Page 2 of Faerie Fate
“We need lookouts on the Faerie side,” Melia said again, but her habitual patience was a rare commodity just now.
I turned to Coral. “Look, if anyone stumbles upon us from this side, you can beat them, kill them, I don’t care, but stop them. Stop anyone who might come through from the human side, too. Unless it’s us. Please don’t kill us.”
Coral didn’t look appeased as she cocked her hip to the side, her expensive flats tapping against the mossy ground. She tossedher hair over her shoulder in such aCoralgesture I almost burst out laughing.
“Fine.”
She said it like she was the one doing us a favor and in a way, she was. Because it paid to have another half-shifter ready to kick ass if things went sour. And knowing what always happened to me?
The shit would hit the fan soon enough.
“We’ll need help to get the hostages out,” I added.If we find them.
Noren would stay behind. It split my heart into pieces but I had no clue if it was safe for him to leave this realm. I wasn’t about to take any more chances and lose someone I loved.
Only Mom, Mike, and I would be going through in an attempt to rescue the academy students. I told myself it was going to work, but my rasping breath and the burning hot ache in my stomach told a different story.
Melia thrust her key into empty air and twisted, and the golden glowing outline of a door illuminated the dark. She twisted the key counterclockwise; the lock sparkled and the door opened up into a cavernous basement.
Spider webs hung in the corners, inches of dust covered the floor, and boxes were stacked against the walls.
“It wouldn’t have been nearly as grand if they’d shoved us through a basement wall into Faerie,” Melia whispered with a chuckle. “Right?”
Mike shook his head and a lock of golden hair flung casually across his forehead. Hidden beneath his cloak, it was easy to mistake him as a stranger off the street. His hair was his trademark. “This isn’t going to work,” he muttered.
Livvy rounded on him with a wide-eyed stare urging him to be quiet.
“I don’t want to do this,” he continued wildly. “It’s not safe. We’re just walking right into Kendrick Grimaldi’s trap. He’s going to catch us and he won’t let us go.”
“We don’t have a choice, Mike,” I said.
Cosmo Foxfall, the premier of the kingdom, had put a price on my head. King Tywin was in a coma.
Because Kendrick had taken possession of an entire school full of students and teachers who were half-fae, under the king’s protection no less, where did we go except into the fire?
The Fae Academy for Halflings was a feeder school into Faerie. If Kendrick tripped his way into a portal to here, we were all screwed.
“We have to do this.” Fear made me more insistent. “But if you’re not comfortable, consider this an out. You can stay here if you want.”
Surely Coral would leap at the chance to be a part of Alpha Team rather than Bravo.
My veins filled with ice. I didn’t want to do this without Mike, though. I needed him. If Noren had to stay behind, there was no one I trusted more in the world than the man who held my heart in his hands.
“Tavi.” Mike jerked his head to the side and gestured for me to follow him.
I did, cloak rustling, and he stole the next words out of my mouth with a kiss. His lips pressed to mine hungrily. His hands were on my hips and drawing me to him as he brushed his mouth to the corners of mine.
“I’m not going to leave your side,” he said against me. “Whatever happens, I’ll be there.”
My heart shivered. “I know you hate this. If there were any other way, I would have found it.”
Mike shook his head and the movement rustled his cloak hood. “We’dhave found it.”
His voice was a gentle reminder that I wasn’t alone. No matter how many times he reminded me, there was no easy way for me to lean on anyone else. Too much had happened for it to be natural, or easy.
“I don’t want anyone else getting hurt.”
It was a last ditch effort to save him. Mike was, after all, the crown prince of Faerie and next in line for the throne. With his father indisposed, his mother in the hospital recovering, and the premier in league with our enemies?—
