Unravelled

“Why?”

Another tension-laden pause stretched between them. Clearly, getting answers was going to be like pulling teeth.

“Because,” Thomas finally said on a sigh, “I had met all the students—but you.”

There at the end, the fury had returned to the man’s eyes, this time blended with disgust.

Oh, yes. Blood will run, Elijah said on a trembling breath.

“From a knife?” Please, please don’t say from a knife. Don’t know, was the reply. Can only see the river of red.

“What do you mean, from a knife?” Thomas demanded.

He must not know of Aden’s reputation as the boy who always talked to “himself.” “Sorry. I wasn’t speaking to you.”

“Then to whom were you speaking? ”

A question he’d been asked a thousand times by a thousand different people.

Maybe we should. Run, I mean, Caleb said, all his bravado gone. Before we bleed.

I’m with Caleb. It’s not like we know how to fight a fairy.

Caleb suddenly snickered, amusement momentarily obliterating distress. Fight a fairy. Do you hear yourself, Jules?

“Quiet, please,” Aden snapped, and Thomas hissed in a breath.

“Do not speak to me like that, little boy.”

Rather than explain, Aden rubbed his temple to ward off the coming ache. “There was no reason for you to meet me. You won’t be tutoring me.” He couldn’t run, as Caleb had suggested. Where would he go? Plus, he wasn’t anxious. Yet. He still had those blades. Maybe.

“No.” Thomas started forward, one step, two, then paused, thoughtful. “But I will be killing you.”

Okay. Now he was anxious. Aden leapt to his feet. If Thomas issued another threat or made another move toward him, he’d dive-bomb the boots. And if he couldn’t clasp the blades inside them, he’d run like hell, despite his lack of direction.

“Do not even think of bolting, Haden Stone.”

“No one calls me that.” Not since he’d inadvertently butchered his own name as a kid and called himself Aden, and everyone else had followed suit. “I killed the last guy who did. True story.”

Far from intimidated, Thomas barked, “Sit. I answered your questions. You will now answer mine.”

Uh, that would be a big, fat no. He wasn’t waiting around for the second death threat, he decided. The fairy’s anger level had just jacked up a notch. “Sure thing.” Aden faked left, Thomas following him, and then spun right, ducking around the tutor and swiping at the boots. His hand ghosted through the leather.

He cursed under his breath as he sprinted for the door, not allowing himself to wallow in disappointment or fear. Only, some kind of invisible wall blocked him. He slammed into it hard and fast, the shock of impact reverberating through him and tossing him backward. Thomas was in front of him a second later, pushing him the rest of the way down and stomping one of his boots on Aden’s neck.

Instinctively, Aden wrapped his hands around the man’s ankle and shoved. The foot remained planted.

Bright blue eyes peered down at him, and if they’d been guns, Aden would have been blown to bits. “Several weeks ago, an electric shock split through my world, creating a doorway into yours. A doorway we cannot close. The source of that shock has been traced to this ranch. And now to you. I feel the energy wafting from you even now, tugging at me, drawing me. Even increasing my power.” The last was said in a drugged whisper. A needy whisper.

Increasing his power? Then why would he want to

kill Aden?

Aden tried to form a reply, but the only sound that left him was a gasp for air. He continued to struggle, clawing at the man’s leg, shoving. Breathe, need to breathe…

He couldn’t die here. In this…dimension? He just couldn’t. No one would know what had happened to him. Not really. They’d just assume Crazy Aden had relapsed and split.

Suffocation doesn’t cause bloodshed, Elijah said. Stay calm. This isn’t the way you’re going to pass on. You know that.

Kick his ass! Caleb shouted. Kick it good, Julian agreed.

They needed Eve, their voice of reason. But some of what Elijah had said did penetrate his fog of panic. Suffocation wasn’t the predicted end for him. Thomas was simply trying to scare him.

“We had hoped to keep you alive, to use you to finally close that doorway,” Thomas continued. “And yet, what do I find when I walk into your room to introduce myself? The stink of vampire. Our greatest enemy, the race that once tried to slaughter us.”

“I’m sure…they had…good reason.”

A muscle ticked in the fairy’s jaw. “Tell me, Haden Stone. Are you aiding them? Planning to lead them into this dimension to attack us?”

And just how was Aden supposed to lead the vampires here when he had no idea how he’d gotten here in the first place? “Can’t…speak…anymore.”

The pressure eased on his neck. “There’s no reason for you to answer my questions. I know the truth. You are aiding them, and that is why you must die.”

Aden kept his hands on Thomas’s ankle, taking a moment to catch his breath and making a production out of gasping as he stealthily searched the room for some sort of weapon he could actually use.

All he discovered was his own determination. Over the years, he’d fought too many corpses to count, their poison working through his body, weakening him, sickening him. Yet still he’d won. Every time. He would not let a fairy defeat him.

Use your hands, Elijah prompted. Unbalance him.

Aden curled his fingers under Thomas’s boot and jerked with every ounce of strength he possessed, upsetting the big guy’s center of gravity and finally sending him tumbling down. Aden was standing a moment later, assuming the same this-is-war pose the fairy had adopted earlier.

“That was not wise, boy.”

Though he’d never seen Thomas move from the floor, the voice came from behind him. Directly behind him. Warm breath trekked over the back of his neck, making him cringe. Slowly Aden turned, knowing a sudden movement would cause the fairy to strike. They faced off. Aden was tall for his age, just over six feet, yet Thomas towered over him.

“I do not like to see humans suffer, and would have ended you painlessly. But…” An eerie smile lifted the man’s lips. “I told you not to fight me. You disobeyed. Now I will show no mercy.”

Blood, Elijah gasped.

This was it, then. The big one.

“Bring it,” Aden said.

Suddenly the room’s only window shattered and a giant black blur flew inside. That blur—Riley in wolf form, Aden realized—landed, green eyes glowing, lips pulled back and sharp white teeth bared. A furious growl echoed from the walls.

Get back, Aden.

A command from Riley, whispered straight into his mind, blending with the others, yet still Aden heard it. “You can see me?” he asked, even knowing the wolf was too distracted to reply. If so, could Riley see Thomas? Could Thomas see Riley?