by Inara Scott
She leaned her head against the seat and didn’t bother to move. “Thanks.”
“How’d it go?” he whispered, poking her in the leg. “I figured I’d give you a little privacy. You did what I suggested, right? Stripped him naked and made his wildest dreams come true? That’s why he gave you back the dress. Because he’s happy now. I knew it.” His voice rang with triumph.
“No.”
“What?” He rose a foot higher, practically shrieking in outrage. “What’s wrong with you? How did you screw this up?”
“It’s over, imp. The game’s over.”
At any other time he would have looked hilarious, as his eyes widened and his mouth formed a perfect ‘o’ of surprise. “You’re kidding. Really? Nice work, Faerie. Eleven days early—I’m impressed!” He patted her leg. “Now, don’t be too sad for him. He’s just a human, you know.”
“I didn’t break his heart.”
“Then how could the game be over?”
“I lost,” she said. “Not him.”
The imp blinked. “You lost… oh!” He sucked in his breath in horror. “Oh, Faerie, you didn’t. Tell me you didn’t fall in love with the man. Please tell me you didn’t.”
Two fat tears plopped down her cheeks. “I did.”
He popped one chubby hand over his mouth. “At least tell me he fell in love back. You can still break his heart. Zafira will be very angry with you but at least you’ll be able to come back to Faeria.”
She shook her head, her chin trembling. “N-n-no. No, he didn’t.” She swallowed hard. “He didn’t even come close.”
“Well then, where are you going?” He plucked the thin fabric of the silver dress. “You aren’t smelly and spotty anymore. You cleaned yourself up, got yourself looking decent again. Not like a faerie, to be sure, but decent. He’ll never fall in love with you if you aren’t there.”
“He’ll never fall in love with me period. It’s hopeless.” More tears coursed down her cheeks and she brushed them off with the back of her hand. “He’s not like other men. He doesn’t fall in love. He won’t give up his heart that way.”
“Huh.” The imp settled back down to contemplate that information. “You’ll just have to go back to Faeria,” he concluded. “Beg Zafira for mercy. You’ve tried hard and you’ve been honest about it. I’ve been watching and there’s been no magic. She’ll appreciate that.”
“I can’t go back.”
“That’s absurd. I’ll take you to one of the Gates. You can take faerie form there. She can’t hold that against you.”
Kaia choked back a sob at the thought of having her wings one more time. Still, she couldn’t do it. “Rachel still needs me. I can’t leave the store.”
“You mean to tell me you’re going to stay here in Miami, just to run a stupid flower shop?” The imp’s mouth fell open in astonishment. “You’re dying, Kaia. I don’t need to tell you that, do I? Every minute you spend as a human is a minute closer to death. Forget about the humans. They’re nothing to you now. Just come back to Faeria. Zafira will take you back. You probably won’t be able to be a Handmaid and she might banish you to your garden, but at least you’ll be able to see the other Handmaids.”
The cab driver handed a tissue back from the front seat. His eyes in the rearview mirror were dark and kind. Kaia wondered how many people talked to themselves and cried in the back of his cab.
“It’s not that easy,” she said, her chest heaving. “I can’t forget about the humans. They fed me when I was hungry. They gave me a job, a place to stay. They showed me how to love. I never knew how to love before, imp. And now I do. Love means you don’t walk out when someone needs you.” She stuck out her trembling chin defiantly. “I’ve got ten days before the solstice, and I’m not leaving Rachel before I have to.”
“What are you saying, Faerie? That you like them better than us? That you’re willing to stay here even if this thing with Garrett is hopeless?” The imp said it as a joke, but when he looked at her eyes the smile dropped off his face.
Kaia turned to face the window. She did not answer his question.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ten days later…
Kaia watched with happy tears as Rachel spun her wheelchair around the grey linoleum floor of the reception hall of the First Congregational Church. Rachel’s thin face glowed with joy as Ted danced beside her, radiating a love so palpable it was almost difficult to watch. Rachel wore a simple ivory satin dress with spaghetti straps and a loose-flowing skirt with a tulle underskirt to mask the supportive casts on her legs. Her chair was decorated with roses and carnations. The bride, of course, carried Stargazer lilies in her bouquet.
