A crack of thunder finishes her sentence for her, and I stride back to the door. The heavy storm clouds are straight overhead, moving preternaturally fast through the fading afternoon light. With them, a wind that whips through the forest, the clearing, rattling the few panes of glass still left in the windows.
“Time to go,” I say under my breath.
I start to turn back to Seren, when something else catches my attention.
My heart falls to somewhere near my feet.
I never thought I’d miss the lizards we ran into last time.
These fae are worse. So, so much worse. Twisted creatures rising from the woods and the forest floor. Snarling mouths filled with thorny fangs, bodies and limbs that look like gnarled tree trunks, vines, moss, abominations of the natural order.
It’s not hard to guess who sent them.
They’re all armed, carrying strange bows, knives, and spears made of the same plant matter as their horrifying bodies.
And they’re headed straight for us.
“Seren!” I shout, but she’s already moving, scooping the letters into her bag.
Until a fae bursts from the earth beneath the cottage’s floor. Sending clumps of dirt and debris flying, it lunges toward Seren and my blood chills.
But she deftly jumps back, fingers grabbing at something on her belt and—
“Out!” she shouts at me, spell in hand. “I’ll go out the back way and meet you around front.”
My immediate instinct is to refuse.
Leave her here?
Let her deal with it alone?
Unthinkable.
But when another fae bursts from beneath the floorboards between us and the terrible sounds of the horde descending outside grow even louder, I decide to trust her.
I have to trust her.
With a roar, I turn back toward the door and lunge for the nearest fae with my sword. Hissing and screaming, it counters with a jab of a crude wooden spear. I break the spear easily and then dispatch the fae, turning to face the next when a blast of flame brushes against the back of my armor.
Diving out of the way, I turn to find the entire cottage engulfed in flames.
“Seren!”
Before I can dash back into the burning building after her, the sound of her voice stops me in my tracks.
“I’m alright! I’m coming!”
I stay where I am, not wanting to risk going around either side and losing her, fighting back fae after fae, holding my ground, waiting until—
Seren’s beautiful face appears around the corner of the cottage, through the haze of the smoke, green eyes blazing and determined.
“To me!” I yell over the din, already moving toward her. “I’ll open a portal.”
She nods, lip caught between her teeth and sweat beaded on her brow as she slashes at one fae, then two with the knife I gave her, as she deploys another one of her defensive spells, this one a vicious blast of ice that hits all the fae within a six foot radius of her. Their leaves wither, their cries turn into choked rattles, and it gives Seren just enough room to sprint the remaining distance between us.
In the span of a few heartbeats several things happen.
Seren grabs my arm, and a wave of relief like nothing I’ve ever known courses through me.
