One Thousand Kisses

by One Thousand Kisses

  Gret kicked the healing globe back to Ani. Master Fey caught it en route, batting it between his paws.

  “Who were the people helping you last night?” Gret asked.

  “Our associates.” Milshadred waved a careless hand. “We needed help with the magic part of the equation.”

  “And they were?”

  “Onesies,” Milshadred said with a straight face. “We do know a lot of them.”

  Embor said a very foul word while everyone else gawped. Even Master Fey paused to stare, allowing the globe to roll to a stop at Ani’s feet.

  Burly crowed, “I win! Pay up, everybody.”

  Exclamations broke out through the room. Ani could hardly make any of it out. Everyone’s hormone levels fluctuated like stormy skies, while Embor’s aura darkened to pitch. Her own stomach rolled with all the stress. She shut off her connection to the repository with a snap.

  Horace groaned. “I figured you’d inked a deal with Clan Atlantis the same way Em did with us.”

  “Atlantis doesn’t exist, Dad.” Gret tugged her collar away from her neck. “Is it hot in here or is it just me?”

  “This is an atrocity,” Embor thundered, stalking up to Milshadred and Ani. She could feel heat exuding from the furious Primary. “How could you awaken other lost ones? How could you put the Realm at risk for your petty schemes, Agent Torval?”

  “Do you see any big fat rings opening up all over the world?” Milshadred asked. “Jake’s the only one who did that. Speaking of which, I gather he hasn’t been reluctant to use the evil voodoo himself. Checked with your precious Seers lately to make sure that’s okay?”

  “There’s no need.” Embor’s chest heaved. “They would alert me.”

  “The Seers do exist,” Horace said, barely audible over the babble. “I thought I dreamed that part.”

  “Bet your bippy they do,” the agent agreed. The Drakhmores quieted down. Milshadred stared straight at Ani and winked. “Trouble is, they don’t see everything, even if they know a thing or two about princesses.”

  There it was again—the fact everyone knew but Ani.

  Embor stiffened. “Using lost ones to work magic was idiotic. No revenge is worth jeopardizing the Realm. There’s a reason lost ones are sent to humanspace, and it isn’t because we’re cruel.”

  “Even I agree with that,” Jake chimed in.

  “Hey, don’t yell at me.” Milshadred held up her hands. “I did as I was told. Do you think nobody besides you ever had the idea to train onesies, genius? The AOC’s been trying to crack that nut for years. When Jake woke up, they finally started making progress. You should have hidden his existence from them.”

  “The AOC is responsible for this?” Embor’s brows crumpled into a thick scowl. “Did they cause the Incident with one of these perverse experiments?”

  “Onesies aren’t perverse,” Tali argued. “Except when you want them to be. Crikey, it’s hot in here.”

  Jake shushed her. Gret, fanning herself with a folded map, stifled a laugh.

  “Cool your jets, Primary.” Milshadred stubbed her cigarette on the windowsill and flicked the butt out the crack. “All of this started because of the Incident, not before it. The head honchos at the AOC you love so much wanted to create a power base in humanspace. Like the Elders didn’t do the same thing.”

  “We did not do the same thing.” Embor glowered at Milshadred so darkly it scorched Ani in passing. How much power would she have to draw from the repository to quench the flames likely to spring up at any moment? “We work to protect the Realm, not destroy it.”

  Milshadred held up a fresh cigarette. “Could you light this for me? You’re pissed enough to fry eggs on.”

  “No,” Embor said, but the air cooled immediately.

  Milshadred stuck the unlit cigarette in her mouth. “What do you want from me? It’s not my fault you can’t handle the truth.”

  “Quit whining and keep talking,” Tali called from the couch.

  “You’re not gonna burn the place down?” Milshadred asked Embor.

  When he didn’t respond, she continued. “After the Incident, the Court concentrated on globes and human tech. The AOC board focused on onesies. Since the loons don’t lose magical cortex in humanspace like the rest of us, it was logical to experiment on them.”

  “Experiment on?” Ani, disturbed by the implications, froze in the process of retrieving the healing globe from the floor. Everything Jake had participated in had been voluntary. Had the AOC been equally conscientious?

