Fergus stiffened and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Corinne laughed. “Oh, right. I tell you when you’re being a raving jerk and you reach for the sword. What happens if I call you an asshole? Do you have a hand grenade in your pocket?”
She might have laughed at the way the interloper’s jaw dropped if she hadn’t been hoping to see it rot off.
He looked at Luc. “She can’t possibly see my sword. I charmed it before I left Rafe’s. It’s under illusion.”
“Not a very good one, I guess, because I can see it as clear as day,” she informed him before Luc could open his mouth. “I can also see right through you, to what an enormous jerk you are.”
Fergus frowned. “Can you see this?”
He waved his hand around for a second before he opened his closed fist to reveal a perfectly formed flower resting in the palm of his hand. Corinne frowned. “Yeah, it’s an orchid. So what?”
The Fae ignored her question and turned to Luc.
“That’s impossible,” he said in the sort of tone that brooked no argument. “There’s only one reason she would be able to see through the masking glamour on my sword, but not notice anything odd about a simple creation spell. That reason, however, is clearly a ludicrous bit of nonsense. She’s human. She can’t possibly be your hea—”
“She doesn’t know what she is, Fergus, and I don’t have time to explain it to her,” Luc interrupted, giving his friend a meaningful stare. “So why don’t you let it go for now and tell me what you know about the door.”
The other Fae nodded briefly and took a seat on the edge of an armchair. “Right. Mab sent me because she detected—”
“Um, hello?” Corinne interrupted, struggling very hard to resist grabbing them both by their hair and ramming their heads together as hard as she could. Maybe it would knock some sense into one or the other. “Person here who doesn’t know what the hell you’re talking about. What is the Woodland Door?”
Fergus glared at her, so she glared right back, but Luc hurried to answer her question before they came to blows. “Remember the doors we’ve been talking about for the last day and a half? The Woodland Door is one of those. It’s been sealed for centuries, but at one time it led from a forest here on this island to a forest in Faerie. That’s how it got its name.”
“A forest in Manhattan?”
“Well, it used to be in a forest. Now there’s no telling where it is, though I’m guessing in an area that’s at least lightly wooded. It has an affinity for trees.”
She groaned. “Of course it does.”
“Central Park, maybe?” he guessed.
Corinne had recently learned that Central Park was practically a hotbed of Other activity. Between Faerie doors and werewolf pack meetings, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to set foot in the place again. She almost longed for the days when the weirdest things going on in there were protest rallies and creative flashers.
“Can I go on now?”
She rolled her eyes at Fergus’s petulant tone, but Luc just nodded.
“Fine. So as I was saying…” He paused to glare at Corinne. She smiled sweetly, just because she knew it would piss him off. “Last night, after you had left, we stationed extra guards in the Chamber of Doors. Everything seemed normal until around midnight, when Connor and Ewen said they felt a disturbance in the air. They alerted me, and I sent for the Queen.”
“What did she find?” Luc asked.
“At first nothing, and she was less than pleased. I thought she was going to banish all three of us to bogle duty for a century or more. But then it happened again, and this time we all felt it. An Undoing charm.”
“That shouldn’t do a thing, though. Mab made sure her seals couldn’t be undone by something that simple.”
“I know,” Fergus nodded, “but then we felt a Passing charm cast, and that’s when the Queen got nervous.”
Luc scowled. “That would still never be enough to open a sealed door.”
“No, but if what you suspect is true, it might be enough to force a hidden door to reveal itself. After the ripples stopped at the Woodland Door, something pushed at the Hearthstone Door as well.”
Luc’s only response was a curse, and this time even Corinne thought she understood what he had to swear about. If she understood correctly, what Fergus had just told them was that Seoc had very nearly discovered the location of the hidden door between Faerie and Ithir. Once that happened, nothing would stop him from wreaking all the havoc Luc had described on an unsuspecting Manhattan.
“Okay, I admit that sounds like it sucks,” she ventured, wrapping her arms around her knees. “But it’s not like he’s already done the deed. We still have time to beat him to it, right? I mean, if he’s trying every door he finds in turn, he’ll get to the right one eventually. We just need to get there first.”
