The Glass Man

by Jocelyn Adams

  “When the years stretched on with no word, some of us went out looking for you.” He squeezed my hand, used it to draw me closer. “Few of us returned.”

  I snatched my hand back, moved away and stared down the cobblestone street. “Is there anyone who hasn’t lost someone because of me?”

  “No—wait! I didn’t say that to place blame on you.”

  “Who did you lose, Nix?” I folded my hands over my stomach to quiet the churning there.

  He paused for a long time. “My mother and my youngest brother.”

  I nodded, an ache growing in my bones. “I’ll fix the city now, and then I’ll call the damn Seelie back for what good it’ll do.”

  With my eyes closed, I concentrated on my Light, letting it build and brighten until I thought it would tear me apart or burn me up. I knelt and placed my hands against the cool moss. The pulse of the city throbbed like a weak heartbeat below me. A sudden wind grabbed at my hair and stole my breath away. The trees creaked in protest.

  When I could no longer contain the energy, I dug my fingers into the moss and pushed my will down into the soul of Dun Bray, ripped open its heart and poured in my own. My every cell burned with the intensity of the release. I cried out as I poured everything I had into the ground. My Light ignited the sky and everything around me as if lightning had flashed and frozen at its brightest.

  As my energy spread through the city, more and more of the shape-shifters awakened. Their glee filled me as their dormant bodies returned to life again, followed by their ache from years of loneliness. I had an overwhelming urge to crawl inside one and sleep forever.

  When my well of energy emptied and my Light extinguished, I collapsed onto the moss, panting.

  Nix said nothing, only lay down beside me—close enough that I could share his warmth and the gentle pleasure from his energy but not close enough to overwhelm me. We stared at each other for a long time before I closed my eyes.

  Fifteen minutes later, I’d recouped enough to stand. “Why did Gallagher want me to go to the top of the tower?” I brushed bits of moss from my black pants. “I don’t have the first clue how to call a bunch of people I’ve never seen.”

  “He’s a powerful telepath. Maybe he can show you their faces.”

  A little hope ignited in me. “Maybe you’re not just pretty muscle after all.” I winced. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”

  Nix laughed, a bright, infectious sound. “You just called me muscular, good looking and smart. What could I possibly find insulting in that?”

  I turned away. My heart hurt too much to deal with flirting no matter how mild or innocent. I sipped in a breath when an idea struck me. “With Sight of the Goddess, I can think of Donovan, and I’ll know if he’s alive. Right?”

  “Parthalan might have wards around the city to keep all cumhachts from penetrating. I know we do.”

  “I’m about to find out.” Donovan, I thought, drawing up the memory of his arms around me, of the adoration I saw when he looked at me. My sight jetted across the land, carried high above the earth by the wind. Flashes came from different places—some forest, field, desert, some place where snow and ice stretched on for hundreds of miles.

  “Did you find him?” Nix asked when I opened my eyes.

  “No, but I didn’t see any flashes from inside either the Black City or Dun Bray. I seem to be limited to the human world.” I leaned forward, propped hands against my thighs.

  I turned and started up the hill, shaking off the disappointment. “Let’s go.”

  We ran back to the white building and sprinted up the steps. A transporter ride later, and we stepped into the briefing room where Gallagher and Neasa talked heatedly by the fireplace. Everyone else had gone.

  “Let’s get this done, Gallagher,” I said.

  The two fae paused and snapped their attention to me.

  “Is there a problem here? I need to talk to—” Shit. I almost called him my brother. “Garret.”

  When Gallagher turned toward me, Neasa grabbed him by the arm. He twisted his head back to her. Her eyes stretched open wide as she released him. I wished I could have seen his face. The look must have been a good one.

  Wearing a wry grin, Gallagher continued toward us.

  “What was that all about?” I asked him.

  “Another time perhaps.” Gallagher motioned for us to get back on the transport. “For now, it should please you to know that Brígh is with Garret. I thought it best if he was not alone.”

