Sandy Williams - The Sharpest Blade

Nick curses under his breath then, “Kynlee! Kynlee, in the truck. Now!”

“What?” she yells. She’s not in the living room. Her voice comes from down the hall.

“Hison?” Lena asks, buckling her belt.

Aren shakes his head. “If Hison betrayed us, the elari would know we were here. They’re guessing, testing out anchor-stone locations and rumors. McKenzie, you have a car?”

Anchor-stones.

“Shit,” I say out loud. Lena meets my eyes. A second later, she gets it. I dumped her anchor-stones out so I could draw Nimael’s shadows on the pouch that held them. The elari must have found them.

“Keys are in my room,” I say, heading that way and running into Kynlee.

“What’s happening?” she asks, as I steady her.

“Go with your father,” Aren says. “The elari will follow us, not you, but you can’t come back—”

The backyard erupts with light. It’s like a flash bomb going off, there are so many elari . One, maybe two dozen.

“If we’re separated, we meet at Naito’s,” Aren says, drawing his weapon as the elari burst inside.

They break through the windows and kick open the door.

“Kynlee!” Nick shouts.

“Oh, crap,” his daughter says.

I grab her arm, pulling her out of the hall. The only reason we’re not already dead is the silver Nick’s hidden in the insulation. The elari can’t fissure behind us.

But they can rush in and divide us: me, Kynlee, and Aren on one side, Nick and Lena on the other.

“Taltrayn?” Aren demands, standing between us and the approaching fae.

“On his way,” I say. I’ve let him feel every ounce of my fear.

Aren nods. “Run. Get Kynlee out of here.”

The first fae attacks him, then the second. I don’t know how he’s able to block their blows, but he does, his blade ringing off theirs and countering.

I chuck a lamp—the nearest object I can find—at a third elari , keeping him away from Aren. I don’t want to leave Aren and Lena, but I can’t put Kynlee’s life at risk either.

The third fae sneers at me, bypasses Aren, and hefts his sword.

Shit!

I shove Kynlee behind me as I back toward the front door. The fae doesn’t charge forward—I think the silver and the tech is making him cautious—but even at his stalking pace, he’s quicker than me.

I turn to reach for the doorknob. When I do, I see Nick’s shotgun propped in the corner.

The elari attacks. I block his swing with the shotgun’s barrel, cock it, then pull the trigger.

And it slams hard into my shoulder, knocking me into the wall.

“That’s not how you hold it,” Kynlee says, grabbing the weapon from my hand. She turns, presses it against her shoulder, aims, and fires.

Then she fires again.

And again.

Other shots ring out from the living room—Nick has a gun—and a surge of emotion tells me Kyol just entered this world. Better odds, but not great.

“I’m out,” Kynlee says, lowering the shotgun.

I ignore the throb of pain in my shoulder, grab her arm. “Let’s go.”

We run out the front door. It’s the middle of the day, but the street is empty save for my car parked on the curb. I don’t have my keys. Nick’s garage door is still down. We’re going to have to—

An elari steps out of the house.

“Just run!” I yell. “Run!”

I shove Kynlee toward the side of the house, where we’ll be out of the fae’s line of sight, but we’re only clear for half a second. He reappears before we reach the gate to the neighbor’s backyard. When he opens a fissure again, I reach down, grab a shovel lying against the base of the house, and swing it as hard as I can as I turn.

The elari appears exactly where I thought he would, and the metal shovel slams into his head.

I swing again before he reorients himself. His head cracks. His face is bloody and cut.

A third swing, and he drops his sword. I grab it as he’s scrambling toward his fissure. He disappears before I can drive the blade through his heart.

Kynlee’s staring at me, wide-eyed.

“Come on.” I run to the neighbor’s fence and open the gate. The yard is an exact replica of Nick’s. I can hear the fight continuing on the other side of the fence, but I don’t hear a gun firing anymore. I hope that’s not a bad sign.

“Now what?” Kynlee asks quietly.

I came this way to get out of sight, but we’re far from safe. If someone sees us—

The gate creaks as it reopens. A shout of “They’re here!” rings through the air.

I’m already shoving Kynlee toward the back fence. “Over it!”

Whether it’s fear and adrenaline or just the fact that she’s fae, Kynlee sprints to the wooden fence, leaps high enough to grab the top, then vaults herself over it.

My trip over it is a hell of a lot less graceful. I toss my sword over first, barely manage to hoist myself on top of it, then I fall to the other side, the wood raking across my skin before I hit the cement sidewalk.

I force myself to my feet, grab the sword, and sprint across the street. Kynlee runs with me, entering the shopping center’s parking lot. It’s filled with cars and witnesses, though I don’t know if the fae will give a damn about the latter.

“They’re following us!” Kynlee yells, the first note of panic entering her voice.

“Get down. Crawl,” I say when we reach the first line of cars. I lead her on a zigzag through the parked vehicles. If the fae can’t see us, they can’t fissure on top of us.

I pause in between a sedan and an SUV. The taller profile of the latter casts a shadow over us but the cement is still scalding hot. It’s been baking in the hot Vegas sun all day.

Kynlee looks at me. She’s biting her lower lip and trying not to put her hands on the ground. Or her feet. I’m just now noticing she’s not wearing shoes. Damn.

The SUV beeps.

Double damn. We don’t have time to scurry to another hiding place, a woman with a shopping bag comes around the back of the vehicle, then freezes when she sees us.

I grimace when she drops the bag, then backs away, but what was I expecting? I have a sword in my hand, and I’m pretty sure my face is scratched up from my slide over the fence.

I curse again then pull Kynlee up.

“In the store! Hurry!” I yell, catching only the briefest glimpse of the elari as I turn and run.

We make it to the wide sidewalk, but the fae fissures in front of us, cutting off our path.

“Can you fissure inside?” I ask Kynlee, not taking my eyes off the elari .

“Maybe, but—”

“Do it.” I bring my sword up as he rushes me.

He snarls tchatalun as he swings. I block his attack, but my angle of defense is wrong. His blade slides off mine, slashing down my left knee, which I’ve left too far forward.

He swings again. I backpedal under the blow, step off the curb, and lose my balance.

I land hard on my back, my head slamming into the concrete. I blink black splotches from my vision, look up, and see the elari sneering down at me.

He smiles. I do, too. Then, sweetly, I say, “Go to hell,” because I see Aren step behind him.

The elari ’s sneer turns into a gasp of shock as Aren’s blade slides through him. A second later, his body poofs into a soul-shadow.

Aren reaches through the white mist and lifts me to my feet.

“You okay?” he asks between quick, shallow breaths.

“Me?” I touch his face. “God, Aren, you were already hurt.”

“I couldn’t . . .” He fades off, maybe because he doesn’t have enough air to speak, maybe because he doesn’t have the words. Instead, he pulls me into his embrace.