by Amie Gibbons
And the hairs under my hand didn’t poke me.
It was a normal, if kinda scrawny, male arm under my hand, with soft blond arm hairs.
And a human looking jugular under my knife.
Grant took the pause to reload his gun and mine, and the guys followed suit with theirs, everyone carrying an extra mag, even the civilian.
Thomas shrugged at AB as she held up his empty backup.
No extra mag for that one, apparently.
“Anybody moves, and I slice his throat,” I said to the still room.
And for a second, everyone held their breath.
“Nah,” the man said.
Magic flung me back, and I screamed as I sailed through the air, twisting on instinct.
Just in time to see a sword slicing through the air straight at me.
The Fae tossing me up to be cut as easily as a piece of fruit.
“No!” more than one voice screamed at once.
The sword flew outta its owner’s hands before I could blink, and I smashed into the woman, sending us crashing to the floor just to the side of the last little table, so at least we didn’t hit that.
I slammed my fist into the Fae’s stupid mask covered face, imagining it going through her as I connected.
My knuckles split and exploded in pain, and I didn’t care as I grabbed her head, slamming it against the ground until she stopped moving.
I jumped to my feet and looked around.
I’d dropped my knife at some point.
The room was chaos.
Grant stood in the middle of our group, a shield protecting them.
Fae shot magic and… were those arrows, at it.
I swung around as something came from behind, arm already up in a block.
Emily jumped back, blinking, the sword that almost killed me in her hands.
She’d been the one to magic it away from its owner.
She’d just saved my life.
I smiled as she handed me my push knife.
“Thanks,” I said.
She nodded and jerked, sword going up and flying just past me.
I whirled outta the way and around just in time to see her slice through the arm of the guy who’d rushed us.
And I hadn’t even sensed him coming.
They were catching on and shielding from me.
Crap.
“Ryder!” Grant yelled.
I whirled to the side, something in his voice telling me which way to shimmy just like we were dancing.
A year of training not undone by a year away from each other.
I turned the whirl into a swing, burying my fist in the guy’s solar plexus.
My hand was numb.
But my knife went straight in.
I reared back and stabbed the little knife into him again and again, then slammed it into his chin in a vicious uppercut, the knife cutting through the soft bits into his mouth like he was made of butter.
I turned my hand sideways and sliced straight through his throat.
And he dropped in front of me, the glowing red of what passed for a Fae’s soul swirling out.
Emily sliced at the first man, the sword singing with her magic as she used it to block the spells he shot at her.
My group was under the shield with Grant.
My old boss flinching every time a burst of magic hit.
Taking the blows on the shield like hits on his back while he protected the others.
His eyes searched back and forth.
Him trying to figure out how to protect them while jumping back into the fight.
Thomas jerked his gun between Fae, mouth working like he was whispering to himself.
He must’ve known not to shoot with the shield up, but he looked like he was about to try it anyway.
Grant dropped the shield, crashing to his knees.
Thomas shot now, trying to hit the constantly moving Fae, but with the shield down, magic crashed into the back of the group, blasting Jet and Dan straight into the wall.
“No!” a woman, I think it was Kat, screamed.
A quick glance said the guys were still alive, but they looked unconscious or injured enough to not move.
Power rose on that side of the room again, and with the shield down, it wouldn’t take long for them to wipe out the group.
I growled under my breath.
This was gettin’ old.
I pushed my magic around me like a bubble, covering the room.
And the noise and motion slammed to a stop.
Or at least, something slow enough to make it seem that way.
If I’d just managed to pull this off a few minutes ago, we could’ve saved ourselves a lot of trouble and bullets.
And that whole I almost died thing.
I grabbed the sword outta Emily’s frozen hand and rushed through the Fae, slicing through the first neck like a watermelon. I hit one after another, the chops getting harder.
Maybe the sword was getting dull with so much blood and ick on it?
I finished off the last, sweat pouring outta me, my arms aching, my hands numb. I’d never held such a big bubble of slowed time before, let alone against a whole gaggle of Fae.
And I really had no more clue how to wield a sword than I did how to train a racoon to dance.
I let the bubble burst with a sigh, and hit the ground with the sudden exhaustion.
Along with the dozen or so Fae bodies that’d stayed standing until I released them to normal time.
“Ariana!” at least two voices called.
I opened my eyes.
When had I closed them?
Grant and AB crouched next to me on either side, and I realized I wasn’t staring up into the too bright lights of the ceiling, because they had me propped up against the wall.
“What happened?” AB asked.
I blinked at her.
My mouth didn’t want to move.
And my eyelids felt heavy.
Grant said something as darkness slid in.
Chapter five
“… needs energy,” a voice said.
It sounded very far away.
I opened my eyes in a field of purple flowers.
“Oh, come on!” I snapped. “I’ve got a convention to get back to. Folk waitin’ on me!”
“And yet,” a voice I hadn’t heard since I’d been in this particular dimension last November said.
