Traitor by Megan Curd Page B

week. She went to Neamar without telling me. She’s in for a very angry faerie when she comes back.”
    “Neamar? Isn’t that where creepy death dude lives? Why would she go there?”
    Roslin shook her head. “She wants to help. She wants to save everyone in the world, it seems. Which is kind of why I’m here.”
    I cocked my head, unsure as to how any of Ashlyn’s nutty do-gooder ideas related to me. Still, I was willing to help any way I could. “I’m listening.”
    “She wants to stop Liam from having to be her Protector. She can’t become immortal with him as her Protector, not to mention he’s a bit too mortal to protect Ashlyn as it is.”
    The mention of Liam’s predicament put me on edge. I still remembered how hurt Ash had been when he left her. It was too fresh in my memory to think about giving him too much help. Ashlyn, yes. Liam, well, I didn’t dislike him, but it wasn’t like I was going to send him a Christmas card or anything. “And that’s my problem, why?”
    Roslin shrugged her shoulders indifferently and yanked the string on the lawnmower. She jumped back in shock when the mower growled to life. “I’ll never figure out why humans use such angry machines.” She laughed and turned her eyes back to me. “I’ve heard you mentioned protecting Ash once or twice. She made a few comments about it in passing.”
    “Yeah, but she doesn’t want that. She loves Liam.”
    “Loving and protecting are two different things. She may love Liam, but we all know he’s in too deep for the protecting part. That’s where I can offer you more. Maybe help your cause.”
    This girl was like a used car salesman. She popped out of nowhere, scared me half to death and was trying to get me to sign on some invisible line without explaining what the heck I was getting into. “Why should I even listen to you?”
    Roslin sighed and took my hand. “Because I can give you immortality and trust me, you want that.”
    I didn’t have time to speak. All of a sudden it was like I was being flushed down a toilet. Dad was gonna be so mad when he saw the lawn wasn’t mowed.
    ***
    When we finally stopped squeezing through whatever crazy faerie highway that this Roslin chick had just taken, I was facedown in the grass somewhere. It was a good thing the cereal was a no-go this morning. If it had been, there was no way it would have stayed down after the little adventure we’d just gone on. I rolled over and looked up into the blue sky above. Roslin suddenly filled my eyesight, grinning ear to ear. “You didn’t do half bad there, little buddy. You might be decent as an immortal.”
    “What is all this talk about being immortal?”
    Roslin laughed. “Well, would you like to be immortal?”
    “Isn’t that like every sixteen year old’s dream?”
    “True. But most don’t get it. You will. If you want it, that is.”
    This was bizarre. It seemed too perfect. How had she even found me? “Why me? Why now? And how the heck did you know where to find me?”
    Roslin was all giggles now. It was super irritating. She walked toward a small cottage that wasn’t far from where we were, but stopped when she realized I was still on the ground. “I picked you because I can pick one person a century. Ashlyn seems attached to you, even if you don’t believe it. I like Ashlyn a lot. She’s become my best friend, really.” Roslin smiled at the thought, as though she’d never had a best friend. “She has the opportunity to join us as an immortal if we can get past the pesky issue of a mortal being her Protector. I’ll give you immortality if you will protect her. You’ll live forever, Ashlyn has a Protector, and Liam won’t die when Ashlyn takes immortality. We all win.”
    She skipped back to me, once again nearly yanking my arm out of its socket to pull me into a standing position. She dusted me off and took a little too long on my backside. She winked when she pulled away. “And I found you because Ashlyn told me all