I suddenly had a sinking suspicion of what had happened to the exiles.
Keirran squeezed through a crack in the cloth walls and crouched down beside us. “What is that?” he whispered, gripping his sword. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“I have.” I peeked around the corner. The cat-thing was turning in slow circles, as if she knew something was there but couldn’t see it. “Something similar took my friend and chased us—” I gestured to Kenzie and myself “—into the Nevernever. I think they’re the ones that have been kidnapping exiles and half-breeds.”
Keirran’s gaze darkened, and he suddenly looked extremely dangerous, eyes glowing with an icy light as he stood slowly. “Then perhaps we should make sure it doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
“Ethan.” Kenzie squeezed my arm, looking frightened but trying not to let it show. “I don’t see it,” she whispered. “I don’t see anything.”
“But the little boys can,” hissed a voice behind us, and another cat-thing padded out of the darkness between the stalls.
I jumped to my feet, pulling Kenzie up with me. The cat-fey’s wizened face creased in a smile, showing sharp feline teeth. “Little humans,” she purred, as the other faery came around the corner, boxing us in. I shivered as the air around us grew cold. “You can see us and hear us. How encouraging.”
“Who are you?” Keirran demanded, and raised his sword, pointing it at the nearest cat-thing. On his shoulder, Razor growled and buzzed at the faeries, baring his teeth. “What did you do to the exiles here?”
The cat-fey hissed and drew back at the sight of the iron weapon. “Not human,” rasped the other behind us. “The bright one is not completely human. I can feel his glamour. He is strong.” She growled, taking a step forward. “We should bring him to the lady.”
I raised my sticks and eased back, closer to Keirran, trapping Kenzie between us. She glanced around wildly, trying to see the invisible threats, but it was obvious that she didn’t even hear them.
The second cat-thing blinked slowly, running a tongue along her thin mouth. “Yes,” she agreed, flexing her nails. “We will bring the half-breed to the lady, but it would be a shame to waste all that lovely glamour. Perhaps we will just take a little.”
Her mouth opened, stretching impossibly wide, a gaping hole in her wrinkled face. I felt a ripple around us, a pulling sensation, as if the cat-fey was sucking the air into itself. I braced myself for something nasty, pressing close to Kenzie, but except for a faint sluggish feeling, nothing happened.
But Keirran staggered and fell to one knee, putting a hand against the booth to catch himself. As I stared, he seemed to fade a bit, his brightness getting dimmer, the color leeched from his hair and clothes. Razor screeched and flickered from sight, going in and out like a bad television station. The other faery cackled, and I glared at it, torn between helping Keirran and protecting the girl.
Suddenly, the cat-thing choked, convulsed and hurled itself back from Keirran. “Poison!” she screeched, gagging and heaving, as if she wanted to cough up a hairball. “Poison! Murder!” She spasmed again, curling in on herself as her body began to break apart, to dissolve like sugar in water. “Iron!” she wailed, clawing at the ground, at herself, her beady eyes wild. “He’s an Iron abomination! Kill him, sister! Kill them all!”
She vanished then, blowing away in the breeze, as the other cat-thing screamed its fury and pounced.
I brought my rattan down, smashing it over the faery’s skull, then sliding away to land a few solid blows on its shoulder. It screeched in pain and whirled on me, favoring its right leg. “So, you’re real enough to hit, after all.” I grinned. Snarling, it lunged, clawing at me, and I sidestepped again, angling out like Guro had taught me, whipping my rattan several times across the wizened face.
Shaking its head, the faery backed up, hissing furiously, one eye squeezed shut. Pale, silvery blood dripped from its mouth and jaw, writhing away as soon as it touched the ground. I twirled my sticks and stepped closer, forcing it back. Kenzie had retreated a few steps and was crouched next to Keirran; I could hear her asking if he was all right, and his quiet assurance that he was fine.
“Boy,” the cat-faery hissed, her lips pulled back in a snarl of hate, “you will pay for this. You all will. When we return, there will be nothing that will save you from our wrath.”
Turning, the cat-thing bounded into the darkness between the stalls and vanished from sight.
I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Keirran, who was struggling upright, one hand still on the booth wall. Razor made angry, garbled noises on his shoulder, punctuated with the words “Bad kitty!”
“You okay?” I asked, and he nodded wearily. “What just happened there?”
“I don’t know.” He gave Kenzie a grateful smile and took a step forward, standing on his own. “When that thing turned on me, it felt like everything—my strength, my emotions, even my memory—was being sucked out. It was…awful.” He shuddered, rubbing a forearm. “I feel like there are pieces of me missing now, and I’ll never get them back.”
I remembered the dead piskie, the way she’d looked right before she died, like all her color had been drained away. “It was draining your magic,” I said, and Keirran nodded. “So, these things, whatever they are, they eat the glamour of regular fey, suck them dry until there’s nothing left.”
“Like vampires,” Kenzie put in. “Vampire fey that hunt their own kind.” She wrinkled her nose. “That’s creepy. Why would they do that?”
I shook my head. “I have no idea.”
“It got more than it bargained for, though,” Keirran went on, gazing at the spot where the cat-faery had died. “Whatever they are, it looks like they’re still deathly allergic to iron.”
“So they’re not Iron fey, at least.”
“No.” Keirran shivered and dropped his hands. “Though I have no idea what they are.”
“Keirran!”
The shout echoed down the rows, making Keirran jerk his head up, hope flaring in his eyes. A moment later, a willowy girl in a green-and-brown dress turned a corner and sprinted toward us. Keirran smiled, and Razor gave a welcoming buzz, waving his arms.
I tensed. The girl was fey, I could see that easily. The tips of her ears peeked up through her golden-brown hair, which was braided with vines and flowers and hung several inches past her waist. She had that unnatural grace of all fey, that perfect beauty where it was tempting to stare at her and completely forget to eat, sleep, breathe or anything else.
“Um, Ethan? Sorry to be a normal human and all, but…who are we talking to?”
Keirran chuckled. “Oh, right.” To Annwyl, he said, “I’m afraid Mackenzie can’t see you right now. She’s only human.”
“What?” Annwyl glanced at Kenzie, and her eyes widened. “Oh, of course. Please excuse me.” A shiver went through the air around her, and Kenzie jumped as the faery girl materialized in front of us. “Is this better?”
Kenzie sighed. “I’ll never get used to that.”
The Summer faery smiled, but then her eyes darkened and she drew back. “Come,” she urged, glancing around the fairgrounds. “We can’t stay out here. It’s gotten dangerous.” Her gaze swept the aisles like a wary deer’s. “I’m supposed to bring you to the mistress. This way.”