I couldn’t see any musical instrument. Where was the melody coming from?
I stepped to one side to get a better look at the clearing and check how many other fae creatures were holding the kids’ hostage.
Nope, the gray-haired fae was alone and—
What was that, a wooden cage? There was something inside. Small and furry with round ears. It looked like a teddy bear. An odd-looking teddy bear that had its eyes closed and…Fuck, the melody was coming from its mouth. It was singing.
My gaze flicked from the creature to the children, then back again. Wait, was the melody making them drowsy? Was it keeping them compliant?
It had no effect on me, so it must have been targeted to the little ones somehow.
“Mummy.” One of the kids opened her eyes and stared at the creature across from her in confusion. “Who are you? Where’s my mummy?”
The gray-haired creature swung his stick toward the cage and smacked it hard. The teddy bear creature within jumped, but it didn’t open its eyes. It sang louder, though.
The little girl’s eyelids drooped. She sighed and fell silent.
A soft chuckle drifted to my ears. “You keeps singing, you hear. Keeps singing and I won’t hurt ya.”
The creature in the cage trembled and opened one eye. Its gaze tracked over the gray-haired fae’s head and locked on me. Both its eyes popped open, and then it shook its head slightly as if in warning.
Or maybe I was imagining shit. It was an animal, like a cat or a dog, or whatever equivalent the fae had.
As far as I was concerned, the coast was clear, with only one fae to take on. I could do this.
I stepped into the clearing, boots crunching on bracken, ready to confront the creepy little gray-haired fucker. The first indication that I may have made an error in judgment came from the fact that the abductor didn’t even flinch at my presence.
Instead, he poked the fire and raised his rheumy eyes to look up at me. I bit back a gasp at the sight of his mottled, sagging face. It looked like moldy cheese. I mean, I wasn’t into facials and all that shit, but this guy could definitely do with a deep cleanse and a huge injection of collagen.
The second indication, and the nail in my metaphorical coffin, was the toothy, plaque-coated smile he gave me—as if he’d been expecting me. As if he’d been waiting for me.
The urge to hurl was real. I swallowed bile and flexed my hands in preparation for a fight. Not a fistfight, cos there was no way I was touching his moldy ass, but I’d happily fry it with a shot of lightning from my fingertips.
“I was wonderin’ when you’d make yourself known,” he said. “Smelled you a way off. Gots my knife all sharp and ready.” He pulled a blade from the folds of his jacket and held it up in the firelight. “Human skin comes off nice and bloody, and the flesh beneath…” He licked his lips with a slimy black tongue. “Delicious.”
“Or…” I held up a finger. “I could fry your ass.” I flicked my wrist, and power crackled and wove between my fingers. “And take back what doesn’t belong to you.”
I caught movement behind him—the thing in the cage shaking its head frantically—but the fae was still smiling. My stomach knotted, and then a hand closed around my nape and I was lifted off my feet.
What the fuck?
The creepy fucker grinned. “Nice weight. You’ll make a nice meal.”
Weight? “Cheeky fucker.”
I grabbed at the thing holding my neck, hands lighting up with a sizzle. The fae screamed and I was free, hitting the ground in a crouch, Trixie already out of my boot holster, her hilt snug in my hand. I spun, looking for the other attacker. Nothing.
The crunch of bracken had me whipping back to focus on Moldy Face, but he hadn’t moved. What the fuck attacked me?
“Don’t make me cut you.” I held the blade at an angle, ready to attack as my eyes scanned the shadows around us. “Who else is here? Show yourself.”
“Ain’t no one here but you and old Merkle.” The fae said.
Then he leaped at my face, dirty hands and moldy fingers reaching for me. I sliced the air with my blade expecting to snag flesh but met only thin air. The fucker was gone.
Laughter bubbled up behind me. I spun to face him again, my heart pounding because this fucker was wilier than he looked. Time to employ some chat, get close, and take a stab.
I locked gazes with him. “Back off and let me take the kids. They don’t belong to you.”
“They don’t belongs to yous either.” He snarled, and his face contorted into something feral and monstrous,
My pulse spiked in fear, but like hell would I let him see that. Fuck this. I attacked, lunging at him, eager to get Trixie a bite. He raised his arm to deflect my attack and the blade snagged briefly on his limb, but then he was gone.
Shit, shit, where was he?
Pressure circled my ankle, and the world slipped out from beneath me.
I hit the ground with my back, knocking the breath from my lungs, and then thick ropes slid over me, snagging my wrists and my thighs, tugging and holding me down.
“What the fuck?”
I turned my head to try and catch a glimpse of my abductor but caught sight of the furry in the cage instead. It continued to sing, but its mouth was downturned, eyes mournful and sad.
I strained against the ropes, which on closer inspection weren’t ropes. They were thick, fleshy, mottled appendages. Oh, hell no.
Lightning shot out from my hands in an attempt to burn free.
“Oh dear, you almost hit the childrensies,” Cheese Face said. “You don’t want to hurt the babies, do you?”
Fuck. My hands were pointing in their direction. The fucker was right. If I fired, I might hit them.
“Let me go, and I might not gut you alive.”
He held up his blade, and I had a feeling my poor choice of words was about to bite me in the torso.
“I’m going to enjoy eating you,” he said, peering down at me with his grotesque face. “Magic from the other side makes for sweeter flesh.”
I willed the appendages to catch fire, to melt, to shrivel. But my power didn’t work that way—at least I didn’t think it did. I’d never really tried to do more than shift or blast the shit out of things.
Shift. Fuck, could I teleport out of this trap?
I made the jump, and the world tried to fracture. It was working. It was—
Fire lashed across my skin and sank into my blood, burning like lava.
Well, that didn’t work. Why hadn’t I taken Elijah up on his offer to train? Oh yeah, because I hadn’t trusted his motives. Hadn’t wanted to get embroiled in whatever ancient war he and the Grimswood witches were involved with.
I should have taken the damn training because hindsight was a bitch.
The blade arched toward me. Fear pooled in the pit of my belly as if preparing for the slice of his blade, and a scream clawed its way up my throat.
The fae’s head twisted to the left with a crack. He swayed for a moment, then he was gone, shoved out of my line of vision, to be replaced by a face I both hated and craved.
Jasper looked down at me and tipped his head to the side. “If you wanted to be tied up, you could have just asked. This seems a little extreme.”
I was so glad to see him that the urge to leap up and wrap my arms around him was a real thing. I soon shut that down.