Beyond the Iron Gate (The Faery Meadow Book 1)

In the blink of an eye, Lorcan knocked out three of the guards with dangerous punches to their heads. She thought he would use his “faery powers” or something, but it looked like he just used his brute strength to beat them up.

Elaine, on the other hand, just narrowly missed the slashes and swings of swords headed her way. She did, however, to her disbelief, manage to sweep her legs out and trip one particular guard. He awkwardly lost his balance and fell slowly to the ground in confusion. She looked passed him seeing Lorcan already finished off the rest of the guards.

Except for one guard in particular. Specifically the guy in charge. The guard was visibly shaken at the sight of Lorcan, the guard was quick to send her a glare.

He put his hands up in the air in surrender. He licked his lips anxiously and his sword quivered in his hand.

“You win, mercy. I am only doing my job,” he said with a slight shake in his squeaky voice.

Elaine watched Lorcan eye the guard suspiciously.

“Kick me your sword,” Lorcan retorted in disgust at the guard’s humiliation.

For a moment, she felt slightly sad for the guard, he really was doing his job. Lorcan did say he was a criminal after all.

The guard hastily kicked the sword toward them.

“Pick it up,” Lorcan told her.

She quickly picked up the bloody sword. He must have actually got a hit in, but she didn’t see any wounds on Lorcan from where she stood.

“Hurry back to your palace,” Lorcan mumbled turning away from the guard.

“Oh th-thank you. I will be sure to tell of your mercy to the...” the guard stuttered.

Lorcan didn’t respond. He walked by the terrified guard and out back into the bar. Elaine guessed they had to get away from the scene as soon as possible. For all she knew, there were more guards coming now and she thought it best they leave as quickly as possible.

She passed the guard and pushed open the door following after Lorcan. The moment her foot stepped into the bar she pulled her hood up covering her face. Suddenly, she heard a swish and a light breeze fly right by her ear.

“Lorcan!”

Elaine thought they shouldn’t have turned their backs on that guard. The knife narrowly missed Lorcan’s head as he tilted his head to the right an inch just missing the knife’s deathly path.

Amazingly, he caught the knife in his left hand.

“Is that how they’ve been training you? Times have changed. You surprised me there,” Lorcan said in a dangerously dark tone.

A creepy snicker echoes from behind Elaine.

Meaty, sweaty hands pulled her back toward the door. The guard was holding her against him as a shield! Lorcan waved the knife at the guard like a parent waving their finger at a bad child. Elaine thought Lorcan wouldn’t throw that knife at the guard, not while she was this close to his target.

Lorcan’s red eyes seemed to glow a deep red. The bar was empty around them to no surprise. Elaine was sure they heard the ruckus upstairs and fled quickly. The woman running the bar was nowhere to be found either. She gulped, a nervous shudder shook through her while she thought about how quickly the situation escalated. She was totally defenseless in her new captor’s arms.

“You think I’ll let you get away this easily? You knocked out my squad! Now, this isn’t getting even, this is just...revenge,” the man chided carelessly from behind her.

She could feel the blood drain from her face. Her breathing became shorter as he squeezed her neck tighter.

“Do it,” Lorcan said with a laugh and his wings suddenly appeared like a menacing shadow from behind him.

She didn’t have to turn her head to see the look of horror in her captor’s eyes. She could tell by how quickly he released her that he feared Lorcan’s power. A moment went by and she turned around finding the guard sprawled out on the floor.

“Well that was-”

Lorcan thrusted the knife he was holding down at the guard’s neck and Elaine went mute. The knife plunged into the passed out guard’s neck. Blood spurted all over the dead guard’s body. A pool of blood encircled him. Elaine gagged at the awful sight.

She shouted at Lorcan, “You didn’t have to kill him!”

On the other hand, she knew the guard was going to kill her. All the death and killing she encountered was finally catching up with her mind. She quickly shut her mouth when she saw the lingering crazed rage in Lorcan’s eyes. Blood covered his face and shirt. His hands shook and he lowered his gaze to the dead body as shock settled in.

