Page 3

Sav

I swore when Dane’s bottle smashed against the untreated wood of my poorly constructed building and flames licked greedily along the wall, scorching a path upward.

I sucked in a breath, trying to slow my frantic heart as I searched for a way through the tightly packed mob of sweaty bodies.

There were fae inside. Children. Casting another glance over the crowd, I inhaled sharply and turned, racing around the side of the group to the back of the building.

Ice slid down my spine as I gaped at the long iron bars crossed over the door and screwed into place by massive bolts.

Trapped. They were all trapped. My mouth dried.

If Juniper had gone inside, she would be stuck now, along with all the others.

Their only chance was to push through the angry mob at the front.

Sheer luck, or Mab, watching over me from wherever she was, had made me leave my window open that morning.

Backing up, I took a running jump—thanking the stars I hadn’t lost my fae strength when my powers were bound—and caught the edge of the third-floor sill, digging my fingers into the sharp plastic encasing my window.

Wedging a foot against the wall, I pushed up and heaved myself through the opening, rolling into a crouch on my bedroom floor.

I dove for the satchel stashed under my bed and swung it over my shoulder.

In the closet, I grabbed my pearl hairbrush and leaned in to peer at the shelves in the back.

A loud thud had me spinning around to find that my window had fallen shut.

Damn. I darted to the window, digging my nails in.

“Come on,” I groaned, muscles straining as I pulled. “Damnit!”

Shouts and cries from the hall made my stomach sink, and I flung my apartment door wide, halting as a stampede of wild creatures crammed together in the narrow space. Second-floor residents shoved their way up, fourth-floor residents frantically pressed down, and my floor was trapped between.

A tangled storm of limbs pressed in on all sides; sweaty skin and sharp elbows.

Terror was a living thing, climbing up my spine.

I spied some of the daintier fae turning red, wedged between larger, bulkier creatures.

If someone didn’t take command of them, fae would die before they ever faced the mob.

I whistled loudly in the door frame, not venturing into the hall. Some of the pushing slowed, and several fae turned to face me. “Listen to me!” I shouted, lacing my words with authority. “We can’t go out the front. We’ll need to go through the windows on the first and second floors.”

“The windows are sealed,” someone called from the other end of the hall. A child wailed, and the crowd pushed again.

My heart spasmed, terror clawing at me. All sealed? Magic. It was fae magic. But how? Why? No . It couldn’t be. It had to be the heat from the growing fire causing the plastic encasing the windows to seal themselves shut. No fae would do something so cruel to their own kind.

There was no time for speculation. Creatures shoved one another—panic seizing them—as the heat surrounding us pressed in and smoke began to swirl its way up the stairwell.

Coughs and sputtering cries from the first floor rang in my ears as they pushed harder, forcing everyone on the second floor up. Fae spilled off the stairwell, crammed against walls, and at the end of the hall an urisk spread four arms wide and forcibly swam through the mass of bodies.

Yells of pain and protest erupted in his wake and a fawn’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed into the folk pressed into her. Someone shoved her off, and she slumped below the mass of bodies, disappearing.

“Stop!” I shrieked as I searched desperately for any sign of her. I stepped into the hall, wedging my elbows into the bigger creatures, freeing some of the smaller fae trapped against walls and giving them space to breathe.

I slid a dagger out of my bag and pressed it into the back of a gremlin who growled at me, but made room and I reached for the fawn at my feet.

Thankfully, her eyes were open again, and she grabbed my hand, pulling herself up.

“Stay close,” I told her, spinning around to fight through to the stairs.

Some of the bigger fae forced the others aside, but as I pulled more creatures up, pointing my dagger into the backs of those in my way, they began to make space.

Heat licked at my feet and rising smoke burned my lungs, but I cleared a path, inching down the stairwell.

“Has anyone seen Juniper?” I asked as I pushed through them, down the narrow stairs to the first floor.

Two large orcs I didn’t recognize shoved through the crowd and positioned themselves beside me. “Haven’t seen her since she left for work this morning,” the first said. I glanced at him, tugging at the shirt clinging to my sweaty skin.

I was simultaneously relieved and terrified that she wasn’t in the building with us.

Was she alright somewhere far from here, or had something terrible happened to her?

The sinking feeling in my gut said it was the latter, but until we were out, until we were free of the humans who had gathered to watch us burn, I would pray to Mab my friend was safe.

A troll, small for his kind and still in his construction uniform, blocked the door. I peered up at him. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you going out?”

“The fire’s too hot,” he said in thickly accented English.

“The windows are sealed, and the back doors are barred with iron. This is our only way out.”

The troll flinched and leaned away from the exit. His forearm was singed black, the skin burned away, and I had to assume he’d already opened the door once.

Broad shoulders pressed tight to my sides as the pair of orcs beside me leaned their heads together, whispering in their language.

Although I’d spent most of my adult life among at least some of the orc soldiers at my former court in Faerie, I’d never learned the orc dialect.

My gaze darted between their dark brows furrowed over matching broad noses bisected with so many scars, I had no doubt they had been members of some guard before they’d been forced to live in the human realm.

