Reaching Answers (Artemis University #8) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,37

she has. It’s disgusting, you git.”

I really needed to understand what White, and now Craftsman, were talking about with Faerie answering to me or the female heirs or whatever. That sounded too out there for me to wrap my head around.

Well, lots of it was, but that especially.

Craftsman came over to me with determination in his eyes. “I found what I was looking for yesterday.”

I flinched, hating how he reacted like I’d punched him in the gut. After I’d started my fun with Lucca, Craftsman had apparently dived into some research and had forgotten lunch and dinner… Forgotten everything else.

Which reminded me how much that hurt when he’d done that before.

“It was for you, love,” he whispered, nodding when I gave him a questioning look. “Trust me?”

I swallowed what I was feeling and moved closer, giving my consent. If Neldor wasn’t there, I would have asked at least a dozen questions and pushed him… But we needed to start having a united front against the dark fairy or he was going to keep poking at us and breaking us apart.

And I couldn’t keep going on like that. I couldn’t hold out forever against him trying to emotionally beat me around so I was easier to deal with and he could get what he wanted.

Craftsman moved his left hand to the side of my neck and closed his eyes, speaking Latin as he started drawing runes on the other side of my neck and down my skin.

“No!” Neldor bellowed.

I heard something fall and the sound of fighting in the background, but I couldn’t focus on it. I couldn’t look away from Craftsman’s eyes.

He drew another rune over my heart and I felt our magic, our souls, brush each other, dance together like we had in my kitchen so many months ago. His eyes opened and I felt whatever he had done finish, our very auras sort of snuggle together in comfort.

“You fool,” Neldor growled.

I glanced at him then and did a double take, seeing he was being held back by Lucca, Zack, and the hobgoblins who were using magic on him. Woah.

“Now you can’t do anything to her,” Craftsman chuckled as he pulled me against him. “As her mate, I could place the enchantment on her that would alert me if you so much as use an impression rune on her to pressure her into something. I’ll know all of it now and she’s safe.”

And that was what Neldor had tried to stop, fight so hard against.

He was really the worst.

Apparently, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Neldor did a double take this time when he probably saw the disgust on my face. He growled at me. “It also gives him access to all the runes you use. All the secrets we keep of our people. You just gave a warlock from one of the most corrupt families in their world complete access to all the knowledge you will have as the light fairy heir and more!”

I let out a slow breath. “Let him go.” I nodded when the others looked shock. “He’s valid. I would have tried to stop that too. It might not have been so innocent, but that’s a valid concern and he was trying to protect our people. I can’t fault him that.”

“And that’s not the enchantment I used,” Craftsman argued.

“You did—”

“I altered it,” Craftsman interjected.

Neldor sighed, yanking away from Lucca and Zack when the hobgoblins let him go. “You can’t. You have to do more than switch around runes, Craftsman. You’d have to be able to invent new runes or create links that witches and warlocks can’t just—”

“He can,” Lucca, Darby, and several of the hobgoblins said together.

I nodded when Neldor looked at me for confirmation. “He can make new runes. He’s done it for me and my telepathy to help me.”

“I can’t even do that,” Neldor muttered, giving Craftsman a suspicious look. “There’s no way you can.”

I snorted. “I could have told you he was more talented than you.” I felt my cheeks heat as I realized how that sounded, even if everyone knew that I’d never touched Neldor.

Craftsman ran his fingers along where he had placed the runes. “If you feel this area light up with an uncomfortable heat, they’re flaring in warning and get out of where you are. I’ll meet you and handle what’s been done to you, love.”

“That’s what you were researching? That’s what you got lost in?”

“Yes. I—he didn’t handle the news well, and I knew I had to