Page 15 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

“I had hoped to get you out.” Diego cleared his throat. “But they changed the laws the morning I arrived and arrested me for being a witch.”

“Crud.”

Diego dragged a hand back through his hair.

“Yes. Sorry about that. You are the ones? Ethan? Josh? Gavin?” They each reacted in turn to a name, so Diego was certain he had the middle one pegged as Ethan, the one who seemed most assertive.

“Don’t think you’re abandoned, though, just because my mission failed.

There are a lot of people trying to get you out. ”

For some reason, this reassurance made Josh hide his face in his hands, sniffling.

“Hey. Stop.” Ethan cuffed him gently. “The others might be watching. We can’t be weak, right?”

Diego waited until Josh wiped at his eyes, pulling himself together, then asked, “Since I just arrived, could you tell me what happened here?”

“Feeding time at the zoo,” Gavin muttered bitterly.

“Seemed so. But isn’t there enough for everyone? Why the frantic scramble?”

Ethan shrugged. “It’s not much. It’s once a day. There might be enough for everyone but some jerks take more. Because they can.”

“There aren’t any guards in here to keep order?”

“No. Just us zoo animals.”

“And no one tells them no.”

“If you want to get hit, sure.” Gavin shook his head. “Ethan tried the first day we were here. We were worried he’d never wake up again.”

Diego filed that away, distressed at how quickly humans turned on each other in a bad situation. Though throwing everyone together, regardless of gender, criminal past or state of mental health, was asking for chaos. The government would probably be happy if we killed each other off.

So many questions, but only one Diego really wanted answered. “I only saw humans in the scramble. Are there nonhumans here, too? Or are they kept in a different prison?”

All three youngsters blinked at him in confusion.

“My husband was with me when I was arrested. I haven’t seen him yet. He’s a pooka.” If they arrested him. If nothing worse happened.

“He might be in the monster cell block,” Josh muttered.

Gavin snorted. “Tactful much? It’s in the center of this place. We heard other prisoners call the fae ‘monsters’, but there’s only a couple of monster-type things down there.”

“You speak Arabic?”

“Yeah, well, some. That’s why we came to this damn country. Language exchange students.”

“Could you show me?”

“Dunno, Mr. Sandoval. We’ve got a pretty full schedule today.” Ethan furrowed his brow as if he had to consider.

“Just Diego, please.” Diego stood and offered him a hand up. “Good to see your sense of humor’s intact. We’re going to get out of this.” I just don’t know how or when yet.

Ethan tore the now-empty packet into strips and handed them round. “Here. Everybody take some leaf. Mr.—Diego, we don’t know what it is, but it’s safe to eat.”

“Thank you.”

The leaf was tough but edible and they all gnawed on their pieces in silence as they walked.

The boys stayed close together, eyes darting everywhere as if they expected an ambush any moment.

Ethan stopped them at the next turn, checking around the corner before he waved them on.

They passed one or two figures huddled against the wall, but most of the prison’s occupants had vanished.

After another right-hand turn, it became clear that the prison hallways comprised a rectangle and that along this looping main corridor, there were open rooms with sometimes obvious and sometimes not at all obvious uses, but no cells.

They finally arrived at a door, the first one since Diego had left the intake room, and Ethan pushed through.

A darker, short hall greeted them, leading into the heart of the prison rectangle.

Heavy-looking metal doors with tiny barred windows near the top lined both sides.

“Monster jail,” Josh whispered as they crept down the corridor.

Diego pushed tentatively at the first door.

Locked. Snuffling came from behind that one and a scrabble of claws.

Too short to peek in the window, he moved on.

He tried several more on his way down. All locked tight.

Finally, he placed himself in the center and bellowed, “Finn! Mi vida? Dónde estás ?”

Shrieking and howling answered him from some of the cells. The echoing corridor made it difficult to tell how many. But underneath the cacophony, he heard a voice, the one he so needed to hear.

