Taste My Wrath (The Iron Fae Book 1)

by Debbie Cassidy

  The driver strode over to us and pulled something from his pocket. A pillbox. He flipped the lid and shook out some pills before holding out his hand.

  “Everyone take one,” he ordered.

  “What are they?” Vala asked.

  There was a smacking sound. It took a moment for my brain to compute that the older guard had just slapped Vala.

  She stared at him, wide-eyed, lip bleeding.

  “Everyone, take a pill,” the driver said again.

  Helena was the first to comply, followed by Timothy, Karl, then me. Vala went last, her gaze simmering with rage.

  The pods in the van hissed as the lids slid open.

  “Get inside. Now,” the driver ordered.

  There was no point in arguing. This was why I was here. To take part in the games. To survive, to win. So, ignoring that same survival instinct that said to turn and run, I forced my feet to take me up into the van and climbed into the nearest pod. My body sank into the foam interior, and my limbs grew heavy.

  “No, I can’t. I can’t do it,” Helena cried. “I don’t like confined spaces. I—”

  A thud cut her off.

  “Danika?” Timothy called from the pod above me. “I feel strange.”

  The pill…It had to be the pill. “It’s okay, just…just don’t…panic…”

  The lid came down on me, but I wasn’t awake long enough to care.

  19

  I was frozen by a chill so deep it paralyzed my limbs. The sky above was an unnatural blue, crisscrossed with diamonds like a net had been cast over the world.

  I should move. I needed to move, but why? What was this place?

  My mind, sluggish and slow, took a moment to catch up, and then memories flooded me.

  The damn games.

  The pods.

  Crap.

  I sat up, fighting the lethargy that severe chill can evoke. They’d dumped me in the snow. Left me here, unconscious. What kind of twat move was that?

  Frozen trees with slender trunks surrounded my resting place. Bare branches reached up to the sky like spindly arms beseeching the heavens to carry them away. The air smelled sweet, just like it had in central Middale, and my mouth felt fuzzy. Probably from the drug they’d ordered us to take.

  Us.

  The others.

  Where were the others?

  Shit.

  I stood on stiff legs. Did I have all my stuff? Daggers, check. Pack, check. Stuff inside pack, check.

  Okay, they’d split us up, but that didn’t—

  Something beeped, a low, soft, insistent sound. What the fuck was that? I scanned the ground and found a silver disc with a green flashing light. Okay, I repeat, what the fuck is that?

  As soon as my fingers grazed it, the disc went clear, and a face appeared on it. Minimus fucking Lowland.

  “Welcome to the Regency games. Survive the next thirty-six hours, and you will be honored. But the game isn’t just about your own survival. It’s about the survival of us all.” He smirked, and it was the first sign of emotion I’d seen on his face. “So, it’s only poetic to add a twist to the game. Someone you love has been taken.”

  Huh?

  Nina. Was he talking about Nina? No, she was in the Keep. They wouldn’t use her like this, would they? This was a pre-recorded message, which meant all the humans in this dumb game would have received it.

  “You’ll find that person at the center of the labyrinth,” Lowland continued. “Fail to get there, and you may survive, but they will not.”

  The disc evaporated with a soft poof.

  I stared at the melted patch of snow where it had just been. They’d taken someone. My instincts told me it wasn’t Nina. Then who? I hadn’t checked the house, hadn’t taken inventory of my family—the only people I loved. They’d taken one of them. But which one? Maybe this was a lie. A trick.

  The sound of a horn cut the air.

  The Hunt?

  Fear twisted my guts.

  No, not The Hunt, a hunt filled with cunts.

  I touched the hilts of my blades for reassurance, canted my head, closed my eyes, and listened.

  The crunch of snow, the pant of beasts. To my left? East or west? No way to know without the sun to guide me.

  Wait? I pulled the compass from my pack.

  The horn sounded again.

  East. They were east.

  I set off westward. I needed to find the others and fast. Together we were strong, but separated, we were easy pickings.

