Page 135 of Fae Farewells

“There is one thing I can do,” she confessed.

“And that is?” Palmer rolled his hand to speed her up.

“You won’t like it,” she whispered.

“Does it matter?” Vaughn asked.

I couldn’t decipher his expression. He wasn’t upset with her, though he wasn’t happy, either. She seemed to understand what he wanted to know.

“Your feelings? Yes, but I still have to do this,” she admitted. “Because it’s the only way to beat him. Does what I’m about to say matter to the grand scheme of things? To all this bullshit we’ve been fighting against? Yes. It really fucking does.”

“What do you have to do?” I prodded, wondering how deep her plans went.

She shook her head, refusing a straightforward answer. “You have to keep on the path. Do not deviate. Go straight to the druids.”

“Wait, what?” Novak ran both hands through his hair, pulling the strands until they were standing straight up.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Briggs glanced from one of us to the next, trying to figure out what he missed.

“Tell us what you’re doing,” Stone nearly pleaded.

“I’m going to start a war.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she closed the connection to our bonds. The sudden pain dropped all of us to our knees, like a swift kick to the balls. My stomach crawled up my throat, making me want to gag.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I won’t be gone long. And I’ll open the bonds as soon as I’m back.”

As I climbed to my feet, she closed her eyes. Her lips moved as she cast a spell, but no sound reached my ears. I’d never seen her cast like this, and I wondered where this magic came from.

A pinkish-purple cocoon of thick power formed around her, rippling like water. Then it suctioned to her skin with an audible pop. And she collapsed, dropping to the floor before I could lunge to catch her.

She lay unmoving but breathing, in a magic induced stasis, with no further plans than telling us to go to the druids’ realm.

I loved her.

I truly did.

But today was definitely the kind of day that I wanted to throttle her.

I scooped her off the floor, laying her on the sofa as the guys recovered from their shock.

Briggs groaned. “Why does this hurt so bad?”

“She closed the bond,” I began to explain, but they weren’t listening.

“It’s such a cold burn.” The demon shivered as scrubbed at his arms.

“My heart hurts,” Novak mumbled, rubbing his chest. “I’ve never felt it before, but I do now. It’s like she’s squeezing it.”

“My wolf is quiet,” Briggs rumbled. “No baying or growling. It’s unnerving.”

Vaughn coughed. “It’s fire in my veins. Why can’t I feel her?”

“She’s still there,” I assured them. “She just closed our bonds.”

Palmer was still on his knees, his eyes rimmed red as he stared up at me. “This is what she felt. I’ve lost her,” he whispered. “How the fuck did I lose her? I love her.”

I scrubbed my hand over my face, feeling relieved yet aggravated. And then I understood their feelings…