by Leia Stone
He refused to get in the back, and so he sat shotgun. We wove in and out of traffic for about an hour before we reached our destination.
“Ahh, a blue door,” he said, clapping his hands.
I frowned. “You know about them?”
“Oh, Mara and I go way back.”
Why was there an evil glint in his eye? I wondered how he knew Mara. I had told her we were picking up an old friend of Liam’s, not exactly mentioning that he was an old warlock she might know.
Oops. I hoped it wasn’t going to be a problem.
After lugging all his stuff to the door, I opened it. “Mara, we’re here!”
Mara turned the corner, a smile on her face—but when her eyes landed on Jasper, she hissed. “You bastard! Get out of my house.”
He pulled his hood back, showcasing the snake tattoo around his head. “Mara, darling, I wasn’t sure you were still alive.”
She fumed, nostrils flaring as she stepped closer to him. “I trusted you. I got you out, and when I needed help, you never came!”
Purple magic built between her palms, and I looked at Liam, who was wide-eyed.
“Well.” Jasper shrugged. “I’m selfish. It’s the one thing you can count on.”
She lurched forward, but I stepped between them, catching her before she attacked and probably killed him. “We need him! He’s on our side.”
Her chest heaved. “He sold me out to the Elders for his own freedom. Told them where I was hiding.”
Shit. Really? I looked back at Jasper. “Dick move.”
He rolled his eyes. “They tortured me! Threatened to take me back to Faerie and throw me into the Black Mountain.”
“So you sang like a canary!” Mara spat.
Liam cleared his throat. “Can we move past this? The Winter King has my five-year-old brother. He’s probably terrified.”
Mara’s face softened, and she stepped back, smoothing her dress. She looked at me. “I hope you didn’t make a deal with him.”
Jasper grinned. “Official Spring Court warlock and ten acres of the finest land in New Faerie.”
Mara growled. “Oh, Lily. He’s a conman and an evil prick!”
I looked her in the eyes. “I need him.”
Jasper placed an arm around my shoulders. “That’s right. Princess and I are in this together.”
Mara’s eyes widened. “You told him?”
I shrugged as the gravity of this whole situation bore down on me. “I need him,” I repeated.
“Let’s go. We can squabble like old lovers later.” Liam’s black wings were rigid, and I could see we were getting on his last nerve. Little Cain was doing gods-knew-what at his dad’s, and we needed to get him out of there. Now.
Without another word, Mara spun on her heel and gave us all her back.
In hindsight, I probably should have told her about Jasper first, but it had never crossed my mind that they would know each other.
Leaving Jasper’s things in the guestroom, we met Mara in her office. “Bring us to the Coeur d’Alene safe house and then go back for the boys?” Liam asked her.
She nodded, giving Jasper the death glare of a lifetime.
It was time to really end this.
“I will bring down the dome,” Jasper told our large group as we stood on the lawn of the new blue door house deep in the mountains of Idaho. There was a For Sale sign on the lawn, and I wondered how Mara could just commandeer a house like that.
“Yes.” Liam nodded. “Then my boys will clear the first line of defense.”
“And we will go in and get the remaining crystals,” I finished.
We’d hand-picked his top five elite fighters, including Cam, and Elle was always by my side. We were hoping that with Jasper bringing down the dome, it would conserve Liam’s and my energy to seek his brother and get the crystals. Liam’s mother and four other brothers were staying in my mom’s New York apartment while we did this.
“And then I’ll get Cain out,” one of the black-winged Halflings told Liam. “I can carry him and fly him right back here.”
Liam nodded, clapping the guy on the back. “Thank you, Ky.”
Mara was standing in the open doorway of the home, Bashur at her feet. “I’ll wait right here,” she said.
Poor thing. I knew she wanted to help more, but what could she do? Moving us world to world and place to place was already a help.
Liam pointed to two of his largest men. “You guard the blue door.”
