Escape From The Green

by Gadziala, Jessica

  My eyes trailed down, seeing things I had missed in my surprise. Like a bag wrapped around one of her thighs. Like a band wrapped around the other, various items sticking out the top.

  Most of them, I would bet, were weapons of some form or another.

  Everyone knew a woman on her own in The Green would be subject to more hardships than most.

  You could become a victim, or you became a predator yourself.

  It seemed the woman in the tree was the latter of the two.

  "Who are you?"

  "Smoky," she supplied easily, chin jutting out a bit in pride.

  "As in tourmaline or quartz?"

  "Quartz."

  "Interesting," I decided, nodding. "Born or made?"

  "Both," she told me, shrugging. "I grew up in The Green," she added. "But on my own."

  "Someone had to have raised you." Or else she'd have fallen prey to the worst sort of experiments, the hideous types of torture we all liked to pretend didn't exist.

  "I have vague memories of gnomes feeding me from folded leaves. But as soon as I could walk, I was on my own."

  "Rough life," I decided, shaking my head.

  "Mine," she countered. "Now that you know my life story, who are you?"

  "Drake."

  "Normal name," she concluded, brows drawing together.

  "I guess. Anyway," I rushed on, wanting to steer the conversation away from my possible lineage. "Why shouldn't I go this way?" I asked, waving a hand that would look like it led to a swamp in a few thousand yards.

  My land.

  My home.

  My stomach tensed at the idea that something might be wrong there.

  "The Light guards are out," she informed me. "Not for nothing, but you look like trouble. They're looking for people who look like trouble."

  "Any particular reason, or just on the prowl?"

  "Fucked up thing," she said, shaking her head as she lowered herself down on the limb she'd been standing on, sitting on it, swinging her legs down, just barely out of my reach. I was sure that had been a calculated move on her part.

  "What is?"

  "A whole family of Light fae were slaughtered. Saw the bodies after myself. Mom, dad, two little girls, and a baby in a sling. All dead."

  My stomach twisted painfully.

  Mom.

  Dad.

  Two little girls.

  And a - male - baby in a sling.

  That sounded familiar.

  Too familiar.

  It sounded exactly like the family I had given the letter from Amy to carry to the Court.

  "I passed them," I admitted, making her head jerk to the side slightly, making her hair slide from in front of her ear, listening more closely. "They said they were on their way to the Light court."

  "They didn't even get close."

  "Do they have any idea who did it?"

  "They're pretty clueless. Thieves, hungry for whatever food they had. Which is a ridiculous conclusion."

  "Why?"

  "Because they were all skin hanging off bone. If they had food, don't you think they'd have fattened up their babes a bit for a journey in this weather? Besides, it reeked around them. Not just their blood. Not just the death. But something smokey, something arid."

  "Dark," I concluded, having known the smell when I had been caught - before I'd been taken by the Winters family.

  "Now, what the Dark would be doing in the Light killing babes, that is the question, don't you think?"

  "Things have been stirring," I agreed with her.

  "Stirring, yes. All that business with the new heir of both Courts. But not killing. Not killing on Light land. Only a fool would do that. Or only someone who thought they were unstoppable. Perhaps because they are."

  She was getting way too close to the truth.

  "They found a letter, though."

  "A letter?" I asked, trying to keep the worry out of my voice.

  "Half of it was ripped away, but it was to that long-lost Winters offspring who the new Princess put claim on."

  "Why would a poor, hungry family have a letter for the Princess's mate?"

  "Precisely. And why did a Dark fae take most of it after killing them?"

  Oh, fuck.

  "Ah, see, I knew it," Smoky concluded, nodding.

  "Knew what?" I asked. Maybe snarled. My heart was pounding too hard in my ears to know what tone I used. And, what's more, I didn't care all that much.

  "That you had trouble written all over you. What trouble, I wonder, could you have with the Dark and Light fae combined?"

  "Wonder will be all you do," I told her, spine stiffening.

  If they had the letter, they knew about Amy being in the human realm. And they would know exactly when and where to catch her if they wanted to.

