Compounding Traumas (Artemis University Book 6)

by Erin R Flynn

  Making my way to the fancy brick wall that surrounded the estate wasn’t a problem. It was the tension in the air that worried me. Something felt… Off. My spidey senses that sometimes picked up impending danger weren’t going crazy. There weren’t a bunch of guards around that would have been out of place for an estate that size.

  Maybe something had happened with that group that had left a weird vibe at the place?

  I moved closer to the wall, and my magic didn’t react weird to it, so I shrugged it off. I was still careful as I climbed over, making sure I had good holds, and carefully listening for any signs or signals there was danger. My gut was pretty good at knowing when there could be a problem, so I wisely listened to it.

  I paused at the top, but sensed nothing, nor saw anything that worried me. Deciding I was concerned over nothing, I slid off and hopped down.

  And onto some sort of magical trap.

  It was as if I had landed on a landmine, but instead of it exploding when I stepped off the plate, it blew when I touched it. It had to respond to… I had no idea. I couldn’t think as I went flying, pain instantly flaring all over my body as I felt fire sear my clothing to my skin.

  My magic was responding before I landed, opening a portal to the one person I knew could help me. I didn’t land on the ground of the estate, but on the floor of Dean White’s office.

  And she wasn’t alone.

  “What the blood fuck is this?” Craftsman demanded.

  “By the gods, Tamsin,” White gasped.

  “Trap,” I managed to croak out.

  “That got through your barrier?” she worried.

  I could explain it to her later, which she seemed to realize. I was incredibly grateful when healing magic started pumping into me.

  But then I realized it wasn’t her, but him. Craftsman had reacted first and leapt over her desk to get to me and start healing me. I saw her after I felt the healing, and then felt more.

  “How much pain?” Craftsman asked after several moments.

  I took a few moments to assess before answering. “Better. Like a five.”

  “Take a break, Julian,” White snapped when he went back to healing me.

  “Not bloody likely when she was burnt to a crisp,” he bitched.

  “I can heal her so she doesn’t scar. She’s out of danger. Just give her a moment, or you could hurt her with rapid healing—”

  “I’m not some fucking git who would make some newb mistake like that, White. I’m healing some internal bleeding she’s got from the blast and then I’ll stop.”

  “I’m sorry,” White whispered. “I didn’t sense that.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Julian. You’ve not always kept a level head when it comes to her.”

  He didn’t respond until he was finished healing me. “I know, but I do learn from my mistakes. No disrespect, but I also have more experience in these situations, which is why I was originally Vale’s advisor, not simply because I was there that night.”

  “I know, I know,” she sighed. “You were the right person to send to find an unknown and had worked with the supe police to hunt Underground.”

  I hadn’t known that and I knew… Other intimate details.

  Craftsman snorted. “‘Hunt’ is generous. They called me when the shite was going to get real, and I helped with portals and healing when I was on breaks from school. I was glad to do it, but I had to stop when the head of my family thought he’d found another use for me.”

  “The list he has for you is long,” White drawled.

  “How are you now?” Craftsman asked me gently, clearly not wanting to talk about his family, but also staying focused.

  I didn’t answer immediately. “I’m like a three, thanks.”

  He helped me sit up, studying my aura and seeming relieved at whatever he found before meeting my eyes. “Okay, then I need to know if you have the juice for your barrier because we have to go back in.”

  “Julian, you cannot be serious,” White hissed. “I know—”

  “If she fails this time, everyone will lay magical traps over every inch of their estates, and one that’s worse could catch her,” he interrupted, explaining it more for me. White seemed to know where he was coming from, but the pain made me muddled still. “They will scour our world for someone injured, and there will be a witch hunt for who is doing this.

  “We can’t have that, especially when it risks the hobgoblins.” He changed to speaking directly to me then. “We need to go get your people out and let them see this was nothing. I care for them too. I need you to trust me on this. I can handle us and get them out if you keep the barrier up, I swear it. I won’t risk losing you, love.”

