by SM Reine
Someone knocked on the front door. Marion and Luke lifted their heads simultaneously to look at each other.
Who would go to an abandoned house in a rural valley in this snow?
The potential answers weren’t good.
Marion was on her feet in moments, bow lifted, arrow nocked.
Someone knocked again.
Luke stood just behind Marion with gun drawn. “I’ll get it,” he said softly. He stepped beside the door, back pressed to the wall, and unlocked the deadbolt.
He waited until Marion nodded her acquiescence before throwing the door open.
Luke leaped around the doorframe, lifting the gun.
But he knew the person who stood on the other side.
It was Nori. The half-angel girl who had told him about the Autumn Court’s plans for war. She sucked in a breath at the sight of Luke and Marion aiming their weapons at her.
“It’s okay, Marion,” Luke said, lowering the gun. “She’s an ally.”
Then another woman stepped out from behind Nori.
It was Brianna Dimaria. The witch that had given Luke the enchanted cell phone and the car.
The witch who knew who he really was.
“Hey,” Brianna said with a big smile. “Can we come in?”
* * *
When Luke had spoken to Brianna on the phone, the witch’s voice had sounded identical to the last time he’d seen her. In his mind, Luke had envisioned she would look the way she had at that time, too.
More than a decade earlier, Brianna had been a petite girl with shaggy brown hair who wore long tunics, ratty jeans, and ridiculous amounts of wooden jewelry. She’d been—still was—a witch of the Wiccan persuasion with a twist of modern hippy on top.
Thirteen years had elapsed since their last investigation together. Thirteen years since Luke had realized something had changed and that he couldn’t live a life with his peers anymore.
Brianna had aged from early twenties to mid-thirties. The years had worn her down and added a few lines to her face—not the kind that came from smiling, but the kind that came from frowning as she struggled to resolve mysteries.
She still had all that enchanted wooden jewelry, though. That hadn’t changed. Nor had her sterling ability to corner Luke and make him feel like she’d sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
“The kid thinks Seth Wilder can bring her memories back?” Brianna had backed him into the bedroom near the closet—the only space in the house with a door that shut, aside from the bathroom.
“Keep your voice down,” Luke said. “Don’t say that name.”
“But if Marion thinks that Seth Wilder can save her…”
“He can’t.” Luke shot a look over the top of her head, through the doorway, and into the living room. Nori hadn’t arrived with Brianna alone. Charity Ballard had come, too. Now Nori, Charity, and Marion were talking, and there was enough power between them that it felt like the house should have exploded around them. “How did you even find us?”
He didn’t bother asking how Brianna had gotten there through the snow—Nori’s ethereal ability to walk between planes meant that weather presented no hindrance to travel.
“I tracked your pickup down and found those women in it. They told me what’s been going on. What they know about it, anyway. And then I used the pickup to cast a tracking spell to find you.”
“That’s better magic than you used to be able to do,” Luke said. Brianna was a good witch, but she wasn’t strong. Mostly she was clever. Dangerously so. “Why bring Nori and Charity?”
“They didn’t give me any choice. You’ve still got that way of making ladies follow you everywhere you go, you dog. Thirteen years and nothing changes. Literally nothing.”
“Keep your voice down,” he said again, even though Marion was distracted.
“God,” Brianna whispered, gazing at Luke like she’d never seen him before. “You haven’t aged a day.” She reached up to touch his cheek. He knew that she was feeling for the lines that should have been on his face. For texture and pores and blemishes that didn’t exist. “How is this possible? I look like I fell out of the old lady tree and hit every branch on the way down, while you look like you did when—”
“You shouldn’t have come for me.”
“I couldn’t leave you alone if you were in trouble. We might not be partners anymore, but I still want to help.” She pinched his cheek. It was a sororal gesture, almost a maternal one. That was how much his frozen age had shifted their relationship. “You’ll want my help to disappear again, too.”
