by Peter Glenn
“Tell it where to go?” I scrunched my nose. “Like talk to the portal?”
She shook her head. “No, not exactly. It’s more like a feeling. I’m sorry, this probably isn’t making a lot of sense.”
“No, it’s okay. I think I get it. Feel the right location in your heart, and the portal will take you there. Is that about right?”
LaLuna nodded. “Yes. Something like that, yes.”
“All right, I can do this.”
I let out a slow breath and fanned out my arms, then stared down at the glowing portal. Tell it where to go with your feelings, huh? I cleared my head, thinking only about Grace. I want to go to Tacobeh’s reservation, I thought. I held onto that thought as hard as I could. To Grace. Take us to Grace, portal.
LaLuna reached her hand toward mine, and I took it and squeezed as hard as I could. We only got one shot at this. Then we both jumped into the portal in unison.
The pain was excruciating. I felt like every atom of my being was being ripped asunder one at a time as tiny explosions went off all along my skin. I swore several times I was burning alive from the inside out. But then it was over, and I was back in the human world, all in one piece like nothing had happened.
I said a silent prayer that I’d never have to do that ever again and looked at my surroundings.
Something was off. There were houses off in the distance, and I was standing in the middle of a paved road, but I could tell this wasn’t Tacobeh’s reservation. I wasn’t sure where I was exactly, but I knew this wasn’t it.
“I’m sorry,” I told LaLuna. “I think I screwed up somehow and took us to the wrong place.”
To her credit, she smiled at me and patted my arm. “It’s okay. Fae portals are notoriously hard to navigate. I likely wouldn’t have done any better.”
“Now we just have to figure out how far away they are,” I said. I grabbed LaLuna’s hand again. “Come on, let’s go find a major highway. That should tell us where we are.”
We sped off down the road, heading toward a better paved one in the distance. The road had a decent amount of traffic on it, even in the middle of the day, so I felt confident it was a highway. It didn’t take very long for me to find what I was looking for by running alongside it.
A big, green exit sign.
The sign said “Grace” in big, bold letters with a white arrow underneath it.
I almost laughed, but my lungs were too sore from the running. By asking the portal to take me to Grace, it had done just that. But to Grace, Washington, not baby Grace. She was somewhere in the Muckleshoot reservation.
“Well, I know where we are, but it’s fifty miles or so from where we want to be,” I told LaLuna. “And without a car, that’s going to take a while.”
LaLuna bit her lip again. “We don’t have a while, Damian. Yuri still hasn’t replied.”
“I know.” I got a little closer to the side of the road and held up my thumb. “Maybe we can hitchhike. Someone might take us closer.”
“Hitchhike?”
“Yeah, beg someone else for a ride.” I kept my thumb up, but the car approaching me sped on by like I wasn’t even there. Heck, it probably sped up because I was. A girl and a guy carrying a sword in the middle of nowhere? I wouldn’t have stopped, either.
“No, no, this won’t do,” LaLuna muttered, pacing the ground next to me.
I shrugged. “I agree, but we’re nowhere near a portal, so we’re low on options.”
“I can’t let harm come to her, Damian,” LaLuna said. Her pacing was getting more frantic.
A thought came to me then. Maybe Mei would help. She could transform into a dragon and fly us down there in a lot less time than it would take to hitchhike it. I took out my phone and started to scroll through my contacts until I found her number.
“Hang on a sec, I have an idea,” I told LaLuna.
“There’s no time!” LaLuna chided. “I can feel it in my bones, she’s in trouble.” Her eyes darted around wildly for a second, then focused on me.
“I am sorry, Damian,” she said, giving me a weak smile. I looked at her and saw tears welling in her eyes.
“Sorry? For what?”
The answer came soon enough as I felt that same atom-ripping sensation from before flare through my extremities, and my surroundings blurred to nothing.
WHEN MY ATOMS FINALLY reassembled themselves, I opened my eyes only to find the glare of the sun blocking out most of my view. If the general ache that went down to my core wasn’t a dead giveaway, we had teleported again.
