Eve of the Fae (Modern Fae Book 1)

by E. Menozzi

  “Nigel, please,” I begged. “Please. Help him!”

  “I can’t interfere,” he said. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll let me get you out of here while they’re otherwise occupied.”

  “I can’t leave him here. They’ll kill him. You heard Edric.”

  “He said they needed him alive.”

  “He said ‘sacrifice,’ Nigel.” I glared at him. “I know what that means.”

  Nigel shrugged. “I can’t say he doesn’t deserve it.”

  “For what?” I shoved at Nigel’s chest. “For killing some hell beasts? He doesn’t know where Godda is. Neither of us do. You know that.”

  Cheers erupted behind me. I’d shifted my attention to Nigel and turned my back on the stage. I spun around in time to see Liam’s head fall to his chest. It bobbed there as he hung suspended between the chains that held his arms outstretched. The demon woman turned to face the audience, a sly smile spreading across her face. The crowd went wild.

  “Don’t worry, Edric,” she called. “He’s still alive.” She flicked her wrist, and Liam’s head snapped up, eyes open and staring blankly, unseeing, out into the audience. “But now he’s under my control.”

  The Hunters began to roar and yell in appreciation. My heart lurched. Up until this moment, I had convinced myself we’d find a way to escape. Seeing Liam’s blank stare, seeing him at the mercy of that merciless woman, made a chill creep over me. If I valued my life, Nigel was right. I needed to get out of here. Fast. The world suddenly seemed much scarier than it ever had back in sunny California.

  “Silence!” Edric called. The Hunters obeyed. “Find out if he knows where Godda is,” he commanded.

  “He doesn’t know,” I moaned. My voice carried farther in the silence than I had intended. Edric’s eyes turned to me, and all the others followed his lead, including Nigel’s mother.

  “We’ll see about that,” she said. She stepped toward Liam and placed her fingertips at his temples.

  Edric leaned closer to me. “How are you so certain that he doesn’t know?” he asked.

  “He told me, and Fae can’t lie.”

  “The girl is correct. The Fae doesn’t know where your wife is hiding,” Lilium said.

  “He’s using his powers to keep the location from you,” Edric yelled. “It must be there.”

  “He’s keeping nothing from me. His mind is completely open. He is at my command.”

  Edric glanced between me and Liam. “His feelings for the girl?” he asked Lilium.

  Nigel’s mother closed her eyes a moment. Nigel tensed beside me, his hand gripping me tighter.

  “They are what we suspected.”

  “Good.” He turned to Nigel. “Bring her to the platform.”

  “But, sir,” Nigel said. “You said…”

  “Bring the girl,” Lilium commanded. Her voice rang out, echoing off the arched stone ceiling.

  I stared at Nigel, silently begging him to help. But he pushed me forward and forced me toward the stage. Edric followed in our wake. I watched Liam’s face as we approached. His eyes remained unfocused, staring out into the crowd. Nigel reached to guide me, but I shook him off and continued walking toward Liam. If Nigel wouldn’t help me, I’d figure out how to save Liam on my own.

  I stepped up onto the platform. Edric and Nigel followed closely behind, both of them pressing me toward the demon woman. She’d removed her hands from Liam’s head and positioned herself in front of him on the platform so I could no longer see him.

  “The sacrifice will be most powerful if he submits to it willingly,” Edric said to Lilium as we approached. “If you indeed have control over the Fae’s mind, release his chains and call off the serpent.”

  The sly smile reappeared on the demon woman’s face. The spirits standing guard released the cuffs around Liam’s wrists, and they snapped open and clattered onto the platform. The serpent uncoiled itself and slithered over to Lilium. She reached a hand down, and it climbed her arm and draped itself across her shoulders. Defenseless, Liam’s body sagged like a puppet resting on its strings.

  At the demon woman’s command, Liam’s mind took control of his body, and he snapped to attention. Fear coursed through me. With a flick of her wrist, she’d brought Liam under her command, and he had magic and training. I had nothing. She could break me with a thought.

