Page 111 of Cursed Fae (Fae War Chronicles 2)
EMBER
“Son of a fucking crackerjack!” I scream to the sky as I awake in the prison once again. Three fucking times we’ve been killed by this dumbass creature. Three times! It might as well be a cat sitting at a crack in the wall waiting for the mouse.
Yup. It’s Tom, and we’re Jerry.
And we’re losing.
Walter groans from beside me, and I jump to my feet, brushing sand off my ass. “I am ready to kill this thing.”
“What in the bloody hell do you think I’ve been trying to do? It knows where we’re coming out. It’s waiting for us.”
“And there are no other tears?”
Walter glares up at me. “There are not,” he deadpans.
“Then we need a new plan.” I start walking, each step making me angrier than the last. We’re wasting time here. Precious time that should be spent searching Faerie for Rafferty. As soon as I find him, as soon as I know he’s okay, I can relax and figure out how to use this blasted power that, up until this point, has been utterly useless.
“Why are you not using your abilities?” Walter questions as he falls into step beside me.
“If I knew how, I would be.” Frustration has me tightening my hands into fists. “You know that feeling you get when your foot falls asleep?” The way he arches his brow tells me he does not. “Like you’re being poked with pins and needles,” I explain. “Well, when we reach the other side of the Veil, I feel that. But I cannot reach it. I tried picturing the bird bursting into flames—nothing happened. Tried imagining myself flying—nothinghappened.”
Walter barks out a laugh that pisses me off. “You have toact, Ember. Not just imagine.”
Stopping in my tracks, I put both hands on my hips and glare at him. “You told me I needed to imagine what I wanted to happen.”
“Yes, whileactuallytrying to use your energy. If you simply think about it, nothing will happen. If it did, there would be no wars, no fights, because fae could simply will their enemies to disappear.”
He makes a valid point, but I continue to glare. “You should have specified.”
Walter steps over and takes my hand then presses it against his chest. “Fire fae’s magic comes from their hands,” he explains. “You must be making contact with your enemy in order to vanquish them. It’s why they were so vulnerable to us.”
“Because by the time they got their hands on you, you’d already killed them.”
He releases me. “Precisely.”
Facing the entrance to Faerie again, I take a deep breath.So, I need to grab this beast by its feathers first.If only it were that damn simple. The thing has a beak made of steel.
“You ready?”
“Not particularly,” I tell Walter. “But what’s the worst that can happen?”
My companion tilts his head forward in a curt nod then steps toward the tear. I take his hand and push through it again. Much like the last few times through, it hurts less. So much so that, when I do land on the other side, my vision is not impaired. I jump to my feet as Walter charges.
Our new friend is already scratching out at him with a taloned foot, so I shift gears. Instead of trying to be a distraction, I leave that job to Walter and rush toward the creature’s backside.
Unfortunately, it sees me.
With a deafening roar, it whirls around and gnashes at me with a massive steel beak. Walter bellows something I can’t quite make out, bringing the creature’s attention back to him.
I jump, narrowly missing a spiked tail I hadn’t realized the damn thing had until right now. Though, to be fair, this is the closest I’ve been to its ass. Typically, we’re both dead by now. Walter dematerializes then reappears right in front of the creature.
It moves so quickly Walter is unable to move. He howls in pain as the beak closes around his shoulder and tears his arm from his body.
My stomach rolls, bile rising in my throat, and I double over.No. Get your shit together, Ember!Straightening as best I can, I focus on what I want then reach for the energy. It pummels me.
A door opens, the energy floods my system giving me more of a rush than I’ve ever felt. Almost like the moment the alcohol kicks in—minus the groggy senses. The world falls away. When I come to again, I’m nearly thrown from the ground. No! Not ground. “How the crap—” I grip the feathery back of my attacker as it tries to buck me from its body.
It pushes from the ground, spreading its huge wings on either side of its body. Wind whips at me as it climbs up, and up, the ground disappearing at my feet.