by Jaymin Eve
Before I could panic, Kade twisted to the side and the arrow whizzed right past him to land in the ground behind us. In unison then, all of us lowered our stances into positions suited for defense and attack. Mecca crackled in the air as Nikoli dropped his illusion and threw up a magical shield. It had a slight purple haze and fell in a dome around our tight group. A few more arrows shot out. I focused on their arc – behind the safety of our shield I was able to calm my mind and follow their trajectory back to the shooter – to a pocket of forest to the right side of our group. The trees were almost bare of leaves, but we were too far away to determine how many attackers were waiting for us.
More arrows hit the shield, falling harmlessly to the rough ground. Movement drew my attention and I saw two fae, partially hidden behind some thick trees. Both were dressed in black robes, with weird chest and arm plates, like armor draped over a robe. One was tall and looked semi-human, the other had a thicker hunched-over shape, and something about his whole aura was giving me the chills.
Blaine turned to me as he pulled out a small dagger. “If you all distract them, I’ll attack from behind.”
Even though I wanted to protest, I knew we couldn’t just stay safely behind the shield for long. Nikoli would tire; he was already weakened by having to hold his physical illusion for part of the day, and this extra shielding was going to drain him completely. We had no choice, I had to trust in Blaine’s skills.
“Be safe,” was all I said. I wanted to call out again as my friend crouched and rolled out of the protective shield, but I was afraid to distract him, or draw the attackers’ attention right to him. Blaine moved quickly, ducking behind a tree, taking cover. I lost sight of him after that but knew he was going to work his way around, hiding amongst the trees until he was in a position to attack them from behind. Now it was time to keep the attackers’ attention firmly on our group.
Monica stepped closer to the front of the dome, loading an arrow of her own. I was relieved that she had picked up a bow somewhere in the Otherworld. She was an excellent shot.
“I’m going to need you to drop the barrier for a second,” she said over her shoulder. The barrier was designed to repel weapons. “Let me get a couple of shots off so they don’t focus on Blaine.”
Nikoli didn’t reply, but the second Monica’s arrow was nocked, the purple haze fell. Her hands moved so fast they were a blur, an example of shifter speed at its best, as she fired three shots in rapid succession, each moving straight and true toward the two fae. Both of the tall and creepy fae dived behind their trees, and Nikoli got the shield back up in a flash, protecting us again from retaliation.
I caught a glimpse of dark clothing high in the trees, which gave me a pretty good idea where Blaine was. He was slowly making his way from tree to tree, and looked to be getting pretty close to them. Monica readied her arrows again, and so far our plan seemed to be working. The fae were facing us, not noticing Blaine at all. I was just about to suggest we start moving closer to the attackers, but before I could speak, a branch cracked to the right of us.
We spun and my grip on the sword tightened as I stared at the beast only a few feet away. He must have been at least ten feet tall, with bony spikes along his shoulders, and thick, leathery skin that was the color of coal dust. Holy crap! He was definitely of the troll-giant fae family, and from what the treeling in Kade’s yard had told me, their strength was unmatched.
The sound of cracking bones and tearing flesh beside me told me all I needed to know. Kade was going to shift and take this guy on.
One of the bandits yelled from their place behind the trees: “Give us your food, furs, and weapons … and then you can go free!”
I wondered how many were hidden away there. We’d seen two, but there could have been any number further back.
None of us bothered to reply, we weren’t parting with anything. I didn’t plan on showing up to Violet half frozen and starving. We would need all our strength to rescue her.
Of course that still meant not getting beaten to death today.
Kade had fully shifted now – was he getting even faster? – his clothes in a pile at his mammoth bear feet. Nikoli dropped the shield just as Kade burst through to take on the giant troll creature. Finn bumped my leg and I quickly ripped the bag off his back, swinging one leg over him to ride. Most of my attention was on Kade. I was relieved to see him get in the first few hits. The creature was much slower than him; shifter speed was definitely an advantage. With a roar he barged the troll right into a tree, matching the troll in strength too, which was a relief.
