The Cursed Fae (Accessory to Magic Book 2)

by Kathrin Hutson

  She let out a short, raspy chuckle. “It was the least you could do, right?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Leandras sucked in a sharp breath and held it for so long, she wondered if it was possible for a fae to kick the bucket right here in her bank without even a whisper of his last breath escaping him.

  Come to think of it, if he died right now, it wouldn’t be all that far away from where Tabitha had met her end—about six feet in front of them.

  There was a macabre thought. What was wrong with her?

  “No.” Despite how soft his voice had become, it still made her start when he broke the silence. “I’d already intended to pay you a visit today and just happened to walk in at the opportune moment. Though I seem to have depleted myself a good deal more quickly than I’d anticipated.”

  Jessica grimaced. “Is that why you look like you just got your ass tossed across a bank by a pissed-off Matahg too?”

  Leandras puffed out a humorless chuckle that sounded more like the dying breath she’d been waiting to hear. “Unfortunately, no.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “It’s a very long story, Jessica. Perhaps as long as yours, if you were inclined to explain the nuances of your relationship with that Matahg in any detail whatsoever.” The fae shook his head by a fraction of an inch, his eyes closed and his eyebrows flickering with a brief frown. Maybe of pain, maybe of disappointment, maybe of both. Either way, it didn’t look good. “And much like your story, as you so put it, mine is none of your business.”

  “Fair enough.” She studied him as much possible for how little she could turn her head his way without sending another stab of pain racing up her spine.

  So Leandras the fae had shown up at her bank at the perfect time just to blast Mickey out—and save Jessica’s life—looking even more hellish than the last time he’d appeared and demanded to make his withdrawal. And she had a feeling his reasons for returning were exactly the same as the last time too.

  “If you came back for that stupid coin, Leandras, you can forget it.”

  His whole body tensed for a split second, then he tilted his head toward her. “Pardon?”

  “Took you long enough. You said a few days, and it’s been over a week. So wherever you’ve been and whatever held you up, fine. None of my business.”

  “Jessica, that’s not—”

  “Look, I know I’m not a wealth of knowledge when it comes to this bank and everything it’s…protecting, okay?” Her head started spinning again as her words rushed faster out of her mouth, but she couldn’t stop it now. She’d been bottling it up since the day he’d refused to give her any answers—again—and stormed out of her bank to do who knew what. “But I do know that damn thing opened up the floodgates for way more trouble than I bargained for. And you’re the one who started it.”

  “More than you bargained for? That’s quite the—”

  “Yeah, I know. I had no idea what I was doing when I took this job. It wasn’t even…this job, but that’s beside the point.”

  “Well, we can most certainly agree on that.”

  Jessica jerked away from him and regretted it instantly. She slapped a hand down on the floor to steady herself and scowled at him. Even that small expression doubled the throbbing at the back of her head. “You can sit here playing wounded fae all you want. The coin is safe, and I’m not giving it to you.”

  “You’re entirely mistaken—”

  “I don’t think so. It’s staying right where it is, and if you’re not gonna take no for an answer, you’ll have to finish what Mickey started.”

  Leandras turned his head toward her again and frowned.

  “I’m saying you’ll have to kill me first.” Jessica swallowed thickly against the pain. “That clear enough for you?”

  She was breathing heavily now, her back spasming as each inhale and exhale brought flash after flash of freshly stabbing pain. That was all the energy she had left, and she’d just used the last of it to tell off this damn fae sitting next to her.

  This was ridiculous. The two of them sitting here and wallowing in their injuries like this. If her body hadn’t been nearly torn apart by her ex-boss raging about his fucking withdrawal, she would have chased Leandras out by now.

  The fae man slowly licked his cracked lips and sighed. He lifted one long, slender hand in supplication, but only by a few inches before it dropped weakly back down into his lap again. “You may find this difficult to believe, Jessica, but I did not step through that door today with the intention of retrieving the stupid coin, as you so aptly put it. Or to kill you. I hope I’ve made the latter perfectly clear, at the very least.”

  Jessica blinked. Okay, maybe she’d gone overboard with the preemptive defensiveness, but could he really blame her?

  “Yeah,” she muttered. “I guess you made that pretty clear.”

  “Wonderful.”

  When he didn’t offer anything else, she figured he was waiting for her to ask. Even if he wasn’t, she couldn’t just sit here and let that mystery keep hanging between them unanswered. “So why are you here?”

  His chuckle made her frown, and when the force of it grew louder and stronger as he sat completely weakened against the wall, Jessica wondered if he’d finally lost his mind. Every other magical she’d encountered in the last two weeks seemed to have gone down that path already, so it was only a matter of time.

  Leandras finally got himself back under control and managed to raise his hand to his hair to smooth the disheveled strings of it away from his face. They fell back over his forehead almost immediately, and he turned to fix her with his hooded, silver-glowing gaze. “It feels rather ironic now, all things considered. But I actually came here to ask for help. Specifically yours.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Um…what?” Jessica tried to lean away from the fae man gazing intently at her and the infuriating nonchalance of his crooked smile.