  “Good,” Edric said. He turned to Nigel. “Now, make sure the girl knows nothing of Godda before we eliminate her.”

  My heart beat faster. My mouth went dry. I gulped and stared at Nigel, even though I knew it was pointless to hope he wouldn’t follow orders.

  Nigel stared back at me until Lilium snapped him out of it by saying, “You heard the Master. Are you a demon or not? Do I have to do everything?”

  Nigel took a step toward me, then he was in my mind. I closed my eyes and twisted away, lifting my hands to cover my temples, but it was too late.

  I’m sorry, he thought at me. I have to.

  Get out! I screamed at him in my mind.

  Memories filtered through my consciousness, rewinding back through my time at Lydbury. To Oscar and Vivian. To Angie dropping me off at the airport. Back to the events leading up to my trip. He didn’t need to see this. These were my memories. My feelings. I winced and moaned.

  He paced around me, replaying moments I didn’t ever want to see again. Then he stumbled. He recoiled from my pain. “She doesn’t know anything,” he said aloud, for Lilium and Edric to hear.

  “You already knew that,” I snarled at him. Once again, I was powerless. Only this time, I had nothing to lose. I lunged at him.

  He stepped back, colliding with his mother. She spun on him in a rage. In the process, she lost control of Liam. She swiped at Nigel, her snake hissing and striking as she lunged for him. Nigel glanced toward me, then grabbed his mother and shoved her toward the back of the platform. She struggled against his hold, then they disappeared.

  There wasn’t time to consider where they’d gone. Edric was already commanding his guards to recapture Liam. I yelled a warning, and Liam’s eyes blinked and focused. Then he crouched into a fighting stance as Edric’s guards glided toward him.

  At the same time, I rushed toward Edric, forgetting that he was a spirit and his form wasn’t solid. Connecting with him was like jumping into a cold, wet marsh. Instinctively, my eyes snapped shut, and I recoiled. My hand landed on something solid, and I grabbed for it, pulling it with me as I stumbled backward. A cord snapped, and just as I thought I’d got my feet under me, I tripped as the tension released and lurched backward again.

  I opened my eyes and looked down at my hand. In it was Edric’s hunting horn that had been hanging across his chest. The crowd fell silent, and an eerie stillness surrounded me. I looked up and found Edric staring at me.

  “Now be a good girl and give that back,” Edric said.

  I gripped the horn and glared at him. I had something he wanted. He had something I wanted. I glanced at Liam. The guards hovered near him but hadn’t tried to restrain him yet. He was crouched between them with his back to me, and I didn’t want to distract him.

  I turned to face Edric. “Let him go,” I said.

  Edric took a cautious step toward me. “Give that to me, and I’ll consider it,” he said.

  I wondered if I’d heard him correctly. He was willing to trade a hunting horn for Liam? That’s when I realized what I must be holding. I remembered what Liam had said about Edric’s soul.

  “Horcrux,” I said, gripping the horn tighter.

  “What did you call me?” Edric’s hands clenched into fists at his sides.

  I looked down at the horn and wondered what animal he’d stolen it from. It was hollow inside and bone colored. There were carvings etched on the outside surface, and leather wrapped around a piece of metal at the tip, which I assumed served as the mouthpiece. The laces that had attached it to his belt dan
gled from a strip of leather wrapped around the midpoint of the horn. I glanced back at Edric and raised the horn, slowly, as though I were about to hand it to him. Hope flickered across his eyes.

  Then I yelled, “Liam, catch!” I waited for him to turn, then tossed him the horn. He caught it, realized what he had, and set it aflame in his hands.

  I watched as the horror dawned on Edric’s face. He screamed, a piercing, whistling noise that sounded more like a gust of wind howling across a field than a human cry. He lunged for me, losing his grip on his human form and rushing toward me like a wall of thick smoke. Then the smoke disappeared, and a black object, hooked and pointed at one end, clattered to the ground at my feet.

