by Rita Webb
friendly-I’m-not-interested kind of way, and the
guys look hopefully at Brianna, who shrinks to the
corner of her booth. When they leave, she looks
like she’s going to be sick.
“Tell me what’s going on. Please? Let me help
you,” I say.
“I’m fine.” The dark cloud wraps tighter around
her, squeezing her so tight I wonder how she can
even breathe.
“Did he hurt you?” My voice is gentle despite
the rage boiling inside me. Like a timid deer, she
will only run if she senses my temper.
“I tripped …” Her voice comes out too loudly,
and people turn to look at us. She glances around
and then lowers her voice. “… down the stairs.”
“Oh my gosh, what about the baby?”
“I lost the baby.” She picks at her food. Her
voice is so soft I can barely make out the words.
“After we talked, I decided to have the baby. I
wasn’t sure yet if I would keep her or give her up
for adoption, but I found some good options.”
“But he wasn’t happy that you wouldn’t get an
abortion,” I prod her.
“I thought …”
“What?” I reach across the table and squeeze
her hand. A tear falls from her face, splashing
against my knuckle.
“I thought he was going to kill me.” Her hands
shake as she fiddles with her cup. “He pushed me
and—”
“Go on. It’s okay.”
“Now the baby is gone, and if I tell anyone, he’ll
finish the job.” Hollow eyes, she stares out the
window at the falling snow, the sun coming up in
the distance, people rushing to their cars. I wonder
if she had forgotten I was there, but after a long
moment, she takes a ragged breath and continues
her story in a whisper, “The baby was mine. Maybe
she … or he ... came from that night, but she wasn’t
his, not really. She was mine. And now the baby is
gone.”
We sit in silence, and my heart bleeds for her.
People come and go, a blast of winter hitting us
each time the door opens. The little shop empties
and then fills up again, and still we sit there with
cold cappuccinos and untouched cinnamon buns.
“Horrible thing is if I tell anybody, no one will
believe me.” Her face is white, even her lips are
pale, and her eyes staring into mine are full of
terror. She continues, her voice so low I can barely
hear her. “I’m a cheerleader. We’re all considered
sluts—even you, the virginal one—and he’s a
budding star on his way to the pros, a multi-million
dollar career ahead of him.”
“You have to stop him. You can’t let him get
away with this.”
“After I fell, he followed me down the stairs and
held a gun to my head. He said next time he’d just
blow my brains out.” She buries her head in her
hands. “I think the world would be better off. I’m
used and no one will ever want me now.”
“Don’t
talk
about
yourself
like
that.”
Remembering how my sister sounds when she’s
being bossy, I let a bit of her steely demeanor creep
into me. “You know better than that. You were just
in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I stare hard at the darkness growing bigger
around her and wish it to go away. I remember the
one spark that had driven all that pain away.
Imagining something bright and beautiful—her
parents who cherish her, a future for her with a
man who would treat her right, children with
smiling faces—and push those truths against the
cloud surrounding her.
Fight back, I wish with all my might. Fight
because your soul is worth it.
The dark cloud lessens a little.
“I wish it were true.”
“Absolute truth. I promise.” I cross my heart.
She looks me in the eye and gives me a sweet,
sad smile. “Thanks. I needed to hear that.”
“He’s an asshole who thinks he owns the world.
He’s only going to do it again to someone else.”
“I know.”
“You have the power to stop him.”
“You know, what’s sick? I could have loved him.
For a while, I thought I did. If he had wooed me, I
would have happily said yes.”
“His loss.”
She laughs and then stops. “I haven’t felt like
this in months. I’m still alive, aren’t I? He didn’t kill
me, and I still have a whole life ahead of me.”
“The next girl might not be so lucky.”
“I’ll talk to my parents. My dad’s a lawyer. If he
knows about this, he’ll fight to put him behind
bars.”
“Why didn’t you go to him sooner?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I was trying to protect the family
from my shame.”
“His shame. Not yours.”
“Maybe for the first time, I can believe that.”
The door swings open behind me, and paling,
Brianna drops her phone, her hands shaking. I don’t
have to look behind me to know whose footsteps
come our way.
“Well, well, well, look who we have here.” Tyler
slides into the booth next to me, his handsomest
smile painted across his face. Not even looking at
Brianna, he studies me as if I’m his next prey.
I’m trapped.
We told you to stay out of it. You disobeyed, so
we took matters into our own hands.
