by Leia Stone
I frowned. “In time for what?”
He shook himself and stepped closer to me. “Did you get the water?”
I nodded. “It’s in Faerie, at the elders’. They wouldn’t let me bring it out.”
He frowned at that. “Okay. Hold on to me. I can get us there faster.”
Elle kicked off the ground, hovering in the air. “I’ll follow.”
Liam shook his head. “By the time you get there, we will be done. Wait here, and if we need backup, I’ll come back for you.”
She frowned, “Excuse me motherfu—” She was drowned out when Liam reached out and pulled me flush against his body, kicking off the ground like a missile as he shot into the air. I clung to his neck, tucking my face into him as frigid wind sailed past us.
“I’m sorry,” he shouted down at me. “There’s no more time.”
My heart beat wildly against his chest. The craziest part of all this was that I trusted he wouldn’t put me in harm’s way. That might be my downfall, but my intuition had never let me down before. I was worried about people seeing us. Keeping our race a secret was very important in Faerie, but Liam didn’t seem to care. He shot across Seattle and then across the open water, bringing a frigid wind with him in his wake.
He was the son of the Winter King. I’d expected some power, but this was … incredible. He flew so fast I would have thought I was in a fighter jet from a movie. Before I knew it, we were landing on Orka Island, at the end of an outcrop of trees.
“My father has this plan.” Liam set me down, sliding my body along the length of his and making my belly warm at the closeness. “To make his own world here on Earth for all of the Sons of Darkness and their human … lovers.” He paused at that word, hand still on my lower back as I stayed pressed to him.
I nodded. “I know. I was at the sex party, remember?” He still hadn’t let me go. We were inches apart.
He looked up at a giant house on the hill between the trees. “This is where his plan begins. He only needs three crystals to start creating a protection dome, similar to the one you have in Faerie. Then they’ll all come here and … continue to grow the race until he can get all twelve crystals and take over Earth.”
Take over Earth? That was fucked. Like some cult or something. Earth wasn’t meant to be used like that. Faerie would fall if he took even one of our crystals at this point. So would the queen of Spring, Dahlia.
“Alright, well, let’s do this.” I went to step out of his grasp when his hand tightened at my back and he pinned me closer to his body.
“Look…” His blue eyes bore into mine, tiny threads of orange lighting up inside as he gazed down at me intently. “Last night was … incredible. I need you to know that. You’re … incredible.”
My breath hitched in my throat. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t expecting that.
“I just…” He looked at my lips, wetting his. “I have a lot going on. A lot of people depend on me for survival, and I’ve never been in love or anything before. I don’t know how to do this, but I care about you. I fucking do.”
Love? What the what? Care about me? I realized then that I’d been raised by a warm and loving woman and he’d been raised by a demon. Maybe he really didn’t know how to do this.
I cut him off with a kiss. Pressing my lips to his, I reached up and wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. His whole body relaxed as we came together, and I could feel the smile tugging at his lips. Opening my mouth, I deepened the kiss, letting our tongues brush together in a small token of what we had last night. Desire flared within me; it was hard to explain this feeling of complete contentedness when we were together like this.
When we pulled apart, we were both breathless.
“We’ll figure out how to do this together,” I told him.
He nodded, looking more at ease with himself and less stressed. I wondered if I had only let him speak this morning and had the stupid peanut butter cracker breakfast he’d made, if he would have told me the same things. He wasn’t good with words, that was for sure. I stepped away, heart full for the first time since we’d been together last night.
“Okay, here is the plan. Only I can touch the crystals.” He paused, chewing at his lip. “So I need you to create a diversion out here so I can slip inside there.”
I looked up at the house on the hill. It was overcast and gloomy, dark clouds sending shadows across the rooftop of the home.
I gulped. “Okay.”
He seemed lost in thought, planning. “This will be the most heavily guarded place my dad has, whether he is here or not. I’ll get the crystals and be right back. Two minutes, tops.”