The wedding was small, only a few close friends attending. Garrett was there as Ted’s best man. Kaia was maid of honor. Lexi had walked down the aisle as a flower girl, deliriously happy in her fancy pink dress as she tossed rose petals in front of Rachel’s wheelchair. She danced now with Garrett. He alternatively held her hands, and picked her up and twirled her around his shoulders as she squealed with joy.
Rachel and Ted would be honeymooning in Paris once Rachel could walk again. That was still months away. For now, Rachel had begun to rehabilitate her muscles through physical therapy, yoga, and isometrics, and her recovery was going as well as anyone could have hoped.
Next week she planned to start back at the store part-time. A renovation had made the store bathroom wheelchair-accessible, and they’d hired an assistant to help out in the store any time Kaia couldn’t come in. The plans they had made left Kaia feeling terribly guilty, knowing that after tomorrow she wouldn’t be in at all.
It was the day before the summer solstice. Time for Kaia to leave Miami and return to Faeria before the Black Ladies hunted her down. And it was a relief, really, because it had become agonizing to see Garrett. They would bump into each other at the store, or when planning for the wedding, and each time she could feel a little piece of her soul wither and die.
The breakup, at least, had been swift and complete. He had not approached her after that night. She had mailed his razor and suits back to the condo. He’d never asked her about the things she’d said or the questions she’d asked. He looked at her now like she was a stranger.
The only thing left between them was the knowing—the painful knowing that she loved him.
She loved every inch of him. From his square jaw to his crystal blue eyes, from the hair that tumbled over his forehead to the rangy shoulders that had once been hers to hold. She loved him. And he would never love her back.
Rachel waved at her from the dance floor and motioned for her to join them.
Kaia shook her head and pointed toward the bathroom.
“I’ll be right back,” she mouthed, and walked toward the back of the church hall. For all her fear of becoming Bridezilla, Rachel had been surprisingly mellow throughout the last-minute wedding planning process. She’d let Ted decide most of the details of the church and reception. They’d put some songs on CDs instead of having a DJ and Garrett paid for a caterer to bring hors d’oeuvres and a cheese plate.
In fact, lots of Rachel’s edges had smoothed out since the accident. Agreeing to marry Ted had evidently relieved some deep-seated anxiety she’d been carrying, and she radiated a peace and happiness Kaia had never seen in her before.
Just thinking about it made Kaia want to cry all over again.
She started up the steps toward the bathroom and froze when she got to the landing.
“Kaia, Kaia!”
“Kaia, we missed you!”
Her mouth dropped open. At the top of the stairs were Mina, Talia, and Analise, all in human form, eagerly waving and calling her name. Kaia ran up to the top of the steps and let them envelop her in an enormous hug. There was laughing and crying, but before long she pushed them back and looked around anxiously. “What are you doing here? Zafira will be furious if she finds out. You know you shouldn’t have any contact with me.”
The three of them looked at each othe
r guiltily. “Well,” Talia began, taking a long dark section of hair and wrapping it around her finger, “actually, we talked to the imp.”
“The imp?” Kaia’s mouth opened in astonishment. “What does the imp have to do with this?”
No one spoke for a moment. Talia nudged Analise. “You tell her, ’Lise.”
Analise put a gentle hand on Kaia’s shoulder. “He said you were acting crazy,” she said softly. “He wasn’t sure if you were coming back. As strange as it sounds, I think he was worried about you.”
Kaia snorted. “Worried about me? I don’t believe that for a second. He just didn’t want to watch the Black Ladies drag me back.” She thought for a moment and breathed out in horror. “He told you what I said that day in the cab, didn’t he? He told you about Garrett.”
“What about Garret?” a cold, deadly quiet male voice asked.
