Chapter 15
Once Lizzie left Tasha’s house, Stone was ready to go on their next mission. "Okay, now we can rescue whoever the fae seers captured."
"Where would they have the fae manacled?" Stone asked.
"In the basement. His parents rarely go down there," Tasha said.
"They're not fae seers."
"No."
Then they arrived at the location where Tasha would drop them off. Stone wondered if Lolita should stay in the car and just hide.
Before he could recommend it, she was out of the car with Rune. He was afraid Lolita would get caught, and they would end up having to rescue her too.
He didn't want Tasha involved. He didn't know what the fae seers might do to her if they discovered she was helping them rescue a fae.
"I'll unlock the basement window, if I can," Tasha said.
"Okay," Stone said. "Thanks for helping us." Though it was all Rune's doing, as she had befriended Tasha.
Tasha drove off down the street and parked in the driveway of the person who had confined the fae.
When they arrived at the house, Stone found the basement window and peered in.
Though he was invisible, fae seers could see the fae.
But anyone else—neighbors, the parents—wouldn't be able to witness them.
The basement window was dirty, but he could still make out some things below.
Boxes, cans, rubber tubs were stacked against walls.
A pegboard on the wall hung with iron tools—pliers, wrenches, a hacksaw—each one deliberately within sight of the captive.
The rubber tubs of Christmas decorations made makeshift walls to hide the fae from view should anyone happen to come down the stairs.
Fang was sitting on the bare floor, manacled to the wall. The manacles were heavy and unyielding, chains as thick as tree roots that bound him to the mortal world.
He wasn't even afforded a blanket or a mattress.
"Fang," Stone told Lolita and Rune.
They peered in. No one else was in the room, just the fae. Stone tried to open the basement window. It happened to be unlocked. He figured the fae seers thought the fae wouldn't be able to get out because he was manacled in iron.
They waited, though, before opening it. Tasha would probably end up in the basement, and they would see whoever had manacled Fang.
Stone had to admit he would be fine leaving him there. But he knew it was too dangerous for the fae. The fae seers might kill him.
They heard people coming down the stairs and feared they were too late to free Fang. They hid and listened. Why didn’t he get himself out of the situation, like the Grand Master had said they could if it was a life-or-death matter?
Tasha said, "I can't believe that you caught one. Good for you." She glanced at the basement window.
Stone peered in and motioned that it was already unlocked, then hid again.
"I can't believe you never saw any. The others in the group said you hadn't spotted any at the school."
"I know. Me either. How many were there?"
"At least six or seven," the guy said. "They must have been having a challenge to see how many humans they could mess with. Only they didn't expect to find a bunch of fae seers coming after them."
"But you only caught one of them?" Tasha asked.
"Yeah. We shouldn't have even been able to catch this one. He must be broken. He couldn't fae travel to get away from us. It was easy to manacle him. I mean, he went invisible—to humans—but we saw him."
Tasha looked at Fang, who was frowning at her.
Stone thought he could at least act nicer, to maybe talk himself out of this. Instead, he appeared angry.
Fang’s breathing was deliberate, measured in the way of someone managing pain rather than resting, the chains shifting with a dull clink each time his chest expanded.
"What are you going to do with him?" Tasha asked.
"After dinner, we're all meeting. We thought maybe we could capture some others, using him as bait. But we need to eliminate them afterward before they learn where we are and that we have any of them."
"Right. So we try to capture them at school again tomorrow?" Tasha asked.
"Yeah, that's what I figure. They're stubborn and think they're smarter than us. They believe that there's no way we're going to get the best of them. So we think they'll return to the school tomorrow. Maybe even to try and learn where this guy is."
"Ah. Okay." Tasha glanced at her watch. "I've got to go home. Mom should be home now and fixing dinner. And then I have a science project I need to work on with Lizzie.”
“Are you coming back to the meeting?”
“If I don’t get stuck at home, I sure will.” Then Tasha headed up the stairs, and the other fae seer followed her. The door slammed at the top of the stairs.
They had no time to lose. Stone opened the basement window with a squeak. He hated that it made any noise.
Fang glanced in his direction, no smile, still looking annoyed. The thought did cross Stone’s mind again that he should just leave him here. He figured after they saved him, Fang wouldn't thank them either.
