by Jayne Hawke
“Are you guys staying here to watch the latest episode of Assassin Delta with us?” Kerry asked.
“Absolutely,” Matt said with a grin.
I raised an eyebrow at him. I’d been hoping to get home and see how the renovations were coming along. Ethan had insisted on paying for a complete renovation of our house. He had declared that as we were pack, and I refused to move into the pack house, then he was going to ensure that the house was fit to live in. The money he’d paid me from the stolen god magic job had been more than enough to fix the leaky roof, but his insistence on paying for all the renovations meant it went in savings. There were greater hardships in life.
Ethan had taken it far further than fixing the roof, though. He’d had a custom kitchen contracted, and that was being fitted that day. We had brand new furniture, including a bed with a mattress that didn’t have springs poking up and stabbing me in the night.
“You know you have rooms here, if you’d rather not stay in the mess of the renovations,” Ethan said with a spark of mischief in his eyes.
I knew that he was quite determined to get us to stay under his roof where he could watch over us. I wasn’t ready to give him my freedom, even if I did enjoy being in his arms and feeling his lips against mine.
“We’d love to stay and watch Assassin Delta with you,” I said.
Matt grinned at me and mouthed thank you. He was plenty old enough to stay there by himself, but we were all we had and he didn’t like me feeling as though I was left out.
Kerry and Cade brought out the desserts and took a deep breath. I reminded myself that my body needed more calories from the intense work with my magic. A little dessert wouldn’t be the end of the world.
There was no such thing as a little food in the pack house. Before I knew it, I had a bowl with spotted dick and custard, a plate with a generous slice of treacle tart, and another bowl with bread and butter pudding and a large dollop of rich vanilla ice cream. I gave Cade a flat look. He knew that I didn’t eat as much as the pack. He grinned at me unrepentantly.
Ethan stifled a laugh and bit into his treacle tart. I wasn’t sure where to start. This wonderful food was still so new to me. I picked up my spoon and began with the bread and butter pudding. It was an expensive and sumptuous dessert. I’d been told that before the fae returned to the earth plane dairy products had been a normal and cheap part of everyday life. The fae, however, had a penchant for milk and cream, which had driven the cost of those products up into the high-end-champagne prices I was used to. The cost of the butter and ice cream alone must have been in the hundreds.
Like every bit of food I enjoyed with the pack, the pudding was incredible. The rich creamy vanilla ice cream complemented the sweet and rich bread and butter pudding. I couldn’t believe the pudding had been a poor person’s dessert once upon a time. Now it was something only the wealthiest ate. Formed from stale bread, butter, warming spices including nutmeg and cinnamon, a lot of milk, and finally a couple of eggs, it sounded awful on paper, but the final result from something rich and somehow very homey.
“If you’re not going to eat that...” Dean said as he reached his fork towards my spotted dick.
I gave him my best glare, and he laughed. A big hearty laugh that formed crinkles around his amber eyes. Apparently I wasn’t quite as good at glares as the big bad fae hounds I hung around with.
THREE
Ethan had insisted on sending Matt and me home with half of a Bakewell tart. He pressed it into my hands with a broad smile.
“You need to look after yourself now you’re using your magic,” he said.
“I already ate three days’ worth of food...” I said with a laugh.
He leaned in and brushed his lips over mine.
“Take it, for me,” he whispered.
A shiver ran through me.
“Now that’s not fair,” I said.
He smirked at me.
I held the tart wrapped in brown baking parchment closer to my chest and sighed.
“Fine, I’ll see you in the morning.”
He leaned in and kissed me with a surprising ferocity. We’d been doing this little dance for a couple of weeks now. I ached to go further, to feel his hard body beneath my fingertips, but I was nervous. He was still a cu sith, if he decided to turn on me we’d have to flee to the other side of the world. It was a big decision that I wasn’t ready to make just yet. If I slept with him, then everything would change. I’d already signed a contract saying that I was his - for my own safety, he had argued.
Ethan smiled at me gently and opened my front door for me. He had a key for it now, which I felt weird about. I gave him my best smile and walked inside. Everything had changed. The interior was bright and airy. The kitchen was barren where the fitting was unfinished. The bones were there, but it didn’t feel like the creaky old home I’d grown up in. My heart ached as I closed my eyes and remembered my father’s laugh and my mother’s brilliant smile that lit up every room.
“We’ll always have those memories,” Matt said softly from the doorway to the living room.
I placed the Bakewell tart down on the small table that sat just inside of the front door.
“I know,” I said.
I pulled off my boots, another gift from Ethan. Chewing on my bottom lip, I wondered if it was all starting to feel like too much. He meant well, but I needed my independence and freedom.
“How’s the apprenticeship going?” I asked Matt.
He grinned at me.
“It’s incredible! There are no classrooms, I’m taught everything one on one - and we’re not starting with boring theory, either. Today I experimented with spring dew, and you would be amazed at the possibilities for something so simple,” he enthused.
