Page 60 of My Faire Lady

He slams into the fountain, marble splitting beneath him, and slumps into the water. A strained whimper comes from him as blood streams from him, painting the marble red. His fur shortens, giving way to flesh, and he shifts back to human.

I hold my breath, studying his chest.

It doesn’t move.

“Jeremy,” I breathe, my heart jackknifing in my chest. If I⁠—

He sucks in a deep, ragged breath, and I nearly collapse against Lottie.

He’s unconscious. Alive.

Lottie jerks away from me, scrambling back through the flood. “Scarlet, what the fuck?”

I sink to my knees—drained of magic. Rain pours over my shoulders, but my mouth can’t form an explanation that wouldn’t sacrifice the truth. She saw my magic. A faint glimmer snakes under her skin—the remnants of my rune—and fades into her body.

I crawl toward her, but she pushes to her feet and stumbles back.

“Lottie, I⁠—”

A rustle comes from the tree line.

“Scarlet!” Boden calls, trudging through the water.

I peel open the mental barrier in my mind, reaching out to his. “Lottie saw. She knows.”

He freezes, eyes widening as he takes in Lottie, her hands wrapped around her middle as she shivers. Frankie appears at his side, her succubus wings tucked in at her waist. Lottie takes another step back, trips, and I jump to my feet, steadying her around the waist.

“Scarlet,” she whispers, voice trembling. “Please, tell me what’s going on.”

The rain eases to a mist, and the full moon spears through the clouds. My illumination spell fades, but moonlight pools onto the quad, and a buzz fills the air. Sprites hover overhead, and a slight glow emanates from their bodies, luminous on Lottie’s face.

I pull her back against my chest, cradling her with my arms as I steady my breath. There are two options: wipe her mind, or tell the truth and pray she doesn’t panic or threaten to expose us. I need her. Without her, the magic in the land will disappear in weeks, if not days.

That leaves me with one option—the truth.

Blowing out a breath, I hover my mouth over the arch of her ear. “Jeremy is a werewolf, Frankie is a succubus, and Boden is actually fae, not elven.” I cup my hand beneath her chin and tilt her gaze to the sky. “Those are sprites. They’re what pulled the root from the ground that made you trip. They’re the ones who pushed you into me the other day, not a ghost. There’s also a good chance they made the generator malfunction so the power would go out on us.”

Her body stiffens beneath my touch, and she turns her head, enough for my lips to drag over her temple.

“And you?” she whispers.

I swallow past the lump in my throat. “I’m a witch.”

She pulls herself away and turns, studying my face as if we’ve never met. Like we never kissed. And it’s in this moment, as her eyes fall to the spot on her arm where I traced the rune, that I realize this is the turning point. There’s no going back. At the end of the summer, she’ll either stay forever or we’ll never speak again.

I’ll have her or lose her.

“Say something,” I breathe.

She blinks. “I—I need to sit down.”

22

“You’re telling me Glen is actually Bigfoot?” My eyes shift to Frankie sitting on the opposite side of the room. “And your tail is real?”

She glances over her shoulder, and her tail flicks through the air. “Last I checked, yes.”

Scarlet comes up behind me and drapes a blanket over my shoulders. After Boden scooped up Jeremy, she brought me to the enchanted doorway and pulled me into the compound that houses hundreds of creatures that, until now, I didn’t believe in.