“Diego? I’m here…please…”

Halfway down on the left, a hand waved through the bars of a cell door. Diego moved toward it since it matched the direction of Finn’s answer. He stopped short, though. The hand had scales and claws. “Finn? Is that you?”

“The one and only.” Finn’s voice shook and the clawed hand waved again. “I’m so sorry, my heart. I couldn’t—” He broke off on a huge sniff, the sound nearly breaking Diego’s heart.

“No apologies, carino . Why do you have claws?” Diego reached up to take the offered hand and knew beyond a doubt that it was Finn when the claws closed around his fingers gently, the thumb claw caressing his knuckles.

“I tried…there was an iron net. If only I’d been a little blasted faster.”

Unable to wait for more non-explanations, Diego seized the bars with both hands and dragged himself up so he could look through the window.

Finn blinked at him and offered a watery smile. “There you are. Are you unarrested?”

“No. I just get a bigger cage to wander around in.” Diego took in the too-sharp teeth, the start of a crest, the odd color of Finn’s eyes, and the collar around his throat. “Finn… Dios …they trapped you mid-dragon shift?”

His poor husband nodded, unable to meet Diego’s eyes. “The iron net. And with this goddesses-forsaken iron collar, I can’t finish and I can’t change back.”

“How do you feel?” Diego had to let himself down on shaking arms, but he took Finn’s offered hand again. “Have they fed you?”

The hand rose and fell and Diego could envision the shrug that went with the movement. “They dropped something through the slit in the ceiling. I think it’s meant to be food but with the iron, I can’t eat.”

Diego swallowed hard, pressing his cheek to the scaled back of Finn’s hand. “I wish I could take it off. I can’t even take my own off. Does it hurt terribly?”

“Oh, it’s not so bad, love. Don’t fret about me.” Finn gave him a squeeze, his voice full of false bravado. “I’m sure our friends will come for us. Or you’ll figure a way out.”

“Finn…” Diego kissed each half-scaled finger, trying to blink back the tears.

“Don’t you cry, bucko. Then I will and where will we be then? Separated still and wet. I’m sure you have things to plan, my clever Taliesin.”

“I don’t know what I can do. I can’t feel the flows at all.” He told Finn about the prison layout and the other inmates at feeding time. “I’ve never felt so useless. Well, rarely. Even if they do get us out, what about these other poor people?”

“I don’t much care about them,” Finn grumbled.

“Just that you’re safe. But listen—you were powerful before.

Before you met me. Before your channels unblocked and you could direct the flows again.

You’re still that man. Without your magic, you’re still that man.

Use what you have always had. Find out all you can. Perhaps there will be a way.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone here.”

“Oh, I’m not alone. There’s a lovely phoenix in the next cell and a Were in the one across the way. He’s not much company now, but I expect when he changes back he could be. Go on, Diego. Find out what you can. Come visit me in between. I’ll be here.”

“I love you.”

Finn managed an almost convincing laugh. “I know. I love you, too, but you’re embarrassing your young friends. I can feel them rolling their eyes from here.”

“All right. Try to rest, mi vida . I’ll be back soon.”

As he walked away, Diego told himself it wasn’t like other times they had been separated. He knew exactly where Finn was and could speak to him whenever he needed to. But, damn it, he hated to leave Finn in pain, unable to help him.

And what does he mean, what I was before? How does having once been a failed, starving writer help us now?

A shudder ran up Diego’s spine as they left the cellblock. One of the doors stood open, a bundle of cloth indicating there had been an occupant. He could only assume the poor fae had died.

A furtive scrape woke Limpet. Not that he’d been sleeping deeply.

The news of the arrests had been too disturbing, the shouting, angry humans just a little too unsettling.

They weren’t upset with him, but that hadn’t made his heartbeat any calmer.

He cracked an eye open, peeking out from his blanket nest on the floor of Theo’s room.

What do I do if someone’s here who shouldn’t be?

