Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

my conscience right now. I wish she had stayed close to us, at least then we could have done everything in our power to protect her from harm.

After her little stint in the forest with Zaphyr, I know that sometimes that’s still not enough to protect her, but at least we could try. Two strong Fae are better than one, even if I do say so myself. I can’t really fault Zaphyr though, and I’m strangely happy that this whole incident, plus Melissa’s involvement, has made us work better together.

When we were children, the four of us got on like a house on fire, but once we got older and others began to influence our outlook on life, we drifted apart until we eventually hated each other's guts. I can still remember when I used to think that the rivalry between the Seelie and Unseelie courts were fucking stupid, but over the years I’ve become jaded.

I actually forgot just how well we all worked together, and you never know, maybe going forwards we can be more amenable. If so, then when both me and Zaphyr take over the throne, we could try and start to put all the bad blood between our people behind us. Over the years there has been so much blood spilled from each side that I know it won’t be an easy task, but maybe it’s about time that someone at least tried.

We finish scanning the lower floors of the house, meeting the others just outside of the kitchen, and finding no signs of Melissa. I don’t know whether she has just started up stairs or not, but I thought at least one of us would have seen her. Not only that, but there's absolutely no sign of the cult members, and I can see frustration on Annika’s face as she whispers to us.

“I’ve never been wrong before, they have to be here somewhere. There was no time for them to be able to fuck my reading up.”

“It’s alright Annika, we know how crafty these bastards are, and as quick as you were with finding their location, they could have still had the chance to move everyone.”

She nods her head at me, not looking convinced, before scanning our group. Her eyes turn back to me, filled with worry, and I know exactly what she’s going to ask next. She proves me right when she starts whisper shouting at us.

“Where the fuck is Mel? You guys were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”

“We tried, but you know what your friend is like.. She broke off from us, not giving us a chance to follow her. I think her frustrations at not finding anything, clouded her judgment.”

“Oh for fuck's sake, I swear one of these days I’m going to kill her for putting me through the ringer like this!”

She lets out a huff, filled with exasperation, and I have to say, the feeling is mutual. Since meeting Melissa, she has drivn me fucking crazy with how she throws herself headlong into danger. The woman has absolutely no sense of self-preservation. Zaphyr looks like he's ready to rip the place apart to find her, but instead he turns to me after blanking his expression.

“So what should we do now? Do we continue this search even though there is no sign of the cult members, or our people. Or do we look for Melissa?”

I’m sure if Melissa wanted us to find her then we would, why else would we not be able to find her anywhere. We probably only have one more shot at finding our people, especially since the cult has already managed to get the necklace of harmonica. I can’t figure out how they managed to get themselves past all my guards, and the wards placed on my home, but they did.

“We need to keep looking for anything we can. They obviously had to get out of here sharpish, so maybe they’ve left something behind that can lead us to them.”

“It’s really starting to piss me off that they’re managing to stay a step ahead of us. It’s like one step forward and two steps back!”

“I know Zaphyr, but you have to try and calm yourself down. Our people need us to be focused, we can’t screw this up just because we’re pissed off.”

I can see that he has more to say, but thankfully he leaves it and agrees with the plan. The cult might still be one step ahead, but we’re catching up quicker than they were expecting. We’ve got them running, which means they’re more likely to make mistakes. Now we just have to make sure that we don’t miss that mistake because of our own frustrations.

This time we agree to stick together in a group, we don’t want anyone else wandering off on their own. I hate that I don’t know if Melissa is safe or not, but this is bigger than how she makes me feel, and right now I can't afford the distraction. With the necklace in their possession, it must mean that they have everything that they need to perform their ritual, which means I don’t have the time to look for her.

I put Melissa to the back of my mind, promising myself that once I have found my people, I can look for her. But until then, it’s time to get my leader's cap on. We head out into the hallway and make our way towards the stairs. If there isn’t anything upstairs, then I don’t know what we’ll do, but we can cross that bridge when it comes.

We slowly make our way up the stairs in single file, making sure not to step on any creaky steps. When we finally reach the top landing, it splits into two directions, the left hallway is shorter than the other, so I turn down the right hallway, the others trailing behind