by May Dawson
But with the help of the Fae, my men are turning the tide of the battle. There are fewer and fewer Ravagers left standing, though massive, dark corpses are scattered across this once-tranquil field.
“Can you help me?” I asked. I’d meant to ask if she could help Silas, but my trembling fingers were still pressed to his side, so she must understand what I meant anyway.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s a sleep spell.”
“Why’d you knock him out?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” she lied with ease. “I just know the magic. Was there someone in the woods?”
I nodded.
“The Huntress,” she said softly. “She gets up to strange tricks. She must have thought you were a threat.”
I didn’t know what the Huntress was, but I knew who she was. But whatever. “We’re just trying to pass through.”
“It’s not that easy to pass through Fae lands,” she said. She glanced around, as if she couldn’t trust her own friends, then whispered, “You’ll be punished as trespassers if Turic’s men catch you.”
“Turic?” I asked automatically, even though I’d learned the name during our studies. Turic was the acting king of the spring court until the true heir, who was missing, was found or declared dead.
“His right hand man, Tenys, likes to send us out to scout while he lounges back in the capital city,” she said. “But now that the battle is almost over, they should be riding in any second now to clean up the last few Ravagers and pretend they’re the heroes. Once we wake your friend, you need to escape before they arrive.”
“Why would you do that for me?” I asked.
“I don’t have any grudge against the shifters,” she said. “I thought you were from the Greyworld at first. But…” her nostrils flared, as if she were smelling me, reminding me that no matter that she looks like a beautiful human, she was another creature altogether. “You’re not.”
“No, I’m not. I’m a shifter.” Even if my wolf was gone forever, I would always be a shifter. I’d always need my pack, and that included Silas Zip, who was never a wolf, but who was mine anyway. My fated mate, even if that made no sense according to the rules of magic that I knew. “I’m Maddie.”
“Raura,” she said. “I’d say I was happy to meet you, but honestly, you shouldn’t be happy to meet any Fae.”
That hadn’t been the plan, that was for sure. We’d intended to stay far from the Fae.
I curled my fingers against his cheek. She said once we woke him up. “What do I have to do?”
“Go in there and get him,” she said. “He won’t come back for me. The sleep spell is… enticing.”
“How?” I started to ask, but she interrupted me.
“I hope you want to live, wolf girl,” she said, right before she made a strange sign in the air.
The same sign the hooded figure in the woods had made.
The same sign. The same girl. That knowledge thudded into me and I reached for my sword, but I was already falling toward Silas.
Before my body fell all the way to slump across his chest, the world faded black.
Then I saw a distant glow of light—you’ve got to be fucking kidding me, there was an actual light at the end—and Silas stood against it, limned by the bright glow.
“Don’t you dare, Silas Zip,” I called, and he stopped and turned.
Then it seemed, as if by magic, he was right by my side.
“I was looking for you,” he said, frowning.
“We’re trapped in a Greyworld sleep spell,” I said, hoping that would mean something to him, ignoring how my heart raced at those simple words. “Does that mean anything to you?”
He studied me, his face curious. “You followed me in?”
“It was the only way to get you back, apparently.”
“Did you know how easily you can die in here?”
“The one who sent me in… she said the sleep spell is enticing.”
“Death is,” he said, and for a second across that handsome, hard-angled face, I saw a deep sadness reflected. Something had driven him toward the light.
And yet at the same time, he’d been looking for me to save him.
“Where does your deathwish come from, Silas?” I whispered.
“Where does yours?”
I shook my head. “I want to live. I want the whole happily-ever-after… and I want it with you.”
I rose up onto my tiptoes and kissed his cheek, and he smiled faintly.
“I can’t die,” he told me softly. “Not here. I’ve got to save my friends in the Greyworld first.”
“The ones you showed me in your memories, from the orphanage.”
He nodded. “They’re the closest I’ve ever come to having a family. Before…”
His lips pursed to one side, as he stopped himself.
“When we finish our mission,” I said, “and we’re both still alive—which we will be—we’re going into the Greyworld to get them. Together.”
“Throwing your lot in with mine? That’s a dangerous proposition.”
“Always, Silas Zip.”
His arm slid across my lower back, his head bowing toward mine, and my lips parted.
Just as Silas kissed me, the two of us surfaced from the darkness.
The Fae world was too bright, blindingly so, and I groaned.
“It’s too late,” the girl whispered to me. “Turic’s men are here. There are too many Fae. You have to stop your friends from fighting, or they’re going to die.”
I opened my eyes to find chaos.
Chapter Eighteen
Jensen
A few minutes earlier…
A Ravager lunged toward Penn and Tyson, and I ducked the claws of the one who had just attacked me so I could get there first. I slammed my sword up into the Ravager's throat, and the sword stuck in bone. I tried to yank the blade free as a huge, reptilian eye swiveled my way, as if to say, bad call.
I jumped into the air, slamming both feet into the Ravager’s chest, and as it fell back, I tried to yank the blade loose. The sword came free, my fingers still wrapped tightly around the hilt as I slammed down heavily on the ground.
