Page 8 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

Those six little words clank through Blair.What the hell? Lyrian, coming for me? Bullshit.

Yet Blair jerks up, her senses straining. Her fae hearing picks up the sound of another door opening. She smells a waft of wet, moldy breeze that tells her there must be a second exit back there.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

She slams a hundred-dollar note on the table and heads after the girl.

She opens the first door. Washrooms to her right. The girl’s scent betrays her, and Blair stumbles through an inconspicuous door to her left, outside into the rain.

Right on time.

Blair catches Melody’s wrist right before she can get into a black, sleek sedan. She wrenches the girl back, pushing her face-first against the wall of the bar. One hand slides around the girl’s neck, the other over her lips.

Melody fights her, trying to throw elbows and land kicks, which Blair parries easily.

While she keeps the girl’s slender body against the wall, Blair feels how delicate she is. How breakable. One wrong move and Blair could snap her bones.

It is not fair,the useless voice in her head whispers.

Blair tries hard to block it out. But she can’t help but notice the smell of desperation that clings to the girl, going down to her very essence as Blair leans in, parrying another elbow blow that came pretty close to her temple.

Fuck, how old is this girl? Maybe twenty? Twenty-five maximum. Reared by a monster.

It’s not my problem, she reminds herself, but that useless sympathy stirs in her anyway. Everything reminds Blair too much of her own fucked-up childhood.

Too bad Blair has been ordered to bring her to Perenilla, or she would have mercy. Would let this rare half-fae go.

The girl bites down hard into the palm of Blair’s hand. Blair lets out a violent hiss, her sympathy vanishing into thin air.

Ouch.This half-human thingbither.

“Don’t fuck around or I’ll kill you right here,” Blair snarls, bringing her head close to Melody’s neck, her bleeding hand sliding to the girl’s right arm as she tries to slam her elbow back another time, pinning it to the wall.

What a little fighter.

The girl’s voice comes breathless, desperate. “He’s coming. He’s coming for you. He knows you’re here. You need to let me go!”

“Keep dreaming,” is Blair’s only response.

The girl manages to get a leg free and kicks hard against Blair’s left knee. Blair bares her teeth against the searing pain.

Little bitch.

Melody must have damaged Blair’s knee more than she thought because it gives way when she tries to step back, her fae healing not able to knit joints and fibers back together so quickly.

The girl takes advantage of it and twists in Blair’s grip. Those wide, brown eyes stare directly into Blair’s, the look in them haunting. It is what makes Blair hesitate for a second. Makes herreallylisten this time.

“Lyrianiscoming. He sent me to find you. He’s going to kill you. I’ll lead them away, but you need to run! Now!”

The truth hits Blair in the face then.Lyrian is coming. For me. He knows I’m here.

The girl doesn’t wait for her reaction but shoves her and makes for the sedan.

While Blair watches the girl flee her senses pick up a cloud of undiluted, dark energy pushing closer. Fast.Somethingthat has managed to veil itself from her senses until it came that close.

Shit.She halts, watching the girl jerking the gear into place and reversing, as Blair’s magic strains to identify what exactly is coming her way.

An army of renegade fae. Enough to kill her.

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