“If it were that easy,” Fergus snapped, “don’t you think we would already be there?”
Corinne jerked back, feeling like she’d been slapped. She had never been one to count solely on first impressions, but so far all her impressions of Fergus told her he was a creep. She snarled, “Listen, freak boy—”
“Stop it,” Luc growled. “I don’t have time to listen to you two squabble.” Fergus subsided under a Captain-of-the-Guard glare, and Corinne shut up when Luc turned a similar expression on her. “Of course that is the intention, Corinne, but locating a hidden Faerie door isn’t the easiest thing to do.”
She blinked. “Well, duh. If it were, I sure as hell hope we’d have accomplished something more useful by now.”
“Useful? A human? How droll.”
“Fergus. Shut. Up.” Luc spared a glare at the other Fae before turning back to Corinne. “Faerie doors don’t work like physical doors. A Faerie door isn’t a door at all. It works entirely differently, because it isn’t usually fixed to any one spot. Mab fixed the doors on the Faerie side because she always wanted to see who came into or left her realm, but on this side she wanted to make them difficult to find, so she charmed them to open in random locations unless she specifically requested otherwise.”
Corinne shook her head. “Do I detect a hint of paranoia? Still, I suppose we’re lucky she was so worried, since it’s kept Seoc from finding the right door yet.”
“Yes, but he’s had a lot more time to look than we have now,” Luc said, getting to his feet with a grim expression. “If we want to get to the door first, we need to find out from the Queen where it is.”
“And how do we do that?” Corinne asked. “I don’t suppose she’s got a cell phone.”
He shook his head. “We don’t need a phone to contact her. Before we do, I want to talk to the head of the Council. I have a feeling we’re going to need all the help we can get if we plan to spring a trap for Seoc.”
“How can Rafe help us?”
Luc shot her a look of surprise. “As head of the Council, he’ll have a direct link to communicate with Mab. He can put us in touch with her faster than trying to reach her ourselves.”
“A direct link? What is he, some sort of official ambassador?”
“Someone has to maintain diplomatic ties between the worlds. On Ithir, it’s the responsibility of the head of the Council.”
“Right. Great. Looks like we go talk to Rafe then. Just give me five minutes.”
“What for?”
She was already heading for the bedroom. “So I can get dressed.”
She heard him sigh. “All right. I’m going to call Rafe and tell him we’re on our way.”
“What makes you think we plan to take a human along with us?”
Even if she’d been deaf, Corinne couldn’t have missed the sarcastic, arrogant tone in Fergus’s voice.
“Because if you don’t, I’ll just follow you,” she explained. “And then I’ll get all pissy. When I get pissy, I’ll bitch about you to Reggie and Missy. In turn, they’ll bitch about you to Misha and Graham, and then there’ll be this whole big interdimensional incid
ent just because you got your shorts in a knot.” She stopped in the hallway door and looked over her shoulder at him. “So do you really want to go there? I kinda thought we were pressed for time.”
She stalked back into her bedroom to the sound of Luc’s chuckle and Fergus’s curses in a language she didn’t recognize. It was just as well. They would probably just have pissed her off even more. And she was already planning to stash a metric buttload of aspirin in her backpack to take with her. Judging by the size of the headache Fergus had given her, that might spare him from her wrath for about an hour. Two, if he’d learn to keep his mouth shut.
It amazed her that one Fae—namely Fergus—could be so obnoxious and set her teeth on edge in a nanosecond, while another—that would be Luc—could give her that scary, happy, glowing feeling in her chest. She must have lost her mind.
As she pulled a pair of comfortable worn jeans out of her dresser drawer, she heard Fergus yell something impatient and rude from her living room. Eyes narrowing, she decided to make it two metric buttloads of aspirin. Just in case.
