Hypnotizing Beat

by Katherine McIntyre

  “What did he do?” Trevor asked, playing dumb. In a way, he didn’t have to—while he might’ve stolen the mirror, he still didn’t know the significance of the item they’d handed over to Kincaid. Danica played it cool, not even glancing to him. Whatever they had done, based on the panic in Jett’s eyes, he sure as shit wasn’t going to own up.

  “He had stolen the accords between the Seelie and Unseelie,” the King’s centaur said, his dark brows furrowing and his gaze filling with a cold fury. “If that wasn’t crime enough, he returned the mirror. Broken.”

  “What does that mean?” Danica asked even as horror descended in her eyes.

  The accords had been the rules set for their kind for centuries. They were the laws they stood by and the reason it wasn’t open poaching season between Unseelie and Seelie. Why they needed to act in the shadows. No one knew how the untenable laws were created or enforced, apart from the kings themselves, but those who violated them felt the weight of the old as bone magic.

  Trevor’s jaw dropped. “The accords are broken.”

  The King’s centaur gave him a grim nod in response. “The Seelie and Unseelie magic in the words carved onto the mirror enforced the accords throughout the years, bound together in an ancient spell. We’re hours, days away from the sort of lawlessness most of us have never witnessed. In our worst hour—when the hunters bang at our doors and invade our spaces—we will descend into pure bedlam.”

  Kincaid had known. The cocky bastard had smiled at them, used them to steal the item, and then did the deed in Alberich’s name. Trevor had been living outside of the fae community for so long the change wouldn’t impact him—at least, not at first. However, anyone who dwelled in the rigid Court system was in for an upheaval akin to a World War. For the King, this was the worst timing, but for any revolutionaries? With the hunters stirring up chaos, one rebel had seized the perfect moment.

  Now Trevor understood the panic in Jett’s eyes as clear as the freeway late at night. Kincaid tied their fates with his. If they wanted to continue their existence, no one could ever know they were the ones who stole the mirror from Alberich—that Kincaid broke it.

  The one man who could contest the statement lay dead on the ground.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like to set my sister free,” Danica announced. She emanated poise and coolness, snapping back to focus like the shock never hit her. “Alberich had her kidnapped so I’d come for her, since he placed a bounty over not only my head, but Trevor’s as well.” He could kiss her for covering their tracks.

  The King’s centaur nodded. Already, his focus had departed from them, and he trotted forward to examine Alberich’s body further. “Do what you’d like. We’re going to have to report to the King his enemy is dead.”

  “Let’s go,” Trevor said, placing a hand on Danica’s back as together they headed for the door and out of that bloodstained room. Jett loped close behind them, buzzing like a maniac. It wasn’t until they strode halfway down the hall that Jett whipped toward Danica.

  “What did you do?” he mouthed, fury flashing in his gaze.

  Her lips pressed tight together, and she shook her head. “I didn’t know what the item was either.”

  Trevor’s grip around her waist tightened as he stared Jett down. “Neither of us knew.”

  Jett ran a hand through his dark hair before letting out a sigh. “Well damn. Then we all got played. Ky and the others headed deeper into the building to look for you guys.”

  “We’re getting Lenora out of the cage,” Danica insisted, a heat in her voice he understood far too well. “He kept his fae locked in the ballroom.”

  Jett nodded and began to stride past them. “I’ll collect the rest of the band, and we’ll meet you there.” Within seconds, the siren launched off at a jog, probably wanting to run far and fast away from the centaur back there. Not like any of them could escape the truth of what they’d become complicit in.

  They set off down the hall after him at a quick pace.

  Danica looked up while they walked, those liquid eyes flickering with concern. “I’m sorry,” she said. “If I knew that’s what he had in mind, I would’ve never worked with Kincaid.”

  Trevor shook his head. “Don’t apologize. While I didn’t like his lack of transparency, I won’t be shedding any tears over some chaos ripping through the Courts. I’ve witnessed firsthand the corruption our kind can achieve with the system we had. It wasn’t working.” They turned the corner, closer to the place that held him prisoner for too many years.

  His stomach clenched, and he waited for the dizzying nausea to descend. However, Danica tightened her hold on his hand, squeezing tight when they approached the double doors. She was the tether he needed to fight the memories, something real and tangible to grasp onto.

  Trevor stepped forward and opened the doors.

  The ballroom looked the same as ever, all marble floors, delicate chandeliers that cast shadow and light in the same breath. The sterile environment washed over him. His heart accelerated, and the panic clawed at his chest.

  “Breathe,” Danica said, tugging him forward, deeper into the room. Even though she led the way, her palms had begun to sweat. She glanced back, meeting his gaze. “If you need to hang back, I understand.”

  Trevor sucked in a deep breath, and then another. Even though the panic squeezed him tighter and tighter until his breaths shallowed, he floated above it as if his mind detached from his body for the time being.

