Hypnotizing Beat

by Katherine McIntyre

  Trevor flicked his stub onto the asphalt. As much as he wanted to let all the fears inside him come pouring out, the moment he opened the faucet, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to shut it again.

  “So, what are you going to do with your freedom?” Kieran asked, the careful edge to his voice drawing Trevor’s attention at once.

  Trevor arched a brow. “What freedom? Your insane optimism in the face of impossible odds is admirable, Ky. Chances are, we’ll either end up part of Alberich’s collection or bloodstains his brownie crew will be mopping off the marble floors.”

  “Your ever-present cynicism aside, what are your plans?” he asked, persistence still there.

  Trevor met Kieran’s gaze, knowing what his friend was fishing for. “Don’t do me the disservice of asking if I’ll leave. I may have started this band with you as a way to stay on the run, but I love playing, and this band is my family. I’ve never known a home like the one we created, and I won’t give that up for anything.”

  Kieran nodded, looking away from him on purpose, as if the asshole could hide his eyes getting glassy. Ky let out a stream of smoke and stared at the night sky glittering with more lights than Vegas could hope to compete with. “Good,” he said, his voice thick with feeling. “That’s good.”

  Trevor’s anxiousness stuttered for a moment, and warmth permeated through to the part of him that had grown so damn Arctic. He cuffed Kieran in the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’re all going to die tonight anyway.”

  Ky rolled his eyes, and Liz and Jett strode out of the RV to join them. Renn trailed close behind, the bruises clear around his wrists and along his neck. He’d shown up at the RV looking like he’d gotten fully worked over, and the wry grin and glint in his eyes told everything—not like it was long before he started in on all the unwanted details.

  “Our levels of co-dependency are teetering on the unhealthy range,” Jett drawled as he picked his fingernails with the edge of one of his throwing knives. “I mean, we sing together, live together, and eat together. They fuck together,” he said, jerking a thumb at Liz and Kieran, “and we’ve done a bit too much fighting together as of late. I’m just saying, let’s skip doing the whole six-feet-under thing together.”

  Kieran shook his head, finishing his cigarette before Renn could pluck it from his fingers. “You lot are so morose. We’re just going to rile up Alberich’s manor a little, cause some chaos. If anything, that’s our specialty.”

  “Your words,” Liz said, pointing a finger to him as she strode by. “Come on, boys, we have a leannan sidhe to save.”

  Trevor pushed up from the side of the RV and loped behind her. His heart was a hummingbird inside his chest, and his mouth turned to sandpaper, but his legs were moving forward. Each step brought him closer and closer to his old master’s manor, the place where he’d spent years behind bars, enslaved in a cage.

  Yet each step brought him even closer to grasping at the freedom that had eluded him for so long.

  And each step brought him closer to her.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Danica kicked the bars for the dozenth time in the past couple of hours. Not like they budged in the slightest, but if she didn’t try, she’d be liable to burst out of her own skin.

  “If I knew you were going to be this annoying, I would’ve requested a separate cage,” Lenora muttered, leaning against the bars. She stared at the ceiling far out of their grasp. “I can feel the reverberations every time you do that.”

  Danica leveled a stare at her sister. “Then don’t lean against the bars like you’ve been languishing in a cell for the last century.”

  Lenora lifted a brow as well as her finger. “What spacious section am I to get my jazzercize on in? This miniscule corner, or that one?” To prove her point, Lenora slumped even farther, edging her sneaker out to knock against Danica’s ankle.

  Danica sighed, tracing the bar with her fingertip, searching for any type of nicks or weakness in the metal. No one had come to visit since Crags appeared, and she warred between wanting them away versus needing someone else to swing by lest she go insane. Besides, if a guard got close enough, maybe she could dig her nails into their carotid.

  “Just chill for a second, D,” Lenora said, kicking her in the ankle again. “It won’t kill you.”

  Danica crossed her arms over her chest. “When in the history of our relationship have you ever seen me chill?” She slumped beside Lenora, giving her sister a willful glare. “I’ve got to figure a way out of here.”

