Page 23 of Buzz Kill (Smoke & Mirrors Tavern #7)

Chapter twenty-three

DECLAN

Alwin and I exchanged a look the moment we saw the group assignments. They’d separated us, likely on purpose, but we’d expected that. He was matched with Nick and a few others, while I was in a group with Billy and two guys I didn’t know. One was further along in the program and the other was just a quiet guy. Neither had ever come to me for anything so I never had the opportunity to get a read on them.

Benning gathered us in the large lecture hall to go over the field assignment Billy warned us about. Over the next several weeks, the instructors would be taking our groups out into the field for an assessment test and what a surprise, both mine and Alwin’s groups would be going out first. I’d expected that too. The question was, were they targeting us because I’d drawn their ire, or because they were suspicious? Either way, we had to be careful not to show our hand on this one.

Most of the other recruits looked relieved they weren’t going first, which was understandable after these people spent the last several weeks fear mongering and flat out lying to them about what they would be facing. When the lecture wrapped up, most of the recruits headed back to their classes while the unlucky few to get partnered with us gathered outside the compound. Alwin’s group left first and while I knew he didn’t like the arrangement, he knew as well as I did that we weren’t going out to face down actual monsters. Any non-humans we went tromping around after would disappear long before they showed themselves.

After a much longer drive than I’d expected, our van pulled up to a stretch of trees and we unloaded on the side of the road where Benning pulled out a spell and showed the group.

“This is magic to hide our approach from anything that’s out here. We’ve gotten reports that something dangerous is out here and our job is to find it and eliminate it.”

“What kind of reports?” I asked. If there was a pack in this area they should have take care of anything that was actually dangerous in the woods.

Benning eyed me for a moment before answering. “Dead animals, missing pets, a missing hiker and strange noises coming from the woods at night.”

“Did anyone talk to the hiker’s family for additional details about his disappearance?” I pressed.

“The hiker was from out of town, his family isn’t local.”

I took that to mean the missing hiker was probably bullshit and didn’t bother asking any more questions.

“You’ll need to stay close to be inside the boundaries of the spell, they don’t cover much area but they are powerful. Don’t break formation and whatever this thing is won’t see us coming.”

“Didn’t you all say magic is evil?” I pressed.

Was I a hypocrite for even asking the question? Yes. Yes, I was. But while I was well aware of the kind of person I was, Benning’s high and mighty attitude irked me. It was a little too Prescott-like.

Benning looked about ready to strangle me. “Sometimes we have to take drastic measures to keep people safe. Any other questions?”

His tone told me that if I asked one more question I’d be scrubbing toilets for a month, so I kept my mouth shut.

The magic brushed against me when he activated the spell and I held back a shudder. Acacia’s spell combined with the dark mage’s magic made this one especially revolting. I hated all magic, but this magic caused a visceral reaction that most spells didn’t and I gritted my teeth against the sensation.

Benning moved, leading the group and eventually came to a stop pretty far from civilization. I looked around, attempting to find any reason he would have picked this place, but nothing stood out.

“Reverse formation,” he ordered, putting Billy and I at the front of the group.

We’d been armed with hunting knives and a few low-grade stun spells, and while the rest of the group had the knives in their hands, I wasn’t planning on stabbing some innocent shifter while playing commando games. Benning’s eyes were on me the whole time we wandered the area, but appearing unconcerned was one thing I was good at.

There’s nothing out here.

The words almost made it to my lips when Billy’s foot hit a tree root and he stumbled outside the concealment circle. The hair stood up on the back of my neck almost immediately and I rushed forward to shove him back into the boundary of the spell.

Something slammed into us before we made it back to safety and sharp talons raked down my arm and Billy’s shoulder. While we couldn’t see what it was, I immediately knew we weren’t dealing with a shifter.

My palm slammed into the attacking creature and the concealment spell on it broke, exposing an angry powrie just as its iron pike swung at my face. My shock dropped me to my ass just in time for his staff to miss by inches. The short leathery fae spun his pike to take aim again and I slammed one boot into it, driving him back as I shoved Billy toward the concealment spell once more.

