Chapter 3 #2
I flew through the opening, scanning the room the way the hunters had taught me.
Look for exits and places that could conceal an assailant; never leave your back unguarded.
A vast storage room opened before me, containing all manner of strange suitcases, trunks, and containers bound with cloth and rope.
Shelves were crammed, and much of the floor space was filled, save for a maze-like pathway to navigate the room.
The glitz of the lobby was entirely swallowed up here, the air thick and charged with magic. The fairy’s presence had to compete with a simmering stew of various pulses and rotting enchantments, things I couldn’t sort through all at once.
“Sylv!” Jon’s voice made me stiffen.
I whirled to find them standing in the hallway, looking all around until they found the door. Flying toward them, I caught their harried gazes—only to have the door slam shut, nearly clipping my outstretched hand. The lock clicked into place with sinister, metallic finality.
The hunters immediately rattled the doorknob, their efforts turning violent as the door refused to budge.
“Sylv, unlock the door!” Cliff’s command was muffled through the heavy wood.
“That wasn’t me!” I shouted back. “It’s deadbolted from this side, too!”
I searched every inch of the door for a way to unlock it from my side, but my tugs of frost magic rebounded uselessly off both the wood and metal.
Hairs rose on the back of my neck as one of the trunks, bound with thick steel chains, gave a menacing growl and rattled its shelf. I lifted my hands, spellwork misting the air around me. After a moment, the creature within settled back into silence.
What the hell is being stored here? The sheer number of containers was dizzying, and I couldn’t help but picture them all bursting open at once, unleashing the horrors within.
“Sylv, stand back,” Jon said.
After a heavy pause, a vicious crack rattled the door with a well-placed kick. Still, nothing.
There was no getting through. Though the room was wide enough to house five industrial-sized shelves on either side of a four-foot aisle, I felt utterly entombed.
Flitting higher, I peered past the shelves until I spotted the back wall.
There was another door, this one sporting a window.
The spotless glass framed a set of stairs leading downward, connecting elsewhere in the sprawling hotel.
Red velvet curtains were parted at the base, providing an occasional glimpse of employees moving about on the floor below.
Another exit?
If I could get through, perhaps the employees would be too busy to notice me. I drifted toward the door for a better look, trying to make out what they were doing.
A single row of fluorescent bulbs illuminated the room, leaving plenty of shadows to eat away at the corners.
My skin prickled as I inched my flight toward the door, scanning various trunks and cloth-bound parcels as I passed.
Some of them looked downright ancient. Sheets covered several cages, not quite covering the bottom of the bars.
Disturbed by the hunters’ attempts to open the door behind me, creatures stirred restlessly, beaks and snouts nosing the bases of the enclosures.
Something slithered with a faint rattling that chilled my blood.
Cliff and Jon’s ruthless struggle to break inside faded as I reached the window and peered through.
A massive room lay beyond the curtains like some kind of elaborate, otherworldly ballroom.
The door was ajar just an inch like the other.
Perhaps I could circle through the venue and reunite with Jon and Cliff elsewhere.
Or it’s a trap.
A buzz of wings drifted into earshot behind me. “Trust me, you want to stay well away from there.”
I shrieked and fired off a spell toward the voice.
The other fairy shouted in alarm, ducking my spear of ice. He flinched as it shattered against the wall and sent one of the nearby captive creatures chittering indignantly. He held up his hands, eyes wide.
“Whoa—take it easy! No need to go putting holes in me, I swear!”
I kept my hands aimed at him, my heart still hammering. What was he playing at, wearing that innocent smile after leading me here?
“It’s okay,” he went on, expression growing sheepish.
“I’m so sorry to sneak up on you. Force of habit.
I had to get you alone for, you know, obvious reasons.
” He angled his head toward the door that Jon and Cliff were still trying to force their way through.
They cursed as yet another lockpick shattered.
“You sealed the door,” I said, somewhere between a question and an accusation.
“You don’t like the privacy?” The fairy winced as he glanced at the containers around us. “I mean, it’s a creepshow in here, but it’s off-limits to guests. Totally isolated. I knew we could talk here.”
“And who are you, exactly?”
He blinked, stammering for a second. Under other circumstances, his sudden shyness might have been sweet.