Another Ravager was almost on top of me, as if it were going to trample me, and I tried to scramble up as it loomed bigger and bigger toward me—then suddenly, it slammed onto its back, letting out a scream that sounded almost human. Strands of dark red magic crackled in the air before they faded, and I turned, grinning, expecting to see Silas back on his feet.
Instead, Tyson stood there, one hand outstretched, a look of wonder written across his face. Just for a second, and then he was back to fighting with his sword as another Ravager attacked him.
Penn was on his feet too though, paler than usual but moving.
“Glad to see you’re off your ass, brother,” I told him.
The battle against the Ravagers seemed impossible. But we went on fighting anyway, the six of us closing up into an ever-smaller circle around Maddie and Silas as the monsters prowled around us.
“Maybe we should open up a portal and get out of here,” Penn said. “Abort mission.”
Just then, four riders on horses galloped across the field toward us.
I slashed out with my sword, and the Ravager snarling at me backed up, looking for another way in. “Better or worse?” I asked no one in particular.
“Fae world?” Tyson said. “I’m betting on worse.”
The four riders must all be Fae, most of them wearing lightweight black armor. Their horses were outfitted to match them, and the four riders all rode without their hands, each wielding a sword in one hand and magic in the other. Their faces were covered in elaborate masks, which gave them an eerie appearance.
As three of them attacked the Ravagers, helping us fight them off, the fourth threw herself off her horse.
“Let me through!” she barked. “I can help him!”
What the hell, Silas was down, how much worse could things get? Maddie would stop her if she was trouble.
I moved aside, and Rafe shot me a look.
“What?” I said. “She seems nice.”
The three Fae who were still on horseback helped us turn the tide of the fight. A Ravager knocked one of the Fae off his horse. I raced to his side as the horse attacked the Ravager, putting its body between the fallen rider and the Ravager. The Ravager swiped at the horse, knocking him to the ground, almost on top of the rider who was still on the ground. As the rider scrambled to his feet, the Ravager leapt at him, mouth open wide to attack.
I saw the Fae’s sword glittering in the grass at the same time as he did. He ran for it, just as the Ravager leapt at him. I slashed across the Ravager's back—a glancing blow, but one that distracted it—and the Ravager whirled to face me, its long, thick tail almost slamming into my body. I managed to jump over the Ravager’s tail, only to find its face looming at me.
The Fae who had fallen from the horse cut the Ravager’s legs out from underneath it with one smooth arc of his sword. The Ravager fell at my feet, missing me by inches, and I drove my blade through its eye until the tip hit skull and stopped.
“Thanks,” the Fae said. His hood had fallen back, revealing a mass of dark red hair and the tips of his pointed ears.
“Happy to help,” I said.
Another Ravager loped toward us, and he said, “I’ll take the legs.”
“Sure. Leave the hard work to me.”
He darted ahead of me, inhumanly quick, and danced out of the way of the Ravager’s claws. Then he slashed out and retreated as the Ravager let out a scream and fell to the ground, and before the Ravager could launch a defense, I struck the killing blow.
For the first time, when I killed one Ravager, I wasn’t immediately attacked by a second. I stopped, breathing hard, and looked around the field.
He tore off his mask, revealing wide-set gray eyes and a bit of a smirk. As he stuffed his mask into his pocket, he said, “I’m Lake.”
“Jensen.”
“What are you doing?” One of the Fae who was still seated on his horse asked Lake impatiently as he reined in his horse near us. “We don’t know if they’re friends or enemies.”
“Well then, I appreciate even more that you helped us fight off the Ravagers,” I said.
The masked figure just stared at me. Between his mask and the preternatural still posture, which the Fae seemed to hold if they weren’t moving too quickly and gracefully to be human, the effect was eerie.
A Ravager ran up toward him from behind, head outstretched, jaws parted.
“Watch out,” I shouted.
He whirled to face the Ravager, who lashed out at his horse—
But the blow never landed. Tyson blasted magic at the Ravager, who fell.
The Fae, without hesitation, rode at him and swung his sword down, the force of the blow almost cleaving the monster’s head from his neck.
All around us, the field was scattered with the bodies of dead Ravagers.
Lake returned to me, leading his horse. The war horse was huge, its face bloodstreaked, and it took me a second to realize that it wasn’t the horse’s blood. It wasn’t like any pony back home, that was for sure. But Lake still petted it, rubbing his forehead against the horse’s neck and murmuring pleasant nonsense.
The Fae on horseback stared at Tyson, as if he was startled by his magic. I’d never seen it come so easily to Tyson.
“Will there be more Ravagers?” I asked.
Lake shrugged. “Hope not.”
He sounded so cavalier. Personally, I hadn’t particularly enjoyed going toe-to-toe with the overgrown dinosaurs.
“Do you do this every day?”
”It’s our job to fight the monsters,” he said.
The bigger Fae, who was still on horseback, rode over to us, then swung off the horse in one graceful motion. “Which one of you is in charge?”
“This is Arlen,” Lake said, his tone apologetic. I was pretty sure I’d heard Ty use that tone to describe Penn many times before, too.
