We stood back to admire our work. The edges of the statue shimmered with magic. The air hummed with anticipation as our spell called belief to itself. I grinned back. “And to think, I was just going to stick it beside the letterbox.”
“I’m impressed,” Blake whistled. “This is a plan so tricksy it’s worthy of the fae?—”
“Hey, what you think you’re doing?”
Footsteps thudded on the grass behind us. I didn’t even turn around, just ran like mad toward the car. No time to shut the doors on the trailer or pick up my concrete drill. Luckily, I’d left the engine running. I dived into the driver’s seat and shoved my foot on the pedal. Blake grabbed the back of the seat and yanked his legs inside the car just as I swung away from the curb.
Something thudded against the bonnet as we skidded around the corner. “Satanic scum!” a deep voice roared after me.
“Eat my bollocks!” I yelled back as I sped toward Briarwood, leaving a trail of sizzling belief in my wake.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN: BLAKE
“You didwhat?” Maeve screeched.
She raced out from under the portcullis and battered my window before Flynn had even stopped the car. Behind her, the other guys crowded around, inspecting the trailer with a mixture of bemusement (Corbin), worry (Rowan), blankness (Aline) and mistrust (Arthur).
Maeve however, wasfurious. The vein above her eyes stuck out like a Seelie at a metal-detecting convention.
“Hi Princess,” I waved at her through the window.
“Get out of that damn car and tell mewhat you did.”
She was beautiful when she was mad, all slanted eyes and flushed skin and that fearsomeglower…when she looked like that, all fury and sex, I could see the resemblance between to Daigh.
Not that I’d ever tell her that.
I grinned to myself.Or maybe I should...
“Blake!” Maeve’s fist on the window startled me out of my daydream. “Tell meright now.”
“We erected Flynn’s witch statue in the middle of the village greene.” I swept an annoying black curl out of my eye. I leftthe window up for now, and the door locked. It seemed safer. Apparently Flynn had a death wish, because he jumped out of the car and raced around to her.
“What in Athena’s name possessed you to do that?”
“Come on, Einstein. You’ve got to admit it’sbrilliant.” Flynn’s eyes danced. He grabbed Maeve’s arms and turned her in a circle. She squealed as he dipped her down, holding her across the back then extending his hand out so she could twirl underneath it. She didn’t twirl, of course. She yanked her hand out of Flynn’s grasp and folded her arms again.Fine.I shoved the door open, grabbed Flynn’s hand, held it up and twirled beneath it, pointing my toes in an elegant flourish. I finished by planting a wet kiss on his cheek.
“Ack, you wanker!” Flynn doubled over, gagging and wiping spittle over his face.
“Flynn!” Maeve yelled.
He scratched his head. “Sorry, Ma. You should be thanking us, though. We just created a big ole’ vessel to collect all the belief in the village. After everyone wakes up and discovers a mysterious witch sculpture smack in the middle of the green that can’t be removed no matter how hard they try, their belief is going to leap up like a dog with a stick up his arse.”
“And what were you planning to do with all this belief?”
“Slay the fae, of course.”
Maeve’s face twisted. “Okay, so that is actually brilliant.”
“It was all my idea,” I said quickly.
“It was not!” Flynn shot back.
“Guys!” Maeve yelled. “I don’t actually care. Did we not have a conversation this very morning aboutnotgoing off on your own with hair-brained ideas?”
Flynn’s smile froze on his face.