  Liam rushed to my side and threw his arms around me. Then the world disappeared. I gasped for air in the darkness, cold pressing in on me from all sides. I could no longer feel Liam’s arms around me. I couldn’t breathe, and I panicked.

  “Shh…” I wrapped my arms around Evelyn and tried to muffle her screams by pressing her against my body. “It’s okay,” I whispered. “It’s okay, we’re safe now.” Or at least safer than we were before. I hadn’t had time to warn her I was about to conjure us out of there. And she’d had no idea what to expect. I decided I should be grateful she was at least conscious and standing on her own two feet, even if she was hysterical.

  “Eve,” I tried again, whispering softly to her. “Eve, shhhh. It’s okay.” I smoothed her hair with my hand. “Hey, I need you to listen to me, please? Please, Eve?” Her screams had turned to muffled sobs, and now they were dying down to hiccups.

  “What.” She inhaled a deep breath. “Was.” Exhale. “That.” Another deep inhale, like she was teaching herself to breathe again. I’d forgotten what it was like to travel like that for the first time.

  “I conjured us out of there. Sorry, I didn’t have time to warn you.”

  “Air,” she breathed. “There was no air.”

  “Yeah.” I frowned and cupped her face in my hands. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “I think so,” she whispered.

  “Nice work back there.” I smiled and kissed her forehead. “Now, we better get out of here before they find us. Can you run?”

  She cocked her head at me and looked at me like I’d asked if the sky was blue. Then she reached down to the hem of her dress and began to tear.

  “Help me with this,” she said as she pulled and the fabric began to rip a long slit up the length of her leg.

  I got the general idea of what she was after, and I removed the lower two-thirds of her skirt with magic, revealing her long, lean legs. Runner’s legs.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  I tore my eyes off her legs and blinked at her. “Right,” I said. “Let’s go.”

  I opened the door to the arena and waved Evelyn inside, ahead of me.

  “It’s dark in here,” she said. “And…” She covered her nose and mouth with her forearm. “What’s that smell?”

  I conjured a ball of light and let it float ahead of us. “Hell beasts,” I said. They may have been removed, but she was right, the arena still stank of their blood.

  Her eyes went wide. “This is where you—”

  “Yes,” I said, interrupting her. I took her hand, the one that wasn’t covering her face, and led her across to the tunnel. Her hand hung limply in mine, and she craned her neck to study the room.

  “Why would you bring us back here?” she asked.

  “There’s a tunnel,” I said. “Up here.”

  Noises in the corridor behind us reminded me that we needed to hurry. Edric and his Hunters may be gone, but Lilium’s demons might still be after us. I extinguished the light and started moving faster, allowing my senses to lead the way.

  “Stay close to me,” I whispered.

  Evelyn gripped my hand tightly and sped up to match my pace. When we reached the mouth of the tunnel, I pulled her inside and held my open palm between us. I conjured a dim light and let it glow so I could see her face.

  “I’m going to need to transform into my animal form,” I explained. I watched her face closely for a reaction, but she just nodded. “That will make it easier to follow the trail out.”

  “Okay,” she said. “It can’t be any worse than anything else I’ve seen today.”

  I laughed. “Good point.” I let the ball of light grow and released it far ahead of us in the tunnel, hoping the glow wouldn’t be visible to anyone searching the arena. I would be able to use my night vision, but I didn’t want Evelyn running in the dark.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “Wait,” she said. “Is there anything you can do about my shoes?”

  I cringed. I couldn’t just conjure her a pair of running shoes out of thin air. The slippers they’d given her to wear to the ball seemed sturdy. At least they didn’t have high heels.

  “I can prevent them from slipping off your feet, but that’s about it, I think.”

  “Do it,” she said.

  I spelled them to her feet, and then, without further warning, transformed.

  Evelyn took a step backward and pressed herself against the wall. She looked terrified. I had no voice to reassure her, and I decided it would only make it worse if I growled. Instead, I bowed to her, stretching my front paws out before me and lowering my head until it nearly touched the ground.

