Skulk of Foxes

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wolves guarding Charley’s door straining at the bit to join the fray. And it wasn’t just Charley’s house we had to worry about; up and down the street, nervous faces peeked out of windows. I suppose it wasn’t every day that gang warfare suddenly erupted, not when the going price for these houses had to be upwards of half a million pounds. I sucked on my bottom lip. We had to find a way to calm things down.

  ‘You’re never going to stop, are you, Rubus?’ I said eventually. ‘We’re never going to win.’

  ‘Finally, you’re getting it.’ He nodded. Blood continued to drip onto the road but it looked as if the wound were already healing. Arsebadgering faery skills.

  I looked at Morgan. ‘I’m tired,’ I said. ‘Let’s just hand over the sphere and get on with it. We might as well yield to the inevitable.’

  Rubus let out a crow of laughter. ‘She’s got you there, brother. I’m never going to quit. I’m going to take our people home no matter what happens.’

  I couldn’t tell whether Morgan believed me or not. His eyes scanned my face as he tried to work out what I was thinking. ‘We can’t give up, Maddy. Not with the wolves on our side. At least now we have a fighting chance.’

  Fighting chance was right. This street was already soaked in blood and the fight had barely begun. I wasn’t convinced there would be any wolves left after this bout. Or any faeries.

  ‘We’ve run out of options, Morgan,’ I told him. ‘This is already a bloodbath.’ I drew in a breath and met Rubus’s eyes. ‘We’ve taken the sphere to a bank and dropped it in a safety deposit box.’

  Rubus sighed deeply. ‘Oh, Madrona, just when I thought you were starting to see the light. The banks – and the shops – have been shut for the last two days. You must think I’m a complete idiot. Tell me where my sphere really is and I might be tempted to let you go.’

  ‘The pink elephant took it. Snapped it right up with its pretty pink trunk and inhaled it.’

  Rubus tutted.

  ‘No? We dropped it in the ocean. It sank to the deepest, darkest part. It’s swimming with the fishes now.’

  He crossed his arms.

  ‘We gave it to an astronaut.’ I pointed up to the sky. ‘It’s closer to the moon than it is to us right now.’

  ‘I’m getting really fucking tired of this,’ Rubus snapped. ‘Just hand it over.’ He paused, a light dawning in his eyes. ‘You’re stalling for time. Why?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Morgan said, stepping in, ‘you should wait and find out.’

  Rubus lunged towards him but yet again Monroe leapt forward and knocked him backwards. Rubus fought back, blasting more magic towards the werewolf, but Monroe avoided the worst of it. I winced, though, when he caught a bolt on his hindquarters.

  Rubus raised his arm. From the left hand side of the street, a single Fey peeled off. He wove in and out of the fighting and strolled towards us. I squinted, then my heart sank. Carduus. That was all we needed.

  ‘Find it!’ Rubus roared. ‘Find my sphere!’

  Carduus reached into his pocket and drew out a small glass bottle. He uncorked it and sniffed the contents, a smug expression on his face. As he did so, Charley’s door opened and DI Mulroney appeared.

  ‘You will stop this at once!’ he bellowed from behind the wall of wolves that was guarding him. ‘I am the police and I order you to stop!’

  DC Jones and Charley appeared behind him. Rubus, unperturbed by the interruption, flicked out a hand and sent yet a bolt of destructive magic towards them. Charley only just yanked Mulroney back in time.

  Rubus wheeled round, pointing his finger in an arc around us. Within moments a barrier of fire surrounded him, Morgan and me. Flames were licking at us. Rubus had trapped us inside the circle of flames with him. And Carduus was almost here too.

  Monroe had rolled away and escaped the ring of fire. I flung my hands out in the direction of the Fey scientist and screeched at Monroe. ‘Get him!’

  The werewolf didn’t need any further telling. He ran towards Carduus and knocked him off his feet, sending the bottle smashing to the ground. Glass and green liquid went everywhere. I dreaded to think what the concoction was but at least Monroe was keeping Carduus busy for now.

  Morgan, Rubus and I were alone in the centre of the flaming circle. Unfortunately, the sphere was also with us. I suspected it wouldn’t take long for Rubus to work that out.

  Rubus drew his gaze up and down Morgan’s body then his eyes flicked to me. When he spotted the bulge at my chest, his mouth curved into a nasty smile. ‘Well, well, well. Either you have an unsightly growth, Madrona, or I’ve just found my sphere.’

