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He could hear what the operator was saying?
“Jaiden,” I said simply, leaving out the extra bits.
“It’s time to leave,” Jaiden said, speaking over the operator, who was asking more questions.
“We can’t leave. The police are going to be here any minute. But I know you were just defending me, so you should be able to—”
He took the phone from me and crushed it in his hand as if it were a piece of paper. “I have allowed you your call to these police and they are on their way. It is time to escort you home.”
“We can’t leave. I have to talk to the police and explain everything that happened. I already told them you were helping me. I’ll do whatever I can to keep you out of jail, I promise.”
He wasn’t mad or violent. If anything, he seemed...amused? His mouth twisted into a cocky grin. “We can’t go back. Your tavern is on fire.”
It was only then that I started to smell the smoke.Fire?He’d told his friend to take care of this... “You! You had your friend do this! I thought you were going to let me call the police!”
He looked at the remnants of the phone on the ground. “You did call the police. And now I’ll escort you home. You will live a life of luxury and be the envy of all the women in court as you bear my children.”
I sucked in a deep breath and nodded. Not because I agreed with anything he was saying but because my body needed to do something as I worked through what he just said.
He was obviously crazy. Murderous. And he thought he was some sort of king. A double whammy.
“You need to stay away from me,” I said as I backed off. I’d already been cornered by one man today. I wasn’t going to let that happen again.
He cocked his head and studied me. “That’s not going to be possible. I still have to take you home.”
Okay then, reason wasn’t going to work. Now that I wasn’t cornered, I was going to do what I should’ve done in the first place. I turned on my heel and started to run.
Not that I got far. As soon as I reached the alley to cross over to the main street, something rose up from the ground and tangled with my feet, sending me sprawling on my hands and knees.
By the time my head stopped swimming, I could focus on the two boots right in front of my face.How the hell had Jaiden made it here so fast?
And what the hell tripped me?I started to stand but something tugged on my ankle.
A branch. Not just some branch I happened to trip over. It was wrapped around me three times, gripping so tightly that it scraped my skin every time I struggled against it.
“What is this?” I asked, even as the truth finally started to set in.
He crouched until his face was just a breath away from mine. “The hour grows late, and I don’t want to be in this realm any longer than I must. You will come with me. You can walk by my side or I will drag you. No mortal will be able to stop me. None of your weapons will hurt me. And because you already made this bargain with me, there’s no backing out for you.”
I tugged my ankle fiercely. Sure, I knew it wouldn’t work, but I couldn’t just let him cart me off! “No!”
“The time for denials is over, sweet Raina. If you keep fighting, I assure you my methods will only get worse.”
I gave another fierce tug, and this time it cut deep enough to send a drop of blood rolling down. “You son of a bitch,” I seethed, looking right into those evil eyes. “You’re no better than Grant.”
He tilted his head. “Who?”
A hysterical laugh escaped me. He didn’t know who Grant was. The very man he’d killed. And worst of all, I don’t think he even cared. Not the slightest hint of guilt was showing. Even I felt guilty, and I was the one Grant had attacked!
I closed my eyes and sucked in a few deep breaths. All panicking would do was cut up my ankle. Obviously, I needed to at least pretend to go along with this crazy demon until I had a better chance of getting away.
“Fine, I’ll...” I stopped myself before I said any more. He said I had made a deal with him. If he really thought he was a fairy, then deals were important. Was simply agreeing to something a deal? Did logic even matter to someone who was clearly insane?
Though the vine that had found its way around my ankle did put some doubts in my head about how crazy he was.
But the alternative was that he was telling the truth, and my mind couldn’t quite handle that possibility. “Should we go then?” I said instead.
And just like that, the vine around my ankle loosened and started to pull away from me before it retreated between a crack in the concrete and disappeared as though it had never been there at all. If it weren’t for the scrapes around my ankle, I might have doubted my own memories.
