Page 34

After a moment, Shayne spoke again. “To grow up without parents is a difficult feat. But there are several fairies around this fire who will tell you that sometimes growing upwithparents can be worse.”

Lily’s throat felt thick when she swallowed. The stars blurred above. She blinked until they became sharp again. She hadn’t meant to complain, but she was sure that was how it must have sounded to someone like Shayne who was currently running from a family that had done so many vile things to him. He’d been unable to walk by the time Luc found him. Lily had never experienced a physical altercation that had left her anywhere near that condition.

“I can only imagine what your parents are like if your brothers want you dead,” she rasped.

Shayne released a quiet laugh. “I have no mother, and my brothers don’t want me dead.” He fiddled with a loose thread on his coat.

The way he said it stirred something in Lily’s chest. It was the sort of gut feeling that came over her when a crook had something to hide during questioning.

She asked, “You’re coming home with me, right?”

Shayne’s fingers stilled on the thread.

Dranian murmured in his sleep on the other side of the fire. It was the only response Lily got in the first three seconds.

“I know you made comments about staying here, but you were only joking like always, right, Shayne? You were just trying to get me to beg or whatever?” she tried again. “You wouldn’t actually let me and Dranian go home without you?”

Shayne rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his hand. His smile was dazzling, the sort of heart-melting expression he always walked into the station with when he was trying to convince the whole police force that he was the world’s best boyfriend.

He looked her dead in the eyes, and he said, “I’m coming with you, of course.” His grin turned tantalizing. “You can’t get away from me, Lily Baker. Soon we’ll go home, we’ll make coffee, I’ll force you to give me hugs in front of your coworkers, and we’ll never think of this place again.”

He didn’t break eye contact or let his smile slip for a second.

Lily’s shoulders relaxed. She nodded. A second later, she stretched, feeling for the first time like she might be able to sleep. She closed her eyes and shivered as the night grew cool.

Dranian’s murmuring only got worse for the next hour until Luc stirred awake and kicked him.

“The girl who can survive anything… can she survive us?”

When Lily opened her eyes, she saw an ocean. She sat up quickly, blinking against the salty air, her mouth parting as she took in the emerald waters all around, splashing against the small island of black rock she was stranded upon. Clouds formed in the distance, and a great, blue sea storm rushed in.

She blinked.

And it was gone.

Lily looked around the forest. Early sunlight glowed against the bright leaves overhead, and a tiny horned creature skittered up a tree trunk.

Luc was gone.

Everyone else slept soundly around the dwindled fire.

Lily climbed to her feet and brushed the dirt off her jeans. She’d just picked up her sweater when it returned:

“The girl who can survive anything… can she survive us?”

She whirled.

The song trickled into the forest in waves: a high flute, soft like a whisper. A laugh followed, sweet and feminine. Then low, like a man’s.

“You may wish to save him, but we will never let him go.”

Her gaze darted down to Shayne. His red coat was unbuttoned and splayed, his head was tilted to the side, his eyes were closed, and his chest rose and fell peacefully. He looked young this way, without his worries on his face or his shoulders tense. It was sad Shayne only looked free when he slept.

“Who won’t let you go, Shayne?” she whispered.

The song rose again, seeping in along the wind and coiling around her ears.

A shadow moved through the trees, and Lily squinted her eyes. It looked like a person was hiding there, and when the laugh returned, she knew.