Page 45 of Faerie Trials

He kept going. “What would we do to keep busy?”

Blood rushed to my cheeks. “I’m sure I could think of a few things. If you want to hear them.”

I didn’t get a chance to hear his answer. Not when two beefy hands grabbed my elbows from behind and whirled me around. My brain worked furiously to understand what I saw.

Blinking, I stared at the craggy monstrosity with skin like rocks and his—I guessed it was a him—sidekick, tall and willowy with Spanish moss dripping from the tips of her hair. Both of them stared down at me and made sure to block off any escape.

“Miss Alderidge? We’re with the Faerie Bureau of Investigation,” the rock man stated. “We’d like to ask you a few questions. Come with us, please.”

The hallway fell silent around us. The blush on my cheeks turned from anticipation to flat out embarrassment.

“What is this about?” I asked them as my insides went cold.

“Like my partner said. We have a few questions for you and we can’t wait for answers. You’ll have to make up your class load at a later date. Hopefully this won’t take long.” The woman with the moss hair raised a hand and beckoned for me to step forward. Her cohort loosened his grip enough to let me breathe and I stepped away from the locker, hiding my shaking hands at my sides.

I cast a glance over my shoulder at Mike. And noticed how Mr. Meat Hands still hadn’t let me go completely. His boulder fingers lingered at my wrist, prepared to grab me if I made any sudden moves.

Is this okay?I asked Mike without speaking.

He nodded once. “Go with them, Tavi. It’s going to be okay. I’ll make sure of it.” He took note of the two officers. “Don’t worry about anything.”

Wasit going to be okay? The bureau investigators, which by the way I’d never heard of before, dragged me down the hall without enough time to make excuses with my professors. I listened to the whispers and the snickers behind me.

Great, this would do wonders for my already low image here. Not to mention I’d be put on the shit list with my classes right off the bat.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked them on our way out the front doors. Figuring I at least deserved an answer there.

Rock Man looked down at me with what might have been a sympathetic smile. I couldn’t really tell. “Don’t worry about it.”

Don’tworryabout it? Did he know me? “Sounds like the kind of thing terrorists say before they kidnap someone and they disappear forever.”

The moss-haired woman let out a single dry laugh but didn’t answer. Neither one of them seemed inclined to do anything except stare ahead with twin stony expressions.

They didn’t release their hold until we made it down to the grass-covered train platform, still green even in winter. The train, shaped like a silver bullet with no rails in sight, was powered by magic.

Fear tore me open from the inside and filled the ragged spaces with freezing cold. Colder than the winter air. I didn’t want to go inside. Inside meant no room to make a move. It meant having my control taken from me completely.

“Come now, Miss Alderidge,” Meat Hands said.

They loaded me into the train without any further conversation. No names, no introductions. No explanations about why they were pulling me from school in the first place. I knew nothing, and the imbalance of power had my stomach rising sickeningly high. The train took off with enough force to send me hurtling into one of the windows.

Neither of the bureau officers moved. They stared straight ahead. Terror tickled the inside of my ribs. Was this about what happened the other night?

It had to be.

And why had I never heard about the Faerie investigative bureau or whatever before? Wasn’t this kind of like the king’s secret service version of the FBI?

My stomach dropped farther when the train rolled to a stop near the outskirts of the town, somewhere I’d never been before.

“This is us.” Rock Man took hold of my arm again with his companion leading the way out. A few steps took us off the platform heading toward a squat one-story building blending in with the landscape like it was shaped right out of the mountainside. Grass grew on its roof, kept growing by a constant stream of magic, and smoke curled from a chimney. To me, it looked like any other Faerie house.

Which meant they’d probably brought me here to kill me. And of course no one would find my body if they didn’t want me to be found. I could be officially MIA.

To hell with the questions. The king had decided I was too big of a problem to let live anymore. That must be it.

The woman opened the door with a spell and Rock Man and I followed her inside. I heard the click of a lock behind me and my throat went dry. Great, this was it. This was the end and I never even got to tell Mike how I felt about him. I mean, surely he knew. I thought back to the make-out session in the hot springs grotto with no little regret.

I should have gone for the full experience while I’d had the chance. What would Mike think if I didn’t come back?

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