by Sarah Tobias
Plaster and paint chips exploded, obscuring my vision but not my goal. I lay a hard hand on both of their faces and they screamed with banshee precision, vapors of steam rising as I handed out third-degree burns.
The third one came up from behind, his mouth open in anticipation of connecting with my neck, and I pitched an elbow backwards until it cracked against the Leiche’s teeth. He clamored for balance but fell, the sickening crunch jarring the damaged fang loose.
The twin I was forced to take my hand away from saw her chance, leaping up, toppling us sideways and landing on her sister who was still crying out in agony, my left hand remaining firm.
I aimed for a punch, but the free sister laughed as she deflected my blow, catching my forearm and twisting it so ferociously I heard the snap of bone.
I gagged right along with the dark flame, both of us feeling the shrieking pain, but we used it, bunching it into malevolent hate against these creatures who dared to enter my home. My eyes raged with golden fire and I tore the Leiche off me and threw her headfirst into the vanity mirror above my dresser. Shards tinkled as they fell upon her and cascaded across the floor. Satisfied she was at least temporarily broken, I turned my attention to her sister, the Leiche I still had below me, and called upon the burn.
Her eyes seized open and shut, barely maintaining consciousness. My skin had been touching hers for what seemed like seconds, but I also registered that I’d never held onto a fae for so long. The blaze seared through my left arm and into my chest, but I held firm.
Expel the fae, I shouted at the dark flame, but realized, to my chagrin, I didn’t have to command anything from her.
We'd been working together. She was allowing me, and I her, to compete against these possessed children as a team.
I held onto the semi-conscious Leiche, our eyes meeting as if connected by a long, translucent string. I tugged, gathering the storm, my stomach retracting. I surged lightning, heaving it at her with everything I had.
The white wave shuttled through her with a force similar to a speeding SUV slamming into her face. The blue soul smoked out of the body, taking tangible form in the air, then shrieking and scrambling to stand up on its legs.
This fae’s tendons slunk across her bones as if they were live maggots, her eyes empty sockets in her gaunt, shriveled face. Instead of cheeks, deep, emaciated holes were in their place, her jaw held together only by thin ligaments and muscles that hadn’t already deteriorated.
I sliced forward and hooked her by the ankle.
Her shrieks would ring in my eardrums long after we parted. I dragged her flailing form towards me. I leaned in, taking a deep, anticipatory breath. My hand reached for her neck. She went limp as the heat built up behind my eyes, illuminating the room with eerie gold.
Something shoved me from behind and I hurled into the wall beside the shattered mirror, splinters of the destroyed dresser lodging into my neck, spine, and thighs. My studio apartment whirled, turned neon, and split in two, all in time to the swaying sludge in my skull, which perhaps at one time had been a brain. I squinted through the dust and plaster to see the boy, head down, shifting from foot to foot. I raised a hand, but his chin snapped up, vermilion eyes on target, and he exploded into the air, landing on my chest and sinking his remaining fang into my neck.
My last thought before the venom cannonballed me unconscious was, inexplicably, this: Macy’s gonna kill me for ditching her again.
Chapter 37
I came to slowly, bathed in a heat that, for once, wasn’t coming from the inside.
I cracked my eyes open, the very act feeling like I had to fracture my eye sockets to do it. I searched within myself, attempting to locate the dark flame, but she was nowhere.
Sluggishly, I surveyed my surroundings. Filthy metal pillars encased me on all sides, the smell of rotting garbage and burned oil invading my nostrils. A fire bloomed about fifteen feet in front of me. I flinched, sensitive to the firelight, and swept my gaze around, checking my blind spots.
There they stood, all three of the Leiche, dancing around their handmade fire like bizarre evil cherubs. I noted through my fogged brain that the fae I’d expelled from the child had slipped right back into her human shell and was happily pirouetting with her cohorts, no harm done.
I called to the dark flame. Nothing.
