Page 87 of Outcast Fae
Yes, and I didn’t need to ask why. I understood well enough. I felt it, too.
There was no hope for this, whatever it was. Not on this godsforsaken island.
Someone cleared their throat behind me. We let go of each other’s hands and sprang to a sitting position. Sinasre stood before us with the ocean as his backdrop. His expression seemed to sayI know what you’ve been up to and there’s no hiding it, so don’t try.
My cheeks grew hot. What must he be thinking? I was with a human and, on top of that, a werewolf. One who had hated fae, having beaten one up before coming here.
Then I remembered that my dear cousin had once had a thing for a witch we’d met at the Supernatural Academy. He wouldn’t judge—not that way, at least.
“The others are gone,” he said. “They must have disappeared sometime in the middle of the night.”
The night? How long had we slept?
“Elon, too?” Vaughn asked.
Sinasre nodded.
“Then, it’s time.” Vaughn stood and squared his shoulders.
“Time for what?” Sinasre asked.
“Time to be taken under the dome.”
Sinasre ran a hand through his long red hair, looking worried and conflicted. Going under the dome meant they would ask about the Queen. I knew he hadn’t approved of her behavior, but maybe Kiana had been right to hide. Maybe she’d known there were people like Adaline Habermann out to get her. I didn’t know what to think of Kiana anymore.
I got to my feet and turned to Vaughn. “Do you have a plan to escape this place?”
He had come here of his own accord in search of his cousin. I wanted to believe he hadn’t been stupid enough to put himself in this situation without an exit plan.
Vaughn smiled crookedly and shrugged. “I don’t have a plan, no. I just hope the people I know on the inside will help me, once it comes to that.”
“We are doomed, then,” Sinasre said. “There’s no escaping a magically protected island.”
“They got us here somehow. I don’t think Karen’s magic was strong enough to teleport us, so there must be boats or a plane somewhere,” Vaughn added with uncertainty.
“Yes,” I sat back down on the sand. “We’re doomed.”
* * *
Vaughn had been right.About an hour after we woke up, they came for us. Like the last time, we dematerialized from the beach, appeared inside a small room, walked down a narrow metal tunnel and into another cramped room. The only difference: Sinasre was with us and Horace was not one of the guards waiting at the other end of the tunnel.
I exchanged a glance with Vaughn. Had they figured out that Horace had tipped us off about the wine? If they had, he was probably dead. Judging by Vaughn’s frown, it seemed he suspected the same. So much for having friends on the inside.
Instead, Meadow Song and Silver Bear were waiting for us. She gestured for us to follow her through the far door.
“Need me to help you take them in?” Silver Bear asked.
Meadow Song shook her head. “They’re allowing me to use magic in here. Less risk with these three.” She gave me a strange look that left an odd feeling in my chest. I sensed regret in her, but it was too late for that. She was a monster and would always be in my book.
From the second room, we dematerialized again. When I was remade, every particle of my body came back together, leaving me with a sense of wrongness, I glanced around to find that I was inside a cell. Alone.
Panic surged in my chest. Where were Vaughn and Sinasre?
My eyes darted around. The room was small with a narrow bed pushed against one corner, a toilet and a tiny metal sink in the other. There were no windows, just the outline of a door that could not be opened from the inside since there was no handle.
I rushed to it and pushed, then pounded on its metal surface. “Let me out of here,” I demanded. The clank of my hammering blows reverberated inside the room. I stopped and listened. No response came.
Whirling, I faced the room, my panic growing. This was worse than our camp at the beach. How would I get out of here? No doubt Sinasre and Vaughn were in similar cells, and only the gods knew what would happen to them.
