by Amy Cissell
“How do you know that she’s been impressive?” Florence asked.
“Raj told me that. Said she was Alpha material.”
“And you believed him?” she asked.
I thought on it. He’d done a lot of lying to me in the past few weeks—months, even—and it was disturbing how much I still took his words at face value. I didn’t have the innate sense that some Fae did of being able to tell when someone else was lying. Raj was skilled enough to fool most of those people anyway. Why did I trust that bastard vampire so much?
“I’m hardly a bastard,” he said. “My parents were in a legitimate relationship.”
I tripped and almost fell face first into the smelly water.
“Goddammit, Raj!” I shrieked. “That is not okay!”
He ignored me and turned to Florence. “Emma really did very well at the full moons. Petrina watched her, and she handled her transformation with aplomb. She was surprised by a group of human idiots on the second day of the full moon this last cycle, and she didn’t even growl at them, just turned and trotted away. She has more control than most shifters, regardless of age and experience.”
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
“I am here to serve as your escort.”
“I’m not going back,” I said.
“Certainly not! The house is on fire, anyway, so it would be very uncomfortable.”
“On fire? What happened? Who was attacking?”
“So many questions,” he chuckled. I wanted to punch him in his stupid, smug face.
“I will give you the opportunity to visit such violence on my person after we are out of the city on Friday.”
“Can’t wait,” I muttered.
Raj merely laughed. “We are almost to the ladder. Petrina will be waiting at the car for us and will transport us all back to the safe house in Hattiesburg.”
“I’d really rather you didn’t come with us,” I said.
“I really don’t care what you want at this time,” he replied.
“That’s fairly obvious.”
“Then why bother arguing?”
“I can’t help it. Will Petrina have food?”
“I’ve requested vast quantities of food, both waiting for you in the car and at the safe house. You should be able to eat to your heart’s content.”
My stomach rumbled. “Good, I’m starving. I haven’t eaten since before we went out into the city.”
“What? Why not? I thought I’d been clear on that. I will speak to Marie.”
“The vamp that carried me to the dungeon didn’t like me much and when I was a little…” I tried to think of the best way to describe my interactions with the vampire guard without incriminating myself too much. “…verbally combative, he sent the food away.”
“He should have fed you even if you’d insulted him, his parentage, and his manhood,” Raj said. “It was not within his scope of power to decide whether or not you ate.” His eyes flashed red, and I began to be a little concerned about the fate of the unnamed undead mountain of a man.
“I shouldn’t have taunted him,” I said. “Plus, there will be food soon, right?”
Raj subsided into silence, but I didn’t think I should take his lack of response as acquiescence.
In a few more minutes, we came to a ladder. Florence ascended first, I followed her, and Raj brought up the rear. He didn’t say anything or comment on any of the more uncomplimentary thoughts I was having about him until we got to the car. We were all stinking and sodden from the knees down from wading through the water, and Petrina wrinkled her nose at us as we got into the car.
“Thank you for picking us up,” Florence said.
“You are most welcome,” she replied. “It’s good to see you all again, although it will be better after you’ve showered.”
She looked at me, then at her sire, and said, smirking a bit, “I see the old man is still alive. How long are you planning on leaving him in that state?”
“I wouldn’t want to reveal any secrets or potential timelines,” I said primly, folding my hands in my lap. “After all, he’s right here.”
She laughed. “I like you. You are good for him. Keep him on his toes.”
“I’m not anything for him,” I corrected. “Not anymore.”
She looked at Raj, sitting beside her and then pulled out into the non-existent traffic. “I think he will surprise you yet.”
I wasn’t so sure but didn’t want to argue. “So, Petrina, I heard there would be food?”
She laughed and tossed a box of granola bars at me. I had the box ripped open, and the first bar shoved in my mouth in seconds. Petrina continued passing things back: a bag of jerky, some cookies, and incredibly: a thermos of coffee.
“Petrina,” I said as I drank the hot coffee as fast I could without burning myself. “I think I love you. Even if I wasn’t done with your dad, I’d be leaving him for you right this second.”
She just laughed again and said, “Just wait until we get back to the house.”
“The coffee was my idea,” Raj muttered quietly. I don’t think he’d intended me to hear, but he sounded so much like a sulky teen that I couldn’t help but laugh.
I plowed through every last bit of food Petrina had in the car in the two hours it took to get to our safe house in Hattiesburg. As soon as we arrived, I was out of the car and in the shower almost faster than even I believed possible. I stood under the water of the searingly hot shower for a long time before I managed to motivate myself to make use of the available soaps and shampoos. I was just finishing up the third shampooing when I realized that there was hot water for a shower. I thought about the possibilities for all of thirty seconds before deciding not to look a gift shower in the mouth and enjoy being warm, clean, and not starving for the first time in weeks. When I finally turned off the shower, I found a stack of towels and some clean clothes waiting for me. I hadn’t even heard anyone come in, which just showed how bad my reflexes were now that I couldn’t rely on my shields.
