Call to Arms (War of the Fae: Book 2) (22 page)

He looked at the others with
an ‘I
told you so’ look on his face.
 
“She’s obviously as stupid as she looks.”

That did it.
 
He’d pushed the last button with me.
 
“Listen here, you fucking traitor freak, no one stands there and calls me stupid and gets away with it.”

I approached him menacingly.
 

He stood firm, but I saw a slight quiver along the edge of his mouth.
 
He wasn’t as tough as he pretended to be.
 
Or maybe he had underestimated my inner bitch.
 
But that was his mistake, not mine.

I pulled Blackie from the sheath on my leg, holding it up in my fist across my chest.
 
I had practiced this move in my room earlier.
 
One slice down and to the left, and he’d have a very large boo boo somewhere on his torso.
 
I couldn’t be sure where exactly since I didn’t have an actual body to practice on before, but that didn’t matter. I could already see my threat was having the effect I wanted.

He stepped back, his chin quivering.
 
“Th – th – th – The Dark!
 
Th- the Blackthorn.
 
No!”
 

His body started to go wispy on me, growing increasingly faint and starting to spin like Céline’s had that one time she showed me how she could fly.

“Oh, no you don’t, you little gray elf bastard,” I said angrily, grabbing at his quickly disappearing form.

He started to materialize again, his image getting sharper.

“Let go of me, you Dark Fae beast!”

“Dark Fae?
 
Who are you calling Dark Fae?
 
I’m not the one plotting to overthrow the government here ... that’s you, asshole.”

The other two elves just stood there, enthralled by the show playing out in front of them.
 
But Ivar had apparently had enough.
 

“Let go of the elf, Jayne.”
 
He looked at my accuser.
 
“And you, elf, you are going nowhere.
 
Stay present.”

“Yeah,” I spat at him, “stay present,
traitor
.”

He came back to his solid form and gave me a dirty look.

The door opened and Dardennes entered, stopping short at seeing all of us there in his office.
 

“Ivar, what is going on here?”

“I am not sure, sir; the gray elves were summoned by one of their race.
 
I came with them and arrived in time to see the changeling Jayne and this gray elf in an altercation.
 
Several charges have been leveled since I arrived.”

Dardennes moved to stand behind his desk, facing all of us.

“I will begin with the gray elf.
 
Gregale, tell me the charges you have brought.”

I threw up my hands.
 
Of course the elf bastard got to go first.
 
Fucking Dardennes
.

The elf preened for a second before starting.
 
“I came in here and found her getting ready to release the pixie from the bell jar.”

“Jayne, what do you have to say about this?”

“Why don’t you ask him why he was in here in the first place?”
 
I gave the gray elf a dirty look.
 
His face blanched a little bit, telling me he was up to no good.

“I’d like to hear what you have to say first.”

“I’d prefer not to say it in the company of this elf here,” I said pointing to my accuser.

“If you have something to say about him, he should hear it.
 
Please proceed.”

I rolled my eyes.
 
These fae were so friggin’ irritating sometimes.
 
“Fine.
 
I was coming here so I could tell you two things.
 
First, that I heard
this
guy and one of his friends – I don’t know who, some girl – talking in the hallway the other night when they didn’t know I was listening, about eliminating
me
and any other fae who got in their way.
 
Because he’s a
traitor
.
 
And second, I came here to tell you that someone, gee I wonder who, tried to shoot me with a spelled arrow today, but they got Chase instead – and he’s still in the infirmary waiting for some witchy doctor to figure out how to reverse the spell.
 
But when I got here to tell you all this, you weren’t here.
 
And I saw this little tiny guy with wings under the glass
who
was trying to tell me something, so I was going to lift the jar just a little so I could hear him.
 
And seriously, he’s tiny, but he’s a person or a fae or whatever, and that’s got to be a violation of some kind of rights to keep someone in a jar on a desk like that.”

Ivar’s head was slowly moving from side to side, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

I saw him and lost what little cool I had left.
 
“
What,
Ivar
?!
 
What’s your friggin’ problem?”
 
I’d had enough of his judgmental bullshit.
 
As far as I was concerned, he was nothing more than a common henchman.
 
And I was pissed in general.
 
We had traitors walking the halls, someone trying awfully hard to do me in, and poor little butterfly people trapped in jars.
 
This place sucked.
 
I wanted to go home.

Dardennes tipped his head down and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, squinching his eyes up tightly.
 
He stayed that way for a long time.
 

I was already impatient enough as it was.
 
“Yo, Dardennes.
 
You in there?
 
Because I’ve got things to do.”

He let go of his face and stood up straight, looking at
me and the gray elf
.
 
“Let me see if I can get this figured out.
 
First, Gregale, tell me what you were doing coming to my office today.”

“I would prefer to speak to you of this in private, sir.”

“As I said before to the changeling, you will speak here.”

The elf bowed his head briefly.
 
“As you wish.
 
I also was coming here to speak with you.”

“About what, Gregale?”

“About ... the changelings.”

“And what about the changelings?”

“It’s just that ... sir ... there are several fae who do not agree that these changelings are in a position to represent the fae in our current state, what with the inevitable conflict on the horizon.
 
