The door Sarge and Adept Hazel Medeis had entered through slammed open.
Sunshine stood braced in the doorway, her forehead damp with sweat as she heaved in gulps of air.
I stared at her, trying to make sense of her presence. She didn’t usually come in for the early morning shift—she had closer to a human work schedule, and even then we still had over half an hour left to our shift before the early morning crew took over.
Something must be wrong.
“What happened, Sunshine?” I asked, breaking the silence.
Sunshine pushed her glossy brown hair out of her face. “Fae fight, downtown,” she said.
“All units, prepare to mobilize in the teams you went out on patrol in!” Sarge shouted.
We scattered. I just had to grab my mask—I wore all my weapons unless expressively instructed otherwise—so I slunk over to Sunshine, who was leaning against the wall.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah.” Sunshine nodded, scowling when her hair hung in her face again. “Just ran through the Cloisters like crazy to get here. Mom dragged me out of bed early today—one of her brownie friends from the Night Court was hired to cater a brunch for the Spring fae Queen, and she volunteered to help and wanted me to drop her off. We ran into the fight downtown—but they were moving, so I doubt they’re still there.”
“Understood, but are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.
Sunshine flashed me a smile. “I’m great. But you be careful out there—I mean it, no sacrificing yourself like you did last time. Got it?”
“Understood,” I said.
Sunshine scowled at me, her dark eyebrows flattening over her eyes in disbelief.
“If I didn’t, I’m pretty sure Sarge would turn my paper into a dissertation,” I added.
Sunshine cracked a smile. “Good. I hope it wraps up fast, my jewel,” she said, using her nickname for me.
“The team is ready, Blood.” April checked her firearm in her holster as she wove around a clump of desks, heading my way.
I nodded to her, then opened the door, holding it for my team. “Thanks for the heads up, Sunshine.”
Sunshine nodded. “Of course. Now, go pull some hair and restore peace!
I grabbed a dryad, who tried to throw herself at Grove’s turned back. “No,” I said to her, before I wrapped an arm around her throat and held her in a chokehold.
She clawed at my arm—inefficient, as I was wearing more layers due to the icy night air.
I eyed the trees that surrounded us—my team had found the fae fighting in a small park. It was the perfect place for the fae as they wouldn’t damage the area much, but I didn’t like the advantage a dryad had surrounded by all the greenery.
Right on cue, I felt a brush of fae magic in my mind and the closest tree—a weeping willow—groaned as it stretched, its branches reaching for me. It tried to wrap a whip-like branch around my ankle and pull tight.
Better stop this before it starts.
Ignoring the vise-like grip—also not very efficient, yet, thanks to all my layers—I used my free hand to pry the dryad’s mouth open and shoved my hand in, hitting the back of her throat with my fingers. (A fae was the only supernatural I’d risk doing this too—they’d be too offended to even think of seriously biting my hand. If I did this to a werewolf, I’d lose a few fingers in the process.)
The dryad immediately bent over, retching as I triggered her gag reflex. Preoccupied as she was, she dropped all her magic and the willow tree snapped back into its regular position so fast, it swayed from side to side.
I planted a foot on the dryad’s lower back and pushed her flat to the ground, pulling her arms behind her back so I could slap a pair of cuffs on her.
“Blood—they’ve addled Brody again!” April shouted—she was standing back from the fray, making it easier to wield her magic without getting pulled into the thick of things.
A strand of hair had come out of the pins I used to keep my red hair back tonight, but I didn’t have time to unhook a part of the mask to fix it. “Understood.”
I ducked under a centaur, when he kicked out at me, looking for Brody’s captor.
There was only one fae noble in today’s fight, making her the only one capable of mind-controlling magic—something werewolves and vampires were particularly susceptible to. (The magic didn’t work at all on wizards, and—by proxy—me, as I was a subset of magic humans.)
I scanned the fight. It was a battle between Queen Darina’s forces—all wearing her black teardrop insignia somewhere on their clothes—and King Forgought’s people—who were wearing pins of his symbol of three interlocked golden leaves. Both Courts were Unseelie. As Sunshine had reported, this was another succession battle between monarchs as they were trying to absorb each other’s Courts in order to grow.
I glanced past the knocked out, still smoldering troll—April had taken him out early in the fight with a precise lightning strike. One of the troll’s comrades—a spindly legged brownie—was taking shelter behind the barrier the troll’s body made and was chucking glass vials that were spelled to explode when they hit something.
Grove tossed a potion bottle filled with a questionably brown substance, which shattered and released a small cloud that made the brownie explode in sneezes.
There!
I caught a glimpse of the fae noble. Her hair was colored a vibrant hue of orange that glowed in the first light of dawn brightening the horizon, and she was holding a tiny statue carved out of what looked like white marble. Bright orange magic flowed around her as Brody jerked in front of her like a puppet on strings.
CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN
Jade
Ivaulted over the knocked-out troll and held my breath as I sprinted past the sneezing brownie.
Brody—under the control of the fae noble—was choking himself, clawing at his own throat.
I need to interrupt that spell, and then take away her artifact! The fae nobles were unable to wield magic without an artifact.
I pulled a dagger from my belt—a small one that wouldn’t do much damage if the fae tried to throw it back at me, but would break her concentration—and threw it, aiming for her face.
It sliced across the fae’s face, jarring her.
Brody started to slump as the fae pressed her fingers to her face, then studied them. She turned white when she saw a few droplets of blood on the pads of her fingers, and her lovely face twisted. “You!” she screamed at me—too late.
I was already on her.
I grabbed both of her wrists—not normally my first target, but I wanted that carving out of her grasp—then violently shook them until she let go.
Brody collapsed in a heap, and the magic that had been sparkling around the fae snuffed out.
The fae noble screamed, but she must not have been versed in hand-to-hand combat because she almost fell when she tried to kick at me.
With her already that off balance, it took a single hip check from me to send her sprawling to the ground.