Traitor (36 page)

Tess stared daggers into me. I could almost feel them as her words raked over my skin like hot coals. “You’re selfish, Ashlyn. You know I love you, but you really are if you’d leave your family and Liam like this.”

“Tell Liam I love him,” was all I said.

I was acutely aware of the chill of the necklace against the hollow of my neck. For my own assurance, I unclasped the lock in the back. The necklace dangled harmlessly in my hand. It was hard to believe something so beautiful could be part of someone so evil.

I handed it to Roslin. “Here, take it. Keep it safe until I get back.” I looked at Tess. “That way I’m not selfish enough to use it.”

Roslin didn’t say anything, but nodded. Then she took her jacket off and handed it to me. “Yours is at your house. You’re a fool to think you won’t need the extra help.”

It was a mark of solidarity to me. My hand held hers for a moment under the wool coat. “Thank you,” I said in earnest.

I hope she knew I really meant it.

***

It seemed like the forest itself knew I was heading somewhere evil. The same place Reese and I had reveled in with peace and happiness now howled its protest. Wind whipped around me and the leaves smacked my legs as I ran.

My face was chapped by the time the clearing appeared. The trees groaned as the wind continued its fierce battle to keep me from taking another step. I slipped and fell to the ground hard after a particularly nasty gust smacked me square in the chest.

“You know what you’re doing is useless, yet you insist on doing it anyway.”

There was no need to look up to know who that was. His gruff voice was unmistakable and his muddy shoes were three inches from my face. “Hello, Rueben.”

“Why do you resist the good advice from everyone who loves and cares about your well-being?”

The wind subsided, and I pushed myself in a sitting position. “Because they’re wrong.”

Reuben’s eyebrows nearly reached his hairline in speculation. “Everyone? Every single person in your life is wrong?”

Probably not, but I wasn’t going to give him that satisfaction. “Just because things look bad, doesn’t mean they can’t turn around.”

Reuben laughed. It was a hearty chuckle, one that filled the forest and almost made it feel magical again. “You’re too naïve for your own good. This is going to end badly, because there’s no other way for it to end. You’re choosing wrong if you go back to Neamar.”

“How do you know?”

He answered my question with a question. “Is losing someone you love worth saving another?”

His question caught me square in the chest just like the gust of wind had. “What do you mean?”

“Do you really think your family will be complete? Do you think that Ankou won’t cause you harm if you try to do what you’re intending? If so, you underestimate your enemy, and shamefully so.”

I pushed off the forest floor. Reuben made too much sense, and it made me mad. I stalked past him to the center of the clearing. He turned and watched me with amusement. It almost felt like he thought I was a zoo animal on display.

He cocked his head to the side and gave me a derisive smile. “You’re too young to be as jaded as we Glaistig are, but I’m giving you the best advice possible. I’m also being honest with you, since no one else seems to get through that thick skull of yours. If you do this, there will be consequences. There is no happily ever after in your future, Ashlyn. The sooner you learn that, the better.”

“Get bent, Reuben.”

He shook his head as his green magical wisps began to overtake his form. “Your funeral.”

Before I could respond, he was gone.

R
EUBEN WAS RIGHT
. Memaw was right. Tess. Roslin. Reese. Liam.

They were all right.

I refused to think Dad was gone for good. He couldn’t be. I’d seen him. Touched him. Talked to him. He was still here. Still able to come back.

We needed him back.
I
needed him back.

Somehow I needed to stack the deck. Had to figure out how to save Dad without the necklace. How to get out of Neamar without Dalbach, who had gone conveniently missing.

Aiden was right. You could never trust a faerie. A Changeling, at least. Maybe all faeries, if I trusted Aiden.

That didn’t leave me too many people to trust, if that was really the case. Plus, there was no way I was going to drag Liam into this.

Aiden.

Aiden was perfect. How come I hadn’t thought of him sooner? He knew the lay of the land. He could tell me the best plan of attack, and Jamie could get me in and out. Problem solved.

Well, one problem, anyway. That meant I had to go home to get them. Liam would be the next problem.

