My mouth fell open. “Lev has a girlfriend?”
Vic shrugged. “They aren’t a couple. She’s some weird bohemian shifter woman. Jason thinks she’s a mermaid, but there’s all sorts of wonky stuff.” She winked at me. “But he likes her.”
“Like-like?”
“He doesn’t know it.” She rolled her eyes. “Neither does Jason, but if she doesn’t turn into a stabby, hateful bait fish by the end of this, I think he’s going to ask her out on a date.”
Lev might be one-half of a couple. I couldn’t stop the grin, and then I knew I was already six-tenths of the way to being over my fury. It came in like a hurricane but blew out faster than one.
“So why are you here?” I asked.
“Lev needs help making sure he doesn’t get blindsided by whatever happens with this mess.” She shrugged. “Forgive Lev,” she turned toward me. “Forgive me?”
Her eyes held unshed tears. Vic never cried.
She continued, “I know you’re mad that we didn’t involve you in the decision, but Lev’s been looking for his family for ages. He took the chance when it presented itself, and I agreed to help.” Vic sniffed twice and then coughed. “What else could we do? Let him walk into a trap alone?”
No, none of them could have let Lev do that alone.
When she put it that way… It wasn’t the same kind of offensive.
She coughed again, harder, and then she bent at the waist to cough harder.
I scowled. “Are you okay?”
With a silly expression on her face, she grasped at her throat and coughed some more. “I’m so skilled I choked on my own spit.”
And then I was laughing and crying, and she was, too.
Leave it to Vic to break up the serious with a joke that made everything better.
I closed the distance between us and hugged her. No matter what had happened that day, I knew I wouldn’t have made it through my darkest nights without her.
She dropped a sloppy kiss on my cheek. “I won’t ask you to come back to the Cavern, but can I tell Lev he can come here?”
“Sure,” I said, stepping away and drying my face on my shirt sleeve.
Jason’s face in firelight swam in my thoughts, and Arún off on his own adventure… Left out and lonely. I’d turned into some kind of sob story. I released a stuttering sigh.
I didn’t have to stay that way. That was the good news, and Vic would be the most likely one to help me. I considered her. Worth a try.
“I’m going to run home and grab you a case of fizz-tonic for here.” Vic made a face. “It’s too bad Arún isn’t around. I could sure use a portal from here to Jason’s.”
I winked. “Maybe he’ll teach me how to do it when he gets back.”
“Unless I beat him to it.” She grinned. “I’ve been cooking something up in the lab, and I’m almost there.”
I moved to the window. “Vic, I need to get out of this town. I’m going to go crazy without something to do.”
Now that I’m not hunting Jane. I didn’t have to say it out loud.
Vic put her hands on her hips. “I know just the place you can go.”
22
Decisions
Jason
Our Lady of the Park, Catholic Cathedral, New Haven City
In the corner of the Athenaeum, Lev spoke with Mara, his voice a low rumble in the aftermath of Mara’s confession.
After Vic stormed away, presumably after Woe, I’d turned away from the others. The Librarian had yet to come out of hiding, and as for Woe…
Don’t think about that right now. It hurt too much. I could decide what to do when I was back upstairs in my apartment. The hurt in her eyes had been palpable. The betrayal had cut her deeply. The bitter twist to her mouth had twisted my stomach.
I wished for a window to stare out of. Instead, I tapped my pen against the desk over and over again, working the problem first this way and then that. The solution stayed just beyond my reach.
Jane crouched on the floor, passing a miniature shepherd’s crook beneath the furniture. I had no idea where she’d found it or where it had come from. She muttered to herself.
I unbuttoned the top buttons of my coat. I was hot and shivery, and the collar choked me. I scrubbed my hand over my face. “What are you looking for?”
Woe’ll be back. She had to. She’d never stayed away.
“My glasses,” Jane said.
Retrieving a handkerchief from my trouser pocket, I wiped my forehead. Woe’s gone. “Do you need them?”
“They’re mine,” she said. “And I want them. That’s reason enough to look for them.”
“But do you need them?” It would be the first time a shifter didn’t have perfect eyesight, and it might give a clue to her parentage.
Jane didn’t answer, but her obsession was silly. And she needed to leave. Woe would be back soon. “There’s probably another pair in the clothes donation box.”
“I want mine,” she said, yanking the hook out from beneath the settee again. Her face lit in a smile. Easing the oversized glasses back into place, she stood.
“Thank you for your help today.” I stood and came around to set on the edge of my desk. “It was a successful experiment.”
Her face pinched and her eyebrows lowered over her eyes. “I don’t know what you thought was going to happen, priest.” She spat the last word at me. “I’d already hurt Woe enough before you dragged me into this mess.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. My stomach churned, vacillating between stabs of hunger and waves of nausea.
“No, it’s yours alone and settled square on your shoulders.” She used one finger and shoved the glasses up on her nose. “But now I get to be responsible for some of the mess, and I’ll have to work twice as hard to earn a clean slate.”
Jane stomped away. Before she stepped out, she called over her shoulder, “The next time I see you will be too soon, priest. I don’t want any part of your lies or your intrigue.”
