Page 113 of What did you do?

My ears were still bleeding when I got out, so I grabbed a tube of superglue and glued the big cuts shut. I’d seen Mom do this on cuts from the garden sometimes. I hoped it’d work.

I taped them up with some Band-Aids just in case and then grabbed my purple beanie off the counter to hide them.

A knock came at the back door, and I froze.

“Knock, knock! Calypso, honey, I have some terrible news. But don’t worry, everything’s going to be fine.”

It was the fairy, but I was ready.

28

PRESENT DAY

Caly

The doors to the outside of Malvar made a low, metallic creak as they opened. I pushed with all of my strength as it crawled open. Walter grabbed the thick iron.

I could hear Eli’s voice as the space between the doors widened.

The sound of steel against steel sliced through the air as a whir of shadows and movement broke across my vision.

A silent cry filled my lungs so sharply and painfully, it felt as if my chest would be concave from here on out.

Eli’s strong back and wings glinted and sparkled under the red sun while he fought to kick and slice at the Seelie guards—his own guards. The scene registered slowly. He was fighting, but it wasn’t to free Tarani or the rest of the Fallen, like I had suspected.

Thousands of creatures had surrounded the entrance to Malvar. The steep stone steps were the only space free of the battle that waged on the sloped earth below—the battle spanning the field between Malvar and the small town adjacent to theSeelie castle. Everywhere my eyes touched, they saw a new animal, creatures I could never in my wildest thoughts have imagined. Some looked almost demonic, with black, curved horns, others gentle and fluffy; silver unicorns with black, daggerlike horns and serpents with large textured wings.

Blood and tufts of fur rained down on the battlefield, as the animals fought against what, by the sheer volume, could only be assumed to beeverySeelie guard within the royal forces.

“What is happening?” I cried, turning to Walter in horror.

A loud, gritty sound like a jet engine blared from above us. The entire mountain seemed to erupt in rage.

Walter jumped into the battle, knocking over a row of guards as they fired long gold cannons from the platform at the tall steps of the prison, where we had come out. Glowing balls of red and orange seared into the crowd of animals, combusting into wounding light. Shrieks and cries poured from the wounded animals and guards on the ground as the fight raged.

The mountain shook, sending bits of sediment from the sturdy prison tumbling down onto the platform outside the doors.

What the fuck was that?

Dusty air filled my open mouth as my stunned eyes focused on the sloping sides of the mountain behind me. Four black dragons with sharp-looking wings crouched against the dark mountain terrain. I whipped back around in time to see Eli hurling long sticks of light at the guards who had surrounded the animals in the distance.

He was helping the animals, not the royal guard. The guards weren’t listening to their own prince.

Eli looked like a god doused in gold as the wind thrashed at his hair. His powerful wings shimmered against the sun as they flapped, taking the soon-to-be king a few feet over to snap the neck of a guard as soon as he landed. The guard’s glowing,orange sword dropped in front of the animal they had been about to stab at the front of the crowd. The animal’s eyes lifted to mine.

The eval I had saved from the pit—I recognized him immediately.

“They fight for you because they sense that you cannot,” Walter said, ripping out the throat of a guard who tried to grab me. “But they still sense the Artemi in your heart.”

“But—”

“They were here when we arrived, though fewer in number.”

Dozens of flying, white roc hovered in the air, like car-sized seagulls. Instead of swooping into the sea for a fish, the roc dipped into the ocean of bodies, pulling free armored guards to tear apart.

Streams of gold and crimson swirled on the ground, leaking out of the many, many dead bodies lying there.

What were the Seelie doing? It wasn’t enough that so many animals had died in my cell?

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