I turned, and the tall, shaggy wolf man a few feet away gave me a little wave.
“What, no hug after I saved you?” the god Fenrir asked, a teasing smile lighting up his icy eyes.
I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help my smile as I held open my arms.
He crossed the distance in two long steps and wrapped me in his sort of arms as I hugged his middle tight, letting my head rest against his chest, feeling the strong, steady heartbeat of the god.
“You helped me there?” I asked as we backed up.
He had over a foot on me, so I had to crane my neck up in what would be a painful contortion pretty skippy.
I backed up so I could look him in the face easier, and he shrugged.
“You had a serious energy drain that would have dropped you, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Any reason why?” I asked, holding up my hands. “Not that I’m not grateful. I am! But I’ve been up a fudge tree a few times since November, and you’ve never shown up.”
“You’ve never pushed your power to where it would’ve killed you.”
I took a step back.
Suddenly feelin’ wobbly.
I gulped. “I’m sorry?”
“Don’t apologize to me,” he said. “You probably owe yourself one though.”
I rolled my eyes again. “Fenrir.”
He smiled, showing wolf teeth. “Your sacrifice and bloody efficiency would do any Norse god proud. That was bloodshed worthy of a berserker. I couldn’t let you die though, so I poured some of my energy into you.”
He pointed a clawed finger at me. “
You need to learn your limits. That big of a bubble, around things as powerful as the Fae, for more than maybe ten seconds risks draining your entire lifeforce. I suggest something to hold magic so you can store it for times like these.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Like putting money in a piggybank?”
He frowned and nodded. “Sure. Most of the time, your power is just sitting there. Couldn’t hurt to siphon off a little bit every day into storage. Save it for a rainy day.”
I nodded. “How do I do that?”
He gave me a look. “Look it up, figure it out. I’m not your teacher.”
“My teacher abandoned me,” I said flatly.
Fenrir gave me a shrewd look. “So get him back.”
I made a face.
When someone abandons you, you don’t chase them down and beg them to take you back.
“What’s a berserker?” I asked rather than argue with him, looking around.
This place hadn’t changed since I’d last been here. Same endless field of purple flowers with the gold dust representing the people of earth and their fates, same giant mountain far behind me that looked like it belonged in a Lord of the Rings movie.
“Warriors who can go into a trance and fight with perfect clarity and efficiency,” Fenrir said. “In the heat of battle, they go to a place where the world slows, and they don’t feel pain. It is a good mindset for a warrior who is willing to die, not so much for a cute little girl who doesn’t realize she can’t fight that hard… at least, not yet.”
I had to smile at that. “So why am I here? I suppose you didn’t pull me in here just to tell me you saved my life. Oh! And thank you! Obviously.”
My grin turned nervous as he stared down at me.
He finally sighed. “Ariana, humanity is at a crossroads. And for the first time in a long time, my brethren are scared.”
My jaw dropped.
“What could scare gods?”
He raised furry eyebrows. “Exactly.”
“Right, you have to be cryptic cuz of rules,” I said. “Can you give me anything?”
“Oh.” He shook his head. “The rules are off. I’m not being cryptic because my hands are tied by red tape. I’m being cryptic because I don’t know what’s going on. We’ve gone blind.”
“I… I don’t know what that means.”
“Normally we can see into the human world. Think of it like your visions. You can always cross into the astral plane and see things that are or have been, and even what may be. We can always look into the mortal plane and see the same. Some are better at deciphering the future than others. But right now, unless we actively come down and look around, we’re blind. Our crystal balls have clouded up.
“I was coming down to check on things when I saw your little drama unfold and jumped in to help you.”
I gulped. “That doesn’t sound good. The first part, not the helping me part. I’m really glad you helped me and all that. And it doesn’t sound like the kinda thing you’d be tellin’ a mortal.”
“Not usually,” he said. “But whatever it is that caused this, Nashville blinked out first. The rest of the world followed quickly, but it started there. Can’t help but think it has something to do with you.”
“Hey, now! What makes you think this was me?”
“Well, odds are it’s either you or my grandson, and I really don’t want it to be about him, so I’m guessing you.”
“Okay, seriously, who is-”
I slammed a hand to my forehead.
“Let me guess,” I said slowly, “your grandson is able to go berserker.”
Fenrir tapped his nose and pointed at me.
“How did I not see that sooner? Some psychic,” I said. “Grant’s your grandson.”
“And he is none too happy about it. A direct line to Loki is not something such a straight-laced, by the book, protect the innocent man wanted to find out about himself.”
“When did he?” I asked.
“He discovered he was part god when he met you.”
“Yeah, he said something like that last year. How? Like, what did that have to do with me?”
Fenrir gave me a look. “He discovered which god when he met Milo. The little imp was all too happy to blow the big secret.”
“Hey!” I said, crossing my arms and glaring in defense of my dead friend.
