Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,97

knowing my people needed me. “I can do it. I can open the portal where I came out and guide us from there. The fae dogs tell me where to go.”

“Good.” He glanced at White over his shoulder. “Meet us back at her house so we can give her more healing and Irma can mother her, yeah?” He waited until White agreed before giving me the go-ahead to open a portal.

I had us go through the floor like I had come in and brought us out right near where the trap had gone off. I used a different, stronger barrier that completely cloaked us and everything I did.

A draining barrier.

“Well, that will be the end of this ‘hobgoblin Underground Railroad’ nonsense,” someone pompous and clearly rich declared with tons of bluster while yucking it up with the guards.

It was really hard not to order the fae dogs to eat people most days.

Craftsman could see me, so I waved for him to follow, but when I had trouble moving easily, I was suddenly in his arms. I didn’t have—nor want to waste—the energy to fight him, so I simply showed him the rooms off the garage where the hobgoblins were being held.

And this time I meant held, not simply they weren’t allowed off the estate. The room was locked down. My blood boiled as we reached there and Craftsman set me on my feet.

He used some rune to quietly bust us in, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

The hobgoblins were kept in cells. The asshole had retrofitted, or built, an addition of a fancy workroom off his garage that included cells with bars and everything for the hobgoblins to sleep like prisoners.

“Tasmin, no!” Craftsman called as I rushed forward.

I turned to see what he was upset about as I approached the cells, reaching for the bars, but he knocked me out of the way. Horror filled me as he crashed into the bars and magic did something to him that looked as if he was being electrocuted at a power plant.

But how through my barrier?

“On the wall!” one of the hobgoblins called out.

My head turned so fast I heard my neck pop as I found the magical item doing whatever was hurting Craftsman and laid the trap. I shot electricity at it, destroying it instantly and stopping whatever was being done to Craftsman… Who was now unconscious.

Fuck. Fuck!

I reached through the bars and opened a portal for the hobgoblins, digging deep to open three since there were three cells. They thanked me and hurried so I could quickly close them. I leaned over and laid my head on Craftsman’s chest as they rushed out, tears filling my eyes as his heart made bad, bad noises.

The second the hobgoblins were through, I closed the portals and opened one for us into the basement of my house. I did the only thing I could think of, the thing my instincts were screaming for me to do.

I brought him to Faerie. I activated the portal and used the last of my strength to drag his unconscious body through.

“Heal him!” I shouted to the world as if it would hear me, ignoring how hysterical I sounded. “He saved my life and many hobgoblins. More can be saved because of him. Heal him! Save him! Please! I can’t—I can’t do this and go on if I lose him like this.”

I moved over him and let out a wail when his heart stuttered like it was shutting down. I tried to pump healing into him, but I was out of juice. It was the first time in forever I was completely out of power.

But I didn’t need it. Faerie answered my pleas.

The ground around Craftsman glowed as power raced into him. He gasped as his body lurched. It was as if the world had used shock paddles on him… Those magical ones that I didn’t think exist.

A few moments after, the glowing stopped and Craftsman’s breathing evened out, his heart sounding fine.

I lifted my head just in time to see his eyelids flutter open and those deep emerald green eyes I had fallen so hard for stare up at me. I had no idea what to say, so I blurted the first thing that came to me. “Welcome to Faerie.”

“I love you,” he whispered, reaching up and cupping my cheek. “You are a miracle, my miracle.” He let out a shaky breath when I went to pull away, moving his other hand to me so I