Touch (Touched by the Fae 3)

“You wouldn’t have if Ash didn’t compel you to.”

Is that what happened? I thought I heard him say something to me as I hesitated in the front room. Did he use my true name and tell me to go? Maybe. Maybe not.

“It doesn’t matter. You heard the scream, didn’t you?”

“I fought alongside Ash. With his human with him, he’ll be unstoppable. A fae will go to any lengths to protect their mate. He won’t let them get to her.”

“But the scream,” I insist. “That was hers. My mom’s. Are you telling me that he’ll still try to fight them if they managed to hurt her first?”

Nine’s quiet for a moment. All I hear is the electrical whine in the elevator, the crackling of the lightbulb reacting to the magic inherent in my Shadow Man, and my quickened breath as I imagine a cadre of Light Fae turning their weapons on my parents because they were too stubborn to leave with me.

“You want this,” he says at last. “This is important to you.”

He finally gets it. “Yes.”

“For you, Riley. Anything.”

Before I can respond, Nine lashes his hand out, wrapping his fingers around my wrist. He tugs me toward him, pulling me into his arms. His embrace has the power to calm me, to set me at ease as I gasp, breathing him in.

“Nine, what—”

He breathes in deep, exhaling shakily as his long black hair flutters away from his face. His pale skin begins to glow. I… I’ve seen him do this before. Even though he’s been weakened by staying in the human world, the vibrant silver glow is all I see as the lightbulb immediately shorts out, plunging us into darkness inside of the elevator.

Or maybe that’s the pocket of my conjured shadows.

Nine bends his head, placing his mouth next to my jaw. “Hold on tight, Shadow. And, whatever you do, keep your eyes closed.”

The next thing I know, we’re standing in the corner of the apartment where Nine stood as a statue for those couple of weeks. Silver beams, shining fractals like shards of a shattered mirror shoot from Nine, announcing our sudden arrival.

I wasn’t expecting it and, even though he warned me, I’m the dumbass who kept her eyes wide open as soon as reality shifted and we shade-walked from the stopped elevator back to the apartment.

On the plus side?

Melisandre’s guards weren’t expecting it, either.

I’ll take what I can get.

16

When the last of Nine’s pulse of power clears, when I get my sight back and the guards regroup, I see that we’re surrounded by five soldiers, all of them Light Fae. Same bronze-colored skin, tawny hair, the pristine white uniforms and the terrifyingly beautiful—yet undeniably dangerous—swords in their grip.

It strikes me that I don’t see Rys among them.

I’m not even a little surprised at that.

Of the five, two are standing next to Callie while the other three surround Ash.

Tears make my mom’s blue eyes glisten as she’s been torn from her mate, though maybe that’s the aftereffects of Nine’s burst of silver light that stunned the guards enough to keep them from attacking us right off.

Ash, on the other hand, wears the same resigned yet defiant expression that was frozen on his handsome face when he was one of Melisandre’s statues.

They both seem okay, though I have to tell myself that okay is definitely a relative term considering we’re not only outnumbered, but the Light Fae soldiers are all visibly armed.

“Well. What do we have here?”

My heart leaps into my throat as I jolt in place.

So my survey was a little bit sloppy. Emerging from behind the open doorway that leads into the hall, there’s a sixth soldier, the only one who is still wearing his sword at his hip. He keeps his hands folded primly behind his back as he surges forward.