Page 20 of Faerie Fate (Fae Academy for Halflings #7)

Chapter Thirteen

P oppy rolled her eyes.

“I have something to attend to. I’ll be right back.” She licked her lips, setting the bowl aside.

With unhurried movements, she pushed herself out of the booth and met Lezar and his men halfway across the tavern. Their march halted in its tracks as she drew her weapon out and released a feral yowl.

My breath caught in my throat and my heart joined it a second later, causing a traffic jam.

I’d never seen anyone as eager as Poppy to leap into the fray. She did not hesitate before she unleashed herself on these men. And that’s what this was—an unleashing. She held nothing back as she sliced toward Lazar.

She was fluid violence. No movement was wasted.

Poppy met Lezar’s bulk and rudimentary swordsmanship clash for clash.

With a smile on her face to boot. She laughed as he hacked at her.

Skittering backward before puncturing him with a smooth parry.

She swiveled on her back heel with her cloak flapping as the second of the three men rushed at her.

Poppy seemed to anticipate his movements. She ducked just as he threw a blast of magic her way, the blow absorbed by the back wall. Splinters slowly dislodged as the wood dissolved into a pile of sawdust.

“Aw, you’re really going for the heavy stuff right off the bat, aren’t you?”

Lazar didn’t take kindly to her joke. Their swords met and Poppy gripped hers with two hands, her muscles holding strong as Lezar bore down on her. He forced her back one step, then another, crowding her against the bar. Her smile strained around the edges and the lines around her lips intensified.

“I didn’t know it was going to be you,” she told him, her voice hardening. “You always show yourselves to me in time.”

“What the hell are you talking about, you bitch?”

Poppy glanced to the side, breaking her attention, as two more of Lezar’s men moved into place. They moved in tandem and Noren whined when one of them flipped a dagger out of his belt and sliced it toward Poppy’s midsection.

She broke contact with Lezar to avoid the hit, and the man on the other side wrapped his arms around her.

I automatically stepped forward to help, only to have Bronwen draw me back. She trembled against me but said in a strong voice, “This isn’t our fight.”

No, it wasn’t, but damn, I hated staying out of it. I hated not being able to help Poppy, although she held her own with relative ease. She was definitely practiced, for sure. A bounty hunter to the core although I had no clue what she really did or what kind of bounty she brought in.

She met Lezar’s next parry and kicked out, knocking the dagger from the other man’s swollen fingers. Noren crowded against me and although he didn’t take his gaze from the fight, he wasn’t budging, wasn’t letting me move.

I patted the top of his head. “Thanks, buddy.”

Mike angled himself in front of me when one of the men flew through the air, sent spiraling away by a blast of Poppy’s magic. Poppy laughed, pausing with her blade in front of her like a shield.

Noren barked, but the warning came too late, and another one of Lezar’s men, who’d been muttering under his breath from the doorway, completed his spell.

The energy swept across the room and tightened the air. Every breath went thin. Poppy paused, lifted a hand to counteract the spell, and Lezar attacked.

He ducked low, sliding on his knees across the floor to level his blade across her calves and sever the tendons.

I saw the move in slow motion and broke free from Mike and Noren. Instinct moved me like I was nothing but a puppet. Heart throbbing, I pushed Lezar off balance, and got a dagger in my shoulder for my effort.

The point bit deep enough to hit bone.

Momentum forced me down to the floor and I caught myself on my palms before my chin hit the wood. Lezar chuckled and grabbed me by the ankle, dragging me back.

“You stupid girl.”

Poppy muttered a curse and kicked Lezar in the forehead. He let go of me in the next beat.

I pushed up but the movement sent blood gushing out of the wound. I reached behind me with the opposite hand and dragged the dagger out, gritting my teeth against the pain.

“Stay out of my business. This is my mark.” Poppy turned, slicing her sword through the air and catching the next man in the gut. His eyes widened and he clutched at the wound.

It was harder to breathe now. The man at the door continued his muttering, his power growing with every word that fell from his lips.

We had to get to him and end the spell. Movement flickered from the corner of my vision and there was Mike, his hands fisted, his jaw clenched.

He forced himself through the thick air.

Sylvester sputtered, coughed, and fell behind the bar.

Poppy continued to fight, with her lips pursed, holding her breath. Her posture never slouched and her movements never slowed.

