“Do it,” I told him.
Without hesitation, a ten-foot flame shot from his hand like a blowtorch, and the dry, brittle tips of the trees ignited.
The fae yelped, dropping to their feet to avoid the flames, and started to advance on foot, so we dropped as well. I tucked my wings flat to my back and landed smoothly. That warm zip of magic ran up my arm as I shot beam of sunlight after beam of sunlight at the advancing fae army. But Liam’s fire had worked. It had leveled the playing field and forced the fae warriors to come after us on foot lest they be burned.
A whistle sounded behind us, Elle, letting us know we were clear to head back.
Time to run.
I spun on my heel just as Liam keeled forward and collapsed in my arms.
Shit.
He was a heavy bastard. Clearly, hitting the gym was a bonus when we needed to kick someone’s ass, but when your… girlfriend? Ex-girlfriend? Whatever we were, had to carry you, it was a definite hindrance.
“Eat less,” I grunted as I dragged him backward. His color was ashy, and sweat beaded his brow as he struggled to stay upright, using his heels to walk backward into my chest and help me a small bit.
I was running, backward, as fast as I could, holding his nearly dead weight, when I smacked into a body.
A yelp tore from my throat when I recognized the familiar face of Cam. He scooped Liam up into his arms, and then we sprinted the rest of the way, pushing our way into the shed door.
We crowded into Mara’s little mudroom, pushed up against the washer and dryer, and I held the doorknob in my hand. It rattled against my palms, and my eyes widened.
If they had another seeker, they could open this door and let everyone in…
“Go!” I screamed behind me, hoping Mara was within earshot. I wasn’t sure if they had another seeker, or maybe the king could be on the other side of this door and open it, so I was going to hold it shut as best I could.
A loud thwack reverberated against the door, and then splintered wood dropped onto my chest as an arrow stopped inches from my face.
Holy fuck.
I barely had time to react when we were thrown across the room. Inertia ripped me from the door handle, and Liam’s strong arm wrapped around my waist, pinning me to the floor beneath him. His other hand held onto the edge of the kitchen cabinet, and then everything stopped moving.
The weight of his body on top of me caused heat to creep up my cheeks. I remembered the first time we had sex, fluttering in the air at the cabin in Asheville.
“You okay?” he asked, his gaze scanning my body.
I nodded, looking at his lips, which he wetted with his tongue.
I missed him. Missed his touch, his kisses. I worried that the differences between us now were too great for us to find our way fully back to each other again.
A sadness crossed over his features, and I wondered if he was thinking the same. With a sigh, he released me, and I was glad to see the color return to his cheeks. It seemed that using the fire power only incapacitated him for a short time.
“New Faerie.” My voice was hollow.
The Winter King had stolen our crystals and was now making his own magical lands on Earth.
Liam swallowed hard, looking at the brightly painted floors in agony.
“What’s wrong?”
The halflings started to move about, funneling toward the exit of Mara’s home and back into Faerie when Liam looked at me with the saddest blue-eyed gaze I’d ever seen.
“Nothing… I’m just coming to terms with the fact that I’m going to have to kill my own father.”
Oh, gods.
My heart broke then. Yes, his father was evil and totally misguided, but he was still Liam’s dad. I was reminded of when I used Liam’s hair to have the memory vision and how, even though Liam had despised his father for trying to take Cain and the crystal and all of that, there had been a tenderness there. A yearning for the old dad, the man who used to just play with him in the yard and teach him to fly while his mother cooked dinner. All before he became obsessed with seeding a new race.
He stood, and I reached out, wrapping my hand around his, standing to meet him at eye level. “I’ll make sure you don’t have to do that,” I told him.
My intention was clear.
You won’t have to kill your own father. If it comes to it, I will.
Reaching up, he stroked the ends of my pink hair and stepped closer to me, bringing the heat of his body flush against mine. My heart picked up pace in my chest as he stroked his thumb over my bottom lip.
“I’d never make you do that.” My eyes fluttered and then closed as I felt his warm finger trail my skin. “Go on a date with me? Tonight, in Faerie?” he whispered against my ear.
A grin pulled at my lips, and my eyes snapped open.
A date.
Starting over felt good. It felt like this was how we should have done it all along.
“Yes,” I breathed when a shrill scream rocked through the house.
Elle.
Liam and I both tore through the kitchen, narrowly avoiding a collision with Bashur when we came to Mara’s office. She and Liam’s mother were peering out the door to Faerie with a frown.
“What is it?” I shouted, making my way across the room.
Mara looked over her shoulder at me, eyes wide. “While we were gone, there was an attack. A forest creature…”
Why would Elle scream like that… unless. I burst out from behind the ladies and onto the rocky shore to see Elle holding her mother, bleeding and gasping, in her arms. Her sweet mother, my nanny since birth, held a sharped bloody arrow tip in her
