by Allie Santos
“Hag,” he said in greeting.
I shot back in shock. This was the Hag? Even though Roark told me she showed herself as a young woman, I wasn’t expecting this.
“Thank goodness you arrived, mate,” Sabine purred and sidled to his side. He stared down at her blankly. “We’d heard of some soldier sightings by the castle, so we decided to wait before we moved. I believe they are searching for me. There is something I have not told you.” Wringing her hands, she cleared her throat nervously. He narrowed his lavender eyes at Sabine. I was glad to see his aloofness with her. “I poisoned the Queen before I left.”
He curled his lip and took a menacing step toward her. “Pure stupidity,” he bit out. “Don’t you realize we cannot harm her without harming our world?”
Her eyebrow tilted up, a superior glint in her eyes. “It was a weakening spell Hag cooked up, nothing more. We have time to plan. It will slowly deteriorate her over multiple years, enough time for us to complete our goal.”
“Let this be the last time you act without my consent,” he hissed.
Sabine bent her head with a tight smile. “Yes, lover, we need to get to the fortress to be better protected, so we sent forth Bran to make sure there were no guards. Emily scryed and she sensed Bran in danger of an attack. Although he is our best, he might need you,” she said, the lies coming off her lips convincingly.
“I will go to aid him. When will you all join us?” he said, relaxing back into his blank expression.
Sabine smiled in a way that said she knew he would volunteer. “We will be right behind you. We must travel at a steadier pace with these humans.”
He nodded at her words and shot me a look. “I will take Kean and Darek with me. We must continue our conversation regarding the human women later. Do not do anything until we speak.” Roark stepped up to Sabine threateningly and glared down at her as he barked out the order.
She nodded in answer, and I saw a flash of fear flicker in her eyes. Satisfied, Roark turned and nodded at me before turning and disappearing from sight.
“Now that he’s gone, what’s with the games, Sabine? Tell it to us straight. Why are we here?” I enunciated each word.
Sabine’s eyes brightened with happiness. “You are all sources to be used and discarded. Being descendants of Fae, you have a reserve of magic in you that will explode out—in theory.”
My gaze flicked to Emily’s suddenly hungry eyes. Emily was ringing higher warning bells than Sabine, and that was saying something.
“We are going to sacrifice you,” Sabine announced. “The prophecy states, ‘The human-realm born holds the answer to the unbinding.’ And here we have all you human realm-born Fae with your potential locked away from centuries of being magic bound. Your ancestors lived human lives through the years and never reached Fae maturity. Hag scryed for the most powerful bound Fae magic and was shown each and every one of you. Your deaths should be enough of a boost to help unleash magic.”
“Should?”
“It’s not definitive,” Emily said cheerfully. “I was only shown the beginning of the prophecy.”
What. The. Real. Hell.
They were going off a damn theory and one line of an incomplete prophecy?
From the line-up, Karen’s sobs started up again.
“No, you can’t do that,” Selina cried out, angry.
“Yes, I can, human. And I will. Relish your last days.”
“You’re a real bitch. Didn’t think you got any worse, but here we are,” Thea spat at her.
“Oh, no, my dear, I’m good. Just ask Bran,” Sabine said, laughing, and ran her hands down her body suggestively.
“There’s a special place in hell for you,” I ground out.
Sabine backed out with Emily at her heels, stopping at the door. “We begin our way to the fortress soon. Be good little humans when you’re fetched.” Taunts, all taunts.
The door rattled shut with finality, sending all of us into silence.
“Shit, we have to do something. Lying here like pigs waitin’ on the slaughter ain’t gonna help us none,” Camilla said.
“We run,” Thea said stiffly.
I scoffed. “Tried that, got a dislocated ankle for my attempt.”
“They’re too strong and fast,” Eliza muttered.
Before we could debate more, the gates cranked and swung open. Three unknown Fae males strode in, each more beautiful than the last. They approached, not even bothering to look down at us. One leaned in between Rosalind and me. He grasped the chain attached to the wood and gave a sharp yank and twist. The wood splintered under his strength. He moved onto the section between Selina and Rosalind and snapped it the same all the way down until he got to Jasmine.
