Suddenly, the hold she had over me disappeared and I could move again. “Okay, say I bite. What use will I serve against powerful Fae who’ve managed to get the one up on you?”
That’s right, V. Go on and poke the bear. See how that turns out for you.
It was another shock to my system when she laughed. “Simple. You have the ability my kind fears and covets most. You’re a Time Mover.”
Still the lamest title ever…
Shifting one hip out, she regarded me like a woman who knew she had the goods. To be fair, she did. “With my help, nothing they do will stop what’s coming to them. Do this for me, and I’ll end your enemies for good. I give you my solemn vow, Hunter.”
“And if I say I need time to think?”
Her eyebrow rose. “You’d sacrifice your pink-haired human to think?”
Fuck her and every bit of her cleverness.
With a little laugh, she leaned in, her face in front of mine. “Seems I underestimated the Hand of Death you keep as a pet.”
Arms wrapped around me and a hard tug hit my stomach before I was no longer standing in front of One. Panic twisted my gut into knots as I turned inside the arms holding me before realizing Kate was on the floor, still unconscious.
“Love,” Cash growled, looking especially gorgeous without a shirt on and in a pair of tight pleather pants that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Why was I suddenly so hot and tingly? “I don’t mean to challenge your superior intellect, but what the fuck?”
His hand was on my face before his forehead pressed into mine, and the sensation was different. Intense. Practically electric. And it didn’t make any damn sense. I might be controlled by my libido and the resident ho-ho, but my horniness was usually pretty good at time and place. Friend kidnapped and escape from a psycho hottie weren’t it.
“I nearly had a bleeding heart attack when I tracked you here. I’d like to think you were clever enough to never willingly enter a portal…”
“How are you so sure I wasn’t dragged into it?” I countered breathlessly with his gorgeous face so close. Weirdly intense sensations slithered across my skin. His lips were so close to touching mine, and my animal brain was lost to the endless memories of how good they’d felt to kiss. “Maybe she kidnapped me and—”
His smirk was displaced in all the panic and hysteria. “Cheeky little dove. Unfortunately for you, that’s not how portals work. No one can bedraggedinto them. They must go willingly.”
Damn.
“Tricked, yes, but not unwilling.”
Double damn.
“But Serine—”
“Used pixie dust. It doesn’t require consent, the evil hag.”
Triple damn.
I wanted to ask him how he found me, but he went on before I could. “And now that diabolical minger has us trapped here.”
Chapter 2
For Fae’s Sake
“Trapped?” I asked, drawing back slightly. “What do you mean trapped?”
“That underworld slag, she’s one of the Originals. She isn’t a mixed breed like Serine. That devil is the real deal. I’d know that magic anywhere. Never thought I’d see Mistress Chaos in the flesh—I’d been rather good at avoiding her and her ilk once upon a time—but I haven’t sensed a Fae that powerful since…well, it doesn’t matter. The realm had been convinced she and the Originals had been killed off ages ago. Unfortunately for us, that doesn’t appear to be the case.”
Cash didn’t let go of me, but his magic still moved around us, on alert and actively defensive.
“We don’t have much time before she tracks this location. We need to move again, so you must tell me what she wanted. That rat bastard, Lux, was dead on the ground. She could’ve killed you and your chittering human, but she didn’t, so she must’ve wanted something.”
I was grateful that at least Cash was perceptive enough to gather that much.
“Our dear friend Mistress Chaos, she’s One. She claims to have killed off the rest of the Seven as a ‘good faith’ measure to appeal to me. She wants my help getting revenge against the Fae who sent her to the human world to be a prisoner owned by the Organization. In return, she’ll wipe out the Organization and anyone within its network.” I tried to pull away, but Cash only tightened his hold on me.
