“I don’t know what will stop my brother,” he said. “I’ve never had to go against him as a human.”
“Bull,” Craig said.
“Craig!” Amy threw him a warning look. “We need to think this through. If there’s a way the king can get through the city and into this building without being affected by iron, how do we defeat him? Is he impervious to bullets?” she asked Atieran.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s never been on the front line to die with the rest of the fae warriors. He’s never had a bullet wound that I know of.”
“Are you?” she asked.
He frowned, adjusting his posture in the hard bed. “I’ve been shot before, yes.”
“What did it do to you?” I asked.
“It was painful, I must admit, but it was a nonfatal wound. I healed quickly. Within a day. Fortunately, that bullet was not infused with iron.”
“So, you do bleed, like a man would. Not so immortal then, right?”
“Yes, we do bleed. Are we immortal? Yes. But that only means we won’t die of old age. We bleed, we hurt, and we die from wounds. Why do you think we were taking from the human population? Our clan is dying. Unable to reproduce to expand our ranks, we take from other humanoid species to replenish our numbers. There are no children to continue our legacy, so we pull from the humans.”
Amy pressed her lips tightly as I flexed my fingers into fists. Hearing him confirm the faeries’ treacheries made me want to slam my fist into his face. “And why is it that your clan can’t reproduce?”
Atieran eyed me, a touch of distrust swimming in his eyes. I didn’t blame him. My own gaze had to be full of loathing.
“Our clan is infertile because none of us are true fae anymore. We are bound by magic. A curse. No longer human but not of the other world. We are in the chasm between species, in limbo until we can acquire a being with true faery blood to restore us once more.”
I eyed him, afraid to open my mouth and say something I’d regret. Restore them? Like who? “How would you know if someone had true fae blood? We’ve extinguished faery clans before. Why not just target one of those clans?”
“The other faery clans cannot help us. We need someone with ancestral blood connected to our clan’s power core, or it doesn’t work. We’ve tried.”
“An ancestor,” Amy whispered, deep in thought. “Wait, your brother said there was something different about me. Was that it? Could I be the one with the right ancestral blood?”
Atieran dropped his eyes to the sheet covering his legs. I bit down on my lip as the meaning of all this finally dawned on me. “That’s why you guys took her. That’s why. You need our sister to replenish the faery blood your clan lacks. A female to provide an heir.”
Atieran closed his eyes before he nodded softly. “Unfortunately, yes. She was the key to restoring our powers to their original potency. If she’d given me an heir, it would’ve sealed the pact.”
“The hell. Your tribe will never get Amy. You hear me?” I stepped forward, my brother Craig reaching me in time before my fist met the faery’s mouth.
“Calm down, Jay. None of us are letting them get to Amy. If the faery king is on his way here, I suggest we buckle down and get ready for anything. I’ll alert the director that we need all fae weaponry released from the armory and guards added to all entrances and on the roof. I’m going to check and see if Ridley has woken up too. She’d want to know what was going on.”
For a moment, I saw red, breathing hard as I smirked at Atieran. To his credit, the faery man didn’t flinch at the rage radiating from me. In fact, the bastard had the gall to look away in shame. Couldn’t even look me straight in the eye, could he? The coward.
“If anything happens to Amy, I’ll hold you personally responsible.” I jabbed my finger into Atieran’s shoulder before swerving around and stomping out of the room. Not my finest moment, but I didn’t care. That faery tribe could go to hell. I didn’t give a lick if they were dying off. Good riddance.
After locking the iron room’s door behind us, I followed Craig down the hall to ready for the upcoming battle.
There was going to be a war, I could feel it in my bones. I just hoped we would be on the winning side.
Chapter Twenty-one
* * *
Amy
I watched my brothers leave. The closing of the door was followed by the telltale clicks of the locks keeping it in place. It bothered me that they’d keep me locked up in there, but I understood. I had to stay there to completely sever the bond with the faery tribe. It’d been three days, probably enough time for me, but not nearly enough time for Atieran, and I wanted to stay with him. But the longer I stayed there, the more restless I grew.
“You look troubled.” Atieran reached out to run his fingers over my arm. I pulled away and began pacing the room again.
“It’s just… I’m stuck in this tank while my brothers are out there fighting some magical anomaly. Your brother is powerful, and I’m not sure the Agency will be able to keep him at bay. What if he can do more damage alone than with all his faery tribe with him? What if he gets in here and takes us again? What then?”
“Then we find another way.”
“Like what? I’m sure he’ll be much more attentive on watching us the next go around. We’ll never be given another opportunity to escape.”
He pressed his lips tightly together, pensive and desperate all at once. I could feel my heart hammering like mad, not just from the waiting but from the effects of the iron, which still bothered me. No longer did it make me sweat or make feel like I was drowning, but I remained uncomfortable. It was like being in a hot sauna for far too long and in need of long, cool drink of water. For me, that would be a long cool breath of fresh air outside.
I hoped our weapons would work against the king. If he was not true fae and I was, what did that make me and my brothers? It had to mean something, right? Maybe we could use it against the faery king.
