Page 19

Jack

I had the irrational urge to reach out and tuck a stray curl behind Sally’s ear. Anything to see her face. Which was ridiculous. I barely knew her.

I wanted to laugh at the face she made when I told her I knew she was a fairy. Her act might have fooled me in the compound, but the moment she set foot in Central Park, she was more at home than I’d seen her anywhere else. Even the flowers seemed to bend toward her as she moved.

Sally pushed off the tree, crowding closer, and I caught a whiff of her floral, dewy scent. It was nothing like I’d ever smelled before, and it stirred something deep inside me. Something I couldn’t name.

“Come on. We’re not getting in this way. We’ll have to find a way in through the Seelie court.”

“Sally.”

She glanced over her shoulder at me but kept walking.

Like an idiot, I followed, knowing I couldn’t go with her.

Knowing I’d have to stay behind. My plan to stop Dane depended on me being here.

I couldn’t traipse into Faerie with the beautiful fairy.

Even if it meant saying goodbye to her. Yet when she moved, I trailed her, unable or unwilling to part ways just yet.

We left the Unseelie side of Central Park, pushed through the shimmering shield that kept Faerie from truly spilling over onto Earth, and crossed into the area of the park on the periphery of the protective barrier, but that was still fairy territory.

In Dane’s reeducation classes, we learned that the low fairies, goblins, fawns, orcs, satyrs, and the like lived outside the shield, while only guardians and high fairies resided inside the shield.

From what I’d just seen, only the guardians and fairy wildlife were inside the barrier.

I saw no housing or high fairies inside.

The fairies living outside the wards must truly miss their home.

It was a small taste of what Faerie would be like, but it was breathtaking and something in the very air sang to my soul.

Some selfish part of me longed to see it. Even if only once.

Sally moved like a cat, balancing on the pads of her feet, and her steps made no sound as she traced a path alongside a small stream. Her skirt bunched as she walked, showing long swaths of skin, and I noted the smoothness of it. It looked so human .

Eyes trailing down to her ankles, I marveled at their perfectly unmarred surface. Even a human would have chafed under the rough chains around them. A glamour. It was the only explanation. But I’d never seen a fairy with the ability to glamour away iron injuries.

I’d also never seen a high fairy in real life.

Sally stopped, and my gaze moved up the length of her again, dragging painfully over the swell of her ass and up to the eyes glaring daggers at me.

“Eyes up here, Romeo.”

My cheeks burned as our gazes met. “Sorry.”

Her eyes twinkled in a way that said she hadn’t minded as much as she pretended. “Any ideas on how we can break through the perimeter of your father’s patrol and reach the entrance to the Seelie Court?”

I tugged my hand out of my pocket and ran it through my hair. “Connor patrols the Seelie side of the park. He won’t go near the creatures on the Unseelie side, but Dane culled all the Seelie fairies living outside the Seelie shield, so he runs a pretty tight patrol.”

“Culled is an apt word for it,” she bit out. Before I could open my mouth to apologize, she spoke again. “How often between guards?”

“Three minutes. Five tops.” It was exactly the reason I had planned nothing that would mean traveling this way.

“There’s only one spot unguarded by patrol, but I’m sure they’re all over that place at present.

You’re better off waiting till Dane stages another riot.

Then at least he’ll have all his men present to stir up unrest in the crowd. ”

She swore softly, sliding her bottom lip between her teeth.

I tried and failed not to watch the motion.

All fairies were beautiful in their strange, deadly way—even the ones who looked like trees or had delicate horns curling from their hair—but confronted with someone so human-looking, if a human could have such perfect curves and sparkling eyes, it was disorienting to my senses.

“I can’t wait that long.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Every moment I waste is one Juniper and the others are being tortured. Killed.”

I leaned against a tree, brows furrowing.

If her fairy army would truly come to Earth and free them, that would give me time to learn how Janet was involved with my father, and if the alliance was also a part of it.

It might be just what I needed to free the creatures without alerting Dane to my involvement.

“If you’re going back, there’s something you should know.”

Sally looked up, meeting my gaze. “What?”

“Dane has other prisons around the city.”

Sally’s face went pale. “How many?”

“Fourteen that I know of.”

“Fourteen?” she breathed.

“Most only have a few prisoners in them, but they’re much more heavily guarded than headquarters. You’ll need that army.”

Sally swayed on her feet, pressing a hand against my chest to catch herself. Warmth erupted under her touch, and I straightened, wrapping my arms under hers to steady her. “Whoa. Are you okay?” I was hit with a wave of her scent, and my head swam.

She backed up, tugging out of my hold, and full pink lips moved as she spoke. It took a moment for her words to register. “If you brought me through Dane’s patrol, claiming I was your prisoner, would they let you pass?”

