AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Maddie…” Aidan began in his most lecturing tone.
I decided to nip the lecture in the bud and patted his arm. “Don’t worry about it. Act like you haven’t seen her.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “To my car.” He pointed down the street. “Now.”
I winked at Lila and offered my hand. She huffed but took it as we walked by Aidan’s side to a small parking lot. His expression stayed completely neutral, but I could see the gears turning in his head. It was obvious Lila wasn’t from around here, and he was probably trying to recall which Fae families had young kids, and in how much trouble I was going to get if they thought I had kidnapped her.
Truly the best boyfriend.
We got inside Aidan’s car—Aidan in the front, me and Lila in the back.
“Did you find any information about Fae creatures?” I asked the moment his door slammed shut and before he could get started on a lecture again.
He sent me a mean glare but answered, “You already know more than enough about them. You asked me about how to trap one.”
I nodded encouragingly. “You thought of something?”
He brought out a wooden box from under the seat, and my heart fluttered. No other reason to show us a box unless there was an artifact inside.
I was right. He opened the box and brought out a small glass sphere with a myriad of white particles floating inside.
“What’s that?” I asked as he allowed me to take it from him.
“The Heart’s Wonder. It shows you wonders but makes you forget everything else while you use it.”
Talk about stereotypical Fae magic. “Isn’t it very dangerous?” Aidan didn’t usually keep dangerous artifacts at the Institute’s collection—he destroyed their magic.
He shook his head. “It has a limit. The user eventually drops from exhaustion after a few hours, and the spell breaks off.”
“Excellent for distracting people. But once you activate it, won’t it lure you into using it, too?”
Aidan handed me a ring dangling from a thin chain. “This will counteract it.”
Aww, he was giving me his personal anti-Fae-spells pendant! I took it reverently. “I’ll treasure it with my life!”
A long-suffering look crossed his eyes. “Please don’t say that.”
“I’ll treasure it a lot but will chuck it to the side if I need to run for my life?”
“Thank you.”
I grinned and pocketed the pendant. “Will the Heart’s Wonder work on pets?”
“If you concentrate on the animal when you activate it, it should.”
“I promise I will not use it for evil.”
He leaned toward me, his gaze falling to my mouth. “Just promise you will return safely.”
I leaned forward, licking my lips. “Always.”
“Can we go now?” demanded Lila. “We need to get Squibbit.”
Aidan looked at the kid, decided it was better if he didn’t ask questions, and drove us to the nearby patch of greenery we had used to come over.
There, I had Greenie take us to a random spot in Fae, where we tested the artifact on him and found it worked, kind of. He didn’t appear overly fascinated, but it did attract his attention. That should be enough to make Squibbit appear, though.
We returned to the original opening in the forest where Lila had befriended Squibbit and set up the artifact.
