Page 71 of Crowned A Traitor
With a fraction of her soul, they wouldn’t doubt him. Her mind swam to Wolfgang and Lottie waiting for her. If she didn’t turn up, one of them was bound to be caught.
Remember who you are,Arthur’s words echoed through her, and she knew she had to protect Lottie and Wolfgang. “Thank you,” she said, bringing her lips to his for the final time. Frendall’s hand went to her cheek. His touch allowed her within his mind, to see them running together through the Maze as children. She always wanted to be seen this way by him. Free and happy.
“Go help the others!” Frendall pushed her in the opposite direction. “Goodbye,” Klara said. She watched Frendall disappear into the marshes and Klara cursed herself for leaving Lottie and Wolfgang. Hated that she had given into the darkness and almost given Abadan exactly what she wanted. That’s not who Klara was. Or at least not whom she wanted to be.
~16~
“Please stop!” Lottie’s desperate cries travelled to Klara as she sprinted through the trees. She stopped as she saw the uniforms of the Fae Guard glowing up ahead.
“Get up,” Lottie pleaded, and she couldn’t see Wolfgang. Klara moved closer, careful not to set off any more traps as to not give away her position. She crouched as the small group of Fae Guard surrounded Lottie. Two Fae sat on top of a humvee, watching over the patrol of four below. Wolfgang lay unconscious in the dirt as Lottie’s small frame hunched over his body, trying to protect him from the towering Fae. Klara wanted to rip their smug grins from their faces.How brave they are to gang up on a child.
The Fae waited, watching the siblings and the surrounding Forest, which made Klara nervous.
The Fae should have arrested them by now.
A part of her was thankful they hadn’t as the delay had given her a chance to catch up.
“Get him up,” a Fae with a dark beard barked as Wolfgang stirred on the ground. Uncontrollable tears streamed down Lottie’s face as two other Fae with glistening dark skin took Wolfgang under the arms and tried to force him to stand.
Klara had thought they would have been better off without her. She couldn’t have been more wrong as one of the Fae planted a boot in Wolfgang’s ribcage, and a groan escaped him. Wolfgang clutched his ribs, but Klara saw the glint in his eye. He was faking the pain. Suddenly Wolfgang pushed Lottie behind him and charged his shoulder into the Fae’s stomach.
Klara scolded him for his half-assed attempt. The Fae planted an elbow at the back of his neck, and Wolfgang went down like a sack of potatoes. Klara couldn’t understand why he was so exhausted.
There was no other patrol that Klara could see. Slowly, she moved from tree to tree until she was only a few feet from the nearest Fae. They should have been able to sense her, but they were too busy torturing Wolfgang and enjoying Lottie’s tears to notice. Wolfgang bared his fangs while Lottie crouched beside his legs.
Klara needed Wolfgang to resist the change. If he shifted and attacked the patrol, they would be caught and executed once they passed through to Kalos. Klara couldn’t understand the Faes’ cruelty. It was a crime to pass through the border, but the land they stood on was neutral. To use brutal force in these parts was a death sentence in itself. Nobody threatened the treaty and got away with it. Though at this moment, the treaty didn’t stop the Fae from tormenting those they deemed evil and beneath them.These are meant to be the good ones.
Klara clenched her fist as a heavy boot was planted into Wolfgang’s chest as he tried to rise. They were trying to provoke the change, anything to give them cause to end the Lycaons’ lives. Many, be it here, or the Forest looked the other way when it came to a few dead Dark Creatures.
“Let us go, and we will go back to Malum,” Wolfgang said calming down, but she could sense the hate in his amber eyes. The Fae in their crisp sapphire blue uniforms and polished boots had no intention of letting them go. Their perfect beauty of pointy ears and smooth skin shone in the full moon. The moon was a gift and a curse, it gave Klara clear sight, but it also made it easier for the Fae to see her.
“We can pretend this never happened,” Wolfgang said, regaining his strength as Klara saw the colour return to his cheeks.
“Giving us orders? Filthy Creature,” a Fae with vibrant red hair reefed Lottie away from her brother by her unicorn backpack.
“It’s too late for that son,” the tallest Fae said, drawing his spear and Klara held her axe at the ready. Wolfgang growled as the silver shone before him while Lottie squirmed from the redhead’s grasp. Klara watched the other Fae look on with hungry eyes.
“Let’s not get carried away,” Klara said appearing from behind a tree. The Fae from the humvee turned the small spotlight onto the new threat. The Fae watching on, took a cautious step back as they saw the axe at her side. The tallest Fae was distracted by Wolfgang as he couldn’t resist the change anymore.
“This doesn’t concern you Demon,” one of the Fae snarled as Klara’s eyes flashed white. “You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover,” Klara replied as a blonde Fae rushed towards her and Klara dodged the strike of a spear. Klara snatched the spear from the Fae and cracked it over her knee before she tossed it to the Forest floor.
The blonde Fae rose her fists, and Klara almost laughed at the Fae’s terrible stance. “I can see the training has become most lax on this side of the River,” Klara said, her fist connecting with the Fae’s angled jaw, rendering her unconscious with a single blow.
Lottie cried out as the red-headed Fae gripped her by the hair. The Fae looked to Wolfgang as he prowled towards them. Klara took the distraction as her opportunity. She let her axe fly before the Fae could kill Lottie. The axe planted in the Fae’s narrow shoulder, not a fatal blow but painful as Hell. Evident by the shrill scream that escaped the crumbling Fae.
Lottie tried to calm Wolfgang as Klara took them down one by one until five Fae lay injured and mudded. She moved around them with ease.How proud Lilith would have been to see me take down five Fae.
“I’d fire whoever trained you,” she said as one of the Fae tried to grip her leg in a pathetic attempt at stopping her. It was apparent they relied on their tranquillizing guns and spears to keep their enemies at a distance. Without their weapons, they looked like frightened children.
They weren’t used to skilled fighters only untrained fleeing Creatures. The tallest Fae, their Captain stared at Klara wildly as she saved him for last.
“Talented and yet utterly inferior,” The Fae roared, and Klara rose her eyebrows.
“I wouldn’t be so careless with your insults,” Klara said, rushing at him.
She placed a hand on his cheek, forcing his life to flash before his eyes over and over again. The Captain clawed at his eyes. Klara was so distracted by his begging for it to stop to notice that one of the injured Fae had risen.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Klara asked as she saw the shake of the young Fae’s tranquillizer. “Why did you wait to arrest them? Or were you going to dig a shallow grave?”
