by E.J. Stevens
Satisfied that I was dolled up enough to enter The Stanton Hotel without getting kicked out and, more importantly, that I didn’t look a thing like myself, I grabbed my keys and headed for the door. But at a knock from the other side, I froze.
I may be in disguise, but it wouldn’t be hard to guess who I was while standing in my own apartment. I tiptoed to Jinx’s bedroom, and ducked my head inside.
“Someone’s at the door,” I said.
“I’m sure it’s just Forneus,” she said. “I’ll get it.”
Jinx was wearing a retro style mini dress that managed to look both cute and sexy. She’d used hot rollers to give her black hair old-school movie star waves and her lips were coated in glossy, red lipstick that matched her nails and her shoes. Her bangs, of course, were curled under and sprayed within an inch of their life.
Forneus was in for a night of drooling.
“You two going out?” I asked.
“Nope,” she said with a wink.
I shook my head, and tried not to look around her bedroom while I waited for Jinx to get the door. I did not need fodder for my nightmares. Forneus’ comments were usually bad enough. I peeked out into the loft in time to see Jinx open the door for her date.
I’d rather it was Jehova witnesses.
“Darling, you look ravishing,” Forneus said as Jinx stepped aside to let the demon into our home.
I wasn’t keen on Jinx’s main squeeze being of the Hell persuasion, but then again, I couldn’t cast stones. I’d welcomed Sparky into our home, so I couldn’t very well tell Forneus he wasn’t welcome. Not unless he did something to hurt Jinx. Then all bets were off.
“Good, because I intend to be ravished,” she said, tilting her head back to stare up into Forneus’ dark gaze. “It is date night, after all. A girl has expectations.”
He let out a barely contained growl, and bent down to pull my roommate in for a kiss. I coughed, and stepped out into the loft before the two of them went any further.
“Hey, Forneus,” I said.
He stiffened, pulling away from Jinx.
“Miss Granger,” he said.
“Ivy’s on her way out,” Jinx said. “Right, Ivy?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, striding across the loft. “You two have fun. You too, Sparky.”
Sparky’s reply was a round of snores coming from the dog bed beside the couch, but Forneus’ words made me cringe.
“Oh we intend to, Miss Granger,” he said, licking his lips.
I swallowed hard, stepping through the door and into the stairwell, Forneus’ laughter ringing in my ears. If I took the stairs two at a time, who could blame me?
Chapter 11
The Stanton Hotel was Ceff’s grandest choice yet. We stood at the front desk while Ceff convinced the receptionist that he’d scanned the credit card and paid for the room in full. The “card” was a dried piece of kelp, but for once, I wasn’t going to argue faerie morality. We could do that over dinner, another thing we’d likely pay for with seaweed and driftwood.
I didn’t like fooling innocent mortals, but I was a supposedly dead half-breed wisp princess who really needed a night out with her significant other. My life was beyond complicated right now, and I was hungry. Faeries may not have to worry about high blood pressure, but low blood sugar was raising hell with at least one of my halves. Dinner and a romantic evening in a brand new five star hotel sounded like just the ticket for regaining sanity.
I was admiring the fish tank that rose from the center of the marble floor that took up half the room, while Ceff finished “paying” for our room. At first, I thought the fish tank may have been why Ceff picked this place, until I noticed his scowl.
Ceff gave the tank the stink eye, and I sighed. He wouldn’t care about the fish swimming inside the tank. He was a predator of the sea, after all. No, that look probably meant that some poor water faerie had managed to get caught in a fisherman’s net, eventually being deposited in this gilded cage of an aquarium tank.
I took a deep breath, and tamped down my disappointment. By the look on Ceff’s face, we’d be spending our date night trying to free a captured water fae. Oh well, if that’s what he wanted, I was in. It’s not like we could be having hot sex in our suite if a cute sea monkey of a faerie was trapped down here in the lobby fish tank. Even though both of us were Unseelie fae, the kind of faeries with ties to the dark side, neither of us was wired like that.
