Time Slipping Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Tell your friends!

  Book Description

  Other Books by Elle Casey

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

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  Other Books by Elle Casey

  About the Author

  Want More?

  War of the Fae

  Book 8

  Time Slipping

  Elle Casey

  Being an independent author, I depend entirely on you, the reader, to get the word out about my books. If you liked this book, won’t you please leave a review online and recommend it to a friend? The more you spread the word, the more books I can write, and nothing would please me more than to put a new book in your hands every single month!

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Jayne and her crew of fae friends are off to Uamh An Ard-Achaidh, the High Pasture Cave in Torrin on the Isle of Skye, to fulfill her destiny as the companion to the portal guardian of the Underworld. But on the way there, weird things start to happen, and she’s forced to reckon with at least one behind-the-scenes player bent on keeping her from getting to the portal on time.

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  OTHER BOOKS BY ELLE CASEY

  CONTEMPORARY URBAN FANTASY

  War of the Fae (10-book series)

  *Book 1, The Changelings, is a free ebook at most retailers*

  Ten Things You Should Know About Dragons (short story, The Dragon Chronicles)

  My Vampire Summer

  Aces High (with Jason Brant)

  DYSTOPIAN

  Apocalypsis (4-book series)

  SCIENCE FICTION

  Drifters’ Alliance (3-book series)

  Winner Takes All (short story prequel to Drifters’ Alliance,

  Dark Beyond the Stars Anthology)

  ACTION ADVENTURE

  Wrecked (2-book series)

  PARANORMAL

  Duality (2-book series)

  Pocket Full of Sunshine (short story & screenplay)

  ROMANCE

  All the Glory

  By Degrees

  Rebel (3-book series)

  Don’t Make Me Beautiful

  Shine Not Burn (2-book series)

  Full Measure (written as Kat Lee)

  Just One Night (romantic serial)

  Just One Week (romantic serial)

  Love in New York (3-book series)

  Mismatched (with Amanda McKeon)

  COPYRIGHT NOTICE

  © 2015 Elle Casey, all rights reserved, worldwide. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, uploaded to the Internet, or copied without author permission.

  DEDICATION

  For the Ellementals who inhabit the Inner Sanctum.

  Chapter One

  I STARED AT THE VAN that was meant to take us from the Green Forest and the fae compound that had been my home for almost a year, to Uamh An Ard-Achaidh, the High Pasture Cave in Torrin on the Isle of Skye, near Scotland.

  “I hope nobody expects me to drive that hoopdie,” I said, eyeing the car with British license plates suspiciously.

  Jared pointed the key at it and pressed a button to open all the locks. “What’s wrong with it? It’s perfectly safe.”

  Before I could open my mouth to explain that the steering wheel was on the wrong side and the front of it was so squashed it looked like a pug, Tim, my pixie roommate, spoke up and cut me off.

  “Safe? Not with Jayne behind the wheel it wouldn’t be.” He flew over to stand on the roof rack that was already loaded down with the supplies we’d need to set up household somewhere on the Isle of Skye. “Talk about a death trap. Did you see her in the dining hall last night? She can’t even navigate on her own two legs.” He snorted after that and then immediately calmed down when he realized it was messing up his hair to get too excited over his own jokes. He pulled his comb out of his fanny pack and slicked it through his ‘do.

  I glared at him as my friends watched us with bemused expressions on their faces. They knew he was giving me crap, but they couldn’t hear a word of it. Lucky them.

  “I stepped on a spelled banana peel,” I said in my defense, looking over at my cousin, Samantha. She was acting totally innocent, but I knew better. When I told her a couple months ago I wanted her to help me get prepared for sneak attacks, I had no idea that she’d take it so literally. I’d gotten better at anticipating her little surprises and throwing up bubble shields of elemental Green power to protect myself, but I still had a lot to learn about tricky witch bitches and their sick senses of humor. A banana peel, Sam? Seriously?

  She shrugged. Somehow, over the past few months, she’s managed to tune into my brain’s wavelengths. It wasn’t that she read my mind exactly, but she did seem to know when I was pissed at her. Not that it made one iota of difference when she was making decisions about whether to mess with me or not. She was one of the few people in our fae world who didn’t fear me in the least. Probably because she was as powerful as I was, only in a different way. Fated Fates had some crazy magic mojo going on for sure, even when they didn’t want to be one.

  Most of my friends who came with me to the Green Forest from Miami as humans and the friends I made after arriving were all just a little nervous about what could happen if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. From the beginning of my tenure as Mother to the fae, the elemental who commands Earth and Water, I’ve admittedly done a pretty good job of accidentally putting people in comas, sending arrows through the forest at supersonic speeds over vast distances and burying them in places they shouldn’t be buried, and generally raising hell. Like, literally raising hell. We’d only just gotten the last demon back into the Underworld where he belonged. But still … I hadn’t blasted anyone recently who didn’t deserve it, so their fear was totally misplaced, according to me. Besides Sam, the only other fae not afraid of me were Tony and Spike, and they probably felt that way because they knew how much I loved them both. I’d rather die than hurt either one of them, even just accidentally.

