Crave the Night (9 page)

Hope flickered to life in Lila’s breast, but
then died. “Maybe that will solve the legal side of things, but
when the humans know where we are, they’ll come hunting us. There’s
always some fool who wants a pot of gold or a love spell and will
stop at nothing to get it.”

Rafe put a gentle hand on her arm. “The
wolves love the woodland as much as the fey. Let us run unharmed in
your wild places, and you will have a patrol against unwanted
visitors.”

Lila tried to digest this, but the
cameras swerved toward a fleshy man arguing at the top of his
lungs, red-faced and sweating. He was casually dressed, but would
have looked more comfortable in an air-conditioned
boardroom.
Masterson
. So that
explained the noise in the background of their phone
call.

And he was screaming at her father.
The king of the fey was the personification of tall, pale elegance
but, by the stiff way he held himself, he was on the verge of
screaming himself.
Oh,
no
.

A reporter shoved her microphone into
Masterson’s face. “You’ve been accused of buying political favor
that secured Masterson Corporation’s logging license without the
requisite environmental impact scans. Can you comment on that?”

Masterson spluttered.

The reporter turned to Lila’s father, who
eyed the microphone as if it might turn into an adder. “Mister, um,
King, can you tell us what arrangements have been made for your
people when you leave this forest?”

Her father focused intense green eyes on the
camera. “None whatsoever. We were not consulted. We have no
intention of leaving.” He turned his face away, as if dismissing
the outside world.

“
What if you’re forced to go?” the
reporter demanded.

The king gave her a weary glance. “We don’t
know how.”

Lila felt as much as heard her father’s
voice. It held profound sadness, but most of all it held
resignation. The world was changing faster than the fey.

“
Are you going to fight
back?”

The king gave the cameras a look, but did
not answer. Lila knew why. The kind of power it would take to beat
Masterson’s machines by force would turn Gilden Wood into a
nightmare of wild magic. Lila’s plan was the only way for the fey
to survive.

Rafe touched her arm. “We’re on the same
side, Lila. Masterson’s the enemy, not me.”

She stood up, too agitated to sit. “You
don’t know the whole story.”

He grabbed the remote, turning off the TV.
“And I suppose you can’t tell me.”

Lila tried to snatch the remote, but he held
it away. “Give that back!”

His brows drew together. “Tell me.”

She gave up. “I made a vow to give Masterson
something of equal value to the woods as a bribe for leaving us
alone.” She was getting a horrible headache, as if someone were
driving an ice pick into her skull just above her right eye.

“
I guessed that much.”

“
I was watching my people get thrown
off their land. There’s no place else for most of them to go where
they’ll survive. What was I supposed to do?”

Rafe said nothing. She felt hot tears
leaking from beneath her lashes.

“
It was a bad oath, made in haste. I
should have slowed down and thought about what I was doing, about
the promises I made, but I bound it in blood. I have to live with
that.” She snatched the remote and turned the TV back on, dreading
what she might see. The sound blared, jamming the ice pick further
into her head.

Masterson was raging at the cameras. “I had
a bargain with these fey, but this press fiasco negates any
agreement we made. The deal is off and the forest is mine!”

Bloody hell!
He’d betrayed their bargain. Now she’d have to pay the
price.

Lila dropped the remote. As it hit the
ground, the news program switched to a comedy show. Silently, Rafe
picked it up and shut off the TV. The ensuing quiet blared through
the room.

Lila’s vision had gone white with fright and
fury. Her lips chilled to numbness. “The wolves are safe. For now
at least.”

“
Can Masterson break his side of your
deal?”

“
He just did.”

“
There must be consequences if he
backs out now.”

“
For me. For the fey.” Her voice
sounded distant in her own ears.

“
But it was Darak who called the
media. You didn’t do anything.”

Lila shook her head. “The only thing that
matters is what Masterson said. The deal is off. He always had the
option of backing away at any time. That was one of the flaws of
the oath. I should have known better.”

“
What does he forfeit?”

“
He cannot profit from whatever
replacement deal I found for him. Wolf Creek is safe.” Her voice
shook, and she could feel the tremors spreading through her
body.

Vows had been broken. Magic was
unraveling.

Rafe swore long and foully. “That doesn’t
seem penalty enough.”

Lila pressed her fingers to her temples.
“Masterson’s honor, such as it is, lies in amassing gold for
himself and his supporters. His word means nothing. It’s hard to
penalize him for breaking something he does not value himself. The
magic has nothing to stick to.”

Rafe gave a low growl. “Next time let me
negotiate your deals. Better yet, don’t make any.”

Lila managed a withering look.

A rumble came from somewhere deep in the
house. Rafe looked toward the office door, shoulders tensed.
“What’s that?”

The pounding in her head was compounded by
the harsh flicker of the overhead light. The pen on Lila’s desk
rolled back and forth. She grabbed it, then her cell phone, which
was skittering across the desk, and stuffed them in her pockets.
The world lurched again. She gripped the back of her chair, feeling
the floor slide sideways for an instant. The rumble stopped as
abruptly as it started.

“
Earthquake.” Rafe concluded. His
shoulders tensed under the tight fabric of his shirt.

Lila forced the words past rising nausea.
Her vision was narrowing to a dark tunnel, with unbearably bright
light at the other end. “No. Everything that was created as a
result of Masterson’s bargain with me is breaking down.”

She felt Rafe’s hand on her arm. “Are you
all right?”

“
It doesn’t feel great.” She licked
her lips. Fey were supposed to be light, airy beings in gossamer
nighties. They weren’t supposed to hurl in public. “Before it
disappears, the house is going to collapse. We have to get out of
here.”

She could already feel the fey gathering,
alarmed by the sudden drop in the field of magical power. If the
humans had a technical instrument to measure such things, the
needle would have been dropping to the red zone.