  “Good luck,” rasped a spriggan from the cage nearest to them who was a mottled mixture of grotesque and wild, like many of the Unseelie. His eyes gleamed gold, and his long legs and arms were twisted branches, which he hugged tight to himself in the small cage he sat inside. “Most of us have been here for years, some decades. Alberich keeps a tight clench on his toys.”

  “I’m no one’s toy,” Danica responded on instinct, even as fear clutched her heart with icy fingers. Right now, she clung to gossamer strands of hope that Trevor and the others delivered the mirror to Kincaid. That the CEO would even uphold his end of the deal. So much hinged on trusting others that a graveyard chill settled deep in her heart with the realization. Alberich had locked her up. She had become part of the menagerie.

  “Ignore him,” Lenora responded, elbowing her in the side. “We have more important things to discuss.”

  Danica heaved a sigh, combing her fingers through her coiffed hair. In a little while, she’d be as bedraggled and worn as the others in here, all her niceties of living free stripped away. “What’s so important?” she asked, swinging her gaze over to her sister. Even though Danica spent her entire life protecting Lenora and getting her out of trouble, she recognized her little sister did the same in her own way.

  Lenora had always protected her heart. Her sister drew her out when Danica threatened to turn as brittle as the autumn leaves.

  “I’d like to know who’s snared your interest enough to take a risk on them,” Lenora responded. “I know you too well. Someone in this band must be important to you. Otherwise, you would’ve found a way to nab the mirror and run.”

  Danica let out a reluctant breath. She hated to think of herself as that self-serving, but Lenora was right. Unless someone managed to navigate the hedge maze she hid her trust behind, she could double cross with the best of them. The moment someone navigated through to steal her heart though? Well, only two people in her life had managed to thus far.

  “The guitarist,” she murmured, staring at the bars above them. “He’s the one I initially approached when I got into trouble, because he used to be here, in these cages.” Admitting it out loud prickled her skin with vulnerability, but if she could share this with anyone, it would be her sister.

  “Alberich kept him locked up?” Lenora asked. Her sister’s eyes held a soft warmth that made Danica’s insides twist.

  Talking about Trevor poured battery acid on an open wound after the way she’d escaped in the morning without telling him. Chances were, her disappearance corroded every good memory he still had of her.

  “Yeah, for years. He was here for so long it did irreparable damage on him,” Danica said, remembering the haunted looks in his gaze and the vigilant twitch of his muscles at the slightest sounds. Only a few times had she witnessed him unencumbered and free, and she treasured all of them. She glanced to her sister, her throat tightening. She and Lenora would end up scarred like that. If all of her well-laid plans shattered like glass in a storm, the way they inevitably would, a life in captivity would ruin them both.

  “I’m so sorry,” Danica mouthed, her words coming out a whisper. Everything she’d been holding back came rushing to the surface, those weathered boards splintering as they broke. “I did this to us.”

  Lenora’s hand settled over hers, and she squeezed tight. “We’ve been running ever since our parents sold us off, D. I’m just glad I’m not here alone.” Her sister should’ve been crying, should’ve been terrified, but a ser
enity descended around her, damnable calm. Danica had sat with her through so many tears, had stroked her hair and held on tight. Yet today, their roles reversed.

  A couple of hot tears streamed down Danica’s cheeks, ones she hated. She was the big sister, the one who needed to remain steel strong. But being around Lenora had that accursed effect on her of drawing out the emotions she’d buried tight. She hadn’t allowed herself to cry from the moment she left Trevor behind and hadn’t allowed herself to grieve the sentence of the locked away life she’d spent a lifetime trying to avoid.

  She wiped the liquid away, rubbing it out of her cheeks as if she could erase the fact she ever shed a tear. Danica ran a finger along the cold bar beside her, drawing in the chill as she evened her breaths.

  “Hey, if he’s good enough for you to fall for, guaranteed he’ll be busting down these doors to get you back,” Lenora said, hope shining in her eyes that Danica could no longer feel.

