by Izzy Shows
I arched an eyebrow. "And what about it isn't womanly? Last I checked, I had strong arms and legs the same as any man. Kailan can attest to my skills as a... warrior." I turned and nudged him. "Can't you?"
"Hm? What?" He turned back to me, having joined in conversation with someone on his left.
"Aoin here seems to think that I can't fight because I'm a woman."
"Oh, I said nothing of the kind. I just said that it wasn't a very womanly art."
"Blair can fight better than some of the men we have," he said, and the quiet way he said it, it rang so true and pure that I didn't know what to do with myself. So, I just stared down at my plate.
I had been doing all right with the empty compliments about how I looked, but a compliment on my fighting skills was another beast entirely. I looked up and saw Aoin peering at me curiously.
"How did you learn to fight?"
"On my own, mostly," I said, starting to feel comfortable in this sort of conversation. "I grew up fighting, and when I learned I had magic, well...it became an extension of that. I had some people to help me, but for the most part I'm self-taught."
"Miraculous. I've never met a female fighter before."
"You don't have women in your fighting ranks?" I was surprised to hear that. I would have thought the Fae would be more...forward than that.
"Oh, no, we don't. The Courts do, though. I don't understand why they put up with it, to be completely honest. Women should be cared for, there are so few of us now."
I arched an eyebrow. "You mean to tell me the women of the Courts are freer than the women of the Wylde?"
She bristled, and a small hush fell over the Fae around me. I darted a look over at Kailan and saw him staring at me with practically no blood left in his face.
I swallowed the lump that appeared in my throat.
"Or perhaps, that path is selected for them?" I offered the out to Aoin, and she visibly relaxed.
"Yes, of course," she said, though her voice was cold. I had offended the Fae.
Fuck me.
I reached for the glass in front of me, eager to let alcohol dull my anxiety, but then hesitated. I recalled the various myths and fairytales I had heard over the years, of mortals who had taken food and drink in Tír na nÓg and never made it out afterwards. Was it a trick?
"You don't need to worry about that," Kailan said, having leaned so close to me that his whisper was only for my ears.
"Why not?"
"A mortal would normally have to give a gift to take anything from Tír na nÓg, inclusive of food and drink, but you have already given your gift."
"The Utakar," I said, nodding. "I don't see how that is so big of a gift as to warrant this big party and yet somehow still cover all the little things."
"You do not comprehend how much it means to us, do you?"
"No..."
"Perhaps that is because your own people do not appreciate what you do for them," he said, and then he straightened back in his seat.
I glared at the drink in front of me, then swiped it up and poured it down my throat.
"Sweet mother of Gods." I gasped the words out as soon as I had swallowed, pressing a hand to my throat. "That's delicious." Various Fae around me chuckled, and Aoin seemed to brighten.
"You like it? It's a local mixture. I'm quite fond of it myself."
"I want to take home a million bottles. I'll never drink enough."
"Ah, ah," she said, wagging a finger at me. "This is for Tír na nÓg, and Tír na nÓg alone."
"Of course," I said. "It's an expression."
I drank more and feasted on the food in front of me, suddenly aware of how ravenous I was. I hadn't eaten dinner the night before, or breakfast this morning, and the food was so good that I understood how mortals could be tempted to stay here forever. If I didn't have responsibilities back on earth, I might want to stay too.
When I'd had my fill, I reclined back in my seat and watched the various pairs of dancers making their way around the floor. Everyone seemed so happy here, they were really enjoying themselves. And why not? It was a party, after all.
I could enjoy myself.
As if summoned by my thoughts, two Sidhe appeared in front of the table. They were practically identical, twins of golden skin and hair, with hazel yes, except that one of them had a scar slashing through their left eyebrow. They bowed in unison.
"We would like to dance with the Hunter," they said at the same time.
"What, both of you? I think I'd have my hands full with that," I said, grinning at them.
Two wicked smiles curved over their lips.
Twins, definitely twins. And trouble.
I could use some trouble just about then, it was starting to get a little boring. I stood up and walked around the table, looping my arm through one of the twin's and offering an apologetic smile to the other.
"Sorry, but I've got a bad arm, I can't share with the both of you."
The twin I'd snubbed walked close at my side all the same, his hand at my lower back.
"Somehow, I think I'll come to terms with that," he said.
They led me onto the dance floor—and it was then that I remembered that I had no idea how to dance. The alcohol had left me a little fuzzy, a little too eager to participate, and now I was going to embarrass myself. But the twins seemed set on not letting that happen, they guided me in the dance as though it were second nature to teach and dance at the same time. Neither of them complained when I stepped on their feet, and they were full of gracious smiles any time I tripped.
It wasn't long before I was laughing and spinning around on the dance floor, coming to one twin and then to the other, letting myself be lost in the dance.
When was the last time I had this much fun?
44
The ceiling broke above me. I froze, confused and terrified all at once, but one of the twins leapt to action, grabbing me about the waist and dragging me to the side of the room.
Of course, the walls would be the strongest part of the building now, the ceiling would be likely to cave in the middle, there was less of a chance of being harmed here. And I had a lot to be worried about when it came to being harmed—I already had a broken rib and a broken arm.