There was no room for panic when I realized the pressure I’d been feeling on my wrists were tight bindings, possibly rope. These devil babies had strapped me up against one of the steel pillars, the bindings pulling my arms back painfully and straining my shoulders. Dust rained down every time I tried to move, falling onto my hands, grating against my eyes. But although my torso and arms were tied, my legs remained free.
Probably because they were too small to hold me standing while trussing me up like a pig.
Where was I?
The ground was cold and damp. Wetness seeped against my butt and I shivered with cold. To test my leeway, I bent my knees, drawing them close to my chest.
Why didn’t they kill me when they had the chance?
Apparently, one fang full of venom wasn't enough to end my halfling life. I guessed the other two decided not to sink their own fangs into me just yet. This was both hinky and terrifying. They wanted something.
“Oh…”
A very human-sounding moan came from my left.
My heart fell into my stomach when I glanced over. “Macy? No…”
There she was, my best friend, my whole heart, the girl who saved me from myself, bound against a metal pillar beside me, rust peeling like paper around her.
Her eyes fluttered open at my voice. Then Macy looked over at me, and I was the only witness to the terror snaking under skin.
“Emily? Ems, what’s happening? What’s going on?”
I tried to shush her to not draw the Leiches’ attention before I had time to formulate some plan, or at the very least, figure out where the hell we were, but it was too late. Macy’s voice, rising in panic with every syllable, had caught their interest.
“She’s awake,” one of them hissed, the boy, still one fang short.
I struggled against my restraints. I had to keep their attention on me and not Macy.
“Are you so scared of me you have to tie me up?” I said. “I had you. I had all of you.”
The two girls laughed at that, the boy remaining ominously silent, stroking his sole fang.
“You never had us. We were just enjoying the exercise. We haven’t had that kind of fight in a while. We thank you for that,” one girl said, her voice unnaturally musical. She strolled towards me.
Once she reached me, she bent down so her nose almost touched mine. Her eyes crinkled up with a looming smile, a faint red glow pulsing beneath her pupils.
My stomach growled.
Behind me, a low roar sounded, before the telling sound of wheels shooting across steel followed it.
Subway. We’re in some sort of abandoned section.
But where?
New York City’s subway map was like the colorful tentacles of a sea monster, streaming across the island and its surrounding boroughs, reaching into every area, twisted and tangled, yet still a form of organized chaos. There were so many tunnels, all owning thousands of dark pockets. An underground city, secret with its caves, ripe with a filthy protection for those who wanted escape.
Meaning we could be anywhere in the city. Any-freaking-where.
“Not so powerful now, are you, Cursed One?” the girl said, her breath foul against my cheeks.
She rose into a standing position, observing me as her words sunk in.
“Yes, we know what you are,” the other twin said as she sidled up next to her sister. “Since you killed our sister, we’ve been watching. We have been waiting.”
There is nothing creepier than possessed children. Nothing. I clenched my jaw to hide my fears. Where was the dark flame? Why couldn’t I access her?
No, I thought. I refused to accept defeat on me not having my dev
ious twin. For too long, I’d been denying my powers, refusing to accept what I was becoming and creating a deep hindrance within myself. That failure had led me here, with my friend in peril, all because I refused to learn. All because I just wanted to be normal.
“If you know what I am, then you know I’ll kill you,” I said.
“Not before we get what we want.” The boy spoke from behind his sisters, his eyes gleaming against the firelight.
Yep. He was most definitely pissed at me for breaking his fang.
One girl wandered over to Macy, stepping over the broken subway tracks, resembling a ghoulish ballerina in her dirty pink dress. Anxiety laced through me, but I kept my tone neutral when I said, “What could you want with a mere mortal when you have me? One of the last in existence. You don’t need her for anything.”
The girl glanced back at me playfully. “Oh, we know. We know also that you care deeply for this one. We’ve seen. We’ve watched. You will do as we say, or else we will kill your pet.”
Against my better intentions, fear clouded my voice. “What do you want me to do?”
