Page 106 of Faerie Fate
I gave a final thought to Mike’s warning not to kill anyone, considered the damage already done, and attacked. Screw it. They had it coming.
Meeting the oncoming wave, I sent the magic down to my hands and shifted them to claws sharp enough to carve throughtheir armor. A soldier gave a yelp of surprise before I brought him down.
The dagger in my side was a surprise. Even stranger when it glanced away from my skin without coming into contact. It took me way too long to remember why.
Poppy’s protection spell must have been something really spectacular. The messy fight didn’t impact the potency of the magic at all. Weapons glanced off of Bronwen. The same protection extended to Elfhame as well. Blows that would have hit her slid right off. Poppy was powerful, so much more so than I’d ever considered. She’d survived long enough to break her way into the most protected place in Faerie and nearly kill King Tywin. I never should have doubted her.
Knuckles slammed into the side of my head and I went down. Okay, not invincible. Protected.Semi-protected.
I didn’t want to die. Not anytime soon and especially not in the past. So I forced myself up and grabbed the fae soldier around the midsection. Like an old-fashioned and seriously ticked off wrestler, I slammed us both to the ground and yanked the helmet off his head.
Reptilian eyes glared at me. I gouged my thumbnails into those eyes until the fae yelped and bucked to dislodge me.
And so it went, one right after another until the motions were thoughtless, ruthless. Pulling punches wouldn’t help any of us make it out of here and it certainly wouldn’t help the pixies win their battle.
We had to take EverRose back and make them pay for burning the morsana fields. Mike had assured us that the battle at EverRose was a pixie win. Maybe we could ride this out and then Poppy could unlock my powers and we’d be on our way.
“Tavi, focus!” Mike yelled from beside me, but his warning cost him a near slice across the chest. The tip of the bladeglanced off his grandmother’s spell and he jumped, hair falling across his face.
Every fight I’d ever had where I found myself in the middle gave me the skills to handle this now. I scrambled back from a giant of a fae before he could use that meaty grasp to strangle me. On my opposite side, Mike and Bronwen went head to head with three others, avoiding the sweeping strikes of their swords.
Bronwen transformed into her massive halfling form but none of these fae batted an eyelash at her impressive musculature. They moved forward with spells and with blades in an attempt to kill her.
She leaped at one of the soldiers and sank her teeth into his armthrough the armor.
My lips twisted in a grim smile. Then froze. The quick moment of pride for my friend cost me. Horror flashed as one of the fae grabbed my legs. A wicked smile lifted his lips as he sent me sprawling onto my stomach, my lower half held in the air.
He spun, swinging me with him, and sent me flying.
I landed on my chest hard enough to break ribs and the burning sensation along my spine grew as I skidded. I tried to crawl away, but he grabbed me by the ankle and dangled me in the air by my foot.
A deep unsettling in my bones forced out a scream. I curled up and punched the fae in the mouth. He didn’t budge. He didn’t blink. He only shook me like a plaything.
Then goosebumps rose on my arms as the morsana flower tucked into my bra worked free, flopping out of my shirt and onto the floor.
“Ah. What is this?” One of his buddies laughed and picked up the flower, crushing the stem between thumb and forefinger. “Wanted to save a souvenir, sweetheart? Sorry. We can’t let that happen.”
The giant fae yanked me closer. But not close enough to obscure my vision as I watched the laughing dude toss the flower out the window and into the fire. The terror trickled into deadening realization as the morsana dissolved in a puff of shadowy smoke.
I’d just lost the last existing morsana flower. Gone. Just like that. It sizzled to nothingness, the flames eager to erase it.
If I didn’t die here and now, the zombie curse was surely going to kill me.
Chapter Thirty
Helplessness capsized my heart and I sank in on myself.
Then, in a surprising rush, a different and darker emotion took its place. Wrath came in hot and heavy, leaving me spectacularly pissed, violent energy crackling around me.
My hair stood on end and red crept over my vision.
“You absolutedick!”
The curse spewed out as I curved up, using those abdominal muscles I never knew I had, to grab the fae holding my ankle. I squeezed his wrist, another bone-crushing movement.
The other time had been practice. This time I knew just where to squeeze.
“Arrgh!” The fae released me.
