The Fox’s Tale

Our apartment was in utter chaos. I swiveled my head, frantic, hoping to see Ellery there, but she was the only Sinclair unaccounted for.

Coach Hendrix was laid out on the sofa with Fitz and someone who looked like an older version of Coach Murphy tending to his injury.

Matt pushed past me to get to his side, grabbing the afghan off the ottoman to cover his nakedness. Chris, Carter, and Dylan were still in a daze as James and Emerson led them away to a different part of the apartment.

I spotted Ethan sitting next to Coach Murphy on Ellery’s favorite oversized chair. Sabrina was forcing him to drink something blue. Trey and Liz helped Andy, Sam and Ryan into chairs, while Mary and Aurelia brought sweatpants out for the six of us who were butt naked. Jones and Elliott descended on me like vultures as I shrugged my jacket off and pulled on the pants.

“What the hell happened, Xander?” demanded Elliott. Jones looked like he was on the verge of having a stroke.

“We were attacked by hunters,” I spat.

“Where?” demanded Elliott.

“I don’t know. She said something about ‘no man’s land.’”

“South.” Coach Murphy croaked from where he was sitting. Ethan rubbed his back while he drank more of the beverage Sabrina had plied him with.

After a swig he continued. “The Southern Apex.”

Elliott immediately began casting and swore.

I looked at him in agony. “Can you find her?” I begged, indifferent to how pathetic I sounded.

“No.” Elliott tried a different technique and swore again. “Shit! I can’t!” He turned to Coach Murphy and Ethan in shock and despair.

I let out a growl, and Jones screamed. “What the fuck do you mean you can’t? You find my daughter!”

Elliott recoiled from his brother’s rage. “I’m trying! She’s blocking me!”

“Try. Harder.” He spun around and advanced on me. “You. You were supposed to protect her!” He spotted Lee and included him in his wrath. “All of you! Why are you here safe while she’s out there being hunted?”

“Do you have any idea how desperate she was to get them to safety? She sent them through our realm, even the humans!” Lucas roared in our defense. The room went silent and he added, “your highness,” as an afterthought.

“Through the Unseelie realm? All of you?” Jones gaped at us. “How did you get out in one piece?”

“We ran.” Scott leaned against the wall. He was one of the only ones with enough energy to speak. Everyone else was too exhausted. Mary materialized out of nowhere with a tray of beverages similar to the one Coach Murphy was drinking. Sabrina began passing them out, forcing one into my hand.

“You….ran? From the Southern Apex to Ellery’s home portal? That’s almost twenty miles.”

“And we felt every last one of them,” he groaned as he slid down the wall and spread out on the ground.

“Princess Ellery charmed the humans before she sent them through the portal, but Scott’s right, they had to haul ass. There was no other choice, man. There were too many of them, and too many untrustworthy Fae.

"We had to do some hinky shit to get them all out, but we did it. We owe Lady Oleander and Darcie big time. Without their help they’d be someone’s pets or worse, something’s dinner.” Quinn sighed.

“I don’t know if we owe Lady Oleander anything after what we went through in her garden,” gasped Lee.

“No, man, we do. We really do. Trust me. She helped as much as the confines of her station would allow.”

Coach Murphy spoke again. “The attack was coordinated, and designed to isolate her and the team from stronger forces. She’s blocking our efforts to locate her. That means she’s alive and still fighting. All we can do is wait.”

I sank to my knees dragging Lucas down with me. Ten minutes passed, then twenty. Lucas tried once or twice to get me to drink something but I was too upset. As parents came bursting through the doors, anxious to be reunited with their sons, a portal opened over our heads.

The team’s bags and personal belongings plummeted to the ground, adding to the chaos. The scent of death, burning fuel, and blood filled the living room and almost everyone began dry heaving.

A second portal opened overhead and the basketballs we used for warm-ups rained down, followed by the body of a twenty something white guy dressed in hunting camouflage, stunning the crowd into silence.

He groaned when he hit the ground, but then went silent. The barrel of a shotgun was twisted around his wrists like a bow. It should have looked funny, like in a cartoon, but instead it was horrifying.

Everyone stared up at the portal waiting to see what would happen next. We didn’t have to wait long. Broken rifle pieces fell through next, followed by several pairs of night vision goggles that looked like they had been burned. Then belts of ammunition and a sack of silver shot smacked to the ground. The portal closed with a pop.

