“No way.”
“Now,” Edon said as he stalked toward me like my dad used to, his threatening eyes never leaving mine.
I scrambled away until I’d backed myself against the car. I swallowed as static seemed to fill my brain, scrambling my thoughts.
He kept coming—closer and closer, his eyes flashing in anger—until his honey-brown eyes melted into hazel, his tan face becoming the pale white of the only man I’d ever truly feared.
My breathing hitched as he took another step forward.
Stop! Or at least that’s what I wanted to shout as he glared at me, his hands curled into fists, his ugly, reddened eyes glaring at me.
“You witch,” he said, his eyes going from me to the wrecked car behind me and back again. “You think you can do this and get away with it?”
He was close enough now that I could smell the alcohol—feel the flecks of spittle on my cheeks as he shouted in my face.
The sound of the screen door opening was enough to pull my eyes away from my dad. Caleb. He shouldn’t be here. He was supposed to be in school.
The part of me that knew this wasn’t real—that it wasn’t happening again—wanted to scream at Caleb to leave now.
I knew the ending. I knew it—but I couldn’t relive it. Not again. I scrambled through my mind, fighting, tearing out some sense of control. I couldn’t watch Caleb die in front of me again.
I wanted to blast the image away. Wanted to hide, knowing there wasn’t a single stupid thing I could do except scream. So I did. I screamed, and screamed, and kept screaming, because sometimes, that’s all there’s left to do.
When I opened my eyes, it was so bright that I had to close them again. When I cracked them open again and saw the sky, I scrambled up, looking around. I was still on the bumpy dirt road that led to town. Deena’s minivan still had a blown front tire and—
I spun around.
Edon laid crumpled on the ground in front of me.
Heart thumping wildly, I shot next to him only to see his chest move as he breathed.
I swallowed. My hands were clammy as I looked between Edon and Deena’s car.
I nudged Edon. His chest was moving, but he didn’t stir. I nudged him harder. Nothing. This time, I walked around him and kicked him in the butt.
I should have felt bad, kicking him when he was unconscious, but all I felt was relief that he still didn’t move an inch—and maybe there was just a little bit of satisfaction poking through.
No longer worried that he’d wake up as soon as I closed the car door, I grabbed Deena’s purse from the van and slid into the cruiser, the door still open from when Edon ran out of it to grab me.
One look at the back seat assured me that Deena was in the back seat where Louie had left her. Well, on the floor of the back seat, anyway. Apparently, she’d had a rough ride as well.
I’d have checked to make sure she was okay, but after she ripped out a long, drawn-out snore, I figured she was fine enough.
I drove off the road a little to get around Officer Edon and Deena’s minivan and then kept going.
We were going to Denver, and no fae was going to stop us.
Chapter 19
When I pulled into the hospital parking lot, I knew I had to hurry. I gazed up at the large glass and brick structure—built like a wave gone sideways—and swallowed.
I clenched my hand around Deena’s card and slid out of the cruiser.
Deena had stopped snoring about a half hour ago, but she still hadn’t woken up. I opened her door and found her hair splayed all across her face, her orange and brown peasant skirt bunched up around her knees.
I shook her shoulder.
Nothing.
I shook it harder.
She slapped my hand away.
Hope burst through me, and I began tapping her cheek.
“Wha—what are you—Stop that!” Deana said, about to slap back before she opened her eyes and saw me. “Kella! What the hell you doing—” She paused, taking in the fact that she was lying on the bottom of a car. She grabbed ahold of the backseat, hauled herself up, and stared out the window. Then, finally, she looked back at me. “I’m in a police car,” she said flatly.
I nodded.
“Wanna tell me what I’m doing in a police car?”
I held out the keys to the cruiser. “It’s kind of a long story.”
Deena dragged her hand over her eyes before pulling them down, exposing the red underside of the skin beneath her eyes.
“You’d better start talking right now.”
“Don’t you remember what happened at the police station?”
“Police station? Aw hell, I thought that was a dream. Wait…am I still dreaming?”
I shook my head.
“So you…” She looked around as if someone might be lurking nearby, listening in on our conversation. She shifted closer to me. “So you really are a fairy?” she said, her voice several volumes lower.
“Um, elf, actually.”
“Damn.”
“I thought you didn’t cuss.”
“Girl, give me some credit. There’s a lot more swear words where that come from and I ain’t said one of them yet. Now what we doing at a hospital?” Deena froze. “Wait. Kella, you got something going on in that brain I don’t like. This is Caleb’s hospital. You running from the fae to your brother? He can’t help you. Kella, he’s in a coma. What are you thinking?!”
I held up my hands. “Yeah, the fae are after me, but I’ve been listening in on dispatch, and they only found Edon thirty minutes ago. Edon told them he had me right before I, uh, did something.”
“What happened—did you hurt Officer Edon?”
“What? No! He’s a little unconscious, that’s all.” And still was, last I heard.
“A little unconscious…And what’s your plan now? And don’t tell me we’re going to see your brother, because if I was one of those fairy people, that’s the first place I’d look for you.”
“I’ve got
