Fire in the Darkness (2 page)

Keeping to the shadows, I slunk down a vandalized back street toward the abandoned warehouses. Dusk enveloped everything in its path. With no electricity, it was harder to see, but it was also harder to be seen. I had become quite familiar with the shipping harbor.
Painful as it was, there
was a lot of iron around here
that discouraged
Fay from coming in after me. The area gave me many places to hide from my pursuers—Fae or human.

Seattle had become a battle ground for gangs and those individuals using the catastrophe as an excuse to act out.
Over the last several weeks, I had learned not to underestimate humans. They could be as scary and dangerous as the monsters that hid in the dark, especially when pushed into a corner.
A girl alone on the streets was asking for trouble, and it usually found me. But I had no other option. I was stranded in Seattle with no means of getting out. The airport, buses, and trains were down. With no electricity there was little transportation, except on foot.

Even if getting home was easy to do, I wouldn’t have gone back. Besides Olympia being over sixty miles away, Mark was gone and my home was likely the first place the Queen had her minions watching. It would put my friends in danger as well.

Torin
, who until recently I thought was a figment of my imagination, was a beautiful Fay who had come to me mostly in my dreams. He
had tried to keep me informed as much as he could
to what was happening in the Otherworld. But,
I had seen little of him in the last few weeks. He said it was extremely dangerous to contact me as the Queen
was constantly with
him
. She was obsessed about finding me.

I was on my own now.

Footsteps clicked from the other side of the broken window of the abandoned warehouse where I hid, bringing me back to the present. “Come out, lass. We know you’re there,” a man cooed. He couldn’t disguise the sinister tone underneath. “We saw you come this way. Running from something? Who else is after you, little Dae?” His voice was raspy and harsh.

Two warning bells rang in my head. First, I had hid here because Fay, like the Queen's soldiers, couldn’t be around iron. It made us sick, although in the last couple of weeks, I had become a little more tolerant to it. Barely. Second, the man’s voice wasn’t Fay. Fay had voices like silk. You could lose yourself merely listening to them. This meant I had more than one group after me tonight.

Oh goodie.

“You can’t get by us. Might as well come out now,” another gravelly voice spoke. So, there were at least two of them.

Biting my lip, I pressed myself tighter into the corner. My powers would not work well with so much iron around. Not that I wanted them to. I had hurt too many people already, and tonight only confirmed I should stay as far from humans as possible. My powers were not only dangerous but erratic. I discovered the best place to hide was in the iron-filled shipping yard. Iron was Fay kryptonite. Being only half Fay didn’t make being around iron any easier for me. It was torture, but when your life is at stake, you push through. Either the Queen had gotten wise to my trick and sent Fae who wouldn’t be deterred by iron, or there was a whole different group now after me. The chance it might be the Unseelie King's men was pretty good. He probably wants me as badly as the Queen. Neither option seemed especially good for my well-being.

“You are only hurting yourself being around all this iron. We won’t harm you . . . we simply want to talk.”

Yeah. And I believe that one.

There was a soft scuffling sound. My eyes darted to the noise.
A large rat trotted along the wall, scurrying towards me. I threw myself back into the brick wall and my hand flew up to my mouth
,
blocking the scream that clawed at my throat. I had almost gotten used to rats over the past month. I slept with them practically every night. But this was no ordinary rat.
The façade of the rat quickly changed in front of me. A small, flesh colored, gremlin-like creature sniffed at the hem of my jeans.

“Oh crap,” I croaked out.
Why did they always disguise themselves as rats?

The tiny, alien-looking creature, with its bat ears and long claws, looked up at me. A vibrating noise came from its throat as it assessed me.

“Did you
just
purr?” The little creature huffed at me with annoyance, and then tore off up the wall and out the broken window.

It seemed like only a few seconds after the creature’s departure when I felt a familiar pull.
“Oh no. Not now, Torin!”
I shouted in my head. He either didn’t hear my plea or ignored it because the pull in my head and gut became stronger.
No-no-no-no!
I fought against it, trying to keep myself awake, but it was useless. My mind caved to the pressure, my head falling back against the wall.

“TORIN!” I belted out the moment my eyes opened up. We were in our usual
place—a forest somewhere in the Otherworld. This seemed to be his preferred spot. Glistening dew sparked the trees in a halo glow. The colors were so vivid and bright, my lids blinked a few times to adjust. A deep turquoise stream trickled through the green grass. A fox settled itself into the exact same spot it had in a prior dreamscape with Torin.

“Send me back right now. I have two Fays and some other unknown Fae after me right now. I’m a sitting duck while I'm asleep.”

“That is what I wanted to warn you about. I sent an imp to find you before I tried to contact you.” He stepped in front of me.

“Imp?” The tiny, rat-gremlin creature?

“Yes, this one owed me a favor. My sources have to stay off the Queen’s radar.”

My eyes finally focused on Torin. He could still take my breath away. There was no denying
Fay
were gorgeous—almost painfully beautiful. His dark hair was tied back neatly, displaying his high cheek bones and crystal blue eyes. His usual outfit of leather pants and tight, black shirt clung to his every muscular curve.

“The Queen went on a rampage today. I sent two of my most inane Fay soldiers to come after you, thinking you could probably get away from them. But, she knows you are hiding near iron. The fact you seem to handle it when her top soldiers can’t makes her exceedingly unhappy. She's promised a reward to those dark Fae if they bring you back.”

“They’re already here. That’s why I have to go. They could find me at any moment.”

A small whine from behind Torin caught my attention. I felt it trying to communicate with me
as it paced back and forth.

“Hey, little guy.” I took a step towards it. It was a beautiful animal. Red foxes always reminded me of my mother. She had a fondness for them and had spent a lot of time studying them. Now I knew she had come from this realm and had grown up with animals like this.

“No.” He grabbed my arm, stopping me from moving closer. “Don't.”

I looked back at the little animal. Its gaze locked onto mine, and then Torin’s, before turning and disappearing into the brush. Something in my gut tugged, wanting to run after it.

“Ember,” his voice dragged my attention away from the empty spot and back to his face. “I need you to be careful. The Queen is determined to capture you. You need to find Lars soon. He will protect you.”

“Who is this Lars?”

Torin's hands moved to my arms, pulling me in closer. “I am not permitted to tell you. The Queen has bound me and has limited what I can
say. But I am trying in every way I can to let you know what's going on. Please, trust me.” He leaned his forehead against me; his lips mere inches from mine.

“I need to get back,” I said quietly but didn’t move away from him. The more time I spent with Torin, the more natural it felt being with him. I couldn’t deny he made me feel safe and protected. Even in his limited way, I knew he would do anything for me. He had risked his life helping me escape the Queen a few weeks back. Just seeing me now put him in jeopardy. He was the only one I could turn to.

Eli was no longer someone I could trust.
Lorcan had confirmed that Eli had been planning the whole time to trade me to the Unseelie King. I had to keep reminding myself Eli was among my enemies. I had to run from him like all the restI know,”
Torin
mumbled. He didn’t seem inclined to move either. It was foolish. My body was completely unprotected back at the warehouse, but I couldn’t seem to compel myself to go. His head moved slowly toward mine. His lips brushed mine . . . .