“She was guilty. You know it. Why would I take the fall for something I never wanted in the first place?”
“You never wanted what?”
“To sever our bond. I liked being linked to you. I liked you. I thought it was mutual until you met the prince and forgot all about the pauper.”
I backed up, and my back hit the tree. This was crazy-talk. Cruz was crazy. My fingers scrabbled against the rough bark behind me. It wasn’t rowan wood, but if I could break off a large enough piece, I could hit Cruz with it and stun him long enough to raise my hand and try to coax my dust out. Was I really contemplating asphyxiating Cruz?
“Ace and I are no longer together in case you haven’t heard. We weren’t right for each other.”
“Oh, I heard. That’s why I’m here.”
“I’m not looking for a replacement, and if I were, it would certainly not be a traitor or a faerie. I’m done with faeries.”
Cruz smiled again, that sleazy smile of his that made his eyes glow artificially. “But faeries aren’t done with you, Catori.”
My breaths hurtled up my throat, pumping my chest out and in.
“Guess what?” His leather jacket crackled smoothly over his white V-neck as he approached me.
I gulped. “What?” I slid my nails under a piece of coarse bark, wheedling it until I could slip the tips of my fingers underneath.
“You still owe me two gajoïs.”
My fingers froze. “You said we were square.”
He grinned, then lifted three fingers and bent them as he ticked off. “Saving your dad. Cleaning up your kitchen. Calling Kajika to the rescue.”
My hand skidded down the uneven trunk. My entire body vibrated with equal parts anger and dread. They swarmed me so fast my vision darkened. I blinked, hoping my mind wasn’t about to shut off.
Cruz looked toward the sky, then toward me. “Neat party trick.”
The clear sky was now tiled with woolly gray clouds. Shit. “Hunter powers are fascinating.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Hunters can control the weather?”
I swallowed. My throat felt parched and bloated. “We can control lots of things.”
“Show me.”
“I hear there’s a fabulous circus in Detroit. If you’re that desperate for entertainment, I suggest getting yourself a ticket.”
He chuckled. “The only performance I’m interested in is yours.”
“Are you claiming your gajoï? If so, I’ll oblige.”
He cleansed his face of amusement. “No.”
“Well, then, there’ll be no display of supernatural powers this morning.” My fingers crawled back up the trunk.
He leveled his gaze on mine. “You will ask me to marry you.”
I froze. “I most certainly will not.” As though Cruz had wrenched his fist inside my abdomen, my gut clenched. I brought both my hands to my stomach. The pain intensified so fast and so hard, black dots danced on the edge of my vision.
“You will.”
“No,” I croaked. My stomach contracted so violently, I bent over and threw up. I’d skipped dinner and hadn’t had breakfast yet, so the only thing that came out was acrid bile.
Maybe I could beat the pain. Maybe it would go away if I waited long enough. My stomach spasmed, and again I heaved. Cold perspiration coated my forehead, ran down my jaw. Goosebumps rose over my collarbone and neck.
My neck.
I lifted a hand to where the dust pulsed like an infection, but Cruz caught my wrist. He knew. He freaking knows how it works! How? Had he also spied on my training session with Lily? Had Lily told him? The thought of them having a conversation was ludicrous.
Clasping both my hands now, he crouched in front of me. A nerve ticked in his jaw. “It won’t stop until you ask me.”
“Why?” I whispered. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I want to and I can.”
I desperately wanted to kick him, but pain scrambled my brain and impaired all connections to my limbs. A crippling ache gripped my gut. I screamed. Screamed for someone to come. Anyone. Ace’s name was on my lips, but I didn’t utter it. Not in front of this insane faerie.
I thought about Lily as sweat poured down my collarbone. To think she’d been engaged to this asshole. I swiped my tongue over my lip, dug my teeth into my lower lip.
The idea slammed into my harried brain with such force, it jerked my body. Lily’s punishment for breaking her engagement was fatal because her body wasn’t made to live outside Neverra.
Mine was.
Besides, his bargain involved marriage, not a move to Neverra.
When a new wave of pain pounded into my center, I hissed, “Fine! Will you marry me, Cruz?” Like shrapnel, the words blew away the crushing force.
“It will be my honor, Catori Price.” Cruz let go of my wrists and rose to his feet.
I slapped him. Instead of incensing him, my reaction made him smile. In that moment, I detested him more than I’d ever detested anyone.
“Let’s get the second gajoï out of the way. What else do you want from me?”
He swiped his finger down the bridge of my nose as though I were his pet. I snarled, which just increased his smile. “Oh, dear Catori, what would be the fun in playing all my aces in one sitting?”
“Something’s seriously wrong with you, Cruz,” I muttered, my breathing choppy, my words even choppier. “Why? Why do you want me to marry you? Is this some sick fantasy of yours? Is it to punish Lily?”
He loomed over me, eyes shadowed by the black curls of hair falling over his forehead. “It’s to punish you, Catori.”
“Me?”
“You rejected me, and then you made me look like a deranged, needy man. Oh. And then you dated my closest friend, my brother. Cruel behavior has consequences.”