“They’ll be waiting for us,” the one to my right said to me.

I nodded.

Blazing heat grew hotter, suffocating the cries and protests of the folk at my back, and the smoke was thick enough I had to squint through watery eyes to see.

We’d need to be fast when the door swung wide.

We couldn’t harm the humans, couldn’t do much to defend ourselves against their iron weapons and guns, but we weren’t made to bend, and it was this or let the fire burn us.

“Don’t waste your time fighting!” I called to the writhing bodies crushed against my back. “Push through them and run!”

The orc soldiers beside me straightened, nodding to one another, and without a word, they turned, ramming their shoulders into the troll between them and the door, and all hell broke loose.

The door flew off its hinges, taking down a wall of humans in one go. It shouldn’t have been possible, but I’d thank Mab for that small mercy later.

The troll crashed to the ground, consumed by the wall of fire just outside the door, and I screamed as his skin turned black and his eyes rolled back in his head.

The pair of orcs beat a path forward and a stream of bodies carried me on their tide.

I tried to fight them, to force my way to the troll who had slumped over onto his side and was no longer moving, but the press of their bodies carried me farther away and I spun around, dodging a meat cleaver as it swung for my head.

Soot and ash drifted on a phantom wind and the heat pressing in from all sides singed my bare shoulders and calves.

The smell of burning flesh was enough to turn my belly, but I had no time to waste on the foul scent of burned skin as I ducked a metal pipe and danced out of the way of what must have been an old bayonet from the First World War.

Panic rose in the crowd and screaming began.

My stomach soured as I dropped to my knees to avoid another crushing blow from a human and sent a prayer to Mab that those screams were in fear and not pain.

I couldn’t waste time worrying about what happened behind me as burly men in makeshift armor charged me.

My orc companions fought the magic that restricted them from harming humans, shoving against the crowd, and making a path for us to escape. Orcs were the least affected by iron of our kind, and they took blow after blow to the forearm and chest as they pressed the angry mob back.

A nymph child huddled on the ground wailing, and I bounded for her, scooping her into my arms just as a human woman with a jagged bit of glass lunged for her, swiping. I stumbled back, wrapping my arms around the child, and nearly tripped over a satyr sprawled out on the ground.

“Juniper!”

I dogged the human’s second swipe, kneeling to help the satyr to her feet. Not Juniper. She wrapped an arm around my neck, and I stood, turning with the child in my arms and the satyr’s shoulder draped heavily around my neck.

I ran as fast as I could with a hobbled satyr and a nymph, but even with them, the human was no match for my speed. Setting the satyr against a tree, I handed her the child. “Have you seen Juniper?”

I searched her face for any sign of recognition. “Look out!” she shouted, and I ducked just as a flaming torch swung for my head.

“Burn fairy bitch,” a man roared, spittle flying from thin, red lips.

His eyes were wild with desperation, and ice chilled my veins.

Dangerous. People were dangerous when they were caught in the throes of bloodlust. I had seen it many times over the centuries.

Small altercations that catapulted into war when the rage that lived in human hearts overtook them.

He swung for me again, narrowly missing my head, and I moved out of his reach. He followed, putting more distance between himself and the pair I’d just saved. I had to get him away from them. To give them a chance.

“Come on then, catch me if you think you can.” I grinned, all teeth, and backed up, never taking my eyes off him even as I watched the fae slinking behind the tree and making their escape from the corner of my eye.

Blistering heat scorched my back, and I didn’t need to turn to know I was too close to the bonfire that had been my building. My satchel was a thin barrier between skin and the raging inferno incinerating my temporary home.

The man grinned and my stomach twisted at the sick pleasure he would get from watching me catch fire if I got much closer. “Nowhere to go,” he sneered, waving his torch in my face.

My legs shook. We were dying. And no one would come for us. Not my court or any of the fae.

“Voooorrraaaalllinnnnn.” Someone to my left shouted, and an orc barreled into the man, knocking him to the ground.

It roused some long-dormant part of my soul.

It was a war cry. A rally call to our people.

My gaze landed on the orc, blood pumping in my veins, urging me to take up a sword and cut down our enemies.

“Run, Lady.”

My heart rate ticked up and this time it wasn’t the fire or the battle that had fear filling my lungs. “I’m not—”

“Go.”

Curling my hands into fists, I glanced around, breath coming in rapid pants.

Everywhere I looked, fae fought instead of running, trying and failing to beat an enemy they couldn’t injure.

A goblin, twice the size of the group surrounding him, screamed as massive spikes were driven through his arms and chains went taut as men swung hammers overhead, spiking him in place.

Bile rose up my throat as I spied an orc so bloodied, I only recognized him by the blue uniform he wore. “Brixz,” I breathed and took a stumbling step forward.

A flaming torch whizzed by my ear and someone shouted: “Get that one! She’s escaping.”

I glanced around, terror coursing through my veins as a dozen humans charged me, raising pitchforks and other iron weapons.

I backed up, turned and ran.

Tears streamed down my face as I ran. Because I had no choice. Because I was too afraid to stay. But I heard their screams long after I left the park.