Desert Tales: A Wicked Lovely Companion Novel

were all truths she couldn’t share, but on the subject of her interest in him she had been true.

Jayce obviously had doubts, though. He released her hand.

“I’m sure they make sense, but you two being here doesn’t. Come on.” Sionnach looped an arm around her waist. Other faeries, those who were here with him, cleared a path through the crowd and then vanished when they reached a doorway.

Sionnach looked past her to catch Jayce’s eye. “This way.”

The fox faery held open the door so Jayce and Rika could step into a short hallway. It was starkly empty, except for a mortal girl who smiled widely at Sionnach as they approached. She’d been leaning against the wall with a dreamy expression on her face, looking at Sionnach like he was a god. Sionnach flashed her a blindingly sweet expression, but he didn’t speak to her. Instead, he focused his attention on Rika, as if her slip into familiarity with him had changed something between them.

“What do you need?”

Rika stepped protectively close to Jayce. “I need to get him out of here.”

Jayce started, “I can—”

“So go.” Sionnach gestured to the door at the other end of the hall. “I’ll stay and sort out the rabble. Take him to your den.”

Rika hesitated. It made sense, but she couldn’t begin to figure out how she’d explain that to Jayce. At the same time, she rebelled at the idea of abandoning Sionnach to face the faeries who’d started trouble. He wasn’t flawless by any stretch of the imagination, but he was the closest thing she had to a friend in the desert, the only faery she almost trusted. “If they hurt you . . .”

Not surprisingly, Sionnach was amused at the idea. “You know better than that, princess. They’re my responsibility anyhow. So go on; take your boy for a run.”

Jayce raised both brows at Sionnach, but this time, he remained silent. The sound of an old horn interrupted the silence, and Jayce pulled out his phone. “Del texted,” he said after a moment. “They split when things got weird in there. He doesn’t like violence.”

“Good,” Rika said quietly, carefully not meeting Sionnach’s gaze even as the fox faery stared at her.

“Take him home,” Sionnach urged her again.

As he waited for her reply, his twinkling eyes and crooked grin were in such contrast to the chaos she could hear inside the club, as if he weren’t at all disturbed by the way Maili had behaved, as if he weren’t encouraging her to reveal secrets to a mortal. There were rules, actions faeries ought not engage in unless they wanted the courts coming round and starting to interfere.

“They can’t do that.” Rika scowled in the direction of the main room, choosing to focus on the fight rather than the decision she needed to make. “They’re out of hand. Starting trouble around . . . people. We can’t ignore that.”

“So I guess we need to figure out how to stop them. Leash them.” Sionnach stared at her, waiting for her as he had so many other times over the years she’d known him.

Rika knew he was right, almost as much as she knew that getting involved with faery politics was exactly what she swore she wouldn’t do. Sionnach had brought up her ability to be Alpha or co-Alpha often enough that she had threatened him with bodily harm the last time he’d mentioned it. After years of staying quietly away from the machinations and struggles of the solitary desert fey, she was about to be involved. In truth, she was involved now. She’d stood and fought against them, thereby ending years of uninvolvement. It was because of her interest in Jayce that this was all happening, and it was because of him that she would remain involved. She’d been the catalyst, and she couldn’t expect Sionnach to handle it. He might help tonight, but tomorrow she had to begin to figure out what she should do. For now though, she told Sionnach, “Be safe. I owe you.”

“I know.” The fox faery glanced at Jayce again and then gave Rika a long, unreadable look before turning and walking away.

Silently, Rika and Jayce went to the door and stepped outside.

So many broken rules. What’s one more?

If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that there were times she’d wished she could tell Jayce that she existed, that she was near him, that she was a faery. She’d never expected it to happen, but here they were. She took a steadying breath and said, “We’re going to run. No matter what happens, just keep moving your feet. Run, okay?”

Jayce gave her a look like she’d lost it. “Maybe I should just go.”

For a moment, she considered letting him walk away. She could follow him invisibly; things could return to the way they were before she’d exposed herself to save him. That wasn’t what she wanted though, so she reached out and entwined her fingers with his.

He didn’t react, and for a moment, she thought he’d pull away and leave.

“Please?”

“I need some answers, Rika.” He shook his head, but he didn’t pull his hand away. “That whole scene inside was weird.”

“Come with me, and I’ll give you some answers.” She held his gaze and repeated, “Please?”

After a moment, he nodded.

She smiled and then she said again, “Really. Don’t forget to move your feet.”

And then she started to run, holding on to Jayce’s hand; she didn’t go as fast as she had when she’d disappeared earlier, but she traveled fast enough that each of her steps was the distance of many of his. Her movement propelled them forward. His running merely kept his body upright.

The world blurred around them for an impossibly brief time, and then they were at a cliff in the desert. In the far distance behind Jayce was the town; he hadn’t turned to see how far they’d traveled yet, staring instead at the cliff in front of them.

The moon was three-quarters full, and the desert was shadowed and beautiful in the night. Several night- dwelling animals were out. A coyote slunk by in the periphery; farther out, a bobcat crouched on a ledge.

“Welcome to my home.”

“Where?” Jayce looked around now in confusion, finally noticing how far they’d run in a few brief moments. “How did we . . .” His words died as he stared at her.

Ignoring that question, she pointed to a small inlet in the rock face over their heads. “Grab there. Come on. We need to get inside.”

“I really have questions. . . .” Jayce started.

“I know.” Rika scaled the cliff using the almost imperceptible steps. She was a few feet off the ground before she urged, “Come with me.”

With a strange bemused smile, Jayce shook his head and then climbed past her. “You’re full of all sorts of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You have no idea,” Rika whispered.

CHAPTER 7

Jayce stood at the mouth of her cave—where Sionnach had stood earlier—looking not at her but at the expanse of desert they’d crossed. “That isn’t possible, you know. Moving that fast, that far.”

Rika stepped in front of him, but instead of answering the question he wasn’t quite asking yet, she told him, “We’re safe here.”

“Who were they? Why were—”

“I can’t answer that,” she said softly.

“She had a knife. That girl . . .” Jayce pulled his attention from the desert and glanced at Rika finally.

“I know.” She kept her expression unreadable, hating that she already had to act so much like a faery instead of the girl she’d wished she could be with him, but she was what she was. “She’d use it too. If you see her, just get away.”

“You’re . . . what sort of fight school do you belong to? Someone as tiny as you—” He stopped mid-sentence