Mack stumbled to his feet, no longer caught in the wind vortex.
“Run!” Aaron yelled as he grabbed onto both Mack and me.
“What about Mab?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder. Mab leapt over the banquet table, leaving her terrified film crew to run around like headless chickens.
“My sister will take care of herself,” Mack said. “Trust me.” He didn’t have to say it twice. It might not have been the distraction we were waiting for, but it was definitely sidetracking the queen. Titania floated above the ground, sending gust after gust of wind at the creature.
“That’s one of those things,” I yelled as I ran. “The ghoul things that attacked Darrel and me.”
It had taken me a moment to recognize it as the same type of creature that attacked me at my apartment building. This one was even bigger, and except for its massive, whip-like tongue, its proportions and posture looked more human. It also had eyes.
At the forest line, I glanced back one last time. The creature’s gaze locked onto me as he dove past the fae soldier’s blows. His tongue whipped out, striking all four guards across the face. The creature plowed over the table, hunched forward like a bull, and charged straight for us.
It blurred into a smear of gray, and I shoved Aaron to the side as the creature’s tongue skimmed across my mate’s cheek. The giant spun, flinging his tongue like a whip and smacking it into Mack’s hand as he blocked his face.
I lunged, my claws lengthening as I prepared for attack, but the creature rushed away, vanishing into the darkness of the forest.
Queen Titania pointed to me. “She brought that creature to attack us. Hunt her down and kill her.”
Chapter Sixteen
Mack
Arrows whistled by us and thudded into trees. Bark flew as we rushed through the forest I knew so well. This was a place of happiness, a place of celebration. In just one night, my mother had turned it into a place of horror.
A fae dropped from the trees directly in our path—Autumn court if I went by his fiery red hair. He had a dagger already drawn. I didn’t slow. I pushed myself faster, then bunched to spring. I flew through the air, slamming into him at breakneck speed. We shot backward, his body colliding with a tree and bouncing off. I elbowed his temple, knocking him as hard as possible before leaping back.
“Don’t kill them!” Scarlet yelled. “I’m still hoping for peace.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
I wouldn’t kill if there was any other choice.
Not now.
Not ever.
I leapt over the unknown fae’s body and started forward again. Even if my mother welcomed me back to court, this night could never be undone. All I could do now was try to make my exile mean something.
“When am I going to be able to kill something that’s attacking us?” Aaron growled as he leapt into the air. “First the ghoul, now that fae hunter.”
“Open a door,” I called to Scarlet as she was already a few trees ahead. “Any door. Here, this one’s open!”
Scarlet was already heading there. She leaned into the run, her gaze fixed on that door like she meant to hurtle straight through whether it was open or not.
It began to slam closed.
Scarlet dove for the opening and rammed her leg in before it could shut. “Oxonos!”
Aaron and I slammed into the painted wood, and it gave way beneath our weight, smacking into a familiar fae on the other side. Oxonos’ long, silvery hair flew around his head as he spun through the air, his arms sweeping out in broad, dancing gestures. I tumbled into a parlor along with the others, falling end over end and smacking into a tea tray. The platter went flying, splashing my front with cold, rancid smelling liquid. The teapot smashed into a painting of a hunting hound, spilling liquid everywhere.
Oxonos performed a motion that looked very much like the Worm, moving his body like a wave and kicking the wooden door closed. Within seconds, loud thuds sounded, and arrow tips peeked through.
“Close the portal,” Oxonos yelled as his legs kicked in the air in a coordinated movement, showing a pair of brilliant red shoes. “Prince Macklin, close the portal, or we’re all dead!”
Asking the man why he couldn’t close his own portal was on the tip of my tongue when I noticed him lunging into a stand and sashaying through the parlor.
“Here,” Scarlet said as she crawled after the fae. “Give me your feet. I’ll pry them off.”
“That won’t work,” I called as I crouched down. Closing my eyes, I reached out to the magic around me. Oxonos was a Summer fae, like my father, and his magic tasted like sweet peaches and felt like sunbaked earth against my skin. I pulled at the magic tendrils, unwinding the spell and extinguishing his magic inch by inch.
