by Ann Gimpel
He ignored my criticism. “If Faery can’t talk, there’s no way she could have told you anything.” He simpered my way. For the first time, I doubted which side my cousin was on.
“I asked her questions,” I told him. “She answered in her own manner, but one that left no doubt.”
“Your interpretation. Nothing more. Let me go.”
I waited a beat to allow my next words to sink in. “I also know because Oberon showed up and told me he’d hobbled Faery so she couldn’t talk with me.”
“You’re flat out lying,” he snarled, showing me a mouthful of teeth.
“Not according to your truth spell.” Startled by his lack of competence as a mage, I released his arms. “I must leave. I’ll return as quickly as I can.” I’d meant to place him in charge of our undertaking, but it felt like an exceedingly bad idea. Perhaps I’d begun seeing boogeymen under beds, but I didn’t trust my cousin as far as I could see him.
“Fine. I’ll go talk with Faery. See if I can’t get to the bottom of this.”
Something about the way he said it chilled me. “You’ll do no such thing. She’s struggling.”
“You won’t be here,” he taunted me.
My next move was pure instinct. Leveraging magic, I dropped a cage over his head and wound streamers around it to block telepathy. Satisfied it would hold him, I sealed it with power only I could dismantle. “Maybe not,” I replied, “but you will remain in this spot until I free you. I just made certain of it.”
He screamed epithets, shouted I’d lost my marbles. I added a sound shield around his temporary prison. As soon as I was done, I left for Earth. I’d have to justify my actions with Aedan. Normally, detaining anyone required a vote from the court.
There hadn’t been time.
Oberon had broken all our rules. Time for me to stop being a Goody Two-shoes and break a few of my own. The name made me smile. I’d known her. What a little bitch she’d been. Nicey-nice on the surface, but totally self-serving beneath her veneer.
The stairwell beneath Lady Luck came into view. I took the steps two at a time. When I hit ground level and got a peek through an outside window, afternoon was on the wane. I raised my mind voice to call Dariyah. She didn’t answer, but it wasn’t a complete surprise.
She’d assume I was furious with her. Or maybe she was asleep. Even with her level of ability, she must have burned herself down to cinders closing the rift. I didn’t see how she’d managed it. I would have required additional power to accomplish the same task. Still thinking about her, overawed by her sheer talent, I continued upward to my office. After unlocking my desk and freeing my electronic jungle of devices, I worked my way through a pile of notes.
At some point, dinner arrived from the kitchen. I wasn’t picky, so I’d told them to surprise me. Tonight’s offering was beef with garlic sauce, jasmine rice, a thinly sliced pork dish, and an assortment of raw fish presented sashimi style. I finished the food and all my work at the same time. It wouldn’t be dark for a while yet. Should I hunt for Dariyah or leave her alone?
I tried telepathy again. Shock roiled through me when her deep contralto voice replied, “Yeah. I’m back topside.”
I started to ask where she’d been, but it was none of my business. Instead, I said, “Thanks for what you did.”
“You’re not mad? I figured you’d be furious.”
I chuckled. “I was, until I thought things through. I would like to hear what happened.” I stopped there. She’d done both me and Faery a huge favor. If she wished to keep the details private, I wouldn’t pry.
“I’m in the middle of renting a new place. Give me maybe an hour.”
“How’s your cat?”
“Thanks for asking. He’s fine. He’s with me in a carrier.”
“If you need help with moving…”
After a long pause, she said, “It would be useful if you could dissuade Oberon’s spies from following me. If I can’t do that, I won’t be able to move anything. They’ll just track me to the new location, and I’ll have done all this work for nothing.”
“Come here when you’re done. We’ll crack a few skulls and move everything with magic.”
“You got it. Jeez, I assumed you’d never speak to me again. I’ve never been so glad to be wrong.”
“I have a funny habit of not reaming people who do me favors. See you soon.”
