The Goodnight Kiss

by Gwen Rivers

  I strike the match and am about to light the fire when a headline catches my eye.

  Grave robber strikes in high country.

  Curious, I remove the paper from the grate and begin reading.

  In what appears to be a pattern of grave-robbing incidents in North Carolina, the body of a local teen has been removed from her burial plot. Sarah Ann Larkin, age sixteen, died less than a month ago in a car accident and was buried in a local cemetery. The family cannot be reached for comment. This is the fourth incident of this kind to happen this year. So far, the police have made little progress.

  The match falls from nerveless fingers. Why would anyone steal Sarah’s body?

  Cold to the bone, I crumple the paper, stuff it into the fire and then light a new match before heading into my bedroom to retrieve my laptop. The internet doesn’t provide any more insight into the disappearance of Sarah’s body than the article, but I do find more in-depth mentions about the other grave robberies.

  One a month, since the end of January. An elderly woman in Gastonia, a middle-aged bank executive in Charlotte, a young boy in Wilmington. A range of ages, genders from diverse backgrounds with different causes of death. The body-snatching is the only common thread. No suspects yet in any of the cases.

  I’m not aware of falling asleep, but the next thing I know I’m being pulled from its warm embrace.

  “Nic,” the voice calls my name urgently. “Nic, wake up.”

  Fatigue holds me down hard and my lids are heavy. “Who are you?”

  “Come on. We don’t have much time.” It’s a female voice, a familiar one.

  “Huh?” Forcing my lids up, I stare at the smoldering embers that remains from the fire. At the hand protruding from it, with the little snake encircling a pale wrist.

  “Come with me,” Hel says. “Quickly, I can’t hold this open forever.”

  “Why do you want me to come with you?”

  “There are things you don’t know yet, Nic. Important things that they won’t tell you.”

  “And why should I trust you?” I ask the fire with a frown. “You tricked me and admitted that you’d been sending me nightmares. I’d be a freaking idiot to trust you.”

  Her next words change everything. “There’s a way to get Sarah back. A way no one else will tell you. But I will.”

  I swallow hard. “What do you know about Sarah?”

  “She was your friend. You feel responsible for her death and you crossed the Veil to retrieve her.”

  “Laufey told me there isn’t a way,” I say. “That Sarah can’t be brought back.”

  “Laufey lied. She doesn’t want you to know the truth.”

  “And you do?” I sense the trap, but can’t seem to stop from taking another step toward it. “Why would you care?”

  “Because, I want you, Queen of the Unseelie Court and the leader of the Wild Hunt for my ally. I do you a favor and you do one for me.”

  I shake my head. “I hate to break it to you, but I’m neither of those things.”

  “Maybe not now, but you were once and I’m confident you will be again.” Her hand extends. “I’m the only chance you have to retrieve Sarah. Come with me now or lose her forever.”

  I swallow, glance toward the stairs, to where Jasmine sleeps. The house is protected. She’ll be fine on her own for a while.

  I reach for the hand.

  The cabin door bursts open.

  “Nic, no!” Aiden’s voice.

  I whirl, my lips parting as I catch sight of him. Still wearing those damnable sweatpants, still the epitome of male perfection despite his shit wardrobe.

  His eyes are wild as he looks from me to the hand stretching from the dying fire. “Don’t trust her!”

  But it’s too late, the minute my skin connects with Hel’s she pulls me through. The sickening swirling sensation as the world around me spins like a kaleidoscope and fades away.

  The ground rushes up to greet me, the scent of decay and rotting things fills my nose. I look at the colorless great throne room of Hel’s domain. The sovereign of the underworld again stares down at me, that eerie half alive half dead face visible from beneath her dark hood.

  “Send me back,” I gasp.

  “But you just got here.” Hel pouts. “And we haven’t had our talk yet.”

  “What do you know about Sarah?” I don’t waste any time, the haunted look on Aiden’s face seared in my mind. “Do you know who took her body?”

  “I know her soul is here, for a start. In the land of the dishonorable dead.”

