by Ana Mardoll
So he watched from afar as they examined the body. He had hoped they would consume it, and in this he was not disappointed. His ultimate goal was frustrated, however, when the faint remains of tainted magic failed to spread through the new hosts. He had been desirous of a chain reaction, with each dead Elder slaying the next; instead he was forced to be content with just the one death, which was quite possibly unrepeatable from that vector. The lingering vestiges of the girl's poison meant her taste would now be known to them, marking her as an unacceptable food source. And already her fellow humans spoke of immunization, which meant he had to assume the Elders could develop defenses of their own against the girl. They might even pass those defenses to any new faery born from them.
Another frustrating dead-end. It had taken him over a month to track down the May Queen's prize specimen after she'd stupidly let the girl escape, then another month to arrange to send over the sword from under the High King's nose. The humans had then taken an interminable length of time to consider that it might be worthwhile to make the weaponized girl stronger; she'd been willing to lie down and die in front of the child, and the bear had fought his magic so strenuously that his portal had ended up in entirely the wrong place.
Worse yet, the girl had actually asked the sword to remove her magic, leaving him scrambling to send over the Fiery Lord's hunter to interrupt them. He'd had more than enough of unpredictable human behavior in the last two days.
Still, he was nothing if not patient. The advantage of living in shadows was the ability to experiment, to set pawns onto the board and watch what transpired. To learn and to adapt; that was what set him apart from his parents and siblings.
Nor had this experiment been a total failure: an Elder Fae was dead, as was that fool of a High King, and he'd had a chance to watch the humans in action. They'd done much better than he would have believed, utilizing their superior numbers and smaller size in surprisingly creative ways. They'd cooperated, which wasn't a tactic his kind were comfortable with. That was something to consider.
He would rest for now, hiding as always in the safety of his shadows. After he regained the strength he'd spent on all those portals, he could begin again.
About The Author
Ana Mardoll is a writer and activist who lives in the dusty Texas wilderness with two spoiled cats. Her favorite employment is weaving new tellings of old fairy tales, fashioning beautiful creations to bring comfort on cold nights. She is the author of the Earthside series, the Rewoven Tales novels, and several short stories.
Aside from reading and writing, Ana enjoys games of almost every flavor and frequently posts videos of gaming sessions on YouTube. After coming out as genderqueer in 2015, Ana answers to both xie/xer and she/her pronouns.
Website: www.AnaMardoll.com
Twitter: @AnaMardoll
YouTube: www.YouTube.com/c/AnaMardoll
Content Notes
Content notes (sometimes referred to as 'trigger warnings') are intended to help trauma survivors avoid being surprised by story elements which may trigger them. These content notes may allude to story spoilers, which is why they have been placed at the back of the book, with a link near the front. The content note system used in this book is the one created by the Fireside Fiction Company, and used here with permission from the owner. This book and the author are not affiliated with the Fireside Fiction Company in any way.
The content notes for this book include:
Animal Abuse ● one scene of low intensity
Child Neglect ● one scene of low intensity
Sexual Assault ●● one scene of moderate intensity
Torture ● one scene of low intensity
Return to Table of Contents.
Version History
The version information for this book file is below. Please note that not all bookstores push updates automatically to readers. Feel free to email the author at [email protected] or visit www.AnaMardoll.com to determine the latest version release. Most bookstores will push updates to readers when asked through their customer support.
Current Version: 8.0
Version History:
1.0. Initial Release.
2.0. Sentence added in Chapter 1 to clarify age.
3.0. Corrected a pronoun error in Chapter 13.
4.0. Minor one-word changes in Chapters 8, 10, 18, and 23.
5.0. Corrected a pronoun error in Chapter 14.
6.0 Corrected minor epub validation errors. No content changed.
7.0 Updated for release of Poison Kiss audiobook.
8.0 Updated for release of Survival Rout (Earthside #2).