To avoid the inevitable questions from Julie, I threw on a hoodie and crawled down the fire escape outside my window. When my boots hit the concrete below, I headed off in search of Lattie. I had no idea where she went when she wasn’t at home with me. The only leads I had were the spots I’d seen her before we met. In the park’s tree line–which I wasn’t venturing into at this hour of the night. I made a quick and fruitless sweep of the boardwalk down at the waterfront. And the alleyway between the clubs on Argyle Street.
As I trekked back up a few streets from the waterfront, I turned down Argyle and headed toward the nightclub. When I reached the mouth of the alley, I glanced around to make sure no one was watching as I gripped the worn stone corner and peered inside. It was pitch black, with heaps of black garbage bags catching the moonlight from above. No movement. No sound. But… I felt it. A pulsing from inside the building. Not the mundane nightclub to my right, but from the brick encasing the alley. Deep and thrumming, a bass that burrowed and echoed inside my chest. Luring me in.
Slowly, I stepped inside the alley, trailing my hand over the rough stone, looking for… I wasn’t sure. A sign, a door, something that connected to Lattie. That night with Julie, I swore I saw something. A flicker, a glimmer, a… crack of light in the dark wall near the back. At the time, I was drunk and had chalked it up to just that. But now, I realized, with this Sight Lattie claimed I had, I must have seen something otherworldly. I just wished I knew how to tap into it again.
My finger dragged along all the cracks and crevices until the cool stone seemed to warm, and when I reached a hot spot, I pushed it like a button of sorts. I stood back and waited, hoping, holding in a breath as I stared into the darkness. After a moment, a distinct click sound clanged in the air, like a heavy deadbolt sliding open, and I released a sigh of relief. A rush of panic immediately followed it as the outline of a door formed in the brick, and it pushed open.
A shadowed figure stood in the purple-blue light that filled the space around him. I squinted and strained my eyes to adjust. He was a man in every sense of the word. Except for the pointed shape of his ears on either side of his bald head. I bit down on the gasp that tightened in my chest.
“Who are you?” he asked.
My mind raced for a response. “I’m… here to meet a friend.”
He stepped into the moonlight, and I could see his features a bit more clearly. A slender, pointed nose, broad shoulders covered in a long leather trench. His bald head glistened above thick, dark eyebrows, and he grimaced as he seemed to… sniff the air around me.
He gave a slight groan and picked something from his belt. A vial of purple liquid that glowed like a lava lamp. He shoved it toward me. “Drink.”
My face pinched in disgust. “You can’t be serious–” He grunted with suspicion and took a step closer. I panicked and swiped the vial from his hand. If he realized I wasn’t Fae–if he discovered I was trespassing and snooping… I wondered then what kind of fairy he was. One of the terrifying kinds that Lattie told me about? Did he come from the same place that the bony creature outside the restaurant came from? I didn’t want to find out. I just wanted to find Lattie.
I downed the contents of the vial. The taste of black cherries, laced with a metallic tinge, coated my throat, and I failed to stifle the ugly cough that gurgled from me. The fairy said nothing, only watched me expectantly, almost as if he were waiting for something to happen. But, aside from the burning in my gut, nothing happened. And I gave the guy a look that said, there, happy? He wordlessly stepped aside to let me pass.
I didn’t know what to expect from drinking a strange vial of fruity liquid and entering a hidden room behind a brick wall, but it wasn’t this. It wasn’t the great expanse of a dark nightclub packed with people swaying and gyrating against one another. But here I was, standing in the porch area as others filed in behind me, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
But they weren’t people at all. Pointed ears, abnormally long limbs, gargantuan heights mixed with other very non-human dwarfish shapes. Cat-like creatures crawled along the massive system of rounded ventilation, snaking the looming ceiling above. Smoke misted across the floor, absorbing and reflecting the neon lighting in fractals on different surfaces. A fairy nightclub. While searching for Lattie, I’d stumbled into a creepy fairy nightclub, and I suddenly realized just how human I was. It’d only be a matter of time before someone else noticed.