  “Some loons got magic buried so deep, it’s hard to pry out. Once you get to third or fourth gen, you’re talking huge power, no access. Surgery, drugs, electroshock, torture—regular Island of Doctor Moreau stuff,” Milshadred said. “One little gal told me they even started a breeding program. The only line they drew was any magic use Realmside.”

  Jake paled. Tali clutched his hand like it was a rope bridge. “If that’s what’s been happening to the others, I’m glad you guys lost me,” he said.

  Milshadred tipped an imaginary hat at him. “They’d have been all over you, but you bonded to Tali. Let me tell you, they gnashed their teeth about that. They don’t have any sixth arts. You may be the only one, which explains why you sent the Seers into a tizzy.”

  Two impulses warred inside Ani. She wanted information that might allow her to help these unfortunate souls—and she wanted no information at all, in case she could do nothing. Ignorance might be easier.

  Embor clasped his hands behind his back and addressed Milshadred. His palpable anger had diminished, so Ani couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “Why didn’t you report this?”

  “I’m a cog in the wheel.” Milshadred’s lips wrinkled around her cigarette when she lit it, her hand cupped around the tip. “I knew the AOC was up to no good, but I couldn’t prove much and I didn’t want them on my ass for being a whistleblower.”

  “Did you think we couldn’t protect you?” Embor asked.

  “Guess we’ll find out.” Milshadred glanced around the room. “I could hide in Cragen.”

  “Or not,” Burly muttered.

  Milshadred cackled. “You’d have been all over this before humanspace turned me uglier than an annishag. But that’s neither here nor there.” She gazed at the ceiling, her lips moving as she counted silently. “For the first thirty-eight, no, thirty-nine years we kept our noses clean. Other agents were croaking left and right. Guess the board figured the fewer agents, the fewer people to rat them out.”

  Embor lowered his chin. “You didn’t become suspicious?”

  “What could four old coots with no magic do? We’d be lucky to earn out our contracts and escape.” She grimaced. “When my teeth fell out, I had my first change of heart. We started making plans.”

  “To punish Skythia and myself.” Embor shifted his weight onto his heels. “I don’t see how that was your most effective strategy.”

  “When you showed up in Vegas, it was a crime of opportunity. We wanted revenge on the AOC. Your bitch sister was a bonus. It’s her fault we got recruited, seducing my brother the way she did.” Milshadred had puffed the cigarette until it was halfway gone. “You were nothing but bait, old man.”

  Embor raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you… No matter. Please continue.”

  “The AOC’s got more fingers in humanspace than the Court has assholes. More than we realized until we had to hide from you and them both. A couple months ago, my cousins contacted us about taking you out of the election. What could we do but agree? They’d found us, and we had nothing to lose.”

  “Warran and Ophelia Torval,” Embor said slowly, “directed your actions?”

  “Warran and Ophelia are the AOC’s butt puppets. With them on the throne, the jackasses on the board are going to do whatever they want.”

  “The ambush in Key West?”

  “Their idea.” Milshadred sighed. “I should have known anything to do with you Fiertags would get screwed up somehow. Or maybe it’s the princesses.
I don’t know.”

  “Timeline, please,” Embor said tightly.

  “Right, right. The AOC have this onesie with earth magic. Warran and Ophelia borrowed him and some others, sent them to me and ordered us to pop your brain like a blueberry. When we got through with you, you were supposed to be crazier than Mick.”

  Embor paced away from Milshadred before turning at the kitchenette. “Why not attack me in the Realm or kidnap me?”

  “It had to look like you went crazy naturally so the other Elders would believe. Which meant murder was out. The terrible twosome tried all sorts of crap, but you wouldn’t break. I could have told them that. Like most Elders, they don’t listen for shit.”

  Embor’s eyes sparked. “There have been rumors of my instability for years. No one heeds them.”

  “Rumors aren’t the same as you being starkers. The cat wasn’t having much success with the nightmares, so they cooked up an ambush and had the cat trick you into showing up. If the gnomes in Cragen didn’t get you, me and my sibs were the backup.”

