16. Fae #3
I take a step toward the door, ready to follow Fiona out, but Robyn doesn’t move.
She freezes. Her eyes widen suddenly and dart between Fiona and me.
I feel her body begin to tremble beside me as the reality of what’s happening has finally caught up with her.
I step back immediately and wrap my arms around her, pulling her tightly against my chest.
“She’s safe, babe,” I murmur softly in her ear. “I promise you, okay? We’re getting out of here.” The words leave my mouth automatically but as soon as they do I realise I actually believe it.
She is safe.
Fiona cut me free. She helped me find Robyn.
She broke her out without hesitation, without asking questions, without stopping to think about what it might cost her.
She could have chosen loyalty to her husband.
She could have walked away and left us here.
But she didn’t. And as I look at her now, standing there waiting for us with the bolt cutters still in her hand and fury burning in her eyes, I realise something else…
She isn’t just Roman’s mum.
She’s a fucking warrior.
Robyn takes a slow, shaky breath before finally nodding, her fingers tighten against mine like she needs to feel something solid beneath her.
Fiona doesn’t waste another second. She ushers us quickly up the stairs and through the house.
Her hand hovers protectively at our backs as she pushes us toward the front door.
The moment we step outside, the cold night air rushes over my skin.
Every nerve in my body snaps to attention.
My head turns sharply from side to side as my eyes scan the darkness around the house.
My heart hammers in my chest as I wait for the other shoe to drop, for someone to step out of the dark and drag us back inside.
But nothing happens.
Fiona moves fast, guiding us straight to the car and pulling open the back door before practically bundling us inside.
The door slams shut behind us and my body starts shaking uncontrollably as the adrenaline drains out of my system all at once.
Robyn is trembling beside me just as badly as our shoulders press together.
Robyn has been gone for months. I’ve lost count of how long I’ve been missing too.
Time blurred somewhere along the way between warehouses and cages and survival. And now… this is it.
The thought feels obscene.
“Where are we going?” I ask breathlessly.
Fiona glances at me in the rear-view mirror as she starts her car and the engine rumbles quietly beneath us before she pulls away from the house. She gives me a small, reassuring smile before reaching forward to turn the heating up.
“To Roman, sweetheart,” I swallow a gulp as I stare at her reflection in the mirror. “He hasn’t stopped looking for you.”
The love that flows over me is overwhelming. For weeks I’ve been clinging to the fragile hope that he wouldn’t give up on me, that somewhere out there Roman was still fighting to find me, but hearing the words spoken out loud by her makes the reality of it crash through me.
He never stopped.
My eyes burn and the tears start falling again, sliding hot and fast down my face.
I press a hand to my chest as my heart struggles to keep pace with everything flooding through it at once.
Relief. Love. Gratitude. Hope. All of it tangles together so tightly it feels unbearable.
The radio crackles softly as Fiona turns the volume up a little and ‘Let Me Hurt by Emily Rowed’ begins to play as the road stretches endlessly into the dark ahead of us.
London blurs past the window. Lights smear into streaks of gold and white across the glass.
Robyn’s fingers tighten gently around mine and I turn my head toward her, managing a small, shaking smile in return.
For a moment we just look at each other.
Really look. As she takes in the changes in me the same way I’m taking in the hollow shadows beneath her eyes and the way her shoulders curl slightly inward like she’s still bracing for something that isn’t there anymore.
Then it hits me.
Hard.
A crushing weight settles on top of my chest. It feels like a boulder.
Heavy and immovable as it presses down harder and harder until I can barely breathe around it.
My ears begin to ring and my bottom lip starts to wobble at the realisation of what is waiting for me on the other side of this drive.
Roman wanted the Fae I was before.
Before the baby.
Before his father.
Before Fisher.
My thoughts start to spiral faster, tripping over each other as the memories come flooding in. I never told him I loved him. I shouted at him before I left. And now I’m coming back carrying a baby that probably isn’t his.
It isn’t fair.
My chest constricts harder as a sob tears its way out of me.
It isn’t fair.
I had someone who finally chose me. Someone who saw all of me and wanted me anyway.
And now… now it’s ruined. The relief of being free should feel like air rushing back into my lungs after weeks of being underwater, but instead it feels like I’m drowning.
This freedom doesn’t erase anything that happened to me, it highlights it.
And suddenly it doesn’t feel quite as exciting as it should.