It was Theo, though, moving about in near silence, an occasional flash of metal catching in the moonlight while he stuffed things into a bag. He’s going somewhere. That’s what humans do. They stuff things in bags before they go somewhere.

Limpet watched a bit longer, careful not to move or make a sound. And he doesn’t want anyone to know. Why?

He waited until Theo had opened the window and climbed out before he slipped into his human clothes and followed with his human shoes in hand.

Boots. These were called boots. He hated having the heavy things on his feet but some of the surfaces humans walked on were too hot or too horrid for bare feet.

Leaning out, he just caught the edge of Theo’s shadow as he slid along the wall.

Eel silent, he moved through the shadows like water and Limpet saw him only because he knew where to look.

Theo had been quietly enraged earlier that evening.

The older security people said they didn’t know where to find the prison and wouldn’t listen when Theo said he could try to find it.

The big one, Kurt, had said, “Oh, yeah? What then, kid? You gonna pull a Spartacus and get the prisoners to revolt? Take down all the guards alone? You suddenly immune to a bullet through the heart?”

Perhaps he had a point, but Limpet thought it a cruel way to say it. The older ones disregarded Theo and it seemed simply because he was younger and not because he was a Nightwalker.

There were guards at the gate to this walled human place, ones armed with guns.

Theo had explained modern guns on evening patrol.

They sounded nasty. But the Nightwalker simply found the darkest spot of shadow on the high wall, leaped straight up to catch the top of it and pulled himself over.

Regular humans couldn’t do that. Limpet had to follow more slowly, using the cracks in the stones to climb.

Despite the delay, he located his quarry as Theo moved down the street.

The hour for humans was late. Most slept and the city was relatively quiet.

Limpet threw the hood of his borrowed jacket up to cover his ears and his hair, just in case.

His pulse pounded, terrified of being caught and dragged off to prison as Finn had been, equally terrified of what Theo’s plans might be.

He liked Theo, but what if he only appeared good?

Limpet had certainly been mistaken about people before.

Theo continued along the wall, heading for the place where their host humans kept all their conveyances.

His parents had always told him that horses and oxen pulled humans’ coaches and carriages.

Clearly, that was no longer the case and he couldn’t help but feel smug about already knowing more concerning current human customs than the rest of his pod combined.

He flattened himself against the wall when Theo stopped and crouched low.

He seemed to be assessing the guardhouse and the humans manning it.

There were three—one in the little house itself, one standing at the metal fence and one pacing the walkway in front.

They hadn’t spotted Theo, but human eyesight was terrible.

He’s going to attack them. Should I warn them?

Will he hurt them? Limpet dithered long enough that it was too late.

Theo exploded from his crouch and flattened the guard on the walkway with a single punch.

He raced to the next guard and took him down in a shadowed blur.

By the time the guard seated in the house looked up from his reading, Theo was on him, having leapt over the gate, ripped the door open and subdued him as well.

Fangs flashed in the lighted room and Limpet’s heart stuttered and thumped in fear.

He’s killed them! He didn’t get enough from me and he’s killed them…

Before he had finished the thought, Theo had done something to open the gate and moved on, into the corral where the vehicles rested for the night.

Trying to keep silent, though he wanted to whimper, Limpet crept forward and checked the first guard.

Still alive. Neck’s not even broken. Limpet frowned and moved on to the next and found a strong pulse still beating.

So he only killed the third one? Carefully, Limpet slipped up to the third guard.

His heart also beat steadily and he appeared to be simply sleeping, a peaceful smile on his face despite the fang marks on his throat.

Confused, Limpet followed Theo’s scent trail out among the vehicles.

The trail led to one of the taller vehicles, one with big wheels and the seat compartment set higher off the ground.

Theo cursed softly as he fiddled with the set of keys in his hand.

The last round of curses seemed more relieved than angry as the vehicle roared to life and Theo began to back it out of its corral spot.

Limpet leaped into the open back of the thing just before Theo made it roar away. Of course this was a foolish, muddleheaded thing to do, but he simply had to find out what Theo intended.