Page 27 of Fake Dating a Human 101

Jethwire and Massie seemed comfortable atop their reindeers, uninterested in getting purple blood on their hands and hanboks. Even their hair was neat—Massie’s long locks were in a tight topknot high on his head with not a strand out of place. Words that desperately needed to be said burned on Shayne’s tongue. But his attention snapped to Lily when her shriek rang through the fight. She was flat on her back; she raised her gun as she scooted backward over the grass, firing and levelling a hunter. Then she rolled up to her feet and switched out her gun’s cartridge. She was shooting again before she stopped to blink.

Shayne cut up a few more hunters before he could look back at her.

Astoundingly, Lily didn’t look afraid, but Shayne could rarely catch a tone past her well-sealed fortress of emotions to know for sure. He realized this was the first time he’d seen her fight. It was the first time he wondered if maybe she really could take care of herself…

Lily went to fire, but no bullets came out. She tried again.

Click.

Her face paled as she lowered her gun. As she padded down her sweater pockets. As she watched a hunter in black armour racing toward her on a deer with his spear out.

Shayne abandoned his blood brothers and grabbed his reindeer’s antlers, veering the creature toward the hunter eyeing Lily instead. In one smooth motion, he pulled his feet up and leapt from the deer’s back. He lost his fairsaber when he collided with the hunter and ripped him off the saddle. They both plummeted to the ground and rolled twice before Shayne jammed his knuckles into the fairy’s eyes and stole his sight.

“That’s what you get for looking at one ofmyhumans,” he informed the fairy.

Ahead, Dranian appeared at Lily’s side, holding up a stone forearm to deflect an arrow. Shayne climbed to his feet and marched over, but when he saw Lily’s brows pull together, when he heard her rhythms change from pounding and fast to slow and strange, he halted.

She looked around like she was lost. Her pretty, messy hair fell across her face as she did a full turn, searching desperately for something.

“Lily,” Shayne called sternly.

It worked—she snapped out of it. But only for a moment.

Dranian held off the Lyro forces best he could, but he looked over his shoulder at Lily in question as she stood there. As her gaze detached from Shayne again and drifted across the hoard of red, up the hill, and fell upon the two descendants of the House waiting there. Like they’d called her name.

Shayne looked to the hill.

Jethwire and Massie had dismounted their reindeers. Jethwire held a flute to his lips. The music was silent, but as he inhaled, then blew, Shayne knew he was playing it. He also knew that no flute was completely silent. That it always played for an audience, even if it was for an audience of one.

Shayne’s gaze snapped back to Lily. He broke into a run.

Across the grass, Luc was captured again. The fox fought ruthlessly to free himself from a tetrad of vine lassos. Just past him, Mycra was forced to her knees, a hunter grabbing a fistful of her hair to keep her still. She still kicked outward and snapped his knee, inviting three other hunters to leap on top of her and pin her down.

“Lily!” Shayne caught her shoulders and turned her around to face him.

Dranian tore into the skies the moment Shayne reached them, aiming for Mycra as Luc tore from his restrains and unleashed bone-snapping chaos upon the hunters who’d captured him.

Shayne put his hands over Lily’s ears. “Look at me,” he said to her. “The siren-song will only get louder if you listen to it.” He knew she couldn’t hear what he said through his hands, but he said it anyway. A fiery paper crane spiralled down, burning across his arm. He gritted his teeth, shaking it off and keeping his gaze on hers.

Lily looked back and forth between his eyes. Her hair had mostly torn from its ponytail, her cheek was flecked with fairy blood, and her flesh was slick with sweat. Still, she was quite possibly the prettiest thing Shayne had ever seen, and thus, he knew she was an appealing target for any fairy with a spec of greed.

“Why are you here, Lily Baker?” Shayne muttered.

He released her ears only long enough to slay an approaching trio of fairies in red and black. Then he swung around and put his hands back on her ears again. But this time, Lily said in a quiet voice, “I’m fine, Shayne. Let me go.”

He bit down on his lips. “Never.”

A growl lifted to their left. Shayne glanced over to find Luc flipping a fairy onto his back with a repulsed sound. Luc raised a brow at Shayne and Lily as if wondering what Shayne was doing holding Lily’s face instead of fighting, but then he seemed to decide he didn’t care. He picked up a spear off the ground and hurtled it across the hill. It slammed into a hunter who sailed at least ten feet before he fell.

“Foxy,” Shayne said. He nodded up the hill to where Jethwire had stopped playing his flute to cast Shayne a devilish, crooked smile. “Get me up to them. And then come back and take our human far away from here. This fight is over.”

“Oh dear.” Luc sighed. “This fight is barely half over. Learn math.” He waved a finger around at all the remaining hunters.

“Luc,” Shayne said, using the fool’s real name for the first time. He cast the fox a solemn, pleading look. He was too proud to ask an egotistical nine tailed monster for help in any situation, except for this one.

Luc released a loud huff. “You all seem to ask a great deal of me, you know. If you had any idea how powerful I’ve become, you’d think twice about bossing me around.” He grumbled the last part as he walked over and grabbed Shayne’s wrist.

Shayne pulled his crossbow around as he was torn into the wind. Luc dumped him so fast, he almost didn’t catch himself on his feet. But when the hill formed around him, Shayne already had the crossbow pointed at Jethwire’s back, right against the fairy’s spine.

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