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The Blood Hail

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The Blood Hail By E. Thorne

© E. Thorne, 2021 EME publishing

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CHAPTER 1

The streets of Eslin were doused in music and chatter from the surrounding taverns. Drunks hauled their companions home across their shoulders. Strangers kissed hungrily in dark alleys. A hunchbacked male scoured the trash for his missing shoe. If any of the fae on the street below looked up, and squinted a bit against the torchlights, they would have been able to make out a figure hunched down atop one of the rooftops, cape waving in the breeze. Then, because of the figure’s cold stillness, they would have gone onto wondering if it was simply just a pillar for decoration. They would have moved on with their evening, filling up their glasses with whichever poison of their choice. But no one did look up. Certain death remained unseen from its carefully chosen victims. Three fae males were gathered by the crooked fence outside the corner tavern. Wide grins were plastered on their sweaty faces. Torches framed each side of the tavern’s entrance and cast dancing shadows across their figures. A wooden sign with the carving of a black crow watched over every guest that entered or left. The windowed door entering the tavern revealed live music and waitresses zigzagging between tables with overloaded trays. “The female in the corner has been eyeing you all evening, Maverick,” one of the males snickered to the rest. An eyepatch was strapped across his left eye, but the remaining one had a teasing glint. “The feisty one with the boots.” “Looks like I’ll be getting lucky tonight, then,” Maverick said and triumphantly took a deep swig of his ale. The rows of silver earrings that decorated his pointed ears gleamed in the torchlights. “Whatever. It’s not like you’ve bedded half of Caelora already,” the last one, a blue haired male, chimed in. The onyx pendant around his neck signalised he was of high fae heritage, his father was presumably one of the high lords of Eslin.

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Was that the breeze jostling through the trees, or had the figure on the roof moved slightly? Not that Maverick or any of his croons noticed. “Shut it, you dimwit. You’re just jealous she doesn’t desire your ugly face in her bed tonight.” Maverick seemed to have reached the bottom of his glass and smashed it against the cobblestones. His friends roared with laughter. Inside the tavern, a barfight had broken out. Lively chatter had transformed to sneers and shouts. Likely a foolish individual who had consumed one pint too many and stepped on the wrong foot. That, or one of the fae males saw it fit to challenge another’s pride. Maverick and his friends lingered outside, to the point where one of them released a yawn. “I don’t think it’s wise returning inside,” Maverick drawled. “Get out. Get some rest, both of you. That is an order.” He remained leaning against the tavern fence, even after his friends had wandered off. If his fae senses hadn’t been clouded with alcohol, he would have heard a pair of hunter’s boots hitting the moss a few feet over. The Crow’s front door swung open and let a surge of voices escape from inside as someone exited. By the warm, inviting smile she exchanged with Maverick, it had to be the female his friends had referred to earlier. Her dress was no short of stunning - a beige velvety silk hugging the curves of her body. Peeking out from underneath her skirts were tall, dark boots. She let a ring clad hand slide across his shoulders. Maverick shivered from the touch and grabbed her waist in a swift motion. “What took you so long?” he snickered and kissed her neck softly. She melted into it and bent her head backwards to give Maverick better access. His hands entwined with her strawberry blonde curls as he tasted her skin.

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A dog barked in the distance; a warning. It had noticed something the couple outside the Crow hadn’t. There were almost no fae left sauntering in the street, and only a handful still enjoyed themselves at the taverns. Not that Maverick seemed to care, anyway. The only being he cared about was her and claiming her as his. A shimmering layer of mist had snuck upon them and dampened the windows of the lined up buildings. Clouds huddled together so close that the moon had no chance of sneaking past them. The female shuddered lightly in Maverick’s embrace, and he pulled away with a smirk. “Surely you can’t be cold with me next to you,” he purred with gleaming eyes. “It is rather cold out”, she countered and cocked her head to the side. “Perhaps you have somewhere we can retreat to?” Maverick snorted. “I might.” He snuck his arm around the female’s waist and led her down the road, away from the Crow. “My name is Anais, by the way. I thought you ought to know”, she said as they passed the sleeping buildings on each side. “Did you, now?” he replied, Lights had gone out and doors had been bolted, leaving parts of the street in gloomy darkness. Something moved within that darkness. Something Maverick might have noticed if his pointed ears weren’t fixated on the female. If his keen sense of smell weren’t distracted by her perfume, her scent of arousal. Anais halted by a small shed with a water fountain next to it and let her hand rest gently on Maverick’s shoulder. “I think that would be nice. We could… open a bottle of wine,” she murmured and kissed his cheek. “We could do some… exploring.” She pressed another kiss to his jawbone. “Maybe… We could even draw a bath.” Her lips travelled further down, to his neck, to where it connected with his shoulder.

