Oath Bound

by T. G. Ayer

  I cleared my throat. “I’m not all that sure. Things were a little hectic when I arrived. I just fetched the results and then we were meeting at Natasha’s. But from what I saw, it confirms the damage to some parts of my brain. I’d have to investigate a little more to figure out what it all means medically. But from the little that I do know, I’m still healing. And too much stress on my body is likely to have me passing out. Or having another attack. Which is why I need you to know so you can keep an eye on me.”

  Logan grunted. I wasn’t certain what he was thinking, and I sure as hell hoped he wasn’t about to suggest I not go to Mithras with the team. At last, he let out a disgusted snort. “I suppose there’s little point in benching you for this mission, so I guess I’m going to have to be watching you twenty-four seven.”

  I was relieved but I forced myself to not make it obvious. Instead, I just gave him a sober nod. “I’m going to see someone later today, just to check what the medical prognosis is.”

  I would have continued speaking if Logan didn’t lean closer, eyebrows waggling as he glared at me and asked, “How did you not suffer any negative effects from the jump to Drakys?”

  “I did,” I replied, keeping my tone almost cheerful. “There’s actually one other thing I wanted to tell you.” I fell silent, not sure what I was waiting for.

  “Kai?” he said, his voice dark.

  “Oh, right,” I said, hesitating for a second before saying, “So you know how your fire healed me when I was poisoned by the wraith sword?”

  “I remember,” he said, tone going harder.

  “Well, I kinda got a dose of fire healing after that jump to Drakys.”

  Logan’s eyes were inscrutable though a flame did flicker in their depths. “You did, did you?” Then he nodded to himself, jaw hard.

  I waved a hand in front of his face. “Don’t you dare get mad with her. I swore her to secrecy, and I promised I’d tell you.”

  “Only…you didn’t tell me, did you?”

  “Not right away. But I am now,” I said innocently.

  He let out a soft growl. “And Sienna knew the entire time, but she didn’t tell me.”

  “The secret was not hers to tell. Though I suspect if you’d been adamant that you were not going to go to Mithras, she probably would have spilled the beans.”

  Logan didn’t reply. He just sent me a dirty look, then got to his feet and busied himself with clearing the table and bagging the trash. The kitchen was deathly silent as he walked past me to put out the garbage in the dumpster behind the shop.

  Oh dear.

  23

  Logan had returned from throwing out the garbage, his mood somewhat softened though he didn’t speak more than a few words to me at any time. It wasn’t technically the silent treatment; Logan was simply struggling with his need to protect and my need for space and control over my own choices.

  I’d never survive a relationship in which I was cotton-balled, treated like something fragile that would shatter the moment he took his eyes off me. And Logan was the kind of guy who when he loved, he was all in. And he was there to care for and protect you. Just sometimes his desire clashed with mine. And then he needed time to regroup and deal with the lines I’d drawn.

  The fact that he wasn’t in my face, demanding I bent to his will, expecting an apology, needing promises I’d never do it again, all meant he respected my needs too. And I knew I had to leave him be for a while.

  In the meantime, I sent a message to Barry to check in on him, wanting to know if he was still alive while he took the fae king on a wild Ivy chase. But I got no response. Disappointed, I checked for messages from Horner and had to add a second to my pile of nils. So I tried to focus on Tara.

  The last time I’d spoken to her, she’d been tracking down a certain Prince of the Winter Court who’d tried to destroy the Great Ash Trees in various parts of the world. Elan, the Ice Prince had disappeared after he’d tried to marry Sienna, and then later betrothing himself to Tara herself. But by pal, the queen of the Fae, had been incommunicado for a while now. She’d promised to keep me updated if she ever tracked Elan down. But the fact that she hadn’t called or messaged in weeks worried me.

  I texted her now, hoping she’d respond. I’m not sure what I’d expected—that perhaps Tara would sense my desperation? That maybe she’d feel the importance of my message even beyond the six exclamation points I’d added after the word URGENT? And when she too failed to respond to my message, I counted 3-0 to the universe.

