Broken Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac #4) - Caroline Peckham

To the man who was hustling to sell facemasks for years before Covid, living rough on the streets and warning us of the nightmare to come.

May your cardboard doomsday signs be framed and celebrated.

May we always heed your warnings in future, no matter if the next plague requires wearing glittering buttplugs 24/7 to ward off the Coronass virus of 2021.

May we never take you and your wild ramblings for granted again.

We will buy your buttplugs, good sir. Just name your price.

My stomach swooped and all of a sudden the stars spat us back out again, my feet crunching against gravel as I stumbled backwards and my grip on Leon tightened.

He lost his balance too and I tipped over, dragging him with me as we both fell to the ground. My back hit the gravel and the air was driven from my lungs half a second later as a big ass Nemean Lion shifter fell straight on top of me.

“Fuck, sorry little monster,” Leon hissed, rolling to his left and dragging me over on top of him instead.

“I think you broke my ribs,” I wheezed as the silence of our destination washed over me.

There were no more sounds of the FIB hunting in the woods, no clamour of sirens or screams of battle.

We were alone. And the idea of that broke my heart.

“Who’s there?” a deep growl demanded, and a shiver raced down my spine as I scrambled to get up.

“It’s just me, Dad!” Leon called back quickly. “Don’t go all mountain lion on us and pounce from the porch!”

I scrambled upright and Leon leapt up beside me as I looked at his huge home in surprise. I hadn’t really thought about where Leon was taking me when he’d thrown the stardust, but I guessed it made sense for him to come home.

“What the hell are you doing breaching the detection and anti- stardust spells?” Reginald demanded, striding forward with the lights from the house haloing his silhouette and casting his features in shadows.

“Sorry. We were in a tight spot and Dante gave us some stardust to outrun the FIB,” Leon explained, taking my hand as he pulled me forward. I was tugged along with him, suddenly feeling desperately aware of the state of my torn and filthy clothes. I stank of the muck that sat at the bottom of The Weeping Well, full of rotting corpses. And I was covered in scrapes, bruises, cuts and even the bite from the feral Vampire.

“Well, don’t just linger out there like a couple of hyenas, your mother has dinner on the table.” Reginald turned and strode back into the house without waiting for us and I looked up at Leon hesitantly as we were shrouded in the dark.

“Come on then, little monster,” he said, unable to hide the grin on his face. “Let’s go let them know you’re part of the family now.”

He started walking, practically running as he was filled with excitement about sharing this news with his family, but I just froze. I knew I’d met them before and it had gone okay but that had been different; I’d only been playing the part of Leon’s girlfriend, not showing up with silver rings in my eyes and announcing myself as one of the family. What if they didn’t want me? My own mother didn’t, so why would Leon’s?

Leon made it to the front door before he glanced back and realised I wasn’t following. His brow pinched and he looked back at me in confusion as he took a step closer to me again.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, holding out a hand to me in offering.

“Are we just going to stroll in there, looking like death warmed up, covered in mud and blood and both half beaten to shit and just casually announce that we had our Divine Moment and now they’re stuck with me for life?” I asked, biting on my bottom lip as the idea of that sent a shiver running down my spine.

“Yeah,” Leon agreed enthusiastically. “It’ll be epic. Come on.” He held his hand out more firmly and I swallowed down a lump in my throat as I forced myself to close the distance between us.

So what if they didn’t want me anyway? Leon did. He’d just announced it to the stars themselves and bound himself to me for all of time. And that was more than good enough for me.

I took his hand and he led me into the grand hallway with a grin on his face as I