  I didn’t even need to think about it, knowing my people needed me. “I can do it. I can open the portal where I came out and guide us from there. The fae dogs tell me where to go.”

  “Good.” He glanced at White over his shoulder. “Meet us back at her house so we can give her more healing and Irma can mother her, yeah?” He waited until White agreed before giving me the go-ahead to open a portal.

  I had us go through the floor like I had come in and brought us out right near where the trap had gone off. I used a different, stronger barrier that completely cloaked us and everything I did.

  A draining barrier.

  “Well, that will be the end of this ‘hobgoblin Underground Railroad’ nonsense,” someone pompous and clearly rich declared with tons of bluster while yucking it up with the guards.

  It was really hard not to order the fae dogs to eat people most days.

  Craftsman could see me, so I waved for him to follow, but when I had trouble moving easily, I was suddenly in his arms. I didn’t have—nor want to waste—the energy to fight him, so I simply showed him the rooms off the garage where the hobgoblins were being held.

  And this time I meant held, not simply they weren’t allowed off the estate. The room was locked down. My blood boiled as we reached there and Craftsman set me on my feet.

  He used some rune to quietly bust us in, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

  The hobgoblins were kept in cells. The asshole had retrofitted, or built, an addition of a fancy workroom off his garage that included cells with bars and everything for the hobgoblins to sleep like prisoners.

  “Tasmin, no!” Craftsman called as I rushed forward.

  I turned to see what he was upset about as I approached the cells, reaching for the bars, but he knocked me out of the way. Horror filled me as he crashed into the bars and magic did something to him that looked as if he was being electrocuted at a power plant.

  But how through my barrier?

  “On the wall!” one of the hobgoblins called out.

  My head turned so fast I heard my neck pop as I found the magical item doing whatever was hurting Craftsman and laid the trap. I shot electricity at it, destroying it instantly and stopping whatever was being done to Craftsman… Who was now unconscious.

  Fuck. Fuck!

  I reached through the bars and opened a portal for the hobgoblins, digging deep to open three since there were three cells. They thanked me and hurried so I could quickly close them. I leaned over and laid my head on Craftsman’s chest as they rushed out, tears filling my eyes as his heart made bad, bad noises.

  The second the hobgoblins were through, I closed the portals and opened one for us into the basement of my house. I did the only thing I could think of, the thing my instincts were screaming for me to do.

  I brought him to Faerie. I activated the portal and used the last of my strength to drag his unconscious body through.

  “Heal him!” I shouted to the world as if it would hear me, ignoring how hysterical I sounded. “He saved my life and many hobgoblins. More can be saved because of him. Heal him! Save him! Please! I can’t—I can’t do this and go on if I lose him like this.”

  I moved over him and let out a wail when his heart stuttered like it was shutting down. I tried to pump healing into him, but I was out of juice. It was the first ti
me in forever I was completely out of power.

  But I didn’t need it. Faerie answered my pleas.

  The ground around Craftsman glowed as power raced into him. He gasped as his body lurched. It was as if the world had used shock paddles on him… Those magical ones that I didn’t think exist.

  A few moments after, the glowing stopped and Craftsman’s breathing evened out, his heart sounding fine.

  I lifted my head just in time to see his eyelids flutter open and those deep emerald green eyes I had fallen so hard for stare up at me. I had no idea what to say, so I blurted the first thing that came to me. “Welcome to Faerie.”

  “I love you,” he whispered, reaching up and cupping my cheek. “You are a miracle, my miracle.” He let out a shaky breath when I went to pull away, moving his other hand to me so I stayed. “I would die a million times to save you, and not because you’re the last fairy, Tamsin. This world is not worth living in without you. You are perfect.”

  I flinched away from him, pulling against his hold. No I wasn’t. He hadn’t wanted me when he’d seen who I really was.