  “Master Fey, you’re part of this?” Ani exclaimed, staring at the cat beside the stove. If there was one thing she’d been sure of, it was that the cat hadn’t wished them harm. “We trusted you.”

  The cat didn’t answer. He stretched to his full length before flopping on his side.

  “I didn’t trust him.” Embor ceased pacing. Instead of glaring at the agent, he glared at Master Fey, who began to purr. “How does a cat cause nightmares?”

  Milshadred shrugged. “It’s got something to do with how they transport. Or maybe the cat lied. Have any nightmares lately, Primary?”

  “No comment,” Embor said.

  Milshadred cackled. “The cat sure didn’t warn us you had a team of your own and a pretty little princess to boot.”

  “What about the gnomes in Cragen?” Ani asked.

  “Master Blaster claimed he could call them wherever and whenever. So it worked? Jesus, cat, you’re an arsenal of horror.”

  “Miaow.” The cat squirmed onto his back. He displayed no concern that the secrets of the feline race were being revealed, if indeed they were.

  Embor met Ani’s gaze instead of Milshadred’s. “Why am I not surprised the cat sought my downfall?”

  I don’t wish him ill, said a faint voice in Ani’s mind. I’m here for the payback and the mating.

  “Master Fey says he doesn’t wish you ill,” Ani repeated before Embor grew irate again. “He wants revenge.”

  Everyone stared at the cat, who yawned, his yellow eyes gleaming. The white strip on his belly looked like snow against his black fur. She didn’t mention the mating part. The tabby hadn’t seemed fond of him, but who knew how cats negotiated liaisons?

  “Of course that’s what he wants, and I daresay he’ll get it too,” Milshadred said with a snort. “I told Warran and Ophelia not to shove a cat through a hoop. Cats can’t be trusted.”

  “He’d never voluntarily hurt us.” Ani tickled the cat’s stomach, not sure she wanted to hear this any more than she’d wanted to hear about the lost ones. “How did the Elders compel Master Fey?”

  “They had the kid do it,” Milshadred said. “The loon with earth magic. They think he can force a bond, but they’ve never tried it.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Tali exclaimed. “I thought that was malarkey.”

  Despite her fingers in the cat’s fur and the heat of the pot-bellied stove, a chill flooded Ani’s limbs. She shivered. “Then how do they know the lost one can do this evil thing?”

  What would have become of her if Embor hadn’t carried her away? If the Torvals had a healer who could force a bond, if they had access to lost ones with incalculable powers, could anything stop them from getting what they wanted?

  “No idea,” Milshadred said. “You were their top pick. I bet Ophelia’s mad enough to spit acid that you took off with Embor.”

  “I’m going to kill the Torval Elders with a chainsaw,” Tali said in a singsong voice. “I may let you all help me if you’re very, very nice.”

  Several of the Drakhmores rumbled their agreement, or suggestions for how to kill the Torvals, while Ani digested the information. It threatened to be regurgitated as a wail.

  A strong hand clasped her shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking, Anisette. It wouldn’t have happened,” Embor said in a low voice. “I wouldn’t have allowed it.”

  Milshadred regarded her for a moment, something akin to sympathy in her faded eyes. “Maybe it wouldn’t have worked, all things considered.” She puffed a smoke ring into the air. “They don’t tell the loons they’re Fey. They tell them they’re humans they’ve blessed with powers. Keeps ’em subservient. If the chumps ask too many questions, they disappear like the humanspace agents do.”

  Beneath her hair, Embor stroked Ani’s neck, long fingers brushing her collarbone where it was exposed by her cotton sweater. “Do you know where your sibs and the onesies have gone, Agent?”

  “Somewhere stupid.” Smoke rings floated to the ceiling. Ani watched them expand until they disappeared. “They can’t do crap without me, and I’ve gone to the dark, uh, light side.”

  Milshadred’s eyelids lowered halfway as she puffed. Wrinkles softened her face in a patchwork of experience. Ani wondered how much she suspected about the spell Jake had cast on her. Surely she never intended to betray her sibs?

  “If I were them, I wouldn’t use any location Milshadred could tell us,” Horace said. “We still need to do the search.”

