Page 73 of Outcast Fae
“He’s also an interesting specimen. Shifters are quite spectacular, don’t you think?” She arched an eyebrow suggestively. She must’ve seen us together and knew of the tension between us. I tried not to show emotion on my face.
“I’ll tell you what you want to know about Faerie under one condition, you let the other fae children go.”
Her smile widened. "A bargain. I like bargains. However, we need something more than knowledge of Faerie. We also need to know about your aunt, Kiana. Where is she, Tally?”
My throat closed off as my heart seemed to get lodged there. The Queen! They wanted the Queen. I had been right since the beginning. This was the reason they had kidnapped me.
“Tell me where I can find her, and I’ll let your precious children go. Easy, right? Simple."
Simple. No, it was anything but simple. My aunt, the Seelie Faerie Queen had been in hiding since our realm was destroyed. And for good reason. The Bane has been after her, and though he was dead now, King Oberon, Unseelie Fae Leader, was still very much alive. If he knew where she was, he would kill her. I had no doubt in my mind about that.
For that and many other reasons, I couldn’t betray my aunt to these people—only the gods knew what they wanted with her. Besides, I’d already done it once, and my family had shunned me for it. Luckily, Sinasre was very forgiving or he might not want anything to do with me after my betrayal. Moreover, that time had been different. Then, I had revealed the Queen’s location to people I trusted. Now… I didn’t trust one hair on this woman’s head.
I had my suspicions of where she might be, but even if I knew for sure where Kiana was, I wouldn’t tell Adaline.
And why ask me and not Sinasre, anyway? Maybe they’d already tried and had clearly gotten nowhere. If they’d gotten the answer, I wouldn’t be here.
So many thoughts swirled in my head. But if I didn’t give them something, they wouldn’t let the children go.
“The last location I knew of my aunt,” I said, “is in Palo Alto, staying at a house with a woman named Parisa. Look there for her.”
Adaline’s smile fell. “We looked there already, and she’s gone. I need new information.”
“I don’t have new information, but I gave you what I know. Now you need to let the children go.”
Her blue eyes hardened into chips of glacial ice. “If you aren’t going to be forthcoming, that is fine. I don’t need your cooperation to do what I need to do, but I would reconsider if I were you. Those children count on you.” She touched the wall and the little light clicked off. Never breaking eye contact, she reached behind me again and came up with a syringe.
She stabbed it into my arm, then she turned and stormed away.
Numbness descended on me, and I passed out.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A piercing paindrilled through my temples, stabbing into my brain. This must be it. The humans were dissecting me as I’d feared. I hadn’t given them what they wanted to know, and now I would die. And the children, too. I had failed them.
Heat seared my face. I was burning up, feverish.
A bead of sweat slid down my forehead. A drilling sound roared in my ears.
“Tally,” a distant voice called.
I tried to open my eyes, but the pain in my head was too much.
Someone running, panting.
“Tally!”
A small thud next to me, then a cool hand around mine, squeezing.
“Are you alright? Please, wake up.”
I recognized the voice. “Da-daniella,” I said, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth.
“Yes, it’s me. C’mon, drink this.”
She slid her hand behind my neck, helping me raise my head. Something pressed to my lips and cool water filled my mouth. I drank greedily, feeling as if she were pouring life into me.
Slowly, I blinked my eyes open. The sun was high above—the real one, not the one from the screens. I shrank away from its brilliance and unrelenting heat. I was lying on the beach close to the gentle, lapping waves of the blue ocean.
