With Tink here, and his hand clenching mine, I was Ivy again. Sort of. I was enough of my old self that I knew what I needed to do to have the highest chance of survival. Indecision took a back seat.
Faye and the two mystery fae flanked the three of us—Tink, Ren, and me. And I wasn’t doing much running at this point. Tink was mostly half-dragging me. We ran another mile and then came upon a dark stretch of narrow road. The scent of earth and dank water was strong as we slowed down. An oversized black SUV was parked on the shoulder of the road.
The two fae opened the tailgate and climbed in, getting in the very back. Then Tink slid in. He didn’t sit. His long body was folded, cramped as he bent over, waiting. A hand touched my shoulder, and I jolted.
“It’s just me.” Ren removed his hand, his face shadowed. “I’m just helping you get in.”
I flushed as I nodded jerkily, then placed my hand in his. I climbed up into the back of the SUV and sat in the seat.
“Dammit,” Ren exploded, and I looked up at him. He was staring down.
“What?” I asked.
“Your feet. Jesus.” Concern flashed over his face as he held open the back door. “We need to look at them as soon as we get back.”
I didn’t even feel my feet anymore, but I looked down and saw that they were covered in dirt and blood.
Ren hesitated for a second and then closed the door. I watched him jog around the hood of the SUV while Faye climbed into the front passenger seat, and then he was behind the wheel. I sat, tensed and ready for Drake or an ancient to appear out of nowhere.
Then we were moving, hitting the road and quickly speeding up. I looked over at Tink. He was quiet, which was really odd. Tink was never quiet.
I drew in a deep breath and glanced up at the front. Ren’s hand was clenching the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were bleached white. His gaze flicked up to the rearview mirror for a second, finding mine.
What was going through his head? I had no idea, but I shouldn’t have been surprised that he was here, taking part in this rescue mission. He was a member of the Elite, and obviously I couldn’t be left with the prince.
I pressed my lips together and turned to the window, staring out at the dark scenery racing by. Faye was speaking to Ren in a low voice, and I wanted to know how they had met. How their two worlds had crossed. Was it when he was held captive at the mansion, or after? And who were these fae sitting behind us? There were so many questions, but I didn’t ask them. I just stared out the window, watching the woods blur and give way to the grasslands and swamps.
Part of me wondered if this was a dream. Was I really out of there, sitting in the car with Tink and Ren? I rested my forehead against the cool glass. Yes, this was real. The ache in my hip and the soreness in my throat told me it was. When I dreamed, I didn’t feel this . . . cold inside. When I dreamed, I didn’t feel like I was full of shadows.
I was happy—thrilled that I was out, and with each passing second, I was further and further away from that place, but I couldn’t . . . I just couldn’t relax. It was like I was too tired to, and that didn’t even make any sense. My hands shook, so I shoved them between my knees.
Eventually, we hit the city and I started to recognize where we were. It had taken a while to get back to the land of normalcy, which gave me an idea of how far out I’d been the last couple of weeks. Once we got close to the Mississippi River, I realized where we were heading as Ren turned onto Market Street.
I slid my hands out from between my knees and turned toward the front. “Are we”—I cleared my throat—“are we going to the old power plant?”
“Yes,” answered a fae in the back. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw it had been the one sitting on the right. He had fair hair, lighter than the other male. He didn’t look at me when he spoke. “My name is Kalen,” he said. “And this is Dane.”
They were some . . . fae-like names. “Ivy,” I murmured.
“I’m Tink,” Tink announced. “But you guys know that.”
“Yes,” Dane said, sighing. “We know that.”
Tink grinned.
I turned back to the front. “I don’t understand. I checked out this place. It was on a . . .” I trailed off, not wanting to explain how I knew about it.
“It was on a map that Merle drew?” Kalen answered, and I twisted back around. His smile was faint. “We know. Merle is with us. So is her daughter. They are safe.”
Then it struck me, and I felt a little stupid that it had taken me so long to figure it out. “You . . . you guys are the good fae?”
“I told you that not everything is as it seems,” Faye replied from the front, drawing my attention. “Good and evil are subjective,” she continued, peering back over the seat at me. “But we do not kill humans. We do not use our abilities to manipulate humans beyond protecting what we are and where we live. And most of us don’t feed on humans.”
“They age,” Tink said. “And die like humans. I’m a brownie. Therefore, I do not need to feed. I just age very, very, very slowly.”
“I’m guessing you’re probably still in your toddler years then,” Ren muttered from up front.
Tink snorted. “I’ll have you know that I’m two hundred years old.”
My eyes widened as I looked over at him. “What?”
Faye laughed softly. “Brownies can live to be over a thousand years old. In human years, he’s barely twenty.”
Ren snickered.
Tink’s eyes narrowed.
I jumped in before those two got into it, and while that was a welcome thing to hear and see again, I had so many questions. “Okay. I checked the power plant out. It’s run-down and abandoned.”
“We know you checked the place out.” Dane leaned between the seats. “We saw you, but we only let you see what we wanted you to see. It keeps the humans away. Allows us to live in peace away from the . . .”
I got it. “Away from the Order.”
“Exactly.” He sat back. “The kind of glamour we’re using on the building can’t be seen through. No wards will break it.”
“And this isn’t the only building like this?” I asked.
“No,” Ren answered as the vehicle slowed. “It’s not.”
I exhaled slowly and sat back against the seat. There was a lot I didn’t know. Big surprise there. Outside the window, the old power plant came into view. It still looked like a place where a serial killer would leave their victims’ body parts. Ren turned down the road, heading towards the back of the building. We passed the old metal fencing and then we entered a narrow alley where the vehicle stopped.
Ren killed the engine, and as I stared at his profile, my heart started kicking around in my chest. His hands slipped off the steering wheel, and I saw his shoulders rise. He turned, his gaze finding and holding mine in the dimly lit interior for what felt like forever. Neither of us spoke in those precious seconds that felt like forever and yet not nearly long enough.
Faye spoke, breaking the spell. “We’re trusting you, Ivy. We brought in Ren. We trust him, and I swore to my people that bringing you here would be safe,” she said. “We can protect you from the prince, but we cannot put our people at risk.”
“Aren’t your people going to be at risk once the prince finds out I’m missing?” I asked.
Kalen spoke up from behind us. “The prince is not our only concern. The Order cannot know where we are either.”
My gaze flew to Ren. Obviously if he was here, then he had agreed to keep this all from the Elite and the Order, and that was a big deal. I had no idea how he had come about finding this place and why he had decided to trust them, because that was a huge leap for any Order member to be working with the fae, no matter how good they claimed to be. It was still hard to believe what Merle had wrote in her journals.
But Faye had gotten me out of that place, away from Drake, and Tink was here, along with Ren. “Okay,” I said, agreeing to the one thing that was sure to get me kicked out of the Order. Then again, being
a halfling also revoked my card-carrying membership. But I still felt uneasy, even though it was the right thing to do. “I won’t betray you.”
Chapter Thirty
Faye studied me a moment.
“She won’t.” Tink opened the door on his side. “She kept me all this time and never told anyone. Renny-Tin-Tin didn’t even know about me until he walked out into the kitchen naked with his junk all hanging out, swinging—”
“I’m going to punch you,” Ren cut in. “And it will hurt.”