by ERIN BEDFORD
I’d last seen Jewels at my own mourning party. Now, here he stood in my grandmother’s hallway, thankfully more clothed than the last time. He was still shirtless, the barbells in his nipples glinted in the hall light, but the pants and boots were a far cry from the Speedo he wore the last time I saw him.
“Jewels? What are you doing?” Another familiar voice called out behind him. “Did you find her?”
“I found her all right.” He leered at me, and I tightened my grip on the towel from my place on the floor.
“What do you mean?” Gab, the female equivalent of Jewels, appeared in the hallway. She glanced at her brother and when she saw me on the floor, shoved him out of the way. “Geez. What the hell is your problem? Here.”
She held her hand out to me. A part of me was thrilled to see her. The part that remembered all the good times we had as best friends in my former life. She had been there for me when I came into my powers the first time. She had also been the one who pushed me to give my new fiancé a chance. Not that my Fae-self had any qualms about getting with the broody prince who ended up being one hell of a kisser. And it was her I should have run to when I caught said Prince in the arms of the fake me.
Her outstretched hand said more than words could ever. Funny, considering Gab’s was the one person in the whole Underground who didn’t know the word quiet. I hesitated, wondering which version of Gab was offering me help.
“Come on, I swear no funny business.” She gave me a small, hesitant smile as if she was just as unsure as I was by her presence.
I slid my hand into hers and let her pull me to my feet. Keeping a firm grip on my towel, I swept into my room and slammed the door without a word. I dug through my pile of clothes on the ground, grabbing the first shirt and shorts I could find. While I was in the process of putting them on, a not so subtle argument broke out between the twins.
“Look what you did,” Gab hissed from the other side of the door.
“I didn’t do anything. She ran into me.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have been ogling at her. She’s human now. They’re more self-conscious than we are.”
A smack sounded which was surely Gab whacking her brother over the head like she used to.
And like when we were younger, he only chuckled in response. “I don’t know why. Even as a human, I would still like to lick every inch of her.”
“Jewels. That’s disgusting.”
“Guys,” I called out, opening the door, “I can hear you.”
Gab rushed forward, shoving her brother out of the way. “Oh, Lynne. I mean Lady. I’m so sorry about Jewels. He’s such an idiot. You know how he is always thinking with his little head. You do remember, don’t you? I don’t really know how this all works with you being you but not you, you know?”
I chuckled at the confusion on her face and led them to the living room. “Yes, I remember.”
“Everything?” Jewels raised his eyebrow, a hopeful gleam in his eyes.
I knew what he hoped I would forget. There was a time, before I became engaged to Dorian that I thought I might end up with Jewels. His name wasn’t Jewels then. Though, in my opinion, Jewels was a far better name than Bastian. Sounded too close to bastard, though that was exactly what he was. A bastard.
One date and all dreams of joining the twin’s family were destroyed. Jewels was one Fae who had no problem trying to take what didn’t belong to him. And, like his sister, he had a problem with the definition of silence; the word no did not exist in his thick head.
“What do you think?” I asked him before turning to my maybe-sort-of best friend. “You know, it has been a while since I have been a part of the Seelie Court, but in the human world, it is customary to knock before entering someone’s home.”
Gab’s, or Erydesa as she was once called, frowned and fidgeted in place, not like the confident Fae I knew at all.
I wasn’t exactly what you would call a people person before. I was the one who would rather be in the library or walking the gardens than chatting up the visiting nobles. But Gab’s was different. She lived to be in the spotlight and always tried to drag me into some gathering or another.
It was safe to say my Fae mother didn’t exactly approve of Gab’s. She wanted me to be out of sight and out of mind, while Gab’s was all for showing the world what she had. I had gotten into more than my fair share of trouble because of her, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
It was hard to believe the same Fae who snuck me out of my room at midnight to go skinny-dipping in the lake just over the palace walls was the same one standing in front of me. The uncertainty in her eyes as she exchanged a look with her brother wasn’t someone I was used to seeing.
“We did knock. You didn’t answer, and the door was open so we just—”
“Barged in unannounced?” I supplied. I sat on the couch while I let her stew in her own insecurity for a little longer. She was a total bitch to me at the party, so it was only fair to let her feel uncomfortable for a bit.
“No, I mean, yes,” she fumbled over her words. Her face colored in a way I had always been jealous of.
After letting an awkward silence fill the room, I let a playful grin creep onto my face and a giggle escape my throat. Soon it turned into a full on laugh, and Gab’s joined in after a moment.
“I told you there was nothing to worry about, sis. You two will always be inseparable.” Jewels shook his head, his blonde hair whipping around him, but the bitterness in his voice not lost on me.
“Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” I held my hand out to Gab’s offering her to come sit by me on the couch. Jewels tried to occupy the other half, but I shot a glare at Jewels, and he changed his course to sit in one of the chairs instead.
Gab’s sat next to me with a smile, but she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She didn’t seem to know how to act around me.