The thump of Aaron throwing his body at the door broke my concentration for a moment. He hissed in pain, and the tang of blood filled the air. Crimson dripped onto the floor below him.
“Close the portal, Mack, please,” Scarlet cried as she pushed against the door beside Aaron.
I forced my eyes closed, and grabbed at the magic, working much faster now, extinguishing the tendrils in great lengths.
Just as the last tendril extinguished, Scarlet and Aaron sighed in relief.
“There’s another portal seven blocks over!” Oxonos called as he danced out of the room.
Scarlet took a running leap and dove into Oxonos, knocking the fae over. “Where’s Zeezee?” She growled, shocking the hell out of me with her ferocity. “What did you two do?”
Oxonos’ face paled as light as his hair. Scarlet pinned his chest, but his legs were still moving. “Whatever do you mean? I am clearly in duress!”
“Not any duress that you haven’t already inflicted on others.” Scarlet’s fingers stretched into claws, and she lowered them to Oxonos’ neck. “You had to be the one to invite my sister and Zane to the orgy a few blocks over from your house, and now the queen is punishing you. What did you do, and where is Zeezee?”
Oxonos gasped, his eyes bulging. “Stop this.”
“Scarlet...” I said, crouching down beside her. Grabbing Oxonos ankle firmly with one hand, I ran my fingers along his instep. Feeling my mother’s tendrils of magic like invisible vines winding around the red shoes, I unwound the tendrils and leveraged off one of the dancing slippers. “You get more flies with honey.”
Tears fell onto Oxonos’ cheeks as he whispered his thanks.
I reached my hand to his other shoe. “Oxo, friend, my mother told me that she was supposed to be at that party until someone warned her not to come.” It was the message Autumn had delivered to me before the feast, the damning evidence my mother thought she had against Scarlet. “Were you the one who invited my mother to that party?”
Oxonos shuddered, but a second later, he answered in a shaky voice. “Yes. It was a partner swap, the queen and I with Zeezee and Zane. The queen was very interested in bedding a werewolf.”
“What the fuck?” Scarlet half-climbed, half-fell off Oxonos. “You arranged for the queen to meet Zeezee and Zane at the party? She was going there to have sex with Zane?”
“Yes.” Oxonos nodded again. “The queen had me seized directly after the massacre. I don’t know anything.” Sweat coursed down his waxen brow, and dark circles ringed his eyes. The guy had been dancing for nearly twenty-four hours without stopping.
Reaching forward, I grabbed his other shoe, working away the magic as I pulled it off.
“Why weren’t you at the party?” Scarlet demanded, her eyes narrowing.
“I was the one who discovered the massacre. I was an hour late to the party. I reported it to the queen.” Oxonos grabbed onto a chair and pulled himself up, wincing every few seconds. His feet looked like bruised, rotting fruit, and his ankles had swollen to the width of melons. “I have been ill-used by your sister. I don’t know where she is. She left me to face punishment alone in a conflict that is no business of mine.”
“Maybe it’s not your fault,” I said. “But
stopping a war concerns all of us, friend.”
Oxonos frowned as a battle cry came from the street outside his house. “That doesn’t sound good.”
Aaron looked back from where he was peering through the window. “We’ve got at least seven fae running down the road in full battle armor.” He spun toward Scarlet. “Let’s go.”
“Oxonos,” Scarlet said. “There’s no way that my sister and Zane murdered all those fae. She’s not physically capable of it. You have to know something—anything.”
“I don’t,” Oxonos said, licking his chapped, flaking lips. “And frankly, I don’t want to know. I’ll look the other way. I want nothing to do with what’s between you and the queen.”
“I’ll owe you a favor,” I blurted out. “If you can tell us something, I will owe you a favor.”
“Prince Macklin.” Oxonos narrowed his eyes, his gaze skating from us to the window and back.
