Page 5 of White Little Lies (Four Ways to Fate #3)

5

The cool air skimming across the top of the lake hit my face with a wash of fertile scents—rich soil, algae, and a hint of magic. Rumor had it that some of the things swimming in the depths of the Lower City Lake were beyond the imagination. Not just naiads, but ancient creatures entirely lost to myth.

I personally thought it was all a load of crap. Naiads loved the water just as much as they loved playing tricks on anyone who came too close to it.

Luckily, we weren’t going to be diving below the depths tonight. I looked around the dark forested park. There had been a few people lingering near the borders, but fewer still would brave the deeper parts of the massive park at night.

Ringo clung to my shoulder, pressing against my neck beneath my hair. I could feel him trembling slightly .

“Don’t worry,” I soothed. “Nothing will be able to snatch us.” Maybe I wasn’t big and scary, but I was great at escaping when people tried to grab me.

Sebastian appeared suddenly at my shoulder, making me jump. “No one is here.”

“I know. I leave the package in a different place around the park every time. I’m just trying to find where I’m supposed to leave it now.”

I could feel the warmth of him near my back as he asked, “And why is it taking you so long to find the location?”

I glowered. “We’re delivering a package to a nymph. She makes a single flower grow where she wants me to leave it, and her magic disguises it once I put it down.”

“And why all of the secrecy?”

I turned toward him, putting my hands on my hips. “Why all of the questions?”

He lowered his chin. “I swore your little vow. You need not protect the nymph from me.”

I rolled my eyes. He was right, which meant his questions were just actual curiosity. And it was a strange delivery. Every other month, Seraphina would send a package to her sister. Whatever was within was important enough to risk her sister being disowned, just like she had. And it wasn’t as simple as just being cut off from their family. They would also be cut off from the magical well each family possessed.

I started walking the perimeter of the lake, looking for the small white flower. “I don’t know what’s in the package, so I don’t know why it’s so important.”

He appeared right at my side again, then walked along with me. “You mean you’ve never taken a peek?”

“Not my business.”

“You are a very strange sort of human.”

“So I’ve been told.”

We kept walking, only the sound if night insects, occasional splashes in the water, and the distant sound of traffic to accompany our footsteps. It was almost peaceful, and I missed being out in nature. There were plenty of pockets of it within the city, the spaces nurtured by creatures who would quite literally die without it. Many of them had been around before the city rose up around them, and they would remain long after it crumbled to dust.

I stopped walking. “Did you hear that?”

Sebastian gave me a bored look. “You mean the woman crying behind that bush over there?”

I gave him an affronted look, then hurried toward the bush in question. The cry had been light and stifled, like she was trying to hide the sound, but it was there. The bush rustled as I neared it, then a woman dove out, trying to run, but she stumbled and crashed hard into the ground, her legs tangling in her long white dress.

“We’re not going to hurt you,” I soothed, cautiously approaching as her body heaved with heavy sobs. Long black hair hid her face from view. It was hard to tell in the moonlight, but I thought her visible skin might have held a bluish tinge.

She tried to brace herself up with her thin, bony arms, then fell back to the ground. She was clearly hurt, though I couldn’t see the injuries. The hem of her long dress was stained with mud.

“Just go,” she sobbed. “I deserve my fate.”

I took another cautious step toward her. Sebastian had disappeared at some point—probably looking for what had injured her. Or who . There really was no telling this deep in the park.

Ringo’s fur tickled my ear. “She smells wrong,” he whispered.

His words made my slow steps falter. I had walked into one too many traps lately to not be cautious. “Can you tell me what hurt you?”

She managed to push her hair back out of her face enough to look at me. Her features were striking, and highly recognizable. A wide mouth and big almond eyes, blue instead of brown. “You’re the night runner. You know my sister.”

Okay so not a trap. Probably. I slowly knelt beside her so she wouldn’t have to turn to look up at me. “You’re Seraphina’s sister?”

She started to nod, but winced. “I came here to tell you to stop bringing the packages. But I was stupid. They saw me and they—”

A twig snapped somewhere nearby. I glanced around at our dark surroundings, but there was no sign of Sebastian, or whoever had hurt the nymph.

“Who’s they ?” I kept my eyes lifted, searching for signs of danger.

“I don’t know,” she rasped. “But I think they’ve been following me. I didn’t want to lead them to my sister, so I was going to tell you to stay away. But they found me.” She lightly shook her head. “I was so sure I hadn’t been seen.”

Sebastian appeared beside me and I had to stifle a scream.

The girl—whose name Seraphina had never given—looked at him with raw, wide-eyed horror.

“He’s with me,” I soothed over the pounding of my heart, shaking my head at the infuriating devil.

“There is no one else around, save the goblin who followed us here.”

It was my turn for wide-eyed horror. “We were followed?”

One of his shoulders bobbed. “I assumed you had noticed. She’s not far. She believes she is still hidden.”

I swiped a palm across my face, shaking my head. Gabriel must have told Mistral about the delivery. But I would deal with that later.

“Come on,” I said to the girl. “We need to get you out of here. Do you think you can stand?”

She hesitated, her eyes darting between us, then she hung her head almost touching the ground. “I cannot. ”

I looked at Sebastian expectantly.

“You mean to take her with us?” His tone let me know how utterly ridiculous he thought the idea was.

“She’s hurt. Of course we’re going take her with us.”

The look he gave me could have turned even a vampire to stone. “What do you intend to do with her? Bring her to your home? Further endanger your roommate?”

I knew he didn’t care about Braxton, but he made a good point. “We’ll take her to her family.”

“No!” she gasped. “They cannot know I was here. Just leave me. I’ll make it back on my own.”

“We’re not leaving you,” I said patiently. “We’ll take you to a hospital.” I still hadn’t even seen her injuries, and couldn’t quite tell what was wrong with her. But she was definitely in pain.

“A human doctor would not know how to treat a nymph,” Sebastian said caustically.

He was probably right. Most of the more magical creatures tended to take care of their own. Their anatomy was just too different from that of a human. Even werewolves usually had their own doctors.

Kneeling next to the nymph, I continued looking at Sebastian, waiting for him to make a helpful suggestion. Nymphs didn’t have elven or goblin blood, so Emerald Heights and the Bogs were both out of the question, unless we wanted to wake King Francis in the middle of the night and ask him for a pass.

I doubted that that would go over well .

Sebastian looked like he tasted something sour. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“You’re speaking to the girl who now has a goblin companion just because trolls were trying to eat him.”

He scowled at the blue creature in question. “Fine, but next time you’re being stubborn about something, don’t .”

I lifted one hand in a salute. “I will be the most agreeable little celestial you ever did meet.”

With an irritated huff, Sebastian knelt down, then lifted the nymph into his arms like she weighed nothing.

She hissed in pain, but I still didn’t see any wounds. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re hurt and you need help,” I said simply.

“Can we get on with this?” Sebastian didn’t so much as glance at the woman in his arms.

I gestured toward the distant city lights. “Lead the way.”

He did. And with the nymph in his arms, he couldn’t dart around in his ominous shadows. He couldn’t travel that way with another person, though he had only admitted it once during an emergency. He wasn’t as all powerful as he seemed.

Well, he was still pretty scary, he just couldn’t dart around with another person, and he couldn’t return to the hells. Eventually that secret information would actually do me some good .

Even if that good was just the opportunity to piss him off precisely the right time.

It would totally be worth it.