Taste (Ava Delaney #5) Read Online Free Page B

blurted. “Are you safe?”
    “I’m fine,” he said. “Should I come? Do you need me?”
    “I… I need to get him down.”
    “Get him down? Are you at his place? I’m on my way.”
    “Wait, Peter and Emmett are out. Should I… what should I do?” I sucked in a breath, trembling all over. I was helpless when it came down to it. I could only protect the person standing next to me, and I couldn’t be next to everyone I cared about all of the time.
    “The Guardians are watching over Emmett. Wait there.” Carl hung up.
    I had to get Folsom down. That was all I could think about. He couldn’t be dead because of me. I had been standing strong for so long now. Between the deals and the children and Emmett and everything else on my shoulders, I had made sure I carried on. But Folsom’s death was breaking me. It was the final straw. The people against us pushed and pushed, and we had already gone past my limit.
    I climbed the gate, completely forgetting about my fear of heights. I winced at how tightly the wire ties had been knotted around his limbs. It took all I had to rip them, and Folsom’s small body dropped into my arms as if he were sleeping. With him over my shoulder, I climbed down, carried him into the garage, and laid him on the table. I sank to the floor next to him, my hands still shaking. I was unable to look at his body directly. I tried to count, tried to fill my head with anything but how he looked. Nothing worked.
    Carl finally arrived.
    “I should never have let you come,” I told him.
    He leaned his walking stick against a wall. “It’s fine.” He looked over at Folsom’s body and let out a great whoosh of breath. “This is bad.”
    “He was tied to the gate. They left him there, displayed him, so everyone would know.”
    “Know what?”
    “Not to make waves, I assume. Poor Folsom. What am I doing, Carl? People keep getting hurt or having to hide once I come into their lives.”
    He eased his way to the floor and wrapped an arm around me, holding me close to his side. I leaned my face into his shoulder, wondering how he always knew how to make people feel better.
    “It’s not your fault, Ava. He made the choice to stand up for what was right, but it wasn’t his fault either. It’s their fault. The people who murdered him, they’re the only ones who deserve any blame.”
    “I need to tell them. Everyone downstairs.”
    “Go ahead,” he said.
    “What if someone comes? What if someone comes for you?”
    “Why would they?”
    “Gabe said—”
    “Gabe doesn’t know ,” he said firmly. “I’ll come down with you if you want.”
    “But the steps—”
    “I don’t care. Ava, we’ll go down together. I’m not leaving you alone when you’re like this. You’re kind of freaking me out.”
    I made a weird noise, and he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound… let me come with you. Please.”
    I nodded, unsure of myself still. I had been happy, but…
    We made it down the stairs, but as we prepared to enter Folsom’s sanctuary, my stomach turned.
    “I’m scared to tell them,” I admitted when Carl questioned my hesitancy.
    “I’ll tell them,” he said, pulling me to him for a hug. “It’s okay. Everyone else is fine.”
    I nodded. Tears sprang to my eyes again, tears for one brave goblin who had tried to keep his wife’s spirit alive by doing something that would have made her proud. I led Carl through the door.
    As soon as the others saw my face, they knew. All of the people there depended on Folsom, on that one soul who made sure they survived.
    “We’re so sorry,” Carl said. “He’s gone.”
    A couple of people wrapped their arms around the person next to them, clinging to each other in their sorrow. Some wandered away to mourn in peace and probably contemplate their uncertain futures. I didn’t know all of their names, hadn’t spoken to every single one of them, but I felt the pain of each and every one.
    The part-fae twins hugged me, and