“What the fuck?” I complained, scrambling to my feet and pulling one of the stun spells from my pocket.

No way did a powrie stumble here on its own. These things weren’t anything like shifters and they were extremely territorial. This wasn’t the type of place they preferred to live, but if it had claimed a corner of these woods, it would kill anything that trespassed, and we were no exception. Fuck . I couldn’t just let this thing get away. First of all, it really was dangerous, and second, now that I’d engaged with it, it was never going to let me leave.

It wasn’t my first time dealing with a powrie, my parents had once taken me to the ruins of an old, abandoned castle in Europe. A fun family vacation where they tried to force me to use magic to get rid of the goblin that was trying to bleed me dry. But while that plan had ultimately failed, I did remember how to kill them. Which was a good thing because that kick had done nothing. The problem was, I needed to get close, and that iron pike was keeping me at bay.

The assignment had been to work as a group out here, but I did not miss the fact that Benning and the rest of the group seemed to be leaving me to deal with this on my own. The thing was, I didn’t think Billy was the kind of person to screw me over.

“Billy, I need a lighter,” I called to the emptiness around me, hoping they hadn’t just made a run for it.

I threw the stun spell in my hand, but the pike batted it away and it crashed against a tree. Shit , I needed to get that damn weapon away from it. Something small but heavy smacked into my leg and hit the ground, but I didn’t have time to pay attention. I lunged, and when the pike swung my way, I let it. One hand caught the weapon and pulled, but the powrie twisted his grip and charged at the same time.

The pointy end of his weapon sank into my gut and I grimaced, but didn’t let go. After a painful bout of tug of war, I pulled another stun potion and threw it while his weapon was still skewering me. This time the powrie batted the potion with his hand, but it shattered on impact and he froze. In that brief second, I snatched the blood-soaked hat from his head and scrambled for the lighter Billy tossed me earlier.

Billy appeared, snatching the lighter from the ground as the powrie shook off the stun spell and screeched its rage. It took a couple of tries for Billy’s shaking hands to strike the lighter but the hat caught fire just as the creature slammed into me again. I got an arm between us and shoved it away as it went up in flames with its hat. My arm was clawed to hell, burned, and bloody, but the damn thing was dead.

Billy rushed over as I flopped back on the ground. “Shit Henry, are you okay?”

“Yeah, great,” I panted. “Why do you ask?”

Billy frowned. “This ain’t the time for jokes, how bad is that stab wound?”

I grimaced as I pushed myself up and got to my feet with Billy’s help. He propped himself under my shoulder and helped me walk as I pressed my injured arm to the stab wounds on my stomach.

“It’ll be fine.”

The two of us stopped in front of Benning and the others and Billy tensed next to me.

“I’m impressed,” Benning said casually. “You knew how to kill a redcap even though we haven’t gone over it in class. Don’t see those in these parts too often.”

No, we didn’t. In fact, powries were never found in these parts. They lived in abandoned castles and were mostly only found in Faerie. This whole encounter was suspicious. Especially the concealment spell on the powrie. They did not have that kind of magic, which meant someone placed it before releasing that thing in these woods.

“I’m aware of the mythology,” I answered. “Strange though, I never heard they could make themselves invisible.”

“Yeah,” Benning agreed. “We’ll have to make note of that. Well, let’s go get your cuts tended to. Might have to excuse you from classes for a day or two, we’ll see what the doc says.”

ALWIN

“Where is he?”

Benning looked calm as ever as he tried to usher me back toward his office. “Calm down son, the medical staff is tending to him and they’re sure he’ll be just fine but they’re not allowing visitors just yet.”

I didn’t bother waiting until we were behind closed doors, instead opting to question him in the halls. “Why? I was told he’s conscious.”

Billy had rushed to get me as soon as they returned and his shirt was soaked with Declan’s blood. Billy had several cuts and scrapes as well, but strangely Benning didn’t look like he’d been in a fight at all.

“Yes, but he had some serious injuries that have to be tended to.”

“How serious? What exactly was out there?”

“He was stabbed by a redcap, but he’ll pull through.”

