Page 72 of Fake Dating a Human 101

“What are you rambling on about?” a prison guard hollered down the hall.

“None of your business, you eavesdropping slug!” Luc shouted back.

Whelp. That did it.

A tetrad of fairies in dark green uniforms marched toward his cell. They walked tall like they carried authority, but with the way their scummy outfits gave off such bad style, Luc wasn’t sure why they were so proud of themselves.

When they reached his temporary little home of cold iron bars, Luc flashed them a wicked smile and filled the prison with the scent of sweetness and delightful promises. He leaned toward the bars, and through them, he whispered, “How about you fetch me something delicious that tastes like human realm ice cream?”

The great and mighty guard with a gold medallion pinned to his chest stepped a bit ahead of the others. Yes, he loved himself very much for that gold medallion. It was obvious in the way he held his chin so high and said, “We have asked you several times to be quiet. Remember that we can make your last days in here quite miserable.”

Luc slapped a hand over his eyes and laughed. “Oh dear,” he said. “That’s only if they vote to execute me. You’ve forgotten one very important thing.” Luc dropped his hand and spun to face them, letting his metallic eyes sparkle. Sure enough, the guards’ rigid stance shrank a little. “What if they votenotto kill me?” He returned to the bars, close enough that he might be able to reach through and snatch one of them without burning his flesh on the iron. “What do you think a scorned fox might do to his enemies if he gets to live? Before you refuse to wait upon me, remember that I might get out of this alive, and you’ll wish you’d made the trek to the human realm to get me ice cream when I asked.”

Another presence appeared at the end of the hall, too dark for Luc to see, but the slight sheen in his black pearl armour gave what he was away. Luc sighed and took a step back from the bars.

“Bring him,” the Commander in black pearl said, and at the sound, Luc tilted his head in thought. The voice sounded a lot like his old Commander. The one he’d fought beneath for many years, the one he’d convinced to sign off on his first liaison spy mission into the human realm—after which he completely abandoned his post and never returned. Until now.

The lock on Luc’s cell was wrangled a bit, but after a moment, it popped off and the guard with the medallion swung the door open. Luc waited for a moment until all the guards were wondering why he wasn’t moving. And only after they became acutely aware of the wide-open space between the dangerous nine tailed fox and their fully exposed fairy flesh, only when their stances shrank and a spec of fear filled their eyes as they wondered what the fox might do, onlythendid Luc take his first step forward.

He glared at every single one of them as he passed.

At the end of the hall, the Commander didn’t show a hint of recognition as Luc approached, even though the faded light revealed that Luc had been right—this old Commander was exactly the one who’d ruled Luc’s Army division with an iron fist. One of the first fairies who’d come after Luc in the human realm when Luc had stopped checking in and sending news back to the Army.

The Commander stared at everything except Luc as he held out a fresh vine and waited. Luc released a sigh and obediently stuck out his wrists.

“You must have lost all your memories,” Luc reasoned—it wasn’t uncommon for Shadow Fairies. “Or, you’re afraid of me.”

The Commander’s fingers stopped tying. He did look up at Luc then, with daggers for eyes. Luc smiled.

The guards ushered Luc out into a long, winding tunnel through the base of the mountain. “Are we going back to the Assembly?” Luc guessed as they walked.

No one answered. A loud crack of thunder boomed in the distance, echoing down the tunnel and making the only noise for several seconds apart from their marching footsteps.

“So, this is it, then.” He nodded. The Shadow Assembly must have voted after all. It seemed his fate had been decided and he was walking out to—hopefully not too violently—meet it. “Did you know that foxes are known for defeating their enemies atop mountains?” he asked none of them in particular. “It seems we’re also destined to die beneath them.” He smirked at his own epiphany.

He was nudged to the right, and Luc braced himself to come face-to-face with whichever highest ranking Assembly members had been selected to bear witness to his demise. He considered himself brave, being a fox and all, but the truth was, if he saw an opportunity to escape, he’d probably take it.

Luc’s old Commander opened a door with a loud screech, and the whole group of them came to a halt. Luc nearly bumped into the Commander’s back, but it was the sounds of growls and flashes of lightning that made him lift his pretty eyes to the wide balcony beyond. He didn’t realize they were up on a cliff, deep into the mountainside. A storm raged in the sky, and rain pounded upon slick stones where at least a dozen fairies in Shadow armour lay either unconscious or dead.

But what was utterly spectacular about the scene was the fool in the black, dandelion-speckled coat standing in the middle of the ring of bodies with a hood shadowing his face. A hood that carefully hid his curly hair, brown-silver eyes, and the fact that deep down he’d always been obsessed with Luc’s well being—at least, Luc had speculated as much, but he’d never known for sure until this moment.

Luc bit down on his lips, but they still spread into a broad smile.

Mor Trisencor had been an unsolvable mystery for far too long. But now that Luc saw him standing there, drenched with rain and waiting like a beast of darkness who’d crawled from its cave to feed, Luc had his answer once and for all. And he snorted a laugh. Because he’d been right and Mor was wrong and everyone else in existence was wrong because the fact of the matter was that Mor cared.

The Commander drew his fairsaber and stepped out into the rain to go deal with the cloaked person he didn’t realize was Mor Trisencor. And so, Luc wound up and kicked him in the behind as he left.

The Commander growled in surprise as he fell knees-first onto the wet stones. He sprang back to his feet in a heartbeat and lifted his fairsaber to Mor’s throat. He heaved as he barked out his words like an animal, “Whoever you are, you will be punished by—”

“By whom?” Mor’s distinct, low voice left his hood. “The Dark Queene?” he asked. Then he said, “I hear she’s dead.”

Luc bit his lips together so hard over his grin, he nearly chewed his own mouth off. “She is! She’s dead!” he shouted into the rain. But then he glanced around at the guards who held him and added, “Not that I was there or am admitting to doing it.”

No one saw Mor draw his fairsaber until it collided with the Commander’s, and the guards around Luc drew their weapons. Luc kicked the nearest one back into the tunnel and ran out into the rain, leaping onto the Commander’s back and swinging his tied arms over the Commander’s head. He shoved the vines on his wrists into the Commander’s gaping, growling mouth. “Bite down, you fool, or I’ll rip out your teeth and use them to cut through these vines myself,” Luc promised.

The Commander gawked when Luc pivoted to kick a guard in the stomach who got too close. The other three guards raised their blades and Mor swept past like a grim reaper. Very quickly, the last three guards stopped breathing.

“More Shadows will come,” Luc warned Mor through thin lips as he tried to force his vines against the Commander’s teeth. “There’s supposed to be a grand spectacle of an execution today, and many will be arriving very soon to witness it.”

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