  “Thank you.” I followed Nix back into the white chamber.

  After a dizzying ride, we stepped out onto the top of the tower. I gulped, noting a short wall separating me from a long drop. The wind nudged me sideways, and I stepped back into Nix.

  “I won’t let you fall,” he whispered.

  Gallagher took my hand and led me away from the transport doors. I did my best to walk, despite my rigid muscles, and kept my eyes averted from the wall.

  “Why are we up here?” My mouth dried to a chalky paste.

  “I can amplify your power with my own and Nix’s, and it works better in the open. It may not make a difference, but we need all the advantages we can get.”

  “Okay, but please hurry so we can get out of here.”

  Gallagher stood facing me, his hands grasping my upper arms. Nix came from behind and placed his hands over top of Gallagher’s. “I’ll plant the images of the fae in your mind,” Gallagher said. “Use them to send out the call.”

  I nodded and closed my eyes. The rush of images overwhelmed me. I struggled to get away, but Nix whispered reassurances to me. So many faces, skin colors and hair of every imaginable shade. When I adjusted enough to think past the constant slideshow, I opened the well in my head and set free what little Light remained. A moment later, Gallagher forced his energy, along with Nix’s, into me. Fire ignited my flesh, flooding me with the urge to giggle like a drunken fool. I concentrated on the faces and used our combined Light to push my will out farther across the wind and into the trees.

  It took a few minutes before answering gasps rang in my ears. Startled faces turned up to me, some sitting at desks in an office, some in their bathtubs, walking down busy streets or boarding up their windows. They all dropped whatever happened to be in their hands and covered their ears as I commanded them home. Hours passed, along with hundreds of faces, maybe thousands—I’d long since lost count.

  “Lila!” A voice shrieked in my ear.

  My concentration shattered, and I crashed back to reality. Gallagher stumbled away and sat down on the stone, rubbing his head.

  I turned to find Brígh standing beside me. Some of her pink hair had escaped her ponytail. Dried blood caked the rim of one nostril.

  The look in her eye made me grab her by the arms and shake her. “What happened?”

  She handed me a folded piece of paper. A tear trickled down her freckled cheek. “It’s Garret. He knocked me out. When I woke up, I found this.”

  With shaking hands, I grabbed the note and unfolded it.

  Lila.

  I’m going back for father. I covered myself in illusion and came back to the briefing room, so I know everything. Maybe you can live with yourself sitting around while he suffers, but I can’t. I’d rather die.

  Garret.

  “No!” I sprinted to the transport with Nix on my heels.

  “What does it say?” He grabbed the note from my hand. He closed his eyes and pressed his palms against his forehead. “Fuck. She was supposed to watch him!”

  “This isn’t her fault. It’s mine. I should have kept him with me. He’s my responsibility. If I’d let him stay in the first place—I have to bring him back.”

  He clenched his fists. “Please, just give me some time to figure this out. I won’t let you commit suicide.”

  “He can’t have gone far, even if he hitched a ride in a car.”

  “It’s night in the human world. You slept for a long time when you passed out in Liam’s arms. The Slua
gh will pick Garret up if they haven’t already.”

  I thrust my hands against the walls of the tiny space as we descended. “I forgot about those things, but it still doesn’t make a difference. I promised to keep him safe.” With my Light returned to me, the Sluagh didn’t concern me, though Parthalan did.

  “Parthalan must have found a way to get what he wants. He always does.”

  “Gallagher said your cumhacht doesn’t work against Parthalan. If you give yourself to him—” Nix paced with me.

  “I don’t even understand why he still wants me. I’m mated to Liam.” A twinge of pain in my stomach caught me off guard. I groaned.

  “There are ways to break the bond.” Nix spoke carefully as if afraid of my reaction.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going anyway.” The ache for Liam grew worse, spread through me, a disease where the cure could hurt me worse than the affliction.