  “She’s here?” I glance around, hoping to catch sight of my friend.

  Hel nods once. “In this realm. As one of the living, I’m afraid I can’t let you beyond this antechamber though. Only the dead and my sworn servants can walk my halls.”

  “How do I get her back?” I ask. “What do I have to do?”

  “You need to do the same as was done for you.” Hel smiles and it’s an eerie sight, one half of her face turns up, the other frozen in death. “You need to sacrifice the heart of the one who loves you most.”

  Chapter 24

  A Heart for a Heart

  “What do you mean it was done for me?” I shake my head. “Whose heart could have been sacrificed for my life?”

  “I think you know.” Hel circles me, her long cloak making a wispy, slithering sound as it drags along the stone floor.

  “Nari,” I whisper, my throat gone dry. It’s not memory fragment, but putting the pieces together so that all the bits of information I’ve collected over the past days form a cohesive picture. Laufey said Aiden had brought me back. He was the only one who cared. And Aiden—or rather Váli— had raised Nari in his father’s place. Nari had loved him best and Nari had died. My stomach twists and I feel dizzy. “They used Nari’s heart as a sacrifice.”

  “My youngest brother was already dead. He didn’t need his heart any longer. So, your consort returned to the cave where our father is trapped and retrieved it.” Hel says, her voice cold as midwinter’s night. “My grandmother and Aiden hid the truth from you.”

  Because they knew bringing back Sarah would mean taking a life. And not just any life. Because there is no doubt in their minds that out of all the hearts in the world, Aiden’s is the one that loves me best.

  I shake my head slowly back and forth. “I can’t.”

  “You can,” Hel murmurs, her tone cajoling. “What is Aiden to you now? Not your lover, not your friend. You just met him a few days ago. He is nothing important.”

  I glare up into her hideously deformed face. “He’s your brother, how can you encourage this?”

  She waves my protest away. “He’s my brother by mere happenstance. We’ve never met in the flesh.”

  “But you’re family.” That must mean something to her.

  She rounds on me, one eye flashing fire, the other an empty socket containing the darkness of eternity. “The only family I’ve ever known was taken from me when I was barely an adult. One brother tossed into the sea the other bound for eternity. Aiden is nothing to me, except a means to an end.”

  “And people say I’m cold,” I mutter.

  Hel extends her dead hand, and something appears in it, pulsing with a golden glow. She holds it out to me. “Don’t worry, it won’t burn you.”

  Carefully, I reach out and take the thing. It’s about the size and hardness of an apple. There’s something familiar about it, though I know I’ve never seen it before. “What is it?”

  “Sarah’s soul.”

  My lips part and I stare down at it. “It’s really her?”

  “Yes.” Hel’s one eye narrows on me. “Has he told you yet how he’s become Brigit’s consort? Why he abandoned you in your hour of need?”

  When I shake my head, she smiles that terrible half-smile that turns my insides watery. “Ask him. Before you do something foolish and throw away Sarah’s life and your own mortal existence, command him to tell you how he spent every night of the last sixteen year
s in her bed. How he swore to her the same binding oath that he swore to you.”

  My stomach is in knots. Can I do it? Can I trade Aiden’s life to bring back Sarah?

  “One more thing.” Hel continues her pacing around me, her cloak making that sound like a snake through a pile of bones. “The moment you remove the soul from my hall you have one day and one night to make the trade before Sarah’s soul will be consumed by the Veil.”

  “What?” I stare down at the throbbing apple glowing in my hand. “I thought the Veil was made from other things, not people.”

  “All of us who broker in souls must contribute to the Veil’s upkeep. For the good of all. Sarah has no family here, no friends. She’s the perfect choice to fill in the gaps.”

  Bullshit. Sarah’s leverage, to make me fall in line, pure and simple.

  My throat feels as though it’s closing but somehow, I force the questions out. “How do I make the trade? I don’t have to actually cut his heart out, do I?”

  Her smile reflects the heart of evil. “So squeamish? No, that would be unnecessarily messy. Just place this stone over his beating heart and give him your Goodnight Kiss. His heart will free Sarah’s soul and Aiden will take her place in the Veil.”

