Alive—but dead inside.
***
I stared at the utter desolation with nausea threatening to rise from my churning gut. The sun set low on the destroyed City of Light, casting a peaceful glow that was mocking in the chaotic turmoil roiling inside of me.
A long low whistle speared the silence from my best friend, his violet eyes glinting with admiration. “Fucking Faerie.” He cursed. “She did this?”
I shook my head as an all too familiar feeling of desperation flooded my tired eyes. I stumbled forward on the verge of collapsing when a strong hand from my other side gripped my shoulder. I could not hide the flinch his touch created.
“You are not healed enough for this Emon, let us return you home. You cannot keep going on, my cub.”
I shrugged off the support from the healer who had joined me here. “I’ll be fine Jar and there is no time, if I am going to find her I must leave tonight.”
Out of my periphery, I could see the healer give my friend a look, jerking his head towards me and hissing under his breath. “Tyr, talk some sense into him.”
Tyr scoffed. “He practically dragged himself here and we couldn’t stop him then, healer. What makes you think we can stop him now?”
My tears spilled down my face, only half listening to their continued squabbling about my current state and I growled out. “I have to find her. Where is Penina?”
“I’m here.” A gentle voice called and the deadly silhouette of Faerie’s most infamous assassin stepped forward into the remaining sunlight. “I brought you something.” She smiled brightly and shoved two bound fae onto their knees before me. “I found these two searching through the rubble.”
I peered down at the grief stricken fae. Their heads hung low and their shoulders slumped in defeat. Their hands clenched in front of them bound by a leather cord that was clearly not needed.
They were broken…like me.
Clad in heavy black leather, caked with grime and dust, the one with bright wavy green hair looked up at me through his low hanging locks. Stormy hazel eyes glared, recognizing me for what I was.
A shifter.
His partner didn’t bother. Hair white as snow covered half her face and it slung sharply towards the ground where her tears stained the crumbled earth.
“Who are you?” I growled low.
Green hair narrowed his hazel eyes on me. “We don’t answer to shifters.” He spat.
I smiled, my fangs glinting in the low light. “So there is still some fight in you. That’s good.” I nodded. “Penina?”
Jerking him back by his hair, the assassin flipped down the collar of his uniform, where a delicate silver pin, crafted to look like a swirl of smoke, was clasped on the inside.
I inhaled. “Shadow forces.” I nodded to Penina, who dropped the fae’s head and quickly moved to flip the collar of his partner, revealing the same pin beneath, “Captains, by the looks of it.” I growled and crouched low, catching both their gazes this time. I stared into a singular stormy gray eye of the fae with white hair. “Where is your master?”
“Dead.” She hissed back.
I shook my head, they didn’t know. “Your queen is likely dead, yes. But that is not the master I speak of. Yours is very much alive and I will find her.”
Neither could hide their shock nor the new hope glimmering in their eyes.
Green hair laughed dryly. “If what you say is true, shifter. Then may the goddess help you. If the general doesn’t want to be found, you won’t be finding her, she will be findingyou.”
Distracted, I barely recognized the threat before his meek partner lunged for me with a snarl. Penina was faster. A blade stopping the shadow force captain mid attack.
“Easy little elemental.” Penina purred down at her.
I frowned, assessing them both again, recognizing them from the stories I had gathered. “Elementals? As in the elemental twins. The captains ofherinner circle. Riley Dragoon and Xi Chin.”
They glanced at one another then. A thousand words spoken in one look. I should know it, it was the same for me and my friends here today.
“What is your plan if you do find her, shifter?” The fae with white hair didn’t bother to flinch away from the blade caressing her exposed throat.