Luke glanced again at Marion, who was talking with Nori in French in the other room. From that angle, he could only see a sliver of Marion’s face concealed by her wavy brown hair. “Yeah, I’m going to have to disappear, so don’t tell her who I am. She’ll pass it on. And then Rylie…” He sighed. “Just don’t tell her who I am.”
“I’ll help you, like I always did.” Brianna finally backed away, giving Luke room.
Charity was exploring the kitchen. It was impossible to tell she was a revenant in this setting. She was hiding behind those big glasses again, along with a baggy sweater. She smiled when she saw Luke, and the teeth she exposed were both charmingly crooked and a little too big for her features. He smiled back.
If he was going to have to disappear again, it was nice reconnecting with the life he’d have to leave behind. He’d really liked being Dr. Lucas Flynn and working with Charity Ballard. He would miss it.
“Nori is the solution to our problems,” Marion said, smoothly transitioning to English. “There’s a ley line juncture just over the ocean near the United Nations building. She can pull us through there, and then magic us to the shore.”
Luke remained in the doorway, shoulder leaning against the wall, arms folded. “That’s only the solution to one problem—getting us to New York.”
“What other problems do we have? She’s expected at the summit, isn’t she?” Charity asked. “They should be thrilled to see her.”
“I see Nori and Brianna filled you in,” Luke said.
Charity smiled bashfully. “I felt bad for calling in the tip that got the sidhe on your butt. Sorry, Marion.”
Marion inclined her head. “Thank you.”
“I want to be able to help, whatever it takes,” Charity said.
“Then you can help us figure out what to do about this.” Brianna pulled a newspaper out of her jacket and handed it to Luke.
He unfolded the newspaper. The front page was plastered with Marion’s photo—a beauty shot where she was smiling wide, showing her dimples. The headline said, “Keynote Speaker Reported Missing Hours Before Summit.”
And there was a sketch of a man at the bottom with a wide nose and hard eyes.
A sketch that could conceivably be Luke, as drawn by someone who had only ever heard him described in vague terms.
“They’re accusing Dr. Lucas Flynn of abducting Marion,” Brianna said.
Marion edged nearer to peer at the newspaper over Luke’s shoulder. “Merde.”
“This is worse than you realize, Marion,” Nori said. “In the past, they haven’t publicly shown your face in order to protect your identity—to keep you from becoming a celebrity.” She tugged the newspaper from Luke’s hands to skim it again. “This seems to be a full profile on you.”
“Merde,” Marion said again, with even more feeling.
Luke felt the same.
Marion would never be able to lurk in anonymity again.
And he was getting dragged into the spotlight beside her.
* * *
The article on Marion had been written by ErlKonig. At least, it had been attributed to him. It was so lengthy that she had a hard time imagining the prince writing it personally.
All of the information must have been provided by Konig, though. There were details about her that she hadn’t even known. It was an impassioned piece about their relationship, which was written more like a romance, really, what with the way he
talked about “when our eyes first met” and how he “instantly knew we were destined.”
Konig wrote that he was crushed about her abduction. All he wanted, with his whole heart, was to have her returned safely to him.
Marion read through the whole thing while sitting on the couch. She lowered it to her thighs and stared at the wall.
“Help bring my princess back to me.” That was how the article had ended—with as much passion as he’d expressed to her in the gardens of Myrkheimr.
He only wanted her back.
She reached over to flip the battery-powered TV on again. After a moment’s fiddling with the antenna, the news appeared. Marion’s face was displayed on the screen beside the sketch of Luke Flynn used in the newspaper. She couldn’t get away from it. Everyone was looking for the Voice of God and her supposed abductor.
The couch creaked as Luke sat beside Marion. He turned the TV off. “Don’t watch that.” He took the newspaper, tossed it aside. “And don’t worry about that, either.”
“Everyone’s looking for me.”
“That’s why we’ll have to be careful getting you to the United Nations,” he said. “If we can get you on stage, the killers will have to give up.”
