“There she is!” yelled Samantha. “Take her down!”
Her meant me, apparently, since about fifteen sets of weapons turned to point in my direction. I threw up a green bubble around me, Tim, and my two bodyguards without even thinking. I sent an image out through The Green to Robin and prayed like crazy that he was communicating it to his elf buddies. They all raised their arrows, each choosing a target.
Now everything came down to this one moment. This was my last ditch effort to use the powers I had not yet learned to harness, to save my friends and keep the Dark Fae from entering our compound – from taking over our lives and forcing us to adopt their fucked up view of the world.
I sent my power into the green elves standing next to me, whose signatures I could feel, pure and light in The Green – giving their minds’ eyes the energy and magical connection they would need to find their targets, no matter how far away and no matter who they were.
Samantha lifted her arms and I noticed one of them held a staff. She was only a changeling, but she looked like one of the older, more experienced witches. And I knew that force she had used to physically push our door open and was using to shield herself from the deadly arrows was no small spell. She knew her shit and wasn’t afraid to use it. I had to protect my friends from her ruthlessness by showing no mercy.
I couldn’t put the bubble around the elves, or their arrows would bounce off the inside and allow their attackers to come at them and surround them. Instead, I strengthened the one around the four of us – Scrum, Spike, Tim and me. Then I faced Robin, nodding my head. Time to launch those badass mindseye arrows and let the chips fall where they may.
I saw Robin’s mouth moving, the sound muffled by the humming force of green light that kept us protected. The words I knew he spoke – Ready? ... Aim! ... – resulted in a line of arms being lifted and arrows being drawn back.
Samantha stole a glance at them, finally breaking her concentration for a second, as she gestured to her ogres to attack. I saw my opportunity and took it. I shot a message out to Robin and saw him change his trajectory to aim at her. His last command was issued – Release! – and a shower of arrows launched up into the air and soared over the open space between us and them.
Samantha turned back to me, but she was too late. Robin’s arrow found her standing vulnerable out in the open, her concentration broken. I don’t know if it was her loss of focus or the special force sent behind that arrow, but either way, it found its target.
Part of me flinched at the vision before me. Ogres fell to the ground with arrows sticking out of them – some of the bigger ones looked like porcupines. Samantha stood completely still, looking down at the arrow that was sticking out of her chest. I knew without getting closer that the feather on the end would identify it as Robin’s. It wasn’t in her heart, it was on the other side. Robin must have deliberately not taken the kill shot, and I wasn’t sure if I was happy about that or not.
Three Dark Fae elves remained standing just behind and to the side of Samantha. They stepped forward awkwardly, arrows notched in their bows and pointing to the ground. They kept their eyes on us, while trying to steal glances at her.
She lifted her head and fixed a malevolent gaze on me. I stared right back. I was standing ready to deal her the last blow, when a sudden movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye.
Becky. She had appeared between us suddenly, materializing in the middle of the field. I let some of the power drop away from me. I needed to get to her before she did something stupid, and I couldn’t do it trapped in this stupid bubble.
“Samantha!” she shouted, running forward with tentative steps towards her. “You’ve been hit!”
Samantha lifted her arm and yelled, “Now!”
A beam of white light streamed out of her staff and hit Becky right in the chest, sending her flying backwards, to land in a tangle on the ground. Her right leg was bent back at an unnatural angle and she laid there motionless in the grasses, her eyes staring up at the sky.
“Becky!” I screamed, turning to run to her.
Scrum and Spike both grabbed me by the arms. “No! Jayne, you can’t go. Stay inside where it’s safe!” yelled Scrum.
“No, Jayne, stay!” yelled Tim, pulling my hair as hard as he could.
Angry tears coursed down my face. “Fuck that!” I pushed desperately at Scrum’s hands that were trying to grab hold of me. I wrestled with Spike too. “Spike, let me go! I need to help her!”
He held onto me with a grip of iron. “No!” growled Spike. “Samantha’s hoping that’s what you’ll do. She’s trying to kill you. Stay here!” Then he squeezed me extra tight. “Look! Becky’s not there anymore! She’s gone!”
I looked up from my attempts at escape and saw that, sure enough, Becky’s body had disappeared. I hoped like hell that meant she was alive. I didn’t think a water sprite could teleport without being alive, but at the same time I worried that she had gone to the afterlife or had been teleported by Naida or someone else from the murky depths.
A movement near Samantha caught my attention. I watched as three arrows sailed out from behind her, towards the green elves that had since reloaded their weapons and were pulling them back to finish the job they had started with their last volley. Everyone but Falco, that is. He was staring at the place where Becky had just been, his mouth hanging open.
