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EMILY
The hooded figure before us held out a large weapon, waiting for our answer. “Well? Announce yourselves!”
“We mean you no harm,” I answered in a shaky voice.
“No shit, I’m the one with the scythe. Now, who are you!”
I stepped forward, the figure jerking their weapon toward me. I know the boy said to be discreet, but if we didn’t answer soon, then we might not get another chance. Especially when faced with someone who looked like the grim reaper. “We’re looking for Newt.”
“Who sent you?” they asked, not wavering even once with their weapon.
“A boy. A servant boy from Noble Quill’s palace. He said Newt could help us.”
They brought their weapon down to their side and pulled back their hood, revealing a petite young fae with hair shaved into a mohawk that flopped over one side of her face. She brushed back her black hair—something I had yet to see in the fae realm—and guided us toward the glow in the woods—a small base camp with more than a hundred fae cluttered around the tents.
The fae walked us through the camp to a tent on the far end and opened the flap. “Newt. I have some humans here looking for you.”
“Bring them in,” a raspy voice called out from inside the tent.
The man looked more human than fae, with an orange skin shade and frizzy brown hair. He wore an aviator hat—goggles and all—turned at an angle. Ironic, considering the fae didn’t use technology like airplanes. Maybe he was half-human?
His eyes had an intensity that made it hard to stare at him for too long, and compared to the flawless skin that most of the fae realm had, this man had deep-set wrinkles and splotchy skin. He wore camouflage pants and steel-toed boots but still appeared more casual than the noble army man.
He asked what we were doing in his part of the woods. We explained our visit with Noble Quill and his refusal to help until the queen agreed. Even mentioning the queen didn’t sit well with Newt.
“Oh, I should’ve known,” he rambled, dragging on his words. “Of course, Amaranth had something to do with this. Anytime there’s trouble, her highness is always behind it. And those gutless nobles… Can’t expect anything from them!”
He grabbed a big grass blade the size of my finger, with a giant thorn attached to the end, and threw it at a picture of the fae queen pinned to a board on the other end of the tent. “Bullseye!” he shouted, taking another swig before he grabbed another grass dart and threw it at a picture of Noble Quill, his shot landing in the middle of Quill’s mouth.
“Damn. I missed.” He shrugged. “Not really, considering the gutless swine is more glutton than gallant.” Newt threw another dart, landing beside the other. He jumped up and down as he clapped, shouting, “Haha! Take that, pig! Oink, oink!”
The five of us exchanged glances. What the hell had we gotten ourselves into? Was this oddball really the leader of this revolution? It seemed like we’d stepped into the middle of an ongoing war between the fae Royals and the outcasts.
But the last thing we needed was to get involved in another war. No, we needed to get what we came for and get the heck out of dodge.
“Might I ask,” Ember said, grabbing his attention, “why do you hate the fae queen so much?”
“Oh, that old shrew… I used to work for the queen in her inner circle. We were close. But the bitch banished me from the palace! Kicked me to the curb. Told me to never come back. All because of a little misunderstanding.”
He cackled loudly, snorting as he grabbed a bottle on an overturned crate, taking a swig. Liquid dribbled down his chin, and he sloppily wiped it with his sleeve.
“What happened?” Rohan asked.
“I’ll tell you what happened!” he shouted, motioning toward the overturned crates surrounding a small wooden table. Cassian, Ember, and I took a seat, but there were only three crates, so Griffin and Rohan stood beside us.
“There were tensions in the royal palace, and let’s just say, the queen wouldn’t heed my advice. When things were hitting a point of no return, I tried to fix it. Her majesty didn’t like that and threw us out. Banished us from the royal city, and any position of decent standing.”
“Us?” I asked, but he looked at me confused like I’d grown an extra head. “You said us. Were there more fae thrown out of the royal court?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Reed and me. The servant boy. She found out he was helping me transport letters. Lucky little shit found work with a nobleman. Me? I’d be lucky to get a job cleaning the shitters!”
I must admit, this Newt was a real character. Eccentric. Borderline crazy. But at this point, he was our only hope of gaining an army.
Cassian attempted to steer him back on course. “Reed told us you may be able to help us with an army?”
“I have an army, yeah. My own little ragtag team of rebels. We may seem small in numbers, but what we lack in men, we make up for in vigor. We’ll make the fae realm free of the queen’s reign. No longer will a monarch ruin this realm! No more, I say!”
Cassian stiffened, wary of Newt’s unpredictable behavior. “Well, we need to end Samara’s reign.”
