Brave (A Wicked Trilogy 3)

“Holy shit,” I whispered, shocked to my core. “That’s all? You betrayed them. Killed them. Took their Crystal. You did all of this because they were fae. Wow. I’m really out of words.”

He cursed and called me an idiot, but all I could do was stare at him. There was no deep motivation, no hidden agenda. Just . . . bigotry and fear. If this was what the Elite were then they were . . . they were no better than the fae that wanted to take over the mortal world.

I was nothing like him. Neither was Ren. The moment we learned that there were fae out there just trying to live their best lives without harming others, we called a truce. It wasn’t easy, but we were . . .

We were good human beings.

On most days.

Just not today, though. Today I was not a good person. I was the worst of the worst.

And I was okay with that.

Kyle sighed heavily. “He’s goi

ng to have to kill me, you know that? Sooner or later. Because I will find you and I will kill you. Then he’ll come after me, and if he doesn’t kill me, I’ll kill him. He’s a traitor.”

I unfolded my arms. This conversation was over. “He’s not going to kill you.”

Kyle smirked. “You’re a dumb bitch if you think that’s a smart move.”

“Guess what? I’m a bitch, but I am not dumb.” I rose from the toilet. “I get why he thinks letting you live will help build a bridge with the Order again. He’s just that kind of a person. A good person. He’s better than you.”

“He’s fucking a halfling,” Kyle spat.

I let out a cold laugh as I backed out of the bathroom. “And he enjoys it. A lot.”

A look of disgust crept into his expression. “He’ll do it. I promise you that. He and I will see each other again.”

“You’re wrong, so very wrong about that.” I stopped in front of the main door. “Ren’s not going to kill you later. I’m not going to allow that.”

He laughed. “What? You’re going to do it? Then lie to him about it later? Kind of hard to kill me when you’re all the way over there.”

“No.” I waited until he was looking at me and then I smiled. “I’m not going to do it either, because I made a promise not to lie to him anymore.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” he spat, shaking his head.

“It is.” I wrapped my hand around the door and started to open it. “But I didn’t say no one was going to kill you, Kyle.”

I stepped aside.

And the Summer Prince walked in.

Chapter 26

Kalen had found us one of the large SUVs that could seat a damn soccer team, so we were all in one car now.

All of us that were left.

One day on the road and we’d already lost five people. That was hard to think about or even acknowledge.

I think that was why Faye and Kalen were quiet in the furthest back row. I hadn’t known Dale well, but I liked him even if he had called me a wee little halfling.

Fabian was also quiet, and I was sure that had to do with him losing his entire consul. Every last one of them had died in that car, riddled with iron laced bullets.

I bit down on my lip, glancing over at Ren. He had no idea what I’d done. As planned, we left without Ren checking in on Kyle and he hadn’t asked me how Kyle was. And I didn’t ask Fabian what he’d done to Kyle, but the Summer Prince was noticeably more relaxed when we left.

I was sure he made Kyle pay for every death that had taken place.

Part of me was still in a state of disbelief over what Kyle had told me. The Elite were the ones who betrayed the Summer Court simply because they were fae. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted there to be some reason that would help me understand why the Elite had done what they had. But there was nothing except bigotry and fear.

And all I could hope was that bigotry and fear didn’t extend far into the Order. I knew it probably did, but Kyle had said that Daniel hadn’t wanted to believe that I would betray him. We had a chance.

My fingers curled around the burner phone. I didn’t even remember pulling it out of my pocket, but I’d been holding it for hours now, the device hot in my hands.

Calling Daniel was a huge risk, but one we were going to have to take. He was our only hope when it came to opening the gateways to send the Prince back.

“Hey.” Tink leaned forward, between the seats, his voice low. “I was thinking about something.”

With Tink, it was anyone’s guess about what it could’ve been. I turned to him. “What?”

“Do you think it’s possible that the Order has already discovered who the Halfling is and has them in, I don’t know, protective custody?” he asked.

A muscle thrummed along Ren’s jaw. “The Elite is in San Diego, that much is obvious. If they’ve discovered who the Halfling is, then they wouldn’t be in protective custody.”

Ren was right. The Elite would’ve killed them immediately. They wouldn’t try to keep her safe.

“That’s kind of screwed up,” Tink commented.

“You’re just now realizing this?”

He looked at me. “It’s just wrong.”

Yeah.

Yeah, it was.

Tink sat back, and when I glanced over at Fabian, my gaze met his. “If the Halfling is still alive and not compromised, she will be under the protection of the Summer Court,” he said. “We will not allow harm to come to her.”

“And if she is compromised?”

“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it—if we come to it,” Fabian replied, looking out the window. That was a very different answer than when we started this trip. “Let us hope that is not the case.”

I wasn’t sure how much hoping had worked out for us in the past, but I was willing to give it a try. It couldn’t hurt. We spent the rest of the trip discussing our game plan for once we got to San Diego. According to Faye, Tanner had taken care of lodging. We’d be staying at a rather secluded home, just outside of San Diego, in Del Mar. I had no idea if he knew the owner or if this was some kind of Airbnb thing which made me want to laugh. Faye knew where to retrieve the keys on the property, and despite how serious our visit was, I was excited to learn that it was on a beach. I wanted to walk barefoot in the sand just once.

Priorities.

From there, I’d call Daniel on the burner phone. The kind of phone Tanner provided us was encrypted and untraceable, connecting to wifi instead of cellular towers. That didn’t mean that Daniel couldn’t trace us via the internet if we were using a static IP, so that meant we needed public wifi just to be sure.

And from there, well, all we had was hope.

Hope that Daniel would hear me out and agree to meet with us. Hope that they had some idea of where the Prince was, and hope that we weren’t too late.

We reached San Diego around dinnertime and stopped at a fast food restaurant that had free wifi to make the call and grab something to eat.

Parked in the back of the lot, I stayed in the car with Ren while the rest went into the restaurant. Tink was going to grab me, not one but two, orders of chicken fries, and I was happy to report that I was really, really looking forward to devouring them.

I hadn’t had any cravings since the last one, so that was good, I thought.

“You ready to do this?” Ren’s gaze met mine. He was leaning back in the driver’s seat, his arm resting along the back of my seat.

Nodding, I drew in a shallow breath. “Ready as I’ll ever be.” My fingers hovered over the number pad. I knew Tanner’s number by heart. “What if he doesn’t answer?”

“Then you keep calling until he does.”

I nodded again. My stomach was full of knots. What if Kyle lied? What if Daniel wasn’t even in San Diego? There were so many risks.