THOSE HAD BEEN FAIRIES? If Nasilain and Vinsor hadn’t gone into the kill or be killed mode, I never would’ve guessed those things could tear us to pieces. They sounded as beautiful as they looked. From a distance.

As soon as the colorful creatures had come close, their jagged teeth filled my view. Their mouths unhinged, so regardless of their small size, they could take a bite about the size of an ice cream scoop.

Radiation or not, good thing Nasilain had blasted them. We would’ve been dead if they'd gotten through whatever invisible shield held them away from us. If this is what she could do with magic, why did we even need guns?

“Why the hell are your fairies so evil looking? Why can’t they be as fabulous as our fairies?” Jill stammered as she tried to keep the car on the dirt road, going way too fast for this kind of terrain.

Vinsor reached over, took her left hand, and pulled an uneven gold band off her ring finger, then handed it to Nasilain. After a minute, Jill sat straighter and stopped talking nonsense. Vinsor returned the ring to her.

That was too sudden of a change.

“Yes,” Vinsor said. “I’m a demon. I can calm people down if it’s needed.”

And he could read my mind. I put on the sunglasses that Nasilain had found for me. Magic and demons. Just great.

“So, you guys were surprised about the fairies, right? It wasn’t just me?” I could’ve sworn I had seen shocked faces.

“They aren’t supposed to be here,” Vinsor said. “They only live in Auralia. There are a few counties that allow them in captivity because they believe that the faerie gods protect the balance of life and death, but that’s in tiny numbers. After what happened on Dead Island, no one wants to take chances.”

“What happened on Dead Island?” It better not be what I thought it was.

“It’s a dead island,” Nasilain said in a subdued tone. “First, the fairies killed all the animals, then there was nothing left to eat, so most of the fairies ate each other or died of starvation. There are some left because they can get fish from the surface of the water, plus whatever gets washed up. In Auralia, there are a lot of natural predators to keep their population down, but the rest of the world can’t handle them.”

“How fast do they reproduce?” Could we hunt them down before their numbers go out of control?

“They can triple their population within a month. Judging by the size of that hive, there should be at least another five or six swarms around somewhere. That’s how they grow to stay safe. At first, they split up into groups of a few dozen, then into a few groups of a few hundred, then they grow into groups of thousands, band together and wipe out an entire city in a matter of hours.”

So, they were homicidal rabbits with wings. Great.

“What does this Auralia place have to control their population?” Maybe those animals could be brought here to balance things out.

“Auralia is what they call Australia,” Jill said. “Everything there wants to kill you and then kill each other.”

“So, we’re not gonna bring giant spiders into Ohio?” I asked, just to be sure.

Nasilain gave me a look that answered my question. Great. Fucking great.

Our camp wouldn’t stand a chance against fairies unless we found some way to defend it, which I honestly had no idea how we would even begin to go about. The caves could probably be secured enough, but what about the food supply?

“I’m surprised they haven’t attacked the camp yet,” I said. There would be a lot to chew on for those things. Damn, all these people. I couldn’t let them die.

“I’m not,” Vinsor said. “They don’t attack large groups of people until after their numbers are greater. For now, they will go after wild animals and a few people traveling the roads. They are quite intelligent, considering how brutal they are. They know what fights to pick.”

A matter of time before they attack us.

By the time our car pulled into the camp, Bralazin’s team had already returned. Ricci would probably be on his way unless they got munched.

“Alright,” Jill shouted, her face more serious than I had ever seen it before. “Someone brought fairies to North Aika. I don’t know how long we have until they try to attack us, but we aren’t going to sit around and wait. We need to secure the buildings and the caves. No one goes outside unless Nasilain is there to shield them. Now, let’s go get our wooden structures in order.”

I expected everyone to panic at the idea, but they found their groove and got to work. Bralazin took a group of soldiers with him. Vinsor took another. Jill and Nasilain took charge of the elves. I ended up sticking with Nasilain’s group since I had been trailing her around anyway.

“Get all the animals into landing bay two. I want the chickens on the top shelves to make room for the horses and the goats,” Nasilain ordered. All of the cattle lived in tents, which fairies could rip through in seconds. “Belka and Strelka will go to a separate building. We can’t risk leaving them with the chickens.”

The elves began checking the walls for any weaknesses and doing their best to reinforce the holes. With the teeth those fairies had, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could chew through wood.

“What about the wind power generators?” I asked. “If fairies are intelligent, they might try to break them to get us to come out.

Nasilain looked at the few windmills standing in the center of the camp. “We’ll bring them into the caves later. I can power them up.”

Right. Magic winds.

“Can fairies chew through chicken wire?” I eyed the trees.

“Yes,” Nasilain answered. “Aluminum is too soft and too thin. If we could connect it to the generators so we could electrocute those fairies, that would work, but we can’t do it in this camp. It’s all trees and water.”

Goddamn magical problems. Those winged bastards needed to die, preferably before they chewed through aluminum and wood to get to us. We needed a better defensive position.

“It’d be nice if we had that castle.”

Nasilain stopped and looked at me, her eyes betraying fear and uncertainty, but the rest of her body charged for a fight. “We need to secure the camp first. We’ll think about the future plans later.”