Page 57 of Fatality on the Field

Our polar bear is already halfway to the door, but Slade’s question catches me off-guard, so I reply, “Not much, but one is a Dark Fae and the other is the healer of that town. If the Fae is practicing medicine—even on animals—here, he’s been vetted quite thoroughly. Kas didn’t seem worried about him as much as our ties to Faerie, which can always be problematic, just like yours to Bay City.”

That gets a smile from Slade, but it’s a wary one. Nodding, the siren starts packing our research materials with meticulous efficiency—he puts books back into their exact places on the shelves, snaps on pen caps, and makes sure all loose notes are realigned. It’s like he’s prepping for an inspection, but maybe he knows Iggy will die a little inside if he returns to the chaos we wrought in his absence.

My bet is on the latter, for sure.

Lucas leans against the doorframe, drumming his knuckles on the jamb impatiently. “Are we taking Professor Nakamura’s car or one of mine?” he asks. “I mean, Iggy’s car is at the hospital and so is yours, Li, so I’m just assuming. Mine are all still at the garage by my old dorm, but we can take one if we need to.”

“Why are they there?” Slade asks in confusion. “You moved out, right?”

I glance at my mate, who shrugs. “Having them at or near Lady M’s would draw the wrong attention, dude. She’s got enough visitors, my cars are very noticeable, and I’m allowed to leave them in the garage ‘cause that room is paid for.”

Smiling, I nod. “Very smart, cub. It would be quite attention-drawing to have a bunch of expensive cars relocate to the house. You did well.”

Lucas beams as I come over to kiss him lightly, his face flushed with pride. “You okay to ride shotgun, Prince? That way, you can text Kas and see if we can snag a spot in the hospital garage so we’re less likely to be seen.”

I consider his suggestion, and then decide he’s right. “We should do that. I assume you have a vehicle big enough to hold us all and since Kimmi has not contributed, she probably does not. Is that correct, Professor?”

Kimiko nods, her expression serious. “My car is not made to transport people, only plants. We should use his.”

Lucas cocks a brow, but doesn’t argue. I don’t know if the woman is lying or just odd, but there’s really no point in arguing when we have another option.

“Ready when you are, Highness.” Slade smiles as he walks by the windows to close the blinds, and then turns, to dust his hands off.

Using my title is meant as a joke, but it lands heavy on my shoulders. For all the time I’ve spent trying to blend in here, the reality is I’m never not on the clock for the Daybreak Court. There’s a powerful Fae here at the hospital I’ve never heard of, which means a spy will make it land on my father’s desk in a day. He’ll want to dig in and find out who the hell it is and whether he wants to do something insane to get the guy on his side. It won’t matter that the kid is settled here and doesn’t seem to want to live in Faerie.

Alwyn will send the Knaves to get it by force if the guy doesn’t agree and he wants him badly enough—I have to help Morgana and the Council keep his involvement quiet.

“We gotta move, guys,” the bear says and I chuckle as he tugs me out the door. Lucas leads the way out, shouldering his pack as he holds onto my hand. Slade and Kimmi bring up the rear, and as we move through the corridor, I can’t help but notice how empty it is. The other research offices are closed, lights off, even the usual grad student loiterers are nowhere to be seen. This was probably the absolute best time, if there is such a thing, for this crisis to pop up, even if it didn’t seem that way at the start.

“Do you think Kas was serious about your dad?” Slade asks quietly as we head down the stairs.

I nod. “If a Fae makes enough noise to be noticed by the Society or the Council, he’ll want to collect them like a damn Pokemon card. It’s about keeping the other royals at bay and he doesn’t care much about how that stance affects anyone else.”

The siren’s expression stays neutral, but I see the calculation in his eyes. “If he’s really not from your lands, then won’t doing something untoward like that trigger political problems at home? It has for my folks in the past.”

“That’s why I want to meet him first. If we can help him build a plausible cover, it might keep the rest of his life from turning to hell and my realm from breaking into war if Alwyn pisses off the right branch of some unknown tree.”

We hit the ground floor as a group, and Lucas holds the outer door for us as we head outside. There are already news vans parked at the far curb of the nearby garden, and a few straggler students filming on their phones, but for the most part, the world is still going about its business. If we’re quiet and controlled, we can get past the crews filming B-roll before they even see us.

“Garage?” Lucas prompts urgently, and I nod. The four of us cut through a side path, ducking behind hedges and the shed that houses groundskeeping, then up the short ramp into the concrete belly of the garage near the dorms.

Leading us to a full row of fancy cars that have a personalized plate I know is his, Lucas beams proudly. “Which one shall we take?”

“The SUV,” I say immediately and he bounds over to the vehicle I chose, using his fingerprint to open the door.

Of course he did.

Once everyone is piled into it, Lucas takes a beat to adjust his seat and mirrors, then says, “Okay, guys. Hold onto your butts.” He grins, then pulls out of the garage with all the subtlety of a joyriding teenager, cutting the corner so sharply we nearly clip a recycling bin. Slade laughs, but the sound releases more tension than mirth.

The campus blurs past in stripes of banner color and streaks of late-day shadow. All I want to do is get to the hospital, help Morgana, and make sure this mystery Fae isn’t caught in my father’s web before he has a chance to duck. If Lucas driving like an F1 star does that, I’m not going to complain—I’ll just hold on and wing a prayer to the goddesses that he’s as good a driver as he thinks. And that no cops stop us, of course.

Slade, who I thought would be silent the whole ride, leans forward and says, “You’ve got your court face on already, you know.”

I glance in the mirror, my brow furrowing. “I do?”

“Yeah,” he says, a small smile crimping the edge of his mouth as I see him in the mirror. “It’s the one you use when you’re putting on the affect of your dad, I guess. Iggy does the same thing and I guess I probably do, too, sometimes. Sucks having to project people we aren’t, huh?”

Lucas shoots me a sidelong look. “I’m pretty sure you’re not that dude, so I agree with him. I’m sure as fuck not either of my waste-case parents.”