A frown pulled at my lips. “So that’s your theory?” This was NOT helping. So far, I’d just heard that it was entirely possible that Liamwasmy soulmate.
Elle sighed. “I think he could be your soulmate, Lil, and that’s going to make what we are about to do all the more tough on you.”
Fuck.
I shook myself. “No. I’ll be fine. He doesn’t even know what soulmates are,” I told her.
She nodded, but indecision crossed her face. “Well, I’ll be there with you, to help you stay focused.”
What she meant by that was she would kill Liam if I couldn’t. That very thought had panic coursing through my veins and it scared me. Would I protect him from my own best friend?
No.
He was a Dark Fae. A thief. An active participant in trying to ruin my world. No, if Liam got in my way, I would end him. Soulmate or not.
We pulled up to the old farmhouse and I was surprised at how easy riding the motorcycle was. It was just … there in my mind. The grips, the way I leaned into the turn but not too much. I just knew what to do because I’d ridden before … but I hadn’t. I’d probably be more freaked out if I wasn’t so insanely freaked that Elle thought Liam could really, truly, be my Fae soulmate. I almost didn’t want to go back in there. I wanted him to be gone, or I wanted us to focus on finding the next crystal, so I didn’t need to ever see him again, or possibly kill him. But Indra’s words came back to my mind: they took all twelve crystals, leaving not even one. The genocide of our people and lands rested solely with the Sons of Darkness. The blood of a billion Fae was on Liam’s hands as far as I was concerned.
“Let’s get this over with.” I deconstructed the bike and placed the rolling pin into the messenger bag. The same messenger bag I would place the crystal in when I pried it from Liam’s cold dead fingers.
We were at the edge of the property, way out in a thicket of trees. Trissa had reiterated I would not be able to use the pricklewart juice for another day, lest I be poisoned, so we were going in old school style.
“I say we fly. High above the house,” Elle whispered.
“And risk some humans seeing a floating girl, no way,” I scolded her. Reaching into my magic bag, I pulled out two baseball caps and a pizza box.
Elle’s eyes widened. “All this stuff fit in there?”
I smirked. “Mara gave it an upgrade.”
Elle looked impressed. “I wanna be that powerful when I grow up.”
I snorted, forgetting for a moment our serious task. “Mara is said to be descended from some of the original Fae. We’ll never have power like that.” My mother let slip once that Mara once led the council of the Queen of Summer herself.
Elle fixed her cap and we folded our wings flat to our back. Elle pulled a deadly dragon blade and hid it in her hand, just underneath the pizza box. Anyone getting stabbed with that would burn alive from the inside out.
We stepped out from the trees and I opened my seeking ability to the crystal. It could be in the same room or they may have moved it into the garage or—
“It’s not here.” I don’t know why I was shocked. Both Triss and Mara said they would probably move it but…
“Lil … that smell.” Elle was a nursery fairy who’d decided to become a warrior. But some of her natural talents were enhanced smell and hearing, as well as some healing ability.
It took a second for the putrid coppery smell to hit my nostrils, and when it did, my stomach dropped.
Death.
We both broke into a run, bee-lining it across the yard and up to the front door, where that acrid scent hit the back of my throat. My chest tightened as a dull throb started to pulse in my stomach. The blue light, that which denotes our soul, our life force, started to seep from my chest and swirl before me.
Liam was dying.
Tears lined my eyes as I recognized his soul essence calling to mine in death. I don’t know how I knew it, but I knew. It was just a feeling that came with complete knowing. When I looked at Elle, her mouth was slack, eyes wide. I burst through the door, stumbling over a dead horned Fae, and pounded down the hall.
“Liam!” I shouted, my voice raw with grief. I’d barely started processing my mother’s death. I wasn’t sure I could take another … even if he was a stranger.
But he wasn’t. He was my soulmate.
Everything I felt in my body now obliterated my earlier promise to kill him in order to obtain a crystal. I could never harm a hair on his head; he and I were the same. Elle ran after me, her feet slamming down the hall until we both came to rest at the entryway to the crystal room, the place he had hidden me in a closet so that his friends didn’t find me…
Liam was sprawled out onto the floor, lying in the doorway, his wings smoking black, fresh blood pooled around his body. There was a blade in his abdomen, slammed up to the hilt. He held it loosely, trying to staunch the flow of crimson. Above his chest, the blue light of his soul danced in a swirl, trying to reach up and touch me.
