Page 101 of Sidhe
The crowd started to shift, that din beginning to rise again as the seals looked amongst the people around them for scapegoats.
“Just hold on! Everyone calm down!” Nathan tried to yell, but it was already getting too loud too fast, drowning him out.
He could see Ula and her friends in one corner, the tall fire elemental the most garishly visible, trying to sneak away, but there were seals already watching her. Nathan saw everything about to unravel, saw just how easily it would erupt into chaos.
“Stop!” he cried.
Then the first seal acted, charging the fire fae, to which she immediately responded to defend herself, summoning a wave of flames seemingly out of nothing that quickly engulfed his clothing. Nathan waited for the Gatehouse wards to kick in…and then remembered they no longer worked.
“They’ve lowered the Gatehouse defenses!” someone yelled. “It’s a trap!”
No, that wasn’t true. It was because of the changes in the Veil.
“Nathan!” Jim called from below him, grabbing Nathan’s legs and knocking him from the chair just as a knife flew past, striking a wooden post behind where his head had been.
Nathan landed on top of Jim inside the protection of the bar countertop. Sasha kneeled beside them to check if they were okay. Alex was in there with them, grabbing shotguns, cocking them in hopes of getting some of the seals’ attention, but the noise, the yells, the sounds of struggle were getting too loud. Nathan couldn’t hear anything but disaster.
“Jim,” Nathan got up, staying crouched behind the counter, “can you use your abilities to stop everyone?”
“To what end, Nate? Enslave them forever to fight for us, whether they want to or not? Even if I took control of all of them, I’d have to let them go eventually and we’d be right back here again. We’re supposed to be the good guys…”
Nathan could see the conflict on Jim’s face, the part of him that wondered if enslavement was the only way, but then what were they even fighting for if they went that route. “We have to get everyone out of here. The ones who want to leave can, theones we can trust will stay, but we have to prevent as many as we can from getting hurt.”
No more words needed to be said. They all nodded. Jim took a moment to pull Alex toward him and stole a rushed kiss, to which she grinned ruefully. Then, with weapons ready, the four of them leapt up and over the counter into the fray.
The first person Nathan collided with was Lindsey, clinging to Charis’ hand. “Nathan!” Lindsey cried within the chaos.
“Just get out of here!” Nathan called back, hating that he had to yell to be heard even though Lindsey was within touching distance. “Take Charis and get out! We’ll try and calm things down. If you see Cam or the twins, or anyone you can think of, grab them and go!” With that Nathan pushed Lindsey and Charis in the direction of the nearest exit, even though the way was blocked by the throng of people.
Nathan searched for faces he knew well, trying to keep from being recognized as he pushed through the crowd. He was moving around the outside of the bar’s counter when he suddenly found himself flush up against it with one of the seals tumbling into him.
“Nothing like a little mob mentality, eh, Nathan?”
Nathan was ready to fight if he had to, but when he looked up, he froze at the sight of slit eyes. It was the older seal who had first called him into question—a spy.
Instinctively, Nathan tried to move, seek out Jim, but the dark fae held him stationary with strong hands on his shoulders. “Jim may be powerful, Nathan, but he’d have to notice me first. And I only need a moment for this.”
“For what? What do you want?”
The bar was still in chaos, most people running, probably leaving for good. Suddenly, the dark fae spun, spinning Nathan out with him and tossing him toward the doors where Sasha wasushering people outside. He pulled a gun from the back of his jacket.
“My true mission is a message from Malak,” he said.
Then he fired.Fired. Practically pointblank. Nathan felt the bullet pass through him, felt the heat of it, stunned that it had all happened so fast. The mob fell into a tense silence, everyone frozen at the crack of the shot.
For a moment Nathan thought he was in shock. There wasn’t any pain, no pain at all. Then he looked down at his chest where the bullet had passed through and saw the hole in his shirt, the ruined skin beneath, but the skin was healing, smoothing over. He practically laughed he was so relieved.
“Some message,” Nathan huffed at the dark fae, who had already dropped the gun to his side. “Bit lacking in the punch line considering it was onlylead.”
The fae merely smiled. “Oh Nathan,” he said, so cool and confident that Nathan felt a chill run down his spine and freeze right at the base, “this so wasn’t aboutyou.”
The fae looked beyond Nathan, behind him,behind himback by the doors.
Sasha stood there, so perfectly aligned with where the dark fae had pushed Nathan, it was obviously planned. Everything moved in such slow motion, Nathan almost didn’t believe it, couldn’t believe it—the blood seeping from Sasha’s chest, Sasha’s hand trying to reach for the wound, but shaking too much to do more than tremble in place. Then Sasha looked up, blue eyes disbelieving.
“N-Nathan…”
And then he fell.
