That set off something low in my body and I squeezed my knees together.

“You gotta pee?” Eric asked.

I shook my head rapidly. “Nope, all good.”

I was, in fact, not all good. The idea of Crash had taken root in my mind and my body was reacting way too strongly. Side effect of Karissa’s kiss? I was betting so. I put my head down and tried to breathe through the waves of oh-baby-take-me-now that were rippling through every inch of my muscles and nerves.

Shit. I had to stop this in its tracks. Think of something else. Think of something scary or bad.

Like being shot at again. We were headed back to the wildlife reserve; what if the shifter who’d been shooting at us came back to try again? That cooled my libido pretty ducking quick and I was finally able to lift my head and see where we were.

“Overshoot the normal docking place,” I yelled to be heard over the engine and the slap of water against the hull of the small boat. We were skipping and bobbing along so fast that we were bouncing.

Eric took us around an extra couple of bends in the river before he pulled the boat to the shoreline. He hopped out first, but I was right behind him. Hopping out like I was twenty again.

We pulled the boat up onto the shore, far enough that it wouldn’t be seen from the water. I worked with a couple of thick branches to sweep the drag lines.

The sound of the second boat had me scrambling backward, falling on my butt as I slid in the slick mud.

“So you’re faster, but still clumsy.” Eric grinned as he helped me to my feet. I grimaced, and then we were off and running again. Yeah, this was going to hurt me later.

But in no time at all we were approaching the massive oak trees at the far side of the fairy ring. The problem was that I wouldn’t be able to see how far the yellow and black fairies had gotten in digging through the one tree unless I circled around. With it being close to dusk, there were no fairies here yet. The Unseelie were active from three in the morning until noon, which meant they should still be asleep. This was the perfect time to set up camp to watch them.

“Stay here,” I whispered to Eric as I crouched and crept my way around to the side where I could see the action.

The sight of the tree trunk made me gasp. I could almost see through it. Like a piece of stained glass, the striations of wood were barely there.

Did I dare get a closer look? “Eric, you can hear me?” I glanced over to see a single hand emerge from the trees, the big thumb pointing to the sky.

“I’m going to get a better look.”

Thumb turned down.

Too late.

Staying in a crouch, I hurried forward and pressed my hands on the trunk of the tree. Karissa wanted me to bring the relic to her. What if I could take it now? I pressed my hands to the hole in the trunk and the tree shivered away from me, the bark turning black under my hands, and the remainder of the trunk peeled away leaving a perfect hole, just big enough for my hand. Inside the circle of trees, on a bed of brilliant green moss, lay a solid quartz chunk of stone in the shape of a cross.

I reached in and pulled it out, and tucked it into my bag. As I pulled my hand out, the circle of trees began to droop, black rot spreading from the tree through which I’d reached the cross, traveling in curling tendrils that cracked the trunks.

I’d done that? It had to be from Karissa’s kiss. That’s what I told myself, anyway. But something inside of me said it was more complicated.

You must protect the cross now. From all that would take it and mean harm. Keep it safe, Guardian.

The voice rippled through the air and I stumbled backward, running for Eric, forgetting all about being quiet.

He grabbed me by the arms. “What happened? Why are the trees dying?”

“Um, I touched the tree and then it started dying. The other ones seem to have caught it.” I opened my bag and he looked in.

“Holy shit, that’s a relic of the fae. Why did it let you take it?” he whispered.

“That’s an excellent question.” Crash’s voice thumped into me and I spun to see him across the small clearing.

Lordy Jaysus, he was hot, even more so when he was angry. What the hell was wrong with me? My legs shook, and not out of fear. I took a step back. “You’re working for Douche Canoe, so no, you can’t have this.” I put my hand on the bag and tucked it behind me.

Crash’s eyes narrowed. “Who the hell is Douche Canoe?”

“Sean O’Sean’s pop. O’Sean senior,” I said. “They spelled the Hollows Group, worked with Hattie, and threatened my life, and you’re working for them.” Not to mention that he obviously had terrible taste in women if he thought those two young thangs were all that and a bag of potato chips. I glared at him. “And you are a cradle robber.”

That last comment seemed to throw him for a loop, but he shook it off. “Sean O’Sean is dead. There are other forces at play here that even I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, because I killed him when he attacked me and a friend,” I said, widening my stance, my hands dropping to my knife handles. Was I really going to take on Crash? Holy shit. Holy shit. My palms began to sweat, and I think I may have peed myself a little.

