Page 52 of The Chosen Fae

"Fang," Stone told Lolita and Rune.

They peered in. No one else was in the room, just the fae. Stone tried to open the basement window. It happened to be unlocked. He figured the fae seers thought the fae wouldn't be able to get out because he was manacled in iron.

They waited, though, before opening it. Tasha would probably end up in the basement, and they would see whoever had manacled Fang.

Stone had to admit he would be fine leaving him there. But he knew it was too dangerous for the fae. The fae seers might kill him.

They heard people coming down the stairs and feared they were too late to free Fang. They hid and listened. Why didn’t he get himself out of the situation, like the Grand Master had said they could if it was a life-or-death matter?

Tasha said, "I can't believe that you caught one. Good for you." She glanced at the basement window.

Stone peered in and motioned that it was already unlocked, then hid again.

"I can't believe you never saw any. The others in the group said you hadn't spotted any at the school."

"I know. Me either. How many were there?"

"At least six or seven," the guy said. "They must have been having a challenge to see how many humans they could mess with. Only they didn't expect to find a bunch of fae seers coming after them."

"But you only caught one of them?" Tasha asked.

"Yeah. We shouldn't have even been able to catch this one. He must be broken. He couldn't fae travel to get away from us. It was easy to manacle him. I mean, he went invisible—to humans—but we saw him."

Tasha looked at Fang, who was frowning at her.

Stone thought he could at least act nicer, to maybe talk himself out of this. Instead, he appeared angry.

Fang’s breathing was deliberate, measured in the way of someone managing pain rather than resting, the chains shifting with a dull clink each time his chest expanded.

"What are you going to do with him?" Tasha asked.

"After dinner, we're all meeting. We thought maybe we could capture some others, using him as bait. But we need to eliminate them afterward before they learn where we are and that we have any of them."

"Right. So we try to capture them at school again tomorrow?" Tasha asked.

"Yeah, that's what I figure. They're stubborn and think they're smarter than us. They believe that there's no way we're going to get the best of them. So we think they'll return to the school tomorrow. Maybe even to try and learn where this guy is."

"Ah. Okay." Tasha glanced at her watch. "I've got to go home. Mom should be home now and fixing dinner. And then I have a science project I need to work on with Lizzie.”

“Are you coming back to the meeting?”

“If I don’t get stuck at home, I sure will.” Then Tasha headed up the stairs, and the other fae seer followed her. The door slammed at the top of the stairs.

They had no time to lose. Stone opened the basement window with a squeak. He hated that it made any noise.

Fang glanced in his direction, no smile, still looking annoyed. The thought did cross Stone’s mind again that he should just leave him here. He figured after they saved him, Fang wouldn't thank them either.

Stone crawled through the opening and jumped down to the floor. "Be our lookout," Rune whispered to Lolita.

Then Rune dropped down into the basement, though Stone hadn't wanted her to join him. He wanted her to leave with Lolita if anyone came to get them.

He looked around for keys to unlock the manacles. He was afraid he would have to find something to break the chain instead, but that could make so much noise that all the fae seers could arrive en masse to take care of them.

"Where are the keys, do you know?" Stone asked Fang.

"I think he took them with him, but there are some keys hanging on that wall behind one of the boxes of Christmas decorations. I can see it from here, but you can't."

Stone went around the box and grabbed the set of keys. And then tried all of them on the manacles. None of them worked. He looked around for something he could use to cut the chain. He didn't think anything would cut through the manacles.