Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,104

being back or position before we’re ready. I don’t like it but it’s smarter.”

“Good, then someone make the call and get the royals on board.”

“My parents will be fine with it,” Hudson promised, as annoyed about the meeting as I was. He couldn’t even hide it from where he stood leaning against the wall of my party room with his arms crossed over his wide chest. “We’re done now, right? We can actually get to the plans for today instead of this crap?”

Edelman raised an eyebrow at him. “I would think as a prince you would have more patience for politics.”

I quietly cleared my throat, trying to remind Hudson that by some miracle, Edelman didn’t actually know about us yet. And it was smarter to keep it that way.

Hudson sighed, wiping his hand over his face. “Tamsin’s my friend, and I’m tired of all this always getting dumped on her. I would bet a few are pushing for this system so hard because they think she’s behind it, and it will be another bullshit reason to try and get her into custody. It’s constant and the same games. She needs a damn day off and we’re cutting into it. Again.”

“You might be onto something there,” Geiger muttered, sharing a look with Edelman and then White. “Something to check into. The crystals, they couldn’t make stick as an actual security threat, but this could be. It’s a security invention she will deny some because of corruption—a judgment they won’t allow her to make. This could be a trap.”

“Then we need to investigate the ones pushing the hardest and see what we come up with,” Iolas stated firmly, giving me a glance not to argue and he would handle it.

Fine. By. Me. People could handle a lot more of everything, in my opinion, as long as they did it right.

And Iolas always did.

“Okay, meeting over then,” Darby announced as he came towards me with an evil grin.

And handed me a blindfold.

Huh?

I took it from him with a frown. “I’m not wearing this while getting naked.”

“Jesus, Tamsin,” he hissed, as half the room burst out laughing while some of our teachers and important school people looked like they were as embarrassed as Darby.

Oh geez, grow up.

I put on the blindfold and promised I couldn’t see anything and I had my telepathy off. I even yelped as he picked me up off the chair and carried me away.

Except I knew when he took me to the portal to Faerie. I could feel it. So that blew the surprise that our first fun was in Faerie, but I wasn’t going to bust him on that.

I was too excited at the prospect of a morning picnic there. That sounded amazing right then. Or always. Yeah, always.

The portal was already activated and we went right through. He took off the blindfold and smirked at me, letting me know he assumed I could feel the portal. Which meant he didn’t want me to see what had been set up on the way there?

Huh?

I turned towards the portal just in time to see Irma and the hobgoblins from school come through… Along with all their kids who had never been to Faerie. I gasped as my hands moved to cover my mouth and tears immediately filled my eyes.

And I wasn’t the only one having that reaction from the other fairies standing with us to witness this. There were hundreds of us now, and this was maybe exactly what we all needed to keep pushing forward with what we needed to do.

“Tamsin, it’s Faerie!” Elasha squealed so loudly it echoed above all the others. She’d been my first little buddy who had come over to see my hair and meet her first fairy when I was still new to everything. I’d been so scared and too afraid to even admit that to myself, and she was one of the few to reach out to include me, welcome me.

Even if it had only been to bring me an apple.

“Yeah, it’s Faerie, Elasha,” I rasped. I kissed Darby’s cheek and hurried over to the kids, picking her up first and swinging her all around before we all ended up on the ground in a pile of tickling and giggling and just pure joy. There was no other way to categorize it other than blissful joy.

More and more hobgoblins came through the portal with their kids who couldn’t even contain their excitement at getting to see their homeland for the first time. In