“We’ve learned about your kind since witnessing your skill. I have alerted the Warriors. We’ve communicated with your fae cohort. What is it you call him? Oh yes, Derek,” the other girl said, twirling in circles as she spoke to me. She kicked at a puddle of putrid water, scattering it across my legs.
Unexplained angst shortened my breaths at the thought of what they could have done to Derek, at the same time utter betrayal flooded my lungs. I never thought Derek would do this. Give me up. Share my secret with evil.
“So, have you tied me up for the Warriors, then?” I asked. “Am I just awaiting my fate? Fine.” Part of me wanted it to end. “But let the human go. She’s useless and obviously too old for your tastes. She’s just scrap to the Warriors.”
“That is where you have it wrong, Cursed One,” the boy said, his voice so close to my ear I jumped as much as my restraints would allow. His fang glistened with the moisture of his saliva. “We want your powers.”
“Yes, your powers!” the girls chorused as they twirled.
One girl halted, taking a direct path to Macy, who was terrified into silence during the entire exchange.
“Emily, am I dreaming?” Macy asked. “Why have these kids tied us up? Where are their parents?”
“I’ll get you out of this, Mace,” I responded, hoping against hope that I could. If I could only locate my inner maniac.
I’d been inconspicuously rubbing the restraints around my hands against the sharp edges of the crumbling steel, but to no avail. There was no slackening of rope, no loosening of ties, despite using any remaining supernatural strength I had. What kind of magic rope was this?
One girl loosened Macy’s restraints. Were they going to let her go? I quickly stomped on that hope. No, they were preparing for something else.
The girl dragged Macy in front of me, her legs trailing uselessly behind her. Fury erupted. They’d hurt her.
When they had Macy centered in my line of sight, the other girl fastened her hands onto Macy’s other side, her talons digging into Macy’s skin and drawing blood. Macy whimpered, and my heart cried with her.
There was a flash in my peripheral vision and the boy crept over, holding a knife. He smiled, twisting the blade back and forth against the light of the fire before dragging it along his fang so it made the sound of screws against glass.
“If you do not do as we say,” he said, “we will kill her. Slowly.”
“Emily!” Macy cried, the whites of her eyes so obvious in this dank, putrid underground.
The boy carved into Macy’s exposed chest, just above her pink V-neck sweater, drawing a horizontal line of blood. She screamed.
I pulled as hard as I could, fueled by my overarching need to get my friend out of their clutches. Macy didn’t deserve to be here. I should be in her place. I deserved to suffer for her.
“Nice try, Cursed One,” the girl to the left said. “Our venom has weakened you. You will not break free so easily.”
“What do you want?” I asked. “Just tell me and I’ll do it.”
“Your blood,” the girl to my right said, tilting her head. “We want to drink you and drain you and consume your very essence.”
Was that even possible? It shocked me the Leiches could even figure out what I was. Both Ettie and Derek said every text was destroyed with the belief that all Cursed Fae were made extinct.
“Then take it!” I roared back at them. “Take it and let her go!”
The girls cowered at the wattage of my voice, but the boy, he remained still and keen, riveted by the blood dripping onto Macy’s shirt.
Now I understood why they hadn’t killed me and drained me as soon as they punctured my neck, why they dragged me deep into the subway tunnels and brought my friend’s suffering along with them. They wanted me to watch; they lusted after a torturous show, filled with blood and knives and mutilation. They loved to brutalize their victims before killing, and they coveted it even more when they had a petrified audience. Strength spiked through me as I let my outrage build, and I soared with elation. I could still feel the dark flame, despite the venom weighing her down.
A cool pressure hit my hands. It was cold as steel, so sharp that my fingers instantly nicked on the blade, droplets of blood slickening my grip.
“I’m sorry,” came a voice behind me, barely above a whisper.
The Leiches didn’t seem to notice the stranger’s arrival. Maiming and disfigurement had distracted them, drugged them to excess. One girl was twirling Macy’s hair in between sharp pulls, giggling with pleasure at Macy’s yelps. The other dragged her fang across Macy’s forehead. The boy remained stoic, observing his sisters casually, merely awaiting his chance. He wanted to inflict the most pain.
