by Simone Pond
Stone stood behind his desk arguing with his assistant. When he saw me, he rounded the desk and shoved me so hard I flew across the room and smashed against a bookshelf. Uh-oh. Was my cover blown? My cellphone crashed to the floor, shattering the screen. Charlotte would be so happy. I grabbed the phone and put it back in my pocket, then dusted myself off and stood up to confront Stone. His face was a dark shade of red and his eyes bulged. Clearly, the guy I was disguised as had pissed him off. I played along, hoping Stone would calm down.
“You bastard!” he roared.
The assistant scurried out of the office, slamming the door behind her.
“I’m sorry—I figured after yesterday, you preferred I enter the ‘traditional’ way.”
“Traditional my ass. This better be important.”
It was just Stone and me. Part of me wanted to take out my sword and slay him right there on the spot, but if I did that, it’d be a helluva lot tougher finding the location where he was housing his victims. Additionally, I wanted to get some photographs of Stone at the location to expose his heinous business practices. That would surely be enough evidence to put him and his cohorts away for good, which would be much more satisfying than merely ending his life—and it’d be the scoop of the century. Somer Barrett—and the entire media scene—would see me as a legitimate player.
“I can’t believe you sold our most valuable asset,” Stone continued. “We could’ve used that as leverage against that tyrant Cagliostro, and instead you sold it to him for pennies on the dollar. You’re an idiot, Franklin.”
I rubbed my shoulder where it still throbbed from smashing up against the bookshelf, wondering why the Armor wasn’t healing me faster. Maybe it had something to do with the disguise? I let Stone continue rambling, hoping in his rage he’d disclose some information I could actually use.
“I’m not sure you realize the consequences this will have—not just profit-wise—but you basically gave the most powerful demon mage of the Shadow Order the keys to the kingdom.”
I approached Stone, keeping my eyes locked on him. “I might have a solution. If you can accompany me to the warehouse, I’ll show you.”
He slapped my face. “I don’t have time, you moron.”
Dammit. My manipulation tactics were failing me. If I couldn’t convince Stone to take me to the location, I’d never get the evidence to expose him.
My phone started ringing. I thought it was Charlotte getting back to me, so without thinking I pulled it out. It was Asher. He’d have to wait. I returned my focus to Stone. “Sir, I think you’ll want to come with me,” I persisted. At that point, I had nothing to lose.
Stone quietly scrutinized me. “And why is that?” he asked.
Oh, come on Fiona, think of something. How could I lure him into my trap? What would be so tempting Stone couldn’t resist? It’d need to be something that would bring him in a huge bounty. A resource that had incredible value.
“I might’ve snagged a Protector,” I blurted out.
Stone’s eyes widened as he approached me. “Now that is interesting.”
“She was snooping around the shelter a few hours ago. One of my men brought her in. However, she’s heavily cloaked, so I’m not sure. I’d like your expert evaluation.” I didn’t care if it sounded absurd, as long as it worked. Judging from the look of satisfaction spreading across Stone’s face, it seemed to be doing just that.
“In that case, let’s go check it out. Well done, Franklin.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and escorted me out of his office and down the hall.
That was a lot easier than I thought it’d be. The greedy demon, or whatever he was, was a fool for money. I had him in the palm of my hands.
As we walked down the hallway, I noticed Laila following overhead. I slowed a few paces behind Stone and tossed my phone up to her. Not only were we going to nail the asshole, we were going to save a bunch of innocent people—and magical beings.
***
Stone had a driver take us south of the city to a desolate and sordid section of Hunter’s Point where there were a handful of abandoned and crumbling buildings and warehouses. The driver parked in front of the only warehouse that was intact.
When we stepped inside, I shuddered. The place was set up like a Bazaar, only instead of selling rugs and bolts of fabric or baskets, they had humans locked up in cages and magical beings like faeries, forest nymphs, white witches, and muses contained in individual domes made of glass. Their magic was useless against the barriers. I glanced around, looking for Laila, hoping against all hope she had made it into the warehouse and was snapping photographs. Despite the cold, meat locker temperature, sweat dripped down my face in relentless streams.
“You okay, Franklin?” Stone asked.
“Ate something that didn’t agree with me for lunch,” I mumbled.
The reason for my discomfort was the horrific conditions around me. The stench of human sweat and misery sat heavily in the air. Demonic creatures stood in the aisles shouting out their goods to those passing. I wasn’t sure if all the buyers were actually supernatural because some looked to be human, but maybe they were shifters. The shouting from the peddlers and the cries of the humans were too much. Vampires lined up to purchase humans for their blood, while demons seemed to be purchasing them for sacrifices or servanthood—or worse. I figured the warlocks and witches were there to purchase more magic, since most were congregating over in the supernatural aisles. The vilest section was in the middle where they were auctioning off children. I stopped short, unable to go deeper into the devil’s cauldron.
“You sure you’re okay, Franklin?” Stone held my shoulder, smirking.
I nodded, pursing my lips tightly together to keep from vomiting.
“So, where’s this Protector you said you captured?” Stone asked in a patronizing tone.
I pointed to the back of the warehouse.