  My hand moved almost involuntarily to my hip where the hilt of my demon sword rested. As luck would have it, Samantha wasn’t always a pain in my ass. He
r magic had grown in power just like my skills had, and she’d invented a nifty spell that turned my giant bedazzled demon sword into what looked and handled like a small dagger when there were no bad guys around. But the minute someone pissed me off or threatened either my life or the life of someone I cared about, watch out; that demon dagger got a serious boner and turned into a giant sword like no other. I giggled just thinking about it.

  Tim looked over at me and noticed where my hand was. “You’re laughing about the dagger boner again, aren’t you? It’s really not that funny.”

  “Says you.” I walked over and waited my turn to get into the van.

  “Says anyone who’s seen you in action with that thing,” he countered, buzzing over to land on my shoulder. “That weapon is no laughing matter. Lest ye forget … I saw that orc’s nutsack lying on the ground that your boner sword sliced and diced right off the poor beast. I mean, I’m no fan of the orc, but seriously, Jayne … the jewels should be off limits, no matter what the enemy’s race is. I’m scarred for life.”

  I reached up to flick him in the butt, but he easily avoided me. It wasn’t that he could read my thoughts, but he’d been on the business end of my flicking finger close to a million times by now and could easily figure out when and where the next one was coming from. He deserved every single one of them. The last thing I needed right now was to be reminded of that severed nutsack. Shudder.

  “So Willy’s not coming, right?” Scrum asked, distracting me from my retribution. My daemon friend was looking at my backpack with way too much concentration.

  “I already checked the pockets three times. He’s not going to hitch a ride this time.” Like I needed his pixie momma up my butt over that again. Accidentally taking him into the Overworld last year when we went dragon hunting was one of my worst screw-ups to date. I was hoping we could avoid any of those fiascos for this trip. It wasn’t like I didn’t already have enough pressure on me being the portal guardian’s companion or anything. Dragons are like really big Saint Bernards, right? Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick. I reached my hand out and rested it on Tony’s shoulder to steady myself.

  He patted it, giving me a brief smile before walking away to open the door on the other side of the van for his girlfriend, Felicia, succubus extraordinaire.

  “He’s with Abby, don’t worry,” Tim said. “She has him on lock-down until we contact her and let her know we’re too far away for him to find us.”

  “She’d better.” I looked over at Sam. “Do you sense any pixies here, other than Tim?”

  She shook her head. “I spelled the path. He’ll never make it this far.”

  Tim’s head swiveled around in a flash. “She’d better watch that witchy bitchy stuff with my boy. You know I won’t stand for any nonsense. He needs those wings. Without them, he’ll be grounded, and you know what that’ll do to the entire fae community. I’ll get blamed for it, you know I will.”

  Willy was known as the most energetic pixie baby in the entire Green Forest, and that’s saying a lot since now all the pixies who were formerly relegated to pixie colonies have come back. When Tim wasn’t preening over the compliment he assumed that to be, he was pulling his hair out trying to keep a rein on the kid. The one time Willy had become grounded through a spell gone awry, everyone had paid the price. For a month we all suffered sore eardrums from his whining, severe sleep deprivation, and not to mention stuffed up noses from him crawling up into beds and stuffing pollen in our nostrils. No one can raise a ruckus like a grounded pixie, that’s a fact.

  “Don’t worry, Tim,” I said, trying hard not to smile, “Sam’s not going to screw up again.”

  Sam stopped what she was doing and glared at him. “Is he accusing me of something?”

  Tim flew up into my face, his eyes bugging out. “Do you like watching witches pluck the wings off pixies? Is that your problem? You’re sick, you know that? Sick.” He flew backwards around the van, giving me the middle finger on the way.

  “Did he just flip you the bird?” Finn my green elf friend asked. “It’s kinda hard to see with his fingers bein' so tiny ’n all, but dang. He looks p.o.ed.”

  I shrugged. “He’s just cranky because he has indigestion. You know Tim.”

  Now the little punk was inside the van doing blowfish maneuvers on the window glass, too distracted by the opportunity to make a fool of himself to listen to me bring up his gas problems. Normally, it’s a surefire way to get his undies in a twist.

  “Okay, everybody in,” said Jared, head daemon and pretend teacher in charge of our pretend school going on our pretend field trip. It was the best cover the fae council could come up with for our appearance on the Isle of Skye as a group of teenagers not in school during the time of year when we should be.

  “How long is this trip supposed to take?” Becky asked as she took her seat next to Finn, her life-partner.

  “Seventeen hours, give or take,” said Jared.

  “Seventeen hours, Jayne, did you hear that?” Tim asked. “Don’t sit by the gnome-head, whatever you do.”

  “Good idea,” I said under my breath, avoiding being behind Scrum and instead choosing a spot near the middle, saving a space next to me for Spike. I’d left him in my bed earlier this morning, assuming he’d get up and be here on time. Now I was doubting the wisdom of that plan. I should have known better; he was still a night owl, preferring to sleep in until lunchtime.