They nodded, pulling giant harpoon guns from behind their backs and holding them loosely at their sides.
Okay, we had this. This time, we were getting them all, and it was going to be great. I had one jar of healing water in my messenger bag, and we had a solid plan.
Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “Let’s bring Cain home.”
With that, we dispersed, jogging on foot away from the safehouse and down the road toward the king’s land.
We encountered two scouts on our way and quickly disposed of them.
“I feel him.” Liam’s voice tightened, and he let his wings carry him a few feet off the ground. “Cain.”
We blanketed our small army across the forestland and crept up to the protective dome. It was back and looked even thicker than before, a translucent forcefield encompassing the multi-acre property.
I was tired, my body hurt, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready, but the time had come. “Jasper.” I looked at the warlock. “You’re on.”
With a grin, he reached into his pocket and produced a glass vial of black liquid. Tossing it at the shield, he smiled more widely as it fractured, oozing fluid onto the barrier. Suddenly, with a resounding crack, the dome shattered and disappeared.
Wait, what?
I spun on the warlock, open-mouthed. “That’s it? You could have just given us the potion?”
He grinned. “Yep. But now I have ten acres and a prominent position in Faerie.”
Oh, you fucker! Mara was right—he was a slimy con. But he was also powerful, and it had worked. With the barrier broken, voices started to call out from deeper in the woods. The Winter King’s army would know what had happened.
“Let’s go.” Liam kicked off the ground, and I flew right after him, staying low and conserving energy.
I let the sunlight power build in my palms so that I would be ready for anything. We raced across the lawn, our little rescue team running after us.
“This way,” Liam hissed, and cut right, heading for the house.
But when we broke out behind a thicket of trees, we came to a hasty halt, my wings rearing back. Over a hundred Sons stood before us, armed to the teeth.
Liam looked off to the side. “They’re moving him!” he shouted, and flew high above the army of men like they didn’t exist. “Cain!”
His voice carried over the field, but I couldn’t see anything other than the Sons of Darkness. He must have been Seeking his brother. Panic gripped me at his reckless actions, but I understood—he would do anything for his family.
Half a dozen of the warriors aimed arrows and crossbows at Liam, and I knew I had seconds to act. Pulling on that power, that warmth that hummed just beneath the surface of my skin, I pushed the sunlight magic up through my chest and out my arms.
An explosion of light shot out across the lawn and knocked the men backward into each other. They clawed at their eyes. Some of them even landed on their own weapons, injuring themselves.
A wave of nausea and pain racked my body, causing me to fall forward on my hands and knees. The world was spinning.
“Are you crazy?” Jasper suddenly popped into view. “You’ll kill yourself without grounding first.”
“What?” I groaned. It felt like someone was slicing my brain into pieces.
He looked at me incredulously, like I was the stupidest person he’d ever met. “Shoes. Off. You can’t output that kind of power without anchoring to the earth first.”
Maybe I was.
I couldn’t think straight, but h
e started unlacing my boots. Meanwhile, swords clanged, and guns popped off behind me.
“That was incredible,” Jasper told me, slipping my foot out of my boot and tearing the sock off. “No more shoes, and you’ll be even more powerful.”
He placed my bare foot on the ground. I’d been kneeling on my jeans before, but he took my palms and splayed them out onto the grass, as well as both of my bare feet. My headache immediately eased, and the world ceased spinning.
What strange magic was this?
“You’re a Spring fae. You don’t pull that kind of magic unless you are anchored to the earth, got it?” Jasper chided me.
I just nodded. I felt better, and if walking around barefoot was going to do that, then so be it.
“Liam!” I sprang from where I’d hunched on all fours and took to the skies, activating my Seeker power. He was close.
Flying over the warzone, I went around the back of the house toward the lake. There at the edge was Liam, with Cain in his arms. The boat in which his father had presumably been trying to take him was a sinking frozen cube, but his father and the king’s loyal guards were nowhere to be seen.