  Which, apparently, they did.

  Enough to slaughter an innocent family for no reason. They'd have given up the letter. When faced up with the Dark Court's vicious guards and the King's fondness to drag along Redcaps wherever he went, they would give them whatever they wanted. He wanted. I had a feeling this was no longer just about Jet, just about the Prince. It was widely known that he was a callous ass, but not evil, not like his father. If there was an innocent family slain - babes and babies included - that was at the King's orders.

  And if the King wanted Amy, he wouldn't let anything get in his way.

  "I know these parts better than most, you know," Smoky interrupted my thoughts. "Enough that I know a swamp is usually not just a swamp. Not when the water festers even in the depths of winter."

  My head snapped up at that, finding her looking down at me.

  "Enough to know that some fae hide because it is the only way to ensure their safety. Fae who have funny colors in their eyes. Funny colors like yours."

  "What do you want?" I ground out between clenched teeth.

  "You know, I don't know yet."

  "I don't make one-sided deals with anyone. Only fools do that."

  "Only fools or those too desperate to have a choice. Dark and Light colliding with you at the center, Draca, I think you will make a deal with me because of the latter. The form you are clearly not in right now."

  "I have nothing to give."

  "I'll be the judge of that," she told me, throwing her body weight forward suddenly, making my stomach lurch as she fell. Far too far for someone so slight.

  But she landed only a foot from me in a crouch, her hand to the snow, rising up slowly to full height, surprisingly tall for a female, her chin angling up so that her strange eyes met mine.

  "What do you even have to offer?"

  "Closed lips for one," she told me with enough pride that I believed her. "But smoky quartz, it has this ability..."

  "Ability to what?"

  "To steer people where they need to go. Where do you need to go, Draca?"

  Not sure if I was making a deal with good or evil - or worse yet, an opportunist - I hedged my bets. "The human realm."

  "Coming from the direction you came from, that took you what? Six days? Seven?" she mused rather accurately. "Because you, Drake the fire-breather, you don't know these woods very well. Anymore anyway. I heard rumors of an imprisoned Draca. Didn't put much weight in them. But I see now that was a misjudgment. Only an imprisoned, recently released fae would walk six days from here to reach the human realm."

  "How far is it?" I asked, hope swelling up. Hope that I could get there before them, that they did not have the tool that was a savage fae, one raised by the woods themselves.

  "We could get there in two and a half. If you don't slow me down."

  If I didn't slow her down.

  If I wasn't so racked with guilt, I would have found the enthusiasm to laugh at that.

  "So, are you coming or not?" she asked, moving past me. No. Slamming into my shoulder as she passed.

  So we walked.

  And walked.

  In complete and utter silence. The kind only two people so utterly used to aloneness could feel co
mfortable with.

  In fact, had there not been reason to, I was rather confident there would have been no talking at all between us the whole trip.

  But as darkness descended upon us, Smoky's hand went to her thigh holster, dragging out a ragged, mean-looking stone-knife, turning on her heel, and thrusting it outward toward a tree before I could even register her movements.

  "Show yourself," she demanded, voice fierce, unyielding. "Oh, for the Queen's sake," Smoky grumbled, slipping her knife back into her thigh holster as a giant green, well, lizard crept out of an evergreen thicket, tongue flicking out, eyes mischievous. "Get that tongue back in your mouth, Sal. That is wishful thinking on your part. That thing is never getting near me again."

  Caught off-guard, my lips quirked up.

  It had been a while.

  Since I was in The Green.

  Since I had seen a woman talking to a creature that appeared to be nothing more than some egg-eating, bug-sucking amphibian.

  But this was The Green after all. And things were rarely ever what they at first appeared.

  As if to reinforce the thought as it appeared, the creature stopped, eyes focused on Smoky as the Change moved through it.

  It had been so long since I'd seen it.

  The Change.

  I spent my life fighting mine, barely remembering the ease at which it used to overtake me.

  Much like it took over Sal as his body morphed from giant salamander to Salamander fae in the course of mere seconds. If I had blinked, I might have missed it.

