Alpha Ember (ALPHA KANE BOOK 2)

8. Fisherman

This chapter is dedicated to @chequeredhearts, thank you for the feedback and for reading!

Ember

My plan was simple but complicated: run like hell and don't get caught by the crazy murderous faeries.

Arius was already at the rear of the castle with the doors held open, beyond them what should've been the long hallway we'd passed earlier but what was now the street to my neighborhood. The distance between us and safety was about two blocks, child's play if I made a mad dash for it- even with an unconscious girl in tow. The complications came with our pursuers. Or at least I think it was the fae that kept us running in the same spot no matter how hard we tried to move forward. All in vain. It was like we were intentionally jogging in one place, like our bodies had forgotten the mechanisms of running and had turned to the only broken-down alternative they knew. Feet that moved but got us nowhere.

Meanwhile the fae closed in on us from all sides, everywhere but in front of us, rubbing in the fact that we couldn't move a single step towards our freedom while the ones flying above threw insults down at us. "Look at those flimsy human legs swinging all over the place!"

"And going nowhere for all that legwork!" They cackled. "Do you need a lift, humans?" one of them called. "You'll have to get rid of those ridiculous legs first though- can't have myself crashing into a gargoyle because I was too busy laughing my ass off!"

Ian put a hand on my arm, "Stop, Em. We're caught."

I bit my lip in frustration, but stopped trying to struggle out of whatever was holding us in place.

I surveyed the situation: too many fae and only a smattering of guards in comparison, but that wasn't much comfort since mobs tended to lynch the targets of their aggravation when there wasn't enough law enforcement to keep them in check. There was also the fact that most of them looked a whole lot scarier than the guards who only wore dark reddish armor, deer antlers- that made them look almost identical to each other- and were armed only with swords. On the other side there was the woman with the centipede body who was screaming her head off about not letting any dog-smelling human steal their adorable toy from them, her teeth small and sharp like a shark's, all her numerous legs waving about violently as if she wanted nothing more than to choke us with them.

"I've never teleported anyone else aside from myself," Ian was saying as a guard shoved the centipede lady aside roughly, unsheathing a sword the same glowing orange as the strange forest. "It'll probably work though, more likely if I hold on to you two."

Other guards were forcing their way through, the fae scattering away at the sight of their raised weapons.

"Do it," I told Ian, sweating under the mask even though the weather was cold. "Just get us away from here."

Ian grinned, "Here comes Ian to the rescue again, folks." He reached for me and I breathed a sigh of relief even before his hand gripped my shoulder and we were no longer in the midst of these insanity...except Ian's hands had stopped reaching for me, one of them had fallen to his side, the other curling around thin air. Curling around the arrow that was appearing in his hand-

I dropped the dancing girl.

In my mind I was watching Aster murdering herself all over again, but this time the edge of the blade was the tip of a white arrow.

I lunged forward as Ian stared blankly ahead, hand already bringing death straight to his heart. I caught hold of the end of the arrow, its thorny edges piercing my palm when I tried to jerk it away- and ended up with nothing but a stinging cut for the trouble.