  “Don’t make me repeat it. I know you heard me.”

  She blinked, completely at a loss. This had to be a joke. “You want my help?”

  “Desire really does have very little to do with it at this point, if I’m being perfectly candid.”

  “So you…don’t want my help.”

  “Jessica…”

  “No, really. I’m having a hard time putting two and two together here. Because you made a really big deal of telling me you didn’t need my help last week when we were standing on one side of that desk out in the lobby. You know, with a few dozen pissed-off magicals on the other side. Remember that?”

  “Perfectly.”

  “You basically told me to go upstairs and hide until it was over.”

  He sighed. “Yes. I recall that as well.”

  “And then I was the one who—” She’d almost said she was the one who “channeled the bank’s magic”, but that definitely fell under the category of things not to openly say to a fae who couldn’t be trusted with anything. Not after what he’d started. Jessica cleared her throat. “I was the one who handled the rest of them before they had a chance to wipe us both out.”

  Leandras grunted. “Are you looking for some type of reward?”

  “No, just a little recognition on your part. That I saved your ass last week—”

  “And I saved yours an hour ago.”

  “Yeah, I already said we’re even.”

  “Then I fail to see the issue.”

  “Really?” Despite the pounding in her head, Jessica’s frown deepened. “You fail to see the nightmare of a situation you put me in when you took that damn coin out of the box? Or is it the issue of you refusing to give me any helpful information whatsoever that you fail to see?”

  He rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes again. His breathing slowed into nothing more than a soft whisper, but then he swallowed and proved he wasn’t about to jump over the edge out of the land of the living. Not just yet, anyway. “If you insist on calling the score between us even, Jessica, fine. I’ll acc
ept.”

  “Oh, good. We’re finally getting somewhere.”

  “Which means we’re working with a clean slate now. And I do mean it when I say I need your assistance.”

  Jessica finally found enough strength in her muscles to push herself three inches away from him along the wall. Then her body went right back to feeling like a giant pile of searing, agonizing Jell-O. Leandras spared her a brief glance, but she ignored whatever condescension might have come along with it. “What about the coin?”

  “Forget the coin for now. I certainly have.”

  No way was she buying it. No way had the guy gone from desperately obnoxious fae trying to get his hands on that coin—probably to take the whole bank down with him, if she and the bank hadn’t stopped him—to literally so desperate that he’d fight off a raging Matahg just to pass out in the hall like this and ask for Jessica’s help. Not over the course of one very short week.

  “You really expect me to believe that?”

  “I don’t expect anything from you.” He cleared his throat. “But I do hope that if you choose to believe anything, it’s that I have no intention or desire to undermine your purpose here. And that what I’m asking from you is not something I take lightly.”

  Out of all the things she could have said, what came out of her mouth was a snippy, “That’s two things, actually.”

  Leandras grunted out a half-hearted laugh. “You have me there. Perhaps I’ve forgotten how to count.”

  What was she supposed to say to that?

  He sounded serious. He looked even worse. If she had the means to help him—as long as it wasn’t another case of helping him only to dig an ever deeper, unnavigable hole for herself—she should. Right?

  “What kind of help?” Jessica leaned even farther away from him, gritting her teeth against the renewed pain in her back, and waited for the fae to look at her again.

  When he did, she thought she saw a shimmer of tears in his eyes. Or maybe that was just a trick of the light dancing across the silvery glow. Fae weren’t particularly known for their vast display of emotion. Especially this one.

  “Jessica,” he whispered, his lips twitching up into a small grimace as he held her gaze. “I would be highly indebted to you if you allowed me to shelter here. In your bank.”

  “What?”

  ‘Is he serious?’ the bank practically shrieked in her mind. ‘Who does this guy think he is?’

  Jessica glanced up at the ceiling of the hallway, and if Leandras thought that was her way of seriously considering it, all the better. Oh, good. You’re back.

  ‘Yeah, and just in time to keep you from making a serious mistake.’

  I wasn’t gonna just tell him yes.

  ‘But you were thinking about it.’

  “I’m sorry…” She started to shake her head but stopped when her brain felt like it was about to explode. Physically and because she couldn’t quite wrap her head around this one. “You want to…”

  “I know it’s a lot to ask of you,” Leandras muttered, “but I wouldn’t ask if I had another option. To be clear.”

  “Well, at least I’m the last stop on your list.” She snorted. “Why do you need to stay here?”

  “It would only be for a few days.”

  “And then what?”

  “And then I’ll figure out the rest on my own!” The force of his outburst made him wince, and he turned away from her to take another long breath. “I’ve depleted all other safety options, Jessica. And until I’ve devised a plan to successfully retrieve my gúlmai without putting either one of us in further danger, I need somewhere to recover. To lay low, as it were.”

  Jessica slowly leaned forward, trying to catch his attention. “Because you’re in hiding.”

  Leandras puffed out a derisive breath. “I’m not in the habit of hiding from anything, let me assure you. But in this instance… Well, I suppose it’s an accurate summation of my current circumstances.”

  ‘Don’t even think about it.’

  If you saw it in my head, bank, I already did think about it.

