“Rhoswen, are you all right?” Reed asked.
“I’m fine.”
Josh and I spun around, trying to pinpoint his location.
Reed appeared to Josh’s right, just outside the circle. His snowy white eyes were trained on me. “If you wanted an audience with me, all you needed was to call.”
I wished he had worn his human glamour. It wasn’t nearly as striking as his true form. The lean muscles in his thighs pressed against his forest-green pants with each lithe step he took. His elegant fingers rubbed the string of a long bow that he had slung over his shoulder.
My jitters came back twofold. I crammed my hands into the pockets of my jacket to steady them and said, “The problem is you don’t leave when you’re asked to.”
“I’d disappear for a lifetime if you accompanied me.”
“Not going to happen.” Unable to ignore the spasms that grew stronger the closer he got, I wanted to tell Brea I had second thoughts and would love that vial of fuchsia stuff.
Reed looked from me to Brea and then to Josh. “I’m here and I’m listening.”
Josh cleared his throat. “We don’t want trouble. You return to your realm, we close the door, and no one gets hurt.”
Except Natalie, whose family would never see her again.
“And what of my sister?” Reed asked stepping closer to her.
Josh turned slowly, keeping his full attention on Reed. “We’ll make sure she gets home.”
“Why would I believe you?” Reed asked.
“You have our word,” I said.
Reed’s incredibly alluring gaze fixed on me. “I find it interesting that this is your next move.”
I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “You left me no choice.”
“Have I not been civil?” Poison dripped from Reed’s words. “Did I not invite you to join me instead of just taking you? That is more than I’ve ever done for a human who thinks she has the right to demand the Fae serve her.”
“I didn’t demand anything,” I protested.
“Brea, I told you she was the same as the others.”
The ground shuddered. I looked at Josh. He shook his head to indicate the sudden tremors weren’t his doing.
I widened my stance to keep from falling and replied in as steady a voice as I could, “You still planned on ripping me away from my life.”
The temperature dropped at least twenty degrees. Frost raced over the ground, covering the grass and weeds behind Reed in a thick white layer of crystallized ice as it made its way toward us.
Josh held his hands in front of him and pushed out a wave of power, slowing the frost’s progression. I closed my eyes and focused on drawing the energy from nature to warm the air within our circle enough to stop my teeth from chattering.
“Isaac didn’t say Reed could control the weather,” Josh said through clenched teeth as he thrust his hands forward again, sending another surge of power outward. The frost continued to creep closer to us.
“And he’s holding back,” Brea gloated. She had taken a seat on the grass. Bright orange and red poppies peppered the ground around her.
I carefully stepped around the meadowsweet, moving closer to Josh. Brea remained safe and warm in her bubble of summer while Reed brought the wrath of winter upon us. With a flick of my fingers, I held a sphere of fire the size of a basketball. It hovered in the air in front of us, providing a source of heat.
“What do we do?” I spun to my left and then my right, looking for a way out of this mess. The shadows hid behind tombstones, unfazed by the change in weather.
“We move to Plan C.” Josh swiveled to follow Reed’s movements, never once letting him out of his sight.
I had told Isaac and Josh that Plan A—trapping Brea—was flawed because Reed would never give in so easily. He was more cunning than they were willing to admit; my previous attempt to deceive him into going home had taught me that. Plan B, on the other hand, let Reed believe he was winning. He’d have no reason to call upon winter’s bitter grip. More importantly, it ensured my family and friends remained safe. The guys disagreed, however, and had said I was the one underestimating Reed. Then, before the guys would agree with me that Josh shouldn’t take on Reed alone, they made me promise not to invoke Plan B without Josh’s consent. They hadn’t told me of any other options, though.
“When did you come up with a Plan C?” I asked.
“Just now,” Josh replied, dropping to a crouch a moment before a crystalline arrow soared over his head. “And I still don’t like Plan B, so no, it’s not okay to go there yet.”
“You’re hard-headed,” I scoffed.
The next arrow pierced the ground at my feet, and I had no doubt it landed exactly where Reed had intended it to. I ran a finger over its shaft, yanking my hand back. “It’s made of ice,” I said in awe.
“Last chance,” Reed snarled. “Release my sister and accompany me to the solstice celebration or, when I’m done here, the next person I visit will be your brother.”
He held out a hand for me to take, a smile playing at the corner of his thin lips. My next breath filled my lungs with the sweet scent of pine and snow, causing my thoughts to swim in my skull. I opened my mouth to reply, but my powers bit back the
Josh stepped in front of me, momentarily blocking my view of Reed and giving me the precious second I needed to realize what agreeing would have cost me. I said a silent thank you that Isaac had gotten Dad and Chase out of the house, then put my hands on Josh’s shoulders and peered around him. “Stop messing with my head!”
Reed pulled another arrow from the quiver on his back but didn’t fire it.
“What’s Plan C?” I whispered to Josh.
He replied out of the side of his mouth. “We teleport the hell out of here and take Miss Sunshine with us.”
“That is not better than my idea,” I hissed.
It would have been, if I knew how to travel by telekinesis or if Josh could carry a living object with him, but as it was, he had only managed to transport himself short distances.
“They’re plotting their escape,” Brea so kindly informed her brother.
Thick columns of ice jutted out of the ground like stalagmites, scattering the shadows, pushing up headstones, and uprooting trees. Josh leaped out of the way as a jagged pillar of ice broke through the grass beneath his feet. A large crack tore through the frozen dirt and traveled outward, swallowing one of our candles as it continued to the base of the large stone angel. The next icicle shot up in front of Brea, knocking the meadowsweet aside and freeing her.
“I warned you,” she said and vanished, leaving Josh and me with a very pissed-off faerie.
Chapter 28
Josh held his arms in front of him, wrists crossed. He inhaled deeply, swiftly sweeping his hands downward on the exhale. Rain poured down around us in a sheet so thick it appeared as if we stood inside the eye of a hurricane. I gathered the moisture from the air and conjured a storm cloud over the spot where I’d last seen Reed. Lightning struck, but since I didn’t hear him scream in pain, I guessed it had missed its target.
“I can’t see him,” I said, stating the obvious.
“We need a minute to regroup,” Josh replied as he kept the waterworks flowing. He adjusted his hemp bracelet and whispered, “I love you, Kaylee.” If I didn’t know Josh wasn’t the type to give up, that’s exactly what I’d have thought he was doing.
