Page 37 of Taken By the Fae

My brows inch closer. “Of course not,” I snap. “What areyoudoing here?”

“I was a few blocks away when I heard them and then your annoying little heartbeat.”

“And you came to make sure I didn’t get hurt?” I almost smile.

She rolls her eyes. “Yes, Aurora. I live to ensure your safety from my kind. Why else would I be here?” The sarcastic tone of her voice makes it impossible not to grin now. There must be some kind of a gray area with fae when it comes to joking and lying.

Whatever I was going to say is cut off by the sight of the male fae flying. He lands with athudon the sidewalk and jumps up, brushing off his black denim jacket. His eyes swing to where Skylar and I stand, and I instinctively take a small step back. Skylar appears more annoyed than concerned, so I have to think the level of danger isn’t equal to the amount of anxiety creeping through me.

“What the fuck, Sky? Thanks for the backup.” His eyes slide to me. “Hi.”

I offer an awkward wave.

Skyler scowls. “I was coming. I got a little caught up.” She nods toward me.

“Don’t next time. She got away, along with our answers on the latest batch of missing fae.”

Missing fae? What is he talking about? My eyes flick back and forth between the guy and Skylar, waiting for one of them to explain, but I’m not surprised when neither does. Considering this fae’s familiarity with Skylar, I can guess he’s seelie, and she doesn’t seem worried about him seeing me, so I hope that means I’m not about to become fae food.

She shrugs. “We’ll deal with it.”

He rolls his eyes and then shifts away without another word, leaving Skylar and I alone on the sidewalk.

I arch a brow at her. “Care to explain whatthatwas about?”

She gives me a look.

“Right. Didn’t think so.”

* * *

When I get back to the dorm, Allison is sprawled on her bed, already in sweatpants and a hoodie, her hand stuck in a bag of pretzels as she watches something on her laptop. She pauses whatever it is when I tell her about the fae attack, and she frowns.

“The unseelie fae keep launching attacks against our court,” she murmurs, concern lowering her voice as she sits up and crosses her legs. “They’re getting more careless every day, attacking in the open for any human to see and snatching seelies off the street, from the rumblings I’ve heard.”

I scratch the back of my neck. “You’re not making me feel any better.”

“Don’t worry about it, Ro. Please. Tristan will handle things, and if it comes down to it, the king will have to step in.”

“They’re attacking seelie fae.Youare a seelie fae. Of course I’m worried! I’d lose my fucking mind if anything happened to you.”

She smiles, though she doesn’t reassure me that nothing will happen to her, and that makes my stomach sink.

“Will you explain the courts to me?” I ask. “I understand they hate each other and fight over the human world, but why? How did it start?”

Allison’s lips press into a thin line, and she lowers her gaze to where her hands are folded in her lap. “Fae haven’t always been classed into the seelie and unseelie courts.” She meets my gaze. “When the king and queen—Rowan and Ophelia—took their thrones, it was because each had different, powerful ideas on how fae should live. For instance, the seelie king believes we should feed only to survive, never take more than we need, and protect the secrecy of our existence at all costs. The unseelie queen… she pretty much believes the exact opposite. Feeding is for pleasure, human life means nothing, and so on.”

I blink at her, my mouth dry. “Does that mean faechoosewhich court they’re aligned with?”

She nods. “The courts aren’t specific locations and they don’t have concrete boundaries across the world. I guess you could look at them like political parties. Simply speaking, that’s basically what they are.”

I sit with that for a moment. It’s… humanizing. Come to think of it, knowing what the seelies believe in, how they choose to live, makes me feel better about spending time with Skylar and Tristan at the hotel. It’s also a relief, considering my best friend and the person I share a living space with is seelie.

“Are you okay?” she checks, her eyes searching mine, as if she’s waiting for me to freak out.

“Yeah,” I tell her, “just trying to keep up.” With a sigh, I stand and walk over to my desk. I open my laptop and frown at the new email from Skylar.

Aurora,

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