Night Fae by Meg Xuemei X.
Chapter 16
I swept my legs up and rammed my boots into the Furies as I flailed in the sandstorm. My kicks, once again, proved to have no effect on the freaks whatsoever.
How could you hurt something that wasn’t even flesh and blood? I summoned my shadow fire and thorny vines. I wanted to gouge out their flaming eyes with my spiky vines and burn them to a crisp with my fire.
“You can’t hurt us, princess,” one of them said, seemingly able to read my intentions. “If anyone briefed you on the rules of the Wild Hunt, you’d know that you’ve been magically bound by the terms, and you won’t be able to deploy magic in the arena. And right now, we’re in the air of the hunting field.”
Just as the Fury had stated, my magic sputtered and went out like a damp squib, but it didn’t stop me from kicking the Furies in the solar plexus. One of them shook its head at me as if chastising me for being childish.
“This game will be most beneficial to us.” A Fury grinned like a faceless clown. “We’ll feed on a portion of her power, as the queen promised.”
As soon as the flying sand ceased to slam into my face, I screamed obscenities at them, which was all I could do since I couldn’t damage their inhuman bodies. I also cursed their birthmothers, hoping that would disturb them.
Then, suddenly, they released me. Or more accurately, they dropped me.
A line of cedars stretched beneath my feet, their fern-colored, needle-like leaves rushing toward my face. I twisted in the air as best I could, Netherbane in my hand, ready to slice off the needles.
I steered clear of the spiky shoots of cedar but tumbled onto a pine tree. Rolling and falling from the top branch, I slid to the edge of the pine tree and hacked at the sharp needles before they could jab into my face and possibly blind me. My other arm wasn’t so lucky and hit a broken branch. Pain bloomed in me through my armor.
I landed in a crouch and suppressed a groan.
The air smelled spicy, earthy, and electric. The place screamed danger and menace, cannibalistic magic pulsing beneath the soil. Lucifer had sent a last message to my mind, warning me of the design of the Wild Hunt. The soil would absorb my power when I was slaughtered in the hunt. The Furies would harvest part of my magic, and the rest would go to Brigantia, according to the pact revealed carelessly by one of the Furies.
I stared up at the bright sunshine spilling from the sky. The Furies had vanished. The air vibrated with tension, promising imminent bloodshed and straining my nerves.
I wondered who my first hunters would be. Would the kings come to hunt me first, compelled by the ancient power?
My heart pounding, my ears prickling, I let my senses spread out to detect threats, but I got nothing. I was indeed in the null zone. But then, it also meant whoever was about to hunt me couldn’t use magic either.
I patted the Legend Heavy strapped to my back, comforted. I hadn’t lost it, even in the sandstorm. From what I’d been told, the hunt could last for days or even weeks. So, I’d always use a blade and save bullets unless the situation demanded heavy gunfire.
I scanned the surroundings, paused, and listened. The birds had stopped chirping in the woods. Smaller animals were shuffling around as if scurrying toward their dens. I held a handgun in one hand and Netherbane in the other as I inched forward between the trees, away from the clearing.
I had no idea about the geography here. The kings said that the landscape in this place shifted all the time. While the hunters and the hunted might not be allowed to use magic, the Wild Hunt was brutal magic in itself.
I must find shelter or a strategic spot where I could best defend myself. I also needed to secure sources of food and water in case I had to stay in the game longer than two days. The backpack I carried had only a couple of days’ supplies.
As I prowled forward through the forest, my shoulders stiff and my dagger tight in my grip, the landscape suddenly changed. Sweet perfume permeated the air. Vibrant blossoms dangled from plants. Colorful leaves drifted from high trees. It was dreamily beautiful. But I wasn’t fooled. Instinctively I knew this would be the killing field.
My sadistic sister would love to see my blood spray onto the blossoms and taint the blades of the parakeet grass.
Lucifer had counseled me to look into her nature. To defeat her, I needed to get into the mindset of pure evil. I’d do everything to survive the game. I wouldn’t let her win. I had so much to live for. Only when she was put down would all the people I cared about be safe, and none of them would need to look over their shoulders in fear again.
The sound of crackling leaves rose ahead, and footfalls crunched on twigs and pine seeds. From my years of hunting experience, I knew that whoever or whatever was stalking toward me wasn’t an animal.
It was hunters.
My blood raced and my pulse spiked.
