by KJ Baker
They stared down at me. Their eyes were cold, filled with contempt. But to my surprise, they flinched at the sight of the iron poker and didn’t come any nearer.
“Where is it?” one of them asked, his voice soft and deadly.
“Where’s what?”
“The Orb of Tir. Don’t play games, woman. We know you have it. Hand it over and you don’t need to get hurt.”
The Orb of Tir? What the hell was he talking about?
I took the opportunity to scramble to my feet, still holding the poker between us. I backed away a few steps. If I turned and ran, maybe I could get into the street and shout for help.
“I don’t have any orb—”
The blond one moved like lightning. One moment he was by the workshop door, the next he was in my face. He knocked the poker out of my hand, hissed in sudden pain as though it had burned him, then grabbed my arm and twisted it up my back, sending a jolt of agony right through my shoulder.
“Let me go!” I cried, baring my teeth at the pain. “You’re hurting me!”
How could I ever have thought these two were attractive? Their expressions were devoid of any kind of emotion as they watched me. They seemed almost...inhuman.
Blond put his face close to my ear. “I’ll ask you one more time. Where is the Orb of Tir?”
“I’ve told you! I don’t know!”
Hang on. Wait. I had bought an orb today—the strange metal ball I’d got from Brendan. Was that what they were looking for?
Blond nodded to the dark-haired one who began rifling through the shelves and display cabinets, tipping things onto the floor. I watched in mute horror as most of my profit was smashed to pieces before my eyes.
This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. I was having a nightmare and would wake up any minute.
But I didn’t.
Dark Hair systematically made his way through the shop, tipping stuff onto the floor and peering at the shelves. Any minute now he would reach the front of the shop where the PC was and see the orb sitting on the desk. I was suddenly determined not to let them get what they wanted.
With all the strength I could muster, I stamped on Blond’s foot.
He gave an ‘oomph’ of surprise and his grip slackened just enough for me to wrench free of his grasp. I took off, pelted through the shop, dodged around Dark Hair to the desk, and grabbed the orb. Spinning towards the door, I clutched the handle and fiddled with the key, trying to unlock it.
But a moment later a cold hand grabbed my shoulder and yanked me back so hard that the orb went flying out of my hand and thudded onto the floor where it rolled into the shadows.
“Stupid bitch!” Dark Hair snarled. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find it?”
He nodded to Blond, who walked over to where the orb had landed and picked it up. He ran his hands over the orb’s surface and suddenly the runes started to glow. I goggled. What the hell? How was he doing that?
“Is it damaged?” Dark Hair asked anxiously.
“No,” Blond replied. His handsome face broke into a grin. “We’ve got it. The Seelie will finally be made to pay.”
I had exactly no clue what they were talking about. Seelie? What?
“Who are you?” I asked. “What do you want with that thing?”
They ignored my questions. “What about her?” Blond said to Dark Hair.
Dark Hair glanced at me. “She’s seen too much. She has to die.”
My blood turned to ice. If he hadn’t been holding me up, I think I would have collapsed onto the floor.
“Listen,” I said, voice shaking. “It’s only a lump of metal. Take it and go. You don’t have to—”
My words froze in my throat as Blond pulled out a gun and pointed it at my head. There was a silencer on the end. Nice and clean. No noise, no awkward questions.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “Please.”
Blond’s eyes held no emotion as he studied me for a moment. His finger squeezed, I saw the trigger begin to move—
—and everything burst into chaos. I heard the shattering of glass, saw Dark Hair’s head turn, his eyes widen slightly. There was an intake of breath from Blond, then the ‘thump’ as he pulled the trigger—
Then a third man materialized in front of me. His hand snapped out and caught the bullet in mid-air. He glanced at me, raking me with eyes so deep a blue as to be almost purple, then turned back to face the other two.
I gaped. What the hell? Where had he come from?
“You!” Dark Hair hissed.
He pulled his own gun and aimed it at my rescuer. The newcomer jabbed out his hands, and Dark Hair went flying into the wall with a crash, sending more of my precious merchandise hurtling to the floor. With a snarl, Blond pointed his gun at my rescuer’s head.
“Watch out!” I shouted.
The man spun, dropped into a crouch, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted Blond. A low growl escaped his throat. Blond hesitated, then put the gun away and took something else out of his pocket. He fiddled with it and the air behind him suddenly split wide open. There’s no other way I can describe it. It was like someone had taken a knife and torn a jagged tear in the air. The edges of the rent glowed golden, and through it I could see...somewhere else.
Blond tucked my metal ball under his arm and turned towards the rent.
“Stop where you are!” my rescuer growled in a deep voice. “That’s an order.”
Blond looked over his shoulder and sneered. “And how are you going to make me? You are neither my commander, nor my sovereign.” He grinned, but there was no humor in it. “And when I get the Orb back to my people, the whole of the Summerlands will feel the same. You are finished!”
He took a step towards the rent and my rescuer stooped and grabbed the iron poker from the floor. He grunted in pain as his fingers curled around it, but then pulled back his arm and threw. The metal bar spun end over end and whacked into Blond’s hand with the crack of breaking fingers.
