Page 3 of Faerie Fate
Those thoughts disappeared into nothingness when Mike slipped his hand to the back of my neck and brought his mouth down to mine again. I sank into him. His tongue urged the seam of my lips to part and tangled with mine sweetly, a caress before he drew back.
The tenderness left me raw and bruised. We were toeing the line, prepared for the gun to sound and the danger to drop on our heads, and his lips became my anchor.
“Your heart is beating fast enough for me to feel it in my blood,” Mike whispered.
“I’m not feeling well,” I teased. “That’s the only reason.”
His eyes were kind and full of compassion when he drew back, and I missed his warmth immediately, wavering on my feet. The motion took me back too far. I wobbled, lost my breath and my balance in one swoop.
Mike reached out to catch me. “You okay?”
He knew about the curse now. The zombie witch Madam Muerte had infected me when she rose from the grave to snap a chunk out of my arm.
For the time being, Livvy was able to keep my symptoms stable enough that I could manage to brush my teeth, get dressed, rescue an academy full of teenaged hostages…
As long as Livvy was with me, I’d be fine.
I sucked in a deep breath and held it, closing my eyes for half a heartbeat. That was all the time I allowed myself. “Yeah, I’m good. No need to worry.” I flashed Mike a thin and anything but believable smile but he felt the time crunch as harshly as I did. “Let’s go.”
We were wasting time with the portal open.
I glanced over to see Melia gesturing frantically for us to hurry the hell up. She swept her arm in a shooing motion and I hustled as fast as my fatigued legs could hustle.
My unnatural witchy flu was going to have to wait until I got the kids out of the halfling academy. Then maybe I’d take a few weeks to recover. It was a big maybe. That kind of time was a luxury we could no longer afford.
I passed through the doorway, keenly aware of the zap of electricity through my system. I caught the echo of Coral still tapping her foot, cloth rustling as Livvy and Mike hustled after me, and then nothing.
Dead silence and mortal weight went hand in hand. The atmosphere here lacked the magic that made Faerie unique. Otherworldly.
My skin tingled all over, sweat coating my pores and clogging them. I gulped down air like a drowning woman and slid my hand into my pocket. The familiar weight of my own key to Faerie rested against my thigh.
Livvy paused to meet my eyes, bobbing her head once, and we split off from one another to cover more ground. Each one of us had our own keys just in case.
I held that knowledge close to my heart. Livvy would be fine. But Mike… Did he have the same catch in his lungs I did? Did he also feel the terrible, crazy doom settling over us, mingled with the nostalgia of being back where it all began?
The top of the staircase branched off into several long hallways, each of them leading to different wings of theacademy. I paused, my hand against the wall, feeling for the tremors of footsteps.
Kendrick was smart. He understood that I would be coming for him. Already we’d waited too long. It was a crapshoot, a risk to come at all, because it was playing right into his hands.
I felt nothing and continued on to check the doorways lining the halls. The first few classrooms I examined were empty. The ancient books and stale magic scent in the air held no hint of wolf shifter. Kendrick would never come alone. I had expected guards to roam the corridors in neat lines of bloodlust and duty. Instead, it was just me.
I ran into no one on the first floor, the rooms empty of life and magic. My heart tapping on my ribs, I crept toward the staircase, then I hauled myself up the risers one at a time to the second floor. Hopefully Livvy and Mike were having better luck.
We had to evacuate everyone. Leaving a single person behind to Kendrick’s violence wasn’t an option.
I hit the jackpot in the divination classroom. A flash of crimson caught my attention and I pushed open the door slowly enough to avoid the creaking hinges. There behind the desk, I detected another hint of red.
My eyesight sharpened. I want to call out but my tongue tied itself in knots instead.
Professor Marsh stuck her head out around the desk corner, immediately recognizable with her sleek fire-red hair and her slitted cat pupils.
“Tavi?” She hissed my name between clenched teeth. “That you?”
Relief was palpable.
It took everything inside of me not to rush forward and grab her in a hug. I let the door slide gently shut but I couldn’t risk a magic shield. Any change in energy might give away my position.
You don’t have the juice for a shield.