The treeling had said a troll’s strength was their biggest advantage. Their lack of brains canceled out most of that advantage though. Stupidity was something Kade could and would use against his opponent.
I was just about to help my mate when Blaine dived out of the trees near the bandits, drawing my full attention. He was going to be outnumbered. I couldn’t leave him to take them on alone.
“Guard our stuff!” I called to Victor and Monica as I took off on Finn, holding my sword out, ready to cut these fae down. Blaine engaged in combat with the bow and arrow guy, which left me that weird hulking figure that had given me the creeps. As I got closer I could see he was still partially hidden behind a tree. What was he doing? He was just standing there like a weird peeping tom. Was he trying to scare me off? Or was he acting this way to draw me closer?
I was only a few yards from them when I heard Nix cry out from high above. Instinctively I knew something was wrong. I could feel it in my tight chest and throbbing head. Even though I had not been around her a lot, I sensed this wasn’t her normal call. Unfortunately, from the ground there was nothing I could do to help her. I reassured myself with the knowledge that she was as strong and powerful as Finn. She could handle herself; hopefully that was enough.
I was almost at the tree and the creepy cloaked fae still wasn’t moving. I kept my eyes locked on it, right up until a glint of metal caught my eye. Dropping my gaze, my heart froze and I shouted at Finn: “Stop!” My heels dug into his side as I hoped he would be able to stop in time. There was a round ring of glinting metal on the ground, hidden beneath some fallen leaves.
A trap!
Finn skidded to a stop, just managing to avoid the spikes, but before we could move again, another creature jumped out from behind the trees. Holy mother of all things crazy … creature had been putting it nicely. The fae was completely inhuman, round, with three legs and a multitude of arms sticking out in all directions. It had mounds of glistening gray skin and teeth … everywhere. Raising a bunch of its arms, he growled loudly, but didn’t move from behind the trap. I brought my sword down hard onto the metal teeth and a huge circular, bear-style trap popped up from its hidden leaf bed and snapped closed. I just managed to pull my sword out in time. Swallowing hard, I was flooded with relief. The sheer size and glinting sharpness of that device would have probably torn Finn in two.
That was close, my familiar said.
Yep, way too close. I was trying not to freak out about how close.
With a grunt the thing came for me, its gray skin crumpling as it moved. I was pretty sure I knew what it was now: an ogre. A seriously messed up one. Sucking in the chilled air, I tried to recall all the facts I’d learned about them. There was something the treeling had mentioned more than once, something they used in battle to give them an advantage, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was.
He was close now, and there was no more time to worry, only time to start slicing off pieces of gray grossness. It paused just before me and tipped his head back, and right then I remembered exactly what ogres could do. Acid fog. He roared, producing a green-tinged smoke from his mouth. Finn backed up as the smoke filled the area, but we weren’t fast enough. Finn coughed first; a millisecond later the smoke hit me. Holding my breath didn’t help, it seeped into my nose and eyes, burning like I had been pepper sprayed. My eyes and throat were scorched, and breathing got difficult, forcing me in
to a hacking cough, which loosened my hold on my weapon.
The ogre lunged for us both, taking Finn into a headlock and reaching for me with its other hands.
“Disperseio!” Nikoli called from behind me, and with a swirl of mecca the green mist was gone and I could breathe again. My eyes and throat still burned, but the shifter healing speed was already taking care of that.
Sucking in two huge gulps of air, I regained my grip on my weapon and sliced the blade up and across the ogre’s neck – or in the vicinity of my best guess of where a neck would probably be. Luckily this was an elven made sword; I’d been told it could slice through almost anything, which was proven correct when it met with no resistance in the rocky skin. Black blood spurted out of the beast and he roared again, dropping his hold on Finn.
