Torn

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  With Tink here, and his hand clenching mine, I was Ivy again. Sort of. I was enough of my old self that I knew what I needed to do to have the highest chance of survival. Indecision took a back seat.

  Faye and the two mystery fae flanked the three of us—Tink, Ren, and me. And I wasn’t doing much running at this point. Tink was mostly half-dragging me. We ran another mile and then came upon a dark stretch of narrow road. The scent of earth and dank water was strong as we slowed down. An oversized black SUV was parked on the shoulder of the road.

  The two fae opened the tailgate and climbed in, getting in the very back. Then Tink slid in. He didn’t sit. His long body was folded, cramped as he bent over, waiting. A hand touched my shoulder, and I jolted.

  “It’s just me.” Ren removed his hand, his face shadowed. “I’m just helping you get in.”

  I flushed as I nodded jerkily, then placed my hand in his. I climbed up into the back of the SUV and sat in the seat.

  “Dammit,” Ren exploded, and I looked up at him. He was staring down.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Your feet. Jesus.” Concern flashed over his face as he held open the back door. “We need to look at them as soon as we get back.”

  I didn’t even feel my feet anymore, but I looked down and saw that they were covered in dirt and blood.

  Ren hesitated for a second and then closed the door. I watched him jog around the hood of the SUV while Faye climbed into the front passenger seat, and then he was behind the wheel. I sat, tensed and ready for Drake or an ancient to appear out of nowhere.

  Then we were moving, hitting the road and quickly speeding up. I looked over at Tink. He was quiet, which was really odd. Tink was never quiet.

  I drew in a deep breath and glanced up at the front. Ren’s hand was clenching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were bleached white. His gaze flicked up to the rearview mirror for a second, finding mine.

  What was going through his head? I had no idea, but I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was here, taking part in this rescue mission. He was a member of the Elite, and obviously I couldn’t be left with the prince.

  I pressed my lips together and turned to the window, staring out at the dark scenery racing by. Faye was speaking to Ren in a low voice, and I wanted to know how they had met. How their two worlds had crossed. Was it when he was held captive at the mansion, or after? And who were these fae sitting behind us? There were so many questions, but I didn’t ask them. I just stared out the window, watching the woods blur and give way to the grasslands and swamps.

  Part of me wondered if this was a dream. Was I really out of there, sitting in the car with Tink and Ren? I rested my forehead against the cool glass. Yes, this was real. The ache in my hip and the soreness in my throat told me it was. When I dreamed, I didn’t feel this . . . cold inside. When I dreamed, I didn’t feel like I was full of shadows.

  I was happy—thrilled that I was out, and with each passing second, I was further and further away from that place, but I couldn’t . . . I just couldn’t relax. It was like I was too tired to, and that didn’t even make any sense. My hands shook, so I shoved them between my knees.

  Eventually, we hit the city and I started to recognize where we were. It had taken a while to get back to the land of normalcy, which gave me an idea of how far out I’d been the last couple of weeks. Once we got close to the Mississippi River, I realized where we were heading as Ren turned onto Market Street.

  I slid my hands out from between my knees and turned toward the front. “Are we”—I cleared my throat—“are we going to the old power plant?”

  “Yes,” answered a fae in the back. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw it had been the one sitting on the right. He had fair hair, lighter than the other male. He didn’t look at me when he spoke. “My name is Kalen,” he said. “And this is Dane.”

  They were some . . . fae-like names. “Ivy,” I murmured.

  “I’m Tink,” Tink announced. “But you guys know that.”

  “Yes,” Dane said, sighing. “We know that.”

  Tink grinned.

  I turned back to the front. “I don’t understand. I checked out this place. It was on a . . .” I trailed off, not wanting to explain how I knew about it.

  “It was on a map that Merle drew?” Kalen answered, and I twisted back around. His smile was faint. “We know. Merle is with us. So is her daughter. They are safe.”

  Then it struck me, and I felt a little stupid that it had taken me so long to figure it out. “You . . . you guys are the good fae?”

  “I told you that not everything is as it seems,” Faye replied from the front, drawing my attention. “Good and evil are subjective,” she continued, peering back over the seat at me. “But we do not kill humans. We do not use our abilities to manipulate humans beyond protecting what we are and where we live. And most of us don’t feed on humans.”

  “They age,” Tink said. “And die like humans. I’m a brownie. Therefore, I do not need to feed. I just age very, very, very slowly.”

  “I’m guessing you’re probably still in your toddler years then,” Ren muttered from up front.

  Tink snorted. “I’ll have you know that I’m two hundred years old.”

  My eyes widened as I looked over at him. “What?”

  Faye laughed softly. “Brownies can live to be over a thousand years old. In human years, he’s barely twenty.”

  Ren snickered.

  Tink’s eyes narrowed.

