Page 111 of Hunted in the Shadows
Fairies cursed and shouted, igniting spellwork to draw new lights. I moved quickly in the chaos. I doubled back, seizing thesatchel still slung on Marcellus’s shoulder and tearing it into my arms.
“You viper,” he growled.
He grabbed my wrist, his grip crushing. I didn’t think—I wrapped my hand around his arm and sent a bolt of ice right through his forearm. He staggered back, the shimmering blade protruding through flesh and bone—freeing me to bolt toward the door.
Stealing a look over my shoulder, I saw my ice already cast to the floor, Marcellus healing the wound with extraordinary speed.
Other fairies clawed at me as I fled, their hands tearing at the fabric of my gown, grasping at the ends of my hair, their voices overlapping in a horrible roar. With a burst of adrenaline, I leapt onto the stone balcony and dove off. My wings snapped open to catch the air as Isoared into the cavern passageway.
22
Sylvia
Iwas relieved for all of two seconds before wings started beating behind me. Not all of the fairies had given chase, perhaps fawning to Marcellus’ wound.But enough were at my heels to make my flight panicky.
A woman screamed an incantation—a familiar one I’d heard from Mother many times. Flames grew at her fingertips. Swerving, I sent a burst of frost behind me to deter them. One of my errant spells hit a jar of flowers on a balcony, causing fragments of pottery to rain down on my pursuers.
I set my gaze back ahead, pushing myself harder as I recognized the curve of the dark stone around me.Almost there.
The music was growing louder, siren and fairy song piercing the air.The water churned below, a frothing mass of activity as sirens swam toward the village entrance. The guilt threatened to suffocate me.
My thoughts were a jumbled mess of questions and self-reproach, but there was no time to make sense of it now.I flew faster, the weight of the gemstone pressed to my stomach as I careened around sharp corners in the cave, narrowly avoiding collisions with other fairies who were flying in the same direction, ornate flowers woven in their hair and baskets of food in their arms. The eager expressions on their faces made my dread claw deeper.
My heart nearly stopped when I finally reached the entry landing.
Jon and Cliff were there, but not how I had left them. They were seated on the ground, bound back to back against a gnarled vine that jutted out of the rock—crafted by magic for this very purpose. Oppressive weight crushed on my lungs as I drank in the flowered vines that coiled around them, pulsing and moving slowly like living snakes. The flowers were elaborate and beautiful. Some crowned their heads, while others blossomed on the vines that coiled around them and kept their hands bound behind their back. The blossoms glowed gently in the dim light—clearly the work of a talented earth affinity—each dazzling color battling the blueish bioluminescence reflected on the walls around us.
I did a double-take at the jagged ceiling, startled to see a dozen constellations glowing like white-hot runes on the stone above us.
This wasn’t just a display. It was a ceremonial offering.
A blood sacrifice.
I could have retched at the violent realization, if not for the battling relief that they werestill alive.
The hunters’ jackets lay discarded in a heap near the water’s edge, leaving the bindings to dig in painfully against their bare arms under their t-shirts. Not that they appeared to be in pain—or at least, not aware of it.
I drifted closer. Jon and Cliff’s eyes were half-lidded and glazed over, their heads lolled forward and to the side as though they couldn’t muster the strength to sit upright. My stomach twisted. They’d been drugged—my brutal warriors now as helpless as rabbits encircled by a snake.
Fairies and sirens crowded near them, singing in the air and in the water. Fairies set food and flowers down around the pyre as they passed, before taking a perch alongside their peers. I froze in midair as I saw one of the fairies break off toward Cliff, dutifully hoisting a bowl of wine. It was dark, a sickly sweet smell wafting from it. She pushed it toward his parted lips, saying something tohim. I heard Cliff groan in his throat, his deep voice hoarse. But he was too weak to resist, did not so much as flinch as the fairy tipped the bowl forward.
Panic flared through me, white-hot and desperate. Before the bowl could tip fully, I threw my hand out and shouted a spell. Ice shot across the cavern, shattering the bowl and sending shards of frozen wine scattering over the ground. The fairy jerked back, startled alongside many in the dozens around us.
“Get away from him,” I snarled, my voice low and dangerous.
The other fairy’s face twisted with such personal, biting hatred that I questioned how I ever could have believed these people were sane. As the fairy charged, lightning crackling between her hands to electrocute me, I shot a spear of ice through her stomach.
Numbness trickled down my spine as she fell to the cavern floor. I had killed monsters—the stuff of nightmares—but never a fairy. As several others darted down to gather around her in worry, I had little time to wonder if there was a healer in their midst to save her.
“Jon, wake up!” I shouted, my voice breaking. He didn’t stir as I hovered before him. Hours’ worth of enchanted food and wine were pumping through his body, but my dread deepened as I touched the stubble on his slack face. It appeared as though he’d beendayswithout a razor, not hours.
The ground rumbled. Several fairies hovered in formation, their hands aimed at the stone floor to make it sink toward the water—to feed the sirens. I thrust my palms out, whispering a spell to send a thick ribbon of frost to the water that splashed against the stone. Ice crackled and took hold, pausing the platform’s descent in frozen waves. Sirens clawed to reach over the ice, but they were just out of reach. Still, it would only be a matter of time before their desperation overpowered my magic.
I shot a volley of icicles at the earth fairies, scattering them. The stone floor beneath Jon and Cliff ground to a halt at an unsettling angle, but the descent had been steadied for now. They were safe.
Other fairies approached me from the gathered masses, casting their floral garlands aside to summon defensive magic. I threw spell after spell to keep them at bay. At first, I couldn’t believe that they weren’t killing me outright. They certainly had the power to slaughter me, but I caught a murmur—the girl must be kept alive. And with a sickening lurch, I knew how precious my body was to them.
I needed more time. I couldn’t free the hunters while battling an entire village—and Marcellus couldn't be far behind. When he arrived, we’d befucked.