“
I have Pack members asleep
downstairs.” Rafe’s voice was hard as granite. “What about
them?”

She could feel her sisters in the
room, feel their questions crowding in on her. The vow that bound
them was fading, too.
Take the wolves to
safety. Get the others to help you. Then go home. You’ve done
enough, and I’ve failed.

Do you not need us any
longer?
Rosemund asked.

Can we do nothing for
you?
Arabelle chimed in.

Lila hesitated, wanting their comfort
but knowing they could afford to give no more. They had families
waiting in the woods who needed their protection and comfort. Their
homes were under siege.
No. Go
now.

Her ending would be different.

A rush of wings told her they had
gone. She felt tears slip down her cheeks.
I’m sorry I couldn’t make this
work
.

She cleared her throat, fighting against a
lump of pain. When words came out, her voice sounded thick and odd.
“My sisters will see your wolves to safety. They will wake as soon
as they are outside.”

The house began to shudder. Pain speared
through her, lancing white-hot from jaw to tailbone. Lila cried
out, groping for the chair before she fell. The huge glass windows
cracked then shattered, glass raining from the frames.

“
Go!” she cried, scraping together the
last of the failing magic and thrusting it toward Rafe. “I release
you from any and all vows. Get out of here! Save
yourself!”

Her vision cleared just enough to see him
glaring down at her, hands on his hips. His eyes had flared
wolf-yellow, startling beneath the fall of curling dark hair. Was
he going to murder her on the way out? It would be a waste of time.
She was finished.

“
Yeah, right,” he said. She could
barely hear the words through the sounds of collapse.

Cracks spidered up the wall, mirroring the
agony scampering along her nerves. Lila hissed air through her
teeth, digging her fingers into the slick leather of the chair. She
didn’t want Rafe looking at her. Not like this. “Get. Shoo.”

Instead, he picked her up as if she were no
more than a toddler. The motion hurt, and she couldn’t stifle a
cry.

“
Hush.” Rafe turned to the window, his
expression falling as he examined the steep drop down the cliff.
“Can you fly?”

“
No.”

“
Then stairs it is.”

“
We’ll never make it out.”

“
Well, aren’t you a ray of
sunshine.”

“
Promise me you’ll leave me and
go.”

“
Lady, I’m not promising you squat.
That seems to backfire around you fey.” He was already out of the
office and onto the landing.

“
But—”

“
Busy now. Talk less.”

The stairs gave a heave, throwing them
against the wall. Lila’s head bumped against something solid, but
the knock barely registered. She already felt like goblins were
using her for origami. Being carried was doing nothing for her
lurching stomach.

Rafe stumbled, catching his footing at the
last second.

“
Put me down!” she wiggled out of his
grasp.

“
Can you run?”

“
If you will.”

“
Okay.” He grabbed her hand, dragging
her out of the way as the top landing sheared away, spraying
drywall and wood shards into the air. The overhead light crashed to
the floor at the base of the stairs. Rafe leaped over it, swinging
her past the explosion of crystal and sparks.

“
This way!” Rafe shouted. They made a
dead run for the front door. Jumping out a main floor window would
have been faster but, with so much glass flying through the air,
the door was the safest route. Somewhere deep in the house, a
support beam whined as it torqued and splintered. The roof buckled
to the chorus of more breaking windows.

The front hall had a cathedral ceiling, and
it was raining debris. Lila felt something slam into her shoulder,
sending her staggering forward. Her palms hit the floor, but she
just pushed up and kept running. Rafe was heaving at the door,
fighting against a frame that was losing its proper shape. In
another minute, that too would fall to rubble—with them under
it.

Rafe had the door open a few inches. He
wrapped his fingers around the front edge of the heavy oak planks
and planted his feet. Plaster coated his hair and clothes, sweat
streaking his dusty face like war paint. He strained against the
door, muscles bunching and feet pushing against the floor. The door
moved, but only inches.

Lila scrambled to the other side, bracing
her back against the frame and pushing with all her might. It
probably cost her more effort than it helped Rafe, but the door
moved another foot before it wedged against the buckling floor.
With a massive crunch, the high ceiling of the foyer collapsed in
earnest. Chunks of drywall fell like gigantic hail.

Wasting no time, she wriggled through the
opening, Rafe barely squeezing through behind her. She could see at
a glance the destruction had spread outside. The Lexus had
disintegrated to a puddle of molten metal and plastic. The hot tub
and pool were reduced to a muddy slough. Once a spell was broken,
it was over—just like her dreams of saving her home.

He caught her hand, pulling her across the
grassy clearing until they were well away from the house. Then he
finally let her fall to the soft, springy cushion of leaves and
fallen pine needles. She could see the sleepers at the other side
of the clearing, where the fey had set them down. Her former
prisoners were just beginning to stir.

Lila felt tears tracking down her cheeks,
part sadness, part relief. At least this part of the nightmare was
over. Above, she could see a twinkling blur against the stars.
Those were her sisters and the other fey, flying home without her.
At least now they could go home, restored to their former
selves.

There had been no good-byes. It was the way
they had agreed it would unfold, if things ended this way. Less
pain for them all, or so she’d thought when they’d made the pact.
Now she would have given anything to feel her sisters’ arms around
her one more time.

The last of the house finally smashed to the
earth. A faint glow clung to the rubble. Lila watched, hypnotized,
as bit by bit it dissolved to nothing. In an hour or two, the
hilltop would be as pristine and wild as she’d found it, cleansed
of her intrusion.

She suddenly realized she was alone. Rafe
was gone, leaving only the sound of the breeze in the trees. The
physical pain had ended, but it had left her hollow, her emotional
and physical reserves pounded to nothing.