Ceff had moved closer to the glass, and I sidled up beside him.
“So which one are we rescuing?” I asked.
I had the rare gift of second sight, the ability to see through both vampire glamour and faerie glamour, but the creatures in the tank all looked like tropical fish. To me, a lot of things from the sea looked alien. I was half land fae and I’d grown up human. I hadn’t even known about my fae blood until recently, although it explained some of my more unusual abilities.
Staring at the aquarium didn’t give me any answers, so I focused on Ceff. His forehead was damp, either from sweat or water magic, but his lip curved in a light grin and he raised an eyebrow at my question.
“There are none who need rescuing here,” he said.
“Then what do you see?” I asked. He tilted his head at me, as if wondering if I was toying with him, but I just shrugged. “They all look like weird fish to me.”
It probably wasn’t the nicest or most eloquent thing for someone who was dating a water fae to say, but oh well. Ceff was used to my brusqueness. He said my candor was as refreshing as a northern tide. I suppose when you deal with scheming water fae clans all day, the rude half-human’s honesty might make up for her bad manners. Pureblood faeries cannot tell an outright lie, but that just meant that over the past several millennia they’d perfected the art of talking around the truth.
As I suspected, Ceff didn’t take offense. Instead, he tilted back his head and laughed. The melodic sound ran over me like dancing fingers, and I shivered with pleasure. There were few things as beautiful in this world as the laughter of the water fae.
“Do you see that one there, the creature hiding in the shadows of the pirate ship?” he asked.
“The black spiny one?” I asked.
The thing looked like some kind of sea anemone, and it seemed to be emitting a cloud of darkness similar to squid ink.
“Yes, that is no fish,” he said. “That one is fae.”
“What kind of fae is he?” I asked.
Okay, I had no idea if the faerie was male or female, but with all those spines I defaulted to the male pronoun.
“That one is so old, we no longer sing his name,” he said. “But some call him Ship Breaker.”
The water fae, though spread out across the world, all shared the same back yard. The oceans may be vast, but water was connected. It bound them in a way that I hadn’t yet seen in the air or land fae, and helped them pass along knowledge from one clan to the next. If Ceff didn’t know this faerie’s name, it was because it was long forgotten or the creature was particularly tight lipped. In a world where names held power and most creatures were immortal, either was a possibility.
“Well, all he has in there is a ceramic pirate ship,” I said. “The management may not like it if he breaks it, but it doesn’t make him a menace.”
“Ship Breaker is known for living on the rotting hulls of shipwrecks, the carcasses of his most recent kills,” he said. “He often sleeps for centuries at a time, but when he awakens…he hungers.”
Okay, that did not sound good. My hand went to one of the blades strapped beneath my dress and my mouth went dry.
“Is it safe for the hotel’s humans?”
Heck, I wasn’t sure if that creature was safe for the city. Ship Breaker may be small, but size was deceptive with the fae. I didn’t doubt that he got his name dragging ships down into the darkest depths of the sea where he devoured its men and cargo. There was something about the sleeping beast that, now that Ceff had drawn my attention to it, sent a chill racing up my spine.
“The hotel’s guests and staff should be fine, but whoever cleans the tank could be at risk,” he said. “Saltwater tanks take more finesse than freshwater. They must hire someone to come in and maintain it for them.”
“Do you think you could persuade a water fae to come take the job?”
“Perhaps,” he said. “I know a selkie woman who might do so for the chance to spend time in the city.”
“Ask her,” I said. “And let me know if you need help convincing the hotel to change vendors. My stepfather works for the city. Maybe one of his friends can do something.”
My stepfather didn’t know about the fae, but my mom did. Together, we could figure something out. Of course, with me dead, getting together to conspire would be difficult, but I never let a little obstacle like fae assassins stop me. Well, except for the ten minutes I lay dead in Kaye’s spell kitchen.
