by Jade Frances
A wailing siren boomed from a couple of streets over. We all spun to face the direction it was coming from. Then, a voice that was clearly speaking through a megaphone filled the atmosphere.
“We know you are here. We felt the portal. Come out, come out, wherever you are.”
I recognised the voice but couldn’t place it. The hairs on my arms raised, whoever it was, wasn’t friendly.
“We have to get off of the street, follow me,” I instructed the others and set off in the direction of my old flat. Adam jogged to the front and scanned the street ahead. It was all clear. One by one we made our way up the steps. In the hurry to get off of the streets and away from whoever was stalking us, I hadn’t thought of the door being locked. Or the fact that someone could possibly be living there. Even though the town was clearly deserted. I had been away for so long, yet it only felt like yesterday that I had rushed to get away from here. I melted the lock with my fire and pushed the door open. As I ushered everyone inside, I told them to head to the third floor. Before closing the door behind me, I took one last look into the street. It was silent for now, but something was going on out there; and it wasn’t looking good for us.
Thankfully, the apartment was empty. No one occupied it, but it had changed. There was more colour on the walls for a start, artwork and pictures lined the fireplace that once only held a clock. I walked through each room, feeling slightly nostalgic.
“So, this is where you lived before you came to us at Moorway House?” Rose had creeped up behind me. Unexpectedly, she pulled me into a hug.
“Sure is,” I replied and pushed her hair out of my face. “Feels like a lifetime ago now,” I added, and pulled away from her to look around the bedroom we were standing in. She gave my arm a gentle rub.
“The others are going to discuss where we go from here, life on the run and all that jazz...” she tried to add a bit of lightness to her tone but didn’t quite manage. “You coming through?”
I let loose a deep breath.
“They’ll be with us soon Rose,” I gave her a quick hug, then we walked arm in arm to the living room.
“Our best bet is to split up, we won’t survive for long as a group this large,” Dakota was addressing Sandra and Adam as we entered. Dust sheets had been laid over the furniture, the others hadn’t bothered to remove them before they sat down. I pulled one off of the armchair in the corner before taking a seat.
“I’m not splitting up from anyone for a long period of time, and that is not up for debate,” I told Dakota, who in turn looked around at the others. When no one agreed with her, she threw herself back onto the sofa and crossed her arms. “We can’t stay here; someone is on the streets looking for us. In a way, Dakota is right. Our energy signatures are too strong together, but we only need to split up to reconvene in a safer area,” I mumbled to the group. Dakota sat up a little straighter with a smug smile on her face.
“What about the others? Theodore won’t know where to send them to us,” Sandra asked. I glanced at Rose, who gave me a subtle shake of her head. So, she still hadn’t told her sister of her bond to Barak. I rolled my eyes and pinched my nose.
“Theodore will find a way.”
Adam, who had remained silent since we stepped through the portal, walked over to the balcony doors.
“Where is a safer area, though? We don’t know what is going on out there, who is out there or where we should go next,” he muttered. He was right, of course, but we couldn’t stay holed up here forever.
“We have to take our chances,” I replied and crossed the room to stand next to him. “Why don’t we all get some rest, we can discuss it once we have freshened up.”
The girls mumbled their agreement from behind us.
“Dibs on the shower,” Dakota shouted and rushed to grab her stuff. Again, I rolled my eyes. Exhaustion was creeping in and I wasn’t all that fussed over who was showering when.
“Girls, do you want to share the bedroom with me? Adam, you ok out here?”
“I’ll be out here with Adam, of course he will be fine,” Dakota’s eyes twinkled when she looked at him. His cheeks flushed and he looked to the floor. Not awkward at all.
“Settled then, I’m going to get some rest,” I told them all and grabbed my bags. Throwing one over each shoulder, I made my way to the bedroom to change.
