Page 33 of Of Pixies and Promises
“Do I look like an animal?” he growled, feeling frustration build when he thought of Nyra, how she had wings sprouting from her back, how other fae animalistic sides were different to humans but not something to be feared. “Even if I did look it, some of these fae—thesetainted animals—act more human than us.”
Silver appeared next to him. Perhaps she heard a familiar voice, or this was fate or the Well at work. But the second person Jimmy recognized broke his composure. He tried to hold it back, but Sid saw the doubt in his eyes.
“Jimmy,” Silver said softly, kneeling next to him. “Go back to Carla. Go back to Polly, and tell them quietly that you can come here and you will be welcome.”
“But…”
“I know you were with the party that kidnapped Willow. We’ve all done bad things we regret. That Sid is standing there before you now, his slate wiped clean, means you all have achance. Don’t be a fool like these others. It will get you killed, and then who will look after your mother and sister?”
Emotion flared in Jimmy’s eyes, and Sid knew Silver had him. She lowered herself, whispered something into his ear, and then let him go. Jimmy scrambled to his feet, gave them a confused and pained look, then disappeared into the dark forest.
“Everyone counts.” Silver slid her bleak eyes to Sid. “If we can spread the word, then the more humans we can convince to leave Nero, the better for everyone.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Because if Jimmy goes back to tattle on them, anyone they befriended in Crystal City could be dead.
A scream behind Silver, somewhere nearby in the forest, said the battle still raged. Silver kicked Jimmy’s discarded mechanical gun toward Sid with a wince. “I can’t carry it without breaking my connection to the Well. But you can.”
Realization hit him—he could fight Nero with his own weapons. They jogged into the fight. Any human he came across, he gave the same choice he gave Jimmy. Retreat. Go back and spread the word that Nero has lied. If they refused, he gave them a swift death.
He almost thought they were winning, that they’d successfully stopped the raid before it worsened, but then he walked into the clearing where the digger was frozen, its claw buried in the dirt. Two trucks were filled with raw cobalt. More Reapers and raiders had formed a barricade, protecting their spoils.
Some were Sid had given a second chance only minutes ago. They’d promised to return to Crystal City. Their betrayal hit him like a knife to the heart. He scanned the group, desperately seeking that shock of blond hair, and couldn’t find it.
At least Jimmy had the sense to leave.
Shade stepped out of the shadows, his expression grim as the humans gathered their weapons and prepared for an assault.
“Fuck them,” Shade growled, his vampiric fangs flashing. “Silver darling, let me drop you in there, and you can unleash.”
“That’s irresponsible,” she snapped back at him. “You know the decay can spread from them to the wildlife around here.”
“I’ll contain it with my darkness.”
She considered it. But in the space of a blink, she thought too long. The humans had recovered, reloaded their weapons, and started spraying gunfire randomly into the bush around them. Panic scorched Shade’s face. He grabbed his mate, and they disappeared in an explosion of shadow. Sid ducked behind a tree and held his breath. As he stayed shielded by the tree, he would be?—
“Sid!” Nyra’s voice was a hammer to his heart.
Time stood still. Nyra as behind him, full-sized and not shielded by a tree. He heard thepop pop popof gunfire. The whiz as bullets sailed past their heads. Power built inside him—something born of instinct, fear, and the urge to protect—he grabbed his mate and unleashed. He tried to do what Silver had said and pointed it away from them… but the power didn’t want to listen. It stayed around Sid and Nyra, and suddenly, they were no longer human size. Their bug-sized bodies tumbled across the ground as bullets splintered into the tree behind them, cascading shards of wood like boulders.
He covered Nyra with his body, “Stay down.”
The gunfire suddenly stopped. Either they’d run out of ammunition or—screams filled the air. Wet gurgles. Horrific cries for help. Sid heard someone gulping and drinking and remembered Shade was a vampire. Human blood was extra tasty.
Shade had done what Sid did—protect his mate first. Then he returned to make them pay.
Sid climbed off Nyra. “Are you hurt?”
She shook her head, wild eyes flared as he helped her to her feet.
“You shifted us at the right time,” he said, praising her. “Can you grow us again so I can join Shade?”
“But Sid, I didn’t shrink us.”
“What?”
She cocked her head, studying him. “That must have come from you.”