Liam. God, I loved him so much. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him. Could me going to Neamar hurt him? No. Not now that he was free from being my Protector. He was safe. Well, as safe as someone close to me could be.

Which wasn’t very, to be honest.

I could be honest with myself, just not with anyone else, it seemed. More than once I’d heard you couldn’t trust a faerie, but who could I trust? Apparently no one could trust me, either. It seemed like no matter what I did, I was going to lose someone I loved.

I couldn’t leave Dad. Couldn’t leave him alone in that cell, waiting on more torture and an eternity of horrors. He deserved better than that. If people couldn’t understand why I felt the way I did, well, I guess I’d take this fight on my own.

Memaw was the Assassin. I was her granddaughter. She’d trained me. Her blood flowed through my veins. This was meant for me.

With my eyes closed, I felt the magic that Roslin and Memaw had taught me surge through my veins. I felt the wisps extend from my fingers, and I looked down to find my body becoming ensconced in a purple mist. It swirled around me without a breeze to push it. It knew what to do. I smiled. I could do this. I closed my eyes again and focused on our new home. I hadn’t been using the magic we’d practiced very much, but the time had come to put it to good use.

“Let’s go,” I said to no one but myself.

***

When I opened my eyes once more, I stood outside my new home. It was already dark, and the clouds above me covered the moon. The only light came from the windows of the house, where it was evident that someone was in the living room.

I swallowed, and it felt like my insides had come to life on their own accord. No matter what happened, I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be easy.

Which was why I was shocked when the kitchen light flickered to life, and Aiden looked out the window at me.

He looked about as surprised as me. His eyebrows shot upward. His face was one of incredulity at first, but then shifted into excitement. He mouthed
where’s Reese?
through the now fogging glass. Steam rose from where he’d turned on the hot water.

I hurried to the window, and he unlocked it quietly. He looked at me quizzically as he slid the window open. “Is there a reason you aren’t just walking into your own home? Or is there some American protocol I’m not aware of?”

If I weren’t in such a rush, I would have laughed, or at least eased him into the questions I needed answered. “Aiden, listen. I need your help. Fast.”

His eyes darkened, and worry lines etched themselves along the corners of his mouth. “What happened? Are you hurt?”

“No, no, I’m not hurt,” I whispered quickly. “Where is everyone? Where’s Jamie?”

“I knew Jamie would get you in trouble!” He whispered angrily.

“She didn’t get me in trouble!” I hissed. “I
need
her. I need you. Can you go get her and meet me out here? I’m gonna go to the park down by Rona Missionary Church. It’s like a ten minute walk. Do you know where it is?”

He nodded, but it was clear in his body language he didn’t approve of the plan. “Why, for some reason, do I think we’re going to help you do something you shouldn’t be doing?”

I smiled. “Because if it were anything else, it wouldn’t be for the course.”

He didn’t think that was funny. His hands reached for the top of the window and began to push it back down in place. I panicked. “Aiden! Please? Don’t you want all of this sorted out?”

“I want you to stop being stupid, first off,” he said mulishly, “but it seems there’s no boundaries for your persistence.”

I tried to flash my most winning smile. It seemed to work with Liam. Aiden just looked at me like I’d lost my mind. He sighed. “If I go get Jamie and meet you there in fifteen minutes, do you promise not to continue to have a death wish from here on out?”

“I’ll try really hard. Does that work?”

His lips tightened into a hard line. “For now. But Liam and I are going to lock you in your room and put at least four deadbolts on it from the outside. This needs to stop.”

He clanked the window back down with more force than necessary and flicked the light off. Seconds later, it sprung back to life and I ducked my head.

Too late. The window squeaked along its metal track as someone pushed it upward once more.

“Ashlyn, don’t think you can just run off without talking to me. I’m not stupid.”

Liam.

I sighed and pulled myself upright again. I wasn’t going to fight with him on this. It was the least I could do. “Get your coat and come on, then.”

Moments later he was out the back door, pulling on a pair of shoes and a black hoodie that was emblazoned with the light blue “F” for Fairborn. Probably one of the purchases Roslin made him buy at the football game.