THIRTEEN
Five minutes, Corinne decided as she climbed out of the cab she and her two enormous companions had squeezed into for the trip to Rafe’s Upper East Side home. That’s all she needed, just five minutes of peace, of uninterrupted privacy where she could sit down, take a deep breath, and try to figure out just what the hell was going on and when exactly she’d gotten on this ride that wouldn’t stop. Was it really so much to ask?
Apparently.
Reggie and Missy were waiting for her when she, Luc and Fergus arrived at Rafe’s front door. They’d barely gotten the damned thing closed behind them before her friends pounced. Corinne looked to Luc for rescue, but the damned man was already huddled with her traitorous friends’ traitorous husbands.
“All right, Rinne, spill it,” Reggie demanded, crossing her arms over her chest and fixing her friend with an expectant stare. “What in blazes in going on?”
“Yeah. Why did Graham and Dmitri drag us all the way over here mumbling something about diplomatic ties, interdimensional incidents, and the end of the world as we know it?”
Missy mustered up an intimidating glare, but the effect paled a bit when she began rubbing her hand over her swollen belly. She was currently three months’ pregnant and, ridiculously enough, halfway to term. She looked at least six months along, which was just one of the results of getting knocked up by a werewolf, apparently.
“It’s a really long story.” Corinne tried to ease her way past them and closer to Luc. Even if the fink hadn’t come to her rescue, he’d make an awfully big obstacle to hide behind, if she could move quick enough.
“Not a chance,” Reggie snapped. “Even if you could move faster than Missy, which I doubt, you sure as hell wouldn’t be faster than me. So stay put and start talking.”
“Damn it, Reg!” Corinne stopped sidling toward Luc and threw up her hands. “You know how much I hate it when you do that! I don’t care how cool you think it is, stay the hell out of my mind!”
“I’m not in your mind, you idiot.” Reggie straightened up haughtily and looked offended. “I don’t need to read you when you’re broadcasting so loud, a deaf dog could hear you. You should be glad I didn’t bring up what else you’re broadcasting.”
“You don’t need to,” Missy put in, her face taking on an arch expression. “I can smell it. Our dearest friend has been getting down and dirty with the man in black over there. And—” She paused, and Corinne tried not to notice that she was inhaling delicately. “—the man in black is not quite human.”
“Corinne!” Reggie gasped, fighting back a smile. “I thought you only wanted to get involved with human men. I thought you said Others weren’t your type.”
“She’s clearly been fibbing.”
Blushing scarlet, Corinne was all ready to turn around and head right back out the door when Luc called her name.
He turned away from the men’s huddle and held his hand out to her. “Come here. I think this will all be a lot easier if we explain to everyone at once.” He turned back to Rafe and raised his eyebrows. “Think we can move into the living room and sit down?”
Trying desperately to act casual, Corinne ignored the stares of her friends and Luc’s outstretched hand as she crossed to his side. He didn’t get offended, just wrapped the hand around her instead, resting his palm possessively on her hip. She pretended not to notice, but she couldn’t help seeing the way Rafe’s dark eyebrows shot up, and his normal expression of lazy amusement took on a decided note of curiosity.
“By all means,” the suave werecat said, gesturing for the others to precede him through the double doors that led to his living room. “Let’s make ourselves comfortable. Can I offer anyone a drink?”
“Sure.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely.”
“Hell, yeah.”
Rafe chuckled. “I’ll just open the bar, shall I? That way we can all help ourselves.”
They made an odd little party as they filed into Rafe’s immaculately decorated living room. The damned thing was about twice the size of Corinne’s entire apartment. Was it, like, a rule that all the Others in Manhattan had to be obscenely rich?
Rafe settled himself behind the bar and began setting decanters and bottles onto the inlaid top, while Fergus took about three steps into the room and leaned his shoulder against the fireplace mantel. He seemed determined to be a pill.
Reggie and Missy tried to herd Corinne toward the sofa, but Luc actually came in handy and steered her to a love seat, taking the place beside her and draping his arm casually over her shoulders. She saw Reggie start to protest, but Misha hooked an arm around his wife’s waist and sank down on a retro-looking curved armchair, pulling her onto his lap. When Reggie opened her mouth to protest, he shook his head and gave her a quelling look.
