Claus

Five

The stairway led into the mountain and at the bottom was an iron door, which Cassian unlocked. Inside were two identical silver sports cars. The Fata shoved her inside the one on the left before he slid into the driver's seat.

Faryn rubbed at her arm, her skin red where his fingers had been. Had she just been kidnapped?

Cassian started up the engine, and as it purred to life, he made a few adjustments on the dashboard before putting it in drive. Ahead was an iron door that opened as they approached, revealing more cave instead of the night sky.

She pulled her bag off her shoulders and set it on the floor at her feet. "So, thanks for not letting me die?"

His fingers tightened on the wheel. "I don't need gratitude from an Elf."

"I'm half Elf."

His lips curled. "It's all the same when you smell like dirt."

Faryn took a deep breath. It wouldn't do to lash out while he was driving.

Ahead, a sliver of night sky appeared.

She settled back in the seat. "Do you have a plan?" Hers had been to see his mother and that clearly wasn't happening any longer.

He nodded as the car broke out under the night sky, shining with stars while mountains loomed high into the air like fortresses. "We'll go to New Corinth."

*****

Traveling four hours in a car with a Fae was a lot quieter than Faryn had imagined. Cassian was so intent on getting from Eiraacia to Venice that his only focus was the road. Never once did he turn on the radio.

While they drove, he had her use his phone to book their flight to Athens before she pulled the battery out of it. She would have used her new cell, but it was only a flip phone.

When they reached Aeroporto Marco Polo, Cassian took Faryn's bag from her and put her dagger in it to check it for the flight, but when he set it down to print off their boarding passes, she looped her bag over her shoulder and headed for the security line. He wouldn't attempt to take her bag from her in the middle of a crowded airport, right? Jack could appear around any corner, and her dagger was her only means of even attempting to protect herself. And Jack was only one Winter Court member. She'd already encountered Befana. Who knew who would crawl out of the shadows next.

Before she had entered the airport, she had made sure her ears were safely hidden behind her hair. Her hat was somewhere in a snow pile in Eiraacia.

"They won't let you through with that." Cassian's eyes landed on her bag. His Cassian's hair only covered the tips of his ears. There was no hiding the frosty tinge of his skin though Humans may write off the shade of his lips as a strange lipstick though it only took a long enough look to realize there was no wax on his lips.

She shouldn't be staring at his lips at all.

When Faryn's bag passed through the x-ray machines without triggering any alarms, Cassian stared at her sack as if he could see through to the dagger when the machines could not.

"It's enchanted," she said over her shoulder as she grabbed it.

It wasn't until they boarded the plane that Cassian learned she had selected her seat a row behind his. She didn't really feel like watching him wrinkle his nose for the whole flight. The scent of her Fae friends didn't bother her anymore. At the most, they were tolerable. But the scents of the few Fae with whom she'd come into contact since leaving Oxford irritated her nose.