Well, this mission was going epically awry. Part of our plan had been to avoid the Fae. The more involved we became with them, the more complications would arise. We’d planned to skirt their towns and farms, sticking to the forest, get to the temple, and portal back out.
“I am,” Rafe answered Arlen’s question, reaching my side in a few quick strides. He extended his arm in friendship. Hopefully, Rafe could smooth things over and we could move on ASAP. “We don’t mean any harm. We’re just passing through.”
Arlen stepped in close to Rafe, gripping his forearm in the Fae’s gesture of friendship.
Beside me, Lake sighed.
“You’re not visitors,” Arlen growled. “You’re prisoners.”
He used Rafe’s arm to drag him toward him, trying to throw him off balance. But Rafe reacted almost instantly, twisting his body weight to take Arlen down with him.
Rafe and Arlen struggled in the grass as I backed away from Lake, already aware of just how fast he could move. I still had my sword in my hand, and I took in Lake’s sword too. He gave me the same look, as if we were sizing each other up, debating a fight.
“We don’t need to fight,” I said.
“You’re right, we don’t,” he said, his voice still calm and friendly. “You can surrender peacefully. You’re trespassers here. You’ll need to come back to the keep and present yourself before you can pass through these lands.”
“Okay,” I said, “Sure. I think we’d all be fine saying hi before we move on. But is it really that simple?”
He hesitated, glancing at the treeline. Fae on horseback broke through the trees, riding toward us.
It wasn’t that simple, he just didn’t see any other way out.
“We’ve got company,” I called, taking a step back from Lake.
Rafe threw Arlen, and the two scrambled to their feet.
“You need to give up,” Lake warned. He pulled a pair of brass-looking cuffs off his horse’s saddle, and they began to glow with magic as soon as he touched them. “They won’t accept anything less than surrender. But you’ll be fine if you just give up.”
He sounded desperate, and he glanced at the approaching riders as if he was scared of them—just as scared as perhaps we should be.
“We’re going to be fine?” I demanded. “For how long, exactly?”
Maddie was suddenly at my side, and a Fae girl with dark curls moved to Arlen’s side. As he headed toward Lex, she pushed him back, shaking her head. “Knock it off, Arlen,” she snapped.
The field filled with riders—Fae on horseback who galloped around us.
“There’s no way out,” the Fae girl said calmly. “Not for now. You have to surrender—but we’ll help you later. There are too many of Turic’s men here now.”
Arlen gave her a dark look, and she gave it right back to him.
Lake raised his hand with the chains. “If you keep fighting, you’ll be killed. You’re outnumbered.”
“But you know,” Arlen said, “there’s something to be said for staying in the fight.”
He was eager to provoke us into a fight.
It took everything I had to stay motionless and let the Fae chain me.
Chapter Nineteen
Tyson
The Fae took our weapons and bound our hands, tying us up to their horses.
A long-eared Fae girl near me rooted through Rafe’s pack, pulling out a freeze-dried meal in a plastic bag. She seemed far too cheerful for someone who had just taken prisoners, and she ripped the bag open curiously, sniffed it, tilted it to her mouth—and then coughed the dehydrated corn and chicken pieces halfway across the rocky clearing.
“Stop messing around, Tess, and get on your horse,” an older Fae warrior woman told her.
Tess pulled a face. She swung up onto her horse and cocked an eyebrow at me. “I hope you’re in good shape, trespasser.”
They forced us through the forest alongside their horses. I glanced at Lex, waiting for a cue to fight back again,
but he shook his head. We would bide our time.
That would be easier for me if Maddie weren’t jogging ahead of me, keeping up with the horse she was tied to. The sun shimmered across her blond hair whenever we reached a gap in the trees that let the light through, My heart ached that she was in danger once again.
I knew danger was part of her job, hell, putting herself in danger was part of Maddie being Maddie. But it felt even worse now that there was this distance between us. I wanted to always be there if she needed me.
They brought us back to their keep, a stone castle with high turrets that rose out of the mist-cloaked forest on one side and an immense, shimmering walled city on the other. I shook my head as if I were trying to shake off a dream. This all felt surreal.
We were led through stone archways into a big courtyard. Inside the walls, children were practicing with bows-and-arrows. Some of the smallest ones broke their lines and ran over to us.
“Go away,” Tess said in exasperation, swinging off her horse. She tossed the reins to another Fae, but when she reached the three small children who were gaping at us, she hugged them as she pulled them along back to the line where they were practicing, scolding them affectionately all the way.
As the horses came to a stop, Raura swung off her horse and sauntered back to us, her expression cold and haughty on that pretty face.
“Raura, what’s going on?” Maddie demanded.
“Make sure you tell Fenig the truth,” Raura said, her voice lazy. “She’ll know if you’re lying, and it will not go well.”
Were we going to be tortured? The thought made me move protectively closer to Maddie, as if I could shield her. Fae versus shifter was a fair fight–fairer than I cared for—but we weren’t true shifters anymore. We no longer had that superhuman strength and reflexes.
But we had magic—more magic than they would expect from us.
Raura frowned as she stared at me, as if she’d spoken too much already. The way that Arlen and Lake had fought beside us had made it feel like we were going to be allies. That had changed quickly.