“I’m Ben,” he said with a little wave as though we were having a pleasant conversation and there weren’t two hunters clawing murderously at the door.
Pushing his hands through his hair, he drifted into a pacing flight back and forth in front of me.
“This is amazing!” he said. “I didn’t think I’d see another fairy before the auctions.
I didn’t sense any in here earlier and figured it was a lost cause to get lucky so early.
Our kind would be kept under tighter lock and key, wouldn’t they?
” He paused, eyeing me with more urgency.
“Do you know where the others are being kept? Did they get away, too?”
“Others?” I wondered if there could possibly be fairies trapped inside some of the cages in this room. “What are you talking about?”
Ben inched closer earnestly. “I’m sorry—you must be overwhelmed.
You don’t have to worry. I’m a friend, really.
” His blue eyes didn’t waver from me, nearly indigo in their depth.
I didn’t see the magic pouring out of his hand until it was too late, but it wasn’t an attack.
A speck of dirt in the middle of his palm transformed into a flower with lavender petals.
He held it out to me, a peace offering that I cautiously accepted.
It was impressive work, but an earth affinity would be at a disadvantage in a human-made structure—I hoped.
“Friends don’t corner each other in dark, scary places,” I informed him, tucking the flower’s stem into the hip pocket of my leggings.
He glanced down, chuckling. “I’ll have to remember that.”
Another deafening though fruitless crash against the door made us both flinch.
Several caged creatures responded with agitated noises: buzzes, caws, and hisses I couldn’t begin to identify.
I spotted a hulking cage in the far right corner.
It was empty now, but the bars were warped, and a label dangled from a single nail at the top.
Harpy, adult. DO NOT APPROACH UNAUTHORIZED.
In a blink, I was back in the snow-dusted woods with Jon, fighting for my life against the manic creature. At the time, it hadn’t made any sense why a harpy would be in Colorado of all places.
It had escaped from this hotel. But more questions surfaced, each more harrowing than the last, as I drank in the sheer amount of cargo being stored in this room.
Ben regarded me grimly, looking far more concerned with the hunters on the other side of the door, their muffled efforts continuing.
“Sylv?” he said slowly. “Is that your name, or is that just what they call you?”
“Sylvia,” I corrected, trying in vain to gather my patience.
“Open the door—now. I know it’s hard to believe, but they won’t hurt you.
They think I’m in danger. But we can talk this out, and you can tell us more about what exactly is going on in this place.
We can help you find any other fairies who are trapped. ”
His puzzled frown did not inspire hope. “You don’t have to answer to those brutes anymore. You’re safe now.”
“Stars above,” I said through a brittle laugh. “My life would be so much easier if everyone weren’t trying to save me. I don’t need your help, Ben.”
“He grabbed you!” The burst of emotion in his words made me recoil, but he didn’t rein it back in. “I saw it. You were trying to get away, and he was forcing you to—”
“I’m sure it looked bad.” I tried to soften for the sake of calming him down.
“But they’re my friends—really. We had a disagreement.
Please, you have to let them in. A hotel worker was already on their ass, and this building is choking on power I’ve never sensed before.
If someone gets the jump on them, they could be killed. ”
“That’s great!”
So much for calm. Frost crackled along my fingers as I raised my hands. “Unlock the door!”
Ben jolted back, looking thoroughly disappointed—pained, even. “This isn’t good,” he sighed. “She’s totally brainwashed, isn’t she?”
“Who are you talking to?” Oh, stars, he might be utterly insane. “You know what, I don’t care. Unlock the door, or your wings will snap right off from frostbite.”
An smooth, unfamiliar male voice came from behind me.
“Sorry, Benny. Threats are where I draw the line. You know what you have to do.”
Stiffening, I pivoted midair to find a well-dressed human stepping out of the shadows against the wall.
His keen eyes, nearly electric blue in their intensity, made my mouth go dry.
Shit. There was no magic coming off of him.
With all the strange power looming around me, I hadn’t been prepared to face an ordinary human.
But he did look like he would fit right in among the people lounging in the lobby, those who had been invited to luxuriate in this bizarre and sinister place.
He raised his hands innocently. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to supervise.”