I took a shaky breath, and pulled Ceff from the fish tank. When we were a few feet away, I blushed. I was wearing my gloves, but the satin made me feel naked.
“I am sorry,” he said. “Before the receptionist saw to securing our room, you mentioned that you had a question for me.”
I reached out, running one satin finger along Ceff’s lips, and let a hungry smile spread across my face.
“We can talk later,” I said. “Right now, there’s something else I want to do.”
Ceff’s eyes glowed green behind his glamour and he bowed his head, kissing my hand through the thin glove. Warmth spread down my arm and to other places and, before I could blink, we were in the elevator.
Even in his human form, Ceff could move fast when he wanted to. And right now, we both really, really wanted to be in our hotel suite.
Thankfully, there was no one sharing the elevator with us, since right about then my eyes began to glow. Even if Ceff hadn’t sucked in a sudden breath, I would have known by the two shining balls of light reflecting off the metal elevator wall.
“I’m glowing, aren’t I?” I asked.
He nodded, and I sighed. I fished my sunglasses out of my jacket pocket, thankful we hadn’t crushed them. A few minutes more and they’d have been pulverized. I slid the sunglasses on just as we reached our floor.
Ceff held the door for me, even though the iron content in the metal must have burned, and we hurried to our room. Ceff fumbled with the door key, a magnetic swipe card, swearing something under his breath about new technology, and then we were inside.
As the door closed behind us, I licked my lips, taking in the hot tub set into the floor. I should have balked at the extravagance, and a small inner voice chastised me for risking visions in a strange, albeit new, hotel, but I slipped off my sunglasses and shrugged out of my jacket. Next, I unzipped my dress, letting it pool onto the floor at my feet.
In three days time, we would risk our lives attempting to enter Faerie. This might be our last chance to be together. I planned to make it memorable.
With a Jacuzzi and a sexy water fae in the same room, it was memorable indeed.
Chapter 12
I floated in a haze of happiness, tracing patterns across Ceff’s muscular chest. His body was marked by scars, physical reminders of his time in captivity, but he no longer flinched away when I touched the raised, waxy skin. We’d come a long way, he and I, me with the touching and him with the not flinching.
For a moment, I forgot about faerie assassins and Celtic gods of the dead. I watched the rise and fall of Ceff’s chest, and imagined a lifetime of waking up with this beautiful man at my side.
Ceff gripped my hand, stilling its path along his skin and rousing me from my daydream. I tilted my head back, expecting a kiss, but instead he sat upright. The motion did mesmerizing things to his abdominal muscles, and it was with herculean effort that I pulled my attention away from his rippling stomach. When my eyes finally met Ceff’s, I flinched.
Rather than the passion or playfulness I’d expected to see, his face showed only signs of worry. Frown lines creased his forehead, and his lips were tight.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, pushing myself up on one elbow.
It wasn’t easy, not with the death grip Ceff still had on my hand, but I managed. When we were alone together, we often went out of our way to remain touching. I was used to it. It was the only way to avoid unnecessary rounds of visions. But something about the way Ceff was holding my hand seemed different this time.
For one thing, he didn’t normally cut off the circulation.
“Ceff?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light.
“I…we…I fear we may be underestimating the dangers of entering your father’s court,” he said.
Was that a tremor in his voice? Even while being tortured with cold iron, Ceff hadn’t shown fear. Not like this.
“I know the risks,” I said. “I’m not stupid. I just don’t see any other choice.”
“No, of course you are not stupid,” he said. He looked pained, or constipated. Since he was searching my face as if I held the secret of life, I was going with pained. “I am doing this all wrong.”
“Doing what?” I asked.
He looked away, suddenly absorbed with the shape of my hip. It was a nice hip, according to Ceff, but I got the feeling I was missing something. Usually when he ogles my body, he looks alive with passion…not ready to throw up.
If this went on much longer, I was going to get a complex.
“Before we face certain death, there is something I must ask you,” he said.
