by Karen Lynch
Silence greeted me. I shot to my feet and almost tripped over Angela’s body at the sight of the six masked men in tactical gear surrounding Conlan. The faerie was slumped between two of the men who were holding him upright.
“Conlan!” I shouted, and he didn’t respond. “What did you do to him?”
The biggest man spoke. “A special cocktail of sedatives and iron. He’s still alive for now.”
“Sedatives don’t work on faeries,” I said shakily.
His smile was visible through the mouth hole of his mask. “This one does. It’ll keep him out long enough for us to get what we came for.”
My mouth went dry. “What do you want?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Miss James.” The man, who appeared to be the leader of the group, held up a device that resembled the ke’tain sensor, only bigger. The light on the device was blinking green. In his other hand, he held a gun that was pointed at my head. “Give me the ke’tain.”
I gripped the edge of the counter as my knees threatened to give out. No matter how afraid I was, I couldn’t hand the ke’tain over to him. This was bigger than I was, bigger than Conlan. If he were awake, he would agree with me. It was about protecting the people we loved.
I met the man’s eyes, which were shadowed by the mask. “I don’t have it.”
“And I don’t have time to play games with you.” He turned his gun on Conlan. “Even a faerie can’t survive having his head blown off at point-blank range.”
“Do you know who that is? He’s one of the Unseelie crown prince’s best friends. You kill him, and the entire Unseelie royal guard will hunt you down.”
None of the men reacted. I had to stall them somehow. By now, Faris had to be wondering why I wasn’t there yet. He’d call me, and when I didn’t answer, he’d call Conlan, whom he would know was following me today. When he couldn’t reach Conlan, he’d sound the alarm. Faolin would trace our phones or Conlan’s car to this street. They’d come.
“You think Davian Woods won’t give up your names when Prince Vaerik is done with him?” The man’s head jerked back a fraction, betraying his surprise. I seized on it. “The prince is onto Davian and knows all about his little schemes.”
A tiny movement behind him caught my attention. I darted my gaze to Conlan and saw him open his eyes and look right at me for a second.
I met the leader’s gaze again. “Prince Vaerik knows Davian was trying to buy the ke’tain from Lewis Tate until Tate disappeared. He also knows Davian is working with the Seelie guard. If anything happens to Conlan, the prince will know it was done by a professional hired by Davian. How long do you think it will take him to track you down?”
The man lowered his gun until it was no longer pointed at Conlan’s head. “I’m coming over there, and you are going to give me the ke’tain, or I will take it by force. The prince might care about his friend’s life, but I doubt yours will matter to him.”
“Give it…to…him,” Conlan stammered, surprising everyone in the room.
“No.” Why would he say that?
Conlan lifted his head and stared at me with an expression that said to trust him. “He will…find it.”
“Yes, I will,” the leader said confidently. But Conlan wasn’t referring to him. He was telling me Lukas would find the ke’tain if I let the man take it to Davian.
“Jesse.” Conlan smiled weakly to let me know it would be okay. “Do it.”
I stared at him for a long moment before I nodded stiffly and reached for my pocket.
“Stop.” The leader waved his gun at me. “Come out here where we can see you.”
I did as he ordered and walked around the counter. Reaching into my pocket, I retrieved the stone and held it out to the man. I felt sick as he approached me with his hand outstretched. Was I really doing this? I was going to give it to him without a fight?
I wanted to yank my hand back when his fingers brushed it. My other hand itched to curl into a fist and punch him in the throat. I was strung tighter than my guitar strings as I waited for him to take the damn thing already.
“What are you doing?” one of the other men asked. “Take it so we can get out of here.”
“I can’t,” the leader said through gritted teeth. “It won’t move.”
My eyes flew to his knuckles, which were white from their grip on the ke’tain. The tendons strained in his wrist as he pulled, but all I felt was the weight of the stone in my hand.
“Give it to me,” he snarled.