I tamped down on my nerves and paused my advance, not making a sound as I reevaluated my tactics. I was about to go against a group. I’d take out the most dangerous hunters in the gang first.
Something whooshed by, flying in my direction, and instantly I recognized the noise of a rapid machine gun. Like a flash, I scampered amid a thick cluster of spruce trees and ducked behind a white tree trunk just as a succession of bullets whipped past me and bit into the nearby trees. If I’d acted a heartbeat later, those bullets would have buried themselves in my neck and chest instead of chipping off tree bark.
My heart thumped at the narrow escape, and anger rose within me. I moved further away from the shooting range, quiet as a ghost.
“Why did you shoot before we had the target in sight?” a human guy said, annoyed. Fae spoke in a different fashion and usually in a Fae tongue. “Now you’ve alerted our game!”
“I shoot whoever fucking moves,” another human male answered. “That’s the only way to kill a demoness before it gets to us.”
So Brigantia sent them and told them that I was a she-demon. I almost laughed drily. Well, now that I knew Lucifer was my sire, I guess that wasn’t far from the truth.
“Shush,” a young woman hushed them. “We must be sneaky, super quiet, and fast when dealing with a demoness. We don’t want to alert it and give it the chance to escape.”
“Escape?” a college-aged girl snorted. She had pixie-cut hair the color of maple sugar. For some reason, I kind of liked her. She looked tough. “We should count ourselves lucky if the she-demon doesn’t come for us. Didn’t you hear that bitch queen’s pitch before she dumped us here? We’d be facing a demon! A demon! Do you know how hard it is to kill a hell spawn?”
I bet she’d never seen a demon before.
Who was this sorry bunch?
“The she-demon now knows our every move since you’ve generously spelled it all out,” another guy said gruffly. “It’s probably laughing at us right now.”
The first hunters were a group of humans. How had my evil sister even rounded them up? Why was she pitting these amateurs against me? But then, Brigantia was a twisted creature. She’d send human mobs to hunt me and see how I’d react, as I was raised in the human world and considered myself part human, regardless of my origin.
A thought clicked. These human hunters were disposable.
She wanted me to kill the contestants and have the humans’ blood on my hands before the next group of more lethal hunters came for me. I knew that as the trial went on, more and more deadly huntsmen would join the hunt.
I darted like a ghostly arrow in the human hunters’ direction as they plowed through the forest toward my former position, still arguing. Almost all of them were stompers, but then they probably had confidence due to their large number.
I reached their rear and counted over a dozen of them.
“So we slay the demoness, and then we’ll be allowed to go home?” a permed blonde whimpered.
“That’s the idea. You all heard what the fairy queen said,” said a dude who looked like he belonged in the military. “The sooner we get it done, the sooner we can return to our normal lives. Now, let’s spread out and cover more ground.”
“Let me have that machine gun, dude.” A guy in a Hawaiian shirt turned to the guy who carried the machine gun. He might have been snatched by Brigantia’s goons on his way to a cruise, and now he was stuck in this messy killing business. “You missed, so it’s my turn to shoot at the demoness.”
The goatee guy, who had the machine gun, sneered at the Hawaiian shirt dude. He was bigger than the other contestants. “No one takes my gun.” He brandished the gun threateningly, and his companions gave him a wide berth.
“Be careful where you point your gun!” someone yelled, sounding uncannily familiar. My memory jogged and my heart skipped a beat. Could it be Richie? The guy who sounded like my ex-boyfriend from college was blocked by the big goatee dude.
“Richie, we can do this,” a redhead shouted excitedly, flashing a Glock G 19. “We can take down one demoness.”
My heart sank. So, it was indeed Richie, the rich boy I’d dated at Columbia for two months before I dropped out of college to come home and take care of my younger siblings. I’d broken up with him via phone, and I hadn’t thought of him since.
Brigantia was beyond sick. She’d thrown my ex-boyfriend into the Wild Hunt and put us on opposite sides. I also recognized the redhead’s voice. She’d been partying with Richie the last time I’d talked to him. She was probably his new girlfriend.
Brigantia meant for the human contestants and me to kill each other, but I didn’t need to play her game.
Break every rule, Lucifer had said.
I lunged, faster than a sinful thought.
I had no magic inside the Wild Hunt, but I was a trained warrior with inhuman strength and speed.
