BRAVE ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  After the somewhat creepy conversation with Faye, I tried to find Ren because I was more than ready for round two of our argument. I knew I’d hurt him the night before, but that didn’t change the fact he had absolutely no right to try to tell me what I could do.

  Unfortunately, he was missing in action, which was disappointing because it made me want to yell at him more.

  I liked yelling at him, actually. It made me feel . . . normal. And that was kind of messed up, but whatever.

  Since he was nowhere to be found, I did the next best thing. I headed to the gym, but I didn’t go into the room with the treadmills. I went for the smaller room, the one with thick mats covering the floor and a punching bag.

  That’s where I spent the rest of the day, going through old training sessions with myself, like I was sixteen again. A few months ago, I would’ve balked at the notion that I needed to practice evasive techniques or groundwork, but I knew better now. I needed all the practice I could get, especially if I planned on facing the Winter Prince again.

  It would’ve been nice to have a partner though.

  I moved on to the punching bag, working with the iron dagger. I didn’t jab as hard as I could, because I doubted the fae here would’ve appreciated a bag full of cuts, but I picked up speed as the now too familiar sensation simmered to life in my stomach. It reminded me of gnawing hunger, but it was a craving, the same kind I imagined an addict went through. It was nowhere near as bad as it had been before, but it was still there, a shadow inside me.

  Sweat was dripping into my eyes when the door opened and a burst of fresh air entered the room. Yanking the blade out of the bag, I spun around and saw Brighton.

  She was standing just inside the door, one hand curled around the ends of her ponytail. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “It’s okay.” Swiping an arm over my forehead, I sheathed the dagger. “What’s up?”

  “I was just roaming around. Saw that you were in here.” She nodded at the small window in the door. “I haven’t seen you since . . . well, since you were attacked. You seem to be doing well.”

  “I am. I would say I’m lucky, but I guess being part fae is why I’m okay.” Those words rolled off my tongue easier than I thought they ever would. “The whole feeding thing saved my life.”

  “That’s what I heard. Mind if I sit or is it a distraction?”

  “Sit.” I shrugged. “I’m done anyway.”

  She pulled out one of the middle chairs and unfolded it. “How are you handling everything? The whole feeding thing?”

  I started to tell her that I was doing fine, but that’s not what I said. “I honestly don’t know.” I walked over to where she sat. “I mean, I’m happy to be alive, but knowing what I did to be here doesn’t sit right.”

  She looked up at me. “I can understand that.”

  Looking away, I bit down on my lip. “Do you know what Ren and Tink did?”

  There was a beat of silence. “I heard they made Faye use a compulsion on you.”

  “They did. I was so angry with them, but. . . .”

  “You’re not anymore?”

  “I still am.” Exhaling roughly, I sat down on the mat in front of her. “And I’m also not. I get why they did it. I appreciate it, but I’m not okay with it.”

  She folded her arms in her lap. “I guess the question is, can you forgive them?”

  “I already have,” I said, and that was the God’s honest truth. “I kind of had to, you know? Because I would’ve done the same thing to save them.”

  A faint smile pulled at Brighton’s lips. “Well, I’m glad you’re still alive.”

  I wondered if her mom truly felt the same. Then again, it really didn’t matter. “Me too. Anyway.” I leaned back on my hands. “Did you hear anything about our visitors?”

  Brighton widened her eyes as she nodded. “Yeah. Freaking unbelievable. Another prince? And halfling?” Her shoulders tightened. “The fucking Order has lied to us from day one.”

  I couldn’t help it. I squelched a laugh, but she cursed, and I couldn’t remember hearing her curse before.

  “I mean, nearly everything we thought to be true turned out not to be.” Her lips thinned. “What else do we think we know that isn’t true?”

  “God. It could be anything. But there has to be a reason why they didn’t tell us about the Summer fae or the royal courts.” I stretched out my legs. “And does the Order even know the Prince has left?”