The football game that was just yesterday. God, that felt like forever ago.

Liam put his hands on my waist and pulled me into a hug. “First off, please don’t ever just run off like that again. Everyone’s worried.”

“Memaw should have told them I was fine. She knew where I went; I spoke with Rebecca and had her relay the message.”

“Let me reword that, then,” Liam spoke quietly, his forefinger tipping my chin up so I would look him in the eye. “
I
was worried about you, and it didn’t matter where you were. I hurt your feelings, and it was unintentional. It’s just all this —” He gestured around at nothing in particular, but meaning everything in general. “— all this bugs me. You shouldn’t have to deal with it. It’s unfair. If I could take you far away from here where we both could be free from the fighting, the guilt, the unnecessary push to grow up, I would. I would do it in a heartbeat.”

Looking into his eyes was like peering into deep pools of water. I could gaze forever and never see the depths of his love and dedication to me. I didn’t deserve it, and I knew it. Tears began to sting my eyes, and I fought for control.

Liam saw it. His thumb brushed a tear from the corner of my eye before it could even completely manifest. “Shh, don’t cry,” he murmured. “I understand why you’re doing what you’re doing. I don’t agree with it, but I understand. And that’s what you need. Support. I see that now.”

More tears. Why did he have to do this? It would have been so much easier if he was mad and threw a fit. I could fight with that. This – well, this was just unfair. I coughed and sniffled. Disgusting. Liam laughed. “You know, you’re at your best when you let yourself be human. That is what you are, after all.”

He leaned in and traced two fingers along my lips. I closed my eyes without even thinking about it, and just took in his touch. “We’ve never been able to just enjoy one another. There’s always someone needing to be saved, some Changeling needing to be taken care of,” Liam whispered huskily, “and to be honest, I’m sick of it. I just want you, and I want you now.”

He kissed me.

He kissed me and I never wanted it to stop.

Fire filled my veins with a desire I didn’t know existed. I’d never realized how badly I wanted Liam, how perfectly we fit together, how wonderful it felt to have his hands running along my sides. I leaned into him and let him know I was completely okay with the situation.

He pushed me against the miniature wall that surrounded the porch, and I let him take over. He shifted himself to be in between my legs, and I was all too willing to allow him to do it. I wrapped my legs around his waist, and felt his warmth against my body. “You know, this would be more fun if there were less clothes between us,” he whispered into my ear just before he began to kiss my neck.

I sucked in a breath. What was I supposed to be doing? There was something I had meant to do. There had been a plan.

That plan was completely moot at this point.

I grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his lips even closer to mine. Our lips moved and danced in such synchronicity, it felt as though they’d choreographed this dance long before now. I heard him let out a low moan when I bit his bottom lip.

“Um, when Aiden said you needed us, I didn’t think it would be for anything of…of this nature,” chided Jamie.

Instantaneously, I let go of Liam and he released his grip on me. I untangled myself and peered around him to see Jamie tapping her foot, annoyed, while Aiden was staring at anything but us. I felt the blood rushing to my head, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of what Liam and I were doing, or if it was because we’d accidentally been putting on a peep show.

Jamie clapped her hands together and rubbed them back and forth, like she was trying to start a fire. When she pulled them apart, she actually had two balls of blue fire dancing in the palms of her hands. “A little light for the walk? Ash, if I’m not mistaken, you know this trick, too. Care to help?”

I nodded. It felt like my head was just resurfacing from being under the water for too long. Little lights bounced around in my peripheral vision like camera flashes. I squeezed my eyes shut and put my hands together. Fire filled my mind, and my hands began to heat up. When I pulled them apart, my own purple bonfires licked my fingertips and sat jovially in my palms.

Liam and Aiden seemed impressed. I pulled in a long breath to try to steady myself. “Okay, we need to get a move on.”

They all nodded, and Aiden pulled the hood of his sweater up like he had at the coffee shop. Liam followed suit. It was unseasonably chilly for an August evening. We walked through the shadows between houses as much as possible, avoiding the glow of the streetlights when we could. The last thing we needed was for a patrolling police officer to ask us why we were out.