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All the color drains from his face. “Impossible.” Rafferty shakes his head.
“It’s not impossible,” I insist. “Because it happened.”
“You could not have spoken to Ailis!” he roars, whirling back to me. The black expands and contracts, visible proof he’s fighting back.
“Do not tell me what I did!” I yell.
He moves away from me, and I try to stand alone. My legs give out, and I stumble to the floor.
“I swear, Rafferty. I swear I saw her.”
“It’s not possible!”
“Then how did I talk to her? How did I see her? Know her name?”
His face flush, he glares at me then shakes his head. “It cannot be possible.” He turns away from me, and I force my gaze away from his muscled ass. Though, even in the heat of the moment, I do allow myself one peak before he slips into his pants.
“Raffe, tell me what the hell is going on?”
He sucks in a breath and closes his eyes. “Ailis is my mate,” he snarls. “And she’s been trapped in the Veil for longer than I can even recall.” He crosses the tent and leans outside. “Fin! Get your ass in here!” he yells.
I stiffen, a gasp leaving my lips as I stare at him. “No. That can’t be. I just talked to her. Maybe it was a different—”
He shakes his head. “Ailis has dark hair she prefers to wear pinned up. She prefers silver attire and has a fondness for fucking with me. Sound familiar?”
“Rafferty—”
“It is not your fault she found you. However the hell she did. But that means that you somehow stumbled into the Veil. It is the only explanation for how you were gone for three days our time and mere hours yours. What I cannot even begin to understand, though, is how you got there in the first place as only a fae can traverse worlds in that way, and only a fae can get into the Veil—alive—and leave the same way.”
As his words sink in, I try to stand. Rafferty moves toward me, but I hold up a hand. “Don’t touch me.”
He stops, jaw tightening.
Using what little strength I have after my jaunt in the woods, I manage to pull myself up onto the mattress enough that I’m not completely on the floor. A lot has happened I don’t understand. From coming here in the first place to going back and becoming the target for an obsessive, brutal fae king.
But somehow getting into a place that only a fae can? It makes no sense.
Fin appears just inside. “What is it?” His tone lacks all the usual playfulness.
“Take a team into the woods and scour the area for a possible Veil tear.”
“Veil tear?” His brows draw together. “Are you serious?”
“Ember claims to have spoken to Ailis.”
“Oh, shit.” Fin’s gaze travels from him to me. “Did she touch you?” he asks. “At any point in your conversation, did she touch you?”
I start to shake my head but then—“Yes. She helped me stand.”
“Fuck.” Fin crosses the room. “You didn’t think to check her?”
“I—” Rafferty swallows hard, his expression unreadable.
“What is going on?”
Fin stops in front of me. “Where did she touch you?”
I hold out my arm.
“Son of a bitch,” Fin turns away from me, so I glance down at the place Ailis touched me. The skin shimmers—the same way the air around her did.
“What is that?”
“Ailis marked her,” Fin tells Rafferty as he marches past. Rafferty looks to me then back to Fin.
“What does that mean? Someone damn well better start talking to me, or I swear I’m going to lose it.”
“A creature in the Veil can choose to mark you,” Rafferty tells me, tone flat. “It means they can find you. No matter where you go. What world you are in. You are an anchor. It means,” he says, “that Ailis is not done with you yet.”