It didn’t take long for the girls to join me. It was a tight squeeze in the bed, but I’d rather that than being in the other room. We laid in the dark, the only noise came from our breathing. Sandra’s breathing deepened until she began to let out a gentle snore.
“Do you really think Theodore can get our guardians to us if we leave here?” Rose whispered. I shuffled to face her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.
“Yes, I have no doubt that they will do anything they can to get to us. Can you imagine Pearce right now?”
Rose held a hand over her mouth, muffling a chuckle that threatened to wake Sandra.
“He will be going insane. Barak too,” she sighed.
“It’ll be fine...” I grabbed her hand and held it tight. I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince more. We fell back into a comfortable silence. It wasn’t long before both of us followed Sandra and fell into a peaceful sleep.
The tears in his skin, the blackened roots that were digging deeper into his soul, slowly eating away at him. I watched it all unfold. His cheerful goodbyes. How could he be so damn calm when he knew he was dying? How could he joke, and love us… love me, for putting him in that position, in that danger. He started fading from my mind as I screamed and screamed at him not to leave me.
I jolted upright as soon as Adam came crashing through the door. Rubbing my face wearily, I noted the clamminess of my skin.
“Something’s approaching. We need to move.” He held the door open, streaming light in from the hallway. I blinked a couple of times from the brightness.
“Right now?” Sandra moaned and stretched.
“Yes, right now, move it,” Adam replied and threw our bags from the floor onto the bed. I sucked in a breath as mine hit me in the stomach.
“What the hell, man—” I threw him a filthy look. The fear I saw in his eyes told me this was no time for petty rows. I rushed to get off the bed and was just about to reach for my clothes.
“No time to change, come on,” he demanded. I looked down at the sweats I was in and groaned.
“Fine. Come on, girls,” I hurried them along.
Once we were organised and had our bags on our back, we darted into the living room. Of course, Dakota was looking radiant as ever and actually dressed to leave the building. She looked me up and down and smirked slightly. Bitch.
“Right, let’s roll,” she said and moved to the door. “Adam, you first?” She batted her eyelashes at him. Well, that wasn’t inconspicuous at all. Seemingly unperceived by Dakota’s flirting, for once, Adam nodded and slipped through the door and down the stairs. He motioned that it was clear, and we all set off after him.
Adam navigated the streets with expert knowledge, which didn’t come as a surprise to me at all. Although where we were headed, God only knew. We were nearing the end of yet another alleyway when he froze ahead of us. We all stopped, listened, and waited for whatever he could sense. I edged my way to where he was standing.
“What is it, Adam?” I whispered.
Just as I reached his side, a hand shot out and gripped around my neck. I heard Adam growl and felt the energy of his change, but he hadn’t moved to protect me. Which could only mean one thing. The hand was gripping me tighter. I gulped in what little air that I could. It wasn’t enough. I struggled and placed both of my hands around the wrist that was holding me hostage. Again, the grip tightened, this time lifting me off my feet. I could hear a commotion behind me. Fighting. I was losing consciousness. I didn’t have the energy to call to my fire. In one last-ditch attempt to break free, I clawed and scratched at the arm. My gulps were turning to chokes. I heard the click of heels advancing
toward me. Then a puff of dust was blown into my face. And all I saw was darkness.
I roused from unconsciousness at the sound of an engine. I peeled my eyes open; it was pitch black. My neck was burning, as were my wrists. I tried to move them to rub my neck and heard the clink of chains that had them tied behind my back. I pulled against the restraint with all my might, but they didn’t budge. In a state of panic, I started throwing my body around and slamming it into the side of the vehicle. That proved just as pointless, I was only hurting myself further.
“Can you stop making all that racket?” Dakota’s voice pierced through the darkness.
“Dakota, where are we? Are the others in here?” I whispered back.
“Don’t know. And yes, they are still knocked out from that bloody dust.”
She offered nothing more, but I could hear a slight rattling of her chains.
