by Holly Evans
“I’m here, Evelyn,” he whispered.
An older witch walked into the room with a male elf, each carrying salves and pastes. It seemed that we were a little low on space; the food room would have to double-up as a healing space. Fortunately, none of us were too badly injured. No one said a word; we simply lined up for our injuries to be healed. We all knew the drill, and that brought an odd sense of comfort. Bronwyn stopped to speak with the elves on our team once she was healed. The elf seemed eager to talk to her about healing things. His face lit up and he became wildly animated. She smiled for the first time. Leif still remained a little away from the group, his head low and shoulders slightly hunched.
When the young Sidhe caught me looking at him, he set his shoulders back and lifted his chin. Kadrix came in and took us up another flight of stairs at the far end of that hallway. The other doors along that hallway were all closed and quiet. We emerged from the next set of stairs in a wide corridor with some six doors going off it.
Kadrix took us to the second on the left and said, “This is your room, you’re sharing it with Raif, Iona, myself, and Quin.”
“Is this the Sidhe’s first fight?” Lysander asked him.
There was an intensity to my hound; his jaw had set and his eyes darkened. Kadrix sighed softly and glanced down the corridor.
“Yes. He was being trained as a noble before this. He insisted on being here, on helping defend the city,” he said.
Lysander sighed heavily and nodded.
“He is coping better than he could be. Raif may do him some good,” he said.
The corner of Kadrix’s mouth quirked up. “Raif has finished for the night, I will speak to him.”
With that, he left Lysander and I to our room. It was a simple space with three beds set up much like a dormitory. The only one without any belongings on it was pushed up against the left wall. We stripped to our underwear and crawled under the cheap bedding. The mattress was almost hard, but it didn’t matter. It was somewhere to sleep for a few hours before we did it all again.
At some point in the night, Raif and Iona had crept into the bed on the other side of the room. Seeing them curled up together peacefully made me smile. It reminded me what we were doing this for.
The sun slipped around the dark curtains. The birds began their morning chattering, and I was exhausted. I stroked Lysander’s cheek and kissed his forehead before I rolled out of bed and went looking for a bathroom to wash in. We needed all the rest we could get. The time for shame over my body had long since passed. Lysander followed me down the corridor. Felix and some other lycans appeared out of the room opposite the bathroom. They looked downright cheerful. I wanted whatever they had.
We washed in silence before we got dressed and went downstairs looking for food. The sky was just turning blue when I looked out the window. Dread filled me. I wasn’t ready for another day like we’d had, and I didn’t know how many more were ahead of us. Lysander’s lips brushed over my temple.
“I’ll be there with you, Evelyn,” he whispered.
I ran my fingers over his collar and smiled. A smile flickered across his mouth before he started filling his plate with food. Elise had bags under her eyes, and her clothes were rumpled; her make-up remained pristine, though.
I hugged her.
“How’re you holding up?” I asked.
Elise shook her head and smiled.
“Not too badly. We have good people here, Evie. We’re not going to lose the city,” she said.
An older man in a dark-yellow shirt and loose cream pants walked into the room. His face lit up when his gaze settled on Elise. She pulled me into another hug before she turned to face him.
“Logan, this is my best friend, Evie, and this is Lysander.” She gestured to Lysander as he handed me a cup of coffee.
“I’ve heard many good things about you both,” he said.
His voice had a liquid gold feel to it. There a deep smoothness than relaxed me and lifted my spirits somehow. I narrowed my eyes at him. Elise laughed.
“Oh, Evie, he’s a priest of the sun god. We’re working together to destroy the enemy fae,” she said.
Felix appeared in the doorway; he looked between me and Elise.
“We’re out in five minutes,” he said with an edge of glee.
I knocked back my coffee in one long gulp and devoured what food I could. I double-checked that all of my blades were in place as I dashed down the stairs with Lysander hot on my heels. Quin handed me some alchemical pouches as I burst into the room.