Jasmine looked up at him with hate and sneered at him. I shook wood splinters off myself and stood, along with the other girls. The chain linked us to each other, giving us about two feet of space if we stretched out.
“Just so you know, we have great hearing. So, if you ever try to plan an escape, I would really think about your opponent’s strengths,” the Fae who had obliterated the wood said blandly. His reddish hair was a stark contrast against his handsome pale face. He stepped back and nodded to the other two Fae.
“Captain,” one intoned and moved to my side, and the other went to the end of the chain near Jasmine.
“Follow,” the redhead ordered.
I started walking after a shove from the brute next to me. My arms tugged to the side as the girls caught up to my pace. The chains jingled as we followed the towering guards.
When I stepped out of the cover of the barn, I blinked quickly at the onslaught of sunlight that pierced my eyes. When my gaze finally cleared, I saw that every tent was down. What was left was that odd house about a hundred or so feet away.
To the side, there were lines of Fae soldiers looking straight ahead. If I were to take a guess, I’d say there was close to two hundred of them. They were in perfect order, not one out of place. It was… creepy to see.
At the front of it was a cart where Sabine and Emily lounged, nestled in pillows. Sabine’s mouth was open in a yell, but I was too far away to hear what she said. Moments later, they started moving, and I was finally able to make out what pulled them. I inhaled sharply. There were two rows of people. From what I could see, they wore a sack over their bodies.
“What?” Rosalind whispered from behind me.
I nodded in the direction of the people and heard her answering gasp of surprise. When the tail end of the marching soldiers began walking, the Fae at my side started up again, and I followed his lead. I didn’t want to earn another shove.
“Are those humans up there, pulling that carriage?” I rasped to the Fae.
He didn’t even react to my words. The response came from the redhead we followed. “You are correct,” he said.
“But-but why?” Rosalind said from behind me, her voice dry.
“Future Queen Sabine says we will bring the old ways back. The way of enslaving and hunting humans. These few are the first of the new order she will make come to pass.”
“That’s… sick,” I said, horrified. I looked behind me and shared a look with Rosalind.
It was disgusting. Slavery. I shook my head.
Sabine rose to the top of my hit list.
Did Roark know about this? I found myself futilely hoping he didn’t… but how could he not…? I would convince him to free them. I filed it away as something to rail at him about later.
I didn’t know how long we had been marching, but I was thankful for the slow pace. My ankle felt better dealing with long distances when not pushed at a harsh speed.
As we went, I took in the landscape around me. Trees were tossed to the side and bent to make room for our procession. Multicolored vines and trunks broken like garbage. They split to the side as if trampled by elephants. It was almost like a hard blast of wind had cleared the area and left a walkway. The trees being casualties. It saddened me to see the destruction. The plush gras
s underfoot was trampled into flatness with only tuffs left standing.
There was a gasp behind me, and I glanced up. Towers rose over the horizon, not far from our location. The dark brick rising high and daunting in their stature. I squinted. Vines curled up the side, curling into the building. I looked away from the building in time to stutter to a stop as the marching stop. My eyebrows met when it resumed moments later. What was going on?
“Captain.” Sabine appeared next to him, grinning conspiringly. She trailed her hand down his chest, her other arm holding up Hag. “Continue on with the soldiers. I need to have a chat with the humans.”
“Why?”
“I am not like Luz,” Sabine hissed. “I don’t want your advice or questions. You chose to cross her, so do as ordered.” Sabine let Emily slide out of her arms. Redhead gave a short nod and did that lightning speed thing. As the brutes next to us were about to follow, Sabine held her hand up. “Not you two.”
She looked behind her, and I got the worst foreboding feeling when she turned back with a gleeful smile. The army was a good distance away when she approached our little line. Instead of heading for me like I thought she would, she turned at the last minute. Quick as lightning, she broke the chain that attached Thea to Karen, then strode to the other side and did the same to the metal between Karen and Eliza.
