by Elle Adams
“You mean, because I’m half fairy.” My throat tightened. “I wouldn’t give this up for anything.”
“I know, Blair,” she said. “I’d feel the same in your position. You wouldn’t have been safe in this world during your childhood. I should have left you some direction so you’d be able to follow us, but I feared the information would fall into the wrong hands. Your father thought the same.”
“You know he’s in jail, right?” I asked. “I—it was only a few years ago, so you died before then. Aveline Hollyhock said you stole the sceptre. Is it true?”
“It’s true.”
My lie-sensing power echoed her words.
My heart contracted. “Why?”
“Because our lives were in danger, Blair,” she whispered. “The sceptre would have bought us time, but not enough. We had the hunters on our tail. It broke me to leave you behind, but what else could I do? At least if I left you of my own volition, I might be able to find you again… had I lived. Blair, the hunters are more dangerous than you know.”
“My dad keeps telling me the same thing. He sends me notes from jail—from the LFPF. Please—tell me. Did they kill you?”
Nathan’s father had said that he’d found her already dying, so it wasn’t him, but someone had left her for dead. Left her for the hunters to find.
“The fairies, Blair,” she said, her voice growing fainter. “Don’t trust them—never trust them.”
“The fairies killed you?” I lurched to my feet, but she grew fainter. The merest brush of air whispered against my cheek and then she was gone.
“No,” I said. “I summon you, Tanith Wildflower.”
I spoke her name again, and again, but she didn’t reappear.
“The light’s gone out, Blair,” Rebecca said from behind me. “I’m sorry.”
I sank to the ground, tears stinging my eyes, and turned back to face the cottage. The place my family—half of it, at least—had lived.
The place I’d have grown up, if not for the fairies. If not for the hunters, who’d driven my mother out of her home.
I’d seen her once and found out her side of the story. My dad would provide the rest. And then? I’d find a way to bring the truth to light, and free him for jail.
I promise.
Vowing to keep my word, I turned away from my mother’s home, towards the brightening sky.
Thank you for reading!
The story continues in the next Blair Wilkes novel, available soon.
Want more witchy fun? Try the first in my new Library Witch Mysteries series, available now.
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About the Author
Elle Adams lives in the middle of England, where she spends most of her time reading an ever-growing mountain of books, planning her next adventure, or writing. Elle's books are humorous mysteries with a paranormal twist, packed with magical mayhem.
She also writes urban and contemporary fantasy novels as Emma L. Adams.
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