We didn’t make it an hour before Jaime was complaining she had to pee. I’d been impressed how she was sitting there, riding so well until she brought that up. Nina had been sending me looks and asking Rebecca gently probing questions, which Rebecca avoided amazingly well. Rebecca pulled in at a gas station and sent Lucy inside with Jaime. I got out of the van to stretch and try to keep an eye on things.
Nina hopped right out too, headed over to an empty area and pulled out her cell. Uh oh. Big trouble now, if the man ended up mad. I squinted against the sun to watch as she held it to her ear without saying anything. A minute later she said a few words, then hit the end button. Safe. Until Dan got his voicemail anyway.
“Trish, can I ask you something?” Rebecca said from over by the pump. I moved her way. This was probably something she didn’t want overheard. She shivered, reminding me that it was cold out, even if I didn’t really feel it. “So Thomas, my husband, he’s somewhere back in… Milwaukee? Why hasn’t he tried to come back?”
Well here was a great chance to show someone I knew nothing about my homeland. But then, I was getting good at faking my way through things. “I don’t think it’s that easy or everyone would be doing it. I’d have to ask Jaden, though, to know for sure. And we appear in a specific place when we go back, so they might have been waiting for him…”
Rebecca went white at the implication and I got slightly nauseous about the fact that I’d just destroyed a flicker of hope that I’d accidentally given her. But it was true. He was probably dead. Fae weren’t very forgiving, and disobeying one of the Council’s few laws was the ultimate slap in the face.
“Where is Jaden right now?” Rebecca asked. “Is he doing okay?”
“He followed the girls inside. He’s a pretty protective big brother, isn’t he?”
“You have no idea. The only times he’s ever been in trouble, it was over those two sisters of his. He loves them.” She turned back to the pump and hung up the handle.
The gas station door chimed open and the girls came out, followed by their guardian angel. Made me kinda wish I had a brother, one that would have been with me at Waterton Heights. Or maybe if I’d had one, Mom would never have left us in the first place. She wouldn’t have had to worry about me as much.
The girls got back and piled in, Jaime in the back again in her little booster seat and Lucy with me in the middle. Jaden slid in back with Jaime. His long legs nearly took up the whole area back there.
Rebecca stuck her head in. “I’m going to hit the bathroom too, real quick.” She passed me the keys. “You can start it if you want, keep it warm in here. I’ll be right back.” She headed toward the station, Nina meeting her part way there and they went in together. She must have given up trying to get a hold of Dan.
“Jaime, switch me seats,” Lucy said. “I want to lay down.”
“No, it feels safe back here.”
“Come on, I’ll give you some of the Runts I just bought.”
Jaime thought about that for a second. “Okay.”
They wiggled around each other. Lucy dropped the booster seat in the middle chair and plopped across the back seat, throwing her legs into Jaden’s chest. He let out a whoof of air and coughed. That was interesting. Must have just been a gut reaction because his mom hadn’t been able to touch him the night before. Or could he feel things, just people couldn’t feel him? So many questions. But answers led to caring, and I wasn’t going to risk that.
“Um, you can’t spread out like that,” I said after waiting a moment to see if she noticed that she was sitting on her brother. She hadn’t, and I was totally being weirded out.
“Why not?” Lucy asked.
What a jerk. Did she really have to use that tone? I was just trying to help. I opened my mouth to let her have it.
“Don’t get her mad, please. She doesn’t calm down easily. And I can’t really feel her there anyway, it’s just kind of disconcerting.”
He thought it was disconcerting? He wasn’t the one in the next row of seats, squinting to figure out where one body ended and the next started. But that did answer my question.
“Okay, if that’s the way you want it. You’re kind of creeping him out, though.”
“Trish, a little nicer, please,” Jaden said from his seat.
“Oh, here we go,” Lucy said, slumping down in the seat, a defiant look covering her face. “Quit with the Jaden is here crap. Mom might be falling for that, but I’m not.”
“What?”
“I heard you talking in the back yard last night. Just because you know some stuff about him doesn’t mean you’re talking with him. Maybe you met him online or something, I don’t know.”
“Lucy, don’t say that!” Jaime said. “He’s here, I can feel him. I’ve been telling you that.” She turned her accusing gaze on me. “Why didn’t you tell me you can see him?”
“Jaime, we talked about this before.” Lucy reached out and picked up Jaime’s small hand in hers. “He’s gone. I’m here for you, but you need to let Jaden go. I miss him too.”
I watched Jaden, the muscles twitching in his jaw. “What?” he asked roughly when he noticed.
“Nothing,” I said.
Lucy gave me a look that said I was either an idiot or some type of con artist. I couldn’t really blame her. If I didn’t know about the fae then I’d feel the same way. It didn’t look like Rebecca had explained as much to her as she’d said she would. That or Lucy was in denial.
The front car doors opened at the same time and the moms slipped into their seats. “All set?” Rebecca asked as she buckled her seat belt. She sounded kind of funny. Crap. I shouldn’t have left her and Nina alone. Had Nina said something to her? More importantly, had Rebecca told Nina something I wasn’t ready for her to know?
“Yes,” Lucy answered quietly.
I looked out the window, pretending not to notice that she looked like she was about to cry. Whatever problems she had, she obviously loved Jaden if she got this upset when he was brought up. I was going to have to try not to talk to him in front of her. Losing family hurt like nothing else, and she didn’t even have the hope that one day he’d show up with some explanation why he’d left like I did when it came to my mom.
I handed Rebecca the keys. “We didn’t need them.”
“Trish, over there,” Jaden hissed.
I looked to where he was pointing. The guy from the house, standing along the road a hundred or so feet away, no car, no motorcycle, nothing. How had he kept up with us? Or found us, or whatever? “Rebecca.” I pointed.
“What is he doing here?” She cranked the key. The van turned over but didn’t start. She tried again and still nothing.
I looked back toward the guy just in time to see Starren come flying out of a portal, sword drawn and ready. I ducked behind the headrest of the seat in front of me. Please don’t see me, please, please, please, I begged internally. All of this was for nothing if she saw me in this van. If she knew I was helping the Martans. Actually, if she even thought.
She stepped out of the way and instantly Wade was at her side, his sword also at the ready.
“Oh that’s great,” I heard Jaden mutter in the back.
“No kidding,” I answered, ducking even lower. She wasn’t looking this way, but that didn’t make me feel much better about her being here. “Rebecca, we really need to get out of here.” I looked back at Jaden, trying not to panic. Nina was here. Nina was here and so was Starren. Starren could not know I cared about my foster parents, period. We needed to get out of here, now.
Rebecca cranked the engine again, right at the same time Starren and Wade caught sight of the other guy. They did not look happy. He straightened and glared at them, even more unhappy than they were. Who was this guy? Hadn’t he been the one that called for them? Starren yelled something that I couldn’t make out over my racing heart, the sound of Rebecca turning the key, and being inside the vehicle.
The yelling stopped and Starren launched herself at the guy. She was caught in mid-air by a ball of light and blasted backward. Wade dodged to the side and ran straight at him.
“Try it now!” I shouted at Rebecca.
She turned the key again and the beautiful sound of the engine catching was the only thing I cared about for a second.
“Get us out of here!”
I grabbed onto the seat as Rebecca tore out of the drive. It was barely a second before we were on the road, then right off the exit ramp back onto the highway.
I twisted around in my seat to watch behind us. He was gone and Wade and Starren were arguing wildly, arms waving all over in the air. How had they found us? Was Cray okay?
“Who is that?” Nina asked. “Do you guys know him? Is he part of the problem? I thought you said it was going to be smooth sailing.” That last part was directed at me. And it wasn’t happy.
‘How did he find us?’ Of course they only wanted to know about the hot guy. They couldn’t have seen Starren and Wade. No one but Jaden and I could have. We exchanged glances, but he didn’t have any great explanation.
Rebecca looked at me. “Trish? Do you know who that was?”
“Me?” How could she expect me to know what was going on? I hadn’t gotten involved until yesterday, and now I was starting to wish I hadn’t. The family would have been fine, right? The fae were after Jaden, not his sisters. Jaden. That’s probably why Rebecca was asking me what was going on.