A trickle of fear tingles along my spine. Can they
really do that?
I glance at Brianna, who is cowering again. She
grips her stomach as if she’s going to throw up. All
the work I had done to rebuild her backbone, and
he’s about to destroy her again.
What would Emma do? She would know how to
put him in his place. She would chop his balls off
and feed it to him …
But I can’t do that. If he suspected for even a
moment what the two of us were talking about or
how I had advised her to turn him in, he’ll kill us
before we can do anything.
Fake it. Fake it. Fake it.
I give him my biggest smile. “We were just
discussing our new fundraiser. We can count on
your help, right?”
“You can count on me for anything.” He leans
close and I’m terrified he’ll try to kiss me.
Turning away from him, I grab a few dollars out
of my purse and toss it on the table for tip. How
would Emma handle this guy? She’d puff herself up
and push him out of the way. “Now I have to get to
class. Excuse me.”
He lets me up but snags my fingers with his as I
turn away. The intimate gesture sickens me. “Want
to do something later? Movies? Dinner?” he asks.
Not on your life. “Sorry, a lot of homework this
week. If I’m free, I’ll give you a call.”
While I’m putting my coat on, my
back slightly
turned away, he glowers at Brianna. Out of the
corner of my eye, I can see him whispering to her.
She nearly faints.
“Are you coming, Bri?” I call. “We have class.”
We’re in public. He has to play by the rules.
He lets her go, and she scurries away from him. I
can feel his eyes watching us, but I don’t dare look
back.
As we go out the door, my hands shake as badly
as Bri’s did. I put a hand over my heart, beating so
fast. “You okay?” I ask her.
She takes a shuddering breath and shakes
herself, as if I’d broken her out of some sort of
spell. “He won’t ever let me free, will he?”
It’s not really a question, but I answer anyway.
“No. No, he won’t.”
She grips my hand tightly and looks me in the
eyes, panic filling her. “Stay with me until I call my
parents.”
“Of course.” And I won’t leave her until her
parents arrive and I can put her safely in their arms.
Chapter 14
~ HUNTER ~
The bitter cold stirs the fur hidden under my
glamour. I can taste the spice of winter—wood
smoke, pine, and snow—on the air. The streets are
empty with everyone hiding from the blizzard, and
the snow is so thick I can’t see my path more than
two steps in front of me.
But still I prowl the streets.
I can’t sit quietly. Something bitter and angry
and lonely stirs in my bones and burns in my gut.
Passing another house, lights splashing through
the windows and spilling onto the road, I pause. A
happy home, likely with a mother and father and
children.
I miss Sammi.
I miss my children.
Down one street and then another, around a
corner and deeper into the maze of downtown, I
pass shop after dark and empty shop.
Breathing in the winter scents again, I parse it
into individual pieces. Snow. Pine. Woodsmoke.
Fae. The bracelet. Powerful magic. And a touch of
dragon, which makes me curl my lips. I’d like to sink
my teeth into the monster.
No traces of either Jezebarra or Alistrad. No
death magic, blood, or sorcery.
I inhale again. The odors taste clean on my
tongue, and underneath it all is the fragrance of
one sweet familiar female.
She smells intoxicating.
I follow the scent trail through the snow, out of
downtown and toward the manufacturing district,
to a rundown fish processing plant.
Some of the brick crumbles around the door,
and many of the windows are broken. I step
through the opening and follow the smell deeper
into the dilapidated building.
The light spills out from a doorway and into the
dark hall where I pick my way around the debris. I
turn a corner and find her in a dirty kitchen.
My angel.
Her hair pulled up in a pony tail, she’s scrubbing
an old stove. Half of it gleams where she has
already worked, and the rest is black with grime.
I can smell the sweat glistening on the back of
her neck, the vanilla in her lotion, the strawberry in
her shampoo. Her ponytail glistens in the light as it
sways with each scrub of her brush on the dirty
surface.
On impulse, I pull off the Stetson to reveal the
real me—fur, talons, wings, and all.
“It’s three in the morning,” I growl out. “What is
an angel like you doing out here in the middle of a
blizzard?”
She turns around to face me, her eyes wide in
terror. “You! What are you doing here? How did
you find me?”
I step close, and she tips her face up to me, her
frightened green eyes meeting mine. Picking her
hand up, I sniff her wrist. “Came to see if you were
serious about finding a siren. I’ve been meaning to
ask you, how did you meet up with fae and
dragons, angel?”