  I jogged through the forest, keeping low to the ground, and then a thought hit me, stopping me in my tracks. This was a hunt. They needed to find us to kill us, so why were they announcing their position.

  It was a trap. A trick. It had to be.

  My heart beat wildly in my chest, because if I was wrong, I’d be running straight into the path of danger. I turned eastward, ready to run toward the horns, just as a scream sliced through the forest.

  West. The scream was in the west. Someone was in danger.

  I was right.

  I needed to go east.

  Get away.

  But my body had other ideas. My blood simmered with rage I’d managed to mute. It was free now, bubbling to the surface, and it wouldn’t let me run away.

  It wanted to strike, to kill them like they killed us.

  If you die, then there’s no getting to Nina.

  The scream came again, a warning sound filled with anger.

  The person is probably too wounded to save now.

  I swayed back and forth, logic and self-preservation fighting the need for justice and vengeance.

  Someone laughed. One of them.

  It was the laughter that did it.

  Sliding my daggers from their sheaths, I ran toward the screams.

  20

  The smell of blood was on the air as I approached the edge of the clearing. The metallic tang hit the back of my throat and made me want to gag, but any noise would give away my location, and with what I was seeing in the damn clearing, stealth was vital.

  A female was tied to a tree, older than me with brown hair and rage-filled eyes. She was wearing the black leather guard uniform of Spring. Her vest had been pulled off, and her tunic was torn to expose her breasts.

  My gaze slid to the two Tuatha standing a meter away from her. They were perfectly relaxed, sipping from flasks as if taking in a fucking show. They wore the amber colors of Summer. One was slender and the other stockier. The slender one’s coat was decked in golden embroidery.

  Like seriously? This was what he’d decided to wear to hunt humans? Fancy embroidered clothes. He even had on calf-high boots with a slight heel. I wanted to smash his face in with those heels. My grip on my dagger tightened.

  “Just get it over with, you fucks,” the woman spat.

  She had fire. I liked her.

  “Human women have such large breasts,” the slender Tuatha said.

  “Not all of them,” the stocky one replied conversationally. “I have seen some with smaller ones. I prefer them larger, though.”

  “You lay with humans?’ the slender one asked, sounding curious.

  “On occasion, when I’m in the mood for playing with my food.” He turned his head to the side, and I caught sight of his face for the first time. Tusks rose up from his bottom lip, and his jaw jutted stubbornly. This champion wasn’t Tuatha, he was Danaan.

  “Show me,” the slender one demanded.

  “Show you?”

  “Fuck it, and then eat it,” he clarified coolly. “I’d like to see how that makes me feel.”

  Feel? He didn’t feel anything. There was no emotion in his tone at all.

  “As you wish,” the Danaan said.

  The Spring guard pinned to the tree began to struggle, her bravado gone as she realized what was about to happen.

  “No. Get the fuck away from me.”

  The Danaan grabbed at the woman, and I made my move, rushing the Tuatha. He saw me coming a moment too late. My fist connected
with his nose, turning it crimson, and then my blade was at his jugular.

  To give the Tuatha fucker credit, he didn’t try to fight me. He knew all it took was a little pressure and a flick of my wrist to slice open his vital artery.

  The Danaan spun to face me, ready to attack.

  “Don’t,” the Tuatha cried.

  I smiled coldly. “I’d do as you’re told. I’ll slit his throat quicker than you can get to me. Untie her.”

  The Danaan canted his head on his thick neck and looked to my hostage for guidance.

  My hunch had been correct. This guy, the one with the knife to his throat, was the boss out of the two.

  “Do as she asks,” the Tuatha said.

  The Danaan sneered and then turned to the Spring guard. He grasped the ropes binding her and tugged. They snapped.

  Fuck, he was strong. If he got his hands on me… No, don’t think like that.

  The guard quickly picked up her leather vest and rushed around the Danaan to join me.