Blond howled in pain and the cube like device he’d been holding fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers. The rent winked out of existence.
Something clicked behind me. I had a millisecond to register the sound before a bullet exploded into the wall right next to me. I whipped round to see Dark Hair taking aim for a second shot. Shit. Oh, shit.
“Come on!” my rescuer grabbed my hand and yanked me towards him.
I stumbled at the unexpected movement and my hand went to the floor to steady myself. My fingers met something square-shaped and I grabbed it just as I thumped into my rescuer’s hard chest. He wrapped his arms around me, muttered something in a language I’d never heard before, and suddenly the world turned inside out.
Blond, Dark Hair, and my shop disappeared.
Chapter 3
RAVEN
The teleport was only a short one, spitting us out into the park not two blocks away, but even so, it exhausted me. As we emerged into the darkened night, I stumbled, going to my knees on the grass, fighting the sudden nausea that knotted my stomach and the weakness that flooded my limbs.
Fates, I hated teleportation.
I took several steadying breaths before lifting my head to look around, quickly assessing my location for threats, as I’d been trained to do.
There was no sign of the Galadri, and the park was dark and deserted. Good. It was the first piece of luck I’d had on this whole cursed mission.
I turned to the human woman. She was lying on her back, eyes closed. This did not surprise me. The frail human body was not built to withstand the rigors of teleportation, and I’d given her no time to prepare.
I crouched and shook her shoulder. “Wake up.”
Her eyes popped open. For a second, they were filled with confusion, but then they widened as memory reasserted itself. She scrambled to her feet and backed away, looking terrified.
“Easy,” I said, holding out my hands soothingly. “You’re safe now. I won’t hurt you.”
She looked around wildly. “Where a
m I? This isn’t my shop! Where the hell am I? My god! Have you kidnapped me?”
I scowled. “Would you rather I had left you to the Galadri’s mercy?”
She swallowed, opened her mouth to speak, and then snapped it closed again. She had deep red hair that fell messily onto her shoulders and green eyes that glinted in the moonlight. A faint smattering of freckles covered her nose. Something stirred inside me. Arousal? Maybe. It had been too long since I’d had a woman.
“You saved my life,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Those men...oh god! Those men! They tried to kill me!”
She began backing away and panic flared in her eyes. The last thing I needed was a hysterical human giving me away. It was time to make her forget. She would wake in the morning with no memory of ever having met me.
I darted forward, laid my hands on her shoulders before she could twist away, and released my magic in a command.
Forget.
Her eyes flared with light and then...nothing. My magic faded like sand draining through an hourglass. It had no effect on her.
What the Fates? Why hadn’t my magic worked?
“What was that?” she demanded. “What are you trying to do to me?” She was looking panicked again. “Who are you? What is going on? Who were those men? Why were they trying to kill me?”
The questions tumbled out in a rush. “They weren’t after you,” I replied. “They were after the orb. You just happened to get in the way. What is your name?”
She blinked. “What?”
“Your name?”
“I...um...Asha. My name’s Asha.”
Asha.
She cocked her head, staring at the base of my throat, and I realized she was looking at the bronze dog-tags I wore around my neck.
“You’re a soldier?”
I had to stifle a smile. If she only knew. A soldier. A warrior. And much more besides.
“Something like that.”
She squinted, trying to make out the inscription in the darkness. “Raven? Your name’s Raven?”
I nodded. It wasn’t my real name of course but only my combat name. I’ve always preferred it to my real one.
“Raven,” she said, as though trying the name out. I liked the sound of it on her tongue. “Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere.” She scrubbed a hand through her hair and then looked around. “We need to call the police. My cell is back at the shop. Can I borrow yours?”
“My what?”
“Your cell. Your phone?”
“I don’t have such a thing.”
She stared at me as if trying to figure out if I was lying. Then, without warning, she spun on her heel and marched off. I caught her in three steps and grabbed her wrist, swinging her around to face me.
“Where are you going?”
“Back to my shop of course! You think I’m going to leave it to those assholes?”
“You can’t go back there.” I shook my head emphatically. “It’s too dangerous.”
“Who are you to tell me what to do? Get out of my way!”
She pulled free of my grip and stalked off. Irritation made a growl rise in my throat. I wasn’t used to being defied like this. I caught her again, yanking her around.
“I said no.”
In the moonlight, her emerald eyes glinted with fury. “Look, I’m grateful for you stepping in back there all vigilante style, but that doesn’t mean you get to order me around. I have to get back to my shop! God knows what they’re doing to it! Let me go!”
I didn’t. My grip tightened on her wrist, not enough to hurt, but tight enough to make sure she couldn’t escape.
“Going back to the shop is a stupid thing to do. You’re letting your emotion cloud your judgment.”
“Of course I am! Don’t you get it? That shop is all I have! Now, unless you’re planning to tie me up, I’m going back so let me go, dammit!”
My lip curled in a snarl. Stupid, stubborn woman! I ought to turn around and walk away, let her go back to her shop and risk her life. What was it to me? She was just some stupid human who’d gotten in the way of my mission. I owed her nothing.