“I’m not doing anything.” I looked at Conlan, but he seemed as confused as I was.
The other man who had spoken came over. The leader let go of the ke’tain, and his friend grabbed it. He grunted as he tried to pull it from my hand. Releasing it, he glared at me. “You’re using magic. Stop it.”
“I am not!” I turned and placed the ke’tain on the glass counter. “There. Take it.”
He reached for the stone, but the second he touched it, it disappeared. “What the hell?” he yelled, turning angry eyes on me again.
I felt the warm weight in my hand before I opened it. He was right that there was some kind of magic at work, but it wasn’t coming from me. For some unknown reason the ke’tain was stuck to me, just like the goddess stone.
The goddess stone. That had to be it. Somehow, it was connected to the ke’tain and keeping the men from taking it from me. There was no other explanation.
I couldn’t tell them any of that. God only knew what Davian Woods would do if he found out I had an actual goddess stone. I’d probably end up locked away in one of his private collections.
“That’s it. You’re coming with us.” The leader grabbed me roughly by the arm. “We get paid as long as we deliver the ke’tain.”
“Let her go.” Conlan charged us, but his movements were still sluggish from the iron. The other men easily subdued him and shackled his hands behind his back. The shackles weren’t Agency-issue, but they were iron, so they did the job.
“Put the ke’tain back in your jeans pocket,” the leader ordered. After I did it, he emptied my other pockets, tossing my keys, ID card, stun gun, and phone on the counter. I held my breath as he patted me down, and I bit my cheek when he found the pick set in the inner pocket of my coat.
When he was done, he spun me around and wrenched my arms behind my back none too gently. I felt cold metal as a pair of shackles were locked around my wrists, and I wondered if my captures experienced the same helpless fear I felt now.
The men forced us toward the back of the store. We passed the office, and I caught a glimpse of Gus curled up asleep on the desk where I’d left him. He was so worn out that he’d slept through everything. What would he do when he woke up here alone?
And poor Angela. Heaviness settled over me at the memory of her lifeless body. All she’d done was help me, and she’d died because of it. They’d murdered her.
“Why did you kill her?” I asked as I was shoved toward the back door.
No one answered as they took Conlan and me to a plain white cargo van parked beside the dumpster in the small alley. They sat us on opposite sides of the van and pulled black hoods down over our heads. The engine started, and I was overcome with an awful feeling of déjà vu. Only this time, I wasn’t alone in the trunk of a car. I didn’t know if I was more relieved that Conlan was with me, or if I felt guilty for dragging him into this.
I paid attention to every turn the van took, visualizing the route as they drove through Brooklyn. I knew immediately when we started to cross the bridge into Manhattan, and it wasn’t hard to guess where they were taking us. At least, it wouldn’t be a filthy cage in a drug dealer’s basement this time.
The van took a sharp turn and went down a short ramp. It stopped, and the driver lowered his window for a minute before he drove on. We were in a parking garage, and I was sure it was the one beneath Davian Woods’s building.
With the hoods still over our heads, Conlan and I were herded from the van and into an elevator. All eight
of us fit inside, so it had to be a service elevator, not the one I’d been in the night of Davian’s party. We rode up in silence, and when the doors opened, we were led down a hallway, through a door, and down a short flight of stairs. Finally, someone pushed me onto a chair and bound my legs to the chair legs with duct tape. My hands were left shackled behind my back.
I heard footsteps leaving the room. As soon as the last one faded, I called for Conlan and was met with silence. My stomach clenched. What had they done to him? Maybe they’d put him in a different room so we couldn’t talk and plan an escape.
I wasn’t left alone for long. The soft tap of shoes heralded the approach of a man, but not one wearing combat boots. I didn’t have long to wonder about his identity because he grabbed the top of the hood and pulled it off my head.
Davian Woods stood before me in a dark gray suit, looking like he was about to walk into a boardroom. He wore the same smile he’d given me the night we met, but unlike then, it didn’t quite reach his brown eyes.