§
Garrett thought, with a sickly amazement, that it was rather like stumbling upon the backstage area for the Miss Universe pageant, or some other absurd collection of the world’s most beautiful women. They were all tall, long-legged, and slender, with the same exotically slanted eyes and long slender noses. In fact, their faces were so similar they could have been sisters. Only their coloring was different. One was blonde and fair, smaller than the others, with a gentle smile and sweet blue eyes. Another had wavy dark hair that spilled over her shoulders and a tough, aggressive stance that clearly said, ‘don’t mess with me.’ The last was red-haired and voluptuous, her curves barely contained in a pair of tight pants and cropped shirt that exposed a winking green jewel in her belly-button.
And for some reason, all he could think when he looked at the four of them was that Kaia stood out like an elegant English rose in a garden full of exotic hothouse blooms.
The dark-haired one stepped forward, and as she did a rush of warm, sensual fire seemed to precede her. Garrett had little difficulty ignoring her. He could only see Kaia, her green gaze troubled, clouded. The women closed ranks around her, shielding her from him, and he wanted to push them aside and pull her forward, shake her, and demand the truth.
“You must be Garrett,” the woman said. “Kaia’s told us so much about you.”
He ignored her and focused his eyes on Kaia. “Funny. Kaia’s told me nothing about you.”
The woman drew her brows together in a show of irritation. She was clearly unused to being ignored. “I’m Talia. We’re Kaia’s… friends.”
The red-haired one approached him next. Like Talia, she walked like some ancient goddess, a sensual creature made only for pleasure. “Mina,” she purred. “Lovely to meet you, Garrett. Now we don’t mean to be abrupt, but we’ve come to take Kaia home with us.”
“And just where would home be?” Garrett asked with a pleasant smile. He fought to keep a grip on his composure while his world tipped upside-down.
“It doesn’t really matter. We’ve taken enough of your time. Isn’t there a wedding going on downstairs? We’d hate to have you miss the party.” The blonde was the last to approach. She sounded apologetic as she patted his arm softly and steered him back toward the end of the hall while the others guided Kaia toward the large exterior doors that led to the parking lot in front of the church.
For a moment, he was entranced by her scent, something sweet and heady, like the most delicate flowers he’d ever known. He began to follow her, but when he saw what was happening he shook her off like a man waking from a dream.
“Stop,” he roared, realizing Kaia was almost at the door. The women were holding her arms and talking all at once. Things were happening too fast. He needed to stop and think, understand why Kaia was being shanghaied by her gorgeous friends, and why they’d been talking about him when he showed up.
“’Lise, let him go,” Kaia ordered.
The little blonde dropped his arm and bobbed her head in his direction apologetically before turning to Kaia. “Honey, if you come back with us now, Zafira might be persuaded to change her mind. You can’t wait any longer. It isn’t like you have a choice. The Black Ladies will come for you tomorrow.”
“Of course she has a choice. What do you mean the Black Ladies are coming for her?” Garrett demanded. “Who is this Zafira?”
More importantly, why was Kaia acting so strangely? One would think these women owned her, from the defeated slump of her shoulders. Where was the fighting Kaia? What hold did the mysterious Zafira have over her?
Talia bared her teeth at him in a snarl. “That’s Queen Zafira to you, human.”
“Talia!” Kaia breathed, her eyes wide with horror.
“Nice job, Talia. Anything else you want to share with him while we’re here? I’m sure Zafira won’t mind,” Mina said.
“Girls,” the blonde reproved. Clearly, she was both peacemaker and parent of this crowd. She bowed again in Garrett’s direction, and cocked her head at Kaia. “Do you need to say good-bye to anyone?”
Kaia nodded dully, and for a moment Garrett wanted to shake her and force her to tell him what was going on. The feeling dissolved as the pieces finally fell into place. Of course Kaia was not what she seemed. Of course there was someone behind her, pulling her strings.
Her façade of lies was falling apart, and the last thing he was going to do was give her the satisfaction of caring.
“Yes,” she said. “I need a few minutes.”
The blonde nodded. “We’ll be outside. Don’t be long.”
§
Kaia found a spot on the wall, above the heads of Rachel, Garrett, and Ted, and fixed her eyes on it. They were in the office of the pastor of the church, and she could hear the music playing in the reception hall below them. The notes drifting through the room were slow and romantic, and she knew Rachel and Ted wanted to be there, dancing together.
