Page 7 of The Fairy Hunter
I snap my fingers. “Ah, but witch bodies? Witch bodies could handle them. And by using the stone, you can basically just completely take us over, regardless of whether we agree to it or not. Right? Am I right?”
All the spirits exchange glasses. Our mailman says, “Is this normal? I feel like their reaction isn’t normal.”
“Definitely not normal,” the PE teacher grumbles.
I exchange a grin with Olivia. “You know what’s not normal? C-sections. You know how many of those fuckers I’ve had? Too many. Being strapped to a table. Having your stomach sliced open. That little thing that monitors how much blood you’ve lost.”
Ugh,” the PE teacher says. “I’m going to be sick.”
Olivia laughs. “Oh, natural birth isn’t any better. Natural they call it? Ha! Have you ever pooped on a table in front of a room full of people? Well, I have.”
“Make them stop,” the mailman says, and he actually looks like he might be sick
“Does that disturb you? What do you know about menopause?”
He folds his arms in front of his chest, looking half-sick and half-angry. “In my day men smoked a cigar and women shut the hell up about all this woman stuff,” the mailman grumbled.
I laugh. “Sorry, man, but women just have it harder. So if you think this little… ritual or whatever is scary to us… well, I’m afraid you’ll have to do better.”
“You will be scared,” the fairy hisses, grabbing a dagger from the mailman’s belt, “when we slice your throats and watch your blood run.”
A snort giggle comes from Olivia. “I don’t know if we’ll be scared. Usually when people slit our throats it’s more annoying than anything else. Our clothes get ruined. We feel tired. And there’s the mess.” She looks at me, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah, the mess!” I say with a groan. “But rubbing alcohol does a pretty decent job. I mean, you can’t even tell the last time we hacked up a demon in my living room. Right? We cleaned that mess up without a drop of evidence to the horrific death that jerk suffered.”
Olivia waves a hand. “Not at all. It came right out. And this place has wood floors, so that’ll help with clean up.”
I shake my head. “I just hope we can get it out without having to resand the damn things.” I look at the fairy. “Actually, could we just bring the tarps over from downstairs? It would help us so much.”
The PE teacher moves closer to the fairy and leans over, whispering in her ear. “They’ll be dead when we slice their throats, right? Are they not getting that?”
The fairy shoves him away. “They know, they’re just being bitches.”
“Oh, language!” I say, like a kid tattling.
“Enough!” the fairy screams. “You guys can get into the circle with your friends, or we’ll tie you up and throw you into the circle with them.”
I look back at Olivia and see that the little plant in one corner is growing rapidly, moving toward us. Darn fairies. Olivia follows my gaze, then gives me a little nod. As much fun as we’re pretending to have, we have to be careful. Fairies are feared for a reason.
I glance at the fairy with a brow raised. "You know we're not going to just sit quietly and let this all happen. There's going to be a big battle, and the neighbors are going to hear. Before you get close to stealing our bodies, you're going to have police knocking at your door. And maybe I'm just a witch, but I know even fairies answer to someone. If your bosses find out what you're doing, how do you think that will go over?"
It's true I’m mostly guessing about the bosses thing, but the look on her face tells me I'm not wrong. But as quickly as the concerned expression crosses her face, it fades away, replaced by a smile I don't like one bit. She lifts her arms to the sky and whispers, "Mother of the sky, bring forth your fury to conceal my actions this dark night. Protect your daughter of the earth and make the humans fear your power."
It isn't like one of our spells. It feels like she could've said anything at all, but I'm no fool. Each word is laced with the kind of power that makes her words drip with it, that fills the room and silences us all. So when the first crack of thunder rolls in above us, we all jump, but I wouldn't say we're surprised.
Unfortunately.
The sky opens up and rain begins to pour down, playing a loud beat on the roof that seems to echo around us all. It doesn't help when lightning flashes across the sky and thunder rumbles once more, followed by the flickering of lights above us.
But I try to keep the worry from my face. All of this is a game, a strategy to buy us time before our backup can come. Even though the storm is creepy, it's also a distraction. Because that's another thing about fairies: they're prideful little jerks.
"You can control the weather," I say, and try to sound mildly impressed.
"I can do many things you witches could never dream of."
I glance again at the plant behind us, which is growing faster, spreading out. Slowly blocking the door. Our only exit.
"And yet you chose... what... a demon as a partner?"
