“Come again?” Isaac dropped his fork. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“I work for the conclave.” His jaw muscles fluttered. “Off the books.”
His admission blasted apart the quiet like a bullet shot from a gun rigged with a silencer.
Isaac’s blank expression helped the word pop out of my mouth on his behalf. “What?”
“They know about me, about you, about Cam.” He wet his lips. “They’ve known for a while now. Since we were sixteen.”
That didn’t mean much to me, but it jolted Isaac. “That’s the first time you left.”
“First time we spent a night apart,” Theo agreed. “Weird as hell being out there alone.”
“The conclave dispatched you on a mission when you were sixteen?” I’d known they were messed up, but not that whacked. “What did you do?”
Theo didn’t answer, and Isaac cursed under his breath.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Isaac shoved off the bed. “Why did you go through this alone?”
“What was I supposed to do? Tell Mom? Tell you? Or Cam? What good would that have done any of us? Cam has no idea what I can do. She knows I’m glitchy, but not even Mom knows I’m a full-on chameleon. Me and you, that’s it. We’re the only ones with any idea what I’m capable of, and I wanted to keep it that way.” He rubbed his hand across his mouth. “A magistrate came to me with footage of us shifting. Over and over. Different days, different times, different aspects. Things no Gemini ought to be able to do. They’d been watching us for a long time.”
Something told me if Cam hadn’t been fully aware of the precision of Theo’s shifts, she had an inkling now. How could she not when she’d signed off on him impersonating me at Macon? Thierry must have made a solid argument, or Cam wouldn’t have agreed to the switch.
“What was the deal?” Isaac gritted his teeth. “There had to be one. You wouldn’t have folded otherwise.”
“They got me, and I got a promise they’d keep their hands off you and Cam.” Bitter laughter swelled in him. “After all that, she walked right into their arms.” He pointed at Isaac. “I kept you safe, though. That counts for something.”
Isaac covered his face with his hands and rubbed until I worried the skin would slough off him.
“Cam loves her job.” It needed saying. “She might have gone to them, but she did it on her own terms.”
“That’s what I tell myself too. I hope we’re both right.” Theo’s gaze skittered toward Isaac. “Are you giving me the silent treatment now?”
“All this time, I envied you. I thought you were out there living the Gemini dream, and I told myself it didn’t matter how much it hurt Mom—how much it hurt me—when you skipped holidays or didn’t call for months. We thought being on the move kept you safe, and that was all that mattered.” Isaac shook his head. “You were never safe. What kind of brother does it make me that I didn’t pick up on that? We’re twins. Identical freaking twins, and I didn’t know.”
“It’s not your fault.” Theo tried for a smile that fell flat. “I worked hard to keep you in the dark. Figured you thinking I was an ass for not coming home more often was better than reminding them you were there, an untapped resource they could take over my dead body.”
Isaac crossed to Theo, fists clenched, and his brother stood there waiting for the blows to land. I bit my lip to keep from calling Isaac back or maybe to warn Theo to run, but the explosion of violence never erupted. Isaac hauled his brother in for an awkward hug that left Theo’s eyes shimmering.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “I did what I had to do to protect the family. I did what you would have done.”
Their rivalry had been a sore topic for as long as I’d known Isaac. I hadn’t understood the depth or boundaries of it until recently, and this conversation turned all that upside down. The brother Isaac had envied wasn’t the person he thought he was and hadn’t been in a long time. From where I sat, there wasn’t a whole lot to envy, and I was betting Isaac had come to the same painful conclusion.
“You did good.” Isaac withdrew at last. “No one will blame you for what you’ve done, but you need to come clean to Mom and Cam.” He hesitated a beat, and I could see it killed him to ask, “Cam doesn’t already know, does she?”
“No.” Theo shook his head. “Another one of my rules.”
Isaac exhaled, and the tension ratcheting his shoulders higher eased. “Glad to know it’s not just me left out of the loop.”