I ... I mean,
we
... feel that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
 
And each of these changelings is a weak link.”

“See!
 
I
told
you!
 
He said he needed to eliminate us!”

“She is twisting my words!” he yelled in a high-pitched voice.

“A-
ha!
 
You
admit
they’re your words!”
 
Oh, my father would have been so proud of me at that moment.
 
It was like I was in a courtroom, cross-examining a lying bastard of a witness.

“Please!
 
Jayne.
 
Let me hear him speak.
 
You will get your opportunity in a moment.”
 
He turned back to the elf.
 
“Gregale, please continue.”

“As she has shown you today very plainly, she is tempestuous, prone to attacking without provocation, as well as uninformed and uneducated about fae ways and the fae in general – a prime example being that she was going to release that pixie,” he shuddered at that idea and I noticed Ivar didn’t look all that thrilled about it either.
 
“And last, but not least, she is completely incapable of controlling her powers.
 
She’s dangerous, and we don’t have time to teach her what she needs to know.”

“So, what would you do with her and the other changelings?”

“Erase them and send them back to where they came from.”

“And what if the Dark Fae were to then claim them?
 
Are you comfortable with these changelings fighting against us for the Dark Fae?”

“Well, no, I didn’t say that.”

“Well, then, perhaps you can tell me the solution you seek.”

I joined in.
 
“He wants you to kill us, obviously.
 
That’s what he and his little elf friends were planning.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, changeling, no one is planning on killing anyone.”

He was poo-pooing me like
I
was the crazy one.

Dardennes shook his head, fatigue and maybe a touch of sadness in his eyes.
 
“Unfortunately, Gregale, we do not have the luxury of hand picking only the most highly trained and well-qualified fae to join our ranks.
 
We are taking
whoever
we can get and whoever will come to us willingly.
 
It is a tall order, to be certain, to ask you to train these changelings in time for battle.
 
But there is no way around it.
 
We must act together as a united group.
 
I am sure you are familiar with the fae saying ‘united we succeed, divided we fail?”

Gregale put his head down.
 
“Yes, Anton, I am very familiar with that saying.”

“Do you understand the precarious position you could put our family in by not accepting these changelings and doing everything in your power to help them?”

Gregale took a deep breath.
 
“I am starting to realize that, yes, Anton.”

“Good.
 
Then I know I can count on you to take young Jayne out with you tomorrow for training.
 
Since you are so concerned with her weaknesses, inabilities, and lack of insight, I think it only fitting that you correct our educational shortcomings with the help of your people.”

Gregale’s mouth dropped open, leaving him speechless.
 
I, however, did not have that problem.

“No friggin’ way am I going out with this traitor idiot to do
anything.
 
He’ll probably stab me in the back the first chance he gets!
 
You must be off your rocker to even suggest it!”

“I assure you, Jayne, I have all of my faculties.
 
You will go out with the gray elves tomorrow for training.
 
They are the masters of the Gray.
 
You could learn a lot from them.”

“Well that doesn’t make any sense.
 
I don’t have any affinity for smoke or whatever.
 
That’s a Dark Fae thing.”

“Hush your tongue, changeling!” shouted Gregale, obviously offended.

“Easy, now, Gregale.
 
Like you have already said, she just needs to be educated.
 
Her statements arise from ignorance, not hate or anger.”

“Speak for yourself, Dardennes.” I spat.
 
I’d had enough of these idiots.
 
“I’m outta here.”
 
I turned to leave and made it most of the way to the door.
 

Ivar stepped in front of me, intending to stop me.
 

“Don’t you even
think
about touching me,
Ivar.
 
I just need one more excuse to lay your ass out, and believe me, it won’t take much.”
 
I still had my stick in my hand, but I’m not sure he saw it.
 
Not my problem, though.

He reached up to grab my arm and I swung my stick out, touching him with the tip.
 
A green glow burst out as Blackie made contact with his skin.
 

He yelped and grabbed his arm back, cradling it against his chest, a look of shock and surprise on his face.

I didn’t even look at the others’ reactions; I just kept walking, yelling over my shoulder.
 
“I told you not to fucking touch me.”
 

I was shaking with adrenaline and anger.
 
I stalked down into the hallway and imagined the door to the infirmary.
 
I successfully arrived just a couple minutes later, entering on one end of a hall of beds.
 
I saw Chase near the opposite end and rushed down to be with him.
 
I didn’t know how much trouble I was going to be in for zapping Ivar, so I figured I should say a quick goodbye to Chase before I was caught and kicked out of the compound.
  
He did take an arrow in the back for me, after all.

I sat down on the edge of his bed.
 
“Hey Chase.”
 
I picked up his cool hand and held it in mine.
 
“God, you look like shit.
 
Sorry about the arrow thing.
 
I know it was meant for me.
 
I guess this means you’re a pretty kickass bodyguard, taking a bullet your first week of duty.
 
I wanted you to know that I just confronted that traitor elf in Dardennes’ office.
 
He probably wasn’t planning on killing us – at least I don’t think killing was his plan.
 
But he doesn’t like us, and apparently he’s not the only one.”