“Shit,” Aaron said. “We have to go now!”
“When I pulled up to the party, before I went in and found the massacre, an old red car screeched away from the curb,” Oxonos said.
“That’s it?” I asked.
He shrugged as he slumped further into his chair. I had never seen the refined and careful fae look so wilted and defeated. Scarlet was right that Oxonos had punished at least one human by forcing them to put on the horrid shoes. My mother’s punishment was arguably Oxonos’ just desserts, but I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the man as he sat there in agony. “Written across the side were the words: Necro-Nancy,” he volunteered, as if just remembering the extra tidbit. “There was a phone number too, but I don’t remember it.”
“Come on,” Aaron yelled, grabbing both Scarlet and me and pulling us toward the back of the house.
“Portal, in the cellar, through the kitchen, second door on your right,” Oxonos called through gasping breaths just as pounding sounded at the front door.
“Do we trust it?” Scarlet asked.
My mind ran rapidly through all I knew of Oxonos. He was trustworthy and loyal—to my mother.
I was in exile. A stone formed in my gut as I thought through the implications.
I was alone.
I would be alone for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years.
“No,” I called over as Scarlet and Aaron veered toward the kitchen. “If we head to the far end of Cutten Steps, there’s a forested area we can take into Heartland.”
We ran out onto the grassy lawn behind Oxonos’ house. The moment we were outside, three armed fae came tearing around the side of the Victorian mansion. I recognized all of them distantly as my mother’s soldiers.
“Mack,” Scarlet screamed, leaping back toward me as an arrow whooshed past my head.
Damn. There was a fae sniper on top of the house.
Claws burst out of Scarlet’s and Aaron’s fingers, and their faces stretched into long muzzles with wicked fangs.
A silver sword flashed in the air, and I sprang. Pushing off the dirt, I kicked the side of the fae’s arm.
“We have to injure them without killing,” Scarlet snarled, her claws raking across the fae’s arm. Blood sprayed onto the ground from the wound, but the other two kept coming.
Just as I leapt again, kicking the next fae attacker in the head, something sharp seared past my arm. For just a second, everyone stopped fighting, looking at me.
A sharp gasp sounded from above, and I realized that when I’d leapt, I’d moved straight into the path of a silver arrow aimed for Scarlet.
“The prince is uninjured!” one of the fae near us called, and the fighting erupted again.
“You two run,” I called over to Scarlet and Aaron. “They’re not going to seriously injure me, and I can keep them back while you shift.”
Scarlet looked like she was going to ignore my request. Thank god for Aaron, who grabbed her and ran. They lost their clothes in a hurry as I turned back to the fae around me.
One attempted to lunge past, but I blocked him, crouching in his path and holding my blade to his throat.
“Prince Macklin, go home to your mother,” the nearest fae said as he eyed the two wolves’ retreating forms.
“I’m never going back,” I told them. To prove it, I did the one thing my mother had always forbidden. I unleashed my power.
Chapter Seventeen
Scarlet
My wolf had been snarling since before the feast. At last, I kicked off my underwear and let her take over. The relief was immediate and intense.
Aaron let out a low yip, and I spun to see the strangest sight of my entire life. Everywhere I looked on the Cutten Steps, plants burst through the road and sidewalks. Small stalks grew, widening quickly into thick trunks. Foliage spread out above. The new growth blocked out Mack, but from every house in the street, pixies flew and fae stepped out the doors and looked up, marveling at the new growth as if seeing the sun for the first time after a long winter. Tinkling laughter and cries of joy filled the air.
Aaron’s muzzle pressed against my side, pulling me from my own wide-eyed awe. When I turned, he nodded toward the back of Cutten. Our path was clear, leading into the forest.
We ran, bounding toward the end of the road. A Redcap came charging from the other side of the street. He lifted a club and bared a mouthful of fangs. For one second of terror, I thought it was Bob the Over-Sharer, a sweet resident of Cutten Steps who was friends with Mack. As this guy got closer, I realized that he was too tall and had a much shorter beard. Fresh blood dripped down his front.