“Keeping secrets is a family tradition, right?” Theo huffed under his breath. “It’s what us Cahills do best.”
“I think I’ll go for a walk.” I loaded up my dinner and palmed my water bottle. “You guys talk it out.”
“It’s too dangerous out there.” Isaac crowded me. “You stay. Eat. We’ll take the first watch.”
Annoyance that he was protecting me again flared, but I snuffed it out fast. Protective was Isaac’s default, and right now he was running on autopilot while he digested the information Theo was feeding him. The brothers had issues to resolve, and it needed to happen before we got home. I wanted Isaac’s head clear before his distraction cost him. Even if the price was me playing damsel for a few hours.
“Okay.” I accepted the kiss he pressed to my cheek. “Watch each other’s backs out there.”
The boys flashed me near-identical smiles and left me to gorge while they patrolled the streets.
I flopped on the bed and started shoveling in grub since there was no one to judge me. A remote control for the boxy, ancient television in the corner sat within arm’s reach, and I couldn’t resist the urge to press the power button for old time’s sake.
Imagine my surprise when it powered up, and staticky voices poured forth. I might not be Isaac, but TVs spoke my language. Or I spoke theirs. Once I finished both helpings of my dinner, I set about searching for a signal using the ancient rabbit ears hanging on by a frayed cord and a scrap of tinfoil salvaged from my to-go box.
Maybe Isaac wouldn’t be the only one with news to share when he returned.
Chapter 8
My eyeballs had developed a sleepy film by the time Isaac crept back into our room. Much to my surprise, I’d found two emergency stations operating on basic television channels, and I couldn’t tear myself away from the streaming reports.
“Have you slept at all?” Isaac joined me on the bed, gaze riveted to the screen with the kind of hunger that spoke of his tech addiction and how painful the withdrawals must be for him. “I see you polished off our leftovers.”
“You left a hungry wolf in a room with two half-eaten boxes of food.” I crawled down to sit at the foot of the bed beside him. “What did you think would happen?”
“This proves your theory.” The screen commanded his full attention. “There’s more out there than we realized.” He swept his hand around the room. “Fae settlements are going to come through this okay. It’s all-human towns who’ll have to worry about rebuilding from the ground up.”
“I’m shocked the television is working. This place isn’t exactly the Four Seasons, you know?”
“I’ve got a theory about that,” he murmured. “Electronic devices that belong to fae would have been subjected to residual magic daily. In a place like this? Crawling with fae of all types? Magic would have seeped into the walls and floors too. Even the glamour used to conceal the place would have insulated it from the surge that much more.”
“So towns like this one are our future cities,” I joked, sort of.
“Magicked generators are supplying the hotel with power.” He gestured between the TV and the overhead lights. “I got the owner to show me the basement. He set them up as a backup for when severe weather rolls through. They kicked on automatically about five minutes after the surge passed and have been running ever since.”
“Gas?”
He shook his head. “The tank’s empty.”
“Then what…?”
“That’s the question, isn’t it?�
� A small laugh escaped him. “Magic is…magic. Who can predict what effect long-term exposure will have on electronics—on all of us.”
“The anchorwoman on Channel 2 is claiming there are reports of latents with access to their powers.”
“It makes sense.” He ran a hand through his hair. “We crossed paths with a marshal who claimed he’d answered as many calls about humans in sudden possession of magical powers as he had fae disturbances.”
“Not human-humans, though.” That would make life interesting. “You’re talking about latents? People with magic in their blood?”
“There’s no way to know,” he admitted. “The marshals don’t keep tabs on the humans except to make sure fae aren’t eating them. We probably won’t know how widespread the effect is for a long time yet.”
“Great.” I massaged my forehead. “That means a whole segment of the population will have to be taught how to use their powers.”