Part of me wanted to groan at LaLuna, but only a tiny part. I was worried about Grace, too, and this was a much faster way to get to her. But something was eating at me.
“Didn’t you say teleporting could pinpoint our location?” I asked her, blinking my eyes several times to regain focus.
“My apologies, Sir Damian. I didn’t have any other choice. Grace is in trouble, I just know it. We didn’t have time to try another answer.”
I agreed with her, but had little sympathy in that moment because I couldn’t feel much of anything other than general soreness. “Let’s just hope it was worth it.”
LaLuna nodded in agreement right as my vision cleared up completely, and her happy face was the first thing I was able to focus on. It was a welcome sight.
The rest of my vision returned a moment later, and at last, I was able to make out our surroundings. Plenty of tall trees, houses laid out in nice little rows, and the occasional totem pole breaking things up.
Yep, we’d made it to the reservation all right. Which meant Yuri, Tacobeh, and Grace should be right around the corner.
“Get back!” a voice rang out through the stillness of the air.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on edge. That had been Tacobeh’s voice, I was sure of it.
I spun on my heels to find the source of the noise, one hand going instinctively down to Grax’thor. “This way!” I shouted. LaLuna nodded again.
She took hold of my free hand, and I pulled her in the direction of Tacobeh’s voice. He let out a similar scream a moment later, and it sounded much closer, so I knew we were on the right track.
A small corner of my brain wondered how no one was milling about at this hour, running toward the screams with us—or away from them, for that matter—but that just wasn’t the world we seemed to live in any longer. Oh well, it was probably for the better. Fewer people getting caught in the crossfire and all.
We rounded another bend just a moment later and came across a scene straight out of a nightmare.
Tacobeh and Yuri were tied up to a giant totem pole with some sort of thick cord. The shaman was shouting obscenities at a nearby dark-skinned man holding a small bundle in his arms. His hands glowed a strange green color, and he was giving them a menacing glare while backing slowly away from them.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out. The bundle was baby Grace. Which meant the dark-skinned man was probably...
“Unhand that baby!” LaLuna shouted from behind me. I felt her muscles tense, then she let go of me and took on a battle stance.
“What she said!” I added, unsheathing Grax’thor and holding her steady.
The dark-skinned man turned to face us, and I recognized him immediately. He was dressed a little differently, with no hat to hide his pointed ears and the gloves removed, revealing a pair of glowing green gemstones embedded in the back of his hands, but you guessed it—it was Elden in the flesh.
All at once, the pieces fell into place. He’d been looking for another fae, and I hadn’t realized it at the time, but the description he gave me was suspiciously like LaLuna. Now it made sense as to why he’d handled everything so gracefully when I’d told him no. He’d already found his target. Elden had never been on our side.
“Elden?” I frowned at him. “How could you?”
“Heh. How could I not? Do you know what this baby means for the future of the fae realm?”
To be honest, no, I didn
’t. Even after going to both courts in the fae realm to seek out answers, I still didn’t really have any clue. But I wasn’t going to tell him that.
Besides, he’d tied up my friends. That was all the answer I needed.
I tightened my grip around Grax’thor and took a step forward. “Let the baby go, and I’ll let you leave here alive.”
Elden let out a laugh that sounded more like a cackle. “You think you’re a match for a fae guardian?” He sneered. “Your friends fell fast enough. You two will be no different.”
A guardian, huh? That explained the gems in his hands that looked a lot like LaLuna’s. I grinned at him. “Sounds like a challenge. I love a good challenge.”
I lunged for him without a second thought, closing the gap in seconds and swinging low but wild. Didn’t want to injure Grace.
But somehow, Elden was even faster. He seemed to blur, and before I knew it, he was behind me, smacking me full on the back with one of his open hands.