  He wasted no more time and leapt towards me with outstretched hands. I tried to move away but the force of the flames at my back prevented me from going far.

  Morgan pushed me to one side, acting as a barrier between Rubus and myself. ‘Leave her alone.’

  Rubus smiled even more broadly. ‘I will if she gives me my sphere.’ He moved forward again. When Morgan continued to block his way, Rubus shrugged. ‘This is very tiresome.’ He drew back his fist and, with all the force he could muster, slammed it into Morgan’s face. ‘See how you like that, pretty boy,’ he snarled.

  Morgan staggered. Blood dripped from him nose but he raised his head and met Rubus’s eyes. ‘It doesn’t matter what you do to me but you can’t hurt Maddy and you can’t get the sphere. We won’t let you.’

  Rubus tsked. ‘You aren’t very bright, are you, dear brother? I’m the one with all the power. Not you.’ He regarded Morgan slyly. ‘If you’re going to keep getting in my way, you’re leaving me with no choice.’

  He grabbed Morgan by the throat and spun him round, tightening his hold. Morgan was no more able to fight back than a kitten could fly. His fingers scrabbled at Rubus’s arm but the truce meant that he couldn’t retaliate. And neither could I.

  Rubus grinned at me. ‘Whatcha going to do now, Maddy?’

  ‘Would you kill your own brother?’ I asked. ‘Is that really who you are, Rubus?’

  His smile disappeared. ‘If he worked with me instead of against me, I wouldn’t have to hurt him.’ He loosened his grip on Morgan’s neck and for a second I relaxed. I should have known better. Rubus moved his hand to Morgan’s arm and, in one swift movement, bent it backwards. Morgan’s mouth opened in a silent howl of agony as the bone snapped.

  I leapt forward, prepared to do everything I could to save Morgan but the truce held me in mid-leap. Pain flashed through my body. There was nothing I could do. Short of talking Rubus into being a good guy, I was powerless to stop him. At this point, we all were.

  ‘Give me the sphere and I’ll stop this,’ Rubus purred. ‘Or don’t give me it and I’ll kill him in front of your eyes. Then I’ll kill you.’

  There was no way out. The fire beat against us from all sides. Morgan was barely clinging to consciousness. All the power was in Rubus’s hands.

  I hated not being on the winning side.

  I licked my lips. It occurred to me that things went better for me when I stopped trying to be good and gave in to my wicked side. When I was an evil bitch life smiled down on me. I’d been right before: kittens couldn’t fly – but I could still pick one up, fling it into the air and give it a damned good try at flight.

  I tilted back my head and moved my hands, as if reaching into my bra to pull out the sphere. I pretended not to notice the gleeful expression on Rubus’s face.

  ‘No,’ Morgan croaked.

  I wished he’d stop worrying. At the last moment, I reversed my course and stretched my hands upwards instead of inwards. I grabbed all the magic inside me that I could muster and sent it flying up into the atmosphere. Bolt after bolt of flaming colours stretched upwards in a kaleidoscopic rainbow.

  Rubus frowned. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘You started it,’ I said, as I continued to pelt magic into the sky. ‘You’ve got your Fey using spells, even though we know the consequences of that. I’m just helpi
ng out.’ I concentrated harder. Hopefully, this would be enough.

  Rubus dropped Morgan and jumped towards me. I sidestepped, singeing my hair as it swung towards the fiery barrier that was holding us in, but I didn’t stop releasing magic. Sooner or later, something would happen. It had to.

  ‘I don’t know what you think you’re playing at,’ Rubus growled. ‘But—’

  A strange sound came through the air. I didn’t know what it was but I knew as soon as I heard it that my plan had worked. By adding to the magic in the atmosphere, I’d made another magical event occur. Yes, more people might die as a result, and yes, that made me an evil bitch. But faced with total annihilation or another magically-induced plague, what was the choice.

  Unfortunately, plague was the right word. A gigantic black cloud appeared over the horizon, blotting out the remaining sunlight as it stretched from one end of the city to the other. Even Rubus stopped his snarls to stare. ‘What the fuck is that?’ he breathed.

  The noise got louder. It was almost electric in tone, like a buzzing. It wasn’t until it was almost upon us that I realised what it was.

