by ERIN BEDFORD
“Who is your…friend.” His gaze shot to me, accusation in his look. When she threw her head back and laughed, his eyes turned back to the woman in his arms.
“He is hardly a friend, more like an unwelcome prisoner.” She placed her hand on his chest, her eyes sliding over to me giving me a silent warning that I didn’t understand. She let herself be embraced by the man before the other one came up beside her wanting the same welcome. She gladly switched between their arms, not seeming to care how their hands roamed on her form.
“We could take him off your hands if you like,” the other one growled, the threat clear in his voice as he glared at me.
“No, no. I have to take him to the Reaper. He will want to know we have trespassers in any case.” She patted his massive chest and then moved out of his arms. “Cheshire, this is Carban and Coby,” she gestured to each one in turn and then grasped each of their hands with a happy smile, “They are my special friends.”
Special wasn’t all that they were, I was sure, but I didn’t comment and just nodded my head, a playful grin disguising my true thoughts. “Pleasure.”
“Cheshire,” she continued explaining to the men who were completely enamored by her, “is trying to get home to his lady love. He’s been trying for months, you should have seen him, the poor dear.” The pity in her voice made me want to call her out on her lies as she pouted at me. If she had been sad for me any of the time I was stuck at her place she sure had a sorry way of showing it. All she did was taunt me and try to seduce me. Not once had she shown an ounce of sympathy for my plight.
One good thing that came from her mockery was the twins’ faces changed from competitive to empathetic. They nodded their heads as she told my story, the emotion on their face showing they knew exactly how I felt.
“We feel your pain friend,” the one named Carban said, “I am lucky to have been exiled with my brother, Coby. Others like our Morgana here are not so lucky and are stuck alone forever to be haunted by their past lives. I do not know what I would have done had I not had my brother to help me through the lonely times.” He clamped a hand on his brother’s shoulder with a grateful grin, which his brother returned.
“Yes, we are truly blessed,” Coby agreed before turning to Morgana. “Will you dine with us before you head out? Or are you in much of a hurry?”
“Oh, I don’t know. We have a ways to go, and I don’t want to be out here too long. You know what can happen,” Morgana said ominously before she glanced over at me with a sly grin, one that I knew meant we were staying whether I liked it or not. “But I guess we could stay a little while, that is if it’s okay with Cheshire?”
I didn’t dare say no. I might not be the smartest Fae in the Underground, but I wasn’t stupid. If I was the one who said no then the twins would have reason to dislike me, and I needed all the friends I could get if I planned to get home and back to Kat.
So instead of shouting what I wanted to say, I gave them a fanged tooth grin and said, “I would be delighted.”
Chapter 5
Kat
ALICE OFFERED TO come with me to the library, but I declined. For the first time ever I'd be going into the Underground by myself. No Trip or Mop to stand by my side as I ventured through the unknown terrain. No Seer to command the guards to let me pass or to lead me by the hand.
It was frightening and exhilarating at the same time. Like the feeling you get when you are jumping from a high place without a net. You hope you'll be fine. You think you'll be fine, but at the same time, there is a sense of fear that you will be squashed into a pancake on the floor.
Fortunately, I didn't have to go through the Between to get to the Seelie Court. One thing I had been able to convince Pat to do was to make my mirror versatile. He had made it so I could go to any active mirror in the Underground or human world. Which apparently, he told me there were more and more requests for it every day. It was something that I probably should look into later, being the moderator and all. It probably wasn’t a good idea to have Fae jumping back and forth across the United States causing mayhem wherever they went. I already had the government on my back; I didn't need any more trouble.
Pat assured me that the mirror would take me straight to the library, and I wouldn't have to go through any of the hallways that might possibly make me run into my mother. I had no fantasies about the fact that I probably wasn't getting in and out of the Library without seeing my mother. I measured the likelihood of not seeing her somewhere between not likely and no way in hell. All I could do was step into the mirror and hope that whatever I encountered I would come out in one piece.
Taking a deep breath I slid my hand across the edge of the frame while thinking about the library that I'd gone to with Alice. It was a large room but smaller than the ballroom. The two floors of it were covered with wall-to-wall bookshelves, full of so many books that it was more than I could count or imagine.
As a child, I used to spend almost all of my time there. Lost in the adventures of the pages before me, I dreamed of the day that I would get to leave the Seelie Palace. It used to be my safe place, for me and my father. Now, all it did was remind me of the girl I once was and the woman I am now.
I held onto that thought as the mirror rippled and changed. Placing one foot in front of the other, I let the liquid surround me, the feel of it cool against my skin. It didn't take long to get to the other side of the mirror, but for some reason this time the trek was slower than before. Just as I was about to get worried, I heard something.
A voice that I shouldn't be hearing. One that I had only heard in my dreams. The voice of a dead man.
I only heard it once. My name whispered, barely audible, but it was there. I would know that voice anywhere. I stepped out of the mirror and onto the library floor not knowing what to think.