  “Perhaps Master Fey will advise us,” Embor suggested. As he spoke, his big hands remained gentle on Ani’s skin. She leaned against him and ignored Tali’s grimace. She could almost believe this powerful, competent man could stop Warran, that between her efforts and his she’d be safe and so would the Realm. “Now that the ambushes failed, his role is complete.”

  “I doubt it.” Milshadred flicked ash out the window. “They stuck an information block in his brain. He can’t tell anybody about them, the lost ones or the AOC, and the only thing he can share with you, Primary, is the ambush location. They found a way to stop him from transporting and won’t fix him until he does what they want.”

  “You poor thing.” Ani scratched the cat under the chin. His purr increased, whether due to the sympathy or the scratching she didn’t know. When she straightened, Embor clasped her shoulders again. “We’ll do everything we can to help you, Master Fey.”

  “I thought they didn’t have a sixth arts onesie,” Jake said. “How’d they muck with his mind?”

  “You’re the only loon with spirit magic,” Milshadred agreed, “but you’re not the only fairy. After Freddie softened up the cat, Ophelia was able to do her thing.”

  “So Ophelia has mastered the shadow arts,” Embor said ominously. “My staff will be interested to discover how she kept it hidden.”

  “Mew.” The cat hopped into Ani’s lap and kneaded her thighs. This explained why Master Fey refused to talk to Embor, but it didn’t explain how any Fey could enslave a sly one. It was a sacrilege of the highest order, something even fairies who ignored Court law respected. Felines were one step from the spirits. As cats brought luck, they could also bring misfortune.

  No wonder the cat wished his revenge—on Milshadred, on the AOC, on the Torval Elders, on every Fey involved in his mistreatment.

  “Exactly,” Milshadred agreed, seemingly with the cat. “You couldn’t talk to the Primary, so you found yourself the perfect go-between. Embor’s bondmate.”

  Embor’s caress on Ani’s shoulders stilled.

  “His what?” Ani asked, not sure she’d heard the agent correctly.

  “Are you telling me you still don’t know, doll?” With a twisted grin, Milshadred handed her the healing globe that had dropped nervelessly out of her grip yet again. “I have to say, Embor, I’m stunned you haven’t fessed up. That’s pretty asinine.”

  “I haven’t found the right moment.” Embor crouched beside Ani, turning her chair to face him, not th
e room. “Anisette, I tried to tell you. We were interrupted.”

  “You tried real hard, I’m sure,” Milshadred said.

  “Shut your mouth, Torval, or I’ll shut it for you,” Horace said. “This isn’t your affair.”

  Ignoring Horace, Milshadred spoke over Ani’s shoulder. “You’re his bondmate, Princess. The Seers told him. Embor bragged about it to everyone last night.”

  “I wouldn’t say bragged,” Gret butted in. “He thinks you’re beautiful. It’s romantic that he wanted to wait for the right moment to break the news, don’t you think?”

  “The right moment?” Ani gazed into Embor’s worried grey eyes, comprehension dawning inside her like a sinkhole. “When would that have been, after the fact? All along, you knew what would happen when we—”

  “But you aren’t bonded,” Tali said. “I’d know if you were bonded. I don’t get it.”

  But Anisette did. She got it all too well.

  “Is this why you refused me?” she asked him. Worry lines radiated down his cheeks, two cracks in his imperfect perfection. “Was it too much trouble to exert yourself when it didn’t matter? Why court me, why get to know me? All you had to do was convince me to sleep with you in the Realm.”

  “Anisette.” Embor tried to take her arms, the cat squashed between them. “This is a conversation we should have in private.”

  While he obviously hadn’t planned their goose chase, he’d used it to his advantage. Her desire for him at a fever pitch, she would have welcomed him anywhere, would have tossed aside common sense in order to have him. She would have gambled on the odds, and that wasn’t like her at all.

  She didn’t know this man well enough to make a life with him, and he’d almost given her no choice.

  “What would you have done if we hadn’t come here?” She batted off the touch of his warm hands. “Would you have ordered me to your bed the way you ordered me to the healer?”

  Mate, the cat said with a smug mental chirp.