“These are small bombs,” he said before he hugged me tight and patted Lysander on the shoulder.
We squeezed past everyone as they did whatever they were doing. Our little group was ready in the back of the vehicles waiting for us. Butterflies formed in my stomach. Lysander brushed his fingertips over the palm of my hand, which calmed me as I got into the vehicle. The two pixies were chattering about something; Leif, however, looked subdued. The Sidhe’s hair had been dragged back into a messy bun effort, bags hung under his eyes, and his mouth was fixed downwards. He looked at the floor and fiddled with a tie on one of the pouches on his belt.
I reached across and squeezed his hand. We were in it together.
We didn’t have the luxury of calmly getting out the vehicles to assess the situation. We bundled out as quickly as we could and were faced with an ongoing battle between the group that was going on break and the witches and fae who were trying to kill them. Felix and Sam ran around our group in their full lycan forms; their snarls caught the attention of some of the witches. It was enough to give the other group a respite and allow us to get into place. Leif and Bronwyn set up somewhere safe; the pixies took off up the stairs somewhere.
The elves slowly moved around our group and took the pressure off the fae who were casting the magical protections and attacks for them. Bryn went around to the right to flank them, while Lysander and I captured their attention with our fire.
Once again, I allowed my thoughts to slip away and my instincts to take over. I kept moving and pushing, my blades constantly slashing at the enemy. Witches and redcaps tried charging us; we set their front line on fire, leaving them screaming and howling in agony. Some of their number tripped over their fallen brethren. The pixies’ manic laugh made me smile despite the pain, despite the blood that trickled down my cheek.
Bryn vanished out of sight. The slip in my focus allowed a Sidhe to sink his short knife into my knee; he almost had his teeth on my throat, but I drove my blade into his eye first. He shot back and began flailing wildly. I ducked under his arm and kicked his knees; the audible crunch was satisfying. Lysander tore his throat out as I turned to gut the witch who thought she could get behind me.
The pixies reappeared once the enemy had been thinned. They were whirling dervishes. I’d have enjoyed watching their acrobatic and dance-like fighting, had the situation have been different. Instead, everything was aching, and I’d long since lost the ability and energy to call up my fire. I continued hacking and slashing; we couldn’t give up. The pain dulled my sensation and caring. They weren’t people. They were the enemy, creatures trying to destroy my city.
My legs were ready to crumble beneath me when the last of the enemy managed to scurry away into the night. The pixies chased the stragglers, but apparently felt they’d better stay with the group. I sat down on the closest bench and looked around me while trying to catch my breath and come down from the adrenaline. Lysander sat by my feet and rested against my legs. I ran my fingers through his hair, grounding myself in the tactile sensations.
Leif came and sat next to me, Felix and Sam stood on guard, while Bronwyn sat on the other side of me. The elves sat behind me, and the pixies amused themselves swinging off the lights. The train station was much like the rest of Prague; it managed to fuse modern glass and metal with old angels and marble. Upstairs had a section with dark-gold painted walls and what looked to be priestesses or perhaps goddesses in recesses around the wall. The r
oof was large panes of glass that showed the sky above.
One of those glass panes shattered as I was considering getting some fast food. A large shadow dragon, for lack of a better description, burst through the glass. Its huge body was the size of multiple SUVs. Thick scales somehow glinted and shimmered with a dark purple-grey. It looked like something Saint George would take on. Its head was angular and heavy, with thick plating running down its throat and surrounding its eyes. Its movements were languorous as it lazily flapped its wings, slowly circling the space, looking at the people below it with a keen eye, a hawk above a rabbit farm taking its time picking out which meal to enjoy first.
One of the pixies, Chaos perhaps, had already taken action and was clinging onto one of its long muscular legs and trying to scramble up while she hacked at it with her blades. Her sister was swinging from light to light, trying to get onto it while it circled overhead. The dragon may as well have offered a small shrug for all the fucks it gave about the pixies.
I looked to the elves and said, “What the fuck do we do with that?”
