The Iron Warrior

  “Part of the survival pack for the Nevernever,” she said, her voice shaking only slightly. “Item number one on the list—iron. Item number two—salt.” She gave a small shrug and put the canister on the floor by her pack. “I might not be able to swing a sword, but I can sling salt around like nobody’s business.”

  Still keeping an eye on the Forgotten, I reached out with my uninjured arm and hugged her. She squeezed back, her heart thudding rapidly against mine. The black wall of Forgotten had gone silent again, standing motionless outside the circle. They didn’t look like they would move or go away anytime soon, but I’d worry about getting us out of here after I’d caught my breath.

  Guro turned to us, dark eyes searching. “You are injured,” he said, and of course at that point, my arm started to throb with the reminder. I gritted my teeth and pulled back from Kenzie with a hiss of pain, looking at my arm. Four long, straight gashes were raked across my forearm, oozing blood down my skin and dripping to the floor.

  Kenzie winced in sympathy. “Oh, Ethan. Hang on,” she said, and knelt by her pack, rummaging through the pockets. “Item number three,” she sighed, and pulled out a red-and-white plastic box, setting it on the ground. “First-aid kit.”

  Guro loomed over us, sword in each hand, watching patiently, as I sat in the corner and Kenzie took care of my shredded arm. His dark eyes scanned the room beyond the salt barrier, and my heart leaped.

  “Guro? Can you see them?”

  “No,” Guro replied calmly, not taking his eyes from the room. “Not completely. I can see...flashes. Glimpses from the corner of my eye, like dark shadows. But they disappear when I look at them directly.”

  “Is that why you closed your eyes?”

  He glanced down at me. “What have I told you before, Ethan?” he asked softly. “Your eyes are not your only senses in a fight. I do not need to see my opponent to know where he is.”

  “Damn,” I breathed, shaking my head. My respect for my instructor had just turned into terrified awe. If I ever got out of here, I would never miss a class again.

  “How many are left?” Guro asked, going back to scanning the room.

  “Um.” I clenched my jaw as Kenzie tightened the gauze around my arm and clinched it shut. I stared at the Forgotten, trying to get a head count. It was hard. They were just black blobs of shadow that melted into each other. If it wasn’t for their glowing yellow eyes, it would be impossible. “Hard to say. Maybe a dozen?”

  “Fourteen,” Kenzie said quietly. Snapping the first-aid kit shut, she slid it into her pack and hefted the bag to her shoulders. Razor bounced to her shoulder as she stood, holding a hand out to me. “So, the question is,” she continued, as I grabbed her wrist, and she pulled me upright, “how do we get out of here?”

  I eyed the Forgotten over the salt line and narrowed my eyes. “I could always smack them from this side of the barrier, I guess.”

  As one, the Forgotten drew back. Just a few steps, but just out of reach of my swords. Kenzie grimaced.

  “They do understand us, Ethan. Maybe you could try talking to them?”

  I glared at the Forgotten, and as I did, one of the shadowy forms eased closer to the edge of the salt barrier. I raised my sword and stepped in front of Kenzie, as the Forgotten stared back with its empty gold eyes.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “You,” the Forgotten whispered, its raspy voice making my skin crawl. “We want you, Ethan Chase. Your life. Your blood. You.”

  “Sorry, you already got both a few months ago.” I sneered at the Forgotten, as if dying was something I did every day. No big deal. “And I don’t really feel like doing that again. You can go back and tell the Lady she only gets to kill me once.”

  “Not the Lady,” the Forgotten hissed. “She did not send us here.”

  Not the Lady? “Then, who—”

  The answer hit me like a slap, and I stared at the Forgotten in growing rage and horror. “Keirran,” I said, as Kenzie gasped and Razor gave a disbelieving “Master?” from beneath her hair. “Keirran sent you after me?”

  “Yes,” whispered the Forgotten, and pointed at me with a long, sharp finger. “He wants you, Ethan Chase. You have the disturbing habit of not dying when you are supposed to, and the Iron Prince will take no more chances. You will not interfere with the Lady’s plans. Surrender now, and the others may go. We have no interest in the other mortals. But you must come with us.”