I wasn’t that surprised to see we were in the upstairs dining area of his penthouse. I turned my head toward the terrace and felt a surge of relief when I saw Conlan shackled to a chair on the other side of the table. His head was down, and he appeared to be unconscious.
“Miss James,” Davian said, bringing my attention back to him. “I can walk into a room full of the sharpest business minds in the world and read every person there. I’ve built an empire on that ability. Yet you were not only able to gain access to my home, you flew under my radar for months. How?”
He put a hand to his chin, his head tilted like he was intensely curious about my answer. If he expected to hear I was some highly-trained operative, he was about to be disappointed.
“You didn’t notice me because I’m a nobody – to you anyway. Tennin has a weakness for redheads, and you have a weakness for faeries. And neither of you would suspect a girl for wanting to go to one of Davian Woods’s society parties on the arm of a faerie prince.”
Davian cocked his eyebrows at my assessment of him, and then he laughed. “That is brilliant in its simplicity.”
I smiled in response. The less I said the better.
His eyes grew shrewd. “How does a young bounty hunter with no obvious connections come to be friends with the Unseelie prince?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call us friends.” I didn’t know what to call my relationship with Lukas. The best word I could come up with was confusing, but I wasn’t telling Davian that.
Davian’s gaze flicked to Conlan and back to me. “You were found in the company of one of his royal guards, whom I’m told was quite protective of you. Why?”
I eyed my captor with contempt. “You could ask him that if your hired guns hadn’t knocked him out.”
He sighed ruefully. “That was not supposed to happen. I will have to smooth things out with Prince Vaerik.”
I almost choked, trying not to laugh. Davian had clearly gone off the deep end if he thought he could talk his way out of this after hurting one of Lukas’s men. I decided to let him discover that for himself.
“I will address that problem in due course,” Davian said. “Right now, I believe you have something I paid a great deal to obtain.”
“Something that doesn’t belong to you.” I tensed, completely at his mercy with my hands bound behind my back.
“It’s not for me. It never was.”
“I don’t understand. Don’t you know what this thing is doing to our world? What good are all your money and your prized possessions” – I tilted my head toward the gallery – “if the world is destroyed?”
He frowned. “Queen Anwyn never meant to damage the barrier between the realms. Her men lost the ke’tain, and they’ve been trying to find it to take it back to Faerie. Once they do, the barrier will heal.”
“Prince Vaerik is looking for the ke’tain, too. Give it to him and let him return it to Faerie. It’ll go a long way to smoothing things out with him for what your men did to Conlan.”
“It would, but I have an agreement with the Seelie queen,” he said. “Payment upon delivery.”
I stared at him. “You have more money than you could ever spend, and you have no problem getting things brought to you from Faerie. What could she possibly give you that you can’t buy?”
Davian’s eyes took on a feverish gleam. “Immortality.”
I shook my head. “That’s impossible. No one can give you that.”
“The Seelie queen can.”
“She’s lying to you.” I leaned forward in my chair. “You’re too old. You’d never survive the change.”
He chuckled, and there was a note of madness in it. “You’re wrong. With the ke’tain, she’ll have the power of the goddess in her hands, and she will be able to do anything.”
“The ke’tain’s power is lethal to faeries. Queen Anwyn can’t use it.” I wanted to yell at him, scream, anything to get through to him.
He held out his hand like I hadn’t spoken. “I will take the ke’tain now. The sooner she gets what she wants, the sooner I get what I want.”
“How do you suggest I do that?” I strained against my shackles.
Davian grasped my arms and pulled me to my feet. Having my legs tied to the chair made me sway, but he steadied me. Unabashedly, he reached into the left front pocket of my jeans and then the right. He smiled when his fingers touched the ke’tain, but his elation faded when he couldn’t pick up the stone. He tried again and again with the same result, his face growing more mottled with each attempt.