“They say Spring Court magic is the most powerful because it has the potential to create life,” the Winter King’s voice called out behind me.
I spun in the air, just in time for the king to slam into me. The breath whooshed out of me in a rush, and we tumbled to the ground. We landed in a tangled heap with a loud thud.
Without thinking—simply acting on instinct—I grabbed both sides of his face, and sunlight flared in my palms. His skin sizzled beneath my fingertips as a guttural cry left his throat.
Suddenly, his hands on my upper arms turned ice cold, and I whimpered, letting go of him as a bone-chilling frost overtook me. Fingertips blue, teeth chattering, I slammed my pelvis upward, trying to buck him off as he pinned me to the ground.
It was useless—he was too strong.
“I have more people at my command on Earth than you have fae in all of Faerie. Give this pursuit up now and cut your losses.” The Winter King sneered, his face so close to mine that I could see a few flecks of silver in his beard. He looked so much like Liam that it was a bit terrifying, and I knew that at any moment, he could gore me with an icicle like he had my mother.
That thought—the thought of him killing my mother—sent fresh, hot grief and anger coursing through me, and I snapped. Lurching forward, I crashed my forehead into his nose and was rewarded with crimson blood and a sickening crunch.
Score.
Trissa would be proud. Bucking my hips up again, I rolled over and kicked to my feet, relieved as the king fell to the side. Without waiting even a second for him to recover, I took for the skies. My gaze went to the lake, searching for Liam and Cain.
Liam was gone, and the boat had sunk, leaving only the top metal railing visible in the water. Fluttering my wings toward the back of the house, I followed a glowing purple light inside.
Magic.
I sped towards the house and flew through the open door, then slammed into a shield of protection.
Holy crystals.
Standing in the middle of the room, Liam and some female witch were entangled in a fight. Liam held two of the dark crystals in his hands, and black veins crawled up his arms as he kicked and elbowed the witch.
Fae witches and warlocks were easy to tell apart. It was a certain look. A certain paleness to the skin, the tilt of the ears, the tattoos that designated their power animal. This witch had a roaring bear tattoo on her neck, and she gave me the creeps far beyond what Jasper ever had.
Cain was nowhere to be seen, and I prayed that it was because he’d gone with Liam’s personal guard back to the blue door.
Raising my arms, I blasted the back of the witch’s head with light, taking the bottom ten inches of her hair clean off.
Holy crap.
If I failed at this Seeker thing, I could always offer free laser haircuts.
My power had gotten stronger since I’d rolled on the grass with the Winter King. Maybe Jasper was right and I needed to constantly charge with the earth.
When the witch spun on me, I recoiled. Her eyes were completely white, but she was looking right at me. Long black hair fell in waves to her waist, and if not for the general evil vibe, she might have been considered pretty—that is, if you thought murderous, ghostly waifs pretty.
Her head cocked to the side in the creepiest of creepy horror moves. “Hello, Princess.”
“Chrys,” Jasper snarled behind me, and I was snapped from my fearful daze.
The witch snarled and lunged for me, but I ducked as a ball of blue magic sailed through the air and crashed at her feet.
Thank you, Jasper. Maybe I’d throw in another acre of land. He was proving useful.
“Liam.” I approached him with caution.
He looked at me and frowned. “There’s only two…his guy got away with the other.” A tear ran down his cheek, and his eyes were threading with darkness.
“It’s okay. We’ll get the other one another time.” I reached out to him.
“Don’t touch me!” he screamed.
I whimpered, pulling off the backpack and fumbling for the healing jar of water. After this one, we had only one left. I needed to heal the crystals of their darkness before it seeped too deeply into Liam.
“You’ll hate me,” he mumbled.
“What?” He wasn’t making sense.
He stared at the crystals in his hands like they were blood. “I’ll love you no matter what, and you’ll hate me.”
Chills rose on my arms, and I looked up at him as my fingers clasped the lid of the jar. “You’re not making sense. I could never hate you.”
