Ah, no, I did not want to tell her who that was. My panicked gaze went to Starren, waiting for her to interject and trying to tell her to stop the predator waiting to attack attitude.

  “Can I just talk with her for a second?” I asked Wren. “You can have a seat on the couch.” I didn’t give her time to answer. I rushed forward and hauled Starren into the attached kitchen by force.

  “What are we going to do?” I whispered. Somehow so far we’d been able to keep things under wraps while searching for an answer to the Dan and Nina problem. So much for that. “And you have to dial it down. She’s already on high alert and you’re just making it worse.”

  Starren was looking over my shoulder at Wren, who had not sat down, but was at least leaning against the couch.

  “We’re going to have to take care of her.”

  “Of course we are, she’s Nina’s sister. What do I say to get her to go away?”

  Starren glanced at me and rolled her eyes before staring Wren down again. “That’s not the kind of care I meant.”

  Not the kind of.. oh. Oh! “We can’t kill Nina’s sister!” I hissed.

  She cocked her head. “I get the sense from her that it will be difficult. But with both of us, we’ll be fine. Especially if we can lure her just out of the city limits. She wouldn’t see it coming when the trees ripped her apart.”

  I grabbed Starren’s shoulders and gave her a little shake. “We are not killing Nina’s sister.”

  Finally she actually looked at me.

  “Why not?”

  “Because Nina loves her, for one, and for two it’s horrible to just kill people! She might be a good person.”

  “No one is just good.”

  “Nina is.”

  She didn’t argue with me on that one. Either because she knew it was true, or because she knew I’d throw a fit if she tried to tell me otherwise. Dan and Nina had only ever been patient and kind with me, even traveling to a foreign world full of monsters to help me save my sister. Another reason she couldn’t really argue, since she was that sister.

  “Fine, maybe a few people. But we don’t know that this is one.”

  “We aren’t killing her,” I ground out. “Promise.”

  Starren stared down at me for a second. “I won’t hurt her unless she tries to cause someone else harm.”

  It wasn’t a full on promise, but it was as good as I was going to get at the moment, and eventually Wren was going to get tired of standing around in our musty apartment.

  “What can we tell her?”

  “Nothing but the truth. I’ll be able to tell otherwise.” I spun around to face Wren. She still leaned against the couch like she hadn’t just admitted to eavesdropping. Had she heard the whole conversation? Surely not, I’d just been a bit loud on that last part.

  I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans, my shoulders hunching in. I couldn’t tell her anything but the truth, or nothing at all. No fae could. But the truth was something I didn’t tell anyone. Even Nina had found out the hard way. Talk about traumatic, seeing your sixteen-year-old daughter get shot in the gut with an arrow. And the nearly instant healing after may have been almost as bad.

  “How about we order some pizza?” I asked. “We haven’t had supper.” I sent her a somewhat sickly smile.

  “Or she could just leave,” Starren said. “We aren’t obligated to tell her anything.”

  I looked hopefully at Wren, who shoved off the couch with her hip.

  “If I leave here, I’m going straight over to talk to Nina. I’m going through everything she has, and I’m figuring this out myself. I can’t think of anything other than a head injury that could make a person forget something this important, and I find it really unlikely that both Dan and Nina had something like that happen, and they both just by chance forgot the same super important thing.” Her eyebrows went up.

  “Oh no, don’t do that. Please don’t do that.” Her going over to Dan and Nina’s and digging around could turn into a disaster. The food they’d eaten in Faerie had slowly started erasing any memories that pertained to the fae after the first bite, until there was nothing left. Not even me. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t remember. It was mine.

  That hope wormed its way back in. The hope I kept trying to get rid of. Maybe if she went over and poked around, it would make them start thinking. Make them remember… something. Anything about me.

  I crushed that worm under a ton of rocks. Rebecca had tried that. They hardly remembered her, with her connection to so many fae. She’d lost the only friend she had here, working her way back to where she was now with Nina. Friends, but only kind of.