I watched in horror as an arrow flying faster than I could have imagined pierced him in the chest, throwing him back three unsteady paces, before I could do a single thing about it.
I screamed, throwing my hands up to my face in horror. “Nooo! Falco!” I turned to reach out to him, but my feet were rooted to the ground in fear and dismay.
He looked up at me and then down at the arrow protruding from his body. He sank slowly to his knees, still staring at it. He turned his head back to me, giving me a weak smile. Then he fell slowly to his side, his eyes remaining open as his head hit the grass.
The anger welled up in me and took over. I felt the power of the Ancient One pouring into my connection, filling me with a dark fever that rushed in and started burning me from the inside. I turned my attention to Samantha and fixed her with a threatening glare. I let the protective bubble drop completely.
She stood there for a moment, facing me with an arrow sticking out of the left side of her chest, blood staining the front of her clothing crimson. Then she took two steps back towards the forest, looking down so she wouldn’t trip on any of the bodies littering the ground around her.
“Where are you going?” I growled at her, taking several steps forward. “Running back to Ben? Going to tell him how you killed your old friend Becky in cold blood?”
“It’s not like that, Jayne,” she barked out at me.
“Yes! It is! It’s exactly like that!” I screamed at her. Then I lowered my volume, dropping my voice into its most menacing tone. “But I’ve got some bad news for you, you evil bitch. You aren’t going anywhere. Your days as a Dark Fae end here. Now.”
The green light tinged with the old darkness of the Ancient One surged up out of my body and into my hands. I held them out in front of me and turned my palms to Samantha.
She lifted her staff and started muttering words under her breath. I felt a prickling along my neck, as if there was a lot of static electricity in the air.
“Jayne, stop!” yelled Tim, pleading with me and pulling my hair like crazy.
I didn’t even flinch. I was beyond hearing or obeying.
I released a stream of green power out of my hands, and aimed it directly at her. I expected it to blast her to kingdom come, and couldn’t wait to see it happen – but instead, a ray of red-lit flames came out of the trees behind her, intercepting my bolt of energy and sending both beams skyward in a swirl of red and green light.
What the fuck?
And then I heard his voice.
“Jayne. Let it go! You cannot win this.”
Motherfucker. I’d know that voice anywhere.
/> Ben.
Chapter 37
Ben, the guy who couldn’t seem to stay the hell out of my business and out of my life. Always sticking his head in where it didn’t belong. Now he was going to be sorry.
Even though the sound of our combined and battling forces seemed loud to everyone standing around us in the meadow near the trees, I knew that he would hear me perfectly when I said in a calm voice, “She killed my friends ... my people. An eye for an eye, Ben. It’s you or her. I’ll let you decide.”
“Jayne, I’m not going to let that happen. We’re here to enter the compound and you’re going to let me in. You’re going to let us in.”
My nostrils flared with the anger that continued to rise up inside me. I drew two deep breaths into my chest, filling my brain with oxygen and preparing myself for what I was about to do. Only once so far had I managed to combine the powers of the two elements that did my bidding. I was going to do it again, right here in this meadow outside the gargoyle door to the Light Fae compound, and snuff Ben’s light out forever. He refused to choose between himself and Samantha, so I was going to make the choice for him. First he was going, and then her – a two-fer.
“Spike,” I said calmly, “take Tim and back the hell up.”
“Jaaayyne,” he said, “whatever you’re thinking, you might want to re-think it.”
“Spike!” I yelled, my tone brooking no argument. “Get Tim now!”
Spike said nothing in response, but I soon felt the weight of my small pixie friend leave my shoulder.
“Notch an arrow, Finn,” I said, my hands never wavering from their position, channeling the power of The Green out of the earth and into a stream that was still all tangled with Ben’s fire, both of them shooting up into the sky, separating the clouds that gathered there and lighting up the night that quickly gathered in around us.
I glanced over to see that Finn was doing as I asked.
He lifted his bow up and drew back the string. “What am I aimin’ at?” he said, his voice slightly muffled by his shoulder.
“Samantha. Kill shot.”
I watched as Finn’s eye squinted, putting Samantha in his sights.
“Jayne!” yelled Tim’s voice from behind me. “Wait! Don’t do this!”
“Shhhh!” hushed Spike.
“You’re going to get hurt!” Tim continued to whine.
“What do you want me to do?” asked Scrum at my shoulder.
“Carry my body back inside if I fuck this up.”
“You got it.” I could feel his steady presence there, not questioning, preparing for anything.
And now I was ready. I had my sharpshooter in place, my peeps at my back, and Becky off hopefully somewhere safe, no longer lying in the grass all twisted up and staring at the sky. I began to draw it in – power not only from the ley line here, but several off in the distance. The soil led me to the roots, the roots led me to the trees, and the trees to the leaves and vines. I communicated through the living things and touched all of them that touched the water. I pulled it all to me.