We tried to rush out of the Redcap’s way, but he dove at Aaron, ripping at my mate’s neck with his serrated teeth.
My wolf saw someone killing our mate, and there was no stopping her. We leapt forward, knocking the little man from Aaron’s body and ripping into his shoulder with our teeth. Hot, metallic blood filled our mouth, and I flung the Redcap to the side. Immediately, we turned back, nuzzling at Aaron’s neck. A whine escaped as I licked his face. After a second, he raised his muzzle and rubbed his cheek along the side of mine.
Something hard slammed into my side, and I rolled away with a yip. The Redcap had somehow survived and was raising his club for another swing. My jaws clamped onto his leg. He howled and slammed his club down on my shoulder, sending me into a new bout of agony. I bit harder, ripping through muscle to the bone. Blood rained down around at my feet.
“Brogus!” Mack called from behind us. Before the Redcap could hit me again, Mack wrestled the club from his hand and slammed it into the side of the guy’s head. When the Redcap’s body finally slumped to the ground, I stumbled away. Lowering my head, I let out a whine as my wolf began healing me.
Mack knelt at my side, running his hands along my pelt, making sure I was okay before we turned to Aaron. Carefully, Mack ran a hand over Aaron’s back. “He’s breathing. If you can walk, I’ll carry Aaron until we’re safe.”
A flurry of movement in the woods behind us sent adrenaline bursting through me, and I stumbled to my feet. Mack hefted Aaron’s weight, which was probably well over two-hundred pounds, and we made our slow way into the woods. Behind us, I could hear the clamor of voices, fae calling to each other when they found our trail.
We kept going, pushing on as night fell outside. Just when I thought we had outrun the fae, I heard a rustle in the branches overhead. A second later, a fae dropped to the ground on my left. Another dropped to the right, and another ahead. When the fourth fell, they surrounded us, forcing us into a tighter circle. Mack set Aaron’s body down on the forest floor and stood while I snarled at the fae. Covering as much of Aaron as I could, I faced the circle of fae.
Seemingly unconcerned, the fae before us leaned back against a tree. “Well met, brother.”
“Are you still allowed to call me that?” Mack asked, and I could almost feel his guard lowering, though I felt no relief coming from him.
With my adrenaline running so high, it took almost a minute to bring the four fae into focus. They were the queen’s guard, which
meant that they were probably the most dangerous fae in all of Heartland.
Aaron’s breath came fitfully but steadily as I stood over him, shielding him from the fae on all sides. Between combat and running for our lives, we were all exhausted. But the fae looked as fresh as they had at dinner before the ghoul attacked. My growl grew louder. I was sick of being hunted, of running, and for no better reason than I had wanted a chance to prove the innocence of my own packmate.
“Want to call off your wolf before this escalates, Mack?” the fae behind us asked.
When I spun, I saw the redheaded fae in a wide stance, hands at his sides.
“She’s not mine to call off, Autumn. If you want Scarlet to calm down, convince her that you’re not a threat.”
Autumn glowered for a moment longer, his gaze locked on mine, and then he lifted his head, showing me his throat.
Well, clearly the man had researched wolf etiquette. I snorted and sat, refusing to break rank. If I relaxed too much, not only would I be exposing myself to attack, but I’d expose Mack and Aaron. The three of us squeezed together. Mack was pressed against one side of me, while I pressed into Aaron who was still unconscious on my other side. The scent of Aaron’s blood was making both me and my wolf edgy. Any wrong move by these fae, and we might attack whether I wanted to or not.
“All we want to know is, what the hell was that party crasher?” This question came from the fae with curly brown hair who had called Mack his brother. “In case you missed him, he was about seven feet tall, naked, and had a whip for a tongue.”
“Which he used to lick all four of us,” said the fae across from Aaron. He had long black hair and was crouching with eyes averted. Clearly, this fae not only researched werewolf etiquette, but he was also going out of his way to tell me that he wasn’t a threat.
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