Lex stared at the food in her hand. “Tacos?”
Garrin sniffed the taco he’d just unwrapped. “I was surprised as well. It’s rather flavorful, this human food.” He took a large bite, eating half in one fell swoop. “We are conspicuous in your land, but the establishment allowed us to drive our vehicle to a window to procure the meal. But do not worry. Soon we will be in Tirnan, where the food is excellent.” He grinned and tossed the last bite into his mouth.
The picture he painted of three seven-foot men pulling up to a drive-through would be funny if she weren’t being kidnapped.
Lex’s stomach roiled and the food in her hand grew cold. Was she Halven?
Now that she wasn’t having a panic attack, she studied the three guys doing what men do best the world over and eating their weight in food. They were attractive—beautiful, even—with straight features and athletic, tall bodies. Not to mention confident. All adjectives that didn’t apply to Lex. She was tall, but that was the only thing she had in common with them.
She set her taco down and rubbed her forehead. If she could only think straight. “How far is this Land of Ice?” Maybe if she went and showed Garrin she wasn’t magical, he’d let her go?
He hesitated as though deciding what to tell her. Which wasn’t reassuring. “We will travel to Tirnan, the Fae realm—a relatively simple journey to navigate via portal. Traversing the Land of Ice and reaching our kingdom…that is more of a challenge.”
A cold sweat broke out on Lex’s forehead. “Because of all the ice and snow?”
Garrin frowned. “You are not eating.”
“My stomach…” Lex pressed her arm to her belly. “I can’t eat.”
“Help her,” she heard Garrin say.
Zirel reached over a Frisbee-sized palm and flattened it on her stomach.
Lex squirmed away, but not fast enough. Heat infused her abdomen, and the coiled muscles and sinew eased.
She glared at Zirel. “Warn me before you do that. It’s super creepy.”
He shot her a grin, and Lex blinked. Good Lord, even the assistant was hot.
Compared to these men, Lex was homely as hell. If there was any truth to her being part Fae, she hadn’t gotten the good-looking genes.
“We will be on strict rations while traveling.” Garrin nodded at her food. “You must eat now. Our kind can survive long stretches without nourishment, but not yours.”
It had to have been hours since Garrin and his men kidnapped her from her dorm, given where they were. Dawson was located on a river delta, miles from mountains and caves. No one was going to find her here. No one was going to rescue her before they took her away for good.
“You don’t understand,” Lex said, her mouth tacky and dry. “I have…problems. If you think my panic attack earlier was bad, just wait until you put me near snow.”
Garrin set his food down. “What is this panic attack you speak of?”
“Fear—irrational fear. I can’t control it. The one time I saw snow, my heart raced so fast I passed out. Other times, I feel like I’m having a heart attack with all the signs and symptoms.”
Garrin looked to Zirel, who nodded.
“We will heal you,” Garrin said.
Lex shook her head. “My body, maybe, but not my mind. I won’t pass out if Zirel does his”—she waved vaguely at the redhead, because what in the hell had he done?—“but inside, my mind will be a wreck. Please.” She reached over and touched Garrin’s shoulder. And immediately retracted it as though she’d been burned. A spark of heat radiated up her arm, and she rubbed it. “Please, don’t do this.”
Garrin’s eyes were bluer than she’d ever seen them, nearly illuminated in the dim light set by the fire. “It is my duty. I must.”
“Doesn’t what I want matter?” Lex had never mattered to anyone except her mother, and now Jas, but it was worth a shot.
“No,” he said.
She wrapped her arms around her knees and rocked back and forth. Garrin didn’t realize it yet, but he was on a fool’s mission. Because she wouldn’t survive the Land of Ice long enough to help him.
Lex was a strange female, fearful of the unknown when the known could be so much more deadly.
Garrin and Zirel had barely escaped the Land of Ice with their immortal lives. Hope had sprung when Amund, with his portal-creating powers, joined them after they reached New Kingdom, but not for long. Garrin had believed Lex would have command of her abilities, given her age. Only it seemed not.
Without Lex’s powers, there was no way to remove the magic-blocking barriers that prevented his people from safely coming and going. No way to create a megaportal to other realms and lands. Amund didn’t possess such magic. No one did.
