by Sasha White
“They essentially disappear when you glamour them.”
I whipped around to see my mother framed in the doorway. My hands rose to cover my boobs. “Jesus, don’t you knock?”
“Apparently not.” She came all the way in, and handed me a tea cup.
I looked in at the thick pea green concoction swirling around. The brew smelled worse than it looked. “What is it?”
“Glamour. Drink it and your wings will vanish from sight.”
“Will I still feel them?”
She nodded. “Physically, you’ll know they are there. But no one else will be able to see or feel them.”
Wrinkling my nose at the horrid stench, I put the cup to my mouth and drained the liquid in one healthy swallow. My stomach lurched at the foreign intrusion. The drink tasted even worse than it smelled.
Astonished, I watched in the mirror as my wings slowly turned invisible. I moved side to side, from front to side. They were gone from view, although I could totally “feel” them poking out of my back. I reached over my shoulder and brushed my hand through the space they should’ve occupied. Nothing.
My mother tossed me a tank top.
I pulled it over my head and pushed my arms through. It went on unhindered.
“I’ll show you how to make the tincture. You’ll need to grow the Anise in your garden. The moonflowers and fir needles are already flourishing. And the rest you’ll have to bargain for.”
“Bargain with whom?”
“Nightfall.”
“That’s just perfect.” I groaned, and rubbed my chin. “How long does it last?”
“Twenty-four hours.”
I stared. “That’s it? I’m going to have to drink this shit every day for the rest of my life?”
“Yes, if you want to keep the illusion that you’re human.”
“I am human.” I tossed the words at her, as I brushed past to head downstairs.
She followed me. “But you’re not, darling. The sooner you come to terms with that, the better off you’ll be. Maybe you’ll actually find happiness in your life.”
“Stop calling me darling. You gave up that right years ago.” I stomped off the last step then marched down the hall to the kitchen. She was right behind me. “And I am happy.”
She ignored that, and said, “Fine. I deserve that but what we need to really talk about is Severin Saint Morgan and why he was here last night.”
“No, we really don’t.” I opened the fridge and took out the milk. My body desperately needed food. I took down the box of cereal and poured some in a bowl, adding the milk.
“How well do you know him?”
I looked at her as I shoveled cereal into my mouth. “You acted as if you knew him.”
“I do.”
I set the bowl down, not trusting my hands to hold it still. “How?”
“He’s not who you think he is, Nina. He’s dangerous to you.” She waved her hand around the room. “He’s dangerous to us all.”
“And when you say us, you mean?”
“The fae.”
I scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. Doesn’t even make any sense. He’s a werewolf; he’s like what, thirty-five years old at best. The fae are thousands of years old. And you, you’re, I don’t even know how old you really are.” Having lost my appetite, I dumped the cereal down the garbage disposal in the sink.
“I’m over two hundred years old.”
I glanced her way, not really that surprised. “Figures.”
“I should’ve told you our histories years ago. There is so much you don’t know, that you need to know. Especially now.”
Sighing, I looked up and out the small kitchen window. Movement outside caught my attention. “What’s Da doing?”
“Fixing the garden. It was in a terrible mess.”
“The mess was to keep you people out.” I walked around her to go out the patio doors to the backyard. “Da! Don’t dig out the pond.”
The second I reached his side, I knew I was too late. The slight rippling of the water in the circular pond taunted me. Even the frog was back, roosting on his rock perch and staring upward.
“Damn it, Da. Now they can come through. Don’t you remember the little pixie bugger that tried to kill you?”
He wiped at the dirt on his sunk-in cheek. “You worry too much. We’re safe now.”
“Why, because she’s here?” I flung my hand toward my mother who stood watching nearby. “She’s the reason for everything.”
“I did not send that pixie, or any assassin.”
“Who did then? You must know.”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t matter now. I have made sure that you and your father are safe.”
I glared at this woman I’d despised for so long. “Excuse me, if that doesn’t really make me feel any better. You’ve been absent most of my life, so I’m pretty sure you don’t have my best interests at heart.”
Her features fell. A wounded look clouded her usually bright eyes. “Oh darling, if only you knew the truth.”
“Save your words. I probably wouldn’t believe it, even if you told me.”
My father put a hand on my shoulder. “You’re so stubborn, Nina. If only you would listen for a moment, you’d realize how unselfish your mother has truly been.”
That made me gape. “Unselfish? Are you serious? Oh Da, not only has she taken your soul, she’s taken your mind as well.”
He snatched back his hand, his face twisting in anguish.
Guilt stabbed me hard in the chest. I reached for him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
He shuffled out of my reach and went to stand by my mother. She put an arm around him. The perfect defense against an insolent daughter.
“You have no idea what I’ve given up for you, Nina. What I’ve suffered just to love your father, just to give birth to you. Some in the community wanted me to abort you.” She shook her head. “You’re so hard, so jaded. Your attitude is probably my fault, but it breaks me to see you this way.”
Her words had an effect. I didn’t want them to matter, but they did. Had I built such a granite wall around my heart, around my mind, that I had no care when others suffered? Had my hatred for my mother ruined any chance for me to really feel?
