He frowned as he trailed his thumb across my lower lip. “You’re too good for me. I’d poison your garden and kill all of the flowers.”
I grimaced, “What?” reaching out for him as he backed away. “Don’t say that.”
“Come on, we gotta go.” He scooped the crystals into my special messenger bag, using the cloth edge without touching them, and slung it around his neck. His eyes grew darker then, not fully black, but it was clear the crystals were still affecting him just being around him.
“You will not leave with those!” a deep roar came from behind us, and suddenly a shard of ice four feet long came out of nowhere and sliced into Liam’s abdomen. His face marred with shock as he gripped the shard sticking out of his navel. Blood spurted from his shirt in a circle of crimson.
“No!” I threw myself in front of him and let the light burst from my palms. The king was thrown backwards by my light. I acted then purely by instinct.
Hooking Liam under the armpits, I took to the sky, grunting as the weight of him and two crystals pulled me down. I was barely able to make it three feet above the ground with him; he was so damn heavy and my wings were small. “You’re gonna be okay,” I told him, trying not to look down and see how badly he was injured; he was bleeding freely in my arms. I wasn’t sure if Kira could save him if too many of his organs were punctured.
I was reminded of my mom bleeding out in the tub with her belly splayed open. It seemed to be the Winter King’s MO. I had to tamp down my desire to turn around and kill Cypress. I needed to focus on saving Liam.
“Lily!” Elle’s voice drifted across the water and I looked up to see my bestie flying towards me, looking wind-chilled and tired. Her nose and ears were bright red and her hair had pulled out of its ponytail and whipped around her face.
“Help me!” I shouted.
When her gaze fell on Liam in my arms, she burst forward with a bit of extra speed and grabbed his legs. With half of the weight taken, we were able to move a bit faster.
Elle grunted under the strain of holding Liam mid-flight. “What happened?”
He winced. “I can fly.”
“No!” I snapped at him, then looked at Elle. “We got the crystals. But they’re crawling with dark magic. We need to hurry or they will take over him.”
Even having them close, I felt heaviness come over me; my thoughts were going dark and I was questioning my sanity.
Elle cringed. “Is that what that heavy feeling is?”
I nodded. These crystals were powerful. You could feel them without even touching them.
Elle must have had an illusion up, because we passed a group of kayakers and no one looked twice at us. When we finally reached the green lawn of the home that held the blue door, I knew something was wrong. Water poured down the front yard and into the trees. Stumbling into a clumsy landing, Elle and I dragged Liam closer to the door. When I looked up, the wind was knocked out of me.
A huge crack had worked its way up the side of the door and water was flowing out at the base. Mara’s home was flooded…
Irushed to the door and used the handle, praying with everything in me that it opened. If it didn’t, Liam would die; I was certain. When it turned in my hand and opened into Mara’s apartment, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Water gushed around my ankles as I half dragged Liam inside, with Elle bringing up the rear. Mara was using buckets, and what looked like magic, to try to get the water out.
“Thank the gods you’re here!” Mara screamed. “Faerie had another earthquake. It fractured the blue door and ripped through my office.”
She hadn’t looked up yet. She was sucking water into her magic bucket and it was going gods knows where, disappearing.
“Can you fix it? We got two crystals and Liam’s hurt,” I whimpered.
Her head snapped up then and her mouth formed a small O. “I need to be back in Faerie to fix it. I’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t want to leave without you.”
I nodded, feeling the darkness of the crystals reach out and brush up against me. Panic flared in my chest as my heart raced.
“We need to hurry,” I told Mara.
She looked down at the bag at Liam’s side. “That feels … dark.”
“It is!” I growled, feeling unbridled rage rise within me and immediately regretting it.
Mara gave me a knowing nod. “I see.” She placed a hand on Liam’s stomach. The icicle had melted or fallen out in our flight and now he was just freely bleeding. “This will hurt, child,” she told him.
He grunted, but gave her a curt nod. His complexion was paler than usual, and sweat beaded on his brow. A searing white light shot from her palm and Liam screamed so loudly it made the hairs on my arms stick up. The smell of burning flesh hit my nose, and Mara nodded. “That will slow the bleeding until we can see Kira.”
My voice constricted with emotion. “Thank you.”
