by Claire Luana
“Time to go,” Orin said, gripping my hand and pulling me and his father away from the monstrosity. No matter what Octavio had told us, our path out of here was cut off. It was further into the game or death by killer bees. It wasn’t a hard choice. I sucked in a deep breath and ran away from certain death.
14
“In here,” Octavio called, gesturing towards a two-story house bordering the square. It looked like Snow White’s cottage, complete with a thatched roof. I realized as we threw open the door and piled inside that thatched roofs might not be impervious to bees, but it was too late.
“Come on!” Orin shouted at Ruth, who was running as fast as her little legs could carry her. Behind her, the horde of bees reared up, as if it was about to grab and swallow her whole. I hoped that whatever protective enchantments the race promised her would hold.
She made it through the door just seconds before the swarm. Orin slammed the door shut, and the bees slammed against it with the force of a thousand bullets. More threw themselves against the windows, covering the panes with their vicious little bodies crawling and scraping, blocking out the light.
“Do we think those will hold?” I asked nervously, backing up. More bees seemed to be arriving by the second.
Octavio swept his hands around the cottage, and a purple sheen appeared, coating the walls and ceiling. It must have been some sort of shield. “That should hold for a few minutes.”
“What the ‘ell is goin’ on?” Ruth asked, her red hair wild and sticking up from her head. She had apparently forgotten that she was supposed to be observing and filming, as her camera was hanging limp in one hand.
“I think this means it’s your turn,” Octavio said, turning to us. “This is supposed to…motivate you to make your moves quickly.”
“What happened to the gong?” I cried. Jesus, first poor Peachkin and now this? This race was going way off the rails.
Octavio shrugged helplessly. “Maybe the producers worried the gong was too boring.”
“Boring?” I screeched, raising my voice to be heard over the incessant hum of the bees outside. “A faerie just died. They can’t give us a few minutes’ peace?”
“A faerie died?” Octavio asked.
Orin nodded. “One of our pawns. That’s why we came here. Our pieces aren’t shielded like they’re supposed to be. I wanted to ask you if you knew a shield spell that could be transferred to another person.”
“Orin, give me the gameboard,” I held out my hands. At least, I could make use of my time while Orin was getting instructions on the spell.
I examined the little board, trying to take stock of the location of all the pieces, and to think strategy. But I could hardly hear myself think above the killer bee swarm. A cracking sound made us all freeze. It was one of the front windows—a hairline crack was running up it, like ice on a frozen pond.
Then it shattered, and the mass of bees surged forward against Octavio’s shield, bulging towards us.
“That’s not going to hold for long,” Octavio said, effort written across his face.
“If the swarm is to get us to make a move, then once we move, it will go away, right?” I looked at Orin then his father. They both nodded, a motion so similar that it would have made me laugh if our circumstances weren’t so dire.
“Okay, then let’s go!” I said, surging to my feet and grabbing the board. I thought I’d come up with a rough plan. “We’re moving our king!”
“Ye wanna go oot there?” Ruth gasped. “In that?”
“Can you hold the shield around us?” I asked Octavio. “While we make a dash for it?”
“I’ll make it work.”
“This dunna seem like the time to tell ye I’m allergic ta bee stings,” Ruth said. She looked absolutely petrified.
I huffed, frustration overtaking me. I didn’t want her here. I didn’t want to talk to her, to get to know her, to worry about her. I wanted Ben. But it wasn’t her fault what had happened to him.
“I’ll keep the shield around all of us,” Octavio said. “We stick together.”
We crowded around the closed door, ready to bolt. “We move on three,” Octavio said. “One…Two…Three!” He blew the door off its hinges and out we ran, into the swarm.
It was like running through a tornado—or what I imagined running through a tornado would be like. There was a dark swirling mass of wings and legs and bodies around us, so thick I couldn’t see past them. The sound of their angry buzzing drowned out everything else—even the hammering of my heart in my eardrums. It felt like an eternity as we ran blindly through the streets, headed for another square—and safety.