Or they’d have to be put down. The fae took care of their own, and that was true of most supernatural factions. But humans wouldn’t know what to do with the afflicted. They would have no means of determining how much magic was too much, no point of reference to determine if they would be a danger to themselves or others. Someone would have to step into the gap before humanity did what it did best and exterminated them. Genocide was nothing new, but mass casualties on this scale…
“Something tells me the conclave will be willing to step into the breach.” Isaac scratched his thumb over the rubber buttons on the remote, an old habit we would all have to break since there were only two channels to flip between and both fed the same loop. “Not only are fae on Earth historically their domain, but with the fae being forced to come out to humanity this way, they’re going to want to be seen as the heroes. They’ll want these ‘enhanced’ humans to trust them and believe they’re safe accepting their aid.”
“It’s a smart move.” I doubted anyone else would be as quick to stick out their neck. Unless of course the surge affected wargs and other factions in the same way. We had thousands of pack mates across the country unable to shift due to their diluted blood as wargs interbred with humans. Those people would be given food, shelter and welcomed into their birth packs as full members. Basic rights that had been denied them when they hit puberty and couldn’t go wolfy. “This just keeps getting messier and messier.”
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. Not really.” He glanced over at me. “It doesn’t feel real.”
“There’s still this ticking time bomb in my gut that’s urging me back to Butler. It’s more than wanting to go home or reconnect with the pack.” I leaned my head on his shoulder. “It still feels like if we can just get home, things will be okay. But things won’t be better there. All signs point to them being worse.”
“The rift is gone. We can’t sew it shut and stuff fae through the seams.” He rested his head against mine. “This isn’t going away. This is our new reality.”
Staccato knocks on the door interrupted our quiet moment, and Theo ducked into our room without waiting for permission.
“We have to go.” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “Now.”
“What’s wrong?” Isaac started shoving his belongings back into his pack. “Riots?”
“There are Aves swarming the Unseelie bazaar across town.” Theo tipped his chin in my direction. “They’re asking if anyone’s seen a redheaded warg traveling with two fae men.”
“Aves?” I shoved my shoes into my bag. There was no point pulling them on. “Aren’t those giant bird-things?”
A vague recollection of them tickled my brain from when I had been studying up on alkonosts, but it all blurred after a while. Alkonosts, sirens, harpies… Seen one half-man, half-bird, seen ’em all.
“They’re half-man, half-crow,” Isaac answered. “The Morrigan bred them in Faerie.”
“How do you know that?” Theo sounded impressed. “They’re pretty obscure entries in fae lore.”
“I read most of Dell’s fae reference books while she was recovering.” Isaac took me by the hand and led me into the hall. “I paid close attention to all entries affiliated with the Morrigan.”
“Okay.” Theo’s tone said he still wasn’t grasping why Isaac had paid particular attention to the death goddess and her minions.
The skin under Isaac’s left eye twitched. “I released the Morrigan while we were in Faerie.”
Theo made a strangled noise. “You did what?”
I squeezed Isaac’s fingers in support. “Rook assured me he had means of controlling her.”
“He told you that—” Theo eyed me like I’d sprouted a second head, “—and you believed him?”
“What’s done is done,” Isaac cut in. “At the rate things are going, adding a death goddess into the mix won’t be the worst thing that happens to this world.”
“Priorities,” I agreed. “First we save the world. Then we worry about ridding it of pesky death goddesses.”
We burst onto the darkened street where the Huntsman waited with his hounds. His pale glow had dimmed further, and he looked dead on his feet. I estimated he’d had about four hours’ rest, and it was clear that hadn’t been enough to refuel him.
“How’s it going, big guy?” I patted his cheek. “Can you keep up?”
A grunt answered me, the kind kids made when their mothers fetched them for school in the mornings.
“Those Aves things mean one of two things. Either the Morrigan is pissed we helped her son capture her, and she wants her pound of flesh. Or Rook was using them to get a message to us.” Since the king trusted no one, I was leaning more toward option one. “Okay, maybe three things. Rook has to put on a show for Rilla. He might have sent the Aves to flush us out so they can recapture Tibs.”
