“Absolutely,” Elle said from behind me. She, Trissa, and Jasper had just landed.
Cam nodded and started to gather the young brothers up to cross the bridge and head over to Elle’s place.
The other guys looked at me expectantly.
Did I know how to raise a protection dome? No. But I had the Queen’s power and a memory from Indra of her doing it. The hardest thing right now was getting my mind to focus on the task before me and not on Liam.
Old Lily would have run for the blue door and gone right after Liam, but I was Queen now. I needed to think of my people, and I wouldn’t leave them vulnerable to another attack while we were gone. Indra was out there, as well as all the dark creatures, and I couldn’t risk it.
Taking in a deep breath, I knelt onto the ground and dug my fingers into the soil.
Dome.
Bubble.
Protection.
I thought these words and pulsed my light into the ground. Popping an eye open, I saw that I’d only made some flowers grow, which was cool, and the men around me gasped, but it wasn’t what I intended.
“You’re pushing into the earth, you need to pull up from it,” Jasper explained.
I turned to him, frowning. “How do you know all this?”
He looked at Elle. “She’s not the only one who reads.”
Okay. Pull.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled, digging my fingers deeper into the dirt and imagined pulling something up from the earth. I imagined glass made of light, growing up at the edge of the boys’ encampment and circling around the farmlands, creating a seal of protection.
“Whoa,” I heard Elle mutter and opened my eyes, hands still in the soil.
Okay…that was… interesting. There was a wall of sunlight…. a glowing barrier to the left of me that ran into the forest and bordered the village. It stopped about fifteen feet up into the air. It would stop ground beasts but not flying ones. Still, it was good enough for now. I needed to get to Liam.
Spinning, I was pleased to see the light wall ran all the way around the encampment and encircled our small village before carving its way into the mountain to cut off anyone coming from the dark forest or outer lands.
“This should do until I get back, but let’s station a dozen archers to shoot anything nefarious out of the sky,” I told Trissa.
She nodded and spread the orders throughout the camp.
“Cam, can I speak to you really quick?” I pulled Liam’s best friend aside.
He was bopping on his heels, acting like he was ready to go get Liam, and so was I. But now that I had full power… this was it. I was going to end this nightmare, and I needed to know something.
“Will Liam forgive me if I kill his father?” I blurted out.
Dawning shone on Cam’s face. We were going to get Liam out, and I was for damn sure going to blow his father into little sunlit bits of light. “I mean, I don’t want him to think it’s retaliation for my mom or anything—”
Cam stopped my rambling by placing two hands on my shoulders. He looked me dead in the eye. “His father has been dead to him for years, Lily.” A frown pulled at his lips. “Liam grieved him a long time ago. That man is a shell of what his father once was. I don’t think he could kill him himself, but Liam wouldn’t disparage you for ending that man’s evil reign.”
Relief poured through me, and I nodded. “Then, let’s go bring him back. And the crystals too. I’m over this fucking war,” I growled.
He grinned. “You and me both.”
We were back on speaking terms, and that was good because I was pretty sure he and my best friend were getting serious, and I needed all the support I could get.
My hand was stilled on the back door that led from Mara’s to Montana; it had been recently replaced since the other one had an arrow shot right through it. “You sure this will work? A car?” I asked Mara.
She nodded. “I’ve done it before with your mom in desperate times.”
The Sons had burned the shed in Montana that led to the edge of ‘New Faerie,’ but Mara was able to locate an empty car and temporarily make a portal opening there. “You’ll just have to leave the door open because, once it closes, I’ll have to remake the opening,” she instructed.
I nodded. “Hopefully, we won’t be long. I’ll leave two guys with the car, door open, and they can take care of anyone who comes along.”
Mara nodded, smoothing down my hair, her heavy cuff clinking with one of her bracelets. “Your mom would be so damn proud of the woman you’ve become.”
I smiled, squeezing her hand. “She’d be horrified at all the danger you let me get in.”
Mara laughed, and it carried through the house to the surrounding boys. Liam’s mother looked at me with red teary eyes. She’d been crying silently since we told her the Winter King took Liam.
“Oh, you do that all yourself.” Mara winked.
Giving her a quick hug, I pet Bashur on the head and looked at Liam’s mom before opening the door. “I’m going to bring him back, safe and sound,” I promised her.
She nodded, but I didn’t know if she believed me.
Throwing the door wide, I nodded in amazement.
Wow. It really was a car.
I looked down to see dirt-packed pavement and a black tire. Mara’s door distorted to accommodate the small size, and I had to dip my head to get out without banging it at the top. One by one, we stepped onto the road, which sat just at the tree line, the large bubble of ‘New Faerie’ was a mere twenty paces into the woods. I could see the translucent structure peeking up over the treetops.
Cam, Elle, Jasper, Trissa, and the others filed out behind me. I’d brought forty of Liam’s
