The Fox’s Tale

I woke up from my drug induced nap to discover the bulk of my teammates still in my living room eating pizza. My mouth felt like moisture had never once been inside it. I sat up with a groan and Liz appeared with a tall glass of something cold that I drank without hesitation.

“Ellery is healing and you should be able to go in and see her soon. Your parents are asleep in our apartment suite and will speak to you after you’ve rested. In the meantime, you should grab yourself a bite to eat, and sit with your friends. They’re very loyal and they’ve also been through quite an ordeal this evening.”

I finished my drink and said “I’m not apologizing for my reaction to Ellery’s injuries.”

“No one is asking you to.” Matt appeared beside Liz. “Disturbing shit has come to light. Come and get something to eat man, before you pass out again.”

“What time is it?” I asked as I dragged my ass off the floor.

“Two thirty? Maybe three a.m.?”

“How’s your dad?”

“He healed up just fine. He’s probably going to limp for a few days, but Ellery saved his life with the tie, not to mention teleporting him out of there.”

“Coach Murphy?” I asked, looking from Matt to Liz.

“Billy’s just fine. The hunters thought he was Fae, but he’s only a fourth, so the lead shot didn’t do as much damage as they intended. He’s at home with Ethan.”

She looked over at the guys, who’d stopped talking during this exchange. “I’ll leave you all alone so you can discuss things.” She walked away, disappearing into the kitchen.

“How are Dylan, Carter, and Chris?” I asked as I opened the first pizza box I came to. It was empty and I scowled.

“They got their memories erased. As far as they know we had a bus accident that killed the driver, injured the coaches and Ellery, and then we had to hike a long distance to get help.”

Lee pointed at a stack of pizza boxes on the coffee table. “Those haven’t even been touched yet.”

I grabbed the top one and sat down with it in my lap. I didn’t speak again until I had eaten three slices. “Is there anything to drink?”

“Yeah, there’s tons of that stuff Mrs. Sinclair gave you when you woke up. They’ve been plying us with it every fifteen minutes or so.” Andy got up and filled my glass again. “I don’t know what it is, but it tastes like heaven.”

“Where are Lucas and Quinn?” I asked after I had gulped half of the drink. Andy was right, it tasted divine.

“Not here. Lucas is consulting with Henry about part of what Ellery brought back with her in another part of the mansion, and Quinn took the rest of it away with him to I don’t want to know where.”

“They had spells to protect them against the Unseelie carved in their ribs.” Scott looked away. “I heard Lucas discussing it with Henry as they walked away. Ancient protection spells from before something they called the rift.”

“So Ellery must have….” I trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. I knew how the ribs had been obtained. The only question was if they’d been alive when she snatched them out of their bodies.

“Man, I am never doing anything to piss her off. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Whatever she wants me to do then that’s what I will do. And if I do make her mad I will grovel and beg for forgiveness.” Nick tended to run his mouth when he was worried, and he was definitely worried. We all were.

I looked up, annoyed. “Ellery is not inherently dangerous. She’s protective of me and all of you. She’s got a broken wing and at least five fucking holes in her back because she saved our asses from those hunters. Have some respect.”

Matt cleared his throat. “Xander, she’s a Fae. Anyone who thinks that a Fae isn’t dangerous, especially after all we saw tonight, is batshit crazy. Nick doesn’t mean anything by it. We aren’t scared of her.”

“Speak for yourself. I, for one, am just a little bit on the scared side.” Nick looked away.

“Come on, Nick. We know Ellery. She isn’t vicious.” Scott sounded almost as annoyed as I felt.

“Dude, she decapitated a man with his own bow.” We all stared at Nick. “What?” he asked. “You’re telling me you couldn’t guess a head was in that bag?”

I opened my mouth to protest, but snapped it shut. I knew what Ellery could do, but I didn’t want to dwell on it. I also knew what Quinn was capable of doing, but I really didn’t want to think about it being possible with only the head.

“How do you know how she took his head off?” asked Lee. “For that matter, how do you know for certain there was a head in the bag? Did you look?”

Nick became unnaturally quiet as he studied the carpet. “Yeah, I looked. Quinn offered me a chance before he took it away, and well, I wanted to be sure.”

“Sure of what?” I asked.

Nick kept his eyes trained on the carpet. “Sure that he was dead. That they were all dead.”

“If they’re examining their ribs on a table I think it is safe to say that they’re all dead, except for the one being interrogated,” I pointed out.

“There will be more, there are always more.” Scott stared out of the window into the night. “Waiting to kill us just for being different from them.”

“I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and this will just have been some elaborate, hellish dream.” Ryan sat with his head in his hands. “I didn’t even know any of this shit was real; I just thought my family had youthful genes.”

I looked at him with concern. He could be annoying, but he didn’t deserve to deal with all this shit if he didn’t have to. “Hey, you could have Emerson help you forget. For real, Ryan, you guys don’t have to….you know.”

His head snapped up. “Hell no. We owe Ellery our lives and I don’t want to ever forget exactly why.”

My opinion of Ryan shot up with his response. I turned to look at Andy and Sam. “What about you two?”

Andy shrugged. “I already knew; it just wasn’t a part of my life. It’s so far back on the family tree the only things that show up are size and back problems.”

Sam gave me a pointed look. “I’m a red head with quick feet. People have been calling me an elf for years. It’s kind of reassuring to find out I actually am one, at least in part.”

Scott tapped the table where the wallets from the hunters were laying. “The leader of the group, and man whose head she mostly likely took off, was Herbert Anderson. We could never prove it, but we know he’s the one who killed my father six years ago. He was our neighbor.”

“Dad said that every single one of them had been on the Royal Guards’ watch list. They’ve sent police to apprehend the rest of their organization for terrorist activities.” Lee nodded at Scott and then went on.

“They are responsible for all that shit that went down in January. The attacks, all the accidents. They’ve been waging a war against the Realms and the independent communities of supernatural beings for years. Decades probably.”

We all lapsed into thoughtful silence and then Grant cleared his throat. “Are you going to tell us?”

I stared at him, confused by his question. “Tell you what?”

“Why those fuckers were trying to capture Ellery. Come on, we all know we were just the bonus. She made that pretty clear herself. They were after her. Why?” Everyone except Lee turned to me expectantly.

I hesitated, unsure of how to explain. “Ellery is, she’s, fuck it. Ellery is a faerie princess.”