Page 117 of Faerie Fate
How did I tell her that she was dead in the future? That Barbara had been executed under her daughter’s husband’s orders?
“You take care of yourself now, girl. Try to stay out of trouble,” Poppy said.
I could only hug her. We wouldn’t see each other again. Ever.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Mike’s grip bruised my hand. Neither of us let go.
Bronwen looped an arm through mine and her other arm clasped Noren to her chest, the incandescent blue of a morsana flower poking out of her pocket along with the stolen silver dagger.
That just in case flower.
With the four of us clustered close, I dipped my head, closing my eyes against the now familiar sensation of Mike’s magic.
The pixies called out a collective farewell to us. I knew, because I’d etched it into my memory, that Elfhame and Poppy stood together, the former’s arm lifted in a wave.
Then I imagined the cloud of forest green encapsulating us, drawing us out of the past and depositing us in the future. The air tightened around us, the magic drawing closer until it became a vacuum where infinite possibilities existed at once.
Our feet never left the ground but we flew. We barely moved but we were generations and miles away from where we started. Mike grunted with the force necessary to hold the spell.
My new magic felt the way his declined, watching every last drop of his power filter away into the effort of holding us in his vision. Right into the basement of the Elite Academy.
The clock immediately reset on three things—curing my curse from zombie Madam Muerte, freeing the barrier blocking passage between the mortal realm and Faerie, and fixing the chain of consequences that were going to happen as a result of unblocking my powers.
The consequences Poppy warned me about.
But for a second, with my eyes closed, I could stay removed from those things. I could wait for the inevitable exhaustion and dizziness to take over. They hadn’t hit yet. Maybe I needed my body to catch up with the effects of time travel.
First and foremost, though, we had to save the academy. And Livvy.
“What…Dad?”
Mike’s concerned voice jolted me. My eyes popped open and quickly adjusted to the basement’s dim lighting. And the oddity waiting for us.
King Tywin stood regally, garbed in his royal blue tunic and the gold crown perched on top of his head. His white beard was trimmed into an orderly oval beneath his chin, and a retinue of loyal guards stood watch behind him.
None of them seemed surprised to see me. That emotion only went one way.
Noren growled and Bronwen tightened her hold on his scruff to get him to quiet.
“Well, Michael?” King Tywin asked. His tone played chills on my bones like a maestro. “Did you get what you needed?”
He greeted us like an ally. Like he actually waited for us to come home rather than jumping out of a box at the last moment to surprise us.
“What are you talking about?” Mike held firm even as his posture went rigid.
His hand gave him away, though, his tremor passing through our connected touch.
“Did you get what you needed to defeat this wolf shifter hurting my students?” Tywin sounded put out at having to repeat himself. Or maybe it was the clarification that pissed him off. “You were gone longer than I expected.”
“You’re not in a coma…”
Mike broke contact but he didn’t go to his father. Not right away. A few halting steps brought him closer but the two definitely weren’t the touchy type no matter how much time passed since we saw Tywin upright.
The last I’d heard, Barbara had broken into the castle and used theAugundae Imperiumon the king. She hadn’t killed him, but she’d injured him.
None of the healers had been able to wake him. We’d sent Laina to the same fae hospital after her injury with the shadow warriors at the entrance to the Abyss.
