CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Brokk
The cat sith disappeared from my side before I could argue. It will do little good to have one of the human weapons when there are seven others in the room. Grey is a formidable fighter, as am I, but human guns are far too deadly.
Especially when they threaten my mate.
Worse, we lack an escape route. Even with the full inscription written out, I can’t figure out where the Door of Dreams is.
“Tick tock.” The Englishman taps a fingernail against the crystal of his ludicrously expensive gold watch, tink, tink, tink. “Time’s a wasting.”
A silent snarl curls my lips. By the goddess, I want to pound the annoying little man into a pulp!
Lara starts working on the translated page, making a series of blank lines for the words of the inscription. Then she goes through and fills in the ones she’s admitted to knowing so far.
Edgerton grunts and begins pacing again, manic impatience radiating from him like heat lines wavering over the sun-baked blacktop of Florida.
We’re not going to hold him off for much longer.
Keep working on the riddle of the door , I write. She’s got a better shot at figuring it out than I do with that brilliant and imaginative brain of hers.
Will do , Lara answers.
I focus on what I do best, fighting. Ignoring Edgerton, I carefully map the positions of every armed human in the room, calculating their fields of fire. They’re spread out along the opposite wall at our backs, except for Klaus and Vito, who flank the inscription in front of us. If I could get to a more central location, it might make them hesitate to shoot, since stray bullets could hit their comrades and Edgerton.
Next, my magic spirals outward, searching for plants, but there’s none in this room, not even tiny bits of moss. There must be some form of plant life on the cliff face—not even the power of a waterfall can prevent algae and such from growing—but nothing registers on my senses, even with the entire end of the room open to the outside. This place is indeed magically sealed.
So what else do I have? My hands ghost over my thighs, cataloging the lumps in the various pockets.
I grin as I prepare one of Lara’s lists, cataloging the humans’ several mistakes:
1) They discount my ability to turn almost anything into a weapon.
2) They believe Grey is gone.
3) They have no idea what lengths an orc warrior will go to in order to keep his mate safe.
Lara’s gasp jerks my attention back to her, and brings Elton trotting. He leans over her. “What is it? Did you do it?”
“I think I had a breakthrough. Let me work on it.” Her hand flies across a clean piece of paper, writing in High Fae: I figured out what the door is and why the inscription warns that it’s only one way.
I take another quick glance around the confined space, spotting nothing new.
The fae who built all of this wouldn’t have used a rope ladder. They designed it so there’s only one way out of this room . Lara’s eyes flick to the missing wall, the wide opening that lets out onto the waterfall.
I frown at her.
It has to be the Door of Dreams , she writes. There’s no other option. And if I’m wrong, we’ll land in the pond.
Landing on water from such a great height is almost as injurious as hitting hard ground. The thought of risking my mate… I bare my tusks, protectiveness swamping my chest.
Better than weapons . She uses the general High Fae word, because no word for firearms exists in that language, but I know what she means.
And she’s right. My brilliant and beautiful mate is right. Being shot at point-blank range is riskier than the jump.
I hate it. I hate it with every fiber of my being. And I hate the scum that put us in this position even more.
Elton can still follow us, she writes, worry twisting her mouth.
He thinks he’s going to visit the elves, I write back. Only there are no more elves. There are only dark fae.
That doesn’t sound good.
It definitely won’t be. A smirk curls my lips as I imagine Edgerton getting exactly what’s coming to him. Faerie is like that—one should never use any of the high magicks lightly. They all carry a cost.
What will that cost be for me? Will I be sent back to Faerie? I spent months thinking that’s what I wanted, but it’s no longer true. As difficult and confusing as it is to live on Earth, it’s all worth it to be with Lara.
Before I can ask her what she wants, Edgerton leans forward, almost tipping over her shoulder. “Tell me now!”
A growl rumbles through me, but the small man ignores me, even as Klaus steps closer, his bruised eyes watching me, his gun in the ready position.
“I need to look outside,” Lara lies, but it’s convincing this time because the excitement of her true discovery thrums in her voice. “I think there’s some kind of visual clue.”
“Fine.”
Goddess, she’s brilliant, getting our foe to take us right where we want to be!
As we stand, she shoves her family journal back inside her clothing.
Edgerton waves Klaus and Vito forward, and the three of them walk us to the end of the room.
The view is amazing, giving you the feeling that you’re standing on the cliff top with nothing protecting you from falling. Heavy jungle starts at the far edge of the pond and spreads out before us in the blanket of varying greens, lovely and lush. My magic still can’t feel any of the plants, though.
“The water’s grayer than I expected,” Lara says, but it’s a lie. The waterfall directly below us is a white froth, the pond at its base blue. So she’s using the cat sith’s name to get his attention.
“I don’t see anything special,” Elton whines. “How is this helping me find Faerie?”
“ This is the door,” Lara says, still speaking for Grey’s benefit.
Several things happen at once.
A soft thump comes from behind us, the sound of an unconscious body hitting the floor. Grey got the message.