Portal makers were capable of taking short jumps within a kingdom with a couple of people on board, not flights across tens of thousands of miles. Travel across the Land of Ice took months and was cold and dangerous.
And that worried Garrin. If Fae perished in the Land of Ice, how would a Halven with no abilities survive?
Amund swiveled his head to the side. “They are here,” he said sharply.
“Who?” Lex paused from nibbling the food Garrin had finally convinced her to eat.
Garrin sighed harshly. The Fae soldiers on Earth shouldn’t have found them for days. And now Garrin, his men, and Lex must leave before they’d properly prepared, and before the girl had sufficiently eaten. If the cold and snow she so feared didn’t kill her, lack of nutrition would. But he had no choice. “Create the portal.”
Amund raised his hand to the cave wall, moving it in a circular motion just above the surface. But before he could finish, four soldiers stormed inside.
“Lex!” one of the men shouted.
“Jasper?” Lex stood and moved toward the male—a Fae like Garrin, though Lex couldn’t know that. She hadn’t known Garrin and his men were Fae when she first encountered them.
“Stay back,” the man Lex called Jasper said. He was dressed in black, along with the rest of the Fae soldiers, who were quickly brandishing swords, including a black-haired female with eyes like Garrin’s.
Shimmers of light from Amund’s portal bounced off the walls of the cave.
“Now, Amund.” Garrin unsheathed his sword. “Take the girl.”
“No!” Lex shouted, and scurried away from Amund.
Garrin moved between her and the soldiers, and he and Zirel fought back the men, clashes of metal on metal rending the cool night air.
Eyeing an opening, Garrin charged with his sword, forcing Jasper toward the entrance before the soldier could make his way to Lex.
The Fae sidestepped a powerful blow and slashed back, aiming for Garrin’s head.
Garrin ignored a light nudge on his back as he blocked blow after blow from the soldiers. He swung his blade, missing Jasper’s sword arm but slicing the man’s side.
Garrin straightened while the other man stumbled, and a pounding on his back caught his attention. He looked over his shoulder.
The small Halven was beating him with her fists.
Did she think to harm him? “Stand back, female. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
“Don’t kill Jas! Let me go! I don’t belong here.”
“Belong or not—you are mine now.”
An animal cry sounded from the Fae who sought Lex. He stormed forward, his pale skin red with fury.
Garrin shoved Lex aside and deflected a blow that nearly clipped her.
Rage had Garrin’s chest pulling taut. The man Lex so favored had nearly injured her.
Garrin could use his magic, but it might frighten Lex, and he didn’t need it to best the others. He made several strikes with his sword in quick succession and forced Jasper to retreat.
Garrin feinted a move, and when Jasper went to block it, Garrin kicked the Fae in the chest, sending him flying out of the cave.
“No!” Lex launched herself onto Garrin’s back, and he sighed.
“Female, what did I say about hurting yourself?” She was trying to strangle him, but it felt more like a neck rub. “Very well. This serves my purpose.”
Garrin held on to Lex with one arm behind him and ran to where Amund stood, his face strained as he held open the portal. Garrin jumped inside and tucked his sword close to his body, away from the woman on his back.
Colorful magic inside the portal momentarily blinded Garrin, but he sensed the pull of the landing. At the last moment, he spun and protected Lex from the fall, swiftly rolling them out of the way before Zirel and Amund crashed down.
“We must hurry,” Amund said, panting. No magic came without effort, and Amund had portaled them to the cave and now to Tirnan. “There was a portal creator with the soldiers. A woman they call Camille. I met her when I supported New Kingdom’s queen, Theodora Rainer.”
“Rainer? The human lover?” Garrin climbed to his feet and pulled Lex up with him.
After they found Amund in New Kingdom, he’d told them stories of Theodora Joelle Rainer, the New Kingdom princess who’d married a human and borne his child. It was her full-grown Halven offspring who’d saved Tirnan from a disease made to kill every immortal Fae. Only Dark Kingdom had remained untouchable. Not even disease penetrated the magical barrier that set his people apart from the rest of Tirnan.