  My father had taken so much from me. From all of us. I tried to shove down the anger, but it bubbled its way to the surface so easily anymore. I wanted to hate him. But I wouldn’t let myself.

  “Oh, I’ve already been there. Three days, in fact. I’ve been very subtle so far, but that’s about to end. I followed you home from school today. Sat out in the freezing cold while you were at that other apartment building. I was about to knock on their door and have this talk with you there, but then you came out and I followed you again, until we ended up here.”

  Ouch, that could have been bad, her confronting me in front of Jaden, Rebecca, Jaime, and yuck, Lucy.

  Starren crossed her arms and scooted in front of me. “We don’t have to tell you anything.”

  What was the worst that could happen? She could go and talk to Dan and Nina, and they would tell her they didn’t know any Trisha’s. I swallowed down the lump in my throat that thought brought up. They’d already been telling her that.

  Wren shrugged. “True. I’ll just be on my way then. Maybe Nina has regained some of that memory by now.” She turned and headed for the door, opening it a crack. “And if not, I can always talk to Child Protective Services. Someone there will know something.”

  “No, wait!” I darted around Starren. “You can’t do that to them! It isn’t their fault!”

  She turned back, honing in on my face. “Not their fault? Then whose fault is it?”

  Crap. I internally scrambled for an answer, but didn’t come up with anything convincing.

  “Don’t lie to me, Trish.” She cocked her head. “If you even can.”

  I took a step back like I’d been physically hit by something. “What’s that supposed to mean?” It came out weak. Stupid, stupid.

  “Now will you let me take her out?” Starren asked.

  Wren smiled, but it wasn’t a joyful smile. More like a villain in a movie, getting what they wanted. “I’ll leave if you answer one question for me.”

  That should be an easy request. Should. Then why did it freak me out so much?

  She didn’t wait for me to say yes or no.

  “Are you fully human?”

  Starren snarled and went for her sword. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Wren had better stop baiting her. Honestly it was kind of amazing she’d made it this long without murdering anyone, and I’d really like to keep the streak up.

  “What are you talking about?” I asked. “What is there other than human?”

  Wren shoved the door closed and leaned on it. “You tell me.”

  I shrugged my shoulders helplessly, like I had no idea what she was talking about. But she knew about the lying thing. Why was I keeping it from her? Maybe she could help. She was Nina’s sister, Nina trusted her.

  I’d never told anyone before. I didn’t even know how to go about doing that. My mom had put a stop to me telling anyone for no reason. But if a person already knew… I tamped down the terror that jumped to the forefront whenever I thought of anyone finding out, of people knowing. Nina hadn’t told her. Was that because she didn’t trust her, or because she wanted to let me decide who to tell, and who to leave in the dark?

  If I did tell her, I would be making the decision for an entire race, not just for myself. That didn’t seem fair.

  But Dan and Nina. I would do anything for Dan and Nina. I looked at Starren, and she glared back, tight lips, giving a sharp no with her head.

  “Maybe she can help us. She’s like a soldier or something. Nina wasn’t ever very specific.”

  “That’s even worse,” Starren hissed, low under her breath.

  “Nothing to see here.”

  “We’re fae.”

  We both blurted completely different sentences out at the same time. Typical for us to be on total opposite sides of every single thing we came across.

  “She’s crazy,” Starren said. “Doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” She glared at me for a second, then went back to studying Wren.

  “Fae?” Wren asked. Her posture had stiffened. She looked every inch a soldier at the moment. “What exactly does that mean?”

  “Great job.” Starren threw up her hands. “Now we really do have to kill her. This is your fault. I haven’t had to kill anyone in awhile.”

  “Shut up, Star.” I sent Wren a weak smile. “She doesn’t really mean that.” I went back to Starren. “You can’t hurt her, even if you want to. I am not giving you permission. At all.”

  Starren smirked. “I don’t need it. I’m saving your life.”