  My arms shook, and I didn’t know if it was from shock or a blinding, absolute fury. Not that Keirran really wanted me dead, but that he’d sent minions to finish the job. He couldn’t even be bothered to face me himself. Just further proof that the Iron Prince, the Keirran I used to know, was gone. “Yeah?” I challenged, feeling the cold spread through my whole body. “And how do you expect to do that, with us on this side of the barrier?”

  “You cannot stay there forever,” hissed the Forgotten. “Sooner or later, you must come out. You are only mortal.” It eased back, into the crowd of its brethren. “We can be patient, Ethan Chase.”

  “Dammit,” I muttered, and turned away from the Forgotten, feeling desperation rise up to mingle with the fear and rage. They were right; we couldn’t stay here forever, especially with Guro’s family still out there. His wife and little girl could come home at any minute, and my blood chilled at what might happen to them. “Fine,” I growled, raising both my swords again. “You really want me that bad, huh?” The Forgotten shifted eagerly, ready to attack as soon as I crossed the barrier, and I smiled grimly.

  “Kenzie, stay back,” I said, stepping to the edge of the circle. She made an angry, impatient sound, but at least she didn’t protest. “Guro,” I went on without turning around, “I’m sorry for the trouble this has brought you. You don’t have to do anything. They’re here for me.” Though I doubted my master would stay back and let me face the Forgotten alone.

  As expected, Guro silently moved beside me, raising his swords, and it might’ve been my imagination, but the crowd of Forgotten seemed to flinch as he came close.

  “Wait!” And Kenzie lunged beside us, glaring fiercely as the Forgotten pressed close. She raised both hands, the large, now open canister of salt between them, and flung the contents in a wide arc before us.

  The Forgotten screamed as the salt hit them, flinching back and covering their eyes and faces. They staggered away, tendrils of black curling from their bodies like smoke, and a hole opened up through the mob.

  “Go!” Kenzie cried, and darted forward, slinging more salt and forcing the faeries back. Jolted into action, I raced after her, Guro right behind me. We hit the steps without being clawed to pieces, bounded up the stairwell into the kitchen, and slammed the door behind us.

  Heart racing, I whirled, ready for the dark flood that would come from below, but Kenzie was already pouring the last grains of the salt over the threshold. As she did, a long black arm slid beneath the crack in the door, slashing at her and making my stomach lodge in my throat. Kenzie flinched back but finished dumping the last of the salt across the door frame, and the arm dissolved into black mist and writhed away into nothingness.

  “There.” Shaking, Kenzie rose and quickly stepped back, while Razor buzzed and hissed from her shoulder, shaking a tiny fist at the door. “That should buy us some time, at least. Everyone okay?”

  “Yeah,” I gasped, looking at Guro. “We should go,” I told him, backing toward the door. I wished I could’ve stayed, talked to him a little more. I still had so many questions and so many things I wanted to explain. Who knew if I’d get another chance? But as usual, when involved with Faery madness, the best thing I could do for anyone was to stay far, far away. “Thank you again, Guro. For everything.”

  “Wait,” Guro ordered, and stalked to the kitchen table, grabbing a pair of keys and a cell phone off the surface. “I’ll drive you s
omewhere safe,” he said, turning back to us. “Do you have somewhere you can go, somewhere these creatures won’t follow?”

  “Guro.” I hesitated, grateful but reluctant to drag him in even further. “What about your family?”

  He held up the phone. “I’ll call Maria, tell her and Sadie not to come home tonight. They can stay with her grandparents until it is safe to return. They will be fine. But you two need to put some distance between yourself and those hunting for you.”

  “But...”

  A blow rattled the door to the basement, making me jump, and Guro’s eyes narrowed. “We can talk about it in the car, Ethan,” he said briskly, striding across the room. “Let us go now.”

  With no choice, I followed Guro out the door and into the driveway, sliding into the backseat of his car with Kenzie and Razor on the other side.