After a tepid breeze against my hands, the presence behind the pillar disappeared.
But the sharp object didn’t.
Chapter 38
Mad with fury, I yelled and provoked the Leiches as I frantically ripped into my restraints with the sharp blade in my hands.
“You want my blood?” I asked them. “Come get it! Dig those pearly whites into me like I know you want to!”
“No,” the boy said, shrewdness replacing the unnerving monotone in his voice. “We want you to watch first. Watch the pretty one die.”
The girls appeared confused at his order. “But…”
“I’ve changed my mind!” the boy Leiche screamed, his baby-fat cheeks caving in and his eyes turning into empty sockets.
I sawed the knife faster, shouting as one girl darted toward Macy’s neck, her fangs rupturing Macy’s flesh as Macy cried out like an agonized, wounded animal.
“No!” The blade cut into the skin of my fingers as I carved into the rope, back, forth, back, forth.
“You fool!” The boy knocked the girl who bit Macy off her feet with a glancing blow of his arm. “What did I just say? What did I tell you? Now she will die, and we cannot even use her for what we need!”
The voice that came out of the boy was too deep to ever be mistaken for human, and the other twin who was steadfastly holding onto Macy released her grip and huddled into the shadows, away from her leader’s fury.
Macy fainted, her arms and legs twitching as the venom made its way through her body and she folded to the ground.
“Fight it, Macy!” I yelled to her, my shoulders nearly dislocating with my struggles to get closer. “Please!”
The twin sprawled on the floor stood, confronting the boy with stubborn bravery. She moved out of his shadow and to Macy, hooking under Macy’s arms and lifting her up as an offering.
“You still have time,” she said. “I only used a little poison. I just wanted to play.”
Her simpering calmed the boy. The twin that had retreated into the shadows scurried over, holding on to Macy’s other side as soon as she realized they were back in his good graces.
Macy found me then, her eyes the polished l
acquer of a haunted doll’s.
“Help,” she whispered. “Help…”
Every second that passed filled me with more terror as I flailed against my restraints, digging the knife deeper, willing to cut one of my own hands off. I needed to get to her. I had to save her.
Finally, with a quiet snap, the restraints gave. I kept my arms slack behind me to maintain the illusion that I was still bound. The boy’s knife made its way to Macy’s neck as he attempted to get at least one small pleasure in before the venom killed her. But in his distraction, he stepped closer to me.
I smashed the tip of my boot into the boy’s legs, sending him sprawling, the blade tumbling from his hands and onto the subway floor. I tore out of my restraints, my palms slamming into the two girls’ faces and toppling them in opposite directions, leaving Macy reeling on her knees, suddenly on her own.
I caught her, mouthing “I’m sorry,” before I threw her behind me and screamed, “Run! Macy, run!”
She scrambled up to her knees and began a broken, feeble crawl, but not before the boy caught her by the shins. She cracked her chin against a rusted steel subway track as she hit the ground; her form sagging into unconsciousness. I considered that a small mercy as I ran at the boy, body-slamming him and gluing him down with the strength of my thighs.
The mysterious blade gifted to me was still in my hand, yet I refused to use it. I wouldn’t hurt the child. Instead, I focused inward, mentally separating the thick, venomous liquid that had settled upon me and buried my inner fae. Now, more than ever, what was implanted in me long before my existence, growing slowly and sleepily over the years, had to bloom, the source that would refine me into the weapon I could be.
Accept...me...
The twins scrambled to their feet and dove, their fangs unsheathed in anticipation of their best maul yet: Me. Draining me out of existence, until my dark blood cascaded onto the dank floor.
That thought, the idea of dying so quickly and easily before I knew my true powers, before I had even accessed my rightful capabilities, left me with nothing but pure wrath. It pumped like a raging river, sending waves from my core and crashing into my arms and legs so forcefully, I felt the impact of the red fury as it rocketed forward and dissolved the poison in my veins.
