The Degenerate (Mythics Book One)

11

 The chains around the door jangled again, sending my heart climbing up into my throat.

There was a fizzing sound and I watched as the chain dissolved into ash, sifting to the ground like sand in an hourglass. The door swung outward and a girl stepped inside, two other people following suit. The middle one glanced at us, her dark eyes flat and uninterested. I openly stared at her, because she was unlike anyone I had ever seen before. She radiated exotic beauty and wielded it like a weapon. Her hair was shaved in an undercut, the top braided into dyed ocean blue dreads. Her dark brown skin was smooth and speckled with freckles along the bridge of her nose. She wore loose cargo pants with a large tool belt wrapped around her waist and sported a faded red t-shirt with rips along her stomach like claw marks.

Her brown eyes landed on me, glowing a luminous green. Instantly, the shackles on my wrists turned to ash.

Theo's and Rafe's did the same. Rafe was already at his feet, greeting the three new people with his signature smile. I watched the other people, taking in their features and trying to figure out what they were.

The man on the right was tall and willowy like a dancer, corded with wiry muscles along his arms. His neck and forearms were covered in a tapestry of tattoos, different colors against his dark skin, although I couldn't make out the designs in this light. Spiky white hair like spun silver framed elfin features--- a sharp nose, cutting cheekbones, narrow eyes. The stature and brief glimpse of a pointed ear told me he was either a faerie or a Dökkálfar. A dark elf. So rare that I had never seen one before and I'd even started thinking they were just myths.

The other man was clearly a selkie with his enrapturing green-eyed gaze and long hair as soft and dark as midnight. His roman nose and square jaw were the height of his debonair looks, complete with the beginnings of scruff on his chin and full lips that seemed to be quirked into a smile. Around his neck were several layers of necklaces, all made from rope or twine and carrying carved stone charms the size of my thumb.

Theo and I stood beside each other, unsure of whether to fight or simply let things play out. At that moment, Rafe chose to come over to us and threw a haphazard arm over each of our shoulders. Theo's entire posture seemed to tighten like a bow-string, while I'd been caught off guard and nearly stumbled over backward.

"These are my people," Rafe explained. "Tiffany there is a pixie." The black girl looked Theo and I up and down. Suddenly, as if she had pulled away a curtain, I could see spindly wings the color of pine needles protruding from her shoulder blades. "Porter is a dark elf, in case you can't tell with all the brooding."

Porter sighed, seeming annoyed at everything. His skin was the color of the darkest night sky, his hair of white spider's silk, and his eyes were a piercing silver color, almost white.

The other guy--- the selkie, I assumed--- took long steps to meet us, his smile so warm that it did weird things to my heart, sent it tap dancing and tripping all over itself. He introduced himself as Adair in a voice thick with an Irish brogue. Just like every other of his kind, he was devastatingly handsome and he knew it. It was almost laughably cliche, but I knew he probably couldn't help it. Being flirtatious and amiable were just as big a part of his nature as his coat and the stones around his neck.

"What's going on?" demanded Theo.

Rafe sent Porter outside to keep watch and took up a stance next to Tiffany. The dark elf drew a sword the length of my entire body and prowled outside, spare light flickering off the silver blade like sparks. The door flapped shut after him.

"We have roughly seven minutes before the other soldiers catch up to us and see what happened," Rafe said. "For your sakes, I do hope you'll consider traveling with us for a little while." He finished that statement with a crooked grin. "It'll be fun," he added.