  “Kill him,” she said, her voice laced with venom.

  I pressed the dagger into the Tuatha’s flesh. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to slit his throat, but killing in the heat of self-defense was one thing, but this…My gut squirmed with nausea. I’d been so confident when Magnus had asked me if I’d be able to kill. So secure in my hatred for them, but I couldn’t do it. Not like this.

  I backed up from the huge Danaan, taking the Tuatha with me. “Do not move. You move, and he dies.”

  “Kill him, damn you,” the guard snapped.

  We were at the edge of the clearing now, with the frozen forest behind us. I cut the Tuatha enough for him to bleed, not his jugular, but close enough for him to have to stop and take stock.

  “Run!”

  I shoved him away from me, turned, and ran into the woods. The guard was right behind me, our breath coming in harsh puffs of mist as we beat the ground with our boots. East? West? No idea which way we were headed. We ran for long minutes until the tree trunks became wider. Past shrubs and an outcrop of rocks piled beneath a tree and past a log covered in snow and frost.

  “Stop,” the guard said. “Stop, they’re not following.”

  I slowed my pace and looked over my shoulder to find her bent forward, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.

  “Are you okay?”

  She shook her head. “I can’t…I can’t breathe too well. That fucker slammed me into that tree. I’m just winded, I guess.”

  Leave her behind. She’ll just slow you down.

  “I just need a minute.” She looked up at me pleadingly.

  Shit. I glanced back the way we’d come. No sound, no sign of pursuit. “Two minutes.”

  Okay, which way were we headed? The compass told me east. Good.

  She straightened with a wince, her hand on her ribcage. “I’m Liana. Spring Court.”

  “Dani, Winter.”

  “Did you volunteer?”

  “Yes. You?”

  She shook her head. “We weren’t given an option. We were handpicked. The best guards. Fucking sucks. If I’d known being good at my job would land me here, I’d have made sure to fuck up more.”

  “We are getting out of here.”

  “I like your optimism.”

  “It’s my best trait.” I flashed her a smile, which she returned with a weak one of her own. She didn’t look too good. Way too pale.

  A rumble cut through the silence, and a gentle vibration climbed up my legs.

  Her head jerked up at the sound. “What is that? It happened earlier, too.”

  I hadn’t heard anything.

  “I don’t know, but let’s not wait to find out. We need to move.” I ducked under her arm and helped her stand. “I got you.”

  “You should have killed him, you know. They won’t hesitate to kill us.”

  It sickened me that she was right. My weakness sickened me. “I know.”

  “Then, why?”

  “I just…I couldn’t. Not like that.”

  “Don’t you want to survive this?”

  “Dumb question.”

  “Then you need to lose the conscience. They don’t have one. They don’t feel the way we do. If you want to survive, you have to be like them.”

  Now that we’d slowed down a bit, my body ached with cold. Wait…I’d seen that outcrop of rocks by the tree before…hadn’t I? We came up to a fallen log covered in snow.

  Hang on a second… “Something’s wrong.”

  “You don’t say.”

  “No, I think we’ve come this way already.”

  She frowned. “No, we can’t have. We’re heading east, right?”

  I checked the compass. East. It made no sense unless there were two sets of identical rocks and fallen logs.

  I swung Liana toward the log. “Sit. I need to check something.”

  The sound of a horn came, distant and impossible to pinpoint.

  “I was running from the fucking horns,” Liana said.

  “Yeah, I figured. I was about to run toward them, but your scream pulled me back.” I raised both brows, allowing her to make the connection.

  Her eyes widened. “A trap.”

  “Yeah.” I scanned the trees. “I think they use them to lure us. We hear them and run in the opposite direction, the real direction they want us to run.”

  “But how? I mean, how are they coordinating?”

  “I don’t know. All I know is we need to get to the center of the labyrinth.”

  “Or our loved ones die.”

