Faerie (26 page)

Lily giggled behind her hand.

“We’re fairies,” she said, grinning at him and waiting for their reaction.

The two men laughed, uneasy, but definitely almost believing.

“Fairies?”

Lily and Connor nodded together, both grinning inanely now.

“Why the hell not?” Chris said, laughing properly and regretting it. “Why the hell not?”

“Well, if anyone ever asks me in future if I believe in fairies, then maybe I’ll have to say yes.” Billy said, laughing as well at the absurdity of it.

The two men gave Lily and Connor a cautious hug, tears streaming down their cheeks.

“No more time to waste, we need to get you help,” Connor said. “You’ll remember coming out of the club, and even remember Virginia asking if you wanted to go back with her, but you’ll forget everything from the moment you blacked out outside the pub until the moment you wake up. I’ll even throw in the idea that you felt someone hitting you over the head, just before it went dark. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good,” Billy said. “I can live with that.”

“The police might wonder at the state you’re in, but hopefully they’ll just put it down to you being kidnapped by a gang of perverts of something, drugged and then released again. They certainly won’t be able to prove otherwise.”

“So, I guess this is goodbye. Where are you going now? Back home?”

Lily and Connor both sighed together.

“We have no home now,” Lily said. “All we have is each other.” She slipped her hand into Connor’s and smiled across at him.

“Well, whatever happens, I hope you get what you want and we both wish you all the best. Thanks again.”

They shook hands and as Lily’s hand fell away from theirs, Conner put a hand on each of their heads and sent his magic out to them. They lurched backwards as if they’d been shot, hitting the ground with some force, and lay very still. Connor turned to Lily.

“They’ll only be out for seconds, we need to get out of here before they wake up.”

Connor put a glamour around her and himself so that they were hidden from sight and they turned to walk away.

The men were already beginning to come round, moaning their return to reality.

“What the hell do we do now?” Lily asked. “Virginia was our only chance of getting home, we’re wanted by the police – who will almost certainly think that I’m responsible for kidnapping Chris and Billy when they find my mobile phone. The kids are still missing and we don’t have a clue where we go from here.”

Connor blew out his breath in a sigh.

“All we can do is start walking and pray to the Powers That Be that they show us the way home. The prophecy says that we will defeat the Black King. We have to believe it’s true.”

Connor took Lily’s hand in his and turned to the West. And for some reason, Lily just knew that was the right way to go.

As she looked to the West, towards the darkening skies, Lily felt a shiver tingle down her spine. Above them black clouds were forming, heavy blankets that soon filled the sky, hanging low, and foreboding. They cast a heavy pall over everything, stealing the sunlight and cloaking the whole countryside in deepest gloom.

“This is not good,” Connor said.

“No shit, Sherlock,” Lily said.

From out of the darkness shapes were forming, black clouds, that looked like a dust storm on the horizon. They moved low across the landscape, hugging the low hills and treetops, moving with impossible speed. Connor pushed Lily behind him, and the shapes rushed towards them.

They stopped some way in front of them, ranked like an opposing army, thousands of them, djinn in every kind of form: human, animal, wraith ‒ creatures of every kind, a vast army, that filled the horizon, misting into the distance for miles in every direction. Above them the sky hung dark and brooding, and the air was filled with their whispers.

And then came the terrible realisation. She knew who they were whispering to… their seditious mutterings were going out to every country, every continent, urging humankind to violence, to mayhem and deception. They uttered their poison into every ear, playing on the worst of mankind’s fears, encouraging their greed, their selfishness, turning brother against brother, father against son ‒ creating panic and chaos. And there was nothing that Lily or Connor could do to stop them.

Lily moved around to stand beside Connor.

“If we are going to die, then I do it by your side,” she said.

“I love you,” Connor whispered.

“I love you too,” she replied, and she knew in that moment they were going to die.

From the midst of the creatures a shape emerged, a dark form that moved towards them with slow surety of purpose.

The Black King.

He looked human, a tall man, well built and athletic, dressed in black armour. He was a surprisingly majestic figure, handsome even, and he walked towards them as if he owned the world, stopping just in front of them. The arrogant smile he wore told Lily everything she needed to know. He stared hard at them, that smile still plastered on his thin lips and uttered just one word:

“Checkmate.”

Lily felt the world disappear around her and she dropped to the ground, lost in the darkness.

Connor and Lily’s quest continues in book two of the Faerie series: publication date,  December, 2015.

About the Author

Jenna Grey began her writing career at the tender age of three, when she wrote her first words in red crayon on her grandmother’s kitchen wall. Thankfully, she’s improved her writing style considerably since then and now spends every spare minute writing, often into the early hours of the morning. Her main interest is in writing dark fantasy ‒ the darker the better, and she is always exploring new ways to push her work just that little bit further over the edge. She usually spends as much time reading as she does writing, getting her inspiration from some of her favourite authors: Ann Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Tolkein, Stephen King and C. S. Lewis, and gets a real buzz when she find a new author to add to the list.

Jenna lives with her long suffering husband and two cats in the heart of Sussex, surrounded by beautiful countryside and abundant wildlife, much of which she finds deposited on her kitchen doorstep, courtesy of her two over-enthusiastic cats.

Her main ambition in life is to receive a ‘Happy 100th Birthday’ card from His Majesty, the King.