Page 40 of Filthy Fae

“Close the portal,” Oxonos yelled as his legs kicked in the air in a coordinated movement, showing a pair of brilliant red shoes. “Prince Macklin, close the portal, or we’re all dead!”

Asking the man why he couldn’t close his own portal was on the tip of my tongue when I noticed him lunging into a stand and sashaying through the parlor.

“Here,” Scarlet said as she crawled after the fae. “Give me your feet. I’ll pry them off.”

“That won’t work,” I called as I crouched down. Closing my eyes, I reached out to the magic around me. Oxonos was a Summer fae, like my father, and his magic tasted like sweet peaches and felt like sunbaked earth against my skin. I pulled at the magic tendrils, unwinding the spell and extinguishing his magic inch by inch.

The thump of Aaron throwing his body at the door broke my concentration for a moment. He hissed in pain, and the tang of blood filled the air. Crimson dripped onto the floor below him.

“Close the portal, Mack, please,” Scarlet cried as she pushed against the door beside Aaron.

I forced my eyes closed, and grabbed at the magic, working much faster now, extinguishing the tendrils in great lengths.

Just as the last tendril extinguished, Scarlet and Aaron sighed in relief.

“There’s another portal seven blocks over!” Oxonos called as he danced out of the room.

Scarlet took a running leap and dove into Oxonos, knocking the fae over. “Where’s Zeezee?” She growled, shocking the hell out of me with her ferocity. “What did you two do?”

Oxonos’ face paled as light as his hair. Scarlet pinned his chest, but his legs were still moving. “Whatever do you mean? I am clearly in duress!”

“Not any duress that you haven’t already inflicted on others.” Scarlet’s fingers stretched into claws, and she lowered them to Oxonos’ neck. “You had to be the one to invite my sister and Zane to the orgy a few blocks over from your house, and now the queen is punishing you. What did you do, and where is Zeezee?”

Oxonos gasped, his eyes bulging. “Stop this.”

“Scarlet...” I said, crouching down beside her. Grabbing Oxonos ankle firmly with one hand, I ran my fingers along his instep. Feeling my mother’s tendrils of magic like invisible vines winding around the red shoes, I unwound the tendrils and leveraged off one of the dancing slippers. “You get more flies with honey.”

Tears fell onto Oxonos’ cheeks as he whispered his thanks.

I reached my hand to his other shoe. “Oxo, friend, my mother told me that she was supposed to be at that party until someone warned her not to come.” It was the message Autumn had delivered to me before the feast, the damning evidence my mother thought she had against Scarlet. “Were you the one who invited my mother to that party?”

Oxonos shuddered, but a second later, he answered in a shaky voice. “Yes. It was a partner swap, the queen and I with Zeezee and Zane. The queen was very interested in bedding a werewolf.”

“What the fuck?” Scarlet half-climbed, half-fell off Oxonos. “You arranged for the queen to meet Zeezee and Zane at the party? She was going there to have sex with Zane?”

“Yes.” Oxonos nodded again. “The queen had me seized directly after the massacre. I don’t know anything.” Sweat coursed down his waxen brow, and dark circles ringed his eyes. The guy had been dancing for nearly twenty-four hours without stopping.

Reaching forward, I grabbed his other shoe, working away the magic as I pulled it off.

“Why weren’t you at the party?” Scarlet demanded, her eyes narrowing.

“I was the one who discovered the massacre. I was an hour late to the party. I reported it to the queen.” Oxonos grabbed onto a chair and pulled himself up, wincing every few seconds. His feet looked like bruised, rotting fruit, and his ankles had swollen to the width of melons. “I have been ill-used by your sister. I don’t know where she is. She left me to face punishment alone in a conflict that is no business of mine.”

“Maybe it’s not your fault,” I said. “But stopping a war concerns all of us, friend.”

Oxonos frowned as a battle cry came from the street outside his house. “That doesn’t sound good.”

Aaron looked back from where he was peering through the window. “We’ve got at least seven fae running down the road in full battle armor.” He spun toward Scarlet. “Let’s go.”

“Oxonos,” Scarlet said. “There’s no way that my sister and Zane murdered all those fae. She’s not physically capable of it. You have to know something—anything.”

“I don’t,” Oxonos said, licking his chapped, flaking lips. “And frankly, I don’t want to know. I’ll look the other way. I want nothing to do with what’s between you and the queen.”

“I’ll owe you a favor,” I blurted out. “If you can tell us something, I will owe you a favor.”

“Prince Macklin.” Oxonos narrowed his eyes, his gaze skating from us to the window and back.

“Shit,” Aaron said. “We have to go now!”