Shards of Glass (Fae Shifter Knights)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Gwen had played enough video games to know a side quest when she saw one.

There was a tiny figure sitting on the shelf above her computer monitor, tiny legs in ill-fitting pants swinging angrily.

They were larger than an action figure, a little smaller than a ball-jointed doll, and had a whole lot more attitude.

Gwen couldn’t decide if they were male or female; although they had long hair, they had androgynous features and no distinctive cues like lipstick or nail polish.

“What took you so long?” they asked crossly.

If their size had not been remarkable, the wings glowing from their back would have been, and Gwen let her keys drop into the bowl by the door to cover her confusion.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, Tinker Bell,” she said sarcastically.

What else was she going to say to a fairy who’d broken into her apartment and, judging by the empty wrapper next to her bowl of stale Halloween candy, robbed her of a KitKat?

“Oh, what a wit,” the fairy said sarcastically. “So clever. No one has ever thought to call me that. I am not a fairy.”

Gwen thought back over her day, wondering if she was more stressed out than she realized, or if she’d ingested something toxic.

She didn’t feel feverish, just annoyed. It was the day after Christmas and the Boxing Day party at the Tang Soo Do studio had been just as expected, with a lot of sugared up kids pretending to be tough with each other and forgetting how to listen to instructions.

Dinner with her parents had been no surprise, either, with a lot of thinly veiled suggestions that she was wasting her life, smothered in their affection and attempts at traditional American food.

Even work at the coffee shop had been ordinary, with short tempers and apologetic tips because of the season.

Gwen had been eager to retreat back to the escape of her apartment.

Her roommate was away for the holidays, and that meant a rare opportunity at using the big shared television for a rousing game of killing zombies and solving immersive puzzles without worrying about irritating anyone or having to be up for work early.

Well, this was a different kind of puzzle.

Very different.

“So, if you’re not a fairy, then what are you?” she asked, pulling her cross-body purse off over her head to hang it by the door.

“A fable.”

“Well, sure. Of course you are. A fable. What was I thinking?” If he—she? it? they?—could be sarcastic, Gwen could too. “Tinker Bell the fable.”

“Robin. I’m Robin.”

The name was no indication of gender either, and Gwen studied them from the corner of her eye as she sorted through the mail she’d picked up on the way in.

She still hadn’t identified anything in her day that might make her imagine little people with big attitudes squatting on a bookshelf in her room in front of her martial arts sword.

She dropped the bills and ads next to her keys. Christmas sales. Post-Christmas sales. Bills. A whole lot of give us your money. “Well, if we’re doing introductions, I’m Gwen. Nice to meet you. Should I call the landlord for pest control?”

Robin snorted. “What would you report? An infestation of fairies?”

“I’m sure he’s got some fable spray or sticky paper.

I bet his cat could take you on.” Robin was bigger than a fashion doll, probably about sixteen inches high, but the landlord’s cat sometimes took out pigeons and faced down neighborhood dogs without fear.

“So what have I done to deserve your…visitation? Are you here to point out how my life’s choices will lead me to ruin in a tale of Christmas redemption?

You’re a day or two late.” Had Robin arrived through a magical mirror?

Or simply popped into existence on the shelf by her sword and consolation awards?

“Do you hear rattling chains? I’m not a ghost.” Robin looked amused, but their voice was sharp. “Fable. I’m a fable, and I’m here because someone else dowsed you.”

“Dowsing…like a dowsing rod? Point it and find water in the desert?”

Frustration replaced any amusement in their face. “Like it, but also not. Magic in this world is vastly different than it is in my world. The seeker was looking for Henrik, as far as I can tell, and found you.”

“Oh, so you’re from another world? Like a fairyland? Who’s Henrik? Who found me?”

“I’m not a fairy!”

“Don’t get your doll clothes in a twist, Tinker Bell,” Gwen retorted. “You should be glad I’m trying to figure you out instead of swatting you with an electric bug racket. Who is Henrik?”

Robin chuckled, then stood. They tapped one of Gwen’s second place tournament trophies.

“Four knights and I came here from our world during a terrible battle and we were separated. I went searching for clues to find them and found a bleak who was dowsing for Henrik. I disrupted its spell, sent them down a false path, and followed their magic here. You might have found a glass ornament of a gryphon, or a large clueless man with golden hair?”

“Sorry,” Gwen said. “I didn’t bother with a Christmas tree this year, and no knights have shown up here, that I’ve noticed.

It’s a pretty small apartment so we probably would have run into each other by now.

” She couldn’t deny the appeal of the whole idea of a fairyland—or fableland—with knights and magic. “What’s a bleak?”

