Her cheeks grew rosy as she nodded, looking at the ground. I think she wasn’t used to that kind of praise and attention for killing people.
She looked over at us, scanning our bodies, confirming to herself that we were unharmed before she acknowledged us. Her eyes snagged on the boar, not expecting it as her eyes flicked up to mine with mindfulness. She nodded towards the boar. “That was a great catch.”
It was entirely the wrong time, and we had a much bigger problem than I could’ve imagined, but I couldn’t help but feel pride and excitement at her words. My chest puffed up a little and a small smile turned up on my face. “Thanks.”
Our eyes met, her dark orbs with golden specks shined and I was caught in them for a whole different reason, and none of my negative feelings for her rose to ruin the moment. It was like our eyes blocked out anything else around us and we silently communicated our appreciation and desire for each other.
All too soon, it broke when Zayden said, “Awww man, does that mean we can’t keep it if we’re on the run?”
Emerald’s eyes turned downward, staring at the boar with the sides of her lips turned down. Regret shone in them as she looked back at me. “We don’t have time to skin and clean it. If we did, we could piece it out and bring it with us, each of us carrying some, but,” she looked over to where the fae disappeared, “They’re going to come back to collect their dead and it would be best if we were far away from here.”
She turned back towards us. “They will not come after us right away, but he will eventually try to come for us again. It would be best if we were already in the badlands or at least climbing the mountains when that happens. He won’t follow us there.”
She looked at me again. “Thank you for finding this for us, but we need to leave it and get going.” I sighed, nodding in understanding because she was right. Shadow fae never left anyone behind. At least that’s what Keve told me.
“Goodbye, my lovely succulent meaty friend. You would’ve been good in my belly, but unfortunately, that is not in the cards tonight.” Zayden said to the boar, unspilled tears glittered in his eyes as he said goodbye to the meal he almost had.
Rykon shook his head at Zayden, rolling his eyes at him and giving me a look that screamed, ‘why us?’ I almost laughed at it, this moment feeling a lot like the kind we used to have.
Zayden gave an exaggerated sigh, kissed the air above the boar, and turned to follow Emerald, who just folded the map back up and faced in the direction we needed to go. Rykon and I followed.
“So, you can ingest poison like its candy, make a deadly weapon out of simple items, and you can communicate with the fae in their own language? Anything else extra special that we need to know about you, my gem?” Zayden joked as he walked next to Emerald.
She kept her face forward, watching the path, as she replied in an even tone, “I know four languages, and fae tongue is the one I am least proficient in.” Zayden looked back at us and mouthed, ‘four’ with gigantic eyes, before he turned back and gave her an impressive whistle.
“Wow, gem. That’s a lot. How do you keep that all up in that pretty head of yours?”
We didn’t have time for this kind of talk. We needed to know why the shadow fae were after us. “Why are they after us, Emerald?”
She halted, her back going so straight it would break if someone pushed her, as she turned on her heel and faced me. The look on her face was distant, blank even, as she said, “You think that I purposely brought them to us? For what reason, Ajax? For what end?” I could see her body tremble, her eyes closing, anger clouding over them. “We are on the border between the fae world and the human one, and you don’t think they have patrols on the other side of the border? Watching for some stupid human to cross?!”
I don’t know if it was the way she was talking to me or that fact that she was implying I was stupid, but my anger rose, taking over my body as I yelled back, “Then why the fuck were the Shadow fae after us? They aren’t simply on patrols! They are the assassins of the fae kingdom, the best of the best they have to offer as warriors. Once they get a scent or a job, they always follow through, one way or another. It might take days, it might take years, but they never give up. Never surrender!”
Before I knew what was going on, Emerald and I were in each other’s faces, chests rising rapidly, nose to nose, daring the other to take this to a physical level.
“Okay, so you’re both heated, and I get that. We all do, right Rykon?” Zayden said as he stood at our side, trying to calm us down.
“Right.” Rykon didn’t seem to believe what he just said, but none of us cared.
“Perfect! So, let’s just take this conversation down a few notches. We still need to figure this all out and it would be better for us if we didn’t have anyone blee-” He didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Emerald hit me with a nasty uppercut, my teeth rattling in my head as I felt the vibrations of her impact scramble my brain.
“Now I can talk.” I could hear the smug smile in her tone as she faced away from me. Thinking that this was it, but this was far from over.
“Well, I guess that was deserv-” I tackled her before Zayden could finish his sentence. Slamming her onto the ground as I tried to put her in a rear choke hold. She wanted to get rough. She wanted to play with the big boys. Then she got it.
I wrapped my legs around her body, snaking my arm around her neck and holding it closed with my other arm. This was the fastest that I have ever done this move and I felt like I had finally got her. There was no way she was going to get out of this move, as I was bigger and stronger, covering more of her body with my mass.
I spoke too soon.
As soon as I settled in, putting a strain on her neck, she used one arm and dug her elbow into the inside of my thigh while using the same thigh to push up my leg for her to grab my foot and bring it up. As soon as she caught it, I knew something bad was going to happen.
Pain exploded from my inner thigh at her strategically placed elbow jab, shooting down the shin of the leg she was pulling up towards her. I thought she would stop when I yelled out, but she didn’t. She kept digging into my thigh, making my thigh muscles feel like they were going to burst, pulling up my leg so hard that I felt like it was going to break.
I released her from my hold and she quickly rolled to the left, crouching down in a fighting stance, ready to take this to the next level as she let out one controlled breath. Her eyes scanned my body to find more weak points than she could exploit.
I was heaving on the ground, cradling the leg she abused as a Zayden shaped shadow came over me. “Was that fun for you? Did you get your answers? Did you learn something? Cuz I sure as shit did. Don’t. Anger. Emerald. She. Will. Fucking. Kill. You. Do you need another lesson?” He waved over at Emerald, who looked ready for anything.
I shook my head. No. I let my anger take the best of me and I made a mess of this. This was why I couldn’t make friends. My emotions constantly got the better of me and people either learned to hate me or ignore me.