  A yellow-eyed silhouette appeared in the window of the house, and Razor hissed, his glowing blue teeth throwing flickering lights over the cab, giving me a slight headache. But Guro didn’t seem to notice the gremlin or the shadow as he backed onto the road, put the car in Drive and sped off into the coming dusk.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CALLING ON FAERY

  “They’re not following us,” Kenzie murmured, peering out the back window. “At least, I don’t see them.”

  I relaxed, finally loosening my death grip on my swords, and leaned them upright against the seat in front of me. Kenzie turned from the window, sliding close, and Razor crawled into her lap and curled up like a naked mutant Chihuahua.

  Guro watched us from the rearview mirror, dark eyes appraising. “Where will you go now?” he asked.

  “Um.” I raked my hair back, trying to think. “Back to the Nevernever, I guess,” I said, knowing full well that Guro couldn’t take us there in his car. The impossibility of what we had to do descended on me again: get the amulet, find Keirran and convince the Iron Prince to destroy it himself. The Iron Prince who had just tried to kill me using his horde of Forgotten minions. It seemed pretty hopeless, but one step at a time. “We’ll need to get that amulet first,” I mused, planning the next course of action, “so that means we have to find Annwyl. Any idea where she is?”

  “Leanansidhe,” Kenzie said, making Razor hiss and flatten his ears to his skull. “Last time we saw her, she had gone back to Leanansidhe’s. We have to find a trod to the Between.”

  “Easier said than done,” I muttered, trying to remember the few instances we’d gone to Leanansidhe’s. Keirran had taken us there both times, and of course that wasn’t an option now. “We have to find a trod to Leanansidhe’s first. There was one just a few blocks from my house,” I said, scowling as I remembered, “but then Keirran went and destroyed it from this side, so that’s out. Dammit, where’s Grimalkin when you need him?”

  Huh, never thought I’d ever say that.

  There was a buzz from Kenzie’s lap, and Razor suddenly poked his head up, blinking at us with huge green eyes. “Razor knows,” he said, glancing up at Kenzie. “Don’t need bad evil kitty. Razor knows trod to Scary Lady’s house.”

  “What?” Kenzie looked down, and the gremlin watched her like an adoring dog. “Razor, you know how to get to Leanansidhe’s from here?”

  The gremlin shook his head, ears flapping. “Not here,” he said. “Not from human world. Go to wyldwood, find trod to Scary Lady. But Razor knows. Razor show pretty girl and funny boy the way.”

  “So, just to be certain,” I said, attempting to follow the gremlin’s strange way of speaking, “you’re saying, if we go back to the Nevernever, you can get us to Leanansidhe’s, right?”

  The gremlin blinked at me, as if I was the thick one, and nodded.

  “Okay.” I sighed, leaning back in the seat. “That sounds just about right. So now all we need is a trod back to the Nevernever.”

  “What about the one at the abandoned house?” Kenzie mused. “That one should work if Razor is with us. And the local bogeys don’t chase us away.”

  I nodded wearily. “That’s our best option, I guess. Do you remember how to get there?”

  “I think so.”

  Throughout this whole conversation, Guro hadn’t said a word, though I could still feel him watching us from the mirror. If he thought we were both out of our minds, having a conversation about faeries with something he could neither see nor hear, he didn’t say anything. “Where do you need to go?” he asked, and Kenzie scooted forward to give him directions.

  A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of a familiar abandoned house surrounded by chain link and rotting in the middle of an overgrown lot. I swallowed hard, remembering. The last time we’d come here had been with Keirran.

  Guro rolled down the window as we piled out, his dark gaze fixing on me. I hesitated, knowing how suspicious this would look to anyone else, two kids walking toward an abandoned house, one of them wearing a pair of swords at his waist. “Guro,” I began, not really knowing what to say. “I...”

  “It’s all right, Ethan.” As always, Guro was far calmer than anyone I’d ever seen. “I have always known, from the very beginning, that you were different. From the moment I saw you in my class, I knew that your destiny would be unlike any I have seen before. I understand, and I want you to know I don’t blame you for anything.” A lump caught in my throat, as Guro smiled faintly and nodded toward the abandoned house. “Now go,” he ordered. “Do what you have to do. We will see each other again, and you can tell me everything.”

