by R. E. Butler
Jenna and Kari left her bedroom, where her bags were packed, ready for her spell. She would travel to the Mortal Realm and stay with her cousin, who was married to her truemate, a were-fox. She’d been practicing the spell in her mind for weeks. Although she was unable to conjure, the truemate spell was different and — just this once — she would be able to conjure a spell to connect to the one male that was meant to be hers. Her parents were excited for her, but also sad to see her leave, as she was their only child. But they’d been lucky, growing up together in the same glen, best friends and a natural fit together. Jenna hadn’t been that lucky, so she needed a little fae magic to help her out.
“Have fun tonight, sweetie,” her mom said as she gave her a hug. “I’ll make your favorite breakfast for you tomorrow morning.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Jenna kissed her cheek, smiling as her mother tried to rein in her emotions.
“Now you two look after each other,” her father said sternly, but with a hint of a smile.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Odile,” Kari said, saluting him with a silly wave of her hand.
Jenna shook her head. “I’m not saluting you, Dad, but I do love you, and I’ll be careful. I promise.” She kissed his cheek and said goodbye, waving at them both as she stepped out onto the front porch of the small home.
Kari had arranged for a driver to pick them up in a gorgeous white carriage draped with pink and blue blossoms.
“You didn’t have to go to all this trouble,” Jenna said, taking the driver’s hand as she stepped up into the carriage, which was being driven by four blue stallions from Jenna’s parents’ private stables. Their color was deep royal blue and their manes and tails were varying shades of pale blue.
“It’s not every day my best friend turns twenty-five and then makes plans to leave me. I want us both to remember this night forever.” Kari sat down next to Jenna in the carriage and the driver shut the small door. The street lamps were on as the sun fell and dusk turned into night. The driver climbed into the front of the carriage and picked up the reins, whistling sharply to the horses, who neighed and began to trot, pulling the carriage away from Jenna’s childhood home.
Their first stop was dinner, where they were catered to by a dozen staff members as they ate. Then they were taken to a popular dance club, The Beacon, to dance the night away. Friends and acquaintances were waiting for them. After Kari gave a short speech extolling Jenna’s virtues and making her blush, the band began to play and they took to the floor to lose themselves in the music.
After dancing until her feet hurt, Jenna found a seat at a table and sat down with a sigh. Jenna had danced with a dozen he-fairies, but none that made her belly quiver the way the thought of meeting her truemate did. It would have been much easier if she’d found a he-fairy to marry, if any one of them over the years had been worth her time or her heart, but none had, and she didn’t regret her decision.
A voice that made her cringe broke her from her thoughts. “Happy birthday, Jen-Jen.”
Jenna winced at the awful nickname and looked up to see the one person she’d been assured wasn’t invited: her ex-boyfriend, Maximus Eitri. He leaned on the table with one hand, his white-blond hair braided at his temples, signifying his acceptance into the fae-army. He had put on some muscle since she had seen him last, when she’d dumped him for cheating on her. All her friends had thought that Max was perfect for her. As a member of the warinfae, he came from a family of warriors and would go far within the ranks of the army. Warinfae could conjure battle spells to give them advantages in fights. Most in the fae-army, including Kari’s betrothed, were honorable males, but Max most certainly was not. Jenna had watched him cheat during training, using illegal spells and even permanently maiming those who went against him. The relationship was over almost as soon as it had begun, but Max took great pleasure in humiliating her by reminding her, loudly and publicly, that she had once taken him to her bed. A fact she sincerely regretted.
“Hello, Max,” she said, trying to sound polite but distant, so she didn’t encourage him to linger.
Stifling an inward groan as he sat down in the seat across from her, she steeled herself for whatever he was going to say. It was her party, and she wouldn’t let him get her down.
“I’ve decided to forgive you, Jen-Jen,” he said.
She blinked, sure that she had misheard him. “Excuse me?”