“Lorcan? Can you hear me? It’s over. We have to leave quickly. Before more of those guys come,” Elaine said carefully.

Elaine thought the only way they would be able to leave was if he calmed down. His huge wings quivered behind him as his breathing got heavier. Reluctantly, she reached a hand just above his shoulder towards his right wing. She was mesmerized at how deadly, but fragile his wings looked. Black and crimson red. She carefully touched a small burnt looking area on his wing. As she remembered, it was still soft to the touch.

Elaine pulled her hand away and put her arms tightly against her sides as the distant look in his eyes left as he appeared to be watching her intently now. His face relaxed, but she kept her guard up.

“Zoned out, human,” Lorcan mumbled, but it was a lame excuse that Elaine didn’t buy.

Ignoring his comment she headed to the front door of the bar.

“We should probably leave,” he echoed behind her.

***

Lorcan hadn’t said anything to her since the whole bar incident. In fact, he seemed like he was busy in his own thoughts. The silence filling the air around Elaine was becoming uncomfortable. She thought they had been walking down the side of a road for at least thirty minutes. Her body was extremely exhausted and she was so sure Lorcan was probably tired too.

Finally, Lorcan suddenly stopped walking and he pulled down his hood revealing his fiery red hair.

“We’re here,” he announced sounding nonchalant.

Ahead of them was a small cottage surrounded by a tiny yard. Elaine thought it looked much like the other houses they passed. It had small square windows and a brown painted door. It looked to be a one-story house.

They stepped up to the porch and Lorcan knocked on the door.

A small man with a hunched back and thick glasses opened the door. He gave a grunt and hastily motioned for her and Lorcan to step inside.

“Come in,” the old man muttered impatiently while looking behind them down the road.

They stepped inside. The floor was wooden and cold. A living room was to the right and a tiny kitchen was to the left.

“Thanks, Specs.”

The old man was watching the front porch window. “Hush young ones.”

They stood perfectly still, Elaine held her breath. The sound of echoing clattering footsteps resounded from the road outside Specs’ house. No doubt it was more guards. Angry shouts filled the once silent street.

A high pitched male voice shouted, “I swear they went this way boss. I saw ’em with my own eyes!”

She squeezed her eyes shut hoping they would pass the house already. Finally, the sound of the crowd of men stopped and once again the street outside was quiet.

“Why didn’t you tell me we were being followed?” she asked Lorcan.

“Human, trust me, it was better that you didn’t know.”

Somewhere inside her, she felt a tug of sadness. Elaine thought they came this far together now and he still didn’t trust her enough to share any more information with her. She quickly caught herself though and concluded she didn’t need to earn his trust anyway. She certainly would never trust him.

She tapped her foot impatiently.

“I can only house you for one night. You already know your time here is well overdue. I hope you enjoyed your stay in Aeringdal."

“We will be entering the woods again tomorrow. Specs can give you a change of clothes,” Lorcan told Elaine.

He knelt down and bent over the rug in the middle of the living room. Then he slid the rug out revealing a hidden trap door in the floor. He unlatched it and opened it up. Without another word, he jumped down closing the door above him.

“Well come with me,” Specs told Elaine.

She followed the old man into a narrow hallway. She glanced at the pictures of who possibly could have been Specs’s wife. The faery woman in the portraits dark brown hair was like a halo encircling her head gracefully. She sat on a fallen log clad in a dress of light purple.

“In here,” Specs beckoned Elaine and she followed him into the tiny room. After a moment, she realized it wasn’t a room, but a walk-in closet.

“You won’t be able to carry much along with you. So choose wisely,” Specs added quickly while shutting the door.

“Wait!”

The door opened up and the old man stuck his head in curiously.

“What is it?”

“Thank you,” she told him nervously.

