That knowing nod again, complete with a long, low whistle. “Ahh. So, you really have found yourself in—forgive the phrase—quite the bind, haven’t you?”
“Exactly.” I let the pun slide. Let him rib me. It meant he hadn’t shut me down or, worse, made a beeline for the door. “I know I don’t have anyone to blame but myself. I was in trouble and I was scared, and I did something stupid. I should have listened when the one person who might have actually had my best interests at heart warned me against it, but what can I say? I was a stupid little human who thought she knew it all, and now I’m stuck.
“They’ve got me until I get you to them, and now that I’ve finally found you, I would really appreciate it if you could please meet with them. Maybe you can help them; maybe you can’t. I hope you can, but if not; fine. I’ll be free of my end of the pact, either way, and that’s really all I’m asking for.” I hoped I looked as desperate and pleading as I felt. I threw in an extra, “Please?” for good measure.
He sat statue still, one arm draped at an angle across the back of his chair. I could see that I had peaked his curiosity, if nothing else, but I wasn’t sure how far that would get me. I was glad to see that he was no longer tensed to run, but I was not as thrilled to find myself being raked with that college-professor-ferreting-out-a-cheater gaze. It made my insides squirm. After a long minute, during which I thought I would die if he did not answer me, he said, “I can make no promises, Caitlin. To be honest, many think far too highly of a Secret Keeper’s Gift. I am no miracle worker. I may not have the answers your friends are seeking.”
That wasn’t a no! My palms erupted like Vesuvius. “I completely understand that. They think you’re the guy, that you know some magi mumbo-jumbo they need, but if not; cool. All I’m asking is that you meet with them. Please.”
“I see.” He had finished the last bit of his Guinness. He still seemed wary, but the pursing of his lips hinted at a teeming curiosity I hoped I could work to my advantage. “And these friends of yours, do they have names?”
Crap. Was I supposed to let those cats out of their respective bags? I didn’t know if I would be stepping on toes here. After all, I just knew my gut said Kaine was someone important. I had no facts to go on. Giving his name could help or hurt me, but there was no way to be sure which until it was too late. Ah hell; I wasn’t risking ruining this now, not when I’d come so far. Resolution aside, it was hard not to sound like a kid who had been caught sneaking out of bed past their bedtime. “Their leader is a man named Kaine. He is the one I struck the pact with.”
A look of disbelief, shock, awe—I don’t know, something surprised yet oh-so-much more—rippled across his face. It was gone in a blink but I was sure I had seen it. He wasn’t meeting my gaze anymore. Instead, he opened his satchel and tucked his book inside. Was he reconsidering? Was he going to shove past me and run out into the streets? Would I—should I—chase him down if he did? My brain was about to melt from all the horrible possibilities. Just when I thought I was going to explode, he pulled a little notepad out. His face was unreadable. “And where shall I meet these friends of yours?”
It was all well and good that Kaine was on his way, but something told me quite strongly that Gilroy’s was still not the place for this to go down. I didn’t want to broadcast their address to a stranger either, even if that stranger could be the key to the end of my troubles and theirs. I scrambled for a third option. I stuttered for a moment until brilliance struck: I gave him the address to my apartment. It wasn’t exactly home anymore, so what did I have to lose? It was as good a neutral place as any.
He jotted down the address and tucked the little pad back into his bag. “Very well. While this meeting was unexpected, Caitlin, I hate to see an innocent bound by the magic of my people. I make no promises that I can help them but I will be there, three hours hence, so that you may be released from your bond.”
“Oh my god, thank y—” The words shriveled up on my tongue.
His seat was empty.
I twisted around and scanned the room, sputtering like a fool. He was gone. Just flat out gone. There was not one damn sign of him anywhere in sight. I sat there, mouth gaping; dumbstruck. Mairi was frantically waving to me, mouthing her concern, and all I could do was give her a stare of complete and total shock. My Gift was supposed to negate his and yet he had, somehow, managed to disappear from right in front of my face.