A half-smile touched his thin lips. “I said that I’m going to forgive you for walking away from me. I’m ready to get married and I’ve decided to settle for you.”
Jenna’s mouth dropped open. Was he serious? Did he just try to pass an insult off as a compliment?
She stood from her chair to stare straight down at him. “Let’s be clear, Maximus, you horn-toed woll-dragon, I wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire, let alone soil my bed by allowing you back in it. I have nothing to apologize for; you had sex with two she-fairies while I was on vacation with my family. I will never, never be with you, so go take the short road to Hades.”
His light blue eyes widened in surprise. She cocked her arm back and threw a punch at his perfect jaw, connecting and sending him reeling backwards in the chair. He crashed to the floor with a loud thud that brought the party to an abrupt halt.
Kari rushed over, looked between Jenna and Maximus as he struggled to get up from the floor, and shouted, “Let’s hear it for the birthday girl!” The crowd erupted in cheers and then jeered Maximus when he pushed his way through the fairies to leave. He spun back to glare at Jenna, leveling a threat. “You’ll be sorry, you bitch. I’ll make you pay.”
“Go fuck yourself, you slippery eel,” Kari crowed, and Jenna laughed, hugging her friend as Maximus disappeared out the door. The music began again and Kari looked down at Jenna with a smile. “I’m glad you slugged him, Jen. You deserve so much better.”
“I’ll get it, too.” Jenna nodded.
“I hope your truemate is worthy of you,” Kari said, and then pulled Jenna back into the depths of the crowd where they continued to dance until the night began to wear away and dawn threatened. The crowd had thinned considerably by the time Jenna and Kari stepped out onto the sidewalk where the carriage was waiting to take them home.
“I have a gift for you,” Kari said.
“You’ve already given me so much tonight, Kari. Your friendship is present enough.” Jenna protested.
“Nonsense. What’s the fun of having money if you can’t spend it on the people you love? I had this made for you, in honor of the new life that you’ll start today.”
Kari pulled a chain from her clutch. A pendant hung from the delicate gold chain. Jenna lifted it in her hand and examined it. It was a winged fairy standing next to a wolf, whose muzzle was lifted upwards as if it were singing to the moon. The detail was so amazing that it seemed almost real.
“I love it, thank you so much,” Jenna said sincerely, as tears pricked at her eyes.
A loud roaring sound burst around them, and Jenna and Kari covered their ears. Jenna recognized the sound as an engine from the Mortal Realm. They were forbidden in the glen because they caused pollution. A huge metal vehicle slammed into the back of the carriage, sending the horses into a terrified gallop. Men jumped from the open doors of the vehicle, wearing all black and holding weapons.
Maximus came into view and stood with the men, who pointed their weapons towards the terrified fairies and told them to freeze or risk getting killed. Jenna’s heart pounded in her chest as she saw the evil look in Max’s eyes.
“That one, the plain one with the silver in her hair. She can unlock anything.” Max said.
“What are you doing, Max?” Kari yelled, lifting her hands and slapping them together as she spoke a few words and the ground shook.
“Not so fast, fairy,” one of the masked men growled, shooting Kari with his weapon. The ground stopped shaking as Kari slumped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. Jenna went to her knees with a gasp of alarm.
“Oh, no,
Kari!” Jenna cried, turning her friend over. To her relief, she found a feathered dart protruding from Kari’s neck and felt for her pulse, finding it slow but even.
Something jabbed into Jenna’s neck and she lifted her hand, finding a feathered dart imbedded in her skin as well. Her vision went spotty and then dark as she slumped forward over her friend, the necklace falling to the ground with a faint tinkling sound.
* * * * *
Jenna woke slowly, disoriented and aching. Her vision was blurry for several moments but her hearing was sharp, and she knew she wasn’t alone.
“It’s good you’re awake,” a rough male voice said. “I was beginning to wonder if the dart was too effective and you would remain unconscious forever. Hardly useful to me if you can’t do your job.”
