Okay, I was glad he was focused on the task at hand. Clearly, I was overthinking things. I nodded. “Sounds good.”
We piled out of Mara’s house and into a thick-treed forest. Looking over my shoulder, I saw a small blue and white garage shed.
Amazing. If any nearby hunters had just seen over sixty people exit the little shed, they probably would have thought they were losing their minds. Liam’s mom and Mara stood in the doorway and waved us off.
“I’ll stay right here,” Mara told me, and I nodded.
I pulled on my seeker ability, trying to feel for the crystals, but I couldn’t sense them anywhere.
“They’re close. I feel the sword,” Liam instructed. “Let’s split up.”
His men fanned out into the densely cut woods while Jasper stayed at my side, along with Elle and Trissa. Liam stood there, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot before finally reaching out to lace his fingers behind my neck. Pulling me into him, he grazed my lips with a short kiss.
“Be safe.”
Holy mother of all things fae. An inferno ignited in my chest as the heat traveled down my stomach to rest between my legs.
His kiss, the public display of affection, in front of everyone… it meant the world; it meant we were going to be okay.
“You too,” I croaked.
“Me next.” Cam stepped forward and grabbed my best friend. Trissa’s eyes bulged, and my jaw unhinged as he dipped Elle backward and gave her the most inappropriate, yet sexy, French kiss I’d ever seen. When he righted her and backed away, her cheeks were flaming red. “Be safe.” He echoed Liam.
Elle just nodded, speechless, and Jasper groaned. “Alright, you horny little children, let’s go.”
With a grin, we split off into two groups, and I led mine out through the thicket of trees while Liam was just beside us, slightly off to the right.
“Be safe,” Jasper trilled in a high-pitched, feminine voice.
“Jealous?” Trissa asked him, wearing a half-cocked grin.
Jasper waved her off. “Hardly, I—”
My fist came up the second I heard the men speaking, and Jasper stopped. Everyone froze.
Pulling my sword, I allowed my wings to carry me up and over the brittle trees. Elle popped up into the air beside me, and I noticed Liam do the same while the others stayed back. This just became a scouting mission.
The voices…
There were a lot. Like… a lot.
For the middle of Montana, it sure did sound like the hustle and bustle of a city.
I weaved in and out of the trees, all the while feeling the sensation of a stone sinking in my gut. Something felt wrong, just… a bad feeling. My eyes flicked up to meet Liam’s, and I knew he felt it too. His brows were drawn downward, and his mouth pulled into a frown.
The moment I broke out into the clearing, I couldn’t help the sharp intake of breath that lodged in my throat. Elle tried to pull me back into the thick trees, but all I could do was float midair and stare…
Thousands… there were thousands of fae.
There was a huge dome like the one that used to cover Faerie.
The dome was the size of a small city, spanning hundreds of acres over hundreds of cabins, and at the entrance, they had a sign: “Welcome to New Faerie.”
Chrys, the witch, was there, letting people in. Letting in fae by the dozens. My eyes roamed over the small village to see the streets were packed with… warriors. There was some kind of festival going on. The streets were lit by small tealights. People danced and drank and held up swords. Children, men, women of all ages. Full-blown fae with colored hair and wings but also Sons of Darkness. They were chanting something.
“I need to get closer,” I told Elle, struggling out of her grasp. The sun was setting, orange and pink bleeding into the sky.
I needed to hear what they were saying because if it was what I thought it was…
“Lily!” Elle hissed when I dropped to the ground and wove in and out of the crowd.
Pulling my long pink hair over one side of my face to hopefully disguise my identity, I walked up to the opening that Chrysanthemum had made in the dome to allow fae to come inside.
I heard it then, filtering through the opening like a bad dream.
“Long live the Winter King. Long live the Winter King.” That’s what they were chanting, and that’s exactly what I’d thought I heard.
I was going to step forward, try to sneak inside, past Chrys, and sniff out the crystals when a hand clamped around my upper arm.
“Not now.” Liam’s voice was low as he guided me away from the opening.
I allowed him to pull me away. He was right. There were too many of them. If we were caught—
“Guards!” Chrys’ shrill snarl rose up into the twilight air, and Liam yanked me upward so hard that my arm hurt. We took to the skies, racing back through the trees.
“Run!” Liam warned his men who couldn’t fly.
Risking a glance behind me, I felt my stomach drop.
Fuck.
Over two dozen armed, full-blown, flying fae were hot on our tail.
I spun, midair, and let loose with a stream of sunlight. It shot one of them right in the wing, and he dropped like a stack of bricks.
“We need to buy my men time to get back to Mara,” Liam told me, spinning as well and holding his hands out.
He seemed to assess the situation rapidly, eying the advancing horde. Liam’s men couldn’t fly… they’d be picked off first if we didn’t stop these fae.
“I need to use my fire magic. You might have to help me back to the door,” he said.
I remembered then when we’d gone into the dark forest to get the healing water for his mother, and the stag attacked. He’d burned it but it had left him drained. Cam had said something about it being his weaker
