Saving the Fae (Daughter of Light #3) - Leia Stone Page 0,27

were coming home after a long day in the fields or sitting on their porch reading to their kids. Even in all the destruction lately, we held to our daily routines, and that was comforting.

When we reached the small blue house at the very end of the street, I landed hard on my heels. Rose was out front, rocking in a chair on the porch with a book in her lap.

She looked up, shocked to see me holding my sword aloft and charging up her lawn.

“My—,”

I held my finger to my lips, and the words died in her throat. Rose was just about the only one I trusted of the three of them. I’d trusted Maple too, but she was gone now…

Rose clutched her book, staring at my sword with terrified eyes as I mounted the steps to her house. I laid my hand on the knob when Jasper pushed his way in front of me.

“Let me go first,” he hissed, holding a wispy ball of green magic that lit up his palms.

Right.

I had magic, but I wasn’t a witch. I had earth magic. It was different. He threw the door wide, and a burst of red glowing power arced through the air, headed straight for his chest.

Okay, she was ready for us.

Jasper threw the green ball in his hands, and they collided in the air, causing the whole house to shake. Indra stood there, halfway out the back door with a feral grin on her lips. She’d dropped the Summer fae illusion. Her hair was now jet black, skin an ashy gray, and her ears held their telltale tilt.

At the sight of her true form, instead of anger, I felt heartbreak. I trusted her; we all did. She was like the mother to us all. She helped single-handedly rebuild Faerie after the Queen fell. This was the ultimate betrayal.

“Indra!” I shouted across the space, noticing that Aubin was nowhere to be seen. “You are under arrest for treason.” Pulling my sword, I advanced with Jasper at my side as Elle and Trissa flanked into the room as well.

Indra sneered. “I should have killed you when I had the chance,” she spat and jumped backward out of the door. Her wings snapped out, and she took for the sky.

No!

I charged forward, ready to fly after her when Trissa grabbed my arm. “Let her go. She’ll die out in the wastelands, and you can resurrect the shield after getting the Spring Tree power activation and lock her out. We can’t waste valuable time chasing after her.”

She was right. It could take days. Already, she was a blip on the skyline, and with her advanced magic, who knew what kind of illusions she could do to cover her trail.

I took a shaky breath and nodded. “Where’s Aubin? I want him questioned concerning everything he knows. I can’t have any more liars in Faerie.”

Jasper nodded and moved to turn when Rose’s blood-curdling scream rang throughout the house.

A stone sank in my stomach, and I knew right then, somehow, that Aubin was dead. Indra had known we were coming. Was her magic that powerful?

That was scary...

After racing to the backroom to find Rose huddled over Aubin’s body, I led her away. Poor thing was distraught. She told me that Indra had asked her to read outside and give her and Aubin private time to speak, and she’d obviously killed him. I wondered why Indra would spare Rose, but it was easy to see. Rose was like an innocent child. She was harmless, and it showed me that Indra had an ounce of compassion left. For whatever that was worth.

We moved Rose in with Elle’s mom for a while so that we could have her keep an eye on Rose, and then I told Trissa to prepare to leave for Spring Castle tomorrow morning. I would take the activation, regain my full power, and fix this entire mess. Once the Queen awakened, I’d find a way to give her the power back, and everything would be okay.

Hopefully.

But right now, I had something important to do. Something that if I didn’t do it now, I feared it would never happen. After showering, putting on a short denim dress and black knee-high boots, I had Elle twist my hair into two cinnamon buns atop my head. She did my makeup, adding a splash of glitter at the corner of my eyes that was a bit overkill, and then sprayed some light floral perfume at my neck.

“You look….