Darkness & Light (War of the Fae: Book 3) (35 page)

Naida was there too.
 
I felt a calming presence from her, and anger.
 
I knew the anger was not for me – it was reserved for the ones who held me here.
 
Man, how I wished I could see her float in here and sing them all to death.
 

I moved away from the link with my water friends and focused on working out a connection between Water and Earth.
 
I knew it was there somewhere.
 

I thought about the Green Forest and the trees ... the leaves and the vines ... everything that had touched
me and others
before, when I needed them.
 
I thought of the roots of the Ancients, digging down into the soil, reaching out for the water that nourished.
 
And it was there that I found my connection.
 
It had been waiting for me, all along.

I stood in the bathroom, connected through Water, and pulled The Green to me.
 
It rushed in, filling every part of my being with its cool, healing light.
 
I felt the spot above my eye tingle, and knew that the skin was pulling together, the scar tissue weaving itself over the once bleeding gash.
 
I felt my energy restored, and my sense of hope soared until it swelled my heart with happiness.
 
Now we had The Green, Tim and I.
 
Now we were going to get the hell out of this nightmare.

I sent a silent thank you out to Water, grateful for its assistance and link to The Green.
 
I pulled my hand out from under its flow, testing to see if the connection remained, relieved to find that it did.
 
Even the Dark Fae creatures helped my connection here.
 
Even their Dark Fae hearts couldn’t hide from the power they fed with their life forces.
 
I turned the faucet off and opened my eyes to look at Tim.

“Did that go as well as it looked like it did?” he asked, smiling hesitantly.

“Better.
 
I’m linked to The Green now.”

“I
knew
it.
 
I could feel the hum, even without my wings.
 
Pixies can do that you know ... sense The Green.”

I smiled, so full of joy right now I couldn’t give him a hard time about his pixie posturing.
 
“I know
,
you’re the
awesomest
.
 
You’re the man ... the
pixieman
.
 
Now let’s go kick some fae ass.”

Tim jumped into my waiting hand and ran up my arm to get into my hair.
 
“
Giddyup
, you elemental fae butt kicker!”

I reached up, gently flicking him in the ass for yanking on my hair and treating me like a horse, but I didn’t have time to properly scold him because someone began banging on the door.
 

“Time to come out!” shouted my wood sprite jail keeper.

Time to test my strength, you mean
.
 
I put up a field of Green power in front of the door.
 
“Come on in and get me, gnome head!”

I could hear some grumbling on the other side of the door and then the latch started to move.
 
It went still for a second and then started jiggling again, followed by more silence.
 

“How did you lock this door?
 
These doors aren’t lockable.
 
Open up right this instant!”

He sounded like my mother.
 
I tried not to laugh.
 
Escaping the clutches of the bad guys was supposed to be serious business, but I was so full of the power of The Green right now and the idea that I could be possibly escaping, that I couldn’t help but be happy.
 

“No!”
 
I felt like I was high on life or something.
 
I was gushing light and happiness.
 
It was so not like me, but it felt oh, so damn good in this miserable place.

I heard the sprite’s angry, striding footsteps receding down the hall.
 
The Green was amplifying all the sounds around me.
 
I could hear Tim breathing fast, showing me he was as excited as I was.
 
Soon I was able to hear several sets of feet coming down the hallway towards the door.

Leck’s
voice seeped in through the wood of the door, sending a creepy sensation up and down my spine.
 
It was a bit of a wet blanket on my joy; hearing it caused me to lose some of my optimism.
 
I knew he was on the other side, less than a couple feet away, trying to figure out how to get in and hurt me.
 
That kind of evil is hard to totally block out.

“Open the door, Jayne.
 
We aren’t done talking.”

Tim began to tremble again.
 
“He’s going to come in, Jayne,” he whined quietly.

“No, he’s not,” I whispered.
 
Then I shouted at the door, “Go torture your mother,
Leck
!”
 
I hoped insulting someone’s fae mother was as rude as insulting someone’s human mother.
 
Maybe if they got mad enough, something would break around here and I’d be able to find a way to get out.
 
Hopefully the thing that broke wouldn’t be me.

“I’m giving you five seconds.”

“Give me whatever you want.
 
I’m not coming out until the Light Fae arrive to kick your
asses
.”

I considered testing the power link for communication, but I was worried about my ability to do too many things with it at once.
 
Could I hold them off with my giant Green power bubble shun and talk to the green elves at the same time?
 
It was worth trying, but I was afraid to do it with
Leck
standing right outside.
 
I knew now that as a
wrathe
he could do things like walk the Gray and send excruciating pain into my body, but I had no other clues about his remaining powers.
 
Wrathes
were some scary shit.
 
I was glad my friend Tony was one.
 
Once he had it all figured out, no one would ever mess with us again.

I felt something pressing against The Green.
 
It didn’t feel right; it felt dark and dangerous.
 
It had to be
Leck
trying to do something, or maybe Samantha again – although
this time
it felt different, more ominous.
 
Maybe
Leck
was trying to get in here through the Gray.
 