  I guess I hadn’t been the only one to get the disc message. “I need a bird’s-eye view.” I placed my palm on the tree. “I need to see where the fuck we are because I swear we’re headed in circles right now.”

  “You want to climb the tree?” She stared at it incredulously.

  I pulled my daggers from my waist. “I don’t see any other option, do you?”

  She clenched her jaw and nodded, pulling a long blade from the sheath at her waist. “I’ll keep watch.”

  I patted the tree trunk. “I’m sorry.” And then I stabbed it.

  Stab, scramble, stab, scramble. I made it up high enough to swing onto the first layer of branches and then upward from there. I’d never climbed a tree before. It was my first, but climbing was my thing. I did it well, and I did it almost instinctively. The fucking tree was massive, branches above and below. I was in the center of the beast. Almost there.

  Carefully, so as not to snap the thinner branches, I edged toward the top where the branches were sparser. The air was thinner, the sky above unnatural and shimmering with diamonds. It was a net, an actual fucking net? What the heck? I wanted to ask Killion about it, to show him this messed-up thing above me. He’d promised to be here, but it was daytime. He never showed in the daytime. Heck, could he even get to me with that net overhead?

  I dropped my gaze to the world beyond, and the ice kissing my skin seeped into my blood because what I saw made no sense, and yet, it made perfect sense. The forest stretched out in front of me, left to right. Icy dead branches and identical clearings were visible through a thin layer of mist, and then…nothing. No, not nothing, but a blue wall that matched the sky, as if the sky sloped down to kiss the earth. That was the not-making-sense part because we were supposed to get to the center of a labyrinth, but this didn’t look like a labyrinth, and there was no center.

  I pulled the compass from my pack, and the needle swung back and forth in confusion. Shit. East had been to my right. East led us out of view, and north would take us toward the sky wall. It rippled, and I caught a glimpse of diamond shapes and tall oblong shapes like the frames of doorways, and then they were gone.

  This place wasn’t natural. This place…

  Could it be what the shining ones had been building beyond the walls? The dome…the shimmering dome Killion and I had seen from the tower…it had to be.

  My gut told me regular rules didn’t apply. I scanned the mist, catching sight of shadowy figures to our
right. They were headed our way. Friend or foe? No idea. I needed to get down, but then the mist to the left thinned, and I froze, staring at the pattern as it emerged. The clearings were all equally spaced out, how had I not noticed, and the trees were planted in clusters that—

  The tree I was in trembled, and the vibration went through my body. I clung to the branch, eyes wide as the world below shifted, like actually fucking moved. Trees slid to the left, and the clearings shifted to the right.

  We needed to get out of here, and we needed to head toward the sky wall. No doubt about it. With a final look at the Winter forest below, I began to climb down.

  I was almost onto the lower branches, almost in view of the forest floor, when Liana screamed—short and sharp.

  Shit.

  I grabbed the nearest branch, swung, and dropped like a stone.

  21

  I landed in a crouch and whipped out my daggers, ready to fight.

  “Danika?”

  I stared at the male guard in shock, and then relief rushed through me. “Timothy? Shit, you’re okay.”

  We met in a hug.

  He squeezed me hard and then let go. “I’m so glad I found you. This place…” He blew out a breath. “I feel like I’m going in circles.”

  “I think we are. We need to head north. I think. Although with the way this place moves—”

  “Moves?” Timothy looked confused.

  “What did you see?” Liana asked me.

  I gave them a quick summary, and they stared at me in silence once I was done.

  “It’s a ring,” Timothy said. “It has to be.”

  “What do you mean?” Liana asked.

  “Like each level is a ring, and the rings constantly shift in different directions. We need to move toward the center, against the shifts, and leave marks so we can make sure we don’t go off track.”

  I already had my penknife out. “We mark the trees with numbers in order of how we pass them.”

  Timothy nodded. “Good idea.”

  I ducked under Liana’s arm, ready to brace her, and she cried out in pain.

  I released her quickly. “What is it?”