“God, how do we get out of this?” I needed to keep talking, to keep the panic from rising. My chest was rising and falling at a rapid pace, my body needing more oxygen than I could give it.
“Melt your chains, genius,” she snapped. Huh, why didn’t I think of that?
I laid my head back onto the cold interior and calmed my breathing. Once I was ready, I called to my fire. It sprung to life in my hands and began to heat the chains. They burned the skin around my wrists as it began to melt. I let out a hiss through my teeth, but kept it going until I felt the chains begin to slacken. They had melted enough that I could slip each wrist through what was left. I rubbed each one when they were loose. That was going to leave some burns.
“Is there a reason you’re taking so long? I need these chains off,” Dakota barked. Clearly, she wasn’t worried about remaining low key. I shuffled through the dark to where her voice was coming from and felt my way to her chains.
“This is going to burn,” I told her, not even trying to hide the tiny bit of delight I would get out of it.
“Just hurry up.”
I heated her chains the same way I had mine. Dakota didn’t make a sound, nothing to give away the pain that she must have been feeling. A hint of disappointment hit me. God, I hope that’s the darkness inciting these feelings in me. I heard her chains drop to the floor and shuffled back.
“What about the others?”
“Just you and me at the moment and we are about to stop. Don’t have time for a plan, just follow me,” she said.
I circled my wrists and rolled my neck. Pain was coursing through most parts of my body, but I had to be ready. Sure enough, only minutes later the vehicle came to a stop and the engine cut off. Footsteps made their way to the back. The double doors opened up, light filtered through, revealing a man clad in all black. A small woman stood to the side of him. A woman I recognised.
“Athora,” I growled.
Chapter 8
The little pixie cocked her head and smirked at me.
“Hello Evangeline, are you surprised to see me?” Her voice grated on me, which only added to the anger that was beginning to rise from the pit of my stomach. “I believe the last time we met, your words to me were and I quote; ‘when the time comes, you will be the first to find that out’.” She let out a cackle that could only belong at a twisted Halloween party. “Now look at you, chained up in the back of a van. All powerful, are you, Evangeline? Doesn’t seem that way to me.” Her eyes turned black, and her glamour dropped enough that I could see part of the vile face she hid so well. I always thought pixies were supposed to be cute, goes to show that fairy tales aren’t real. Her ears had started to point at the tips, her nose sunk into her face and when she smiled, I could see rows and rows of sharp pointed teeth.
“Oh, I’ll get my chance Athora, I promise you that,” I spit in her direction. She snapped her glamour back into place and threw me an unsettling smile.
“No dear, no you won’t...”
Before she could finish her sentence, I launched myself from the van and into the open space in front of her. I called to my fire and threw a ball of it at her. Her form shimmered, then all of a sudden, she was gone. She reappeared within a split second to the other side of me. I spun and threw another fireball. But again, she evaded it with her disappearing act.
“Stop these games Evangeline, you will not win.” Something collided with the back of my legs and forced me to my knees. That didn’t stop me though. I threw ball after ball; each one was getting weaker as my energy waned. What the hell was Dakota doing? Athora reappeared right in front of my face and before I could move, she leaned down and blew her dust into it. My last thought before I was rendered unconscious, again, was, I need to kill this cow.
My eyes fluttered open in the darkness of the van. Chains were wrapped around my wrists again, this time they were heavier; I couldn’t move, not even an inch. I let out a frustrated cry and banged my head against the door.
“Well done genius, you cost us possibly our only chance at getting out of this situation,” Dakota sounded disheartened, but she still managed a bitchy edge to her tone.
“Couldn’t help it,” I mumbled back. “Are the others still not awake?”
“Nope, that pixie dust must have really affected them.”
I lost my chance at Athora, and who knew when the next one would be. I let out a huff and stayed silent. The only noise to be heard was the rumbling of the engine and the rattle of chains when we hit the odd bump in the road.