And then Jane left.
I rubbed my hands together, swallowing the bile that burned the back of my throat. Woe had called me Judas, and she’d gone, too. I thought she would have at least let me reason with her. After she’d swept out of the room, I couldn’t breathe, as though she’d knocked the wind from my lungs with a baseball bat.
Surely, she couldn’t have meant forever. Could she? Vic seemed to think that was an option. What if she was right?
I grasped for something to hold onto, but only found empty air. The reality of it slammed into me like a semi. I depended on her to come back around. I needed to see her now and then. Even if she had chosen Arún over me.
I couldn’t imagine her spot in my life…
Empty. Gone.
Black spots circled in my vision, and the room tilted. Lev bellowed, and then there was nothing. The next I knew, Lev called for smelling salts, cursed that there were none, and fanned a newspaper over my face.
He tucked his arms under my armpits and helped me into the nearest chair. The desk chair creaked, and it took the two of us to get me situated. The scents of seaweed and flowers wafted around us. He smoothed a hand over my skull. “You hit your head.” His hand grazed a bump that I hadn’t had before. “You’ll probably be fine.”
“Mara could heal me, if it bothers you that much,” I said.
Lev froze. His gaze narrowed as though he was trying to figure out if I was trying to offend him. “After what you put her through, I wouldn’t ask her to. It’s appalling that you would assume you had any right to her magic.”
I raised my eyebrows and shrugged. “Just an idea.”
Lev trusted her and her magic, he’d even defended her use of it back on Unseen Street. We’d known her such a short time. It had been less than twenty-four hours, and she’d already wormed her way into the Athenaeum. Woe hadn’t even managed to do that. Yet Lev said he learned more about her while under her spell, and he hadn’t pulled away from her.
I squinted at the stranger. Mara
studied a book she must have pulled from the shelves. She pretended like she hadn’t heard, but I believed she had. She’d stiffened when I mentioned her ability to heal and suggested she use it on me. She was hiding something, I was certain of it.
Lev crossed the room and whispered in Mara’s ear.
Without a word, she closed the book and slid it back into the shelf. She crossed the room but glanced back from the threshold.
Lev nodded. “I’ll be right there.”
She slipped out.
Lev started toward the door, but I caught up to him and snagged his arm. “Where are you two going?”
“To my room,” Lev gruffed.
I raised an eyebrow but released his arm. “Really?”
“I’m going to bake her some bread and cook her a delicious dinner as a thank you to her for taking a chance on us.” And there’s nothing you can do about it.
“Ah,” I said. He didn’t have to say the words out loud, but I still heard them.
He turned to face me. “When was the last time you ate anything?”
I shrugged. “Today,” I said. It was probably true.
“You haven’t been taking care of yourself. You’re obsessing over this thing with Woe and the Boss.”
The accusation hit me like a basketball to the abs, and I had to catch my breath. Spinning away from Lev, my knee caught the edge of a small table, sending a jolt of pain up my leg. “I’ve been too busy.”
“Doing what?”
“Taking care of business.”
“Have you been sleeping?”
“Everything paranormal happens at night.” And Lev was ludicrous to suggest I do otherwise.
“You’re headed for a breakdown, Jason.” He tucked his chin in his palm. “You can’t keep on like this. You aren’t responsible for everything and everybody.”
“Yes, I am. As long as the Boss is out there, hunting us…”
“No one man is strong enough to carry that much weight.”
“If people would just listen,” I hissed. “I would be.”
“Then what? Surrender our free will? To you?” He shuddered. “We do listen. We just don’t always obey. There’s a difference.”
They might not believe it, but everything would go better if they did obey.
A light knock interrupted us, and I jumped to my feet and regretted the sudden movement. Swaying, I grasped the desk until my knuckles turned white. “Woe? Is that you?”
She’d probably realized how unreasonable she’d been after she’d stormed out of here. We had so much to do. We needed to figure out where Mara had come from, and maybe we could get Jane to join the Keepers. She could be helpful in finding out how to beat the Boss.
Vic barked a laugh as she came around the door and joined us again. “Guess again.” She put her hands on her hips. “You missed your chance, hotshot.”
I took a seat in the desk chair again. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means Woe might not come back. You probably don’t deserve her or her help.”
I waited for Vic to crack a smile, expected her to tell me Woe was around the corner. But she didn’t. My breath came in gasps as though the oxygen had been sucked from the room. I clenched my teeth and willed the upset to pass.
“She’s gone, Jason,” she whispered. “And I won’t help you get her back. You’re going to have to apologize for acting like her feelings don’t matter.”
Lev rumbled his agreement.
Vic gave an exasperated sigh. “You can’t live as though feelings don’t matter. You can’t ignore her feelings and yours.” She shifted, and her gaze hardened. “It’s up to Woe now.”
More arrows landed in my chest. “Even if what you say is true, what am I supposed to do about them?”
Her expression twisted. “You stop controlling things, and you let the chips fall where they may.”
“I don’t know if I can do that.”
“That’s the problem,” Vic whispered.
The three of us stared at each other for long seconds.