  “Yeah, or he’ll check in with his common sense and realize he needs to be as far away from this place as possible.” She yearned for Trevor to come as much as she feared his return to these loathsome halls.

  “Okay, Pessimistic Polly, we’re going to languish in these cells for the next century, and then die miserable deaths. Happy now?” Lenora shot back.

  “Overjoyed.”

  The whisper of footsteps from the other side of the ballroom drew her attention at once. With the waning day, chandeliers cast low-light throughout the room, bringing shadows to the fore. Mirrors along the walls reflected so many bars from the cages where she and the other fae were displayed like statues. From across the patterned tile came a figure that made her blood pressure spike on sight.

  Whatever murmurs coursed through the ballroom shut off like water from a faucet. Tymarch Alberich marched in, the shadows carving into the forest green hue of his skin, deepening the crimson of his eyes, and amplifying the cruel lines of his face. He headed toward them, which could only mean trouble.

  Danica pushed herself from the ground to stand in front of the bars. “About time you paid me a visit,” she called out, baiting the bastard. “I make a pretty miserable pet. Need to be fed about sixteen times a day, or I’ll just pass right out.”

  “Where’s the mirror,” Alberich said upon approach, disregarding her comment.

  Danica shrugged. “We all have our hardships. You, a missing mirror, me, being stuck in this damned cage. Life’s not fair.”

  His brows narrowed. The eyes reflecting back at her were the same red as the blood he’d spilled, far too many bodies to count. Danica lifted her chin and thrust it forward. She should be quaking in her heels, but he’d done the worst by sentencing her to this imprisonment. Any other threats fell like dried petals to be crushed underfoot.

  More footsteps sounded through the ballroom as three of his redcap thugs approached, the weight of them causing the crystal drops on the chandeliers to tremble.

  “I’ll give you one more chance,” Alberich’s voice carried menace that didn’t sink beneath her skin. “Where’s the mirror?”

  Danica lifted a hand and waved it around three turns before she flipped her middle finger up. “Your guess is as good as mine, buddy. Does the arrival of your goon squad mean I get to go on a walk?”

  Alberich didn’t answer. He nodded to the redcaps who’d accumulated around their cage, already beginning to unlock the door. Her heart pounded harder, but she cast a look to Lenora, trying to convey all the bravery she could muster.

  Before she could say another word, meaty hands shot into the cage to pull her out. She stumbled forward, the redcaps tugging her across the polished tiles of the ballroom. Alberich strode ahead, his gaze focused as he ignored her existence. This disregard was one of the ways he broke his prisoners here. As she crossed this massive ballroom, the hollowed stares of all the different fae in cages burned into her. The pity in their glances chilled her like a winter’s day.

  The redcaps pulled her through one of the side doors, and they entered an ornate hallway, peach lighting glowing with a rustic hue. Landscape paintings decorated the walls, and a paisley carpet stretched the entire length. Alberich marched in the lead, heading straight for a door at the end of the hall, one painted crimson with a dull iron knob. The mere sight caused her skin to prickle, like it was an office plucked straight from the far reaches of her nightmares.

  Her mouth dried, but she opened it anyway. “How often do we get to go on walks in this joint? I didn’t get the full rundown on pet protocol when you guys gave me the super warm introductory meeting. Do we get extra treats if we perform tricks?” Even as the sarcasm rolled out of her mouth, it coated her tongue in bitterness.

  “Winter’s breath, you’re mouthy,” the redcap behind her muttered, giving a push forward.

  She almost lost her footing—not like it mattered with the vice grip Thing 1 and 2 had on her wrists. “I was lucky enough to inherit the gift of the gab, so I figure it better be put to use.”

  “We’ll loosen your tongue soon enough,” the redcap at her side responded, his teeth glinting when he revealed a jagged smile.

  Danica maintained a grin when she looked at him, even though her stomach twisted. Before she could say anything else, Alberich already opened the door with a resounding creak and entered. Her fingers threatened to tremble, but she willed them steady.

