Page 5

Sav

T he goblin crouched farthest from the mob, chains hanging against burning his skin, would be the perfect distraction—if I could free him fast enough.

Touching iron was as painful for me as the next fae, though.

I’d need something to pry those cuffs off and there was no better place to find just such a tool than a museum.

I peered through the window, scouring the dark hallways, and grinned. An exhibit on ancient weapons was only a thin bit of glass away. The best thing about the Renaissance era was its fanciful armor and weapons. Deadly but beautiful.

I drew on the dregs of magic available to me. Sweat broke across my brow as I traced the glass with a sharpened nail.

“Appreciate it.” I told the suit of armor holding a gold encrusted sword from somewhere between the seventeenth and eighteenth century, as I slid a hand through the circle I’d made in the glass. This jewel embellished beauty was exactly the sort of thing you might find in Faerie.

The sword was heavy in my palm, but it didn’t burn or drain my limited power. The pommel was pure gold.

Continuing around the building until I was just behind the goblin, I leaned close and whispered against his back: “I’m going to free you. Hold still.”

The goblin gave the slightest lift of his shoulder, a sharp sizzle sounding as skin met chains. Goblins had it especially bad with iron. Poor fellow.

I slid the sword through one link in the iron chain and hoped it was the stronger of the two. I twisted only twice before it gave a pop and slid apart, grimacing as the slackened chain slid down the goblin’s arm, burning him all the way to his wrist.

Looking up, I exhaled softly. The humans still had their backs turned. I twisted again. Cheap iron. It snapped with a pop, clattering to the ground. Their mistake. The second chain clattered to the ground and although the sound was deafening to me, the humans hadn’t seemed to notice.

I backed up, ducking behind the building as shouts rose over the sound of a loud roar.

Slapping my hand over my mouth to hold in a manic laugh, I settled for imagining humans fleeing in terror as he charged through them.

But though his roar was frightening, the goblin wasn’t.

Harming a human in the human realm was a death sentence if he’d agreed to the laws enacted by the Inter Species Human Fae Alliance, and he must have.

All creatures who lived in the human realm had agreed to them.

I poked my head out from behind the building and scowled. The humans had picked up weapons and charged the fae I’d just freed. If they captured him again, I wouldn’t save him twice.

As the crowd jabbed at him with their makeshift weapons, I seized the opportunity to slide behind a tree and get close to the next bound fae. Trapped in a birdcage, a small pixie whimpered softly.

“Are you okay?” I whispered

She nodded, but one of her wings was bent at an odd angle. “If I get the cage door open, could you fly out?”

“I don’t think so,” she squeaked and tried to lift the damaged wing with little success.

“Crawl out onto my hand and I’ll carry you.” I leaned over the top of her cage, angling the sword so that it fit between the cage door and the frame. It popped open easily, and she climbed into my hand.

“Watch out!” she yelped just as a hand landed on my shoulder, spinning me around. I dropped the pixie, and she darted behind a tree.

Three humans loomed in front of me, chains in hand. “What do we have here?” one asked. He sneered at me, and I smirked, raising my sword and stepping back on the balls of my feet.

“Come on then, boys.” Loosening my grip on the pommel, I twisted toward them.

They grinned. “What a pretty face you have, fairy. Maybe we won’t take you straight back to the boss,” one man sneered.

The very idea of these filthy, stinking human pigs touching me sent white hot anger burning through my veins.

I flicked the sword with two quick motions, and his pants dropped to his ankles.

He looked down, frowning, and his two friends laughed.

I used the moment of distraction to hook the chains from ugly number two’s grasp and toss them several feet away.

“Hey,” he bellowed.

“Oops, you dropped that.” I winked.

The third little pig charged me, and I aimed my sword directly at his male parts, relishing the thought of running them through with this five-hundred-year-old bacteria infected sword. Humans died easily from those sorts of things.

He was coming too fast and couldn’t stop in time.

The magic binding me from harming humans kicked in, jerking my arm to the left and ugly fell on me with all two-hundred-fifty pounds of his girth.

We went down hard and grubby hands wrestled my arms to my sides.

I threw my knee into his groin and bared my teeth.

At least this much I could still do to a human.

The others dropped beside him, pinning my legs to the ground, and the iron chains were clamping around each bare ankle. I mustered what remained of my magic and threw a glamour over my legs, hiding the damage the chains did as they burned into my flesh.

Piggy number two looked confused. “She’s not affected by the iron. Are we sure she’s a fairy?” he asked the others. They inspected my legs and found nothing but unmarred skin stretching all the way up to my short leather skirt.

“She tried to free the fairies. She must be,” said piggy number one.

“Let’s have a look at those ears,” said piggy number three.

I sent a silent thanks to Mab that I’d had enough magic to glamour my ears when I came to Earth as all they found when tugging aside my loosened knot of hair, were a pair of innocently round lobes.

“What the hell?” Piggy number three stumbled back.

“Even if she’s ain’t a fairy, she’s a fairy sympathizer,” said piggy one. He was clearly in charge of this band of losers. “Let’s take her to the boss.”

They pulled me to my feet roughly. Dark spots danced at the edge of my vision as the iron burning my ankles sent blistering sparks of pain shooting up my calves and I imagined all the ways I would slice off their bits if they ever dared enter my realm.

My gaze shifted past them to the battlefield where our kind had lost this night.

Groups of humans encircled burned, scraped, and bleeding fae. Low park lights cast shadows across the humans’ dirt and blood-streaked faces. Even with the magic binding us, we’d put up a fight.

Ash and charred wood clung to everything, painting a dismal scene of the place we’d called home for a brief period.

The sour feeling in my stomach hardened into disgust as I watched men and women talking animatedly, laughing and slapping one another on the back while my kind bowed their heads in defeat, the bodies of our brethren visible through the rubble.

The stench of burned flesh hung heavy in the air, making me sick. I counted several dozen fae staked or chained in place, and Dane had taken at least twenty more. It was impossible to tell how many he had captured this night, unfortunately including me.

I let out a breath when I saw that the goblin I had freed had not been recaptured. With any luck, he had continued running and escaped to…to where? Where could any of us go now that Dane had burned one of the few fae housing units to the ground?

If he was lucky, one of the courts would offer him refuge in Faerie until they decided what to do for the displaced fae. I scanned the wreckage, throat tight. Had anyone else made it out? Was anyone left to tell the courts what happened.

Would my sister hear the news and intervene?

There was no love lost between us, but I had to hope that someone had escaped tonight and would bring word back to her.

The ache burned up my throat, a scream ready to be loosed on the world.

The humans may have wielded the swords, but our kind had let the injustice play out.

Movement near the tree caught my eye and a small green slipper peeked out from behind a thick root.

I averted my gaze immediately so as not to draw attention to the pixie hiding there and looked over my shoulder at piggy number one.

“So,” I said, swallowing the disgust choking my lungs.

“Is this where you take me to meet your fearless leader?”

His ugly sneer matched the hate in my heart, and I grinned at him. His meaty hand flew, and I braced as it crashed across my face, and he dragged me toward the alley behind the MET. So much for respecting human women.