by H. D. Gordon
Then the stranger dropped my hand, letting go of his hold on me and blinking up at me as if confused as to why I was still standing there.
I drew a sharp breath and blinked, looking into a gaze that was once more glazed and distant. Whatever I’d thought I’d seen there was gone. I took a step back. Then another.
The man’s eyes closed and he rested his head back down on the dark pavement, paying me not a bit of mind. I turned on my heels, glancing over my shoulder twice before quickly continuing on my way.
Before I was out of earshot, I heard the man mumble, “Child of Immortals and men.”
I went straight home after that.
A couple days passed, and I all but forgot about the strange encounter in the park.
My body healed more with every passing hour, and by Friday that week, I was in pretty good condition.
Good enough to go out and fight some crime, anyway.
Things in Grant City had been quiet, and I had no doubt that this was because The Masked Maiden had put a major dent in the crime rates. After nearly two years of beating up bad guys, they’d finally seemed to get the message, and with all the things I had to stress over recently, I’ll admit that this little win made me feel good.
As my friends still had no idea about my impending and permanent departure, they’d been happy to carry on as usual, assisting me in my crime-fighting efforts.
Remy and Raven had returned from their romantic getaway, and we’d begun traveling the sixty or so miles over to Benton—a city to the south that was not quite as big or highly populated as Grant City. Benton sat right on the shoreline, and was a port for all types of waterway transactions. Though it wasn’t as massive as Grant City, it was plenty big enough to have its own share of problems.
So when Remy suggested we take our efforts there, I’d seen no reason to object.
I’d told Thomas that I would tell them all soon about my deal with Saleos, and I would…just not yet. I understood where he was coming from, but it was my choice when to tell them, and I would do it in my own time. He would just have to deal with that.
It was the last bit of control I felt I had over things, and I refused to feel guilty over wanting to hang onto some shreds of normalcy in what was most likely to be my last days with all of them.
I was in my apartment, getting ready to head over to the warehouse that served as our base, when a knock sounded on my door. I read the aura signature and told him to enter. Thomas did so with a look on his face that made me sigh.
I turned back toward the trunk where I kept my magical staff, tucking the weapon into the holster on the back of my jacket.
“Hey there, handsome,” I said.
Thomas kissed me on my forehead, making my heart flutter. He folded his muscular arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall in that coolly casual way of his.
“Did you tell her?” he asked.
I bit back a groan, busying myself in the trunk, strapping on the last of my gear. Swinging the stupidly high-tech cape Matt had made me over my shoulders, I finally met his gaze. “Not yet,” I said.
“Aria,” Thomas sighed.
I felt my back stiffening and took a deep breath to sooth it. “I said I will, and I will.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
“Time is running out.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“If you do, you don’t seem too worried about it.”
There was nothing I could do to keep my back from rising now. “It’s my choice, so just lay off.”
Thomas snorted, pushing off the wall, still so attractive even when he was being annoying. “That’s very selfish,” he said.
My eyes narrowed. “No, it’s not. It’s selfish of you to keep pushing me about it.”
We never fought. We never even argued, not really, and so the feeling that came over me then was unexpected, but I was getting angry, and I didn’t need to read his aura to know that he was, too.
“You’re not the only one this impacts,” Thomas said, his voice tight and low.
I sucked my teeth, my voice rising in pitch. “Okay, but I’m pretty sure that I’m the one it impacts the most, so you’ll have to forgive me if I think I should be the one to make the decision regarding when I tell everyone in my life and change everything.”
Thomas opened his mouth to say something, and his aura had me cringing before any words even came out. Then, he shut it again. Shook his head, and turned toward the wall, giving me his wide back, bracing himself with his palms and resting his forehead against the old wallpaper. He was silent for so long that I thought I could hear my heart creaking.
At last, he released a heavy breath. “You’re wrong,” he told me, still turned away, not meeting my eyes. “It doesn’t impact you the most. You’ll be gone, but I’ll still be here. Sam, Matt… We’ll all still be here. We’ll feel your loss every day… I’ll feel it every moment.”
My eyes started to burn, and I balled my hands into fists to keep the tears at bay. When Thomas turned to face me, I was glad for the mask that covered the top of my face, glad that it wicked away the single tear that escaped.
“Don’t you get it?” Thomas said, hazel eyes pinning me. “The leaving is always easier than the staying behind.”
I wanted to go to him, to take him into my arms, to rest my head on his strong chest and listen to the beating of his heart. But I knew if I did that, the pieces of myself that I’d been barely holding together these past six months would crumble, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fit them back again.
So instead, I pulled my dark hood over my head, casting myself into shadows, becoming the other version of myself, the one who kicked ass and took names, the one who got the job done.
“I have to go,” I said, and left him standing there in my apartment.
Chapter Three
Normally, the wind had a way of clearing my head, but we were halfway to Benton by the time I was finally able to shake Thomas from my mind.
Of course, the way I’d left things made me feel like a real buttwipe, but I couldn’t have stayed. I might have said something I didn’t mean. In my experience, it was usually better to put some space between things before dealing with them head-on.