He’d said back at the house he didn’t know who the guy was. “No idea.” I didn’t even know how Starren and Wade had found us. Unless Cray’d switched sides again. I wanted to believe that Starren wouldn’t hurt him to try to force him to help, but I knew that wasn’t the case. I shivered, trying not to think about what it would take to make Cray talk. Probably not much. What if he’d never been on our side in the first place, and this had all been some plot? Ah, too many things to consider.
“What do we do about him?” Rebecca asked.
“Any chance he knows where we’re headed?” Nina asked.
“I really doubt it. I don’t know how he could. We didn’t even know until last night,” Rebecca answered. “But then, he did find us here.” She sighed. “Let’s just get on the road, the sooner we get to Fort Wayne, the better.”
“And you’ll be safe there?”
“Yes, they will,” I answered. Hopefully. If Cray hadn’t tricked us, somehow found a way to twist the truth enough that his fae blood didn’t think it was a lie. “He probably just followed us. We’ll lose him.”
“Then we just go, as fast as we can. No unnecessary stops for now, until we lose him. There are so many highways around here, if he doesn’t know where we’re going, he can’t get ahead of us, only follow.”
“Makes sense,” I said. Keep the van calm, that’s what we needed to do right now. I shrugged toward Jaden and he seemed to understand that I was trying not to make Lucy upset. He shrugged back. Apparently he hadn’t had any sudden revelations about the guy’s identity either.
The next couple hours in the car were subdued. Nina texted like mad, no doubt talking to Dan about what was going on and letting Wren know that we’d no longer be meeting her. That was what I felt the worst about. Nina had been so excited that I was going to meet her sister. That was probably at least half of the reason she’d agreed to go on this trip in the first place. But I was doing this for us, even if she didn’t know it. Once I turned Jaden in, things could go back to normal. To better than normal, now that I knew for sure that Dan and Nina really wanted me.
After a bit, the state line sign flashed by and the city signs started saying Columbia City. Hopefully that was on the way.
Nina opened her map again and laid it across her lap, bending over it to get a better look. Jaime snorted in her sleep, making me smile. Lucy was listening to music in the back seat. Thankfully she wasn’t sprawling across Jaden anymore. As much as she’d protested that he wasn’t there, she sure hadn’t moved to take up the whole seat since I’d told her he was.
Jaden was resting against the seat, eyes closed. Did ghosts sleep? He wasn’t really a ghost. He wasn’t dead. But he was dead, here. Never mind. This was too confusing.
Slowly the traffic disappeared until we only saw the occasional car. It was actually pretty nice without a bunch of vehicles clogging up the road. Rebecca drove a lot faster than I expected.
Suddenly Jaden bolted upright in the back seat. “You hear that?”
“Huh?” I asked. Everyone else might have been able to doze off, but my mind was still going over everything that had happened today, trying to figure out what the whys and hows, trying not to panic on the hows. So far, no luck. On either front.
“Do you hear something?” Jaden asked slower, like I was an idiot.
“No, what?”
“What, what?” Nina asked. I probably sounded crazy to her, considering the girls were sleeping and the women hadn’t said anything.
Jaden sat up in the back and twisted around to look out the window. “Motorcycles, a lot of them.”
I turned toward the back to watch with him as a group of motorcycles took shape in the distance behind us. They were moving fast. Really fast. Within a few minutes, they’d caught up with us.
“Those guys must be crazy,” Rebecca said, looking in the rearview mirror. “It’s way too cold to be out on a bike.”
Nina nodded in agreement, but no one said anything.
The lead biker pulled up beside us and grinned through the window at me. His face was strangely lumpy. He gunned his bike for a second and moved up beside Rebecca, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
“What do these guys want?” Nina asked.
Two bikes peeled around us on the right, bouncing around on the berm, and got ahead of us, forcing Rebecca to slow down or plow them over.
“Goblins,” Jaden said from the back. “They guarded the prison back in Faerie. I’m guessing I’m what they want.”
After hearing that, when I stared at them they looked a little different. Kind of like someone under water, their faces not quite right. It had to be a glamour of some kind, making them look human.
Two more raced up from behind and we were boxed in. Soon the original five were joined by six more, all revving their engines and grinning.
“Girls, get down,” Rebecca called, her voice terse as she tried not to hit any of the bikes. Still half asleep, Jaime looked nervous enough to make me want to punch a couple of those goblins in the face. Thankfully she didn’t really know what was going on. Lucy on the other hand, had jerked awake and was now blinking at a million blinks a second, like she was trying not to pass out. I almost felt sorry for her. Almost. The girls didn’t listen to Rebecca’s order to get down. Didn’t listen, or didn’t hear.
“Lucy, keep Jaime down,” I said, appealing to whatever big sister instincts she had. I unstrapped Jaime and shoved her in the back. Lucy gripped Jaime’s hand and jerked her into the seat beside her, buckling her in faster than I could blink and pulling her down as far as she could while still wearing their seatbelts.
One of the goblins revved his engine and swooped in our direction. Rebecca swerved so he didn’t hit us, face going white.
“I’m calling 911,” Nina said. She took out her cell and started dialing. I didn’t stop her. Either the troopers would scare them off, or they would at least be a distraction.
Nina talked to the dispatcher for a moment, then hung up. “The closest trooper is at least twenty minutes out. She wanted me to stay on the line, but I’ll call back if something changes.”
Great.
Everyone in the van was quiet as Rebecca fought against the bikers, doing her best not to hit one.
Then one hit us.
Sparks shot off his Harley as he bounced off the van. Rebecca jerked the wheel to the right, trying to get away, while the girls in the back screamed.
Another did the same thing, farther back, then another. Soon we had bikes bumping us from all directions. Except the right side.
“They’re trying to drive us off the road,” Jaden whispered.
“Does everyone have their seatbelt on?” Rebecca asked without taking her eyes off the road.
“Yes,” I answered.
“Right!” Nina shouted, barely giving Rebecca a chance to jerk the wheel.
This was not working. We were not going to last until the trooper got here. Time for some Fast and the Furious. “Ram them,” I yelled from the back.
“What?”
“Ram them, it isn’t going to kill them, just send them to Milwaukee. Do it!”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Nina asked. We ignored her.
The van accelerated in answer, hurtling down the lonely stretch of highway. One of the bikers ahead of us didn’t gun his bike enough in answer to our burst of speed. Rebecca tapped him with the van bumper and he went tumbling backward out of sight. The other goblins all started howling, the sound eerie over the straining minivan engine. A strong burning smell filled the air. I didn’t know anything about engines, but that seemed like a bad sign.
En masse, the rest of the bikes started bouncing up against us, driving the van off the road. Dirt and pebbles flew up behind us as Rebecca kept the accelerator floored. Two more bikes took tumbles, putting our odds down to eight, none of which stopped to check on their fallen comrades.
Didn’t they care? Poor Jaime started crying behind me. I reached back and grabbed her hand. She squeezed mine tight. One of the faster bikes flashed by and the lead goblin got ahead of us. The rest split to make room for him.
“Go, go!” Nina yelled.
“I can’t go any faster!” Rebecca answered, aiming for the gap that had opened.
The biker ahead of us revved his engine again, reached into his saddlebag and threw something out in front of us. The front left tire blew, sending us careening back onto the road and across into the other lane. The van rolled to a stop.
I took a deep breath. This was up to me now. I unhooked my seatbelt. “Everyone stay put.” I slid the door open and hopped out, slamming it behind me. The rest of the gang rumbled to a stop and got off their bikes. Their faces swam back and forth, each looking like a human for a moment, then back to the misshapen features of the goblins. Was that what they looked like to humans? Just normal biker dudes?
“Trish, get back in the van!” Nina yelled across Rebecca, out her open window. “We’ll lock the doors and wait for the trooper!”
That so wasn’t going to work. But at least she was trying to take care of me. I blew a breath out, pulled another one in, concentrating. This would be my first fight by myself, if, or when, it escalated to that. And the stakes for this one were so much higher.
Suddenly Jaden was beside me. “Get back in,” I hissed. “If your mom leaves she’ll have no idea if you’re in there or not. Do you really want to hitchhike to Fort Wayne when no one can see you?”