“Has Severin already corrupted you?”
Again, she brought the conversation back to him. I frowned. “What has he got to do with any of this?”
She reached for my hand.
I let her touch me, confusion and guilt diminishing my usual stoniness.
“He’s using you. He knows who you truly are, and he wants to use it for his own gain, for his pack.”
I wanted to deny it, to scream in outrage but something caught in my mind. A kernel of truth was in there somewhere. I thought maybe I had always known something nefarious existed with Severin and the too-convenient way we’d met.
“Werewolves can see the fae,” I offered as an excuse as to why he knew who I was. “He told me that.”
“Yes. The werewolves and fae have learned to identity each other over the past three thousand years. A good practice is to truly know your enemies.”
The blood drained from my face. Three thousand years? Could it be possible? “Enemies? You’re telling me that werewolves and the fae are at war or something?”
She nodded, her look was fierce, determined to make herself understood. “For over a thousand years, our two races have been at war. As of late, a truce had been signed, but that was two hundred years ago, and the terms are fraying at the edges. The werewolves are planning something.” She squeezed my hand. “And you, my daughter, are in the middle.”
I pulled away and paced the garden, my bare feet sifting through the warm soil. My heart thundered and I was having difficulty breathing. This was all too much to take in. First, I sprouted wings, now I was supposedly in the middle of a supernatural war between two races. If I didn’t know better, if I hadn’t seen the things I had crawling out of my pond, I would’ve said this was all a bunch of
crap. But I did know better. I was a member of one of those races, whether I liked it or not.
But even after all that, the situation seemed much too convenient to have happening all at once. And much too convenient that my mother was telling me all of this now. I whirled and pointed. “Why are you really here?”
“I told you.”
“You just happen to show up all of a sudden. Just as I’m about to change, just as I’m becoming involved with Severin.”
“I’m your mother. I could sense the change upon you. That was why I came home.” She stretched out her arms toward me. “For you, Nina.”
Not sure what to believe, I could only shake my head. I dug my toes deeper into the dirt, hoping to draw clarity from the Earth. Maybe she would help me see the truth. Because ultimately, I didn’t fully believe my mother. She may have come to help me, but there was a secondary purpose to her sudden appearance.
“I can see your doubt, daughter, so to this I challenge. Ask him yourself. See if he lies.”
Chapter 14
Scalding hot water pounded my face and body as I stood under the showerhead. I was hoping to wash away the past few days. Since I could still feel the presence of my wings, fluttering slightly in the spray on my back, I knew the thought was only wishful and nothing more.
After my mother had challenged me, I’d escaped to the house to find some perspective. I’d yet to find any, even after spending twenty minutes in the shower scrubbing at my skin, trying to get clean again. Soon the water would go cold.
I cranked off the tap then pushing the glass door open, I stepped out onto the bathmat. I toweled off, concerned I might disturb my wings. Since the glamour was still in effect, the wings almost didn’t exist. If only that were true.
Slipping on my robe, I padded into my bedroom just as my cell phone trilled from its perch on the dresser. “Hello?”
“What the hell is going on?” The caller was Diana. “You told me were you weren’t sick. In the past two weeks, you’ve taken four sick days. Something is going on, Decker. Spill it.”
Sighing, I rubbed my face, not sure what lie to tell her. The insufferable woman would pick now to take an avid interest in my life. “It’s nothing serious, Diana. I swear.”
“Bullshit. You’re lying. Is it your dad? Is his condition getting worse?”
She gave me an out and I went with it. “Yes,” I lied, “He’s had a few terrible days.”
She sighed. “I understand. I’ve covered for you with the admin, but next time just tell me the truth. I can be an ally, you know. I’m not as big a bitch as everyone thinks I am.”
“No one thinks you’re a bitch, Diana.” Except for maybe half the nursing staff, but I kept that knowledge to myself.
“No, it’s all right. I am a bitch. But I can be a pretty resourceful one if need be.”
I laughed. “Okay. I’ll remember that next time.”
“Good. Now, when will you be back in?”
Looking in the mirror, I shrugged my shoulders. No wing tips shot up over them. They weren’t visible although I could still feel them. I hoped my mother made enough glamour to last a few days, so I could learn to make my own. “Give me another day.”
“Done.” Then she disconnected.
I set down the phone, and then picked it up again, noticing I had ten missed calls. All from Severin.
I dreaded the thought my mother was right about him. But I couldn’t escape the feeling that some of what she’d said had rung true. From the second I’d met the werewolf, I’d known he was dangerous. I’d just didn’t have the wherewithal to understand the how or the why.
I tapped his name on the phone screen then pressed the call button.
He answered on the second ring. “I’ve been thinking about you.”
“Are you at home?”
Silence. “I can be.”
“We need to talk.”
“I know.”
I disconnected and set down the phone. Vertigo surged over me, and I grasped the dresser to keep from tilting over. I sensed my entire world would shift unpleasantly in a direction I’d been avoiding my whole life.
