by AC Washer
What started out as anger quickly chilled to fear. Edon and Maeve had made it very clear that my life was in Edon’s hands right now—and it might just be in my best interest to stay quiet.
Edon sighed. “Right. Well, let’s get her done.” Edon grabbed a file on his desk, opening it as he leaned back in his chair.
“Right.” Louie grabbed the package, pulled out a packet that looked like a teabag, and stepped behind Deena.
Deena twisted around in her chair. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Louie smiled wide. “I’m doing you a favor, ma’am,” he said as he ripped open a teabag.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Deena jumped up, but before she could move away, Louie poured what looked like yellow sugar on top of her head.
It was as if someone had stunned her. One minute, Deena was standing, the next, she was crumpled over her chair, legs and arms falling at awkward angles.
“What—”
“Louie, can you fix that?” Edon said, pointing a pen at Deena without looking up.
“Looks comfortable to me, Chief.”
Edon glanced over the file he was scanning.
Louie sighed, grabbing Deena by the shoulders, lifting her up, and setting her back down in sitting position.
She slumped over, snoring, but Louie must have figured that was good enough, because he plodded away to his desk on the other side of the aisle.
After a few moments, my curiosity overruled my decision to lay low. “I thought pixie dust made people fly.”
Edon didn’t so much as glance at me. But after he underlined a few things in the file, he said, “How does that make sense? They’re prey. They don’t want their attackers flying after them.”
“Oh,” I said. I guess that made sense. Kind of. “But their teeth—”
“Look, I’ve got a few things I’d like to get done before the council gets here, so if you could be quiet, that’d be great.”
Edon scribbled something on the file and then paused. “What were you saying about teeth?”
“Well, pixies have fangs. You know, curved, gnarly-looking things.” I curled my fingers into claws. “I thought that’d put them in the predator category.”
Edon stared at my hands, an unreadable expression on his face.
“And who showed you what pixie fangs look like?”
“No one. I just—” And then I couldn’t say anything. Not a word about shadows. My mouth simply shut.
Edon folded the file and set it in his desk, still staring at me.
“Did you take an oath?”
I nodded.
“Can you tell me who you made it to?”
“Mickey,” I said.
Edon said something under his breath and spun around in his chair, picking up his phone and stabbing the numbers.
“Hey, Mickey. I got your girl over here. I think there’s something you’d like to tell me. Council will be here in about thirty. So you should probably tell me now…Yes, over the phone…No, I’m not taking that chance.” Another pause. “Fine.”
Edon handed me the phone. “For you.”
“Hello?”
“Kella, if I release you from your oath, will you only tell Edon what you told me? No one else?”
“Sure.”
“No, seriously, Kella. Your life depends on this.”
“I said okay,” I said, a little testier this time. I hated feeling like a pawn in some stupid chess game, maneuvered this way and that with no clue as to what I was supposed to do other than ‘not die.’ And considering I’d ended up in the hands of a rebel, the ‘not die’ strategy didn’t seem to be working.
“Alright. I release you from your oath.” At Mickey’s words, a weight lifted off of me that I hadn’t realized was there, an odd sort of giddy lightness taking its place.
“Now talk to Edon and make it quick. There’s not much time.” Mickey hung up before I had a chance to respond.
I handed the phone back to Edon. He didn’t waste any time.
“How do you know what pixies look like? They—none of us have been able to shed our glamours for twelve years.”
“Well…” I cleared my throat, half expecting my voice to stop working as I continued, “It’s their shadows.”
“Go on.”
“The short of it is I can see through glamours. Details can be a bit blurry, but every now and then I catch a side-view of some of the pixies at school. Those teeth look lethal.”
Edon crossed his arms. “And what am I?”
“Elf.”
“And Louie?”
“I’m not sure. Some big panther-looking thing with feathers and a beak.”
“Griffon,” Edon said absently, his gaze becoming distant, thoughtful.
When it snapped back to mine, there was a quiet acceptance there—along with something that looked suspiciously like relief.
I swallowed.
“I’ll be upfront with you—I was going for a long shot that would have probably ended up with you dead anyway. But this changes things.”
“Well, that’s nice to know. So, um, how does it change things?”
Edon’s smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I have a different bargain in mind now; You’ll hate it, but at least you’ll be alive.”
“What’s the bargain?”
Edon turned back to his file. “You’ll see,” he said as he continued flipping through pages, avoiding my gaze.
Chapter 17
Deena was in full-on snore mode when Rhino walked by, tossing her car keys into her purse.
A few minutes later, Maeve and two other council representatives entered the station. When they reached Edon’s desk, he nodded at them before escorting us to a meeting room in the back of the building. We left Deena in the middle of police desks, snoring peacefully.
As Edon shut the door, a hand shot out from the hallway, blocking it from closing. Mickey.
“Glad you could make it.” Edon sounded amused.
Mickey strode past him, not bothering to respond.
When Maeve saw Mickey walk through the door, her lips tightened. “He is not on the council, Edon.”
Edon shrugged. “To avoid confusion, I felt it best that all interested parties should be present. Don’t you agree?”