“Not going anywhere.”
“But you can’t even help.”
“I sure can. They’re fae.” I nearly started crying right then and there. Even if Jaden didn’t know how to do anything, he could at least watch my back.
A door opened and closed on the other side of the van. Nina scooted around the front and joined us. “Get back in the van, we’ll keep them locked out until help gets here.” As if she hadn’t already said that.
“Not going to work.” I really, really wished it would though. “You should get in. Dan will kill me if something happens to you.”
“No way.” Great. Nina had that determined look on her face. “Maybe we can talk with them, find out why they’re doing this.” Jaden and I exchanged looks. Did goblins even talk? I had no idea.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” I said.
The goblins were close now, too close. They acted like a typical biker gang, out popped the knives and chains. No guns though, that was good. I stood a much better chance against knives.
Jaden held his hands up. “It’s fine. I’ll surrender.”
“No,” I hissed again. I had to be the one to turn him in. If Starren caught wind of the fact that not only had I known where he was, but I’d helped him get out of the city, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting sent to Faerie. I’d be dead. Permanently. Why had I agreed to this? “Not happening.”
“It’s worth a try. I don’t know what else to do. We don’t stand a chance against them,” Nina said.
“What?” Oh, the talking thing. She hadn’t heard Jaden and she thought I was answering her question. “No talking. It’s not going to help.” I reached behind and pulled my sword from its invisible sheath, its light glittering in the sun.
The goblins hooted and started laughing. Nina stared at me like I’d grown another head. “Ah, Trish? Where did that come from?”
“Talk later.” I took an experimental swing at a goblin that had come a little too close. It swung out of the way easily, its friends laughing even harder. They were short, shorter than me, but so wide. They had to be strong. And the smell they gave off had to be one of their natural weapons, otherwise there was no reason for such a foul stench.
Beside me, Jaden pulled a sword from his pocket.
Thankfully I knew about that from Wade. Wade. We could really use him around right now. Who would have guessed I’d ever want to see his face again? They had popped up at the gas station, maybe they would here too. Right. Like they’d be here when I actually wanted them to be.
Someone tapped on the window behind us. I glanced back in time to see Lucy slide the door open and hand Nina a tire iron, then slam the door closed and lock it. If they got close enough for her to use that, the whole van load was in trouble and Jaden and I were dead.
“Get them,” the lead goblin growled.
Four of them lunged at me, the others hanging back. I swung, slicing off a chunk of the first creature’s long bristly hair. Jaden moved in at my shoulder and we blocked them as they came at us. With a feint to the left, I drove forward and rammed my sword through the chest of one of them.
The thing shrieked and then dissolved, sending the rest of its gang into shouts of rage. I gagged at the stench it left behind, doing my best not to breathe.
“What are these things?” Nina shouted. I ignored her. Explaining that wasn’t at the top of my priority list right now.
Something banged on the other side of the van. Where had the rest of the goblins gone? Shoot. “Jaden quick, the other door!” He took off around the other side, leaving me four goblins to deal with. Four. Not too bad. Definitely better than one troll, right? The goblin in back scooted to his bike and unstrapped a bow. Okay, maybe not better.
“We need the boy alive,” one of them reminded the one with the bow.
It grunted.
“I know. That’s why I shooting the girl.”
He pulled the string back, letting an arrow fly our way. I knocked it down with my sword, then slashed at one of the goblins as it went for Nina. She took a swing at it with the tire iron and made contact with its hand, causing it to let out a screech.
Hollering started on the other side of the van. One of them must have gone down. Or Jaden had. The goblin with the bow let another arrow fly. Something crashed on top the van, and then a goblin landed on me sending me to the ground. Nina was on it instantly, slamming it with her makeshift weapon. She must have gotten in a good blow because the thing dissolved.
I looked up just in time to see an arrow leave the head goblin’s bow headed straight for Nina. No time to counter it. I slammed into Nina, knocking her to the ground. Searing pain ripped through my abdomen and I fell to the ground face first, blood soaking everything in sight.
“Trish!” Nina dropped down and rolled me to my side. She dropped her iron and pushed on the wound, no doubt trying to stop the bleeding by applying pressure.
“Now we get them both,” the goblin said. He dropped his bow and pulled a wicked curved blade out of a sheath at his belt.
I tried to push myself up, but I was losing too much blood, making me feel like I was trying to swim through jello. Every movement ponderous. The sounds from the other side of the van had stopped. They must have gotten Jaden. This was it. I would wake up in a few hours somewhere in Faerie and Jaden would be gone. Maybe they would leave Rebecca and the girls alone. Probably not.
And Nina… after she’d taken out one of them, what would they do to her? Tears squeezed out of my eyes. I wiped at them. No, nothing could happen to her. I wouldn’t let it. I wiggled around, trying to get up, but a tsunami of dizziness hit me, laying me flat back on the ground.
The goblins moved forward. Nina grabbed my sword in her bloody hand and stood above me. She really was amazing. I panted, struggling to force myself to my knees. Why had I put Nina in danger to save myself? I was such an idiot. I should have just told her what was going on. Surely she wouldn’t have turned me over to some chop shop to be researched, right? Better than telling her, I should have said no when Starren offered me the deal in the first place. Just let the Council take me, to protect my family. But no. I was too stupid. Too selfish.
Then Jaden ran from behind the van and moved between us and the remaining three goblins. I’d have hugged him right there if I hadn’t been flat on the ground and he wasn’t fighting for our lives. Metal flashed in the sun and one of the goblins evaporated. The two left snarled and moved into defensive positions.
“What just happened?” Nina asked quietly. She crouched down beside me again, but kept both hands tightly gripping my sword.
“Help’s here.”
Jaden went at the goblins, anger in his every movement. He was defending his family, fueling whatever skills he had with a sword and making them twice as effective. And he must have had some serious skill. Apparently goblins weren’t the best of fighters, their strength was in numbers. It only took Jaden a moment to feint left then come back and drive his sword through the first goblin. The other one screeched, making me groan because I couldn’t cover my ears and hold pressure at the same time.
I closed my eyes as soon as the last one blew away. The pain was getting better, but we had to get this arrow out. I was healing around it and it was going to hurt like heck to push it through.
Nina stood and knocked on the window. A door opened, but I wasn’t with it enough to tell which one.
“Call 911, get an ambulance here,” Nina said. She sounded totally freaked out. This was starting to get to her.
“No, don’t,” I mumbled.
“What?” She dropped down beside me and reapplied pressure, though the wound was barely bleeding now.
“I don’t need an ambulance. Just help me get it out.”
“No, you never want to take an impaled object out of a person except in a hospital setting.” Her voice was shaking. Leave it to her to know that.
“Rebecca,” I called, admittedly a little weakly. “Come help.”
“What can I do?” Jaden asked.
I bit my lip, trying not to cry. “Hold my hand.”
“Okay,” Nina dropped my sword and gripped my left hand. Jaden moved over and grabbed my right, hovering over me like he actually cared for some reason. He shouldn’t let himself. I was turning him in no matter what. I blew out a breath. Where was the fainting when I needed it? That’s how my body usually dealt with severe injuries. Fall over, wake up healed. I liked that way much better.
Little black dots swam across my vision. I blinked, trying to clear them.
Rebecca pretty much fell out of the van to help. “What’s your power Trisha?”
“Snap off the tip,” I panted. “Hurry.”
She pulled my shirt up, ripping the cloth around the shaft to expose the wound. Though it was hard to see through the already crusting blood, the wound was just as it had felt. All around the arrow was nearly healed.
Nina bent over the wound and rubbed a bit of the blood away, never letting go of my hand. She stood. “What’s wrong with you people?” She yelled. “She needs an ambulance!” She dropped my hand and scrambled for the van.
“Rebecca,” I said. It was all I could get out. She hit the remote lock and the van gave a pathetic little honk.
Nina jerked on the door but it wouldn’t open. “Unlock this.” Nina’s voice was getting high. “Now. I need my phone.”
“No, Trisha needs your help,” Rebecca said.
Nina jerked on the door again and Jaime’s little face appeared in the window. Her eyes widened at the sight before Lucy’s hand forced her head down again.
