I had a pretty good view of Kian’s face then, a wash of moonlight illuminating the street. And even though he was still swaying, his dark eyes were stone cold sober. Okay. There was definitely more going on here, and now I was wondering if I should have just followed his note from the start.
It felt too late to turn back now, so when the ogre swept Kian along the path, they had a shadow. The pair moved much faster now, heading toward a very dark section of the village. No fires burned here, and the houses looked much more derelict. Some of them were nothing more than shells and clearly no one lived in them. If this were New York, we would be moving into the poorer and much rougher areas, where illegal activities transpired on every street corner, and even more hidden away in the underground.
The ogre and Kian stopped again, right out front of an old, rickety looking fence. I dived behind some broken timber as both of them scanned the area, then lifted up some of the fencing and crawled under. I gave them a few seconds to move before I followed, finding the tear in the chain easily and sliding under. The cloak protected me pretty well; the few scratches I got were not important. I could barely see the large shadows of the men now, so I hurried across the uneven and rocky ground, trying my best not to stumble in the dark. I got close enough to see the ogre lift a panel on what looked like a broken-down warehouse, then they disappeared inside.
In normal circumstances, I would have hesitated to follow. It was the perfect ambush situation and I had no idea if they knew I was behind them. But trusting my gut again, I believed Kade’s brother was on our side. With that in mind, I found myself lifting the panel and rolling in underneath as it closed. I was on my feet in a second, crouching low to prepare myself for an attack.
I found myself in a small, storage style room with a few broken tools littered around the floor. There was no one around. I could hear lots of noise now that I was inside, which was odd, because not a single sound had penetrated to the outside. I opened the door on the far wall and entered a long hall. Following the jeering and the lights, I came upon a large crowd of fae. It looked to be at least twenty deep, and I had no clear view of what they were all crowding around. From the back, I was getting a very underground fight ring vibe. The dark shadowy expressions, the shouts and catcalling, the tickets some of them seemed to be holding – not to mention bags of clinking coins being passed around. There looked to be mostly men in here, but there were women too, so I wouldn’t immediately stand out.
I could no longer see Kian or the ogre, but that didn’t matter, I was here for Kade, and the slight tingling of mecca on my skin had me thinking – and hoping – he was somewhere in this building. Pushing through the crowd, no one paid the slightest attention to me. All of their gazes were locked on whatever they were circled around. My heart was pounding hard, energy swirling inside of me. I was almost afraid to look into the center of the room, but I would not be a coward today. Kade would be fine and I would help Kian get him out of here. That was my mantra, and it was getting me through.
Once I made it through a bunch of huge, and definitely not high-fae creatures, I could finally see what had this group so enthralled. Holy mother of shifters. My guess had been half right, it looked like a fight ring, but not like I had imagined. The ring was more semi-circular, the far side a flat wall, and against it were five chained fae. Two of them were highborn fae, shriveled and weak looking, one was a goblin, another an ogre, and the last one I had no name for. It was frankly weird and scary looking, grotesque: two heads, multiple eyes, gray skin, and lots of tufts of hair where hair should not be.
I was just wondering why they were tied up when a huge roar started in the crowd and the clanking of doors and chains had everyone’s attention shifting to the right. I turned with them, and thankfully my gasp was drowned out in a loud outcry. Two ogres talking close by caught my attention.
“Best buy Gorbon has made. He’s undefeated in three fights so far. He’s a monster.”
They were talking about Kade. My Kade. Who was standing shirtless on the far side of the semi-circle. His hands were bound by chains as he entered, but were being removed by a three foot tall, fairy-looking creature, and then she was out of the ring in a zip, so fast the eye couldn’t track her. Pressing myself even closer to the edge of the barbed wire fence, which separated the crowd from the fighters, I drank in the sight of Kade. He was wearing nothing but a pair of cutoff shorts, his chest and body shiny with sweat or oil as his large muscles trembled. His eyes were dark and shimmering as he stalked forward.
I wanted to scream, to cry out and let him know that I was here. I wanted to call forth the mecca and blast everyone in this room to pieces, but none of that would do any good. The queen and her guards would rain down on us and we would never get away. We had to remain undetected. Somehow I needed to alert Kade to my presence, and then we had to get out of here and to the eastern gate before sunrise so we could escape.
Before I could hatch any type of plan, the cuffs clanked open on the gnarly looking creature with two heads. Another blip of sparkle showed the fairy darting off again. She was insanely fast, which made sense when you considered her current occupation.
Kade…
I tried to reach him through our bond again, but nothing happened. Damn that winter queen. I really wanted to kill her.
The crowd roared. Money was being tossed about, tickets waved in the air. Finally, when the crowd settled I did the only thing I could think of. In the complete silence I pulled my hood back the tiniest bit and shouted, “Kick his ass!”
At my taunt, the crowd lost it again, cheering, pumping their fists in the air, but Kade’s entire face tightened and he turned to search the crowd. I had hoped he would recognize my voice, and thankfully it looked like he had. As our eyes met, the expression on his face was a combination of relief, anger, and this softness that he only ever showed around me. I gave him a single head nod, fighting back tears. He returned my gesture, before all of those soft emotions disappeared. If I didn’t know Kade, I would have feared him in that moment. He turned then to face the creature and I quickly slipped my hood back up.
The sight of me seemed to give Kade a renewed strength. He clenched his fists and advanced on the beast. The thing’s two heads were swaying, grunts coming from somewhere, even though I couldn’t see anything I would call a mouth. A bell dinged from behind me and Kade tipped his head back and roared. It was his bear’s roar, and it made my wolf howl deep inside of me.
Chapter Ten
North, south, east, west. Which way home is the best?