“What a great wife that’ll make me.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“Perhaps I was too.” He hooked a finger underneath my chin, raised my head so that our gazes locked. “I should get our love nest ready.”
I shoved his fingers off my chin. “I might be marrying you, but I’m not moving to Neverra with you.”
“Yes, you are. That’s the only place faeries can be officially joined.”
“Should’ve included that in your—” My stomach clenched, which made my teeth clench in turn.
He grinned. “It was implied. Glad your body knows the rules.”
Ugh!
“I’ll pick you up at dawn.”
“Fuck you.”
“You don’t need to pack anything.”
Tears blended into the sweat tracking down my face.
“You’ll be ready, right? I won’t need to chase you down?”
“Do I have a choice?” I muttered.
He shook his head. “Don’t look so angry. You’ll love Neverra.”
Even though accepting shattered me, I spoke the words before the pain made me black out. The Great Spirit only knew what Cruz would do to me if I were unconscious. “I’ll be ready.”
As quickly as an anesthesia, numbness replaced pain.
“I’ll probably get killed as soon as I step through the portal,” I said bitterly. “You forget I’m part hunter.”
“I forget nothing.”
I frowned, rubbing soothing circles over my abdomen even though it was no longer cramping.
“I also haven’t forgotten that only Ace can kill you, but I doubt he’ll bother.”
The clouds mottled the sky overhead. “He might kill you once he knows you forced me into this.”
He smirked. “Catori, don’t you think I’ve had time to plan this all out? I’m a hundred steps ahead of you. You won’t be informing him that this is a bargain. You’ll be telling him this was a choice. Your choice.”
“Why would I ever do that?”
“Because I have something you want.”
My brand flared, burning bright in the gray cover of trees an
d clouds. Had he kidnapped my father?
“You care about Lily.”
My head jerked back in surprise. Where was he going with this?
“I can get her back into Neverra.”
My eyes widened, but squinted almost as fast. “You’re bluffing.”
“I don’t bluff. But, hey, if you don’t want to save your new little friend, then by all means, tell Ace.”
I could feel the storm in the sky, humid and sticky like a second skin.
I was engaged to a monster.
“I’m not the girl you fooled a long time ago.”
“Oh, I know that. I know exactly what you are.”
I sucked in a breath. Did he know Lily’s suspicions about my nature? I blinked as frustration fractured my eyesight into a thousand dull pieces. “I hate you.” I whispered the words, but he heard them, because his jaw flexed.
“The best marriages aren’t built on love.”
“The best marriages aren’t built on hate either,” I hissed.
“Arranged marriages—”
“Stop trying to justify yourself! You are spiteful, and by God, if I didn’t care for Lily, I would kill you on the spot, but I’d rather save her life than end yours. Lucky you, huh?” I gave a dark, brittle laugh.
His face became an impassive mask as his feet levitated. “I’m going home to announce our imminent union.”
I leveled a gaze that would have killed him if dust could shoot out of my eyeballs. “When will you tell me how to save her?”
“On our wedding day.”
“Which is when?”
“During the next Night of Mist. In eighteen Neverrian days.”
I did the math at lightning speed. Eighteen Neverrian days equaled ninety Earth days. Three months. “Will you let me come back here at all?”
“If you behave, perhaps.”
“And you swear that in three months, you’ll tell me how to get Lily back inside Neverra?”
“On my mother’s life.”
“You don’t give a shit about your mother.”
“I’ve changed my mind about her.”
I snorted. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t waste what precious hours you have left here spiting me. I’d go home and spend it with your father. After all, you won’t be seeing much of him soon.”
His reminder was a nail gun aimed at my heart, and his eerie smile the finger on the trigger, embedding spike after spike in my shuddering organ.
“You might want to tell your father you’re taking a little trip.”
How far could I get before Cruz returned to fetch me? I could board a plane and fly to South America or Canada. And then what? Live on the run? The second my brand flared, Ace would locate me. He might not drag me back if he knew what Cruz wanted from me, but for him to know, I would have to tell him about the bargain. As though my stomach had heard my internal musing, it cramped.
Reneging on my bargain wouldn’t save Lily’s life. Besides, running would still separate me from my father and probably shred my stomach.
Eighteen days.
I could survive eighteen days in Neverra. I pushed away the reminder that those eighteen days would last much longer than normal days.
“Oh, and inform your father that where you’re going, cell phone reception will be spotty. Don’t worry though, every couple days, I’ll go through a portal to send him a reassuring text message from your phone. Or you can tell him we’re eloping.” His eyes twinkled at the suggestion.
I would most definitely not tell my father I was going to get married to Cruz Vega. But would he find out? “Will it be in the papers?”
“If you want it to be.”
“You’re giving me a choice?”
“I’m not all bad, Catori.”
Yes, you are. You are a hundred percent evil, Cruz. I didn’t voice my thoughts, but I made sure my scowl conveyed my opinion. “It stays out of the papers.”
“Noted.”
“And once we’re married? Once I’ve fulfilled my end of the bargain, will I be allowed to get a divorce—or whatever the hell it’s called in Neverra—and move back here?”