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Then Anais’ body was slammed against the wall of the shed. Maverick’s body towered over of her, his large hands pinning hers down. “So, you think you’re the one in charge here, huh?” His voice had sunk to a level of pure coldness. Something rustled in the grass beside them. Anais whimpered and tried helplessly to wriggle out of Maverick’s grip, but it was pointless against his brutal male fae strength. She was strong – he was stronger. “I’m sorry. I just thought-” He snickered and inched closer until his lips rested beside her pointed ear. “Why do you think your sisters had to pay with their lives, huh? They too thought they could walk around and decide everything. That’s not the way I operate.” He pressed her body even further against the wall, resulting in a gasp of pain. “I’m in charge here.” In one movement Maverick tore up the skirts of Anais’ dress with his left hand. “Their screams were the sweetest symphony. I didn’t see why they bothered, frankly, since no one else could hear them.” His free hand was branded against Anais’s throat, pressing against her windpipe. “They were thirteen and fourteen. You will be number fifteen.” He grinned. “Looks like I’m winning.” Tears were travelling down Anais’ cheeks like small droplets of clear glass. Her nostrils flared alarmingly; her eyes filled with fear. A twig snapped in the bush beside them. Maverick pulled something from his belt that gleamed in the moonlight. “Oh no no, don’t cry sweetheart,” Maverick purred and let the tip of his dagger run across her cheek. “There’s no point. It won’ ruin your face nearly as much as I will when I’m through with you.” Something whizzed through the air. Maverick blinked twice, and then streams of crimson gushed out of his gaping mouth. Anais screamed, but it was quickly silenced by a gloved

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hand. A red haired fae male with glowing eyes signalised her to keep quiet before he caught the fall of Maverick’s limp body. “Go,” he said to Anais. “Run. And don’t look back.” Then he silently pulled the jutting arrow out from Maverick’s neck. The female looked wide-eyed at him for a heartbeat, then gathered her torn skirts and bolted. As soon as she had vanished completely, running footsteps closed in on the remaining redhead. Then, “Fuck you, Hero! I had him! I tailed him all night, and you just blew my shot!” The air got sucked from his lungs as another body hit Hero’s, and they both tumbled to the ground. He gasped as they rolled around in the grass – over, and over, and over – until he was pinned underneath a cape clothed figure. When his lungs finally regained their function, he mumbled, “If you had been a second later, we would have had two dead bodies instead of one. I did us both a favour.” “The hell you did! I was told specifically by Loran that I was the one set to kill him”, the fae female who had just arrived spat. Her jade eyes were seething with anger. The gear she was dressed in, though of disgustingly fine quality, was ruffled and soaked in sweat. Some of her dark brown locks had escaped the braid she had attempted to tame it into. “You can’t just disobey orders like that.” “Gaia, he was seconds away from digging into her like she was his meal for the evening.” The stern expression on his face made her shut her mouth. The unspoken language between them had existed since they were children. Gaia got off Hero, stalked over to Maverick’s body and eyed the pool of blood that had gathered beneath it. “I had far better plans consider his suffering. You were too merciful on him.”

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Hero got to his feet and raked his hands through his fiery hair that was now filled with lumps of dirt and grass strands. “Maybe I was. Maybe all I cared about was getting that female out of his grasp before he could do something far worse.” “Impulsive asshole.” “Reckless bitch.” Then they looked at each other, and Gaia’s features softened slightly. She got back up and looked at him, her best friend but also her biggest competitor. He challenged her, which was maybe what she liked the most about him. “Let’s clean this up.” Approximately fifteen minutes later they were homeward bound with a bonfire at their backs. Fire was the only thing that would fully remove a fae from this world – especially someone like Maverick. “Thank the gods he can’t kill anymore,” Hero murmured after a while. The night sky laid bare above them, filled with a scatter of stars. Gaia’s jaw hardened. “He deserved far worse. He was a monster.” “What about the rest of his men?” Hero asked, concern gracing his features. “My dad is taking care of it”, Gaia said with her eyes fixed ahead as they approached her home. Hero nodded. “Good. I’m sure The Circle will be more than pleased with today’s outcome.” They came to a halt before Gaia’s house. Hero’s eyes were like fireflies in the night. He hesitantly put a hand on her arm, and she knew the words he could not voice but were still written all across his face. “I will see you at the archery tournament tomorrow, right?” he said after a while and let his arm fall.

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“Yeah. And just so you know, I do intend to knock you down several notches, to where you belong.” She grinned – a feral and honest expression that did nothing to hide her fae features. “You won’t get to be first this time.” Hero rolled his eyes, but the corner of his mouth twitched upward. “Yeah, yeah. You say that, but it was my arrow that dealt the killing blow to that bastard.” “You were just lucky”, Gaia said and crossed her arms across her chest. Hero saluted with his hand. “See you tomorrow, asshole.” Then he wandered off into the night, swallowed by darkness, and Gaia was left staring after him. She let out a short sigh and made her way.

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