“Nina, please,” I practically begged. I never begged. Is this what family did to a person?
She gave up on the van, came over and wrapped her arms around my shoulders tipping me forward. I could feel her ragged breathing against my back. Rebecca snapped the head of the arrow off the shaft without warning. I shrieked and fell back into Nina.
Nina leaned me back down against her, holding me hard. “Are you sure about this? There’s a lot going on here I don’t understand, but that doesn’t really make me want to do this.”
I nodded, gripping her calf for a little contact. She didn’t look convinced.
“Ready?” Rebecca asked.
I nodded again, not able to speak, grateful she’d stopped asking questions and was just holding me.
“Keep her down,” Rebecca told Nina. Gripping the feathered shaft with both hands, she threw all her weight into pulling and it popped free, releasing another gush of blood. I wailed, unable to hold it in. Jaden’s grip on my hand slipped because of the blood, but he adjusted and tightened his hold. I barely felt the extra pressure as pain rippled through my body.
Rebecca tossed the shaft to the ground and covered the wound with both hands.
Nina gave me a squeeze and moved a sweaty strand of hair out of my face. “Remind me why we aren’t calling an ambulance?” she forced through gritted teeth, moving to take over pressure for Rebecca.
“She knows what she’s doing,” Rebecca said, moving back. At least one adult trusted me.
I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the healing happen. I held my breath as the inside layers fused. Jaden squeezed my hand and I opened my eyes long enough to give him a brief smile. Finally the last piece of skin knit into place. “Okay, you can let go now,” I forced out. She didn’t. I opened my eyes a crack. “Nina, please, let go.” I dropped Jaden’s hand and picked up hers, weakly pushing them off my abdomen.
“Looks good,” Jaden said, leaning over and staring at my abdomen.
“Stop looking.” I glared at him. He lifted his hands and backed off.
Nina took the torn piece of my shirt and used the cleanest piece of it to wipe at my stomach. “It’s gone. Where did it go?”
“It’s healed, let’s get out of here.”
“Healed?” Her voice was going even higher. “Just like that?”
“Yep.” I tried to sit up and lights flashed.
“Whoa, slow down,” Jaden said. “Even a superhealing body needs a bit of time to replace all that blood volume. You’re going to have to take it easy for a few minutes.”
“I know how this works,” I snapped. “Just get back in the van.” Years of trying to hide something like this made a person uncomfortable with the fact that it was out in the open. Now that the pain was finally subsiding, I could fully appreciate the mess I was about to find myself in.
“No use getting in until we change the tire,” Jaden said.
“You’re sure you’re okay, Trisha?” Rebecca asked, squeezing me on the shoulder. That must have been where Jaden got the gesture. I nodded and she stood, dusting herself off and wiping at a spot of blood on her shirt. “I’m going to check on the girls.”
Nina pulled me into a tight hug. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. You saved my life, but I’m serious, never again.” Her glare was enough to make me flinch. Which was worse, the arrow or this? I didn’t answer her order, not wanting to bind myself to some unbreakable agreement by accident. She didn’t seem to notice, just continued. “What is going on? What happened to make you heal like that?”
I closed my eyes and gulped, nauseous.
“Are you okay?” Nina asked, hovering. “It is healed, right, all the way?”
“It’s healed,” I gritted out. “I’m just a little tired now.”
She bent over and checked my abdomen again, then felt my forehead like maybe I had a fever. Moms.
“We are talking about this, as soon as we get safe.”
“Deal.” I tried to smile at her, but everything still felt so wrong inside. Even though I’d healed, my body was still protesting being impaled by a foreign object.
Nina sat back but kept one arm around my shoulder. I sighed and leaned into her, exhausted. “We can’t stay,” I managed to get out, closing my eyes, just for a second. “Something else will come. And the Trooper is on his way.”
I opened my eyes just in time to see Nina’s flash of horror as she glanced at my clothes and then back at my face. “That could be bad.” She banged on the side of the van. “Rebecca, do you have a spare for this? We need to get out of here.”
“Yes, in the back.”
Nina stood, practically having to peel me off her. I tried to sit up straighter, but I was so tired. That arrow must have hit some vital stuff. She leaned over and gingerly picked up the tire iron from where she’d dropped it. Apparently satisfied there wasn’t anything left over from the goblin she’d killed, she gripped it tighter and started for the back of the van.
“You stay here. I got it. You might be able to use a sword and take an arrow, but I at least know how to change a tire.”
I obeyed. I scooted back against the van and leaned on it so I didn’t have to lay in the half frozen dirt by the road. It was cold! I just hadn’t noticed until now. After talking to the girls for a minute, Rebecca came back around the van and helped Nina pull the spare out.
“That was pretty amazing,” Jaden’s voice made my eyes pop open. He moved over and sat down beside me. “You have quite the reflexes.”
“It has something to do with the healing.” I closed my eyes again.
“Impressive no matter what the reason. You must really love your mom to do that for her.”
“Foster mom,” I automatically corrected.
“That just makes it an even bigger deal. There’s more to you than I thought.”
I squinted at him. “No, there’s not. Just wait until I turn you in, then you’ll know exactly what I am.”
He cocked an eyebrow at me. “We’ll see.”
Now what was that supposed to mean? I sighed and closed my eyes again. It didn’t matter right now. We just sat there for a moment, listening to Nina grunt as she tried to get the stuff around to change the flat. The thought crossed my mind that I really should go help her, but the woozy feeling that about knocked me over every time I moved changed my mind.
“Do you hear something?” Jaden asked after a minute. Now that he mentioned it, yeah, I did. Sirens. Or maybe a siren.
Lights flashed in the distance. “Someone’s coming,” I called to whoever was listening.
“Shoot, probably the State Patrol.” Nina dropped the tire she’d been trying to wrestle out of position, jogged over and grabbed my arm. “Get changed, quick, before they get here.” She frantically started kicking at the blood splatter on the ground. Fast thinker. Kind of made me wonder how she’d gotten so good at covering things up.
But she was right. I needed to get moving. I groaned. I didn’t want to do anything quick. She left me and a second later my suitcase hit the asphalt. She tossed a hoodie at me, dug around for a moment before coming up with a pair of jeans. She hurried over and tugged at my t-shirt. I glared at Jaden, who looked away, then let Nina help me pull the old shirt over my head and get the new one on. I could have left the t-shirt under the hoodie, but that was just plain disgusting.
She looked down at herself. She had almost as much of my blood on her as I’d had. After grabbing my suitcase she went around back for a second, then showed up wearing a sweatshirt, her coat gone. Kind of cold for that, but it was less suspicious than blood everywhere. Ha, what wasn’t? She came over to help me finish getting changed.
The cruiser idled up beside the van and a huge man squeezed out from behind the wheel just as we finished getting me changed. “Is everyone okay?” He looked around at the motorcycles littering the highway. “What happened to the bikers?”
“They’re all gone, thanks for the help,” Nina snapped.
“Where did they go? Their bikes are here.”
“A van picked them up,” Lucy said when no one else answered. I hadn’t seen her get out of our van. She was pale. Shoot, even with Rebecca checking on them I’d kind of forgotten about her and Jaime. How was Jaime taking this whole thing?
The trooper flipped open a notepad. “Description?”
“Big and white?”
“Did you get a plate number?”
“Um, no, it just happened so fast.”
The trooper looked around again. “I’m going to go call this in, you’re sure you’re all okay? There’s a squad on the way, I called it in when I pulled up. It’s at least ten minutes out.”
Nina looked at me and jerked her head toward something. Oh, my sword, sticking out from under the van. Rebecca backed up to it and gave it a small kick on the hilt. I winced, hoping it didn’t get scratched or something. That was probably the only sword I was ever going to get.
“We’re all fine, an ambulance won’t be necessary. We just need to get this tire changed and we’ll be on our way,” Rebecca said.
“Would you like to try to start it, ma’am? That way I know if you need a truck to haul you in? It’s pretty beat up, I’d just like to know that it’s still running.”
Rebecca leaned down like she was going to help me move. I shook my head no. The trooper might find that suspicious. I did have a clean shirt on, but there was a lot of dried blood under that shirt. I pushed off the van and stood. Not too bad. The world was a little loopy, but manageable.