“A dark corruption of magic and man,” Robin said. They stepped off the shelf. Gwen gave a gasp and expected them to fall because their wings were far too tiny to provide lift for more than a puff of down, but they simply walked through space like they had no weight whatsoever.

Okay, rules of physics were apparently out the window. Gwen still hadn’t discounted the idea that she’d inhaled something on the subway home that was making her see things.

Robin came close and seemed to be searching Gwen’s face curiously. Gwen couldn’t tell what color their eyes were. Dark brown? Midnight blue? A deep forest green? They weren’t just black. “Its spell was dowsing for Henrik…and it found only you. Why would it find you?”

As Gwen was wondering if she should feel insulted, Robin shook their head. “I don’t mean to slight you, Gwen. But the magic was very certain that coming here would take me to Henrik.”

“A glitch in the code? Can you file a bug report with the developer?”

Robin’s mouth twitched into a smile that suggested that, even if they were from another world, they got the joke.

“Maybe you should tell me more,” Gwen suggested. “Do you want something other than a Kit Kat? A thimble of soda, maybe?”

Robin shook their head. “I don’t need anything.”

“Good, because I’m not sure I actually have a thimble.”

Gwen got a soda from the fridge and settled into her gaming chair. Robin fluttered down to the surface of the desk. They didn’t exactly fly, Gwen though, but it was more than just floating. “So, tell me more about this knight and your fairyland.”

“Are you familiar with parallel universe theory?” Robin perched on the case for Gwen’s headphones.

“Passingly,” Gwen said.

“I come from a world adjacent to this, a world of magic and light. But the crown was broken and the world was plunged into darkness and evil.”

“The crown? Like the Queen of Faery?”

Robin’s little mouth twitched in humor. “Like it, but also not. I was given charge of these knights, our world’s last hope, and during our final battle, we were thrust into this world.

A spell caught my knights to make them vulnerable and turned them into glass.

They were separated here, nearly a year ago, and I have been searching for them ever since. ”

“Literal magic,” Gwen said.

“Literal in a number of ways,” Robin said wryly. “Spells often take on unintended meaning, and there was a soup of conflicting enchantment going on at the time. Cerad—our enemy—was casting one thing, I was casting another. Henrik was doing a counterspell…it was a hot freaking mess.”

Despite their modern snark, Robin had an odd otherworldly serenity that Gwen found herself puzzled with. They were a mix of melancholy and merry that she couldn’t put her finger on, willing to jest, but with an underlying grimness.

They could be a hundred years old, Gwen thought. They reminded her of old men she knew who talked about wars that were only filmed in black and white and yet used cell phones for cat photos and memes. “And your quest for Henrik led you here for some reason.” She popped open her soda.

“I do not believe it was only chance, and my search has recently become more urgent. Trey, another of my knights, has finally been released, but evil from my world has followed us in the form of dours and was attracted by the breaking of his curse.”

“I can protect myself,” Gwen said confidently.

“I don’t know if you know about a thing we have here called martial arts, but I’m a black belt, fifth degree.

” It was always a strange mix of pride and humility to admit it.

She knew she didn’t look particularly strong or skilled, and the trophies on the shelf in front of her sword were all second places, not championships.

“You are a warrior yourself,” Robin said thoughtfully, glancing up at the sword above them. “But this is not an enemy you will be prepared for. Dours are evil shreds of magic itself, and they corrupt a human soul, turning a person suspicious, angry, and malicious.”

“Like certain news outlets and social media?” Gwen suggested.

Robin gave a huff of a laugh. “Like that. And also very much not. I fear that your people will have no protection from the darkness of our world.” Their little face scrunched up thoughtfully.

“Except that one did—the woman that unlocked Trey’s spell seems connected to him, and resistant to the dour’s power.

I wonder if you don’t have the same connection with Henrik in some way. ”

Gwen had to damp down a little thrill of excitement at the idea.

She had dated, wistful for the idea of romantic companionship, even if she was too practical to believe in true love.

She’d gone out with college classmates, and nice Korean boys her parents picked out, and she’d even tried dating apps.

But none of them lasted past the shine of possibility, always proving to be too desperate, too demanding, or too dull.

Maybe she’d been waiting for magic.

Gwen gave herself a little shake. She was more tired than she realized. She’d been up most of the night before doing a game tournament with people in other time zones, and hanging out with her parents and her brother had exhausted her.

“Well, this is great.” She made a show of yawning.

“But it’s really late and I’m still not sure you aren’t a figment of bad fruitcake.

I’m going to go to bed now, and you are welcome to hang out for a few days and see if this knight in shining armor shows up.

You can sleep in a drawer and eat my leftover Halloween candy if you want. ”

Robin flipped her off and Gwen fled to her bedroom.