I slid my bag off my shoulders and handed it to Eric. “Hang on to this for me.”

“You can’t fight him,” Eric whispered. “He’ll kill you. He’s way stronger than you.”

“I know,” I said, and I did. He was the bad guy, remember, that’s what I had to keep reminding myself. “You get that to Karissa if he kills me.”

Crash’s eyes went wide and then narrowed. “You’re working for my ex-wife?”

“You bet. Lady power and all that jazz.”

“She’s using you,” he said.

I snorted. “And you weren’t trying to?” His jaw ticked and I nodded. “That’s what I thought.” I pulled both knives from their sheaths. By all that was holy, I hoped that this was going to work.

“Wait,” I breathed the word to Eric, who startled a little but gave a nod.

Then I rushed Crash, pulling up every last ounce of training I had in me.

And prayed I wasn’t about to die.

18

My knives hit a resistance as I’d expected; I mean, I didn’t think Crash would actually let me just stab him without fighting back. He spun lightly on his feet, a sword just appearing out of seemingly nowhere as he caught my blades and pushed me back.

“Breena, you don’t understand,” he growled. “You are deliberately putting yourself in danger!”

“So why don’t you cut the whole mysterious act and tell me what the hell is going on?” I snapped as I whipped my left blade across in a slash, following it with my right in a stabbing motion. He grunted, the tip of the right blade just missing him, as he was only able to block the first.

I let the magic that Karissa had kissed into me flow through my veins. This was everything youth was supposed to be, power and strength and stamina. But youth was also incredibly cocky, and young people so often thought they were immortal.

I knew better.

So as he stumbled back, his blade still on the upswing of blocking mine, I dropped my left knife to the ground, grabbed his shirt and pulled him in hard for a kiss that I hoped would literally knock his socks off.

All that magic that Karissa had given me? I pushed it into Crash, with a thought that he needed to sleep.

He grunted, his mouth moving over mine with a possessiveness that I wanted but knew better than to believe in. The magic pulsed out of me and he slumped to his knees, his mouth slipping from mine.

“Breena. Don’t. You’ll get hurt. Or worse.”

“I won’t help the O’Seans ruin this town, Crash. I won’t. Not even for—” I was going to say for you, but he didn’t want me. Not really. I was just a pawn, a way to piss off Eammon and the Hollows.

Yeah, that stung more than a little.

As he toppled over to the side, unconscious, I scooped up my blade and cursed at the pain that shot through my back. Yup, that was going to be a bitch.

I limped—freaking limped—over to Eric. His eyes were wide. “You . . . that was amazing. You didn’t even kill him, but you beat him. Nobody beats Crash.”

I shrugged and he handed me back my bag. A slight buzzing filled the air, and I found myself pushing him forward from what I imagined to be a horde of seriously pissed off yellow and black fairies. They’d attacked the trees with fervor and messed with Kinkly’s wings. I could only imagine what they’d do to us. If they were awake now, it had to be because Crash had called them.

Eric half dragged, half carried me to the boat and shoved me in. “Look at that, we didn’t even need Robert,” I mumbled as Eric turned the boat and sent us out into the river once more.

I wasn’t sure this was what Karissa had planned, but seeing as the item was now safe with me . . . I put a hand to my head. “What the hell was I thinking? I didn’t even want to take it!”

“I did give you a thumbs-down,” Eric yelled over the rushing wind and the slap of the water against the small boat’s hull.

“I know, I know!” I rubbed my face vigorously. “It’s like . . .” Like whatever juice I’d been running on from Karissa had robbed me of my better sense.

Eric scooted us back to River Street, and I all but slithered out, my legs jelly. I wasn’t even sore, I was just . . . jelly. “Come on, we need to get to Forsyth Park and the fountain.”

Thank all that was holy, Eric didn’t so much as blink. He got a hand under my one arm, and once I was up, I was able to move on my own.

“Why aren’t we running?” he asked as I forced my legs to work.

“Running people attract the attention of the supernatural; have you not read The Last Unicorn?” I smiled up at him and he laughed.

“Okay, so that part of the book was correct, but not much else,” he said.

So just like that we went from stealing a fae artifact to going for a stroll through town as so many couples did this close to sunset.