“Oh.” Callie looked surprised. She blinked, then threw him another grin that had his cock stirring. “In that case, I can promise you that I’ll miss you as soon as you go.”
“I’d stay if it were possible.”
“I know, Ash. But, hey. Don’t worry about me. Shoot, I might just sleep until I have work on Monday. I’m exhausted.”
Ash chuckled as he reluctantly slid out of her bed. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Do that.” From behind him, he heard her voice slur as she swallowed a yawn. “You deserve it.”
Bending down, he grabbed his trousers before glancing back at Callie. When he noticed the way his mate watched his naked body move as he started to redress, Ash couldn’t help but preen a little. That was one good thing about Callie’s sight. When glamour couldn’t work on her, her attraction to him held a little more weight. She actually saw Ash—and from the scent of her arousal perfuming the air again, he could tell that she really, really liked what she saw.
Damn the shadows. If it wasn’t for the dawning night, he’d hop right back into her bed—
No. No. He’d return to her as soon as he possibly could. It wouldn’t be long, either. Now that she was his mate, his instincts wouldn’t let him stay away from her.
With one last kiss and another promise to return to her, he used the side of his hand to create four slashes of faerie fire. As soon as the portal appeared, he stepped through it, going from Callie’s bedroom to the edge of the veil in one step.
The second his boot fell, he sensed the space in front of him shifting. In an instant, he regretted not taking the portal straight from the Iron to the barracks, but he’d been so careful to always come and go through his post so that the Fae Queen never realized that he was neglecting it while he was with his Callie.
As the Light Fae in the elaborate uniform stepped in front of him, he knew that time—so fluid, so untamable, so unpredictable—had finally run out.
She knew. Melisandre knew.
And she couldn’t be happy with him.
Biting back his curse, he bowed his head as he greeted the higher ranking member of the queen’s guard.
“Captain Helix.”
“Ash.” The captain’s expression was unreadable as he pulled his diamond-edged sword out from its leather sheath. “Come with me, soldier.”
11
Nibbling on her thumbnail, Callie sat on the bench just outside of Buster’s. Her sandwich was nestled in her lap, still wrapped up. She had no appetite for the ham and cheese on rye, instead anxiously biting her nail as she tried like hell not to think about Ash.
She never thought he’d be the type to hit it and quit it, but that was exactly what happened. Knowing that days could pass in the human world while it was only a few minutes in Faerie, Callie didn’t start to think that something was wrong until two weeks had gone by. The longest stretch of time between Ash’s visits had only been about a week and a half, so two weeks wasn’t so bad—except she couldn’t shake the sensation that maybe he wasn’t coming back.
This wouldn’t be the first time that a guy stopped paying her any attention after sex. Her high school boyfriend Austin had turned out to be that much of a prick. They dated all throughout freshman and sophomore year, and as soon as Callie let him take her virginity, he dumped her barely a month later. He was already moving onto his next conquest, and Callie learned how to guard her reputation around her judgmental peers.
Since then, she’d been more careful with who she invited into her bed. Ash had three things working against him: he was from Faerie, he was an arrogant bastard, and she knew better than to get involved with a male who had centuries of lovers under his belt. She didn’t want to be another notch in his bedpost, and while he told her that he wanted her, that she was meant to be his, it took her much longer to admit that she felt the same.
Whether she should or not was a totally different discussion. The fact of that matter was that she did and she wanted so desperately to believe that he was telling her the truth. Sure, he confessed to her that his type of faerie couldn’t lie, but a lifetime of dealing with the faerie folk had taught Callie to be cautious. Telling her he couldn’t lie… if he could, then that was exactly what he would say, huh?
Callie sighed, dropping her hand against her thigh. She glanced at her untouched sandwich and realized that she had no stomach for it. Wrapping it up, she stowed it in her purse for later, then stood. She wiped her forehead. It was the dog days of summer, early August, and too hot for her to stay outside much longer.