I darted between the humans before they had a chance to react. I went for the gun carriers first, snatching the handgun from my ex-boyfriend’s lady friend before I dashed toward a guy who looked like some important politician’s son. I elbowed him in the side. He yelped, and I wrestled the Desert Eagle 50 away from him, since he held it in a death grip.
The Desert Eagle 50 was almost as powerful as a semi-automatic handgun. I wondered how Brigantia had gotten her hands on these human weapons, since all Fae detested modern weaponry, but my evil sister was more than Fae. She was also demonic.
As I tossed the two pistols into my open backpack, I moved toward the goatee guy. He saw me coming and swung the barrel toward me, but the dude could never match my speed and strength, even though he was considered strong and fast amid regular humans.
I pushed up the heel of my palm and grabbed the barrel. He squeezed the trigger, and I let him have the feel of control but turned the barrel upward at the last second.
Bullets blasted out in a rapid stream, blowing up clusters of blossoms and leaves.
Then, with the last trail of smoke hovering above the barrel, the shooting stopped. While the goatee dude stared at me wide-eyed, I tore the weapon from him, flung it far away, and kicked his temple, which was punishment for trying to shoot me.
The goatee dude stumbled back, then regained his footing and lurched at me. But I’d darted to his back and rammed into his knees to drop him to the ground. He went down on both knees, and I stepped forward and slammed my hunting boot into the side of his face.
That was for show, as I planned to use him as an example to prevent the next person who was either too stupid or too bold from attacking me.
“Happy now, douche?” I hissed. “You wasted all your bullets for nothing.”
His bleary, angry eyes stared up at me. He seemed to want to call me bitch, like most guys would under the circumstances, but my boot on his face discouraged him.
Richie’s redheaded lady friend squirmed. “Demon! It’s the demoness. Go get it!”
She didn’t rush forward but expected the others to do the dirty work.
Excited and fearful shouts echoed all around me as the humans hemmed me in.
I rolled my eyes. “Demon? Really? Like you can really tell who’s who.”
“No way is that chick a demoness,” the pixie-cut girl said. “She doesn’t look it, though she…might not be a human either. She’s one of them, a high Fae. Look at her pointed ears and stunning green eyes. Our species doesn’t possess that kind of sheer beauty and strength, to be honest. She looks a lot like the bitch queen who captured, tortured, and sent us here. We might need an ally like her if we want to kill the demoness.”
“Brigantia, whom you call the bitch queen, actually looks like a pit-bull,” I said. “The usurper uses Fae glamour to cover up her deformity.”
The air rippled with menace, and a chill crawled over my skin. I bet that my evil sister was using a spyglass, some sort of scrying spell, or some other magical device to observe the trial.
I was planning to rile her up more and expose her to whoever was willing to listen. And I’d bet the six-figure salary Rydstrom had offered me that the Furies were monitoring every second of this game, even though I couldn’t see their featureless, worthless faces.
I flipped the bird in the general direction of the sky and shouted, “Brigantia, this is for your ugly ass! I’ll be coming for you.” I grinned viciously as I tried to add a scare tactic to make her lose some sleep. “By the way, your big daddy is going to help me put you down like a rat.”
“E…Evie?” Richie stepped forward, his eyes widening in shock.
I wheeled toward him, removing my boot from the goatee guy’s face. He was down anyway, and he wasn’t a threat to me.
“Hi, Richie,” I said and winked at him. “Glad you still recognize me.”
I’d kept my Fae form since battling Brigantia in Vancouver.
“I—I couldn’t get you out of my mind after you left,” Richie said. “I flew to California to see you. That was how I got taken to another dimension by monsters. I never thought they existed, but Evie, they’re real.”
“You have no idea.” I nodded. “I experienced the same culture shock when I found out about the things that go bump in the night after I dropped out of Columbia. And then I found out I’m actually half Fae.”
Richie sighed. “I always knew you were special, but I never thought you were part Fae. I didn’t even know what Fae were a month ago.” He gazed at me, heat in his blue eyes. “You look good, Evie…even more beautiful than before.”
The terrifying monster he’d seen had paved the way for him to accept my true form. On the other hand, humans were always awestruck by Fae beauty.
“Hey, dude, we’re in the middle of the game,” the pixie-cut girl shouted. “Could you stop thinking with your dick so we can talk about how to kill the demoness? I want to get home for dinner tonight.”
