Page 105 of Changeling
Nathan immediately took off, shotgun ready, sprinting between sidhe, many of whom tried to grab for him but couldn’t because of the traps. Just as Nathan reached the one that had been wavering, the red light around that sidhe went out completely. Nathan stopped and pumped the shotgun, ready to fire a blast of iron into the damn thing’s face should it try and go for Jim.
But it didn’t. It turned tail and ran straight for the main door.
Nathan took off after it. He had to grin when the sidhe reached the door, threw it open, and found he had nowhere to go. They had drawn real runic traps in front of every possible exit out of the barn.
The sidhe turned back to Nathan with bared teeth. A Blue Man—a storm kelpie. One of those bastards who drowns sailors. He looked right at home with the rain pouring down outside behind him, his skin an aquamarine blue, his eyes black like a fish, and his steps unsteady as if his feet longed to be in water and return to their natural form as a tail.
“No late checkout today, Fish Man,” Nathan said, raising the shotgun to fire. “So sorry.”
The gun went off with a crack and Nathan hit the barn floor hard, having struck nothing. He looked behind him and saw that two more sidhe had gotten free and now had hold of his ankles.
“Jim!” Nathan yelled, kicking the sidhe away. He managed to free one leg and watched as that sidhe instantly became entrapped again by a red light runic trap. Jim was doing his best. That was as much as Nathan could ask for.
At least Nathan hadn’t lost the shotgun. He rolled over onto his back, having enough leverage now, aimed at the other sidhe’s shoulder, and fired, knocking it back into a second trap that formed. It was wounded, but it would live.
The Blue Man was still free, one too many for Jim to hold, and he lunged as Nathan struggled to his feet. Nathan slammed back against the doorframe behind him, hitting a spot just between his shoulder blades that made him hiss. He understood the game now. The sidhe was trying to use Nathan to make a hole so he could go around the trap.
Nathan ducked to the side just as the Blue Man punched into the doorframe where his face had been a moment before, chipping out a chunk of old wood. Rolling away, Nathan could see that the sidhe closest to Jim were finally giving in as more and more of them began to vanish. If Nathan could just hold out long enough for Jim to dwindle the numbers then this lone Blue Man would be cake.
“Nathan!” Sasha called over the roars of sidhe and rumbles of thunder and rain from outside.
Rolling further away from the door, Nathan jumped to his feet. “I’m fine! Stay with Jim!”
The Blue Man pounced on him yet again, catching Nathan off guard from behind. Nathan hung onto his shotgun tightly as he was pushed roughly towards the same spot of doorframe he had already cracked. His breath hitched as he willed himself to stop, somehow managing to halt his movement inches from making a larger hole.
Relief was short lived, however, because Nathan looked up to see the Blue Man barreling towards him. He didn’t have time to fire but it was more than enough time to pivot and slam the butt of the gun across the sidhe’s face as it reached him. Nathan heard a satisfying crack. But it wasn’t enough to slow the sidhe down.
The punch came so fast and hard that Nathan’s jaw burned from impact long before he hit the ground. He had about two seconds to realize he had basically obliterated the rotten half of the doorframe before the sidhe leapt over him out into the night.
“No!” Nathan called after it. He couldn’t let even one sidhe get away. Notone.
Searing jaw be damned, Nathan jumped back up to his feet. He sprinted off in pursuit of the escapee, oblivious to Sasha’s calls after him.
There was a steep slope to the right of the barn that led down into a low, shallow river. If the Blue Man reached a body of water, he’d be lost to them. He was already running fell pelt over the muddy ground down that slope, and Nathan bounded after him. He just needed one clear shot to slow the sidhe down. Just one.
And then Walter flickered into view in front of the Blue Man, which shouldn’t have been possible. He was far enough from Jim, but being in the presence of a sidhe also banished him—at least it used to.
The Blue Man couldn’t see Walter and barreled right toward him. Nathan watched, awed as Walter braced himself with his arms out and pushed the Blue Man with all his might when he reached him. Mere feet from the river, the sidhe’s footing faltered as he stumbled back, slipping and sliding in the mud and rain until he stumbled, confused as to what invisible force he had met. Walter’s image shimmered unsteadily from the contact but he didn’t fade.
A few more fast, sure strides and Nathan was upon them. He fired at the sidhe’s leg to keep him down, laid out on his back, and the iron burned and sizzled along his slick blue skin. As Nathan towered over him, just off the bank of the small river, he was surprised to find the Blue Man grinning, lying in the mud with the rain beating down on him.
“Nathan, the rainwater is already healing his wounds—he doesn’t need abodyof water. You must hurry!” Walter cried.
The Blue Man laughed aloud amidst the downpour. “I will follow your brother with a glad heart when he leads us into these lands, Nathan Grier. Will you?”
Nathan fell upon the sidhe with a surge of fury, dropping the shotgun so he could yank the bastard up by his neck. “Jim is not your fucking boy king!” he growled.
Then he grinned as red light surrounded them—wherever Jim was he had found them and manifested a trap right where they lay.
“Give my regards to Malak, you fucker.”
The Blue Man didn’t look nearly as smug. With a great shove, he pushed Nathan away, knocking him several feet back to land solidly in the mud. But he couldn’t move further than that, not inside the trap.
With a gurgling, watery cry, the Blue Man vanished, and the red light trap faded soon after, leaving Nathan in darkness and rain. He huffed in relief and shot a grateful smile at Walter. He would have been content to just fall back into the mud and lie there, if it hadn’t been right then that he heard the first explosion.
His head snapped to the left to stare horrified at the barn. The barn that was currently onfireand emitting loud pops and bangs into the night.
Nathan was ready to sprint back up the slope in search of his companions, when the next explosion burst flames out of the barn doorway and the sweet miraculous sight of an incubus in flight. Relief cooled the remaining embers of horror as the first thing Nathan noticed was that Jim was in Sasha’s arms.
