Chapter 19

• Ava was out in the garage before most of the others were awake. Sleep hadn’t come easy, and she had finally given up and decided to check over the bikes. Her mind wouldn’t stop, and the headache that went with it was getting on her nerves. Someone had gotten into the café and put something in the donuts for the royals. According to Capri, Nova had bought them and took them to Alterealm. That meant nasty business was too close to home. Anyone could have eaten those, Jeri being one of them. She didn’t know what kind of schedule an almost queen of a realm had, but Jeri liked the food there, so it could have been her. It pissed her off, and she was going to have to go hunting and check out anyone hanging around the area.
• Despite a firm talking to herself, she still kept thinking about that pretty man, Firo. He was from FaTerra, of which she only knew two things. The first thing was they were fae, or fairies, and that meant he had some kind of strong magic and party tricks up his sleeve. The second was they were pretty people, in a glowy-too-good-to-be-real sort of way. All that equated to in her mind was they were nice to look at. She’d never bothered to take the time with males and all that relationship stuff. If any guy ever tried to kiss her, she’d have to feed him his teeth.
• Bracing her arms on the workbench, she looked at the floor. She knew the stabbing pain would follow, but she needed to try to push through it and figure out why this man had been there when she was born. Squeezing her eyes shut, she clenched her teeth. She’d been born in that forest. Hissing out a breath, she pictured it. Was that why she had to go there every year? Because that’s where she was born? Did he know her mother? Or father? And why in whatever hell there was he able to find her when she was on the bus? “Ahhhh.” The pain sliced through her eyes into her head.