Pity she didn’t want to return to her apartment, either. At first, it was because she missed Mitch. Now? She sensed Ash in every corner of the place, remembering the last afternoon they spent together before he, like Mitch, seemed to up and disappear.
But Mitch had at least left her a note. An explanation.
Ash?
He was just gone.
Not for the first time, Callie thought about taking a vacation out of the city. If Ash did return to the Iron, his strange ability to find her wherever she was would lead him to the suburbs where her parents and her sisters and their families lived. And if she didn’t? She might be able to shake off some of her loneliness while distracting her from his continued absence.
Buster told her she was owed some vacation time. So long as she gave him a couple days’ notice, her boss wouldn’t mind if she took off a week or so. This time of year business was slow, but it would pick up again come September when there was a rush of clients looking to get all of their summer vacation photographs processed and printed.
She was really thinking that she might. For now, though, she gave up on sweating outside, reluctantly heading back to her empty apartment. Considering her latest ice cream binge, she still had a couple of pints she could tuck into. Might as well grab a container, grab a spoon, and watch a mindless rental video.
Come to thin of it, she never had gotten the chance to watch Bring It On.
Just her luck, Blockbuster was out of the cheerleader flick when she stopped on her way home. She didn’t have the heart to grab anything too heavy on the romance, and it wasn’t worth picking out a scary movie since that would only remind her of Mitch and Ash. Settling on renting 10 Things I Hate About You, she thanked the clerk and started the rest of the walk back to her apartment.
By the time she made it home, she was sticky with sweat and feeling a little drained. Tossing her purse and the Blockbuster bag on the back of the couch, she kicked off her sneakers and padded toward her bedroom.
Callie grabbed a change of clothes, then took a quick shower. She brushed her freshly washed hair after she’d scrubbed up, leaving it to air dry instead of bothering with her blow dryer. After shrugging on the fresh tank, panties, and shorts, she went back to the bedroom in search of her slippers.
Surprisingly, the heat was the first thing she noticed. Probably because it was so scorching, it spilled out of her bedroom and into her hall. Her heart kicked up a notch in excitement, hoping that the heat meant what she thought it did and not that her AC had blown another fuse—again.
Callie burst into the room, unable to contain her smiling when she saw the fiery Light Fae portal hovering a few feet away from her bed. And next to the portal, there was—
She stopped short, her heart racing even faster as her stomach sank all the way down to her bare feet.
Because the Light Fae male standing, legs braced, hands folded primly behind his back, an unimpressed expression on his blandly handsome face was definitely not Ash.
There was something off about him, too. His dark golden eyes seemed spaced a little too much apart, his face pinched, his arms longer than they should be. Callie couldn’t see his fingers, but she bet they would be unnaturally long and slender, too.
He was wearing the same uniform as Ash, only his was kind of different. More elaborate, maybe? It had golden thread and an extra row of buttons, she noticed. Did that make him more important?
He was definitely mor
e of a threat.
“Who are you?”
“You may call me Captain Helix,” he said, his voice so cold that it was a sharp contrast to the heat causing Callie’s damp hair to sizzle. The way he said that made it seem like he was giving her a grand honor to even address him at all.
She didn’t know him, but she didn’t like him.
“Okay. What the hell are you doing here?” She didn’t ask him how he got in—because, duh, portal—but there was no reason he should be in her bedroom. Unless— “Where’s Ash?”
“That’s precisely why I am here. I’m to take you to see Aislinn.”
He had his name. This Light Fae who looked so much like her Ash knew his true name.
Did that mean she could trust him? Callie wasn’t sure.
“Is something wrong with him? Is he hurt?”
“You’ll see when we get to where we’re going.”
“Yeah? And where is that?”
“My apologies, human,” Helix intoned, his cold voice hardening like ice, “if you thought that I would continue to waste my time answering your questions. I’ve been sent to perform a task. I’ve been sent by the queen to bring you to Aislinn. You will come with me.”
