Thwarting Cheaters (Artemis University Book 5)

by Erin R Flynn

  “There will be a special place in whatever hell there is for you for using gentle fair folk this way. If there is any fairness in this life or the next, I have faith down to my soul that you will be punished for this by the gods or whoever is in charge down there,” I warned him.

  The bastard actually rolled his eyes at me. “Yes, well, I’ll take that to heart as you know so much of our beliefs even. Yes or no?”

  It was my turn to grind my jaw which he seemed to enjoy a bit too much. “One crystal per hobgoblin.”

  He clucked his tongue at me. “So little? How horrible. I expected more of you, Tamsin. How will they feel to know you only valued each of them for one crystal?”

  I snorted, sharing a look with Mel before we both burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m going to get smacked for even caving to you to save any of them. You know nothing about hobgoblins if you don’t even realize that. They wouldn’t want me to do this deal at all and would rather suffer than me help you stay in power by protecting your castle or lands.”

  Kim snorted. “Yes, yes, fair folk and fairies are always such martyrs. Sure, sure.”

  “One per crystal however if any have been abused, I get a second for free,” I told him firmly, smirking when he flinched. “I’ll even be fair and let a third party decide what ‘abused’ constitutes but anything physical is automatic and they get justice as well.” I held up my hand when he opened his mouth to argue. “Did you not say they weren’t slaves?”

  “Yes,” he bit out.

  I smiled evilly when Zach cleared his throat, waving his phone at me. I focused back at Alec. “I’d take my deal because we don’t actually need your permission to get the hobgoblins out. See, you thought you had the upper hand with this deal, but really, I came never planning to give you what you wanted. Didn’t you wonder why I agreed to meet then?”

  His eyes went wide. “What did you do?”

  “Call your castle and find out,” I purred as I stretched like the cat that ate the canary. “Funny how we were both thinking of hobgoblins today.”

  He grabbed his phone from one of his guards in a flash and tapped a few times. “What happened there?”

  “Alpha, we have a situation,” a voice hesitantly replied, all of us able to hear it.

  “What situation?” Alec snarled.

  “All the hobgoblins in the castle were—we think they escaped with help. A few of the maids as well. Well we think they were abducted and—”

  Zach snorted as he read his phone. “No they weren’t. They begged to be rescued since they weren’t allowed to leave either. They asked for sanctuary at the havens.”

  “Why?” I growled.

  He raised his head and the fury in his eyes was so strong the room’s temperature probably went up a few degrees. “It seems the castle guards are allowed to do anything they want with the newer, low ranked maids to ‘break them in’ when they get rewarded by their commanders. The hobgoblins asked them to be saved and then the maids begged for it as well.”

  It took everything I had not to out myself and show up with my packs of fae dogs and start way too much shit. I think even Alec realized I’d hit my limit as I saw a sliver of fear in his eyes at whatever he saw on my face as he hung up the phone.

  “Take my deal,” I warned, my voice ice cold. “You saw the hobgoblins working for me have bonded with the fae dogs safe at my property. That’s how it is at the havens as well. I don’t need your deal but they could get hurt in the crossfire so as long as you guarantee not one of your dragons hides one, kills to silence them, and is fair, I will trade you crystals.”

  “Or?” Kim stupidly demanded, not understanding the unspoken threat and needing me to say it.

  I slowly turned my gaze to her. “Or what I did at the Power Playoffs will look like a fucking joke. I will come with all the crystals I’ve already charged up and the hobgoblins I keep safe who can communicate with the fae dogs that I also keep safe and burn your fucking everything to the mother fucking ground and take the hobgoblins and anyone else who wants my protection. Savvy?”

  “We’ll take the deal,” Alec agreed before she could say anything else to upset me.

  I gave a swift nod before focusing on Alpha Geoff. “Is this something you’d be up for mediating and handling or is that too much to ask?”

  “It’s not and we would,” he hedged, glancing between us. “But normally both parties would foot the bill like today except you would be the one I’d ask payment from.”

  “That would make you lenient towards her,” Kim growled.

  He curled his lip at her. “My pack is more honorable than that and you have nothing to offer as she does. She’s not asking us to dole out the justice for the hobgoblins, simply ascertain if they were abused. That’s not hard or something that can’t easily be verified.”

  “Agreed and your honorable,” Alec cut in. “However, we agreed to split the bill on this and I keep my deals.”

  I wanted to snort, doubting Alec’s honor every day of the week but I knew he was saying it for me and I would have faith in him on this. “Make sure all the hobgoblins get out safely and your people are controlled not to hurt or hide any and I’m fine picking up this part of the bill. Crystals come after they’re all out and we get a headcount. I don’t want to hear one missing.”

  He flinched but after we stared each other down for several minutes he finally nodded. Yeah, I wasn’t going to give him the chance to try and fuck me over on this one. “Then we have our terms. We’ll be in touch.”

  “I suggest it not be we as Kim pisses me off so let’s keep it to the level headed adults,” I warned as he stood, wanting to roll my eyes when she gave a childish huff.

  Way to prove my point, idiot.