  Biting down my disappointed I went in search of Logan, aware that Mel wouldn’t be far off, and found him in the kitchen along with Baz, who was staring at his computer one moment, then at the VR video game helmet in his other hand. He was so focused he barely acknowledge me when I walked in.

  Logan was doing his eyes-out-of-focus thing that told me he was talking with his sister back in Drakys. He had to keep in contact with her as much as possible to ensure he kept on top of things back home. The police situation appeared to be in a holding pattern at the moment, which was a relief since we didn’t have the time or the headspace to have to split our focus even more.

  Logan was also keeping in touch with Barry who was helping the djinn queen out at Natasha’s property on the outskirts of the city. They were working hard on a spell to counter the ward around Mithras, though even now I was still surprised the pair knew each other, and that they appeared so close.

  I only hoped their camaraderie would ensure the success of their magical spell as the ward around the portal to Mithras had almost killed both Grams and Mel, impaling the pair of them with tree branches. They’d both survived, neither worse for wear, though both were now focusing on individual problems instead of the mutual mission.

  While Logan talked with Sienna, I glued the last few pages in place. Another set of docs from Cassie had filled in a few blank spots and I was relieved to find we were in a stronger position to get moving on Operation Save the Sexy Djinn.

  Almost as though she had picked up on my thoughts, the outer door of the shop clanged and I looked over at Baz. Despite his focus, he appeared to sense my stare and glanced up briefly.

  “Mel’s at the door,” I said.

  Baz nodded and left, taking his helmet and laptop with him. Moments later, Mel walked in, boot-heels tapping on the kitchen lino.

  She came to a stop to stare over my shoulder. “What are you guys up to?”

  Dragging my eyes from the maps, I looked up and gave the tracker a welcome smile. It was always a pleasure to see Mel Morgan, and during the past few months she’d become a friend and a confidante. Only today I was keeping important information from her.

  Some friend.

  “Hey. Thanks for coming out here,” I said, still feeling bad to make her run around at my request, still feeling bad for lying about why we couldn’t meet at the house. “I know home would be far more comfortable, but I don’t need relaxation and comfort right now.”

  I hated myself even more for how easily the lie dropped off my tongue and I had to steel myself against flushing and looking over to meet Logan’s eyes. He wasn’t happy either but we’d all agreed it was best to keep the truth under cover just for a short while. Just until we were sure Grams was safe, and until we figured out our next steps with the fae court and with the Ni’amh. That conversation was coming soon.

  “Yeah. I know just how you feel,” Mel replied, startling me for a moment.

  Then I gave a soft sigh and relaxed as I understood she meant she herself preferred to be away from home for mission meetings. Still, I forced myself to smile without the guilt showing through. Then, hoping to redirect the tracker’s attention to the map, I looked down at the table, and at last looked over at Logan.

  His face was a study in sobriety, showing little emotion though I knew him well enough to know that he also struggled with lying to Mel. He was as fond of her as I was and lying to her right now was an awful thing to do.

  But our family feud with the ancient fae co
urt and their ruthless king was too dangerous to involve too many innocent people.

  “Is something wrong?” Mel asked now, a concerned frown creasing her tanned forehead.

  Loaded question, much.

  I couldn’t help the snort that escaped me. “No, that’s just Lyandr over here, practicing his game-face.”

  Mel laughed softly and Logan eventually smiled, giving me an affectionate glare—which I took to mean his time out was over. “Kai’s just being an idiot. Sienna was just catching me up on a couple things,” the dragon king said, tapping a finger to his temple.

  “Ah,” Mel replied with a serious face, nodding slowly. “Hope we didn’t interrupt, Your Majesty.” She spoke so primly that I’d almost expected her to drop a curtsey.

  Another snort escaped me and we both began to laugh. Logan was shaking his head at the pair of us though, his expression far too tolerant. Finally, I managed to control myself, tamping down my laughter to wave a hand over the map I’d been scanning.

