It couldn’t be just me feeling like this about Alcatraz, could it? I looked at the others to see if they were feeling it too. Cray was for sure, poor guy looked nearly sick. But then, he could feel all this much stronger than the rest of us could, so it was probably about overwhelming him right now.

“You’ll have to lead, Cray,” Starren said, her tone the most gentle I had ever heard it. She was picking up on something bad being here too. It was still bugging me that I didn’t know what Jaden had done to be imprisoned in the first place. Had he killed someone? Or a lot of someones?

Cray started up the concrete steps slowly. The only sounds making it through the heavy fog blanket were the slight scuffs of his boots on stairs. Wade and Starren pulled their swords and followed him. The cheery colors of the fall flowers mocked us as we wound our way to the top. One of the signs said it was a fourth of a mile. It felt so much longer in the damp, half dark.

Finally Cray stopped. “We’re on top of it,” he whispered.

“Trisha?” Starren asked.

“He’s down in the cells maybe?” It came out as a question, but she must have taken it as gospel, because she headed straight for the door that somehow had no fog blocking it and was in plain view. That seemed like a bad plan. And of course Jaden couldn’t be standing up on top, he had to be down in the dark, scary area. Hopefully fog was his power. That I could deal with.

Wade touched me on the shoulder. “Watch for security cameras. They won’t see us, but they will see you.”

Another thing to worry about, other than the fact that we were chasing some guy with unknown powers down into a scary rock fortress. I pushed against the door. Locked.

“Move aside,” Starren pushed me out of the way and put her hand on the door. A flash and the door popped open.

Wow, nice. Beat picking a lock with tools. She pushed the door open. Another handy trick I was going to have to learn. Was that another ability all fae had? If it was, then what was her ability anyway? That probably would be a good thing for me to know.

My fae eyes adjusted to the dark fairly quickly after stepping inside. Dark. Dark was good. No, dark was bad. Okay, both. Good because of the cameras, bad because it could lead to our deaths. I shivered as we passed cell after cell. What must it have been like to live here? The cells were tiny, not even as big as my bathroom I’d bet. If low fae fed on bad energy, this was definitely a feast. We came to a stairwell. Starren didn’t pause, just headed down.

“The stairs are damp, be careful,” Cray said.

“But still, much better than a fae prison,” Wade said.

Not something I ever wanted to see. If the fae I’d met so far were any indication of general faeness, I was better off with the humans. At least when they stabbed you in the back it wasn’t literal.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“We’re getting close Starren, be careful,” Cray said.

Starren slowed a little, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge Cray. I moved in closer to Wade, not liking it but liking the thought of losing a limb even less. Starren stopped us.

“Okay, Trisha, go ahead.”

“Me?” I squeaked, craning my neck and trying to see around her.

She glared at me for a second. “Isn’t that why you’re here?” Well, yeah, but still. “Just tell him you are here on the authority of the Council and king and he needs to go with you without a fight. It works on all high fae. Or, it should.”

It should? Great. Just wonderful. My heart thundered in my chest. If nothing else, the trolls had taught me to be more cautious. “Don’t I at least get a sword or something?”

“Oh, one sec.” Wade reached into his pocket. The hilt of a sword came out, the blade wrapped in some type of cloth following as he tugged. “I got this for you last night.”

What in the world? I needed pockets like that. “How did you do that?”

“It was a lot of work on such short notice but I-”

“Not how did you get the sword, how did you fit it in there?”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed. “My pocket has a small portal. I can reach in and grab anything I left in Faerie near the opening.” He pulled off the material and shoved it back in his pocket, then held the sword out to me. It gleamed in the dim light, made of the same type of crystal I’d stolen from the dead troll. “I saw how much you liked the stones the troll had, so I got you one made out of the same stuff. I hope it’s okay.”

It was more than okay. This was something the old Wade would do. The Wade I’d loved. You will not cry, you will not cry. Not here. “It’s beautiful.” He held it out to me by the blade. I grabbed the hilt and swung it around, leaving little streaks of light through the dark.

Wade grinned at me. “I hope you like it.”

Like it? I more than liked it. And it was so sweet that he had remembered me wanting to keep the stones. I gave him a small smile. “It’s amazing.”

“If you two are done staring into each other’s eyes, we have business to attend to,” Starren interrupted the moment, bringing me back to reality. This Wade is not my Wade, not my Wade, I chanted internally. Getting distracted down here was dumb anyway.

I pushed past Starren without a word, letting the light gleam off the sword in front of me. Better to see, not so good with trying not to be a target. But I was just supposed to talk with him. It was going to be okay. Supposedly he hadn’t turned eighteen yet, he shouldn’t have his power, we were fine. Just needed to find him, get him out of here and then live happily ever after, never to be bothered by the fae again. Even the good-looking male variety.

One step forward. Two. I didn’t hear anything behind me.

I looked back at Starren. She shooed me forward.

The sword was light in my hand, the crystal weighing practically nothing. Much better than the wooden swords Mom and I used when she played with me, growing up. Now my body automatically went into one of the stances she’d taught me as a game. Had everything we’d done together been more than a game, just like this? What about our trip across California? Had it meant something more? We’d been to Yosemite, been here, and now I was at both places again. That didn’t seem like a coincidence.

Focus. I needed to focus. Those thoughts could wait for later. I had three people behind me that needed me to do my job. I inched forward another step.

“Who’s there?” a windy voice asked me from somewhere ahead. Wait. That was a female voice. Cray had better not gotten this wrong again. I looked back at Starren. She shrugged.

I didn’t answer, moving forward slowly. No decapitation, no removal of limbs and I would be fine. No problem, I would be fine.

“I said, who’s there?” The voice was much louder this time, and sounded angrier too.

“I’m here on behalf of the Faerie Council. They, along with the king, request you to give yourself up for questioning.” Hopefully that’s what Starren had wanted me to say, something about this voice gave me the creeps. It felt worse than even the trolls. And we were walking straight into its lair.