Token to the Nevernever
They were here.
The creepy, transparent fey, floating a few inches off the tile floors, drifting toward us down the hall. Only now there were a whole lot of them, filling the corridor, their bony fingers and shattered wings making soft clicking sounds as they eased closer.
“We told you,” one whispered, regarding me with shiny black eyes, “we told you to forget, to not ask questions, to not interfere. You were warned, and you chose to ignore us. Now, you and your friend will disappear. No one will endanger our lady’s return, not even the mortal kin of the Iron Queen.”
“Ethan?” Kenzie gave me a worried look, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the ghostly faeries, creeping toward us. She glanced back down the hall, then turned to stare at me again. “What are you looking at? You’re starting to freak me out.”
Backing away, I grabbed Kenzie’s wrist, ignoring her startled yelp, and fled back into the main room.
“Hey!” She tried to yank free as I bashed through the doors, nearly knocking down three students in white gis. “Ow! What the hell are you doing? Let go!”
We were starting to attract attention, despite the noise of battle and sparring, and several parents turned to give me the evil eye. I pulled Kenzie into the corner where I’d left my bag and released her, watching the door we’d just come through. She glared at me, rubbing her wrist. “Next time, a little warning would be nice.” When I didn’t answer, she frowned and dropped her wrist. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to hurl. What’s going on?”
The creepy fey drifted through the door frame, rising over the crowd like skeletal wraiths, black eyes scanning the floor. No one saw them, of course. They flickered, fading from sight for just a second before, as one, their faceted black eyes locked onto me.
I whispered a curse. “Kenzie,” I muttered, as the fey started to float toward us. “We have to get out of here. Will you trust me, just this once, without asking any questions?” She opened her mouth to protest, and I whirled on her frantically. “Please!”
Her jaw snapped shut. Whether it was from the look on my face or something else, she nodded. “Lead the way.”
Shouldering my bag, I fled along the wall with Kenzie right behind me, weaving through students and watching parents, until we reached the back of the dojo. The fire door stood slightly ajar, propped open to let in the cool autumn air, and I lunged toward it.
Just as I hit the metal bar, pushing it open, something struck my arm, sending a flaring pain up my shoulder. I stifled a yell and staggered down the steps, dragging Kenzie with me, seeing the hatchet-face of the faery glaring at me from behind the door.
“Ethan,” Kenzie gasped as I pulled her across the back lot. It had rained again, and the pavement smelled like wet asphalt. Puddles glimmered under the streetlamps, pooling in cracks and potholes, and we splashed our way through the black, oily water.
“Ethan!” Kenzie called again. She sounded frantic, but all my thoughts were on getting to my truck around front. “Oh, my God! Wait a second. Look at your arm!”
I looked back, and my skin crawled. Where the faery had hit me, the entire sleeve of my shirt was soaked with red. I pushed back the sleeve, revealing three long, vivid slashes across my triceps. Blood was starting to trickle down my arm.
“What the hell?” Kenzie gasped, as the pain suddenly hit like a hot knife peeling back my skin. I gritted my teeth and clamped a hand over the wound. “Something tore the crap out of your arm. You need to go to the hospital. Here.” She reached for me, putting a gentle hand on my uninjured shoulder. “Give me your bag.”
“No,” I rasped, backing away. They were coming down the stairs now, pointed stick legs skipping over the puddles. One of them stared at me and raised a thin, bloody claw to his mouth slit, licking the blood with a pale, wormlike tongue.
The sound of movement rippled behind us, and I turned to see more of them floating around the corner of the building, spreading out and trapping us between them.
My stomach felt tight. Is this what had happened to Todd, surrounded on all sides by creepy transparent fey, torn apart with long needle fingers?
I shivered, trying to be calm. My rattan sticks were in my bag, feeble weapons against so many, but I had to do something.
For just a moment, I caught a reflection of myself in the puddle at my feet, grim-faced and hollow-eyed. There was a dark smear on my cheek, my own blood, from where I’d rubbed my face after touching the wound....
Wait. Blood. Standing water.
The fey drifted closer. I stuck my hand into my pocket, and my bloody fingers closed around the silver coin. Pulling it out, I faced Kenzie, who was giving me that worried, bewildered stare, still insisting we go to a doctor.
“Kenzie,” I said, taking her hand as the clicking around us grew very loud in my ears, “do you believe in faeries?”
“What?” She blinked at me, looking confused and almost angry that I’d brought up something so ridiculous. “Do I…no! Of course not, that’s crazy.”
I closed my eyes. “Then, I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t want to do this. But try not to freak out when we get there.”
“Get…where?”
The circle of fey hissed and flowed toward us, claws reaching out, mouths gaping. Praying this would work, I squeezed Kenzie’s hand in a death grip and flung the token into the puddle at my feet.
A flash of blinding white, a ripple of energy with no sound. I felt my stomach pulled inside out, the ground spinning under my feet, and held my breath. The mad hisses and clicking of the transparent fey cut out, and suddenly I was falling.
* * *
I hit the ground on my stomach, biting my lip as the gym bag landed on my shoulder and sent a flare of pain up my arm. Beside me, I heard Kenzie’s breathless yelp as she thumped to the dirt and lay there, gasping.
“What…what in the hell?” she panted, and I heard her struggle to get up. “What just happened? Where are we?”
“Well, well,” answered a cool, amused voice from somewhere above us. “And here you are again. Ethan Chase, your family does have a knack for getting into trouble.”