He was staring blankly at the wall, tears pouring down his cheeks, lost in some nightmare I couldn’t see. He looked so despondent, it broke my heart.
“It’s unforgivable…” he mumbled.
I spun the lid off and doused both of his hands with the water, upending the entire jar. As he gasped, the darkness retreated from his eyes, and he shook his head as if awakening from a dream. “I was lost,” he mumbled.
I looked down at the blue crystals in his hands and reached out to massage the back of his neck. “You’re okay now.”
He nodded. “One of my dad’s men ran off with the crystal.”
“It’s okay. Let’s get back to Faerie, stay the night there, and regroup.”
Jasper and the witch’s fight had spilled out onto the back lawn, and I didn’t want to stick around for the Winter King to come back and kick my ass. Best to retreat and live to fight another day. We’d gotten this far—one final crystal could be managed.
“My house won’t be safe,” Liam said.
I shook my head. “No. Everyone stays in Faerie. It’s your home now.”
Liam frowned. “But what about Indra? We need one more crystal.”
“Fuck Indra. I’m the princess of Spring, and the Spring Court welcomes you and the others.”
It was time I took my power back. I’d given it away or kept it hidden for too long.
We burst into Faerie, bleeding and broken. All sixty-something of us poured out into the main square and passed Meadow Park, where fae stopped to stare. This time, Indra met us halfway. She flew right up to greet us, hand on her sword and the other Elders at her back.
“Did you get them all?” she sneered.
Fucking bitch. We risked our lives, and that was the first thing she asked?
“No one died today, thanks for asking,” I snapped.
When Jasper limped up behind me and faced down Indra, the blood drained from her face. I’d begged Jasper on the way over not to out my royal lineage just yet. He was shocked to hear I hadn’t told anyone. He thought I should run through town ringing a bell and announcing it while everyone bowed to me.
No, thank you.
I wanted to wake the queen and do this properly. She could be the one who was worshiped, and I could go back to Seeking in the background. B
ut I might need to let Indra know I knew…if it came to that. I still hadn’t seen the memory of how Indra knew my mom had hidden me and wiped her memory, but I didn’t need to. I was ready to move on from that. For now.
“Jasper Wick,” Indra said. “Last I remember, you were banished from Faerie.”
He sneered. “Lily and I have an arrangement.”
Indra opened her mouth to say something, but the village fae had gathered around us, so I shoved the two crystals into the air. “Got two more!” I shouted cheerily.
They applauded and yelled in triumph, and Indra pasted on a fake smile.
“Well done, Lily,” Rose piped up from the back. Indra cut her a glare, silencing her.
“Just two?” Aubin stepped forward and looked at the group of Halflings. “We said three or they leave.”
I reached out and handed one crystal to Liam. “Plan’s changed. If you want us to find the final crystal and restore Faerie, then they get to live here indefinitely.”
Indra’s jaw ticked.
Silence.
“The Winter King is working with the witch Chrysanthemum,” Jasper told Indra. “You’ll need all of our help to get that final crystal.”
Indra’s eyes snapped to his and glowed like molten lava. “I had hoped she was dead. It seems none of you died, unfortunately.”
“Likewise,” he shot back.
Indra rolled her eyes. “I will approve temporary lodging for the Halflings until Faerie can be restored, and then they can go off and find their own place to call home. Far away from here.”
“Far, far, away from here,” Aubin added.
Anger flared up inside of me. That wasn’t the deal. I didn’t want Liam far away from me. But I knew when to push my luck and when to stay silent.
Without another word, Indra spun and flew off in the direction of the wheat fields. Rose motioned for us to follow her, and Liam and I walked to the Elders’ home and set the crystals at the base of the tree.
When we were done, Rose pulled on my arm, giving me a look that made my blood run cold. “What is it?” I asked.
Liam got the hint that this might be a private conversation and left the room.
