Night Fae by Meg Xuemei X.
Chapter 20
The landscape shifted to a mixture of rocky and grassy terrain. A cave loomed ahead, curved around a reddish mountain. My superior hearing caught the sound of rushing water from inside the cavern.
I turned to smile at my companions. “Joy found us a shelter. We can rest now—”
The sky ripped open as if on cue, and inhuman shrieks and the flap of jagged wings accompanied the alien windstorm.
“What the—” Richie didn’t get a chance to finish his curse.
The wings stretched to their full width, covering the red sky.
Two creatures the size of half a cruise ship stared down at us like insects. They were even more terrifying than demons. A crest of horns protruded from their spines. Thick, sharp scales covered their powerful limbs, and their claws were as long and lethal as swords.
They hovered in the sky, eyeing us like tasty morsels stuck between their enormous teeth, their lengthy, spiky tails swinging left and right. Just that sight made my stomach knot with fear.
These beings didn’t belong to this realm. Then, suddenly, I don’t know how, but my mind reached out and touched them. A flash of images pierced my consciousness—Fae warriors hunting the alien younglings in a barren land under the blackened sky during the Wild Hunt.
So, in this trial, the Furies opened a crack between dimensions to let the full-fledged alien hunters come and take revenge on me because they saw me as their enemy—the high Fae.
The fury in the lethal beings’ eyes was like an abyss, threatening to devour me.
My brother’s and companions’ terror at seeing the winged alien beings was so tangible that it kicked me out of my own terrified stupor.
“Run for the cave!” I shouted, my shaking hand gripping the Legend Heavy. “Take care of my brother!”
If I didn’t stand a chance, none of them did.
Joy, go. Guard my brother and protect the rest, I commanded the hellhound.
He sprang ahead, leading my team and my brother toward the cave.
“Evie!” Nox paused, not wanting to leave me.
“You’ll slow me down,” I yelled. “Go!”
Then, without warning, the female alien hunter opened her massive jaw, spewing out maimed human bodies. Tania’s head plunged from the sky first, a third of her red hair missing from her skull. I also distinguished the punk dude’s tattooed arm tumbling down beside the head. Then, three severed legs along with the rich blonde girl’s headless body rained down with other unrecognizable body parts.
My companions screamed, utterly petrified. The hellhound howled frantically.
My stomach twisted in icy knots, and pure terror seized my heart again.
“Run!” I barked at my team and my brother, jerking them out of their paralysis. “Don’t look back! Run!”
Joy nudged my brother to climb onto his back, and Megan and Jill helped Nox settle down in a hurry. Nox grabbed the fur of the hellhound, holding on for dear life. Richie trained his rifle toward the aliens who still hovered above us as he ran.
He’d become their next meal if he provoked them.
“Don’t shoot, Richie,” I yelled. “Leave it to me. Go!”
“Run faster, Richie!” Megan shouted. “Do you want to die?!”
“We can’t just leave Evie—” he argued.
Jill shoved him forward as she passed him. “Don’t be a liability to Evie!”
The group fled.
My every cell and instinct screamed for me to scurry away from the hunters, but I couldn’t run. I needed their focus on me, so my brother and my team could get away. It was me they wanted anyway.
“Take this, fuckers!” I thrust the elephant gun onto my shoulder and shot the female hunter before she dived toward me. The impact jerked me back a couple of paces, but I stood my ground the next instant. I trained the powerful rifle on the male, whose gray skin was a shade lighter than the female’s, and shot him.
Both hunters raised their forearms, and the bullets sparked off their armguards.
No fucking way! My jaw dropped, and my heart pounded in dismay. These aliens had more advanced weaponry than humans.
The Legend Heavy was my ace and my best bet against them, but the big bullets failed to punch a hole in the aliens. What else did I have that could stand against the mighty hunters? A spark of an idea hit me. Magic could counter their defense. That was why the Fae warriors went into their realm to hunt their young with Fae magic.
I had to admit that it was a genius scheme for Brigantia and the Furies to get the alien hunters to come after me while I couldn’t use magic in the null zone.
