Page 17 of Kick the Candle (Knight Games 2)
"I hate to do it. Taking away someone's free will is against everything I believe in."
I shook my head. "You had no choice. She needed it, she really did. Her free will was going to get her dead or turned."
He nodded and reached for my hand. "We have more work to do."
Next stop was Maison des Etoiles. We arrived minutes before midnight and found a shadowed place behind a dumpster to stake out the alley. The temperature had dropped. A chill breeze made me shiver. Thoughtfully, Rick wrapped his arms around me. I was dressed in a pair of stretchy black wool blend pants, boots with heels I'd enchanted to be comfortable (thank you Book of Light) and a gray sweater that was more librarian than soul sorter. I'd wrapped it all up in a black wool overcoat that could have been described as badass if it weren't for the J. Peterman embroidered pockets and cuffs. Still, it was cold when the wind blew, so I appreciated Rick's physical closeness for more than the immediate pleasure of his touch.
"What does Maison des Etoiles mean?" I asked Rick.
"Mansion of the stars. The fae here have a close relationship to the celestial."
"Like they're into astrology or something?"
He licked his lips and hummed like he was thinking. "Fae are born from and attach to natural things. For example, the forest fae who dwell behind my house are tied metaphysically to the trees. With a steady breath, they can make a sapling grow. Kill the tree; kill the fae. Maison's fae are tied to the stars, the moon, the planets and so forth. It's said that they came from the heavens originally."
I had no idea there were forest fae behind Rick's house. I wondered what they looked like. I wondered if any of them had ever come onto Rick. My stomach twisted. Why did I do this to myself? I shook away the uninvited thought and tried to concentrate on my work.
Every day as the witch was a learning experience. Rick said these fae were celestial. I tried to imagine the implications of such a thing. Did they change with the course of the moon? If the forest fae could make a plant grow with a steady breath, what could celestial fae do?
"Have you noticed that there's no snow in this alley? It's been snowing since early evening and, before we left, it was already accumulating in your yard. What happened to the snow?"
Rick didn't have to answer my question. Just then, a woman exited the Maison and click-clacked her way into the circle of light cast by the lamppost near the door. Her strappy silver stiletto heels made her legs look impossibly long, and her shimmering blue dress gave her dark red hair a purplish tint. Stunning.
With a deep cleansing breath, she tossed her head back and spread her arms wide, heart raised to the stars. Two gossamer wings unfurled from her back, stretching and flapping. Instantly, a wave of tropical heat blew through the alley, warming the skin of my face and sending a trickle of joy through me.
"Oh," I whispered. I pulled out my phone and started recording. "For my new database."
Rick brought his lips to my ear. "Shhh."
I was afraid to blink, that I might miss the beauty of the fae's connection with her roots. The air around her shimmered as if the stars were sprinkling her with their magic.
"Hello, Stella." A man moved into the alleyway, bald, with unusually large dark eyes and a tight mouth. Something about the duster he wore bothered me, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I reached for Nightshade. Rick placed a hand over mine. I paused.
Stella's wings retracted so quickly even I questioned whether they'd been there. She turned to face the man. "I'm sorry, sir, but as I mentioned inside, it's my break. If you want a girl, you need to go in the front door. Someone else will be provided for you." Her silvery voice chimed like a bell against his dark presence.
"What I want, I can't get inside." He extended his hands toward her shoulders.
Crap. With a thrust of encouragement from Rick, I bounded into the alley, Nightshade heralding my arrival with the blue glow of her blade. "Hold it right there," I yelled, using his startled composure as opportunity to slide in front of Stella. "Identify yourself."
The man took a step back, and the angle of the light gave me a good look at his coat. Seal skin. Bastard. With a strange hand gesture that I assumed was a foreign version of giving me the finger, the stranger turned to run. I wasn't sure what I was dealing with, but he wasn't human, not if he'd popped up in our silver mirror, so I leapt forward and swung Nightshade. I wasn't trying to kill him, only to maim him so that I could find out more and pass judgment. But I missed because at that moment Poe came shrieking at my face, talons bared.
"What the fuck?" I yelled as I dove sideways to avoid him. My shoulder smacked on the concrete but not hard enough for me to miss the enormous barbed club that whistled through the air over me. My momentum rolled me to my back.
A smoky black column blew through the alley. Rick! He materialized in front of the stranger in the seal coat, blocking the man's escape. "Grateful, move!"
The barbed club came crashing down toward my head. I barrel-rolled out of the way, getting my first glimpse of a meaty, stump of a leg and a furry bare foot as large as my torso. Flipping to my feet, my eyes followed the leg to a fur-toga wearing creature, big as a house, with a pushed-in pig face complete with lower tusks that protruded in hideous arcs on either side of its snout. Poe was circling its head, trying to distract it, but the creature kept coming.
This time when the club fell, I darted between the beast's legs stabbing toward the Achilles tendon on the back of the ankle. I missed. The force of the club upended the section of concrete I stood on, sending me flying into the opposite wall. I bounced off the bricks and landed on my feet. Thanks to the magic of my role and Rick's blood, I was stronger than an ordinary human. Good thing. That last blow to the head would've been fatal.
I raced forward before the beast had a chance to turn around and stabbed where I knew it would be most effective-the balls. Sure enough, as Nightshade sank through fur and soft flesh, the club dropped and the creature listed to the side, hands cupping between its legs. I wasted no time with formalities; this thing had tried to kill me. Using its knee and hip as leverage, I propelled myself over the massive pig creature and, in one lithe stroke, decapitated it. Blood erupted from the kill, a geyser of red that showered the alleyway.
Once the spray of blood settled, I pivoted toward Rick and the creepy stranger he restrained at the front of the alley. Soft sobs reached my ears, Stella crying in the arms of another fae in the doorway to Maison des Etoiles.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," I said to her, then stomped up to Mr. Evil-Seal-Coat-Wearer and pressed the tip of my bloody blade into his neck. "Who the hell are you? And what the hell are you?"
The man started to laugh, so hard that it sounded like a low bark. With a movement like a backward shrug, he offed the seal skin, slipped from Rick's arms and fell to the pavement, writhing and foaming at the mouth.
"What's happening?" I asked Rick as the man flip-flopped. He coughed up a spew of liquid, and gasped repeatedly. "Does he need CPR?"
