SIX #2
"Now, what the Dark would be doing in the Light killing babes, that is the question, don't you think?"
"Things have been stirring," I agreed with her.
"Stirring, yes. All that business with the new heir of both Courts. But not killing. Not killing on Light land. Only a fool would do that. Or only someone who thought they were unstoppable. Perhaps because they are."
She was getting way too close to the truth.
"They found a letter, though."
"A letter?" I asked, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.
"Half of it was ripped away, but it was to that long-lost Winters offspring who the new Princess put claim on."
"Why would a poor, hungry family have a letter for the Princess's mate?"
"Precisely. And why did a Dark fae take most of it after killing them?"
Oh, fuck.
"Ah, see, I knew it," Smoky concluded, nodding.
"Knew what?" I asked. Maybe snarled. My heart was pounding too hard in my ears to know what tone I used. And, what's more, I didn't care all that much.
"That you had trouble written all over you. What trouble, I wonder, could you have with the Dark and Light fae combined?"
"Wonder will be all you do," I told her, spine stiffening.
If they had the letter, they knew about Amy being in the human realm. And they would know exactly when and where to catch her if they wanted to.
Which, apparently, they did.
Enough to slaughter an innocent family for no reason.
They'd have given up the letter. When faced up with the Dark Court's vicious guards and the King's fondness to drag along Redcaps wherever he went, they would give them whatever they wanted.
He wanted. I had a feeling this was no longer just about Jet, just about the Prince.
It was widely known that he was a callous ass, but not evil, not like his father.
If there was an innocent family slain - babes and babies included - that was at the King's orders.
And if the King wanted Amy, he wouldn't let anything get in his way.
"I know these parts better than most, you know," Smoky interrupted my thoughts. "Enough that I know a swamp is usually not just a swamp. Not when the water festers even in the depths of winter."
My head snapped up at that, finding her looking down at me.
"Enough to know that some fae hide because it is the only way to ensure their safety. Fae who have funny colors in their eyes. Funny colors like yours."
"What do you want?" I ground out between clenched teeth.
"You know, I don't know yet."
"I don't make one-sided deals with anyone. Only fools do that."
"Only fools or those too desperate to have a choice. Dark and Light colliding with you at the center, Draca, I think you will make a deal with me because of the latter. The form you are clearly not in right now."
"I have nothing to give."
"I'll be the judge of that," she told me, throwing her body weight forward suddenly, making my stomach lurch as she fell. Far too far for someone so slight.
But she landed only a foot from me in a crouch, her hand to the snow, rising up slowly to full height, surprisingly tall for a female, her chin angling up so that her strange eyes met mine.
"What do you even have to offer?"
"Closed lips for one," she told me with enough pride that I believed her. "But smoky quartz, it has this ability..."
"Ability to what?"
"To steer people where they need to go. Where do you need to go, Draca?"
Not sure if I was making a deal with good or evil - or worse yet, an opportunist - I hedged my bets. "The human realm."
"Coming from the direction you came from, that took you what?
Six days? Seven?" she mused rather accurately.
"Because you, Drake the fire-breather, you don't know these woods very well.
Anymore anyway. I heard rumors of an imprisoned Draca.
Didn't put much weight in them. But I see now that was a misjudgment.
Only an imprisoned, recently released fae would walk six days from here to reach the human realm. "
"How far is it?" I asked, hope swelling up. Hope that I could get there before them, that they did not have the tool that was a savage fae, one raised by the woods themselves.
"We could get there in two and a half. If you don't slow me down."
If I didn't slow her down.
If I wasn't so racked with guilt, I would have found the enthusiasm to laugh at that.
"So, are you coming or not?" she asked, moving past me. No. Slamming into my shoulder as she passed.
So we walked.
And walked.
In complete and utter silence. The kind only two people so utterly used to aloneness could feel comfortable with.
In fact, had there not been reason to, I was rather confident there would have been no talking at all between us the whole trip.
But as darkness descended upon us, Smoky's hand went to her thigh holster, dragging out a ragged, mean-looking stone-knife, turning on her heel, and thrusting it outward toward a tree before I could even register her movements.
"Show yourself," she demanded, voice fierce, unyielding.
