Page 11 of Fae Unashamed

My stomach dropped. While I was here, the hostages were elsewhere. That gave Beryl time to do horrible things. We had to find the missing people as soon as possible. I didn’t want to imagine what Beryl was up to.

I grabbed Ness’s sleeve and tugged her along. I had one way to find Janessa and Mom, but I needed access to potion ingredients and a microwave. There was only one place aside from my apartment where I kept a stash of ingredients.

“What are we doing back at Bad Moon Café?” Ness asked, her voice gruff from her frustration with me.

I waved to Vi who watched us with cartoonishly wide and wary eyes. Following Vi’s example, I vaulted over the front counter and dropped into a crouch behind it so I could grab the small bag of potion ingredients I’d stashed here.

“We need to go out and find Janessa,” Ness hissed. “There’s no time for a coffee break.”

I stood and gave her a stern look. Ness wrinkled her nose at me. The friction between us could have given Vi carpet burn. Thankfully, Vi was immune to heat. She gestured to the bag in my hands.

“It looks like Cerri has a plan, as always. Haven’t we always trusted in her plans?”

Ness recoiled. Her jaw dropped, but her eyes turned distant as if she’d looked within herself and realized that she was being a prickly bitch. We could excuse only so much for her pregnancy, and she was pushing the limit.

“I just want to protect my people.” Ness hung her head. “I thought we would be safe after Alvin was gone, but it feels like no matter what we do, there’s another threat.”

I sucked in a breath through my nose. As I was about to say that I understood what she meant, she ran her hand over her growing stomach. It made me realize that I didn’t know what she meant at all.

A yearning pinched at me. Rhoan was back at the castle. Still trapped in his beast form, he would never find a happy ending if I couldn’t save him from his contract. The longer I was here, undoing Beryl’s machinations, the less time I had to save Rhoan.

That’s not what should have been on my mind. Ness was still fighting for her happy ending. I’d assumed that all of my friends had gotten their happily ever after, but that didn’t really exist.

Did it?

There was no timeline in which we wouldn’t have to keep fighting. It was who we were. As a fae princess, a Barghest, an anti-christ, and a demi-god, we had a lot of trouble that found its way to our doorsteps.

But we also had each other. When trouble knocked on Ness’s door, I would be there with a scrying potion to find our missing loved ones.

I explained what I was trying to make and how long it would take. Ness seemed happy but restless. Potion-making was a little faster with a microwave, but it still wasn’t instant. I had no magic that would automatically find people for us. All I could really do was make things grow.

“Should we shut down for the day?” Vi asked, her apron already halfway off. “I can come along for backup.”

Ness shook her head, but I nodded. Help was always appreciated. If Audra didn’t like us shutting down the café whenever trouble was afoot, then she should have hired some normal people to run the front end. I liked to think that our strange benefactor of a boss knew what she was getting into when she hired four very strange, very supernatural women.

The microwave dinged, and we all jumped out of our metaphorical skin. A growl slid out of Ness, and the air around Vi wavered with heat. I wanted to tell them it was fine, but I’d be damned if we let our guard down.

I unclasped a necklace from around my neck and let the crystal pendant hang in the air before dipping it into the still-bubbling potion. If any humans walked in, they would think we were insane. At least, they wouldn’t immediately assume witchcraft. I would take assumptions of insanity over accidentally exposing the supernatural community any day.

I could have cast a glamour around us, but I was still really bad at them outside of the castle domain. There, the arcana in the air was strong enough to support my flimsy attempts. I didn’t have that kind of crutch to rely on here.

The crystal pendant soaked up the potion until it began to glow with arcana. I lifted it and let it dangle in the air. Slowly but surely, it drifted like a magnet being pulled towards its mate.

“Gotcha,” I breathed.

Vi ripped off her apron, leapt over the counter, and turned the Open sign to Closed. Ness scowled. The café was important to us all, but I think the lives of our loved ones were more important. If Audra wanted to argue, then she could come to me.

I hesitated. Taking in my friends and my own reflection in the window of the now-locked door, I wondered if we were on the same level as Audra now. We knew that she was a strong entity. She scared both Alvin and Beryl. If we could defeat them, then did that make us as strong as Audra?

Or was she on another level?

My stray thoughts would have to wait for later. Right now, we poured out the back door and followed the tug of the crystal pendulum in my hand. The city smelled of car exhaust and trash, just like it did on any other given day. The smell only subsided when we stepped into Lakesedge. The air cleared and an earthy aroma greeted us as if the presence of the supernatural community somehow scrubbed it clean.

Of course, Beryl would hide Janessa and Mom in Lakesedge. Syracuse proper wasn’t really the best place for fae, even Unseelie. There were some iron-loving gremlins in the older buildings of the city, but the construction didn’t sit well with many others. Some, like the leshy and his pixies, kept to small parks. Otherwise, many liked to stay in Lakesedge because of its proximity to nature.

I didn’t dare step in-between for fear of losing our trail, but we were beginning to stray far from the city. I nervously chewed my cheek and almost fell on my face when I rolled my ankle over a loose rock. Vi caught me and hauled me back onto my feet.

“Where is this taking us?” Ness asked doubtfully.

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