He blinked at me and I dropped my arms.
“Okay, fine,” I said. “We’ve got a Fae in town. She’s askin’ me to go into Fairy in the astral plane and bring back a fugitive.”
He frowned, furry eyebrows drawing together.
I so wasn’t seeing the family resemblance.
Then again, I was betting Fenrir had been in a human form when he’d mated.
“That wouldn’t be anything that would cut us off from seeing the human world though,” Fenrir said. “That’d be stupid of you, and you’d probably get yourself killed, but irrelevant to our problem.”
“When did the shut down start?” I asked.
“Around noon today. We don’t have it down to anything close, just to the half an hour around that time or so.”
“That’s long before this girl showed up,” I said. “What are the odds it has nothing to do with me? I mean, we got a lot of powerful things in Nashville… and probably more than a few extra in to see the eclipse tomorrow. We got like a million tourists in this weekend, and some of ‘em are bound to be magical. Anyway, what could do this?”
He shrugged. “A massive spell, a mystical confluence of energies that is coincidentally the exact opposite of our spell to watch, which would counter the ability, some being with the power to block us out whose power was blown up without them knowing. The list goes on.”
“But you made it sound like a big deal,” I said. “So I’m guessing this isn’t usual.”
“It’s categorically unusual,” Fenrir said. “But not the first time it’s happened. And different things have made it happen before. It’s bad because we need to fix it, but it’s not the end of the world.”
“Please tell me that’s not foreshadowing,” I said with a gulp.
He did a palms up. “Don’t ask me. I’m flying blind. I have no clue what’s going to happen until we undo this, or it passes.”
“Do you need my help?”
“I thought I’d ask you, just in case,” he said. “If the only thing that happened today was this Fae showing up, it probably doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
“Well, more Fae showed up and attacked, and that’s what you helped with,” I said.
“Eh.” He waved it off. “Related to the first Fae there, I’m sure.”
“You could ask Grant,” I said. “But if it was something to do with us, would we know?”
“Probably,” he said, bobbing his head. “I think you would’ve felt something, being psychic and all, and I know my grandson would have. The gods being cut off like this, it’s like if someone set off a bomb to take out the wireless towers in an area. The people who can sense magical disturbances like this would if they were close enough to feel the explosion, so to speak.”
I searched my brain. “Nothing felt off to me today until just before the Fae showed up,” I said. “And I think that was her. I mean I was tired all day, but that’s all I got. Maybe I didn’t feel it from exhaustion?”
He gave me a hard look.
“Ah,” I said, holding up a finger, “now I see the family resemblance.”
He didn’t let up on the look, and I shrugged. “I’ve been really tired lately. I’m just sayin’.”
“You pulled a slow bubble twice,” he said. “You weren’t tired enough to wipe out your powers, and that’s what it’d take.”
“Maybe me being distracted then? I was working on setting up my conference all day.”
He shook his head. “You would have noticed.”
“Not me then. Do you need my help fixin’ it?”
He sighed. “Maybe. I don’t think so, at least until we can nail down what caused it. Ei
ther way, stay close. I don’t want you taking off and doing anything stupid like going into Fairy.”
It was my turn to give him a look as I propped my hands on my hips. “I’m agonna tell you the same thing I told your grandson. Not your call. This girl needs help, and she’s askin’ me for it, so if you think for one second that I’m gonna sit by and-”
I blinked and was in the real world, staring straight ahead at the conference room full of people as they slowly rose to their feet.
The dead Fae and their broken, bloodied bodies gone.
“What the?” I asked, looking over at Grant.
He looked as surprised as I felt.
“Well, that’s annoying,” I said. “Now I see where you get the whole hanging up thing from.”
Grant jerked back, surprise naked on his face for a full second before his typical blank expression replaced it.
People rose, plates and cups were picked up, and they all paused until everyone was on their feet.
And like someone hit play on the DVR, everyone started moving and talking again like nothing had happened and they’d never stopped.
“I undid the spell,” Emily said.
I turned my head to see her.
“The dead Fae?” I asked, mouth dry and slow.
“Oh!” her eyes flew wide. “I moved them with the help of your friends while you were out. They’re piled in the back hallway, and glamoured so they still need to be… taken care of.”
“Jet and Dan too,” Kat said. “They’re knocked out.”
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“Only about two minutes,” AB said, taking one arm while Grant took the other, and they hauled me to my feet.
I looked around; people were all chatting and some looked at their watches or phones, confusion painting their faces.
Hopefully they thought they’d lost track of time or the last panel had run over.
The next one was already supposed to have started, and people looked around. I lurched to the side wall and flicked the lights.
Most of them took the signal, nodding and walking back into the conference.
Some shot me looks back, and I smiled and waved.
“Two seconds, guys,” I said to my group, joining the crowds walking in through the double doors, weaving through the people till I got to the edge of the tables and walked around the back so I could get up the side and to the stage.
