Fever Fae - Meg Xuemei X Page 0,55
did I even bother explaining to them or throwing a fit? They were monsters. They’d never think like humans. They even took pride in being my stalkers.
They strode on either side of me like shadows I couldn’t get rid of. Rowan laced his icy fingers with mine again. I tried to shake him off, but he wouldn’t let me go, and then I just let him, too tired to care or to fight.
“The wolf aimed for your throat,” he said. “I killed him because I was overcome with rage and self-loathing. I’d risked you when they first attacked you. I couldn’t risk you again. I’ve learned what I needed by hiding my presence from their sight, and now we know there’s a bounty on you.” His voice turned to the hardest ice. “I and my elite knights will always be around you from now on. We wouldn’t have found out who placed the bounty from those assassins, since in such matters the source is magically protected and the information sealed by blood. The hunters would have died in agony if even a spark of intention to reveal the truth crossed their minds. Whoever wants you dead is very powerful, resourceful, and vicious.”
“No shit,” I said. My lips thinned. My entire face crumbled with anxiety and icy dread.
I might need to send my siblings away, but where could they go? Who else could take care of them? And if any bounty hunter tracked them down and used them to get to me, I’d only have put them in harm’s way.
“You have me and my knights, Evie,” Baron said, grasping my other hand in his. “They’ll have to go through me to get to you. And I’ll find out which coward wants to murder my mate, and I’ll tear his heart out with my bare hands and eat his black heart.”
I swallowed. The best bet was to accept the powerful Fae’s protection, no matter how much I didn’t like to owe them a debt.
“I don’t need your protection,” I said softly. “But I need your men to guard my siblings, all six of them.”
“It’s a package deal, Evie,” Rowan said. The two of them were still competing and comparing the size of their dicks, even on my security details. And I hoped their rivalry only worked to my benefit. “I’ll help search for your parents as well.”
I stopped cold and whipped toward him. “What?” I stared at the Winter Fae, my heart drumming. “What did you say?”
“You think all I do is gaze upon you at midnight after I realized that you’re my true mate?” He sighed. “I’m the Winter King. Wouldn’t I collect all the intel I could about my future queen? You don’t need to guard your secrets from me anymore, Evie.”
“My Summer knights had started the search since the day I learned about the disappearance of your parents,” Baron cut in, ignoring Rowan’s glare. “The Summer Court is determined to take the lead on this matter. The human cops won’t help you, but I’ve got this, Evie.”
Warmth for them welled up in my chest for the first time. I swallowed hard to hold back my tears. “Have you made any progress on finding my parents?”
“Let’s talk further in a more private setting,” Baron said.
I let them lead me through the woods, my fingers in their large, strong hands—one colder than new fallen snow, one hotter than summer sunlight—until the three of us stopped in front of the wreckage of my van.
Chapter 19
Both Rowan and Baron had an armored van parked on the street next to my house. Their knights monitored the neighborhood yet blended into the surroundings. With their glamours in place, they could easily hide from human eyes.
Rowan and Baron started giving me a crash course on the supernatural world on the way to their vans. We ended up taking Rowan’s five-row black SUV to pick up my siblings while Baron’s SUV trailed behind us as a backup.
I perched between Rowan and Baron in the backseat. Only now did I start to register that they were serious about this courting business. They weren’t just regular stalkers as I’d deemed them.
Yet I didn’t know where we would go from here with all these entangled relationships. I might be headed toward a cliff on a fast train. But I’d take any risk to find my parents and bring them back to my siblings.
“It’s possible that your parents aren’t in the human world anymore,” Rowan said, putting my hand on his