Eris (The Lost Goddesses #4)

2.

As Elise predicted, the day was a drag. The sandwich roll she bought from the building's cafe had hair in it, and the coffee was cold. Her computer shut itself down twice for updates. The scanner alignment stretched all the writing on the pages, forcing Elise to do them again. Chrissy got more anxious as the day went on, her buzzing from the night before wearing off, leaving her nauseous and twitchy.

"What the hell did they put in that homebrew?" Elise asked, passing her some stomach tablets that she always kept handy. With a two-hour commute every day, you learned to always be prepared.

"I don't know, maybe someone put fun mushrooms in the salad," Chrissy complained, looking gray.

"Not so fun now, are they?"

"Eat a dick," she groaned and downed the tablets. "It doesn't feel like a hangover. It feels like dread and really bad juju."

"That's a typical Monday for you," Elise said, rubbing her back.

By the time five o'clock rocked around, Elise was packed up and ready to go. The stag fae on the card looked at her with enough judgment that she stuck her tongue out at it.

Stupid Chrissy is making me paranoid now . Elise just wanted to go home and have a hot bath.

The footpaths on the way to the train station were already packed with people. Elise had her arm tucked through Chrissy's to help keep her upright.

"I need to sleep for a week," she said.

"Drink some electrolytes and feel better," Elise replied, letting her go once they reached the bottom of the stairs and heading for her platform.

Three women and a man walked past Elise dressed as some kind of crazy forest nymphs. They wore leather leggings and their long hair in braids decorated with feathers. They had dark blue war paint all over their arms and face in intricate spirals.

Looks like these guys managed to get the Solstice off work . They were probably off to a party at a pagan convention.

"Cool costumes, guys," Elise said with a smile. One of the women hissed in reply, flashing her fangs. The others merely stared at her before walking away. Weird . No one else was looking at them as they walked the opposite way through the crowd; people just got out of their way. Honestly, it wasn't the oddest thing Elise had seen on London public transport.

Elise had to stand for the first thirty minutes next to a guy with a nasty body odor and a woman who wouldn't stop talking on her phone. Still, by some miracle of the transport gods, she managed to get a chair in the front of the carriage once they got to Woking. Elise pulled out her eBook reader, but it refused to turn on. She tried resetting it, and still nothing. She could have cried out of sheer frustration.

This day can't get any worse. Then her phone died.

"You've got to be kidding me," Elise muttered. It had been fully charged when she had left work. She looked up at a man cursing across the aisle. As she stared around, she realized everyone's electrical devices had died.

Elise didn't have a chance to contemplate it because the lights flickered and turned off next. People complained as the train ground to a halt, and the side doors opened, sending icy wind into the carriage.

That was when the screaming started.

"What the fuck is going on?" a woman said somewhere in the dark. Elise looked through the glass panel in the door that connected to the next carriage just as a man's face got slammed against the glass, his blood spurting everywhere.

Elise could make out a flurry of movement of passengers brawling and women screaming and clawing each other's eyes out. A man was stomping on the head of another, blood spilling out onto the floor. Through the chaos, there was a flicker of a figure in gold. The people moved out of his way, and Elise covered her mouth to hold back her scream. The asshole from her fae card was staring right at her.

Someone grabbed Elise by the hair, and she turned quickly to shove the woman off. People started shouting in the carriage. A man used his laptop to smack the passenger in front of him hard in the back of the head.

Elise crouched down on the floor, shaking like hell and hoping no one would see her. The doors connecting to the carriage opened, and she held her breath, dreading what was coming.

Ivory stag antlers smeared with gold appeared, and the tallest man she had ever seen stepped into the carriage. He was wearing golden armor in delicate interlocking designs. His long white hair hung in a braid down his back and ended in red tips.

He turned to face her, his eyes vivid scarlet under the golden mask he wore. He had twin swords hanging from his back, and eying them, Elise crouched down lower on the carriage floor, pushing back against the wall to get away from him.

Everyone was too busy killing each other to notice the world's scariest fae cosplayer in their midst. His armor got splattered with blood as a woman knocked her own head against the bar on top of the chair.

Golden light shivered out of him, and then all the screaming stopped as everyone in the carriage slumped dead. Elise gagged, terror clawing at her, and waited to meet the same fate. Death by the hands of a creature she hadn’t believed existed. When the killing light touched her, it only made her skin tingle before moving back to the fae staring at her, scarlet eyes wide with confusion.

What the actual fuck is happening?

Another fae covered in woad and blood climbed up through the side door and said something in a guttural, Gaelic sounding language. He noticed Elise cowering and drew a wicked-looking blade.

There was a sharp clang an inch above her head, and Elise peeked an eye open. The golden one's blade slid the other one's away. He hissed out something, an order, judging by the tone, and the black-haired fae drew back in surprise and horror.

The golden fae moved out of the way, and the other fae sprang into action, pulling Elise out of her hiding place. Elise kicked and punched out at him, but it was no use. He dragged her out and pushed her to her knees in front of the golden fae.

His red eyes shone behind the mask as he observed her. Then he cut his thumb on the edge of his blade and smeared his blood along Elise's forehead before sticking it in her mouth and running it against her teeth. Elise tried to spit it out, but he gripped her face, holding her jaw shut until she swallowed. Elise's stomach churned, her mouth tasting of honey and flowers.

With that done, he jumped lightly out of the train and onto a white horse that was waiting outside of the carriage. The black- haired fae bound Elise's hands with a strap of leather, then she was thrown over the front of a saddle. The fae climbed behind her and pressed a dagger to the back of her neck. He muttered something Elise didn't understand but got his meaning clear enough. Don't try and escape, or I'll slit your throat. Elise nodded, too scared to do anything else.

She turned her head and saw the army of mounted fae surrounding the train. As they passed the open carriages, she caught glimpses of what remained of the people who had torn each other apart in the horrifying fit of madness. Elise gagged violently at the sight of so much death and carnage. The people had done it to themselves; the army hadn't left their mounts, only watched.

The golden prince looked at Elise again, his eyes cold. "Take her back to the camp," he said, and she jolted, realizing she could understand him. "I'll deal with her when I return."

"Yes, my prince," the warrior behind her said.

With growing horror, Elise watched the golden prince make an elegant gesture with his hand. The train hummed back to life, doors shutting automatically, as the train started to move back towards London, carrying the vicious madness with it.