Chapter 31 #3
“I . . . don’t.” Fable stepped away from me, her eyes darting away from mine.
“We need to abort this mission immediately and get out of here while we still can. We have the coin, the rock, more of our Quirks. And most important? Our lives.” She gave her head a grim shake.
“I know we came here so we could be together, but that isn’t really how it has worked out so far, right?
Let’s go back to Neverthorn, deliver that coin, and go from there.
Tarquinius would not expect us to come back, any more than he’d have thought we’d come here.
It doesn’t make sense for us to get wrapped up in this stuff with the Senate. ”
“Right under his nose?” Ross said. “I think you could be right, Fabes. No one would look for us to backtrack.”
Ellie lifted her hand, as if in class. “But Harlow is right too, I can’t . . . I need to sleep.”
As much as I knew she was right, and I wanted to get back to Opie, skipping out now also meant me leaving before Thalienne had the chance to help me connect with my Fae powers.
Liam scrubbed both his hands up over his face and through his curls. “First thing. I will deal with the body. You need to decide by tomorrow morning. We don’t have more time than that.”
He touched the back of my hand, gently, then went to the body. With three quick successive runes he . . . shit, he folded the body up until it was the size of a large purse, wrapped it in a spell that kept everything – blood and fluids, contained. And then he packed her up.
My stomach rolled as he strode past us, and out into the night.
“Blessed Hecate,” Ellie whispered, grabbing the edge of the counter. “That was . . .”
I knew what she was trying to say and failing, and I really didn’t want to say what I was thinking.
Like he’d done something like that before. There had not been a single moment of hesitation, the runes had been so smooth so . . . practiced.
My brain couldn’t take another twist, so I put Liam’s skill at packing up a dead body away. For now.
Fable cleared her throat. “Liam is right. We must decide, and sooner rather than later, or we will get caught up in this mess. Harlow, why don’t you want to leave tonight?
We could sleep on the train out of here, it’s like eight hours if we take it all the way.
Never mind the coin, Opie needs you. You don’t want to leave her with Tarquinius longer than you have to, do you? ”
That was straight to the gut.
It was my turn to grab at the counter. “I can’t leave yet. But . . . if the rest of you want to go, I won’t stop you.”
Caterina snorted. “We just finished saying that we have to stick together and now you want us to leave without you? Not going to happen.”
In for a penny, in for a hundred pounds, time to test how far I could push the rune gag around the knowledge of being Fae.
“Thalienne’s not the only one with Fae blood. Nocta is half-Fae, too.”
Once more, Zeed wasn’t surprised, but the others . . . jaws dropped all around the room.
“Shit.” Ross ran a hand over his face. “That’s why he’s so strong!” and then his eyes came to me. And his frown turned into a wide grin. “But that means we’ve got our own bad ass Fae!”
He scooped me up and shook me hard enough that if I’d eaten any noodles they would have shot out of my nose.
“Ross, put her down!” Marina grabbed his arm, and he lowered me.
“That’s why you’ve been doing the one-on-one lessons with her, the added training?”
“I don’t know how much I can say with the rune gag on me, it’s specific to the Fae . . . but yes to the added training,” I said. “I will tell you everything I can.”
Seeing as they figured out about the part-Fae bit without me saying that I was part-Fae directly, I was hoping I’d be able to tell them about the rest of it.
I closed one eye, scrunching my face and rather bracing for . . . I wasn’t sure what would happen with this rune gag. “If I don’t tap into my Fae magic . . . I’ll die. The magic will eat me up and that’s that.”
Silence.
I swallowed. “That’s why I need to stay. Because Thalienne can help me.”
More than that, I knew that to keep my friends and Opie safe, I had to lean into whatever strengths I had.
It felt like they read my mind. “It will make you stronger when we face him,” Caterina said, “and we need whatever edge we have.”
Marina and Gary nodded. Ross grinned and shrugged. “I’m in – whatever training you need, you gotta do it. You’d wait for one of us, if there was something we needed to do.”
They were trusting me, after everything I’d had to keep from them, they were still with me.
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll go to her, do whatever has to be done, then we can go.” I paused, knowing I was asking a lot of them when both Liam and Fable were saying we had to go now. “Can you trust me one more time?”
“I can,” Zeed said without hesitation.
“Me too,” Ellie took my hand and gave it a squeeze.
Each one of them agreed. Until only Fable remained.
“It’s not about trust,” she shook her head slowly, eyes fluttering closed. “It’s about risk management. It’s about surviving, Harlow.”
I smiled, though I was so tired the corners of my mouth felt like I was lifting weights with my face.
“Pragmatic as ever. I promise, Fabes, tomorrow, we will be gone from here. No one wants to get back to Opie more than me. But I need one more day, or I might not be alive to help her or anyone else. Give me a chance to find out what I can with Thalienne. Please.”
She held my gaze for a long moment and finally nodded, her jaw tight. “Fine.”
I hated that we were at odds, but I also knew in my gut this was the right move.
Marina, Cat, and Ellie kicked off their shoes and went to work dragging out extra blankets. “The guys can have the living room; girls get the bed.” Marina pointed at the three guys.
Zeed used a transmutation rune and turned the couch into a large flat cushion that filled the entire main room.
“Dang,” Gary breathed. “I want to learn that one. But like, tomorrow maybe.” He flopped onto the oversized bed and yanked a blanket over his head. A snore followed within seconds.
Ross and Zeed weren’t far behind.
Marina, Cat, Ellie, and Fable retreated to the bedroom. Fable looking at me over her shoulder like I’d disappointed her.
I grimaced and put a fist to my belly, hating this distance between us, right when things were getting tough.
I dimmed the lights and before I could slump into the big chair, facing the door, it cracked open and Liam slipped back in, hands empty of his . . . package.
“What did you decide?”
“We stay,” Zeed mumbled from where he was splayed out on his back, his arm over his eyes. “One more night so Harlow can speak to Thalienne.”
I tried to walk to Liam and ended up stumbling.
He caught me by the arms and even a day before, I knew he would have held on a little longer.
There would have been pressure in his fingertips.
Now he held me only to keep me upright. His eyes were steady and he lowered his voice.
“Are you sure? She could detain you. Hand you over to the Senate to keep her place here.”
I wasn’t sure I could tell him anything about being part-Fae. Or if I even wanted to. I pulled out of his hands and crossed my arms.
“I’m sure. I’ll speak to her first thing in the morning.
Look at them, Liam.” I motioned to my friends on the floor, sound asleep within seconds.
We had been fighting a curse for three solid days and even though it hadn’t felt like that to us, our bodies had still felt it and the whiplash of it hitting us all at once was too much. Even for House Phoenix.
His chin went to his chest and his shoulders slumped. “I’ll be back as the light hits the horizon and take you to her myself.”
Exhaustion written in every line of his face, his eyes were dull as if they’d lost some vital spark over the last few days. How bad had it been for him while we’d been trapped in the curse?
I couldn’t imagine if it had been reversed and Liam had been trapped and I’d had to just . . . wait. Do nothing while thinking he was dying or dead.
Liam had to stand outside the circle, believing the last hope of defeating Nocta had been wiped out by a vicious curse that Nocta hadn’t even cast himself.
But as we stood there, gazes locked, I knew it was more than just fear for me and the others.
He’d realized it in the same moment I had, when he’d reached for me, so afraid and relieved and I’d not leapt into his arms.
I’d pulled away from him.
We were never going to be together, no matter that I cared for him.
And no one knew better than me . . .
Sometimes the truth fucking hurt.