A chill ran down my spine.
Who the hell had I just invited home for dinner?
Chapter Twenty-Three
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Kaine growled, for the seventh or eighth time. “We had him! We finally had him, and you might have ruined our one chance!”
I kept my head bowed, my eyes on where my clasped hands were tucked between my knees. I had never seen Kaine so angry before. Annoyed, perhaps, or exasperated by my sass, sure; but never full on, screaming, red-in-the-face mad. He paced back and forth between my coffee table and the spot where my TV once had been, fists clenched.
I sat on my couch, accepting his verbal abuse with uncharacteristic docility. Gannon lounged in the living room doorway where he could keep an eye on the front door, though I’m sure he was listening intently to everything going on behind him, and Mairi was folded up in my recliner, wide eyes darting back and forth between myself and her enraged master. No doubt they both expected me to flip shit any moment.
The trouble was, I couldn’t really blame him for being so angry. My intentions had been good, but there was the distinct possibility that I might have fucked things up beyond repair, not only letting the Lynx disappear from my sight after long months of searching but also in giving him Kaine’s name before he did so. In the ever perfect bitch of hindsight, I was questioning every move I had made and telling myself all the ways I could have handled it differently; handled it better. Of course, it had seemed like the best of bad options at the time, but...
Kaine and Gannon had nearly collided with me the moment I stepped out of Gilroy’s. My having arranged a time and a place to meet with the Lynx in private wasn’t the stroke of genius I had hoped it to be. They were far from pleased. Having had him in my grasp only to lose him was bad enough. Finding out that I had also shared their names with the Secret Keeper had sent Kaine off on a tirade that had lasted the entire car ride back to my apartment.
The conversation had consisted of little else while we were waiting for our guest to appear—or not. Three hours turned out to be an eternity when you had a very pissed off fae getting in your face. With each passing minute, the tension in the room thickened.
“One chance,” Kaine repeated, smacking his palm with a balled fist. If he kept up that pacing, he was going to wear a track into my hardwood floor. “One chance, after all these years, and you blew it.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, not for the first time. I wanted to run from the room and lock myself in my bedroom, far from his accusatory stare, but that wasn’t going to happen. I was pretty sure Gannon would stop me—and that would mean facing the wrecked remains of all I had once cherished as well. Someone had obviously come back and cleaned up the worst of the mess Argoth had left, but there was no filling the holes left by all that I had lost in the ransacking. That wasn’t a disappointing reminder I had the stomach to handle, especially after the dressing down I had—and continued—to receive.
“Sorry doesn’t fix this. You gave him my name. You’ve made it impossible for us to find him now. If he decides not to show up tonight all is lost!”
My head snapped up. “Hey, that isn’t my fault! What was I supposed to do? Lie? He’s obviously paranoid about being found. If I refused to tell him who was looking for him, do you think that would have made him stick around? No. He would have run then and there and maybe we’d be worse off! At least this way there’s a chance he’ll show.” I shot him a scathing glare. “And how the hell was I supposed to know that he was going to disappear in the first place? You didn’t tell me he could do that!”
Stony silence met my outcry. The horrible truth dawned on me. “You didn’t know, did you? You had no idea he could do that.” Suddenly, no one was meeting my eyes. Kaine stared out the windows, head high; jaw clenched. Mairi was white as a sheet, looking down at the hem of the shirt she was fraying between her fingers. Gannon kept his head turned so that his eyes were on the door. That cold certainty inside me grew. My voice was breathy with co-mingled rage and fear as I repeated, “You had no idea.”
Kaine continued to stone-wall me. After a moment, without looking up, Mairi gave the minutest shake of her head. Acid roiled in the pit of my stomach. Fury, panic, confusion; I was one hell of a crucible for not-so-friendly emotions. I was on my feet thought I couldn’t remember having stood. “So let me get this straight. All this time you’ve been sending me out after this guy and you didn’t even know what he was capable of? You told me he was a Secret Keeper but you never once warned me he might have other Gifts! What if he had been crazy fast and or super strong, like him?” I thrust one arm out, pointing at Gannon. “He could have snapped my neck and left me dead on the bar room floor and I never would have seen it coming!”