The female pursed her lips and eyed it for a long moment before the male said, “We wait for the pixies to bring it down. Then we will ensnare it with magic, and you treat it like you would a flesh dragon.”
“Does that mean cut chunks off it until it dies?” I asked.
He smirked in response. Leif had slumped deeper in his seat. I patted him on the knee before I stood and waited for the pixies to wrestle the thing down to the ground. I wasn’t sure how they were supposed to manage that; they were half the size of one of its feet. The dragon was beginning to grow agitated, though. It stretched its long neck around to try and pull the pixies off it. Long needle-like teeth glinted as it snapped its mouth shut on thin air, causing the pixie to gleefully give it the finger before she began trying to dig her blade under one of its scales again.
Felix and Sam were circling the floor beneath it. I maintained a calm state and watched it, waiting patiently while the pixies crawled over it and hacked at it. They hung off the spiny ridges along its back and at its elbows and hocks, violently thrusting their blades into it, looking for weakness in the dragon’s scales.
The dragon’s movements became more erratic when lumps of shadowy flesh went flying, but they disintegrated and quickly healed over again. It began spiralling and moving quicker, twisting and snapping at the pixies. It reached its clawed feet up and tried to kick them off, but the plating reduced its movement and stopped it from getting to them. The lycans had gone up to the higher floor. Chaos and Mayhem spotted them and proceeded to scramble along the thing’s neck, using the large spikes running up its spine as hand and foot holds. Its tail, which had been lashing violently, went rigid straight when they reached the back of its head.
It went to do evasive manoeuvres, but they’d been counting on that. It had been steered towards Felix and Sam, who leapt onto its broad back. They tore into it with fang and claw. The great beast screamed and began writhing in the air. It lost control and crashed into the floor. Bryn, Lysander, and I all ran at it, blades out. We aimed for its head, but its teeth were half as long as I was tall. The pixies did their best to keep its focus on them as they continuously sank their blades into its face and tried to rip out its eyes. The lycans worked to rip off its wings.
The rest of us cut into its throat. The dragon keened and screamed, but there was no movement in the air. It had no breath, which made the thing more eerie and creepy, added a surreality that I was not at all ok with. Our blades barely made a difference. Every cut we made, every lump we hacked out quickly healed back over. It screamed and snapped at us. We barely got out of the way in time. The pixies suddenly stopped and ran across the floor to its chest, where they began furiously tearing into it. The dragon snarled and thrashed, trying to get away. We were relentless. Lysander and I continued trying to rip its throat open, while Bryn had managed to get up onto its head and was digging its eyes out as best as he could. The lycans soon joined the pixies when they began making headway.
Suddenly, it roared, a deafening sound that turned into a high-pitched keening before finally a rasping final breath. I turned looking for the source of its death and saw what I thought was Mayhem proudly holding its heart in her arms. She was coating in black blood, and yet grinned like a fool. I was quite sure it was her best day ever.
The thing slipped away into nothingness. Its existence unravelled, leaving nothing but wisps of shadowy smoke, and eventually nothing. My legs gave way beneath me. The clock showed we’d been fighting for some eight hours straight. I needed food and rest. Lysander picked me up and carried me back over to the benches. The pixies danced around a little, while Bryn and lycans joined us on the benches. Even the lycans had lost some of the glee. Leif had his eyes half closed and was slouched down in the seat. Bronwyn rested her head on the back of the seat next to her, her breathing becoming increasingly shallow. We wouldn’t have been able to do it without her continuous healing and energy.
The pain hit me much like the dragon that had inflicted the injury. Lysander ran his hand over my blood-drenched thigh and frowned. I brushed my fingers over the hole in his shoulder. Sam and Felix looked equally as bad off, both soaked in blood. I hadn’t even felt the dragon’s fang graze my thigh. I’d been so focused. In that moment, I didn’t care. I just wanted to give into the peaceful darkness and sleep.
