Page 57 of Monsters of Air

“Fine,” I shuddered, “I’d rather get out of here as soon as possible. I don’t want to know what it was that was able to take out a dragon and rider in these tunnels.”

Philit sent one last glare at the Fae before racing away, forcing the tall man to stumble after him.

We ran. We ran like the ghosts of the dragon and rider were nipping at our heels. We all felt it, the urgency to find a way out of the caves. I focused on the sound of the water, pointing it out when we came to multiple tunnels. I was starting to question if this was the right path, though. We were going too far down, too far away from the wind.

A different sound caught my attention and I pulled to a stop, tugging Zilon beside me. “Wait.”

“I don’t think we should stop,” Philit said, breath heaving as he grabbed my other hand and tugged.

“Hold on, I heard something,” I said again, able to draw in enough breath to talk properly. The sound of fluttering was a hollow echo now, so close the air was practically buzzing with it. It was everywhere, the sound a whisper at first, and then louder. I was almost like birds.

“Do you hear that?” I faced the direction, narrowing my eyes into the dark as if I could see what it was. But all I could hear was the flapping of wings, and then the low hiss of the Fae.

“I knew it.”

I turned to him, and he looked right at me, that smile turning wicked. “Time to make a choice, divine one.”

Zilon pulled more of the ripped fabric from his pack and tossed it down the tunnel so we could see further down. There was nothing for a moment, but then slowly the darkness began to move. Everything shifted in one giant squiggling mass.

“This just got very interesting,” the Fae practically crooned, no one turned. We were all stuck staring at the wall of black.

“What is that?” Zilon asked, his arm moving over me protectively. I would have pushed him away, but one lesson on punching did not qualify me to fight moving blackness.

Especially when it had killed both a rider and their dragon.

Oh, fuck. We were fucked.

The black mass began breaking apart as white things broke out of it, the specks of light moving into the light. Pure white specks of light that were no bigger than my hand.

They were tiny little people, each with white gauzy wings that were twice as large as their bodies. They were beautiful, like the Fae shrunk down, their features all blue and purple. They almost looked like a blizzard as they flew, right down to the specks of white that fell from them. It looked like snowflakes.

It would have been beautiful if they didn’t look at us like they were going to eat us.

Great, we were being attacked by murderous snow.

“Fairies.” Landers snarled as the Fae laughed. He sounded like a maniac.

“You thought you would win this battle. You will win nothing, foolish dragons!” The Fae had officially turned into a mad man.

The horde of fairies soared closer, the tiny things making ominous chittering sounds, it sounded like nails against stone and made my stomach clench. The sound of wings was everywhere as the wall of moving became a cage of it, the things circling around us with the horrible sound, made worse by the maniacal laughter of the Fae.

“Cover her,” Philit commanded, the other two falling into place as they shoved me between them. I was stuck in the center of them, their wings making the worst cage possible. I might theoretically be safe, but now I couldn’t see, which only made it worse.

The chittering turned closer to animalistic screeching as I shuffled around, moving until I found a gap in their wings that I could see through. The fairies still circled, the Fae still laughed.

There was no escape, and I was the one who had brought us here. I needed to find a way to get us out. Squishing my eyes together, I focused on the sound, trying desperately to hear past the heinous noise.

“Anyone here speak ‘screaming Fairy’?” Landers asked, batting away a few that had darted toward him, tiny, sharp teeth at the ready.

“Sorry, it wasn’t offered in Xrotte. These fuckers were supposed to be wiped out a century ago.” Philit was batting at them too, all of their wings shifting as the Fairies began to attack.

“Yet, here they are,” the Fae said, the tall man stepping toward us. The Fae shifted around him like he was an untouchable god, and they, his guard. “Not that I am surprised that your king lied to you, again. It seems to be all he knows how to do. You would think after two hundred years he would come up with a better hobby.”

“Shut up! Don’t talk to us!” Landers roared, his voice rattling with power as the air tingled against my skin.

“Fine, then I will talk to someone else.” I could practically hear the Fae’s smile as he turned, as he spoke in the same language I had heard the Fae speak, the sounds like magic and memory all rolled into a dance.

It should have been beautiful, if it didn’t pull all of the Fairies right to him.

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