I broke the connection, rang for the kitchen to pick up my empty plates, and strode out of my office. It was good for my staff to see me on the various gaming floors. Kept them honest. The patrons too. I had a well-deserved reputation for being a hard ass, but a fair one. If problems cropped up, I rarely waited for the cops. Easy enough to toss someone outside onto the asphalt. A quick photo ensured they’d never be allowed within again.
Usually, I started in the basement, but the strains of “Mendelssohn’s Wedding March” reached into the stairwell. I exited on the first floor and wandered over to our small chapel. No waiting to marry in Nevada. It lent new meaning to the old saw about marrying in haste.
Tonight’s couple wasn’t the norm. Garbed in a flowing gown and tuxedo, they’d clearly planned this. Guests lined the chapel and overflowed into the hall. Normally, I paid scant heed to mortals and their insipid customs, but I wished these two well. Hovering on the outskirts of the ceremony, I stayed until the rice-throwing began before heading downstairs.
The wedding made me think of Dariyah, which was ridiculous. Fae didn’t marry, and her mixed blood made her a target in Faery. I cared about her, but not enough to tether myself to Earth forever, and—
I cut through my messy thoughts, bringing them to an abrupt halt. I was so far ahead of the curve, it was absurd. Chances of her and me forging a path that allowed us to become a couple were as nonexistent as the possibility my gamblers would win against the house. Like all casinos, my games were rigged. People could win, but only if they knew when to quit.
“Isn’t that the way of everything,” I mumbled as I moved from one game room to another. “Gotta know when to fold, or the house will come tumbling down.”
11
Chapter Eleven, Dariyah
Keys in hand, I folded my brand-new lease agreement, shook hands with the property management dude who’d been trying to get into my pants from the moment I showed up, and walked briskly into gathering dusk. Midnight yowled piteously in his carrier. He was probably hungry and thirsty, but I wanted to give the dude a few minutes to clear out of my apartment before I went back inside.
Cats don’t tend to like new places, so I’d keep Midnight with me until I had a few hours to spend in our new digs. On the west side of Reno, the apartment complex was in a better neighborhood than my old one. Needless to say, the rent was far more than the pittance I’d been paying for my slummy flat.
“We’ll make this work,” I told my feline buddy after another series of pathetic growls. “You’ll like it, but you have to give it a chance.” Another long, drawn-out mwrowww suggested Midnight wasn’t convinced.
I doubled back to my new place. The agent had indeed left. He might have had a hard-on, but he wasn’t stupid. He’d known I had zero interest in him. Like most spurned men, he’d probably chalked me up as gay, which suited me fine. It meant he wouldn’t bother calling or texting.
I let myself inside and walked through my two bedrooms, two baths, and a granite kitchen. This place had been built as condominiums, but the bottom had fallen out of the condo market, which was why they’d turned the non-owner units into rentals.
I decided to buy new furniture. It would simplify moving. None of what I had in the old place was worth the effort to transport it. I’d been surprised when Cyn offered to help. Hell, I’d been ecstatic after hearing from him. All my fears had apparently been for naught.
Normally, I didn’t waste energy on what-ifs, but he was important to me. If I were honest, it was scary how he’d slithered into center stage in my life. I couldn’t bounce in and out of Faery, though, much as I wanted to.
The place fascinated me and left me hungry for more.
The thought made me smile. The same could be said of Cynwrigg.
No reason to maintain the charade of being human, so I let Midnight out of his carrier, located a plastic bin under one of the sinks, and filled it with water for him. Nothing I could do about food just now, and I doubted this apartment would offer the varied assortment of mice he’d come to rely on. Not inside, but perhaps over by the dumpsters.
“I’ll buy you some cat food,” I reassured him.
He looked up from his water and showed me his teeth. I sent a bit of calming magic his way. At least there wasn’t any furniture for him to hide beneath, and it would take him a while to find a way out of here—if one existed. The other place was old and full of spaces where the owner had slapped two-by-fours over exterior holes.
