was good because I was pretty sure he and my best friend were getting serious, and I needed all the support I could get.
My hand was stilled on the back door that led from Mara’s to Montana; it had been recently replaced since the other one had an arrow shot right through it. “You sure this will work? A car?” I asked Mara.
She nodded. “I’ve done it before with your mom in desperate times.”
The Sons had burned the shed in Montana that led to the edge of ‘New Faerie,’ but Mara was able to locate an empty car and temporarily make a portal opening there. “You’ll just have to leave the door open because, once it closes, I’ll have to remake the opening,” she instructed.
I nodded. “Hopefully, we won’t be long. I’ll leave two guys with the car, door open, and they can take care of anyone who comes along.”
Mara nodded, smoothing down my hair, her heavy cuff clinking with one of her bracelets. “Your mom would be so damn proud of the woman you’ve become.”
I smiled, squeezing her hand. “She’d be horrified at all the danger you let me get in.”
Mara laughed, and it carried through the house to the surrounding boys. Liam’s mother looked at me with red teary eyes. She’d been crying silently since we told her the Winter King took Liam.
“Oh, you do that all yourself.” Mara winked.
Giving her a quick hug, I pet Bashur on the head and looked at Liam’s mom before opening the door. “I’m going to bring him back, safe and sound,” I promised her.
She nodded, but I didn’t know if she believed me.
Throwing the door wide, I nodded in amazement.
Wow. It really was a car.
I looked down to see dirt-packed pavement and a black tire. Mara’s door distorted to accommodate the small size, and I had to dip my head to get out without banging it at the top. One by one, we stepped onto the road, which sat just at the tree line, the large bubble of ‘New Faerie’ was a mere twenty paces into the woods. I could see the translucent structure peeking up over the treetops.
Cam, Elle, Jasper, Trissa, and the others filed out behind me. I’d brought forty of Liam’s men and left the rest behind to protect Faerie and the Queen. I was hoping that my little display of power at the Spring Tree was only a taste of what I could do because I was going to need some major powers to bring this dome down, get Liam and the crystals, and kill his dad. I chewed on my lip. Everyone was looking to me to lead them, but all I felt were nerves and the fear that I might be leading some of them to their deaths.
Elle pulled me aside and turned me to face her. “Whatever the Queen said when you met with her seemed to pump you up. Just remember that, okay? We’ve got this.”
She was right. There was no more room to be weak, to hesitate. I needed to do as the Queen had said and be strong. I nodded curtly, spinning to face the men.
“We find Liam, we get as many crystals as we can, and we get out,” I told them. This was primarily a rescue mission, but while I was here, I intended to get these fucking crystals once and for all. They nodded. Two of them broke off and stuck with the car while the rest of us flooded into the woods.
Opening my seeker power, I felt for Liam, imagined his face, his eyes, his lips, the way he smelled, and I felt a tug at my navel. He was here just as I suspected.
Shouts rang out through the forest as we approached. I knew they probably had watchmen, but it was too late; I’d reached the perimeter of the dome, and nothing was keeping me from Liam.
With a grunt, I threw my hands in front of me and pushed the light up from deep within me and out through my fingertips. Buttery sunlight shot out of my palms like missiles, shattering the dome completely within seconds.
Whoa…
I hadn’t actually expected it to be that easy.
I didn’t wait for it to fully fall before I kicked off the ground and into the air. The fae inside were screaming, running around as the dome disintegrated around them into a fine powder.
I couldn’t feel the crystals, but I knew they were here, they were just cloaked like Liam said they