No one made a sound. Only the pounding of our hearts and our breathing proved we hadn’t been turned to stone. The air hummed and a small portal, no bigger than an average sized dog door, formed to the right of the fireplace. A quiver of silver tipped arrows came pelting out and skidded across the floor.

It was followed by a broken compound bow coated with blood. Then a silver bear trap, and iron manacles, both bloody. The portal expanded until it was large enough for a person to fit through and Ellery stepped into our home, the bag for the basketballs slung over her shoulder.

Her clothes were torn and filthy; her entire person was splattered and streaked with blood, mud, what I guessed was soot, and a number of other dark substances that I didn’t want to speculate about.

Her eyes were completely silver and her wings were out; entirely black save for one streak of white at the tip of the upper right one. The bottom left one looked like it was broken. Her fingers still looked more like claws, but she’d never been more beautiful to me. She was alive.

“Ellery.” Her name came out like a plea from a dozen sets of lips.

She smiled at no one in particular and blood leaked from the corners of her mouth. Then she set the bag down. It made an unpleasant clatter. She swayed where she stood and shoved her hair off her face, smearing more of the filth across everything she touched. She turned her attention to Ethan.

“There were seven of them.”

She made a twisting motion with her hand and wallets tumbled onto the ground. She pointed across the room to the unconscious hunter she’d trussed up. “That one is still alive, but just barely.”

She swiveled her focus to Elliott. “If you and Mary want to interrogate him you’d better do it fast. I doubt you’ll get anything useful out of him. He’s just a minion of minions. They all were, except one.” She took two unsteady steps forward and chuckled.

For a moment no one spoke or moved. Ethan finally gulped and said “I’ll send a clean-up crew to deal with the bodies.”

“There aren’t any,” came her soft reply.

“What?”

“There. Aren’t. Any.” She grinned at Ethan, her mouth all sharp teeth and blood, then spat on the ground. “Tell Emerson that the bus blew up. Boom.” She mimicked an explosion with her right hand.

“Ellery. What’s in the bag?” asked Jones, his voice bordering on panic.

She looked towards the sound of his voice and gave a jolt of surprise. “Oh hi, Jojo.” She looked down at the bag at her feet in confusion, like she’d forgotten all about it.

“Best not open that right now. Presents for Quinn and Henry.” She swayed a bit more. “Where’s Alexander? My back hurts.”

She reached her arm behind her back and yanked on something. “Ugh, this fucking thing, I forgot about you,” she slurred as she sank to her knees holding a bloody throwing star, and I bolted to her side, dropping my untouched beverage on the floor.

“Oh gods, Ellery, how bad are you hurt?” I ripped the back of her blouse open to see the wound. “Fitz! Get over here!”

“Is okay….really….I just need some fruit, or candy or something……”she slumped against me.

Fitz was beside us, swearing as he took stock of Ellery’s injuries. “We need witch hazel, yarrow, dandelion root, fresh fruit and clean towels,” he ordered. He looked up to see Lucas and Quinn standing with everything but the towels.

Two seconds later Scott appeared, his arms laden with all the towels from our linen closet. Jones picked Ellery up and she groaned as he raced with her into our bedroom, along with Fitz, Mary, and Aurelia.

Lucas, Quinn, and Scott chased after them with the supplies and then were shoved back out through the doors. I slipped in, anxious to be near her.

What I saw terrified me more than anything we’d encountered in the Unseelie realm. There were at least five holes in Ellery’s back, all bleeding profusely.

I stifled a sob and Ellery began to cry out my name. “Alexander! Alexander! Let me go, he’s upset!”

“Get him out of here!” yelled Jones and before I could protest Mary had grabbed me and I was in my living room.

“You need to calm down,” Mary told me.

“Calm down? That’s my mate in there! She’s fucking dying and you want me to calm down?” I roared and then shoved everything off the table nearest to me.

“You’re all so goddamned worried about what would happen to her if she lost me, but no one seems to give a fuck about what would happen to me if I lost her!”

I was openly weeping by this point and I sank to my knees in despair. I covered my face with my hands and sobbed.

“Alexander!” Ellery wailed and I bolted for the door only to be wrestled to the floor by Quinn.

“I’m sorry,” Lucas said before forcing something into my mouth. I swallowed it before I could even identify it.

“Lucas?” I asked. “What did you just give me?” The room spun and I saw Quinn’s face appear.

“What did you give him, Luc?” Quinn’s voice sounded distorted. I rolled my head over to look at Lucas again and saw him mouth the word Quaalude. Then everything went fuzzy and black.