Seven Black Diamonds (Seven Black Diamonds #1)(61)

Silently, Lily walked up to them. “You told none of the others about tonight?”

“I agreed to your terms, Lilywhite.” Zephyr pressed his lips together like he’d bitten something unpleasant.

“So no one knows we’re here?” she asked them both.

“I don’t know who Creed has invited here”—he sent a surly look at Creed—“but that’s the only person who knows where we are.”

“Okay then,” she said.

She walked into the labyrinth and looked at the hedge wall, willing it to part for her. When it did, she stroked a hand over the hedge in gratitude, and then glanced back at Creed and Zephyr.

“So you have affinities for water, fire, and earth, but you still insist that you’re not fae.”

Lily bit her lip to keep from adding, “and air.” Getting away from them if they refused to let this whole soldiers-for-the-queen nonsense go would be hard enough. She needed to maintain some element of surprise. She’d meet the queen if it kept them safe, but after that, she might need to vanish.

A part of her had plotted ways to convince them to run with her. Surely her father could hide them! But even as she thought that, she wondered if she was being foolish to think there was a way to escape the fae.

She wasn’t going to give up though. She’d spent hours imagining potential scenarios. Daidí had contingency plans, and those plans had contingency plans. Surviving when there were factions who wanted you dead or imprisoned taught a man to think beyond the obvious—and that man had taught her. Unfortunately, contingency plans were sometimes unappealing. Her best bet would be a move to the South Continent, and being there would be safest if she stayed with Erik’s family. She might not want to become the next Se?ora Gaviria, but she trusted Erik and his father. Even if she outright told Se?or Gaviria that she would never marry Erik, he would still take her in and keep her safe—and the Gavirias were even more intense about security than Daidí.

Inside the garden, Lily turned to Creed. “There’s no one here.”

“Wait,” he said quietly. He looked around and led Lily toward a ring of stones and what appeared to be toadstools.

Lily’s panic level shot up. There was only one reason to wait beside a ring, and that was because you were waiting for someone to come through from the Hidden Lands. She swallowed, the sound seeming loud in the dark garden.

Zephyr stepped up so he was on Lily’s other side. He looked at Creed and muttered, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

They stood in awkward silence for another three or four minutes before the ground seemed to shimmer off to the side of them. The gateway to the Hidden Lands was opening, and with it came a burst of sugar-scented air. Acrid tinges wove throughout the sweet notes, and Lily couldn’t help but think of the single-malt that her father sometimes sipped. He’d told her once that the burnt scent was peat, and that it reminded him of her mother. As she stood here tonight inhaling that very aroma, she had to wonder if his late-night admission had meant more than she’d realized.

As the shimmer solidified, the scent faded, and there in front of them were three actual, true fae. They were obviously of the purest fae lines, as they were all preternaturally tall and terrifyingly gorgeous. Nothing in humanity could compare to them. It was why being beautiful was often the first reason people were accused of being fae-blood. If money or other excuses couldn’t explain the beauty, it could earn a person the sort of attention that led to imprisonment.

Lily gasped, not because of their beauty, but because of the three faeries who stepped out of the circle, not all were unknown to her. Only two were strangers. Aside from being well over six feet in height, both boys were filled with light. Both bowed, to her specifically, and then they stepped backward one step.

There, between them and slightly in front of them, stood a third faery, someone Lily had thought existed only in her mind. She was older now, but there was no doubt that the faery in front of them was a grown-up version of Lily’s childhood playmate—her imaginary friend.

“Patches?” Lily asked, even though it had to be her. No one else had the same strange weblike pattern over her skin. She looked like she’d been broken into tiny pieces and reassembled, her seams left visible in the process.

“Lily,” she said softly.

Lily stared at her, and then looked at Creed. “You know my . . . You know her?”

“I do.” He kneeled.

Zephyr was already on his knees, head bowed. He had been since the moment the faeries took shape. He glanced up at her and ordered, “Kneel, Lilywhite.”

Before Lily could point out that she owed no loyalty to these three, Patches said, “No. Lily is not to kneel before me. Ever.”

Lily folded her arms over her chest and glared at the girl she’d thought was imaginary. “You have some explaining to do.”

Patches laughed, and for a fraction of a moment, Lily wanted to hug her. This was her oldest, her only female friend until meeting Alkamy and Violet. With Patches, Lily had felt free and safe and normal. With her, Lily had felt like she was invincible, despite the fear she had over the strange things she could do, things that Daidí and Patches both made her swear to hide.

But this wasn’t the child who had played hide-and-seek in the garden at the Abernathy Estate. This was a faery. This was someone who had made her believe things that weren’t true, who had lied to her and left her. Lily squeezed her arms tighter to her chest and frowned.