I dried off and dressed quickly, overcome with shivers as soon as I’d stepped out from under the hot water. My anger wasn’t keeping me warm anymore, and I wondered if it was because we were so far away from the gate energy. I had a lot of questions for Raj about my tetanus-inducing tattoos, and hopefully, we were finally in a place where we could speak somewhat freely.
I exited the bathroom and made my way back downstairs towards the kitchen from where the most heavenly smells were wafting. I’d just set foot in the kitchen when I was nearly bowled over. I tensed as my attacker moved me back several feet but didn’t let go of me, but before I could fight back, I realized that I was being hugged. By Emma. This was just weird.
I patted her on the back a couple of times. “Hey, Emma. How’s it going?”
She released me suddenly and walked sedately back across the kitchen to have a seat at the counter before answering. “Fine. It’s been nice here without you spreading your skanky germs around.”
“I see you’ve been catching up on your insulting slang. Congratulations.”
She sniffed dismissively. “Whatever. Bitch.”
I grinned. “I missed you too, puppy.”
She growled at me, but couldn’t quite hide the smile.
Petrina was the only other person in the kitchen. “Where’s Florence?”
“She headed upstairs as soon as she heard the shower go off. She was probably in her room lying in wait for her turn,” Emma answered.
I didn’t ask about Raj, although I did want to know where he was, too, if only to question him.
Petrina finished whatever she was doing over the stove and turned and handed me a plate laden with food. “It’s the best I could do with limited resources,” she said.
I stared at the plate. Macaroni and cheese, some green stuff that I privately decided to only taste for politeness’s sake, and chicken and dumplings. “This looks amazing.” I took my plate and sat down at the table. I took a bite of the green stuff to
get that out of the way and looked at Petrina in amazement. “What is this?”
“Collards.”
“I do not know what collards are, but they are delicious. I should’ve been eating this my whole life. Would’ve made my salads better.”
“They’re cooked in pork fat.”
“Ahhh, so not healthy at all anymore, huh?” I said. “Good.”
I ate my way through the collards and the macaroni and cheese before turning my attention to the dumplings. Just as I was about to dig in, Petrina plunked down a bottle of beer in front of me. I groaned in amazement.
“First coffee and then beer? Are you sure you won’t marry me?” I asked.
Petrina laughed. “I would, if only to piss off the old man, but alas! My heart is occupied elsewhere.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “You can occupy your heart and your body wherever you want. I’m not asking for monogamy. I just want to gaze upon you in adoration for the rest of my life.”
Petrina laughed again. “I’ll think about it,” she promised. “And speaking of my father…”
“I wasn’t,” I said.
“I know, but we must.”
I sighed, put down my fork, and picked up my beer. “Fine. Where is the assbucket?”
Petrina laughed. “You will forgive him,” she said.
I snorted.
“Eventually.” She sat down across from me. “He’s not here. He left immediately after dropping you off. He’s probably gone back to New Orleans to help Marie.”
“Why didn’t he just stay? You and Florence were enough escort to get me here. He wasn’t needed on the trip. All he did was sulk.”
“He wanted to ensure you got here safely. He takes your safety very seriously.”
“Yeah, I noticed that when I was in the dungeon being tortured.”
“You were tortured?” Petrina asked. She straightened in her seat, and for the first time since I’d met her, she looked truly frightening. “Father said nothing of torture. He must not know.”
“Of course he knows. He was there for it.”
Petrina relaxed. “You mean the tattoo.”
“It took sixteen hours, and when I was awake, it was excruciating. Also, I was given barely enough food to stay awake, and it was freezing. Between the lack of food and warmth, it’s a wonder I didn’t enter a hibernative state.”
“Is hibernative a word?” Emma asked.
“It is now,” I snapped.
“It does sound unpleasant,” Petrina agreed.
“Unpleasant?” My voice was rising, but I didn’t care. I had a lot of anger management issues to work through. “Unpleasant? I was cold, hungry, and filthy for weeks. But all of that pales in comparison to the fact that not only was I tattooed again to prevent me from accessing my dragon self and my magic, but that your father told Marie’s entire court that it was possible to do that. Before it was a secret that only a few people knew, and now half of New Orleans knows, and that means Medb knows.”
“Child,” Florence’s quiet voice interrupted my rant. “Stop a minute and think.”
“I’ve done nothing but think for weeks. I left my tiny little dungeon cell once in all that time. You, I’m guessing, left more often than that, if you were even kept imprisoned. Your knowledge of the layout of the house and the location of the secret passages was pretty fucking impressive.”
“Stop,” she said, and this time there was power behind her words. I stopped and sat down abruptly. I hadn’t even noticed that I’d risen to my feet. “That’s better.”
Florence sat down beside me. “Who tattooed you the first time?”
I glared at her. “Finn.”
“And for whom does Finn work?”
I didn’t answer.
“Eleanor. For whom does Finn work?”
“Medb,” I bit out.
“So, do you think it likely that she already knew?”
I sighed. “Fine. Your point?”
“There were enough of Medb’s representatives in Marie’s court that already knew your secret, just not the formula for the ink itself. If Raj hadn’t volunteered that information, someone else would have, and then that person would’ve gotten to oversee the binding. If someone other than Raj had overseen your binding, then the results might have been much, much worse.”
