Page 58 of The Lost Fae
It runs rampant in my body now, making me tired, making my limbs lax. I try to open my eyes, catching only the faintest glimmer of light. The voices stop again. One thing remains inside of me, alive and pulsing. My magic. It itches under my skin, reaching for something. So I focus on that.
I let the power inside of me flex, the tinge of something that's so close to the human feeling of... of bliss. Yes, that's it. It feels like bliss. The kind that you can only experience when you're present in a moment, truly present. Warmth stretches out from my stomach, casting goosebumps on my skin. I let the feeling wash over me. Then it narrows in searching.
Searching for the sedative. I let it go from its hold and it springs into my bloodstream. I can see it finding and destroying the toxins inside of me. One by one it chases them down and somehow, I can watch it all unfolding in my mind’s eye. It's... beautiful.
Feeling returns to my body, starting in my hands. It travels up my arms, into my shoulders, and down my back. That's when I realize I'm not tied to anything, not as I'd thought. My back presses into something. My legs are propped before me too. I'm laying down.
With a sharp breath that's quickly followed by a groan, I sit up. My eyes snap open, but my vision blurs for a second. Faces appear. Too many faces. They all open their mouths and laugh.
The more I blink the quicker the faces turn into one. Greasy red hair is pulled back into a low ponytail. A shadow of an uneven beard dots along his jaw, faint freckles span the bridge of his nose and cheeks. He gives me a slight bow.
"You woke up rather quickly, my dear." Barnabus cocks his head.
"We've been trying to find you," I say, running my hands over my face and rubbing at my eyes. My magic might have eaten away enough of the toxin to wake me, but there is surely still some remaining in my system and it's leaving me feeling groggy at best.
"It's actually quite the other way around. We've been looking for you. Wefoundyou." The fire glows in the middle of their camp, a space I'm thankfully familiar with, and it reflects in his eyes.
They found us. They were the sound of whispers on the wind that I couldn't quite place. They were the eyes on the back of my shoulders. They... they were the darts. They were responsible for the poison.
I lay on a blanket flattened on the dirt. Closing my fist in the material, I look away from where Barnabus is squatted in front of me. Other men mill about, a few sitting around a table just a few feet away, some wandering the camp looking as if they have something much better to be doing. Dirt and tents and stolen supplies. Just as I remembered.
Two people remain huddled together at the mouth of a tent, the flap propped open as they stand in its threshold. One Fae, one human. Ellie, I think her name was. The pirate girl who'd found love in a group of bandits who worked against her. She stood with her hand held in his, sending me darting glances laced with anger. I can't help but be reminded of Lincoln and I. Only, I'm not human any longer.
I still would have loved Lincoln with the entire of my human heart. Until the day I grew old and grey and left him alone in this world. There is relief in my Fae side now... a relief that says I'll never have to do that. Lincoln and I can grow old together.
My attention continues to pan the area, searching for Lincoln and his familiar features. But he isn't there. Only sneering Fae faces with their angry pinched brows and tense posture look back at me.
"Where is Lincoln?" I start to get up, blood rushing to my head. The world tilts and turns. I force myself to stand anyway, to push down the rising nausea in my stomach that stings in the back of my throat.
"He's a little tied up at the moment." Barnabus grins, his teeth shades of brown and yellow. He rises from his squatted position as I stumble forward into the group and pull a round of laughter from the waiting bandits. "Should we show her, lads?" Barnabus yells with his hands stretching out at his sides.
I stop myself before my feet catch on one another. There is a dull pain in my arm where the dart had broken skin and I rub it with a frown. "What did you use on us?"
When the bandit reaches to help steady me, I swat his hand away. "Our own little concoction. All-natural, of course." He grins and points me behind a few tents. "You woke up from it rather quickly. Further proof that you've got more magic flowing through your veins than the average Fae we meet out in this wilderness.
The other Fae rise from their seats. I try to count their heads to understand how many are around me, but Barnabus grabs my shoulders and spins me to face the edge of their camp, the only part not visible from where I had laid and a tent had obstructed my view.
Ropes dangle from tree limbs, tied around the hands and wrists of a crumbled body. White hot rage boils under my skin, stealing away any color from my cheeks. My palm connects with the hard muscle of Barnabus's chest as I shove off of him and sprint to Lincoln. His dark hair falls across his forehead, his chin touching his chest. The ropes keep his body taut and upright.
"What are you doing?" I shriek unable to keep the edge out of my voice. I trample anything underfoot, leaves, twigs, supplies... all of it to reach Lincoln. My fingers grip his chin, lifting his face, and I touch where his pulse should be. I can hear the beating of his heart, but there's something about feeling it that makes it more real. And I need something real right about now.
"Leverage," Barnabus says as if that is answer enough.
I spin to face him, pressing my back into Lincoln and wrapping my arms around his body. "Elaborate."
"You left rather quickly the last time we saw each other." Two of his men step closer. "We didn't want you getting away so easily this time." They edge closer to me still. "We have use of you."
Both men lunge, their arms reaching for my wrists or whatever part of my body they can grab, but it gives me the opening I'm looking for. When they move, I move too. Only I duck under their arms and pluck the sword off one of their waists, cutting the weapon through the air. Only narrowly do I avoid slicing through their appendages.
"Don't you dare get closer." I hiss through clenched teeth. "I'll run this blade right through your heart and won’t have a second thought about it." A growl blooms from my chest, angry, wild, and primal.
But the truth is, I would have second thoughts about harming them. Though it would be their own fault, I'd gladly take the guilt of their harm over them touching Lincoln any day.
The two men back away a few steps, looking more smug than surprised. I point the blade at Barnabus and he rolls his eyes dramatically. "Now what do you think you're gonna do with that, dear? There are a great many of us, and only one of you. Your little friend with his mind trick abilities is far too unconscious to assist you this time. And between the two of us," he adds with a whisper, "he might be the more cunning one."
An animal-like rumble escapes me as I lift the blade. I send the sharpened edge slicing through the air, quickly connecting with both ropes on either side of Lincoln and toss it to my feet as his body falls forward and I stretch my arms out to catch him. Air wheezes out of his lungs on his impact with my chest. In my human form I would have been no match to catching or carrying a weight like his. As Fae, I could carry three more of him before it became a real struggle.
Haughtily, I blow the strands of hair that had fallen over my face away and stare at Barnabus, slowly letting my gaze travel over all of them as they watch me, curious to see my next move.
