My magic quietly flared from my hand at my side, and I moved it behind my back, understanding somehow what I had to do.
“Why do you want Faerie closed?” I asked, giving myself more time.
“Deal with your problems you have with the supes and fight for your light fairy justice. Leave the rest alone. This is your only warning, or we will kill the last fairy and not care it will destroy all supes.”
I studied them, one in the back almost giddy. No, they wanted that. They weren’t sent to reason or negotiate with me. They were pushing me to fight so they could kill me.
Why? Why not just do it?
A treaty? A rule?
Great, something else I was clueless on.
I felt who I wanted respond to my call and stepped aside so they could see I had opened a temporary portal. “I’m not ever stopping until I save my people and fix Faerie. Apparently, you don’t know who you picked a fight with.”
The Alpha of the fae dog pack who wouldn’t swear allegiance to me came leaping out of the portal. He didn’t hesitate, flaming once he was a few feet away from me and going right for the main guy. The others in his pack were right behind him, all careful not to be too close to me with their flames before attacking.
And attack they did. The men instantly reacted to the fae dogs and tried to flee.
Except fae dogs are ridiculously fast, and they had no chance to get away. The dogs tore into the men, brutal and horrifically majestic in how they moved.
I gasped as the first man seemed to almost deflate and turned into… Something. Sand? No, more like ash.
Oh fuck. The dogs really can burn someone so fast they turn to ash instantly. Gross. Awesome, but gross.
I blinked and all four men were just gone. Holy. Fuck.
The Alpha came and sat in front of me, clearly wanting to talk to me. I turned on my telepathy, my knees going weak as he filled me in.
Demons. Those men had been demons possessing deceased humans.
Holy. Fuck. Me. Hard.
He gave me a quick history lesson that light fairies fight for justice while dark fairies hunt for evil, and that was both parts of the balance we brought to the world. It was also why they wouldn’t swear allegiance to me. They were meant to hunt with dark fairies as they used to.
The Alpha was going to fill in the other packs—especially the ones sworn to me as this wasn’t what they were used to—and let them know to be on guard. Also, that they’d be ready if I called on them again, and would always answer me as I must be protected from this new threat.
Another one. Great.
Though I really wasn’t shocked as the pile of them were getting pretty large.
I thanked them and promised them something extra soon, which they appreciated. They dipped their heads to me as they left through the portal, but then the Alpha hung back. He told me I needed to clear the area where they’d burned the demons with salt so that evil didn’t contaminate the land and energy of the property.
I promised I would, not even flinching at something so weird as it seemed to be my life now.
As if to prove my point, he also lectured me the next several minutes about how stupid I was to leave the party and the safety of my guards. I was being chastised by a fae dog who had just killed the demons who had come after me.
Why was I not old enough to drink yet?
I thanked him and assured him I agreed. It was a momentary lapse in judgement, not my normal, and I had already been chastising myself. He seemed to accept that and went through the portal with thoughts of wishing for my safety. That was nice at least.
I quickly put a barrier up around the area where they’d killed the demons and hurried back. Hopefully, the kitchen had some salt I could steal.
How much salt did one need to take care of demon remains?
“Where have you been?” Mel called out when I was about halfway back, a few of her family with her.
I held up my hand to stop the lecture that was coming. “I just got a lecture from a fae dog. I was wrong. Yell later, or my head might fucking pop.”
Her expression immediately changed to worry. “What happened?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but then closed it. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you.” I huffed, hating the secrets, but understanding them. Everyone couldn’t know about everything we were learning. That would be a disaster.
So might this. But the Rothchilds protected me… So didn’t they deserve to know?
I blew a raspberry and settled with my decision as I saw Mr. Rothchild and Colton come jogging over to join up with Mel’s group. “Clan-only answer. I’ll tell Geiger, but I think the loop on this needs to be extra small. I don’t know.” I waited until they all nodded. “So where do we stand on if demons are real? Because I just met some.”
It was hard not to laugh when all of their eyes bugged out, not only showing they were related, but they clearly didn’t know of them. Glad I wasn’t the only one behind for once.
“We don’t believe in angels or demons as humans do,” Mr. Rothchild answered, finding his voice first. “Yes, there are agents of Hades, but they are in Hades.”
I shook my head and filled them in on what just happened. They seemed hesitant and I sighed. “Their eyes glowed, and I’m not kidding you, the vibes I was getting from them made