The stream of power that was coming from me changed slightly. It went from pure green to a lighter green and then to a flow that changed and glistened, first green then blue then turquoise and back again. I had to force myself not to get lost in the kaleidoscope.
The flow was thicker and stronger. I had to physically control it now, not just mentally. My arms felt like they were holding something heavy. I tried not to let my arms shake with the effort because I still needed more.
I called out to the moisture in the air – the invisible sheen of humidity that the water sprites traveled in. I brought it into my field of control and sent it towards Ben.
Slowly, slowly, the balance of power began to change. My light was snuffing out the angry red of Ben’s. I smiled maliciously, angry and exhilarated with the power that surged through me.
I felt the wind start to kick up near me. The ends of my hair began to stand up, pushed by the currents of air that rushed around me and threatened to push me off balance. What was first a slight breeze quickly became a gale.
“Jayne!” yelled Finn, “I don’t know if I can shoot in this!”
“Mindseye arrow, Finn! Just imagine your target and I’ll take care of the rest! Get ready to let it fly!”
I yelled out into the tempest of fire, wind, water and earth, “Last chance, Ben! Walk away or die!”
I heard nothing in response. I hoped that meant he was struggling to contain my onslaught like I was battling to contain his.
“Get back into the compound, Spike! Take Tim with you!” All I needed was my little buddy launched into this maelstorm.
“Are they in?!” I yelled to Scrum.
“Yes!”
“In five, Finn ... ready?!”
“Yeah,” he said, his bow up and ready, his eyes closed as he sent me the vibe of his signature through the mess of energy surrounding us.
I focused enough to find him, and once I had his signature, sent some of the green energy into him. I saw him flinch as it hit – then I started my countdown.
“Five ... four ... three ... two ... one!” The arrow left Finn’s fingers at the exact moment I pushed the last bit of extra power I’d been holding back – directly into Ben’s body.
Go to www.ElleCasey.com/sneak-peeks/
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for Chaper One of
War of the Fae: Book Four --- New World Order
About the Author
Elle Casey is an American writer who lives in Southern France with her husband, three kids, and Hercules the wonder poodle. In her spare time she writes young adult novels.
If you enjoyed this book, please please leave positive feedback on Amazon.com, Goodreads.com, or any book blogs you participate in. More positive feedback means Elle can spend more time writing!
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Thank you for your readership!
Other Books by Elle Casey
War of the Fae: Book One, The Changelings
War of the Fae: Book Two, Call to Arms
My Vampire Summer
A YA Fantasy novella, featuring female protagonist Iona Candella, an American girl spending the summer in Sommières, France who plans to read a hundred books on her Kindle to pass the time, but meets an interesting neighbor who changes the course of her life instead. Books, intrigue, romance, danger and more ... all in a convenient novella-sized package.
Wrecked
A YA Action/Adventure novel – Four teens from the same high school but opposite ends of the social spectrum go on a cruise and end up shipwrecked on an island together. If you liked The Breakfast Club and The Swiss Family Robinson movies, you’ll love Wrecked.
Here are some recent reviews by book bloggers:
“I’m not sure sure how to begin this review and remain professional… so I’ll just be honest. I FUDGING loved this book! (SOOO SOOO MUCH!) It was fantastic! =) I’m so glad that I read it … It was so good, I can’t even wrap my head around how much I loved it … I was also very impressed with the quality of the writing, every detail was so vivid! I could clearly picture what was going on in the story and put myself in their place. I can’t recommend this enough… go read it!!!”
“The relationships, emotions, and actions of the four protagonists were kept real, like I could honestly see these characters as teens with real reactions. They make great decisions, make not-so-great decisions, take action, make a home, fall in love, laugh, cry, have meltdowns, and do what they can to survive. Oh, and did I mention there are pirates? Because there are pirates (okay, the marijuana growing drug dealer type of pirates); and, as Wrecked puts it, “You know, Pirates of the Caribbean is very misleading…Why was I rooting for the bad guys?”… From being introduced to the four protagonists, to when they’re on the cruise ship, to when they’re in a life boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, to their life on the island, and all the way to the satisfying conclusion, Wrecked will keep the rea
der interested.”
“… My favorite part of the book was their time on the island. The character dynamics were well done, and Casey clearly put a lot of thought into what they would need to do to survive, not just physically but emotionally. This was the part of the book I felt had the most depth. I actually found myself hoping they wouldn’t be rescued! … This was a fun book and a promising debut novel.”
Elle Casey, Darkness and Light
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