  “I have no clue, and at this point, it’s a risk to even reach out to them and find out.” She sat back. “But we’re going to have to. Once we get the Crystal, we’ll need their help opening the gates.”

  “Or we kill the Prince.” I ignored her gasp of surprise. “We’d probably need the Order for that too, considering we’d need all the help we can get.”

  Brighton then pointed out the obvious. “Killing the Prince is almost impossible.”

  “Almost impossible,” I stressed. “He has to have a weakness other than having an ego, and the Summer Prince knows what weakens them.” I wrinkled my nose. “I kind of understand why he wouldn’t be so forthcoming with that info, but if we can weaken him, we can probably kill him.”

  She appeared to consider that. ‘Then we just have the other princes and princesses to worry about, right? Because who knows how many from the Summer Court are here?”

  I snorted. “Right? We’re just supposed to believe that all of them are live and let live hippie fae?” Something occurred to me. “And I seriously doubt the Summer Prince isn’t feeding. The power practically dripped off him.”

  “I think—” The door to the room opened, revealing Tink. He had company.

  “Merle and crew were looking for you.” He stepped aside. “Told them you were probably here or the library, so I decided to be their escort because I’m cool like that.” He glanced at Brighton and then waved at her. “Hi!”

  Brighton seemed to sink into the chair as she murmured, “Hello.”

  He turned away from us. “I also found your daughter. I am so helpful.”

  I arched a brow as I looked around him. Standing behind Merle was Tanner. Neither looked happy.

  I pushed off my hands, sitting up straight. I figured they were ready to discuss the plans to find and question Marlon. “What’s up?”

  Merle stormed into the room. Something metal dangled from her hand. Wait. Were those . . . handcuffs? “Ren told us.”

  A chill swept through me.

  “Told you what?” Tink frowned as his gaze swept over us.

  Merle’s eyes were like glaciers of ice. “Ivy’s planning to run.”

  Chapter 16

  For a good, long second, I was too shocked by the fact that Ren had actually ratted me out to have much of a reaction.

  Holy crap, he’d actually gone to Merle and Tanner?

  I was going to punt kick him into next week!

  “What?” Tink shouted, his voice echoing off the walls of the small room. “You’re going to run?”

  “Not anymore.” Merle lifted the handcuffs.

  The purpose of the handcuffs registered with sudden clarity. I launched off the floor. “You’re going to handcuff me? Are you out of your mind?”

  Merle’s grip tightened on the handcuffs. “My mind is as sharp as a fiddle, girl.”

  Sharp as a fiddle? That didn’t even make sense. Whatever. She took a step toward me, and my hand flew to my dagger. “If you come one inch closer to me, you’ll find out that this dagger is sharper than a fiddle.”

  “Ivy,” Brighton gasped, rising from her chair.

  Merle held still. “You were planning to run off—”

  “I was planning to leave when I thought the Prince was still here, which is totally my choice.” My fingers tightened around the handle of the dagger. “But all of that is a moot point now, isn’t it?”

  “That’s what I tried to explain to Merle.” Tanner, ever the mediator, stood to my right.

  “It’s still dangero
us. Doesn’t matter if he’s found another halfling to impregnate or not.” Merle lifted her chin. “We don’t need Ivy running around out there, too. Like Ren said earlier, she needs to stay here, where the Prince isn’t.”

  I struggled to keep my voice even. “First off, if I want to leave here, I will. No one is going to keep me here against my will. I’ve already been down that road and have the baggage to prove it. I’m not going for a round two.”

  Merle opened her mouth, but Tanner placed a hand on her arm, silencing her. “That is true. We are not holding her against her will. She can walk out of here whenever she pleases.”

  I appreciated his support, but I wasn’t done. “Secondly, you’re seriously overreacting at this point.” Muscles in my neck tensed up. “When I learned that the Prince could get through the glamour here, I did plan on leaving. My presence here was too much of a risk for me to live with, and I don’t give a fuck if you agree with that or not.”

  Merle’s eyes widened slightly.

