Page 24 of Faerie Fate
Icurled up in a tight ball, protecting my sensitive stomach. That’s where he’d target to cause the maximum amount of agony, either with his boots or his claws. And when he was done showing me exactly what would happen if I tried to run again, he’d probably get started on making those pups.
Whether I was willing or not.
I covered my head with my hands, crunching my body until I was as small as possible. Breathing heavily, the sobs caught somewhere between my ribs.
This was it.
“Tavi, thank the goddess I found you!” Mike brushed his hand over my head.
His scent pushed itself into my nostrils like salt and citrus and sweat.Magic. A huge rush of relief crashed over me with the touch. He didn’t hesitate before grabbing me by the elbows and hauling me up, clasping me tightly.
His moss-green eyes scanned my face. There was something raw and fierce about the way he looked at me, the way he latchedonto the blood stains on the front of my neck. His eyes widened and something sharp and furious pooled in their depths.
The scar.
I ducked my head to break eye contact.
“I thought I’d lost you. I had no idea where you’d gone and this place is bigger than I remembered,” Mike said in a rush. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“Mike. Please. We’ve got to go.Now.” His name was a plea, and whatever he saw on my face forced him to make a decision on the spot. “He’s coming,” I managed to get out. “We have to do something.”
The bond flared. Brighter than it had been before, and rage crashed through me, obliterating the last bits of sanity I claimed as mine. Kendrick was awake. Immediately furious, and the pain only made him worse.
Terror stiffened every bone in my body until they threatened to break from the sheer tension. “He’s coming!” The words ended in a scream and I fell apart, barely noticing when Mike grabbed my hand. My fingers were stiff, cold.
I got this. I got you. Trust me, Tavi.”
He drew in a breath but didn’t hesitate. His magic pulsed, a corona of power filtering out through him and surrounding us in a shower of green sparks the same color as his devastatingly deep eyes.
My feet rooted to the ground while the rest of me swam. Unsteady. The world became a blur outside of those sparks.
“Hold on. This won’t be pleasant.”
His voice was in my ear and in the next blink, we stood bathed in sunlight. The previously empty hallways, deadened in silence, now filled with the steady march of clamoring feet and the low hum of voices. Somewhere in the distance, a bell rang.
I reeled as bile rose and burned new pathways in my stomach. “What happened?”
Mike clung to me, shaking, sweat trailing down his temples and plastering his hair to his skin, curling the strands. “Sorry, I did it sloppily. I only wanted to get you out. I think—” He broke off, pressing one palm to his forehead and scrubbing. “I think I took us back a couple of weeks. I wasn’t being calculated about it.”
“You…you manipulated time.”
That was his inherent power.
I’d never actually seen Mike do it, not up close and personal, but he’d tested for it during our second year at the academy. And it might have been a rush job but he’d brought us back to the school well ahead of Kendrick coming to take it over.
Mike and I clung to each other, my muscles tensed. His voice lowered when he said, “We should be fine.”
Should be.
Like he wasn’t sure.
Hysterical laughter trickled out between my clenched teeth, growing steadily louder until several of the students navigating the halls turned to stare at us.
Mike pressed a warning hand to the small of my back and gently guided me out of the hallway toward one of the window alcoves. We’d sat there before, when we were between classes, or not studying in the library as we’d liked to do. Back in the good days, when my greatest worry was making sure the potion from Barbara held in my shifter side.
Now I looked out on the great lawn below us, bathed in sunlight. The same lawn where we used to play Capture the Scroll with Persephone and the others. Back when the only issue I had to worry about was whether or not Persephone was trying to get her hooks into Mike, the way she manhandled him like she was some kind of real threat.
I shook my head. It felt like a millennia ago.
