She hadn’t. Steeling myself for what I might find, I hurried down the aisle and topped her. “Aimee. Is that you?” I curled my hand around her too-thin arm. Gauze wound around an iv port. By the Morrigan, were they not even feeding them? A brush of raven’s wings caressed my mind. No, not yet. I refused to call for her, not until I’d gotten my information, because once the Morrigan finished, there’d be nothing left.
Aimee blinked. She looked at me, tilted her head like a dog, then glanced down where my hand touched her. She didn’t move. She remained mute.
As I’d feared. The Unseelie had taken her and stripped her of herself. They used her and without their orders, she’d wither and die, unable to even feed herself. I blinked away sudden tears as I touched her temple. “Sleep.” I pressed the order into her mind. She dropped to the ground.
I quickly put the others to sleep. If there were a way, I’d come back. There was a cloister of priestesses devoted to Asclepius who took care of such cases. I’d reach out to them if possible.
I turned to the horses. “Oh my children.” I bit back sobs because there wasn’t time like that. Anyone—fae or human— who treated horses like this deserved to be punished, as in have this kind of fear and terror inflected upon them just as they did the horses. Rehab would take time. And I didn’t know if we could even get any rescue groups in here. I knew someone who could help, and like the Sisters of Asclepius, had a way to communicate with them. I touched each horse on the forehead. “Sleep.” I sent them down recumbent, tucking their front legs beneath them, their hind legs to one side. They’d have the best chance of standing up, though I’d blow the walls out of the stalls before we left.
I turned to find Kel standing mute in the aisle. “What the—?”
“I know,” I said. “If I can summon help, I will.” I breathed deeply. But first we got to stop this. A commotion sounded on the other side of the door. “And we’ve been discovered. Take pictures and follow close.”
I trusted Kel to be smart about this, and heard the click-click of her cell phone as she snapped photographs of the urine collection bags to keep stalls cleaner, the straps and hobbles matted with sweat and hair. I heard her hiccupping sob, and I didn’t blame her, not one bit. I knew the horrors the Unseelie could inflict upon others; I never imagined it’d get like this.
I reached the door. Like the other one, the lock remained on the outside. Did the people working here not have any curiosity? Did they not know? I shoved my anger down. It wouldn’t serve me here. I reached for the lock.
The door swung open. A blast of magic hit me in the chest. I stumbled backwards into Kel and we both fell. Her phone slid from her hands.
Instinctively I reached up, only to find my hands grabbed by a burly man. “No!” He ordered and some kind of energy field hit me hard enough to slam my head back into the cement floor. Stars swum in my vision.
I gasped, shocked at being treated this way. How dare they treat a goddess like this! I didn’t care that they were humans or fae, Unseelie court or not. “Excuse me.” I shattered their magical grasp with a thought and bolted to my feet. “No.” A wave of power pushed the humans back. I channeled that rage, for now it’d serve me well, as I strode into the main part of the barn. This one appeared like any other barn, with normal stalls and sleepy horses inside them, upset at being awakened from a good night’s sleep. The names on the papers clipped to the doors caught my attention. The horse to my right belonged to Dean’s barn, and this horse was due to race next weekend. Nothing like coming to the source when it came to illegal drugs.
“Stay with me.” My growled order to Kel forced her to her feet, phone in hand. “Get pictures of those stalls.”
“No you don’t.” The guards pushed forward.
“Oh yes.” I held out my hands, letting the ruffle of raven’s feathers alert me to Morrigan’s presence. Not that I needed her. With the horses behind me finally relaxed in their magically induced repose, I used their memories of the fear and anger to fuel my power. I shoved my energy like a whirlwind down the stalls, sending the workers tumbling backwards and falling all over one another. “You will not do this again.” A thunderclap echoed through the barn hard enough to wobble it on its foundation. I had been heard.
Chapter 10
“Can you stream this or whatever? Get it on Twitter somehow?” I turned to Kel.
She nodded. “I can.”
“Good. I want those names right in focus. And the horses.”
“Shouldn’t I call 911?” Kel paused, and I knew where she was going with this. For all we knew the Unseelie court could wipe her recordings off the web and it’d be our word against theirs. Breaking into the facility probably ought to put me on some lists anyway.
“We don’t have time.”
I focused on the door marked office. “I’ve got to—”
The sound of a gun echoed in the barn. Several horses shied, their fear adding to the commotion.
Kel cried out.
I turned as she staggered against the front of a stall, blood running down her shirt. Not fatal, but it’ll hurt like hell and make riding difficult for her. I lacked the ability to kill instantly as some of my more powerful sisters did. I swept my hand, forcing the gun to the ground. “Let’s go.”