“I—I didn’t. I don’t know what you are talking
about.”
I sniff again. “A woman wearing a bracelet? You
touched her … a few weeks ago. Maybe a month.”
“You can smell that?”
“It’s faint. If not for the bracelet, I wouldn’t have
caught the scent.”
A spike of something evil and reptilian—not
quite like dragons, but something with magic—
swells up around her. “Why? What’s special about
the bracelet?”
I shrug. “Seems as though everybody wants to
have it. Maybe you can tell me what you know.”
“A woman –” She pauses and glances away. The
reptilian odor fades as she continues her story.
“She was blue and covered in scales. She showed
up at our game in Idaho, earlier in January. I had a
concussion, so I thought I imagined it all. No one
else saw her, even when they were in the same
room with her.”
Interesting. A half-dragon fae, maybe? “This
kind of thing happen to you a lot, angel? Because
vanilla humans like you don’t normally get visits
from people of my world.”
“Of course not. I had hit my head. It was all a
hallucination.” She turns back to her stove, her lie
stinging my nose.
“You got yourself into some kind of trouble? I’ll
help you.” What was I saying? I learned long ago to
never stick my neck out for anyone. The last thing I
want is for the Usurper to find me, and so I always
fly under the radar. I only take the jobs where no
one will talk about me.
She is quiet for a long moment. “Still trying to
earn the money to pay for the job you’re already
doing for me. I can’t afford your fees again.”
I grunt in response. I hadn’t meant I would
charge her, but it’s a good way to get myself out of
the whole mess. My groin says to take her far away
from here and keep her safe, but listening to that
brain will only get me killed.
Reaching out, I touch her hair, the silky strands
running through my clawed fingers. She stills,
holding her breath.
I grit my teeth and turn to leave before I do
something stupid.
Chapter 15
~ ANGELINA ~
He turns to leave, his shoulders stooped, the
wings sagged, and I can see the sorrow swallowing
him up, a dark cloud raging around him. His pain
digs into him, boring into his skin like ticks sucking
him dry.
“Wait! Don’t go.” I grab his arm and his pain
races through me and settles around my heart,
squeezing it with vicious claws. He turns to look at
me, his amber gaze drilling into me. I blink back the
sudden tears. “I’m sorry. I was rude. You were kind
and I brushed you away. It’s just that …”
“What?” His voice is surprisingly gentle.
“Nobody can help me. Not you. Not anyone.”
“No problem is ever that bad,
angel.” He studies
me. “This bracelet. Everyone wants it. Is that what
you need to solve your problem?”
I shake my head. “No, I don’t even know what
the bracelet is. That blue woman probably has the
answers I need, but she made it clear she wouldn’t
help me.”
He gestures to the room around us. “And what
is an innocent girl like you doing in an abandoned
warehouse in the middle of the night? Scrubbing a
godforsaken stove, no less.”
“I—I—” What do I say? Can I trust him? He’s not
human, which means he’s likely another imaginary
friend. But on the other hand, it might be easier to
make up some story.
Don’t tell him.
“This time don’t lie to me,” he says.
Keep your mouth shut.
“I can’t sleep.”
“It’s the middle of January in Alaska. You came
out here in a blizzard? Are you insane?” He raises
his eyebrow, a very human gesture in his wolfish
face.
I wrap my arms around my waist and squeeze
myself tight. Holding myself together. I don’t think I
can take anymore of his kindness. “I haven’t slept
in weeks. It’s doing funky things to me. I had to get
out.”
He sniffs the air. “A partial truth. What else?”
I shake my head. “I can’t.”
He frowns, worry lines scrunching up the fur on
his forehead. “All right, angel. When you’re ready
to talk, let me know.”
I watch him leave. I want to run to him and tell
him everything, but everyone else is safer far away
from me.
And if I try, they will punish me again.
Chapter 16
~ HUNTER ~
I step out into the snow, a swirling white wall
enveloping me. Bowing my head, I plow my way
through and back onto the main roads, heading
home. Or what suffices for home.
I want a drink.
The smell of fae and dragon stops me in my
tracks before I even see her. Her blue scales sparkle
under the streetlight where she stands. The snow
landing on her melts as soon as it hits, and the
ground around her feet is a puddle.
Definitely dragon and not some strange lizard
fae as lizards are cold-blooded and dragons are not.
“What do you want?” I snarl out.
“You recently stole a bracelet from the sorcerer
Alistrad.”