  “Wren, do you mean me or Starren physical harm?” I asked.

  Wren looked at me like I was crazy. “No.”

  “Humans can lie,” Starren said.

  I hated it when Starren was right. She always sounded so smug. “Beside the point that she may not want to cause us harm, but if she goes around and blurts that out to anyone, we will come to harm anyway. I guarantee it.”

  “She doesn’t have any proof.”

  “Can I stop you both there?” Wren asked. “Part of my job is dealing with weird. You got the right person here.” Her hand had gone behind her back, and she was standing in an exaggeratedly easy stance.

  “I don’t care what your job is. I don’t trust you.” Without even looking, Starren leapt over to the couch and slid across the wood floor beside it, coming out on the other end with her sword. She lunged toward Wren.

  But it was too late. Wren already had a gun in her hand. She raised it as Starren went into the air, sword up.

  “No!” I screamed, jumping between them.

  Much too late. The crack of a weapon firing sounded first. And yep, there it was. Pain ripped its way through my shoulder. I really needed to stop doing this.

  Chapter 3

  Whyyyy. Why did this always happen?

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I ground out. First time for everything, this time I’d been shot in the shoulder.

  I gritted my teeth and moaned.

  “Oh crap, Nina’s going to kill me.” Wren dropped down beside me on the floor where I’d been knocked flat. She put pressure on my wound, making me hiss in pain.

  “You shot my sister,” Starren growled.

  “It’ll be fine, it’ll heal,” I said.

  “Looks like it passed through your subclavian artery,” Wren said as she examined the wound, blood flowing much faster than I’d have liked. “We need to get you in, you could bleed to death.”

  “You shot my sister!” Starren said, even louder.

  “Not now, Star. Get me out.” I didn’t have to explain. She knew what I meant. I managed to sit up, woozy.

  “You,” Starren spit out in Wren’s direction. “Do you have a car?”

  “Yes, but an ambulance would be faster.” Her phone didn’t even make it to a 1 in 911 before Starren knocked it out of her hand with the tip of her sword.

  “Car.”

  “Please, Aunt Wren,” I said.

  She looked between us, but grabbed her phone and slipped under my shoulder on my good side.

  Starren ran to the kitchen and grabbed a couple towels, then moved up on the other side to keep me from keeling over.

  Deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. You’d think I’d be used to this by now.

  We got to the car with only a few waves of nausea blasting me. Apparently this non-mortal wound didn’t bother my body nearly as much as it was bothering me.

  They shoved me into a small dark vehicle and Starren jumped in the back with me. Aunt Wren got in the front and started the car.

  “We need to get her outside of the city limits.” Somehow Starren still had her sword. “Just start driving.”

  “Wouldn’t a hospital be better?” Wren asked.

  “Drive,” Starren growled, sliding her sword up where Wren could see it.

  “Great plan, Star. I’m sure she tossed her gun back at the apartment.” I groaned as the car lurched forward, but didn’t even feel like passing out. Yes, this was definitely much better than a gut shot.

  “That was stupid,” Starren said, whacking me lightly in the side of the head.

  “Hey! Not like I’m not in enough pain already.”

  “You wouldn’t be if you hadn’t jumped in front of that shot.”

  “I wasn’t even going to hit her,” Wren said from up front. “That was just a warning shot.”

  “You wouldn’t have hit me,” Starren snarled. “And you wouldn’t have had time for a second shot.”

  “Shut up, both of you. This is what got us in this situation in the first place.” I adjusted my weight, trying to find a comfortable position. There wasn’t one.

  Both women went into guilty silence. “We’re going to get this taken care of, and then I’ll need something to eat, then we’re going to talk. Like civilized people.” The blood started to drip through the towel compress. “Sorry about your car, Aunt Wren.”

  “It’s okay, sweetie, and you can just call me Wren.”

