Book 5 Chapter 17

Joan was pulled to her feet by Searle, who kept himself between her and Neverdale. “Excellent timing,” she said.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” Searle said.

Neverdale looked between the two of them before his eyes narrowed. “Chosen of the Shield. Step aside, you have no right to interfere in these affairs. The wild hunt is not of your domain.”

“I will not,” Searle said, before Joan swore he somehow stood taller. “I am the shield of this world. I will allow no harm to come to those in danger. Not from monsters, demons or even fae. If you desire to lay a hand on her, you’ll need to go through me.”

Neverdale gave a low growl before turning to Flickerpuff. “Well? What are you… oh.”

“Help,” Flickerpuff said, standing entirely still, his eyes wide. It took Joan a moment to realize there was a hand wrapped around his throat and that, unlike the majority of the local area, he was still cloaked in darkness. She was suspecting that Andreas was in those shadows and the owner of that hand.

Neverdale took a step back and then stopped. He turned around before yelping and stumbling back, revealing Korgron behind him. The demon looked furious, cracking her knuckles while she glared at him.

Joan couldn’t help it, she giggled. “Yeah? I told you! You could have called off this whole hunt, but nooooo. You had to be a jerk about it! Ha!”

“How dare you!” Neverdale said through gritted teeth before he disappeared.

Joan couldn’t even see what happened. One moment Searle was in front of her, the next moment he was on her right. She barely registered that there was even anything over there before she heard the clang of metal against fae and Neverdale was sent hurtling through the air and then skidding along the ground in a pile of mud. He let out a low groan, before Searle turned back to her. “Joan, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Joan said sheepishly. “I’m surprised you were able to get here first. I figured Korgron would, no offense.”

“You were in danger,” Searle said softly. “I had to get here in time.”

Joan nodded. Well, she supposed he was the embodiment of what it meant to be a shield. She’d already used up her shielding bracer in one of her traps against the fae, so having him be a new one was definitely something she couldn’t object to.

Neverdale slowly sat up, the ground around him distorting slightly. He glared at her around the shield. “I swear you’ll pay for this, human. You won’t escape. I will make you suffer for--”

“They can keep me safe until the end of the hunt,” Joan said, unable to keep the smugness out of her voice. “You’ve lost. Sorry. I win. You can keep trying, if you like. But you won’t win. All you’ll do is get hurt. Even you have to know that.”

Neverdale let out another growl, his fingers digging into the ground. She couldn’t really blame him, though. It had to be incredibly frustrating, feeling so powerful, so mighty. To have felt like nothing could stop him and that he’d won.

Only to be entirely crushed in the end. She gave a soft sigh. The town was safe, the people were safe. She’d won. Her plan had paid off. She stared at him for a long moment before reaching into her coin purse and pulling out the small fruit. It was slightly scuffed up, but still quite pretty. “But you still need this, don’t you? You promised to give it to the archfey, didn’t you?” Joan asked.

“Joan?” Korgron asked. “What’s that?”

“The whole reason he apparently kidnapped all those people,” Joan said.

“And burned down their village,” Andreas said, his voice annoyed.

Joan paused for a moment, holding the seed tightly in her hand. “Wait, what?”

“The village was burned to ash when Thalgren and I returned,” Andreas said.

“You did WHAT?” Joan asked, unable to keep the anger out of her voice. It took all she had not to crush the fruit in her hand. That was it, she’d had enough.

“Their lives didn’t matter at that point,” Neverdale said, his eyes still focused on her. Despite the blows he’d taken, there weren’t any bruises on him. Which would have surprised her more, except she wasn’t entirely certain fae did bruise or even bled unless they wanted to. With Korgron keeping an eye on him and Searle protecting her, there wasn’t much he could do.

Joan started to pocket the fruit. “You know what? Never mind. May whoever you promised this fruit to punish you for failing.” For extra measure, she stuck her tongue out at him.

Neverdale growled and lifted his hand towards her, but Searle quickly moved between them. “You stupid, foolish mortal. I vow. I will get vengeance on you for this. I will--”

“Joan, is there any reason I can’t just destroy him?” Korgron asked.

“Not really, no,” Joan said.

“Mmkay,” Korgron said.

“Wait, don’t--” Neverdale said, but his words disappeared, swallowed up by a strange, swirling sound. Joan peeked around Searle after a moment, but there was no more sign of him.

“That just wasn’t smart,” Korgron said with a soft sigh. “Why threaten you like that directly in front of me?”

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“Arrogance,” Joan said with a shrug. Not that she could truly say she wasn’t just as bad sometimes.

“Is there going to be more?” Searle asked.

“Possibly,” Joan said. “At least until dawn. The wild hunt is still, technically, going on. So I probably shouldn’t leave this realm until it finishes.”

“Are any more going to try?” Korgron asked before turning to look at Flickerpuff. “How about him?”

“Him? Oh, no, he’s harmless,” Joan said. “Apparently a bit of a TRAITOR, but harmless. I can’t believe you did that!”

“Sorry,” Flickerpuff said sheepishly. After a moment Andreas let him go and he quickly moved away, a hand moving up to his throat. “I had made a deal with Neverdale prior to this and, well…” He nervously gulped and stared at the place where Neverdale had been. “Is he really… did you…?”

“Yes,” Korgron said.

“He wasn’t…” Flickerpuff started, but trailed off.

“The Chosen fight gods,” Joan said. “Powerful fae or not, he didn’t really stand a chance.”

