Page 27 of Ruthless Fae
Becca shook her head, pouting like the young girl I kept forgetting she was. “I’m telling you it’s like a hoarder’s nightmare in here.” Her closed eyes squinted as if she were looking around a cluttered room. “There’s no logical response.”
I sucked in a breath, trying to think about what might help this process. The last time, I’d been talking to Vaughn before Becca read his thoughts, and he’d responded. It didn’t hurt to try that here.
Leaning down, I whispered. “Hi, Daniella. It’s Tally again.”
I glanced at Becca, and she shook her head. “Nope.”
“I never got to thank you for saving my life,” I continued. “Do you remember being in the boat that sank? Vaughn was trying to help us swim.”
The image of the three of us bobbing in the water came rushing back to me like a cold wave splashing in my face. We had been drowning, our ship smashed into pieces by the sea monster. Vaughn had been desperately trying to get us to a shore that was still too far away. Daniella knew we’d all die and had selflessly let go, sinking into the waves.
I felt her hand slip away, and the water took her.
A sob caught in my throat. I blinked up to realize that tears had slid down my face and landed on Daniella’s arm. I wasn’t over the trauma of that moment. I wondered if I’d ever be.
But she was back… sort of. I took her hand. “You gave your life for me. I’ll never forget that, and I’m not going to give up on you. I know you’re in there somewhere.”
“Wait,” Becca said, dragging me out of my moment. “I’m getting something.”
I stepped back, allowing her to focus her power.
“She’s hard to hear. Not like Vaughn. It’s almost as if she’s talking to me from somewhere far away…” Becca trailed off, her lips pursing as her eyes remained closed. “She says… she says she misses you, Tally.”
I smiled, wiping the stray tears off my cheeks. “I missed you, too, Daniella. I’m glad you’re back.”
Becca continued. “She says she thought she was dead, but when she woke up, she wasn’t herself. She says she feels trapped inside this other… creature. She can’t stop herself when the directions come. She just has to act.”
Squeezing Daniella’s hand, I brushed a strand of thick, vine-like hair off her face. “We know. We know you never want to hurt anyone. We know they’re making you.”
The dean, who’d been standing behind us silently this whole time, stepped forward. “Becca, ask her if she knows anything about how they made her this way. Does she have any memory of what they did?”
“She says she can hear you, dean. She doesn’t know. But she does remember one thing.”
We all leaned forward as Becca focused.
“She says… She says she remembers them taking her into a cave. In it, there was a fountain.”
“A fountain?” My heart lurched. “The fountain we used to heal our bodies?”
That night in the cave had only been a few days ago but it felt like a lifetime had passed since I’d submerged myself in that glowing water and came out with a new power to glamour my whole body.
Becca shook her head. “She’s showing me something different. This cave is much larger and darker than the one where we fought Crescent.”
“Another fountain,” the dean said contemplatively, stroking her chin. “Does she know where?”
Becca shook her head. “She was asleep for that part, but she knows that they put her in this fountain and did something to the water, but the water was also doing something to her. It was as if the water was magic, and the Habermanns were tainting it with something.” Becca’s eyes fluttered open. “I don’t know. It’s all a kind of jumbled mess in her head. Some words. Some pictures. That’s the best I can do.”
The dean was nodding slowly, realization stealing over her face. “Thank you, Daniella. Thank you, Becca.”
She turned and stalked out of the room.
“Thank you, Daniella. I’ll be back soon.” Then I followed the dean down the hall.
She was a bit ahead of me, so I flew forward, dropping back to my feet as I caught up to her. “Dean, excuse me. What does this all mean? Can we help them?”
“We know more than we knew before. We know enough to get started.” She stopped striding and put a watch similar to the one Vaughn wore to her mouth. I wondered why I didn’t have one as she began to speak. “Call the others. Meeting room. Five minutes.”
I was going to ask more questions, but she put a hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. “Good work back there, Tally.”