Before my house-hunting jaunt, I’d slipped inside my flat long enough to shower and change clothes. Nothing fancy. Dark trousers, a stretchy multihued shirt, and a black jacket. I’d been quick and stealthy. Oberon’s spies—three of them again—hadn’t reacted. Either they hadn’t realized I’d snuck inside, or they were awaiting orders from the fuhrer that never came.
Why did he give a rat’s ass about me? I was nobody.
Yeah, a nobody who’s bested him over and over again. My inner critic sounded satisfied for once. Praise from her was rare, and I basked in it. My mistake had been not taking the half wages that were offered and walking away. Even if I could relive that decision, I’d do the same thing. Being cheated and turning the other cheek aren’t part of my makeup.
I’d thrown down a gauntlet. He’d picked it up, and now we were mortal enemies. I had a feeling he had a long memory. Staying one step ahead of him for the next few centuries would piss me off. Eventually, we’d have it out again and probably sooner rather than later.
The hour I’d estimated when talking with Cyn had more than elapsed. I snatched Midnight and set a teleport spell in motion as the cat writhed, hissed, and spat in my arms. “It’s okay. This part never lasts long,” I murmured in soothing tones. Not willing to risk a ward since I had no reliable way to muffle the kitty, I set my spell to spit me out in Cynwrigg’s office. Except I had to remember to call him Jed if anyone else was there.
If anyone else happened to be there, me popping out of nowhere would take ten years off their life and require a small mind wipe. Too late now. I could redirect my spell, but I didn’t want to. Longing to see Cyn was a physical ache right behind my breastbone.
I had to get a serious grip. We were comrades. Fellow soldiers with a common enemy. And we lusted after one another. I licked my lower lip. We could do something about that last part, but was it wise? Sex with him wouldn’t quell the heat that ignited every time I laid eyes on him. It would only kick the door open and make me want more.
My spell ran true, but then most of them did. The walls of Cyn’s office formed around me. His empty office. So far, so good. Midnight yowled, so I put him down. He ran to the place the empty tuna can had been and looked at me as if to ask where it had gone.
“You good here for a bit?” I asked.
A tail swish as he turned away did double duty as a yes. Before he changed his mind, I snapped my glamour back into place, let myself out the door, and scanned with magic to find Cyn. It would save me a lot of time since the casino was a huge, sprawling affair spread over four floors. I could have saved myself the trouble since he burst from a stairwell with an exit sign flashing over it.
It might be coincidence. More likely he’d set a marker to alert him when I showed up. Maybe I was flattering myself. If I were him, I’d set beacons to alert me if anyone magical breached my gates.
Fuck me. He was even more gorgeous than I remembered—if it was even possible. Flaxen hair with coppery highlights flowed down his back. Tan trousers encased his long legs, and a Romani-style dark-blue shirt set off his eyes. His glamour added girth to his rangy build, but he was stunning either way.
He’d crossed the distance to where I stood, starstruck like a teenaged girl, and extended his hands. I gripped them just before he crushed me against him, arms winding around my back. I craved his embrace, hungered for the press of his body against mine. Already distended, his cock jammed into my stomach.
“You are so lovely,” he murmured.
“Not as pretty as you.” I grinned up at him. “Not as tall, either.”
He smiled back. “You’d still be hot as a Valkyrie. Come on.” Not letting go of me, he walked me backward to his office. The door opened, courtesy of his magic. Midnight raced out, stopped dead, turned, and stalked back inside tail high as he attempted to recoup his dignity.
Cyn kicked the door shut and strung kisses down the side of my face. His erection still tantalized where it was jammed against my belly. Turning my face at the perfect kissing angle was tempting as hell, but we had work ahead of us. Probably lots of it. Too much to lose myself in ripping his clothes off and marveling at the body beneath.
“We need to talk,” I murmured, “and you’re making it damnably difficult. Odd things happened when I closed the rift, and I didn’t actually mean to finish the job. My magic escaped my control. I figured I was a dead woman, but—”
He unwound his arms and dragged a chair over with a booted foot. “Sit. I’ll get us something to drink.” Turning, he opened the small refrigerator and asked, “Wine? Beer? Mineral water? Juice?”