“What’s wrong with her?” the trooper asked Nina. “She looks like she’s about to faint.”
“Just overwhelmed, I guess.”
I moved away from the van and leaned against a big rock.
Rebecca turned the key and the van started, but it sounded bad. After a second, it smelled even worse than it sounded.
“Let me get a truck out here to start hauling these bikes away and I’ll get that tire changed for you.” He left for his car.
“I don’t want to wait for him to get back, let’s get this thing changed,” Rebecca said. “Something else could catch up with us. I want to get to Fort Wayne as soon as possible.” She headed around the van to get stuff out of the trunk.
Jaden moved along behind her, her unseen protector. He was a good son. And a good brother. He seemed like a good guy in general.
“You okay?” Nina asked, breaking me away from that thought.
I nodded and bent down, pulling my sword out from under the van and sheathing it. I’d have to clean it later, without the chance of some cop seeing it.
“You scared me, kid.” Nina put her arm around my shoulders. Nausea filled my stomach that had nothing to do with the physical part of taking the arrow. I had to lean against the boulder behind me when the world started to spin. She didn’t think I was a monster. I hadn’t realized until that moment how worried I’d been that she would. She loved me anyway. I was almost relieved enough to cry right there in front of her. Almost.
She shook me. “I was serious though, never again, understood?” She paused for a second. I didn’t answer. “I’m not going to ask you to tell me what’s going on right now with the chance the trooper will come over, but you better be ready to spill when we get alone.” She gave me that look and I knew for a fact that there was no getting out of this one.
And really, there was no reason to hold out now. She already knew the what, now she just needed to know the why.
“What are the chances of something else like this popping up before we make it to Fort Wayne? And why is Rebecca so sure they’ll be safe there?”
I was about to answer when the trooper walked our way.
He went to the back of the van and took the spare from Rebecca, who was puffing a little trying to pull it out of the trunk.
“While I change this, let’s go over what happened again,” the guy said, dropping the tire next to the van and pulling off his gloves.
I groaned. Talk about a long day. And the guy should have been a little more honest about this talk. He grilled us all long after he was done with the tire.
I expected Rebecca to want me to go say something, but Nina steered me away, patting her abdomen. No doubt they didn’t want me around the trooper.
Jaden followed me to the other side of the van. I guess he thought it was better to be with the only person he could communicate with than to be with the moms. The pain of the wound was finally gone, but I needed to eat. Like, now.
I could hear some of what was going on with the trooper. Nina, trying to tell the story without the weird stuff. I had to hand it to her, she was pretty good at avoiding the truth when she wanted to be. Who would have thought. She should have been fae.
I closed my eyes and leaned back against the van. The world spun a little. My stomach was starting to grind into itself. It wasn’t as bad as when I’d woke up in the woods, but it was pretty bad. If I didn’t get something to eat soon, I was going to be sick.
“Is something wrong?” Jaden asked. He’d been quiet until now, no doubt worried about me answering him out loud and making the trooper think I was crazy. I tried to shake my head no, but couldn’t. Okay, that must be a lie.
“Are you okay, Trish?” Nina asked me quietly, scaring me. When had she come over here? I was too out of it, it wasn’t safe. And what, did I have the fact that I wasn’t feeling well plastered all over my face?
I managed a nod. “Just hungry.”
Nina’s eyes went wide. “That’s why you eat so much. I thought it was just because you’re a teenager.”
“Yep, that’s why. And things like today make it a lot worse.”
“I can see that. Rebecca is almost finished up. I’ll go find out where the closest place to eat is.”
Managing a small nod, I closed my eyes again and slid down to lean against the van.
It seemed like forever before she was back. “The closest place is ten minutes. Can you wait that long?”
“Sure.” I tried to smile. Even Nina couldn’t whip food out of nothing.
“It’s okay,” Jaden said. “I’m sure the girls have something in the van. They can’t go anywhere without a snack.” He actually sounded concerned. I frowned. Why did he care?
We’d just met yesterday. And I’d made it abundantly clear what I planned to do to him. He’d be better off if I died.
“You know, I might have something…” Nina opened the van door and grabbed her purse. After digging around for a moment, she pulled out a roll of mints. She gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, this is as good as it gets.”
“Thanks. Better than nothing.” I popped two in my mouth and sucked hard. There was a little jolt like my body was anticipating the calories, then nothing when it figured it out. I smiled at Nina and nodded, trying to make her feel better. She smiled back, looking relieved.
Jaden grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. Startled, I almost pulled it away, then thought better of it. He probably needed some physical contact. It had to be hard to be able to see your family but not touch them. I looked over at Nina, who of course had no idea Jaden was even there. She must have felt my stare, because she glanced my way, gave me a strained smile, and patted me on the shoulder.
The trooper came around the van, notebook in hand. “I just need to make sure all your contact information is correct in case we need to get a hold of you about what happened today. Then you can head on out. I don’t think you should probably be driving tonight, after all that excitement. Maybe you can find a hotel.”
Nina made a noncommittal noise and gave him her cell number and our home address.
He nodded as it wrote it down. “Sorry you had to go through this. I promise you it isn’t normal in this neck of the woods. Good luck on the rest of your trip.” He looked us over again and then headed for his patrol car.
Yes, now we could get out of here. Nina, Rebecca, and I piled into the van, Nina in the driver’s seat. Jaime hurtled herself at Rebecca, sobbing. Poor kid. Lucy looked freaked out too, but apparently didn’t want to talk in front of Nina and me, because she stayed quiet. That was just fine.
After a moment of consoling, Rebecca asked me to switch her seats, so I moved up front with Nina and she moved in back to sit with Jaime. I checked that Jaden was in the car and we were off.
It’s amazing how agonizingly slow ten minutes can take to go by. Finally there started to be some small businesses, and then a Wendy’s. Beautiful, wonderful, Wendy’s.
We piled out of the van, Jaden still not talking. Why was he being so quiet? He might be a ghost, but he didn’t have to act like one.
“Nina?” I asked. They were taking too long with the girls.
“Wait one second, I’ll go with you.”
I waited a second. “Nina. Please.”
“Rebecca, you got this?” Nina asked.
“Yes, go.”
Nina threaded her arm through mine and we started toward the place that was about to save my life. My stomach roared with impatience. We powerwalked across the driveway. The smell of hot food hit me in the gut, making me even more ravenous. I wouldn’t have thought that was possible a second ago.
We walked in and got hit by a blast of heat. Some unhappy girl a little older than me slouched behind the counter. “What can I make for you today?” she asked.
“Five burgers and a salad please,” Nina said.
I kicked her. She looked at me. “What? I ordered you two.”
“Two isn’t going to cut it,” I whispered.
“Make that seven burgers.”
An eternity after Nina paid, the girl behind the counter handed me the bag of burgers. I had one out in a second, half of it gone the next.
Nina looked worried for a second, then laughed. “It’s been a long day,” she told the girl.
The girl raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything, just handed Nina her salad.
“Thanks,” Nina told her and we headed out.
The first burger was history before we even made it off the concrete. I was working on the second by the time we reached everyone else. Nina passed out the food.
I moved over to stand by Jaden. He gave me a small smile. “Feeling better?”
“Yes, just needed to eat.” I proved my statement by taking another big bite, holding the hamburger in one hand and digging the next one out with the other.
“You got something there.” Jaden reached forward and wiped a thumb across the side of my mouth. Okay, awkward. But nice. Awkward and nice. And so cliché. Why had he done that?
“Hit the bathroom people, and we’re out of here. I want to find a hotel before dark,” Rebecca said. Ten minutes later, we were on our way.
One good thing about Rebecca being in the back, it meant Nina and Rebecca weren’t talking. I wanted to be the one to have that whole discussion with Nina, whenever we could do it with just the two of us.
Nina kept looking over at me, like she was checking on me, but she still didn’t seemed too freaked out. Or disgusted. Or whatever other bad emotion I’d assumed she’d have if she ever found out I wasn’t normal.
Half-way. We had to be at least half-way. Maybe tomorrow I’d be turning Jaden over and heading home with Nina. If I could figure out a way to find Starren. Maybe the three of us would head to D.C. and I’d take him to the Hall. That should work. It wouldn’t be hard to sneak him onto a plane.