  He responded to my trying harder to get away by rolling me under him and leaning his forehead down to mine. “I’m so sorry, my sweet fairy. The issues were mine. I’m sorry I thought—even for one second—you could be like my family. I know you better than that. I could never love anyone like them. I know you, and it was my issues that made me doubt you. I’m so sorry.

  “You deserved none of that. When Darby said he was worried you wanted to be alone, I knew. I knew you had cried alone in bed because you’d hurt people that day. I knew it hurt you to hurt others, and I felt two inches tall that I could have doubted you for even a second. It was all my issues and past pain, and I’m sorry I put it on you. I’m so sorry.”

  “I forgive you for that,” I mumbled, turning my head away. “I could always—I have piles of my own issues, Julian. I understood you doubting me after I heard your family had congratulated you. I understood not liking the plan or thinking I was out of my head. Mel and I have had blow-up fights that came to taking swings when we let our issues get in the way of the crazy. I get all of that.”

  “I didn’t walk away,” he whispered, knowing what I was going to say. “I wasn’t—I blinked and it was—”

  “A man abducted me, branded me like cattle—his food—and was trying to force me to have lots of babies so he could do the same and not be able to tell anyone, and the man who said he loves me never showed. He never came. He never held my hand or hugged me as I sobbed at how horrible this world is,” I said, confessing what was one of his greatest sins to me. “You weren’t there and—”

  “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know until later. White and Edelman had tried to tell me. I believe them that they did, but I wasn’t hearing them. I was… I was so lost, love. White says I had what every teacher has hit them, but it devastated me because it hit me with you, and I’m so bloody in love with you.”

  “Let me go,” I begged. “I can’t. I cannot—thank you for saving me, but I saved you, so we’re even.”

  He let out a shaky breath. “I saved you twice, right?”

  I flinched. “You would use that debt to—”

  “No. Never. I would never ask for something over the line like that. You know me better than that, Tamsin.”

  I turned my head and looked at him then. “I thought I did. I thought I knew exactly who you were. The man I loved would never have taken his eyes off of me for so long, even before all of that happened, so don’t act like it was only that, Julian. Hear me when I say I might love you, but I don’t want to be with you.”

  He checked my aura and sighed. “Yes, you do, but you don’t want to be with someone who emotionally abuses you and forgets you like I did. I won’t. I will get my shit together and be who you deserve. I promise. I can be better and—”

  “Stop,” I begged. “Just stop.” I broke his hold and covered my face, giving a wordless scream. “I can’t. I can’t do this again. You nearly killed me. I’m a mess and losing you—I will not risk going through this again. I won’t. Not when I have to save Faerie, my people, all the fair folk, and fight off several councils. I’m not strong enough, so no matter how much I love you, my answer is no.”

  Tears filled his eyes as he saw the truth in my aura. “Please? Please don’t say that, my sweet fairy. Please give me a chance to win you back. I need you. I can’t go back to a life without you.”

  I looked away and he cried, his tears hitting my skin and making my cry too. All I wanted was to take him back and everything be okay again. I just couldn’t. I knew my limits, and I knew I wouldn’t get back up again if things didn’t work out.

  Hell, I was still trying to get back up from this time.

  “I won’t give up,” he rasped when he got himself better under control. “I won’t ever give up trying to get you back. I know I get distracted and lost in my head, but I’ll prove it. We have long, long lives, and I know in my soul I won’t love another like I love you. We’re meant to be and I need my sweet fairy, so I will win you back.”

  A small, tiny, miniscule flicker of hope sparked somewhere inside of me that he could. I wanted to find it and stomp it to shit, but I wasn’t a robot where I could do things like that.

  There was another slight problem to him having me under him and us being so emotional. Yeah, it made me think of other times, mostly naked.

  I cleared my throat and pushed at his chest. “Doc, I need you to move.”

  Fear filled his eyes, and it took me a few moments to realize why he was so scared. I couldn’t be sure, but I was pretty certain it was because he thought I’d never let him touch me again.

  Wow. He was terrified because of just that?

