“Because I’d be able to talk about it if he did.”
A light bulb went off. “You’re sworn to secrecy.” Mickey nodded. I shook my head. “Fae and secrets. I’m sick of it. And you know what else makes me sick?”
Mickey stood there staring down at the floor.
“You telling the only person I care about that he has to die.”
Mickey shook his head, looking up at me. “He’ll die anyway—either by you taking him off of this magical life-support or the queen snatching the power back from him after she takes control of your mind. At least let him decide how he wants to go.”
“No! Caleb isn’t dying. He just needs me. What he doesn’t need is someone telling him stupid stuff about him dying—about me needing to let him go. I don’t need that. He’s the only family I have.” Mickey winced, but I didn’t take it back. “If I find out you’ve seen him again, I’ll-I’ll—”
Mickey closed his eyes for a moment. “He loves you, Kella. Let him die protecting you, not as a victim.”
“I know he loves me,” I snapped back. “He’s the only one who does, so I’m not about to let him die.”
The words hung thick in the air. When Mickey opened his eyes again, they were filled with sorrow.
Mickey looked at Edon.
Edon’s expression was carefully neutral. “I see.”
“Do you?” Mickey glanced from him to me and back again. And with that, Mickey left, leaving me wrapped up in a web of tangled emotions.
Several heavy minutes passed in silence. “Do most fae not care about their children?” I hated how small my voice sounded.
Edon stared thoughtfully at the door Mickey exited through. “Some fae let themselves care too much.”
“That’s bull.”
“No. Under the queen, that’s called survival.”
Chapter 18
When we’d returned to Edon’s desk, a body bag was lying next to it. Snoring. Loudly.
Edon stepped next to it.
“Louie,” Edon called over to a desk three down from his.
“Yeah, Chief.”
“What’s this?”
“Body bag, Chief.”
“Yes, but why is the human in it?”
“Supply was out of earplugs. We thought the bag might help.”
Deena’s snore choked on itself before going back to its natural seesaw rhythm.
“Chief, you taking it home with you?”
“Humans aren’t pets, Louie.”
Louie frowned. “Holding says they won’t take her. Can’t take much more of this—Orcs sound prettier.”
Edon rubbed his eyes. “Load her up in the backseat. And get her out of the body bag.”
“Yes, Chief!” Louie scooped up Deena, slung her over his shoulder, and marched out the precinct doors.
“Shall we?” Edon asked, motioning in the direction Louie went.
“I guess so,” I muttered, exhausted. I couldn’t process any more.
My bio dad was my foster brother, I was getting married to stay alive, and I was about to undergo the investiture where my great-grandmother was going to try to possess my body.
None of this felt real.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have few weeks to process everything—just one or two days before they dragged me to the investiture. Maybe my brain would jumpstart between now and then so I could figure a way out of this mess.
I bent down to grab Deena’s purse. It was heavier than I expected, which said a lot. As I heaved it onto my shoulder, keys shifted in the side pocket, clinking against each other.
“Hey, Chief?” Edon turned to a petite blonde, who fluffed her hair as soon as he laid eyes on her. “You’ve got a phone call.”
“Later, Renee.”
“But it’s the council,” she said, pouting her lips far enough out to rival a blowfish.
Edon sighed. “Which one?”
“Aaron.”
Edon muttered something under his breath. “Tell him I’m busy.”
“He said if you said that to tell you that you either talk to him now or he will bench the loyalist side of the force and replace them with pixies.”
“If he thinks he can blackmail me—” Edon stormed past me and toward the office, Renee scurrying after him, and left me…alone.
Alone in a precinct with only a smattering of fae cops at their desks.
Well, they all heard what he said about heading to the car.
I had a hard time not smiling as I walked as fast as I dared right on through the precinct doors.
Louie would have put Deena in his police cruiser, so I’d have to leave her behind. But honestly? She’d be fine. It wasn’t her life they wanted to ruin.
As soon as I got to Deena’s parked car I ran, pressing the key fob’s unlock button and sliding into the driver’s seat.
I locked the door and jammed the keys into the ignition, deja vu sweeping over me. Only this time, I swerved through a parking lot without Deena’s legs hanging out the window.
Instead, I saw Louie in my rearview mirror, an empty body bag in his arms, his shouts drowned out by the van engine as I floored it.
By the time I made it to vomit road, sirens blasted behind me. I pressed down on the gas, but the jarring up and down of the van was going to pop a tire or something if I didn’t let up a little.
I hated this minivan. Really hated this minivan.
And when police lights showed up in my rearview mirror, I was ready to torch the green slug.
Instead, I went faster, slamming against the mini hills and ditches that dotted the road like I had a death wish.
Between jerking lifts and jarring thuds, I could see the police car gaining as it seemed to bounce from one ditch to the next like a ping pong ball.
I’d made it halfway down the road when I’d had one thud too many. A tire popped like a shotgun going off, the front right of the van digging deep into ground.
I slammed my fists into the wheel, wanting to scream. I climbed out, glaring as Edon stepped out of his car, his face twisted into a menacing scowl.
But I didn’t care.
“In the back. Now,” he said, voice tight, as he jerked his arm to