Blinking furiously to clear her vision, Jenna finally saw clearly enough to know she was in a small room, with walls made of wooden slats and a floor of rough stone. A man stood by the door, leaning casually against it. He was tall and lean, with a thin mustache and long, black hair kept loose around his shoulders. His eyes were light green and they narrowed as he regarded her. She was lying on a cot, and when she tried to sit up, she found that one ankle was tied with a thick rope to the frame of the cot.
“Where am I?” she croaked, her throat raw and a terrible taste in her mouth. “Who are you?”
The man strode across the room and picked up a plastic bottle of water from a small table and opened it, handing it to Jenna. She was too thirsty to wonder if it was drugged, and she snatched it from his hand and gulped half of it down before she stopped to take a breath.
“My name is Jasper, and I am leader of a wolf pack. This is the cellar of my home, in the Mortal Realm.” He looked down at her, curiosity in his gaze. “Your boyfriend owed a great debt to me. When I came to collect, he offered to give you up in exchange for freedom from his debt, and I agreed. A fairy that can unlock anything would be quite valuable to a man like me. Many wonderful, expensive, important things are behind locks that can’t be broken.”
“He’s not my boyfriend, and I’m not going to open anything for you. Let me go,” Jenna said angrily.
“No,” he said simply. “You will do what I say, or you will suffer. I will come for you tonight for a job. Do well, and I’ll give you something to eat. Make a fool of me, and you’ll be very, very sorry.”
He opened the door and shut it firmly behind him. She inspected the rope that tied her to the bed. It was too thick and tied too tightly for her to undo it. She scraped it against the metal edge of the cot for a few minutes, but couldn’t even break a single strand of the thick rope. She dragged the cot over to the door, raising her hand and laying it on the place where the outside lock lay. She could unlock anything, anywhere. The moment her palm hit the lock, burning pain shot through her and she yelped, blowing cool air over her skin. A chuckle came through the door, and she recognized Jasper’s voice. “The lock is made of iron, Jenna. Do you really think me so foolish? Be prepared to do my bidding tonight, or find out what real pain means.”
“Go to Hades,” she muttered, turning away and shoving the cot back against the wall. Iron was poison to fairies. She was unable to unlock something that was made of or covered with it.
Sitting back down on the cot, she checked herself over. She was still wearing her gown, and a quick peek under the hem told her that her panties were intact. She tested her limbs and looked over her skin for injuries. Except for the wound from the dart, she was fine. Just thirsty and a little hungry. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, but she figured it had been at least several hours.
She grimaced, remembering how Maximus had pointed her out to the black-clad men. That slime-eating herffler had sold her out! According to Jasper, if he was to be believed, Maximus owed him a debt. But what kind of debt would a he-fairy from an affluent family owe to a werewolf in the Mortal Realm? It seemed inconceivable, and if she hadn’t witnessed Maximus betraying her to them, she wouldn’t have believed it. She’d known he was a creep, but she had no idea he was the kind of creep that would hand over a woman to other creeps — criminal ones — to save his own hide. When she got out of this mess, she was going to skin him alive. If she got out of his mess.
Jenna shook off the wayward thought. There were no “ifs” in this situation. She had to get away from here so she could spell for her truemate and start her new life. She had no plans to join a criminal enterprise as some kind of magical lock-pick, and she certainly had no plans to die at Jasper’s hands. So she would escape. She had to.
Time slipped by slowly and she amused herself by imaging her future with her truemate. Summer picnics under a canopy of trees, skinny-dipping under the stars, having children, visiting her parents and his family, making new friends, learning to drive one of those vehicles. That would be a kick.
She could just picture Kari coming to the Mortal Realm to visit and Jenna driving up to surprise her. Kari would be jealous of Jenna’s good fortune and wish that she’d spelled for a truemate and taken a chance.
