by Bekah Harris
Tristen shook his head. “This is exactly what I’ve been thinking all day. Why risk it now? There has to be something we’re missing.”
They were interrupted by a knock at the door.
All three of them turned to see Luca standing in the doorway. “Forgive me, Your Majesties. I didn’t mean to be late or to interrupt.”
“Nonsense, Luca,” Fhaescratch said. “Come in, and we’ll get this over with. Besides, we could probably use your insight. Being close to the royal family, you may not be privy to information about the factions that plot against us, but surely you’ve heard something that could explain what Conlan and Kyla are up to.”
Luca pushed his blond waves out of his eyes, scratching his head.
“Could it have something to do with the missing persons in the human realm?” he asked. “Or the fact that Campbell and Alice were absent from school and no one has seen them?”
Three heads turned in unison to stare at Luca.
“What missing persons in the human realm?” Rowena asked. “And why weren’t we told two students were not in classes today?”
Tristen’s parents looked at him in question.
“I was hoping they were just sick,” he explained. “Every time anyone sees Alice and Campbell, their faces are suctioned together. Dr. Shelton said strep throat is going around. I just assumed they were ill, and then I got caught up in what’s happening with Kyla and forgot to tell you.”
“Has anyone confirmed that Campbell and Alice are sick at home?” Fhaescratch asked.
“That’s the thing,” Luca said. “I overheard Jenny Tester, Alice’s best friend, telling Gabriel Dotson that her father has been out looking for her. The first place he went was Campbell’s house, but he wasn’t there either. As far as I know, there are a group of humans out searching for them as we speak.”
“Why wasn’t I told immediately?” his father asked.
Tristen held his breath.
“I think the humans are worried you’ll think they tried to leave the realm.”
“We’d be able to tell if they had left the realm. The Mage would know. Since her arrival, our wards are stronger than they’ve ever been.”
“Which is why I don’t believe they’re missing,” Luca replied.
“And what about the missing humans?” Tristen asked.
Luca pressed his lips together. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.”
“Don’t use any names, and there will be no one to punish,” Tristen suggested.
Fhaescratch shot him an irritated look, but turned back to Luca, desperate for information.
“I was at…well, anyway, I saw a human newspaper lying on a table two days ago. I know we aren’t supposed to have such items in the Cove, but I was curious when I glanced down and saw it. The gist of the article was that close to thirty humans between the ages of sixteen and twenty have gone missing in the last few months. There are no leads, no suspects, no evidence, and no bodies. The human authorities are searching for a serial killer.”
Rowena met Fhaescratch’s shocked gaze. Tristen, like his parents, had reached the only obvious conclusion: Laltogs were abducting humans.
But how? And more importantly, why?
Chapter 9
Raven felt the heat rise to her cheeks, as Dante Zamora laced his fingers through hers and tugged her deeper into the forest. They had passed the creek and headed further into the trees, the fallen leaves crunching beneath their feet. She had never gone beyond the creek, still intimidated by her new surroundings, but with Dante, she felt at ease. He’d been in Lost Cove for a year, so he’d already explored the mountain.
Raven had been restless after school, unable to concentrate on her homework. So when Dante had pecked at the door, she was pleasantly surprised. Felicity and Nan were out somewhere collecting bark, and then Fee would have to be at Evening Feast with the Laltogs, so when Dante had asked Raven if she wanted to take a walk, she didn’t exactly have to think about it.
Not that she did much thinking when she was near him.
Whenever she met those dark brown eyes and glimpsed his sexy dimples, Raven morphed into a brainless tangle of hormones. He was the first boy she had ever kissed, and really, the only guy she’d ever cared about. When he disappeared last year, she had cried for days, thinking he no longer cared about her, that maybe he’d found someone else. Ironically enough, he had been approached by Luca, who told him about a place where he could have freedom, a home, and a family away from the children’s home, away from his last foster family that cared more about government checks than child welfare, away from the fear and insecurities that came with being a foster kid.