  I glanced at Kenzie and backed away, toward the fence. “I’ll come back,” I said, my voice thick. “When this is all over, I promise I’ll come back.” Guro didn’t answer, and I turned away, walking to the padlocked gate with Kenzie and Razor. I felt him watching us as we slipped through the fence, felt his dark eyes on me all the way across the yard, up the rotten steps and into the shadows of the house.

  Inside, the room smelled of dust, mold and rotten wood. Razor buzzed and stood up on Kenzie’s shoulders, flashing his glowing smile along the walls to pierce the darkness. No movement, no creepy fey or boogeymen lurking in the shadows as far as I could see. This place was rumored to be haunted, but I knew that was because a pair of bogeys used to live here, feeding off fear and suspicion. That was before Keirran, Kenzie and I had come through on our way to the Nevernever only to find a group of Forgotten waiting for us, having scared away the current residents.

  “I don’t see any bogeys.” Kenzie gazed around. “Maybe they never came back after the Forgotten chased them off.”

  “Maybe. Let’s hope the trod still works,” I muttered, picking my way across the shaky floor. She followed, lighting the way with Razor. Carefully, we eased across the room, climbed the creaky, groaning staircase and ducked into the kid’s bedroom on the upper floor. Walking to the closet, I grabbed the knob and pulled open the door.

  It jerked out of my hand, slamming shut with a bang, making me jump. Razor yelped, making the light dance wildly, and I scowled. “What the hell?”

  “Go away!” rasped a harsh voice from the other side of the door. “My closet! Mine!”

  “Well,” Kenzie said, sounding amused, “looks like the bogeys are back.”

  “Yeah.” I frowned, then tried opening the door again. It didn’t budge, and I pounded on the wood with my fist. “Move!” I bellowed through the wood. “We need to use the trod. Get out of the way.”

  “My closet!” the voice screeched back. “Not yours! Mine! You go away.”

  “Dammit, I am not in the mood for games! If you’re not out of there in five seconds, I’m coming through this door with steel.”

  “Ethan,” Kenzie said, and shrugged off her pack, “hang on.”

  Pulling out a bear-shaped golden bottle, she set the honey on a bookshelf and turned back to the closet. “You know the drill,” she said, pulling her backpack over her shoulde
rs once more. “One bottle of honey. That’s what we can trade for using the trod. You have five seconds to make a decision. Four. Three. Two...”

  No answer from the other side. Kenzie waited a moment longer, than nodded at me. Carefully, I reached out, grabbed the knob and pulled.

  There was no resistance this time. The door swung back without a creak, and a cold breeze fluttered in from the thick, gray forest through the frame.

  I smiled, shaking my head. “All right,” I said, glancing at the girl beside me. “I can take a hint. I’m going to let you and Razor lead this excursion from now on. Just call if you need something stabbed.”

  * * *

  Razor took the lead when we crossed into the wyldwood, sometimes leaping through the branches ahead of us, sometimes scurrying along the ground like a huge spider. In the eternal gloom of the wyldwood, the gremlin made a bright yet difficult to follow guide. His huge eyes and neon teeth were clearly visible in the murk, but he was easily distracted by every small thing that moved through the branches or undergrowth. He also left a faint but definite trail of corruption behind him—withered grass, dying leaves, yellowed vegetation—as Iron fey still had an adverse effect on the rest of the Nevernever. Thankfully, Razor was small enough for the damage to be minimal, though this worked against us, too. Once, something large moved through the trees ahead of us, causing the gremlin to flee back to Kenzie and not budge from her shoulder for several minutes.

  So we hadn’t traveled very far into the Nevernever when night began to fall, making me nervous as the shadows lengthened around us. Though I wanted to keep moving, I knew we probably shouldn’t press our luck. Traveling through the wyldwood in the dark was never a good idea; the things that stalked the woods at night were things you generally wanted to avoid.

  “We should stop soon,” I told Kenzie, who was watching Razor scamper along an overhead branch, green eyes bobbing in the darkness. “The wyldwood gets pretty dangerous at night. We should find a place to hole up until morning. Unless we’re really close to the trod.”