Page 58 of Runaway Mate

Because we were still very much in the Free Kingdom, we saw a few Guardians patrolling as we went along. A good thing about the fae being allergic to technology was that they had no way to instantly relay messages; the security here might have been ramped up, otherwise. As it was, they were easy enough to dodge and hide away from.

Everyone kept their eyes peeled for any supernaturals around. If anyone had any idea about how to leave Switzerland and Europe entirely, it would be someone that definitely knew about the portal system.

Marilyn communicated with a few people that smelled distinctly like blessed-blood wolves, but they professed ignorance as to any portals. The longer we went on fruitlessly, the more desperate our more tired friends were. Reese had even started stress-eating some carrot sticks and crackers.

While we were walking along, losing hope, there was a sudden call of “Hey!” from behind us that made us all turn.

What we saw was an older woman flanked by two of the blessed-blood wolves we’d spoken to earlier. She approached us in the middle of the road, a powerful aura radiating off of her—she had to be these wolves’ Alpha.

“I heard you folks are looking for a portal,” she said in perfect English. “There aren’t any here. The nearest one is in Bern, in the Zytglogge Clock Tower. It’s about three hours west by car, twelve if you walk. Just follow the signs.”

All of us exchanged looks.

Without us needing to ask, the Alpha continued to say, “Don’t take this as me being too friendly. I’ll be honest; you all look like you’re bothintrouble andaretrouble, and I don’t want that in my town or for my pack. It’s nothing personal, but I figured that telling you this would get you to move on.”

Even though she was a little gruff for a blessed-blood, her request to not be bothered was very on-brand. They loved to keep the peace and weren’t so non-confrontational that they wouldn’t want threats to that peace to go away.

Any other day, I might be offended at being called “trouble,” but it was too accurate to our current circumstances for me to care much.

“Thanks for telling us,” Sariel said, stepping up. “Do you know where we can get a car?”

She thought for a second. “There’s rentals, but you don’t seem like you have money. The roads are watched carefully around here, too. If you make the two-hour hike north to Teufen, though, there’s no fae presence, and public transport will be easy.”

“Fae presence?” I blurted out. “How did you… know that we were running from them?”

She shrugged. “Who else would supernaturals be running from in Europe?”

That made sense. That also meant that we probably weren’t the first to get the hell out of dodge. Maybe the fae weren’t so universally loved here. That was both comforting and not.

“Teufen… okay,” Sariel answered. “Thank you again.”

“No problem. In exchange for the info, I expect there to be no trouble from you here, got it?”

Without waiting for an answer, the blessed-bloods stalked away.

“Friendly locals,” Marilyn huffed sarcastically.

“It’s good enough that they aren’t on the fae’s side and aren’t going to report us,” Neo said. He looked a little better than he’d been yesterday. “We should get going. This town isn’t that small, but it’s only a matter of time before the fae come around here.”

He didn’t have to tell us twice.

We were back in our shifted forms and back under forest cover within no more than ten minutes; we’d lost an hour of time wandering Appenzell, so we had to be quick to make sure that we had enough headway. The Guardians definitely wouldn’t have given up this soon.

By some miracle, we made it to Teufen without any hiccups. However, our transportation problem still wasn’t magically solved, and Johnny, Sariel, and I were too tired to run for much longer.

“In order to get public transit, we need money,” Reese said, worrying her lip. “Did anyone bring money?”

The resulting silence spoke volumes. To be fair to us all, we hadn’t exactly gone into the Free Kingdom with anything other than the clothes on our backs in the first place.

“Fuck,” she swore. “We don’t have time to hang around here. We need to leave, right now. Who else knows how to hotwire a car?”

I balked at that. “What? Reese, you can’t—”

“I can, and I should,” she shot back, glaring at me. “We can worry about what’s right and wrong when we aren’t about to be caught and killed, or worse. Some strangers not having cars for a while is worth us keeping our lives and freedom.”

She wasn’t wrong in that logic, but still. “I don’t think that’s a great idea. We might just get the police on our ass, instead.”

“We can go to a repo lot,” Sariel suggested.

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