Raven noticed my state immediately, but the Succubus waited until we were alone to bring it up. We’d just landed on a rooftop in Benton, having flown here in Remy’s arms. The Demi-God was efficient at scaring the crap out of Raven on the flights, but as a Half Fae, I loved flying. My lack of wings had always been a sore spot with me.
Benton was an older city, with railroad tracks cutting through the center and suburbs that grew endlessly. I stood at the edge of the rooftop we’d landed on. Raven stood beside me, pushing her silky ebony hair over her shoulder.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
I raised my brows at her, and she snorted.
“You know there’s no point in lying to me,” she added. “You and Thomas get into it?”
I sighed. “Yeah, sort of.”
“What could Mr. Perfect have done wrong?” she joked.
I shook my head. “Nothing. He never does anything wrong.”
Raven waited in silence.
“We just disagree about something,” I said.
To my surprise, Raven slipped an arm around my shoulder. While we had become real friends over the past year, the Succubus wasn’t usually the warm and comforting type.
“Would you like me to suck out his soul and spit it out in the Wastelands?” she asked, giving my shoulder a small squeeze.
I sputtered a laugh. There was the Raven I knew.
“I think that might be a little extreme,” I told her.
She tipped me a wink, releasing her hold on me. “Well, the offer is on the table if you change your mind.”
“What offer?” Remy asked, joining us after his scan of the area.
Raven gave him a look that made me slightly uncomfortable. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
The two of them were so obsessed with each other that I couldn’t help a smile. The good part about being an Empath and an aura reader was that I could just as easily absorb good emotions as I could bad ones, and both the Demi-God and the Succubus were steeped in them.
I needed to apologize to Thomas, I decided. As soon as I got back.
But, first…
“What’s on the agenda tonight, team?” I said, fisting my hands and putting them at my hips, earning a chuckle from Remy and an amused eye roll from Raven.
“Let’s go fight some crime,” Remy said.
That familiar rush of adrenaline overcame me, and I smiled. “Let’s.”
“Stupid bitch,” the man snarled.
I rolled my eyes. “Always with the b-word. You bad guys are not very creative.”
Ducking, I dodged the man’s fist easily, catching his wrist and twisting, making him double over in pain. “Say you’re sorry,” I said.
He let out a string of curses.
I twisted his arm again, spinning his body so that I had both wrists behind his back. With a sweep of my leg, he was on his belly on the ground. In the next few seconds, I had him hog-tied with expert efficiency.
When he kept on with the name-calling, I gagged him as well.
“ETA?” I asked.
Sam’s voice spoke through the earpiece. “The police are three minutes out. Good work, A.”
I nodded, dusting my hands and scaling the building beside me, so I could watch the perp from above until the authorities arrived. Once I made it to the roof, I took a seat on the edge, swinging my legs over so that my boots dangled above where I’d left the hog-tied goon.
“While we’re waiting,” Sam said, “you wanna talk about what happened with you and Thomas?”
She’d probably been listening through the communication device in my suit when Raven and I had been talking.
I let out a low breath. “No, not really.”
Silence held the line. Red and blue lights flashed as two patrol cars rounded the corner.
Sam said, “Okay.”
In that one word, guilt flooded through me. Sam was my best friend, but how could I tell her that Thomas and I had been fighting over the fact that I wasn’t telling her stuff? I couldn’t. Not yet.
“Why don’t we call it a night,” Sam added when it was clear that I was not going to elaborate.
I met up with Remy and Raven, and a few minutes later, we were sailing through the skies. Since the two now shared an apartment between Benton and Grant City, Remy dropped Raven off at their place before taking me home. I held tight around his neck as he cradled me in his arms.
As the wind tugged at my hood and cape, Remy asked, “You want to talk about it?”
My gut reaction was to say no, and I knew that if I did, Remy would let the subject drop and not bother me about it again. Perhaps this was precisely the reason I said yes.
And once I got going, it was like opening the floodgates, so much so that instead of taking me home, Remy took us to one of my favorite perches in Grant City, an old bell tower that sat high above a church. As the lights of the city glittered around us, I told him everything. Other than Thomas, he was the only one of my friends who knew about the deal with Saleos. Unlike Thomas, he hadn’t pestered me about it.
“Poor guy,” Remy said when I finally took a breath in between my venting.
My jaw hung open. “Poor guy? That’s your input? What about me? I’m the one who’s going to die.”
Remy nodded, brows raised on his perfect face. “Yeah, and he’s the one who will mourn you when you’re gone. You know what it’s like to lose people you love. Which one do you think is worse?”
I narrowed my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest, and earned a low chuckle.
“You’re only mad because I’m right…because you know Thomas was right.”
I scoffed, but didn’t bother denying it.
Remy slipped an arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him, staring down at my booted feet, dangling a hundred feet from the ground.
“I’m…I guess I’m just afraid,” I admitted.
Remy laughed. “No shit! Now, was that so hard?”