“Atieran?”
“Yes?” He peered up at me, looking more collected than I felt. I hoped it wasn’t just a front.
“If I’m the key to restoring the bloodline, wouldn’t I be the one who could stop it from getting out of hand? Why won’t you tell me what can be used against your brother? You need to help us.”
He ran his hand through his dark hair which barely brushed his shoulders. Exhaling, he shifted his gaze toward me. “All right. But it could kill the entire tribe, including you and me.”
I approached the bed and leaned forward as I slid down to sit next to him. “What is it?”
***
“Hey! I need to get out of here. Now! It’s been exactly four days! I’m good, can’t you see?” I waved at the cameras again, jumping up and down and jerking my arms around madly. How dare they ignore me?
As the moments ticked by, my patience evaporated.
“They are purposely ignoring you” said Atieran, who now sat with his legs dangling off the side of the bed. For the first time in days, he didn’t feel like puking the moment he tried to get up off the bed. He joined me in my pacing but would quickly sit back down, stating he didn’t like to expose his backside. I giggled at that. At least we had our sense of humor intact, if not our dignity.
“Hey! We need some extra pants in here! He wants to stretch, but his bum is hanging out. Some decency, please?” I called out to the cameras. Nothing. No response. Damn them.
“What’s your plan?” he asked as he closed his eyes. His fatigue remained even though it’d been four days. I felt like I’d been hit with a blast of energy. The iron no longer wreaked havoc on me. It still affected him, but I guessed that was to be expected. He had been a faery for much, much longer.
“Who says I have a plan? You need pants.”
“The pants can wait.” He reached around and proceeded to tie up his gown and wrap it around his body a bit more. I frowned and glared at the camera.
“We need to get out of here. If I’m to help when things get out of hand,
I need to be out of this room. The building itself has enough iron to stave off any loss of control to your brother, but it’s his telepathy that worries me. He may be able to speak to us inside our minds, but he has no control over what we do.”
“True. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave this room.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“It’s the last place he’ll want to enter. Even with the extra shielding magic, it’ll be far too painful for him to enter. Trust me. He’ll work to coax us out.”
I groaned, slumping down in the chair sitting next to his bed. I’d become far too used to it. I loathed the place with a passion; I was losing my mind being cooped up in there. My own precognitive powers were going off like crazy, and I feared for my brothers’ safety. If I wasn’t out there helping them, things would turn out like my visions, and I didn’t want them to come true. I closed my eyes. No, nothing could happen to my brothers. I’d sacrifice everything save them.
“I need to get out of here. Not just for me, but for Craig and Jay. I have a bad feeling creeping up inside of me. It holds on to me, like it’s squeezing my windpipe and won’t release it until I do something. I need to prevent this event from happening. I can’t just sit still. I can’t breathe.”
“Anxiety attack?”
I shook my head. “It’s similar, but honestly, it won’t stop until I do what I need to do to try and alter what’s coming. It’s just a feeling, a nagging emotion I can’t put a finger on. I need to drown it.”
“I see.” He peered down at his legs sticking out the bottom of his gown. “These are not very modest.”
I laughed, the tension breaking as I eyed his distaste. “Yeah, well. Hospital gowns for you.”
The door clicked, and we both turned to find Jay standing in the doorway. “All right, Amy. Four days is long enough, and I have a feeling that you’re having some sort of premonition from the way the tech says you’re losing your mind. Move out.”
“What about Atieran?”
Jay’s tight frown told me he didn’t do the following thing lightly. “Bring him too. We need all the help we can get. But”—he glared at Atieran, pointing a finger at him— “any funny business and you’re back in the tank before you can blink. Got it?”
“Yes, of course.”
My eyes widened as I felt it. A wave hit me like I was riding in a roller coaster right as it dropped down the rails. I sucked in a breath. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
Jay nodded, letting two other agents in. They left a pile of clothes, shoes, and guns on the hospital bed for us both.
“Yes. And it’s not going to go well. Hurry up. He’s just arrived and has been staring at the building like a creepy stalker, muttering to himself. He already took out our perimeter guards on the boundaries of the city without even breaking a sweat. They never even got a shot off. He’s powerful. More powerful than anything I’ve ever seen.”
I nodded, turned away from them, and ripped off the clothes I’d been wearing for several days. Despite the lack of privacy, pulling on the clean outfit made me feel much better. At least both guys averted their eyes as I dressed.
Once both Atieran and I were ready, I grabbed my guns and stuck them into the holsters provided and looped them through my belt. I felt normal for the first time in almost two weeks. I was finally myself again, weapons and all. I grinned, high on the adrenaline filling my body.
“All right. Let’s do this.”
Chapter Twenty-two
* * *
Craig
I crouched forward for a peek over the side of the railing off the third floor of the S.R.A. building. The king of the faeries was standing in the middle of the street, staring right at us like he knew we were waiting for him. It was an unsettling feeling. I glanced over toward my brother Jay, who stood rubbing his chin with a studious look on his face. He didn’t appear thrilled, and the feeling was mutual based on the scowl pasted across the king’s face. I swallowed down the lump in my throat.
