legs to kick out hard against the two trolls that followed him. They fell back, giving him enough time to raise two knives in front of him and swing one in a wide arc that left a spray of blood in its wake. The troll in front of him vanished back into the smoke and Tamani turned his attention to the others.
“They shouldn’t be able to fight!” Laurel said, panic gripping her chest. The globe contained a serum that attacked animal irises, temporarily blinding them — but had no effect on faeries. “They should be helpless! David, I have to do something.” She tried to rise from the pavement, but David’s arms held her like a vise.
“What? Get yourself killed?” David whispered. “Believe me, the best thing you can do for him right now is to stay put.”
He was right, but Laurel felt like a complete traitor as she hunched back down, safely hidden in David’s arms, watching Tamani fight for his life. For all their lives. She saw him whirl, turn, and feint; heard the whistle of the knives as they cut through the air, the groans of the trolls as Tamani’s blades bit into their flesh. He was fast, but Laurel knew he had to be — one or two hits from a troll and it would all be over. The fight couldn’t have taken more than thirty seconds, but it felt like hours before one of the trolls let out a high-pitched whine and collapsed to the ground. The other two ran away from the car, heading for the woods.
Laurel peeked around the tire, waiting for the next wave of trolls, but everything was silent.
She glanced over the door into the car where Chelsea sat with her shirt still pressed against Yuki, her eyes locked on Ryan, who lay motionless on the hood. Tamani was bent over, hands on his knees, bracing himself as he tried to catch his breath.
“Tam!” Laurel said desperately, her voice cracking as she stood.
Tamani’s eyes darted to her, but only for an instant. “David,” he called, pushing his arms under the fallen troll, “help me! Quickly!”
David ran to help lift the heavy troll and they pulled him off to the side of the road and stashed him behind a fence.
“I’ll deal with him later,” Tamani said, running back to the car. “Now this one.”
It was the first time Laurel had actually gotten a good look at what had jumped in front of the car. It was definitely a body. Its lifeless eyes, bulbous nose, and thin, patchy hair sent shivers down her spine. It wore only rags and looked more animal than human — like Bess, the troll Barnes had kept chained like a dog.
“A lower,” Tamani said. “A sacrifice. They knew it would die and tossed it out here anyway. Help me, David.” He grasped the dead troll under its arms and David grabbed its short, thick legs, turning his head to the side to avoid the sight, or perhaps the smell.
They jogged back to the car as Ryan let out a moan and tried to roll over. “He’s waking up,” Laurel said, clutching David’s arm. “We need to get him back in the car or he’ll figure it out.”
David grabbed Ryan around the chest and dragged him off the hood, dumping him rather awkwardly into the backseat of the convertible.
“What happened?” Ryan asked, his hand clutched to the back of his head.
Laurel could almost feel everyone holding their breath. “Car accident,” Laurel said hesitantly. “You hit your head.”
Ryan moaned and said, “I’m going to have a bruise tomorrow, huh?” He closed his eyes and mumbled something else, but he appeared to be losing consciousness again.
That sent everyone back into action. Tamani gave Chelsea and Yuki a once-over. “You okay?” he asked Yuki, his tone rushed.
“She’s fine,” Chelsea said. “She called Klea. But she seems pretty out of it.”
Tamani sighed. “David,” he said, turning.
David stood transfixed, eyeing Chelsea’s state of undress. He looked completely mortified.
“David!” Tamani said louder, touching his shoulder. David looked up with a start, his cheeks flushing red.
“You guys have to get out of here now, before anyone comes out to see what happened,” Tamani said, whispering so Yuki wouldn’t hear him.
“Where are you going?” Laurel asked.
“I have to track them.
“But the car—”
“Still works,” he said, pressing his keys into her hands. “Please go. Take them to your house. You’ll all be safe there.” He started to turn and Laurel grabbed his arm.
“Tam, I—”
Lightning burst in Laurel’s head. She slumped to her knees and threw her hands to her temples as knives of pain shredded her consciousness. She wanted to scream, tried to scream. Was she screaming? She couldn’t tell. All she could hear was blaring, meaningless noise.
And as soon as it had started, it was over.
She collapsed onto the street, overwhelmed by the shockingly abrupt absence of pain. Her limbs shook and it took her a few seconds to realize she was damp all over because her entire body had broken out in sweat — something she had never experienced before. Someone was calling her name. David? Tamani? She wasn’t sure. She tried to open her lips to answer, but they wouldn’t move. Blackness crept in at the edges of her vision and she welcomed it. She felt arms curl beneath her, lifting her, then her eyelids fluttered and the darkness embraced her.
TAMANI WATCHED IN HORROR AS LAUREL FELL. HE scanned her body for an injury, but saw nothing. “David,” he said, urgently running to the trunk and jamming his key in, “pick her up, put her in the backseat.”
“We shouldn’t move her,” David said, crouching beside her.
“What are you going to do?” Tamani said, his temper flaring. “Call an ambulance? The most important thing right now is that we get her away from here. Put her in the car.”
David lifted her tentatively and put her beside Ryan, who was still out. “What now?” he asked, looking at Tamani.
Tamani stared at his supply belt, sitting, waiting for him, in the trunk. He could hear Shar in his head, urging him to pick it up, to follow the trolls. It was what his training dictated. But even as he reached out his hand to take it, he knew he couldn’t. Laurel was unconscious in the back of his car. He could no more leave her in this condition than he could tear off his own arm. With a growl he slammed the trunk closed. “Get in,” Tamani snapped at David.
He slipped into the driver’s seat and held his breath as he clicked the ignition. The second the engine caught, Tamani pressed on the gas, wanting Laurel safe in her home as soon as possible.
“When we get there I want everyone in,” Tamani said sharply, only moments away from Laurel’s driveway. “We’ll figure things out from there. I’ll take Yuki,” he added in a softer voice, remembering that although her eyes were closed, she could still be listening.
He bumped up on the curb and killed the engine. Chelsea carefully shifted Yuki over to Tamani and ran to open the front door. Tamani slipped Yuki into his arms, curling her against his chest, watching David out of the corner of his eye with more than a little jealousy as he did the same with Laurel. Chelsea had managed to tie her shirt around Yuki’s head in such a way that it wouldn’t slip off and Yuki would be allowed to believe that her secret was still safe.
By the time they reached the door Chelsea was already leading Laurel’s dad, clad only in a pair of drawstring pants and a T-shirt, out toward the wrecked car, presumably to help with Ryan.
“What happened?” Laurel’s mother asked in a panicky tone from the doorway.
“We hit a deer,” Tamani said before anyone else could answer. He stared meaningfully at Laurel’s mom until her look of skepticism melted away, and she nodded at him in understanding. She gestured to an armchair where Tamani set Yuki while David laid Laurel on the couch. Laurel’s mom immediately crouched down next to her, stroking her hair.
Laurel’s dad and Chelsea showed up in the doorway, steadying Ryan between them. He was awake again, but still quite disoriented. “Do you have a car?” Tamani asked Chelsea.
She shook her head. “David picked me up earlier.”
“What about Ryan?”
She nodded, almost convulsively. “His truck is here.”