Pain lanced up my back, emanating from where he’d struck me. It had just been a simple slap, but it felt like so much more. Was it his magic at play? Had he enhanced his regular strike? I’d have to be more on my guard.
I spun around, swinging Grax’thor in a wide, low arc meant for Elden’s legs. My blade managed to leave a small mark on his right leg, but Elden didn’t even seem fazed by it.
His eyes glowed the same color as his hands, and he lifted himself a few inches into the air, then aimed his free hand at me. Something about his glare let me know I was in deep trouble.
I rushed forward, head first, slamming myself into his legs and catching Elden off guard. He let out a howl as we both tumbled to the ground.
My free hand reached for the baby Grace bundle while we rolled across the pavement, trying in vain to free her from his grasp. But he held on to her too tightly, and I was afraid of hurting her by pulling too hard, so I relented.
A moment later, he was on top of me, glowering down at me with those sickly, green-colored eyes. His hand came crashing down onto my chin and for a moment it felt like my head was going to fly off my neck from the force of the blow.
He smacked me again full on the center of my face, and stars swam in my eyes as I raised my hands to ward off another blow. The feel of something wet washed over my cheeks, and I worried my nose was broken. At the very least, it was bleeding heavily.
Elden made to strike me once more, to slam my head against the pavement so hard my skull would break open, but he didn’t get the chance. A small explosion from off to my left rocked us both, and Elden scrambled off of me as fast as he could.
I rolled over and pushed myself up to my knees in time to see another blue-tinged explosion erupt at Elden’s feet. I traced the direction of the explosion and saw LaLuna standing there, panting, her eyes and hands glowing a distinct blue.
“I said drop the baby,” LaLuna said through clenched teeth, “or the next shot won’t miss.”
“So, you do know a few tricks after all,” Elden spat, dusting himself off with his free hand. “Very well. May the best guardian win.”
He summoned forth a blast of green energy that spun in the air, hurtling toward LaLuna at frightening speed. Scrambling to my feet, I tried to run in between LaLuna and the blast, to keep her safe. I lurched forward, but the blast was moving way too fast.
LaLuna fired a ball of blue flame at Elden a second later, and the two magic blasts met in the middle of the air, sending sparks and flames splashing all over the place as they canceled each other out.
“You’ll have to do better than that,” LaLuna said, a hint of a smile cracking her lips.
I’ll be damned if it wasn’t sexy as hell.
The two locked eyes for a moment, and I took Elden’s distraction as an opening to try another lunge, this time aiming for his stupid head. I raised Grax’thor high in the air and ran straight for him, swinging at the last moment.
But once again, I was denied. Elden raised his hand to block the blow. Just his hand, no armor or anything. But it might as well have been a wall of hardened steel. Grax’thor bounced off his skin like she was made of rubber.
I glanced at Elden’s palm. It was untouched. Not even a scratch present. My stomach lurched as I realized I was in way over my head in this conflict, but I stood there undaunted.
Elden turned his gaze to me, an evil grin on his face. “That was a stupid move, human.”
“Tch.” I grinned at him. “Don’t I know it.”
I’d never been one to make the best decisions.
His hand reared back to smack me again, but LaLuna was on him before he could make his move, coming at him with another wave of blue fire. Elden hissed and fell back a few steps, cradling the baby in his arms as he did so.
“Fools!” he spat. He waived his free hand in a wide arc, and half a dozen balls of green fire lanced out, aimed at both me and LaLuna. “You have no idea what you’re doing!”
“Defying you, moron!” I shouted.
The insult left me with little time to maneuver, and I had to duck to miss the incoming blast, but it was worth it. Hot flames danced over my head, singing my hair in the process, but I made it out okay. I glanced over at LaLuna, and she seemed no worse for the wear as well. It looked like those two were a close match for one another.
“Pests, all of you!” he screamed. He raised his hand again, and a wall of green fire formed around him in a neat circle. “You will fall to my boot!”
Another fireball came for me then, but I was ready for it this time, and I dodged it with ease. Still, it was going to be hard to get to him with a wall of green fire blocking the way.