“Don’t come any closer. You are not welcome in the city boundaries of Wicked Grove.” I clicked off the megaphone and stared at the king, wondering what he was thinking.
A sudden deafening ring hit our ears, sending all the agents to their knees. I gripped onto the side, hanging over the edge as I reached up to cover my ears, and dropping the megaphone to the ground beneath me.
“You fools. I will do what I must to take what I want. Deliver my brother and the girl Amy to me, or I will enter your domain and wreak havoc. Do not test me.” Azariah took the staff he was holding—wood with intricate carvings and a simple blue jewel set in the top—and tapped it on the ground. A rumble shook the building as his mouth widened in a wicked smile.
I shook my head, squeezing my eyes together as the pain seared though me. The others were rolling on the ground, moaning in agony. Some were unconscious from the severity of whatever it was this man was doing to us. How did he have such power in the city? The iron itself should have brought him to his knees.
He glared up at us as he lowered his hand, and the ringing came to an abrupt halt. Heaving, I sucked in air as I eyed him, reaching for my gun. The faery king glowered hard at us. His helmet and armor were made of some sort of metal, and it gleamed beneath the street lanterns. I wondered how he could wear such things without experiencing any pain or burns. It was obviously not made of iron, that was for sure. Whatever it was made of helped deflect the effects of the element on his faery powers. If I was right about this, maybe relieving him of his armor would help us beat him.
“We don’t negotiate with unruly supernaturals. You can count on that!” I turned and motioned everyone inside. If being outside made us vulnerable, we had to move into the building’s safety net to keep our wits about us. I hoped his powers would not be able to penetrate that far into the concrete.
Fingers crossed, we moved inside, locking the heavy metal doors behind us. The building was fortified against any kind of supernatural invasion, and I hoped it was going to be enough once the faery king decided to come knocking. Only one way to find out.
“What the hell is that thing?” Jay continued to rub his ears, one of them had leaked a drop of blood, which stained his neck. I rubbed my own, still hearing everything muffled as though I’d just left a rock concert.
“I don’t know, but he’s different from the other faeries we’ve dealt with, and I’m willing to bet that he won’t stop until either he’s dead or we are. Best be prepared.”
I cocked my gun full of iron-laced bullets. We had grenades on our belts full of iron shrapnel. The other defenses we claimed to have against faeries, like charms to keep our memories intact, were lies—fables to let the newer agents sleep at night. We all learned the truth eventually, though, and the magic these sentient creatures possessed scared even the bravest amongst us. Even the other supernaturals—vampires, werewolves, and other strange creatures that abided by the rules set forth by the Agency if they wanted to live within the city limits—refused to ever go against faery magic.
I groaned, averting my eyes down the hall to keep my feelings of dread from being noticed. I was afraid this war was going to be futile, but I couldn’t let the other see how far I’d given up already.
“His armor… have you seen anything like it before?” Jay peered at me in the periphery as I shook my head.
“No. Nothing like it. Ever. I need to speak to Ridley. She woke up last night and is feeling much better. She might know more about it from her experiences.”
“Ask me about what?” Speak of the devil. Ridley appeared, taking a spot next to me as we made it to the ground floor. “What did you need to ask me?”
“The faery king. He’s wearing protective metallic armor. It seems to amplify his power while also repelling the effects of iron. If we can’t get past that armor, our weapons might be useless against him.”
She pondered these words as we made it to the lobby. We stared out through the bulletproof windows at the king who stood patiently waiting
in front of the building, where we’d last seen him, as though he was waiting for us to decide our own fates. He smiled as we came into view. The guy looked crazy standing out there smiling at nothing.
“I see. I’ve seen swords made of that metal. We call it edidium. The faeries rarely make it because it takes a large amount of power to create it from iron. It’s a derivative that forms much like steel but doesn’t harm the faery who wears or wields it. It creates a shield against iron and keeps the effects from debilitating the faery.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She sighed. “I wish I was. I’ve never gone against a faery with a suit of armor made from it. Just weapons. It probably amplifies the faery’s powers as well. I’m afraid none of our weapons will work against him unless we can get past that armor.”
We felt another rumble and all swung our eyes back to the outside.
“Brother! I’ve come for you!” the king called out. The tone echoed, slamming into us like a flash bomb as we clutched our ears. Some soldiers were down on their backs, clutching their heads as he continued to speak.
“We can’t let him talk,” I muttered. “His voice… it’s deafening.”
Ridley nodded, peering around. “We need to give him his brother back.”
“He wants Amy too.”
Ridley stopped dead in her tracks, her hand to her head. The other arm was still in a sling, but by the way she winced, she was moving it too much and it wouldn’t heal right without immobilization, possibly surgery. I could sense her pain as it wrinkled its way past her expression, digging into my own soul as I waited for her to answer. I wanted to comfort her, reach out and pull her into my embrace, but everything we shared came with restrictions.