“Well, let’s go, shall we?” His fingers dug into my bicep as he shoved me forward.
Demons, warlocks, animal shifters, and peddlers looked up as we walked by on our way to the back of the warehouse. The noise leveled lowered, and a heavy presence filled the atmosphere. Dark magic and fear. My heart began racing. I looked around for exits, but there were no doors or windows, only endless rows of cages and glass containers. Something wasn’t right. I looked around for Laila to signal her to get the hell out of there, but she was nowhere in sight. Hopefully she hadn’t been caught.
At the back of the warehouse, Stone knocked on an office door. I stood there shaking in my magical boots. The door opened. Standing before us was none other than the real Franklin. I was busted.
“Franklin, this is Fiona,” Stone said, smirking.
“How’d you know?” I asked.
“Your crappy phone.”
twenty-five
Answering my phone had been a huge mistake. I mean, huge. But I still had the Armor, so all was not lost. My confidence, though wavering, lifted as I held out my right hand and summoned my sword for battle. Time to kick some demon ass.
And nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. Well, except for Stone and Franklin breaking into a fit of laughter over my ridiculous attempt to ward them off. Still in my Franklin disguise, FYI.
“Damn faerie,” I muttered, realizing the little twit had somehow stolen my suit of Armor when she had disguised me as Franklin.
I knew better than to make a deal with a faerie. If I lived through this, I’d make sure to never make the same mistake. Tricky little bitch. She had used me to find the location so she could save her faerie friends, leaving me behind to be sold for an incredibly high price, since apparently Protectors were hot commodities in the trafficking trade.
Stone nudged Franklin to move in on me. I held up my fists, not one to go down without a fight. I took a swing at the identical twin standing in front of me. Though we looked exactly alike, there was a huge difference. The real Franklin was a powerful demon, and I was a Protector without protection. He grabbed my fist,
squeezing so hard my bones crumbled under his grip. The crunching sound was jarring at first, sending me into a moment of shock, but then a biting pain tore through my hand like knives made of scorching fire, followed by the weight of heavy iron. The last thing I saw before I crumpled to the ground in a heap of worthlessness was Stone’s smug grin.
***
I woke up to the putrid smell of something rotting—maybe it was the hand that seemed to just dangle from my wrist. I was still in Franklin-mode, which might’ve been more disturbing than my broken hand. The sound of demonic peddlers shouting out their wares pierced my brain, letting me know exactly where I was. Stone had set me up in a cage in the center of the warehouse among the young children. He did it just to spite me, no doubt about it, but all that did was fuel the fire already raging inside. I wanted to take down every last one of those demonic entities for what they were doing; the human trafficking of children is by far the most despicable and vile act ever known to man. If I ever got in front of the Monarchy, my first question would be how could they allow such a thing?
In the cage next to me, a small girl with long blond hair sat crisscross, playing with a couple of sticks. I guessed she was about seven or eight years old. She had a unique innocence that reminded me of a character from a fairytale; refusing to allow the situation to drag her down, she pretended to be having a tea party with the sticks. When she glanced up and saw me staring at her with admiration, she beamed a wide smile.
“What’s your name?” she whispered.
“Fiona.”
“That’s a girls’ name. And you’re a boy,” she said.
“Well, not really. I’m in a disguise at the moment. What’s your name?”
“Sadie. I’m glad you woke up. I was getting lonely. They took my friend away, and I only had these sticks to keep me company.”
“How long have you been here, Sadie?” I tried to keep a nurturing tone because I didn’t think venomous vitriol would be very encouraging for the young girl. But my insides were spitting fire.
“Not sure. Maybe a day?”
“How long have I been asleep?” Knocked unconscious was more like it, but she didn’t need to know that.
She looked around, counting something on her fingers and then turned back to me. “Almost an hour.”
“What were you counting?”
“Every fifteen minutes a bell sounds and they switch stations.”
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out the point of that. Maybe it had something to do with the peddlers not getting too attached to their wares. My stomach rolled in a sickening wave—you never want to believe this stuff is real, but it was impossible to deny.
Looking around, I scoped out the warehouse. Was there any way in a frozen-over Hell that I’d be able to escape from that cage and free everyone? As far as I could tell, it was utterly hopeless. Besides the peddlers who’d do whatever it took to guard their “products,” there were also security guards stationed all over the place. Stone had the sense to take precautionary measures. Unlike me. I knew I’d live to regret trusting Laila; she had let me enter the warehouse without my Armor, and now I was stranded.
“Damn faeries,” I murmured.
Sadie perked up. “Did you say faeries?”
“No,” I lied. Why add more confusion to the already messed up situation?
“Well, there was one over here a little while ago. She tried waking you up a few times, but you didn’t move.”
I wasn’t sure how the little girl 1) knew about faeries; and 2) could see them. But I went along, just in case the faerie that had come by happened to be that traitor, Laila.
I leaned closer to her cage so the sellers couldn’t hear our conversation. “What did she look like?”
“Beautiful. Blue sparkling light and the prettiest eyes you’ve ever seen.”
