Artemis Fowl and the Dawn Pursuit

Chapter 7: Control

Artemis and Matt stood in shock as Holly ended the call.

"What just happened?" Foaly asked, voicing the thoughts of everybody on the shuttle.

"She just mocked him after he stabbed her," Artemis said quietly. He turned to look at Matt. "Is that typical Aurora behaviour?" he queried.

Matt seemed to snap out of whatever daze he was in because he shook his head. "Aurora is pissed. He holds all the power, by the looks of it, and she's trying to upset him every chance she gets to show that he doesn't have power over her. She used to do that to the guys who tormented-"

He seemed to remember something halfway through the sentence because he stopped himself.

"You mentioned she was bullied before," Artemis noted dryly. "You are doing a really bad job of keeping her secrets."

"She didn't want him to see she was scared," Butler remarked from the corner he was huddled up in. "That's why she did it. Artemis, you are an expert in body language and you didn't see that? By the dwarf stabbing her, she realised they would hurt her if they had to, or even if they wanted to."

"She's hurt," Matt whispered, almost to himself. "You promised me she wouldn't get hurt!" he yelled at Holly.

"I didn't foresee her hijacking a shuttle and flying directly to him," Holly replied. "If she had followed our plan-"

"She would have been dead," Matt interjected. "Is this about saving Aurora, or is it about preventing humans from finding out about fairies?"

He went into the sleeping quarters, slamming the door as he disappeared. The silence that remained was deafening.

*********

Aurora woke up in a small concrete cell, lying on top of a pile of hessian sacks. She let out a groan as she glanced down at her leg, running a hand over the smooth, unblemished skin.

"Good, you're awake," Finch said from where he leant against the bars of her cell. "The auction begins in four hours, and we need to get to the location."

"Screw you," Aurora spat, as both Nexxio and Vernix appeared, flanking Finch.

Finch unlocked the cell, and Vernix walked in. "Turn around," he ordered, removing the handcuffs from his belt.

Aurora sucker-punched him, watching him drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes as she silently thanked the self-defence classes Ronny had insisted they attend all those years ago. Nexxio rushed forward, and she managed to hit him hard enough in the jaw that something cracked. He stumbled back into the wall of her cell, cradling his face.

"Tut tut, Miss Carter. That's sneaky," Finch scolded, watching as Aurora rushed toward him, fireballs appearing in both her hands. He pulled out a handgun and pointed it at her, smiling sinisterly.

"You know, I never wanted to sell you- I was going to keep you, as you are the first human-fairy hybrid we have ever seen. You'd make an adorable pet."

"There's no way in hell I would ever be your pet!" Aurora shouted.

"That's good then," Finch said, a sadistic smile lighting up his face. "Because we need to get you ready!"

Nexxio tagged her with his stun gun, and she collapsed to the floor, lying vulnerable at Finch's feet. Finch and Nexxio dragged her to his office. Here, they bound her ankles and pulled her hands behind her back. Nexxio slapped tape across her mouth and shoved her into a specially-designed cage that was made of metal impervious to goblin fire. Finch pulled an expensive fire-proof sheet over the top of the cage and together they rolled it out of the house to the truck that Finch had hired especially for the event.