“Juice. Any kind. And mineral water and a glass. I’ll mix them.”
I settled into the chair he’d positioned for me, but it didn’t last long. I was too amped up to remain still. Back on my feet, I poured pineapple juice and fizzy water into a glass and took a long sip. Cyn wheeled the chair out from behind his desk and sat across from my empty one, so I sank back into it. I’ll hand it to him. He was patient. Didn’t pepper me with questions.
I set my glass on the floor. Midnight raced over and stuck his snout in it, lapping until he decided cats didn’t like pineapple. My thoughts were as organized as they were likely to get. I’d decided on short, sweet, and no excuses. Spreading my hands in front of me, I began by saying, “I owe you an apology. I broke my word. I didn’t mean to. I found a spot that felt promising, so I teleported beyond the cliff and found what I expected, Earth’s side of the rift with the unmistakable lure of Faery on the other side.
“It was a strange place, full of wind and hail and colder than I’d have imagined. A river rushed through the bottom of the gorge. My first move, once I determined I was in the right spot, was an experiment to see how tough the gap would be to shut.”
I sat straighter in the chair and dropped my hands into my lap. “I agonized over that choice because I remembered our agreement. Aw hell, I vacillated over breaching the wall in the first place. In any event, my magic created a land bridge about two feet wide over the chasm. It told me the project was doable. I was getting ready to add to my bridge so it wouldn’t fall in when something drilled into my magical center. Power poured from me. At first, I was certain I could stop it.”
“Except you couldn’t.” Cyn’s deep voice was oddly soothing.
“That’s right. I tried everything. When nothing worked, I panicked for all the good it did me. I was stuck. Figured I’d be in that eerie cave for all eternity.”
“I’d have tracked you down.”
His assertion surprised me. “Why? I’m not one of your subjects.”
“I care about you. Also, you were there because of me. Go on.”
Before I got tangled up in him saying he cared about me, I forged ahead. “Things grew fuzzy after that, and I may have hallucinated the voice, but I begged for my freedom. A disembodied voice told me I had enough magic to heal the break. I told it I needed to pace myself, but whatever it was paid me no heed. Finally, the voice told me it would take care of me, and it called me daughter of my bones. Do you have any idea who I was talking to? Or what daughter of my bones means?”
Cynwrigg drew his fair brows together. Rather tha
n answering me, he asked, “How’d you escape?”
“Not under my own steam. Once the gap was shut, something moved me back to my starting point. Turned out I had a wee bit of magic left, and it was actually expanding, which shouldn’t have been happening. I sat there for a while trying to figure things out and then teleported to where I replenish my power.”
I waited to see if he was going to address what I’d asked him. Midnight jumped into his lap purring up a storm, and he scratched the cat’s ears. “You bear good news,” he said at last.
“Yes, it’s a plus the breach is healed,” I agreed.
Cyn shook his head. “Nay, not that, although it’s also welcome tidings. The voice would have to belong to Faery. She has a vested interest in her integrity. She’s who stole your magic. Once she saw how well it worked, I can imagine her grabbing what she could to fix the problem.”
He blew out a weary breath. “She created the rift to get my attention. It must have gotten out of hand because she wasn’t able to close it on her own. She can’t talk with me because Oberon bound her in some way. Apparently, she can talk with others, though. I’m delighted the old bastard didn’t have enough power to totally muffle her.”
I chewed my lower lip, thinking. “I figured it had to be her too, but it seemed too fantastic to be true.”
“Meanwhile,” he went on, “the dragons warned the court if we couldn’t sever Oberon’s bond with the land, Faery would die. Their seers have never been wrong that I know, so it’s one more problem to address.”
“Did the dragons sketch out a timeline?” I asked.
“Nay. Neither did I ask, which I should have. I got the impression it was an emergent problem, though, not one that would wait for a decade until someone got around to it.”
I was still stuck on the daughter of my bones pronouncement. “Why would Faery label me daughter in any way? And why of her bones? What are her bones, anyway? The foundations of Faery?”
