Page 4 of The Iron Sword

“Not one of us.”

“You are not one of us, either.”

“Traitor.”

The twisted shadow fey pressed closer, their voices growing louder, angrier.“You stand with those who would destroy us,”they hissed.“Who shut us away in this void to Fade and be forgotten. But we will not Fade. We will not forgive. We will rise up and take back what was stolen.”

I narrowed my eyes. This was treading very close to outright war talk, and apparently Meghan thought the same, because the Iron Queen stepped forward, her power filling the void like the energy before a storm. “We are at peace now, Forgotten,” she said, as a tide of blank yellow eyes turned on her. “The war has ended, and the courts no longer consider you a threat. There is no cause for another conflict between us.”

“Queen of Iron.”The motley assemblage of shadow creatures hissed, and the depth of anger, fear and loathing in their voices made me clench a hand on my sword hilt.“Ruler of corruption. You would damn us to Fade, just like your kin.”

Anger stirred. A cold, dangerous anger that I hadn’t felt in years. The fury of the Unseelie prince.

“No one wants you to Fade.” Meghan took a step forward, earning an outbreak of wails and hissing from the gathered mob. “No one desires your destruction. The Lady is gone, and the Nevernever is at peace.”

“We were here before you.”It was getting harder to understand them now; the wailing and gnashing was rising in tenor, drowning out the Forgotten’s words.“We existed, and the Nevernever was ours. It will be ours again. Free from the corruptors, the poison spreaders, the plague that holds it now. By doing nothing, you allow us to Fade. You are Queen of Nothing, like the king who once ruled the Between.”

“Where is Keirran?” Meghan’s voice was stern; she was done asking nicely, and I was right there with her. “Where is the King of the Forgotten? Tell me—now.”

“Imposter!”the shadow creatures hissed in return.“Not one of us! He is yours, a king of nothing. A ruler of nothing, who does nothing. We know the truth. We will pull down the oppressors! We will rise up to take it all back!”

The rage flared, a cold rush through my veins, freezing any thoughts of kindness or mercy. These creatures, though they had once been fey, were monsters now. They knew where Keirran was and refused to tell us. Worse, they had actively threatened my family, the queen fighting at my side. They deserved death. And I would give it to them.

I took a breath, drawing in the hate-drenched glamour around me, and drove my sword into the darkness at my feet, releasing a surge of Winter magic as I did. With a pulse of cold, the shadow creatures closest to us turned to ice, becoming twisted statues posed in grotesque formations. I yanked up my sword, and the crystalline forms shattered with the sound of smashing icicles.

“Ow! Jeez, ice-boy!” Robin Goodfellow yelped and backed away, shielding his face from the explosion of frozen shrapnel. “Went right to the nasty magic, didn’t you? What happened to trying the reasonable approach? I don’t think Keirran will be happy with us turning his subjects into Popsicles.”

I inhaled slowly, feeling the violence within, the cold anger coiling around my heart. “They might have been fey once, but they’re lost now,” I said, as the remaining shadows cringed back from the lethal display of glamour. “There is no reasoning with them.”

I gestured and, with another pulse of magic ice spikes, punched through the foggy ground, impaling several shadow monsters and causing them to instantly erupt into coils of smoke. Wailing, they vanished into nothingness. Striding forward, I lashed out and cut a nightmare in two, then stabbed another through a mouth that had grown half as large as its body. Both howled and disappeared on the breeze, leaving only a few tendrils of shadow behind.

“Ash, stop.” Meghan’s voice cut through the icy rage, making me pause. “They’re leaving,” she said as I lowered my weapon. “They’re running away. No need for more death.”

I looked up and saw she was right. The horde was drawing back. Wailing and snarling, they lurched away into the fog and were lost from view. Though their fragmented whispers floated back to us, venomous and hateful.

“Imposters.”

“Not one of us.”

“We will rise, and the courts will fall.”

“We will take back what is ours.”

I sheathed my sword and breathed deep to calm my anger, feeling it settle coldly in the pit of my stomach. We were alone in the mist once more, though I knew the shadow things, the once Forgotten, were still out there, watching us. A stony resolve settled over me. If they attacked again, they would die on my blade. I would tolerate no one threatening my friends or family, not even the subjects of my own kin.

“Well, that was disturbing.” Puck’s voice shattered the somber silence. “Really gives new meaning to the phrase ‘bent out of shape.’” He sighed, raking a hand through his spiky red hair. “Dammit. I was going to ask what got them all riled up and angry, but I’m afraid I already know the answer. And I’m not going to like it.”

“The Monster was here,” Nyx said. “Or something similar was. The glamour taint here feels the same as last time. Those Forgotten...weren’t like that before.” Her voice shook for the barest moment, but she took a breath and the tremor was gone. “How many of these things are there?” she murmured.

“I don’t know,” Puck said, his voice uncharacteristically solemn. “But I do know I don’t want to have to fight it again. Do you think the big ugly is still here?”

“The king wouldn’t leave the city defenseless unless he had to,” Nyx said quietly. “If the Monsterisstill here, that means Keirran...”

She trailed off, and Meghan briefly closed her eyes. Shoving down the cold fear clawing at me, I stepped forward. “We won’t know for certain unless we find the thing that did this,” I said. “There has to be something left. Someone who can tell us what happened here. Nyx...” I glanced at the Forgotten. “You lived here. Is there anywhere we could go that would still be intact? Anyone who could still be around?”

“I believe I can help with that.” It was Grimalkin’s familiar voice. I had forgotten about the cat when the shadow creatures had appeared, since he always vanished if a fight was imminent. I glanced down as the cat materialized out of the fog, his wispy fur nearly a part of the mist itself. His eyes, floating in the gloom, were the only part of him that seemed real.

“I found someone,” Grimalkin announced, padding lazily into view. “While the lot of you were futilely threatening the local population, I discovered one who had not currently lost her mind. I believe you should all listen to what she has to say.”

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