Part 4
A free serial set in the Fey Touched universe
Get caught up: Part 1| Part 2 |Part 3
Part 5
DAY 2 — CONTINUED
Ry had become a ball of agony, moaning and screaming and swearing. I continued to feel the pull of my healer self, but resisted. I couldn’t take his illness into myself.
And he was the enemy…except…he didn’t feel like the enemy anymore. Maybe it was because I’d impersonated his lover, Ava, to give him comfort. Or maybe it was because I felt closer to figuring out a solution.
So I was totally unprepared when there was commotion near my cell again.
“Ivy!” a familiar voice called. “Where are you?”
Several people in leather headed toward me. Hunters wore leather—
“Sweet Artemis, it’s you!” I moved up to the bars of my cell and got a good look at who was there. Three people: Jane, my sparring partner; Tanya, our falcon-caller; and Josh, Tanya’s mate.
My kin. My tribe.
I couldn’t contain my happiness; it was too big for mere flesh. My wings exploded out of my back and Jane laughed. That happened to me sometimes. Okay, fine. It happened more often than not, when I was happy.
I made them disappear.
“Ivy?” Ry murmured roughly. “What’s—”
“It’s my tribe,” I said, glancing his way. “They’ve come to rescue me.”
“No! You can’t leave!”
“Um, yes—”
“He’s right.” The woman who’d been with Ry that first day stepped out of the shadows. Jane palmed her dagger, and Josh eyed her warily. The woman looked at each Hunter in turn. “Hunters, I see. How did you get beyond our defenses? They should have broken you. Why didn’t they?”
Jane’s dagger was in her fist so fast I couldn’t track it. “Seriously? We’re just that good. Illusions don’t work when you know they’re freaking illusions.”
Apparently rogue Fey could still weave illusions. News to me. “They had an important reason to make it here,” I said. “Face it. It’s over. If you let me go peacefully, I’m sure my kin wouldn’t eviscerate you. Right?” I glanced at three Hunters.
“Maybe,” Josh said warily. “But damn, I was looking forward to the fight.”
“Ivy…”
Ry again. I spun around and went to him, careful not to touch his skin.
“Ivy, what’re you doing?” Tanya asked. “Is that a rogue—”
“That is a rogue who’s been afflicted,” the woman said icily. “We need Ivy to heal him, but she keeps refusing. Maybe you can persuade her?”
“Ry, it’s okay. We’ll figure something out,” I said. What was I saying? Why did I care so much?
I turned back to the confrontation in progress.
The woman grabbed something from her hip and metal flashed as she stepped forward.
Josh lunged, his blade just missing her ear. She spun away, laughing, then rushed forward and slammed her dagger into Josh’s arm.
He grunted, his eyes going wild. Blood welled at the wound. Jane put her arm around him and moved him out of the fray. I saw her examining the injury, which was probably healing already—
“You’re gonna pay for that,” Tanya snapped. Her dagger dove for the woman’s abdomen. The woman sidestepped and spun into Tanya’s guard. Tanya thrust her elbow out, hitting the woman in the hip. The woman’s arms flailed until she was able to right herself. She fell into a crouch, the air leaving her lungs in a rush.
I held onto the bars of my prison so hard my knuckles were white. They had to neutralize the woman. And what if more rogues got involved? It was only a matter of time before my kin would have more to fight.
We needed to do something. Anything.
But what?
“If you take me with you…” Ry coughed. “I’ll try to get her to stand down.”
It was a tempting offer. But my kin wouldn’t agree out of pride. They would see this through.
And more rogues had just joined the fray. They came from what looked like an adjoining room.
Sweet Artemis, things were about to get real.
#
I watched as the fight got bloodier and more dangerous. My three Hunter kin were getting their butts kicked. All three were bloody and probably exhausted.
But no, they had to keep going.
“I can’t make them stop,” I said to Ry. “They won’t stop. Not until your friends are either dead or too wounded to continue. I’m sorry.” And why was I sorry? These were rogues. They drank souls through people’s spinal cords, causing rotting and insanity. Why help them?
Ry laughed, but it sounded more like a cough. “And my people feel the same. They may not have been Hunters, but they have…honor…just the same.”
“Why aren’t you part of a Clan?”
Ry struggled to sit up. His teeth flashed. “You have to be kidding. Some of us males refuse to be glorified playthings for a Breeding Queen.”
I remembered. Queen Ashalyn, now a tribe Healer, had left her Clan because she didn’t agree with the way things had been done. And there had been a Clan male who’d orchestrated the death of several Breeding Queens before Ashalyn’s own tribe had stopped him.
We were living in some interesting times.
“So, this is your Clan now?” I asked.
“Exactly. Sophie—the woman who’s currently getting her butt kicked—isn’t our queen. But she is high in our rankings. She’s very smart.”
“Except right now she isn’t,” I muttered.
My eyes widened when I looked at the carnage.
My kin had not only killed the rogues. They’d destroyed them. Blood dripped down the walls and the bars of my cell. One rogue had an almost-severed arm hanging from his body crookedly. The other two, including the woman, had deep wounds in their abdomens. Their clothes and faces were covered in blood.
Bloodstains covered my tribe’s clothes. Blood made Jane’s hair sticky. Tanya had an already-healing wound on her forearm.
“Come on, let’s do this,” Josh was saying, looking through keys on a keyring he’d probably taken from someone. That, too, was bloody.
My heart lurched. “I am so sorry, Ry.”
I moved, and Ry carefully stood and limped to where I was. His fingers trembled.
“Sweet Artemis,” he murmured. “How could you do this?”
Josh opened my cell. “All in a day’s work, my friend. Come on, Ivy. There may be more lurking about.”
I glanced at Ry before stepping through. “Wait. What about him?”
Tanya shot him a disgusted look. “Let the affliction take him.”
The word was out of my mouth before I’d thought of it. “No.”
“What?” Jane asked. “I clearly heard wrong.”
“No, you didn’t.” I squared my shoulders. “This rogue is rogue because he was turned against his will. We need to help him.”
“We can’t do anything for him. You know that,” Josh said. “Even if we wanted to, which we don’t.”
“There’s no such thing,” Jane scoffed.
“There is. Ry did not choose to turn rogue.”
“That’s right,” Ry said. “I woke up like this.”
“Lies,” Josh snapped. “He just wants his freedom and will do anything to attain it.”
I looked Josh in the eyes. “He’s not a prisoner. They put us together so I’d heal him. He could go free at any point.”
Jane looked around, most likely trying to see if anyone else was around to ambush us. “We need to get out of here before someone else decides to check up on the ‘prisoners.’”
“Agreed.” Josh motioned for me to step through the threshold. He eyed Ry warily. “Fine. He can come, but he’s your responsibility, Ivy.”
I tried to smile. Didn’t quite manage it. “Thanks. Ry, let me help you.” I really didn’t want to touch him, but I didn’t have a choice. He needed help to get out of here. I’d been the one to make this happen. I put my arm around Ry’s shoulders and together we walked-limped through the threshold and into the room proper. “Now what?”
“We run,” Tanya said. “I’ll get his other side.”
And then we were on the move.