“...so I signed their contract in blood,” he was saying. “I guess in a way, I sold my soul to the Laltogs, but so far, I haven’t regretted it. I’m safe here, and I know where my next meal is coming from.”
He paused, watching her, as if trying to decide whether or not to continue his story.
“I looked for you, you know,” he added.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Dante recruited me, and before he came to collect, I went to the last address I had for you. The Rasmussens. They said you were gone. So I waited for you at school for two days. I never saw you.”
Raven smiled. She had wondered why she hadn’t heard from him, why he hadn’t come for her. In her heart, she knew without a doubt, she would have gone with him. And the truth was that he had tried to find her. He hadn’t forgotten her. He still cared. Her heart floated up inside her chest, stopped only by her ribcage.
“My mom took me back,” she said, the words bitter on her tongue. “She promised things were going to be different. She was clean. She had a job washing sheets at the Super 8. It lasted for a month. Then, I missed two weeks of school because she went completely off the rails. I don’t even know what she was on that time, but she was so paranoid, she wouldn’t let me leave the house. Then, one morning, I couldn’t wake her up and called 9-1-1. By the afternoon, we were both back in the system.”
Dante shook his head. Then, he lifted her hand and pressed a kiss to skin. “We’re both safe now.”
It’s exactly what Raven was thinking. “There’s a lot to be said for safety. What’s sad is I feel more at ease here with almost a hundred fanged monsters who could drain me of blood in ten seconds flat than I did in a neighborhood with white picket fences and perfectly manicured lawns.”
Dante squeezed her hand. “I guess your last placement could’ve been better?”
Raven scoffed bitterly. “Oh, no, it was picture perfect. Perfect neighborhood in the perfect income bracket. Perfect family with the perfect reputation. Too bad appearances are so deceiving.”
He released her hand and turned on her. “What happened? Did someone hurt you?”
“No,” Raven whispered, her heart reacting to the intensity of his concern. “We came here before anything could happen. Even if we hadn’t wound up here, Felicity...she would never have let me go back in that house. That’s part of why we were in Lost Cove. We were planning how to get me away from them.”
“I knew I liked Felicity.”
“She’s pretty amazing.”
“So, what’d they do? Hit you? Starve you? Rent you out to the neighbors to do lawn work?”
Raven shuddered, recalling the terrible placements Dante had told her about. She fought off memories of her own. “Let’s just say Joe was a creeper, so I locked my door at night.”
Dante shook his head, eyes on the treetops. He clenched his jaw, not speaking for several moments. Then, finally, he took a deep breath and turned to her. “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, “even if the Laltog King had to sic his pet copperhead on you to make it happen. How fucked up is that?”
“Totally fucked up, but I’m glad, too.” If he kept looking at her like that, Raven was pretty sure getting bitten by a venomous snake was the best thing that ever happened to her.
Dante leaned toward her, grazing her cheek with his thu
mb. “You look just how I remember. I must have thought of you a thousand times a day since I’ve been gone. God, I’ve missed you.”
Allowing his words to seep into her, Raven leaned back against the trunk of the tree behind her, her pulse racing. If this were one of the paranormal romances she loved to read, the hero would lean in and kiss her within an inch of her life and take her passionately to the ground, leaves and all. In all honesty, she’d be okay with that. More than okay.
But she had a feeling the kiss would mean something different in Lost Cove than it would in the human realm, where kissing could be as serious or fun as you wanted it to be. Here, there were different expectations. Faster timelines for things that took years in the human realm. Still, Raven’s body was shouting way louder than her brain at the moment. It was shouting for Dante Zamora.
“I feel like you want to kiss me,” Raven whispered before she could stop herself. “But you’re hesitating. Why?”
His lips widened into a smile, revealing the dimples she loved so much. He bit his lower lip, his eyes focused on her mouth.
“You caught me,” he said. “And yeah, I’ve been thinking about kissing you for two weeks, but if I start kissing you now, I’m not going to want to stop.”
