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I t really didn’t look good that Ivar and his team were this close to a place where a fairy went missing. I could just feel something bad happened here. My familiar hadn’t shown herself because I guess I hadn’t wooed her enough, but she did help us. And if she was Irish, that was probably what pantheon I was from.

Everyone turned to stare at Ivar and his team. I wasn’t an idiot. These men had been named in the brutal attack on a woman and now a fairy was missing. They said they didn’t do it, but they had no proof. All we had were feelings we didn’t understand.

I also wasn’t dead. The rest of Ivar’s team deferred to him, so I didn’t even know their names, but they were all smoking hot. Honestly, Liam should have been a huge red flag, but I already knew he’d never hurt me. I’d probably have to tell him not to stab anyone who did, but he didn’t hurt people for no reason.

These guys? They might be pretty and they didn’t set off any bad feelings, but I didn’t know how my magic worked. I might only be able to sense that when someone was actively planning to do something evil.

One of the Unseelie, who was clearly the leader and didn’t seem much interested in giving us his name since we were associated with Lucian, stared at Ivar, but it wasn’t the same reaction he had to us.

And Ivar decided to go full himbo and start flirting with the Unseelie leader, who was clearly into it. Ivar was massive, but he was also kind of goofy and seemed really harmless right now.

Lucian was pissed. He threw up his hands.

“You know the girl who got beaten so badly, she would have had to drop out of the trials if I hadn’t given her my blood accused all three of these guys of doing it, right? Vlad was a violent psychopath and I’m not, so we could have ended up with a corrupt version of Thor. The other guys on his team don’t even speak.”

“Ari and I knew each other before we got kidnapped. He hasn’t spoken since he was six because of some trauma that is none of your business. We have our own way of communicating and I’ve been his voice since then.”

Ari was the original bear shifter. That left the other man who hadn’t spoken. He just glared at us.

“I’ve had a terrible migraine since I got out of that pool. It hurts to even be alive. It would have been worse arguing with people who’d already made up their mind about us. We didn’t touch Lola.

“I didn’t even want her on our team. We were drawn together for some reason, so we were going to request each other. Lola crashed our table and wanted to join. We didn’t feel a pull to her like we did each other, but we said she could join us because she needed a team. We had nothing against her and she wasn’t making more work for us. We had no reason to hurt her.”

That was different from the story Lola told us. And looking at these guys, they’d probably spent ample time camping and hiking and didn’t need to rely on an influencer to survive out here.

“Someone is lying here,” I said. “You have every motivation to and Lola doesn’t. Still, if you didn’t do it, someone wants everyone to think you did. Maybe Lola didn’t escape. If vampires can mess with people’s minds, then some being who was so evil, they got erased might be able to as well. They might have let her go after they hurt her with alternative facts in her head about who did it to her.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s terrifying. Vampire compulsion eventually wears off. It depends on how old the vampire is as to how long it lasts. Vampires don’t use it if someone can be used as a witness against them. It’s not just that it’s a crime. They’ll eventually be able to ID their attacker.”

“I’ll protect you,” Ivar said, winking.

Yeah, I didn’t know if Ivar was gay or just bisexual, but he was definitely into the Unseelie leader and he was eating up the attention. Ari was mute, but had a very expressive face. He looked like showing up to a crime scene and flirting with some guy was just something Ivar did all the time.

“They might not know that,” Lucian said. “Because I didn’t know I could mind rape people. I don’t want to learn, either. It’s disgusting.”

“We call it awake when one of you comes into your full power. It’s different for everyone, but a lot of you get a big rush of power when you figure out who you were in your original life and then you have to be taught how to harness it. Some of you figure it and it trickles in. It depends on what kind of magic you have.”

I got that, sort of. Lucian got all his magic as soon as he bit Liam and drank his blood. He just needed to learn how to use it. Khalid knew who he was as soon as he saw the jackal and Ivar knew he was Thor when he saw the lightning and hammer. I couldn’t speak for Ivar, but Khalid was getting trickles and figuring things out.

“There’s got to be a trigger, yeah?” Liam said. “Three people here know who they were, but a certain git had to bite me to get his super powers. I know the fairies are about to throw some Vlad shade and I’d join in because insulting Lucian is my kink, but Lucian is a prat, not a psychopath. Someone found their trigger and is awake. They’ve made a very violent friend and we need to get the fuck out of these trials.”

“Cool, lil buddy. We’ve all thought of that. None of us can leave. Well, you can if you want to get chucked out on the street with no training or resources knowing someone bad was out here with you. The fates recycled you into a new life for a reason. The rest of us are training for various things, but also to back you up when the shit hits the fan.

“There are some pretty major things none of us learn until our senior year. Most of them are magical. Everyone knows we won’t graduate if we get a zero on this portion, so we get sent home without learning them. We’re stuck here.”

“Then we should work together,” I said. “Safety in numbers. I get you’re being graded on this, but the rules have changed, and we weren’t told we couldn’t work with other people. We weren’t given any rules. We just had to get the crystals in the time they allotted us.”

“Saffron said the traps in the last quadrant were done by Seelie and witches. Could you leave more like that and we could all form a large group?” Lucian asked.

“Saffron always was a bleeding heart. I get her helping that one, but our help would have stopped as long as you were with Vlad,” the Unseelie said, pointing at me.

“ Lucian. His name is Lucian,” Liam said. “My nana told me lots of stories about the fair folk and none of them were really all that good. Would you like it if I kept talking about how you steal human babies and swap them out with changelings? Because somehow that rumor got started and passed down enough that my Nana told it to me. There were a lot of other baby-stealing stories associated with the fae that probably came from somewhere.

“So, give him shit for being a rich ponce who thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Give him a hard time because he ate all our fucking food and keeps snuggling Sage in his sleep. But the ‘Vlad’ shite stops. I know a violent person when I meet them. We can smell our own. Lucian isn’t violent. I am. So, knock that shite off.”

We all stood there in shock. Lucian and Liam hated each other, but I guess Liam only wanted Lucian insulted for the things he thought he deserved. I didn’t think Lucian deserved to be poked for the things Liam hated, but he definitely didn’t deserve the venom he was getting from the Unseelie for something he did in another life.

“That’s fair. I’m Zephyr. We’ll need some time to lay the traps and then we’ll work with you. You’re responsible for Lucian.”

Lucian just sighed.

“I’ve been self reliant since I was six. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Let’s just do it,” Khalid said. “The fairies can open portals, so we can get to the quadrants quicker. The sooner we get the crystals, the sooner we’re not sitting ducks.”

Yes, that. I hadn’t felt it since, but what I felt before was sheer evil.