Mickey nodded to the two other council members. “Aaron, Briana.”
Aaron’s human glamour was black as midnight—a sharp contrast to his teeth when he opened his mouth to say, “Miach. How has family life been treating you?”
Mickey took in a sharp breath.
The woman next to Aaron—Briana—shook her head. “Let’s keep our conversation to the facts at hand and not get sidetracked by any untimely conversations. Agreed, Aaron?”
Aaron smiled, his white teeth blinding.
Briana, a tall, willowy woman with wavy brown hair, turned to Edon. “You could have killed her but didn’t. While this is a pleasant surprise, I want to know why.”
My gaze snapped over to Edon. Sure, he’d said something about me probably ending up dead, but for some reason, I hadn’t thought he’d be the one to kill me…and that he could have offed me at any point from when he’d pulled us over.
Him being an officer had put me at ease—even knowing he was part of the rebels. Or maybe it’d just been my anger and frustration at getting towed in when I was so close to freedom—to Caleb—that’d kept me from connecting the dots.
Edon’s smile was without humor. “Oh, believe me, I still intend to kill the girl if she becomes a threat to the fae.”
Aaron shook his head. “The only threat she poses is to you rebels—not to the fae at large. She is the heir. With her investiture, we’ll be able to shed these blasted glamours, and have our magic restored.”
“Funny coming from you since the queen’s pets were the only ones allowed to access some of their powers.”
“Not enough,” Aaron replied. “But that will be remedied soon.”
“Ah, that’s right…I almost forgot. It’s never been abou
t anything other than power for you ‘loyalists’, has it?”
I frowned. It was like I was watching a ping-pong match, and I couldn’t figure out who to root for—rebel fae guy who felt comfortable killing me if needed or power-hungry council member who wanted to use me so he could get more power? My gut was saying Edon, but I’d already established it had issues. After all, Aaron never once said he’d kill me.
“Power is a wonderful thing,” Aaron said. “Much better than the magic tricks the queen’s death reduced us to these past twelve years.”
“Power is only power if you’re free to exercise it,” Edon snapped.
“And those who recognize their place are free to exercise it.”
“If that place is under the witch’s heel along with the rest of you traitors, I think I’ll pass,” Edon said.
Aaron stepped closer to Edon. “I do not tolerate insults.”
Edon unleashed a smirk that might as well have said, “Aaron, you’re an idiot.” “Then you shouldn’t have chosen a side that deserves them.”
Aaron jerked forward another step, his fists clenched.
“What are you going to do, Aaron? Unleash your glamour so you can blast me? Try it. It’ll be amusing.”
“Calm, my Lords.” Briana’s breezy voice cut through the tension in the room. “Might I remind you that we stand on neutral ground. Any physical violence comes with serious repercussions.” Her gaze bore into Aaron before she looked back to Edon. “And we are here to negotiate, not debate.”
“Forgive me.” Aaron stepped back.
“I forgive you—for that, at least,” Edon said. Aaron’s eyes snapped up, anger oozing out like pus.
“The girl,” Briana said, continuing on as if Edon had said nothing. “What will it take to get her back?”
“Well.” Edon sat down in one of the empty chairs no one had yet taken advantage of and swung his feet on top of the mahogany conference table. “Please,” —he gestured to the other chairs— “sit. This negotiation could take some time.”
After some hesitation, everyone sat down. I sat close to Mickey and leaned over to whisper in his ear.
“What’s going on?”
“You remember the rebel fae who want you dead?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know Edon’s one of them, so why don’t you guys just drag me out of here already?”
“Edon’s one of the main leaders and you knowingly drove onto his territory. Under fae custom, you now ally yourself with him and are under his jurisdiction.”
“But—but I was driving through. It wasn’t like I was stopping by to say hi.
Mickey shook his head. “Did he ever tell you it was his territory? And more importantly, did he ever invite you to join him?”
I thought back to the first time I met Edon, him saying if I ever changed my mind, I knew where to find him—that I’d be safe with him.
“Well…I guess that first day, yeah.”
At the time, I thought it was creepy, but now…warmth swept through me as I realized Edon had been trying to protect me. But I shook off the feeling. Whatever his intentions back then, things had changed. And now, he was perfectly fine with possibly killing me.
“And you still drove onto it?”
“Yeah, but—”
“That’s all that matters.”
“Well, then I’ll fix it.” To the rest of the room, I said, “Hey everyone? This was all just a big misunderstanding. I hereby switch over to the loyalist fae people. We good?”
Maeve slapped her face into her palm. Mickey shook his head.
“It’s not that simple,” Edon said, a smirk on his face. “You see, you’re mine unless I give you up or you escape. I’ve no intention of either happening.”
“Okay, then,” I said, my voice shaking a little. “Then what needs to happen so I stay alive?”
Edon looked over to the council members and Mickey.
“I’ll have her at the investiture provided the council meets a few conditions. First. I am her escort for the investiture—”
At that, Mickey jumped to his feet. “My—no. That’s not happening.”
“Why?” I asked. “What’s the big deal about my date to the investiture?”