Sure, I was her long lost best friend from a lifetime ago, but I wasn’t the same person before, as I’d made apparent to anyone who would listen. It would be as hard as trying to pick up where Dorian and I had left off, if not harder. Lovers came and went, and there was always that underlying wonder if you would mess up, but friends were forever—especially best friends.
I had never had to pretend with Gab’s. She had always accepted me the way I was without trying to change me. Though, we would occasionally fight as friends did, we never let it ruin our friendship, just like I never tried to force her to give up her self-centered ways. That was just Gab’s and it would always be her. With friends like that, you either had to learn to deal with it or move on. I’d learned to deal with it when we were still in diapers. Not that we had diapers back then, but the premise was the same.
I grabbed her hand and pulled it into my lap as I snuggled into her side. While I tried to ignore most of the old part of me, having a friend by my side made me feel better. Safe. Like the world wasn’t going to shit and my life wasn’t a total mess. I could have sat there and basked in our friendship forever, but after a moment or two of silence, she finally spoke up.
“You’re different. But oddly the same,” she mused.
“Well, that is bound to happen when one's soul is reincarnated as a different species.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“So, what happened to you?” Jewels leaned forward in his chair, the worry on his face gone now.
I frowned at him in thought. How did I explain what occurred to me when I wasn’t even sure I knew what transpired? The one person who could answer all my questions had been conveniently silent when I had actually been at its feet. Or roots, for that matter.
That annoying tree had no problem pestering me to come home and hijacking my visions with cryptic messages, but when I was actually in front of it—where it wanted me to be—it was silent. I didn’t know if it was because of how wilted and pathetic it had looked, or if it was just being a pain in the ass, but I’d had enough secrets to last me a lifetime.
Gab’s squ
eezed my hand. “How about an easier question?”
I blew out a relieved breath. “Yes, please.”
Before Gab’s could ask her question, Jewels jumped in again, “What about his highness? What are you going to do about him? Are you going to marry him?”
“Not that it is any of your business, but that is not any easier to answer than how this all happened.” I glared at Jewels, who slumped back in his seat with a pout on his face.
“How about we start with what do we call you?” Gab’s offered with a small smile. “Do you want to go by Lady? Or your human name? What was it again?”
“Kat. And either one is fine, really. Just don’t call me Lynne.” I snapped my gaze to Jewels, the warning clear in my eyes. “I have a hard enough time keeping things straight up here, and it will be an easy reminder that I might be me, but I’m not me.” I ended with a lame chuckle.
“I like it. Makes you more like one of us already. Lady it is.” Gab’s pulled her legs under her and turned on the couch to look at me.
“What?” I asked after she continued to stare at me without speaking.
“You know, you could glamour yourself back to your human look, right?” She cocked her head, picking at the strands of my blonde hair.
“I’m working on it, but it’s hard to do in this body.” I gave an aggravated sigh. “Nothing seems to work the same way it did when I was in my Fae body. Everything is harder. I couldn’t even glamour my eyes to my normal color. I had to be looking at Chess to even get anything to happen at all.”
“The half-breed was helping you?” Jewels laughed and, much to my dismay, his sister joined in.
“What’s wrong with that?” I looked between them. “He’s the only one that was around to help, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask you-know-who to teach me.”
I didn’t know why, but my comment only made them laugh harder.
“I’m sorry.” Gab’s giggled. “We aren’t laughing at you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Jewels popped in.
Gab’s glared at her brother, the blue of her eyes becoming glacial, before turning back to me with an amused smile. “Like I said, we aren’t laughing at you. We are laughing at the thought that the half-breed—”
This time, I interrupted her. “Chess.”
“Right, Chess.” She gave me a curious look but continued on, “It’s the thought that he could in any way know what it is like to be a full-blooded Fae.”
“But I’m not a full-blooded Fae,” I interjected. “I technically have human blood with a Fae soul. Nothing to do with my blood at all, really.”
“But you are showing signs of your original full Fae powers, aren’t you?”
“Yes, and more are showing up every day. I could probably make things grow on their own if I could figure out how to get my magic to cooperate.” I turned my gaze to the back of the house where the garden was.
It would be so much easier to grow my own vegetables if I had a little magic in my arsenal. Not like being able to grow the world’s largest tomato was high on my priority list.
“Well, you can’t very well expect a half-breed to be able to instruct you. It would be like asking a blind man to tell you what color the sky is. He might know what color it is supposed to be, but that doesn’t mean he knows what color it is.”
I was trying hard not to lash out at Gab’s, but every time she said the word half-breed my eye twitched. I didn’t know if it was because they were talking about Chess, or because I, myself, could be described as a half-breed. All I did know was that the condescending tone pissed me off more than I could imagine.
“Fine,” I snapped out, cutting Gab’s off mid-rant. “Why don’t you tell me how it’s done, then?”
She pursed her lips in that bitchy way I had only seen aimed at me when we first met in my human form and the few times I snapped at her about her holier-than-thou attitude.
“Look. I’m just trying to help, but if you don’t want it…” She stood from the couch and gestured for Jewels to follow. “We can just go.”