A month ago, I’d thought that he wanted to be a marketing executive and live a comfortable, normal life. Then it had turned out that he really wanted to be an alchemist. Cue Ethan and the most incredible alchemy apprenticeship.
Matt put his hands on my shoulders. He was leaner and more lithe than me, thanks to his cait sidhe half. He made good use of the inches he had on me as he looked down at me with his best fatherly expression.
I poked him in the ribs.
“Don’t give me that look. I’m your older sister, remember.”
He smiled at me.
“You can tell Ethan to back off, you know. He’s a millennium old or something, plenty old enough to handle something like that.”
“It’s just so much has happened so fast,” I said, gesturing at the house.
“I know, but, look at all of the opportunities we’ve been given. We finally have a house that doesn’t sound like it’s going to fall down in the next storm, we can eat every meal instead of just a few here or there, and we know Dad’s alive out there somewhere.”
I thought back to the fallen gods that had been wired up and drained of their magic by some rogue hounds. I had known for a long time what the hounds did, how they stole the fallen’s magic to return to their own gods. Seeing it in person was something entirely different. One of the fallen had recognised me and said Dad was alive. I still wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not. I knew it was nearly impossible to kill a god, fallen or otherwise. The idea of his being wired up and suffering like that turned my stomach, though. It was surely a fate worse than death.
FOUR
I tried to avoid spending all my time at the pack house, but the fact was that it was infinitely more comfortable than our house, especially during the renovations, and the majority of my friends lived there, as did my... I hesitated to think of him as my boyfriend, but he wasn’t exactly an acquaintance... my It’s complicated.
So, yet again, Matt was at his alchemy apprenticeship, and I was curled up on their very comfortable couch with Kerry in her favourite armchair next to me. She looked every inch the cat as she curled her slender legs beneath her, her fingers flying across the keyboard. Her usual leather pants had been replaced with a pair of baby blue pajama bottoms wit
h tiny black cats on them.
“I see that warrior fashion has taken a sudden and unexpected turn,” I said, nodding to her pajama bottoms with a grin.
She gave me the very feline slow blink, and slowly a smirk spread across her face.
“Making your enemy underestimate you is a very useful tool,” she said.
I laughed and knew that she’d easily kick ass in those pajama bottoms as she did in her usual light leather armour. The cait sidhe was unstoppable in a fight.
“Did you hear about those grisly murders this morning?” she asked after a moment.
“No, I don’t make a habit of watching the news. Aren’t there grisly murders every morning? Hags, red caps, rogue shifters, witches with a grudge,” I said with a shrug.
“These were different. It was a highborn fae. They were a regular in the courts,” Kerry said with a frown.
Fae weren’t particularly easy to kill on a good day, but the higher they were up the ranks the more difficult they were to get to. The more time a fae spent in the courts the more power, and often magic, they wielded. That meant they had more protections.
“Any idea what got them? I assume it was a higher ranking fae reminding everyone how the court works,” I said as I began flipping through the channels on the TV.
“No one’s sure yet. The higher ranking fae all seemed shocked, but we all know they lie for a living. It could easily be that the dead fae spoke out of turn or was stupid enough to try and make a power grab,” Kerry said, sounding unconvinced.
“Go on...” I pressed.
She was clearly holding something back.
“Ok, so, the body was drained of blood. Not a drop in there,” she said.
I raised an eyebrow.
“You are not going to try and convince me vampires are real. Everything knows they’re just a myth,” I said.
“Of course not,” Kerry rolled her eyes.
I settled on a show about the hippocampus races.
“You have to admit it’s really weird, though,” Kerry said.
“A witch probably got to the body before it was found. Fae blood will be packed with magic; it’ll sell for hundreds of thousands on the black market. Assuming they don’t use it themselves,” I said.
I wasn’t sure what had rattled Kerry about this murder. Sure, it wasn’t a run of the mill assassination, but it wasn’t that odd for the court fae to attempt to kill each other. They were all cutthroat and determined to hold onto as much power as possible.
Kerry closed her laptop.
“The body was found barely ten feet from the York court; that’d have to be a ballsy witch,” Kerry said.
“You’re convinced this is something weird.”
She looked at me. Her usually carefully styled pixie cut looked a little flat and messy in that moment. Kerry’s eyes went a little larger, and she almost looked vulnerable for a moment. I looked away. She was just a cat trying to manipulate me into what she wanted.
“You have to admit that this isn’t run of the mill,” Kerry said.
I wrinkled my nose.
“Ok, fine. I’ll admit it isn’t normal. But there will always be those who get a bit creative. Who’s to say that it wasn’t the work of some new assassin trying out a signature? There are rumours that the Shadow Fox likes to fill their victim’s lungs with shadow or burn them from the inside out,” I said.
I wasn’t convinced that the mysterious Shadow Fox existed. They seemed a bit too good at their job, larger than life. If the stories were to be believed, they were the finest assassin to ever exist. The fae were said to tell their children stories of the Shadow Fox to keep them in line.
Kerry sighed and stretched her legs.
