will wait here. It’s best you go in and out quick. If it’s missing, it may take you a few weeks to track the new location. We can go over that when you get back.” Mara waved us out the door.
It seemed time was always of the essence in this field of work. I looked at Elle, who nodded, and we stepped out into the rain. After waving Mara off, she shut the door and I activated the crystal on the rolling pin, which caused the motorcycle to transform and take shape.
“So, I have a theory about your … problem.” Elle looked back at the closed door.
My soulmate problem? I did not want to talk about that now, but Elle and I were both top of our class in studies and if she had a working hypothesis I wanted to hear it.
“So, you know the elder library?” Elle asked.
I shivered. I wouldn’t forget that night I’d sat in there while they dumped this big new job on me.
Elle wrung her hands together. “Well, they called me in there to tell me everything and prepare me to be your guard. They showed me the crystals and all of that and then they had some emergency and they left me in the library unattended for like fifteen minutes.”
A grin tugged at my lips. “What did you read?”
The elder library was strictly off limits. If I hadn’t been grieving that night, I would have taken more notice of the titles there. As a book lover and knowledge seeker, I would love to be let loose in that thing.
Elle chewed her lip. “Well, it didn’t make sense at first, but now I wonder…”
I swung my leg over the bike and looked up at her. “Wonder what?”
“It was a book about halflings … which I think are what they called the Sons of Darkness in the very beginning…” You couldn’t keep anything from Elle. She was too smart.
I nodded. “Yes. Indra said that.” I needed to catch her up on everything she’d told me last night, but there never seemed to be enough time.
“It said that in the dark times, the Fae mated with the humans because they thought they were soulmates.”
I frowned. “Soulmates with a human?”
That was impossible.
Right?
Elle shrugged. “So then it’s not crazy to assume halflings could be our soulmates.”
A frown pulled at my lips. “So that’s your theory?” This was NOT helping. So far, I’d just heard that it was entirely possible that Liam was my soulmate.
Elle sighed. “I think he could be your soulmate, Lil, and that’s going to make what we are about to do all the more tough on you.”
Fuck.
I shook myself. “No. I’ll be fine. He doesn’t even know what soulmates are,” I told her.
She nodded, but indecision crossed her face. “Well, I’ll be there with you, to help you stay focused.”
What she meant by that was she would kill Liam if I couldn’t. That very thought had panic coursing through my veins and it scared me. Would I protect him from my own best friend?
No.
He was a Dark Fae. A thief. An active participant in trying to ruin my world. No, if Liam got in my way, I would end him. Soulmate or not.
We pulled up to the old farmhouse and I was surprised at how easy riding the motorcycle was. It was just … there in my mind. The grips, the way I leaned into the turn but not too much. I just knew what to do because I’d ridden before … but I hadn’t. I’d probably be more freaked out if I wasn’t so insanely freaked that Elle thought Liam could really, truly, be my Fae soulmate. I almost didn’t want to go back in there. I wanted him to be gone, or I wanted us to focus on finding the next crystal, so I didn’t need to ever see him again, or possibly kill him. But Indra’s words came back to my mind: they took all twelve crystals, leaving not even one. The genocide of our people and lands rested solely with the Sons of Darkness. The blood of a billion Fae was on Liam’s hands as far as I was concerned.
“Let’s get this over with.” I deconstructed the bike and placed the rolling pin into the messenger bag. The same messenger bag I would place the crystal in when I pried it from Liam’s cold dead fingers.
We were at the edge of the property, way out in a thicket of trees. Trissa had