“How can we do that?” Marion said.
“All I know right now is that I will get you on that stage,” Luke said. The confidence in his tone was comforting. She’d have been even more comforted if he actually had a plan.
“I could escort her,” Charity said. “I want to be helpful so let me help.”
“No,” Luke said. “That wouldn’t be subtle.”
“Having a nurse escort me into the United Nations? I should say not. There’s no way someone like her has the clearance,” Marion said.
Shame tinged Charity’s thoughts. The nurse looked at her feet.
“Cut it, Marion,” Luke said.
She straightened her back. “Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Don’t talk to Charity like that and I won’t,” Luke said. “We need to get you to the stage without killing the hundreds of people who get in your path. No offense, Charity. It’s a good idea otherwise.”
Marion’s eyes widened. How would a nurse kill hundreds of people?
“I wouldn’t need to kill everyone, would I?” Charity asked, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Just assassins.”
“Yeah, but everyone in New York City is going to be looking for Marion. Not just the bounty hunters, but civilians hoping to get a reward for finding her,” Brianna said. “There’s no way we’ll be able to get near the United Nations building without someone reporting her to the sidhe. And once they do, there’ll be a lot more than a handful of determined assassins to contend with.”
“So I can’t be seen at all.” Marion offered a weak smile to Luke. “As I said, I think I need a fake mustache.”
He wasn’t looking at her. His focus was still on the nurse, Charity Ballard.
“I’ve got a better idea than a mustache,” he said.
* * *
Nori spirited them from the ley line in the snow-heavy clouds to a rooftop near the United Nations. Once Marion had solid concrete under her feet, she had plenty of time to study New York City: the distant streets, the fog lit by office windows, the drifting zeppelins.
Marion’s first impression of New York was that it was, in its own way, as magical as the glimpses of New Eden she had seen in Leliel’s mind. She had a hard time imagining that its skyscrapers could have been built rather than grown with magic. They surrounded her like tombstones honoring the beautiful dead of Earth’s past. Old buildings and new, from before Genesis and after, all shimmering with gaean life.
The United Nations building was the tallest of the skyscrapers. Its elegant white lines were identical to New Eden’s once-glorious monuments. The throb of ethereal magic within its foundations whispered the story of angels laboring to spin its beauty the way a spider spun webs.
The angels’ web had caught a thousand tiny bugs. Some of them spiders, and others prey. The black-clad security that skittered around the courtyard were spiders—little ones compared to the angels who’d designed the building, but spiders nonetheless. The humans milling outside the barricade hoping to see a preternatural celebrity were prey. Barely more than gnats.
If the search for Marion erupted into violence, there would be a lot of collateral damage.
“Get away from the edge,” Luke said from behind Marion. “You’re making me nervous.”
She’d stepped up to the farthest corner of their rooftop without realizing it, compelled to approach the kindred magic of the United Nations. Marion hopped back down. “Did you see the screens?”
“They’re impossible to miss,” Luke said.
Massive screens had been hung from each side of the United Nations building—big white rectangles that covered easily twenty stories each. The auditorium, where the kickoff speeches would be held, was projected on those screens. The stage was empty at the moment, but if Luke’s plan were successful, the screen would soon show Marion taking the podium.
Luke was assembling a sniper rifle nearby, screwing a scope on top of it at the moment.
“You’ll be staying here when I give the speech,” she said. “Won’t you?”
Luke peered through the scope as if to test it. “I’m going to cover your back while you enter the building. Yeah.”
Marion wrapped her arms around her body, shielding herself from the ice-heavy wind. Her hair whipped in front of her face. “You said you’d stay with me until the summit. That you wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“You won’t be,” he said. They planned for Nori to guide Marion into the United Nations while Charity Ballard created a distraction. Marion would have preferred a plan that kept Luke at her side, but he didn’t want to go inside.
