The Other Side of the Lie (EDITING, ON HOLD)

Twenty-five-Hawk

He was cold. Hawk was encased in ice, with only small holes that let air pass to his nose and a small indentation to let his chest rise and fall. They kept him alive. How thoughtful of them.

He could still see, although everything was distorted, blobs of color set on a field of pale, pale blue. When he got out of there, he was going to punch somebody. Hawk honestly didn't care who it was as long as it was a Frost fey.

A cracking sound distracted him from his murderous musings. Lines appeared in the ice, and a second later it shattered, and he was free. Except for the icy manacles that bound his ankles and wrists together. Wonderful.

Around him, his friends found themselves in similar situations, manacles like grossly large jewelry on all of them but Mist, who found herself in a cage with bars close enough together that even if she shifted to her human shape she would not be able to squeeze through. Well great, he thought.

"Wonderful," a melodious voice purred. "You've all finally warmed up. Now we can talk."

The voice came from a beauty perched on a glass throne. Her long jet hair fell over her shoulder, her lips pale pink and skin as white as snow. She was stunning. And she was barely two years older than Chusi.

"You must be wondering," the beauty went on, "why I am here and not my mother, the Queen." There was a note of disdain in the girl's voice when she said 'queen'. "I am Brix. You may call me Your Highness."

Mist growled.

"Quiet the pup please," Brix ordered Swift, the closest to the werewolf's cage.

Hawk couldn't help but smirk. Brix had absolutely no idea what she had just done. Swift was not about to let that slide.

"Your Lowliness may go try to put a muzzle on Mist if you like," Swift growled. "I just hope you don't particularly value your fingers. Or your life." Mist let out a low, menacing snarl to underscore the point.

Brix frowned. "How dare a lowly human call me such!"

Hawk couldn't help but gape at her. She didn't realize that there were no humans present. Not to mention the way she talked spoke of times long past. Not even in his great-grandparents' time had anyone spoken like that. It was absolutely archaic.

"No humans here, love," Adrian replied in a sickly sweet tone that promised to be biting. "I only see fey, witch, vampire, werewolf and a Soulhunter."

Brix spluttered with indignation. "Vampire? Witch? But I—"

" —expected that we would be a group of mostly fey travelling with werewolf and a few humans," Swan finished for her. The princess began to seethe. It was really not something she should do, Hawk noted with some humor. Her face turned a very unattractive shade of purple with hints of red here and there.

"Bella?" Hunter looked expectantly at his sister.

"Yes, Bella, as much as your brother and I would love to kill the other over you, for this once I agree. My toes are going numb, and I don't feel like experiencing the effects of frostbite. I like having all my digits," Hawk concurred.

Rolling her eyes, Bella did as asked. Despite his bravado, Hawk felt a definite sense of relief when the ice shackling him turned to feathers—why feathers?—and floated gently to the ground. When they had first been captured her spells had done nothing to even slow the ice, and Hawk had worried that events would repeat themselves. That they didn't meant that Brix was not at all strong enough to stop them if it came down to that.

Mist shook feathers from her fur as the purple of Brix's face transformed into an ashen color. "Mist, would you do the honors?" Bella graciously asked the wolf. With a toothy grin Mist complied, stalking over on silent paws to guard Brix and prevent her escape.