“Robbie, I need you to free me before you go outside,” Mama said.
“Amy’ll take care of you,” I replied.
“No.”She used the “mama voice.”I hadn’t heard her use the “mama voice” since I was a kid.“You need to free me now, and I’m going out there with you.These men have laid hands on a daughter of the Winter Court, and they must pay for that transgression.Now set me free.”
I’ve never disobeyed her when she’s used that voice, and I wasn’t about to start.I had to grab my Leatherman multi-tool to cut her loose because the assholes had used special metal-core zip ties on her, stifling her magic as well as restricting her movements.I clipped the wire, and she massaged her wrists as she got to her feet.
Mama had a look on her face I’d never seen before.She was more than angry, and trust me, I’d seen her angry face plenty when I was a kid.No, this was angry all rolled up with offended, affronted, and totally, one hundred percentpissed.I stepped aside as she strode toward the door, then slid into step behind her.I wasn’t going out there with her to back up Mama anymore.
I was going out there to try and keep her from slaughtering every poor sumbitch in a Pest Control uniform.This wasn’t the woman who’d kissed my skinned knees and bitched me out for swiping Pop’s moonshine.This was the Heir to the Court of Mab, and she was going to seriously wreck somebody’s shit.
* * *
I followed Mama out the door of the building into the courtyard of the impromptu prison camp, with Amy hot on my heels.She’d stripped the choking guard of his weapons and had his AR-15 pressed to her shoulder, making an incongruous picture since she was still wearing her wedding dress.It was a long, flowing white thing that provided pretty good camouflage in all the snow, but I was pretty sure those shoes weren’t going to work well outdoors.
“You look great, sweetheart.I hope it’s not bad luck for me to see you in your dress before the ceremony,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.Maybe if I could make Mama laugh, she wouldn’t kill anybody.
“I don’t think this wedding could turn into muchmoreof a shitshow,” Amy replied.“But thanks.I liked this dress.Before I had to spend seventy-two hours in another dimension wearing it, that is.What took you so long?”
“We had to find a portal to Fairyland, then we ended up in Titania’s dungeon again, then we had to hoof it here to find y’all,” I replied.“I think we did pretty good on time, all things considered.”
“Fair enough,” Amy said.“Who’s with you?Skeeter and Geri?”
“Half right.Geri’s here, but Skeeter’s back home trying to make sure news of a vanishing building doesn’t end up on the news.No, I brought Ash and Jarvis.”
“Ash, the tech from the venue?And…mybrotherJarvis?”
“Yeah.Ash has some kind of weird fighting magic, and Jarvis…well, your brother has done better at this than I ever would have expected.I’m almost starting to like him.”
“Well at least one of my family isn’t being a giant pain in the ass.If my hands hadn’t been tied, I probably would have strangled my father two days ago.”
“Now I’m really sad I wasn’t here to cut you free earlier,” I muttered.
“I heard that.”
I kinda meant for her to but also wanted to keep it half under my breath so I’d have plausible deniability.Ireallydidn’t like Amy’s parents.They were like all the rich assclowns that have looked down on country folk like me for my whole life, only now I didn’t have to put up with it.So I didn’t.But they were still her parents, so I hadn’t punched either of them.Yet.
“Mama, what are you looking for?”I asked.Mama had stopped just outside the door and was turning in place, eyes closed like she was listening for something, but the only sounds to be heard were the screaming of the Pest Control operative Geri had shot and Jarvis and Ash yelling to each other as they looked for any other bad guys.
“I’m not looking for anything, Robbie.I’m listening, which is hard to do with you yammering at me,” Mama replied.“They were using radios to communicate, and my hearing is better than a human’s.So if one of them is hiding somewhere calling for reinforcements, I should be able to hear him.”
“Found one!”Ash called from somewhere behind the building.We all ran around to see her dragging a mercenary out from under the event center by an ankle.He was a scrawny kid with no rifle, just a holstered pistol on his hip, and he was screaming for all he was worth as Ash pulled on his leg.
“Don’t eat me!I’m too skinny!Please don’t eat me!I wouldn’t taste good!I eat too much processed stuff!There’s nothing nutritious about me!Please!”he wailed, his tears turning the dust on his face to a light coating of mud.
I stomped over to him, hauled him upright, and slapped him across both cheeks.“Shut the hell up!”I yelled in his face from barely inches away.
He snapped his mouth shut with an audibleclick.
“Good,” I said.“Now you’re going to answer our questions, and if you tell us everything we need to know, I won’t let any of the faeries eat you.Deal?”
His head nodded like a bobblehead on my dashboard going down a dirt road.“Yes, sir.Just please don’t let the cannibal fairies get me!”
“Technically it wouldn’t be cannibalism if you got eaten by a faerie,” Ash said.“Since you’re different species and all.”
“Not helping,” I grumbled, and they mimed locking their lips shut.I turned my attention back to the kid, who had at least stopped hyperventilating.“How many guards are here?”
“Six,” he said.“Me, Benny, Alejandro?—”
