The leather of my jacket crinkles and my daggers jingle faintly as I creep along the rooftops of the derelict buildings along the street where I know I’ll catch my prey.
This is what I live for.
Everyone needs to find some sort of meaning in life. I’ve found mine, though it’s not what anyone else might choose.
I’ve been different my whole life. Bullied. Ignored. Feared.
But in these moments, I make a difference.
In these moments, I matter in this world.
I see him exit his favorite bar and turn down the alley toward a restaurant, where the last customers are heading out into the night with their takeout containers.
One is a woman in a khaki trench coat, takeout tucked under one arm, her petite figure shielded from the rain as she holds her hood over her head and hurries into the dark.
She crosses the street to a nearby intersection, probably waiting for a cab, and I see the man I’ve been following cross the street higher up where she can’t see him.
But I do.
Something draws me toward men like this, helps me sense them even when far away.
I creep along the rooftop, unseen by either the woman or the man as they turn and walk down a nearby alley.
She’s not paying attention, looking down at her phone as she follows the route to where her ride will pick her up on the other side of the alley.
She’ll never make it there if I don’t move soon.
I lower myself over the side of the wall, then drop quietly to the ground right in front of the man who stops and stares at me with wild eyes.
He glares over my shoulder as his prey disappears into a cab that pulls up in front of her.
Then he quickly slides his hand, which was holding a knife, into the pocket of his long coat.
He lets out a huff of frustration and turns to leave, but I grab him by the back of his coat, stopping him.
He whirls, trying to jerk out of my hold but only managing to lose his coat.
He lunges toward me, aiming a punch at my face, but I dodge to the side easily. I have fought much faster foes than him.
I pull out my phone as I continue to dodge his clumsy punches. I scroll to his profile and begin to read his offenses, still ducking side to side as his face gets only redder and more frustrated.
Finally, when I decide I’m wasting time, I turn and shove him hard in the chest with one hand, sending him flying back into a metal garbage can, which catches him as it falls over.
He stares up at me in shock, trying to push garbage away as I approach.
I know he’s surprised. He has half a foot of height on me and a lot of muscle. Whereas I’m a not-very-tall girl who likes her pizza.
That doesn’t change the fact that I’m incredibly strong.
I stomp a foot on his pant leg to hold him in place, then crouch to look him in the eyes as he tries to scrabble backward.
Cowards like this only want to fight those who can’t fight back.
I sigh as I read his offenses out loud to him again. His uncle is a prominent judge, so they keep letting him out on low bail to reoffend.
His eyes are crazy as he watches me, not caring about the victims I’m listing, but only about his own skin.
“You know, I really hate rapists,” I say, tucking my phone back into my pocket.
His eyes narrow cruelly as his lips curve up in a smirk. “The police know I’m innocent. They’ll let me out again and again.” His eyes roam over me. “Not my type, but maybe I’ll visit you next.”
“Ooh, promises promises, big boy,” I say, reaching forward to grab him by the collar, jerking him in close.
My knee moves over his groin, and though he struggles, he’s finally realizing he’ll never be able to get away from me. “How does it feel to be the one who is powerless?” I murmur against his ear as he lets out a little whimper.
“Let me go,” he says. “I’ll pay you. I’ll get you a job. My uncle knows everyone.”
I press down a little harder on his balls, and his face goes white in the dim moonlight bouncing off the walls of the alley. “He doesn’t know me.”
“Let me go. Shit, what are you doing?” He’s genuinely panicked now. He knows I’m going to take something from him. Something he can’t get back.
He knows he’s powerless to stop me. Like the women he attacked were powerless to stop him.
And he knows, when he looks into my merciless eyes, that I’m not going to stop. Just like he won’t.
I slam my knee down, and he lets out an ear-piercing shriek as I stand to move away from him.
I stride down the alley, grateful that with my full-face black ski mask, he only saw my eyes. I glance back just once to see him rolling on the ground, flailing and screaming.
People are flooding into the alley, wanting to see what’s wrong.
I pull out my phone, scrolling through the pictures of his victims. The women brave enough to try to protest, to get him put away, only to see him put back out on the street.
I wish I could tell them they are safe now, but the truth is there are more men like him out here.
But I’m here too. And as long as I have strength, I’ll be here, watching out.
I pull my hood up over my head and hail a cab, ready to disappear into the night before anyone suspects a thing.
But just as I’m about to get into the car, I feel an odd sensation like someone’s watching me.
I glance up at the roof, wondering if I see something moving in the darkness. But by the time I blink, it’s gone, making me wonder if I was just imagining the whole thing.
As I sit down in the cab, I still feel a little uneasy.
Because the face my mind conjured in the darkness, when I thought someone was watching me from the rooftop, was Brett’s, and he seemed angry.
Yes, I definitely must be imagining things if I thought I saw something like that.
6
Brett (Boreas)
As I stride down the street toward Avery’s place of work, I’m still furious about last night.
I decided to follow her when she went out, just in case a chaos prince decided to do the same.
I can’t even tell her I’m furious because she doesn’t know I was following her. She doesn’t know I was watching as she took such incredible risks.
Though I can’t disagree with her motivations, I don’t want her to get in trouble with human police.
I’m still stunned from hearing her read off the list of crimes that man had committed. How was he still out walking around? In my kingdom, he’d have been put down like a mad dog before he even finished his first attack—or sent to the chaos realm.
Then again, humans can’t sense chaos like fae can.
Now that I think about it, I really can’t blame Avery for her actions, but I don’t want her alone in the dark.
Not with a chaos prince out there hunting her. Looking to harvest her magic and leave her a shell of herself.
I’m not going to tell the others about this, not yet. I’m going to approach her, cautiously, and see if I can get her to see sense.
No one gave us rules for how to deal with beacons. What we can say or not. So I’m free to use whatever measures necessary.
At least that’s how I see it.
A badly painted sign with a cartoonish dragon on it hangs down in front of the store where Avery works. The dragon is holding a board game and smiling, and I bite back a chuckle while thinking of any real dragon’s face if he saw this.