Courts and Cabals 2 G.S. D'Moore (the little red hen read aloud .txt) 📖

“Let us go, and there won’t be any bloodshed,” Dani snarled as she balled her fists. She might have been relatively helpless in the plant prison the Fae tried to trap us in, but out in the open, she was deadly.

“Surrender, and I won’t have my friend rip your arms from your socket and beat you to death with them,” the Fae countered, and that’s when the troll emerged from the convention center.

He had to bend down to fit through the door, and the sight of him sent humans screaming and running for the hills. His clothing was pockmarked with scorches, but whatever security had tried to take him down with, it hadn’t worked. He looked over the scene, ignored Dani like she wasn’t a threat, and focused on me.

“Great,” I grimaced as I set my feet and raised the blade.

“What the hell do you want?” I asked, although I was pretty sure of the answer.

“You,” the Fae replied, and they attacked.

A tree shot toward Dani with a surprising amount of speed, but the dwarf leapt back. She pulled a knife from her shoe and chucked it underhanded at the Fae. That caught her by surprise. She screamed as the short blade embedded itself in the Fae’s tit. A part of me thought the bitch was going to disintegrate just like Chloe had. Instead, she ripped the blade from her chest and tossed it to the ground.

I forgot there was no way you could press a cold iron blade, of any size, to a glamour without it unraveling. Dani and I might not be hurt by the Fae’s ancient weakness, but the power I wielded was susceptible to it.

As much as I wanted to help Dani put one of Captain Planet’s planeteers in her place, I had bigger problems. The troll charged me, and I didn’t have anywhere to run. Behind me was a wall of slot machines. In front of me was the troll. To the right was one of the ferns purposefully blocking my path, and to the left were innocent people running for their lives.

“Fuck me,” I groaned, and stepped up to meet the troll.

The thing was big, but not a total idiot. He wasn’t going to go up against my sword without a weapon. From one step to the next, the troll glamoured a big, hulking broadsword.

“Am I having Deja vu or what,” the sword looked almost identical to Ser Fredrick’s. I had a second to wonder if they all shopped at Trolls-R-Us before our blades met for the first time.

I thanked the gods I put as much power as I did into creating the sword. I held my ground against the shockwave that spread out from the blow. The slot machines behind me practically exploded, and fleeing people were tossed like ragdolls. I pushed up, throwing the troll’s blade away for me, and took a swipe at his legs. He jumped back, barely avoiding my blade as it sang through the air. He countered like he was swinging a baseball bat at me. I brought my own blade up to counter, but this time was different.

During the first attack, the troll had taken my measure. His second strike hit the center of my blade and split it in half. Thankfully, the extra force twirled me around, or he would have bisected me.

“More like beheaded me,” I thought as I spun into a fern, which then tried to kill me.

The glamour blade was already disintegrating in my hand, but I held it long enough to cut my way free. The plant was slower than before, which told me Dani was giving the other Fae a fight. As my glamour sword died, the power returned to my core in a rush. It made me a little light headed, and I wobbled on my feet.

The troll laughed. “I’m going to tear out your heart and shit on the graves of your loved ones,” he licked his lips, and showed teeth that were in need of a good brushing.

“Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin,” it was the wrong fairy tale, but fuck it. “Fight me like a man . . . troll,” I corrected, and held up my fists.

I didn’t expect it to work, but trolls weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. He dropped the sword, which dissolved into sparks, and came after me with curled fists the size of a spare tire. He might have disarmed himself, but the troll out-massed me, had a superior reach, and if the short swordfight said anything, he was definitely stronger. I’d only traded getting poked full of holes for getting beaten to a pulp.

Like Xamira taught me, I fought dirty. As he came in swinging, I ripped one of the slot machines out of the ground and hit him across the face with it. It flung him sideways, and partially through the wall, but didn’t slow him. He ripped drywall and wallpaper apart like it was nothing and came back at me. I moved around his first punch and hit him in the ribs. He grunted but followed up with a haymaker that nearly took my head off. I circled and put some distance between us.

The reach disadvantage was killing me. I had to be right up in his grill to hit him. That put me at risk of being grabbed, and my bones ground for the big fucker to make his bread with. I had to think of something quick. We danced, I thought, and it cost me. A jab caught me in the chin, and a cross smacked into the side of my face. I saw stars and went down.

I felt my glamour shatter under the force. The fire in my center winked out as I lost the connection with my Fae gifts.