Free Never More by Dana Marie Bell Page A

needed was to be the fae who got humans to remember that the fae were real.
    That would suck big-time.
    Raven flowed through the infinitesimal crack he’d found, reassembling in the upper hallway of the B&B. He paused in the shadows, listening for the sounds of any movement. Detecting none, he slowly inched his way down the corridor. He made no sound as he floated along, the air barely moving at his passing. He didn’t want anything to alert Sayyid to his presence before Raven was ready to reveal himself.
    Raven’s pocket vibrated. His cell phone was going off. There were only two people who knew the number, and if they were using it someone was in grave danger.
    Raven reached into his pocket and pulled it out, reading the display.
    It’s a trap! Get the hell out now!
    Shit. Raven didn’t question Liam’s text. The gremlin must have been tracking him the whole time and caught on to what Raven missed. This was a djinn illusion trap, meant to keep a specific intruder within its walls until they collapsed, crushing the fly in the spider’s web.
    And Raven had no intention of being the fly.
    Sayyid must have known Raven would go after him first and set this place up as a red herring, misdirecting Raven’s search. Even his ravens had been fooled by the thoroughness of the illusion. Hell, people probably had stayed here for their honeymoon and vacations, at least in the past week or two. Those who had would remember the place with a vague fondness, possibly thinking it had been demolished, destroyed in a storm, or somehow or other disappeared in a believable manner.
    No one would realize that the dilapidated house or empty lot had once been their home away from home.
    Raven could almost feel the walls closing in on him. The trap hadn’t quite been sprung yet. If Liam hadn’t warned him, Raven would have entered the center of Sayyid’s web, the heart of the illusion.
    The bedroom. The place where Sayyid was supposedly sleeping peacefully.
    Raven backed slowly away, keeping silent as a ghost. Not even air itself could escape a djinn illusion trap once sprung. Raven’s only hope was to stay out of that bedroom.
    Of course, if he was wrong about the trigger point, he was toast. Simply entering the trap could have set it off. The sensation that the walls were closing in could be the illusion trap actually closing.
    Raven got to the crack he’d come in and flowed out, refusing to even breathe until he was across the street from the building that had been the illusion trap. He stared at the dilapidated home, surprised anyone had survived entering it. If not for the illusion trap, no one would dare.
    The house must have once been a beautiful piece of workmanship, with beautiful brick out front, a turret room, three stories and a chimney. But it was beginning to collapse in on itself even without the trap. The roof was sagging and filled with holes, the turret was lopsided, and the chain-link fence surrounding the property warned people that the house had been condemned and was slated for demolition…three weeks ago.
    Someone was going to get into trouble for Sayyid’s little trick.
    Raven pulled his cell phone out and dialed Liam. “Thanks, Red.”
    “No problemo. Robin would hand me my ass if I let anything happen to you.”
    Raven snorted a laugh. “Yeah, I love you too.”
    “I’m free Saturday. Wanna pick out china, bottom boy?”
    “Sure, but only if I get to top.” Raven strode toward the dilapidated house. Now that the trap was no longer effective it was possible Sayyid had left something behind, something that Raven could use to find him. “I’m going back in.”
    “Gotcha. You have that earpiece from the redcap? I can isolate the signal and use it to keep in touch without Sayyid knowing.”
    Did Raven really want to stick something in his ear that had once belonged to a redcap? “Ugh. Sure. But I get to pick the china pattern.”
    Liam laughed. “Put the earpiece in. I’ve got Robin on speed dial just in