just a few yards away from being able to jump. To escape. If Caden was caught, the fae leader would hold him hostage. He’d use the only son of the HDF leader to shred the human side.
Or he would be killed and left on display for Istvan to see.
“Go!” I yelled again. “I’m right behind you.”
He nodded, turned, and ran.
POP!
Like a blade through my back, excruciating pain spread across every nerve. My ribs felt as if they were bursting open, freezing my lungs in a stuttered gasp. My legs stumbled.
Oh no.
“Brexley!” Caden’s cry sounded far away, like he was speaking through glass.
A cough hiccupped up my throat, blood sputtering down my chin onto the ground. I felt nothing as I stared at the dark liquid in utter horror. My limbs gave out, feeling what I could not, and I crashed to the ground, my sight hazing at the edges. Footsteps pounded the concrete, reaching me in a blink. Fae were faster than humans, and it took them only a few seconds to catch up with me.
“I got her. Go get the other one,” a woman ordered. A set of boots rushed across my vision, yelling after Caden.
Hands grabbed for my weapon, holding down my arms. Lifting my head, my gaze landed on Caden, our eyes locking for a moment. He stared back at me in horror, fear, and love, his figure set on me, not his exit.
No. Goooo... I mouthed to him, my eyes pleading. Save yourself. There was no hope for me, but he could still get away.
I knew he understood me. The years of knowing each other, the bond of best friends, always linked us. Grief tore over his features, an unexpressed cry pinching his lips together.
A bullet nicked close to his temple, jolting him awake. His eyes met mine one last time before I watched him swivel around and leap over the railing, dropping into the watery darkness below. I knew they wouldn’t be able to get him now. He was safe.
Relief heaved from my lungs, and my head dropped to the pavement.
The woman spoke to me, but I couldn’t make out her words as darkness crept around me. Death beckoned me into its bed.
And my last thought was: At least I won’t have to marry Sergiu now.
Chapter 8
“Wake up.”
A sting zapped through my nerves like a thunderbolt, light crackling across my dark world. Recoiling, instinct told me to bury myself deeper into the blackness. The light was a trick. A sparkling lure dangling in the deep depths, and if I grabbed on, it would only lead me to death.
Wait. Wasn’t I already dead?
Another surge of pain lit up the space around me, no longer letting me hide.
“I said wake up,” someone ordered. The voice was sultry and alluring, but the intention was not. Weakly, I followed the order, not able to fight the demand.
Flinching at the glaring light in the room, I scrunched my lids back together, allowing one eye to partially open.
A woman who appeared to be in her twenties stared down at me. She was dressed in purple scrubs, which complemented her lavender eyes and long white-blonde hair. With high cheekbones and full lips, her expression resembled the bored, pouting models on the covers of magazines in the Unified Nations. A fairy, or fay, was the “highest” breed of fae if you still went by the old ideals, and one stood over me.
Fae was the umbrella term for all those with magic. But there were hundreds if not thousands of species, races, and types under that umbrella.
Fae weren’t the sweet, tiny, winged creatures you saw in books from long past. Not even close. Full of lust, greed, wrath, and pride, some used their looks for hunting humans—a buffet the fae could feed on. They didn’t even need to use their glamour because most fae were humanlike and so stunning you got caught in their web.
“Sit up.” Her perfect upturned nose wrinkled, pushing down the railing that kept me in the bed.
“Where am I?” My voice barely came out a whisper, my brain swimming in confusion, groggy and slow. My gaze danced around the space. It was some kind of “healing” room with a handful of medical beds spaced evenly around the room. “What happened?”
“You were shot,” she responded, her bluntness stirring a few memories of brown eyes staring into mine—pleading and heartbroken.
Fuck. Caden…
My head jerked up, lids squinted, trying to make out the forms in the beds across from me. Only two of them