She laughs. “I meant after that. If there’s one thing I know about my badass bestie, it’s that she always had—hasa plan,” she corrects, her voice catching like she’s still adjusting to the idea of having me back.
I consider her words. Before I was taken to Paradise, I had a lot of shit to do. Freeing the Nether humans to fulfill my blood oath, taking out the Immortal Quintet for my revenant purpose, keeping my quintet out of harm’s way, trying not to die permanently…basics like that.
Now? Aside from tracking down my quintet, no supernatural promise or purpose is driving me. It all comes down to what I want to do, and it’s true that I have a few things in mind.
Vengeance. Sex. A bit of torture, if I have time.
But first…
“Outside of your quintet and mine, no one can know I’m back yet,” I decide out loud.
“Probably wise,” Felix says, striding through the snow beside us as he scans for threats.
As he’s warily watching the ravens that have started to join us in these woods, he reaches up to scratch the side of his neck. I notice a bite scar there—Kenzie’s mating mark.
“Your infamy didn’t exactly die with you,” he goes on. “If anything, you’ve become an icon of change—but also of death and carnage. There’s already a bizarre number of claims that your death was a hoax. If thetelumwere to show up out of the blue…gods above, that’d be too much. People have enough on their plates trying to survive in this hellish winter, nothanks to your match. Not to mention the Limbo Zones, fires, growing Nether, and fiends running rampant, since the Divide is history.”
“Hey,” Kenzie chides, shooting him a look. “Don’t you dare make my bestie feel guilty. Let’s not forget that she saved your sexy ass along with thousands of helpless people.”
“I’m being candid,” he clarifies. “She always hated people beating around the bush.”
True.
“I need to get to my quintet,” I add, trying to disguise my limp.
“Your elemental runs the stronghold we’re headed back to, so you could try to start there. Not that I recommend being around him in general,” Felix grumbles. Apparently, I’m not hiding my pain as well as I thought, because his attention drops to my ankle as he pauses our trek in the snow. “Hey, if you’re hurt, you should heal yourself.”
“Lacking common sense isn’t the issue here,” I sigh, still annoyed about how helpless I feel without my revenant abilities.
“What do you mean? Is there something wrong with your morally-repugnant magic?”
“It’s complicated.”
Felix sighs. “It always is with you. Stay still.”
I don’t protest as he crouches down to hold his hands near my damaged leg, concentrating as he recites a fae healing spell. I’m no longer a revenant, so I wonder if common magic will work on me.
But no. The stinging remains until he finally scowls.
“I forgot. You’ll need a necromancer for that, right?” he checks, distaste in his voice.
I’m honestly not sure, but he’s always been so hilariously disgusted by darker forms of magic that I smirk. “You volunteering?”
“Anyone who voluntarily transitions into a necromancer is certifiably insane,” he retorts, turning to start our trek again as more ravens flock to the surrounding trees.
He has no idea how aptly he just described my gorgeous blood fae, but it makes my chest ache again. Gods, I just really need to track down my guys.
Kenzie tuts over my bloodied ankle and slips one arm under my right shoulder to help me limp less, careful to only touch me through my clothes. “Come on, May—let’s sneak you into the Everbound stronghold, get you thawed out, and then figure out how to sneak you into the castle without anyone seeing.”
6
MAVEN
As soon asI hobble into the giant tent that belongs to Kenzie’s quintet, Luka looks up from studying a map on a desk. The vampire’s attention immediately skips to my shoulder, where my bloodied bandage is starting to seep through, before he squints to check my pupils.
His own eyes get comically wide. “You have got to be shitting me.”
“I shit you not,” I reply, examining this space as I distractedly rub the aching, overheated center of my chest.
