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Peter laughed. “Come on, Avery. We’ve always been friends. I’m taking you with me to protect you, not to hurt you. I didn’t abduct you.”

  “I don’t need your protection, and this looks an awful lot like an abduction if you ask me, but there’s no point in getting into an argument about semantics. It is what it is,” she said, her voice flat.

  Her mind tingled again with the sensation of being connected to Kalen. She closed her eyes, blocking Peter from her thoughts.

  Find out where he is taking you. Let me know where to find you.

  Thank God, it was Kalen, and he was communicating with her. Before she could stop herself, a smile crossed her face. Kalen was coming for her.

  “Why are you suddenly happy? Do you have something to share?” Peter questioned, eyes narrowed.

  “Just planning my escape.”

  “Escape from what? Like I said, I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m taking you home.”

  “Go ahead and tell yourself that, Peter,” she said. “What makes you think I don’t have others helping me? Maybe you’re walking into a trap right now.”

  He backhanded her across the face, a quick blow that knocked her head against the passenger side window. “Shut up! I could still change my mind and kill you. I thought if I waited long enough, you would realize that we belonged together. I shielded you from the Foundation, I gave you time to get used the idea of being with me and now this is how you repay me? Maybe you’re not worth the trouble.”

  “If you say so,” she said, a hand held to her throbbing face.

  In a soothing tone, he said, “Avery, I’m sorry about that. Let’s start over. I know we can work together. You know me. I’m not normally like this. I’m worried about you. You don’t know these people. I do. You can’t believe anything they say. They will hurt you.” Avery started shaking her head in disbelief. “We have a history, and if you give me a chance, I think you’ll realize we’re perfect for each other.”

  She stared at him, trying to put all her scorn and revulsion in her eyes, but he was completely past noticing or caring. She focused on a sign that read, Fáilte, a Gaelic phrase welcoming people to Galway. Once again, she trained her thoughts toward Kalen. We’re going to the Galway Airport to the Foundation’s private jet.

  I’ll be there waiting for you. Be calm and keep our communication open. Don’t let him know I’m coming. She was amazed at the clarity of his voice. Concealing her elation, she focused instead on the passing landmarks.

  When they reached the Galway Airport, it looked deserted. Noticing her look, Peter said, “Galway Airport is no longer serviced by commercial airlines, but we’re flying on the Foundation’s private plane, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “How convenient for us,” Avery responded dryly.

  Peter got out of the car then walked to her door, opened it, and yanked her arm, dragging her roughly from the car. “Get out,” he demanded.

  She had no choice but to do as he said and follow him to the plane waiting on the runway. She only hoped Kalen was already here waiting for her. She didn’t know how that was possible, but she didn’t know much about Faeries or Kalen for that matter.

  As they started up the narrow steps of the airstair leading to the door of the plane, she halted, sensing Kalen’s presence. She looked around but didn’t see him. A subtle breeze brushed through her hair, lifting it from shoulders, and she knew he was within reach. She let out a breath. Her eyes darted to Peter, fearing she alerted him to Kalen’s presence.

  Relax. Keep following him. Hearing Kalen’s voice and knowing he was near comforted her in a way she was at a loss to explain, especially after his revelations earlier that morning.

  “Why the sudden release of tension, Avery? Are you ready to go home and leave this behind?” Peter inquired.

  With a glowing sword in hand, Kalen materialized from the Faeth Fiada previously cloaking him from view at the top of the airstairs. He looked like a demonic apparition, his green eyes infinite, arctic, and ancient. His perfectly sculpted nose flared, and his mouth twisted into a grin. At that moment, he was the ancient, god-like Fae warrior from Irish Folklore.

  “I think she’s happy to see me,” Kalen replied in a cold voice accented in a way Avery had never heard before. Wind tousled the raven ends of his hair, and he stood unfazed by the confrontation with an air of otherworldliness and confidence few humans could ever hope to achieve.

  Peter stood there for a moment, frozen with indecision. “Who are you? Not that it is important.” Peter pulled out a gun and pressed it to the side of Avery’s head. He began backing down the steps, dragging Avery with him. “I’ll kill her if you make one move,” he said, his voice so thick with anger that spit sprayed out of his mouth as he enunciated each word.

  “No,” Kalen countered. “That won’t happen.” He looked toward Avery, his immortality radiating from him like a thousand stars.

  Avery stumbled backwards, throwing Peter off balance. Just before he tumbled down the airstairs, Peter grabbed a hold of the railing, dropping his gun to the asphalt and releasing his grip on Avery.

  Avery duck now! Hearing Kalen’s command, she complied without hesitation. She curled into a ball, closed her eyes, and covered her head with her hands.

  Peter lunged forward, trying to grab her shirt and pull her toward him. Instead, he lost his balance and tumbled down the steps. On all fours, Peter franticly searched for his lost gun.

  Kalen lifted his weapon.

  Sensing it aimed at him, Peter stopped the frantic scramble for his gun and sat perched on his knees, meeting Kalen’s impassive stare. “Don’t do it!” Peter pleaded. “You can take Avery. She’s yours. Just don’t kill me. I won’t tell anyone what happened today. I’ll disappear without a trace.”

  “There’s not even a remote possibility of that happening,” he said. Without warning, a brilliant amethyst-colored light pulsed through his sword, rapidly increasing in intensity until it lurched toward Peter.

