Free Blood Beyond Darkness by Stacey Marie Brown

tracked Lorcan. He keeps moving around, keeping one step ahead. They found his last hiding spot, but the group had moved on by then. Simmons is out searching for her every day. Don’t worry. We’ll find her,” Cal said. Everyone was out trying to find Kennedy. The fact I wasn’t looking myself should have had me feeling ashamed. I was void of emotion.
    “Also, I figure you would like to know I took the liberty and went to the Otherworld to check on your father ... Mark.”
    My eyes finally darted from the window down to my shoulder. Mark was the only light in my darkness. My heart wrenched in my chest. The torrent of guilt I still felt at hurting him shredded at my soul. People probably kept thinking: “You have so much power, why don’t you destroy the Queen and get it over with?” If it were only that easy. My powers could not kill her, but they could kill and hurt everyone else around. If I ever got the sword back and I found myself alone with her, I would not hesitate. I would forgo my life if I could stop her and all the pain and destruction she caused.
    I had barely come to terms with Ryan since he could never return to earth. Now I took on the blame of Mark. Mark’s job, life, and everything else were gone. His life existed now in the Fae world. All because he came into our family, because he fell in love with Lily. With me.
    “Your ... mother ... Lily ... is there with him.” He didn’t know what to call her either. “Lars thought it better if your friend and father had more security. So Torin and Thara moved in as well. They can help Lily and Castien keep them safe.”
    It gave me some relief. The more protection the better. Actually, it was the only place Torin could go. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the Dark Dwellers, and he couldn’t go wandering around Earth or the Otherworld unprotected. The Queen would still love to get her hands on him. To torture him until he shattered in unrepairable fragments. She had chipped away at Torin pretty good the last time she held him prisoner.
    At first I had been amazed Torin hadn’t tried to talk to me through our minds or even pull me into a dreamscape, but I finally realized when the Queen took my abilities, she took all those Fay “perks,” including the bond between us. I should have been grateful nothing tied Torin to me anymore, and I did not have to worry about pulling Eli into a dreamscape, except I felt lonelier. Isolated. Sorrow carved me into a hollow shell. Desolation was the only thing filling my vacant soul.
    My lids squeezed together.
    “Some other good news.” Cal sat up, forcing a joyful tone. “Looks like the Queen is not out hunting you. Well, not blatantly anyway.”
    She didn’t need to be. She had my powers, and she had the sword. Granted she still wanted me dead and would love to find me, but she could wait for Samhain—the time when the two worlds collided, when the barrier between the two was at its weakest. She planned to break down the wall between them for good. It was less than two months away, or it was when I had last been coherent of time.
    Someone knocked and opened the door at the same time. “Hey, little Dae.” Nic’s voice came through the darkened room. He closed the door behind him. Picking up from where we left off, Nic visited me every day before he left for the night to head out on his Incubus job. He sometimes found his way to my room when he got home from his adventures. Nic was breathtaking, a Spanish god drenched in sexuality. The moment he even got near, you felt like ripping your clothes off. Being a Dae, I was technically immune to his charms, but I still had not been able to deny my attraction to him. I wasn’t dead.
    Until now.
    He crawled into the bed behind me like he always did, his arms wrapping around my waist. But I just lay there, indifferent to his hands or lips nibbling at my neck.
    Cal smacked at his arm. “Hey! We were talkinʹ.”
    Nic snorted. “I am here not to talk.”
    I knew