  I stare from the pulsing stone to her ghastly features. “And what about the souls of the Wild Hunt. You asked me about them the last time you brought me here.”

  She sits on her throne of bones, steepling her hands together. It’s a gruesome sight, naked bone pressing against tender pink flesh. “Yes, I want the souls of the Wild Hunt. The dishonorable dead are mine by right, and you’ve been poaching. They mean nothing to you. Turn them over to me and restore the balance to what it was before you died. Aiden for Sarah, half the Hunt for my help. Agreed?”

  I stare down at the pulsing thing in my hand. She could be lying. Hadn’t Jasmine told me that gods were exempt from the speaking untruth curse? But I can feel Sarah in a way I hadn’t since the day she died. It’s nothing tangible but deep down I feel the truth of it. It’s her, in this glowing ball. The girl who’d been my first friend. The girl I’d been trying so hard to save. Nahini’s brother and the other ghosts were murderers, rapists, child abusers. They belong in this dreary realm or being absorbed into the Veil. Sarah doesn’t.

  “Sarah’s soul in exchange for the dead of the Hunt. Her life in exchange for the heart of the one who loves me most?”

  “It’s a bargain well struck.” The grin that splits her face is ghastly.

  She rises and saunters toward me. Once again, she extends her hand, the living one with the serpent bracelet slithering around the wrist. I reach for it. In the moment we connect, the snake strikes, sinking its fangs into my wrist. Red hot fire shoots through my veins, pain sears like lightning throughout my body. I’m dizzy, staggering, but clutch Sarah’s soul to me, afraid I’ll drop it and lose her forever. The world tilts, my vision blurs and there is a great roaring in my ears. I am falling….

  Falling….

  I thump down onto the floor before the hearth, my entire left side bruising on impact.

  “Nic!” Aiden is by my side in an instant those green eyes searching me for damage. “What happened?”

  I scramble up and fling myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. He starts but then hugs me back, his arms tight and reassuring. His scent of cedar and sage, of wildness, barely tethered, fills me, makes me feel safe.

  Loved.

  The heart of the one who loves you most for Sarah.

  The object throbs within my left hand, the venomous bite singeing my right wrist where my bargain with the ruler of the dishonorable dead has been struck.

  “What’s going on down there?” Jasmine calls from the top of the stairs, her voice trailing off in a yawn.

  I release Aiden and call up to her. “Nothing. I just fell off the couch. Go back to bed.”

  There’s a pause and then she shuffles back into the bedroom. I hear the creak of bedsprings as she lies down.

  “Come on, we can talk in my room.” Not waiting for a reply, I take hold of his bare arm and drag him out of the main part of the house.

  “What happened?” he asks the moment I close the door. “That was Hel, wasn’t it?”

  I nod. “She’s a piece of work, your sister.”

  He winces. “Half-sister, and probably not the only one. My dad would stick his prick in anything.”

  “Like father like son?” I raise an eyebrow.

  He flinches. “Nic—,”

  “Tell me about Brigit,” I command.

  He shakes his head. “I don’t know what Hel’s been filling your head with—”

  “This has nothing to do with Hel. Tell me about the Unseelie Queen and why Freda—who cannot lie—is under the impression you swore the same oath to her that you did to me. That you were her consort after I was brought back. Tell me why you abandoned me.”

  More trouble than you’re worth.

  “It wasn’t like that.” Leaf green eyes beg for understanding.

  “Did you or did you not swear the same oath in front of her that you did to me? The one that gives her power to command you.”

  “I …did.” He holds my gaze, green eyes bright.

  My heart pounds against my rib cage. “Why would you do that?”

  “To keep you safe. Hidden. She needed to trust me completely. She didn’t know Laufey had brought you back as a mortal woman and I made sure she had no reason to doubt me. Or to look for you.”

  “You’ve been with her. For my entire life, you’ve been by her side. In her bed.”