Charity, Nori, and Brianna were chatting in the shelter of an air conditioning unit, huddled where the wind couldn’t reach them. They didn’t look like an intimidating team.
“Is Brianna your ex?” Marion asked.
“We dated for about a week.”
Marion should have figured that Brianna wasn’t Luke’s ex-fiancée. She was too old, and the feelings that drifted on the surface of her mind weren’t intense enough for them to have been engaged. “You said you choose to be alone. Why break your rule for a week?”
Luke lowered his eye to the scope again. Adjusted the sniper rifle. “It’s easy to date someone when you’re not afraid it’ll get serious.”
“That’s cold.”
“She knows how I feel,” he said.
“She must still care about you to track you down like this.”
“Guess so.” He didn’t seem like he wanted to talk about it.
Marion couldn’t help but continue to push. “Would you break your oath for Charity? She wants you.”
That got his attention. Luke finally looked at her. “You’ve been reading Charity’s mind?”
“I get some feelings,” Marion said. “She has a lot of them where you’re concerned.”
He glanced at the women huddled behind the air conditioning unit. “I didn’t know that.” Luke shook his head, standing from the gun. “I wouldn’t date her.”
“Afraid it would get serious?”
“No,” he said. “I’m not.”
Charity crossed the rooftop, pulling her glasses off. Her eyes looked bigger when she wasn’t wearing them. “Your speech is scheduled to begin in an hour, Marion. I think it’s time for me to create the diversion.”
“I’m ready when you are,” Luke said. Surrounded by snow and the spires of New York, his irises truly looked a depthless shade of black.
Marion looked Charity over again. It was hard to imagine such a shrunken woman could be distracting enough to distract OPA security. “How will this work, exactly?”
“I’ll give you my glamour, and then I’ll go walking down there,” Charity said. “That’s all it will take.”
Surprise washed over Marion. “You have a g
lamour?”
“Yep, in my glasses. All you have to do is press both thumbs to the gems set into the inner arms, then put them on. The glamour will automatically be removed from me and pass over to you. Only one of us can wear it at a time.”
Marion took the glasses. She hadn’t even noticed the tiny gems when she’d considered stealing them from the break room at Mercy Hospital. She had to look closely at them to notice the faintest sparks of magic, inside which glimmered a universe of complicated spellwork.
“Once you’re inside the building, press your thumbs to the gems while you fold them and the glamour will end,” Charity said. “It’s easy.”
“Once the glamour settles on Marion, we’ll head downstairs and across the plaza,” Nori said, jiggling her leg, twisting the hem of her shirt in both hands. Nerves had turned her into a flurry of fidgeting. “You’ve got to have the guards away before we cross the street, Charity.”
“No problem,” said the nurse.
“No problem at all,” Marion echoed, gazing at the glasses without putting them on.
It was almost time to give a speech she didn’t remember.
“What’s wrong?” Luke asked in a low voice, quiet enough that only Marion would hear him. “Are you ready?”
All of her ire from the night before, when he’d hurt her feelings, drained away at the idea of leaving. She whispered, “I’m afraid, Doctor.”
He pulled her against his side. Gave her a hug. Didn’t touch her skin, but held her tight, for just a moment. “You’re going to be fine, Marion,” Luke said. “I promise.”
I promise.
The words rang in her mind as she pressed her thumbs to the gems in the glasses. She slid them over her nose.
Magic hummed through Marion.
Nothing changed on her end of things. She could only tell that the glamour had taken her by the way that Luke stared.
Nori and Brianna, however, were staring at Charity.
The glamour fell away from the nurse.
She grew taller. Thinner. Her skin became pallid and her cheeks hollowed, while her eyes sank deep into her skull. Charity’s lips peeled back to expose uneven teeth with sharp points and a black tongue too long to be contained by her jaw. It was the same shade of glossy black as her fingernails—which were more like claws, really. Her gut was hollow under her ribs, as though she didn’t have any organs.