I backed up, attempting to clear her intoxicating scent from my lungs. “No. And I wouldn’t put you in that kind of danger.”

Sally was unnaturally still, another tell she probably didn’t realize she had, but at this, she fidgeted, rubbing a palm absently over her thigh. I kept my eyes resolutely on her face and her forehead wrinkled, auburn brows dipping low as she puzzled something out.

“How close are we to their perimeter?”

“Far enough they won’t see us yet, but we shouldn’t get much closer.”

She squatted down and leaned over the stream, splashing water on her face. I tracked the movement as droplets traced a path along her jaw, dripping off her chin. Her dark lashes rested against tanned cheeks as she splashed another handful of water over her face.

Sally’s eyes flew open as scaled arms, hued in blue, erupted from the water, sparkling in the moonlight, and wrapped around her forearms, yanking her into the shallow stream.

“Sally!” I lunged forward, but my foot sank uselessly into mud. She was gone—vanished beneath the surface like she’d never been there. My heart picked up speed as I searched the shallow water. Had another of the fairy beasts that attacked her in the lake just taken her?

I dropped to my knees, nails digging into mud, but it was solid with no way through. What the hell had just happened?

I pulled my phone out, checking the time. One-fifteen a.m. Sally had been gone for more than an hour and there was no trace she’d ever been there at all.

My heart rate had finally slowed, and after a careful search along the stream, tracing it all the way back to the pond we’d come from, I had to accept she wasn’t coming back.

I only hoped those scaled arms had been friend and not foe.

Anger flared through me. It was irrational considering we had only met the night before, but from the moment I’d laid eyes on her—prisoner in my father’s stronghold—held against her will for trying to help the other creatures, I’d felt something…

different. A protectiveness I’d never felt for anyone. And now she was gone.

I trudged alongside the water toward Dane’s camp, scanning the murky darkness for any sign she might have gone this way instead.

“Jackie. Is that you?” My jaw tightened at the nickname as I approached the invisible line Dane had drawn as the border of AFF territory. “Ooooeee. Your dad’s mad at you. Better run back before he sends Grif out to get you.”

I marched past him, saying nothing. I fucking hated Jim.

“Jack? You’re okay?” Alice raced forward, crashing into me, and my arms came up automatically.

She hugged me fiercely. The need to shove her off was overwhelming, but I stood, holding her rigidly.

Alice’s adoration for my father bordered on obsession, and I often wondered if her crush was born of a desire to be closer to him.

I released her and inhaled sharply when I saw the tears streaming down her cheeks. “Hey. Alice. I’m fine.”

She sniffled. “I thought that awful fairy did something to you.”

“What awful fairy?”

She wiped her eyes. “Sally, or whatever her true name is. Those creatures never have people names.”

I would have laughed, but she meant every word of what she said. She was so brainwashed; she assumed any amount of time in the company of fairies might mean our death. A shiver rolled down my spine at the memory of the Wraith. Perhaps with some fairies it was warranted.

“Sally’s human, Alice.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

Alice leaned forward, lifting her fingers to my cheek. I fought the urge to smack it away. “Oh, Jack, you’re too trusting. It’s your best and worst quality. She was lying to us. Your dad told me.”

My jaw tensed as I bit down on a response to her ludicrous words and snatched her hand before she touched my face again.

Of course Dane had told them. When she escaped, it no longer amused him to use her in whatever game he was playing.

Now he just wanted her dead. “Sally’s not a fairy.

I took her home. She has a roommate and a cat. She’s as human as you and me.”

Alice’s nose wrinkled, and for the briefest moment, I thought she’d make up her own mind, but she shook her head, Dane’s brainwashing winning out.

“No. Jack, she had a glamour. The entire apartment was probably glamoured. Who knows what sort of fairy animal you really met in that apartment. You’re lucky you’re still breathing. ”

I ground my teeth, stepping back. “Where’s Dane?”

Alice’s face fell, her gaze drifting to my shoes. “A fairy died while you were gone. I guess it was one he wanted to keep alive. For a demonstration or something. He’s looking for another like it.” Alice looked up, watery eyes meeting mine. “I’m just glad you’re safe.”

Guilt roiled in my gut. I had to hope Sally was okay and safely back in Faerie, but I wouldn’t waste any more time waiting on her.

For a moment, I’d thought the universe had sent me a bit of luck when Sally mentioned a fairy army.

But she was gone, and there was no telling if she would ever return with them.

A sharp psst sliced through the dark. I turned—and there she was. Warmth bloomed in my chest at the sight of her. She was safe. And she had come back. For me.

“I’ll see you later, Alice.” Not waiting for a reply, I turned, striding away from her.