by Lynn Wahl
“Paige?” Jake yelled.
I could hear the panic in his voice. I scrambled to my feet and threw myself towards the circle. My spiders scrambled behind. I’d given them orders to attack any people who attacked me, not metal monstrosities. They’d probably just get crushed anyway. I turned in time to see Jake stumbling backwards away from a big metal horse.
I darted a glance back over my shoulder. The wolf was coming back. “Jake, you have to turn it off. I’m here to rescue you!”
Jake didn’t answer. He’d fallen and was now scooting away from me on his butt. His eyes were wide with terror. I looked around in confusion. He couldn’t be afraid of his own creation. My eyes fell on the spiders, still sitting patiently, and I smacked myself in the head.
“Jake, it’s alright. The spiders are—” The wolf landed on me with a bone wrenching thud, smashing me into the floor and pushing all the breath out of my lungs.
Jake seemed to wake up from his terror. “No. Get the spiders!” he said.
The wolf didn’t move. It seemed to have shut down. On top of me. I groaned.
“Jake,” I wheezed out. “Get this thing off of me. The spiders are with me.”
He looked at me like I was crazy, but seeing that the spiders weren’t moving, his lips quirked a little.
“Really? The spiders are with you? That’s your explanation?”
I tried to shrug, but it cramped up my shoulder, and I gasped instead. “Please, this thing is crushing me. Get it off.”
Jake looked at the wolf, his eyes sad, and then nodded. “You can get off her. She’s not going anywhere.”
I stared at him, not sure what he meant, but the wolf came back to life with a purring of engines and got up. It sat behind me with a clank and stared at me.
Jake came forward, still giving the spiders the evil eye, and knelt in front of me.
“You shouldn’t have come,” he said.
I frowned. “I came to save you.”
Jake shook his head. “I can’t leave. I’ve been ordered to stay here. I can’t even leave the workshop.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I know. We were going to just take you and keep you locked up until it wore off.”
Jake sighed. “I’ll fight you. I won’t be able to stop myself. Besides, it doesn’t matter. I just got done programming all of my creations to recognize your picture. They’ve all got orders to capture you on sight. This one won’t let you go.”
I closed my eyes and sighed in frustration. “So what? That’s it? You’re just giving up?”
Jake flushed. “You don’t know what it’s been like here. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I shook my head. “You’re telling me you can’t figure out some way to cancel the order? You built them!”
Jake sighed. “The Captain’s got someone watching me. If I try to cancel any orders the other kid catches them and keeps me from doing anything.”
I wondered what Jake had tried to stop and failed at. “Well, you’re brilliant. You can get around it.”
Jake shook his head. “No, I can’t. The Captain ordered me not to interfere with his plans. That pretty much keeps me from doing anything but building more creatures and following orders.”
At his words, I felt the spell the Queen had placed on me flare into life. It felt similar to the pain I felt when bringing my creatures to life. I stifled a gasp and shook my head, trying to clear away the pain. “That’s ridiculous,” I said. “There’s got to be some way to get around it.”
Jake stood and threw his hands in the air. He turned and stalked back to the horse he’d been working on, not meeting my eyes. “No, Paige, there’s not. I told you that you shouldn’t have come! I don’t need your help. I don’t want your help.”
The thought hit me like a punch in the stomach. The whole time I’d been here, the only thing I’d cared about was rescuing Jake. And now, he didn’t want my help. My disappointment transformed almost instantly into anger. Fueled by the spell, it became something dark and ugly.
“Do you know what your creations are doing? Do you know how many fairies you’ve killed just to get them to move? It’s disgusting.” I was yelling now, my face and ears hot with anger.
When his face went pale, I felt a moment of regret, but pushed on. “What’s happened to you? You’re a monster.”
Jake licked his lips, still pale, and then his face shut down. “Whatever,” he said. He rushed over to one of his tables and pushed a button on a small metal creature. It whirred to life, hovering in front of his face.
