Page 56 of Fae Trials

Lady Aster placed her hands on her hips. “You looked like a starved bird gobbling a worm.”

“So, you’ve trapped me here to stop me from out-sucking you?” I asked.

“Shut your filthy mouth!” Lady Gala snapped. “We’re here to make sure you don’t defile our princes with your human taint.”

I bared my teeth, straining my muscles to break through my invisible bonds. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “The two of you can’t confront me without resorting to dark magic?”

“Fine!” With a click of a finger, the air thinned around my body.

Overbalancing, I fell off the horse and hit the ground with my hands and knees. Branches and stones cut into my palms, my knees, my shins, radiating pain through my limbs.

“Shit!”

A boot struck me in the gut, making me arch my back. “That’s for cheating fate.” Lady Aster kicked me in the solar plexus with enough force to knock the wind out of my lungs. “And that’s for being such a human whore!”

Pain ricocheted through my insides. I reared up and grabbed at the faerie’s legs. “Bitch.”

Lady Aster jumped back, flapping her wings to propel herself through the air. The movement sent bits of leaf litter flying through the clearing. Her crimson hair spread out from her head like a nest of disturbed snakes, making her look like a fire sprite from deep within the mound.

“Coward.” I shuffled toward her on my knees, balling my fists and aching to pummel the prettiness out of her face. Before I could stagger to my feet, someone looped a metal chain around my neck and yanked hard.

“How do you like it?” Lady Gala placed a foot in the center of my back. “This is murder-grade iron, guaranteed to cause a faerie’s painful death.”

The chain’s two-inch-long links dug into my neck and cut off my air. I rasped, “S-stop!”

Lady Gala snarled with the effort of keeping the chain taut. “I won’t let you use that disgusting mouth to steal away our princes.”

“Kill her!” Lady Aster hovered above us, her teeth bared in a mask of hatred. “Don’t stop until she’s dead.”

As I gasped for air, thoughts whirled through my head—mostly premonitions of being strangled to death or having the iron burn my head straight off my neck. I thrashed from left to right, anything to loosen the chain or throw the crazed faerie on my back off-balance, but the grip around my neck must have been sealed by magic.

“Filthy halfling.” Lady Aster floated down and whacked me across one cheek.

Fury surged through my veins, and my arm shot out. I slammed my fist into her nose, reveling in the crunch of bone against my knuckles.

“Ah!” Her head snapped back. Blood spattered over my face, which popped and sizzled against my iron garrote.

Lady Gala gasped, and the iron around my neck loosened. Air whooshed out of my lungs, and I grabbed at the chain, pulled, and jerked her to the side. She stumbled into a tree trunk with a satisfying thud.

My windpipe loosened. I inhaled a huge breath and scrambled away from the fallen faerie. Chinks of light streamed in through the canopy onto the leaf litter. Maybe hurting the faeries had weakened their spell. I wasn’t going to remain on my hands and knees to find out.

As I staggered to my feet, the iron chain dropped to the forest floor.

“You beast.” Lady Aster flew overhead like a demented butterfly. She clutched her nose, crimson blood dripping between her fingers.

Blinking the dots out of my eyes, I swung my fists and yelled, “Come any closer, and I’ll pull off your fucking wings!”

She sped away.

I turned to Lady Gala, who crawled back toward where she’d left Helen dangling precariously off her horse. Thick, leather gauntlets covered her hands, which she had presumably needed to strangle me with iron.

Baring my teeth, I snarled, “You…”

With a gust of wind, her gauntlets blew away, and she raised her hands, sharpening her fingernails into claws of ice. “Vile creature.” Color leeched from her platinum hair, and her skin turned translucent. “I’m going to tear out your heart and present it to Prince Rory on a block of ice.”

“Fuck that.” I picked up the iron chain with my bare hands and fashioned it into a short loop. “What happens when this touches your face?”

Her features dropped. “You wouldn’t dare murder me in front of a witness. My father’s the Duke of Nevermore!”