“Trish, do the kids and Rebecca know what’s going on?”
Oh boy, the talk was coming much sooner than I’d expected. I tried not answering, but Nina seemed to be on to that. She just waited, taking her eyes off the road once in a while to stare at me.
Fine. “Yes, they know.”
“Good. Then it doesn’t matter if we talk with them in the van.”
Well yeah, it kind of did to me, but she deserved to know what was going on and I didn’t think there would be anymore stalling. I slumped forward. “I guess not. What do you want to know?”
“So… what exactly was that back at the accident?” she asked after a moment of silence. “Everything that happened blew my mind for a bit, but once I got thinking about it I realized you know a lot more than you’ve been telling me.”
“Why haven’t you called Dan? I thought you’d call him right away and he’d show up by now.”
“Don’t change the subject. Spill. Now.”
I sighed. I’d known this talk was coming, but I still hadn’t figured out an easy way to explain things. Might as well just let her have it. “There is another world, called Faerie. People from there are called fae. I guess I’m one of those people, even though I don’t remember ever being there. We have different abilities, mine is healing.”
She looked almost sick for a second, making me tear up. No, those weren’t tears. I blinked a bunch of times to make sure.
“You’re really careful about this, right? How many people know? Do you know what could happen? They could take you away, for good.”
“Yeah, I know.” It wasn’t me that was freaking her out, it was the thought of me being taken away? Was I reading this right? “I live with you and you didn’t know until today.”
“True. Let’s keep it that way. Continue.”
A shiver ran through me. She wasn’t the only one that didn’t want other people to know. “I didn’t want to risk your life, that’s why I didn’t want you to come. It’s not like I’m really risking anything. And you were right, back home. It was Wade that made me disappear for those couple days. He killed me.”
“What!” she yelled, the van swerving and making the passengers in the back yelp. She got it under control, but her face was still white. Really white.
“Shh!” I said. I widened my eyes and jerked my chin toward the back. I still didn’t really want them to know what was up.
Nina reached down and turned the radio on, switching the speakers to the back. Smart lady. The Martans seemed to be pretty busy with each other, but still.
“Obviously it didn’t work out like he expected. Apparently I still heal after my heart stops. I’m sure he wouldn’t have left without checking that.”
“Why would he do that?” she hissed, thankfully this time at a much lower volume. “Dan and I didn’t like him for you, but we would never have guessed he would do that or you’d have been locked in the house.”
I shrugged. That was another long discussion. It would make her worry, and possibly make her call Dan. She had taken this whole thing pretty well, considering, but would he do the same?
Nina stared me straight in the face, like she had no idea what to say to that. She had to know I was telling the truth, she’d seen me heal. “But you’re okay now? Totally healed? How did he hurt you?” She looked like she was about to start frisking me looking for injuries.
“I’m fine, don’t worry about it.” She didn’t look too sure. “Seriously, it was healed when you picked me up in the woods.”
“Did it have something to do with why we are helping Rebecca and the girls?”
I scratched my head. “Yes, kind of I guess.”
“Who’s after them, for real?”
“We don’t even know.” I leaned against the cool window, staring down at the asphalt below. “I thought it was the Council, the rulers of Faerie, but I can’t come up with a reason they would want to hurt them. I’m not even sure if they care about them, or if they just want Jaden. He’s Jaime and Lucy’s brother.” They wanted Jaden, sure, but how would killing his family help with that? If they were going to use his family against him, they would have been trying to capture them. The goblin knew I’d pop up in Faerie, but he should have also known the rest of the group were human and would just die. I groaned. This was getting so confusing.
Nina reached over and grabbed my hand, her other hand firmly gripping the wheel. “This all sounds crazy. Why did they want Jaden? And where is he?”
Well that was a tough one. “Because they were worried about his ability. Jaden died. An accident of some kind.” I kept it vague. She didn’t seem to notice. She had plenty of other stuff to process.
“And they’re fine with yours? You aren’t in any trouble with them, right?”
“I’ve got it covered.” I hoped. If Jaden kept up his side of the bargain. Where were Cray, Starren, and Wade right now? Hopefully Cray was good. And Starren was okay. She was a little bull headed, but now that she wasn’t right here about to kill me I could wish her well. How had the battle against the gorgeous dude gone? She was strong. She could take care of herself, she was fine. She had to be. I couldn’t care less about Wade. That was the story I was sticking to, anyway.
Her eyes narrowed. “Did Wade have something to do with the Council?” Wow, she was way too smart.
“Maybe.”
“Did they send him after you? I thought you were fine with the Council.”
“I am now. Don’t worry about it.”
She tapped me on the nose with her finger. “Like I’ve stopped worrying since the day you disappeared. You’re going to have to start trusting me. How many of these fae are there?” She paused. “Are Rebecca and the girls fae?”
Trust definitely wasn’t in my nature, but even with as much as it scared me, I was starting to trust Nina. Like trust her for real. And at this point it wasn’t even about trust. It was that I just wanted to put all this behind me, never have to think about it again. And I never, ever wanted her to know what I had to do to buy my freedom. She hadn’t met Jaden, but I knew she wouldn’t approve of what I’d be doing to him as soon as we reached Fort Wayne. “I don’t know how many fae there are. I’ve never been that involved with them. No, Rebecca is human and the girls are half.”
“Anything else you want to tell me?” She checked the rearview mirror, staring at the Martan family for a moment.
So many things I should tell her. I looked up, catching her kind eyes and I wanted to, just for a second. But I wasn’t ready yet. Might not ever be. I trusted her. I didn’t even have to ask myself that anymore. But I also didn’t want to dredge up all those old feelings. Of being inadequate. Of not belonging. I belonged somewhere now, and I wasn’t ever going back to not having that again. Even in my memories. “No.”
She squinted at me for a second, like she was trying to decide if I was being honest or not, but didn’t ask anything else. After a moment she reached forward and turned the radio off.
“What’s so special about Fort Wayne?” Nina asked Rebecca, looking in the rearview mirror again. “Why do you think you’ll be safe there?”
Rebecca shrugged. “We’re just hoping Trish’s friend is right.”
“Trish’s friend?” Nina looked back at me. Okay, so she had a reason to question that. It wasn’t like I’d ever brought anyone home from school.
“Another fae. He should know,” I said.
Rebecca didn’t seem surprised I was talking about fae in front of Nina. She could probably hear our entire conversation from the back, even with the radio up.
“And you trust this friend?” Nina asked. “Enough to not be worried?” She sounded worried. That was kind of her default right now, which made me feel bad.
“He can’t lie,” I said. “He might be wrong by accident, but he isn’t the kind that gets things wrong.” Scratch that. He’d gotten the wrong fae twice before we’d caught up with Jaden. Hopefully this wasn’t a wild goose chase. Oh well, we’d had to get them away and Fort Wayne was as good a place as any.
“Why can’t he lie?”
Shoot. That was not something I really wanted her to know about.
“No fae can lie,” Rebecca answered for me. “It’s really convenient for the rest of us.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Nina said. “Might come in handy.” She winked at me. It came across strained, like she was trying too hard. But at least she was trying. Wait a second, now she knew I couldn’t lie to her. Crap. “Where did you meet this fae?”
“Are you going to tell her? Tell her what you were doing with them?” Jaden finally spoke, and now I wished he’d keep his mouth shut.
I glared at him but didn’t answer. It wasn’t like I was going to be taking him away from his family. They couldn’t even see him. “He needed my help with something, that’s how we met.” Keep it vague. Vague wasn’t lying.
“And how did you meet the Martans?” Nina asked.
Rebecca glanced at me as if to say she would defer to whatever I said. At least I hoped that was what that look meant. “A friend introduced us.” Kind of.
“How, when they were in Chicago?” All of the sudden Nina’s face went blank. “Wait a second. You called me from a Chicago area code yesterday.” She turned and gave me the strongest stare I’d ever seen anyone use.
Someone needed to turn on the air. It was getting really hot in here. I tugged at my shirt sleeve, trying not to let her catch my eyes with her death glare.