It had been Chess' voice that said my name, clearer than day, and it wasn’t likely that I would forget it anytime soon. I couldn't say that it was just my subconscious trying to make me feel better. I couldn’t keep making things up to make myself feel better. I told Mab that I was trying to move forward, and that searching for ways to get him back was just a waste of time, but what if I was wrong?
What if Mab had been correct? What if they weren't dead at all and they were just stuck in the Shadow Realm?
I dragged a hand through my blonde hair in frustration. Couldn't things ever be normal? I had enough on my plate; I didn't need my boyfriend haunting me now. Even if it was his voice, and that was a big if, I wouldn’t even know how to get to him in the first place.
The only thing I could do was do what I came to do and that included finding the book that Pat had said talked about portals. If I could figure out how to close the hole in the UnSeelie Court to the Between then maybe there would be something in there about the Shadow Realm, like how the hell I was supposed to get there.
My tennis shoes padded against the tiles of the library floor as I walked through the aisles searching for the section that could possibly have the book Pat had talked about. Phineas Portalus had been the name that he had said, but I had no idea what section I was supposed to look in. As far as I knew, there wasn't a section on portals or about ripping holes in space and time. This wasn’t an episode of Doctor Who.
I hadn’t been looking long before the voice I dreaded sounded in my ears. “You won’t find what you are looking for in here.”
Inwardly groaning, I put the book back on the shelf I had been looking at and turned while saying, “Hello, Mother.”
My mother, Tatiana, Queen of the Seelie Court, stood at the end of the aisle. Considering her need for attention her outfit today was pretty tame. White pressed pants and a matching suit jacket; the only thing that made me remember this was the Seelie Queen I was dealing with was the lack of clothing beneath the jacket. It was held closed by a tiny bejeweled button, which thankfully kept me from seeing far more of my mother than I wished.
Looking at her made me self-conscious about
my own clothing. I wore jeans that had seen better days and a t-shirt that read ‘Evil Beware, We Have Waffles’. My ensemble was topped off with beat up tennis shoes. I felt like a street urchin compared to her.
The pinching of her lips told me she wasn’t any happier to see me than I was to see her. Which was funny since she hadn’t stopped hounding me to talk to her the last few months. If one thing my human and Fae mother had in common it was their persistence to annoy me to death.
“I wasn’t expecting you to come in person. I had just sent the message not two hours ago.” She crossed her arms over her chest, her brows bunched together in her confusion.
“Message? What message?”
“The one telling you that if you don’t contact me, I would be forced to take matters into my own hands, and by that I mean take your friends into my own hands.” Her eyes narrowed when I didn’t show any recollection of what she was talking about. “Please tell me you received my message? I do so hate to waste a good threat.”
“Sorry,” I shrugged, “But I’m actually not here for you.”
“Really?” her scowl transformed into a curious look that caused her to look younger than she actually was. “Then what, pray tell, are you here wandering the library for? You cannot be homesick already; you wanted to stay in the human world so badly.”
The sarcasm in her voice wasn’t lost on me, but I chose for once to be the bigger person and ignore her. Instead, I gestured to the books and said, “I’m looking for a way to close the hole to the Between, can’t have some unsuspecting Fae wandering in by accident.”
“How…noble of you.” The way she said it made me feel like she thought less of me for caring, which knowing her, it probably was a fate worse than death.
“Yeah, well, some of us think of others before ourselves. Not something you would likely do on purpose.” My mother wasn’t a horribly evil person. I had on occasion caught her in a moment of humanity where she couldn’t hide how much she cared behind her icy front. Today sadly was not one of those days.
“I care plenty,” she waved me off, “I cared enough to come greet you in person rather than sending the guards to apprehend you.”
“And why would they do that?”
A slow smile crept up her face that made me want to shiver, but I forced the urge back as she said, “Because you are trespassing of course, and trespassers are killed on sight.”
I scoffed at her thinly veiled threat. She didn’t want to hurt me; I was the only thing keeping the Council from completely taking her power away from her. If she took me out of the equation than she would be powerless, and there were too many Fae out there with a grudge against her to let that happen.
“You think you are protected because I need you?” she snarled and grabbed my wrist as I picked up another book pretending she didn’t bother me. “I made you; I can unmake you just as easily.”
I glared at her for a moment and then sighed as I dropped my hand. “Can we stop with the soap opera drama, please? I have things to do and places to be. Just tell me what it is you want?”
Her expression was so befuddled by my words I almost thought she hadn’t heard me, but then she let go of my wrist and smoothed her hands over her top. “Fine. I wish to go to the human world and the council refuses to let me leave the palace.”
“Why would you want to do that?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“The majority of the Fae community has seen fit to live there it is only befitting that I know what they are dealing with.”
“Why do you even care? They are out of your hair and somebody else’s problem. And by somebody else, I mean me.” I turned my attention to scan the shelves once more. It had to be here somewhere.
