Holy fucking shit.
A depression settled over me as I stumbled into Liam’s bed. I couldn’t imagine going through what the queen had gone through. Giving up her child…it was unthinkable. And my mom, raising me as her own without me really being hers. It just made me feel so sad.
Sobs racked my body as I cried myself to sleep.
The next morning, I awoke with determination. The queen had risked so much to keep me safe. I was going to risk whatever I had to in order to wake her.
Even though I would always think of Violet as my mother, that didn’t mean the queen wasn’t my family. She needed me, and I wasn’t going to let her down. Liam was also my family, and I wasn’t going to let him down, either. We would get his little brother back, get the remaining crystals, and escape to Faerie, where we would be safe.
No matter what. No matter who I have to kill.
The Halflings in Liam’s army had stayed the night, camped out in his yard with over two dozen tents. They’d slept in the barn, in cars, and lying on the floor in the house. Basically, there’d been boys everywhere.
We’d left them to look after Liam’s family while we went to see Jasper, just Liam and me.
Standing at the base of the steps leading up to Jasper’s house, my stomach tightened in knots. “Do you think he’ll help us?” I asked as we took the steps two by two.
Liam shook his head. “No, I don’t.”
I frowned. Well, Liam wasn’t exactly known for his sparkling optimism, so I wasn’t going to let his response get to me.
Before we even reached the top step, the door opened, and the creepy-looking warlock glared at us from within his hooded cloak. “No, go away,” he called out.
I rolled my eyes. “You haven’t even heard what we need.”
He waved his hand. “I don’t care.”
“Or what we have to offer,” I added.
He looked at me, raising one eyebrow. The snake tattoo on his head wrinkled with his skin. “You have two minutes.” Stepping aside, he ushered us into his office, then turned to face me, looking rather peeved at my presence.
Showtime.
“The Winter King has the remaining three crystals of Faerie, and we need a warlock to break down his shields and help us get them out—”
“Pass,” Jasper said, picking at his nails.
“In return”—I raised my voice—“I will offer you passage back to Faerie, where you can live among the crystals forever.”
He rolled his eyes. “Faerie is a tiny shithole right now. I want nothing to do with it in its current state.”
Okay, ouch. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear about my homeland.
“What about in its restored state? I’ll give you your own patch of land, and you could be the only warlock left. Lots of business.” I went for the ego, hoping that would sway him.
His eyes darkened. “And how, exactly, do you keep a promise to restore Faerie?”
I looked at Liam, who shook his head. It was either expose that the queen was still alive and make her vulnerable to an assassination or out myself.
I looked him straight in the eyes. “Because I am the princess of Spring. Queen Dahlia was my mother.”
I expected a big, dramatic moment, but instead, he laughed. Full-on head-tipped-back laughter. “You poor thing. You must really believe that, or you wouldn’t have passed my lie detector last time. All right, we’re done here.” He moved to usher us out.
“It’s true!” Liam shouted.
Jasper sneered at his old friend. “If it were true, she would have untold power, magic that you couldn’t imagine in your wildest—”
I shot a stream of sunlight right at his bookcase, and one of the books exploded into little burned bits of paper.
Jasper froze, and Liam used his ice magic to put out the fire, holding his hands over the burning book and encompassing it in snow.
“I’m in,” the warlock said immediately.
Relief flooded through me. “Really?”
He nodded. “But I want ten acres of prime Spring Court land, and I want to be the official warlock to the royal court.”
That sounded like a big position…a position I was sure the queen would want to fill personally. But how many warlocks were even left? I mean, what if he was the only one? Then I was doing the queen a favor.
“Deal,” I told him, and Liam facepalmed beside me.
“Sealed in blood,” Jasper added.
Shivers ran down my spine. “Umm, well…”
“No,” Liam declared. “A royal does not do blood oaths, and you know it.”
Jasper sneered, leaning against the open door. “Then how do I know she will follow through?”
“A contract. Signed by both of you and witnessed by me.”
“A contract? How very human of you.”
“You have five seconds to answer before we go elsewhere,” I tried to bluff.
Jasper rolled his eyes. “Oh, all right.”
Over the next twenty minutes, we wrote up a very detailed contract stipulating Jasper’s return to Faerie and the land and position he would be granted upon the restoration of the realm. Then I signed it.
Lily, daughter of Dahlia, princess of the Spring Court.
Staring at daughter of Dahlia was one of the weirdest moments of my life. But we had a powerful warlock on our side now, and that was all that mattered.
He glanced between Liam and me. “Look at you two. This is all very Romeo and Juliet. Let me pack my things.”
An hour later, my convertible was filled to the brim with Louis Vuitton suitcases and Gucci duffel bags. Clearly, Jasper liked his material comforts.
He refused to get in the back, and so he sat shotgun. We wove in and out of traffic for about an hour before we reached our destination.
“Ahh, a blue door,” he said, clapping his hands.
I frowned. “You know about them?”
“Oh, Mara and I go way back.”
Why was there an evil glint in his eye? I wondered how he knew Mara.