But I didn’t move. My instincts wouldn’t let me. Something was telling me that our paths crossing tonight had been anything but random. Why else would she be immune to my magic? Why else would she have the Orb of Tir?
Curse me for a fool, but I couldn’t let her go into danger on her own.
“Fine,” I snapped. “Then I’ll come with you.”
She said nothing. I released her and she rubbed her wrist where my grip had been. “You’re...you’re coming with me?”
“Let’s get going before I change my mind.”
Without waiting for an answer, I marched off. She soon caught me up, and we walked in silence out of the park and into the deserted streets. I could have teleported us back there in an instant, of course, but that would have been like a beacon to the Galadri.
The streets were all but deserted at this hour, the streetlamps turning the puddles on the sidewalk into tiny lakes of silver. Asha said not a word. She stared straight ahead, looking scared but determined. I kept silent, continually scanning our surroundings for any sign of a threat. The city was dark and silent.
As we turned onto the street that held her shop, I indicated for her to get behind me. She didn’t argue. I darted from shadow to shadow, eyes trained on the dark frontage of her shop. There was no sign of life within.
Halting outside, I indicated for her to wait while I studied the façade. It looked dark and lifeless. I crouched, placed my palm flat against the cold sidewalk and closed my eyes, sending my senses questing through the earth.
Small beacons of life-force blazed into being: Asha behind me, people asleep in the apartments above the shops that lined the street. They all pulsed the dull red that indicated humanity. None were the swirling gold vortex that would indicate one of my kind. From inside the shop, I sensed no life-signs at all.
I opened my eyes and staggered, placing both hands on the ground. I’d used a lot of magic tonight and it was beginning to take its toll. I had to be careful. I straightened and turned to find Asha staring at me, her eyes wide.
“What did you just do?”
I waved away her question. “The shop’s empty. Do you have a key?”
She fumbled in the pocket of her jeans and handed it over. I stole up the steps and unlocked the door. It opened with a creak and I stepped noiselessly into the gloomy interior. Inside, all was still and dark. Asha followed me in, fumbled in the pocket of a coat that hung on the back of the door, and came out with one of those devices humans use to talk over great distances. What are they called? Cell phones? She turned it on and activated the flashlight function, training it on the interior of the shop.
She froze and then gave a low moan of anguish. “Oh no. No, no, no!”
The light revealed that after our escape the Galadri had not left quietly. The shop had been ransacked. The items lining the shelves had been swept onto the floor, many of which had smashed to pieces. Detritus covered the carpet, crunching underfoot as Asha made her way through the shop, her eyes wide with stunned disbelief.
“Why?” she whispered. “Why would they do this?”
She stooped and lifted something from the floor. It was a photograph of an old woman. The frame had sprung apart and the glass had a crack right through. Asha stared at it for a long moment and I could see tears gathering in her eyes.
She dashed them away angrily. “Those bastards,” she growled, her voice low and angry. “They did this just for a worthless chunk of metal? They destroyed my life for a stupid, ugly, antique that nobody even wants?” She turned to look at me then pointed a shaking finger in my direction. “You better start telling me what the hell is going on or I swear I’m going to start screaming at the top of my voice and wake the whole damned neighborhood!”
Her nostrils flared and I tasted the tang of her fear in the air. Even so, she stood her ground, chin lifted, glaring at me defiantly. Sh
e was brave, I’ll give her that. Brave or foolish.
I didn’t say anything, just watched her. A faint blush crept across her cheeks.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she demanded.
“Because I’m trying to figure out how to answer your question. And that means figuring out why my magic didn’t work on you.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Your magic?”
I held her gaze. “That’s what I said.”
She licked her lips, looked around as if searching for a way of escape. “I’m calling the police.”
She turned away from me but I darted after her, laid my hand on her shoulder—
—and something punched me in the stomach so hard I almost doubled over.
It was nothing physical. It was more like a deluge of sensations: warmth, desire, protectiveness. For an instant, I saw myself standing on a mountain peak. There was a woman beside me. This woman. She smiled at me and my heart contracted from pure, unadulterated joy. She reached for my hand—
—and I was back in the darkened shop.
Asha was glaring at me. “Let. Me. Go.”
What, by the Fates, had just happened? Why had I reacted to her touch like that? An unsettling possibility whispered in the back of my mind and I pushed it away ruthlessly. No. No way. It couldn’t be that. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.
“Don’t call the police,” I said, taking a few steps away from her. “They can’t help you.”
“And you can, I suppose?”
I nodded. “How did you come to have the Orb of Tir?”
“Is that what it’s called? I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet. I got it from a guy that does house clearances.” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “If I’d have known it would cause this much trouble, I would have told Brendan McNally to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.” She looked at me suddenly. “Where do you fit into all this? How come you appeared at my shop at the exact right moment?”
“I’ve been tracking the Galadri. I’ve been trying to stop them finding the orb.”
She digested this in silence, seeming to decide if she could believe me. “But you still haven’t explained how you transported us from here to the park or how you stopped that bullet from hitting me.”
