Night Fae (Dark Fae Kings #3) - Meg Xuemei X. Page 0,64

personal, Evie. I’ve always been the smartest kid in the room. I saw what you could do. None of the humans could beat you by fighting you directly. So I joined you temporarily but kept my eyes open to look for a way out. You’re a dead woman walking, and you just don’t know it. Sooner or later, you’ll be dead. You can’t change that. No one can. So I chose the winning side. To earn my keep, I have to contribute. They say everyone has a weakness, and yours is your family. You’d die for them rather than save yourself. How about this? I’ll spare your brother if you surrender yourself to Lady Catlin and me.”

The fear in Nox’s eyes broke my heart. My brother had been taken, beaten, starved, and shoved into the arena to be hunted. Just as he’d believed he’d be safe under my protection after our reunion, someone he’d thought was protecting him was going to slit his throat.

Richie and Megan inched toward Charlie from behind, but they wouldn’t reach my brother in time. Hidden atop a tree branch, Jill swept her gun between Catlin and Charlie, but I didn’t trust anyone’s aim other than mine.

I held up my hand to halt my team. “Leave it to me.”

Rydstrom had wanted to save Catlin and make atonement to her, but no one who threatened or touched my family would be allowed to breathe.

The Night Fae bitch was going to die.

“Kneel, Ileana,” Catlin ordered. “Put your hands behind your head.”

I bent my knee for show and called out to my brother. “Nox, close your eyes!”

And he did.

A hidden throwing star slid out of my sleeve. My jacket, woven with special material from faerie, was disguised armor, designed by the most talented Night Fae blacksmith and refined by a Summer Fae weapon master. When I summoned weapons from it, weapons appeared.

The throwing star flew toward Charlie and split his face into two before he could widen his eyes in disbelief.

My clever brother instantly freed himself from Charlie’s grip before the dipshit fell in a heap. Richie and Megan raced to Nox and pull him toward them, and they fled together.

My air passage opened up, and a breath of relief left my lips.

A bowstring vibrated as three iron arrows soared toward me, one darting toward my eye, one to my throat, and the last one to my chest. I ducked, leapt, and smacked down all three arrows with Netherbane. Before Catlin could release another sequence of arrows, I’d drawn my big rifle and leveled it in front of me.

The Legend Heavy spewed out bullets, piercing Catlin’s armor.

Her eyes bulged in outraged denial as she lowered her elegant head and stared at the crimson blood blossoming out of her chest armor.

I’d underestimated Brigantia, but she’d also made the same mistake.

She was afraid of my power, so she and the Furies had decided to limit magic usage in this round of the Wild Hunt. She’d neglected to consider that I was raised and trained in the human world and that I was absolutely fine with using modern firearms. I was more familiar than any Fae with modern weaponry. She hadn’t foreseen that I’d sleep with knives and guns and would bring my gear with me when she had me dragged to the arena right in front of Lucifer—another fatal mistake of hers.

The most formidable fallen archangel, the once divine being, never forgave.

“You made a mistake, Catlin,” I said. “No one touches my family.”

During the mêlée, I’d fed a series of bullets into her red hound’s two skulls and added a couple of daggers to make sure it stayed dead. I’d already wounded the beast anyway when blowing up its rider, so it was kind of a mercy to put it out of its misery.

“Dad planned to use the elephant gun to hunt a dinosaur,” I added. “It was kind of wasted on you, lady. I told you to walk away, but you wouldn’t listen. You were too consumed by your useless, insane jealousy.”

I slung the rifle behind my back and pulled out Netherbane, feeling badass again. The bullets from the Legend Heavy were a valuable resource, and I needed to save some for the bigger players that would come to hunt me next. Of that, I had no doubt.

Catlin’s body dropped to the ground on top of her hound. Their flesh and bones mixed together in a grotesque heap, and my stomach turned. No matter how many battles I’d gone through,