  At first, Peter’s face contorted in rage, and then it changed to an expression of complete shock as the light coiled around his head. Circling faster and faster, the light became more brilliant with every passing second. Peter screamed in agony, grabbing his head as he collapsed awkwardly on the ground. His body convulsed until his eyes rolled up into his head.

  It was jarringly quiet for a few prolonged moments, and then the light stopped swirling around Peter’s body. Suddenly, the light shot straight into air, hovering over Peter’s body, where it turned a deep crimson color and exploded into a million particles of light that faded into the air.

  Avery gawked at Peter as he stared unseeing at the frozen, steel-blue sky. Completely dazed, she remained huddled in a ball on one of the cool metal steps.

  “He’s dead,” Kalen said. “He had a brain aneurysm.”

  Kalen was wholly unaffected by the events of the last few minutes. Avery didn’t know whether to weep, have hysterics, or scream. She stood and climbed the last few steps toward Kalen, steadfastly ignoring her shaky legs and mounting distress, determined not to show any weakness.

  “Where are the pilot and crew?” she muttered, her voice perfectly flat.

  “Called away on unexpected business.”

  When she stood next to him, he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. She felt her knees buckle, and he put his arms around her to catch her. She let out a whimper, and he pulled her tighter into his embrace.

  “We have to get out of here now,” he said. “The airport crew could walk by any minute.”

  “Where to?” Avery said, leaning her head into his chest.

  Kalen looked at his watch. “We still have thirty minutes until the window to the Faerie Realm closes.”

  “We’ll never make it. It’s at least a forty-five minute drive, and that’s without traffic.”

  He tried to remain serious, but his body shook with silent laughter. “We’re not going to drive.”

  She looked at him in horror and her hand motioned to t
he plane. “You’re not going to try to fly this thing.”

  Caught between laugher and tenderness, he gently tapped her under the chin and said, “Of, course not. We’re going to sift.”

  “Sift?” she questioned, raising one eyebrow.

  “Sifting is one of the more impressive benefits of being a faerie. We can sift through time and space and be anywhere or anyplace in a fraction of a second.”

  “Why?”

  “Yes?” he prompted, looking into her puzzled eyes.

  “Why did you bother with cars and running when we were being followed by the Foundation?” she burst out, dumbfounded.

  Kalen lifted his chin from the top of her head. “I didn’t want to scare you. You didn’t know what I was, and I didn’t think sifting you out of danger would endear you to me.”

  “But we could have been killed.”

  “I wouldn’t have let anyone hurt you. Are you ready to go?”

  “Why did you come after me?”

  “What do you want me to tell you?”

  “I want to you to tell me the truth.”

  “I was duty-bound to finish the mission—”

  “I shouldn’t have asked,” she interrupted unhappily while pushing at his chest, trying to free her body from his embrace. “Forget I asked.”

  Capturing both her wrists with one hand, he pulled her hands away from his chest and tenderly traced her cheekbone with the fingertips of his other hand. His lips curled up in a faint smile. “But the first and most important reason that I came after you is because I care about you. I want to be where you are. I don’t know what that means, but I think we’ll have plenty of time to figure it out together.”

  “I don’t want to hear any more of your pretty lies, Kalen. I already told you and my father I would go with you.”

  “I know you agreed to go. That’s why I would never waste my time telling you lies.”

  “Why should I believe you?” she asked, her voice tentative and vulnerable.

  If you don’t know why you should believe me, I don’t think I can convince you, he said, answering the question through their mental connection.

  Why? she whispered back in his mind.

  “Because we’re connected and it has been that way from that first moment we saw each other outside the Foundation. I don’t know if you could call it love at first sight, but it feels that way to me. I know you feel the same. When I walked out the door letting you think those horrible things about me, about us, I felt empty, devastated. I don’t want to let you go. If you give me another chance, I won’t hurt you again.”

  I love you. I know you were marked by destiny to be the Guardian, but I feel as though you were marked by destiny so we could find each other. The words were whispered so softly through her mind, she wasn’t sure if they were real.

  It took a moment for all his words to sink in, both the ones said and unsaid, and when they did, she didn’t know what to say, so she leaned her face against his chest.

  “Aren’t you going to say something?” he asked, his voice gentle.

  She shook her head in response.

  “Why not?” he questioned, tilting her chin up to see her face. Tears glistened in her eyes. “Why are you crying?” he asked, bending his head to press his lips to hers.

  Avery swallowed. “Because,” she whispered achingly, thinking of how many years she spent craving with every ounce of her soul that she would find someone who would love and accept her for who she was without any secrets. “I think I’m where I belong for the first time in my life.”

  Kalen circled his arms around her. “And where is that?”

  “With you.”

  She felt weightless, like she was floating on a cloud, and the next thing she knew she was standing in front of a perfectly circular hill of gently sloped earth about twenty feet wide, surrounded by large, ancient looking gray stones glowing faintly like moonbeams. The mound was twice as tall as she was, covered with lush green grass and dotted with daffodils swaying invitingly in the breeze. A fine mist shimmered above the mound. She wanted nothing more than to stretch out her body and lie down on the dazzling carpet of green and gold, to let the shimmering mist caress her skin.

  Avery turned to Kalen and smiled. “It’s beautiful.”

  “Are you ready?”

  Avery nodded, and Kalen grabbed her hand as they stepped together into the shimmering mist. There was no noise, no fear, and no pain. The transition felt almost seamless. One minute she stood next to the mound and the next she and Kalen stood in the secret world of her dreams, and she knew she was home.