Karen looked up at her, trembling with no chains to connect her to any of us. Selina, realizing something was wrong, cried out and rushed to Karen, yanking Thea, Rosalind, and me right along with her.
Sabine motioned to one of the guards. He stepped up, grasped our chain, and yanked. We fell to our backs, and cries echoed down the line. As I lay helpless on the floor, the scene in front of me played out like a sick horror movie.
Emily stepped behind a sobbing Karen and yanked her head back by her hair. She whispered something, a chant, and dark shadows gathered around her, slowly at first. They seemed alive with how they writhed around her and slid through her hair. She then pulled out a pitch-black dagger made of smooth onyx stone and slashed Karen’s neck, opening her throat ear to ear so it formed a bright red macabre smile. Selina screeched and yanked from our side. I watched, frozen with shock. Too unbelieving.
“You fucking psychotic bitch, I will kill you. I swear it. You are dead, Hag. Dead,” Selina screeched. Her wrist was bleeding and raw from how hard she had pulled to get free.
Sabine gave the monster stepping on our chain a glance, and he backhanded Selina so hard she passed out. Through the ringing in my ears, I was finally able to make out the yelling around me from the other girls. I sat there, trying to comprehend what the hell was going on.
Karen’s body dropped and Emily turned, her eyes fully black, the pitch-dark shadows clinging to her like goop. She waved her hand while chanting. The fortress towers that could be seen from here suddenly disappeared. Emily slumped and almost dropped before Sabine caught her. They shared a smile, and that only infused the pure fury that had been building inside me. I gritted my teeth. I wouldn’t be able to do anything now. But soon I would find a way.
“Let’s go,” Sabine said and strode off to where the fortress had been with Emily dangling limply in her arms. Her eyes hadn’t returned to normal, and the inky darkness in them looked otherworldly.
The piece of shit Fae pulled me up and shoved me forward. I took a few steps before he grasped my end of the chain and started dragging us. The scrape of Selina’s body rasped on the ground. Easily yanking the chain out of his hand, I turned and grabbed Rosalind’s limp arm.
“Snap out of it. We’ll grieve later. Help me carry Selina,” I said harshly.
Thea nodded from the other side, and the three of us managed to get a grip on her. Other hands joined us, and all six of us grabbed one part of her, so her weight was comfortably distributed.
The asshole Fae sneered but did nothing to stop us, as if even they understood loss touched everyone. Even us vermin.
We walked on, but before we went down the hill and lost sight of it, I couldn’t help but look back at Karen’s body lying in the dirt, alone.
18
“Finally.” Sabine sighed and stared up.
All I could see were trees and more trees. As soon as I took the next step, however, my vision blurred. I blinked to clear my sight before the large towers came into view in front of my eyes.
I hadn’t been able to process it then, but they had sacrificed Karen to have enough magic to hide this. This large fortress probably spanned the seaside in England if it were in my world. I adjusted my grip on Selina as we got closer, having to crane my neck to look up at the top of one of the four towers stretching high above. I could barely make out figures standing at the top. They disappeared as quickly as I had seen them. Not long after, a gate big enough to fit a van rattled and opened.
Sabine strode ahead with Emily in her arms, not a hiccup in her steps. Our pace was drawn out and slower because of Selina’s dead weight, and the fact that we didn’t have Fae strength.
When we finally passed through the gates, I couldn’t help but be awed by the opulence of the stone fortress towering above me. Before I could take in the rest of the sights within the boundary of the gate, Sabine flicked her hand, and guards grabbed each of us by the arm. One even threw Selina over his shoulder before they shoved us to a side of the castle across an expanse of trampled dirt.
There, a guard opened the latch that contained a double door. Stairs led down into darkness. I swallowed roughly as the Fae man took me in that direction. Struggling against his hold in earnest, I managed to yell, “Roark!” before my voice was taken from me.
