Page 84 of Taken By the Fae

Nikolai fixes his jacket where Tristan wrinkled it. “I haven’t killed anyone.”

“You’re going to act like you weren’t going to kill me?” I cut in.

He licks his lips. “I wasn’t.” He shrugs. “I was going to watch.”

Tristan backhands him so hard, he falls to his knees. Tristan hauls him to his feet and strikes again and again, slamming his fist into Nikolai’s face until blood is spraying from his nose and mouth.

The female fae’s eyes pop wide, and she shifts, disappearing in a matter of seconds.

My focus returns to the battle in front of me. Nikolai isn’t getting many hits on Tristan, but it doesn’t look as if Tristan is putting much effort in either, and he’s practically pummeling Nikolai.

Nikolai disappears, and Tristan whips his head around, growling.

A hand snakes around my waist, and a hand clamps over my mouth before I can scream.This shit is really getting old.

“Let. Her. Go,” Tristan says in a hard voice.

“Relax, Westbrook. I’m not going to hurt your girl.” Nikolai spins me around to face him. “Hi there.”

“Fuck you.”

His eyes flit toward Tristan as he whistles. “She has a sharp tongue on her, huh?”

I shove him as hard as I can, and between one heartbeat and the next, Tristan catches my wrist and pulls me away from Nikolai.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Tristan growls at Nikolai, who rolls his eyes before shooting me a wink and dematerializing. In the time it takes me to blink, he’s gone.

The fae on the ground comes to, groaning, and gets to his feet. “Your days are numbered, Tristan,” he grumbles. “Jules will make sure of it.” With that, he disappears, too.

“Are you okay?” Tristan asks, stepping in front of me.

“I’m fine,” I say.

He tilts my head back to look over my face, and his features sharpen. “What happened?”

I reach up to touch my face and wince at the sharp pain above my eye. My fingers come away with blood, and I cringe. “The asshole you slammed into the wall thought it would be fun to slammeinto a car.”

He closes his eyes and exhales through his nose before he traces his fingers along my skin to heal me, erasing the pain along the side of my body that collided with the car.

When he leans down to kiss my cheek, I cup the side of his face and guide his lips to mine, kissing him slowly, letting my lips explore his until I need to catch my breath. Once we break apart, I ask, “What the hell was that about? Jules has fae tracking us now?”

“It’s possible.”

Pressure clamps down on my chest, and I step away from Tristan. “Are… are my parents in danger?”

“We can’t be sure of anything, which is why I’ve had a protective detail on them for a while.”

I let out a breath. The idea of Jules targeting my parents makes it hard to breathe, but knowing they’re protected eases the weight on my chest. “Thank you.”

Tristan nods toward the restaurant. “Maybe we should take our food to go?”

I’m not about to argue with that.

ChapterTwenty-Three

When it becomes heartbreakingly clear Elijah isn’t going to wake on his own, I finally concede to my parents’ wishes and return to school. Tristan has several fae monitoring the hospital and Dr. Collins to ensure we know the moment anything changes, and I spend weekends at the hospital by Elijah’s bedside.

Fall seems to turn to winter in the blink of an eye, and Christmas break is the least restful I’ve had since I started college. AnsweringMerry Christmastexts from Oliver and Grant with pleasantness and smiling emojis feels like lying, but neither of them know what’s really going on, just that my brother is in the hospital and we don’t know when he’ll be out. Opening presents and baking cookies isn’t fun without Elijah. In fact, I hate every minute of it, but it’s a solid distraction for my parents, who are at a complete loss. It physically hurts not being able to tell them the truth. I’ve thought about it every day, but I can’t bring myself to drag them into the fae’s deceitful and dangerous world.

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