Sadie was right about that, Laila did have gorgeous eyes—the deceiving charmer. But the fact that she had come by to check on me meant she hadn’t left me for dead. Perhaps she was up to something. Of course she was up to something. That’s how faeries roll.
I leaned back against the bars of my cage and waited for Laila to make an appearance, but after an hour of playing tea party with my new friend and no sign of the little blue faerie, I figured she’d either gotten caught or left. I’d have to figure another way out of the cage without her magic.
A stout, bald man wearing an expensive black suit approached our area and eyed Sadie like he was admiring a diamond necklace. His beady eyes squinted with sickening delight as he reached through the bars to stroke her long blond locks. I jumped to my feet and grabbed his wrist through the bars, and yanked him over toward me.
“Keep your filthy hands off her!” I shouted.
One of the peddlers ran over and prodded me with a bolt of electricity that shot me up against the bars, knocking me on my ass. I lay on the floor of my cage completely paralyzed and unable to do anything. I watched, screaming in my head, as the man handed over a bag of what had to have been money and assisted sweet, innocent Sadie out of her cage. He held her tiny hand as they walked down the aisle.
“No,” I breathed out in a whisper as tears fell from my eyes.
Just then, a blue ball of light—that I had become way too familiar with—floated into my cage and landed next to my face.
“Finally, you’re awake,” Laila said.
If I had any strength, I would’ve batted her away. “Stop him,” I whispered.
“Who?”
“That man walking with that little girl. Stop him. Do whatever you can.”
“If I use my magic, I’ll get caught for sure.”
“Then what the hell do you want? Actually, I’m done with you, faerie. You stole my Armor and got me into this mess.”
“I didn’t steal it. I just borrowed it. I knew they’d be able to detect the Armor, even in your disguise. I wanted to ensure you’d be able get inside here in one piece. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to help my friends.”
“So you lied to me making me think I had the Armor?”
She smiled and kissed my cheek, sprinkling me with the sweet scent of gardenias. “It was a white lie,” she said.
I kind of hated Laila, but at the moment I was incredibly grateful that she had my Armor. I kept my eyes trained on the man and Sadie as they walked through the warehouse. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry as he did his cage-shopping. Slight relief settled over me because as long as they were in the warehouse, I still had a chance to do something.
“So where’s the Armor?” I asked.
“Promise you’ll help my friends?”
And there I was, making another deal with a faerie. Shame on me. But I didn’t have a choice. I had to get out of that cage and stop Stone from harming any more innocent humans. I had to get Sadie away from that evil lech.
“Unlike you, faerie, when I say something, I actually mean it.”
She gave me a twinkling smile and said, “We’ll only have two minutes. So make it count.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she fluttered away. Suddenly, the lights went out and the entire place was pitch black, except for Laila making her way over to me carrying my glowing suit of Armor. I stripped out of the black suit and stood naked, waiting for Laila. I couldn’t wait to get out of Franklin’s body and back into my own, but first thing’s first.
Laila swept into my cage, dropping the Armor. I caught it and squeezed into the suit. Once it melded against my skin, I put on my pants and jacket. I wasn’t about to save the day in the nude. Not with man parts dangling about. Gross. My broken hand no longer hurt, but it wasn’t in the best shape. Still, I summoned my sword to cut through the bars and leapt out of the cage. We only had another minute before the lights came back on. I started to go after Sadie, but Laila buzzed around my head yelling, “This way, my friends are over here!”
I had to keep my word, otherwise she’d pull something else. Grudgingly, I followed her across the warehouse, holding out my shield to protect us from any
attacks along the way. Just as the lights came back on, we arrived in a section of the warehouse with hundreds of glass domes containing magical creatures. My heart wrenched, wanting to save all of them, but I promised Laila to help her friends first.
I ran down the aisle with my sword out, slicing into the glass domes, shattering them with the powerful sword. Laila flew around the broken domes sprinkling her blue faerie dust, waking everyone up. The tiny creatures came back to life, gleaming in various pastel colors.
“I’m going to break out the others. Tell your faerie friends to help them. And then come over to the other side and help me with the humans.”
“They’re too weak! We can come back when we’re better equipped,” she shouted. “Fiona! There’s not enough time!”
Ignoring her, I zipped around the warehouse slicing through the glass domes and releasing the magical creatures. I raced to the other side and cut through the cage bars. But I still needed to find Sadie.
The warehouse was utter mayhem. The peddlers scattered in all directions, most of them fighting each other in confusion. Warlocks were grabbing at whatever they could to destroy it and eat their hearts for more power. Shifters began changing into their animal forms—wolves, panthers, lizards, you name it—and were chasing after magical creatures. The security guards couldn’t contain the maelstrom of warring factions. I might’ve started a civil war among the supernatural camps, but at least they were too distracted attacking each other to pay attention to the humans who I was releasing from the cages. Laila and her band of faeries were helping the children and adults, endowing them with flying abilities so they were able to rise above the bedlam and escape the warehouse.
I rounded a corner and smacked up against the man who was still holding Sadie’s hand. He pulled her close and held a dagger up to her small neck.
“Let her go!” I warned.
“I don’t think so,” he sneered.