“We can’t know every little thing a fae can do,” Kaine snapped.
“Oh yeah?” I sneered. “And here I thought you knew everything.”
It was a battle of cold, hard wills between us. My guilt was overridden by anger. I wasn’t going to back down. We were riding an ugly line and Kaine’s furious scowl told me he knew that. Gannon spoke up from behind us, “The bloodlines have been intertwined for ages. Many fae manifest multiple gifts, inherited from their ancestors. Its impossible to know which have manifested until the subject is studied.”
I seethed with indignation. I knew he was trying to diffuse the situation, but that did nothing to calm my outrage. They hadn’t just used me. They had used me carelessly and I was furious. Through clenched teeth I asked, “And which bloodline, exactly, can teleport itself out of the room?”
Another round of silence gave me all the answer I needed. They had no freaking clue. Bile rose in my throat. I had been left in the dark, used, even betrayed—and, for what? That was the final straw. I had had enough. It was time for this to end.
I rounded the table and stood toe-to-toe with Kaine. I had to crane my head upward to look him in the face, given how much taller he was than me, but I faced him without fear. “You have no right to berate me for what I did. They might follow you without question—” I gestured to the others in the room, “—but I am done being one of your lackeys. Done. You kept things from me, important things, and endangered my goddamned life without a second thought. I did everything in my power to get you to the Lynx, just like you we agreed. You might not like how I handled this but that’s tough. I found him and I made him agree to meet with you. I fulfilled my part of our bargain and this ends here. Agreed?”
Kaine glowered down at me, his face like chiseled marble. Who was I kidding? Statues of Greek gods had more expression than that. His furrowed brow cast his eyes in shadow. I didn’t know what was going through his mind, but I had the feeling it was nothing good. Standing up to him was like facing down a feral dog. At any moment, he could choose to attack. A chill ran down my spine but I held my ground. I stood tall and repeated, “Agreed?”
He took an almost imperceptible step back, shaking his head. Something like disgust rippled across his face as he waved a dismissive hand in my direction. “Agreed.”
A weight seemed to lift off of my shoulders, causing a wave of goosebumps to race over every inch of my skin. It was a small victory but a victory nonetheless. I was free of my bond. I had expected fireworks to mark the dissolution of the fae mojo that had been hanging over my head for so long, but instead all I got was that dizzying wave of relief. It was enough.
“My, my. It looks as if I am interrupting something rather important. Shall I come back later?”
I think we all spun around as one. The Lynx was leaning against the edge of my dining room table, hands shoved in the pockets of his khakis. He looked just the same as he had in the bar, which was a mild comfort. At least a different stranger hadn’t randomly appeared in my apartment. My eyes darted over to the cable-box. Huh. It had been three hours on the dot. Couldn’t fault the guy on his punctuality, at the very least.
“No,” Kaine said, quickly. “You could not have arrived at a better time. We are grateful to you for coming.”
“A beautiful young lady pleaded with me for help,” the Lynx responded, ever so coy and just slightly mocking. He winked at me. My face quickly cycled through a dozen shades of red. “How could I ever refuse such an intriguing entreaty?”
Kaine the Sourpuss grunted and waved a hand in the direction of my empty couch. “Please, have a seat.”
My temper soared to a fever pitch. Wasn’t it nice of him, to offer up such glowing hospitality to a stranger in my home? Feeling like an ass for standing there between them when I was obviously no longer a part of the conversation, I took a seat on the arm of the recliner next to Mairi. She leaned in to me and butted her head up against my arm. I put that arm around her and let her settle in against my side. Maybe I wanted to gut Kaine with a spoon and smack Gannon into next Tuesday, but she wasn’t on my shit-list. It was a minor comfort to know I still had one ally in the room.