  “No, let’s do this.” He strode in along with her.

  “Don’t suppose you brought a lockpick?” Danica asked as they stepped closer to the cages. All eyes zeroed in on the two of them, most of the faces unfamiliar. Many of the ones who’d been imprisoned alongside Trevor had eventually found a way to take their own lives. The gilt edging on the wall, and the paintings along the far reaches of the room were ones he’d memorized. These tiles, he didn’t just feel them beneath his soles, they plucked a chord deep inside him, one that sent terror rushing through anew.

  Trevor pulled out his lockpick. “Yeah, I came prepared to bust you out.”

  Even if he hadn’t spotted the honey blonde hair of Danica’s sister, he could’ve gauged where Lenora was by the beeline Danica made toward her. They reached the cage within seconds, their footsteps echoing through this vast room. Everything echoed here, especially memories.

  “You’re okay?” Lenora’s voice held a thickness, and her lip trembled as they approached. Those glossy eyes filled with tears.

  Danica nodded, but he didn’t miss the way she shifted the hand with her broken finger behind her back. Instead, she gave her sister a bright grin. “Ding-dong, the megalomaniac asshole is dead.”

  Trevor stepped up to the lock and slipped the pick inside. Lenora’s gaze glittered, first from tears, which fast turned to curiosity as she stared at him.

  “Is this the guy?” she asked Danica.

  “Yeah,” Danica responded. The softness in her voice stroked his heart. He didn’t think he’d ever get sick of hearing vulnerability from her, the way she let him in past her mile-high walls when so few did.

  He cracked open the cage door and tossed the lock to the ground with an audible clang reverberating around the room. “You’re free, Lenora.”

  The word resonated in him like the last note of a song. Free. Everyone in this room would be free.

  While Danica threw her arms around her sister, Trevor’s legs already carried him toward the others locked away. With quick twists of the pick inside those padlocks, soon, more doors to cages opened. Soon, more fae stepped out from their confinement, some, for the first time in years.

  Even though his brain had numbed with the overload of everything that happened, of being here in this place, Trevor moved swiftly through the ballroom. One by one, he set all the fae free, even if the motions grew mechanical and his mind numbed. Footsteps pounded around him, low murmurs and the sound of weeping. Sometimes, they’d throw their arms around him in a fast embrace, so
overwhelmed at taking those first steps outside of the cage. Other times, they shuffled off without a word, too broken to respond.

  Yet if someone as broken as him could begin to heal, they had hope too.

  Kieran entered the ballroom first, followed by Jett, Renn, and Liz, their footsteps louder than the rest. Ky caught sight of him and waved at once, gold eyes flashing as he directed the others over. Renn stomped through, scuffing the marble floor, and Liz fired off a salute to Danica who strode forward with Lenora close behind. A bright smile plastered onto Danica’s face, one that finally reached her heartbreaker green eyes.

  Trevor stood in the center of this ballroom that had broken him, but as he soaked in the faces of these people he loved, the ones he cared about so deeply, he took in one, real breath. For a single moment, his feet settled on the floor again. Fae rushed around him, heading for the doors as fast as they could limp or run, fae who he’d set free.

  Alberich’s reign of terror had ended.

  At last, Trevor could start his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  By the time Trevor stumbled out of bed, Danica had already drank three cups of coffee and busted out the laptop to respond to company emails. She glanced to him from her perch on the booth inside the band’s RV. His silver hair was mussed, and he didn’t bother tossing on a shirt, giving her a perfect view of those sculpted abs, and the v that carved into a trim waist. He’d slung a loose pair of jeans on and fumbled with his belt when he approached.

  Danica licked her lips at the sight of him, her libido revving like they hadn’t spent the last week fucking in every available place they could find, preferably outside of this confined box on wheels. A week had passed since the confrontation with Alberich. A week since both the Unseelie and Seelie Courts descended into mass panic after their accords had dissolved.

  Trevor slumped into the seat beside her, still blinking the sleep from his eyes. “Don’t you ever rest?” he asked, even as he slung his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight to him. The possessive way he clung to her every chance he got was something she didn’t realize she’d love, something she’d lived without for all these years, never understanding what she missed out on.

  “I’m a robot,” she responded, continuing to finish her email. “We just get plugged in for a few hours. Sleep is for you weak bags of flesh.”

  He snorted and stole a sip from her cup of coffee. “Is Lenora staying in Vegas for a while?” he asked.

  Danica nodded, signing the email and sending it off. “Once I explained the situation, Melrose hired her back. It’s a lucrative spot for her here, and she won’t be too far from my main office in San Francisco.” Danica passed him a pointed look. “Let’s be honest, if I stayed in the RV 24/7, I’m certain someone would slit my throat in my sleep, most likely you. Besides, we’re both the independent sort.”