Another nod, but a stone sank in my gut. I had a bad feeling about splitting up. “Be safe,” I said.
He reached out and stroked my face. “Pull up a shield over yourself this time, okay?”
I smiled. “Okay.”
With that, he kicked off the ground and shot in the direction of the house. Gods he was fast. Taking in a deep breath, I kicked off my shoes and sank my feet into the grass, connecting with Mother Earth. Pulling on my training, I called a shield up over me. It was a thin clear dome that would hopefully protect me from harm—if I could keep control of it.
Okay. Distraction time.
There was nothing to fucking distract with! No car, no gun, no dog.
“HEYYYY!” I shouted at the top of my lungs at no one in particular, building a healing ball between my hands. Every Fae had mild healing abilities, enough to staunch a skinned and bleeding knee from a crying child, or ease a headache, nothing crazy. But they were colorful, so I built this purple healing ball and then chucked it over the fence and waited for some kind of noise to indicate someone saw it.
Nothing. I was officially the worst distraction maker in history and would probably get Liam killed.
Reaching down, I picked up a rock and took flight. Flapping my wings, I flew overtop of the hedged fence and saw some guards patrolling the property below. I chucked the rock and screamed again, causing the guards to look up at me and shout. They were wingless, thank the gods, and when they saw me I took off back over the hedge to lure them out. I couldn’t see Liam, but he must be hiding in the treetops and waiting to make his move on the house.
When gunfire snapped through the air, my heart leapt into my throat.
I stumbled mid-flight and lost my shield, tumbling to the ground and landing awkwardly on my right ankle.
They’re shooting at me? Well, I guess that was a good distraction. I pulled out my obsidian dagger. I’d literally brought a knife to a gunfight. Great.
“You know this is all your fault,” a familiar deep voice called from behind me just as the two Sons burst through the hedge, pointing a gun at me. I kicked off the ground, building my shield as I went. Turning mid-air, I came face to face with the owner of that voice.
The Winter King hovered before me, wings flapping and sending out tendrils of black smoke as he glared.
“It’s your fault we have to steal crystals!” he roared above the wind while I tried with all my might to hold my shield. Trissa had drilled into me over and over again how important shield work was, but I never practiced. Maybe if someone had told me how dangerous my life work would be, I would have listened!
Regretting that now.
Where the hell was Liam?
“Oh yeah?” I screamed back. “You sound like a child. No one can make you do these things.”
His face grimaced into something dark and macabre. “If the queen would have just allowed us to come and go freely, to see our human lovers and bring our children back and forth, this wouldn’t have happened.”
I felt power crackle in my veins as anger built up inside of me. “So your solution was to collapse Faerie and kill billions!”
I roared as a stream of light burst from my palm, shooting him right in the face.
What the…?
He looked more shocked than I did, but we both recovered quickly. Whatever falling into the healing water had done … it had
given me powers. Light powers. I didn’t have time to think on it now.
“An unfortunate side effect,” he sneered, and flicked his wrist upward, sending a shard of pointed ice right for my face.
My hand shot out instinctively and my shield lowered in panic, but a bright burst of sunlight shot from my palm and incinerated the shard, melting it midair.
Whoa.
The king grinned. “You are your mother’s daughter.”
What? My mom had … light powers … or whatever this was too?
Shaking off his comment, I took off flying, because I didn’t know what the hell to do. He zoomed after me and I peered across the lawn at the front porch, looking for Liam. Where was he? I made a figure-eight around the property, coming back to our meeting spot to find the two guards gone but no Liam. And the king was still hot on my tail, throwing ice shards left and right. For the first time, I wondered if Liam had done all this and used me to get two crystals for himself. The thought mentally unhinged me and made me wonder if I could even trust my own emotions. He was my soulmate … how could he—?
A wall of ice slammed into me from behind, pain lacing up my back, and I tumbled to the ground. I hit the packed dirt hard, landing on my hip and elbow.