The deep bass of the eerie music thundered in my chest like a drum. Carefully, I avoided contact with anyone and circled the perimeter, my eyes squinting and scanning the space around the many bodies. Looking for anything that resembled Lattie. But there were no familiar shapes in the crowd.
Suddenly, a part formed as the dancing Fae moved to either side of the club, and down the center of the divide, a pair of black eyes burrowed in a pale, dirty face stared back at me. Oily black hair framed her features, melting into the leathery wings she kept tucked tight, and inky shadows crawled over her whole body as her black, clawed hands flexed at her sides. I had no idea who or what she was, but her hypnotic stare told me one thing: she knew me. Wanted me. Her very presence lured me in with a dark promise. And that promise was death.
I forced a breath to fill my too-tight lungs and shook my head, scattering the strange hold she seemed to cast over me like a loose net. A quick glance to my left and right told me I had two options. Stand and face whatever this creature was or run for the back exit. I’d never make it back to the door I entered without crossing her path. So… I took off.
I reached the back door marked EXIT and slipped through. Only when the heavy metal door closed with a secure click did I finally take a breath and shuddered away the remnants of the eerie sensation that clung to my skin. I turned and stopped in my tracks. This wasn’t an exit at all. I stood in a long, narrow hallway. The walls were dreary gray, black doors lined each side. Unmarked.
Shit.
The sound of several footsteps from behind the door at my back gave me no choice but to bolt down the hallway. I didn’t dare a look as I heard the door creak open. I blindly chose one of the random doors, thanked the heavens it wasn’t locked, and slipped inside another room. But only another horror faced me.
Cages, so many cages, lined the walls and stacked on top of one another. Inside… fairies. Tiny ones, just like Lattie. I walked along the front of them, peering inside, searching for my friend. They were quivering in corners, hunched in fetal positions. Some even looked near death as they lay on the floor of their cages. My heart broke as I beheld them. Too small and sickly to even muster a sound at the sight of me. I could see their once lush colors now drained and dulled to a lifeless gray.
Near the end of the line, they hooked the caged Fae up to various needles and tubes, all draining the blood from their tiny defenseless bodies. One of them shakily lifted their head and gawked at me with pleading eyes. Eyes like Lattie’s. I couldn’t imagine her here, like this, like a lab rat. My heart clenched in my chest.
I had to do something.
A loop of chunky iron keys hung on the wall, and I wasted no time swiping it, but there had to be a dozen keys on it. Frantically, I rifled through them, trying to eye the one that looked small enough to fit the locks.
“It’s the brassy one,” a meek voice whispered. A small and red-colored fairy, like Lattie, but with longer, heartier limbs. Only, instead of leathery wings, this creature had panels of skin folded between its limbs. It crawled to the iron bars and gripped them with a pained expression as it peered up at me. I held up the brassy key. “Yes, that one.”
I wasted no time unlocking as many cages as I could. I knew time was precious, knew someone would be along any minute to check on these creatures, to… collect the blood being taken. The quiet of the narrow warehouse area slowly filled with whispers of awe, words of gratitude and disbelief, and the gentle clanking of locks falling to the floor and iron cages creaking open.
When all the Fae were freed, they swarmed at my feet in an e
normous group, looking up at me with those otherworldly eyes. Some headed for the wide loading door, while a small few remained in their cages, too sickly to move. I slipped out of my hoodie and tied the drawstring closed at the neck to form a bag of sorts and gently placed them inside.
“Who are you?” asked the crimson fairy as its long, clawed fingers wrapped around my leg. “Why are you helping us?”
“My name’s Avery,” I replied and gave it a smile. “A… friend.”
Wetness filmed its large black eyes. “This is a kindness we won’t forget.”
“Who did this to you?” I asked and began walking toward the loading door. I bent and gripped the handle. “Why are they taking your blood?”
“Bad people,” it told me gravely and shook its head. “Bad, bad people.”
I hauled open the loading door, but I discovered we weren’t alone as it moved up and slipped into the brackets above. A truck backed up to the loading dock, and a man hopped out of the passenger side. No, not just any man… the guy I’d bumped into in the alleyway that night.
