Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,39

threw back my head and laughed. “So do I. I’ll come right after my run, and we’ll meet up with the pack. It’s good cover before Izzy wakes up.”

She frowned. “People don’t know?”

I rolled my eyes at her. “You think they’d let me do something so simple without several guards? We’d lose the alibis, and everything else we need, so people don’t get in trouble.”

“That’s true, but promise me you’ll be safe.”

“I swear it to you,” I said firmly. “I know my importance in saving Faerie. I won’t fail. I simply can’t keep pushing off the fair folk anymore.”

“Of course you can’t,” she sighed. “Off with you then.”

“Yes, dear.” I leaned in and kissed her head to show there were no hard feelings and then opened a portal back to my closet. Izzy was still sleeping when I headed for the shower, so it really was the perfect time to handle the first step. Hopefully, rumors would spread enough that maybe hobgoblins would start packing and be ready to go on their own.

Then again, there were millions of hobgoblins to save around the world, so that would be a horrible way to live, sitting and waiting for a rescue.

Then again, some might already be living that way. I would. I’d spent years of my childhood praying to Tinker Bell to save me.

Funny how I was now the fairy saving others. That gave me the first true smile I’d had in a while. I was making a difference, and my soul needed that.

It needed a lot of things, but this I could give it.

9

When it was time to head back to Australia, I muttered an excuse to Izzy that I wanted food from the vending machines and left our room. She called after she wanted popcorn, but at least she believed me.

I swallowed a giggle as the urge to hum the Mission Impossible theme hit me. I knew there were no cameras in the dorms besides in the entrances and stairways, so there was no issue opening a portal at the end of the hall.

Arriving back at that first hawk shifter estate, I immediately used the shadows rune to cloak myself. The fae dogs still knew I was there and I dipped my head to them. I was pretty sure I read something that shadows or cloaking runes didn’t work with them as they could see heat signatures like infrared.

Cool, but creepy, given how lethal they were.

I easily scaled the cute estate wall and soundlessly dropped down on the other side. I might have showered after my run, but I’d changed in lounge yoga-ish clothes… Which might be a good default a few days a week during classes if I was going to do this more often. Heels and skirts wouldn’t work well for this.

Then again, wearing that sort of outfit would throw suspicion from me. I could change fast. A quick trip to the bathroom in the cafeteria, switch outfits, and open a portal. I just needed one big place or to figure out how to keep it under five minutes or I would get caught.

Fast.

Chief had already told me where to head at each place, and I quickly found where the hobgoblins were kept. It was hard not to burn the estate to the ground when I opened the door to what was one room off the kitchen that was clearly meant for a cook or chef, and dozens of hobgoblins were living in there.

On the floor. They had mats for beds. Old and shitty gym mats. Chief and his pack slept on better dog beds in my garage than the hobgoblins that worked at this estate.

Needless to say, I was livid.

They couldn’t see me, but they could clearly sense something was going on aside from a door randomly opening. They all hurried to their feet, even if it was after three in the morning there. I opened a portal to the main HAVEN address and knew they would handle things from there and get the hobgoblins to the right place.

“Thank you,” one of the closest ones whispered before hurrying to the portal. The others muttered the same, but didn’t waste time.

Good thing, because there were a lot of them. The moment the last one was gone, my magic closed the portal, and I raced out the way I had come. I was over the wall again in under five minutes. So this was perfect.

I nodded to Chief that I was done, and he led the way to the