by KB Anne
Click.
Coda appeared beside my cell. “Now, let’s free you.”
The thundering sounds of feet against stone stairs echoes down to us.
“There’s no time. Hide in the corner. I will cast a shadow over you as long as I can. Get away and don’t come back.”
He ignored me and kept working on the lock. “I’m not leaving you. Besides, Christian will kill me.”
“Coda,” I warned, “don’t.”
“But…”
The footsteps got louder and louder.
“Go,” I hissed. I closed my eyes and pictured Coda as a shadow. “Warn the others.”
“About what?”
But I didn’t get to finish. My grandparents had already reached the bottom of the stairs. Kenneth was there too plus a very muscular short man dressed in thick canvas overalls who must be the Fitter. They didn’t even bother turning on the lights. Good, it made it easier for Coda to stay hidden.
The Fitter hooked his thumbs through the suspenders of his overalls. His red, blotchy face reminded me of someone who spent too much time in the sun or the fiery pits of hell. He could be Lucifer himself though I suspected Satan didn’t like getting his hands dirty any more than the Great White did. Or since Fae and shapeshifters existed, maybe all the legends and mythology were real, and Hephaestus, the god of metal work or at least the Fae equivalent stood before me. He walked around the perimeter of the cell studying me.
I gritted my teeth, curling my fists into my palms. I disliked being examined as if under a microscope.
Grandmother held her chin high. She didn’t outright scowl at the Fitter, but she didn’t like him very much.
The Fitter stopped when he returned to my grandparents and Kenneth. “I’ve never had an iron cross fail,” he said in a thick Irish accent. “She’s a powerful one and not even of age.” He rubbed his hands together as he shivered either cold or terrified of my potential. If he tried to lay a hand on me, he was justified with his concern.
Grandfather’s jaw feathered, but he didn’t respond.
“What will hold her? We cannot have her escape.” Kenneth said.
“No, you can’t. Whatever side she aligns with will win.”
Grandfather raised his hand as if to strike him. Grandmother caught it and pulled it down. “What do you suggest?”
The Fitter scratched the skin beneath his beard completely unaware of my grandfather’s near attempt at discipline.
“Well, we’ve got three choices. One, I fit her with a thicker iron cross and we hope she doesn’t pop it off.”
“No, that won’t work,” Grandfather said.
He ticked off the other choices. “Two, we fit her with the cross and bolt it through her shoulders. Painful to attach, even more painful to remove but not permanent.” He shifted to face my grandparents. “If the murmurings about the Third Coming are true, I suspect we’d need her.”
My grandparents’ faces remained neutral. What was the Third Coming? It didn’t sound good.
If the Fitter shrugged and turned back to me. If he wanted information from them, he was out of luck.
“The third option is we put the thick cross on, and I wrap iron straps around her shoulders from top to bottom.” He demonstrated by dragging his pointer finger from where the iron cross would be on his shoulder blades and pulled it down his chest, under his armpit, and back up to the iron cross. “It’s the least painful option and just as efficient at stopping her powers, and it’s much easier to remove.”
“What about option four?” A loud, thunderous voice said. My stomach roiled. I’d recognize the bastard’s voice anywhere.
“Treadwell,” Grandfather growled. “What are you doing here?”
Treadwell put his hands behind his back and walked around my cell as if he owned the place.
“Her guards told me what happened.”
“Sami?” I spat at him.
“And others,” he said.
Grandmother glanced at Grandfather. His nostrils billowed in and out. “What’s the fourth option?”
“Option four, bolt the iron cross through her shoulders AND add the iron straps, attaching them at the front and the back.”
“That’s aggressive,” the Fitter said, sounding both impressed and frightened.
“No,” Grandfather grunted.
Treadwell kept his hands behind his back, as he paced in front of my cell. “It’s the only real way to ensure we don’t have a repeat of today.”
“I said NO,” Grandfather roared. His claws erupted from his fingertips, his ears grew into points, and his fangs elongated.
Grandmother grasped his arm. “Dear.”
He stilled as if she froze him or he realized that he lost his temper in front of the very man he despised.
“It’s the only way to ensure you don’t lose her before the Summer Solstice. If the enemy got a hold of her, they’d weaponize her.”
There he went again with his assassin pipe dreams for me. Let it go already,.
Grandfather’s face pinched and twisted into distorted shapes as he fought for control of himself. “I want straps on her and that’s it.”
“With the Third Coming upon us,” Treadwell said.
The Fitter’s eyes shot to Treadwell. “So, the rumors are true?” he whispered.
“You’ve seen the signs haven’t you?”
The Fitter adjusted his overalls. “Yes, yes, of course.”
I doubted the Fitter would recognized a sign even if he was whacked over the head with it.
“It’s the only way to ensure she doesn’t escape.”
“Horace,” Grandmother said. “He’s right.”
Grandfather’s eyes flashed. He ground his teeth together. He was doing everything in his power to maintain control. “Fine. Do it.”
He stormed toward the stairwell. “I’ll be in my Throne Room. Inform me when it’s done.”
