Chapter 27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
A glance at my phone tells me we have less than twenty minutes before the library closes.
Avery snatches the journal out of Leo’s hands and thrusts it at Aaron. “Here. Shove it back in your pants.”
“Why? It’s a library. We’re allowed to walk out with books.”
“Not one that old.”
He tucks the journal into his waistband and follows Rime out the door, the rest of us close behind.
As we hustle down the hall, anxiety builds.
At first, I think it’s my own—campus security has set a trap for us; I’m going to get expelled.
But the closer we get to the elevator, the more the anxiety changes shape.
It’s heavy and dark. Paralyzing. And underscored with confusion.
I whisper to Leo, “Somebody’s scared.”
“We’re all scared,” he chuckles back.
The unwieldy emotions slow my legs to a crawl. “No.” I grab his arm. “Something’s seriously wrong.”
He hesitates, but with the others so far ahead of us, he’s forced to take my hand and tug me along. “Then let’s just get out of here as fast as we can.”
“Stop!” shouts a voice. Security? The cops?
Rime freezes, signaling for the rest of us to keep back. But we all tiptoe closer, peering to the left to see why he’s staring down the intersecting hall.
From the far end of the passage, a deep, menacing laugh resounds. Ice-blue eyes shine in the dusty beam of a flashlight. Blond hair, pointed ears—
Leo sucks in a breath. “River.”
“There she is,” River croons, cold eyes cutting to me. “The one who can see us. We knew she was working with you.”
Legs shaking, I clutch Leo’s arm. From behind River, other figures emerge. Two more flashlight beams, two more faces. Brier’s entire team.
Topaz pushes up to the front of our pack, eyes on the enemy and a hiss in her voice. “I’ll warn you, I have a lot of friends down here.”
“We didn’t come for a fight,” River drawls. “We came for the ring.”
Rime barks a laugh. “Too bad we don’t have it.”
River and the female snort.
Meanwhile, the dark-haired fae steps forward, wearing a dignified smile on his sinister face.
“Then perhaps we can negotiate.” He looks us all over, as though he’s taking stock.
“Rime the Goshawk, Topaz the Adder, and Leo the Hawthorn, Saoi. All from the Stag clan.” He gestures to the giant brute on his right. “You must know River.”
None of the other Stags utter a word.
Unbothered, the smaller guy points to the female. “And this is Juniper of the Moor clan.”
I notice he’s not giving away their species. He’s forcing us to play with an open hand, while they hold theirs close to the vest.
“And I—” he graces us with a sardonic bow, “—am Burdock. Deoraí.”
Outlaw.
Beside me, Leo stiffens.
Burdock returns to a full stance, back straight, shoulders square. He’s not as big as the other fae males, but he’s just as imposing. There’s cleverness in his blue eyes, and malevolence in his smile.
“We came prepared to make a trade,” he offers, oh-so-politely.
“Trade?” Topaz scoffs. “What could you possibly have that we want?”
There’s a stifled cry as River reaches into the dark and pulls something—someone—into the cage of his arms. In the narrow cone of light, dark brown eyes filled with terror blink back at me.
“Liv!” I lunge for her, flailing blindly in the dark.
“No! Betts, don’t!” Leo seizes me around the middle, yanking me to a violent stop. I gasp and wretch, the force doubling me over.
Twisting and tearing, I fight him. Liv. I have to get Liv.
Burdock laughs, low and cruel. “Serendipitous, isn’t it, that we weren’t the only ones following you tonight?”
Juniper sneers at me. “You looked right into my eyes at the store last night, but you didn’t notice me following you today?” She directs the flashlight over her shoulder at Liv and River. “How convenient that we found your BFF. That’s the term you Subworlders use, isn’t it? BFF?”
“Get her,” I beg Leo. “Help her. Please.”
Rime takes two steps toward River and Liv. “Give her to us and we’ll talk.”
“Not until you give us the ring,” River retorts.
I snap, “We don’t have the ring, so just let her go!” Shit, Leo’s strong. Why is he holding me so tight?
“Betts, look.” His voice is gruff in my ear. “Look carefully at Liv. Do you see what he has? You have to calm down.”
I catch the flash of metal under Liv’s chin, and my knees give out.
River will kill her. He’ll drag that dagger across her throat and she’ll fall to the floor. Dead.
My Liv.
Leo’s muscles shake as he holds me upright and feeds me his calming magic. I have to get it together. He’s using too much of his energy on me.
Rime inches a little closer to River. “Olivia, right?”
She whimpers and nods as much as the blade pressed to her throat will allow.
“I’m sorry this happened,” Rime tells her in the even, reassuring tone of a trained protector. “But we’ll get you out of here. Just stay calm.”
Liv trembles in River’s grip, her head tipped back against his shoulder and her fingers digging into his arms.
Hoping to give Rime time to strategize, I stall the enemy with a question, “How did you know I was working with them?”
Juniper rolls her violet-blue eyes. “It was obvious I wasn’t the first faerie you’d seen.”
“You saw us at the hotel,” Burdock accuses. Walking his fingers in the air, he adds, “Then you scurried back here to warn your friends.”
“So it’s a ring?” Avery’s voice startles me. I’d almost forgotten she was here.
Burdock curls his lip. “What?”
“You said it’s a ring. Thanks for the info.” She gives him a sarcastic thumbs-up.
“Don’t play dumb,” Juniper snarls. “You know what it is.”
“We already told you we don’t have it,” Topaz counters.
River narrows his eyes. “Then what were you doing down here?”
Avery shrugs. “Looking for outdated encyclopedias?”