“Oh, yeah. I—”
He drew his sword.
Callie stopped breathing. Just stopped. It only lasted a few seconds before she started to feel a touch light-headed, but even as she stared in ill-disguised terror at the diamond edge of Helix’s long sword, any hope that this was a good fae like her Ash flew out the damn window.
Swallowing roughly, she nodded. “Got it. No more questions.”
“That’s right.” He used the point of his sword to gesture to the portal. “Now go before I have cause to push you through myself.”
Some part of her had guessed that the portal was meant for her. Up until the moment he waved at it with his sword, she’d hoped that she’d avoid having to take it, that Ash was lost in the human world somewhere and that was why this Helix was there.
Of course not. He never would’ve stayed in her world without telling her which meant that he was in Faerie—which was exactly where the Light Fae portal would bring her.
During their talks, Ash might not have pushed her to join him in Faerie after her initial refusals, but he made it sound as enticing as he could. She knew that she would be able to enter his fantastical world and, wearing his touch on her skin, be safe from most of its predators. So long as she didn’t eat faerie food, she’d also be free to return to her world again, and the worst thing that could happen would be she lost some time.
It could be seconds. Could be minutes. Days. Probably not that much longer unless she spent countless sunrises in Faerie, and even then there was no way to know if she’d lose a year or cross over directly after she would’ve left.
Trading her focus from the point of his sword to the wall of flames, Callie realized that she would cross over even without the captain’s added pressure. Because it had been two weeks of her time since she saw Ash last, and if this fae male was bringing her to him, then he must be in trouble.
Especially since she hadn’t missed the subtle way Helix had mentioned the Fae Queen like that.
It’s safe, she told herself. Ash promised that he’d seen plenty of humans take a fae portal and they were no worse for the wear. Sure, it was intimidating, but the level of heat she was feeling now was as bad as it got. She wouldn’t burn.
Still, as Callie trudged forward, only pausing to slip her bare feet into her ballet slipper-style shoes, she found it difficult to keep her eyes open as she knowingly walked into the wall of flame. She closed them, and swallowed her scream when the sensation was like warm water—similar to her shower—spilling over her, just leaving her dry instead of getting her wet.
It was the promise of seeing Ash on the other side of the fire that kept her walking forward; that, and the memory of the pointed sword that must be at her back.
Only when she felt something solid beneath her feet, the heat blown away by a cool breeze, did she open her eyes again.
Callie jumped. Luckily, Helix and his sword appeared through the portal a few steps behind her so she didn’t land on its point—though it was pretty close.
There was another fae male.
For the first time that she could remember, Callie was face to face with one of the Unseelie. It was easy to tell since this male was the exact opposite in appearance to both Ash and Helix. His skin was so pale that it seemed to glow, and he had thick, straight hair cut along his jaw that was as black as night. And his eyes… silver where the Light Fae’s were gold, the irises were nearly swallowed up by the whites of his eyes, they were so fair.
There was something else, too...
The fae could never be ugly. They were designed too perfectly for that. But her sight never lied, and there was a darkness in this particular guard that managed to make him appear beastly to her.
She edged closer to the captain and his sword. If it was a choice between being impaled or letting the Dark Fae male get near her, she’d take the hole in her back.
Helix sighed. “That’s enough, Dusk. Leave the poor creature alone. Melisandre is waiting for us.”
Dusk’s mirror-like eyes flashed in something that was malicious amusement. “That she is. Come, human. I see you wear the brand of one of the Blessed Ones. Shame that won’t save you.”
What?
Helix commanded the Dark Fae to be quiet again and, after that, they both were. All Callie could hear was the pounding of her pulse in her veins and the slapping of her slippers against the crystal floor. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was a prisoner, especially since she was sandwiched by the two very different fae soldiers, and it took everything she had to keep walking if only because she had to see for herself that Ash was okay.