Come to think of it, what the fuck was even happening?
I looked up then, to figure out what it was, and saw a great red dragon crouching on top of the building, its head stuck through the hole it had just created.
My jaw dropped open.
"A dragon? A fucking dragon? You have dragons?" I shrieked, unable to keep my voice level.
"No, we don't," the twin said, sending me a look to tell me to be quiet.
Wait, if they didn't have dragons...then why was there one right there? What was it doing here, if the Fae didn't have dragons? My gut clenched. This was not going to be good.
The dragon’s jaws opened and a sickening sound came forth—it was laughing, I realised in shock a moment later.
"You thought to defeat me, little mage, but you have led me right where I wanted. I did not want the lone Fae, but rather to eat all of them. And now I can!"
"Oh, Gods," I whispered, closing my eyes, and shaking my head. "Wake up, Blair, wake up. This can't be real, this can't be happening." I peeked one eye open and saw that the Utakar remained above, mocking me, its eyes having landed on me. "I killed you!"
"You?" It scoffed. "Killed me? It's adorable you would think you could do that, but no, little mage. You did no such thing."
And then it formed its jaws into a small oval and let loose a stream of fire.
I snapped into action, allowing my reflexes to take hold of me, because this was my kind of situation. Danger, fighting, the risk of dying at any moment—this was what I did for a living. I didn't party, I didn't have fun, I fought for my life every single day I was alive. And I would do well to remember that the next time I thought about having fun.
I grabbed the twin beside me and shoved him behind me, turning to curl my body around his. "K
eep your head down!"
The fire blasted into my back, just as I had intended, and I felt its heat mingle with that created by my spell coming to life. Gods, it hurt, but nowhere near as much as it should have. The spell I had woven in the tattoo on my back protected me from attacks. It was a passive shield, something that had saved my life more times than I could count, and I was damned lucky to have it.
I was definitely going to need to get it touched up after this.
The fire raged for several more minutes, and I felt the skin of my arms, and at the back of my neck, start to blister from the concentrated heat in one location. But finally, it let up and I turned to glare up at the creature that had thought to destroy me.
I took two steps forward, lifting my chin defiantly and pointing up at the dragon. "I am not so easily cowed! You want me, you're going to have to come down here and get me." I curled my fingers into a fist, gritting my teeth together as I prepared for the pain. "Glacio!" The word came out a scream, ripped from my mouth in the same way the spray of ice was ripped from my fingers.
They flew true, stabbing into the dragon face. He wrenched back from the hole, snorting and growling. I heard a scuffling sound that I assumed was the Utakar trying to dislodge my ice.
"It's coming back. We have to mobilise," I said, raising my voice so that everyone in the hall could hear me. A good group of the men had rushed over to me, but it was nowhere near the size it should be considering the number of guests in the room.
Kailan was beside me in an instant, as I had expected.
"Blair, not everyone here can fight."
"Can they all work magic?"
"Yes..."
"Then I'm afraid they have no choice. They have to do what they can to help, I don't care if it's healing, support, whatever. Right now, the Utakar is localised to this hall, with these people in it. If they flee, they could draw its attention to the entire town. Do you want that?"
He shook his head, quiet, and I nodded, more to myself than to him.
"What do we do?" It was another voice that spoke now, and I turned to find its speaker. A tall man, Sidhe by the looks of him, stood at attention.
My mouth went dry, not from shock of his good looks but rather in shock that I was being asked what to do. These people, and I looked to see that the other men were waiting for me to speak, they were all treating me as if I were there commander. As if I knew what to do better than the rest of them, and that just...could not be true.
I wished I had my wands on me, my wind chain, my rings even. I didn't have any of my gear, I had stupidly gone into Tír na nÓg thinking that we wouldn't need it, but that was obviously not true. I hadn't dreamed in a thousand years that the Utakar would have survived and waited to attack again.
I should have known. That fight had been a thousand times too easy.
I marched to the center of the room and lifted my right hand up, palm facing out towards the ceiling. I closed my eyes and clenched my jaw, uttering the word for ice and feeling it explode out of my hand as if a thousand knives had torn into my skin at once. I kept it up, pumping magic out of my arm and up into the air continuously. I sought the Utakar with my mind’s eye, knowing it was close to the opening, and allowed my magic to spill out the sides.
A roar answered my magic and I knew that I had hit it. Good. Apparently ice worked on the Utakar while it was in its dragon form, that was good—I couldn't risk using the demon magic here. Not after the way Kailan had reacted to it.
The room was quiet and all eyes were on me, watching as the magic flowed out of my arm, watching as I sustained it without any of the foci I would normally have. It was costing me, but we needed the precious few minutes I could give us.
"Listen to me!" I raised my voice as loud as I could. "We stand at the precipice of a dangerous moment. If we do not fight and win here, now, then the Utakar is going to take out this town and the people in it. Your loved ones. We have its ire, now we need to take its life. I know not all of you are familiar with battle, and I'm sorry to say it but you have no choice but to engage now. You have used magic before, now you must use it to defend yourself. Can you truly tell me that there is one of you in this room that has not been taught to defend themselves?"