  “This is what we’ve pieced together from a number of sources. Darcy’s treated a few people with memories of Mithras, and Grams and Mom have both been there on missions. Logan’s also supplied some of what he can recall Saleem mentioning of the city itself. We will just need to get Aisha to fill in the rest of the blanks and I hope we’ll have a stronger idea of the lay of the land.”

  Mel leaned over the maps and frowned. After a few moments, she pointed at the Sentinel scanned maps. “Those look…official. Who did Baz hack for those?” she asked, her expression amused yet somewhat serious.

  “Nobody. That’s courtesy of Cassie. She emailed them—you’ll find a copy in your Inbox too. Said she told you she’d meet at your place, but I confess I made her redirect herself here. I hope you don’t mind?”

  “Of course not. Probably best for her to clue us in all in one go anyway.” Mel smiled and I couldn’t help wondering why she was so relieved.

  We spend a few moments going over the main locations of the city with Logan identifying what little he himself knew. My mind drifted to my phone as I wondered if anyone had responded to my messages. But I didn’t check, reluctant to distract anyone as Logan pointed at a scribbled square that represented a house near the palace’s outer walls. “This here is a wheelhouse. Saleem mentioned this place and I found it quite interesting the way the djinn used water. At the time, I had no idea he was royalty though. Still need to chew him out for keeping that from me.”

  Look who’s talking.

  Though I tried to stop my laughter, I failed and again snorted out loud. “Well, prepare for a mutual chewing out, Your Highness,” I said, giving Logan a waggle of my eyebrows.

  He was still troubled enough about Saleem’s situation, and I wasn’t surprised when he winced and didn’t even bother to hide his emotions. Still, he managed a self-deprecating laugh. “Hey, I have a few legit defences on that front.”

  “Whatever,” I replied tartly. “Let’s just wait for Saleem to put in his two cents on that before you go off thinking you’re all innocent.”

  While we spoke, Mel shifted her attention to the map, her expression relieved and focused. I knew how she felt, likely the same way I had when we’d realized we’d made ourselves a good enough place to start with our mission to extract Saleem.

  Our banter had lightened the mood in the kitchen somewhat but none of us were ignorant of how serious the mission was. And Logan and I were nowhere near calm enough to forget Grams’ Fae problem or the possible endangerment of the DarkWorld itself.

  24

  Over the next few hours of mission-training, I had to force myself to focus on the three untrained recruits. They were far too green to take with us, and I really wished I could change their minds. But I was also too aware of how passionate the three were about playing their part.

  And even more so, in the wake of the fae attack on our home, Lily and Baz were also super sensitive to even a hint of being left out of things. So in the end, I took the easiest route and said nothing to discourage them.

  Baz had finished tweaking his 3-D training game just before our house had been invaded by fae assassins, and I though I’d merely been happy that the tech-geek was keeping himself busy and out of trouble, I was also incredibly impressed with his programming skills.

  He’d hunted around in the storage boxes up in our attic for parts and had even scrounged around in charity shops and abandoned electronics warehouses. He’d finally gotten the program to work and I’d been looking forward to giving it a test run after dinner the previous night.

  Today, I’d had to enjoy it for the first time alongside the rest of our team. After the first session of virtual reality training, during which a number of innocent VR participants had been sacrificed, I took a short break in the hope of luring Lily away from the group to allow her time to catch her breath. Logan had just left briefly to move the map to the whiteboard in the room for later study, his absence marking an unofficial breaktime.

  Lily’s face had been flushed, muscles tense after only a quarter of an hour into the session and I’d begun to worry that she’d push herself too far too soon.

  “Phew,” Lily said, sucking in a quick breath as she removed her awkward white VR helmet and set it on a nearby table. She took the bottle of electrolyte replacement I held out. “That was certainly something to remember. I’ve never killed so many people before.” She made a face before drinking deeply.