“I feel terrible, interrupting your wedding like this, but there’s something I’ve got to tell you. I’ve got to tell you quickly, and then I’ve got to go.”
“Kaia, that’s crazy,” Rachel said. “What do you mean you have to go? You have to leave the wedding?”
Kaia bit her lip, unable to look Rachel directly in the face. She had to say her piece before she fell apart completely. “I’ve got to leave Miami. For good.”
Rachel sat up straight in her chair and darted a look back at Ted, then Garrett. “This is so sudden. Surely you can wait a few more days.”
“I’m sorry. I know it seems strange, but I’m afraid I can’t really explain. The truth is, I’ve done a terrible thing. A really terrible thing. I lied to all of you. I’ve been lying for a long time. I would tell you more, but I really can’t, and you wouldn’t believe me anyway.” She tried for a smile, but it ended up weak and tremulous. She forced the tears back down and concentrated on her words. “I just needed you to know how much I appreciated everything you did for me. That, and I’m sorry. I’m terribly, terribly sorry. ”
Rachel looked confused but ready to argue. Kaia stopped her with a raised hand. “I came here for him.” She pointed her finger at Garrett. Strangely, a wave of relief spilled over her, as she finally told them the truth. At least, a part of the truth. “I wanted him to fall in love with me. I guess I’m not the first woman to want that. I used you, Rachel, to try to get to him.”
“I see,” Rachel said quietly.
“The shelter, the job—was it all a lie?” Garrett asked, his voice rigid.
She gulped for air. She could hear the hatred in his voice, and it was almost her undoing. “No. That was all real. I didn’t starve for fun.”
“Who are they?” Garrett asked, gesturing toward the hallway where he’d met the Handmaids. “Are you all prostitutes? Is Zafira your pimp?”
The disgust took her back a step. She thought about trying to correct him, but decided it was better that way. Better for him to think her a whore and not ask any other questions. “All I can say is that I’m sorry,” she said. “I had no idea it would be like this. I thought it was a game. I didn’t understand what love was really all
about.”
“I suppose it doesn’t matter why you came because you did a lot of good while you were here,” Rachel said. “I couldn’t have survived this without you.”
Kaia took a deep, careful breath. “I don’t deserve your friendship, Rachel, but I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you did for me.” She bent over and gave the woman a quick hug.
When she straightened, she looked at Garrett. She thought she was prepared for the anger she would see there, but the cold fire in his eyes still left her shaking with its intensity. “I guess you were right all along. I was nothing better than a liar and a cheat. If it’s any consolation, you’ll be the one who gets the last laugh. I came here to break your heart, Garrett, but I fell in love with you. And I was the one who ended up with the broken heart.”
A muscle flexed in his cheek. “Is that what your kind calls it? Love?”
There was a soft knock at the door and Analise poked her head in a second later. “I don’t mean to interrupt,” she said, sorrow spilling from her soft blue eyes, “but Kaia, we’ve really got to go.”
“Another job lined up already?” asked Garrett.
Analise did not respond, just withdrew from the room, leaving behind her clean, sweet scent.
Kaia closed her eyes. When she opened them, Rachel had her hand over her heart and there were tears running down her cheeks. “You don’t have to leave,” Rachel said. “You have a place with me as long as you like.”
“No. No, they’re waiting for me. It has to be now.”
“Why—”
Kaia rubbed the back of her hand across her eyes. “It’s complicated. I only had until the solstice. Please say good-bye to Lexi for me. I don’t think I could do it myself.”
“Go now,” Garrett ordered. “Before the music is done.”
Kaia nodded. The tears overwhelmed her, so she swallowed hard and walked out of the room, steeling herself not to look back.
§
As Lexi came out of the bathroom, she saw Kaia leaving a room, tears running down her face. She ran down the hallway and out the front entrance. Lexi looked up and down the hall but no one appeared to follow her. That did not seem right. Daddy always said you should help your friends when they were sad. And Kaia was definitely her friend.
