“No time.” Kieran shakes his head. “We are coming for you.”
“Us, too!” Vanessa bounces and a puff of smoke explodes out of her in a burp.
Coming for me.
Everyone is coming for me.
I spent years making sure no one could reach me. Building walls. Burning bridges. Disappearing so completely that no one would think to look.
And now I’ve got Fae princes and dragon cousins and probably the entire Greek underworld converging on my location.
The universe has a sick sense of humor. Or I’m just really, really bad at being alone.
Kieran doesn’t fall off his chair—he jumps right over to me, yanking me back into his arms. “A dragon,” he hisses in my ear. “I knew her energy felt ancient.”
“Oh.” I wiggle out of Kieran’s arms. “Nessa, we have something huge in common.”
“Tell me everything.”
“You were hatched, right?”
“Broke right out of my egg.”
“I was a seed.”
“Stop.” She beams. “I love that for you.”
“What the fuck?” Kieran snaps. “We have no time for this.” He wedges himself between Nessa and me. “The Morrigan, her sister, and Dagda are waking Badb. Then we are coming for you.” Kieran’s eyes are unblinking.
Until Vanessa pushes him out of the way. “We are also coming.”
“What? Why?” I shake my head. “You don’t?—”
“You think we won’t stand behind you in a fight?” Her eyes go slitted again. Anger rolls off her in waves. “Or cook. Nurture. Eat random people with barbecue sauce?”
“Gods.” Kieran hisses.
“Don’t be foolish, Ashlynne. I forgave your past ignorance but I won’t forgive what you know.” Her voice is hard. No slits this time. Just certainty. “You shut us out again, we will never come for you again. I love you enough to let you go, Ashlynne. Don’t make me prove it.”
The purple energy sharpens. Alert.
That’s not a threat. That’s a boundary.
“You’re right.” I grab her hand, twisting her fingers in mine. “What’s the plan?”
The purple energy pulses with warmth.
And just like that Vanessa is no longer scary. She bounces in her seat, eyes round and normal again. “Okay, so I had to make a few adjustments because of the underworld.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s just us, though. We’ve trapped the men in Tartarus.”
“I will never recover from this.” Kieran takes a step back.
I whip around. “Your father murdered your mother. You are an Unseelie prince and you are terrified of a dragon?”
“Oh, don’t blame him,” Vanessa says. “He can’t help it. Fae are terrified of us.” She smirks a toothy smile. “We have lived in Faerie before. This one probably remembers my kin. Because dragons can kill-killFae.”
Kieran chokes.
“Anyway. It’s just us girls.”