The ogre opened his mouth and I knew it was going to let loose with the acid fog, but before any mist emerged I swung at him and sliced through his open mouth. Using all my strength I forced my sword out the other side, completely removing the top of his head. The blackness of his oily blood spouted everywhere, and he hit the ground with a resounding thud.
Jumping off Finn, I quickly took stock of the battle. Creepy cloaked guy was gone; I could no longer sense his darkness. It looked like he had run. That would be a piece of luck we normally didn’t get. Kade looked to be doing okay; he had the upper hand with the giant troll, pinning him against the tree and tearing into his body. Blaine, who had been joined by Monica at some point, had finished off the bow and arrow guy and they were now making their way over to me.
“You okay, Ari?” Blaine reached out and gripped my shoulders, his eyes scanning my body.
I leaned in closer and gave him a quick hug. “I’m perfectly fine, but we need to help Kade finish that giant. We’ve already spent too much time here.”
My dominants nodded, then all of us hurried toward the battling giants. About halfway across the clearing, the sound of flapping wings closed in on us.
Nix! I had forgotten her weird cry before. I frantically searched the sky to make sure she was okay. Only it wasn’t Nix flapping in my direction. Nope, it was some weird looking fae, almost like a fairy, but of the very dark variety. She swooped down holding her clawed hands out in front, giant black wings flapping behind her. The wings looked almost leathery, with a few shiny black feathers speckled across them. As she closed in I swung wildly with my sword, clipping her wing. With a high-pitched screech she rose up again, and seemed to be considering us as she hovered above.
Winged battle fae, Finn said to me. They are related to the ercho. She might even serve the same master.
Well, that was great news. Just fabulous.
Her pale skin was clawed up in places, and she had a few of Nix’s feathers in her hair, which was long and dark, flowing out behind her. Her face was not quite human – the spacing between her features was too wide, eyes too small, nose hooked in an odd witch-like shape. She let out a blood-curdling screech; it was enough to have my eardrums aching and a headache forming.
Not battle fae … harpy, I sent to Finn. His growls burst free from his huge body, echoing over the area. The hairs on my body stood up, as they always did when he lost his cool and let the fierce beast inside take over. Harpies were a fae we had been warned about multiple times. They were the worst of their kind, battle-hungry and deadly, half woman and half bird.
My mind immediately flashed to Nix. Where was she? She’d cried out before and no one had even had the time to stop and check on her. I should have made more of an effort to find her. The only thing keeping me from losing my mind completely was Kade, still strong and battling without pause. If his familiar had fallen, he would not be so resilient.
A shadow in the sky caught my attention and my heart soared when I realized it was Nix. Thank the mecca. She was flying in a straight shot toward the harpy, who must have sensed the bird and was again heading for me, Blaine, and Monica. There was no way, even going supersonic speed, Nix was going to get here before the harpy hit us, so I braced myself, my sword held above me so I could swing at the bird-woman again.
It was an awkward position, Being attacked from above, and I was relieved that it looked like the harpy was focusing her beady eyes on me, which would allow Blaine and Monica to act as backup if I needed it. Three versus one gave me a fighting chance.
My dominants knew what to do. When the harpy was moments from reaching me, her screeches reverberating through my head, one of Monica’s arrows whizzed over me and sank into its shoulder. She had waited for the perfect moment to let it loose, hitting her target in one of the softer, fleshy-looking parts.
The creature shrieked, her thick and massive wings pumping as she pulled up at the last moment, colliding with Nix who had still been descending. I took advantage of her distraction and jumped as high as I could, lashing out with my sword and slicing through her ankle.
More shrieking erupted from the harpy, and Nix launched herself around and completely encased the harpy’s head in her talons. Blaine then took a running leap from the side, catching hold of her injured leg and pulling her to the ground. Nix held on for a second, so the harpy was almost pulled in two, before the familiar released her and Blaine slammed the fae to the forest floor.