“She is the demoness.” Richie’s redheaded friend pointed at me, jealousy ablaze in her eyes. “The queen described it, and this thing fits the profile. It might look like your ex-girlfriend, Richie, but it’s not her! I told you that you shouldn’t hang up on your ex.”
It was never flattering to be called it, but I ignored the redhead, who wasn’t worth my time and attention. I surveyed the rest of the group.
“I’m Princess Ileana Evelina Greene, the rightful heir to the throne of the Dawn Court,” I said. “The evil queen who forced you into the Wild Hunt to kill me is my bitch sister. Brigantia failed to murder me when I was a baby, since I was smuggled out and hidden in the human world and raised among you. Then recently, she found out about me, failed to assassinate me, and thrust me into the Wild Hunt to take me out. I’m telling you this because I want to give you a choice and make you an offer.”
Richie gazed at me with stars in his eyes. He hadn’t looked at me that way before. The poor guy had probably developed a Fae fetish after his ordeal. His redheaded friend, however, glared daggers at me.
The other contestants regarded me with uncertainty, calculation, or fear. They still surrounded me, probably to prevent me from escaping if they decided to kill me.
“There’s nothing you can offer us,” the goatee dude said as he sat up with a grunt.
“Then you don’t need to take it,” I said. “For the rest of you, listen. First, I’m the biggest badass here. You saw how I disarmed three of you in the blink of an eye, including the dude carrying the biggest gun. I’m a trained warrior Fae. I can kill easily and mercilessly. I battled an army of demons and Dawn Fae and a troll, and I’m still here. Not to brag, but I’m faster and stronger than any of you, even those of you who might have a military background or consider yourself gym rats.” I jerked my chin at a couple of them to acknowledge them putting effort into developing their six packs. Richie was one of them.
Most of the contestants stared at me with distrust, and some muttered among themselves.
“Be quiet,” Pixie-cut said. “I want to hear her offer.”
“The truth you might not want to hear is this: none of you stand a chance against me,” I said. “My bitch sister sent you to fight me as a bad joke, since she wants human blood on my hands. I was raised as a human, and I don’t like to kill humans.”
“You’re lying,” the redhead said. “The only truth is if we kill you, we all go home. One death saves a dozen lives.”
“Shut the fuck up, Tania!” Richie snapped.
“Sure,” Tania said. “I bet you don’t want her to know you cheated on her with me before you two broke up. Actually, you fucked Crystal like a porn star every other night when you were dating Evelina.”
I didn’t give a rat’s ass who Richie slept with, though I had no love for cheaters. He was old news. I didn’t know what true feelings and lust meant until I met my mates. I’d thought sex was supposed to be lukewarm or just scratching an itch until the Night King claimed me. Sex with the Fae kings was gloriously dirty and naughty, all my dark fantasies come alive.
“I’m sorry, Evie,” Richie said, his face reddening. Guilt and humiliation flickered in his eyes. “I was lonely. But those girls meant nothing to me. You’re the only one who matters. I didn’t know how good you were until I lost you. I promise to do better by you after we get out of here. We’ll go exclusive, and I’ll quit smoking weed.”
“I’m not yours, Richie,” I said. “Never have been. There’s no us, but we’ll fight together in the hunt and get the fuck out of here.”
“You won’t get out, Princess.” A shrill voice out of nowhere sent a chill through my body. “No one has ever survived the Wild Hunt.”
While rage kindled in my stomach, fear also pumped into my bloodstream as a Fury’s flaming eyes stared down at me from the open sky.
The contestants shrank back in terror, but there was no place to hide in the arena. At least, no one could run or hide from the Furies.
“What…what the fuck is that?” Pixie-cut asked, trying to put up a brave façade while she cringed like the others.
“But for Princess Ileana,” said the Fury, its lipless face twisting into a lewd smile, “I can bend the rules a little. Fuck your lover from your past now, and I’ll get you out of the Wild Hunt.”
Repulsion nearly made me gag. Richie, however, looked dazed and willing.
“Evie, I…I think we should do it,” he said. “It’s the easiest way out.”
Sure, for him.
“What about the rest of us?” Tania poked her head out from behind a spruce tree. Now that the faceless creature had talked to me, it didn’t seem as scary to her. After a breath of silence, she demanded, “You can’t keep the rest of us here forever!”
“How dare you speak before you’re spoken to, mortal worm?” the Fury shrieked.
