Free Changeling on the Job: A Changeling Wars Novella by A.G. Stewart Page A

it was too late. Both his car and mine lurched off the road and into a park, narrowly avoiding the sturdy trunks of pine trees. I slammed into his sedan once again, just as we hit the top of a slope. My car got the tiniest bit of air before falling to the ground. My teeth snapped together, my jaw aching. That was going to cause hell to my suspension.
    The Guardian’s car tipped and then rolled onto its roof, skidding across the green expanse of a lawn before crashing into a picnic table.
    I hit the brakes, swerving across the grass before shuddering to a halt.
    Anwynn had somehow slipped from the seat and onto the floor, her paws on the seat as though it were a buoy and she was drowning at sea. I could see the whites of her eyes.
    “I think I hate you,” she said.
    “Hate me later,” I said, kicking my door open and drawing my sword.
    The Guardian was already halfway out of his window by the time I got out of my car. He was just too damned quick. A groan came from the woman strapped into the back seat. A swell of relief hit me. Melanie Baker was still alive after that tumble.
    The four remaining sprites flitted out of the windows with their master. They were clearly injured from our earlier tussle, but so were Anwynn and I. The Guardian gained his feet before I could reach him, sword in hand.
    “Why are you so eager for a second round when the first one clearly treated you so poorly?” he asked.
    “Hey,” I said. “Don’t want to be a bother, but you’ve got a little something…right there,” I said, rubbing at my lip.
    He touched his lip with his free hand and found blood. He sneered, his bloody teeth making his handsome face suddenly monstrous. “If the only way you can injure me is to run into me with a giant steel machine, I can’t say I’m overly impressed.”
    “What’s your name?” I said, keeping my tone light.
    “What does it matter?”
    “It matters to me.”
    “Lethenan,” he said.
    “Lethenan,” I said, letting his name roll around on my tongue, “why Grian? Why try to free her? You could attach yourself to other Sidhe. You don’t need to do this, to restore her to any semblance of power. Her era is over.”
    “Because she was good to me, and because I’m one of the Le Fays,” he said. “Not all our family was fond of our leadership, but at least we had it. Do you know what it’s been like since you locked our Queen away? Our family has been beset by infighting. We’ve fallen into disarray, and I know the other families are laughing at us.”
    One of the Le Fays. “So you’re related to Kailen.” I circled him a little, testing his guard. He kept the car at his back, keeping Anwynn and me from flanking him.
    “Distantly, at best,” Lethenan said.
    But I could see it now, in the eyes, the jaw. The family resemblance. “And what about Kailen? What about your King?”
    His eyes went wild, and I recognized Grian in him. “A king in exile is no king at all.” And then he leapt forward before I could attempt any further reasoning.
    The sprites scattered, two in each direction.
    I danced out of the way of his first blow, my feet surprisingly light after my injuries. I darted forward, slashing. The world around me blurred and I felt the stir of the magic within me, sustaining my strength.
    He blocked me, but barely.
    I fell into the rhythm of it, pushing him back toward the car, forcing him to give ground. Every step back he took was an exercise in balance on this uneven ground. He could catch a stone, a twig, and that moment’s hesitation would afford me a chance to strike.
    He thrust at my chest and I blocked him easily. I was doing better than last time. I was doing way better. I might actually win this thing.
    But that was when I realized, the reason I was doing so well was because it was just me against Lethenan. A quick glance to my left told me that Anwynn was fighting two of them. That left two more unaccounted for.
    As I ducked beneath another blow, I saw them. They were