I didn’t move from my seat. She was trying to power play me. I knew she was, and usually, I would just apologize and plead for her to stay, but not this time. I wasn’t a pushover anymore that didn’t like to make waves. Someone who just let the road of life direct her wherever it may. I was the fucking driver this time.
“Maybe you should,” I said evenly.
She paused, her brow crinkled. Her blue eyes locked with her brother, who only shrugged and headed toward the back door. With the bastard out of the way, she turned back to me, her gaze softened.
“Look, Lady.” She brushed her hand through her long hair, the way she did when she was trying to seem confident, but didn’t realize it was her nervous tell. “I know you have a soft spot for the half—I mean Chess—but you can’t expect to learn what you need to know from him. Or expect to get the whole truth about what really happened while you were gone.”
“What really happened?” I asked, ignoring the whole point of our conversation.
“That’s a story for another day. It’s too long to get into, and I have a date to get ready for.” She smoothed her hands down her body. Her pants and trendy top morphed into a form-fitting, ice blue dress that glittered in the light. “How do I look?”
“How did you do that?” I gaped.
She made an impatient sound. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.” She reached over and pulled me out of my seat. “You are making it too hard. You don’t need to focus, and you don’t need to build your magic up. You don’t remember having to do any of that stuff before, do you?”
I shook my head.
“Exactly. You don’t have to think about it, just make it happen.” She pumped my hands with each word, exciting and unhelpful at the same time.
“Okay.”
Dropping my hands, she primped her hair with her hand. “Well, I have to get going. I’ll stop by again, and we can catch up some more.”
“But what about teaching me to glamour?”
She waved at me. “You’ll be fine. Just remember. Don’t think, just make it happen.” Her hair whipped around her as she sauntered toward the back door. Then she paused. “And don’t trust that cat. He might be a pretty face, but you should know better than anyone else that isn’t always a good thing.”
As she disappeared through the kitchen door, I plopped back down on the couch, lost in my own thoughts. Unfortunately, I did know what she meant, but I doubted she knew anything about the Shadow man, or what lay behind his own pretty face. Her warning about Chess had to be her biased towards half-breeds. There was no way that anything as bad as the Shadow man was hiding behind Chess’ delicious physique. Or, at least, I hoped not.
Chapter 9
Practice
STARING AT MYSELF in the bathroom mirror again, I tried to pump myself up to finally glamour my eyes.
Just do it. Don’t think about it. Just do it. I took a few breaths in and then out. Here we go.
I slowly blinked as I thought of what my eyes used to look like. As I opened my eyes, the ice blue of my pupils melted into forest green.
I did it! I couldn’t believe I actually did it. I thought Gab’s was full of shit when she told me it was just that easy, but the little snot had been right. I had started to believe it was just me, that I was defective in some way and could only use my powers when I was having some kind of emotional breakdown. Though, I knew it wasn’t true, because I used it back with the glowing fruit.
Not wanting to dwell on my own misgivings, or get into the never-ending spiral that was the mystery of the talking tree, I tried to focus on the good.
I shook my head with a silly smile. “It was so easy.”
“What was that easy?” a voice purred from behind me.
I glanced in the mirror at Chess’ leaning form in the bathroom door, and an accomplished smile spread across my face.
“Is anything different?” Whipping
around, I fluttered my eyelashes at him.
“Well, I don’t know.” He uncrossed his arms and sauntered over to me. He was unglamoured again, and his tail swung behind him, adding a bit more swagger to his step. His vest parted with each step, giving me small glimpses of his chest.
He brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “Nope, still as beautiful as ever.”
With his eyes intently focused on mine, my lids fluttered down and then up as my face filled with heat. It was weird how the words were not perverted, or flirty in any way, but still caused my heart to thud hard in my chest. I didn’t know how to act around this version of Chess. With most guys, I’d laugh and push them away in an attempt to hide my reaction, but with him, all I could manage was a giggle.
“My eyes, silly.” I bit my lip and glanced back up to meet his gaze, but inwardly smacked myself for sounding like such a ditz. I wasn’t one of those girls that used the word silly. I hated those girls.
“Oh, those.” Chess trailed his clawed finger along the arch of my cheek. “I see you’ve been practicing.”
“A little bit.” I cleared my throat, side stepping him and exiting the bathroom, hoping he didn’t catch my half-truth. I seemed to always be getting caught in my towel, and a small cloth was not a good idea around the frisky feline.
“What are you doing here, anyway?” I asked over my shoulder as I delved through my clothes.
“It’s Sunday, remember?”
It was Sunday, and that meant dinner with the family. Back in New York, I would be curled up on the couch with some Chinese food and binge watching the latest paranormal series that included ripped guys who didn’t wear their shirt most of the time. In Iowa, though, Sunday dinner was an affair that yoga pants and Thursday’s T-shirt would get me a lecture about until I gave into my mother’s urging to wear one of her dresses.
Changing directions, I pulled open the closet door and rummaged through the clothes that had fallen to the bottom. I grabbed the least wrinkled dress and turned back to Chess.
