Saying those words out loud … to her … it was crazy. Me laying my body over a Son of fucking Darkness in protection was even crazier. I didn’t recognize myself.
Mara looked then at the faint blue light pulsing between our chests.
“No,” she breathed.
It was dimmer than before, but still quite the lightshow. His soul was in distress. “Mara … I can’t let him die.”
A thousand emotions crossed her face. Bashur entered the hallway, took one look at the scene and then growled, but she quieted him with a snap of her fingers.
“My mom would never let my soulmate die. Do this for her.” It was a shitty thing to do, to play on her emotions like that, but I was desperate. I could feel him losing life—because it felt like I was losing life.
“The elders will kill him if they see him,” Mara said, and then her hands started to glow a hazy purple. She clapped and the blue light between our chests ceased. “That will wear off soon,” she told me.
“Lily, sneak him to your house,” Mara barked. “Elle, you get Kira and pay for her silence. If the elders catch you, tell them he’s a prisoner of war and you intend to interrogate and torture him.” She left briefly and returned, handing Elle a stack of gold Fae coins.
“Can’t we heal him here?” Elle took the coins and suddenly his body was lifting up into the air as Mara seemingly levitated him across her kitchen floor, the slow drip, drip, drip, of his blood spotting everything.
“He’s on death’s door. He needs the healing energy of Faerie if he’s going to make it.”
Oh gods.
Before I knew it, we were in her office, Liam draped across Elle’s and my lap and we were spinning.
When I opened the door into Faerie, it was bustling with people. Mid-day.
Shit.
Mara rubbed her chin. “You’ll need a distraction.” Placing two fingers into her mouth, she whistled loud and strong. There was scratching at one of the back doors of her office, and when she opened it, Bashur was there.
“You need to create a distraction so the girls can get to Lily’s,” she told him. He barked in understanding and then took off outside. He took a right, away from my house, and a moment later screams rang throughout the village. Fae started to fly towards the commotion from all over, and Elle and I took that as our sign to go.
“Thanks, Mara.” I looked back at the portal keeper. She was frowning, looking from Liam to me.
Ignoring her look, I ran out of the blue door that was etched into the cave. “Get the healer,” I told Elle.
The moment we stepped into Faerie, Liam stirred. I set his legs down as Elle ran off to grab Kira. “Can you walk?” I asked and started to half drag him down the street, knife sticking out of his stomach.
His eyes opened and then widened, looking around in wonder. His color was a little better, his wings a little brighter.
He was able to shuffle, leaning against me as we walked. “Is this…?” He looked around at the river on our right, and the tall village houses on our left. We were almost to mine. I lived only a few minutes’ walk to the blue door.
“We’re in Faerie. I’ve called a healer,” I told him.
His eyes widened even more but he said nothing, only gave me a sideways glance that seemed to be trying to sum me up. Probably wondering what the hell I was doing bringing him here. I was wondering the same thing myself. He clearly didn’t know what the blue light was. He had no idea I was his soulmate.
“Here…” I opened the door to my house, which was always left unlocked, and prayed no one had seen us. Shutting the door behind me, I lowered Liam onto the couch in my living room. When my mother’s scent wafted up from the pillows and overwhelmed me, my face fell. Hadn’t she warned me of the Sons? Hadn’t she on her death bed told me to protect Faerie from them? What would she think now that I had brought one into our very home?
His legs started to tremble, and I chewed my lip nervously as he simply stared at the ceiling.
“This place … feels like … being near a crystal.” His breath was short, voice weak.
I nodded. “The crystals keep our world alive. Keep us alive. That’s why we need them back.” Maybe I could talk some sense into this guy. Get him on my side.
When his cold hard gaze landed on me, chills broke out onto my arms. “Without them … we die. Yourmother…” He spat her name like it was venom in his mouth and took a shaky breath.“She took the last crystal from me and I lost my best friend … because of her.”
Fuck.
“But … we need them too,” I argued. My mom killed his best friend? Or maybe she just took the crystal … and that killed him. But it was basically the same thing. I was about to retort and say that his dad killed my mom when my front door burst open.