  “But I agreed to stay until the guests got here. None of that matters now. Drake has found another halfling, and while that’s a hell of a relief, that doesn’t mean my duty has ceased to exist.” When she started to speak again, I cut her off. “You really do not want to have that argument with me. Seriously. Because you aren’t going to win.”

  She clamped her jaw shut.

  “Mom,” Brighton began quietly. “You cannot seriously handcuff Ivy. That’s not right.”

  “Sometimes what is necessary isn’t always what is right,” she replied coldly.

  I ignored that deep statement of the day, because boy did I ever have bigger fish to fry at the moment. I zeroed in on Tanner. “When will we discuss finding Marlon?”

  Still focused on Merle, he said, “We’ve already discussed it.”

  A hot flush swept over me. “You have?”

  Only then did he look at me. “A few hours ago. A team leaves at nine in the morning to scout for him.”

  I saw red. “And I’m guessing I was conveniently left out of this meeting?”

  Tanner’s gaze dropped away.

  A bitter laugh punched out of me. “But I bet Ren wasn’t. During this meeting did he tell you about my plan to leave?”

  “He did before Fabian and his consul arrived,” Tanner answered. “I do believe he didn’t mean for this to happen.” He glanced wryly at Merle. “I made the error of mentioning it to Merle, who as you can see, had a strong reaction.”

  I was about to have a strong reaction.

  “I will be with whatever team leaves tomorrow.” I stepped around Tanner and Merle, silently daring her to get those handcuffs near me. “I am done with this conversation.”

  I didn’t give them the chance to respond, stalking out into the hallway. I made it about five feet.

  “Ivy. Wait.” It was Tink.

  Inhaling deeply, I turned to tell him that whatever he had to say had to wait, but I saw the look on his face.

  His expression was stricken. “You were going to leave me?”

  Oh God. “I—”

  “You really were going to do that?” Tink crept closer, his eyes welling with emotion. “Why would you do that?”

  Running my hands down my face, I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter. The Prince—”

  “Found a new halfling and doesn’t care about you anymore. Yeah, I was there for that.” His hands opened and closed at his sides. “But before? You were planning to leave me—leave us. That’s why Ren is so upset.”

  “Well, there are a lot of reasons why he’s upset, but yes, that’s one of them.”

  Tink stared at me for so long that unease filled me. “So, you were going to leave without telling me.”

  I shifted my weight, uncomfortable. “I learned that the Prince could get through the glamour. I . . . I panicked. All I could think about was him using you or Ren. I thought that if I left, then you guys wouldn’t be at risk.”

  “Did you not think that we would’ve freaked out and left, looking for you?” he demanded.

  “I didn’t really think it through.”

  “No.” Hurt filled his eyes. “You didn’t.”

  Shame settled over me like a coarse blanket. “I know, and I’m sorry. I would do . . . I would do anything to protect you two.”

  “And we’d do anything to protect you,” he said quietly. “You saved my life, Ivy.”

  “You saved mine,” I reminded him.

  “And you yelled at me for it.” When I started to respond, he continued on. “I get why. I do.”

  I rubbed the heel of my palm against my hip. “Can we . . . I don’t know? Start over? I really am sorry. It was a stupid plan—”

  “A cruel and stupid plan.”

  “Yes.” I sighed. “It was.”

  He lifted his chin. “I already lost my family once. I do not want to lose my family again, Ivy.”

  My breath caught.

  “And that’s what you are to me—you and even Ren,” he said, and I sort of wished Ren was here to hear that. “You two are all that I have. If you had left me, it would’ve killed me.”

  Guilt was a knot in my throat, one I needed to live with. I stepped forward, placing my hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Tink. I just panicked, and I know that’s not a good excuse, but it’s the truth. I panicked and I didn’t think about what it would do to you and Ren. And that was wrong, because you two are all I have left. You are . . .” I drew in a deep breath. “You’re my family.”