Graham just led Missy to where he wanted her to sit, helped ease her down into the chair, and sat on the floor at her feet with one knee drawn up to his chest and his arm draped over it. It looked like a casual pose, but Corinne saw he had Missy completely hemmed in and gave a sigh of relief. Luc noticed and flashed her an amused look.
“Champagne, I think.” Rafe’s voice rumbled through the tense silence, and Corinne looked over to see him holding aloft a black glass bottle. “Would anyone care to join me?”
“You think we have something to celebrate? You should know this matter is too grave not to be taken seriously.”
“I take many things seriously, Fergus,” Rafe replied, bracing the bottle against his thigh as he eased the cork from the top. “However, I fail to see how all hope is lost.”
“Then maybe you don’t really have a grasp on the situation. Would you like me to explain?”
Corinne felt her eyes widen. “I know red hair is supposed to indicate a quick temper,” she muttered to Luc, “but I had no idea it also equated to rudeness and criminal stupidity.”
“Watch it, Emily Post,” he murmured back.
The man made more pop references than she did half the time, and wondering how he’d become so conversant in human culture threatened to drive her crazy. She reminded herself to ask him about it later. Right now she wanted to watch the fireworks.
“I hardly think I need any explanations from you, Fergus, nor is this the time for us to listen to you throw a tantrum,” Rafe purred. Not the way a cat being stroked purrs, but the way a leopard feasting on the entrails of his kill does. “However, if you feel the need to question my understanding, I would be happy to discuss it with you. Later. Alone.”
Corinne shuddered and decided to be very sure she wasn’t around for later.
“Can we get down to business?” Luc asked, cutting through the tension and drawing all eyes off Rafe and Fergus and onto him and Corinne. She fought the urge to squirm.
“I think that is a marvelous idea.” Dmitri shifted Reggie on his lap and spoke over the top of her auburn head. “Perhaps you could fill us in on what is ha
ppening, Luc. Rafe already told us of the reason for this most recent visit of yours to our world, but I suspect something important has happened if both you and Fergus felt the need to call us all together here.”
“The calling-together was Rafe’s idea, but I’ll admit it was a good one. From what Fergus told me, I have a feeling it’s going to take all of us to wrap up this mess.” Luc reached out a hand to accept the glass of champagne Rafe handed to him and passed it to Corinne. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”
Across the room, Graham sighed and rested his right hand on Missy’s distended belly. “Then I suggest you make with the storytelling, buddy.”
Corinne watched and listened and sipped champagne as Luc filled the others in on the saga of Seoc, Hibbish, Rabbi Aaronson, and the Faerie doors. Everyone but Fergus listened intently, their faces growing grimmer as the tale came out. No one seemed pleased to hear about what was going on, and Corinne found herself feeling almost sorry for Seoc. She certainly wouldn’t want these five men—well, these four men and a sorry-assed excuse for an ill-mannered Fae—to add her to their fecal rosters. Just the thought made her shiver.
Luc must have noticed, because he tightened his arm around her and began to rub his hand up and down her arm, as if chafing some warmth into her. She grimaced when she saw both Reggie and Missy make note of the motion and exchange Aha!glances. Maybe if she climbed over so she was sitting directly behind Luc, they’d forget she was there.
When Luc finally stopped speaking, Dmitri grunted. “I can see why you were concerned, brahtok.The Queen’s nephew is breaking at least five clauses from the concordance between our peoples. I think Rafael would agree that the Others are as anxious as you are to see him stopped and returned to Faerie.”
Rafe nodded over the rim of his champagne flute. “Of course. We will be happy to do all we can to help you.”
Luc turned his gaze to Dmitri. “Will it involve more this time than giving me your phone number and wishing me luck?”
Dmitri chuckled. “If more is required, of course it will.” He cast a knowing glance at the arm Luc still had snugged around Corinne’s shoulders. “But I believe you have managed to discover quite a bit all on your own. Do you disagree?”
Not Your Ordinary Faerie Tale Page 17
