Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,24

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Faerie…

“I can’t just go there,” I argued with the voice. “The king and queen…they’re waiting to kill me.”

Come to me… it replied, as though that were something altogether different.

“Listen, if you know some secret way to get in that won’t trigger alarms and get me killed, I’d love for you to show me, but—”

My voice cut short as the dancing fog slowly took the shape of a face so hauntingly beautiful that it nearly brought tears to my eyes. It shot up toward me from the darkness so fast that I staggered back a step out of reflex.

Follow me, it whispered, the ghostly lips of the smoky apparition disturbingly human.

I leaned forward and reached toward the face glowing faintly in the moonlight. My fingers stretched to touch the beauty of this ethereal being. But just as they were about to graze its cheek, the sound of my name rent the air. The being twisted toward the source and snarled before dropping back into the gorge, its visage disappearing in a swirl of dissipating fog.

Seconds later, Merc broke through the tree line with a small entourage behind him, including a very pissed-off looking grizzly bear and an alpha wolf ready to commit any number of heinous crimes in the name of keeping me safe. The others didn’t look too pleased either, but I guessed I couldn’t blame them. God only knew what Merc had told them as he no doubt tore the mansion apart looking for me after I escaped our dream.

Shame heated my cheeks. I should have thought of that before that moment. But that voice…

“Piper!” he shouted as he darted toward me on the bridge.

“I’m fine,” I said, putting my hands up to ward off his panic, not that it helped. “I’m sorry I scared you—”

“I came to find you after—” he cut himself off when Knox shot him a dubious look. “I wanted to see if you were well, given how you left our dream. When you weren’t with Knox—”

“He sounded the motherfucking alarm,” the alpha finished for him.

“Ugh,” I groaned, “yeah, I just realized that probably happened.”

Knox stepped past Merc, his brow furrowed with concern. “Want to tell us why you’re standing out here in the middle of the night, alone, talking to the voices?”

“I woke up here,” I said, biting my lip. My answer garnered the response I expected. My mates’ eyes went wide. Grizz snorted. And a slew of creative swears escaped the rest. “It’s not my fault!”

“We are aware of that,” Merc said dryly, eyeing the surrounding forest as though the fey might attack at any moment. “And that is the most disconcerting part of all this.”

Knowing an explanation was in order, I recounted the events that had occurred after I’d woken up standing on the bridge. The squad of disbelieving faces stared back in silence.

“And then Merc’s angry call scared the fog-face guy away.”

Nobody spoke for a painfully long time. Then Dean opened his mouth. “So…where did this pretty fog boy want you to follow him to?”

“Faerie, but…it was like he knew a way that wouldn’t sound the alarm when I arrived.”

“Well, you’re sure as fuck not going to do what this thing wants. This reeks of fey bullshit.”

“I am inclined to agree,” Merc added.

“So, something in the gorge is calling you…again?” Dean asked for clarification.

“Looks that way.”

“I find it interesting that those of you with ties to Faerie could hear the earlier voices,” Merc said, “but only Piper was drawn out here to experience this face in the fog.” I hadn’t considered that, having been too caught up in everything to put that piece together. But what it meant, I didn’t know.

I leaned forward over the railing to peer down into the pitch-black cavern below. The fog was all but gone and I could hear the water running, but it was far too dark to see anything but the deep chasm of nothing. Merc’s hand clamped down on my shoulder and gently pulled me back. When I looked back at him, the fear in his eyes was plain.

“I’m not going to do anything crazy,” I assured him, but he looked far from confident.

“Am I missing something?” Knox asked.

I let out a long exhale. “I may or may not have almost jumped to my death here once before,” I explained. His eyes went wide. “I think my behavior is making Merc edgy.”

Before the vampire king could answer for himself, the original whispers I’d heard the first time—the chorus of muddled voices—floated up through