  ‘Look, witch. I get it. You found some kind of connection here with this lunatic, and your mortal conscience just stepped in to make you feel obligated. Fine. But you’re getting a big-ass no from me. No.’

  Are there any rules against it?

  ‘No…’

  Jessica pressed her lips together and kept staring at the fae who seemed unable to meet her gaze again. “Who are you hiding from?”

  Leandras tilted his head from side to side, apparently warring with his own conscience. Whatever existed of it. “I believe you’ve met them.”

  “The Requiem or Jensen’s…guys?”

  He finally looked at her and blinked once. He looked more haggard now than he had ten minutes ago when she’d woken up with her head in his lap. Which was weird enough. But he didn’t reply.

  “Who is it, Leandras?” she growled.

  “Take your pick. Jessica.”

  “Nope.” Her hand slapped down on the banister of the staircase’s bottom landing, and she struggled to her feet. “Can’t do it.”

  ‘Attagirl.’

  Don’t ever say that again.

  She paused with both hands on the banister, trying to keep her footing despite the pain lancing through her back and spreading into her shoulders now. And a dull ache had returned to her chest to join the fun.

  ‘I keep telling you, you really need to take a look at that—’

  “Shut up.”

  Leandras grunted. “As much as I agree that this isn’t an ideal scenario, I’m inclined to ask you one more time—”

  “Don’t. Don’t ask me anything.” With one hand clenched around the banister railing and the other snaking toward her lower back to gingerly prod at the base of her spine, Jessica turned toward him and managed almost a full shake of her head. “Sorry, but it’s a no.”

  “Jessica—”

  “After what happened the last time those idiots found out you were here and came after you because of…whatever you’ve done? Forget it. I stood with you then because I got caught in the crossfire, but now you’re asking me to do it again willingly. When I know better.”

  “No one knows where I am.”

  “Not yet. Look, word got around faster than I knew was possible that I’m the one who took Tabitha’s place here. I can’t imagine it would take any less time for magicals to start running their mouths about the new fae fixture at Camp Winthrop & Dirledge. And I have more than enough problems to deal with as it is. Not gonna just pile all yours on too because you asked.”

  “Please.”

  Jessica rolled her eyes. “Nice try, but saying please isn’t everything.”

  ‘It’s close, though.’

  She ignored the bank and the agony shooting through her body as she shuffled down the hallway, steadying herself with both hands on the wall. Her shoes crunched across the mess of plaster Mickey had ripped down in shreds, but she skirted around it.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  Anywhere that isn’t sitting right next to him.

  It didn’t occur to her until she reached the hall that she didn’t have much support to get her from the entryway to the desk and the office chair behind it.

  “Jessica?” Leandras called after her.

  “No means no, fae. I’m really not trying to be rude about it, but I can’t help you out with this.”

  His grunts followed her into the lobby as he obviously tried to rise to his own feet too. Then there was a thump, another grunt, and the shuffle of footsteps. “Perhaps we can make an arrangement that suits both of our—”

  “But if you keep this up, I’ll get rude.” Jessica tried to shout it, but her voice was still so weak. Just like the rest of her.

  ‘Couple of wounded magicals floundering around with no clue.’ The bank tittered. ‘Most boring game of cat and mouse I’ve ever seen.’

  You need to stop.

  She staggered across the lobby toward the desk and
slammed her hands down on it to keep herself from falling on her face again.

  “Some may call it rude,” Leandras said as he emerged from the hallway on shaky legs. “For others, myself included, the truth is merely the truth. So allow me to—”

  “I said no!” Jessica thrust a finger toward the front door, and her legs almost buckled beneath the burst of pain the motion brought racing across her back and shoulders. “Now get out of my goddamn bank before I—”

  “I’ll tell you about the Gateway!” Leandras’ shout was just as weak as hers but with the same desperation behind it.

  She let her arm drop back down by her side and froze.

  “Everything I know.” The fae rounded the corner out of the hall and staggered against the destroyed bookshelf where he’d tossed Mickey Hargraves. “I’ll even show you how to open it.”

  “No, that’s the last thing I wanna do.”

  “It’s really not.”

  Do you know what he’s talking about, bank?

  ‘I mean, the general topic, sure.’ The bank’s voice dropped into a whisper. ‘But the rest of it? I’m completely stumped.’

  With nothing but the fae’s ragged breath filling the otherwise silent lobby, Jessica turned slowly to look at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Leandras tried to straighten against the bookshelf but made a poor job of it. “The subject I’ve been particularly versed in for quite some time, Jessica. One might even say that’s the reason I’m in this world.”

  “As opposed to some other world. Right?”

  He dipped his head and licked his lips, unable to look her in the eye. “Correct.”

  “So why would I want to open it?” She swallowed and turned sideways to lean her hips against the edge of the desk. “The Requiem wants it. Jensen’s guys want it. The only thing I have in common with those magicals is that we both enjoy a good fight. Apparently. And whatever you think you know about me, I’m not getting in line to work any kind of dark magic with the Gateway. I’m here to protect it, and that’s it.”