With a cry, I rolled over and popped back up ready to fight, just as Liam came through the thicket of trees and his father landed before the both of us. When I saw Liam carrying two crystals, my heart leapt in my chest. He was true to his word. But my face fell as I looked closer, horror causing a chill to run up my spine.
Liam’s eyes were all black, as were his hands, and the inky substance was creeping up his arms slowly as he walked closer to us in a robotic manner.
The dark crystals had … tainted him.
I looked at the king, who stood ten feet from me; he was grinning. “You see, once I realized the Fae from Faerie, and my other enemies—” he gestured to Liam “—would never stop coming for the crystals, I devised a plan so that only people I approved of could touch them and glean power from them. Otherwise it poisons their soul.”
Something inside of me snapped. With a cry, I burst forward, hands out. Ungodly amounts of light shot from my palms. It was like my body contained sunlight and I could turn it on and off at will. The torpedo of sunlight blasted at the king and he was thrown backward a hundred feet into the yard, screaming and clutching his face as if I’d blinded him.
Good. I hope I hurt him bad.
I approached Liam slowly. “Liam, can you see me?” My voice shook.
His head snapped towards me, creepy and unlike any normal human movement. Those black eyes were so chilling; I wanted to look away. Liam looked down at his blackened hands holding the crystals.
I kept my voice firm. “Liam, drop them.”
His head snapped up to me again. “No,” he growled and tore after me with one hand raised. His movement was so sudden. I hadn’t expected him to attack me. I stumbled backward as he held the dark crystal up like a weapon, ready to bash my head in with it or something.
Tears burst from my eyes as I struggled to dodge him, my soulmate. The very real realization that he was possessed or something came over me.
My necklace, the one my mother had given me, pulsed at my throat, sending warmth through my chest.
Mom?
Just then, Liam knocked into me and I fell backward, landing hard on my ass. He straddled me, pinning my lower body with his thighs. Now that we were this close, I could feel the darkness from the crystal. It was heavy and made me sick to my stomach. Liam’s arm came up with the crystal, ready to crack it over my head, when my mother’s dying words about the necklace came back to me.
If ever you are in peril, use my essence to heal. I wasn’t in peril, but Liam was.
Reaching between us, I pulled my locket out and pried it open with my fingertips. My mother’s blue soul light burst from the locket and right into Liam’s face. He gasped in shock, breathing it into himself.
The crystals dropped from his hands to either side of my face. I flinched, and when I looked back up at him, Liam was looking down at me, his face a mask of horror and completely gone of any blackness. Thank the gods.
“Oh gods, Lily. I’m so sorry.” His hands shook as he caressed my face, running his thumb over my bottom lip and then cupping my chin. He seemed to realize he was pinning me down and rolled away. Stepping off me, he helped pull me up. His gaze fell to the necklace at my throat. “Everything went … dark. I wasn’t in control … you saved me.” He was breathless.
I nodded. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He frowned as he trailed his thumb across my lower lip. “You’re too good for me. I’d poison your garden and kill all of the flowers.”
I grimaced, “What?” reaching out for him as he backed away. “Don’t say that.”
“Come on, we gotta go.” He scooped the crystals into my special messenger bag, using the cloth edge without touching them, and slung it around his neck. His eyes grew darker then, not fully black, but it was clear the crystals were still affecting him just being around him.
“You will not leave with those!” a deep roar came from behind us, and suddenly a shard of ice four feet long came out of nowhere and sliced into Liam’s abdomen. His face marred with shock as he gripped the shard sticking out of his navel. Blood spurted from his shirt in a circle of crimson.
“No!” I threw myself in front of him and let the light burst from my palms. The king was thrown backwards by my light. I acted then purely by instinct.
Hooking Liam under the armpits, I took to the sky, grunting as the weight of him and two crystals pulled me down. I was barely able to make it three feet above the ground with him; he was so damn heavy and my wings were small. “You’re gonna be okay,” I told him, trying not to look down and see how badly he was injured; he was bleeding freely in my arms. I wasn’t sure if Kira could save him if too many of his organs were punctured.