  Tink studied me a moment and then sprang forward, wrapping his long arms around me. He hugged me—hugged me tight, and I reacted without thought, folding my arms around him. Squeezing my eyes closed against the sudden rush of tears, I planted my face against his chest.

  I was learning Tink gave great hugs.

  “All is forgiven,” Tink murmured into my ear. “But if you ever think about doing something like that again, I will not forgive you.”

  “Okay,” I whispered thickly.

  “And I will go onto Amazon and order some weird shit. Not only that, I’ll make my wish list public, which means it will be your wish list,” he continued. “You don’t want that.”

  My lips twitched as I pulled back. “I don’t want that.”

  “Good.”

  Drawing in a deep breath, I glanced at the closed door to the gym. “I need to find Ren. Do you have any idea where he’s at?”

  “I think he’s at the pool.”

  Surprise filled me. “There’s a pool?”

  Tink looked at me like I was half stupid. “All the roaming around you’ve done and you haven’t found the pool yet? You are not living your best life.”

  Tink was right.

  I wasn’t living my best life if I didn’t know there was a damn pool in this building, and there apparently was one on the second floor. The faint scent of chlorine led the way, and with each step, my earlier anger resurfaced with the vengeance of a thousand burning suns.

  I knew I’d made a mistake with the whole leaving thing. Ren had been right. It had been a knee-jerk reaction, but him running to Tanner was going too far.

  It was time to have that strong reaction that didn’t include crying and feeling like a douche.

  Slamming my hands into the double doors, I burst into the room and immediately came to an abrupt halt. My eyes widened. The room was large and bright due to the floor-to-ceiling windows all along the furthest side. The pool was one of those huge ones, Olympic size, but it wasn’t the pool that had rendered me completely incapable of moving.

  It was Ren.

  “Holy crap,” I whispered.

  He didn’t hear me, because he was currently gliding under the water like some kind of sea God, his body sleek and quick as he swam. He was only wearing what appeared to be black boxer briefs. There was a pile of neatly folded clothing on a nearby bench, and I could almost picture him standing there, folding the jeans and shirt. His shoes were tucked under the bench.

  The panther tattoo on his back moved with him
, an absolutely stunning piece of artwork somehow highlighted by the glistening water. Lean muscles along his back flexed as he broke the surface in the deep end. He didn’t see me at first, which was great because it gave me more time to creep on him as he lifted his powerful arms, pushing the water and hair from his face.

  My mouth dried as a zing shot from my chest to my core. He was. . . .

  Ren’s head swung sharply in my direction. Those eyes were like polished emerald jewels, placed perfectly behind thick, wet lashes.

  Tense silence filled the room as we stared at one another. He was the one to break it.

  “Hey,” he said, wading away from the middle of the pool, toward the edge where I stood.

  I blinked slowly and then got my hormones in check. Okay. Ren was hot and he looked like some kind of God. Whatever. I was not that easily distracted.

  “I am so pissed at you right now,” I told him.

  “Really,” he replied dryly, dropping a heavy arm on the cement. One side of his lips kicked up. “Is that any different from this morning when you were pissed at me?”

  “Oh.” I laughed harshly. “You think this is funny?”

  The smirk didn’t fade. “I always think you’re funny, Sweetness.”

  Did he now? “Okay. I’ll show you something that’s really funny.”

  His other arm came up and landed on the cement. “You have a riveted audience for it.”

  Spinning around, I stalked toward the bench and picked up his clothing.

  “Ivy—”

  I whirled and engaged full-bitch mode, darting to the end of the pool.

  “Don’t you dare. I swear to God, Ivy!” Muscles in his arms pumped as he lifted himself straight out the pool. He was on his feet within seconds. “Ivy—”

  “Too late.” I threw his clothing into the pool.

  Ren spun, but there was no saving his stuff. His shirt and tactical pants landed with a satisfying splash. He stared at them for a moment.

  “Fuck,” he spat.

  I faced him, grinning like the Mad Hatter. “That was real funny, wasn’t it?”

  His narrowed gaze landed on me. “Are you out of your mind?”