An hour later, I steered my bike up to Severin’s front door. He’d had it delivered back to my house when I’d been going through my transition. His thoughtfulness touched me deeply. Now, I parked it, hung my helmet and went up to the front door which opened before I could knock.
Severin stood there in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt looking gorgeous and delectable. Even now, with the knowledge that he may have been using me, that he may betray me in every way possible, I still wanted him.
Without a word, he tugged me to his body and wrapped his arms around me.
I inhaled his spicy wild scent, noticed that his arms went around my waist avoiding my wings altogether. “You can see them, can’t you?” I pulled out of his hug.
His gaze flicked over my shoulders. He nodded.
“Did you know who I was when I met you? I know you saw me as fae, but did you know my name, my position?”
“Let’s sit.” He gestured to the hall behind him. “Then we’ll talk.”
I followed him down the hall, thinking we were going to the kitchen, so when he opened the door on his right and entered, I was surprised. The room was obviously his office. It had a big oak desk, leather chair behind it, a leather sofa along one wall, and floor-to-ceiling bookcases, jammed tight with books of all sizes and ages. Some tomes looked really old. And knowing that the werewolves have been around awhile, I wasn’t surprised too much to see them there in Severin’s collection.
I sat on the sofa and watched him warily.
He walked to a mini-bar in the corner. “Do you want a drink?”
“Just water, thanks.”
He opened the mini fridge, took out a bottle of water and brought it to me. He sank down into the sofa with his own drink, scotch by the smell.
I set down the bottle without taking a sip. “So, did you know?”
In one gulp, he drained his glass and set it, empty, on the table. “Yes. I knew.”
My stomach knotted into a hard ball. “Is that why you approached me? Was our meeting a set up?”
He looked at me a long moment and licked his lips.
And I had my answer. He didn’t need to say it. I pushed to my feet. He grabbed my arm before I could escape out the door.
“Nina, it’s not that simple. If I could explain…”
“I won’t be a pawn in this war, or whatever it is. I won’t let you use me against my mother, or the fae or for any reason.” I jerked from his grasp, drawing on a well of strength I didn’t realize I possessed.
“You have every right to hate me right now, but please know that I didn’t intend to hurt you in any way.”
“What did you intend then? Use me for information? Play me against my mother? Get your rocks off with a fae? Parade me around like some warprize?” I balled my hands into fists, afraid of using them on him. “You preyed on me, Severin. You stalked me, hunted me down and pounced when I was vulnerable.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like then?” I enunciated each syllable with cold precision. I wanted to cut him to the core with my words like he had me with his actions.
He rubbed at his face. Muscles twitched along his jaw line. “At first, I needed to get close to you, to see what you knew about the fae’s plans.” He licked his lips again. “You were the first fae I’d seen on this plane. I thought maybe you were a scout, a first wave.”
“First wave of what?”
“Invasion.”
“What?” I gaped, too stunned to comment further. I turned and marched out of his office. I’d heard enough of his delusions. He was more paranoid than my mother.
He followed right on my heels. “Nina, wait, please.”
“I’m not listening to any more of your lies.” I kept walking, waves of fury surging through me. “First my mother, now you.” I reached for the door and flung it open.
Severin
stepped into my path, blocking me. “What did A’lona tell you?”
“The same shit you’re telling me, except your pack is doing the planning and the plotting.”
He frowned. “She’s lying, Nina. I’ve known the fae for a long time. They are untrustworthy, manipulative and are always scheming in the light. They’re looking for a way to come back to this realm. They want to rule again.”
“Get out of my way or I’ll knock you out of the way.”
Severin reached for me again.
Wrong move. With all the energy I could feel swirling inside like a tornado, I aimed. A bright white blast of energy shot out from my chest and hit him square on, catapulting him backwards about four feet.
He landed on his back on the cement driveway right next to my bike.
I didn’t wait for him to recover but stomped to my ride, and slid on my helmet. After mounting the bike, I turned it over, revving the engine. As Severin gained his feet, I gunned it and, scorching the asphalt, shot out of his driveway.
I drove like a fire lit my ass. My anger dictated how fast I drove. With expert precision, I wove in and out of traffic. My sole purpose was to get home as fast as I could and have it out once and for all with the bane of my existence. My mother, the fae princess.
She would tell me everything, whether she wanted to or not. The time had come to learn about my heritage. I wanted to know everything there was to know about the fae. Time I accepted my legacy.
Once home, I headed straight for the kitchen. “Mother,” I called, my voice echoing off the walls.
The kitchen was empty and clean. No dishes on the counter or in the sink. I dashed upstairs, checked my father's room. Empty as well. I stopped on the landing and listened for a moment. The only sounds that drifted to me were the ticking of the wall clock in the living room and the usual creak of the roof as the breeze blew against it.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. Something was wrong. I could sense it deep in my flesh and bones.
I bolted down the stairs through the kitchen and out into the backyard. With each step across the lawn, my heart thudded harder and faster. As I stared at the newly restored pond in the garden, my skin grew clammy
