Make everything slow down…
How had everything gone so wrong… so fast? But there really wasn’t any other way we could have done it. We’d brought in all the big guns and still suffered losses.
“I have the crystals. Let’s get back to Faerie.” Liam dragged me across the road to the back of the pick-up truck, limping as he walked and ducking low to avoid getting hit.
“We need some cover! If they shoot the tires, we are toast.” Trissa leapt into the back of the truck with Elle and Jasper. The backpack of the crystals lay at their feet, thank the gods.
My mind felt pulled in a hundred directions. How many men did we lose? Were the fae I had invited back to Faerie out there in the woods, needing help? Were they going to try to find me? Was Liam’s dad in the house, dying? How was Mara dead? What if—
“Lily!” Jasper shouted, and I ducked just as a bullet snapped past me.
Without a thought, I thrust my hands out, letting my wings pull me high up into the air, and shot a burst of bright light at the advancing horde. It pulsed from my palms like a laser, cutting them down in a heaping pile of wounded men. Where my light had touched them, they held onto bloody injuries. Tires squealed from the cars behind me, and I dropped into the back of the truck, my gaze fixed on the open car door that led to Mara’s place…
I wanted to incinerate the car to ash so that his father could possibly be stuck in Mara’s home forever, stuck in the in-between place, but… I didn’t have the energy. My legs were weak, my wings burned, and a headache slowly throbbed at my temple. I needed to save any energy I had for healing Elle and the other injured. So, instead of finishing the Winter King off, I just watched as we drove away, feeling the weight of what just happened finally consuming me.
“Mara,” I choked out as Liam pulled me into his arms.
But there was no time to grieve. Elle lay whimpering in the open bed of the truck, thin rivulets of blood trailing down her arm. Pulling out of Liam’s grasp, I wiped my eyes and went to work, sealing off my friend’s wound.
As I was finishing up, the back of the truck window opened. One of Liam’s men was driving, and his mother was in the passenger side. Thank the gods she was okay. I wasn’t sure what Liam would have done without her.
“Where do we go, honey?” she called out to me, snapping me from my thoughts with the concern in her voice. Her eyes roamed over my face as if assessing my mental state.
I had no fucking clue. No more blue doors. The shell in Los Angeles was cracked. Pulling the folded map from my bag with a shaky hand and dried blood on my fingers, I handed her the map of all the blue doors and safe houses.
“Get us to a safe house,” I told her.
She nodded, splaying the map out on her lap as I lay back and rested my head on Liam’s lap. Everything felt so heavy, my limbs, my head, my heart.
“You okay?” Liam shouted over the wind.
“Tired.” My voice was groggy.
“She’ll need time to recoup,” Jasper said from where he was cramped next to Trissa. “She’s not used to losing this much power. She would do better in Faerie, but we need to have her recharge on the grass when we stop somewhere.”
I laughed, a deep warbled sound. Recharge on the grass like I was a battery? That was funny. Liam looked down at me, concern etched across his features as he smoothed my hair. “Rest now, Lily. I’ve got this,” he told me.
It’s like he knew the weight of everything that was resting on my shoulders because it rested on his too. He may not be temp Queen of Faerie, but those were his men back there, the ones who lay bleeding and dead on the ground. He must be devastated, guilt-ridden. I wanted to tell him that I had this, that I would take care of everything, but I could no longer lift my eyelids. They snapped shut as the blackness took me.
Chapter 12
“How long will she sleep? Are you sure this is normal?” Liam’s frantic voice brought me out of my deep sleep.
“She’s breathing. There is nothing to worry about,” Jasper assured him, but I heard the uncertainty in his tone.
My eyelids snapped open, and I groaned. My back hurt, and rolling over, I saw why. I’d been laid on the hard ground, right on the grass.
“Are you okay?” Liam dropped to his knees before me. His eyes roamed over my body as if searching for an injury. Other than being stabbed in the leg, I was fine.
Everything hit me then like waking from a nightmare.
“Elle? Mara?” I sat up quickly, frantically searching the space.
Please let my memory be distorted. Please don’t let Mara really be—
“Lily, Mara’s gone, but Elle is okay. She’s resting inside with my mom.” Liam stroked my forehead.
Mara’s gone.