“Stop it,” he bit out.
“I’m not doing anything.”
The slap came fast and hard, sending my glasses askew. Davian grabbed my shoulders and shook me so viciously my glasses flew off, and I thought my neck was going to snap.
“Do not play games with me,” he snarled, spraying my face with spittle. “Give me the ke’tain, or I will have my men throw you off the terrace.”
“I can’t!” I screamed at him as fear gripped me. He would do it. I could see it in his eyes. He’d kill me without an ounce of remorse.
He pushed me down to the chair and stepped back. “You’re telling the truth.”
“Yes,” I choked out.
“Did he do this?” He pointed at Conlan. “Did he put some kind of ward on you?”
“No.”
Davian pressed his lips together and nodded. “The queen’s guard will know what to do.”
I tried to stand and fell back down. “They’ll kill us!”
He retrieved my glasses from the floor and tossed them on the table beside me. “Then you’d better find a way to give me that stone before they get here.”
“How?”
“You’re a smart girl. Figure it out.” He walked toward the stairs, stopping to talk in a low voice to someone hidden by the textured glass wall. I could hear two other male voices, and Davian telling them to stand guard until the faeries arrived.
A chill went through me when I heard his footsteps on the stairs. If he called the Seelie royal guard, they could be here in minutes by using a portal. The thought of what they would do to us threatened to make me hyperventilate.
I forced myself to stay calm because panic would not help Conlan or me. Davian was right. I was a smart girl. I just had to think rationally and work the problem.
I almost laughed hysterically at that. We were on the second floor of a penthouse apartment that was guarded by at least six armed men. Oh, and the Seelie guard could be on the way here at this very minute.
Stop it, Jesse. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. All I could do was focus on the things within my control. I’d figure out the next part when I came to it. My first problem was getting out of this chair, and thanks to Davian, I had the tools to do that.
I listened for the men and heard them having a quiet conversation over by the stairs. Easing to a standing position, I leaned toward the table. It took some stretching and straining, but I was able to reach my glasses. I sat a
nd carefully broke the ears off them, stuffing the frames in my back pocket. Then I set to work on the shackles.
It wasn’t easy to maneuver with my wrists shackled, but I’d practiced on Agency shackles at home until I could free myself every time. I was used to working with an actual pick set, which made this harder, but not impossible. I just needed to get the feel for it.
“Jesse,” Conlan whispered.
I fumbled and almost dropped one of the ears. Heart racing, I whipped my head in his direction and found him still slumped in the chair. “Conlan?” I said in a voice too low for the men to hear.
The hood moved a fraction. “Did he hurt you?”
“No.” I went back to work on the lock. “What did they do to you?”
“More sedative, I think. The shackles are iron. Can’t move much yet.”
My heart sank. I’d been counting on Conlan fighting his way out of the penthouse once I woke him up. That wasn’t going to happen in his current state.
“Give me a few minutes,” he said in a calm, reassuring tone. “I’ll get us out of here.”
“We might not have a few minutes. Davian couldn’t take the ke’tain from me, so he is calling the Seelie guard,” I said as I worked on the shackles. I bit my lip when I heard a distinct click in the lock, and the shackles loosened. Before they could fall to the floor, I grabbed them and laid them quietly on the table.
Conlan muttered a few Fae words. “Do you know where we are?”
“We’re in Davian’s penthouse.” I bent forward to work on the duct tape around one of my legs.
“Faris knows by now that something happened to us. Lukas will suspect Davian, and they will come here looking for us,” Conlan said softly like he was trying to soothe a frightened child.
“I know.” I freed my leg and started on the other one. “How long will it take you to get your strength back?”
He lifted his head. “Once the iron shackles are gone, it should not take more than ten minutes.”
I turned my head to stare at him. Were all royal faeries that strong, or was it a royal guard thing? I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Lukas and his men deliberately exposed themselves to iron to build a resistance to it.