I woke up in the stiff bed with Lysander wrapped around me. The pain was more of a dull ache than the agony it had bloomed into before I gave up and passed out.
“You shouldn’t do that to me, Evelyn,” Lysander said softly.
I ran my hand over his bare chest; any injuries he’d incurred had already healed. He hooked his finger under my chin and gently pulled me to look up at him.
“I’m not going to lose you,” he whispered.
I stretched up and brushed my lips over his. “No, you’re not.”
He smiled. A small, self-conscious smile, that warmed the bond and made me smile in return. Kadrix bustled into the room with the sun priest behind him.
“Evelyn, you really shouldn’t lose consciousness like that. You worried a lot of people,” Kadrix said.
I smiled sweetly at him.
“But I was so tired…” I said with as much sweetness as I could muster.
He pursed his lips and surveyed me, no doubt trying to tell if I was screwing with him or not. The sun priest, in more yellow clothing, smiled widely at me. It was a little creepy.
“You’ll need to stay here today while you continue to heal. You were out for twelve hours, how do you feel now?” he asked as he sat on the end of the bed.
I eyed him suspiciously as I stretched out my legs; they were stiff but usable. “I seem to be fine. I’m ravenous, but I feel as though I can stand and fight. What will my team do if I can’t fight today? What impact will that have?”
“Relax, Evelyn,” Lysander whispered.
I did my best to; I didn’t want to upset whatever injuries were still healing.
“Your team will be defending Malá Strana today. It’s unlikely to suffer any large attacks, so they shouldn’t feel the temporary loss of you and Lysander,” he said with a smile.
I ground my teeth together, but gave him a nod. I was no use to anyone injured, but I should have been out there, defending my city. He stood before I could interrogate him on the progress the magical people were making. My stomach growled, and I began to feel faint.
“Stay,” Lysander said firmly.
I bit his bottom lip and glared at him. He glared back at me until I lost the energy to hold his gaze. He got up and left me with Kadrix, who had sat down on his bed.
“How are things looking?” I asked him.
He squeezed his eyes shut. “The witch and her coven are very powerful. We are attacking them around the clock, but we cannot unravel their magics.”
He lifted his eyes and looked at me more sharply.
“You can tell us about the magics, Evelyn, perhaps that woul
d allow us to crack them.” His voice became edged with excitement.
My head was swimming; I gave him a weak smile. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Chaos, the pixie who claimed the dragon’s heart, also managed to keep some of its essence. We’ll be experimenting with Lysander today to see how we can use that to our advantage,” he said.
I launched myself out of my bed and pinned him to the wall, my forearm across his throat and my eyes fixed on his. He was completely relaxed beneath me.
“No one will be touching or experimenting on Lysander,” I snarled.
“I’ve agreed to it, Evelyn. They will not push my limits. Quin will be watching over them,” Lysander said as he re-entered the room.
I kept the elf pinned. He remained relaxed, carefully studying my face while I decided what to do about the situation. Lysander picked me up and carried me back to our bed. He placed a plate of food next to me.
“You need to rest, Evelyn. They will not harm me. I agreed to this,” he said.
I leant into him when his lips brushed over my forehead. His thumb ran over my cheekbone and I looked up into his eyes, tears prickling the corners of mine.
“I’ll be control, Evelyn. I’ll be safe,” he said softly.
I forced myself to smile. We were all friends and allies here; of course they wouldn’t hurt him. He kissed my temple and put the plate in my lap.
“Eat. You need to heal.”
“We would not harm your hound, Evelyn,” Kadrix said. He lifted his chin a little. “He has become a core part of our social group. He is a respected friend. We must take every advantage we can.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
Lysander kissed my forehead. “Eat. I’ll be downstairs with Kadrix and the others. Bronwyn will be here in a moment to check you over.”
With that, he stood and left with the elf. I felt weak and useless. The food barely registered; I placed it into my mouth without thought or feeling. My head was elsewhere. I should have been out there fighting with my team.