"Oh, for the Queen's sake," Smoky grumbled, slipping her knife back into her thigh holster as a giant green, well, lizard crept out of an evergreen thicket, tongue flicking out, eyes mischievous.
"Get that tongue back in your mouth, Sal.
That is wishful thinking on your part. That thing is never getting near me again. "
Caught off-guard, my lips quirked up.
It had been a while.
Since I was in The Green.
Since I had seen a woman talking to a creature that appeared to be nothing more than some egg-eating, bug-sucking amphibian.
But this was The Green after all. And things were rarely ever what they at first appeared.
As if to reinforce the thought as it appeared, the creature stopped, eyes focused on Smoky as the Change moved through it.
It had been so long since I'd seen it.
The Change.
I spent my life fighting mine, barely remembering the ease at which it used to overtake me.
Much like it took over Sal as his body morphed from giant salamander to Salamander fae in the course of mere seconds. If I had blinked, I might have missed it.
But then there he was.
Naked as the day he was born, giving Smoky that same look, made even more devilish without his amphibian skin.
And the fact that his cock was now out. And that Smoky went ahead and did a once-over, eyes landing there for a long moment, her gaze full of familiarity before her eyes went to his face again.
"Am I supposed to be overcome with lust, Sal? Been there, done that."
"Need I remind you how that had you screaming, Smoke?" he asked, lips curving up even further. "Or are you too busy fucking some bastard stuck between Changing cycles?" he asked, turning his gaze on me.
In fae form, he was my equal in height, though thinner, muscles just subtle hints under the skin, as was normal for most fae. His face was angular, his hair dark, and his eyes the golden sort typical of his kind with slitted instead of rounded pupils.
"Don't try to deny it," he challenged, cockiness a dominant trait of his, apparently. "I can smell the Change on you. What are you hiding? A tail? Bushy like a bunny?" he asked, enjoying the mental image too much.
Enough, in fact, that I couldn't shake the impulse to turn, pull off my jacket and shirt, and show the plates.
"Well, fuck me, man," he said when I turned back, eyes challenging.
"I don't recommend it," Smoky broke in. When my gaze went to her, brows down, she smiled, shrugging.
"Fucking him," she clarified. "Because afterward, all he does is follow you around like a little lost Brownie," she added as I shrugged back into my shirt, pulled my jacket back on, suddenly feeling a bit for the Salamander.
Not because of Smoky's somewhat rough critique, but because just the moment without layers covering me made my skin smart and ache.
I had gotten soft already, it seemed. And that bastard was still standing there stark naked.
Sal ignored Smoky entirely, eyes on me, head shaking slightly. "Never believed the rumors about some of you still existing. This is like if one of those humans just happened across a dinosaur."
"What do you know about humans?" Smoky asked, one brow quirked up.
To that, Sal's wicked smile came back once again.
"Let one keep me as a pet for a few years," he admitted, making Smoky choke slightly.
"It was a good deal. Lots of food, back rubs, nice heat lamp all the time.
I was young," he added, shrugging it off.
"Not all of us take too keenly to letting The Green raise us," he added, clearly meaning Smoky's life.
"When I kept getting bigger and bigger, they took me off the side of the road, dropped me off near the woods, and I found my way back easily enough.
But I'd bet my left eye that I know more about humans than the two of you combined. "
Smoky's gaze moved to mine, head tilted in a way that seemed to say What do you think?
And, well, what I thought was simple.
I hadn't even known what a bus was until Amy explained it to me. And Smoky didn't seem the kind to have any desire to explore the human realm on her own, so comfortable with the woods that had been her family.
So if there was someone who was willing to help who could get us where we needed to be when we needed to be there, then, really, was there even a choice here?
"You got anything to wear?" I asked.
"Nah. I just go around dick-swinging all the time," he said with an eye roll as he half-turned, reaching down into the thicket he had appeared from, pulling out a pair of muddy brown hemp pants and a long off-white tunic-style shirt.
I could have sworn, too, that I heard a grumble from Smoky when all his skin was finally covered up.
As if maybe hearing it as well, Sal's smile curved up again as he went back into the bushes to retrieve a satchel weighed down heavily with supplies.