Then again, the Lynx had agreed to this shindig for the sole reason of freeing my poor, stupid soul from the blood pact. That put him firmly on Team Caitlin too. He was still watching me with a smirk playing on his lips. He turned his attention back to Kaine, crossing one arm over his waist as he bowed deep. “As you wish, your royal highness.”
Talk about a slap to the face.
I looked down at Mairi. She looked stricken. I demanded an answer with my eyes, to which she mouthed “I’m sorry” with a cringe. That clinched it. Months and months of unspoken hints fell into place. I was an idiot for not having put it together sooner. That aura of power, their unquestioning deference to him, his mysterious connections helping us out at every opportunity. Hell, even his all-consuming need to get home and rescue his people from the mad king. From his batshit crazy brother, the High King.
Son of a bitch.
The night we met—the night Kaine and Mairi had somehow scared off a huge, scary-ass troll with little more than a stern word—they had told me the tale of their woe. A homeland ruled by a unstable ruler who had even gone so far as to exile his younger brother for the horrible crime of being better loved by the people. And still, I had never put one and two together. Even when faced with the question of how important of a man would travel not only with a blood-bound Guardian, but his own personal Healer and an Oracle, I had remained blind. It had all been laid out in front of me from day one, but I had chosen to ignore it. Even Argoth’s sudden disappearance on that fateful night made more sense now. Why would he have risked his head by striking down the King’s little brother, exiled or no?
Goddamn, was I ever the fool.
The Lynx made himself comfortable on my couch. He stretched his arms out across it’s back and crossed his legs, one foot swinging jauntily. He showed no fear, being outnumbered and in the presence of royal blood. Then again, considering that he had appeared in our midst without ever coming close to a door or window, I suppose he really didn’t have much to fear from us in the first place.
“Caitlin said you were seeking my aid.” Not one for preamble, that Lynx. “Please; tell me how can I be of service to you?”
For all his casual acceptance of the situation, there was an innate deference to his tone; a slightly stilted lilt I had come to expect from fae etiquette. For a moment I envied him his ability to appear so aloof yet so deferential at the same time. All these months running alongside them and I still had not managed to find that balance. Then again, given the formal parting of ways that had been struck only moments ago, I supposed that would hardly matter for much longer.
Kaine stood on the other side of the coffee table; spine straight, hands clasped behin
d his back. He looked confident. Or regal, one who had finally realized what had been staring her in the face all along might say. There was no trace of the angry, anxious mess he had been only minutes earlier. Then again, I guess a prince had to be used to being all stoic and shit, when addressing his lessers. “As you know, Tiernan has banished me from Tír na nÓg.”
The Lynx inclined his head. “I had heard the rumor. It saddens me to see it is true. Almost as much as it saddened me to hear that the High King has become so—how shall I say it? Unstable?”
Kaine scowled. “The tales you hear are true. My brother is not well. He refuses the advice of his healers and advisors both. I had hoped to sway him, but as you can plainly see, even I was no longer able to get through to him.”
“Madness often begets paranoia. Oft times, the one afflicted comes to see friends as foes.”
“Aye, that may well be true, but it matters little now. He must be stopped. His rule has harmed our kingdom, and I fear that he will cause irrevocable damage if left unchecked much longer.”
The Lynx sat forward, clasping his hands and balancing his elbows on his knees. “So you seek to depose him.”
Kaine opened his mouth and closed it again. He resumed his pacing, hands still firmly clasped. We all waited in silence while the Crown Prince gathered his thoughts. Finally, he said, “It was never my wish to do so, no matter what Tiernan may think. I never held any desire to steal what was rightfully his, least of all the throne. But I fear it has come to that. He is unfit to rule and I am the only other left living with royal blood.”
I sat still as stone, equal parts fascinated and appalled. So much time spent with them, and I had known none of this. I felt like I had learned more about Kaine in the past five minutes than I had in the six months preceding them. Then again I was only a human tool, to be used and discarded. What did I need to know of his fairy tale soap opera life?
Iron (The Warding Book 1) Page 28
