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Damn it, why did we all have to be separated and sideswiped when everything went down? I didn’t even know where my sister was. Had she been safe in her room, changed into her nightclothes by that loyal handmaiden of hers while slowly falling asleep? Was she still at the gala? I had no way of knowing.
The truth was I loved my sister, and I’d done her wrong when I’d abandoned her for years, too cowardly to so much as write her. I wasn’t ready to do that to her twice, but it seemed that, once again, King Nathaniel was forcing my hand.
Fuck. I hated it. I hated it so much. Yet another deep wound and trauma caused by unnecessary greed.
“There’s a safe house just outside the city. If we get there, I should be able to get word to some contacts that’ll get us to a more permanent refuge.”
“I don’t think there is such a thing as that anymore,” Oren remarked. I definitely agreed. The adrenaline that’d been keeping me going was finally wearing off, leaving my heart heavy in my chest, and my mind reeling at everything that’d happened so rapidly.
“Hopefully, you’re wrong, my friend. Now, hurry. Our next transport is already prepared.”
We all hurried out of the car, following Aodin across the room and down a flight of stairs into a fully stocked larder and combination wine cellar.
Then he led us to a pile of barrels in the corner and felt along the front of one. I had no idea what he was doing until his fingers found something and he let out a small, satisfied noise. The next thing I knew, the front of the barrel and a couple others swung open, revealing an empty space with a trap door at the center of it.
“You fae have this in the middle of our capital?” I remarked, somewhere between bemused, impressed, and worried.
But Aodin just gave me a wan expression. “I’m sure you don’t hear it, but it sounds rude when you refer to me and my people as ‘you fae’.”
“Noted.” I liked to think of myself as more enlightened than most of the royal court, but I still had some things to unlearn.
“But to answer your question, you’d be surprised what us ‘lesser’ cryptids have lying about for our own safety. I know shifters tend to think of themselves as noble and trustworthy, but really, your kingdom mostly tends to only care for its own, and barely at that.”
He had a point. Wasn’t that one of my main conflicts with my father, uncle, and the court? The way they dismissed the poor and other cryptids. Still, the words stung coming from the younger fairy.
“You tell ‘em,” Darla said with a chuckle. “Now, are you gonna open the trapdoor for us ladies, or am I gonna have to get my hands dirty?”
Just like that, I watched as Aodin slid into a smooth, charming candor. It was clear he was playacting right alongside Darla, but suddenly, I understood why he had clicked so quickly with all the members of my escort. Aodin was much more like them than I’d ever given him credit for, especially Darla.
“Allow me, fair maiden,” he answered with an elaborate bow. The fae pulled the trap door up by its heavy ring. The opening was pitch black at first, but at a whispered word, it quickly illuminated.
“All of you… in. I’ll be down shortly after I seal the exit. Hopefully, with a bit of luck, they won’t be able to find us for quite a while.”
“Any shifter worth their salt will be able to pick up on our trail,” I said, not wanting to think about all the blood and sweat I was leaving behind. Might as well have a neon light posted right above the secret entrance to the trap door.
“See, that’s the thing about shifters. You’re so used to having such a leg up on everybody in the senses department, you don’t stop to consider that we’ve all developed ways to work around them.”
Grabbing a bottle that I hadn’t noticed before from where it sat on the floor, Aodin shook it up, then walked out of the faux barrels. With that same wry grin about his features, he proceeded to sprinkle its contents all over the room.
While I hadn’t been aware of all of our scents before, as I’d long since grown used to them, suddenly, I was critically aware of their absence. Gone was the vanilla and earthy scent of my mate, and gone was Darla’s simmering citrus. Even Oren’s stalwart woodsy smell completely vanished.
“What is that?” Oren breathed, the look on his face no doubt mirroring my own. We were all plenty familiar with scent-blocking tools and hygienic supplies, but whatever Aodin had spritzed was different. Instead of covering a scent, or neutralizing it, it was like the entire building had become completely devoid of any smell at all.
“I’ll tell you if we survive this,” Aodin answered before gesturing for us to continue. “Go on; I’ll catch up in a minute.”
Once again, a small part of my head was telling me we could be walking into a trap, but the more logical and less paranoid part reminded me he was going through an awful lot of effort to betray us. It wasn’t like he could make a fortune selling us as hostages. I was certain my father would tell them to kill me and be done with it.
“Be safe,” I said with what I hoped was a look of camaraderie. While I hadn’t been one hundred percent sure about the fae before, I owed him my life, and the life of my mate. Not to mention Oren and Darla.
I just hoped Mad Dog was all right. I hated that we were separated, but if anyone could make their way out of the palace unscathed during the bruhaha we’d unintentionally caused, it was him.
Him and his fated mate. Had that really just happened a few hours earlier? Somehow it seemed like an entirely different day. Time was funny that way.
Chuckling ever so quietly to myself, I followed Ayla down the stairs. I wasn’t exactly surprised to see a long corridor carved into the stony bedrock of the city. The length of the hall was lit by flickering lamps but was absent of any cobwebs, meaning it wasn’t a one off, ancient passageway Aodin happened to know of. What we were in was definitely a secret route used quite often.
The fae were even more wily than I thought. I just never imagined I’d be benefiting so directly from it.
“Here, let me take a look at your back,” Ayla said as soon as she was done climbing down the sturdy ladder descending from the trap door.