Her gaze swung to Rebecca. Rebecca nodded in sympathy. Shoot. I was dead.
“Trisha?” Oh, so it was Trisha now. I really was in trouble. I looked to the back seat for support. Jaden raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. Jaime was sleeping, of course. Lucy screwed up her face into an expression that was as close to sympathy as I’d seen there, but didn’t have any advice either.
“Yes?” I stalled, scrambling internally. At this point I totally didn’t care if she knew about everything except for Jaden. I would be perfectly happy telling her all I knew about the fae. Everything but that.
She didn’t say anything, just raised an eyebrow. Ouch. “Okay, yes, I was there yesterday. I was just trying to help.”
Nina looked from me to Rebecca and back to me. “How did you get there? How did you get back?”
“A friend helped.” Say as little as possible. That was my only plan here. Anything could lead to me being forced to admit why I’d come, and after that, what I was about to do. She may not hate me for being fae, something I could still hardly believe, but turning over an innocent man? No, she wouldn’t go for that.
“You sure have a lot more friends than you’ve ever mentioned to me.” Nina looked like she just wanted to close her eyes and forget everything, but she was still driving. “Next time something like this comes up, talk to me first.”
I nodded. Thankfully she let it drop after that, but I knew I’d have more explaining to do later. She was just being thoughtful and not chewing me in front of the Martans.
Rebecca and Nina mostly ignored us for the next hour, Nina asking questions and Rebecca answering from the back, only turning to me when Rebecca didn’t know the answer to something. That wasn’t often, and sometimes I didn’t have an answer either. She actually knew some stuff about my kind I didn’t. Her husband must have trusted her completely to tell a human all these things.
And he must have been a strange fae. So far the rest of them I’d met hadn’t been too keen on humans. Was that why the Council was so against him? Because he’d revealed the secret to a human? And why were they chasing his family? Lucy had snorted and laughed the first few minutes, then put her earbuds in and ignored the conversation. Jaime was still blissfully napping against her mom. I envied her.
Jaden was staring outside in the middle set of seats.
“You okay?” I asked him quietly.
He looked at me for a second, then back out the window. “I guess.”
He didn’t look like it. Did I really want to get into that? I sighed. “What’s wrong? We’re almost done with what you wanted. Your family will be safe.”
“Yes, but after tomorrow, when you turn me over, I’ll never see them again. They’ll take me back to Faerie. If I’m lucky they’ll return me to the school. If not, I don’t know.”
I crushed the guilt. Dan and Nina, Dan and Nina. This was for them. Or for me, but so I could stay with them, which was kind of for them, right? Not selfish at all.
Thinking of my family. “Is the school really that bad?”
“It’s not terrible, there’s just no freedom. No going outside, the elemental kids would escape. The shifters would go down the drains of the showers, so only baths. They keep us all under lock and key.”
Okay, yuck. That didn’t sound nice. But it didn’t matter. “I’m sorry, Jaden. I have to do what’s best for my family.”
He nodded. “I know. Family is all we really have.”
His statement was a sucker punch. I’d never thought of it like that before, but he was right. Why else would I be fighting so hard for my little thrown together family? Somehow it had become everything to me. And here I was taking him away from his.
But he couldn’t even interact with them. It was fine. It had to be fine.
“I’ll always worry about them, Trish, even if they are in Sanctuary.”
“Hush up, you worry too much. They have no idea where we’re going. No one but Cray could find us, and he’s on our side.”
“You don’t think there are others with his ability out there?”
I guess I’d never really thought of that. There were probably other healers out there too, healers who would understand me. Interesting. And Starren and Wade had found us at that gas station.
Nope, not thinking about it. Dan and Nina, Dan and Nina.
Forty something miles. Piece of cake after the last two days. We got gas and seats got rearranged again, Rebecca driving and Nina taking shotgun. The half hour went by quickly. Rebecca and Nina let out a cheer as we passed the city limits sign.
I felt something weird go through me, or out of me, as soon as we crossed into the city. For the first time in my life I felt a nagging pain in my knee. It was really strange, that injury had healed itself months ago. I turned to ask Jaden if he’d felt anything weird and caught sight of Lucy’s face. She looked a mixture of horrified and absolutely ecstatic. It was really strange. I turned to see what she was looking at and all I saw was Jaden. “What?” I asked.
Lucy reached her hand out slowly, so slowly it was trembling. She paused for a second, then laid her hand on top of Jaden’s.
“Luce?” Jaden said.
The van careened off the side of the road onto the berm and screeched to a stop. “Jaden?” Rebecca said from the front.
“Jade, Jade, Jade!” Jaime yelled. “I told them you were around.”
I caught a glimpse of Nina’s face. She looked freaked, like maybe this was too much for her. If I’d known this was going to happen I would have warned them all. Cray was dead the next time I saw him.
“This is the Jaden?” Nina asked. “The one that died?” She gave me a look that said we were going to be having another discussion soon.
Everyone was too busy to answer her. Rebecca flung off her seat belt, jumped through the opening between the front seats and grabbed Jaden in a bear hug that enveloped Lucy and Jaime as well.
They could see him here. That was so amazing. Oh no, no it wasn’t. I started to hyperventilate. No, no. This changed things. Now what was I going to do? How could I convince him to leave his family and go back to Faerie with Starren, even if he had promised? And how could I drag him away from his family now, even if he still planned on holding up his end of the bargain? No, this couldn’t happen. This wasn’t the plan.
I took a deep breath, glad everyone was so focused on Jaden that they didn’t notice my reaction. It didn’t change anything. It couldn’t.
“I don’t think we should just sit here by the road,” I said after a minute of reunion going on in the back. “Fae abilities don’t work here, and we’re supposed to be safe, but we’re just trusting Cray’s word.”
“Who’s Cray?” Nina asked.
“The friend that told Trish where we’d be safe,” Jaden said.
“He’s the one that needed help?” Nina asked. “Are there fae living around home and that’s how you know him?”
“He was on my squad.” Truth, but too much truth?
“Squad?” Nina asked. She did not look happy. I better not lose her and Dan by acting fae and covering stuff up when I didn’t even know why I was doing it. It would be stupid to mess things up with them when I was going to ruin Jaden’s life to get to stay with them. Honesty. Hard habit to form. “What squad are you talking about?”
“The one tracking me down,” Jaden said.
“What? Tracking you down? And you brought him to the house?” Rebecca asked Jaden.
“He’d already been at the house with Trish,” Jaden said. “I figured it’d be better if I got him to help us than to let him chase us.”
“Why were they chasing you?” Rebecca asked Jaden, her face wet. Shoot, I’d thought it was only my mom crying that bothered me.
“How long were you in Chicago? You were supposed to be in school. And you never told me how you got there in the first place,” Nina said. Shoot. Nailed again.
“Portals. Fae have portals,” Jaden answered for me.
“Like zap you back and forth portals?” Nina looked from me to Jaden back to me. “Why didn’t you use them today?”
“I got kicked off the team I was on because I was secretly helping Jaden,” I said.
“What? Are they after you now too?” Her voice went to a pitch I’d never heard from her before. But it would be scary, not knowing anything about the fae and wondering if they were after you.
“Oh, no. They don’t know I was helping Jaden,” I said, trying to ease her fear a little. “I was just so unhelpful they got rid of me.”
She sighed, looking slightly relieved. Slightly. “How does this team affect us?”
“It doesn’t.” At least I hoped it didn’t. I didn’t want her knowing what kind of person I was, that I would give Jaden back to the fae. Hopefully she would never see that side of me. Though Jaden’s transfer had just gotten a lot more complicated. Was the airport inside city limits? Someone might notice if he got on the plane and didn’t get off, even if he was hiding in the bathroom when he turned invisible again.
“Let’s find a hotel then. Rebecca, would you like me to drive?”
“Yes, if you would.” Rebecca snuggled in closer to her kids. It would have been forever if we had to wait on her.
“What’s going on with this team?” Nina moved over and buckled her seatbelt without looking, her eyes following my every movement like she could find out the truth by staring at me. I buckled my seatbelt too. It was the first time I’d really cared about wearing it, but I felt a little weird right now. More tired than normal. A little achy. “The team, Trisha,” Nina reminded me.
