The Faerie War (24 page)

So he’s mad at himself. I stand up, noticing for the first time that my clothes are still a little damp. I stand next to him and look out at the passage. It’s as bare as the cell we’re locked in. “I guess we could say it’s your fault, but it’s not like that’s going to help, is it? So instead I’ll say this: We
will
get out of here because we’re guardians and we kick ass, and no manticore-riding, bald guys are going to stand a chance against us.”

Ryn looks down at me with a smile. “There’s that overconfidence I’ve missed so much.” His eyes slide down my face to my shoulder, and his smile fades. “I’m sorry about the sparks that hit you. I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

It’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Of course you didn’t. Besides, it barely grazed my skin. It’s probably already healed.” I slide my fingers beneath the layers of my clothing and feel my shoulder. “Yup. Perfectly healed. Nothing to worry about.”

His smile is small. “That’s good.” He turns back to the bars. “I’m guessing this cell keeps magic contained the same way the net did.”

“Probably.” I gently rub my still-burning palms together until a mist begins to pour from them. I blow it toward the bars. It curls through the air, but instead of passing between the bars, it meets an invisible barrier. “Yeah. Same as the net.”

When I look back at him, Ryn is watching me with an expression I can’t quite define. Sadness and longing? More than that? Just when I start to feel a little weird, he looks away. He leans against the bars and examines his hands. “At least we can still use magic, even if it’s only in here.”

I frown. “Why wouldn’t we be able to use magic?”

Instead of answering me, he pushes back the sleeve of his right arm. Then he reaches forward and takes my right hand. He gently pushes my sleeve up until I can see my guardian markings and the scar that rings my wrist. The scar that matches his. “I started telling you about it before,” he says, “but I was interrupted. Zell discovered a metal that blocks magic. He fashioned the metal into strips that could wrap around a person’s wrist and stick there, blocking the use of magic. I’ve worn one. You’ve worn two.” He touches my wrist, sending a shiver up my arm. “The metal is incredibly painful to remove from your skin, and when the procedure is finished, it leaves a scar.”

“Unlike any of our other wounds,” I murmur.

“Yeah. Anyway.” He folds his arms across his chest and walks to the other side of the cell. He leans against the wall and says, “We need to be smart about this. There’s no point in trying to attack them when they’re on the other side of the bars. But they’ll have to come inside eventually, to move us out, if nothing else—”

“And that’s when we’ll strike.”

“Yes. We’ll need to gather power so that if the opportunity comes to stun them, we can take it.”

“But we won’t know when they’re coming, and once they do, there won’t be enough time to gather all that power.”

“There might be, if we keep them talking before they come in.”

I sit down on the floor and cross my legs. I nod. “We can try that.” I look up. “Do we fight well together? I mean, not
against
each other, but as a team?”

He joins me on the floor, but on the opposite side of the room. “We do. At least, we did before you forgot me.”

Right. So the fact that I took that stupid potion is once again ruining everything. But I don’t want to go back to talking about that because there’s really no point. I don’t know what else to talk about, though. There are so many questions I want to ask about my past, but how can I when they don’t seem nearly as important as our present? When the silence between us begins to feel awkward, I say, “I assume they took your amber and stylus?”

Ryn nods. “I checked as soon as I woke up.” He leans forward and runs his finger along the rough floor. “You know, silence used to feel natural between us. We were friends for a long time before we hated each other. And then we were friends again before we were . . . more. The point is, I don’t want you to feel weird around me. Yes, I miss the way things were, but I’m certainly not going to force myself on you. If the only thing we can be is friends, then I’ll take that. So . . .” He gives me the smile I was probably madly in love with in my previous life. “No weird silences?”

I return the smile. “Okay. No weird silences. But just so you know, if you
did
try anything, I’d—”

My words are cut off by the echo of heavy boots in the passage outside our cell. Ryn and I jump to our feet immediately. Any remaining sluggishness from the stunner spell vanishes from my system. I imagine reaching into the core of my being as I start gathering power. I hope Ryn is doing the same.

A bald, tattooed manticore rider slows to a lazy swagger as he comes into view. “Well, well, look who’s awake.” He grasps the bars and leans forward, obviously confident we won’t be able to hurt him from in here. “Did you have a good night?” he asks with a smirk.

“Look, I think there might be a mistake here,” Ryn says carefully. “We’re not marked; you’re not marked. Surely we should be on the same side?”

The rider faerie laughs. “We’re on no one’s side but our own.”

I make sure I’m still gathering power before I say, “So why lock us up? Why not just let us get on with our own business?”

“Because that would be bad for
our
business.”

“Which is what exactly?” Ryn asks, not quite as politely before.

Tattooed Guy scratches his chin before saying, “I guess you could call it bounty hunting.”

What?
“And we’re the bounty?”

“You got that right, sweetheart.”

Ryn moves a little closer to me. “Why? What did we do?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Tattooed Guy waves a dismissive hand. “No need to blame yourself. It’s all about
who
you are, not what you’ve done. You see, we have a deal with some of Draven’s men. They steer clear of our territory, and we bring them unmarked fae. For a fee, of course. And guardians are worth the most.” He rubs his hands together, probably in anticipation of his payout. “So, you’ll be visiting the Unseelie Court. Not yet, of course. We like to collect at least ten fae before making the trip. Until then, and as long as we have another free cell, we should probably separate the two of you.”

