Page 27

The Bind

Fae

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S creams echo behind Fae as she rushes into the nearby forest attached to the botanical garden without looking back. Heart hammering from the fear of captivity, and trauma of witnessing the attack, she only hopes Poppy is keeping her distance. She’s not supposed to fly high and judging by the dark shadow that occasionally swoops over Fae, Poppy kept her promise. Fae forced Gigi to retreat to Topaz and wouldn’t take any negotiations. All the trees aren’t dead yet, but the forest is thinning out of its original plummy green lushness.

Fae’s breath hitches as she comes to a halt, having felt like she’s ran for miles. Her vision narrows as her lungs desperately crave for more air. She holds her chest and surveys her surroundings. There are enough trees for people to potentially hide behind, so it’s problematic for her to stay here when Guards are searching for her.

Twigs snapping trigger her jumpiness while she stands in a clearing. It’s a perfect view of her from any direction, so she hurries behind a thick tree and prays she’s concealed as much as possible. She waits as the birds chirp throughout the branches until Fae notices that familiar Elite member.

“Oh my gosh! Alice!” Fae shouts, running toward her. She doesn’t consider that Alice may be on Mildred’s side now. Alice turns around at the last second when Fae tosses herself in her arms.

“Fae!” Her eyes are huge with urgency. “It’s dangerous here. We need to go now.”

“STOP!” A third voice enters their scene.

Alice shoves Fae out of the way in time to miss the lightning bolt that encloses around her. The bolts dance over her body, cackling and searing her skin. Alice screams and collapses to her knees.

A tanned guy with crazed teal eyes stumbles into view, panting and grinning from the sight of Alice. He saunters forward with sparks shooting from his fingertips.

“Gotcha,” he says. “Exhausted all your powers, huh?”

Fae backs away, blood pounding in her fingers as she hastily brainstorms what to do. A rumble quickly swooshes over them, but Fae doesn’t want to risk Poppy’s safety for this.

“No! Stop! Please, she didn’t do anything wrong!” Fae begs.

“Come with me.” He turns his attention to her and outstretches his hand, breathing heavily with a drop of sweat rolling down the side of his face. “I’m Rio Shackler, Commander of the Ultima Organization. I’ll take you home.”

Fae shakes her head frantically. “No, I can’t go back! You don’t understand, Alice is not bad!”

“Of course she is!” Rio snaps.

Alice grunts, crouched and unable to get back to her feet as she convulses. “You desperately want to believe that I’m the villain... in your story. But I’m not, you idiot.”

Rio looks at Fae, then Alice, eyebrows creasing by the second. The trees shake again.

“I need help,” Fae whispers.

Poppy instantly crashes down in the woods, causing Rio to yelp and stumble away. The baby dragon growls and flaps her reflective wings.

“Is he hurting you?!” Poppy asks furiously.

Alice looks up, mouth hanging open. “I think... I’ve seen that exact dragon before.”

Fae ignores everyone and beams her pleading eyes toward Rio.

“You’re on the wrong side of this battle. You gotta trust me. Alice is not the enemy here!”

“What’re you saying?” he asks.

“Mildred has a major following. She thinks she knows the future and wants this world to die so Naven becomes our new home. She’s purposely killing dragons to force the Superiors to act or have the treelings bridge a path between the worlds. She’s promising people they’ll reunite with lost loved ones, and she has Spirit Users to back her up.”

Despite being electrocuted, Alice still manages an expression of annoyance perpendicular to the awe that overwhelms Rio’s face.

“Exactly,” Alice grunts. “She’s vicious, and I’ve been trying to find clues and ways to stop her all this time. But you’ve been sabotaging that!”

Rio is still, giving Fae the opportunity to help Alice to her feet. Her skin is warm and red, but the open wounds slowly heal as Alice steadies herself while holding onto Fae.

“I don’t believe this,” Rio whispers.

“Of course you don’t,” Alice coughs. Her facial scars sizzle as they sew themselves shut, leaving no trace of injury behind. “You’re so hellbent on thinking it’s me.”

Poppy trots up to Fae and Alice, wedging her big head between them with her toothless smile. “I don’t sense evil or death from them. They’re good people.”

Fae looks up in disgust. “Can you not?”

Alice and Rio turn to Fae, their faces riddled with confusion. Before anyone speaks, twigs crunching, and branches quivering resound. Shadows move through the trees too fluidly for it to be an animal, and too quiet for it to be a civilian running from Wave Riding Season. They watch as Guards emerge from the shadows of the trees, surrounding them.

Rio raises his arms, flagging them down. “Are you with Mildred? I have Alice Reid and Fae!”

The Guards don’t answer, but Alice moves just in time to knock Rio down from a headshot that misses him. Fae screams and huddles by Poppy who growls as red lasers point at them.

“Kill the dragon, we need the girl alive,” one Guard says.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

Rio is in front of Poppy and Fae in a flash, lightning left in his trace. He holds Alice in his arms as she casts her shield around the four of them. The Guards fire, bullets and arrows bouncing off the shield. Fae gulps from the hopeless sight, wondering if it’s boiling down to kill or be killed.