Theo cocked his head. “Tibs?”
“Tiberius.” I grabbed the Huntsman by the shoulders and shook him. “The prince we went into Faerie to rescue?”
The blood drained from Theo’s cheeks. “Where is he?”
“At the stone house in Butler as far as we know.” Isaac closed in to keep our conversation private. “We haven’t had contact with him since the day after the magic surge. That’s when he left.”
“Leandra,” Theo sighed. “He went back for her, didn’t he?”
“Yep.” I jabbed the Huntsman in the shoulder to no avail. “This isn’t working. He’s down for the count.”
“We need to get out of town.” Theo waded through his shock long enough for his brain to kick in. “Monahans Sandhills State Park is about thirty miles away. We can crash there.”
“How do we get the big guy there?” The ancient fae was weaving on his feet after being poked one too many times. “Ideas?”
“I can handle him,” Theo volunteered. “Isaac needs to save the aspects he’s got left.”
With that, he walked out into the middle of the street and braced his feet apart. His change came slower than Isaac’s. The only way I can think to describe it is to say it was deliberate, as though he rearranged each individual muscle and bone to fit what he had in mind. In under five minutes, a muscular black horse stamped a front hoof.
What were the odds he’d pulled a púca aspect out of his hat? Isaac must have enlightened him about our adventures in Faerie.
“Did that blow your mind?” I asked Isaac. “That totally blew my mind.”
The crinkle of irritation smoothed off his face in seconds, but I caught the flash of annoyance.
Old habits were hard to break, but he’d crack that one given time.
“Not Theo.” I pinched the tender meat of his inner arm over his “horsefly” bite, and he jerked. “The fact he shifted in the middle of the street, and nobody cares. No one looked twice. How wild is that?”
“This is the fae side of town,” he said, posture relaxing. “They probably see this every day.”
The man had a point. “Party pooper.”
Maybe old habits were harder to kick than I’d first thought.
A lo
ud squawk rang down the street, the cry picked up by three more voices.
“Oh crap.” Panic fluttered in my chest. “There’s no time for me to shift.” I shoved Isaac toward the scattered hounds. “Go with Theo. I’ll find someplace safe to change and catch up to you later.”
“Not happening.” Isaac flung his arms out to his sides as his skin grayed and pebbled. “You’re coming with me.” Enormous wings burst from his spine, and he flexed them experimentally. “Don’t move.” He crossed to the Huntsman, hefted him over his shoulder then deposited him on Theo’s back before popping the horse hard on the rump. “We’ll be right behind you.”
The horse hopped forward then kicked out, nearly clipping Isaac on the stone chin with his hooves.
Guess he didn’t care for love taps.
“Enough.” I hauled Isaac back. “They’re coming.”
Ears twitching, Theo took off at a gallop. The hounds followed, weaving between his legs until I had to swallow my heart down out of fear he would trip over one, stumble and break both their necks.
“He’ll be fine,” Isaac rumbled, spinning me toward him. He stepped into me until our chests brushed then boosted me up until linking my ankles at his spine was the most natural thing in the world. “Hold on tight.”
Arms hooked behind his neck, I clung to him with every ounce of warg strength I possessed. “Ready.”
“Dell.” His craggy hands smoothed down my back. “I won’t let you fall. You’re safe with me.”
Until he mentioned it, I hadn’t noticed the shivers raising gooseflesh down my arms. “I trust you.”
Thanks to our association with Tibs, Isaac was an old pro at flying. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a skosh terrified of finding myself in the wide-open skies without a safety net.
Caws filled the street, and I counted at least a dozen black-feathered creatures similar to sirens closing in on us. Most had taken to the air, but a few made fluttering hops that closed the distance at an alarming speed.
Holding on for dear life, I dug my heels into Isaac’s back. “Giddyup.”
Over the Moon (Gemini Book 6) Page 8