Ryn takes another step toward me, so that his body is partially blocking mine. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Oh, I think it is.” Tattooed Guy looks to the side as another pair of footsteps makes its way toward our cell. The second rider who aided in our capture saunters into view with a large cylinder held over his shoulder. He watches us with a smug expression, and I know he wants us to ask, so I do.

I nod my head toward the cylinder and say, “What is that?”

The smug smile stretches wider. “I know you guardians have your pretty weapons, but this is something that’ll blow the underpants off anything you’ve got.”

“I doubt it,” Ryn mutters.

“Do you now, young master guardian? Well, I’ve always been a collector of shiny things, and right here—” he pats the cylinder “—is where I keep my lightning collection.”

My eyebrows climb higher.

“Yup, I’ve been fortunate lately with all the storms Draven’s been throwing around. Plenty of opportunity for lightning collection.” He takes a step closer to the bars and watches me with unblinking eyes. “Ever been fried by lightning, missy?”

I don’t actually know, but I’m guessing probably not. Before I can say anything, his partner pulls out a key from his pocket, holds it up, and says, “So. You two just behave yourselves, and no one will get hurt.”

I return my attention to the power I’m gathering. I’ve definitely got enough to stun one of them. I look over at Ryn, but he’s watching the rider insert the key into the lock. The key twists, and the loud click tells us the door is open. He steps inside and beckons to me. “Come quietly, little guardian, and I won’t have to hurt your friend.”

I don’t move.

With a sigh, he walks toward me. I’m about to send all my stunning power straight at him, but Ryn gets there first. He throws his arms out faster than I can blink. But instead of seeing the rider fall, I see bright, crackling light flash past me. I recoil as I hear it strike the wall.

After blinking my temporary blindness away, I find the three of us inside the cell still standing, along with a small crater in the wall. The second rider is standing in the doorway with his lightning cylinder pointed at Ryn. The smug smile has been wiped from his face.

“Next time, it’ll be your face, pretty boy,” he warns.

He must have shot lightning at Ryn’s power to keep it from striking the rider inside the cell. There’s no time now for Ryn to gather more power, which means it’s down to me. If I can stun the lightning guy before the cell is locked, hopefully Ryn can take down the guy who now has his hands on me.

I put up a fight as he drags me from the cell, but only for show. I
want
to get out so I can get to the other guy. Ryn grabs my arm as I pass him, but the lightning cylinder swings to point at me instead, and Ryn backs off at once. Lightning Guy steps back from the doorway to allow my captor and me to leave. The moment I pass the bars, I tear one arm free and shove it toward Lightning Guy, releasing all my pent up power. He knocks my arm to the side with his cylinder, sending all my power straight into the passage wall instead. The wall shudders, and a crack appears.

Dammit!

I jab my elbow back hard into my captor’s stomach and slam my boot down onto his foot. His hold on me loosens enough for me to pull away from him and aim a punch at Lightning Guy. Before I can swing my arm forward, the cylinder flies at my head.

I hear Ryn’s shout, but I can’t see anything for a few moments. When my vision clears, I find myself on the passage floor with a throbbing ache threatening to split my head in half. I see Ryn struggling with the first guy. Then I see the flash of crackling light that strikes Ryn in the chest and throws him back into his cell.

“
No!
” I scramble up onto my knees, but Lightning Guy grabs a fistful of my jacket and drags me across the floor to the next cell. I kick him as hard as I can, and he kicks me right back. The impact of his foot in my stomach sends me across the threshold and into the cell.

The door slams shut.

As soon as I’m able to breathe again, I start calling out for him. “Ryn? Ryn, are you okay? Are you there?” I pat against the wall, then start banging with my fists. I stick my arm between the bars at the edge of my cell and stretch as far as I can to the side. I can’t reach the next cell, but I slap my hand against the wall and call for him some more.

Nothing I do gets any response from him.

Oh, please, please, please be okay.
I realize my face is wet with tears. I don’t know why I’m crying. I only just met this guy. We’re barely even friends. But I know what he’s
supposed
to mean to me, and maybe I was starting to feel just a hint of that. I figured that with time, maybe I’d come to realize why the old me cared so much for him, and maybe I’d care for him too. But what if that time is up? What if he’s gone and I didn’t even get a chance to know him again?

No. He can’t be dead.
I clutch my aching head in my hands and start pacing the cell. Like Jamon said, it’s really difficult to kill faeries. The only way Ryn could die is if his injuries are so bad that his body’s magic can’t heal them before it runs out. His injuries would have to be really severe. Does lightning count as really severe?

Of course it does, the horribly logical part of my brain screams at me. It’s
lightning
, for crap’s sake. If lightning collected from an enchanted storm could gouge a crater into a solid brick wall, what could it do to a faerie’s body? I don’t want to imagine it. I don’t want to think about the state he’s in right now. I don’t want to know if the burning flesh smell lingering in the air is real or imagined.

I continue pacing the floor of my cell because there’s nothing else to do. I can’t bear to sit still. Every few minutes I start calling Ryn’s name again. He never calls back. I have no idea what time of day or night it is because this cell has no window either, and the dim light in the passage never changes.