Unless you were as stupid as I was, of course.
I looked over at LaLuna and nodded at her. She nodded back and readied a pair of blue fireballs in her hands.
Almost in the same instant, LaLuna let loose her fireballs while I charged Elden again. The heat from both sets of flames threatened to engulf me, but I charged onward, intent to reclaim baby Grace at all costs.
The first blast of blue fire slammed into Elden’s firewall and dissipated quickly, but the next one managed to tear a hole straight through it.
I watched Elden slide to the side to dodge the remainder of the blast as it sailed past his legs. That was my opening. I swung Grax’thor with all the might I could muster and let go when she was at the top of my arc.
Three feet of cold steel leapt through the air, hurtling straight for Elden’s exposed legs. Much to my surprise, the blade flew straight through the tear in the wall of green fire, and almost hit its mark.
Almost.
At the last second, Elden reached down and batted the sword away like it was a common fly buzzing around. The metal soared through the air once more, this time landing somewhere far behind me with a loud thud.
I spun to look at Grax’thor only to find that it had somehow managed to miss anything living and instead had embedded itself into the tangled mass of cords that were keeping Yuri and Tacobeh at bay.
The cords fell from their bodies, and just like that, we had two more allies in this fight.
“Heh,” I said, my lips curling into a smile as I turned to face Elden once again. “Ain’t that something?”
Elden’s eyes narrowed, and he clutched baby Grace even closer to his chest. “It’s no matter,” he said, though I could tell from here that his voice was shaking just a little. Four against one was not good odds no matter how you sliced it. “I’ll take you all on!”
A loud shriek sounded through the skies at that very moment and all of us, including Elden, looked skyward. There, flying in tight circles above us, were several fae. I spotted Fireball Chick amongst them, and there were a couple others up there that looked like her.
One of them swooped down, a taloned hand reaching for the bundle that was Grace. Elden twisted his stance to guard the baby and sent a wave of green fire right into the fae’s body. The swooping fae shuddered for a moment, then it was down and writhing on the ground while its body bu
rned to a crisp.
But there were far more of them than there were any of us, and in the corner of my eye, I could sense a small army of little folk starting to encircle us on the ground as well.
Elden scanned the ground and crouched down, holding Grace extra tight. “I see you brought back-up,” he said.
We brought back-up? These fae didn’t look too friendly to anyone, and I knew Fireball Chick had a score to settle at least. Still, the tides had turned, and it was obvious that Elden knew that.
Frantically, I ran straight for him, dreading that he’d do something stupid and hurt the baby in the process. But I was too late. Right as my hands reached around him to grab him and tear Grace away from his grasp, he disappeared into the ether.
Chapter Eleven
FIREBALL CHICK SWOOPED down from the air and stood right in front of me, wings tightly furled behind her back. There was a hint of fire in her fingertips and a scowl on her lips. Several other fae landed, taking up position behind her.
“I don’t suppose you’d all just let us go?”
Fireball Chick slowly shook her head, a wicked grin on her face.
Hey, it was worth a shot.
She looked down at the charred fae on the ground, stooping down to gently caress the dead girl’s cheek. It had definitely been a girl. I could tell that now.
“Lashawn,” Fireball Chick said as she stood back up. She had a solemn look to her. “You were amongst the best of our order.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Look, I’m sorry she got killed, but it wasn’t us that did her in.”
Fireball Chick raised a finger in the air in a shushing motion. “Silence!” she barked.
“Hera! Heta!” she glanced at the two djinn standing next to her. “Take a contingent and find the man who killed her. Make sure nothing but ashes remain when you’re done, but leave the baby alone. That kill belongs to me.”
“At once, Alyta,” the two djinn said in unison.
They bowed and took flight, a half dozen or so fae going with them. That still left another half dozen for us, plus whatever was hiding at the edge of my vision, to contend with. Not great odds, but I lived for not great odds.