At last, we found it. We crossed from a black to a white square, and the bees stopped at the purple magical border, just as it had once stopped us. They hammered angrily against the force field of magic. I swore I could hear frustration in the tone of their buzzing. They didn’t like to be deprived of prey. But for now, we were safe.
We collapsed to the stones of the street, me on my hands and knees, gasping for air, Orin with his head in his hands. Ruth was quietly sobbing. Octavio stood behind us with his hands on his hips, his chest heaving.
I patted Ruth awkwardly on the shoulder. “You’re okay.”
“I guess we were right,” Octavio said. “The bees have vanished. I guess they were conjured to get you moving along.”
I let out a long sigh of relief. At least, the FFR wasn’t trying to kill everyone off. Just us, it seemed.
Orin looked at me and let out a tired laugh. “If you still want to be a stunt woman, all you’ll have to do is show them the footage from this damn race at your auditions.”
I barked out a laugh and fell back against the stones for a moment, catching my breath. Did I still want to be a stuntwoman? It seemed an eternity ago—a world away—that I had worked in a Hollywood studio, fetching coffees for asshole bigwigs. In reality, it was less than a month ago. I couldn’t believe I had changed so much in such a short time. But I guess an experience like this did that to a person. Changed them.
“Where do we go from here?” Orin asked.
Looking down at the board, I saw that Niall, our bishop, was in a square nearby. Now that Octavio had shared a shielding spell with Orin, maybe it was time to see if we could figure out where the final anchor was. It seemed as good a time as any. Plus, he was a renowned chess player. Maybe he could help us out a little. “Let’s go see our bishop.”
Orin nodded, eying me shrewdly. I knew he understood the deeper meaning.
We said farewell to Octavio and promised him we’d return. He and Orin embraced, and I saw the reluctance in Orin’s eyes to leave his father. It made sense. I’d felt the same just hours ago, leaving my mom. But Octavio would be all right. He had magical defenses, and no one was coming for him. Yet.
We found Niall in what looked like an abandoned restaurant, filled with empty tables and chairs. He sat in a green-leather booth, reading a book. A glass of whiskey sat on the table beside him along with a couple of plates of chicken wings. I hoped the whiskey was his first. Although, on second thought, maybe getting him a little sloshed would loosen up his tongue. It had seemed to work that way last time.
We slid into the booth across from him.
“Hello Niall,” I said coolly. “It’s been a long time.”
“My young chess prodigies.” He closed his book, setting it on the table. I squinted at the title, but it was in a language I couldn’t read. “Have a drink. Have some food.”
I picked up a chicken wing and devoured it right down to the bone, before picking up another. Who knew when we’d get fed again?
“Let’s see how you’re doing,” Niall said.
“What?” Orin asked.
Niall gestured to the worn table before him. “The gameboard. Let’s have a look. I’m not supposed to help; but I’ll admit, I’m curious.”
I sat the board down between us with a sigh. “It’s not pretty. They’re totally screwing with us. They aren’t shielding
our players, and they sent a swarm of bees after us to make us take our next move, so we botched it. It’s like they want us to lose.”
“All the more impressive if you win.” Niall touched his nose and pointed at me, his eyes twinkling. Damn it, even if he was an evil Brotherhood member hell bent on ending human civilization as we knew it…I liked the guy.
“We need your help,” I began.
Holding his hands up in front of him, he replied. “I cannot say too much, but I can let you know that rules are meant to be broken, and those that are being broken have nothing to do with me.” He licked his lips and side-eyed the camera. “I’d…focus your energy on Evaline.” He tapped on the glass bubble over the board.
