Page 71 of Box of Frogs
While I willed my body to recover, Morgan and the second Redcap went at it, fists and feet flying. Neither paused to speak; I wasn’t sure they even paused to breathe.
Morgan grabbed hold of the Redcap’s arm, twisting it hard behind him. The Redcap reacted by swinging his head backwards and connecting with Morgan’s nose. Morgan fell back a few steps, his body landing against the foam-covered wall. He pushed himself off and jabbed a kick at the Redcap’s chest. In response, the Redcap lashed out with his foot. Even I heard the crunch of Morgan’s ribs.
The fallen arsebadger next to me moaned and twitched. He was already starting to move again; another moment or two and I knew he’d be back on his feet. I couldn’t allow that to happen – Morgan had his hands full as it was.
Pain still throbbed through my body, although it was lessening by the second. I tensed my stomach and rolled, managing to get on top of the Redcap and pinning him in place to stop him re-joining the attack on Morgan. I wasn’t sure it was going to do any good, however, because the other Redcap had pulled out a gun and pointed it at Morgan. What was it with these guys and their damned guns?
My stomach sank. This wasn’t a country road with plenty of room to manoeuvre; in this small space, there was nowhere to go and no moves to make. Morgan froze, lowering his fists. I did the only thing left to us and straddled the Redcap underneath me, wrapping my hands round his throat and squeezing. He choked, his face turning a fascinating shade of purple. In my peripheral vision, I spotted his brother pressing his gun even harder against the underside of Morgan’s chin. Stalemate.
All of a sudden there was a sound behind us. Before I could glance round, a cold liquid drenched me. I heard the Redcap holding Morgan swear loudly and I realised that exactly the same had happened to him.
We all stopped what we were doing and stared at Julie, who was holding an empty glass in one hand and a half-empty bottle in the other. ‘Waste of good gin, if you ask me,’ she said. ‘This would be far easier if you all simply spoke to each other instead of attacking first.’
The Redcap underneath me spat out, ‘She works for Rubus.’
His words were barely understandable given that I was still gripping his throat but it didn’t stop me from snarling at him. ‘I work forher!’ I retorted angrily. ‘Or at least I used to. I’m not sure what’s going on now. The only ones around here who work for Rubus at this moment in time are you and your ugly buddy.’
‘You’re a fucking idiot.’
I tightened my grip. ‘Say that again,’ I said. ‘Go on. I dare you.’
Julie sighed loudly. ‘You’reallidiots.’ She walked over and kicked the Redcap.
‘Good,’ I said. ‘He deserved that.’ I’d barely finished speaking when she slapped me sharply on the cheek. ‘Hey!’
‘You deserved that too,’ she answered serenely. ‘Let’s all go and sit down in the next room and talk about this like adults.’
‘I’m not going anywhere.’
‘Madrona,’ Morgan said in a strained voice. ‘Do you have any idea what is going on here?’
‘Not a gasbudlikin clue.’
The Redcap holding the gun snarled at Morgan. ‘Why are you with her?’ he asked. ‘You’re supposed to hate your brother. Are you back with him now? Is that what this is all about?’
Julie flung back her head and let out a high-pitched scream. Yet again we all looked at her. She stopped the ear-piercing noise and smiled benignly. ‘That’s better. Honestly, I thought actors were hard to deal with but they’ve got nothing on you lot.’
‘We’re not sitting down on the sofa and having a little chat, Julie!’ I said. I didn’t trust her, not with the way she was acting and the fact that she didn’t appear to be a prisoner.
‘That’s fine then,’ she answered. ‘Stay here. Then once everyone has said their piece, you can kill each other and I can go on my merry way. But let’s talk first.’ There was something about her tone that brooked no argument. ‘You start, Mads.’
I was about to refuse but something in Morgan’s eyes stopped me. ‘Alright.’ I glared at both her and the Redcaps. ‘I’m a faery.’
‘They said that too,’ Julie murmured. ‘We’ll have to compare supernatural notes later.’
If there was going to be a later; right now, I wasn’t so sure. ‘Yeah,’ I said unconvincingly. ‘Anyway, I woke up on a golf course last Saturday night. I don’t remember anything before then, not my name, not my ethnicity, not anything. There was a dead body next to me and, before I could call the police and ask for help, those arsebadgers attacked me and tried to kill me.’ I narrowed my gaze at the Redcap underneath me.
‘You’re still alive, aren’t you?’ he said, his expression twisting. ‘The same can’t be said for Winn. You killed him.’ He flicked a disparaging look at Morgan. ‘So did you. You did it together. We were going to approach you for help. Just as well we chose not to.’
‘Winn? He’s the Redcap who came at us on the country road?’ I asked.
He sniffed. ‘Yeah. He was our brother. He was a good guy and you broke his neck without a second thought.’
‘That was not our intention. We weren’t trying to kill him,’ Morgan said. ‘His death was entirely an accident. We were only trying to stop him from killing us.’
‘And abducting you,’ I added to Julie. ‘Although I’m beginning to think all that stuff about getting stalked and kidnapped was a lie.’
‘I wasn’t lying,’ she said very quietly. ‘Not about any of it.’