“That doesn’t matter,” she said dismissively, “What matters is…what are you looking for?” the tone of her voice made me think she was going to stomp her foot like a child.
“A book by Phineas Portalus and it does matter,” I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, “You in the human world would be a disaster. Not to mention, the press would have a field day, and the government is already on my back about Fae registration, they don’t need more ammunition to use against us.”
“Of all the ridiculous…Fae registration! Really, who do they think they are?” The queen’s voice rose until it echoed in the library. “We are immortal and powerful, we don’t have to answer to the likes of them. This just proves my point that I should go to the human world and set them straight.”
I shook my head furiously. “No, no. Absolutely not. The reason they want to register us is for that very reason. They are afraid of us.”
“They should be! What are they compared to us? Insects in the grand scheme of things. They should be bowing to us not the other way around.”
“That thinking is precisely my point. You go in there demanding things and they will rise up against us. They have weapons you couldn’t even dream of.” I knew the humans well, if we tried to take over their land, or make them bow down to us in any way, they would be all over us like a football player at an all you can eat buffet.
“So what? We have magic,” she growled, her magic crackling around her, “Their punning metal and plastic cannot compare.”
“Not if they drop a nuke on us,” I muttered and then said to her, “Look. I have enough to worry about right now without having to babysit you in the human world. Let me deal with this hole first, and then I will talk to the council about it.”
At my words, she visibly relaxed. Her face smoothed out and her magic settled back inside of her. “Do you promise?” the uncertainty in her words made me almost guilty that I didn’t have any intentions of going to the council, if anything I would tell them to lock her in her room to keep her here. The last thing the human world needed was more Faes, and the Seelie Queen was the Fae of all Faes. Everything they hated about us was solidified into one being and her being there would get us crucified.
Guilty or not, I controlled my scent so she couldn’t pick up on my emotions and said, “I promise.”
“All right. What were you looking for again?”
I turned back to the shelf so she couldn’t see the relief on my face. “A book by Phineas Portalus, supposedly it will tell me how to close the hole.”
“Like I said before, you won’t find it here.”
Huffing an aggravated breath, I spun on her. “Then where is it?”
“Nowhere.”
“What do you mean nowhere?”
“Precisely what I said, nowhere.” She clucked her tongue at me and then continued, “As in it doesn’t exist anymore. I got rid of it a long time ago.”
“Why would you do that?” I snarled at her, tired of being here already.
“Oh, don’t get so huffy. I couldn’t very well let it exist and have someone getting ideas about opening portals between our worlds when I was trying to keep everyone out, now could I?” she shook her head as if I was being silly to even ask.
“Then how the hell am I supposed to close the hole the Shadow man made? It can’t just stay there forever. I could just imagine it now, some poor creature would go in thinking it’s a great vacation spot and then they wouldn’t come back out again.”
“I hardly doubt that will be the case, but I can tell you just as easily how to close it as the book would. Dry reading that is.” She stared down at her nails with a bored expression on her face.
“Then why didn’t you say so in the first place?” I practically shouted at her, my own magic built up in me and began to crackle along my skin.
“You never asked.”
Chapter 6
Kat
ONE OF THE first things I had done when Alice had decided to stay in the human world for good was to get her a cell phone. It had been amusing as hell to teach her how to use it. The fact that she could take pictures of herself, message people through text messaging, or even video chat with others was mind-blowing for her. For someone who was used to magic, it wa
s hilarious to see her befuddled expression as she tried to work the device.
Later I regretted it.
She was worse than a teenage girl—always on her phone, texting or taking selfies. She had even figured out how to make a social media profile and had helped a bunch of other Fae get up to date on the human world as well.
“If we want them to accept us as humans we have to act like humans,” she had stated when I complained about her phone usage. The phone bill was through the roof, and since she wasn’t getting any income, it was all coming out of my pocket. Or rather my parent’s pocket. I really did need to talk to someone about getting paid for being the moderator. Even Chess had been getting paid, even if it was through unconventional means.
Surprising even to me there was enough reception in the Underground for me to make a phone call. With Alice on the up and ups of electronic devices, it was easy enough to call her up before I left the library to tell her to meet me at Chess’ house. That’s why when I stepped through the mirror from the library and onto the purple shag rug of Chess’ home; I was surprised that she hadn’t made it here yet.
While I waited, I took in the home of my deceased lover. I had only been here once before. Back before I knew who I really was, when everything was new and exciting. Back then, I had been wary of the cat-like human and his flirtatious ways. I would never have thought back then that I would be standing here the way I am now. Or that when I did it would be alone.
My eyes burned at the thought, and I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat. I forced my feet to move forward to check out the rest of the house. As far as I knew, no one else had been here, but I wanted to be sure no one was squatting in it or desecrating his home.
I cringed at the pink and purple colored furniture as I walked around the living area. The decor still made me feel like a unicorn had barfed all over the place. I guess it was a good thing he was gone, because I knew that there would be some fighting if we had ever gotten a place together. No way in hell would pink ever be on the color pallet.
