Page 30 of Fake Fae-Ancée

The spear hit. The impact threw Nox off kilter. His screech reached me with some delay, but by then I was fully occupied with bringing the quad back under control. I jerked the steering around and brought the vehicle to a halt in a cloud of skittering dirt.

Gasping, I looked up. Nox was trundling through the air like a broken glider and crashing down into the trees alongside the lake.

And I just saw Kai fall.

She plunged toward the lake, a pink asteroid on a collision course, her dress shining in the sun as she went down.

I was almost relieved to hear her yelling echoing across the flowering meadows, cursing my name to the seventh degree.

Good. Now I just had to get to her before Nox did.

I was just about to crank up the gas when the engine died.

"Come on, not now!" I cursed, kicking against the metal case in frustration. But of course, the damn thing had to choose just this fucking moment to die on me!

Cursing, I jumped off and ran towards the lake.

Kai

I would kill them both.First Kalinin. And then that giant ass bird. That was going through my head as I fell into nothing and towards the glittering lake.

I managed to turn, hitting the surface feet first. The crash was a hammer blow, slamming right through my body and knocking the air out of my lungs. For a second the world went black. But years of training kicked in just in time for my body to remember how to swim.

Gasping I broke through the surface, sucking in air. My dress was soaked, pulling me down, but I kicked myself forward. My brain was frozen in shock and burning with frantic thoughts all at once.

This wasn’t a Breacher. This was something else. But why attack me in bright daylight? Why attack me at all? I had enemies, lots of them, yes. But this?

Sputtering I reached the shore, struggled through the muddy line of water plants and gook. I was soaked. My hair clung to my face. My shoes were gone. My purse hung from my neck like an anchor on a chain. When I finally reached solid ground, my knees gave in. Coughing and on all fours I spat out a few gulps of foul pond water.

That’s when I heard steps.

My head jerked up as a shadow fell over me.

"You think you can escape Nox?"

The shadow’s voice was raspy, gravelly. A huge, lanky guy was towering over me. A really ugly guy, too, from all I could make out against the light.

"Adorable," he added. He was lean, but the kind you should never underestimate or mistake for weakness. His long limbs and frame moved with deceptive calmness. Dark clothes head to toe, pale skin, a pitch-black spill of hair.

And white and empty eyes.

I scrambled to my feet, cursing the purse that still hung around my neck like a deadweight — and jumped away just in time to dodge the blow he threw at me.

Gasping, I staggered backwards, almost keeling over from my soaking dress clinging to my legs and own momentum. I stared at the dark and twitching piece of metal just inches before my nose.

The guy sneered, one long, spider like arm outstretched from the strike he’d lunged at me. He turned the long, dark and doubtlessly razor-sharp sword in his hand.

"I'm going to cut you open," he said dreamily. His face was a hard unforgiving mask, white, blank eyes targeting me.

Gulp!

What had I gotten myself into here? I stared at the blade. Something was wrong with that blade. Something that made my skin crawl and my stomach churn. And deep within me, the place where my Anima used to be, convulsed with agonizing voidness. The metal seemed to screech in my head like fingernails on a chalkboard.

"Who are you?" I gasped, stumbling another step away from him. "What do you want?"

He took a step forward and I backed away, the edge to the lake in my heels.

"Who are you?" I repeated, louder this time, channeling back to Officer McKenn. "Identify yourself!"

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