The only good thing was that my team had reached the cave. Richie helped my brother off the hellhound’s back. With Joy guarding my brother, I could relax. Richie charged into the cave first, and Nox darted after him. Megan and Jill brought up the rear. I appreciated that they placed my brother in the center to protect him.
Now it was my turn to run for the shelter.
I bolted.
Forty-five yards. I could do it.
Run faster, Evie! I yelled at myself and pumped strength into my legs.
The female hunter shrieked; her voice sounded so terrible I was afraid that my eardrums were bleeding.
Forty yards, and I fired my rifle at the male hunter again as he swooped toward me. He reached me in the blink of an eye, tearing my elephant gun from my hand and flinging it away. Dad’s Legend Heavy disappeared into the ether. Before I could kick him, his talons seized me and hurled me into the air.
I screamed as the ground rushed away from me.
My team poked their heads out of the cave’s mouth, looking petrified. Nox screamed my name and dashed out of the cave, as if he could save me. Richie chased after him and frantically tried to hurl my struggling brother back inside, their faces all paler than death.
The hellhound shot out of the cave, chasing after me on the ground and howling.
If I let the aliens take me high into the air and then drop me, death would meet me for sure, even if they decided not to bite me in half. And when I plunged to the earth, there would be no vines to hold me up and cushion me.
Quick as lightning, I yanked the pin from my grenade and tossed the explosive device into the hunter’s open jaw. At the same time, I scythed Netherbane across his thick arm where it wasn’t covered by the armguard.
I gambled and prayed that Netherbane would work wonders where the elephant rifle had failed. Netherbane was infused with magic. Even though magic was nullified in the arena, magic items still carried some power.
Blue blood streamed from the alien’s injured arm, dripping onto my leg and instantly seeping through my armored pants and burning my flesh. Their blood was acid. Fuckers.
I cried out in pain. The hunter also shrieked in agony and rage. Glad I was right—Netherbane was more powerful against the aliens than a human weapon.
I stabbed the blade backward at the hunter, not sure which part I had cut. It didn’t matter. He shrieked and tossed me away like a rag doll. Then, an explosion pierced my ears. The grenade I’d thrown into his mouth had just gone off.
Wasn’t that poetic? But I had other things to worry about as I plunged to the ground.
Luckily, it wasn’t as far as I’d dreaded. I could manage it.
I twisted in the air. My shoulder crashed to the ground first, as I’d intended. There was no time to wince, moan, or wallow in self-pity, despite the pain blossoming in every part of my body. I might have broken a rib or two, but none had punctured my lungs, and I counted that as good news.
I rolled and scrambled to my feet.
My team tried to come toward me, but I waved them back frantically.
The female hunter, who had been checking on her partner’s knife wound, shrieked in wrath. The bomb had shocked him but didn’t do much damage.
She peeled away from him and swept toward me with the force of a train.
I called on my Fae speed and raced toward the cave. My faithful hellhound galloped beside me. He hadn’t shown an ounce of fear.
Three yards from the cave, the female alien descended on me. I slashed Netherbane at her, and Joy lunged, sank his fangs into her leg, and yanked out a chunk of flesh. The alien’s acid didn’t bother him. Joy, after all, was a magical creature from Hell, and he could do damage to the aliens.
While Joy halted the alien’s attack on me, I leapt into the cave.
“Come, Joy!” I called urgently.
Joy abandoned his fight and dashed toward the cave. I whipped Netherbane around and cut a long slash along the hunter’s talon to prevent her from grabbing my hound.
The female bellowed.
Joy and I shot deeper into the cavern. My companions groaned as we bumped into them in the dark.
“Evie! Commander! Here!” my brother beckoned.
I let out a relieved and exhausted breath. “Everyone okay?”
The twin flames in my hellhound’s eyes lit the subterranean cave, outlining the contours of my team against the rock wall draped with moss. They stared back at me, a blend of terror, shock, and elation in their widened eyes.
My brother, who didn’t like anyone to touch him other than his twin, hugged me tightly.