  I jumped in before those two got into it, and while that was a welcome thing to hear and see again, I had so many questions. “Okay. I checked the power plant out. It’s run-down and abandoned.”

  “We know you checked the place out.” Dane leaned between the seats. “We saw you, but we only let you see what we wanted you to see. It keeps the humans away. Allows us to live in peace away from the . . .”

  I got it. “Away from the Order.”

  “Exactly.” He sat back. “The kind of glamour we’re using on the building can’t be seen through. No wards will break it.”

  “And this isn’t the only building like this?” I asked.

  “No,” Ren answered as the vehicle slowed. “It’s not.”

  I exhaled slowly and sat back against the seat. There was a lot I didn’t know. Big surprise there. Outside the window, the old power plant came into view. It still looked like a place where a serial killer would leave their victims’ body parts. Ren turned down the road, heading towards the back of the building. We passed the old metal fencing and then we entered a narrow alley where the vehicle stopped.

  Ren killed the engine, and as I stared at his profile, my heart started kicking around in my chest. His hands slipped off the steering wheel, and I saw his shoulders rise. He turned, his gaze finding and holding mine in the dimly lit interior for what felt like forever. Neither of us spoke in those precious seconds that felt like forever and yet not nearly long enough.

  Faye spoke, breaking the spell. “We’re trusting you, Ivy. We brought in Ren. We trust him, and I swore to my people that bringing you here would be safe,” she said. “We can protect you from the prince, but we cannot put our people at risk.”

  “Aren’t your people going to be at risk once the prince finds out I’m missing?” I asked.

  Kalen spoke up from behind us. “The prince is not our only concern. The Order cannot know where we are either.”

  My gaze flew to Ren. Obviously if he was here, then he had agreed to keep this all from the Elite and the Order, and that was a big deal. I had no idea how he had come about finding this place and why he had decided to trust them, because that was a huge leap for any Order member to be working with the fae, no matter how good they claimed to be. It was still hard to believe what Merle had wrote in her journals.

  But Faye had gotten me out of that place, away from Drake, and Tink was here, along with Ren. “Okay,” I said, agreeing to the one thing that was sure to get me kicked out of the Order. Then again, being
a halfling also revoked my card-carrying membership. But I still felt uneasy, even though it was the right thing to do. “I won’t betray you.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Faye studied me a moment.

  “She won’t.” Tink opened the door on his side. “She kept me all this time and never told anyone. Renny-Tin-Tin didn’t even know about me until he walked out into the kitchen naked with his junk all hanging out, swinging—”

  “I’m going to punch you,” Ren cut in. “And it will hurt.”

  Tink was already out of the car when I spoke to Faye. “I won’t say anything. Tink’s telling the truth. I never told anyone about him until Ren . . . um, accidentally discovered him.”

  Another second passed and then she nodded. “Okay.”

  Tink opened my door from the outside as I heard Dane whisper to Kalen, “Naked?” I was glad Ren was out of the SUV.

  I climbed out, wincing as my feet hit the ground. The pain registered now, and it sucked. Each step I took felt like I was walking on fire.

  Dane walked over to the gate while Kalen got into the driver’s seat of the SUV. He took off, going somewhere, as Dane placed his hand on the building. The metal shook and began to slide to the side.

  “The glamour will fade in a few seconds,” Ren said, coming to stand beside me. “Once you’re inside, you’ll see what’s really here.”

  Having no idea what to expect, I waited until Dane had created an opening large enough for us to walk through. He went in first, followed by Tink, who stopped just inside, waiting for me.

  “Can you walk?” Ren asked.

  I really didn’t want to, but I nodded. I got my legs moving, feeling Ren right behind me. Faye was the last to come in, closing the metal wall behind us. At first, I just saw murky darkness—possibly a scrap yard, but then the air shimmered like a thousand fireflies had taken flight. A veil of dizzying sparks suddenly dropped, revealing what truly existed.

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  We were in a beautiful courtyard—a garden straight out of a fairytale. Tall trees rose up to the night sky. Paper lanterns hung from the limbs, illuminating the way. There were vines and plants everywhere, virtually untouched by the cold. It did seem warmer here, at least by ten or so degrees. The place carried a magical, almost surreal feeling.

  “Crazy, isn’t it?” Ren said, his voice low. “When I first saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. That this has been here the whole time.” He looked down at me. “What Merle wrote in her books was true, Ivy. They’ve been here a long time, and this place—places hidden like this—are everywhere.”

  “You make it sound so creepy,” Faye said. “We aren’t really everywhere. I mean, we’re hidden in a lot of places, but we do it because of safety.”

  “That’s just Ren, being all ominous.” Tink walked ahead, his arms swinging at his sides. “He’s not really what you’d call a people person. I think he’s socially awkward. Or maybe just intellectually stunted.”

  Ren sighed and appeared to be counting numbers under his breath.

  Wrapping my arms around my waist, I followed them down the grassy pathway toward a pavilion that butted up to the back of a building that was—wow—no longer an abandoned factory.