The man…the spell…

Bronwen made it to the man first. Magic flickered as her crow form lengthened back into human and she punched the fae right in the throat. His words cut off, his eyes glazing over.

Well. We hadn’t wanted to get into it, but like always, we were dragged into the brawl. They’d left us no choice.

I flashed a smile at Bronwen then stopped, hauling in a sharp breath, glancing down at the slice going from my wrist to halfway down my forearm. The man Poppy had sent careening across the room held his dagger in both hands, its tip stained with my blood.

“Gotcha,” he murmured.

His lips curled back from his brown, rotten teeth before Noren released a horrendous roar and clamped his fangs around the man’s neck. With a single crunch, he died.

But the damage was done.

I stumbled backward into Mike and he caught me, wrapping his arms around me to keep us both steady.

“Whoa, Tavi. What…”

His voice trailed off into the dull throb in my ears, my pulse racing and pushing more blood out through the gaping slice along my wrist. Distantly, I felt Mike turn me to face him, felt the gentle probe of his fingers before he tore off a piece of his cloak and wrapped it around the injury.

“That should hold until we get out of here.”

He took my face in his hands, cupping me between his palms. When I failed to respond, Mike snapped his fingers until I focused on the sound.

“Hey. Hey! It’s going to be okay.”

Bronwen grabbed me by the opposite elbow. “Back door,” she said. “We’re not going to find Oxana the Sightless by beating the crap out of these creeps.”

We weren’t actually winning, though, were we? Lezar might have the look of a meathead on steroids but his buddies used their magic well. The air-tightening thing was a new one.

Poppy squared off against Lezar himself, the clash of their swords constant backdrop music while the rest of the men surrounded us. They blocked the back door and Bronwen gulped audibly.

“I guess my escape route is out.”

“I don’t have enough magic to help. The trip back took too much out of me.” Mike squinted, scrutinizing the room. He pointed to the rafters. “But we can go up.”

“Noren.” I shook my head. “I can’t leave Noren.”

The air stank like cabbage left to rot, and half a second later yellow mist poured out through the floorboards. It dissolved everything it touched. Poppy yelped before she leapt onto one of the chairs. “I’d get to higher ground, if you’re planning on sticking around!” She didn’t even look winded.

For every slash of Lezar’s sword, she met him with one of her own, dragging out the fight. Almost like she wanted to see what he would do.

Some unspoken command kept his men focused on us, and Mike helped me onto the top of the nearest table. It wobbled underneath my weight and I flung out my arms for balance, regretting it immediately. The blood loss made me dizzy.

Bronwen clambered up beside me, Mike behind her, and Noren the last of our party. The wood groaned and strained with our combined weight, but with their help I managed to grab a ceiling beam overhead.

I pulled myself up, followed by Bronwen. Mike and Noren weren’t fast enough. The spell ate through the wood and sent them plummeting into the waiting circle of men, who were miraculously untouched by the noxious smoke.

We screamed for them and the sound drew Poppy’s attention. She groaned, breaking her next parry only long enough to whip the cloak off her shoulders. “Can’t turn my back on you for a second,” she griped.

Mike caught the cloak and stared at the fabric.

“Well? Put it over you!”

The wooden beam pushed into my lungs and I lost the feeling in my injured hand.

Bronwen clung to my shirt to keep us both suspended in our overhead perch.

Mike placed the cloak over both him and Noren, the fabric somehow growing to accommodate both of their forms, and the smoke curled around them without touching either.

A droplet of blood from my wrist reacted with sparks where it touched the smoke. The sparks drew Poppy’s attention.

“Shut your eyes!” Poppy yelled the command before she clapped her hands together.

The resulting boom of her magic shook Grove from foundation to rafters and Bronwen squealed, losing her grip on me. The whole building rattled. I saw the light clearly behind my tightly closed eyelids. Whatever magic Poppy used had turned the place into the inside of an exploding star.

It took another moment for the spell to dissipate and the building to slowly settle again. When it did, when I opened my eyes black dots sparked across my vision. The trailing yellow smoke dissolved but the stench of burned cabbage remained behind.

Mike flung back the black cape covering him and Noren. They were the only two left standing. Them and Poppy.

She hopped down from the chair and resheathed her sword, wiping her palms on the front of her tunic.

“You couldn't have done that before?” Bronwen screeched. Her volume sent needles into my brain.