Stone crawled through the opening and jumped down to the floor. "Be our lookout," Rune whispered to Lolita.
Then Rune dropped down into the basement, though Stone hadn't wanted her to join him. He wanted her to leave with Lolita if anyone came to get them.
He looked around for keys to unlock the manacles. He was afraid he would have to find something to break the chain instead, but that could make so much noise that all the fae seers could arrive en masse to take care of them.
"Where are the keys, do you know?" Stone asked Fang.
"I think he took them with him, but there are some keys hanging on that wall behind one of the boxes of Christmas decorations. I can see it from here, but you can't."
Stone went around the box and grabbed the set of keys. And then tried all of them on the manacles. None of them worked. He looked around for something he could use to cut the chain. He didn't think anything would cut through the manacles.
Then Rune found a pair of metal cutters. Stone tried it on the manacles, but he couldn't cut through the iron.
Then he tried the cutters on the chain. Rune helped him apply pressure on the long handles, and they finally managed to cut through the chain. Stone was sweating like crazy, worried they would get caught and not get Fang out of there fast enough.
Rune was struggling with him, her heart pounding too, but she wasn't sweating at all.
Then they grabbed Fang’s manacled hands and took him to the window.
Climbing out would be harder than dropping down into the basement.
Stone and Rune moved a heavy table under the window, and then they helped Fang climb onto it.
He scrambled through the window while Rune and Stone made their way up onto the table.
Stone let Rune go first, and then once she was out through the window, he made his way out.
Once they were outside, he closed the window.
Though Fang was gone and the table was under the window, the fae seers would know they had escaped that way.
They headed out and then saw Tasha's car parked curbside a block away.
They raced to her car and got inside, just before a police car passed.
They were invisible to him unless the officer could see the fae.
Lolita and Fang had gotten into the back seat, and Stone joined them and shut the back door. Rune climbed into the passenger seat in front and closed the door.
Tasha drove off. "What do we do now?"
"We need to get the manacles off Fang," Stone said.
"Okay, we'll go home to my place, and we can look for something to remove them."
"Thanks so much for helping with all of this," Rune said.
“What are friends for?” Tasha asked.
Rune smiled.
Stone realized Fang hadn't thanked anyone yet, and probably had no intention of doing so.
Once they got out of Tasha's car, a limousine pulled up, and the driver got out. He was one of the fae.
"Your ride. The game has been completed," the driver said.
Stone figured one of the fae had quickly accomplished the mission and had won.
"Hell," Fang said.
The driver smiled at Fang as he climbed into the limo, as if amused that he had gotten himself into this bind, even though it could have been deadly.
Rune gave Tasha a hug. "Hey, it was nice meeting you, and if I ever have a chance to return, I'll drop by and say hi."
Lolita did the same.
Tasha smiled at them. "I would love that. Stay safe."
Stone gave her a thumbs up. He wasn't going to hug the human. Tasha smiled at him and gave him a hug anyway.
Fang was already in the car, and Stone waited for Lolita and Rune to enter it before following them. The driver shut the door, got into the limo, and drove off.
"I wonder who won," Rune said.
"I can't believe you made friends with a fae seer," Fang said to Rune, sounding irritated.
"You know, you could be grateful we saved your butt," Rune said. "We had the choice to risk our own lives to do it or leave you to your fate."
"Yeah, I agreed to help you, but you would have been out of the competition if we had left you. But worse, they could have killed you," Stone said.
Lolita didn't say anything, probably unwilling to admit she would have left him.
When they arrived at the facility, two men took Fang away to remove the manacles. Rune, Lolita, and Stone were called into the Game Master's office.
"Okay," she said, "we've never had such a mixed-up mess as we have had during this game."
Rune, Lolita, and Stone sat down and said nothing, out of respect.
"What do you think you were doing?" the Game Master asked.
"Saving a fae from harm," Stone said.
"Befriending a fae seer who ends up helping you to save a fae?" the Game Master said.
"Yeah, so we're not sure what happened that he was taken, but we couldn't leave him where he was," Rune said.
Lolita shrugged. "I have to admit that I was willing to leave him to get him out of the competition."
The Game Master laughed. "Okay, so the three of you won the competition."
They all cast each other glances, all of them looking surprised.
"Truly?" Lolita asked.