“Evaline?” I asked, peering closer. I hadn’t really paid attention to who Tristam and Sophia’s pieces were. Evaline, our former magic instructor, was their bishop…and Gabe was their king? “Why is Gabe their king?” I asked, looking at Niall accusingly. “Orin’s father is our king. It should be…” Oh, of course. Tristam’s father wasn’t going to deign to involve himself in such a petty little game. He was more than happy to pull the strings like a puppet master, but he couldn’t be troubled to actually get his hands dirty.
Orin’s face darkened. “I feel like a broken record, but that’s not fair.”
Their queen looked to be a short, curvaceous black-haired woman that I assumed was Sophia’s mother. At least they had one family member to worry about.
“You must know by now that the race isn’t an entirely…level playing field.”
“Understatement of the year,” I said.
“I’d spend less time complaining and more time figuring out how to even the field. If they’re going to cheat, you should cheat too.”
I avoided looking at the camera, wondering if he was trying to goad us into doing something that would get us kicked out. I had no reason to trust him. No reason at all. “We’ll take the high road,” I said. “We don’t need to cheat to win. Unlike other teams.” Though in truth, what Niall said made sense. Orin and I did need to look for any chance to one-up our competition. I wasn’t above cheating if it kept my mom alive and found us the anchor point.
“That’s your choice, of course,” Niall said. “Quite admirable, actually. You’re definitely the fan favorites out there.” He gestured into the air, which I assumed referred to the human world.
“Really?” Orin leaned forward.
“Yes, definitely. But don’t let it go to your head. It’s anybody’s race. And don’t assume you’ve seen the last of their tricks. I assure you, the Faerie king will want to end the race with a bang.”
Orin and I exchanged a meaningful glance. A bang? Like…an explosion? If Niall said that, he must know what the king had planned.
“Do you have any idea what he’s planning?” I asked, trying to feign nonchalance. “I’m sure he’s feeding Tristam intel. It’d only, as you said, level the playing field.”
“I’m sworn to secrecy.” Niall shook his head. “Oh look, it appears your competitors have moved. Our turn. I can’t move yet as you can plainly see, but I’m enjoying sitting here and drinking my whiskey so don’t feel the need to rush back. Good luck with the game. Chess is a noble pursuit, indeed. Play well.”
Orin and I slid out of the bench, standing.
As he walked before me out of the restaurant, I whispered in Orin’s ear. “He knows something. We need to find a way to get him alone. No cameras.”
Orin nodded. “Agreed.”
15
I was a competent chess player. If Tristam and I were sitting across from each other with a set between us, I was confident that I could have kicked his ass. But with killer bees, my mother in danger, and whatever the FFR producers would throw at us next, our strategy needed to change. I had to give up on playing this like a normal game of chess.
Move after move, we walked and walked. The playing pieces were all over the place—any semblance of strategy had flown out the window hours ago. It didn’t help that each time we wanted to move a piece, we had to trudge to their square, only traversing squares we’d already been through. It was a game of endurance more than chess, and by the time the sun began to dip in the sky, even I was exhausted.
“We need to eat,” Orin complained.
We hadn’t eaten anything for hours, and even then, it was only the chicken wings that Niall had given us. My own stomach was starting to grumble, and I had to concede he had a point. Still, I wanted to get to Evaline before darkness fell.
I had absolutely no reason to trust Niall. He was probably part of the Brotherhood, and I knew for a fact he’d been up to shady business with Patricia…but my gut feeling told me he knew something.
I looked around us. Shops lined the street we were currently on. “Look. Three doors down. There’s a candy store.”
“It was a candy store,” Orin huffed. “Before the king cleaned this place out. My stomach feels like a black hole. I need more than candy.” He was as tired and irritable as I was. Maybe more.
“Something’s better than nothing,” I said. Apart from Peachkin and the other pawn, no one had been taken all day. We’d been dancing around the other team, playing defensively rather than attacking. I wondered if Tristam felt guilty about Peachkin’s murder. Unlikely. Maybe he just wasn’t that good at chess, after all. I pulled on the door of the candy store and found it unlocked.
