Page 8 of The Fairy Hunter
She glares at me. "Actually, he was a fairy too. But he made a mistake--"
"It wasn't a mistake," our mailman says, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "The council simply couldn't handle my radical ideas."
The fairy gives him an irritated look. "Not this again. When I agreed to free your spirit, you said you realized you'd made a mistake, and that you wouldn't come back and pull any of that crazy stuff again."
"This is what you always do to me!" he says, glaring at her, going from zero to a hundred like a flick of a light switch. "You speak down to me. You act like you're so perfect and I'm so terrible."
"You wanted the fairies to agree to let you have plants take over a major city, turn all of the humans to animals, and live there as the king and queen."
"And what's wrong with that?" he shoots back. "Shouldn't I be a king? Don't I deserve to be one?"
She shakes her head and sighs. "I will not have this fight with you again." Her gaze moves to my friends, who have been patiently waiting in the center of the rune. They know exactly what I'm doing. So rather than struggling and fighting against their bindings, they've been doing their best not to draw attention to themselves. "Now, let's get your body, then discuss the future."
The mailman crosses his arms over his pudgy body. "Fine, but I still think you could have found a warlock for me."
"Do you think finding you a supernatural body was easy?" she shrieks, and I can hear in her voice that this issue between them is deeper than what we’re aware of. "You don't appreciate anything I do!"
The two turn on each other and start shouting. The other spirits move away from the circle and start trying to calm the couple down. Olivia looks at me. I nod, and then she throws a potion bottle while I murmur the words to a spell.
Instantly the noise all around us stops. Olivia and I are surrounded by a ball of blue shimmering magic. We move as one to our friends, slipping around the frozen people, knowing that this spell only works for a limited time, and that our time is quickly running out. Kneeling down, we untie our friends, and already the supernaturals in the world are starting to slowly move as time catches back up. We manage to get everyone untied and on their feet when the spell ends. Our friends leap into action, and we all run for the door.
Behind us, the fairy in Tamara's body shouts, "Plant! Now!"
And the plant that's been closing off the door shudders and explodes into a massive plant, sealing off the door. Vine-like arms wave from it, covered in thorns.
Brenda shouts a spell and fire crashes into the plant, black smoke billowing in the air. We stop right in front of our escape, coughing, but the second the air begins to clear, we see the plant. Unharmed.
I turn back to the fairy as the others murmur their own spells, and the fairy that looks like Tamara is smiling. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"
My stomach sinks. If we can't get out that door, there's no way we can take on these creatures alone.
And our backup? It's nowhere to be seen.
I think we might just be screwed.
FIVE
Luna
I square off with the fairy with Tamara's face. "You're not going to win this thing. You have to know that."
Behind her, the spirits in human bodies begin to chant, and the rune on the floor begins to glow. The fairy smiles at me. "Are you sure about that?"
Behind me, Hyun and Shanice are murmuring spells. I sense the fire that slams into the plant, and smoke fills the air, but they don't stop chanting, which tells me none of their spells are working. New spells blend with the fire spells as Bethany sends purple magic at the plant, but the magic explodes just at the edge of my vision. But still, they don't stop their spells.
I try not to look worried, but I am.
The fairy lifts a hand and points it at my friends.
A spell leaps to my lips and a shield shimmers in front of us. A green vine emerges from the fairy's palm. It weaves through the air like some creepy octopus tentacle. At my shield, it stops, touches the shield, and leaps back, and then the vine slowly turns black and silver spikes blossom all over it. My stomach sinks as the vine comes toward me once more. It shivers and struggles, pressing and pressing into the shield. A strange scent, like burned veggies, fills the air. I sense my shield weakening and begin to murmur the spell over and over again, but I can feel it. This vine... it's stronger than my magic.
I stop my chanting and look behind me. "How's it going?"
"Nothing's working," Olivia says, and she sounds scared and exhausted.
My heart races. This isn't good. Not one bit. No backup. Creatures more powerful than all of us. And no way to escape. Oh, and then there’s the rune on the floor, which is starting to turn a volcanic orange color.
What we’re doing… it’s not working. All of us have magic, but we're wasting it on the door. We have to change tactics if we have any hope at surviving.
