going to kill every fae we come across?”
“I have not attempted to kill Puck.”
“Mostly because you know you can’t.” Puck smiled at him innocently.
Ava shut her eyes and sighed. “Serrik, please don’t be pedantic right now, I’m not in the mood. Are you going to try to kill every fae we come across who isn’t somehow being useful or capable of giving us some kind of a strategic advantage?”
“Yes.”
Yep, that’s what she was afraid of. Now it was time to ask the stupid question. “Is there any way I can talk you out of this?”
“Not at this junction.”
That was better than she was expecting. “Great.” She paused. “Can you try not to?”
“I currently have no reason to hold back.”
“How about…because I asked?”
“They are slaughtering humans for sport. Why would you wish to spare their lives?”
“Because they’re predators on a hunt and somebody just rang the dinner bell.
They can’t really help it.” She sighed. “For the same reason I don’t really blame Valroy for his whole ‘I want to delete the universe’ compulsion.
The asshole is half void entity. He’s only doing what he was made to do.
Here. I’ll make a deal with you. If we come across a pack of fae who aren’t wholesale being dicks to the humans, can we leave them alone? ”
He hesitated. “I will consider it.” His tone was uncertain.
“Consider harder. We might need friends in this mess.” She tucked her hands into her pockets. “And allies in the fight with Valroy that we both know is coming.”
He nodded but stayed silent.
As they prepared to venture deeper into the nightmare city, Ava couldn't shake the feeling that Serrik's display of wrath was just the beginning.
The city pulsed around them, alive and aware, and she realized that their greatest enemy might not be the fae, or Valroy, or the chaos of the merger.
It might be Serrik.