Redcap was a term humans used for powries, which should not even be in this area. They mostly resided in Faerie, but occasionally one slipped through and took over abandoned castles or homes in Europe. I’d never heard of one being found in this country.

The other two members of their team still stood behind Benning looking as untouched as he did. And when I looked at them, they refused to meet my eye.

“Why were Henry and Billy left to fight a redcap on their own? Were you not there to ensure nothing happened to the recruits?”

“Henry left the concealment circle on his own, and I had to stay behind to protect the other recruits. Had Henry remained within the spell he would’ve been fine.”

“You’re saying he engaged in a fight with the thing on his own for no reason?”

“As I said, he was the one who left the spell. My duty was to protect the recruits, I can’t go chasing after someone who refuses to obey the rules.”

Benning seemed rather smug with his response, but I didn’t believe him for a second. Declan would protect himself or the others, but he wouldn’t have picked a fight for no reason and put Billy at risk. The men who’d gathered around seemed to accept his excuses as fact. They knew Declan skirted the rules every chance he got and now their murmurs were already condemning him despite the obvious lie.

“You’re lying,” I stated.

The man seemed a little surprised that I called him so bluntly, but he took the opportunity to slander Declan more. “Look son, I know you don’t want to believe anything bad about your friend, but someone who acts recklessly and ignores the rules isn’t someone you ought to be associating yourself with. His actions could get you killed one day.”

“Henry only left the spell circle because I tripped and stumbled outside of it myself. He ran out to help me, but we were attacked,” Billy finally said from behind me.

I turned my back on Benning to face a clearly conflicted Billy. “What really happened?” I demanded.

“Whatever attacked us was invisible at first, I couldn’t even see anything to fight. But Henry got it off me and shoved me back into the boundaries of the spell while he fought it off. Benning wouldn’t let any of us help him. We left Henry to fight that thing by himself. It’s my fault Henry got hurt.”

“It was not your fault,” I assured him before turning to face Benning again. The other recruits had gone silent in the face of Billy’s admission and all focus was now on Benning. “What were you hoping to accomplish by this?” I asked. “Did Henry not behave exactly as he should in such a situation? Another recruit was in trouble and he risked his own wellbeing to save him. And yet you seem to value blind obedience over doing what’s right. Why is that? Is every recruit here expendable to prove a point, or is providing playing cards or candy bars to men who are missing home reason enough to let someone die?”

“That’s not what I said, don’t twist my words. We are here to train men to be heroes. To protect humanity. Disregarding orders and ignoring the rules undermines what we’re trying to do here.”

“Clearly your rules need to be ignored in order to do the right thing. Henry was a hero out there, and you tried to get him killed.”

Benning chuckled. “That’s a bit dramatic, we had the situation in hand.”

“You released something extremely dangerous in a populated area. Redcaps are territorial, so you had reason to believe it would stay in the area, but anyone who stumbled into the space it claimed would have been killed. I very much doubt that you had the situation completely under your control.”

Bennings smile faded. “What are you implying, son?”

“Redcaps aren’t capable of invisibility. That simply isn’t a power they possess. In fact, full invisibility isn’t common in general. It is magic The Origin Order possesses though, is it not?”

He quickly changed the subject. “I understand that you’re upset your friend was hurt, but if I’d really thought he was in danger I would’ve stepped in. If you start crying every time someone’s hurt in this line of work, you won’t get very far. This training is what separates the men from the boys, and I need to be able to see what each of these men are capable of.”

This was a common theme among the hunters. They were big on not showing weakness. It seemed Benning was trying to turn his men against Declan by implying he wasn’t strong enough.

“Does it look like I’m crying?” I asked. The dangerous edge to my tone was missed by no one. “Henry was the only one of you who stepped up to do what you’ve been preaching about this whole time. He protected another human, he fought the monster and won. I think what you’re really shown everyone here today is what you’re capable of.”

I walked away hoping I hadn’t just blown our cover. This mission was coming to an end and we still hadn’t located Sherman. Our time here was about to be cut short and we still had a lot of work to do.