But then I realized it wasn’t her, but him. Craftsman had reacted first and leapt over her desk to get to me and start healing me. I saw her after I felt the healing, and then felt more.
“How much pain?” Craftsman asked after several moments.
I took a few moments to assess before answering. “Better. Like a five.”
“Take a break, Julian,” White snapped when he went back to healing me.
“Not bloody likely when she was burnt to a crisp,” he bitched.
“I can heal her so she doesn’t scar. She’s out of danger. Just give her a moment, or you could hurt her with rapid healing—”
“I’m not some fucking git who would make some newb mistake like that, White. I’m healing some internal bleeding she’s got from the blast and then I’ll stop.”
“I’m sorry,” White whispered. “I didn’t sense that.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Julian. You’ve not always kept a level head when it comes to her.”
He didn’t respond until he was finished healing me. “I know, but I do learn from my mistakes. No disrespect, but I also have more experience in these situations, which is why I was originally Vale’s advisor, not simply because I was there that night.”
“I know, I know,” she sighed. “You were the right person to send to find an unknown and had worked with the supe police to hunt Underground.”
I hadn’t known that and I knew… Other intimate details.
Craftsman snorted. “‘Hunt’ is generous. They called me when the shite was going to get real, and I helped with portals and healing when I was on breaks from school. I was glad to do it, but I had to stop when the head of my family thought he’d found another use for me.”
“The list he has for you is long,” White drawled.
“How are you now?” Craftsman asked me gently, clearly not wanting to talk about his family, but also staying focused.
I didn’t answer immediately. “I’m like a three, thanks.”
He helped me sit up, studying my aura and seeming relieved at whatever he found before meeting my eyes. “Okay, then I need to know if you have the juice for your barrier because we have to go back in.”
“Julian, you cannot be serious,” White hissed. “I know—”
“If she fails this time, everyone will lay magical traps over every inch of their estates, and one that’s worse could catch her,” he interrupted, explaining it more for me. White seemed to know where he was coming from, but the pain made me muddled still. “They will scour our world for someone injured, and there will be a witch hunt for who is doing this.
“We can’t have that, especially when it risks the hobgoblins.” He changed to speaking directly to me then. “We need to go get your people out and let them see this was nothing. I care for them too. I need you to trust me on this. I can handle us and get them out if you keep the barrier up, I swear it. I won’t risk losing you, love.”
I didn’t even need to think about it, knowing my people needed me. “I can do it. I can open the portal where I came out and guide us from there. The fae dogs tell me where to go.”
“Good.” He glanced at White over his shoulder. “Meet us back at her house so we can give her more healing and Irma can mother her, yeah?” He waited until White agreed before giving me the go-ahead to open a portal.
I had us go through the floor like I had come in and brought us out right near where the trap had gone off. I used a different, stronger barrier that completely cloaked us and everything I did.
A draining barrier.
“Well, that will be the end of this ‘hobgoblin Underground Railroad’ nonsense,” someone pompous and clearly rich declared with tons of bluster while yucking it up with the guards.
It was really hard not to order the fae dogs to eat people most days.
Craftsman could see me, so I waved for him to follow, but when I had trouble moving easily, I was suddenly in his arms. I didn’t have—nor want to waste—the energy to fight him, so I simply showed him the rooms off the garage where the hobgoblins were being held.
And this time I meant held, not simply they weren’t allowed off the estate. The room was locked down. My blood boiled as we reached there and Craftsman set me on my feet.
He used some rune to quietly bust us in, but that wasn’t the worst of it.
The hobgoblins were kept in cells. The asshole had retrofitted, or built, an addition of a fancy workroom off his garage that included cells with bars and everything for the hobgoblins to sleep like prisoners.
“Tasmin, no!” Craftsman called as I rushed forward.
I turned to see what he was upset about as I approached the cells, reaching for the bars, but he knocked me out of the way. Horror filled me as he crashed into the bars and magic did something to him that looked as if he was being electrocuted at a power plant.
But how through my barrier?
“On the wall!” one of the hobgoblins called out.
My head turned so fast I heard my neck pop as I found the magical item doing whatever was hurting Craftsman and laid the trap. I shot electricity at it, destroying it instantly and stopping whatever was being done to Craftsman… Who was now unconscious.
Fuck. Fuck!
I reached through the bars and opened a portal for the hobgoblins, digging deep to open three since there were three cells. They thanked me and hurried so I could quickly close them. I leaned over and laid my head on Craftsman’s chest as they rushed out, tears filling my eyes as
