Page 2 of Faerie Hunted

“It’s fine, we’re almost finished,” I told her. “Have you, ah, had any luck? Tracking down your sister?”

Her sister, my missing mother.

A familiar clenching sensation began in my heart and traveled down my torso before it settled, low and hard, in my gut. My mom was alive. I’d found my family here in Faerie, and accidentally gotten my pure-blooded fae cousin turned into a shifter.

My fault.

Nexa shook her head and strands of shiny reddish-brown hair slipped from the intricate curled updo she sported today. “I’m sorry to say, Tavi, but I haven’t had any luck yet. I won’t stop trying for you.”

I nodded and swallowed down my disappointment. I should be familiar withthat, too.

“Just because I haven’t had any luck yet doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.” Nexa’s tone took on a happier, upbeat quality. Was she trying to convince me, or herself? “She’s out there somewhere. The last word I received from my people said she was in Yelaine.”

The name clanged through me.

I tilted my head to the side, only half paying attention to the way Coral and Noren attacked each other, Coral going on the defensive more often than not.

“What’s Yelaine?”

“It’s a large metropolitan area. I know, it’s hard to imagine a faerie city out there but it’s nearly eight hundred miles away. The topography of the land changes the closer you get to the coast. Most fae have chosen to test their mettle in a more progressive setting rather than the forests.” Nexa sighed, reached a hand behind her neck to work out a kink. “Things aren’t what they used to be.”

I wasn’t sure if she missed the old ways or not.

“Why would my mom want to go to a city?” I pressed.

“I’m only guessing here, mind you, having not spoken to my sister since your birth…” Nexa cleared her throat, slightly embarrassed. “I’d imagine she’d want to get as far away as possible from the king. She escaped his death sentence, which makes her a wanted fugitive. But stop worrying!”

She broke off to grab me in a hug. It took me precious seconds to return the gesture, my muscles twitching as if I wasn’t used to it.

And on some level, I wasn’t. Physical touch still felt all kinds of awkward for me.

“I promise I won’t give up looking,” Nexa finished.

“I appreciate it.”

We called it a day five minutes later. Coral wasn’t much on goodbyes, however, and skulked off to the house with her pretty painted nails in the air.

It was about the best I’d get from her—not like it mattered—because although my own wounds had healed, I still had a long way to go before I felt right again.

Which made long practices like these ultra-hard.

The second she and Nexa disappeared, I hunched over and sucked overheated air through my burning nostrils.

Squeezing my eyes shut against a swell of pain, I counted to ten, then another ten, until I managed to get things under control.

At last I clicked my tongue and Noren fell into step beside me.

We made our way carefully out of the backyard through a side gate hidden almost entirely by roses. He knocked me with his massive shoulder and I rubbed my hand through his fur, gliding my fingers through the thick strands.

“Sorry, buddy,” I whispered. “I’m not feeling the best. Today took a lot out of me.” Nexa’s tea had settled my stomach at the moment but not for long.

It was only days since my fight with Claribel, the rogue Bureau agent working for Dorian Jade. Days since I mentally manipulated Noren from a raging mindless beast into the docile pet he was now, and although my physical wounds were gone…the rest of me remained fragile.

Hot, nauseated, you name it.

My joints ached, and there were times when I listed sideways under a random attack of dizziness.

I’d had a flu that felt the same. Which meant this had to be some kind of reaction to using up too much magic.

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