Shoot, sooner rather than later. I didn’t want to hide things from her anymore. Family told each other stuff, right? “Fae born on Earth are supposed to go back to Faerie to be trained. I never did, and they caught up with me. They said I could get let off the hook if I helped them with some stuff.”
We rolled back out onto the highway and cruised back up to speed, hardly able to hear each other with the din going on in the back. “Faerie? What kind of place is that? Anything like all the bedtime stories? It’s a rough place if it is.”
“I’ve never been. But this is what my mom was hiding me from, and if she didn’t want me going back, I don’t think I want to.” Hopefully the reason she left me at Waterton Heights. But I would probably never know.
“What happened to your mom?”
“I don’t know. She dropped me off to keep me safe.”
Nina cocked her head and thought for a second. “And your dad?”
“Never met him.”
She kept checking me, like she thought her questions were going to make me cry or something. Like I would cry in here with all these people. “What did these fae have you doing for them?”
And here was where I had to be careful. “Hunting fae that sneak over into the human world. They’re usually not very nice creatures.”
“So not all of them look like people?”
“No.”
“Were you in danger?” That worried look, now I felt bad. “Are they dangerous? These other fae?”
“Not really to me.” I shrugged. “Not many things are dangerous to me.”
“I guess that’s true.” She looked relieved. I guess an insta-healing kid would make any parent happy.
“How long have you been working for them?”
“Not long. Just since Wade.” I shifted in my seat, trying to take some pressure off my left thigh. When had it started hurting?
“Since you disappeared for a few days.”
I shrugged, not really knowing how to answer that. She didn’t seem to expect an answer anyway.
“Any chance we could not tell Dan about this?”
She gave me the look.
I sighed. “Worth a try.”
Nina cruised along just under the speed limit. Wise, we didn’t really need to get picked up right now. Not with the party going on in the back. And the van still looked like a wreck, even though it was running, so a cop would probably be more inclined to pull us over anyway. “How long will you have to work for them before you’re free?” Nina was looking at me, worry creasing her forehead. I didn’t deserve that worry, not with what I planned to do.
I glanced over my shoulder at the family getting noisier and noisier behind us. This discussion sucked. “Not long.”
We got into town. Fast food places and a couple hotels flashed by. This seemed like a decent enough city. Several shopping centers and a random car parts store later, Nina finally picked a hotel that she thought ‘looked safe but affordable.’ At least we got two rooms, one per family, which meant I got my own bed. It was six o’clock before we were all settled in. Nina kept hugging me and I didn’t have the heart to make her stop. I really wanted to be in the shower. This dried blood was getting itchy.
Nina and I gave the Martans some time with Jaden, which gave me a chance to get that shower, then went over and crashed in their room. Nina ordered pizza while Rebecca re-checked the address for the dialysis place.
Jaime slept in Jaden’s lap until the pizza finally arrived. She hadn’t left him for even a second. She was doing a lot of sleeping. Hopefully stress didn’t make the weird fae disease she had worse.
Lucy passed out pieces of pizza. Jaden tore into his, smearing sauce all over his face, then sending a grin my way. “Real food.” That was the first time I’d ever seen him really smile. Sure, he’d smiled when his family could finally see him, but more of a teary smile. This was all guy grin. And it made my heart pitter patter. Stupid heart.
“Who’s going to eat this last piece?” Rebecca held up the last box. “Trisha?”
I groaned. “No.” Normally I would have no problem, but I could hardly move and I’d only eaten half of what I normally did.
“She already ate most of the large meat lovers,” Nina said, laughing.
“I’m going to head down to the lobby and get a paper.” Rebecca said. “It should have available apartments in the area. Maybe we can start looking tomorrow.”
Lucy flicked on the TV and switched channels until she passed America’s Funniest Home Videos.
“Wait, Lucy, please, can we watch that?” Jaime asked when she passed it by. Her words came out all slurred. I guess she wasn’t as asleep as I thought she was. Or maybe the magic of AFV had brought her back from Dreamland.
Lucy sighed but switched the channel back. It went to commercial break a minute later. A knock on the door came before the show was back from commercials. We all froze.
Another knock.
Jaden lifted Jaime off his lap, stood and moved toward the door. He reached for his sword that was leaning on the wall and peeked out the window through the curtain. He sighed and reached for the door handle.
“Sorry,” Rebecca said, pushing her way in. “Forgot my key.”
I told my muscles to let go, but they wouldn’t listen.
Obviously we needed some kind of signal so no one got their head chopped off when they wanted back in the room. We were all going to be tense for a while.
“I’m going to call Dan,” Nina said and headed for the door.
Not good. She might try to get us to head home before I had a chance to find a way to get Jaden to Starren. I watched him out of the corner of my eye. Every few minutes Jaime would reach over and pat his knee.
The show came on and Jaime started giggling as some guy fell off a roof. Idiot. I bet he wished he had my ability about the time he hit the ground, or at least five seconds after.
“There are quite a few places in here,” Rebecca said, tapping the paper with the junky pen the hotel had left on the end table. “I hope that’s a good sign, not an indication that no one wants to live in this city. Not that we can ever leave now. We’ll be fine, now that we’re a whole family again.” She smiled in Jaden’s direction even though she was talking to me. Her smile faltered. “Mostly whole.”
I stood and headed for the door. This was not working out. Jaden was the enemy now. I had to think of him that way or I was never going to be able to give him to Starren. All that pizza sat heavy in my stomach. That was why I was feeling sick right now, it had to be. Jaden had promised to let me turn him over, I just needed to get back to D.C., talk to Cumat and have him get a hold of Starren. This whole mess would be done. I could get back to not playing basketball with the girls. Maybe they would still let me hang out with them even if I didn’t play. I could pretend I was really bad at it, that first day just beginner’s luck.
The door to my room was propped open by the deadbolt on the inside of the door. I walked in and Nina was sitting there on the phone. She was listening to what someone was saying. Probably still Dan. Yuck, like I wanted to listen to them. I figured she’d be done by now. It was all either going to be a re-hash of yesterday and all that happened or lovey-doveyness. Which was worse?
“I’ll call you tomorrow. Yes, I think we’ll probably head home then. Okay, love you too.”
Water suddenly sounded good. I walked over to the sink and waited for Nina to say something. She didn’t. Okay, the suspense was killing me, had she told him about me? “So. What did you tell Dan?”
Nina flopped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. “That we are helping a family move to Fort Wayne and we’ll be home tomorrow. I left out all the weird stuff, and the scary stuff. We can explain that when we get back.”
“So the only thing you told him about was the boring car ride?”
“And the flat tire. There’s nothing he can do to help us now, we’re already here. If he heard about what’s been going on, he’d be here in a couple hours. Probably grab one of his friends that can fly and leave before we were off the phone. I don’t want him to bother with that now that everything is under control. We’ll help Rebecca and the kids find a place tomorrow, then we’re headed home.”
“Sounds good.” Mostly. Except for what I had to do once we made it home.
She stood, grabbed her pajamas off the bed and moved over to me. “We’re going to have quite the discussion though, someday, when you’re ready. You haven’t answered half the questions I have.” She tapped me on the nose again, like I was some little kid. I glared, but I kind of liked it.
She turned to head to the shower.
“Nina.” I stopped her.
She turned. “Yeah?”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her into a quick hug. “Thanks for putting up with me.”
She hugged me back, tight, then laughed. “You think you’re the first difficult child I’ve raised?”
I pulled back, seriously confused. She had other kids? “What?”
“Your aunt Wren.” She smiled. “You should have seen her when she was your age. You’re an angel compared to her.” She squeezed my arm and stepped into the motel room.
I leaned back against the rail. Nina had raised Aunt Wren? With all the crazy stuff going on with my own family, I’d never thought to ask her about hers. I’d met Dan’s parents once, when they were visiting from Florida, but hadn’t even noticed Nina’s were never mentioned. Was she an orphan too?
No wonder she knew how to deal with me. When this was over, I was going to ask her about them. Where they were, what had happened. But one thing at a time.
Nina had said she had lots of questions for later. Hah. Compared to the amount of questions I needed answered, her list couldn’t hold a candle.