  “Understood.” He paused as he reached the door. “I hope my not reporting your invasion of my castle to my council counts as a gesture of good faith I will honor this deal.”

  I chuckled darkly. “Oh, Alec, if you thought you would have any proof, we both know you would absolutely do it but you’re smart enough to know I’m not stupid enough to give you any. You’ll honor this deal because you’ve pushed me too far and you know I will absolutely honor my threat even if it means my life to make it happen. So enough with the bullshit as I’m not buying it.”

  He stormed out of the room without another word, his party following after him with some of Alpha Geoff’s people escorting them as well.

  “He really is the vilest dragon I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing,” Geiger grumbled a few minutes later, letting us know we were in the clear. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and leaned back in his chair. “I pity the dragons in his territory, I truly do.”

  “Me too, but it’s not up to me to save everyone,” I bitched. “Though I have a feeling that’s going to be the next bullshit.”

  “What?” he asked, everyone giving me confused glances.

  I shrugged. “I can see one council or another trying to give me some bullshit that I’m liable for outing the supe world by not helping hide the dragon mountains or whatever else they can try to lay at my feet to get crystals. I mean, would you put that past them? One of them will try that. Try to force me to give crystals to protect an elder estate and when I say no, I’m a threat to all supes by trying to out them.”

  The amount of cussing in the room wasn’t surprising as they would absolutely pull that… The fact Geiger was swearing was though.

  “What made you think of this?” he asked as he started writing furiously on his notepad.

  I sighed. “I was reading something about eminent domain when I was flipping through the history book for the class I’ll be taking over the summer. It struck a chord in my mind and I realized that would be something the councils will pull. I mean, why else would most people hide if they could do this? They were afraid the councils would try and control it, right?”

  “Yes, yes they would,” he agreed. “I’ll get into it.”

  “I’m sorry you have to.”

  “I’m sor
ry you are constantly being taken advantage of,” he threw right back. Once he stopped writing he raised his head and gave a warning look to Alpha Geoff as if saying he didn’t want to put the man in the same bucket.

  Which amused the Alpha so that was probably a good thing. Geoff glanced over at me and smiled. “I have no intention of taking advantage of a teenager.”

  “You’d be one of the rare few,” I grumbled. “What can I do for you, Alpha?”

  “I have some people who are needing different jobs,” he hedged. “I was hoping the next time you are looking to hire, you don’t focus solely on lone wolves or shifters but might extend the option to some of mine.”

  I hadn’t expected that, glancing between Zach and Ray who seemed at a loss as well. “There’s a bit of a problem with that, as then we have the dilemma of answering to different bosses or masters.”

  Geoff shook his head. “As long as you don’t ask them to go against our laws or do anything to endanger our pack, I stay out of their business. It’s a rule of our pack. They are only bound to report anything to me if they feel it’s a threat to our pack.”

  “Define ‘threat,’” I pushed, shrugging when he gave me a shocked look. I explained how we’d worked to trap Underground and bad guys. “They’re a threat to you guys but if they reported that to you, that could have blown our op and too many people involved.”

  “We could keep their people out of that stuff and have them strictly haven guards as we could use more of them,” Zach suggested.

  “I would prefer that as we need some jobs, not flack or our council trying to get information from us,” Geoff admitted.

  “Or extra security for events as we need that too,” Ray added. “Like your summer soiree you announced for the scholarship fund. More guards on the groves over summer or even help harvesting as the hobgoblins said the trees are going to be blooming and fast.”

  Geoff didn’t even have to say it, I heard it all in his mind and how desperate he was for me to agree and get in on any of that. The pack was hurting because they were backing away from council families and other political shit from other groups as well. They were powerful so people were trying to drag them into everything they didn’t want to be… And constantly trying to stick it to them.

  I knew how that went all too well.

  “We’ll call you first,” I promised. “As long as your people are as honorable as you’ve been and don’t screw us, we’ll keep you away from the shit and just give you work.”

  “You have my word they will be.”

  At least that was a positive turn for the day because Mel, Zach, and Ray were all relieved for more help as we were growing faster than expected. Well, then they had expected. I had fully expected to have more and more people to ask for help or sanctuary at the havens. In a world that mistreated women as badly as the supes did without any way out, it was always going to be the outcome.

  Sad but true.

  13

  After the meeting we actually went to the havens to greet the rescued maids and hobgoblins. They were all excited to be free and have options, a future away from that castle and dragons. I was glad. It had been worth the risk and a good first run for the teams we’d been training to handle such extractions and jobs.

  Granted, there were a few Rothchilds that had helped on the sly, but that would never, not ever be something people found out about. When Colton had heard we were going to rescue captive hobgoblins from Alec he had demanded to go.

  So had Mrs. Rothchild. Hey, I wasn’t going to deny Mel’s mom anything especially when she was so badass.

  I took a break from it all and checked out the groves on one of the ATVs impressed how it was all coming along. The trees were growing at a crazy rate with all the hobgoblin and growing magic from the Artemis students who were working there for class. It made me feel such conflicting emotions to see it.

  On one hand I was so happy to see such progress and something better for so many.

  On the other hand, it hurt that it wasn’t in Faerie where it should be. I felt like I was failing in getting answers and people to where they should be. My dreams were clearly telling me that.