  “Okay.” I closed my eyes for a second, the world spinning a bit. Not a problem. All this would be gone in a few minutes when we crossed the border. “You ready for this, Star?” I asked with my eyes still closed. “I really don’t want to cross the line, but a hospital isn’t an option.”

  Her hand gripped my good arm, for just a second. “You know I’m always ready for anything.”

  I didn’t even know for sure what I was asking her if she was ready for. For Wren to see me heal? For us to cross the border? Were there fae out there, waiting for us? Father wanted me. Bad. With the way he’d tried to keep me in Faerie before and the few things Starren would say about him, I had no doubt he’d take me by force if he had the chance.

  I felt it. The second we crossed the town line.

  “That’s good,” I grunted out.

  “Turn the car around and pull over,” Starren told Wren. “We need to be as close to the city limits as possible.”

  Wren threw us an odd look, but obeyed.

  I leaned against Starren while my skin knit back together, the stupid black floaters going across my vision. Apparently I’d lost more blood than I’d thought.

  It took a moment, but the pain lessened until it was gone. I heaved a breath and poked at my arm. “All good.” I looked up to see Wren staring at my arm, acting like she was about to climb into the back seat. “We better get out of here before someone notices we left-”

  Bam. The car rocked.

  “Great,” Starren said.

  The car rocked again, so hard the sides bounced off the ground.

  “There’s a human here, they aren’t supposed to do this in front of humans!” I instinctively cradled my arm, but no pain.

  “Get us back inside the city limits!” Starren shouted.

  A light flashed outside, and there he was. Mister gorgeous. Bounty hunter Vilan. I hadn’t seen him since he’d tried to stop us from leaving Jaden’s place in California, months ago. Had he been after me this whole time?

  “Move, Human,” Starren said, poking at Wren with the dull side of her sword. “Get us out of here.”

  But Wren couldn’t. She was mesmerized, the same way I’d been the first time I’d seen him. Part of his powers.

  I reached forward and slapped her.

  She jerked and grabbed her cheek. “What was that for?”

  I didn’t get a chance to answer. The car screeched and began to crumple. Starren instinctively shoved her door open just in time before the frame was too distorted for it to work properly.

  I scooted over and she pulled me out.

  Wren was not so lucky. Her door wouldn’t budge, a piece of crushed bumper wrapped over it.

  “Go through the back!” I pounded on her window. “Star, help her!”

  Starren just watched.

  I growled and shoved the back door open more, jumping in, fighting a bout of dizziness. Wren hadn’t moved.

  “My leg is pinned,” she said, sounding totally calm. “Get out, it’ll be fine. You help my sister with whatever’s going on.”

  Uh, no. Nina would kill me if she knew I’d let her sister die. Okay, she’d probably never know, and okay, she wouldn’t kill me, she’d just be glad I wasn’t dead too, but still.

  I stuck my head back out of the car. It had gone eerily quiet out here, and there wasn’t any too bright men around. Worry about that when it became a problem. “Give me your sword,” I told Starren.

  Her eyes went into slits. “Are you finishing the human?”

  I didn’t answer, just held out my hand.

  “I won’t have anything to defend us with. We should go.” She followed up saying that with a look around our perimeter.

  “I’m not going anywhere until you give me that sword.”

  The car lurched a bit, and the grinding noise of it compressing wailed out into the night. He was pulling it toward where we’d seen him for a second.

  “Shoot.” I grabbed Starren’s sword out of her hand and dove back into the car. “Here!” I shoved it at Wren.

  Thankfully she seemed to know what I had in mind and didn’t try to cut her leg off. She jammed the sword under the console, using it as leverage to move the plastic just enough, crying out as she pulled her leg free.

  I grabbed her under her arms and yanked her into the back seat, right as the hood of the car mangled into a clump of twisted metal. Somehow she didn’t lose her grip on the sword as we tumbled out of what was left of the vehicle.

  Starren wrenched the sword from Wren’s hand, and then pulled me to my feet.

  The only sound in the night was the screeching of metal as the car turned into a ball of junk.

 

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