Obviously, the otherworldly creature didn’t know most humans acted super entitled. But Tania was making a mistake here. She probably always got what she wanted in the human world with her looks and boobs, but she didn’t realize that she was in a different realm where humans were trampled underfoot like dirt.
And monsters don’t think like humans. They play by their own rules, or they don’t play by any rules at all.
Something flashed across the sky and dove faster than an arrow. Before anyone could see what happened, a black bird swooped toward Tania. Before I could shoot it down, it had plucked out Tania’s left eyeball and swallowed it. As soon as the bird had carried out the task, it returned to the Fury in a blink.
Tania screamed, blood pouring from her empty socket.
The humans were shocked to utter silence, petrified. Richie was shaking hard.
“Go help your friend, Richie,” I said, raising my gun. “I’ll make sure the fuckers don’t come down again.”
Richie gave me a helpless glance and nodded before he staggered toward his old flame. He needed some instructions, and I gave them to him.
“When did you become the usurper’s bitch, Fury?” I asked. “And you’re a lying dick—if you have one. Don’t you realize the consequences of promising to bend the rules of the Wild Hunt for me?”
“We’re the rule makers,” the Fury sneered.
“You aren’t,” I said. “You’re hired help, more or less. Yet, as the guardians of the Wild Hunt, you made a pact with the usurper queen of the Dawn Court. You’ve acted as her bitches instead of staying neutral. This Wild Hunt is rigged and thus must be nullified.”
“We didn’t break any rules.” Fury #2 popped up in the sky next to the first Fury. “We were only trying to trick you, like all the game keepers. Even if you screw your lover boy for our entertainment, you’ll still stay in the Wild Hunt until you’re killed, or you kill all the hunters.”
Just as I’d expected. This was another one of Brigantia’s stunts. The cunt had desperately attempted to get me to have sex with Richie to make me break the mating bond with my Fae kings.
My heart ached at the thought of my mates. I kept wondering where they were. Were they already inside the game, about to hunt me yet fighting the urge? My mating bond with Rydstrom had been muted ever since I was dragged here.
The Wild Hunt was its own universe.
Hot tears pricked against my eyelids. I hadn’t had time to say goodbye to them. I hadn’t had the chance to tell them about Brigantia’s dirty secrets and my true origin, or at least the other half of it. Agonizing pain blossomed in my chest, threatening to crush my heart.
The Furies smelled my angst and inhaled in satisfaction. The otherworldly creatures could feed from others’ intense pain and emotions. Bile and rage coiled in the back of my throat. I wouldn’t let the fuckers take anything from me.
I sucked in a sharp breath, then steeled myself and expelled the pain and miserable thoughts to the edge of my mind. A heartbeat later, I kicked myself into battle mode again.
I wrenched a dagger from a sheath strapped to my thigh and let it fly. Next, I drew the elephant rifle and fired. The bullets followed the dagger’s path directly into the Fury’s face. Yet nothing could hurt the creature, and they passed through the Fury’s shroud-like form and disappeared into the ether.
“No one dares to offend the Furies,” it hissed. “You’ve made an enemy out of me, Princess. You’ll regret it!”
I shrugged. “Yeah, I’m shaking in my boots. But you’ll regret it more for rigging the Wild Hunt with Brigantia. You aren’t just gross; you’re a disgrace. And you’ll go down for the first time in Wild Hunt history.”
The contestants gasped at my defiance.
They had no idea that, given a chance, I could be worse than any monster, with the ancient angelic and demonic power flowing in my veins.
That great, terrifying power was my birthright, though it had lain dormant for decades, until Lucifer showed up and helped activate it. He’d said only after my Turning would the massive power be leashed.
A thought ignited in the recesses of my mind. Could I wreak havoc if I made the Turning happen in the Wild Hunt? Then another prospect iced over my brilliant thoughts—I could lose myself and thus lose everyone I cared about.
There was a good reason that my mates had been so careful in preparing me for the Turning. The warded underground area in Claws, Fangs, and Fiends had been built for my Turning, and I’d need my kings—the most powerful Fae—to walk me through it. I couldn’t do it alone. I wouldn’t want to do it alone.
But then, my mind whirled—if I made my Turning transpire here, I might just fuck up the Wild Hunt and go home to my mates. Was that what Lucifer had tried to tell me before the Furies rudely took me?
“Slay the princess, mortals,” the Fury shrieked. “Bring me her head, and I promise you’ll all be released from further trials. You’ll be allowed to live and return to your mortal realm.”