Sprites pour down from the ceiling, trilling in high-pitched whistles.
“What the—” a man yells, then moans as one of them pops a tiny berry into his mouth. He drops his gun and turns to the man beside him. “I love you, Rocko.”
The sprites have given the other man Faerie Fruit, too. He wraps his arms around the first man, and they kiss passionately.
“Stop that!” Edgerton yells. “Stop that right now! I told you never to do this again while on duty!”
Ignoring him, the men drop to the floor, writhing and tearing off each other’s clothes as they start an enthusiastic 69.
The sprites spread across the room, swooping in fast dives that mash colorful berries against the humans’ lips.
Another couple succumbs, the woman tossing aside her gun to leap onto one of the men, her muscled thighs gripping his waist tightly. He clearly doesn’t mind, cupping her ass and grinding into her.
None of Elton’s screeches—which are even more annoying than his regular voice—do any good.
Another man slumps to the floor, knocked out by Grey. Soon, only Klaus and Vito remain, each batting away any sprite who gets near.
I spring into action, pulling Lara’s shoes from my pockets and wielding the heels like the weapons they are. I bury the first one in the meaty part of Klaus’s gun hand, right between the base of his thumb and index finger. He yells as it spasms open, the weapon flying out the opening.
Vito’s gun clicks as he primes the trigger, but Elton screams, “Don’t shoot, you idiot! I’m standing right here!”
The dark-haired man scowls as his boss scurries out of the way. Vito ducks away from my first swipe with the other heel and raises his gun.
I drop to the side, planting my free hand on the ground in a high side-plank. My top foot snaps out, my boot crunching into Vito’s knee. As his leg buckles, I bury the heel of Lara’s other shoe in his gun hand, catch the dropped pistol, and toss it outside.
Klaus tries to recover, scrabbling for a gun with his other hand. Then his head whips around, struck by an unseen force, and he slumps to the floor, unconscious.
Grey truly is a worthy battle companion.
We’re winning. Even against unbeatable odds, we’re winning!
“Brokk,” Lara whispers, her tone urgent.
I spin, and ice wraps around my heart.
Elton holds her from behind, his pale face purple with indignation. “This isn’t how any of this was supposed to go! I’m supposed to be famous! I’m supposed to find Faeries!”
He’s miscalculated my reach, thinking in human terms instead of that of a seven-foot orc. My hand snaps out and latches onto his shoulder, yanking him toward me. Lara comes with him, and I catch her to my chest with my other arm.
Gripping his shoulder, I bare my tusks and smirk down at the gaping Englishman. “You wanted to find Faeries? Well, you did.”
“Not those little things.” He flaps a dismissive hand toward the sprites, which is quite stupid, because they’ve just incapacitated four of his people.
“Not the sprites,” I growl. “Me.”
“You? You’re a cover model !”
“I am. I’m also an orc, and you dared to touch my mate.” My hand tightens until he winces. “You say you want Faerie, but you have no idea what that means. May the reality be nothing you imagine.”
Anger fuels my muscles as I toss him out the opening. With any luck, he’ll go straight to Avalon, and the dark fae will show him why so many of the stories of fae highlight their cruelty.
Lara gives me an approving nod, then calls out, “Grey, sprites, this is the Door of Dreams. Think of where you most want to go and jump… or fly!”
“You have been true friends to the sprites,” the leader says as the rest of the flock streaks past us. “Find us, and we will make you all the Faerie Fruit you could ever want. We’ll have an orgy!”
“Sounds great,” Lara lies, but the smile she gives them is real.
The cat sith materializes beside us in his werepanther form, and Vito mutters a shocked curse and scrabbles backward across the floor like a frightened crab.
“Thank you, my friends.” Grey hugs Lara. “I don’t know how I would have gotten back to my pack without you.”
“You can lead them home, now,” she says.
“Indeed. They will all laud how magnificent I am, which is nothing more than the truth, and make me alpha.” He grins as wide as ever and clasps forearms with me. “May we meet again.”
“I will fight by your side any day,” I growl.
Grey leaps outward, dropping for several feet before disappearing from sight.
“It’s just us.” Lara steps into my waiting arms. “Are we going to—”
A gun cocks, cutting over the sounds of sex that fill the room.
Fuck. Vito got hold of one of the dropped weapons. His hand trembles, his eyes full of fear and confusion, but I do not doubt his ability to kill.
“You must jump.” I pull Lara in front of me and shield her with my body, the feel of the gun behind me making my back itch.
She looks up at me, worry in her beautiful brown eyes. Goddess, I long to tell her I love her, but what if it unsettles her emotions so much that it confuses where the door sends her? Getting her to safety is more important.
Then she shocks me yet again.
“Brokk, I love you.” Her heart’s in her eyes as they meet mine, her face showing everything she feels.
My heart skips with joy. This beautiful and amazing woman loves me!
“Lara, I—”
A shot rings out.
Agony sets my nerves on fire as I shove my mate out the opening.