He gave her a quick nod then shut the door. She heard the retreating sound of his footsteps. There was not a doubt in her mind that the clothes were his wife’s. She felt like she was intruding already just looking at the clothes. She only grabbed the most basic clothes she could see. Then Elaine stepped out of the closet and headed back to the living room.

She debated in her mind whether or not to wait for the old man or Lorcan to return to the living room. Hearing no other noise in the house, she followed where Lorcan went and opened up the door in the floor. After jumping down, Elaine closed the door above herself.

***

The height of the “room” below the house was just barely taller than her. She quickly concluded it wasn’t even a room, but simply the space underneath the house. The floor was dirt and a musty smell lingered in the air. She could just make out the dark green grass of the front yard about twenty feet ahead of her.

“Lorcan?” Elaine spoke quietly.

Suddenly, she saw a hunched shadow crawl across the floor and let out a shriek remembering the creepy shadow from her nightmare.

When it went out of sight she stared in the direction it went off to. Getting the feeling of being watched, she slowly turned her head around. Red glowing eyes greeted her.

Elaine yelled giving Lorcan a light punch on the shoulder, “You scared me!”

He widened his smile and snickered.

“Are we supposed to sleep down here? Outside on the damp ground with who knows what under here with us?”

“Relax, human. The old fart up there cast a little, shall we call it, spell? Yes, nothing will be able to get passed his spell. We will be fine,” he replied.

Then he sat down on the dirt floor. It was obvious he would hit his head and it would probably come through the floor if he stood up Elaine thought.

She laughed, Lorcan raised an eyebrow and her smile faded when she remembered her situation.

“If he made the spell we should be able to sleep inside.”

“That is true, but we can’t take the chance that if the guards somehow get through Specs’s barrier, well, we would want to be hidden wouldn’t we, human?” he answered impatiently not liking the look of distrust she gave him.

Elaine hugged herself feeling the cold in the air return now that they were outside. She pulled her hood up and rested against a wooden beam. Lorcan remained still watching her. Soon enough, she could only see his eyes in the shadow of the night as the light from the house seeping through the cracks in the wood faded above them.

Specs must have went to bed.

“Get some sleep human.”

“You’re the one who needs the sleep,” Elaine retorted.

She never wanted to fall asleep again. The last time she did, she woke up in another realm.

***

Elaine groaned feeling a nasty bump on her head as she sat up a little. She touched it with her hand and her head pulsed painfully. She felt like she was spinning so she laid back down on the grass uncomfortably. The smell of blood filled her nose. Her brain finally woke up and she looked at her hand seeing it smeared in the red liquid.

She carefully touched her head wound again then yelped at the jolt of pain.

She frantically looked at her surroundings. She alone on the forest floor. It seemed to be morning because there was still dew on the ground around her. One thing was for sure, she didn’t remember Lorcan and her leaving Specs’s house. She wondered how she got here, wherever here was that is.

As if answering her questions, a familiar laugh rang through the air behind the trees ahead of her.

“We meet again. I’m afraid this will be our last meeting though. You know a little too much about yesterday. Its time I tie up some...as you humans say...loose ends?” Gorder said while rubbing a bloody knife in the grass.

Her head pounded as drowsiness and nausea set in.

“Gorder,” Elaine mumbled deliriously and he simultaneously ran at her with the long knife giving her arm a violent slash.

She screamed in pain, her body convulsed. She was totally defenseless, the excruciating pain made her body refuse to function as she slumped helplessly to the ground. The new wound on her arm opened up. The knife easily cut through her cloak and now blood stained it. Elaine thought she would surely bleed slowly to death if she didn’t get the blood to stop pouring out her arm. The wound was deep and burned.

Tears fell down her face and she whimpered.

“Oh, I’ll make sure your death is as painful as I please. Besides, no one will ever hear your screams out here -- only me,” Gorder cackled from above her as he twisted the knife in his hands.

She could only hope he would aim for a fatal hit seeing as she had no strength to fight if he tried anything else.