Cruz frowned. For all his careful planning, his grooved forehead and narrowed eyes told me he hadn’t considered what would happen after the wedding. “I suppose you’ll be free to do what you wish, but once you break a marriage bond, you will be locked out of Neverra forever.”
“Not forever if you have a way back in.”
A ray of sunlight broke through the clouds and struck his face.
“Not that I’d care. I have no desire to live in Neverra.”
“Enjoy your last day on Earth, Catori,” he said, before soaring heavenward. If only a plane could knock him out of the sky. It wouldn’t kill him, but maybe it would hurt.
30
The Lie
“Aren’t you supposed to be at Astra’s?”
Dad and Lily were sitting at the kitchen table, sharing breakfast. My stomach twisted as I stared at the golden triangles of toasts on their plates, at their juice-filled glasses, at the knob of chilled butter set out between them.
“I need to talk to you, Dad.”
My father’s face went a little yellow. “Is it about that boy?”
I lowered myself into one of the wooden chairs, keeping my spine and shoulders taut. Not that I could’ve loosened them if I’d tried. I was wound up so tight, it was a wonder I’d been able to make it home without collapsing and sobbing over my miserable fate. “It’s not about a boy. It’s about…me.”
The morning light that filtered through Grandma Woni’s crocheted curtains turned Lily’s eyes silver.
I rested my elbows on the wooden tabletop and cradled my forehead with my hands. “I don’t know how to say this without it hurting you.”
The air stilled around me, thickened, became stifling.
“I’m going on a trip.” I swallowed. “For three months. I…” I looked up at my dad. “I applied to a Young Doctors Without Borders program back in January. But with Mom’s death, I forgot all about it. I received word today that they’d found me a spot with one of their teams.” The lie was spilling out of me with such ease, it made me sick. “I can’t turn this opportunity down. It’s too good to turn down.”
“You almost gave me a heart attack.” He smiled gently. “That’s wonderful news. I’m so proud of you, honey.”
I could feel Lily’s dubious gaze on me. Unlike my father, she wasn’t falling for the lie I’d concocted during the long walk home through the woods.
“Where are they sending you?”
“Africa.”
“Where in Africa?”
“Rwanda.”
“Wow, that’s far away.”
“Yeah.” Tears tracked down my cheeks.
Dad brushed them away. “Honey, if you don’t want to go—”
“I don’t want to leave you.” I threw myself in his arms and wept against his flannel shirt.
He stroked my hair. “I can come visit.”
No he couldn’t, and that thought crushed me even more.
Chair legs scraped. And then footsteps sounded on the creaking planks of the living room. Lily had left. Was it to give me time alone with my dad, or did she know I was lying and couldn’t bear the sound of me talking?
“When do you leave?” he asked.
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? But don’t you need a plane ticket and a visa and immunizations?”
“I’m up to date on all my shots, and the organization already got me a ticket and a visa.”
Dad’s big hand worked its way through my knotted hair. “Oh,” was all he said for a long while. Then, “I can go to the embassy and see if I can get a visa quickly.”
“Dad, as much as I want you to come with me, I don’t want to have to say goodbye to you twice.” I inhaled deeply, then pressed away from him.
His hand tumbled against his lap.
“Besides, I’ll be working no
nstop. So it would just be a waste of money to come for a visit. Maybe in a month—” My voice cracked. “Maybe in a month I can come back for a visit. Maybe.” A cork-sized lump obstructed my throat. “I hope you’re not angry with me.”
“Course not, honey, although next time, I’d appreciate more than a twenty-four notice to get used to the idea of my baby leaving home.”
There would never, ever be a next time. “I promise.”
He swiped my tears away and smiled. And that smile undid me completely.
Shoulders quivering, I burrowed back against him. “I love you, Daddy. I love you more than anyone in the world.”
“Right back at you, kiddo.” His voice snagged on each one of his words.
He held me a while longer, rocked me a while longer. When I’d calmed down—in other words, become completely numb—Dad told me he needed to go talk to Milly about taking over the appointment he had that afternoon so he could spend the entire day with me. “You want to go boating? I can ask George if he could lend me his fishing boat.”
“Sure.” I would go crazy if I stayed cooped up inside my house all day. Plus, Dad loved being on the water. I was up for anything that made my father happy.
“Why don’t you get the packing out of the way, and then we’ll head out?”
“Yeah. I’ll go do that.” I dug the heels of my palms inside my eyes, then rose, and climbed up the stairs to my room.
“By the way, a letter arrived for you this morning. I left it on your desk.”
I climbed the stairs faster, then walked over to my desk and picked up the thin white envelope. I recognized the logo right away. It was the DNA testing facility I’d sent Ley’s and my hair to. I’d paid extra to speed up the process.
Although my heart felt like a piece of coal, charred and desiccated, it vibrated as I ripped the envelope open with my finger and pulled the single sheet of paper out.
31
Cages And Doors
I wasn’t related to Ley.
Ley had not been Chatwa’s twin sister.
Or maybe she had been, and it was me who wasn’t related to Chatwa. But I looked so much like her, there wasn’t much doubt in my mind that I was her flesh and blood.
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