Brave (A Wicked Trilogy 3)

Ren touched my cheek, drawing my attention. His gaze searched mine. “You got this.”

“I do.” I tried to smile, but it felt weird. “Daniel’s like . . .”

“What?”

I gave a little shake of my head. “He’s like a father to me. I know that sounds stupid—”

“It doesn’t.” He smoothed his thumb over my cheek. “Not at all.”

The smile came easier this time. “It’s just that when Kyle said that Daniel didn’t believe that I’d betrayed the Order, it really meant something to me, but what if he does think that? I mean, Daniel can be a big prick, but it would be . . . it would hurt.”

Ren leaned toward me, kissing the center of my forehead. “I wish I could say something that would make it better if that’s the case, but there isn’t anything I can say except if he thinks that about you then he doesn’t know you at all.”

Shifting my head, I kissed his lips, and when I pulled back, I had to swallow the sudden knot in my throat. “I need to call him.”

“You do.”

And that’s what I did. Punching in his number, I hit the speaker button and then waited. It rang once, twice, and by the fourth ring, I started to worry that he wasn’t going to answer.

But then he did, on the fifth ring. “What?”

My stomach dropped as I stared at the phone. That was definitely Daniel. Only he would answer an unknown number like that.

I glanced at Ren, and he nodded.

“Daniel?” I said, wincing when my voice cracked. “It’s Ivy.”

My introduction was met with a long beat of silence and then, “You’re alive.”

I blinked. “Yeah, I am. So is Ren.”

“You gonna tell me where you’ve been, what you’ve been doing?” he asked.

“I want to. That’s why I’m calling you. Hoping you’re where I am.”

“And where is that?”

“San Diego.” The phone was going to crack from how tight I was clutching it.

There was another stretch of silence. “Funny. That’s where I am.”

Well, at least that was good news. I guessed. “I know you probably don’t trust me, because God only knows what you think, but I didn’t betray the Order. I’m here to stop the Prince. So is Ren.”

“You don’t know what I’m thinking. That’s probably a good thing, but you better start talking and telling me where in the hell you’ve been.” Daniel paused. “I’m figuring there’s a lot of things you need to tell me, girl.”

There were a lot of things that I needed to tell him, but I started with the most obvious. “I’m the Halfling.”

Daniel was quiet.

“You probably already know that,” I continued, a little breathless. “But I didn’t know, not until the Prince came—well, I actually figured it out right before that. I cut myself with the thorn stake, but I didn’t know until then. I had no idea. Neither did Ren.”

I closed my eyes, hating to say what I had to. “The Prince kidnapped Ren and then me. He held me for a while, but I escaped—we escaped. And if you followed the Prince here then you have to know he didn’t get what he wanted from me.”

“Maybe I know that.” There was a pause. “Maybe not.”

Instinct told me that Daniel knew that the Prince was after another Halfling. “I want to meet with you—just Ren and I. We need to talk.”

“That we do.”

“And by talk I mean we don’t want to walk into a trap, Daniel. We’re on the same side.”

“Why would you think there’d be a trap?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” I opened my eyes and stared at the leafy palms moving in the breeze. “Maybe because an entire convoy of Order and Elite members tried to kill us in Arizona.”

“What?” he exclaimed.

I looked at Ren, unsure if his reaction was genuine. That was when Ren spoke up. “You didn’t know about that, Daniel?”

“Well, hello, Mr. Owens. Glad to know I’m on a speaker. Anyone else there that wants to say hi?”

“No one else is with us right now,” I stressed that last part. “But we didn’t come alone. We came with backup.”

“For what?”

“To take out the Prince, what the hell else?”

“Girl, you and that tone. Watch it,” Daniel warned.

For some reason, the scolding made me grin, because it was so . . . so Daniel. “Sorry.”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end. “I didn’t know about the Arizona thing. I’m guessing that was Kyle. And I’m guessing that’s why I haven’t heard from him.”

I could feel Ren’s stare on me. “We want to meet and talk.”

“Why should I think this isn’t a trap on your end?”

“Because if I was working for the Prince, I wouldn’t be worried about trapping the Order. I’d be pregnant and staying as far away from you people as possible.”

“You people?” He barked out a laugh. “Thought you were one of us?”

“I will always be a part of the Order, but I figured after everything, that wasn’t an option anymore,” I admitted. “We’re on the same side, Daniel. It doesn’t matter that I’m a halfling. That, I swear.”

Daniel was quiet for so long that I started to worry that he’d hung up, but then he said, “Fine. We’ll meet at eleven tonight, down in the Gaslamp Quarter, across from the Convention Center. I’ll be by the sign.”

He hung up then, and I stared at the phone for several seconds before I spoke. “Well, I guess that went okay?”

The house in Del Mar wasn’t really a house.

It was a freaking mansion—a sandstone, palatial mansion that sat on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, smack dab in the Torrey Pines State Reserve.

I’d never seen anything like it. Ever.

“Why don’t we live in something like this?” Tink asked, lugging his suitcase up the wide steps.

Before I could answer, Fabian was by Tink’s side. “Where I live, it would put this place to shame.”

Tink’s eyes widened. “Do you have Amazon Prime?”

“Of course.” Fabian smiled.

Tink looked over at me. “I’m moving.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured, way too distracted by the house and the upcoming meeting.

Faye was up ahead, opening the double doors. The inside was just as stunning. A large atrium and an elegant spiral staircase greeted us.

“I’m calling dibs on the bedroom!” Tink raced past us, carrying his luggage against his chest. His Wonder Woman backpack thumped off his side.

“Is he always like that?” Fabian asked, staring up at where Tink was already disappearing down the hall.

Kalen snorted as he walked by with his black duffel bag in hand. It was the first noise he’d made since we’d gotten in the car.

“Pretty much,” I said to the Summer Prince.

“I like it.” He tilted his head to the side. “His thirst for life is . . . infectious.”

“You call it a thirst for life, I call it a hyperactivity disorder.” Ren stepped in, carrying our bags.

Fabian lifted a shoulder in response.