Trissa pulled her sword and glared at him.
The warlock rolled his eyes. “I’m just saying.” He put up his hands in defense.
“Lily, are you sure you want to do this?” Trissa asked me.
Blood magic was dark. My mother always warned against it, but then she used it for her journal. That told me that in desperate times, it was okay to use.
I nodded.
Letting the drop fall to the earth, I sucked in a breath. “Show me where the crystals are.”
Then, I plunged my finger into the dirt, and my mind was suddenly squeezed like a vise. Pressure built on my brain, and I hissed. A strong gust of wind slammed into my back and nearly knocked me over.
“Lily!” Elle shrieked.
“I’m okay,” I mumbled.
The pressure built, and I closed my eyes, imagining the crystal. The shape of it, the weight in my hand, the light blue coloring. The wind ripped through the space, but I held my footing.
Then, like an intrusive flash into my mind, the Welcome to North Carolina sign flashed into my mind’s eye followed by the cabin where Liam and I first made love. My heart panged at the memory for a split second before I sobered. The pressure left just as quickly as it began, taking the wind with it, and it was almost like it never happened.
“Got it.” I grinned. “North Carolina.”
“Hate that place,” Jasper said, and we collectively eye-rolled.
It wasn’t lost on me that North Carolina was where Liam had Mara drop him and his brothers off. Maybe he did have all the crystals and had given me one out of pity…
The second we stepped into Mara’s, I gave her a huge smile. “It’s in North Carolina. Can you take us to that cabin in Asheville again?”
She nodded. “Should we get the others from Faerie first?”
I thought about it. Three semi-useless fae might just slow us down. “No, let’s just go before we lose track of it.”
Five minutes later, I was stepping into the cabin where I had amazing ceiling sex with my soulmate. Something that brought anger and grief crashing into me with equal measure. I didn’t dare let my eyes gaze at the couch and fireplace where we’d made love. Instead, I headed straight for the front door, head down.
“Someone’s been here recently,” Elle spoke behind me, and I froze.
Looking up, I noticed she was in the kitchen. Bags of chips and soda were strewn across the counter, dishes piled in the sink.
Liam.
That mother fucker. He was using our safe houses.
“Let’s go!” I snapped. If Liam was here, I swear I might have killed him at first sight.
I opened myself to my seeker power and yanked the front door wide open.
There. A knock in my gut told me we weren’t far away.
“I feel it!” I shouted with joy.
Pulling the pen from my messenger bag, I quickly transformed it into the VW, and we all hopped in.
With a rev of the engine, I took off down the road, letting the pull in my gut take us to the main road. A bunch of cute houses dotted the landscape, all surrounded by thick trees.
“I feel it!” I said again excitedly. With every inch I drove closer, the pull became stronger. I wanted to weep with relief that I had found at least one of them. We didn’t have twenty more years to restore Faerie. Finally, I was guided to the left, down to a creek.
“It’s strong. It’s right here!” I yelled as my eyes scanned the creek bed. There was a green chipped gazebo to the right and a shitty white trailer with blown-out windows to the left. I careened the car to the right to check out the gazebo but then got a knock in my gut to go left. Cranking the steering wheel to the left, I raced the VW down onto the rocky driveway. We all jumped out of the car, which I kept running just in case. The place looked deserted with no bikes or cars, not even a human.
“You sure this is right?” Trissa asked, sword pulled out at her side.
The knock in my gut was so strong. It was here, I could feel it. “Yes.”
The door to the trailer was blown off its hinges, so I stepped into the space.
“Oh, gods,” Elle called from behind me. “Looks like they’ve already been here.”
The trailer was ransacked, the dining table broken, windows shattered. Even a hole in the wall that looked like a person was thrown through it. A long sharp icicle lay on the floor, still cold and formed.
Either Liam or the Winter King had just been here.
Or both.
“It smells like death,” Jasper said, covering his nose.
“Let’s go.” Elle backed up. “Maybe we can chase them.”
That kick between my ribcage hit again, and I was truly mystified. “No. It’s still here! I feel it.”
“Hmm,” Jasper wondered aloud.
I started to pull back a cushion when Jasper threw a little vial of powder onto the floor.
“Reveal yourself,” he called out, and a gruesome scene appeared before us as if an illusion had just dropped.
Dead bodies… everywhere. One of them I recognized as one of Liam’s men, and another I recognized as a man working for the Winter King.
“Cam!” Elle ran forward, and my eyes snapped in that direction.
Cam was lying on his side, trapped under an overturned sofa, breathing heavily. My gaze flicked across from him and landed on the burning blue eyes of Liam.
Rage rose inside of me so sharply that my hands glowed.
Liam was trapped under three dead bodies. They were piled on top of him, and in his right hand, he was clutching a blue crystal. The Sword of Night was nowhere to be seen.
Lost it already?
A thin trail of blood dribbled from his mouth.
Elle helped Cam out from under the couch, and he sat up, and then she went to pull the bodies off of Liam.
“Stop!” I commanded Elle. “He is a traitor to the crown of Faerie. Help him, and you are against me,” I declared as the anger in my heart grew.
She froze, peering back over her shoulder at me with complete and utter shock. I stalked closer, pulled my dagger from my waist belt, and Elle stepped backward.
“Lily.” She frowned. “You can’t just… leave him like this.”
My head snapped to my best friend. “Like he left my mother to die? To die in a bathtub with her stomach opened up?”
She bowed her head in shame and took another step back.
I looked Liam in the eyes, not caring that they were lined with tears, not caring that he looked hurt by my words. Leaning forward, I plucked the crystal from his hand and put my dagger to his throat. “I can’t believe I ever loved you,” I whispered and dared myself to drag the knife across his neck.
I hated him at this moment. Absolute hatred. He took my mother from me and lied about it. He made me fall in love with him and held this dark secret. I fucked him. I fucked my mother’s killer, and he said nothing.
I hated him, and yet I still loved him, and that was maybe what I hated the most. Maybe I hated myself right now. I couldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t pull that knife across his neck, and it made me hate myself more.
When I pulled back, the emotional agony on his face was undeniable.
“Let’s go,” I snapped, clutching the crystal and heading for the door.
“Come with us,” Elle whispered to Cam, but the wolf shifter just shook his head, looking at me like I was the devil as he cradled an injured arm to his chest.