I couldn’t help a smile. “Ugh. Why do I even talk to you?”
He tilted his head, dark hair falling into his face. “Because I’m devilishly handsome and charmingly irresistible. Duh.”
Nudging him with my shoulder, I released a sigh. “Okay. You’re right, and so is Thomas. I’ll tell the others.”
“Ready to go home?”
No.
“Yes,” I said.
Chuckling, the Demi-God scooped me up into his arms and shot up into the sky before I could change my mind.
When I got back to my apartment, I went to Thomas’s door and knocked, but there was no answer.
I checked the roof, and found it empty. Kicking myself for being so immature earlier, I waited a little while for him to return before finally just going to my own apartment and unfolding my bed from the wall.
Then I threw myself across it and ignored the groaning of my belly only to drift off to sleep. By the grace of the Gods, I didn’t dream. When I awoke, the sun was peeking through the window, heralding in another Saturday morning…. What could be one of my last Saturday mornings.
“Don’t start with that gloomy shit,” I mumbled to myself as I made my way into the bathroom to take care of business.
When I emerged, I dressed, ate, and knocked on Thomas’s door again. No answer. I went to the roof, and found it still empty. My mood plummeted. I vowed that I would never walk away with things strained between us again. I hated this feeling.
“He’s punishing me,” I mumbled to myself as I made my way out of the building. I had to waitress at the restaurant this evening, and I needed the tips, but I was going to need to run some of this energy off if I hoped to keep a smile on my face while serving customers. I stepped out onto the street… and nearly collided with someone.
“Who’s punishing you?” asked a familiar voice.
I looked up and blinked, staring at the Vampire I hadn’t seen in almost a year.
“Vivian?” I said. “What are you doing here?”
She raised a brow. “Standing on your doorstep? Wouldn’t one assume I’m looking for you?”
Vivian Night. Vampire and uptight Peace Broker. We’d had our disagreements when we’d first met, with her being the follow-the-rules type and me clearly being the rule-breaker, but somewhere along the way, we’d actually become friends.
“Hey, Aria,” said another familiar voice, and it was then that I noticed the sleek black car parked by the curve, out of place in my rundown neighborhood.
My heart skipped a beat in my chest, and a flood of emotions rushed through me.
“Hey, Nick,” I said.
“We need to talk,” Vivian told me.
The Vampire glanced around as she said this, keeping her voice low. I didn’t need to read her aura to know that something was wrong.
“Okay,” I said, turning back toward my apartment building. “Come inside and—”
“No,” Vivian interrupted. “Not here. They could be watching.”
Now my interest was more than piqued, but I had a feeling that I was about to be dragged into something that would not be a surprise vacation to Hawaii.
Twenty minutes later, we were at a small coffee shop in one of the more upscale parts of Grant City. The place had a quaint and rustic feel, with low ceilings, walls of stained wood, and exposed pipes that had been painted a matte black. The three of us took a seat at one of the empty tables near the back. I didn’t fail to notice that both Vivian and Nick did a thorough scan of the surroundings.
“Okay,” I said again, once we’d gotten our drinks. “Now tell me what’s going on, because from the looks of your auras, it’s nothing good.”
Nick gave me a curious look, brows furrowing and raising slightly. Nick Ramhart was also a Halfling Fae—meaning that he was also half human, the
same as me. This also meant that he shared my aura reading ability, and I’d known him long enough to recognize when he was reading me.
I could only imagine what he was seeing. Guilt, fear, sadness. I gave my head a small shake, letting him know that I did not want to talk about it right now, and in true Nick fashion, he let it drop.
If Vivian noticed the exchange, she didn’t acknowledge it. “We’re no longer with the Brokers,” the Halfling Vamp said.
I blinked, taking a moment to absorb this. Of all the things I’d expected them to reveal, this was not one of them. After I processed this, a torment of emotions played through me. I remembered what it felt like when I’d first been excommunicated from the Peace Brokers. I remembered how alone I’d felt, how afraid.
“What happened?” I asked.
Vivian’s fangs peeked out over her lips as she spoke, her voice low enough that if I didn’t have super hearing, it would not have been audible. “We were getting too Gods damned close, that’s what,” she said.
Nick released a low sigh, but left Vivian to explain, ever the stoic observer.
I looked between the two of them, feeling a surprise pang of jealousy when I noticed how close they were sitting. What the hell had happened since the last time we’d talked?
“Too close to what?” I asked.
“To figuring out what they’ve really been up to, figuring out what it is the Peace Brokers really do.”
I swallowed, my pulse speeding up despite the fact that I’d thought I’d left all of this behind me. Images of a lab full of Halflings, of a crazed blue beast, of a city where secrets were the currency passed through my mind. I suppressed a shiver, my hands clenched into fists under the table.
Now I was the one glancing around nervously.
I didn’t want to ask. Deep in my gut, some part of me—a really big part, if I was being honest—wanted to tell them both that whatever they were up to, it had nothing to do with me, that I couldn’t help them, that I had my own troubles to deal with.
