“Maybe we should go to my apartment if your truck can make it that far.”
Kheelan swore softly. They were closer to Skye’s place than his, so it was the best option. He did an abrupt U-turn. “Guess so. The Unseelies will by lying in wait, but so will the Seelies. They know what’s happening by now. We’ll run for cover while they battle it out.”
Two blocks from the apartment the truck gave one last careening death knell and sputtered to a stop.
Kheelan drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and Skye shot him a questioning look.
“I wonder if we would be safer staying inside this hunk of metal and waiting for the Fae – good or bad – to find us again.”
Skye opened the door. “I vote for getting out. It’s freezing, I’m hungry, and I’m dying for a hot bath.”
Kheelan caught up with her and threw his coat over her shoulders, covering up her exposed wings. In the distance they heard an unnatural honking, as if the sky were covered by low-flying geese. They stopped and looked up in the night sky, but none were visible. Kheelan grabbed her hands and tugged urgently. “Let’s go.”
He held her hand and started forward, but she stumbled behind. “My knee. Claribel zapped me there.”
Kheelan scooped her up in his arms and ran. His lungs burned in the frosty air. The noise was even louder than before and the full moon cast ominous shadows in their path. He didn’t slow down to see what caused them.
A loud fluttering of wings came at them from behind. He dropped to the ground, shielding Skye’s body beneath his own. Something with sharp claws ripped through the flesh on his back in a long swiping motion from his neck to the top of his jeans.
Agony.
Kheelan fought to stay conscious and protect Skye. He was dizzy and disoriented. Skye screamed and the noise sounded far away. He fought through his black haze of pain, seeking her.
Skye was at least twenty feet below him.
I must be in shock. Some sort of optical illusion maybe? He twisted his neck and saw giant claws wrapped around his belt. He was being carried skyward. An overpowering stench of decaying flesh made it difficult to breath.
Sluagh. And where there was one, more would follow.
That honking noise in the sky they heard earlier was a host of sluaghs, spirits of the dead that traveled by air after sunset. The most feared, most powerful of the Unseelie Court fairies. He had only seen them a few times before, and always from afar. They traveled in great swarms and often fought each other, littering blood on the rocks and soil beneath.
Kheelan didn’t try to see its face. He had heard stories of their bloodshot eyes, evil leers and a sharp intelligence that could pick your brain apart quicker than their giant beaks could break your bones. That intelligence could pierce through glamours and illusions to your very soul, pinpointing your hidden secrets and greatest vulnerability.
There, in the clutches of the Dark Fae’s most evil creature, Kheelan knew his greatest weakness. Knew the one thing he loved above all else. And it wasn’t his freedom.
He stared down at the rapidly disappearing spot of red that was Skye’s hair. For a second, he saw her staring up at him, huge eyes full of despair set against the alabaster skin of her face. She raised a hand, beckoning him to come back to her.
If only he could.
The rustling wings of sluaghs signaled more approaching. One, faster than the others, was headed straight toward Skye. Her eyes were aimed upwards at him and she didn’t see the predator. Kheelan yelled a warning and pointed – but it was too late and he was too far away. The sluagh was upon her.
Their unyielding evil suck the light around him until the night engulfed his soul.
Kheelan spiraled skyward, encased in the talons of a beast – a creature she could never imagine in her deepest nightmares. Skye reached an arm skyward, as if to pull him back. They locked eyes as he was relentlessly lifted higher . . . higher, beyond human reach.
One heartbeat, one moonbeat, and then a roar and a rush of movement surrounded her. The same kind of beast that snared Kheelan had multiplied to a flock of rapacious Fae, so dense their collective bodies blocked the orange moonlight.
They were here for her now.
The incredible stink immobilized Skye with hopelessness and she buried her face in her hands. Let them get her. Maybe the Unseelies would take her wherever they took Kheelan and she wouldn’t be alone.
The pain was sudden and sharp. Claws sunk into her shoulders like hypodermic needles aiming for bone. She screamed but couldn’t hear her own voice over the beasts, but the vibration of it burned her throat.