“Where’s the fun in that? It’s only amusing when they put up a fight. They weren’t nearly as clever as they thought they were.”

“Clever enough to wound Tavi.”

“Hey now, I stopped when I saw her injury.” Poppy’s hands went to her hips. She glanced down at the pile of flesh that was Lezar and kicked him. “Landed my mark, too.”

Mike glanced around for anything left intact and ended up having to drag one of the booth tables away from the wall. He positioned it beneath me and Bronwen. She was the first to get down but my arms were locked around the rafter.

“Come on,” Mike urged. “I’ve got you.”

Mike and Bronwen helped me down. Blood had soaked clean through the fabric he’d tied around my wrist.

I ignored the clinical feeling of Mike’s hands on my waist as he helped me, ignored the way he looked away before meeting my eyes. My knees held only long enough to get me to the ground and then Noren was there to keep me upright.

Poppy strode over, every footstep heavy and echoing, and groaned when she saw the injury. Deft fingers untied Mike’s hasty knot.

She glared at my split skin. “Don’t you have enough sense to keep from getting yourself sliced open?”

Complaining under her breath, she tossed the blood-soaked piece of fabric away and reached into one of the little pouches across her weapon belt. From the inside, she drew out a bright red square of cloth.

She wrapped it tightly around my wrist, cutting off the fresh flow. “Looks like you’re coming with me. Come on.”

“It will heal on its own,” I ground out, ignoring the bodies around us. “I’m fine.”

They were still breathing. Whatever spell she’d used had only knocked them out. When they came to, however long it took, they’d be furious. We had to be far away before that happened.

“You’re not fine, and insisting you are won’t change that.” Mike hauled me to his side. He kept a firm grip on my elbow to make sure I didn’t take off. “We’re going with her .”

“Finally, someone has a little sense rather than a thick skull,” Poppy muttered.

I clutched my wrist to my chest. I was okay with blood. I was okay with a wound. But the return of the dizziness did something tricky to me, shook me, brought a weakness to my knees. I let Mike and Noren hustle me out of Grove and into the steely sunlight of a chill afternoon.

Poppy was a step behind us, doing who knew what to Lezar. Within minutes, she dragged him behind her like a sack of vegetables, his hands and wrists bound with rope. The rope glowed and my chest constricted. It was the same kind of magic rope Dorian Jade’s goons had used on me, to cut off my power.

Lezar’s skull bounced off the front stoop of the tavern and sent a cloud of dust spiraling up. She hauled him clear of the building and propped him up against a post, his head lolling to the side. The ropes were tight around him to keep him from moving but the dude wasn’t coming to.

Poppy held out a hand. A pulse of power rippled out from her fingers. The moment it touched Lezar’s dusky skin, he vanished into thin air.

The pain took on a dull quality compared to my surprise. Poppy’s magic wasn’t fae magic.

Bronwen gasped, the first to put a name to what we’d witnessed. “We didn’t know you were a witch.”

The pieces clicked into place. Dammit. We should have known what she was the second we met her. If the blast of magic hadn’t given her away, how long would we have gone without seeing what was right in front of us?

“Because I didn’t want you to know. Clearly,” Poppy replied, annoyed. Her brow furrowed as she refastened the edges of her cloak around her neck. “It’s not as if this is something I advertise, is it?”

Her gruffness helped clear a little bit of fog from my mind. Maybe Mike was right. Maybe Poppy really could help us find Oxana the Sightless. Do witches keep track of each other?

Poppy certainly had much more than normal levels of magic at her disposal.

“What are you staring at?” She rolled her eyes again. “Get yourself together and let’s go.”

She waved her hand and her magic wrapped me in a blanket of warmth, whisking me off my feet. The air sucked right out of my lungs, a strong pulling sensation in the lower part of my body maneuvering me wherever she wanted me to go, as bound as though I were her prisoner.

Wind tugged at the ends of my hair before the spell landed me and the others at the front door of a cabin in the woods.

The same gray sky pressed down on us from overhead, but the staggering height of the nearby pines turned the world to shades of gray. Mist and rock covered the forest floor. Staggered, I fell to my knees.

What Poppy just did was huge magic. Transporting all of us from Grove to this place? A chill covered every inch of my skin and I shivered, shocked and suddenly worried.

What kind of power was she hiding? What if we were all in danger?