Ruthless Fae - Ingrid Seymour Page 0,24

myself. We couldn’t spend all our time worried the other might get killed in some fashion. Somehow Charlie and Rowan made their relationship work despite the constant danger. If only I could ask her how they managed it, but she’d gone on an important mission, and I didn’t know when I’d see her again.

Thoughts of our relationship should be the last things on my mind. I pushed them away as we made it to Antonio, Vinya, and Kiana. My mouth went dry as my aunt and I exchanged loaded glances.

“Tallyndra.” She was filthy head to toe, dirtier than one beach run could have provided. I wondered if she’d been jailed or possibly beaten, though I didn’t see any cuts or bruises. However, the Habermanns could do many things that didn’t leave external marks.

“Queen Kiana,” I greeted her without the usual bow, finding it hard to respect her after all she’d done.

She lifted her head high. Always a queen no matter what the circumstances.

“No time for that,” Vinya said. “We need to get to the take-off point now.”

She was right. The vehicles were coming. Plumes of churned-up sand clouded the horizon as the Jeeps tore in our direction. Without another word, we took off through the jungle.

As we went through the trees, I flew slightly above everyone, scanning behind us and ahead. Kiana kept up with the others, loping like a two-legged gazelle, but I could tell it pained her.

Vinya seemed to notice also, either through some witchy senses or good observation powers. The witch dropped back, closer to my aunt, keeping stride with her while saying, “It’s just a little bit further.”

Kiana lifted her horned head high, her long spotted neck growing even longer as she took on the posture of the eternally regal. “I’m perfectly fine. I could go on like this for days.”

Vinya blinked, glancing up at me as if she hoped I could make sense of my aunt, but I had nothing to offer. Kiana and I had never seen eye to eye, even during the best of times and now…

She’d given them her only son.

I shuddered as the image of Sinasre, mangled beyond recognition, flashed before me.

Crashing sounds behind us dragged my attention back to the here and now. The guards had found us. They’d abandoned the Jeeps at the tree line, and they were on our tail.

And, worse, huge thundering sounds drew closer, sounds like those we’d heard when we tried to save Sinasre. Was it Wally and Daniella again? Sinasre back for his mother? Bael? Some other awful beast? We needed to know what was coming so we could fight it.

“Go on,” I said to Vaughn below me, dropping back a bit. “I’ll see what’s coming.”

He shook his large wolf head, but I ignored it. “I’ll be safe. I’ll stay up in the trees and be back in a minute.”

His wolf eyes narrowed, but he didn’t try to stop me.

I dropped back and circled around, flying toward the sounds of crashing trees. My heart pounding, I looped around two huge tree branches, and there she was below me.

Daniella.

Or, at least, the version of Daniella that existed now. She blended into the jungle so well I would have missed her except that she was in motion, taking long strides through the underbrush. Everywhere she went, vines sprouted up like angry snakes, spiraling high before their weight made them drop back onto the jungle bed.

Even though she was terrifying, she was incredible to behold in her half-human, half-tree state. She’d be beautiful with her long legs and green skin if I hadn’t known her before this.

If I didn’t know how she’d been mangled…

Silently, I watched her churn through the trees on our trail. If she was here, it was likely Wally was somewhere too. I had all the information I needed. I turned to go warn the others.

That was when she spotted me.

Her green head snapped in my direction, her eyes zeroing in. For a moment, I locked eyes with her, wondering if any part of Daniella still lived inside that cold gaze. Maybe if I could get her to see it was me—

Her arm shot out and the jungle around me shivered. I’d seen her plant magic before and knew what came next. As I turned to fly away, vines dropped down from the branches around me, wrapping around my wrists and ankles, cinching tight like ropes.

Grunting, I fought against them, twisting my arms and legs, but the vines wound even tighter. They pinched my

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