  Nothing was dilapidated. There were no missing bricks or busted windows. One whole section was nothing but a glass wall. A set of large French doors were open, and I could see that the insides were brightly lit.

  Tink was inside by the time I crossed the pavilion, walking past numerous thick-cushioned, comfy-looking chairs. Warm air heavy with the scent of coffee and vanilla tickled my nose as I stepped into what only could be described as something similar to a hotel lobby.

  Golden chandeliers hung from the high ceiling, and the building had to be bigger than it appeared outside, because the ceiling alone was two stories high. Chairs were everywhere, some spaced around fireplaces, others in front of large TVs that were currently turned off.

  Further in, I saw that there was an honest to goodness coffee shop. My mouth was probably hanging open.

  “You hanging in there?” Ren asked quietly. He was by my side. Had been the whole way in here. The sleeves of his shirt were pushed up now, and I saw the tattoo on his arm.

  Drake had the same tattoo when he was pretending to be Ren, but for some reason it looked different now. More real. More Ren.

  “Ivy?”

  Realizing he’d been waiting for me to answer, I forced a nod even though I really wasn’t okay. This was a lot to process. Everything was a lot to process. I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole, and a cat was going to appear out of nowhere and start talking to me like I was on some kind of acid trip.

  “What is . . . what is this place?” I asked, hearing how shaky my voice was.

  Faye faced me, not a strand of her long silvery hair out of place. “It’s a safe haven of sorts, but on any given day, there are about a hundred fae who live here.”

  My lips parted on a sharp inhale as my arms fell to my sides. “A hundred fae . . . ?”

  “We can house more. We have a store down at the end of that hall.” She gestured to my left, pointing to somewhere beyond the coffee shop. “And we have a cafeteria.”

  I started to ask if it served humans or food, but luckily and wisely stopped the dumb, needlessly smartass comment. I wanted to ask, though.

  “Ivy needs to shower and rest.” Tink grabbed my hand suddenly. “What room can she stay in? I think she would like the one that overlooks the garden. And it’s not super far up, only on the eighth floor.”

  There were how many floors? Then again, this place could house over a hundred fae. Holy fae overload, this place was under some powerful-ass glamour.

  Faye’s brow furrowed while she thought about it. “The garden room is fine.”

  “Okay.” Tink started dragging me to my right. “We’ll head up. See you guys later.”

  I looked over my shoulder at Ren. He was standing next to Faye, his arms crossed and jaw hard, but the look etched onto his face, in his bright green eyes, was a wealth of sadness that was hard to look upon. With a knot in my throat, I turned away and let Tink lead me to the elevators.

  He didn’t say anything as he hit the button for the eighth floor, but he held my hand. It was kind of weird, but also good. There was something comforting about it.

  “This place . . . it’s like a hotel,” I said as the doors opened.

  “That’s what your boy toy said too.” We stepped inside, and as the doors quietly slid shut, he looked down at me. “You don’t need to shower if you don’t want to, but you are kind of filthy. Your eyes are a bit messed up, and you have dirt all over you.”

  “I can shower,” I said dryly.

  “But I also thought you’d like some time alone, because it’s about two in the morning, and the fae around these parts get up at the butt crack of dawn. And there are a lot of them, Ivy. A lot. Like I couldn’t spit and not hit one.”

  “That’s . . . reassuring.”

  “But they are good. I promise you. Some are a little nervous right now, because of Ren. Not me.” The elevator stopped, and he led me out into a wide hall. He hung a left, leading me toward a room that had “GARDEN” written on the door. “They love me. You see, brownies are, like, the shit in the Otherworld. So I am the supreme shit here.”

  I frowned, wondering if he knew how that sounded.

  Tink opened the door to a large room that reminded me of a studio apartment. On one side there was a decent-sized bed, a nightstand, and a dresser, and on the other was a small couch in front of a TV. There was a fridge, and no stove but a microwave. A door led to a bathroom.

  Overwhelmed, hurting physically, and more than just a little mentally and emotionally bruised from everything, I turned in a slow circle. “How . . . how did all of this happen?”

  Tink seemed to know what I meant. “It’s a long story, Ivy-Divy.”

  “I need to know—need to understand what happened while I was at . . . at that place,” I ex
plained. “How did you guys end up here? How did they get Ren to trust them? Are Brighton and Merle—”

  “I’ll tell you everything, but maybe you should shower first? And then you should maybe get off your feet,” he offered. “Okay? Glad you agree.”

  I stared at him, having the distinct feeling there was something he was avoiding. Probably a lot of things.

  “I’ll get you some clothes. I brought some here, because I knew we’d find you. I just have to get them. There’s a robe on the door. It’s not yours, but it’s nicer. Doesn’t have holes in it.” He stopped at the door. “Oh, and I’ll grab you a key.”