“Worse than being cut off from my power and unable to shift?”
“Think on the clues that Raj has given you.”
I took a deep breath and sat back to think. “He said that I would need a tetanus shot if I were anyone else.”
“And why do people get tetanus shots?” Florence asked. She was starting to sound a little impatient, so apparently, I was being particularly dense.
“People get tetanus shots if they’re cut with rusty metal,” I said. “Although it’s not the rust that transmits tetanus. It’s just that rusty metal is often in the company of things that carry the bacteria—like manure—and the pitted surface of rusty metal becomes a great carrier.”
“Back on track, please,” Florence said.
“Sorry. So, rusty metal.” I thought about it and then felt the light bulb go off. “Oh! The iron in the ink is rusty, and rusty metal is weak!”
“And the dragon’s blood that was used was your own,” Florence added.
“How the fuck did he get my blood?”
Petrina coughed. “When I was healing your wing, I took some samples.”
“There is a lot of fuckery going on here,” I said.
“That may be,” Florence said, “but the ink that is binding you is weaker than last time, and part of it is you. The dragon’s blood in the ink will gradually reabsorb into you, leaving nothing but rusty iron that can be broken with a great surge of power. Tell me, did you feel any weakness in your bonds when you visited the gate site?”
“I did, but Raj flew me out of there so quickly I couldn’t test them.”
“Good,” Florence said. “We need to get out of the city before anyone realizes that you aren’t permanently bound.”
I sat back in my chair and slowly drank my beer while digesting my food and all the new information I’d gotten.
“I have a few more questions,” I said finally.
“Not surprising,” Florence said. She, too, was eating like she hadn’t seen a decent meal in weeks, and I mentally revised my opinions about her role in the deception. A little, anyway.
“How long have you known that this was going to happen, Florence? I mean the tattooing and all that stuff.”
She swallowed her mouthful of food and washed it down with some water before answering. “Are you asking if I saw this as a potential future and didn’t warn you or if I was in on Raj’s plan to publicly betray you and mess up the ink formula so that he could get what he wanted without permanently harming you?”
I blinked rapidly. I hadn’t even considered that she might’ve seen this future. “Both, I guess.”
“I knew that this was a likely outcome the minute that Isaac decided to sacrifice himself to save Emma,” Florence said.
“Why was that the tipping point?” Emma asked.
“Because before that, even though Eleanor flirted terribly with Raj and there was a lot of sexual tension, they weren’t involved enough for anything that happened in New Orleans to be betrayal. Also, Isaac never would’ve let Raj trade Eleanor without a fight, and that made everything murky.”
“My developing feelings for Raj made this possible?” I asked.
“His feelings for you made this possible,” Florence corrected.
I scoffed, “Oh, yeah. His feelings for me are real strong right about now. I can tell by the way he oversaw the tattooing and did nothing to help me when I screamed in agony for hours.”
“I have never seen him care for anyone the way he cares for you,” Petrina interrupted.
“What about George?”
“He told you about George?” Petrina asked.
“He started to, but I fell asleep.”
“Huh,” wa
s all she said for a moment before rousing herself and answering my original question. “Including George.”
I didn’t know how that compared on the scale of Raj’s lovers but decided that it didn’t matter right now. I went back to my questions.
“Florence, you said you saw this as a potential outcome, but were you also in on Raj’s plan?”
“Yes. Raj, Petrina, and I worked out the ink formula together.”
I tried to tamp down my anger but failed. At least I wouldn’t be able to light anything on fire. “I already knew that Raj was going to betray me in New Orleans; I even knew that it was likely he was going to trade me for his blade—and someday someone’s going to explain its significance to me—but why couldn’t someone tell me the rest of it?”
“Your shielding is crap,” Florence said bluntly. “Unless you’re actively concentrating on not projecting your thoughts, I hear most of what you’re thinking at any given time, and with a little effort, I can get further into your mind to pick up what’s hidden under the surface. I am not the only mage out there with that power, and not even the most powerful in that area. You are more unguarded than most, and that makes you vulnerable. It was vital that everyone in Marie’s court believe you betrayed and bound, and for that to be true, you had to believe yourself betrayed and bound. All those visitors you had were emissaries of various powers, mostly Medb, her hangers-on, and a few petty rivals, and they all had mind-reading mages with them to validate the claims that you were rendered powerless. If you’d known in the back of your mind that this was a ruse, they would’ve known. You are learning to lie with the truth when you speak, but you cannot lie with your thoughts, and you cannot keep people out who want to be in.”
“Why didn’t you teach me, then?”
“I have tried!” Florence yelled. I stared. I don’t think I’d ever seen her lose her temper about anything not related to her sister. “What do you think I’ve been doing these past months? Do you think the shielding work was a game? Do you think all the prompts to lock down your thoughts were just because I didn’t want to hear the things you were contemplating doing with your lovers? I have tried, but you did not take it seriously enough, and when your life and all of our lives were on the line, we couldn’t count on you.”