As hard as I tried, only air escaped. I turned my neck to see that Emily had her hand up in my direction and was mouthing something. I yelled obscenities at her, knowing it was pointless but getting satisfaction from it, nonetheless. The lip of the entrance finally disappeared, and darkness fully engulfed me. I struggled to find the steps going down. I could hear shuffling behind me as the other girls grunted.
I wasn’t sure how long we’d walked before a creak sounded out, and I was thrown onto a dank-smelling floor. I grunted at the weight on my leg when another body fell on top of me. There were a couple more thumps before I heard the creak again and then receding footsteps.
Worried my voice was gone, relief coursed through me when I was able to say, “Is everyone here?” I heard several yeses. “Is Selina still out? That was only five of us.”
The silence was deafening as we absorbed the fact that we were already down Karen. I heard a couple of sniffles, and I Inhaled deeply before my own sniffles joined.
“Yes,” Thea rasped.
“God, when will this be over?” Eliza moaned from somewhere, and the sound echoed around us, bouncing off the walls.
A square light flickered on from my left, and my eyes automatically flicked to it. I saw Jasmine’s face illuminated by cellphone light. She faced it away from her, and I was able to make out the rest of the girls.
“Set it in the middle. Everyone huddle around it,” I instructed. They did as I asked until we all sat in a circle staring at each other, even Jasmine. There were matching haunted looks on each and every one of our faces. Selina was sprawled to the side, her hair covering her peaceful face.
I rubbed my forehead. “We need to escape.”
“How?” Eliza intoned from her place. “You saw them. They’re strong, fast, and good at killing. We don’t stand a shit’s chance of escaping.”
“I know,” I muttered. “I need to find Roark. He would help us. I’m telling you guys, he’s not evil. Maybe he can get us out.”
Jasmine snorted but didn’t say anything.
“I’m serious. We don’t have much choice here,” I snapped. “Maybe they’re not all shitty?” My last sentence came out more like a question than a statement.
“And what if we do escape? What then?” Thea said calmly. “We would be out of luck out there. We’d have these crazies to watch for and the Queen lady they’re against.”
“Maybe the Queen is good?” Rosalind said in a small, hopeful voice.
Eliza snorted. “Doubtful.”
“Well, from what I’ve heard, Sabine is even scared of her. Sabine and Roark are a part of her guards and they come when she snaps her fingers. I don’t know if I want to take my chances with someone they would bow for,” I said, trying to be logical.
“She struck me as cold,” The fact that Jasmine talked sent a wave of silence over us. Right! I had forgotten that she had gone to the Queen with Sabine.
“You met her then.” I couldn’t hide the excitement in my voice.
“No.” Jasmine paused. “She sent an advisor to see us. That’s why I say that. She couldn’t be bothered with questioning me herself.”
“What did they ask you? Could you have asked for help?” Rosalind asked.
Jasmine grimaced. “I never had a chance to. Sabine threatened to go find my sister and kill her and my entire family. I couldn’t risk it. He asked me about how I’d gotten in, and I made some crap up about wandering through the forest. After, the weird Fae told Sabine to give me an elixir and take me back to the human world.”
My face scrunched in confusion. That elixir business didn’t sound good. I looked around at the drawn expressions on everyone’s face and wrung my hands, feeling helpless.
“Come on, ladies. We’re smart young women. I refuse to think that I’ll never see your faces again. We need to put our cards on the table,” Camilla announced and pounded her fist into one of her hands.
“All right, we need to consider motive, and what Sabine said earlier. Maybe we can use that to our advantage,” Thea said.
“Speaking of what they want,” I said, and everyone’s expression turned grim when we thought about the sacrificing. “Roark told me the Queen bound magic within every magical being in existence. Her mate was murdered, so she snapped and bound it. Roark and Sabine want it back, and Emily is helping them.” Damn, it really did sound crazy.
“To unbind it, they need magic they don’t have. So, they looked for us ‘cause we’re descendants of Fae and have built up magic from our ancestors?” Camilla drawled.