The Guards close in on them with their crossbows and guns. Alice’s shield flickers, so Rio rapid fires lightning at the Guards, electrocuting their weapons until they drop them.

“Fae! Leave with the dragon, now!” Alice orders.

“But—”

“Go!” Rio shouts, gently setting Alice to her feet. “It’s not safe here.”

With the Guards distracted, Fae turns and leaps onto Poppy’s hard, slippery back. She digs her nails into the cracks between her teardrop-shaped scales and squeezes her legs for a better grip. Poppy launches upward and flaps to jet away from the scene, but torpedoes headfirst back into the ground. Fae, unable to tighten her grip, flies forward and off Poppy’s back. She reorients herself and finds a thick, silver arrow transfixed into Poppy’s underbelly. She moans and lies in the grass flailing with tears the size of golf balls rolling down her snout. Her eyes are frantic and large, but Fae doesn’t have time to process anything. She runs around Poppy and tries to pull the arrow out and hears more Guards coming.

“No!” Alice screams, throwing herself in front of Poppy and Fae with her trembling arms open.

One Guard fires, but Alice’s shield generates in time to protect the three of them.

Thunder grumbles in the sky as the drops of red descend onto the island, plummeting Fae’s heart as she gasps at Poppy.

“No! No, no, no, NO, POPPY!”

“I’m okay, Fae,” she sighs.

Her body doesn’t rise, but another dragon elsewhere didn’t make it.

Rio bolts into the orange sky, joining into the flash of lightning before the thunder crackles once more.

Alice keeps the shield up but backs into Poppy’s limp body. She caresses her gently and murmurs an apology before yanking the arrow out of her flesh. Poppy roars and squirms, but Fae is so focused on the Guards still shooting at the shield to give her comfort.

“A-Alice...” Fae whimpers.

“It’s okay. You’re safe,” Alice replies. Her hand is on Poppy’s bloody gash.

Fae stares through the purple, protective bubble in awe as Lightning-Rio strikes down on the incoming new Guards with vengeance. They lie on the ground, twitching as Rio’s shock lingers throughout their bodies, rendering them unable to move.

The blood rain pours, leaving the earth bleeding permanently in its mournful cry of a lost dragon. Blood splats on the shield but sizzles off from contact.

Alice’s hand glows white as it hovers over Poppy’s wound. Threads of her scales regenerate and weave themselves until the bleeding has stopped and the hole is sealed shut. Poppy shakily springs to her feet and examines her body and circles herself like a dog.

“Good as new,” Alice says, snapping her fingers to drop the force field. They come together again, standing in the rain.

Rio stares at Alice, both their face covered in blood with the Guards groaning in the background still stiffly lying on the ground.

“I think that’s all of them,” he says. His chest collapses with a heavy sigh. “I’m so sorry.” He runs a shaky hand through his soaked hair. “Mildred threatened my mom’s life; she made it impossible to refuse her requests. I went to Master Cedric for help, but he saw this as my mess I needed to fix.”

Alice blinks. “No. Apology not accepted.” She turns to Fae. “You need to get out of here. If more Guards show up, I won’t have the energy to protect you. I’ll handle Mildred.”

“I-I’m coming with you!” Rio interjects. Alice stares at Fae, but the twitch of annoyance is visible on her bloody face.

“Mildred has a warehouse on Sapphire Island, that’s where she’s holding a ton of dragons,” Fae explains. Her stomach flips from the thought of Mildred mass sacrificing all the dragons at once.

Alice tenses and slowly looks down at her leg. Fae and Rio look at the bulky ankle monitor strapped with a furiously blinking red light. “I... I can’t leave this island. They’ll arrest me. I’m technically not even supposed to be outside the base.”

Rio’s teal eyes burn with intensity. “Alice, this is our chance to stop Mildred after all the crap she’s done and will continue to do to this world. They can’t arrest you if there’s no Zeala left to arrest you on, because I sure as hell can’t do this without you.”

They need to leave before more Guards arrive, especially if they’re tracking Alice’s monitor.

“Please, Alice,” Fae begs. “We need you.”

Poppy huffs and whines as she bumps her snout against Fae’s back.

Alice backs away, but points to Rio. “I am NOT working with him.”

Rio curses under his breath, takes one stride forward, and blasts lightning right at Alice’s monitor before her shield hazily surfaces. The shattered bits of the monitor lie in the bloody grass.

“What the hell, man? They track me with this and they’re gonna find me here!”

“No, they won’t because you’re coming with us. You literally have no choice now but to just flee and carry out what we’re meant to do. I said I was sorry, and you saved my life, I... I think I can at least pay you back by offering my help.”

Alice frowns as the rain dies down into a light drizzle. She trembles like she had red paint dumped on her.

Fae fiddles with her shirt and bites her lip. “Please Alice, just let him help.”

“Fine. But we should split up,” Alice suggests. “We need to show Mildred we aren’t together and on the same page.”

“We need to move fast then. There are A LOT of dragons in that warehouse and the fact she hasn’t killed them all scares me because she easily could and get what she wants,” Fae urges.

Alice and Rio nod in unison. Fae isn’t sure what beef existed between them, but she’s relieved they have a common enemy to help her save the dragons.