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I was just done being out here. I was fastidious about personal hygiene. I didn’t like using a bathroom without a bidet, much less being out in nature where I couldn’t wash my hands after I pissed. It was gross. I felt disgusting.

And now I was, apparently, snuggling people in my sleep when I hadn’t washed in days. I wasn’t offended she was the one who broke my touch aversion. I was rather pleased it was her. I couldn’t believe I allowed myself to touch someone else when I felt this unclean.

And since I just wanted out of this and I’d always enjoyed running as a physical activity, I used my new super speed to scope out the location of the crystal. Honestly, if I had to get kidnapped, stuck outside where I had to be filthy, and drink the blood of a violent idiot, being able to run like lightning was a neat concession.

I stopped when I heard heartbeats and snuck closer. Saffron said the difference between Seelie and Unseelie were sun and moon magic, but they, apparently, took that literally because these were the goth fairies.

And I completely got what Saffron said about the fair folk being difference races, but kin. I could scent that in the magic in their blood. I also understood what I was scenting around Sage to a certain extent. They said she was some kind of fairy god, so I could only really pick up she was connected to the fair folk because I knew her scent well.

These fairies weren’t armed with bows and arrows. Good. Just because Vlad liked drinking fairies didn’t mean I would and even though it healed once the arrow was taken out, it hurt like a bitch getting shot. And honestly, I didn’t even like people judging me when one of my brothers did something incredibly moronic because we were related, so being associated with Vlad the Impaler wasn’t my favorite.

I didn’t know what kind of magical senses fairies had, but they knew they were being watched. They started firing off hand signals and tried to hide. Joke was on them. I didn’t know how it worked for everyone else, but if someone else was using super speed, they couldn’t fool me. I saw their hiding spaces as easily as if they were just terrible at hide and seek like one of my brothers were.

Cool. I zipped back to my team. Liam was still rubbing his forehead. I wasn’t convinced he was growing horns and probably just needed to invest in better skincare. That was important for men, too, and plenty skipped it. Whatever was going on with his forehead was getting gross. It looked like two giant zits he should probably see a dermatologist about.

“There are no magical traps by this crystal, just a bunch of goth fairies. We can’t unravel puzzles for this. We’re going to have to fight our way through fairy magic. It’s not going to kill us, but I’m pretty sure it might knock us out of the trials.”

“All these bitches wanting to hex my dick is getting old,” Liam moaned.

I had an idea, and it was probably stupid. I didn’t even know why I cared. There was one thing I agreed with the idiotic Irishman on. I didn’t want Sage hurt. I liked Khalid and didn’t want him knocked out of the trials, either. If I could get Liam kicked out, it would be a bonus because he wouldn’t stop kicking me in the fucking kidneys and he never shut up. But as much as I hated to admit it, he was supposed to be here with us.

“So, I don’t actually know if fairies see the same thing I do when someone is using super speed, but if you can distract them, I can use mine to get the crystal.”

“Mate, are you sure that’s wise?” Liam asked. “Vlad used fairies as his personal sippy cup. If they see you running at them, they might think you want to eat them and do worse than an arrow.”

Odd. I would have suspected Liam wanted to get rid of me, too. I was volunteering to go straight into danger. I couldn’t say that wasn’t like me because I’d never been in that situation before, but it felt right. I had conflicted feelings about Sage. I didn’t do crushes or even snuggling for that matter, but there was something there with Sage.

I also respected Khalid. He was a different kind of intelligent than I was, but I could get being fascinated with a subject and latching onto it. Mine was computers. His was history. Computers were useless out here and Khalid’s history knowledge had paid off more than once.

I didn’t want to see either of them hurt and have to leave the trials.

I also wasn’t a total moron. I wouldn’t be sacrificing myself unless I was sure I could do this.