Raven raised her brows. “I’m failing to see the problem.”
Did she really just say that? Oh, my God.
Before the mortification could reach her cheeks, he brushed his lips across hers. Then, before either of them could talk themselves out of it, she wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back. After that, there was nothing shy or tentative, and Raven felt like they were picking up right where they had left off the times they had been able to see each other before he disappeared. Dante slid his hand to the back of her neck, pulling her closer to deepen the kiss. When his tongue moved against hers, her hands roamed down the length of his back, clinging to him as the muscles moved beneath his shirt. Warmth spread from her center and radiated throughout her body, making her feel like a puddle in his arms. His hands moved down her back, settling on her hips, his thumbs tracing the waistline of her skirt until they found the bare skin of her back. He moved from her lips, then, pressing a trail of kisses across her cheek and stopping to nibble her ear, before continuing to her neck. His hand slid up her side, over the soft fabric of her sweater vest, to unbutton the collar of her crisp white shirt.
“Damn uniform,” he grumbled, his lips returning to hers.
Raven laughed against him, lost in his closeness and cherishing the way she felt so small, yet powerful in his arms. The way he always made her feel safe. Dante’s hands slipped under the hem of her shirt and pressed against the hot skin of her waist, his fingers spreading across her entire abdomen, stretching up, so close to where she wanted them. Laughing, he tugged her closer, continuing his upward journey. Her heart was about to explode, and they were both breathing rapidly.
Oh, my God, am I ready for this?
Well, her body definitely was.
Before she could puzzle out whether her heart was ready, a high pitched scream echoed through the trees, followed by a low, feral growling. Leaves crunched as something heavy scampered across the ground.
Dante froze against her, turning toward the noise, his hands pressing her backward against the tree as he scanned the area. Nothing, save the wind and their own frantic breath, made a sound.
“What the hell was that?” Raven whispered. Now, her heart was pounding for an entirely different reason. She could hear her pulse in her ears.
“I have no idea.”
They waited.
Another growl rumbled nearby, closer this time. It sounded low and guttural, like no animal she’d ever heard before.
“Should we go see what it is?” Raven whispered. “I mean, what if it’s a hurt animal or something?”
Dante took Raven’s hand, pulling her away from the tree in a backward step as he continued to examine their surroundings.
“I don’t think that’s an animal,” he said, so quietly she could barely hear. “And when humans explore strange noises in Lost Cove, it usually doesn’t end well for the humans.”
“Right,” Raven said. “Understood.”
They continued to move slowly backward, and Raven had the strangest feeling someone or something was watching her. But they didn’t hear the noise again.
“Let’s get out of here,” Dante whispered.
He slipped his arm around Raven, urging her back toward the village, glancing over his shoulder every few minutes. She didn’t know who or what the noise had been, and something told her that Dante was right. Whatever had growled at them wasn’t an animal, and in Lost Cove, there was only one other creature that growled.
But she’d never heard a Laltog make that kind of sound. Even Kyla in the middle of a jealous rage had never made a noise that could compare.
By the time they reached the village, Raven was shaking. All the lust and fear had transformed to panic, and she couldn’t keep her hands still. Dante walked her back to the cottage, holding her hand and whispering assurances that everything was okay. But when things growled in the middle of the forest, it was usually a clear sign that nothing was okay. Whenever someone told her everything would be fine, her world fell apart again.
Nan was sitting in the wooden rocking chair on the front porch, cutting thin strips of some kind of bark with a small knife. When she spotted them, she froze, her expression reflecting the panic Raven felt.
“Felicity,” Nan called, “you’d better come out here.”
Evening Feast must have been over already. Felicity rounded the cottage trailed by Tristen, who had been tasked with watching over her. Fee was carrying a basket of herbs, and when she took in Raven’s crumpled clothes, swollen lips, and wide eyes, she shoved the basket at Tristen, as if she were the royal and not him.