  But then there he was.

  Naked as the day he was born, giving Smoky that same look, made even more devilish without his amphibian skin. And the fact that his cock was now out. And that Smoky went ahead and did a once-over, eyes landing there for a long moment, her gaze full of familiarity before her eyes went to his face again.

  "Am I supposed to be overcome with lust, Sal? Been there, done that."

  "Need I remind you how that had you screaming, Smoke?" he asked, lips curving up even further. "Or are you too busy fucking some bastard stuck between Changing cycles?" he asked, turning his gaze on me.

  In fae form, he was my equal in height, though thinner, muscles just subtle hints under the skin, as was normal for most fae. His face was angular, his hair dark, and his eyes the golden sort typical of his kind with slitted instead of rounded pupils.

  "Don't try to deny it," he challenged, cockiness a dominant trait of his, apparently. "I can smell the Change on you. What are you hiding? A tail? Bushy like a bunny?" he asked, enjoying the mental image too much.

  Enough, in fact, that I couldn't shake the impulse to turn, pull off my jacket and shirt, and show the plates.

  "Well, fuck me, man," he said when I turned back, eyes challenging.

  "I don't recommend it," Smoky broke in. When my gaze went to her, brows down, she smiled, shrugging. "Fucking him," she clarified. "Because afterward, all he does is follow you around like a little lost Brownie," she added as I shrugged back into my shirt, pulled my jacket back on, suddenly feeling a bit for the Salamander. Not because of Smoky's somewhat rough critique, but because just the moment without layers covering me made my skin smart and ache. I had gotten soft already, it seemed. And that bastard was still standing there stark naked.

  Sal ignored Smoky entirely, eyes on me, head shaking slightly. "Never believed the rumors about some of you still existing. This is like if one of those humans just happened across a dinosaur."

  "What do you know about humans?" Smoky asked, one brow quirked up.

  To that, Sal's wicked smile came back once again. "Let one keep me as a pet for a few years," he admitted, making Smoky choke slightly. "It was a good deal. Lots of food, back rubs, nice heat lamp all the time. I was young," he added, shrugging it off. "Not all of us take too keenly to letting The Green raise us," he added, clearly meaning Smoky's life. "When I kept getting bigger and bigger, they took me off the side of the road, dropped me off near the woods, and I found my way back easily enough. But I'd bet my left eye that I know more about humans than the two of you combined."

  Smoky's gaze moved to mine, head tilted in a way that seemed to say What do you think?

  And, well, what I thought was simple.

  I hadn't even known what a bus was until Amy explained it to me. And Smoky didn't seem the kind to have any desire to explore the human realm on her own, so comfortable with the woods that had been her family.

  So if there was someone who was willing to help who could get us where we needed to be when we needed to be there, then, really, was there even a choice here?

  "You got anything to wear?" I asked.

  "Nah. I just go around dick-swinging all the time," he said with an eye roll as he half-turned, reaching down into the thicket he had appeared from, pulling out a pair of muddy brown hemp pants and a long off-white tunic-style shirt. I could have sworn, too, that I heard a grumble from Smoky when all his skin was finally covered up.

  As if maybe hearing it as well, Sal's smile curved up again as he went back into the bushes to retrieve a satchel weighed down heavily with supplies.

  "So, Smoke. You think you can fit in with the humans?" he asked, the two of them moving forward since, apparently, I was the only one who didn't know exactly where we were heading, leaving me trailing behind. "Might have to rein in the attitude a bit, don't you think?"

  "I think that if you don't shut up, I will slice that tongue of yours off. Then what will you use to catch all your food?"

  "Now why would you do that to yourself?" he asked, hands tucking into his front pockets, clearly not intimidated by Smoky's chilly demeanor, leaving me to wonder if it was because there was some warmth inside her, or if he was simply the kind of man who was charmed by prickly women. "'Cause you know you're gonna let me between your thighs again, Smoke."

  "Why would I take you for another ride? Don't you have, like, fifteen brothers?"

