Beyond the Iron Gate (The Faery Meadow Book 1)

Never in her life had she been in such a crowded and lively room. An old chubby middle-aged woman with straw-like red hair was behind the bar. She scurried around handing out drinks and cleaning tables.

The rest of the room was filled with fae. All of them looked like strong men with huge muscles and some even had beards. They laughed obnoxiously loud and gulped down their beer as if it was the last drink they would ever have.

They were oblivious as she walked around them in search of a man in a dark cloak, Lorcan.

To her disappointment, she reached the other end of the bar without spotting Lorcan anywhere. So she decided to ask the bartender if she had seen him.

“Excuse me miss?” Elaine asked loudly over the roar of laughter.

The woman turned around to her with a nervous smile. “How can I help you...?” she asked trying to look under her hood at her hidden face.

“I’m looking for a guy that came in here with red eyes,” Elaine told her.

The woman’s eyes bulge out of her head. She looked over her shoulder quickly then pushed Elaine toward a door at the back of the brewery.

“Go up the stairs, quickly now,” the woman told Elaine.

When she unlatched the door it creaked open and the others in the bar didn’t even notice them.

“Thank-” Elaine began to say, but the woman slammed the door shut and Elaine heard the latch click.

She was locked in from the outside. She quickly skipped up the stairs not caring if she made noise. Elaine thought she had waited for Lorcan long enough.

“And...-and,” she heard a drunk deep voice stutter with laughter.

She guessed she wasn’t far from the truth. She entered the room to see Lorcan sitting in a chair across from someone. ed across from him was a big olive-skinned man with black hair and hazel eyes. He was definitely older than Lorcan and her.

“That’s when I swung my sword down-” the dark-haired man said, but he stops in the middle of his sentence to glance at Elaine in confusion. Lorcan gave her a cold look while the other man looked her up and down.

“Who knew-” he began with a hearty laugh.

Lorcan didn’t let him finish, he jumped up from his chair and grabbed the older man by the throat.

“Gorder, I don’t know what trash is still floating in your head, but even you would have to be brain dead to think I’d ever so much as talk to a human,” Lorcan spat.

“Ah, I see. Y-you can let go of my throat...can’t...breathe,” Gorder wheezed. Slowly, Lorcan unclenched his hand and stepped away from Gorder. Gorder coughed a few times then glared hatefully at Lorcan.

“Well, a deal is a deal. Here’s your cash, but don’t come back here. You’re not welcome here anymore. In fact, I think someone’s at the door,” Gorder said with a dark glint in his eyes.

He staggered back and let out a throaty shout. Lorcan quickly snatched the money from Gorder then he carefully stepped back in front of Elaine.

“He’s in here! Hurry up already!” Gorder rasped out the window of the bar as if speaking to people outside somewhere below on the streets.

Lorcan silently grabbed Elaine’s hand and began dragging her toward the staircase.

A loud knock at the door downstairs cut through the air like a knife. They stopped in their tracks.

“You’ll regret this,” Lorcan hissed up the stairs toward Gorder.

Abruptly, Elaine heard the splintering of wood then a loud shout and stomping feet. The sound of heavy footsteps running up the stairs followed.

They were trapped.

Above the stairs, Gorder stood up clenching a rusty knife in his hand. A crowd of men with metal helmets and armor blocked them from escape. Elaine guessed the faery soldiers must be from the Aeringdal palace or kingdom, whatever Lorcan called it.

The man in the front of the crowd of them smiled triumphantly when he saw they had them caught. His helmet was different from the others. It looked like he was the one in charge of the guards or whoever they were. Elaine really didn’t know.

“Very good, Gorder,” the man with the fancy helmet shouted.

He simultaneously threw a bag undoubtedly full of money in Gorder’s direction.

Gorder hollered from above, “Now there’s no getting away!”

She looked up nervously at Lorcan. Elaine hoped he knew a way out because she certainly didn’t.

Instead of obeying the kingdom that ruled this place, she was beginning to think they were going to fight them. Elaine wished she had wings, but these kingdom soldiers did too and probably could easily catch up with her if she were to try to fly away.

She tightened her fists glaring at the soldiers in her way.

“This should be easier. Who knew it would be this easy to kill you,” the man with the fancy helmet taunted her and Lorcan.

The guards behind him laughed in agreement shaking their swords in the air. Then her captor abandoned her side and rushed forward at the soldiers.