Briana’s face was impassive. “The fae who escorts the heir to the investiture is traditionally the heir’s chosen consort.”
“You mean the person she has babies—” I peeked over at Edon before glancing away, my face flushing with mortification.
“More or less,” Briana said dryly.
Edon snorted. “It would be in the ‘less’ capacity. I’m no O’Faolain, and I have zero interest in becoming the witch’s lover.”
I still couldn’t look at him. He was seriously calling me a witch? He was the one who might as well have had a gun shoved in my back, ready to pull the trigger.
“Clever,” Aaron said, not sounding particularly impressed. “The rebel finds a means to keep his skin once the queen returns.”
“Insurance policies are nice,” Edon said, his voice neutral.
“She isn’t some rebel’s insurance policy,” Mickey snarled.
“Then whose? Because no one’s lining up to bind themselves to her out of love. Each candidate only wants one thing: protection for themselves and for their house.”
Silence greeted that assessment, giving me time to wrap my mind around what Edon had said. To make sense of everything. I remembered how Bridgette kept pushing me to find a date, how she’d orchestrated for Patrick with the ‘amazing reflexes’ to ask me to Homecoming.
I swallowed.
“Who is Bridgette really? And Patrick…” I’d already agreed to make him my, well, escort. Was that enough to make him my fiancé?
Aaron snorted. “Bridgette is no one of consequence. She was a high-elf who brought dishonor upon herself when she deserted her house.”
Mickey’s eyes flashed. “And lucky for the council she did. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have found a halfway decent assassin to guard Kella since their house allied with the rebels.”
So, I had a traitor assassin as a bodyguard. Good to know.
“And Patrick?”
Briana sighed. “A minor lord of little power and even less consequence. You are not bound to take him as your consort if you wish to choose someone more suitable…a high elf with stronger bloodlines to pass to your children.” She took in a breath, as if gearing up to admit something distasteful. “Edon’s bloodline is…decent.”
“I get to choose?” I asked, ignoring the children part for now. “I mean, this isn’t just you guys in negotiations here—I actually have to sign off on this?”
“Yes,” Maeve said, eyeing Edon distastefully. “That decision is not one we have power to negotiate—as you well know, Edon.”
Edon shrugged. “Although you do need to approve it.”
Briana nodded. “Provided you win the heir’s approval and we reach an agreement, the council will not block an alliance between you and the heir.”
“There you have it,” Edon said, looking me in the eye, a smirk on his face.
“They blessed our alliance—pending your proposal, of course.”
My palm itched to smack the smirk off of his face even as warmth coursed through my body, flushing my skin.
I looked away, embarrassed. He was doing the same thing O’Faolain did—confusing me into thinking I wanted him. Manipulating me to get what he wanted.
It took me a moment to unclench my jaw.
“No.”
Edon’s smirk wavered. “Let me put it to you this way, Kella.” The intensity in his eyes made my stomach flip-flop. “Make me your consort, and I won’t kill you—so long as negotiations continue to go well.”
It took all of my self-control to hold his gaze—to keep mine from drifting down to his lips.
Edon was good at charms, I’d give him that. He could threaten my life and still have me wanting him. But even with him fogging my brain with magic, I’d seen that sort of thing play out between my father and his g
irlfriends too often to let myself give in.
“I’d rather die than have you manipulate me for the rest of my life.”
“Then aren’t you in for a nasty surprise?” Edon said, glancing at the council. “And I’ve never manipulated you, so there’s that.”
“You have. You do the same thing O’Faolain does.”
Edon stilled for a moment. Then, a slow smile spread out on his lips. “Trust me, little warrior. That’s all you.”
“You mean…” Red shot to my face faster than a bullet. I looked at Mickey. Even his eyes sparkled with a hint of amusement.
“Kella, the queen’s death allowed only members of the council and certain loyalists like O’Faolain to keep a portion of their magic. Edon is neither.”
Awkward silence filled the room.
Edon cleared his throat. “So, now that you no longer put me in the same category as O’Faolain, which was incredibly offensive, by the way…” He gave me a lopsided grin. “Would you reconsider my offer?”
The fact that Edon didn’t further embarrass me persuaded me more than anything else he could have said.
I glared at him, more to cover my embarrassment than anything else. “I guess having you as my consort is better than dying.”
Edon’s eyebrows rose. “Be still, my heart.”
“But swear—”
A light flicked on in Edon’s eyes.
“—this is strictly in name only. Nothing romantic or intimate.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”
“Do you swear?”
“Oh, I swear it, princess.”
A part of me felt disappointed that he’d agreed so quickly, but I shoved it aside. Sure, there might be attraction there, but the guy threatened my life. He wasn’t safe, and I was not going to forget that.
He twisted back to face the council. “Now that part’s taken care of, let’s continue with the negotiations. Next, the council will allow no one within five feet of us during the investiture unless given explicit instructions by me to the contrary.”
“No,” Aaron said. “How can we know that you won’t sabotage the whole affair?”
“Do you have another option?” Edon asked. “Aside from me sabotaging it right now, that is.”
Silence.