go with four random strangers who cornered me in a dark alley?”
Rourke frowned, and my gaze caught on his eyes. They were a deep golden color that matched his hair. There was something strange about him, more so than the others. He reminded me of dry cracking trees and the smell of fresh dirt. He was mesmerizing, a fact that I found more than a little annoying. Right now, I needed to get answers.
“I suppose that means you don’t remember your little tumble yesterday,” Finn said in that quiet, curious voice of his. He was the opposite of Rourke. His eyes were a sapling green, and everything about him seemed vibrant, as if death and despair were foreign things to him. But, just like Rourke, he was tall with broad shoulders and a strong, square jaw.
The other two hadn’t spoken, but I couldn’t help but stare at them, too. The one from the club’s eyes were still that strange endless black, his dark hair curling around pointed ears. I sucked in a sharp breath when I finally registered what I’d seen. Yes, his ears were very much pointed. Like…what mine were becoming.
I looked to the next, the fourth, the last. He was alight, his eyes a bonfire red with hair that matched. I’d never seen anything like him before. Everything about his presence was full and commanding, the very opposite of soft and weak. He looked like someone who you didn’t want to get in the way of…of course, none of them seemed particularly meek. Every single one towered over me.
“I need to know what’s happening,” I finally said. “What killed Bree? Please tell me what’s going on.”
My voice cracked as tears refilled my eyes. The shock of her death was beginning to wear off, and with that came emotions I didn’t know how I could handle. My entire body ached, as if a part of it had been ripped from my guts and thrown all over the pavement. I couldn’t imagine life without her. I couldn’t imagine that smile as brilliant as the sun never brightening up the world. She had been a star amongst a world full of darkness, and now she would no longer shine.
“Shit,” Liam muttered. “She’s crying again. I don’t know what to do with crying girls.”
“Here’s a thought, Liam. Be a little more sensitive. Understand that she just saw her best friend get killed by a Redcap.”
Sniffling, I glanced up. “You said that before. A Redcap. What is that?”
The guys exchanged gazes before Rourke stepped forward. Suddenly, my nose filled with the scent of forest mushrooms, rotting leaves, and dirt. So much dirt. Why would someone smell like that? I glanced at his ears again, my eyes locked on the sharp points. A strange thought was beginning to sprout in my brain, but I didn’t dare let myself believe it.
I’d heard stories growing up. Anyone who had been born in the city had. Legends of the fae folk. Mysterious sightings in Central Park at dusk and dawn. Men and women who were not men but something more. Something other. Of course, they had only ever been stories with no more realism than Little Red Riding Hood. But I couldn’t help but make connections between those stories and these four boys.
No, not boys, but not men either. They were fresh-faced and young, probably around twenty, but they held a strange kind of strength and power that made them appear older than that.
As if they were ancient, as if they weren’t really men at all.
Finn was finally the one to speak up. “What attacked your friend was a Redcap. What attacked the man at the theatre where you work was a Redcap. Though, I don’t believe they were the same one. It seems they are drawn to you, and they’re coming out of the woodwork.”
My heart thumped hard. “But what are they? Some kind of wolf? And why would they be attracted to me?”
The guys exchanged glances again. Clearly, there were things about these Redcaps that they didn’t want to tell me. They were hiding something, and I was determined to find out what. One of those things just killed my oldest friend in the world, and I was barely able to concentrate on the conversation with the grief consuming my mind. I needed to know what the hell was going on.
“We should probably give her some more details or she’s not going to come with us willingly,” Finn said.
Rourke pursed his lips and frowned. “That’s