  When we arrived at the ground level, I bolted across the main hall and out the doors. Down the stairs I went, taking a few at a time. Urged along by pure adrenaline, I ran along the cobblestone, the window eyes of the houses watching me as I passed. I thought about stopping to use my Sight to find him, but I kept running, driven to move.

  “Lila, wait!” Liam emerged from one of the houses, his face and hands bloodied.

  “Where are your guards?” Nix growled.

  Liam stood in front of me as if he hadn’t heard Nix. “I can feel everything you do, remember? What happened?”

  I stopped and averted my eyes, debating whether or not to tell him. The crinkling of paper made me turn. Nix had handed him the note.

  Liam pressed the note against his lips. His chest heaved. He leapt at me before I could react and kissed me violently, lingered so close I could see the determination in his eyes. The ache in my body eased with his nearness.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “I will die before I fail you again.” He released me and ran toward the portal door.

  It took a second for the effects of his touch to wear off. “What? Wait, where are you going?”

  He shouted over his shoulder as he exited the city. “Keep her in the city, Nix, or I will personally kill your ass whether I’m dead or alive.”

  25

  I paced in my room, cursing to myself.

  Nix leaned against the wall opposite the bed. Purple bruises bloomed below his left eye where I’d decked him trying to go after Liam. Gallagher had appeared during our battle and did something to knock me out. He and I would be having a little talk later.

  “You knew what Liam would do when you showed him that note.” I stomped past Nix for the hundredth time. “And go put something else on. You look ridiculous in that white tunic.”

  His peaceful demeanor and underlying joviality had disappeared, replaced by taut muscles and a creased brow. “I give my oath I will never lie to you,” he said. “Do you believe me?”

  I stopped and scowled at him. “I’m not answering shit for you until you admit you did it on purpose.”

  “Yes, I gave it to him knowing what he’d do.”

  I snatched a hairbrush from the bedside table and hurled it at him. He didn’t flinch when it smacked into the door beside him and fell to the floor by his feet.

  “Why?”

  “Because he has a better chance of getting Garret back than you do. He knows the city. He can fly. He can suppress a fae’s Light.” Nix took a hesitant step nearer. “You know it was the right thing to do.”

  “What I know is that he’ll die right alongside Garret if I don’t do something. So now instead of two hostages, I have to rescue three. Brilliant thinking, Mr. Genius.”

  “Not if he succeeds.”

  “You don’t get it.” I growled, unsure what to do with the fury swelling in my body—an angry beast about to break free of its cage. “Parthalan is completely bat-shit crazy, and now he’s pissed. Liam … won’t … succeed.” I threw up my hands to punctuate my point.

  “My duty is to you. I saw an opportunity, probably the best one we have of fixing this without putting you in danger, and I took it. I won’t apologize for that.”

  “Duty.” I spat the word out in a petulant tone. “I don’t want anyone feeling obligated to me.”

  Nix stood up straighter. “I’ll take care of you because I want to, and for no other reason. Yes, I was given the privilege to protect you, but I asked for this long ago.”

  I angled away from him, crossed my arms. “I can take care of myself.”

  “I know, and when this is over, I’ll back off.”

  I paused, tried to think clearly and failed. Liam betrayed me and continues to lie to me, so why does my heart feel like it’s shattering all over again? I’d tried to contact him using my Sight, but I received images of feathers again. If he’d heard my commands for him to come back, he’d ignored them.

  “The ones we love always hurt us the most.” A note of sadness deepened Nix’s voice.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “If you didn’t love him, you wouldn’t be hurting so badly.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not hurting.”

  “You can hide it from some but not from me.”

  I uttered a bitter laugh. “I’ve known him for a few days. From what I know of love, it doesn’t happen that fast. It’s just this damn bond screwing with my head. I don’t love or need him, but that doesn’t mean I want him to die.”

  Nix strode around to face me and smiled. “Okay.”

  A frustrated sound rumbled in my throat. “I’m leaving now.”

  “No, you’re not. The fae are arriving. Some won’t make it in time, but you have to greet those that do in two hours.”