“What are you doing!” His eyes widened at the sight of me, and a gasp froze in my chest.
The dozens of Fae crowded at my feet, the bundle of sickly ones I cradled in my hoodie… I was stuck with nowhere to run. I searched around in panic, my heart kicking wildly for me to just drop everything and run. But I couldn’t just abandon them. I had no choice but to head back into the nightclub.
But the guy hopped up onto the landing before I could make a run for it, his intimidating stance forcing me back further into the warehouse of the club. He grabbed my one free arm, the one not holding a hoodie full of tiny Fae. Realization struck his expression. “Hey, wait, don’t I know you?”
“Let me go!”
I tried to wiggle free, but his grip was firm, and my shoulder socket protested with every tug I gave to free myself. Panic festered in my chest. Vomit threatened to rise. I wriggled again and stomped the heel of my boot down on his foot as hard as I could, nearly dropping my hoodie and the poor creatures inside it. His grip loosened, and I darted for the club door just as the driver of the truck appeared to check out the commotion.
But I wasn’t fast enough.
The guy was clearly Fae as he sprung toward me with an otherworldly speed. So fast, it was nothing but a blur to my mundane eyes. His large hand gripped my arm again, tugging me back. But this time… it burned. A blinding white light burst from the touch, and a scream erupted from me as I was forced to look away. Then, suddenly…
It was over. The light disappeared, leaving us all in thick darkness as my eyes adjusted. Two figures were on the floor. Unconscious, I realized as I blinked away the burn on my retinas. Thankfully, the Fae I’d rescued were fine, all staring up at me in bewilderment. Waiting.
I didn’t have time to process what had just happened. Did he just knock himself out?
“Come on,” I whispered to them all and ushered the group to follow as I headed for the loading door. “Let’s get out of here.”
One by one, I helped them down from the short leap to the ground. Some jumped, some climbed down, just a few actually needed my help. The smaller, wingless, and seriously injured ones. Under the intrusive light of the city, I could see how they were all a range of colors, damped and dulled from however long they’d been caged up. Their magic was probably non-existent. Some of the festering wounds and fresh scabs told me as much. I knew very little about fairies, but Lattie told me they’re supposed to heal fast. Caged in iron for however long… who knew how much time these precious creatures might have had left.
I somehow managed to sneak the group of fairies to the safety of another alleyway a few buildings down. The late hour was on my side. We didn’t pass another living soul. When we all dipped into the shadows, I pressed my back to the wall and slid to the concrete. My limbs shook with adrenaline and the aftershock.
A tiny, clawed hand wrapped my wrist, and I glanced to my right to find the red fairy, its color already beginning to seep back into its leathery scales. In the streetlight filtering in from the sidewalk out front, I could see the feminine feline appearance rounding out. As if the distance put between her and the nightclub was all she needed.
“Thank you,” she said with tears in her eyes.
The fairy gently pried the bundled neck of my hoodie from my death grip and set it down, peeling away the fabric to show the few tiny Fae inside. They moved around in a squishy pile, like a litter of puppies. So sickly, so small, so defenseless. My heart squeezed, and I carefully stroked one of their soft bellies.
“Will they be alright?’ I asked.
The creature nodded and looked at the little ones with a motherly glean. “Yes, thanks to you. The younglings will live.”
“Younglings?” I balked, and my throat tightened. “These are… children?”
She nodded. “Yes, bred in captivity. I feared that’s all their immortal lives would amount to. Caged and beaten and broken. Used for their most precious resource.” When I just stared unblinkingly, it continued, “Blood.” The fairy cooed at one of the stirring younglings. “The very magic that makes them.”
“Is that what those people were doing?” I felt sick. “They were… taking your blood?” The fairy nodded again. I swallowed nervously. Bred in captivity? “How… long were you all caged?”
