Chapter 251 - The Cavalry

But before JJ could explain or execute what he had in mind, and before Staghead could say another word of protest, Bob pointed into the distance with an alarmed shout, "Fellows, we have guests!"

I looked in the direction he was pointing out. What I saw there were just a couple of small blots that came from a faraway grove, but they were rapidly increasing in size and detail. Still, I had to reach out with my aura-vision to find out what they were—two horses with riders, and all, from horses to riders, fey.

Staghead smirked smugly, now seemingly unconcerned with the fact that he was still in JJ's hands, figuratively and literally. "You couldn't have thought that anyone can just come here as they like? The Green Guard will gut you and throw your bodies out so the sun can burn them into ashes."

"Let's just grab him and get out, then!" I rushed out of the invisible demi-sphere of Eve's barrier and ran up to JJ. Then, I gestured for Bob and Eve to come here, too, only to see that they were already doing just that.

"Shouldn't have wasted time talking in the first place…" Eve muttered, grabbing my hand. I reached for JJ's arm—

And faltered when a wave of power rushed through me. It was a subtle one, less a tsunami like the ones Staghead threw around, and more like a gentle breeze.. The gentleness was a deception, though. It was less that it wasn't strong and more that the full intensity of this power was focused on a single thing, and that thing wasn't me.

The thing was space, and the power settled over it like a film of glass, not letting it bend no matter how I pulled.

"What's wrong, ma chèrie?"

I glanced at JJ, then turned my alarmed expression towards the rest of the team. "Someone put a dimensional lock on us!"

Staghead cackled. "Did you think you will escape? No one escapes the Wild Hunt!"

Power flowed out of him again, this time not a flood, but a trickle. It fell to the ground, and the ground soaked it in… The ground that had little to do with Earth and everything to do with the strange fey spirits of Under Hills.

The strange shadows began to move on their own accord. The wind blew, creating echoing whispers with the tongues of grass and leaves. They all repeated the same. "No one escapes the Wild Hunt! No one escapes the Wild Hunt!"

Feeling chills rushing down my spine, I recoiled from Staghead, who was now grinning triumphantly… Until JJ tensed his grip on his neck a little. The next instant, that smug smile turned into panicked attempts to gasp for breath, and the creepy whispers disappeared like they were never there.

JJ let Staghead choke for a couple of seconds before relaxing his fingers again. "Don't forget that I can still end your life whenever I want," he said with an icy smile and even colder tone. "If we lose to anyone today, it won't be you, Staghead."

The fey grit his teeth, but refrained from speaking more.

His remaining henchmen, who were slowly scuttling away until now, only to pause when there seemed to be reinforcements, continued to scuttle away. Bob gave them all dark look, which only sped their progress.

Then he turned to us. I saw how he lifted his eyes to JJ, only for them to grow unfocused and slip to Staghead instead. Then Bob shook his head and focused on me and Eve instead. "There's only two people. We can just take them on. If they are anything like Staghead, it won't be that easy, but it's not impossible, either."

"Maybe we will be able to deal with them. Fey have their law too, and while they don't like intruders, Staghead went for us first. We had a right to chase him," Eve suggested. "We should try to chat, at least at first."

JJ hummed. "I can't imagine the masters of this place to be happy with the amount of the fey kin whose lives we have cut short already. They might decide to use their own right of vengeance and force us to pay for them with our own lives if we want to live." JJ looked at Staghead. "Or to release him. Which is… something I can't in my good conscience do. People like him don't stop unless either they are dead or the people who they think of as enemies."

"You will have no disagreements from me…" Eve murmured. "But I would really like to interrogate him first. Where does he keep the fragments of the seal he already gathered?"

"You can only dream about getting your hands on them," Staghead grit out. "Even if I die here, someone will continue my work!"

"Oooh." I raised my brows. "That sounds to me like something an ideological criminal would say. Some… ultra-radical of an idea. I wonder how is that related to the seal, though…"

Staghead didn't rise to the bait and instead just gave me a disdainful look.

Eve turned to the approaching riders. They were closing in now, and I could hear the hooves of their horses trampling the earth.

"We don't have much more time to talk," she said. "But considering that we can't tell how many more are just a short horse ride away from us, let's at least try to keep things civil for as long as we can?"

"I don't know the fey etiquette, but I will try. Bow is a bow no matter what, right?" I smiled jokingly. "It won't break my back."

"Careful, ma chèrie. In some cultures, a wrong bow can end up breaking not your back, but your neck instead." JJ mirrored my smile. His expression sobered when he turned towards the riders. With a sword in one hand and Staghead's neck still in another, he was a sight, and not one that inspired peaceful thoughts.

But then, I found as I looked at them, neither were the riders.