Kiss of Frost (The Dragon Stone Saga Book 1)(29)
I settle back into my seat and wait. Doyle and Kirin are securing our rogue elf in the back of the van. I lay my head back against the head rest and close my eyes. I’m going to destroy a bottle of vodka at the club tonight. I smile and wonder what type of music will be playing at our favorite spot this week.
“I know that look.” Doyle’s booming voice cuts into my fantasy. “You ready to get plastered, Ev?”
“Hell, yeah. Let’s get rid of him and get there already.”
Axel starts the van and sets us on the route to the closest entrance of the Light Elven Kingdom. Most Fae hate anything modern or metal, so the hour long ride to the middle of nowhere Brown County to the giant tree that serves as their entrance will be spent relaxing and recharging. Doyle and Kirin joke about who will go home with a woman from the bar first, and I’m examining the new scuffs on my boots. These were expensive. Both practical and sexy, the practical part allowing me to work in them. Stupid insane elf. I look behind me and give the guilty elf a dirty look.
Turning around in her seat, Eryn catches my annoyed expression and her eyes flick down to my boots. “Just think of it this way, they are now officially broken in, so you can stop trying not to scuff them.”
Eryn always looks for the positive in any situation. She’s the gentlest of all of us and her patience knows no bounds. She is always trying to instill some semblance of manners into us. She’s an empath, so she knows how each of us feels at any given moment. We try to tone down our emotions around her so we don’t overwhelm her. Empathy is a useful ability in the field, though. She can tell when someone is lying to us.
“Yeah, sure.” I scoff at her and shake my head. There’s nothing I can do now. I’ll just have to glamour them tonight while we’re out so I don’t look like I’m homeless.
Eryn offers me a small mirror. Not bad considering. My blood-red hair is unusual for my lineage, while my pale silver skin with the emerald green shimmer gives away my royal bloodline. My skin is only slightly marred after the elf got me in the face. Nothing a quick thought can’t make disappear when we’re in public. My eyes are wide set. Lilac ringed in azure and framed by long red lashes are nothing like anyone in my family line.
Specially crafted hoops decorate my pointed ears, completely covering the outer shell of my left ear. The hoops signal my guard status with MECA. I’m lucky I didn’t end up as a researcher or just one of the protected—those not so lucky of the half breeds. The protected end up wearing those ridiculous looking half spectacles. Not a good look on me.
Eryn hands me a mirror, her pale white-green skin shimmering. “Here, fix your face.” Eryn is half elf but not of royal bloodlines.
I stick my tongue out at her.
“Yeah, Ev. Fix your face.” Kirin laughs. He hits Doyle’s massive shoulder as he chuckles.
“Up yours, you big oafs.”
Doyle and Kirin are both half goblin, and they prefer to go without glamour. They enjoy the stares they get.
“Hey, don’t group me in with these two.” Axel chuckles as he hikes a thumb over his shoulder. His skin shimmers bronze in the overhead light in the van. Axel is on the small side for a goblin but he holds his own. He’s one of the few male offspring from a human and goblin coupling to survive within the Goblin Kingdom for a few years before he joined us at MECA.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.” I finish adjusting my face and flip the compact mirror closed. “Finally.” I throw up my hands.
Nods of assent and noncommittal grunts follow my comment. “It’s so beautiful here. The thousands of lights. The trees’ branches so high they dance with the clouds…” I sigh. After driving for what seems like forever, we approach a large angel oak tree with a trunk as wide as a warehouse. Every time I’m here I’m reminded that I don’t belong in this world. My place is with MECA and my crew. The thought leaves a pressure in my chest making it hard to draw in a deep breath.
Halting the van, Axel signals to Doyle and Kirin to proceed with caution. Both Doyle and Kirin jump out of the van and move toward the back. Both are tall and muscular, inhumanly so, with wide set shoulders and bronze skin shimmered in green, alerting anyone to their goblin heritage. I grip the metal of the door frame tightly while I step out of the van.
I turn and approach the large wooden door covered in scrolling designs and outlined in warm yellow light that sits dead center in the trunk of the massive tree.
Before I can knock, the door swings open, and the keeper of the entrance appears. He is short for an elf and obviously part troll. His deep brown skin matches the color of the bark on the tree. Tree branches grow out of his head like hair, emulating the rack of a deer.
“Ever Leath and crew, here to drop off a rogue.” I bow as I talk.
He turns around and scurries away. His antlers scarcely miss the doorjamb as he slams the door in my face. I turn and watch the nut job behind me as he struggles between Kirin and Doyle.
I glare harshly at the elf. “Would you stop it? You’re going nowhere, so struggle is futile.”
Both Kirin and Doyle chuckle at my outburst, their shoulders shaking slightly. Suddenly sobering, they stand at attention as the door behind me opens again. The light from within the tree shines on our group once more.
I take my time turning around. When I do, I size up the men who are here to deal with our prisoner. I shrug and wave my hand toward them and say to Doyle and Kirin, “Give him to them.”