Adam glanced at me, then looked back to the road. "You're welcome."
My cheeks burned. He had saved me from Terra's wolves. "Thank you. I appreciate what you did to help get me out of there, but please, I need to know what's going on."
"Maggie and I were sent to get you. Clearly, Terra sent her wolves to get you, too." Adam spoke like it wasn't any big deal. Like people were saved from a pack of wolves controlled by an angry Fae queen on a regular basis.
"Who sent you and where are we going?" I asked.
"Can't tell you, but we'll be there in a few hours."
I was getting so tired of being the last to know everything. "Did Maggie say that you're a Sayge?"
"Yep, you're not the only one, you know," Adam said.
"Then why does Terra care so much? Why not just find some other Sayge to do her dirty work?" I asked.
"Because you're different. Us Sayges, there aren't many of us left. And most of us have been so diluted with the human population that we can't even use magic. Your family tree has some of the purest Sayge blood of any of them. Surprising you didn't find out sooner. One of your parents had to have been pretty powerful," he said.
"I was adopted," I said.
"Oh."
We sat in silence for a few moments as I thought about what Adam had said. He was taking me somewhere, and I still wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let him. But I had to admit, I was curious to see who had given the order to save me from Terra's wolves.
"What the hell happened?" A groggy Joe said from the back seat. "Ara?"
I turned in my seat, letting out a sigh of relief at seeing Joe moving around. "Somebody just saved us from a pack of Terra's wolves."
"You told him about us?" Adam said from the driver seat.
"He's my best friend, what was I supposed to do, lie to him?" I snapped.
Adam shrugged. "Well, that's usually what we do. We don't need humans knowing our business."
"I've had enough lies from your kind already," I said.
"Hey, in case you forgot, little miss judgy, you are my kind. You have more in common with me than you do with Frankenstein in the back seat."
"Stop the car, right now." I was fuming. I couldn't stand it when people picked on Joe or anyone else based on how they looked. Especially when I knew that the scars that covered his body were one of the reasons Joe went spiraling down in the first place. "How dare you insult my friend? You ass. You don't even know him."
"Ara," Joe called out from the back seat. "I don't give a shit what he calls me. I just want someone to tell me what the fuck is happening here."
"He shouldn't have insulted you like that, Joe." I took a deep breath and glared at Adam. He was only the second Sayge I'd ever met and I wanted to ask questions, but he wasn't leaving a good impression on me.
"Sorry, dude," Adam said, sounding surprisingly sincere. "Joe, is it? I'm Adam."
"Um, nice to meet you, Adam. But now can you tell me why you're driving my car?" Joe was maintaining a very calm demeanor for someone who had been knocked out and tossed in the back seat of his car. I was impressed and proud. And glad I had told him the truth. What would I have done if I was in this by myself right now? Knowing that he was here with me made me feel more confident. However, there was a part of me that was feeling guilty for dragging him into this in the first place.
"I know it looks bad," Adam said. "But like I was telling your girlfriend, I was sent to help you guys."
"She's not my girlfriend," Joe said.
"Got it, your girl who is a friend, then." Adam laughed at his attempt to joke.
"Can you just tell us where we're going?" I asked again. "It's not going to change anything. I gotta tell you, honestly I'm trying to decide between going with you or running from you when we stop to get gas."
"You could run if you want, I won't stop you," Adam said. "Like Maggie said, we were asked to get you somewhere. I didn't want to get involved in the war. We've managed to stay neutral for a century, and if it were up to me, it'd stay that way."
"You're talking about the curse and all that?" I asked.
"You got it, sweetheart," Adam said. "Until you showed up in the middle of it, we were pretty content to let them duke it out for a few more centuries. As long as they wanted to kill each other, and they were leaving the humans out of it, we ignored them."
"How does them trying to break a curse and go home effect humans? Wouldn't it be better just to help them leave?" I asked.
"They really did a good job of hiding the truth from you, didn't they?" Adam said.
"Seriously, I just found out magic even existed a few days ago. Give me a break," I said. There was a lot to take in with all of this. I felt like I needed a whole semester of history classes on this feud to get it all straight.
"Sorry, I forget how much is kept from normals," he said. "It's like this, Terra wants Brenon's power so she can open the portal by herself. Then she can control the portal and have access to both worlds. The woman has a god-complex. She wants to rule. And not just her realm, she wants to rule all realms. Brenon staying cursed is the only thing that keeps her from getting out of control. When you entered the picture, she found a way to force him to break the curse. Without you, Brenon has to choose to break it."
I leaned back against the seat. "Wait, that's her goal? She told me she just wanted to get home."
"You must have learned your lesson about trusting the Fae by now," Adam said.
I swallowed against a lump that had risen in my throat. The way he spoke, it sounded like he knew everything I had done. The magical world might be new to me, but it sure seemed like word traveled fast.
I was quiet for a while, worried that if I brought up any more questions, Adam would turn them around on me. I wasn't ready to answer questions about my time with the Rose Circus, especially if he asked about Brenon.
Joe broke the silence. "So, this place we're going. This mysterious benefactor, it isn't a Fae, right? I mean, I might be new to all this, but so far what I'm getting is that the Fae are bad."
"Pretty much," Adam said. "And no, we're not going to see any Fae."
Joe leaned forward so he pressed against my seat. He lowered his voice. "Ara."
I turned around so he could whisper in my ear. "I think we should see who this person is. But if we get there and you feel like it's bad, you start running, I'll follow."
I smiled. "You got it."
Chapter 5
It was almost midnight when we arrived at a small, white farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. Adam turned off the engine. "We're here."
When I stepped out of the car, the air felt thick and damp, reminding me of the later summer humidity back home in Chicago. Crickets chirped and the wind blew the tall yellow grass that bordered the neat, green lawn. An abandoned tricycle and a few other children's toys dotted the ground as we walked toward the front door.