Page 60 of Bombshell

Odette’s eyes filled with tears before shifting back and forth like she was flipping through her dreams to try and figure it out. “The Cave is only accessible by water but with the tsunami you can probably just walk in like Daddy did with Effie in my dream… it’s got a funny rock formation that looks like the prongs of a fork…”

I knew exactly where that was. To think that the magical source of the barrier had been just underneath one of my favorite spots to run for centuries.

“Thank you, Odette, you should get to higher ground.”

The faerie frowned. “No, I’m coming with you.”

I started to protest but she cut me off. “In case you haven’t noticed Mr. Tentacle-Man, the ocean is not ocean-ing right now. How are you going to get to Effie before she gets attached to the Source, huh? With your feet? I can get you there much faster.”

“How?” I asked, watching as Odette’s silvery wings flipped open and fluttered behind her.

“With these,” Odette said proudly.

There was absolutely no way she was going to be able to fly and carry me at the same time with those flimsy things. I always thought that faerie wings were like the tiny vestigial ones on my own back—mostly for looks—but judging by her expression that didn’t seem to be the case. “Uh, no offense, but I’m a lot heavier than I look.”

“And I,” Odette said, holding out her hands to me, “am a lot stronger than I look.”

I put my hands in hers and yelped as my feet left the wooden planks of the Wharf and we were airborne.

“See!” Odette shouted down to me as we wobbled precariously in the air because she banked left in the direction of the ocean cliffs in the distance. “I told you I was stronger than I looked!”

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to think about anything but about how high up we were. It was the same as last time when we rode the stone dragon to chase Daphne when she’d been kidnapped, but at least there had been a saddle on that guy.

Now, all I had keeping me from plummeting down to the sandy ocean floor was a pair of tiny, manicured hands.

“Whatever you do,” I shouted up at her. “Please don’t drop me!”

“Oh come on, ye of little faith. I won’t drop you—I also saw that in my dreams.”

That wasn’t much of a comfort to me as we rode the current of air down to the forked cliffs where my mate was and I swore that, if anything happened to her, I was going to tear Arsenio Sidhe limb from limb.

Chapter 17

Somehow I think I’ve been kidnapped,I realized dazedly as I came to with my wrists bound in what could only be magic dampening shackles. Only those could fill my body with the sensation of buzzing static, making it hard to find the core of my magic.

I was lying in cold sand as the sounds of voices and dripping water filled my ears.

The last thing I remembered was stepping through the massive front doors of the Mayor’s mansion and seeing James Reid’s stupid face and then nothing.

It was obvious now that the person texting me with Odette’s phone hadn’t been her at all—I thought it was weird that she wasn’t using any emojis but I just figured she was having a rough time.

Now I knew better and felt like such an idiot.

“You can’t just attach her to a magical orb and leave her in this cave, Arsenio, that wasn’t the deal!” Alexander’s voice made my ears ache as he shouted.

“No, the deal was you create a Guardian for the source—one that can live longer than a measly few centuries and I keep you and your coven up in their current lifestyles with my wealth.”

“That was before I knew that the Guardian can’t leave the Source ever. That’s my daughter. In what world would you think I’d ever be okay with that?”

“I don’t know, Alexander, you were doing a pretty good job of not caring about her for the last fifty years—what’s another millennium or so? She’ll outlive you anyway.”

Ouch. I wasn’t sure if that insult was supposed to hurt Alexander’s feelings or mine but I was definitely catching strays as I continued to lie on the floor of what I was now pretty sure was a cave.

It’s an awful cave,my mysterious voice friend whispered in my mind, faintly.But it wasn’t so bad when he was alive in it too.

He?I asked.Who is he?

My Guardian.

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