“Go find the Captain,” he said, his voice hard and cold. “Tell him I’ve captured the girl that came here with me.”
The creature was gone before I could stop it, before I could even move off the floor in my astonishment. “Why did you do that?” I asked. He’d just betrayed me. My best friend, the whole reason I was here in the first place, and he’d just handed me over to the Captain like I was a stranger.
Jake shrugged. “I was doing fine here before you came along. I don’t need or want your help. I was ordered to capture you, so that’s what I did.”
I shook my head. “You were ordered to make your creations capture me, not capture me yourself.”
He shrugged again. “Same difference. Isn’t that what you just said? I’m a monster, remember? You shouldn’t be so surprised.”
“Jake,” I whispered. “Don’t do this. I’m here to help you. We can figure something out.” But the spell was becoming more insistent now, pounding in my temples. I had to do something before I was unable to.
He didn’t answer, his hands deep inside the metal horse. I looked at my spiders, unsure what to do. The sound of footsteps out in the hallway suddenly clanged through the room. In a panic, I lurched to my feet, cringing behind the spiders.
“Attack whoever comes through the door,” I said.
The spiders scurried forward, front legs hovering in readiness. I grabbed a big metal wrench off the table next to me, darting a quick look at the wolf to see what it was going to do.
It just sat there, so I turned my eyes back to the door. Jake may have given up, but I refused to go down without a fight.
Nineteen: Paige
When a familiar, grungy face rounded the door frame, the spiders lurched forward. William barely avoided getting bitten by hopping into the air to hover above the floor.
“No,” I cried. “Don’t hurt him!”
The spiders immediately backed up, legs lowered back to the floor. William glared at me and I shrugged.
“I thought you were the Captain. Jake sent something to get him. Where in the hell were you?”
William shrugged. “I saw the Captain. I went to fight him.” He frowned and looked at Jake. “So this is him?” William didn’t sound very impressed.
Jake put his hands on his hips. “Who in the hell is this?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s William, Jake. The Captain’s brother.”
Jake looked fascinated for a moment, and then shrugged and went back to his horse. “The Captain will be happy I’ve caught you both,” he muttered.
I wanted to walk over and shove him into his stupid metal horse. Instead, I looked at William. “He doesn’t really want to leave,” I explained.
William rolled his eyes. “I told you he wouldn’t.”
Embarrassed, I shook my head. “No, um…he really doesn’t want to leave. He likes it here.” I knew I’d made a mistake when William’s eyes darkened. Before I could stop him, he’d hopped up over the horse and pushed Jake to the floor.
“So you like killing innocent little fairies, huh? You like killing people? You’re pathetic!” William yelled.
“Stop!” I said. “He’s just confused. We need to leave now.”
William looked at me. “He’s not worth saving.”
The spell pulsed, as if in agreement with William’s words, but I shook my head. “I don’t believe that. This isn’t who he is.”
Jake just laid there on the
floor, not moving. His eyes were closed, as if he didn’t care what happened. The metal wolf still sat and stared at me, not registering William’s presence at all.
“So you still want to save him? Even though he’s being a—“
“Yes,” I said, interrupting William. “He’s my best friend. Nothing’s going to change that.” Not even the spell that was gnawing away at my insides.
William looked at me like I was crazy and then without warning, lunged over to Jake and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Jake cried out, kicked his feet, and went right over William’s back. I winced. It looked like he landed on his head.
I glared at William. “You did that on purpose,” I said and hurried over to Jake. The wolf creaked as its head followed my progress.
“Jake, are you alright?” I asked.
He pushed my hands away. “Don’t touch me.” He stood again up. “I’m not leaving. I already told you. So why don’t you just leave me alone and get out of here? Go hang out with all your fairy friends.”
I tried to keep my anger down, tried to understand that Jake was probably under a lot of pressure, but it didn’t work. At all. “You’re being a jerk,” I said.