  He leaned in to press a kiss against her temple. Winter’s breath, the affection was addictive. “I’m not arguing,” he responded. “You’ve got a business to run, the same as we have our tours. As long as you don’t mind the occasional visitor at your San Francisco office.”

  Danica grinned, the sort she felt deep in her chest. “And I’ll be joining you on some of those tours when I feel like working remote. You’ll be stuck with me for this next stretch.”

  “Perfect,” he said, before stealing another sip from her coffee.

  Danica grabbed her mug from his hands. “You keep drinking this and there’ll be nothing left. There’s more in the pot over there.” His deep, rumbling laugh vibrated against her, and she couldn’t help her smile in response. She gave his chest a gentle thwack. The scent of hickory and leather drifted over her, and she took a deep inhale. Even though she’d spent a long time bouncing from place to place, staying light and superficial, she recognized the scent—home.

  The RV door creaked open. Jett and Liz scampered up the steps followed by Kieran and Renn. As they’d each gotten up in the morning, they left the RV to finish their last-minute stops in Vegas, whether a quick grocery run or grabbing more razors in the CVS. Today, they were leaving for the next stop along their tour, down to Phoenix, Arizona, and Danica would be traveling with them.

  “I smell fish,” Kieran complained as they tromped up the steps.

  “It’s all that pussy you’re missing out on by being monogamous,” Jett retorted, hauling the overfull plastic grocery bags up the steps. “Some of us have more refined palates.”

  “Seriously? Seafood is disgusting.” Kieran grabbed the offending package of tilapia from Jett’s stash.

  “Then don’t eat it, babe,” Liz responded with an exasperated sigh. “Maybe the rest of us want fish.”

  “I put up with the lot of you sneaking smokes,” Renn pointed out. “I think you can handle a single night of seafood.”

  Kieran made gagging noises and marched his way to where they sat at the booth. Danica snorted and shared a glance with Trevor. Ky’s intense gaze shot their way.

  “And you two—I haven’t gotten any sleep this past week,” he said, fixing them with a glare.

  Trevor cocked a brow. “Payback, brother. I’ve been bunking under you and Liz for far too long.”

  Danica ran fingers through her combed and coiffed strands. “The lot of you are so codependent a therapist would throw her clipboard out the window. I don’t know how any of you deal with this arrangement long term.”

  “Tell me about it,” Liz said, leaning against the counter. She cast a glance Danica’s way, her hazel eyes twinkling in amusement. Somehow, after everything that went down the past couple of weeks, the rift between them had healed. Warmth burned in her chest like cinnamon schnapps at the camaraderie this bunch brought. At the hope for a future she’d found in Trevor, a refuge from this cruel, chaotic world.

  Jett rapped his knuckles on the counter once he finished packing away their groceries into the mini-fridge and pull out pantry. “Does anyone need any last-minute things before we head out? This is the final chance.”

  “Yeah, I could use a break from the sound of your voice,” Kieran muttered, in a peach of a mood.

  Jett flashed him a vindictive grin. “Acid jazz, it is.” At that, Trevor, Renn, and Liz all groaned in response.

  Kieran shrugged. “Your drive, your choice.”

  Jett lifted a hand in salute as he headed up front. A moment later, the RV rumbled to life, the thrum of the engine traveling across the floor. Anticipation hummed in her veins, more of a jolt than the dozens of cups of coffee she downed during the day. For so long, she’d been on the opposite side of the window, watching cozy scenes. When she’d first met the crew of Discord’s Desire, it had been like that, seeing this comfortable crew bicker like kids while she skated on the superficial.

  The Otherworld might be in uproar, Kincaid might have disappeared for a while, and she might be on the road, but this time, she wasn’t alone.

  Danica was traveling with the crew of Discord’s Desire. With the man she loved. Their gazes locked, and even though the words stuck in her throat, she’d save them for whatever private time they could carve out. Not like it mattered. She saw the love shining when his dark eyes crinkled in affection. She felt that love with the way his long fingers stroked across her back, a mere touch from him making her shiver.

  Renn snagged the last of the coffee from the pot, causing protest from Liz, and a fight broke out anew as the two argued over who was the last one to brew. Danica rolled her eyes and settled against the booth, curling into Trevor’s warmth. The RV creaked, and then Jett jammed on the pedal, causing the behemoth to shoot across the asphalt.

  She stared out the window at the lot that had been their home base during the crew’s stay in Vegas. They passed the other RVs camped along the stretch, the couple of cars filtered amidst them, and with a mighty rumble, they set onto the freeway. As they launched onto the highway amidst the cars, trucks, and unending expanse of gray, Danica’s heart grew lighter and lighter in her chest. A giddiness swept over her, one her
life of guarded responsibility hadn’t allowed.

  However, she was here with Trevor, with this crew, with a brand-new life set out before her. And today? They were going on an adventure.

  The End

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