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"You aren't human. You're angels… guardian angels. I don't care what anybody says about the Fae. You're sent from the hand of God." Benjamin shook himself as if he was waking up. "You'd better leave now, or they'll get suspicious. My family never stays more than fifteen minutes."
We stood up and motioned to the attendants, who came over to escort us back to the main building. They led Benjamin off to his room. As I glanced over my shoulder, I could see him—head down and shuffling—as he allowed himself to be led away. There had to be a way to help him.
After a quick and charming reinforcement to Nurse Richards that my visit had been good for Benjamin and that she probably shouldn't mention it to his parents, should they come by, we left with an invitation to come back as soon as we could.
On the way home, we ran over and over his story. The sword—the cave—the dreams… My thoughts kept running back to the conversation between Morgaine and Titania about Aeval. Could the Unseelie Queen be the woman Benjamin had seen trapped in the crystal?
As we drove north back to Seattle, and finally hit the Belles-Faire district, I swerved off the road when we passed by the Tucker's Chicken stand. Tucker made the best fried chicken I'd ever tasted. I loaded a twenty-four-piece bucket, some coleslaw, a chocolate cream pie, and a box of biscuits into the back. Then I hit the drive-through Starbucks for an iced quad shot caramel venti mocha. Morio stared at the drink, which was sporting a rounded cap of whipped cream, and shook his head.
"How can you eat so much? You never gain any weight." He ordered a tall coffee with cream and sugar.
"I'm no stick figure, that's for sure. But our metabolisms run faster than the average human's since we're half-Fae. We have to eat a lot." I sucked on the straw and smiled as the soothing iced flavor of caramelized sugar and slightly bitter coffee raced down my throat. "Yum. Love it."
I switched lanes, frowning. Rush hour traffic had started, and we were caught right smack in the center of the Belles-Faire end-of-the-day jam. I needed to get in the left lane before too long, or we'd miss our turn.
"I assume you're eating dinner with us?" I asked, guiding the car cautiously between a Hummer and what had once been a VW van but now just looked like a pathetic survivor from the sixties love generation. It must have had at least ten coats of paint on it, with patches flaking off here and there to give it that psychedelic edge, and it was emitting enough exhaust to choke a horse.
"Of course. I'll eat dinner at your place and stay the night," he said.
As he spoke, Iris's cell phone jangled. Morio retrieved it from my purse and flipped it open. "Yeah? What? Okay, we're on our way. We're in rush hour traffic, so we'll be there in about twenty minutes if things keep moving like they are." He closed the phone and slid it back in my purse.
"More trouble?" All we needed was another batch of creatures come through the portals. I didn't know if I could take another goblin fight—or troll fight—or anything fight. At least not until tomorrow.
"Maybe. I don't know. Iris went out to take Feddrah-Dahns his dinner, and he's gone. The pixie is missing, too. Neither one said anything about leaving, and there appears to be some blood on the grass near where the unicorn had settled down. Iris thinks it's unicorn blood," Morio said softly.
I groaned. "No. The Crown Prince of the Dahns unicorns absolutely cannot have gotten hurt at our house. It just can't happen. I don't want his father coming out here to rip us a new one for putting his son in danger."
"Maybe he just cut himself on some baling wire or an old nail and went to look for help?" Morio was trying to be helpful, but I knew—because in my life, the worst-case scenario always seemed to be on the menu—that the answer had to be worse than that. There was no way we could get off so easy. The Hags of Fate seemed determined to make us sweat every inch of this journey.
"Something's wrong; you can bet on it. Did she mention whether the wards were broken or not?"
Morio shook his head. "No, she didn't say anything about the wards."
I pushed the pedal to the floor as we came to the junction leading to our house. I was about to turn into our driveway when a siren from behind me whirred to life. "Freakin' A, just what we need now."
I slowly coasted over to the shoulder of the road, unmasking my glamour as I did so. By the gods, there was a limit to how much one person could take, and I'd reached mine twenty seconds ago. I rolled down my window and looked up into the face of the officer who had pulled me over, prepared to charm the pants off him and fuck him under the table, just so long as he didn't give me a ticket.
"Hey gorgeous, you realize you're dangling so much sex appeal in my face that your sister just might have reason to scratch your eyes out. I'm only human, for God's sake." Chase was standing there, leaning in my window, a hungry grin plastered across his face.
Unsure whether to hit him or kiss him, I just shook my head and lowered my glamour. "Come on, you idiot. Get your butt up to the house. We need to report a missing unicorn and pixie."
As Chase laughed again and sauntered back to his car, I glanced at Morio. "Not a word, buster. Not a single word."
Chapter Twenty-two
Our driveway was long and winding, leading through a stand of alder and fir. As I drove past the boundaries signifying our land, I could feel the wards shrieking. They'd been broken. Somebody had been here, unwelcome and probably up to no good.
I put the car in park and left it running, jumping out to check on the warding circles that stood sentinel over the entrance to the drive. I slowly approached the boundary line, which was marked by two tree trunks, one on either side of the graveled road, both surrounded by a circle of quartz spikes.
Some great force had broken through. This couldn't have been just the goblin and Sawberry Fae. They wouldn't have the power for it, even if one of them happened to be a shaman. No, the faint scent of demon lingered in the air.
Running back to the car, I hopped in. "Wards were broken. The demons were here. By the faint odor, it's been awhile. I'm praying they didn't come after Iris called us."
Morio's face darkened, and his eyes began to shine. "They may still be here. We'd better get ready, just in case."
"Oh gods, Chase. Hold on." Once again, I jumped out, hurrying back to Chase's undercover Ford Taurus. I pounded on the window, and he rolled it down.
"What? What's wrong? I noticed you looking at the stumps back there. What's up?"