Behind me, Leo’s whole body wavers, his heart hammering and his breath coming out in short, ragged gasps. He holds me with one arm while his other hand brushes back and forth between his stomach and my lower back.
“Whatever you found, we want it,” River demands.
Rime takes another step closer. “You’re not getting anything until you give us the girl.”
“Oh, no. We need collateral.” Burdock bravely stares him down. “Until that ring is in my hand, she stays with us.”
“Unless you want to give us the other one,” Juniper offers, shooting me a wicked smile. “Hawthorn would give up anything for her.”
Eyeing Leo, Burdock steps around Rime. “Not working, plant weaver?” He kicks the stone wall with his black boot. “Walls a little too thick?”
Leo is trying to weave? Down here?
“You!” The female points to Avery. “Come here. You either let me search you, or River takes a little slice out of Olivia’s neck.”
Avery takes her sweet time stepping forward, hands raised like a criminal about to be frisked. What happens when they find nothing on her?
“Betts,” Leo whispers against my head. “Help me.”
Alarm surging in my chest, I try to spin around.
“No.” He grips me firmly. “Give me energy.”
Give him energy—like I did with the jasmine. I harness emotions, he harnesses me.
Half-panicked, I grope for a source. Liv.
I reach for her terror as though by harnessing it, I can take it away from her.
Tears burn my eyes as I welcome it in. It’s sharper than the dagger at her throat, sharper than my betrayal.
I draw it to my center, letting it slice into my heart. Because it’s what I deserve.
When I’m full to the point of fainting, I reach behind me and wrap my hands around Leo’s arms. The now-familiar tingle jabs my palms.
“Juniper!” Burdock jumps back. “Behind you!”
The ground along the righthand wall appears to be moving—a flowing, shimmering darkness, like oil.
“Snakes!” River shouts.
Liv screams as a slithering tide of glittering scales rushes their feet.
Meanwhile, above River’s head, in a growing fissure where the plaster ceiling meets the opposite wall, more snakes squirm and snap their tails. They stretch and extend, literally growing before my eyes.
No, they’re not snakes; they’re roots. The work of Leo’s subtly moving hands.
Burdock backs into the wall, eyes on the ground as two splotchy brown snakes rear up.
Copperheads.
He takes a dagger to one, slashing it across the chest. It hisses and drops into a heap on the floor. Undeterred, the other slides closer, its tongue flicking menacingly, tasting the air around its prey.
High-pitched squeals like a hundred deflating balloons attack our ears. The copperhead turns away, it’s attention diverted.
Holy fuck, what is that?
Someone screams. My eyes flit to Juniper, but she’s undaunted. She laughs as she curls her hands.
And swarming around her feet—and my feet—and everyone else’s—
Rats!
I shriek and nearly let go of Leo’s arms. He holds my hands in place, still feeding off my energy, while rats and mice scramble over our shoes. When the snakes start striking, swallowing the rodents whole, I gag in revulsion.
The enemy fae chuckle. No snakes are threatening them now, not with such a smorgasbord laid out before them.
And there’s nothing Topaz can do; she doesn’t have complete control over the snakes, only nature does.
One by one, they disappear into the cracks and crevices, chasing after the rodents seeking safety in the walls.
So Juniper is a rodent weaver. Lovely.
I don’t know what Burdock’s species is, but, like Rime’s, it doesn’t seem to be a bond he can use in a basement. Neither is River’s, I hope. I half-expect a cascade of wolves and dogs to come pouring down the hall.
The floor has cleared of snakes and rats, and I’m pretty sure Liv is lapsing in and out of consciousness. River strains to keep her upright, not noticing the roots above him stretching and growing until they’re as thick as ropes.
Juniper whips a blade out of a strap on her thigh. Rime and Topaz plant their feet and square their shoulders, each now wielding a dagger of their own. If Rime has his gun, why hasn’t he used it? Ten minutes ago, he could’ve shot River in the leg, and Liv would be free and safe with me.
“You move, I cut her throat,” River snarls at Topaz and Rime, unaware that a root stretches, snake-like, for his neck.
Juniper crouches lower, a slow smile spreading across her face. Then she springs feet-first at the wall, vaulting as fast as a blur across the hall and into Topaz, taking them both to the ground.
With a shout, Burdock runs at Rime.
Leo pants and tenses, pulling such a huge thrust of energy from me it feels like he’s tearing out my bones.
“Enough!” River barks. “Either give us… the…” He gags and coughs as Leo’s root coils like a whip around his throat. His dagger hits the ground with a clank, and Liv crumples at his feet, out cold.
With desperate fingers, River claws at his own face, battling the noose tightening around his neck.
His limbs flail and his body convulses as he runs out of strength and air.
At the pull of his sagging weight, the root releases, dropping him to his knees.
Face purple and spittle glistening around his mouth, he topples face-first onto the floor.
At the sound of a cry, my attention snaps to Topaz, just in time to see her bury her fangs into Juniper’s shoulder. Blood spurts, and Juniper goes slack.
An electric, high-pitched wailing stuns us all, halting the chaos.
“The alarm!” Aaron shouts over the noise.
“Go!” Rime yells, even though one of Burdock’s hands is around his throat.
As though he’s only been pretending to fight until now, he wrenches the smaller guy’s arm, twisting it as he kicks him in the back of the knees.
Burdock slams back-first onto the ground, his head hitting the stone floor so hard it bounces.
The last thing I see before Leo yanks me out of the hall is Rime lunging for Liv, dodging the thick roots pinning Brier’s team to the ground.