  Which was why I put the last pieces together for something I’d been working on for a while. It was time to step up my game.

  The next morning I went down to the portal to Faerie in the basement and activated it with everything I had in my bag. I grabbed the electric scooter I kept plugged in right there and went through the portal with it. Then I drove out to the end of where I’d pushed back the magic and stopped.

  I let out a slow breath as I stared out into the terrifying, viscous darkness. All of Faerie was dark—the only light currently coming from my scooter—but the dark magic of whatever spell had happened was darkness, devoid of light and anything. It was… Terrifying. I wasn’t sure there was another word for it. Soul numbing at the idea of being in it.

  Shaking off my morose thoughts, I got off the scooter and knelt down on the ground to set up. I moved all my filled reservoirs around me and then around them I fanned out boxes of charged up tier seven crystals I’d been working on. There were two dozen boxes in total and fifty crystals in a box, so twelve hundred crystals I’d charged up over several weeks I’d hidden away.

  If I could get a much bigger area pushing out the energy in my reservoirs all at once—especially now that I was up to eight of them—then I was going to do something amazing if I added all those crystals. I knew it. This would work. This would be what Faerie needed to… I had no idea. Maybe it was what I needed to feel as if I was truly doing my best and what I should for my people.

  Once it was all in place and I felt my magic rev up, I let it out in what I meant to be calm waves to push all the stored magic into the ground. Instead it came roaring to life and from me like a massive tidal wave that only the largest tsunamis could have that would wipe out a whole coast. It pulsed so strong and pushed from me so fast it actually hurt.

  And I couldn’t cut it off even if I wanted to which scared the shit out of me. I trusted Faerie and my magic, praying it knew what it needed and wouldn’t kill me to get it. Magic poured and poured out of me, pushing out of the reservoirs and crystals faster than the speed of sound, the viscous darkness pushing back instantly from the corner of my eye.

  The ground shook in waves as if the force of what I was doing was landing bombs or grenades instead of magic. I flinched as I realized it wasn’t that… But resuscitation. I was shocking Faerie with my magic as if using those paddles in a hospital on humans. The thought excited me and I didn’t hold back, opening myself fully to it instead of trying to keep the flow controlled.

  It all came rushing out in one last sonic boom as the ground pulsed hard enough that it shoved me up from it as all my reservoirs fell over. I landed hard on my knees, feeling all the magic released and trying to catch myself on my hands but too dizzy to make it. I slid on the grass and barely managed not to crack my head on anything as my vision went dark.

  I woke with a groan, every inch of me aching and the light stabbing me in pain, my head hurt so bad. I blocked the sun to save my poor eyes as I tried to remember what… Sun?

  I sat up in a flash, my body protesting, especially when I stared up at the sun without protection like an idiot. I didn’t care.

  There was a sun in Faerie. It was the most beautiful sun I’d ever seen in my life even as my eyes filled with tears from staring directly at it. There was light in Faerie!

  “I did it,” I rasped, pulling my knees to my chest and breaking down for a moment. Just a moment. I gave myself that moment because every inch of me hurt and I was certain I’d done way too much my body and power hadn’t been ready for but there was a sun again in Faerie.

  There was progress.

  I took a few more minutes to simply lie on the grass that I could now see and soak up the sunlight. Then I realized I had no idea how long I’d been passed out and I needed to get back. If nothing else, my stomach was pissed at me and in desperate need
of food and I felt like ass.

  “I’ll get stronger and do this again, I promise,” I whispered to Faerie as I packed up my stuff. Luckily the scooter still had enough charge to get me back to the portal.

  And even better the portal was acting like it always was so my getting the sun back in Faerie hadn’t reactivated all the portals or brought them back to life. That would have been catastrophic on several levels and way too early when I still didn’t have any answers.

  Well, I had one. Faerie could be fixed. I could fix it. It might take me a long fucking time, but I could heal it, not just sections or put a bandage on a gaping, fatal wound. I could do something real.

  Once I was stronger.

  “Pushing it,” Mel warned when I returned to the house and was waiting for me in the kitchen. “Really pushing it, Tams. I know you need—”

  “I know,” I whispered. “It didn’t go according to plan but it worked. It worked, Mel. There’s hope. I just need to figure out how to do it better. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She let out a slow breath. “Okay.”

  I glanced at the clock and saw I was gone for four hours so I couldn’t even blame her. I gave her a quick hug and raced off to get ready. We needed to get back to campus since she had a faculty lunch meeting.

  Not even twenty minutes later I was showered, packed, and we were saying goodbye to the fae dogs and giving them their marching orders for the week. We went through the portal and came out through the faculty lounge and it worked out well since Professor White was there. I went right over to her and handed her three boxes of tier seven crystals I’d made previously and had recharged for her.

  “Thank you,” she sighed as she accepted them.

  I nodded. I knew she hated to ask but they were easier to recharge and then get to tier seven. Much, much easier and given they were to help with protection for the havens and groves I was fine with it. They were also for the seminars that had been my idea… And everything else I’d agreed to, it was on me to keep them going.