  ‘Locusts,’ I whispered, half to myself, half to Morgan, who was staggering up to his feet and cradling his broken arm. ‘A plague of arsebadgering locusts.’

  I’d barely finished my sentence when they were upon us. I shrieked and threw my arms over my head to protect myself. I ducked down, taking Morgan with me.

  I felt the locusts crawling over my scalp and my back, getting into my clothes and biting my skin. I was sure that the others were screaming too but I couldn’t hear them over the swarm’s cacophony. Hundreds of them sizzled as they flew into Rubus’s magic fire.

  I don’t know whether the shock made Rubus release his hold on the circle of fire, or the locusts smothered it by the sheer force of their numbers, but it wasn’t long before Morgan grabbed my upper arm and hauled me away. He dragged me out from the middle of the street towards the relative safety of the houses opposite.

  ‘What do we do?’ I yelled at him, waving my hands in front of my face to see what was happening. The cloud of locusts was so dense that it was impossible to see more than a few inches.

  ‘We run,’ Morgan shouted. ‘We have to.’

  With his good arm, he took my hand and held it tightly, as if he were afraid to let go. A moment later, we were running down the street. Whether it was away from Rubus or into more danger, I didn’t know; the only thing I was certain of was that we had to get away.

  When we reached the end of street, I stumbled over a fallen body. A Fey. One of Rubus’s, then. I reached down to yank him upwards but whoever he was didn’t move – and if I dallied too long I was liable to join him on the ground. I couldn’t afford that; the world couldn’t afford that.

  I yielded to Morgan’s insistent tugging and we kept going. We curved round the side of one of the houses just as the trundle of a heavy vehicle hit my ears. There was a bellow from a loudspeaker, barely audible over the sound of the locusts. ‘We are preparing for evacuations! We are…’

  Whatever else was said was lost. Morgan and I kept running, our heads down as we faced the battery of flying locusts. At some point I realised that we weren’t alone and that some wolves were by our side. I hoped they’d all made it out.

  At that point, all I could do was hope. Any action beyond fleeing was lost to me.

  Chapter Eighteen

  It felt like an eternity, although it was probably only minutes, before the locusts disappeared back to whichever magical hellhole they’d sprung from. All the same, our little group continued to run until we found ourselves in a sheltered back alley. We paused for breath and to take stock.

  Monroe almost immediately transformed, abandoning his wolf form with its protective fur for his naked skin. He was covered in welts and burns, and there were two long brands down his body where Rubus had seared him with his magic. I couldn’t take the time to appreciate the werewolf’s tanned, naked splendour because I was too busy shaking out locusts from the folds of my clothes but I rather thought that I preferred Morgan’s lean goodness to Monroe’s tattooed muscles.

  ‘Everyone is here,’ Monroe said grimly. ‘Everyone made it out.’ He jerked his head towards a few of the stragglers. ‘Set up a perimeter to watch for anyone approaching while we take stock.’ They bobbed their heads and immediately peeled off.

  Monroe stalked over to another wolf – Dwight? William? I couldn’t remember and it didn’t really matter – and clicked his fingers. The wolf transformed back into human shape and the pair began to murmur. I was tempted to eavesdrop but frankly I had greater concerns.

  I grabbed Morgan’s face in my hands and stared into his eyes. ‘Are you alright?’ I demanded.

  He smiled. ‘I am.’

  ‘Your arm…’

  ‘It’ll heal.’ He dipped his head towards mine for a brief kiss. I thought it was rather restrained of me not to grab him for a proper snog; he certainly deserved it. ‘We made it out and we have the sphere. We’re halfway there already.’

  ‘That was all me,’ I told him. ‘By throwing magic into the sky, I brought those locusts upon us.’

  ‘You did what was necessary.’ He brushed a curl away from my face.

  I met his eyes. ‘You don’t have to keep making excuses for me, you know. If there are other people out there who were caught up in that storm…’

  ‘I’m not making excuses. You thought on your feet and did what you had to.’ He grimaced. ‘To be honest, I wish I’d thought of it. Anyway, the locusts have gone now. Maybe they’ll have done some good in stripping all those crazy trees of their foliage and halting further growth.’

  ‘You’re being very optimistic.’

  His eyes held mine. ‘Thanks to you. We can only deal with each problem as it comes and in the best manner that is presented to us at the time. We’re all fumbling here, Maddy. All of us.’