  “Where’s Spike?” Scrum asked, looking back at us from the passenger seat up front next to Jared.

  Samantha stared out of the side window from her position behind Scrum. I wasn’t nearly as good at reading her mind as she was at reading mine, but I was pretty sure I knew what she was feeling. She wanted to be in front with Jared, but she still lacked the lady balls to take her spot at his side. Guilt was a terribly heavy burden she refused to let go of, no matter how many times I’d yelled at her about it. Seriously, it was getting old. So what if she almost unleashed evil on the entire world? People make mistakes. So do fae. Suck it up. I was hoping this little field trip of ours would help her get past her issues. If it didn’t, I was going to have to poke her with my demon knife or something. Nothing like a good blood letting to help a fae get some perspective on things, I always say.

  “Do you want me to go find out where he is?” Becky asked, looking at me expectantly.

  I shrugged. “Go for it. He’s probably still in my room.”

  Becky disappeared in an instant, leaving an empty spot behind.

  Finn sighed. “I ain’t never gonna not be jealous o’ that.”

  “Yeah, yeah, booger boy, we’ve heard you say that about a thousand times now,” said Tim, sounding bored.

  “Booger boy?” I asked quietly.

  “Green elf. Get it?”

  I snorted. “Now you’re just reaching.”

  A tiny squeak from Tim’s butt was the only response I was going to get.

  Becky reappeared with a yelp and a smack for my arm. “Thanks a lot, Jayne!”

  I half laughed in my shock at her obvious anger toward me. “What? What’d I do?”

  She glared at me. “You knew he was going to be naked, didn’t you?”

  I couldn’t stop laughing at the look on her face. I didn’t know what she was so pissed about, though; he looked pretty damn good in his birthday suit if you asked me.

  Tim giggled too. “Incubus junk. Awesome.”

  “It’s not funny at all. Spike is my friend, and I don’t like seeing my friends without their clothes on.”

  “I thought I was your friend,” Finn said, acting confused.

  Becky elbowed him. “Not anymore, you’re not.”

  “Aww, baby, don’t be like that.” He tried to lean in to cuddle her, but she wasn’t having any of that nonsense, jabbing him in the ribs hard enough to make him wheeze.

  “Do I need to go hurry him up?” I asked, sighing. An already long trip made longer by my boyfriend. Awesome. I was sleeping with the slacker. Oh well … better tha
n sleeping with the enemy, which I was almost destined to do for the rest of my life. Thankfully the bad spell thrown over me got nixed and Ben got sent to dragon camp for the next fifty years or whatever. Sucks to be him. I still thanked my lucky stars every day that I wasn’t tied to him for life.

  A puff of air moved my hair by my left ear, and I turned to find my boyfriend there on the seat next to me, staring at me with a sparkle in his glowing red and black irises. “Hurry who up?”

  “Come on, shut the doors,” Jared said sounding bored. “We have seventeen hours on the road, and I don’t want to get there too late.”

  I looked at my watch. “It’s seven in the morning. We’re going to get there at midnight. Maybe we should leave later and get there in the morning.” A nap sounded good to me about then. For the last week we’d been preparing to go, and I’d been allowed to sleep in, and that was way too easy to get used to. These six in the morning starts sucked major honkiss.

  Jared shook his head, firing up the engine. “No. We want to arrive when it’s dark, when no one will be able to see us very well.”

  I nodded. He had a point. We did kind of stick out like sore thumbs in our fae gear and weapons and such, and I didn’t like the idea of being unarmed when we were so close to the entrance to the Underworld. Those demons had a habit of escaping and finding me.

  “We ain’t goin’ in there without disguises, I hope,” said Finn, looking down at his green tunic. He did look pretty elfy.

  “There are clothes for everyone to change into in the back, but I don’t want to put everything away until we’re gone from here. Just in case.”

  I exchanged glances with Sam. She shrugged, telling me she had no idea why he was being so cautious.

  I shrugged too and then turned my attention to a spot outside the windows. Beyond the trees just next to us lay my mother’s grave and the beautiful oak that stood sentry over it. I pushed the unhappy memories of her funeral and the need for it away as soon as they started to leak in. There’d be plenty of things for me to stress out about on this trip, I was sure; no need to get myself all worked up over a past that couldn’t be changed or Jared’s paranoia. He still blamed himself for some of what happened, with the demons sneaking into our realm and the Overworld too, and all the fae who ended up paying the ultimate price, but he was alone in that. The rest of us knew it was Leck, Maléna, and Ben behind the scheme, and that all of us were fooled into playing along, including angels who should have been above all that garbage. At least one of those three culprits was paying dearly for his interference in our peace, or so I’d heard from Theresa, the succubus who regularly visited Ben at the Overworld portal. According to her, he was learning how to be a portal guardian with his mind not bent on ruling the world. I had my doubts his training was going to take, though.