“What’s wrong?” she demanded, yanking Raven’s hands from Dante’s. “What happened? Raven, you’re shaking. Why are you shaking? Dante, why is she shaking?”
“We’re okay,” Dante said. “We were taking a walk, and we heard someone scream, and then we heard growling.”
Felicity exchanged a look with Tristen. “What kind of growling?”
“Not the animal kind,” Dante answered, raising his brows at Tristen.
But it didn’t make any sense. The Laltogs weren’t allowed to harm humans. And there was no reason to. Every human in Lost Cove paid blood tithes each month at the donation center. Two pints of blood in exchange for the freedom to live as they chose. It was perfect for everyone. The humans got a safe place to live, while the Laltogs were protected from the Fae world that had rejected them and they had plenty to eat.
“Were the Laltogs....hunting?” Raven whispered. So much for being safer here than with Joe and Amy Rice.
“Shhhh,” Dante said low in her ear. “We don’t ask those kinds of questions in Lost Cove.”
Tristen was shaking his head, though. “There should be no one in the forest right now. I just came from Evening Feast before meeting with my parents. All the Laltogs were accounted for. They were all present at dinner and well fed. There would be no reason for them to be in the forest.”
“Well, something is out there, Your Highness,” Dante said. “For the first time since I came here, I wasn’t sure we’d make it back to the village.”
Nan sighed, glancing between Raven’s terrified expression and Tristen’s troubled one. “Everyone inside. It looks like you could all use some chamomile tea while we discuss this in more privacy.”
Tristen and Felicity followed Nan inside. When Raven stepped forward to do the same, Dante caught her hand and tugged her to him, wrapping his arms around her. He pressed a kiss to her hair and held her close. She rested her head against his chest, listening to the sound of his heart. When he released her, she felt calmer. Safer.
She looked up at his worried face and smirked.
“Next time you want to make out with me, just take me to your room.”
A shoc
ked laugh burst from Dante’s lips. He shook his head. “Yes, Ma’am.”
Her stomach still twisting with nerves, she pulled him inside, in desperate need of Nan’s special calming blend.
Chapter 10
So not only was Felicity being stalked by Elizabeth of Bathory and her sidekick Count Orlok, but now Raven and Dante were hearing feral noises that could only belong to something murdery and unpleasant dwelling in the forest.
Two weeks into life in Lost Cove, and Felicity was public enemy number one and worried for her BFF. All in all, it wasn’t that much different than a typical day at Prosperity High School. Other than the magic and fangs.
Nan and Raven had gone to bed already, but Felicity wasn’t ready to give up on connecting with the other side. Nan had tried to guide her through it earlier, but after her run-in with Kyla and Elder Conlan and Raven and Dante’s experience in the forest, Felicity hadn’t been able to concentrate. Now, she sat in the middle of the kitchen table, surrounded by white candles, and tried to calm down.
“Find your baseline,” Nan had said, whatever the hell that meant. “Focus on what you’re feeling, rather than what you’re thinking, and be honest about it. Once you’re centered, focus on who you want to contact and make the offering.”
Taking a deep breath, Felicity crossed her legs and stared down at the candle in front of her, focusing on the dancing flame.
Baseline.
She closed her eyes.
“Okay, what am I feeling?” she asked herself. “I’m feeling…”
Angry.
Afraid.
Vulnerable.
That got honest more quickly than she had anticipated. And she hated it.
But it made total sense. Her family had been ripped from her before she could even say goodbye. Now Lyric and Lochlan were God knew where doing God knew what—probably still plotting to rescue her, which would only get them killed. And she still totally cared, even though they’d lied to her for her entire life. Had she known she was a Seelie Fae, not to mention the Princess of the Seelie Realm, she might have been better prepared to deal with the Laltogs that surrounded her now. But when it came down to it, none of that even mattered. She couldn’t exactly seek out her father, King Barrett, or her brother Prince Dillon, because, as a second heir, she could be executed simply for being born.