Page 7 of The Unseelie War
“Where are these hunting fae now?” Serrik asked the child.
And instantly the child was ducking back behind his mother. Whatever courage he had gathered up to talk to Puck was instantly gone the moment Serrik addressed him. Honestly, Ava didn’t blame the kid. Serrik was terrifying and had just slaughtered three fae without breaking a sweat.
“They’re—” It was the mother who answered, though not much braver than the kid. “They’re farther downtown. Closer to the Public Garden.” The woman pointed.
Serrik turned on his heel and started walking without another word.
Puck started after him. “C’mon, Ava.”
Ava looked at the humans they had helped—if what they had done could be called helping. They were still traumatized, still changed, still lost in a world that no longer made sense. “We need to get these people somewhere safe. We can’t just leave them here.”
Puck stopped next to her and leaned in close to whisper. “There is nowhere safe. Not anymore. The city—the wholeworld—is alive with nightmares and magical horrors they’re not prepared for now.”
As if to emphasize the point, the ground beneath their feet began to pulse with that same bioluminescent pattern they had seen in the streets. The bus stop's flowering vines began to grow more rapidly, reaching toward the humans with what looked like deliberate intent.
“Let’s go.” Puck sighed. “We can’t save them all.”
With a sinking feeling in her chest, she followed after Serrik. Puck walked beside her. She hated it. Every ounce of it. But he was right. When she caught up to Serrik, she had to ask the question she didn’t want to know the answer to. “Are you going to kill every fae we come across?”
“I have not attempted to kill Puck.”
“Mostly because you know you can’t.” Puck smiled at him innocently.
Ava shut her eyes and sighed. “Serrik, please don’t be pedantic right now, I’m not in the mood. Are you going to try to kill every fae we come across who isn’t somehow being useful or capable of giving us some kind of a strategic advantage?”
“Yes.”
Yep, that’s what she was afraid of. Now it was time to ask the stupid question. “Is there any way I can talk you out of this?”
“Not at this junction.”
That was better than she was expecting. “Great.” She paused. “Can you try not to?”
“I currently have no reason to hold back.”
“How about…because I asked?”
“They are slaughtering humans for sport. Why would you wish to spare their lives?”
“Because they’re predators on a hunt and somebody just rang the dinner bell. They can’t really help it.” She sighed. “For the same reason I don’treallyblame Valroy for his whole ‘I want to delete the universe’ compulsion. The asshole is half void entity. He’s only doingwhat he was made to do. Here. I’ll make a deal with you. If we come across a pack of fae whoaren’twholesale being dicks to the humans, can we leave them alone?”
He hesitated. “I will consider it.” His tone was uncertain.
“Consider harder. We might need friends in this mess.” She tucked her hands into her pockets. “And allies in the fight with Valroy that we both know is coming.”
He nodded but stayed silent.
As they prepared to venture deeper into the nightmare city, Ava couldn't shake the feeling that Serrik's display of wrath was just the beginning.
The city pulsed around them, alive and aware, and she realized that their greatest enemy might not be the fae, or Valroy, or the chaos of the merger.
It might beSerrik.
CHAPTER THREE
Valroy laughed as he pulled his sword from the chest of the human in front of him. The man had been foolish enough to fire a gun at him.Him!
A gun!