“You can ask me anything,” I said. “You know that.”
He nodded, but didn’t look up.
“As you know, I have only courted you these few short months, an eye blink in our immortal lifespan,” he said.
I waited, but he didn’t continue. Sweat beaded on his brow, and a sliver of fear began twisting my insides.
“I know it is unfair of me…” he said.
Oh, Mab’s bloody bones. Was he breaking up with me? I mean, I know the last few months hadn’t been easy, what with one dangerous situation after another, but I thought our relationship was good. I thought we were good. When all of my beliefs had been turned upside down—who I was, what I was—my relationship with Ceff had been unwavering. I had come to believe that he was the one solid, true thing in this crazy, new life I was living.
I was a fool.
“Ivy,” he said.
I looked up, as if against my will. There is power in a name, especially for those of us with fae blood, but that’s not what lifted my chin like a marionette on a string. The husky sound of Ceff’s voice when he said my name was like a drug. I was an addict, and if this was to be my final fix, I would savor every last painful moment of it.
Damn, I was in over my head.
“Does it pain you so much to consider it?” he asked, reaching out to cup my chin with his free hand.
I frowned. Of course it pained me. He was leaving me, the bastard.
“How did you think I’d react?” I asked, pushing myself up and punching him hard.
It wasn’t easy with Ceff still holding my other hand to his chest. Oberon’s balls, I could still feel the rapid beat of his heart beneath my palm, though my fingers were going numb from the vice-like grip.
“I had hoped that our love was more important than mere etiquette,” he said.
I clenched my fist, wishing I had something more than pillows to beat the man with. Too bad I’d shed my knives with my clothes. Wait.
“Did you say that you love me?” I asked.
“Yes, of course,” he said. “I love you more than the tides love the moon. You are the center of my universe. You are my gravity. Without you, I float aimlessly, lashed at by volatile currents—a man with no heart and no purpose.”
His eyes flashed green with passion, lending truth to his words. Not that I needed his eyes as confirmation. A pureblooded faerie cannot tell a bald-faced lie.
“You love me,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Then why?” I asked. I sho
ok my head. “What etiquette are you talking about?”
“My love, the guidelines are very clear on rules of matrimony,” he said. “But in our current situation, and after having lost you once already, I had thought you might be willing to ignore the impropriety…”
I held a finger to his lips, cutting off his words.
“Are you asking me to marry you?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said, eyes searching mine. His muscles tensed, as if readying himself for a painful blow, but he continued on. “Ivy Granger, daughter of Will-o-the-Wisp, princess to the wisp court, and my consort, will you take me, Ceffyl Dwr, king of the kelpies, to be your husband, soulbound for all eternity?”
Ceff wasn’t trying to leave me—he was asking to marry me, even if it did go against millennia of fae tradition. I considered his proposal, thinking seriously about all that he promised and all that we risked.
“Well, you know,” I said, lips curling into a smile. “I do love to break the rules.”
“Is that a yes?” he asked.
His eyes were shining painfully bright, but I refused to look away.
“Yes, Ceff, yes,” I said.
If we survived our trip to Faerie, I was going to get married. I’d pledged my love to an immortal. If someone told me a month ago that I would accept a marriage proposal, I would have stabbed them in the eye. Now I’d agreed to marry a kelpie king. I wasn’t sure which one of us was the bigger idiot, me for wanting to be with the same man for eternity, or Ceff for willingly subjecting himself to my stormy moods and proclivity for danger. Oberon save us all from crazy, lovesick fools.
Chapter 13
I tiptoed into the loft, careful not to wake anyone as I closed and locked the door. Sparky was already up, but the little guy was currently mesmerized by cartoons. He sat in front of the television, with the sound turned down low.
“Come on kiddo,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Give me a hug.”
I sat down, and patted the threadbare couch cushion beside me. Sparky jumped up, launching himself from the floor and onto my lap, his cartoon forgotten.