“So, tell me about you and Ethan.”
I looked at the TV and ignored her question. I should have insisted on sticking to the topic of the weird murder. Talking about my feelings wasn’t something I was even slightly comfortable with.
“How’re things with you and Matt?” I said idly.
I felt the glare Kerry gave me burning into the back of my head.
“Ethan really cares about you, you know. Even a blind person would be able to see the way he looks at you.”
“You and Matt have been spending a lot of time together. He raves about your abilities as a hacker.”
“Don’t lead Ethan on. He’s an amazing guy, and I don’t want to see him get his heart broken,” Kerry said softly.
“If you hurt Matt I’ll hunt you down,” I said casually.
“Has Matt finally made his move? He was planning it out with me and Cade last night,” Dean said as he sat down on the other end of the couch.
I fought back a smile. I knew that Matt had been whispering about something with the cu sith, I just hadn’t been sure what.
“No, I haven’t spoken to him yet today. Maybe I should swing by and see him on his lunch break,” Kerry said smoothly.
Part of me thought I was supposed to be more protective over Matt. He was my baby brother. But he was an adult; he was turning nineteen soon. Sure, Kerry was a few centuries older than him, but he was plenty old enough to make his own decisions.
“How’re you and Ethan getting on? Are you moving into his room soon?” Dean asked.
I groaned.
“Did you know that the hippocampus races have patrons from all around the world? It’s said that the successful jockeys make a few million a year,” I said.
“That’s a no, then,” Dean said with a grin.
I said nothing.
“Cu sith are all about their pack and pair bonds. Once they’ve found the one, they don’t wait” Kerry said.
I narrowed my eyes at her.
“Cait sidhe much prefer to play and explore our options before we commit to anything,” she said with a purr.
“Well, us demigods like to see how things go and make no hasty decisions,” I said.
Dean laughed, and the tension in the room dissipated.
“We need to come up with a better name for your species,” Dean said.
“Witch-god?” Kerry offered.
“No, it makes her seem like a full god. Fallen mongrel? Like the fae mongrels?” Cade offered from the doorway.
I shot him a poisonous glare.
I hated when people called Matt a fae mongrel. I certainly wasn’t going to take on the name for myself.
“How about unique and beautiful?” Ethan said.
“I like the sound of that,” I said with a grin.
“Cheat,” Kerry muttered.
FIVE
Ethan took me into his office and closed the door behind us.
“People are talking about the offspring of a dark witch and fallen god pairing,” he said solemnly.
I rubbed my temples. I knew that word would get out when I used my magic. It was too big, too obvious. The hounds would have been able to feel it, if nothing else. Then there were the witches and the fae. The fallen we saved might have talked, too.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
Ethan gently placed his hands on my hips.
“Nothing we can’t handle. I would feel better if you officially joined the pack and moved in with us, though.”
I rested my hands on his hard chest and looked up into his eyes. His magic rippled just beneath the surface. I could feel the powerful predator there, waiting.
“I need my space. It’s not you.”
It was partially him. The threat he presented. I hadn’t known him very long. He was exactly what my father had warned me against over and over while I was growing up. His eyes held only gentle affection, but I needed more time to really get to know him. To be sure.
He reached up and caressed my cheek with a small sad smile.
“I’ll be here when you’re ready. I’m not going anywhere,” he said softly.
Kerry’s words about life bonds flashed in my mind. It was true that there was something about Ethan. I’d relaxed around him from the moment we met on the city walls. Still, it wasn’t my nature
to rush into things like that. I couldn’t afford for it to be.
“Who’s talking?” I asked.
Ethan’s lip curled slightly.
“A few of the high court fae. There have been whispers that they’re sending their best out into the city to try and snare the being in question,” he said with a growl.
Fantastic. So, I had fae bounty hunters trying to track me down. It was far more difficult to keep my magic bottled up, too. The more I used it, the more it remained just beneath my skin rather than hiding deep inside of me. I feared that there would be a time when I couldn’t hide it at all. I reminded myself that I’d had no idea my mother had been a witch. She had always seemed like a normal human to me. It gave me some hope at a chance of a normal, quiet life.
“Anything we really need to worry about?” I asked.
Ethan pulled me a little closer to him, a distinctly protective gesture.
“No cu sith have been hired. There may be an elf, though. I don’t know if the hounds themselves are trying to track you down, and my contacts with the witches have been quiet thus far,” he said.
“Are they planning on killing me?”
“At least one wishes to capture you alive.”
I thought back to the agony the fallen gods had been in as their magic was drained. That wasn’t going to happen to me.
“To drain, I assume,” I said drily.
“Perhaps. They may try and bind you to them and use you as a tool,” Ethan said.
I wasn’t sure which fate was worse.
“You’re an unknown quantity. There will be those who wish to kill you on principle. Others will try and steal away your magic. You don’t have the natural defences that a full-blooded god does, and that will make you more vulnerable to the witches.”
“So, I need to improve my magic,” I said.
“We need to be sure that you can take on any threat.”