Inside the door, I found the store of my childhood dreams. Glass bottles bursting with candy filled shelves lining the wall from ceiling to floor. My stomach gurgled again, this time in anticipation.
Running to a nearby shelf, I grabbed a jar with some sort of chocolate inside. Unscrewing the top, the smell of mint and milk chocolate filled the air. I put my hand in to grab one of the tasty treats when something stopped me. The thought of the doll in the DM shop earlier on in the day popped into my head. These sweets might look harmless enough, but I’d been in the FFR long enough to know that nothing was as it seemed.
“This isn’t like Honeydukes, is it?” I asked Orin.
“Honey candy is over there.” He pointed to some bottles near the back of the store. “Though I’ve been far too close to bees today to even think about honey. I think I’ll stick to chocolate.”
“Not honey, Honeydukes. You know, the candy store from Harry Potter?”
He looked at me blankly.
Seriously, what did these faeries read here? “Never mind. Is this candy magic somehow?”
“Oh. No, it should be fine.”
Finally, a straight answer. “Fill up your bag then and let’s get out of here.”
We took what we could and headed back out into the street. I didn’t need to look at the map again to know where we were headed next. We were going right to the very corner of the board where Molly would be waiting for us.
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing Molly again. It was fair to say we’d never really hit it off, but the way things currently stood, she was our best bet to get to Evaline.
We found her in a large cafe. She greeted us with her usual sour expression.
“It’s about time you two showed up. Jacq, I thought you were supposed to be good at this game.”
“Chess is a tactical game, not a game of speed,” Orin said, echoing my words from earlier. I suppressed a smile and told Molly where we needed to go as Orin disappeared into the kitchen area of the cafe.
“That’s halfway across the board!” she complained. “It’ll take an hour, and it’s already dark.”
Almost as she said it, the sun slipped over the horizon. I’d been so desperate to get to Evaline that the time had sped by. “What do you suggest?”
Molly shrugged. “Play pauses overnight. I guess they don’t want the four of you to be totally sleep deprived. I’m going to find somewhere to sleep. I’ll meet you back here tomorrow.” She left the cafe through the front door. I had half a mind to stop her, to tell her that we should stick together, but I held that thought. If her words were true, and t
he game did truly pause overnight, then we wouldn’t need her until morning. And I didn’t particularly want to stick with Molly if I didn’t have to. Time to focus on getting a bit of food and rest.
The smell of bacon wafted over to me. Following it, I found Orin in the kitchen, cooking up a storm.
“Look what I found,” he grinned, pointing to the pan that had bacon and eggs frying in there. Two thick slices of sourdough bread toasted in a nearby toaster. I breathed in deeply, inhaling the glorious smells. “I never thought of you as domestic,” I said, slipping under his arm to give him a quick sideways squeeze. I finally realized the two of us were alone. Well, as alone as we were going to get, with Ruth here.
“I look excellent in an apron,” Orin said, returning to his cooking after shooting me a wink.
I was leaning against the wall impatiently, thinking about how he would look excellent in just about anything—or nothing—when he slipped a plate of food into my hand. All thoughts fled from my mind.
I moved to the counter and wolfed down the food as fast as I could get it into my mouth.
“Eat as much as you like,” Orin said, cracking two more eggs into the pan. “The fridge is fully stocked. We can eat here again tomorrow.”
My bones still ached with weariness, but the meal picked me right up.
After Orin finished his own helping, we headed back into the street. It was now pitch black, the only light coming from the cafe itself. All the streets had streetlamps, but none of them were lit, and the fact that this was a black square only compounded the darkness.
A cold wind blew down the street, and somewhere a howl ripped through the night.
“Let’s find a place to sleep,” Orin suggested. The street we were on was mainly residential, so it wasn’t difficult to find someplace with a bed. The door to the first house we came to was open, so we let ourselves in. Orin waved his hands and light appeared, illuminating a tiny living room and some steps. Ruth barged past us, taking the steps to the top floor two at a time.