“Yeah? Well, I’m not making you stay here and put up with it, am I? I told you to leave.” His voice rose on the last sentence until he was yelling in my face.
Disgusted, I wiped the spit off my cheek. “Fine. You don’t want to come on your own? I’m okay with that too.”
I turned to one of the spiders. “Bite him in the chest.”
The spider was across the room and leaping onto Jake before I could even react or feel sorry for what I’d done. Jake screamed and fell to the floor.
I leaned over Jake, feeling a little guilty that I hadn’t warned him. His eyes were watering, but he glared at me through the tears.
“I hate you,” he slurred. The venom was already working, each beat of his heart pushing the venom farther and farther into his body.
I patted his hand, knowing he couldn’t feel it. “Yeah, well, I kind of hate you right now too. We’ll deal with it later.”
I turned back to William and then cursed. The wolf still sat staring at me. I’d completely forgotten about it. Even if William could take Jake out of here, the wolf wasn’t going to let me go.
“What?” William asked.
I pointed at the wolf. “It’s been ordered to hold me here until the Captain comes.”
He looked at it, and I could see from his eyes that he didn’t have any ideas.
“I’ve already disabled its programming.”
The voice made me jump. I hadn’t even seen the small boy from a few doors down come in the room, but he stood there against the wall right inside the door.
“Terence, right?” I asked.
The boy nodded. He looked pitiful with his dirty, messed up hair and bruise. I wanted to give him a giant hug.
“Please take me with you,” he said.
I glanced at William and he frowned. “I can’t carry that many.”
I licked my lips. “Fine. I’ll take him with me. Stormy can carry two.” I pointed at Jake. ““Grab him and let’s go.”
William gave his trademark little shrug and slung Jake back up over his shoulder.
“Don’t drop Jake again,” I warned.
William just shrugged and turned to leave. He ran straight into the Captain. He let out a strangled cry, dropping Jake to the floor with a muffled thud and flew backwards across the room, hand darting to his belt.
Even as the Captain began to speak, William shoved something in his ears and then lunged at the Captain with a guttural cry of rage, pushing him back through the door. Terence was gone, disappeared in the confusion back to his room probably.
The Captain let out a bray of laughter and from out in the hallway I heard the clash of steel on steel. I looked around for my spiders, but realized they’d already gone after the two men the Captain had brought with him. One of the spiders slumped in a jumble of torn limbs and blood on the floor near the door right by one of the men who lay limp and still. The other spider was limping around with only six legs.
“Stop,” I said, motioning the other spider away. I didn’t want my creations dying to protect me.
The man the Captain brought with him gave me a grin and sliced down through the back of the unmoving spider. I looked at the remains of my creation and back at the sailor, or whatever he was. Without thinking, I grabbed the first tool I could find off the nearest table and launched myself at him.
He must have been as surprised as I was at my attack, because I clocked him right in the head with a wrench and he went down like a falling tree.
I turned to Jake, trying to figure out how I could pick him up. Finally, I settled for dragging him away. He was heavy, and I was tired from all the walking we’d done through the jungle to get to the beach, but I was almost to the stairway that led to the open deck when I had to stop.
William and the Captain were still going at it. William had a bleeding cut on his face, and the Captain was favoring his left arm. A steady trickle of blood flowed from both of them, spattering the floor. It made me sick to my stomach. When they’d moved far enough away, I pulled Jake to the stairway door and then paused. I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate me just pushing him down the stairs. Realizing I couldn’t do it by myself, I called out to William.
“William, I need your help. Please!”
William shot a look my way, and I realized too late how stupid I was for distracting him. He took a hit to his sword arm right above the elbow. The blade dropped from his limp hand and he stumbled backwards. With one final, unreadable look at me, he turned and flew off down the corridor.
For a moment, I thought the Captain would follow him, but instead he turned and looked at me.
