Touch (Touched by the Fae 3)

3

Before Ash says anything in response to that, I try to take control of the conversation.

I need some kind of control here.

“Now that you know she’s still a threat, I have to ask. This place… do you think she’ll follow us here?”

Because I’d been thinking about it while I did my quick tour around the building and the neighborhood. At first, I couldn’t understand why this empty apartment was… I don’t know… frozen in time or something. Callie tried to tell me it was magic and, okay, I got that.

Then I saw that the building has probably been condemned for a while. Unless the fae have a way to trace me here—and they don’t, thanks to Nine’s touch—I think this might be our safest option for a place to stay while we figure out our next step.

Which, whether Ash likes it or not, definitely involves fixing Nine.

It takes him a moment to answer me. Finally, he says, “It’s possible. She has a long memory and her loyal guard. She prefers to surround herself with Seelie, but she has just as many Unseelie who follow her despite her glamour. They won’t be able to trace us here precisely, but if she sends out her full guard, she’ll be able to search around the clock.”

Not the answer I wanted to hear, but at least that answers another of my biggie questions.

“Because she’s one of them, right? She’s a Dark Fae.”

He nods. “She hides it well. Even fooled Oberon in the beginning. But I used to be part of her guard. Only a few of us have ever seen her lose her glamour, but I can guarantee it. She’s a Cursed One.”

That doesn’t change anything. At most, it just proves that Carolina was being honest when she told me that her mistress was a Dark Fae.

“I don’t get why she hides it. Why the blonde hair? The yellow eyes? The act?”

“Melisandre always wanted to rule Faerie. The Shadow Court is second to the Summer Court, the Seelie Court. She could’ve easily taken the Unseelie throne but she’d still owe her allegiance to Oberon. So, instead, she passed herself off as one of his subjects before stealing his throne. She’ll stop at nothing to keep it.”

Don’t I know it.

If it wasn’t for Rys reminding me about the power of the pockets and distracting the Fae Queen’s soldiers so I could escape, I might have learned that the hard way.

No.

Not might.

Considering I was seconds away from accepting her bargain, sacrificing my life and my freedom in exchange for my parents and Nine, if it wasn’t for Rys’s help and some quick thinking, I’d be a statue in the Fae Queen’s garden somewhere.

And that’s if she didn’t follow through with her unsaid threat to lop off my head the first chance she got.

“Then it’s a good thing that this place is warded.” I turn to Callie. “That’s what you said, right? They don’t know that you guys are awake. How would they guess we’d come here?” I’m talking myself into believing that we’re… if not safe, then at least safer. “The shadows leading us here has gotta be a huge break.”

It bought us some time, I’m sure of it. Time that I can use to focus on what I’m going to do next: fix Nine.

I don’t know what happened with my parents. They were statues when we were in Faerie. Now they’re not. If I have to wrap Nine up in shadows and transport him there and back a hundred time, I will if only to have the chance to talk to him again and have him respond.

We have a lot to discuss.

I’m not even obsessing over the Fae Queen and her strange vendetta right now. Oh, I wasn’t kidding when I said she’s gonna be super pissed. In the back of my mind, I’m so freaking terrified about how she’ll retaliate for my skin of the teeth escape. But Melisandre is in Faerie and I’m here in Newport—at least, that’s what the address on the food receipt says—with my parents and my… mate?

So, yeah.

You can say that my priorities have shifted since this morning.

And then Ash goes on to tell me, as if he can read my mind, “Don’t fret, Zella. You won’t have to fear the queen much longer. Now that I’m here again, I will ensure that Melisandre pays for what she’s done to our family.”

Except to mumble, “It’s Riley,” I don’t argue with him.

What can I say?