“Months,” she replied. “From what I managed to keep count of. There were days that just… they’re a blackened spot in my memory. But it’s been at least eight months since they captured me, and some of my kin were already there when I first arrived.” I must have looked confused because the fairy clarified with a smile–how it could even manage a smile was beyond me–and placed a hand on my arm. “A Fae gestation period is much shorter than that of a mortal. We produce younglings several times a year. High Fae… two or three times, if they’re able.”
“Able?”
“High Fae are known to have difficulty reproducing. Which attributes to their scarcity.”
“Oh,” I replied as if I understood any of what the creature was even saying. My fingers still trembled, and I stuffed them tightly between my knees. “So… what now? Can I help you get somewhere?” I didn’t dare entertain the idea of bringing them home with me. Hiding Lattie was a task in itself. There had to be more than two dozen here of all shapes, colors, and sizes. Some as small as a kitten, others as large as a spider monkey. Like the red one.
“We’re all water Fae,” the creature said. “I just need to get us to water, and we’ll be fine from there.”
The harbor front was just two streets down. Hiding one fairy was fine, but an entire entourage? Most of them sick and injured, unable to walk. I glanced around the alleyway we hid in, noted the heaps of boxes and garbage bags. An old, rusted cart sat outside one of the back doors. I began rifling through the junk and emptied a couple of damp cardboard boxes, one for each tier of the trolly.
“Here,” I said. “It’s not glamourous, but I can get you all to the water without being seen.”
I began helping some of them into the boxes, but the fairy hopped up on edge to peer more closely at my face. “Why are you doing this? Why are you… helping?”
I shrugged with a shoulder. “I couldn’t just leave you all caged up like that. It’s sickening what those men were doing.”
“They’re not men,” the fairy said, and a sigh fettered from its chest. “Humans can’t possibly be so cruel.”
I thought of my parents. How they were gunned down during an evening stroll in the park, with a baby in their arms. If it weren’t for my aunt… I shook my head as the fairy leaped down to the ground. “Humans can be savage and heartless, too. Trust me.” They nodded thoughtfully and began softly unwrapping the folds of my hoodie to scoop out the younglings. “Don’t.” I kneeled and put a gentle hand on its leathery back. The fairy looked up at me expectantly. “Keep it. Make sure they’re warm and secure until you find a safer place to hide.”
Her eyes gleamed over. “What is your n
ame?”
“Avery Quinn,” I told her. I wondered what Lattie would think of all this. “A… friend.”
“Well, Avery Quinn, friend.” She bowed her head. “I am Vassia. And this kindness will not be forgotten. Every Fae across the waters will know, and this debt will be repaid.”
My heart squeezed at the thought of these defenseless creatures worrying over repaying me. “Vassia, there is no debt. I swear. I’m just trying to help. I have–I know one of you. A fairy named Lattie.” Something like recognition flashed in her eyes, and she leaned back, almost as if she were sizing me up in a new light. “She’s my… friend. Of sorts. Do you know her?”
“Yes,” Vassia replied hesitantly. “I know Lattie. A lot of us do. I… had no idea she’d been sent to Ironworld.”
“She wasn’t sent,” I said. But then realized I wasn’t entirely sure where Lattie came from and how she got here. She’d once mentioned something about following the shadows, but I’d never truly asked beyond that. “I found her. Or… she found me. I’m not really sure.” I let out a nervous laugh, my mind suddenly whirring with how little I knew of the creature I was stuck with. I sighed. “I have a sort of responsibility to her.”
Vassia didn’t reply. We had the last of Fae placed inside the boxes, and she followed as I pushed the trolly to the alley’s mouth. I took a quick glance to my left and right, ensuring no onlookers were coming down the sidewalk. The coast was clear, so I pushed off and made my way to the waterfront as quickly as possible.
Once we reached the edge of the water, I helped Vassia move all the Fae from the boxes. I stood and watched as they all flourished at the first touch of water, their strength returning, their colors bleeding vibrantly back into their skin. Vassia was the last to go, the younglings clutched to her chest, and she turned to me before she dove into the water, a strange look of yearning on her face. Before I could manage a goodbye, she was gone.
A Kingdom of Iron & Wine : New Adult Fantasy Romance (The Ironworld Series Book 1) Page 13