Garrin felt a blow to his stomach and looked at the woman in front of him. “That one I felt, little Halven.” He cocked his head to the side. “You are stronger in Tirnan.” He glanced at Amund. “Is this normal?”
Amund was the most knowledgeable out of the three of them when it came to Halven, having fought beside the New Kingdom queen’s Halven child. But on this matter, Amund merely shrugged.
Excellent. Even Amund didn’t understand Garrin’s Halven.
Lex’s light brown eyes flared with anger. “You jerk! Where is Jas? What did you do to him?”
“Your Fae friend? I assume he is braving the mountains where I left him. Or he and his men are on their way here…” Garrin looked at Amund.
“On it.” Amund waved his hand in the air, drawing on his magic, though his hand shook.
Amund would be able to create the portal, but it would take longer. His power was waning, and they hadn’t much time.
Garrin ushered Lex closer to his men. “The soldiers from New Kingdom will arrive within seconds. As will your friends who wished to cut out our hearts. We must go.”
“Your heart,” Lex said. “They wish to cut out your heart, not mine. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Lex glared at the shimmer of the beginnings of another portal. “And not in there. What was that?” She looked around suspiciously. “How did it take us here?”
Garrin sighed. “Will you always be this difficult?”
“Yes! You kidnapped me and took me through thin air to this place!” She gestured forcefully at the sky. “There are three moons. Three! And the stars are red. I’ll probably die of radioactive contamination.”
Garrin looked around and spotted what he sought. “We are in Tirnan, the Fae realm. Your homeland. Or, at least, the homeland of one of your sires. As long as we aren’t confronted by other Fae, you’ll be safe.” He quickly paced to the closest Allon tree and started plucking leaves. Zirel scavenged for fruit and more leaves a few feet away. “Fae in Tirnan despise Halven, so stay close.”
“H-how will they know I’m Halven?” she said, inching nearer.
He stashed the leaves into the bag they’d brought, filled with warm clothes for Lex and he and his men. “I’ll explain later.” He fisted more leaves. “This isn’t what I planned, but it will have to do. We haven’t time.”
A rumbling came in the distance, and Garrin looked past Lex.
She gripped his arm. “What is that?”
He signaled to Amund, who was bent at the waist, his tanned skin pale, and ushered Lex toward the new portal. “It is the sound of deadly New Kingdom soldiers alerted of our arrival by a Presence Charm.” He threw the bag of provisions to Zirel. “Useful magic, Presence Charms.” He pulled out his sword. “Except when you’re doing the invading. We leave. Now.”
Lex looked around. “I don’t see anyone.”
And she wouldn’t. Not until the soldiers were upon them.
New Kingdom Fae possessed elemental powers—the ability to control fire, water molecules, and other natural elements. They were likely hidden among the fog that grew closer.
“It does not matter that a Halven sits on the New Kingdom throne. Most believe her rule temporary. Either way, they will kill first and talk later if they discover you.”
“Just me? Why won’t they kill you?”
“They’ll try to kill me, but I’m harder to get rid of. Now go!” Garrin shoved her stubborn body closer to the portal and ran in the opposite direction and toward the deadly fog.
There was no avoiding using his power now. He raised his free hand, and flames jutted at the dense gray mist.
Screams cracked the night sky, and the figures of Fae soldiers aflame emerged from the dissipating fog.
But Fae healed fast, and a little burn for an otherwise healthy Fae was nothing.
Garrin stabbed the soldiers closest to him, slashing and maiming others, and only pausing to glance back and ensure Lex was in the portal.
But what he saw made fear lance his chest.
Lex fought Zirel’s attempts to usher her into the portal, and Amund had collapsed to one knee, his hand raised, attempting to keep hold of his magic.
Garrin stabbed his way through the frontline of soldiers, blocked a lightning bolt and several boulders aimed at his head, and threw one massive fire torch at his enemies before running for Lex.
She grabbed his arm as he neared. “Take me back!”
“I’ve already told you.” He picked her up, one arm under her knees and the other behind her back. “I can’t,” he said, and jumped into the portal.
