Oh shoot. A troll, running full-speed in my direction. School didn’t really cover this problem,

“I think this is where we get out of the way,” Cray whispered, tugging on what was left of my sleeve.

Yes, this was the point Starren had wanted us to get out of the way, but I would heal and the two of them wouldn’t. At least not as fast, or from as bad of injuries. Plus, Starren didn’t know that Mom had done some training with me before she left. Sure, that was seven years ago and I was pretty young, but being fae had to count for something. I wasn’t going to leave Starren. The trolls could have Wade.

Cray left when I didn’t budge. Whether it was the troll he was scared of or Starren was anyone’s guess.

The adult trolls watched as the youngest started our way. None of them seemed concerned.

“Do we have to kill the baby?” Cray called from his new position at the tree line.

Wade snorted.

“He has a point,” Starren said. “We go after one of the adults, we scare them. We kill their little plaything here and they’ll be mad. No killing blows.”

“Seriously?” Wade complained. “Finally a real fight and no killing. I’ve been waiting on this for months, been stuck in a city trying to…” he trailed off, studiously ignoring me. “Never mind.”

He’d better say never mind. If we didn’t need him to help get rid of these trolls, I’d poke this sharp stick he’d made me straight through his body. Stuck in the city courting me, that’s what he’d been about to say.

“Lover’s quarrel later, troll right now,” Starren interrupted.

The baby was getting close, no fear whatsoever on its face. Wait. Did their faces show emotion? It reached down, grabbed a rock and hurled it toward Starren. She jumped lightly out of the way, the rock not even coming close. It flew past her and hit a tree, exploding a hole right through it. Ok, scary. Even the kid could throw that hard? No wonder we’d stopped all the way back here.

“New plan. Trisha, keep it distracted while Wade and I hit an adult,” Starren said over her shoulder.

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Great plan. The troll threw another rock at Starren. For some reason it liked her.

“Hey you, ugly. Over here.” I waved my arms. When that didn’t seem to work, I put my hand to my mouth and let out a piercing whistle.

All the trolls clapped their hands over their ears. “Don’t like that,” the little one whined.

I did it again.

“Stop,” one of the big ones roared.

“Keep it up, Trish,” Wade called as he bounded forward.

Starren went around the other side and the fight began.

Putting all the force of my extra good lungs into it, I whistled again. Something whistled back. I noticed that the sound was coming from a rock headed my way with barely enough time to duck. The young one was not happy. It charged me, hardly giving me time to get my hand to my mouth to whistle again.

Huge, angry voices came from the direction of the waterfall. Starren and Wade were having no problem hacking at the trolls, who didn’t seem to notice as they started my way.

“I think maybe it worked too well,” Cray said from behind me. I’d almost forgotten he was here.

“I think you’re right. Run.”

Cray took off one way and I took off in the other. No use them chasing us both when it was me they wanted to pull to pieces.

“Rip its arms off so it can’t squeal like that,” one of the voices growled behind me. How would my regenerating body handle that? I sucked in an extra breath, pushing forward even faster. Probably just heal over the stump, but I surely didn’t want to find out.

“Head for the lake!” Starren’s voice.

I changed directions toward an opening in the trees.

Hopefully that was the lake.

Right, left, left, right. I dodged around trees, branches smacking me in the face and leaving welts for a few seconds before they healed. An object whizzed past my head. I didn’t take the time to figure out what it was. My heart nearly pounding out of my chest, I burst out of the tree line. A half- sob of relief leaked out. There, the lake, after twenty feet of plants and ten feet of small stones.

Adrenaline pumped. I could do this. I charged forward, made a flying leap into the water and swam toward the middle like mad, my warm weather clothing weighing me down.

Angry roars and yells echoed out over the lake. I swam out until I needed to rest, treading water to conserve a little energy. With the healing back at the clearing, I was starting to get hungry. I could hear the trolls arguing. They were deciding if I was worth getting wet over. If this wasn’t so depressing I would laugh.

“You’re the strongest,” one of the smaller ones sniveled at the biggest. “Water won’t make you sick, no, not water. You’ll just be clean. And smell bad.”

“Go,” the big one commanded. It pushed the smaller one into the lake, sending a wave of water my way. I coughed as it got in my mouth.

“You,” the big one pointed at another brute, “other side. Make sure it don’t go that way.”

The one ordered to not let me escape on the other side lumbered off. The sniveling one tried to climb up on shore, but was met by glares from the other two. It slowly started wading my way, the water not even to its knees. How deep was this lake? I was a goner if it could touch all the way out here. Starren, Wade, where are you?