Page 31 of The Second Sight (Wanderlust Emporium Presents, Season One)

The second fairy was a man whose wings shimmered with an iridescent green undertone.

His face was dark like mine and his eyes held the same golden color.

He lowered his wings and dropped toward the SUV where Tarus was struggling to force Brooklyn into the back seat.

In the rear, the third fairy flanked the woman.

She wasn’t like the others. She was light, bright even with curly hair and golden that appeared yellow in the night.

Both of the women focused on the Bambara that had me.

“Get the girl in the car!” Gideon belted.

The female fairy with the cornrows crashed into the man that held me with the force of a missile. She drove him away from me and I stumbled backward, my back hitting the side of Brooklyn’s car. The male fairy, the one fighting Tarus landed beside me, his wings folding partially against his back.

He turned to me and said, “Daughter of Theia.” with an accent that was unknown to me.

I couldn’t form words. His dark brown face was beautiful, almost too perfect to be human, with high cheekbones and eyes that literally glowed amber in the darkness. He wore clothing that seemed royal and rockstar.

“Who—” I finally managed to say but the beautiful creature was already up on his feet.

I whipped my head around to see the green-winged fairy grappling with Tarus near the SUV. The girl with the black wings flew in to help the male fairy.

Brooklyn’s limp form was half-in, half-out of the vehicle, her legs dangling from the open door.

“Brooklyn!” I screamed, rising to my feet and moving to run toward her, but a hand gripped my arm. I fought hard while trying to keep my eyes on Brooklyn. She was stepping out of the truck while Tarus was focused on the male fairy.

As I struggled, a horrible scream drew my attention back to the SUV.

The male fairy was on his knees. His right wing was bent at an unnatural angle.

He was in pain. Tarus stood over him, a cruel smile distorting his features.

The fairy with the black wings was face down on the ground only a few feet away.

Before I could even process what was happening, Tarus seized Brooklyn by her hair and hurled her back into the SUV like she weighed nothing. Her body disappeared into the darkness of the vehicle’s interior.

Gideon had left the front seat of the truck and was hovering over Brooklyn in the backseat. I saw his hand swing and hit her in the face. With the single blow she was out. Her once moving body was lifeless. Gideon lifted her feet and tossed her limp body completely inside.

The first fairy soared down in a blur of movement, her yellow wings created gusts of wind that sent loose trash skittering across the street.

She wielded what looked like a dagger forged of gold, and she slashed at my captor.

He had to let me go to block her vicious attacks.

His face twisted in hatred as he backed away from her swinging blade.

“Fuckin’ fairy,” he spat, producing a curved blade of his own from somewhere behind his back

The fairy laughed. “Bambara, I’ve trained my whole life for this.”

She darted forward with supernatural speed, faking left before spinning right. Her blade found flesh, opening a deep gash across the man’s shoulder. He howled in pain but didn’t retreat, instead lunging at her with recklessness. They crashed to the pavement together, rolling across the pavement.

Yellow wings fly in front of me using her body to shield me from the man who had never let me out of his sights.

“Stay behind me,” she ordered lowering her wings. I watched over her shoulder is the other female fairy rose to her feet and flew down behind the hunter that was solely terrorizing me.

She converged on him with a blade that flashed in the streetlight. She grabbed him around his waist and sliced the blade across his throat with ease. Blood sprayed across the asphalt, his blood. The dagger found its mark again, as the fairy plunged it into his chest.

I was memorized by the gory scene until I heard the slam of the SUV door. Brooklyn!

I didn’t make it three steps before the driver’s window of the SUV rolled down and something round and metallic flew through the air. It hit the pavement with a hollow clang, then immediately began spewing thick, gray smoke.

“Gas!” The fairy blocking my path shouted. Her voice was suddenly panicked. “Kyren, take cover! Kei—”

The rest of her warning was lost as she collapsed to his knees, her wings convulsing against her back.

In front of her the other fairy dropped the dead hunter to the pavement and gasped for air.

Her killer golden dagger clattered to the ground as she clutched at her throat.

The one she called Kyren was already down, his body curled into an upright fetal position as he gasped for air.

I looked through the heavy fog and Tarus was already inside the vehicle. The SUV’s engine roared, and tires squealed as it lurched forward.

“No!” I screamed, but it was pointless. The SUV accelerated down the empty street, its taillights growing smaller until they disappeared around a corner.

Brooklyn was gone. Taken by monsters because of me.

Fairies were choking around me. I waited for the burning in my lungs, the choking sensation the others were experiencing, but it didn’t come. The smoke swirled around me, thick enough that I could barely see through it. My breathing remained unaffected.

I didn’t know what to do for the three that had helped me. I just hoped hey weren’t dying. The one fairy said we were kin. I didn’t know them, but I couldn’t bear to lose anyone else.

Around me, the smoke began to dissipate, carried away by the night breeze.

Two of the fairies were on the ground, their wings were now retracting into their backs, disappearing beneath their clothing as if they’d never existed.

They gasped and coughed, struggling to purge the poisonous gas from their systems.

Yellow wings recovered first. Then black wings pushed herself up to standing with her hands and knees. “The human girl,” she said between coughs. “They took her.”

That human girl was my best friend.

I stood in the middle of the street, surrounded by three weakened fairies, and the shattered glass from Brooklyn’s car. My best friend since sixth grade had been kidnapped by supernatural hunters because of me. Because of what I was. I wanted to cry by my eyes wouldn’t do what my brain ordered.

The one called Kyren managed to sit up, wincing as he massaged his shoulder where his wing had been twisted.

The screech of tires cut through the night, headlights slicing through the lingering smoke. A sleek purple Porsche skidded to a stop at the scene. I knew that car. Seven. He had found me somehow, but he was too late.

Seven was out of the car before the engine died, moving with that inhuman speed that still startled me. Lily emerged from the passenger side more slowly, her face a mask of controlled tension as she surveyed the chaos.

Her eyes darted from the broken glass, the three yumboe, and me in the middle of it all.

“Kasi!” Seven called, his voice was tight with urgency. He reached me in seconds. His eyes scanned me for injuries, relief washing over his features when he found none. “Are you hurt?”

I couldn’t speak. My throat had closed, choked with tears I couldn’t seem to shed. Brooklyn’s face flashed in my mind her head snapping back from Gideon’s blow, her unconscious body thrown into the SUV like trash. My best friend. My ride or die.

Seven pulled me against him, his arms encircling me in a protective embrace. The familiar scent of him filled my senses. Something inside me broke at his touch. The tears came then, soaking into the fabric of his shirt.

“They took her,” I choked out between sobs. “They took Brooklyn.”

His arms tightened around me, one hand cradling the back of my head. “Who?” he asked, though I suspected he already knew the answer.

“Bambara hunters,” Yellow wings answered for me.

“Gideon.” I cried.

Seven looked down at me. “The man from your vision?”

I nodded against his chest, unable to form more words through my grief.