She leaned toward Lev to whisper in his ear.
“Thank you.” He gave her a warm smile. “I’m off to have dinner with Mara.”
Vic’s expression turned sly, and she elbowed him. “Things getting serious for my Bulldog?”
“I’m cooking dinner,” he said, but he flushed from head to toe.
Vic danced on her toes. “That’s what you think.”
My eyebrows climbed my forehead, but I didn’t care. Vic expected Lev to bed Mara without reservation. Had they discussed it already? I couldn’t fathom Lev doing something so cavalier.
“Don’t be foolish. I don’t know anything about her. Not really.” But he blushed, and that meant Vic’s suspicions were true. No matter how relieved his response to Vic made me, it wouldn’t be long until Lev was off building a new family, moving on like New Haven wasn’t their responsibility, too.
Surliness didn’t become anyone, but I glared at both of them and the touching scene between them. I didn’t know how to get a handle on the emotions that surged through me, threatening to break through my control.
Vic play-punched Lev’s shoulder. “She better be good to you, Bulldog. That’s all I’m saying,” she crowed before she tossed her arms around him. “You tell her, if she hurts you, I’ll electrocute her in her sleep and then make her into soup for the Yetis.” Then she patted his face.
Lev half-bowed, his movement stiff, his eyes twinkling. “For now, she is still only a person of interest with information on the whereabouts of my son.”
Vic cackled at that but ducked back out into the Cavern. “I’m turning in.”
Lev followed her out.
No matter what else came of the day, I couldn’t believe it.
Vic’s suspicions about people were mostly correct. That meant that Lev had a crush on a woman that was leading him into a trap.
After her confession, there was still something about her that didn’t add up, and maybe Lev was caught up in a web of magic, influenced by spells and unable to see reality.
Like I told Woe about Arún.
The accusing thought came unexpectedly, but I pushed it away.
The day’s events had not transpired as I had expected them to.
I stared at the papers that littered my desk without seeing them.
My choices had split the Keepers into two camps and loyalties had been divided. None believed my actions were the right ones, and that knowledge stung more than anything else. I was alone on my “side.”
Perhaps the longevity of the Keepers balanced on finding the truth about Mara so Lev could face the truth. Otherwise, he’d collide with forever and drown in the results. We had to follow it through to the end.
Woe stomped out with no promise of returning. Her future had been secured. She’d eventually move to the Fae Realm to rule as Arún’s queen.
And Vic… When she found the right happily ever after, I’d be the only one left.
We didn’t receive applicants. Nobody knew we existed. Once they were all gone, who else would help me keep the balance of New Haven City?
I won’t have any family left.
That thought chilled my bones. I didn’t know what would happen next, but it was plain that things could not keep going as they had…
More that I could not keep going as I had.
23
Invitation
Mara
Jason scared me. Him and his wolfish eyes, too.
The oil lamps positioned throughout the expansive cavern cast flickering shadows throughout the space. The large rectangle had been separated into three parts by arches. In each section, a riveted door rested on either side. Damp and cold, it reminded me of some of the hidden rooms beneath Venice.
Vic stepped out of the Athenaeum. She flashed a thumbs up, blew me a kiss, and winked, but she didn’t stop. She turned a circle mechanism on the first door to the left, and the inner workings clanged and creaked, reminding me of all the military shi
p wrecks we’d explored as girls. When the door popped open, she stepped inside.
Vic probably hated my guts.
But I’d told them all the truth, and that counted for something. It was a load off my shoulders anyway. Now I had to figure out a way to ask them for help freeing my sister. I could start by asking Lev.
When Lev told me to wait for him in the Cavern, it had been like an olive branch. I got out as fast as I could. I didn’t even bother to tell Jason bye.
I didn’t know how to respond to Vic, and I wondered how she thought of me. She was the friendliest of the bunch, but she couldn’t think well of me.
Lev sailed into the Cavern, his eyes searching until they landed on me. A smile broke on his face, almost like he’d expected me to be gone.
“Hello,” he said, his voice that low rumble that made me want to lean toward him.
“Hi.”
Vic appeared once more. A bottle filled with amber liquid in her hand. She bowed to Lev. “What you requested, sir.”
“Thanks,” he said.
And then Vic was gone as quickly as she’d come.
He turned to me. “I’m glad you waited.” He gestured toward the middle door. “It’s this one right here.” He turned the locking wheel, and the door popped open in the same way Vic’s had.
My cheeks warmed beneath his gaze. I laid my cool palms over them to cool the flush. Lev made me want to do the right thing by Keepers.
All of them.
Even Jason.
“What are we doing here?”
He opened the door as wide as it would go, the hinges creaking. He extended his hand and bowed slightly. Delicious, savory smells wafted out. “I thought I might serve you dinner.”
I stumbled on the short wall as I stepped into enveloping warmth. Into Lev’s… home.
“What?”
My question came out like a gasp, and I covered my mouth with my hand.
His shoulders drooped as he stepped into the room, but he righted them almost as quickly. “I understand if you don’t want to, Miss Mara, but I thought it would be a good way to thank you for your help in trying to find my family.”
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