  Monroe sniffed. ‘I’m not fumbling. And next time you feel like unleashing a plague of locusts on us, darling, perhaps a heads-up would be a good idea.’ He grimaced. ‘I’m still itchy.’

  There was a shout from behind us. ‘Incoming!’

  I stiffened. Monroe cocked his head. A moment later, a message was relayed by a runner. ‘Faery. Female. Heading straight this way.’ The wolf messenger frowned. ‘She’s taller than a freaking maypole.’

  I looked at Morgan. ‘Lunaria.’

  Monroe whipped round. ‘Is she a friend?’

  I wrinkled my nose. ‘Difficult to say at this point. Tell me where she is. I’ll go and speak to her alone.’

  Monroe opened his mouth to protest but I shook my head. ‘It’s best this way.’ All the same, I plucked out the sphere and passed it to Morgan with a meaningful glance. He nodded and slipped it into his pocket.

  Squaring my shoulders, and adding an extra sway to my hips to suggest that everything was going exactly as I’d planned, I headed out. When I saw Lunaria standing in the middle of the next street looking somewhat lost, I took a deep breath and strolled up to her.

  ‘Hi, Mads,’ she said, as if we’d just bumped into each other while out for a jaunt. Her head swung from side to side. ‘I can hear them. Can you hear them?’

  I peered at her. Despite her nonchalant tone, she didn’t look well. Her face was pinched and drawn and her eyes were almost ghoulishly large. ‘Uh,’ I said, hesitating, ‘do you mean the wolves?’

  ‘They’re everywhere,’ she whispered. ‘All around us.’

  I cocked my head and listened. Admittedly, it did sound rather intimidating. Heavy breathing and rapid heartbeats sounded from all corners. It sounded as if we’d stumbled into some sort of bizarre alfresco porn scene. Instead, it was a bunch of werewolves who dripped machismo and attitude but were utterly terrified about what was going to happen next now that they’d met Rubus in person. I had no doubt that they were fully prepared to take out Lunaria if she so much as twitched. They probably felt the same way about me too; after all, I’d brought the locusts dow
n on their furry heads. Literally.

  ‘Don’t worry about them,’ I said briskly. ‘Let’s focus on you. Were you back there with Rubus? Did you get hurt?’

  Lunaria seemed confused for a moment. Her forehead creased then she shook her head. ‘No. I stayed back. I was watching, though.’ She clutched my arm. ‘Rubus is okay. He didn’t get hurt. I’m so worried though, Mads,’ she said. She started scratching her arms, her long nails raking her skin and leaving behind painful red weals. ‘Things aren’t right here. He’s still not right.’

  That was the understatement of the year. I took her hands in mine to stop her from doing herself real damage. ‘What’s happened to you?’ I asked. ‘You were struggling before but now it seems like you’re barely clinging on.’

  ‘It took me a long time to realise but we’re not supposed to be here,’ she said, gazing into the distance. ‘We’re screwing up this demesne and it’s screwing us up.’ She blinked and looked at me again. ‘I mean, look at what it’s done to you.’

  Compared to her, I was pretty darned awesome but I suspected this wasn’t the time to point it out. ‘Mmmm,’ I said non-commitally. ‘But you do realise what will happen if we use the sphere to go back to Mag Mell? We’ve spoken about it many times. This entire city – this entire world – will be destroyed.’

  Lunaria touched her chest with her fingertips. ‘It hurts. It hurts so bad.’

  I knew what she was talking about. The homesickness we felt for Mag Mell was as much about physical as emotional pain. Thanks to my amnesia I didn’t feel it as acutely as the other Fey but I still understood it.

  I felt a twist of guilt. A couple of days ago, I’d manipulated Lunaria into taking some pixie dust. There was a good chance that she was pining so badly for home because of that. Another thing to blame myself for.

  I sighed. ‘Making ourselves feel better isn’t right if it will kill everyone else.’

  ‘I don’t want anyone to die.’ Lunaria’s voice was slow and languorous, as if it were an effort to get the words out. She pulled her hands away from me and turned her head. Then her mood changed without warning. ‘Rubus is in trouble. We have to help him. He’s going to hurt himself. He’s going to do something he’ll regret. You’ve got to help me help him! You have to do it, Mads!’