Page 35 of Faerie Fate
A dull splintering ache took the line of thought away before I grabbed hold of it and I gritted my teeth. The sooner we got this finished, the better.
“I’ll be able to handle it,” Mike insisted. He drew the edges of his cloak around him as he stood. “With luck I’ll be able to navigate to a time before the war starts, and keep us out ofdanger. We should be able to jump back and heal Tavi in a matter of minutes.”
He made it sound simple, as if a snap of a finger would fix what we’d been outrunning for months.
I wanted his resolve to be mine. I wanted to feel normal, like we were back on the same page, even though I knew there would be no more normal between us. Not with this unnatural mate bond.
Even if we managed to find a witch, and this damn plant, and clear this bloodborne disease…there was still Kendrick to deal with.
“Hey, if you actually do find the most powerful witch of all time, you should ask her to help unlock Tavi’s powers while you’re at it,” Bronwen said.
Noren gave a whine of approval and I slid my hand through his ruff. “Bronwen, you’re full of great ideas today.” I beamed at her.Myversion of a beam.
Bronwen wasn’t the type to preen but I thought I caught a distinct ruffling about her, like a crow fluffing her feathers. Which was her chosen form when she changed, despite being a wolf shifter herself.
“I just figured if you were fully locked and loaded, you might be powerful enough to drop the boundary for us. Then we can get the rest of the students and Livvy out of the Academy,” Bronwen continued.
Me? Bethatpowerful? Not in my wildest dreams. I didn’t care what kind of prophecy there was about me, or what the goddess of Faerie had to say about it. And with my stomach attempting to turn itself inside out at the moment, I was too sick to correct her.
“Let’s get going then. Tavi?” Mike crossed the room and held out his hand for me to take again. “You sure you’re ready for this?”
I stared at the lines across his palms and the strain echoed with the lines around his eyes. “Of course.”
Lies.
Bronwen immediately stood as well. “You’re not going alone.”
“That was the general plan, yeah.” Mike continued to wait for me to take his hand and I did so, his skin hot where mine felt cold and clammy.
“Oh hell no.” Melia immediately threw herself into the fray. “There’s no way I’m letting you go alone. Tavi, you might not have a mirror, girl, but you’re about to collapse. Mike can take you back but he can’t project you?—”
Mike bristled. “I’ll protect her with my life.”
“By all means,” Coral added with a yawn, “duke this out among yourselves. I’ll be here watching it.”
“Look, we can’t all go. Too many people will mean too many ways we can change history or cause something terrible to happen,” Mike hissed through his teeth. “We have to go in like ghosts and leave without even being noticed.”
“Sending the two of you off together will be suicidal in Tavi’s current condition.” Melia didn’t need to stand to make her point. She sat there with her magic rippling around her, her face set into the no-nonsense expression she’d always used when she was my mentor.
“We have it handled. The only people who need to go back are me and Tavi,” Mike argued.
He stared at Bronwen, who made a point of holding his stare. Her round, moon-shaped face lifted up to his and her eyes glowed gold. Her wolf prowled close to the surface.
“You’ll need back up. A shifter might come in handy. No one will be expecting me and I’m not powerless,” she insisted. “I’m coming with you.”
Noren rose slowly, his hackles lifted, his teeth peeled back in a snarl.
“Oh, and the direwolf.” Bronwen pointed to him. “The four of us. That’s it.”
“It’s two too many,” Mike insisted hotly.
Bronwen’s fists curled. “Well, tough titties. I’m not staying behind.”
“Coral, Julie, and I will stay to work with the palace and get the students home or somewhere safe,” Melia cut in. She crossed one leg over the other. “Mike, Tavi, Bronwen, and Noren will go back in time.”
“Oh, like it’s somehow been decided now that you’ve said it out loud?” Coral yawned again, the motion exaggerated.
Melia bobbed her head. “Precisely.”