His blue eyes swept across the crowd standing in front of my cell before meeting mine. He hesitated. I’d like to believe he felt guilty about the torture his granddaughter was about to experience, but that would have meant he cared. He didn’t care about me. He cared that Treadwell won again.
He gripped the railing and stomped up the stairs. Once he was gone, Grandmother straightened her dress as if somehow my grandfather’s tantrum affected her appearance. “Will Jessalyn be able to go on her date Wednesday to the lake?”
“A date?” Treadwell thundered.
Grandmother lifted one eyebrow, daring Treadwell to argue with her. “Yes.”
Treadwell’s gaze immediately dropped, and he backed away.
“She’ll have tomorrow to recover. She should be well enough for her date on Wednesday,” the Fitter said.
“Excellent. We need to ensure our line stays pure.”
Grandfather might be King, Treadwell might exert his dominance, but the Queen ruled the kingdom.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Di
* * *
I curled into Frank enjoying the warmth of his body. I was one of those people who was always cold. I wore layers—even in the summer, fingerless mittens most months, and snuggled under blankets year round. Frank heated me in all sorts of ways, but this early morning, his body heat helped soothe my nerves. I was terrified for Coda. We all were. His fate would be far more sinister than Starr’s fate—at least in terms of living or dying. None of us missed the fur stoles that she and her grandmother wore and the uncanny resemblance to Christian, Coda, and Ben’s fur.
It was the fur that told me bad things were happening to Starr behind the closed doors of the Silverlain Estate. Sure, Frank and I worried that her feelings for Christian might have shifted elsewhere, especially since, from her point of view, he cheated on her, but she wouldn’t wear a fur unless forced to do so. Starr first introduced me to vegetarianism. Not by shoving her veggie loving food choices down my throat but by example.
I was in third or fourth grade the first time I went over to her house. Her mom asked me if I wanted
Starr’s tofu nuggets or regular chicken nuggets. My confusion was obvious. I’d never heard of tofu nuggets. Her mom explained to me what they were and said Starr didn’t eat meat. At the time, I didn’t know that not-eating-meat was an option and tried them. With ranch dressing and barbecue sauce I couldn’t taste the difference. Through the years, I switched back and forth between vegetarianism and meat-eating, but Starr never did. Her vegetarianism was a core aspect of her character. Just like she’d never wear fur unless forced too.
The question was what else was she forced to do?
And where were they keeping Coda? Was there access to the dungeons from the tunnels or was he at the ranch? I slammed my fist into the pillow. It frustrated me that my tunnel excursions failed to answer one question. In fact, it only added to my list of questions.
“Ice Cold to Dark Cloud.”
I dove for the radio.
Frank jerked awake, “Huh? What?”
“It’s Christian.”
Christian rarely used the radio much to the annoyance of the rest of the team. He chose to be a stubborn pain in the ass acting like he didn’t need anything. For him to call us meant something, and after what happened in the tunnels, that something could be a fucking a-bomb.
“Goth Girl here. What’s up?”
“I’ve got a furry package for you.”
Relief washed over me. “Tell me you have Bear.”
“You know it,” he said. A person pretending to be a wolf howled in the background.
Gods, it was great to hear that man.
“We’ll leave now.”
“Hurry,” Coda said taking over. “Bear needs to eat.”
Within sixty seconds, Ben, Frank, and I were tucked into the front seat of Ben’s newly repainted Dodge Charger. When Ben nailed the gas, Frank and I flew backward. The car lived up to its namesake.
Frank readjusted me under his arm. His very presence calmed me without him saying a word. If he wasn’t with me, I would be a hot bed of disaster until Coda was safely in the car with us.
I fiddled with the phone in my lap. “Should we have picked up Rebecca or should I at least call her?”
Ben’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “She’s going to be pissed. Let’s wait until we bring Coda home. Then she won’t eat our livers.”
A shocked silence followed.
Frank glanced at me. “That got dark, real quick.”
“Can anyone say bizarre and disturbing?”
Ben’s face remained neutral as he stared out the front windshield. “You’ve never heard the story of Spearfinger.”
“Is it about Rebecca?”
“Technically no, but as the Keeper of the Stories, she can acquire the magic if she pictures the story in her mind.”
“What?” Ben’s reveal was new information that no one had mentioned to us.
He glanced over at us. “Why do you think she abandoned us at OneTruth?”
I remembered Rebecca mentioning that she couldn’t get captured, and I had agreed with her. As Keeper of the Stories, she couldn’t be caught, but I thought it was because she kept all the stories of their people, not that she could use the magic. “Do the Fae know of her skill?”
Ben’s large brown eyes fell on us. “No one knows about her gift outside the Nation.”
And us.
“You two have proven yourselves trustworthy and dedicated to our people.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Never in my entire life had I been embraced so completely by anyone except for Starr and Frank. I never fit in anywhere.
Frank patted my back sensing what Ben’s disclosure meant to me...
Meant to us.
* * *
A half hour later, Ben turned left onto the road leading to Starr’s grandparents. It would be another fifteen minutes until the pickup location. The distance felt like an eternity.
He nailed it when we got on a straightway. Just as we were picking up speed, he slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed from side to side before skidding to a stop. Two figures jumped onto the road. My heart raced in excitement that Coda and Christian had met us early.