  The redcaps pushed her into a simple room, all concrete floors, walls, and ceiling. A couple of bulbs hung overhead, casting paltry beams in here, and a single chair sat in the center of the room. Her heart plummeted to the floor at the sight. The metal chair featured a lot of mottled and shiny spots where they must’ve taken chemicals to clean the surface.

  Within seconds, they dragged her over, which was fine by her, because her legs didn’t seem to want to work anymore.

  “So, we’re resorting to torture now?” Danica said, forcing herself to speak. At this moment, talking kept the overwhelming, writhing darkness at bay. “Ever since I entered this manor, it’s been one new experience after another. First, my stay in a cage, and now we’re entering the torture part of boot camp. I’ll be ready to take on the whole Otherworld after this retreat.”

  If anything, her words had them slamming her into the chair that much harder. Danica’s palms began to sweat, and they bound her wrists to each of the chair arms. Her nails settled against pre-carved grooves in the metal, ones that didn’t instill her with confidence of making it out of here alive. The light over her highlighted all the dirt streaks along her forearms, the slight pebbling of goosebumps, and the white of her knuckles as she gripped tight.

  “Since you can’t give an answer the civil way, we’ve been reduced to this route,” Alberich said, rolling up his sleeves, as if he might do any of the dirty work here. Danica soaked in the room, the big workstation at the end, featuring far too many drawers, the scuffs in the floor from where this chair must’ve slammed or been dragged around—anywhere but the monster who’d hurt so many people.

  A shadow coated her as one of the redcaps stepped before her, his meaty fingers wrapping around her pinky. Danica’s heels dug into the concrete when she reared back, but there was nowhere to go. She was strapped to this chair.

  “Where is the mirror?” Alberich repeated.

  Rage bloomed in Danica, something raw and furious, a blaze she couldn’t contain. “Your guess is as good as mine,” she forced out, keeping her tone level.

  The redcap bent her finger back, until—

  Snap.

  She saw white, but when she dropped back into her own body, that’s when the pain arrived. Her teeth hurt at the sheer agony rolling through from such a tiny spot, and her stomach spasmed. Bile rose in her throat, but she choked it down. Her finger screamed, the nauseating pain reverberating all the way up her arm.

  A knock sounded on the door.

  Alberich strode over to greet a selkie dressed in all-black butler’s attire. Danica blinked the liquid out of her eyes to get a better sight. She could barely force
herself to swallow while the two of them murmured in a low exchange. Alberich let out a sharp breath as he turned toward the redcaps, keeping his hand on the door.

  “I need to attend to some business. Kylar, you stay to keep watch over her. Samuel, Liere, follow me. We’ll continue this later.”

  With that, the other two redcaps departed after him, and the door clicked shut, the sound echoing around the room.

  That left her with the redcap who’d just broken her finger looming over. His mouth twisted in a wide smile, one revealing those jagged, jagged teeth. Danica was going to be sick.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Fremont Casino and Hotel was in full swing this time of night.

  Trevor led the approach toward the jangling sounds of the slots as people gambled away everything from their pennies to life’s savings. Overhead, a large tunnel stretched the entire length of the street, neon lights shifting above in even patterns, all fuchsias and sapphires. The crowds had grown so thick around here they could barely take a couple of steps forward without jostling someone else’s elbows. Trevor carved through with purpose.

  When he’d lived in Alberich’s manor, the entrance had been in a different part of the globe, but he knew what to look for. The red, rusted door that looked like a utility entrance.

  “Are you sure we should be marching through the front door?” Liz leaned in to ask him as they sliced their way through the crowds.

  “No other way to get in,” Trevor responded, scanning the walls of the casino. With all the flashing overhead lights of the red overhang and the big screen between the words Fremont and Casino, distraction came easily. Jett slipped past them to weave through the throngs of drunk assholes with a skill he envied. The siren could stealth like no one else.

  Jett veered toward the right side of the casino, and Trevor quickened his pace, smacking errant elbows and arms out of his way. Most of the crowds milled outside with drinks, laughing and chatting. The people here floated on the ease of vacation, so far away from the nerves prickling his skin, the alertness in the back of his throat, and the slight sickness past memories brought with every step closer.