  I patted her shoulder. “You’ll get used to it. And remember, it’s only training. VR people aren’t real.”

  Lily rolled her eyes as if to say I didn’t know what I was talking about. “Come on, Kai. You know as well as I do how deeply the effects of most VR games impacts the players. I mean, some of the more violent ones have trained players to be so desensitized that it means nothing to them when they see people killed in real life.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “I didn’t know you felt so strongly about this. We could still do the training without the VR program if you are more comfortable.”

  Lily made a face. “No. I’ve already had my argument with Baz on this, I’m being picky for no reason. I guess I just need to find a way to see past the act of pulling a trigger or throwing a blade which results in death—real or not. I suppose it will just mean I won’t be able to kill arbitrarily if it affects me this badly. Which is probably a good thing.” She fell silent and then drained her drink.

  I gulped the rest of my drink as well, then threw it in the trashcan at the same time as Lily flipped hers in. We laughed as the bottles knocked each other and bounced out of the bin and onto the floor.

  After kneeling to retrieved them and depositing both into the trashcan, I stood and said, “Well. Just don’t overdo it okay? I don’t want you to remain emotionally affected by the VR training. Killing someone in a real-life setting isn’t as easy as you think. We’re not going to often be in a position where there are bystanders available to accidentally eliminate.”

  Snorting now, Lily replied, “Really, Kai? If that’s how you comfort a person, I suggest you go find yourself a course of motivation before you try again.”

  I punched her arm lightly. “Smartass.” Lily only grinned in reply, so I asked, “So, how is the therapy going? Can we label it a success?”

  Lily smiled, eyes glittering with tamped down excitement. “I do think we can. I haven’t needed a booster jab in the last two days--even with all the drama going on. Your Dad was concerned that with all the emotions and adrenaline related to the house, I’d suffer a relapse but he checked my stats this morning and I’m all clear. He’s going to keep monitoring it for now. But I think he’s confident that the more time that passes, the stronger I will become, and the less I would need these maintenance meds.”

  I nodded, frowning. “So, what happened with the Kristl stamens for the serum? Did Dad get it from somewhere else?” Mom had been sent to Galakris to obtain a sample from her demon contact Ryzva when she was ambushed and abducted.

  Lily smiled happily. “I
believe Horner procured a batch which your dad processed into a concentrate. It’s going to last us a while yet.”

  Letting out a sigh of relief, I grabbed her around the shoulders with one arm and squeezed. “You’re doing really well, Lils. I’m proud of the way you’d stuck with the treatment. I know it wasn’t easy at all.”

  “It’s okay,” she said, giving a shrug. “Trust me, it’s not as bad as what Niko put Anjelo through. You and I both saw that happen and it was fracking awful. But your dad’s treatments are way easier on a walker’s body. He’s super concerned about inflicting unnecessary pain during the process.”

  Shaking my head, I said, “Unnecessary pain. How is that even a thing?”

  Lily smiled sadly, her expression saying I was asking for way too much. She was right because life didn’t give us a questionnaire to answer in advance, life didn’t particularly care what we preferred, or what we’d like to avoid. I ought to know better.

  After that small heart-to-heart, I checked in with Horner via text regarding the meeting with the Supreme High Council, but I got the standard response. You will know as soon as I do. Still no word from Barry or Tara either.

  Guess it’s going to be a matter of hurry up and wait, Kai.

  The team headed back to training, and all the while I felt as though I was wasting my time, that I would be better off investigating the fae ancients’ whereabouts than getting elbow deep in training. Still, the combat practice could come in handy, so I used the opportunity to work up a sweat and punch stuff.

  A couple hours later, the kids were flailing and we called it quits. Despite their initial protests, they eventually caved and headed back home to shower and rest.

  Which left Mel, Logan and myself at the shop. We’d just discussed takeout on the way to the kitchen, with Logan calling dibs on the lone packet of cookies in the larder, when the bell on the shop door chimed.