I left her and headed out into the main room, passing the healing tree and entering the library. I was about to open the door to Mara’s when I saw a book on the shelf called Breaking Advanced Illusions. Illusions like the one keeping my mother’s journal pages blank?
Peering over my shoulder and seeing no one, I swiped the book and slipped it into my bag.
I’d gone full on anarchy, and I gave zero fucks.
Mara looked up as I entered. “Where to, girl?”
“Let’s get Elle.” I didn’t want to walk through town right now and see people. I’d much rather have Mara spit me out at the blue door on the cliffs, right near my house.
I wasn’t ready to steal a crystal from Liam yet, but maybe he’d help me find out where the others were. Once again, I had to ask for his help, and I hated it. Especially after what he’d done to me.
Ten minutes later, I stood before my bestie.
I’d told Elle that I was prepared to take all the crystals eventually, but I would take Liam’s last because we had a deal. “We’ll just do a recon mission to see if he’s even there,” I said. The thought of seeing Liam again made me equal parts excited and angry.
She nodded.
I drove the point home: “We’re not taking his crystal, we’re just going to ask for his help.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
I didn’t know anymore.
“Where to?” Mara asked. “New York again?”
I met Elle’s gaze. “Seattle.”
Mara stilled a second. “Oh. Okay.”
She knew Liam was there. Since she’d told Elle and me the tragic story of losing Daniel, her human lover, and losing her Halfling child in utero, I was wary of talking to her too much about Liam. I knew it probably brought everything back for her.
Without another word, we strapped in, and she took us to Seattle.
Stepping out into the light dusting of rain reminded me of my first crystal-hunting trip, when I’d met Liam. The way the blue light had danced between us…I hadn’t wanted it to be true, but we were soulmates. Something that had once horrified me now just made me feel sad and lonely.
Pulling my special pen out, I clicked the crystal end and watched as it bulked and transformed, taking the shape of a teal VW Beetle.
“Just a quick in and out,” I told Elle for the tenth time. “We’re not taking anything.”
She nodded. “Whatever you say, boss.”
With that, I took off down the road and checked in with my own moral compass. How badly did I need this crystal? Would I take it from my own soulmate and his friends? He’d said people counted on him, and I knew he was probably holed up with his Sons of Darkness crew.
Breathing in through my nose, I allowed my gift to take over and nudge me in the direction of where I wanted to go.
Strong pull to the left, dull right, weak straight, stronger right—it took us half an hour of steering through the main city and then out into open farmland. We were weaving up a mountain dusted with mist when I got a strong pull in my navel. Veering the car to the right, I headed up a steep mountain driveway until I reached a chain-link fence and a sign: No trespassing. Violators will be shot.
A crystal was here. I could feel it.
“This is it.” I gulped and pulled the car onto the side of the road, crunching over some ferns.
“You think it’s Liam or his dad?” Elle asked as we stepped out of the car.
I sighed. Was I imaging that I felt Liam’s energy close? “My gut says Liam, but let’s not take any chances.”
She nodded and drew the gun at her side.
A frown pulled at my lips. “But don’t hurt anyone in case it’s just Liam and his friends.”
She saluted me. “Affirmative, unless said friends try to kill us, which has happened before.”
Well, yeah, before Liam and I had been a thing.
Had we ever been a thing? I didn’t even know anymore.
Without another thought, I walked around the fence and through an opening, and we trekked quietly up to the house. It was dark out, maybe ten p.m. Time was so weird here, and the country was so big that time was different in different sections. I still didn’t understand it. Faerie wasn’t like that, of course.
Letting the moonlight guide our steps, we finally came to an open driveway leading to a decent-sized house. I inhaled through my nose. “Smells like animals.”
Elle pointed behind me to a chicken coop and a huge garden that opened up to a big red barn. “Let’s start looking in windows and see if we can tell who lives here,” she suggested, dashing out into the night. I trailed after her as she pranced across the yard on light feet.
I was a few paces behind her, so I hadn’t yet peeked into the first window, but there was a light on. By the look on Elle’s face, there was something scandalous going on inside.
“What’s wro—” I whispered, and the sound died in my throat as I peered through the window.
I recognized Liam’s black wings right away. He sat at the edge of a bed, holding a spoon full of broth or something up to a woman’s mouth. The woman was clearly very sick. Her hair was nearly gone, just a few blonde chunks framing her gaunt face. Dark circles hung under her eyes the way they did when a human was close to death. She looked about forty-five years old, and I could tell from here that they were related. He had her eyes…
Liam’s mother was sick.
All the breath I held whooshed out of me in that moment. This was why he fought so hard…why he said people were counting on him.
It was her.
Liam had left me to care for his ailing mother, and I’d hated him for it. Now I