I was reminded of my mom bleeding out in the tub with her belly splayed open. It seemed to be the Winter King’s MO. I had to tamp down my desire to turn around and kill Cypress. I needed to focus on saving Liam.
“Lily!” Elle’s voice drifted across the water and I looked up to see my bestie flying towards me, looking wind-chilled and tired. Her nose and ears were bright red and her hair had pulled out of its ponytail and whipped around her face.
“Help me!” I shouted.
When her gaze fell on Liam in my arms, she burst forward with a bit of extra speed and grabbed his legs. With half of the weight taken, we were able to move a bit faster.
Elle grunted under the strain of holding Liam mid-flight. “What happened?”
He winced. “I can fly.”
“No!” I snapped at him, then looked at Elle. “We got the crystals. But they’re crawling with dark magic. We need to hurry or they will take over him.”
Even having them close, I felt heaviness come over me; my thoughts were going dark and I was questioning my sanity.
Elle cringed. “Is that what that heavy feeling is?”
I nodded. These crystals were powerful. You could feel them without even touching them.
Elle must have had an illusion up, because we passed a group of kayakers and no one looked twice at us. When we finally reached the green lawn of the home that held the blue door, I knew something was wrong. Water poured down the front yard and into the trees. Stumbling into a clumsy landing, Elle and I dragged Liam closer to the door. When I looked up, the wind was knocked out of me.
A huge crack had worked its way up the side of the door and water was flowing out at the base. Mara’s home was flooded…
I rushed to the door and used the handle, praying with everything in me that it opened. If it didn’t, Liam would die; I was certain. When it turned in my hand and opened into Mara’s apartment, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Water gushed around my ankles as I half dragged Liam inside, with Elle bringing up the rear. Mara was using buckets, and what looked like magic, to try to get the
water out.
“Thank the gods you’re here!” Mara screamed. “Faerie had another earthquake. It fractured the blue door and ripped through my office.”
She hadn’t looked up yet. She was sucking water into her magic bucket and it was going gods knows where, disappearing.
“Can you fix it? We got two crystals and Liam’s hurt,” I whimpered.
Her head snapped up then and her mouth formed a small O. “I need to be back in Faerie to fix it. I’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t want to leave without you.”
I nodded, feeling the darkness of the crystals reach out and brush up against me. Panic flared in my chest as my heart raced.
“We need to hurry,” I told Mara.
She looked down at the bag at Liam’s side. “That feels … dark.”
“It is!” I growled, feeling unbridled rage rise within me and immediately regretting it.
Mara gave me a knowing nod. “I see.” She placed a hand on Liam’s stomach. The icicle had melted or fallen out in our flight and now he was just freely bleeding. “This will hurt, child,” she told him.
He grunted, but gave her a curt nod. His complexion was paler than usual, and sweat beaded on his brow. A searing white light shot from her palm and Liam screamed so loudly it made the hairs on my arms stick up. The smell of burning flesh hit my nose, and Mara nodded. “That will slow the bleeding until we can see Kira.”
My voice constricted with emotion. “Thank you.”
With a little help, Elle and I got Liam into a chair in Mara’s office. Her desk with its dials and knobs was completely cracked down the middle but still held together. Liam’s blood was everywhere. The thought of losing him terrified me.
I clung to his side, holding on to his chair tightly. “Use your power to keep the area cold. Freeze the wound or something.”
He shook his head. “I can’t. Too … weak.”
Oh gods. My stomach dropped. It seemed like we kept finding ourselves in this situation, with him injured and me helpless to do anything but look for Kira.
Mara spun the wheel and the room jerked wildly, nearly throwing me across it. I clutched to Liam’s chair for dear life, while Elle grunted. A few more jerks and sputters and it finally stopped. That was a rougher ride than usual.