  He shifts to the left, not looking at anything, just away so he doesn’t have to meet my gaze. A muscle jumps in his jaw.

  “Aiden,” I whisper. “Please, look at me.”

  He turns, his expression is anguished.

  “Tell me why,” I say. “Why didn’t you just leave the court instead of…?”

  “Whoring myself out?” he asks, the tone bitter.

  “I’m trying to understand.” I take his hand in my free one, Sarah’s captured soul throbbing like a heartbeat on my other side. “Help me understand. Does it have anything to do with your father? Or Ragnorok?”

  Those green eyes remain averted. “The Queen of the Elphame is a powerful ally.”

  Hurt spreads from the center of my chest like blood from a stab wound. “So, you just traded one queen for the other? Traded yourself for what? An Army? Or did you just enjoy her so much more than me?”

  His laughter is bitter. “You don’t understand.”

  “I’m trying to,” I say, disturbed by his unwillingness to explain. “If you were so content with her, why not keep your bargain with my aunts? Why did you come to look for me at all?”

  He says nothing.

  “Aiden.”

  He turns away. “I’ll be nearby if you need me.”

  The window is propped up, to allow the cool summer night air to seep into the room. Aiden uses it as his escape, changing to sparks and floating through the screen.

  I shut the window firmly behind him.

  I lay on my back in the dark and stare at the throbbing apple that contains Sarah’s soul. If I strain my eyes enough I can see her dark hair spilling across the pillow, hear her voice. God Nic, can we just leave this freaking place already?

  “Where should we go?” I ask the question aloud as I had many times before.

  She doesn’t answer, the glow in the hard object containing her soul flickering.

  I made a deal with the devil to get her soul back. Traded Nahini’s beloved brother and all the dead souls from the Wild Hunt just to have her here this way. Did they already get sucked into that dark realm? Is Nahini wondering even now why her brother vanished without a trace?

  I’d promised her she could stay with him forever. But that was before I could lie.

  All the pain I’ve inflicted, just to get Sarah back. And if I don’t go through with the plan, it’ll be for nothing. She’ll be gobbled up by the Veil the same way Ai
den downed that bag of M&M’s.

  Those souls I’ve damned not once but twice. Am I any better than they are, really? Chloe and Addy had always reassured me that I was doing a good deed, making the world a better place. That I was killing with a purpose and using my unusual gift in the right way.

  What is Aiden to you now? Hel’s question rings in my ears along with the answer she provided. He is nothing important.

  If I truly believed that, I would have made the trade already. Because Sarah had been important, at least to me.

  I remember telling Laufey, I had a friend who deserved better.

  You still do. She must have been talking about Aiden. What had she meant? I still didn’t know the reason we’d fought prior to my death, didn’t understand what had enraged him to the point he left me pregnant and unguarded.

  Still didn’t know how I died.

  But I know how to find out.

  I close my eyes and search through the tangle of memories in my mind until I find the silver strand that connects me with The Queen of the Unseelie Court. With the Nicneven of two decades ago and follow it to just before the thread is cut.

  “Someone here to see you, your highness,” a sprite announces.

  I’d been sitting before the open window of the topside palace, the green fields beyond rolling like waves of the ocean, cut with twisting waterways and a one-lane road that leads to the Glittering Woods. My hands clasped over my belly. It hasn’t started to swell with the child yet, but I’ve felt the quickening, the life force of my babe.

  Mine and Aiden’s.

  “Tell whoever it is that I am not receiving today.” I rise to stretch. Aiden is just in the bathing chamber and will be out shortly. I am looking forward to the way his hands make my overly sensitive flesh come alive. All has worked out for the best, the way it was supposed to.

  “Oh, you’ll receive me, you bitch.”

  I whirl to see a hob forcing his way past the sprite into my chambers.

  My hands clench into fists. “I am your queen. How dare you—?”

  “How dare you! I know of your pact with my brother.” His lip curls up in a snarl, revulsion twisting the light green skin on his face until it forms something truly hideous. His whip-like tail with the sharp arrowhead barb rising above his shoulder.