“No, no, no.” Violet folded her arms. “Last time we were there, Creed passed out in his waffles, and Zephyr was all up on that waitress who, by the way, was far too old for him. I do not want drama.”
Alkamy snorted and mock-whispered to Lily, “Get dressed. Her mood will shift in a minute anyhow.”
“Piss off.”
Lily left the two girls, and by the time she was in her room, she heard Violet’s laughter. Sometimes she wished that she had a primary affinity to fire instead of earth. There was something impossibly attractive about being so fluid in mood, but Lily tended toward constancy. Her earth affinity was first and strongest. That meant that she pursued her course steadfastly.
“We’re going to go to a café outside Belfoure,” Violet called through the door. “I’ve called my driver.”
“I’m not allowed off campus,” Lily replied, even though she’d already broken that rule once.
“So wear a hat or a scarf. Zeph can take you out the back way, and we’ll pick you up.”
If Daidí or even Hector knew that Lily was ignoring the rules so regularly, they’d fit her with a tracking device. Somehow, though, the things that had seemed risky before didn’t seem as much so now.
She was surrounded by fae-blood, who apparently thought themselves to be true fae and who were acting as—well, terrorists. Worse yet, they considered her to be one of them. The list of things that could go wrong was more than Lily wanted to contemplate, but rightly or not, Lily felt more at home with them than she ever had in her life. Being around these so-called Sleepers felt right.
She grabbed Creed’s hoodie from the night before and pulled it on. In the midst of everything, he alone had made her feel better. He might unnerve her, but there was no way to deny that they had some kind of a connection. Sure, Zephyr had tempted her when he kissed her, but she suspected that would be true for any girl with eyes, a pulse, and an interest in the opposite sex. Creed . . . he was different. She felt drawn to him like fire to tinder, and her initial theory that it was purely a fae-blood reaction seemed disproven after meeting Violet and Alkamy. Lily felt right around the others, but it wasn’t the same sort of irresistible demand she felt with Creed.
“I don’t need Zephyr to open the back gate,” Lily told Violet as she stepped into the room again.
A look between the two fae-blood made it very clear that Violet recognized the shirt too. All she said after Alkamy’s nod was “Are you sure you want to wear that?”
“I am.”
Alkamy pressed her lips tightly together, but she didn’t say a word. At some point, they’d need to discuss the fact that there was no way in either world that Lily was getting tangled up in Zephyr. He was beautiful, but his zealousness about the queen and his perceived mission were major problems.
“And to think that the boys were so easy to handle before you arrived,” Violet said, earning a frown from Alkamy.
Lily just laughed. Clearly the boys’ drama had been going on for a while. “Food and fun, Kamy. That’s the plan. No more talk of fae politics or any of it.”
Alkamy pressed her lips together, but she nodded.
Now all that was left was convincing the boys to cooperate with her plan.
twenty
EILIDH
“Eilidh. Eilidh. Eilidh.” The voice kept tugging at her, pulling her out of slumber. After blinking away the lingering tendrils of a very inappropriate dream about her betrothed, Eilidh looked around her room. The only people who could ascend the tower stair were those to whom she was related or betrothed. That left exactly two potential fae who wished her harm: her Seelie brothers, Nacton and Calder. However, she was fairly sure that either her mother or Rhys had some sort of system in place to notify them if either of the Seelie princes entered her home.
“Eilidh. Eilidh. Eilidh,” the voice continued.
The words wafted in on the sliver-thin edge of a breeze.
“Eilidh, it’s about Lilywhite,” it added.
At that, she knew and came tumbling out of her bed. Hurriedly, she dressed and crept out of the tower. At this time of the night, there was no one standing below and staring at the glass tower. The moonlight made it shimmer a little, not as bright or glaring as the sunlight could. Instead it looked vaguely luminous as the softer light reflected from the salt-encrusted glass.
Unfortunately, that light was still enough to make Eilidh stand out clearly as she fled her home, so she walked slowly, trying to seem as if she only meant to take a night stroll. There were no visible watchers, but that didn’t mean that no one waited in the shadows where she couldn’t see them.
Once Eilidh was far enough from the glow of her home, she increased her speed, twisting quickly through the labyrinthine tunnels of the cave so quickly that a follower would need to either be close enough that she would see them or know these paths well enough to predict her destination. Few fae bothered with the gates to the known world, especially as the queen had banned them from return to the Hidden Lands if they left without her permission.
When Eilidh came out of the tunnels on the sea-edged side of the Hidden Lands, she saw her guest. He stood with his arms held loosely at his side, as if waiting for an attack. Unlike the fae, he had no safe place to hide. In the world where he lived, his blood was cause for imprisonment. In her world, he was an object, a tool created at the queen’s order and deployed in secret. The Sleeper program wasn’t common knowledge.
“Creed Morrison,” she greeted.
He bowed deeply, the gesture far more courtly than she expected from him. It did little to assuage her worries. Seeing him at the edge of the Hidden Lands was not the most surprising part of her week, but Eilidh had never been summoned by Creed before tonight. She’d sought him out a few years earlier, and she’d worked with him so he could send messages to her over air. At the time, she’d vacillated between him and the other air affinity in the group, but the other Sleeper, Will, was a touch too observant for Eilidh’s comfort.
“Is Lily injured?”
“No.” Creed glanced past her, as if his half-human sight would somehow be enough to see any threat that was clever enough to follow her this far. He moved closer to the sea, where the battering of waves against earth would make his words harder to hear.
Eilidh followed. If her betrothed or brother were here, there would be much lecturing on risks, but despite her mother’s misuse of the Sleepers, Eilidh trusted this one. She was also standing on earth with sea in reach, so two of her affinities were easily called upon. So many of the fae acted as if Eilidh’s physical differences made her weak, and in some ways, they were right. She wasn’t as strong as some fae, but she was a daughter of the two regents. She was far from the fragile flower people thought her to be.
“Lily knows nothing of the fae,” Creed said when Eilidh was at his side. His words were all but placed in her ears like tactile things. His control of his affinity was better than she’d ever seen from him.
“She knows she is, at least, fae-blood,” Eilidh said.