“Why would I hurt my own mate?” Liam asks.
“Your mate?” Sadie says. “Harper? You have something you forgot to tell me?”
“I just found out,” I say.
“Does that mean you’re going to start sleeping in his room?” Sadie asks.
“Can we talk about the monster?” I ask, changing the subject. I know the feelings for Liam are there, but it’s too much to figure out right now.
“It was a shadow shifter,” Liam says. “I’ve never seen one in an area this populated.”
“I thought you said it was fae?” I look from Liam over to Sadie.
“It was fae writing and those creatures live in the fae realm. Do they live here too?” Sadie asks.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t called with demon magic, which makes no sense,” he says. “Whoever did that could have used demon runes to summon it. But they chose to use fae markings.”
“Why?” I ask.
“There’s so few fae here,” Sadie says. “I sure as hell didn’t write it.”
“I bet it was Em or Tasha,” I say. “I bet they’re trying to throw us off.”
“Could be,” Liam says. “But we better be extra careful from now on.”
“We?” Sadie says. “Shit, you really must have a mating bond with him.”
“Can we keep that on the down low for now? You think this is bad, wait till Em and Tasha find out,” I say.
“I agree,” Liam says. “We don’t have much time.”
“Time?” Sadie asks. “Why do I feel like I’m missing a whole bunch of information?”
The floor rumbles again something explodes behind us. I catch myself before falling and quickly turn to see smoke filling the hall near our room.
Sadie is coughing and I fan the smoke away and cough a few times myself.
“Everyone okay out there?” Adrian asks.
As the smoke clears, I see him walking toward us. His bedroom door is in pieces all over the floor and there are black singe marks around the wall where his door had been.
“What the fuck?” Liam asks.
“Someone hexed my door,” Adrian says. “Took me a while to get it open without too much damage.” He turns and surveys the mess on the ground, then turns back to us. “You’re all okay?”
“Yeah, we’re fine,” I say, coughing again.
“Someone hexed our door, too,” Sadie says.
I run to the remains and stare down at the piece of door that still has Adrian’s door handle attached. The markings look very similar to what was on my door. “Is this fae again?” I ask.
Sadie, Liam, and Adrian all walk over to where I’m crouching and look.
“Yes,” Sadie says. “Without a doubt.”
I look up at Liam. “Those goons outside your room were all fae.”
He nods. “Maybe we don’t have as much time as we suspected.”
“What goons?” Adrian asks.
I stand and look at Adrian. “Whatever you’re not telling me, it’s time to spill. I have to win this pass or I’m done for.”