Something told her that he wasn’t, and that scared her even more than the Dark Fae in front of her.
They were inside. Callie didn’t know precisely where, but since she was heading toward their queen, it was a safe bet that it was her castle. Ash had told her stories about the magnificent castle with its pristine walls and accessories made of crystal. They marched through corridor after corridor, each one more elaborate than the one they passed, until they reached a pair of glass doors guarded by a pair of fae.
Like Helix and Dusk, there was one of each: one Dark and one Light. They wore the same uniform, too, and had a matching sheath hanging off their narrow hips.
Helix said something in a lyrical-sounding language that was most definitely not English. The Light Fae guard nodded. As one, the pair of guards each reached for a crystal knob, pulling the doors open for Callie, Helix, and Dusk.
She hesitated when the doors opened, revealing an open room with blindingly white walls, a massive crystal throne up on a six-inch dais, and a crowd full of both Light and Dark Fae all wearing clothes that belonged at a fairy tale ball.
And there, sitting demurely on the throne, sat a female that stole Callie’s breath.
She was cloaked in glamour so rich and thick that, even with her sight, Callie saw dainty blonde curls, pale yellow eyes, and perfect, blemish-less, porcelain skin. But because she could sense the glamour as much as she could actually see it, she forced herself to look past it. She figured it had something to do with being in Faerie. The powerful magic was working against her human sight, forcing her to see what the female was projecting.
But Callie had twenty plus years of experience. So, knowing she was going to end up with one hell of a headache later, she screwed up her face and saw.
Though the glamour would have you believe she was Seelie, the fae female was anything but. The blonde curls turned to long, raven-colored waves. Yellow eyes became dark gray. And the perfect face shifted and twisted just enough to make her menacing instead of innocent.
Callie gulped as the female waved an unnaturally pale hand in her direction. The ruffles on her simple light pink gown moved with the motion, proving she was graceful if nothing els
e.
As she moved, a male stepped out from behind the throne. Callie’s heart leaped up to her throat as she spied Ash—her Ash—wearing the same uniform as always, looking exactly as he had the last time she saw him.
He was okay. This whole strange excursion into Faerie was worth it, because Ash was okay.
She took a step toward him. A warning flashed across his face, there and gone again, but she knew what she had seen.
Callie froze.
“Oh, Aislinn,” the fae female cooed, drawing the attention of every being in the room. “My guest has arrived.”
And… look at that. She knew Ash’s true name, too, thought Callie. Wasn’t that interesting considering he made it seem like giving her his name was some grand, important gesture?
And maybe Callie was being catty, but if this was the Fae Queen—and she was betting it had to do because, well, throne—then she was the only other woman that Ash offered his loyalty to.
Callie immediately hated her.
The fae female stayed seated on her crystal throne, fingers perched elegantly on the arms of the chair, gesturing at Callie with the curve of her chin. “Tell me. Is this she? The human you’ve been playing with?”
Playing with?
“Yes, my queen.”
“Ugly, isn’t she? Those blue eyes and those round ears? Hideous.”
Was it possible to hate her even more? Yes. Yes, it was.
“Mm.”
“What was that, Aislinn?”
“I said, yes, my queen.”
Callie’s head jerked toward Ash. Did he just say—
“Ash?”
The queen sniffed. “Quiet your pet, Aislinn. I don’t believe I gave her permission to speak in front of my court.”
“Silence, Callie.”
It wasn’t his command that had her losing the ability to speak. It was the cold way he spoke to her.
Ash?
Melisandre preened. “That’s better. Honestly, when I requested that you summon your pet for me to meet, I didn’t think she’d actually speak to me. Didn’t you teach her proper manners?” With a tinkling laugh that left Callie gritting her teeth, the queen said, “Of course not. I can see that you’ve touched her. Just another human in your bed, Aislinn. Is that right?”
Glamour Eyes: a Rejected Mates Fae Romance (Wanted by the Fae Book 1) Page 10