  No, no! It didn’t matter. He wasn’t mine, and he had left me.

  Great, now if I could truly convince myself of that. Idiot.

  “Julian, I used the last of my energy to get you here,” I murmured. “I’ve never been completely out of power before, but I am. I’m glad I did it to save you, but we might have a problem soon.”

  Then his gaze filled with horror as he took in my state instead of selfishly focusing on trying to win me back. I was up in his arms in a flash, and then we were back through the portal. We were upstairs moments later.

  “What happened?” White demanded.

  “A trap almost killed him,” I muttered, my eyes feeling heavy now that the adrenaline had almost worn off. “My fault. I brought him to Faerie and commanded it to heal him.”

  Irma looked gobsmacked and a bit scared. “That’s not possible. Only the—”

  “Faerie’s magic is sentient enough to know desperation and probably Dr. Craftsman saved you,” Ryfon cut in.

  I nodded. “I told it he saved me and many hobgoblins. It saved him then.”

  “Good, good,” Irma whispered, relief smoothing out her expression. “You need fuel and more healing. You too, Dr. Craftsman.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he agreed as he gently sat me in a chair at my kitchen table.

  I would have preferred sitting at the counter, but there was also more possibility of me falling if I got too tired… Which I knew from experience. Chairs with arms and backs were best when injured.

  “Thank you for saving her,” Irma muttered to Craftsman as she set down the first tray for us. “Maybe we won’t starve you this semester for completely abandoning her. Though I cannot promise the children will stop throwing things at you. They know you made her cry. The fae dogs made sure we knew of her pain.”

  Oh well damn. Just dayumn. My dogs snitched to the hobgoblins about me blubbering to them about him who punished Craftsman last semester. That was just… Even White looked like she was having a hard time not laughing.

  “The situation is worse than we thought,” I told Irma, and not simply to change the subject. “These hobgoblins were held in cells. Tiny cells, like prison with normal human toilets to share. It was—”

  “Cruel and horrific,” Craftsma
n cut in with a shiver. “They need to tell their story. I know it’s hard, and no one wants to push anyone into speaking out, but I believe people need to. I know it’s not in the natural of fair folk to rock the boat, but to react when pushed. However, the focus needs to come off Tamsin saving them and onto the conditions those being held are living.”

  “It is time,” I agreed, shooting the hobgoblins a look. “No one is saying the supe news who would badger you with questions. Mel can tape it, or Izzy, but I believe the average supe would be horrified to know what you guys are living like, and we need that outrage to help us.” I shook my head when they went to argue. “Those were death traps to keep their slaves. Enough.”

  “She’s right,” Ryfon agreed after a moment. “That’s too much to risk with the last fairy.”

  I mentally sighed. It wasn’t about what had been done to me as a fairy. They wouldn’t fight for themselves and it drove me crazy at times.

  But the end result was the hobgoblins taking a needed stand and going into battle to save the others. That was a relief and made me feel better.

  What really made me feel better was when Darby, and even Lucca, came into the kitchen and right for me. Irma must have let them know, and I was glad.

  Except I met Craftsman’s gaze as Lucca wrapped his thick arms around me, and I had a flash to the song the warlock had sent me about the pain of watching me move on to a new love and leave him behind. Except he’d done this to us. I hadn’t wanted to anything but to love him forever and be his.

  So I looked away and hugged Lucca back, soaking up his strength and sturdiness because I needed it. Not because of Craftsman. No, what happened today had shaken me. People were willing to go to those lengths to keep the hobgoblins as magical slaves because no one was there to fight for them.

  When I fixed Faerie and figured out what happened to all the fairies, I was going to kick all their fucking asses for allowing this, and more, to ever happen. Dipshits.

  21

  It really only took me a day to recover with magic and how much the hobgoblins fed me. Still, I wasn’t an idiot and next did a super simple place to snatch hobgoblins out of before spending the rest of the day stuffing my face and relaxing.