  She took a cautious step away from the wall. “Can you understand me?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Okay. You win. That is probably the strangest thing I’ve seen today.”

  I rolled over onto my back and exposed my belly to her, arching my head back so I could still see her face.

  “Yeah.” She laughed. “Belly rubs later. Let’s get out of here.”

  I pounced to my feet, and she jumped back. I crept closer and rubbed against her legs. Those legs. I purred.

  She laughed and gave me a little shove. “Go,” she said.

  I took off at a loping run, and she easily pulled alongside me. I focused my senses on following the scent of Sorcha and the others. I lost myself in following the trail, and we’d been running for some time before I realized I’d picked up the pace considerably. I turned my head to see if she’d fallen behind, but she’d kept pace with me. This girl was strong and fast, and I loved it.

  I was so lost in the joy of running alongside Evelyn and absorbed in the amplified senses of my animal form, that I didn’t notice the wall until we were nearly upon it. I slowed and skidded to a halt. Evelyn stopped alongside me and placed her hands on her head, breathing hard. I considered the vertical iron bars posted across the opening of the tunnel. Beyond the bars, the tunnel was boarded up, with wooden planks covering the opening. I nosed around at the feet of the iron bars, searching for the scent of the others who must have passed this way.

  “Did we miss a turn?” Evelyn asked.

  I growled softly and shook my head. They’d been here, I could smell it. But then they’d disappeared. Something about the bars tugged at my memory. I’d seen this somewhere before. I transformed so I could use my magic and confer with Evelyn.

  “They were here,” I said. “But they didn’t go that way.” I pointed toward the bars.

  “Did they…” She paused and made an explosion gesture with her hands. “Poof,” she added.

  I snorted. “Maybe. If Sorcha knew where they were.” But how would she have known? I turned to face the bars. “Wait,” I said. “I think I know where we are.” I raised my hand, palm facing the bars, and cast a revealing spell. Markings in the planks began to glow.

  “What are those marks?” Evelyn asked.

  “Wards. Fae wards. It’s a protection spell, meant to keep out creatures who mean to harm us.” I let the spell fade and turned to face Evelyn. “But what’s more important is that I know where we are.”

  She gestured toward the now-invisible marks. “From those?”

>   “No,” I said. “I think I ended up on the other side of these marks when I was exploring in the cellar at your uncle’s house.”

  “Are you saying that this tunnel leads back to Lydbury?”

  I nodded. “I’m not positive, but how many other boarded-up tunnels can there be just lying about underground near here?”

  She raised her eyebrows.

  “Yes. Okay. Valid point.” I crossed my arms. “Perhaps it’s best not to conjure us across, then.”

  “What would happen if you’re wrong?”

  “We’d be stuck between.”

  “With no air?”

  I nodded.

  She shook her head. “What else have you got?”

  “I think we could pass through the wards. I’d just need to create an opening.”

  “But those are iron bars.”

  “Iron is Fae friendly. It’s the man-made stuff that doesn’t agree with us. Watch.” I ran my hands over the bars and felt the metal heat under my touch until it became like taffy. Then I stretched and bent the bars to create a space wide enough to walk through.

  Evelyn tiptoed forward and reached out a hand to touch the bars.

  I caught her hand in midair. “It’s still hot.”

  “That’s amazing,” she said.

  I shrugged. “That’s just the first part. Now we have to get past the wards.” I stepped through the bars and placed my hands on the planks covering the opening. Then I muttered an incantation my mother had taught me years ago. It was the same incantation that unlocked the cottage where she lived, and where Arabella, Fiona, and I had grown up.

  The wards glowed, giving off a pale-green light. Then a crack appeared. One vertical seam running from floor to ceiling. I slid my hands along the rough, unfinished wood until they were alongside the seam. Then I pressed. The wood groaned and crackled when I pressed against it, but the gap widened. I pressed harder, pushing until the gap was big enough for us to shimmy through.

  “I’ll go first,” I said.

  Evelyn nodded.