Hunger poked angry fingers at her, making her stomach growl. The meal she’d had with Kari seemed like a distant dream. When her body began to ache from the cot, Jenna paced as far as the short rope would allow, and sang songs to keep from screaming in boredom.
The click of a key in the lock alerted her that Jasper had come back. There was nothing in the room for her to make a weapon out of to defend herself. The only furniture was the small table, which was bolted to the floor, the cot, which was too heavy for her to do much of anything except scoot along noisily, and the bucket that had been left behind for her to use as a toilet.
This might be her only chance to escape, and she planned to take the opportunity as soon as it was presented to her.
Two men came in with Jasper, both tall and lean, with a hungry, predatory look in their eyes. She had no doubt that they were wolves as well, and she shuddered, afraid to know what they were thinking about when they looked at her like that.
“It’s time to go. Be a good girl and do as you’re told. I don’t make promises I don’t plan to keep,” Jasper said, reminding her of his threat to make her suffer with all the delicacy of a brick through stained glass.
One of the men, with a tattoo of a skull on his forearm, untied the rope from the cot and twisted the end around his palm several times, holding it like a leash. She kept her expression neutral, following Jasper and the man who held the rope as they left the small room. The stairs leading up were made from rough-hewn wood, and she was very aware as she stepped gingerly on the planks that she was without shoes. She wiped her palms on her dress, her fingers trembling with nerves as they left the cellar and entered a small kitchen. The back door was open and she was led through it and out onto a porch. Three vehicles, including the large one that she had been taken in, were parked behind the home. She glanced around her and saw that the small house was settled in thick woods, and there appeared to be no other homes within view.
There were eight men with them, including Jasper and Tattoo-man, who held the rope. Four of them were near the black vehicle, which sat with the back doors open. It was full of boxes and electronics. Tattoo-man stepped from the porch and walked towards the black vehicle, and she had no choice but to follow. She stopped when Tattoo-man did, and he turned to talk to Jasper. She knew this was her chance to make a break for it. He was distracted.
She let out a slow breath and released her wings, which slid silently from her shoulder blades. Power filled her, strengthened her, and she tensed her body and ran.
She couldn’t fly with her wings, but they did give her speed, and as she moved away from the man holding the rope, it ripped out of his hands before he realized what was happening.
The trees blurred past her as she raced into the woods, knowing that they would be able to track her unless she could find a place to hide or find someone to help her. If she could find a road, she might be able to flag down a vehicle and they could call for help.
“Found this little bitch in the woods, boss.” The man holding her said, dumping her onto the ground. A soft sob escaped her mouth when the impact jarred her already aching body.
Someone fisted her hair, pulled her to her knees, and slapped her. She cried out as tears filled her vision but she knew the blurred shape in front of her was Jasper. “I warned you, bitch.”
Something cold and heavy settled on her neck, and immediately began to burn her skin. She lifted her hands to pull it off but it seared her fingers. It was an iron collar.
The hand holding her let go and she crumpled to the ground, the flesh around her neck burning like acid was being poured on it. She gasped for air and tried to feel along the collar to find the latch, but it hurt too badly. The more she touched the iron, the weaker she felt and the more it hurt.
The rope was cut from her ankle, and cuffs clicked around her wrists and ankles, compounding the pain. Her vision dimmed as her power seeped away with the poison filling her body. Her wings slipped back into her body.
“Please,” she rasped, her lips drying and cracking.
As her vision slipped in and out, she saw Jasper’s lips curl up into a grin. “Maybe a little pain will help you understand how serious I am. You will help me, or I’ll keep you locked up in iron permanently.”
Someone picked her up and she heard Jasper tell him to throw her in the trunk. Metal creaked and she was dropped, landing on rough, thin carpeting. She concentrated and could see that she was inside one of the vehicles. The man who had dropped her met her eyes with bored indifference, slamming the lid shut and blanketing her in darkness.