“Looks like William’s performed one of his best tricks. He’s disappeared, and left you here all by your lonesome.”
I lifted my chin, not giving him the satisfaction of cowering. “Yeah, well. At least he gives being a decent person a shot once in awhile. That’s more than I can say for you.”
If my slur had any effect, the Captain didn’t show it. “Well, my girl. Nice to have you aboard. Why don’t we put Jake back in his workshop, and you and I can have a little chat.”
I looked down at Jake and up at the Captain. If I was captured, I couldn’t save him. If I was free, I could try again. Trying not to show what I was thinking, I swung the door open and began clattering down the stairs.
The Captain’s voice came from the top of the stairwell, echoing through the enclosed space.
“Stop.”
The word speared itself right into my brain, and it was like all of my muscles tried to obey the command all at once. I saw the stairs rushing up at my face and had a brief moment to think of how much it was going to hurt, and then … nothing.
Twenty: Paige
I woke up in a small room with no windows. The smell of the bed I was lying on made me gag, and someone shoved a bucket under my face. My head spun as I threw up everything in my stomach, and I let out a groan.
“I told you you just should have left.”
I raised my eyes to meet Jake’s and then looked away. I didn’t want to hear it. No way was I going to sit here and listen to the guy that used to be my friend tell me how wrong I was for trying to come save him.
“You could at least pretend to be grateful,” I said.
Jake laughed. “Yeah. I’m real grateful. You come in with your jerk of a friend, sic a spider on me, destroy my workroom, and then get yourself captured on top of it. Yeah. Grateful.”
The only thing that kept me from taking a swing at him was how dizzy I was. I’d probably miss and fall off the bed. Which on second thought, didn’t sound so bad. Whoever had been sleeping on this thing seriously needed to learn better hygiene.
I pulled my scattered thoughts back to the conversation. “Yeah, well at least I’ve been trying to make things better since I got here. All you�
�ve done is make things worse.”
Jake clenched his teeth. “I had no choice.”
“You didn’t have to send that dragon thingy to get the Captain. That was all you. It’s your fault I’m captured.”
Jake looked guilty at that, and then shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s not like the fae are going to last much longer anyway. You’ll be safer on this side of the fight from now on.”
I paled, thinking of Etain and Cashraina. I thought of Lavender. “What do you mean?”
Jake’s eyes shifted away. “I thought you knew. I thought that’s why you’d come. To kill me.”
I gritted my teeth. “Jake. What are you talking about?” I didn’t want to tell him about the spell. I couldn’t do anything about the spell right now, so I didn’t really think it would make anything better to mention it.
He stayed quiet for a moment and then buried his face in his hands. “I tried to stop it, I did. It was so awful. But the Captain knew I would, so he had Terence override my abort commands. I couldn’t stop it.”
Feeling a huge pit of icy cold opening in my stomach, I put my hand out to Jake’s shoulder. I didn’t try anything more, knowing he didn’t really like to be touched.
“Whatever happened, I know it wasn’t your fault. But you need to tell me what you’re talking about.”
Jake’s face when he looked up was streaked, the tears cutting tracks down his oil-smudged face. “The Captain attacked the fae with my creations. Paige, they’re dead. They’re all dead.”
I reeled back, too shocked to pay attention to the hurt on Jake’s face, and huddled back against the wall. They couldn’t all be dead. Nuada and Etain had come with us to the edge of the beach. They were still alive. Lavender was waiting for me back with the others. But Cashraina, the Queen?
“Jake, is the Queen dead?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes. She was the Captain’s main target. She was one of the first to die.”
I sat stunned. I closed my eyes. “Surely some of them managed to escape.” I couldn’t even think of all the fae I’d seen lying in that beautiful palace all ripped apart.
“Some of them managed to slip off into the woods, but most of the Captain’s men are out hunting them now. My creations are able to move through the jungle a lot faster than they are. The fae have nowhere to hide. That was part of the plan.”