“Speaking of not standing a chance,” Korgron said before walking to her and reaching out to grip her chin. “What did we tell you about not taking risks?”

“I only did what I had to,” Joan said sheepishly, her cheeks burning red. “I didn’t expect this to happen, honest. I swear. I stalled him long enough for you to get here, too. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

Korgron gave a sigh before glancing towards Flickerpuff. “Go ahead and spread the word. If any fae desire to try and capture Joan, they’ll need to do it through us. It will end poorly for them.” Her eyes flashed a bright crimson for a moment. “Are we clear?”

“Y-yes ma’am,” Flickerpuff said before disappearing.

“He really does make a much better pixie. So, where is everyone else?” Joan asked.

“Thalgren and Bauteut are back in the remains of the village,” Searle said. “Just in case the fae return. Bauteut is helping the wounded and Thalgren is, well…”

“Doing Thalgren things,” Joan said softly. She felt a small pang of guilt wash over her. Had the fae really reduced the entire village to ash? All of their homes, their livelihoods, gone in a moment? It would be winter soon. They wouldn’t be able to stay. Even if she had saved their lives, they’d lost everything.

She glanced down at the fruit for a moment. No, she supposed they hadn’t entirely lost everything. There was still one last thing she could do. She glanced around at the three Chosen and felt her heart give a small jump. After all, they could make the impossible, possible.

“There’s something else we need to do before we return home, though,” Joan said.

“Oh? What?” Korgron asked.

“Earn a boon,” Joan said. “Besides, there’s an archfey who’s waiting for this fruit. I’d hate to disappoint them. But we should wait until after the hunt is over.”

“Likely,” Andreas said. “How do you manage to get yourself into these messes?”

“Just lucky, I guess,” Joan said with a light chuckle, before quickly hiding behind Searle from the glares Korgron and Andreas gave her. “I’m kidding!”

“What are we going to do with you?” Korgron asked. “You were supposed to be prepared for this.”

“How was I supposed to know it wasn’t the Demon Lord?” Joan asked. “I really thought it was. Andreas and Thorgren fell for it too! Oh, that reminds me. Searle, you’re back! Welcome back! Where were you?”

“Ummm…” Searle said before turning back towards her. “I was, well…”

“Lich,” Korgron said.

“Lich,” Searle said sheepishly. “I was fine, really. But…”

“You were exhausted and Bauteut was on the verge of collapse herself. You should have contacted us,” Korgron said.

“I tried,” Searle said. “Or well, our guide was going to go and get you, but when the tomb collapsed we just kind of couldn’t. People were in danger, I couldn’t just ignore them.”

Korgron just gave another sigh. “He gets this from watching you, you know,” she said.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” Joan said. “I bet you looked totally awesome fighting off an army of undead. I’ll bet you both did.”

“Yeah, I was pretty amazing,” Korgron said with a knowing grin before it quickly reverted back to a frown. “Wait, no distractions. I want to know everything that happened.”

Joan perked up slightly. “Everything?”

“Yes,” Korgron said. “Especially what possessed you to end up in this.”

Joan couldn’t help it. She felt a rush of excitement. For once, she’d actually been doing things really well. All of her plans had worked, everything had come up in her favor. She couldn’t help it. She eee’d a little bit. “Okay, well. From the beginning I realized I had to do something. I wasn’t sure what, though. But then I realized I had that ring that Andreas had given me, I could sneak up to it and take the fruit. From there it was all mind games. Now, there was a bit of trouble when it turned out that Zorn was there as well, but he ended up luring them off for a bit. I realized that if Neverdale really TRIED to get me, I’d be in trouble. I don’t have the kinds of abilities that can go against a fae that powerful yet. But I COULD do a few things. Since we were here, there were a lot of little things I could do that I couldn’t do back home. Since all the magic in the air is easy to pull on, you know?”

Joan stopped when she realized that the Chosen were chuckling while they watched her. Her cheeks turned bright red and she went still. “What? What’s wrong?”

“What? No, keep going,” Korgron said before gesturing with her hand to continue. “It’s cute.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen you jump around like that,” Searle said.

“Isla would love this,” Andreas said with a soft sigh.

Joan’s cheeks got even hotter when she realized that she had been hopping around as she talked. She couldn’t help it, though. She’d actually done something RIGHT. She couldn’t remember the last time everything had gone so perfectly. She shoved those thoughts aside. For once SHE had been awesome, she was going to enjoy it. “Well, okay, so then I was running. I managed to bind a few pixies and used them for one trap, then I collapsed a temple, oh my gosh, you should have seen it! Neverdale was sooooo angry because I managed to put down a ward on the area so they couldn’t teleport away for a little bit! It took a bit of blood magic to work, but it was so cool! It was a little scary when the temple was exploding behind me, but I had it handled. Then I managed to find a field with all these blooming flowers and set some more wards. When their hounds went into them, bam. Petals everywhere. By the time they realized what was happening I was already going back the way they had come and their hounds were all but useless. Then we got back to the part of the autumn realm with all the leaves and I ended up causing a kind of… treevalance? Well. Made them do it. Oh, the shielding bracer saved my life there, but it was soooooo coooool! You should have seen me, running and jumping through collapsing trees! Then I--”

Okay, she didn’t care if she looked silly when she jumped around and waved her arms excitedly. She’d been amazing for once and she wasn’t going to let anything take that away from her.