He squirmed on the sofa next to her as if he knew he was in big trouble with her.
Drake would never tell her secrets, and he was a Kurjan. They were supposed to hate each other. She sighed. Pax was her best friend, though. And he really liked her daddy, so maybe she’d have to be careful what to tell him sometimes. If Paxton told about Drake and the dreamworld, her mama would go crazy.
Her daddy cleared her throat. “What do you know about your uncles, babycakes?”
Not much, actually. Uncle Garrett had survived the ritual, because she’d helped him through the dreamworlds to get home. He was safe now. But Logan and Sam? She couldn’t see them at all. Didn’t know where they were. “I think Sam and Logan might be lost. But I don’t know where.”
“Are they together?” Daddy asked, already standing after kissing Mama on the top of the head.
Hope shrugged. “That’s all I know.” Pretty much.
Her daddy nodded and headed for the door. “I’ll gather more intel and report back.”
Hope eyed her mama. “Can Pax stay the night?” She could tell he didn’t want to go home. He never did.
Mama nodded. “Of course. And I’ll make us a nice dinner later with lots of protein for growing soldiers.” Her eyes sparkled and her lips curved.
Pax smiled back. “Protein. Yeah, that’s good.”
It was important to help Pax feel better about himself and the whole world, and Hope wished she could think of a way to help him. She’d keep working on it.
For now, she had other boys to worry about. Sam and Logan were lost.
Even to her.
Chapter 16
As the plane leveled out and her heart broke a little, Mercy allowed herself to fall asleep. Her body was done, her head was spinning, and her emotions were dropping quickly.
She needed to be alert with the demon next to her, but her body had decided to shut down. What she’d seen—what he’d done. It was so much different from reading about a fight to the death on a computer screen. Logan dealt death, and he did it with an ease she wasn’t sure she could describe in her next report.
How could she still want him?
Her people valued peace over all else, which was why they’d left this world. For the first time, she wondered if the Fae nation could survive here. There were only fifty of them still living, and only ten were young enough to reproduce. Created just for that purpose, actually. Even with their breeding plans, they wouldn’t build their numbers for centuries. That’s if the breeding plans worked. All immortal species had trouble procreating. Sometimes it could take centuries for a female to conceive.
Logan would make cute babies. Black hair, deep green eyes, stubborn little jaws. Vampires only had males, but demons could have females. What about hybrids? She didn’t know of any hybrid females.
At that odd thought, she dropped into sleep.
She was five years old, sitting in one of the big chairs of the main hall. They often watched plays there. But today, they were there for a lesson.
Sandy sat on her left and Trina sat on her right, both holding her hands. The president sat up on the stage, staring down. Supposedly there used to be a council and a queen, but they were gone long before Mercy was created. President Alyssa Dawn stood up, her opal and blue eyes sad and her hands shaking. She had been their president before the event, the only one of their original leaders to survive.
“It’s time you all understood your place,” the president said, sounding tired.
Their place was in super soft beds and pure silk clothing. Mercy scratched her nose.
“Because we misused our knowledge of physics, we lost most of our nation, leaving only forty adults. I was visiting the retirement paradise at the time of the event, or I would’ve been dead, too.”
This was a lot. Why couldn’t they just go play outside? Mercy sighed.
“Our elders took a chance five years ago and used genetic samples and an abandoned research facility to create you. It’s your job to save our nation,” the president said. “Ten of you. Five males and five females.”
Cool. She could definitely save the nation.
The president pushed away her pretty hair. “We’re going to stay here as long as we can, but our scientist says we’ll have to leave in about fifteen or so years.” She stopped to wipe her face. “Our numbers are dismal. But we will survive. I promise.”
Mercy’s stomach hurt, and she squeezed her friends’ hands. “We’re sisters, and we’ll be okay.” She didn’t know how, but they were Fae, and everyone knew that the Fae were the most dangerous of people.