  To that, a hiss escaped Sal, low, threatening, a sound that made a throaty chuckle escape Smoky.

  "So, where in the human realm are we heading?" she asked a while later while Sal fell into what I interpreted as a sulking silence. Or maybe it was seething. It was hard to tell.

  "The Big Pear," I offered somewhat confidently.

  "Apple, bud. The Big Apple," Sal corrected, turning over his shoulder to shoot me an amused look. "Where about?"

  "Some museum," I told him, patting down my pockets to find my note. "By a terran..." I trailed off, not wanting to embarrass myself again if I was wrong.

  "T-rex," Sal supplied. "At the Museum of Natural History. What?" he asked when Smoky sent him an odd look. "The kid who fed me crickets smuggled me on his field trip with him. Almost fucking froze to death, but I'm familiar."

  "Will we be anywhere near that when we go through the veil?"

  "Been a while, but if I remember correctly, we end up just across a stretch of ocean from there. A small stretch," he clarified when my shoulders slumped. "We can take a train or bus or ferry. Ferry might be preferable," he went on. "Less metal," he added even though no one asked. Coming from such an abundant tribe, he likely wasn't as comfortable with silence as we were.

  "How long does a ferry take?"

  "An hour or two?" he said, shrugging it off. "Not long. Are we on a tight schedule?"

  "Trying to beat the Dark King, Prince, and a slew of Redcaps and other evil baddies there, so, yeah, you could say we are on a tight schedule," Smoky supplied.

  "Oh, for fuck's sake. You're getting me involved with the Dark Court? What kind of mess did you two get yourselves into?"

  "First, it's his problem. And I like when I am owed favors. Second, that is for him to answer if he chooses to. Which he doesn't have to."

  "Shit. I like favors too, Smoke," he said, tips tipping up. "From my scoreboard, you owe me six."

  "Orgasms are gifts, not favors. Nice try."

  "Fine. Then I like a good adventure. And it's been a while since I saw the humans. It's always fun to see what
kind of trouble they have gotten themselves into every couple decades or so."

  So now I owed two fae I didn't even know favors.

  But for Amy, hell, I guess it didn't matter if they wanted my firstborn. Though I had a feeling their interest in me ran more toward protection than anything. Maybe asylum. Or simply bragging rights.

  "So, Smoke," Sal tried again a few hours later.

  "No."

  "You don't even know what I was going to say. Maybe I was going to say I like that new knife you made yourself."

  "Were you?"

  "No," he admitted, shrugging it off. Like water on his Salamander skin, everything seemed to roll right off this guy. "I was gonna say that it didn't exactly escape me that that is my piece of Unakite in your hair," he told her, hand reaching out, snagging one of her braids with a pink and black stone hanging from it. "Always were such a little thief," he told her, but his tone was warm, affectionate even. "You trying to attract the one, Smoke?"

  "I'm saving it to trade next time it is safe to travel to Tenray Square," she countered. But the words fell flat. To me at least. I think the warm inside under all her ice wanted to have a piece of him, even if all she wanted him to think was that she used him for sex.

  "Yeah, heard that place is a bit rough lately. Well, rougher than usual. You run into some trouble there?"

  "Nothing I couldn't handle," she told him, but her voice had taken on an edge. Like maybe it had cost her. Like maybe it had been a close call.

  "Handle, yeah. But that wasn't the question, Smoke."

  There was a moment of stony silence before Smoke shot back, words lethal, "Get over me already, Sal," before grabbing a low tree limb, swinging herself up.

  "Nah. Don't wait for her," Sal said, shaking his head. "She's following. Just from above." He jerked his chin up to where the limbs were swaying. High. Really, freakishly high. But, I guess, if you wanted to travel The Green without ever being seen, learning how to swing between trees was a vital skill. One she was very practiced at. "It's a careful balance," he said oddly as we fell into step with each other.

  "What is?"

  "Pushing her," he supplied. "You gotta do it, or you don't get dick from her. But if you push just the slightest bit too much, she flees."

  "You two know each other long?"