Her wings spread out behind her, thick and bat-like, with serrated tips and a scattering of feathers. Blaine pinned her midsection just as she let out another harpy shriek. This time she was so close that I almost hit the ground from the sheer agony of her cry. In that second I would have done anything to stop that noise piercing through my skull.
I lashed out with mecca, aiming to cut off her vocal cords. My magic was wonky, but I did manage to lessen the sound, which gave me the time to regain my strength and drop my blade down on her body, cutting one of her wings off. Before she could screech again, Blaine drew his dagger across her throat to finish her off.
All of us waited for a moment; we had learned not to turn our back on any enemy until we saw their last breath. Then her chest was still … she was dead. We jumped to our feet and I hurried over to Nix, who had just landed a few yards away. She was swaying, and I sensed that she’d been hurt badly.
“Nikoli!” I shouted, turning around. Kade roared louder than I’d ever heard him before, even when Violet had used the gold spell to heal his hand. He launched himself with strong and deadly force at the troll, and in a single movement grasped its head with both meaty paws and tore it clean off. All of our attackers were now dead, except for the one who had absconded. We just needed to make sure that Nix was going to be okay.
She has to be okay.
Kade was running toward us, his change back to human happening as he moved. I snatched up his pants, and as soon as Kade was no longer furry and bear-like, he pulled them on before dropping down beside his familiar. He scooped her massive body up into his arms, his muscles bunching as he held her close.
My throat got tight at the look in his eyes, part fury, part fear, all love.
“You did good. You’re going to be okay,” Kade said as I tried to take stock of her injuries. From the outside I could see her wing was bent and bleeding, but otherwise she looked okay. Of course, I had no idea what the harpy might have done to her in the air.
Nikoli was at his friend and king’s side then, placing his hands on the eagle. A faint purple haze emanated from his palms, and within a few moments the bleeding had stopped. He ran his hands across the familiar, fixing up the wounds we couldn’t see, until finally, looking pretty exhausted, he sank back onto his knees.
“She’s going to be fine. Harpy got some poison into her, and her wing was pretty bad – she shouldn’t fly for twenty-four hours – but otherwise she’ll make a full recovery.”
Kade nodded, still looking very ferocious and bear-like.
I surveyed the carnage around me. “Remember how I wanted to come here alone?” I said to no one in particular. I heard lots of laughter, some shaking of heads and smirks too.
“Yeah, not my smartest move. I’m glad y
ou guys are here,” I said as I grabbed my pack. My words were an understatement. There was no way to really convey how grateful I was to each and every one of them. They were my family.
Chapter Three
Frozen feet. Frozen heart.
After we patched ourselves up and gathered our things, we decided to walk a bit further and find someplace more secure to set up camp for the night. Even though the attack had been expected, and everyone had warned us we would not make it to the Winter Court unscathed, that didn’t make it any less traumatic. Fighting creatures like that messes with your mind a little.
About forty minutes later we finally found a small area within the forest that had a mountain at our back, so we only had to keep an eye on two paths. I was tasked with making the fire as Kade and the boys pitched the tents. Monica was taking inventory of our things and doing the math on our food to see how much we would need to ration. Thinking about it made my stomach grumble; I was hungry, but so was everyone else here. I already knew what she was going to say: we didn’t have enough to last the journey. Shifters needed more food than the average human; we were feeding ourselves and our beast inside. Not to mention that when we fought or shifted, as Kade had done, we burned through a lot of energy. Still, trading the food for weapons had already paid off. Our elven blades had served us very well in that last battle, and I’d rather be hungry than dead.
Nikoli, who had just ducked off into the bushes, pushed his way back into the clearing. He wasn’t able to hold his illusion anymore tonight, he was completely drained of magic, so instead he wore his hood up and had rubbed some mud on his face and eyebrows as a disguise. He sat down on a log by the fire, which I just gotten going with a flint and a little accelerant. Thankfully Kade had thought to bring a fire starter kit, and even though it had been difficult finding dry timber to use – everything here had a dampness to it – the fire only took a little coaxing to really kick in.