Christian’s hair had grown in but was still short. People would be hard pressed to find any resemblance between the man before us and the Goth in the high school yearbook the police used in their Wanted ads.
I didn’t look anything like the pictures they were using either. Frank said it was the only reason he let me leave the boundary of the Tribal Nation. As if he had a choice.
I wanted to clutch Coda to my chest and hug the ever living shit out of him, but we were in enemy territory. Body crushing hugs would have to wait. Frank scooted the seat forward, and Coda dove in the backseat.
Christian stood on the side of the road his arms hanging awkwardly like he didn’t really know what to do with them. He spent so much time as a wolf the furless appendages probably felt strange to him.
“Why don’t you come?” I called out to him. “At least shower and eat a hot meal?”
“Use a real toilet,” Frank offered.
Christian licked his lips looking over his shoulder at the woods. “I don’t know. What if she needs me?” His voice cracked. He wasn’t used to speaking, but he was concerned too.
Coda’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. I couldn’t read his mind but I sensed he wanted me to keep Christian talking.
“Come with us. We’ll bring you right back.”
“I told him I wouldn’t tell him anything unless he came with us,” Coda said.
“He refuses to tell me if he saw her or not,” Christian growled sounding more wolf than man.
“And I won’t.”
Then it hit me. Christian was used to absolute freedom. The ability to shift into a wolf. The ability to come and go wherever he wanted. Well, almost wherever he wanted. If we wanted Christian to come with us, we needed to entice the wolf.
“Why don’t Frank and I sit in the backseat? You sit in the front. If you change your mind, you can jump out.”
Ben stiffened.
“It’ll be fine,” I said squeezing Ben’s arm before climbing out.
“It better be,” he murmured.
It was a tight fit in the backseat with Coda, Frank and me. I climbed on Frank’s lap and hoped he’d be able to keep his hands to himself the ride home.
Christian reluctantly climbed into the front seat. That same wild energy from the tunnels rolled off of him. I couldn’t tell if it was the wolf or the Chosen One vibe, but it was strong.
“That’s a good boy,” Coda purred, patting Christian’s back.
“Be careful,” Christian warned.
“I’ve always been a fan of wolf humor,” Coda laughed.
I smiled to myself.
Frank tugged me closer. “What are you so happy about?”
I curled into him. “Our team’s back together. Well, almost.”
“We’ll get her back,” he whispered in my ear.
Intense energy poured off Christian. “Yes, we will.”
* * *
An hour and a half later, Rebecca sat with the rest of us at the table while Coda shoveled a bowl of cereal into his mouth. He had already eaten two sandwiches and an entire bag of chips. He also drank two glasses of water. Christian on the other hand was still picking at his first sandwich and had barely touched his chips. He kept glaring at Coda, who was either ignoring him or at least acting like he was oblivious.
Christian’s throat rumbled. He might have shifted back into a man, but the wolf still ruled him.
“Did. You. See. Starr?”
Coda’s eyes shot to mine. Tears pooled at the corners of them before he blinked them away.
My stomach dropped. Whatever he was about to tell us was going to be really bad.
“Yes, she freed me.”
We all sharply inhaled.
“You saw her,” Christian whispered.
Coda swallowed. “I did.”
“How did she look?”
Coda’s
eyes filled with tears again. Soon it wouldn’t matter how many times he blinked. The dam was about to burst.
“Coda, tell me.”
“She tried to escape, but she got caught.”
“How?”
“She had an iron cross that was supposed to prevent her Fae nature from surfacing.”
Frank frowned. “An iron cross?”
Coda stood and turned around. “It’s as bad as it sounds. A piece of iron is attached from shoulder blade to shoulder blade with another one down her spine.”
Tears pricked at my eyes, and I wasn’t the only one.
“How’s it attached?”
Coda sat back down. “I’m not sure how the first one was.”
Christian leaned forward. “Was?”
“Her wings broke off the first one. She tried to fly away.”
“But…” I asked, because there had to be a “but.”
He sighed. “She didn’t go into details. There wasn’t much time before the Fitter came. She was the one who freed me from my cell.”
Frank leaned forward. Tension poured off him. “How?”
“She used magic to free me.”
I rested my hand on Frank’s back to calm him. “Why didn’t she free herself?”
Coda scrubbed his face. “They imprisoned her in a six-sided iron cell.”
Christian groaned as if kicked in the stomach. Frank slammed his fist on the table. We all jumped in shock.
“And?”
“Iron dampens Fae magic, doesn’t it? The legends are true,” I said. I read my fair share of fantasy and urban fantasy novels. The classics like Tolkien, the mega-popular ones like Rowling and Marten, and pretty much every indie author from KB Anne to Chandelle LaVaun and CN Crawford.
“Yes,” Rebecca sighed. “The legends are true.”
“I ran over and tried to open the lock. We heard people coming down the stairs. She told me to leave.”
“And you listened to her?” Christian growled.
Coda threw up his hands in innocence. “I don’t know why I listened to her.”
“She word spelled you,” Rebecca said. “No one,” she narrowed her eyes at Christian, “can resist a powerful Fae’s word spell.”