Silence greeted my defiant words.
I went on, encouraged. "Good. Use what you have been taught. It's the same thing, fall back into those reflexes, rely on your instincts, they will save your life. Fight with me. Fight for yourselves."
They stared at me, all of them so quiet, and I thought they would deny me and run out the door, taking the Utakar's rage with them. And then one by one they walked up to me, laying a hand on my shoulder, or the shoulder of the Fae closest to them when there was no more space beside me.
"We will fight with you, oshtokon."
I knew not what the word meant, but I couldn't help but smile at their words. They would fight with me. All was not lost.
"I'm going to drop this spell, and the Utakar is going to come out, and we are going to fight. Are you ready?"
A cheer rose up from the crowd, and I dropped the spell.
45
The battle was vicious, the sound of the Fae's war cries surrounded me and the dragon's returning roar as it crashed the rest of the way through the roof deafened the room. There was nothing to do but fight, and I was damned impressed with the Fae once they had decided to get their heads out of their arses and help me.
I fought back to back with several Fae, shooting ice into the air at the dragon no matter which way it turned, doing what I could to keep it focused on me. I knew that the Fae on their own, so many of them untrained in battle and doing only meager amounts of help, would be brutalised if the dragon focused on them.
"Use me! We defeated it once before, we can again!"
"You did nothing," I thought viciously to the mark. "You were pathetic, you allowed the Utakar to escape with its life, and you are useless to me. I will never use you again."
I meant every word I said, but I feared that I would make myself a liar in the future. If I was in a situation where I saw no other choice, would I be able to stand by my word then?
I didn't have time to think about that. I buried myself in the task of fighting, slamming bolts of ice out of the palms of my hand, flying through my fingertips even, dulling my mind to the pain so that I could live through it. It was rough work, fighting with only one hand and doing what I could to protect my broken arm. Shawn was going to kill me—I'd already been hit twice on it and screamed bloody murder each time.
It had been two years since I had fought like this, in a crowd, using raw magic. How had I survived it then, so new to the magical world? Even now I was wavering, my strength flagging, and I knew that I couldn't hold out much longer. A death blow would have to be found and struck soon, or this was all going to be over and it wouldn't be in our favor.
I had to do something to save the Fae.
Taking in a steadying breath, I raced forward to the front of the dragon's head—it had landed in the hall again and it was fighting with tooth and claw and tail, and though I would not say it aloud, it was winning.
"Fight me," I said, panting.
The dragon stilled, though its tail still lazily swatted at the Fae that rushed against it. "Why?"
"These people are nothing to you. They are not worthy of the fight. Leave them, fight me."
"And why would you think yourself worthy?"
"You offered me peace once. You offered me knowledge. You would not have offered such things if you did not think me worthy of them. Fight me," I said. I paused a moment, and then I spoke its name. "I am more than I seem."
It cocked its head to the side, regarding me with ancient eyes that knew so much more than I would ever dare to think of.
"I will fight you. Call off your dogs."
"And no matter the outcome, you will leave them alone."
It barked out a life. "That is not a good bargain."
"You want me," I said, certain. "Take it. Or we'll ju
st keep on, and do you really think we won't win? I wouldn't want to go up against a bunch of stubborn Fae." It was a bluff, I knew it, but I hoped it wouldn't be able to tell.
A low growl rumbled through its throat. "Fine."
I swallowed, anxiety turning my stomach to knots, and backed up a few paces. "People of the Fae!" I cried. "Stand down. I have bartered for your lives. Leave this place."
Kailan appeared beside me again. I was going to have to learn that trick, he seemed to always know where I was, to know how to find me.
"What have you done, Blair?"
"What needed to be done," I said. "The Fae will be safe. The Utakar and I will fight, alone."
"I am not leaving you here."
"Stay then, to watch me fight or die, I don't care. But you cannot interfere."
He stared at me, and I knew he wanted to argue. At last he ducked his head and stepped back.
"Get them out of here, Kailan."
He turned and did as I bid, herding the Fae out and uttering reassurances where they were needed, as not all of the Fae were so content with turning their backs on me as some of them were. I tried not to care about the ones who didn't seem to mind what I had done, but it hurt a little on the inside. They didn't seem to mind the idea of me sacrificing myself for them. But why should I hold this against them? It was my idea. I had to stand by it.
I watched the last Fae exit, Kailan alone remained behind, standing at the door, watching us. I turned back to the Utakar, head held high.
It morphed in front of me, the sound of bones cracking filled the air, until it stood before me as a man.
"What an interesting form," I said dryly, somehow managing not to give away my surprise.
He looked exactly like Deacon.
"Do you like it? I thought you might want to fight a familiar face. Have no fear, he is well and truly dead. Such a pity, though, the man showed real potential. All he wanted was power, and oh the things he did with it once it was given...tch."
I'm not going to give into this. I thought. He only means to goad me, and I won't give him the satisfaction. Instead, I bent my knees and raised my right hand to cross my body.