I had no idea how The Green and The Gray were connected, or separated for that matter, and I really didn’t want to know, either.

“Whatever you’re trying to do, it’s not working.
 
Go torture someone else.
 
There must be a small child or an old lady around you could mind melt for fun.”

I could hear a couple of subdued voices on the other side of the door but it was difficult to figure out what they were saying exactly.
 
I could tell that they were pissed.
 
Good
.
 
At least I wasn’t totally inept at this fae power shit.

The pushing on my power bubble had stopped, so I quickly reached along the connection I was holding to see what else or
who
else I could find out there.
 
Finn was my most likely candidate since he was a green elf and I knew I could reach those guys through The Green.
 
But he was out on training maneuvers for I don’t know how much longer.
 
I wasn’t even sure where he was or how long I’d been in here.
 
But still ... it was worth trying to find him.
 
If I could talk to Finn, he could let Jared and the council
know
what was happening.
 
Unfortunately, I’d have to tell them about Chase, because if anyone was going to come here for rescue purposes, I wanted him taken too.
 
So far none of the fae here had mentioned Chase, which told me they either didn’t know he was here or they didn’t know about our connection.
 

I pictured Finn in my mind, hearing his redneck accent flavoring his speech.
 
I saw his red hair and freckles, the sinewy forearms that flexed as he drew back his arrow and sent it whistling through the air to hit its target.
 
I saw him smile at Becky, always amused at her happy comments.
 
I waited to see if I came across him in my connection, but before I could go far enough, I heard more sounds out in the hall.
 

“Jayne.”
 
It was Ben.

I said nothing but dropped my attempts to reach Finn.

“Jayne, I don’t know how you managed to lock this door, but you have to open it up.
 
I won’t be able to protect you if you resist right now.”

I had to say something to that – it was too ridiculous to leave unanswered.
 
“Protect me?
 
If setting that
pitbull
Leck
on me is your idea of protection, you can go suck a duck butt.
 
He nearly killed me.”

“You’re being dramatic.”

“Have him liquefy your brain for a few minutes and see if you still agree with that statement.”

“Jayne, listen to me.
 
Maléna
will come.”
 
His voice had an urgency to it that made me nervous.
 
Mostly because
he
sounded nervous and I don’t think that was an emotion he usually suffered from.

“Let her come,” I said cockily, even though I had plenty of misgivings.
 
She had pretty much completely shut Ben down and sent him out – either with a simple command or with some blast of that tornado wind she had sent in.
 
I wished I had spent more time with Céline learning about the silver elves.
 
First thing I was going to do when I got back was talk to Tony about the gray elves’ plans for fae training.
 
If it wasn’t too late, a primer course in fae basics was definitely in order.
 
Those fools didn’t realize how much the changelings’ ignorance was hurting all of the Light Fae as a whole and risking our safety.

I heard nothing for a minute or longer, so I assumed Ben had left and I was alone again with Tim, but then I heard a light tapping on the door.
 
A voice was talking to me from the other side but it was too faint to hear.
 
I moved closer.
 
“What did you say?”
 
I didn’t even know who it was.
 
I put my hand at the door and could feel warmth, and it wasn’t just the wood.
 
Ben.

“Jayne.
 
Please.
 
I’m begging you.
 
You’re going to break Tony’s heart by getting killed in here.”

“Ben, why don’t you just leave me alone?
 
I’m not coming out.”
 

I jumped back in fright at the loud bang that issued from the door, shaking it on its hinges.
 
I’d heard a sound like that before, when my mom and boyfriend would get into fights.
 
That would be right before we would have new holes in the walls, courtesy of Rick the Dick.

“Did you just punch the door?”

“Yes.”

“Wow.
 
Mature.”

“I’m frustrated, okay?
 
Tony is my friend ...
was
my friend.
 
I know how much he cares about you.
 
You’re going to die and he’s going to blame me.”

Ben was making my head spin again.
 
Could he be any more ridiculous?
 
He orders my torture and then begs me to save myself by submitting to more of it?
 
If this situation
wasn’t
so life and death, it would feel like typical guy shit.
 
Say one thing, do another.
 
Lead a girl on, making her believe he cares, and then dump her after she gives it up.
 
It’s not like I had a whole lot of experience in the area, but I’d had my heart cracked once or twice by careless boys.
 
I knew when I was being played.

“You don’t need to worry about Tony or me.
 
I’m not going to die and you walked away from Tony’s friendship when you brought me here.”

I heard the low roar that told me Ben’s burning fury was getting the better of him.
 
I pulled more of The Green into me, hoping I wasn’t going to have to battle through the elements with him.
 
I didn’t have the fighting experience and definitely not the confidence.
 
I was on the wrong turf too.
 
Maybe if I had my fae peeps behind me, I’d feel differently.
 
But here, all I wanted to do was hold the bad guys off until I could make my getaway.
 

I heard more noises in the hallway and some shouting.
 
Ben’s warmth disappeared from my radar and was replaced with a cold silence.