It felt like we had been on the road for hours before the others finally started to rouse. I hadn’t bothered getting my chains off. There was no point, yet.
“What the hell?” Sandra whined and clinked her chains. “Should have stayed at the academy and wallowed in my grief.”
“You don’t mean that, Sandra,” Rose whispered. “Evvy? Are you ok?”
“Just splendid, Rose,” I said bitterly. “Sorry,” I paused, “I screwed up my shot at Athora.”
“Oh, she did more than that. She positively embarrassed herself,” Dakota piped up. I growled in return.
“Enough you two. Any clue where we are heading? How long have I been out?” Adam was next to speak. Again, I remained silent, allowing Dakota to take the reins in filling them in.
“I knew when we were stopping, we had been travelling at a speed of at least ninety miles per hour, then it started slowing. We both had our chains off...” The others mm’d and ah’d as she relayed what had happened.
I tuned out her voice and focused instead on the mass of darkness that was growing in my mind. I need to calm down. Since the moment that we arrived in Ferry, I had been irrational. Not thinking clearly. I had acted out with Athora and that got me nowhere.
A massive bang and the screech of tyres pulled me from my thoughts. The back end of the truck swung out to the right as the driver slammed on the breaks. If my chains had allowed it, I would have gone toppling over when the impact had hit. When we skidded to a stop, I heard the opening and closing of doors. Shortly after, shouts of “duck” and “take them down”, were heard from outside. I couldn’t see the others faces, but I could only imagine they were as shocked and confused as I was. Whatever was going on outside couldn’t be good for us.
“Did something just hit us?” Sandra shouted over the ruckus outside. State the obvious why don’t you.
“Might be other Fae, I can only imagine everyone wants the prize catch for themselves,” Dakota shouted back. “Evangeline get our chains off.”
Not again. I had no time to grumble though, if it was other Fae out there, I certainly didn’t want to be chained up when they came for me. I melted them faster this time, which lessened the burning of my skin. I made my way around the others, quickly slackening their chains. Which in the dark wasn’t easy to pull off, but with the small light from my fire, I succeeded. Once we were all free, Dakota ducked to one side of the back doors.
“Once these are open... fight. Do anything you can not to be put back in here,” she stated the obvious, “oh, and avoid the dust at all costs.” I took a wide stance and readied myself. Sec
ond chance, Evvy, you’ve got this. At least I wouldn’t be alone this time.
The doors swung open, and I had just formed a fireball to throw at the closest person to us; when I realised who it was.
“Pearce,” I cried and flew out of the van and into his arms. Sobs escaped my chest as I grabbed him tight and took in the scent of him.
“Little siren.” The relief in his voice made me sob even harder. “I’ve got you, I’ve got you.” He pulled my face from his shoulder and kissed me. His lips mashed against mine with a sense of urgency. Tingles made their way down my spine, and some of the darkness that had been accumulating disappeared. The wetness from my tears ran down to our entwined mouths and my hand made its way into his ruffled hair.
“Always,” I whispered into his mouth, breaking away only slightly. When I looked up into his eyes, I was shocked to see them glistening with unshed tears.
A loud cough reverberated through the night air behind us. I turned and saw Dakota standing with her hand on her hip and tapping her foot. Rose clambered out the back of the van and ran around it to the other side. No doubt to Barak.
“Quite finished? We have Fae to deal with...”
“No,” Pearce boomed, “they are indisposed, there is no need to kill them today.”
“Athora,” I growled at the unhappy reminder of who was behind this.
“She fled; we need to keep moving. We will have to take this van to fit us all in,” he said and dragged me around to the side of it. Two pixies whose glamour had dropped, presumably once they had been rendered unconscious, laid by the side of it. And beyond them stood Cole. A gasp escaped me.
“Cole,” I whispered. He turned to me with an uncertain look in his eyes. I took a step toward him and he backed up a step. A look of fear darted across his features. His reaction to me hurt. “Are you ok?”