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“Catastrophizing won’t change my mind.”
Appalled, Rush shook his head. “I always knew you were a stubborn elf, but now I think it’s sheer stupidity.”
“Babe,” Clarke breathed. “I called him stubborn back in his room, and it didn’t work.”
“In his room? In that nightgown meant for my eyes only?”
She scowled at his nudity. “Seriously?”
Rush’s dark brows lowered, and he rubbed his fist in a circle over his chest. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I feel as territorial as I did when we first mated.”
“This conversation is positively riveting,” Leaf intoned, “but I’ll let you have it without me.” He almost didn’t want to ask this next bit. “And which location did you foresee my… mate”—he almost choked on the word—“waking in?”
She looked at him squarely in the eyes. “Ten years ago, it was in the direction you were already headed.”
Snarling in frustration, Leaf stormed out and walked toward the stables. No matter which path he chose, a Seer had meddled in it. He was out of the Order gates and a mile away when something Clarke said halted him.
My thing is protecting my daughter.
She’d argued with the Sluagh outside his window, then immediately came to his room. That wasn’t a coincidence. But perhaps Clarke’s willingness to help had less to do with Leaf and more with her daughter, Willow. Because up until then, her motives had aligned with the Prime’s desire for the Twelve to mate with a human from the old world.
Did Clarke knowingly send him in the opposite direction, or was he overthinking things again?
ChapterThree
Over the past three months, the sounds of war had become white noise to Nova Morales. Screams of pain, angry shouts, and war cries blended until she stopped wondering who they belonged to. But that was just amidst a battle. The worst sounds came at night when she tried to sleep—the cries of pain became more intimate, closer to home. Whether they belonged to prisoners being tortured or those being humiliated, subjugated, or forced, the easiest thing to do was block it out and get on with her job as the camp chef.
So long as she continued to make dwindling supplies last longer, she was safe from harm. For now. A bitter laugh slipped from her parched lips. The one benefit from being an environmental activist most of her life—despite the world having gone to shit anyway—was that she’d learned to make every scrap count.
She flinched at a shout in the night sky. Winged fae were often nocturnal and restless when they made camp. They covered ground faster than those on foot and had spare energy while others rested. Winged soldiers were picking fights or daring each other to leave the camp and hunt the manticore rumored to be prowling the woods.
Focus on the dishes.
Clearing her mind of distracting thoughts, she needed her wits about her, and the sooner she finished, the sooner she was allowed to eat. She plunged raw, chafed hands into the dirty soap water and grappled for a dish.
A low-flying vampire swooped. She ducked, hating how he laughed at her fear.
“¡Eres un burro!”she mumbled in Spanish. Jackass!
No matter who they were in this war camp, they could die tomorrow. So forgive her for being jumpy. And she was at the bottom of the food chain—a human in a camp full of vampires and fae caring little for her safety.
They’d discovered her stumbling by the side of the road, disoriented and sick. The sad thing was, she would rather be back there than here. She should have hidden in the forest and not asked for help.
She shook her head and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Her fingers brushed the gold hoop earrings, and a pang of longing tugged in her chest. Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply to stop the tears.
I don’t know what’s wrong with me tonight.
But she couldn’t stop thinking about her old life.
Nova still remembered the day she’d returned home from high school wearing the earrings, and her mother tried to kick her out of the house. Her cheeks heated thinking about it. She’d been so angry at her mother for throwing away all reference to their cultural heritage when her grandparents immigrated years ago from Mexico. She couldn’t understand why… until her parents explained they’d had a falling out with family.
Her fingers slipped back into the dishwater. She’d fought so much with her mother about it, but they remained mysterious about their falling out. She wished they’d trusted her enough to tell her. Despite the unrest, they put aside their differences every Sunday, and the family would come together and eat.
She wiped her nose with her sleeve. There wasn’t any point in keeping it clean. She’d been wearing the same tattered dress for two weeks, and even then, she’d pulled it from the corpse of a woman who’d been brutally used and murdered by the soldiers in this camp.
Feeling the hairs rise on the back of her neck, she lifted her gaze and scanned her surroundings. Twilight left enough light that she could see beyond her small cooking campsite. Another two women cleaned dishes from the evening’s late meal. One had pointed ears. The other was a fae with horns and cloven hooves as feet. Neither spoke to Nova or cared to elaborate on their heritage. Anything Nova gleaned was from snippets of overheard conversation.
This week’s camp was stationed between a river and a forest somewhere in a land she’d learned was named Elphyne. Unlike her initial assumption, she hadn’t been transported to a new planet. This was Earth… only thousands of years after she was born.