  “Two—I can’t wait two hours!” I leaned toward him. “Get out of my way, or I’ll move you myself.” A sudden wind ruffled my hair, and a golden sheen covered my skin.

  “Don’t do it.” Nix returned to the door and stood in a battle-ready posture. “I’m psychokinetic, you saw what I can do. At the first hint of power, I’ll bind you. I don’t want to hurt you, so please don’t force me to.”

  I widened my stance and snickered, a dark, sinister sound. “You can bind my body but not my mind.”

  “You won’t hurt me. Gallagher has given me some personal wards to stop you from affecting my will.” His posture changed to mimic mine.

  I couldn’t argue with him. I wouldn’t hurt him—badly. Through my feet, I pushed my energy into the floor and used it to send the table hurtling toward him. With a flick of his fingers, it broke into a stack of kindling on the floor around him.

  Nix crouched and steadied himself. “You can’t get to me with anything in this room. That puts us at an impasse.”

  “Assuming I won’t crush your heart into a gooey pulp.”

  Nix chuckled, but uneasiness clouded his stare. “Yes, assuming that. I told you when we met that I could see who you are. I know you won’t do it. You don’t want to be like Parthalan or the humans who tried to do such horrible things to you.” He straightened, placed his hands behind him and leaned against the door. “Brígh will be here with your clothes soon. Why don’t you do something to relax? A bath, maybe?”

  I hated that I was so predictable. I needed to leave, but I wouldn’t hurt him to do it. Dawn had risen from the shadows beyond the portal, and the sun would set around six.

  So little time.

  Parthalan had said the torture would intensify with every hour I delayed. I couldn’t let them suffer two more hours. There had to be a way out. I just had to think it through.

  “Why do I need to change?” I resumed pacing.

  “Neasa had an entire wardrobe designed for the new queen. New jewelry, too. The Sidhe of the Court are very—flashy.”

  “She can shove it. All of it. I’ll go as I am, ready to work.”

  Bright laughter burst out of him. “As long as I’m there to see her face when you show up at the Seelie Court in sneakers and a T-shirt.” He shrugged. “You know, I think it’s perfect. N
o pretence, just show them who you are up front, though you might have difficulty swaying some to see reason dressed that way. To show solidarity, maybe the guards should start wearing jeans and T-shirts, too.”

  I stopped again. “Yeah, why don’t you go and change before we have to do this thing?”

  He grinned. “No, I’ll hang around. Nice try, though.”

  • • •

  Nix, along with five other guards, surrounded me where I stood in the main hall. The time had passed painfully, and my nerves were so frayed around the edges I’d begun to unravel, but the fae were finally assembled in the Court. Several hundred were still missing, but we couldn’t wait any longer.

  “I can’t wait to see Neasa’s face when we show up like this,” one of the female guards said. She breathed out sexuality the way others expelled carbon dioxide. I hadn’t picked it up when she stood amongst the others, but standing beside me, wearing a snug white T-shirt and black pants, her presence engulfed me. She had strawberry blonde hair woven into two braids that hung down the front of her shoulders.

  “Don’t let the lack of uniform allow you to forget your duty, Neve.” Nix gazed back at me. “You’ll do fine.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why’d you say that?”

  He leaned in and spoke soft words. “You’re prancing, and you’ve cursed more in the last five minutes than I’ve cursed in my entire life.”

  Hell, is it that obvious I’m about to go off like a rocket? I stared up at the distant ceiling and the curling golden mist beyond. A few deep breaths, and the panic waned. What could I possibly say to inspire the change of a nation? I wasn’t my mother. I didn’t have her kindness or charisma. Nobody did anything for her out of fear. They did it because they couldn’t stand the thought of disappointing someone so utterly good. The fae wouldn’t love me any more than I cared about them. I wouldn’t be able to hide it for long, but somehow I had to make them listen. Then I had to find my brother and my father—and Liam.

  I patted a hand over my thumping heart.