by S. Young
Afterward, she found a bench against a wall amongst the central hubbub of the station, clutched her backpack to her body, and sat vigilantly watching while she waited for her train to arrive.
The hours passed like days, slow, laborious, and irritating. Her nerve endings felt tweaked, her feet curling in agitation in her sneakers. Thankfully, no one seemed to want to approach the angry woman glaring at strangers, so she kept the bench all to herself.
Despite attempting not to, Rose couldn’t help but replay the past few days in her head, disbelieving it had only been days since she’d met Fionn. How could she have been so sure of someone and yet been so wrong? Not once, after their initial meeting, did she believe he wanted to harm her. At no point had she felt danger from him, which was weird, right? If she caught up with Niamh, she hoped the young fae might have answers to her unanswered questions.
It was as if the thought conjured her.
One minute Rose had been looking a little unseeingly at the passing travelers, and the next her gaze met and locked with Niamh Farren’s.
Rose’s breath caught and she blinked hard, multiple times, making sure she wasn’t seeing things.
Nope.
Niamh Farren stood beside the elevator doors, her brother, Ronan, at her side.
What were they doing here? Had Niamh discovered Rose’s need to see her in one of her visions?
Follow me, Rose. Niamh’s voice sounded in her head. Rose jolted with shock.
That didn’t just happen.
No way.
Niamh nodded. Yes, I can speak to you telepathically. Now follow me.
Rose was flabbergasted. Could she do that? Or was this a gift only the psychic had? Fionn had never mentioned telepathy.
With a slight tip of her head, Niamh began to walk, Ronan following like a silent bodyguard. Rose launched to her feet and urged herself to stay calm and not hurry after the woman. She kept a casual distance and followed Niamh toward the restrooms. The ethereal blond disappeared inside the ladies’ room while Ronan stood guard at the door.
Ronan’s expression was tight with suspicion and warning as Rose approached him.
Trying to look reassuring, she passed him and entered the restroom.
Two of the stalls were occupied. A woman dried her hands at the automatic hand dryer, and Niamh stood at the farthest sink, running her fingers through her lovely hair, studying herself in the mirror with a casual interest.
Stomach fluttering, Rose approached, leaning against the wall by Niamh’s left side. “Hey.”
Niamh leaned a hand against the sink and turned to her.
The last time she’d seen the young woman, Niamh had been wearing a long, paisley-print dress with billowing sleeves. Today she wore low-slung, flared jeans and a turquoise turtleneck with long sleeves and a cropped hem that showed off Niamh’s flat stomach and belly piercing. A purple jewel winked against her pale skin.
Her hair was a mass of waves and curls and thin plaits. As she flipped it over her left shoulder, she revealed peacock-feather earrings that were long enough to touch her collarbone.
Back in Zagreb, Niamh had reminded Rose of a bohemian fairy princess. Now she was a hippie fairy princess.
It occurred to Rose that beautiful Niamh Farren, who would not look out of place on a runway, was not an inconspicuous person. How was that not a problem when you were on the run?
“You can… you can talk to me in my…” Rose leaned forward. “Can I do that?”
No, I don’t think so. We all are born with our own special… gifts. Niamh shrugged.
Oh. That disappointed her. Telepathy sounded like a handy talent to have in her arsenal. “How did you find me?”
“Two days ago, my brother and I were in Italy—Rome. Then suddenly, I just felt the need to be in Munich.” Niamh smiled sweetly. “Didn’t know why but I made him come here with me. And then last night, I got a vision of you at this train station and knew I had to be here. So, what’s going on, Rose? Last I left you, things looked like they would work out how they were supposed to for you.”
Rose didn’t understand what that meant. “Niamh, the guy you’ve been running from, the guy who came to me … he plans to kill one of us to open the gate to Faerie.”
“I know.” Niamh’s frowned. “But meeting you was supposed to change that, and I haven’t had a vision to say otherwise.”
“How was it supposed to change it?”
“Because—” Niamh stiffened at the same time Rose felt the tingle down her neck.
Heart racing, dread in the gut, they stared at each other in tense silence.
“We need to go,” Rose said, moving past Niamh.
They hurried out of the restroom and Niamh took hold of Ronan’s arm. “Trouble,” she warned, searching left and right as Rose did.
“What did she do?” Ronan accused as they began walking.
Rose scowled at him as she followed, hoping the siblings knew where they were going. “I didn’t do anything.”
“Well, who is after you?”
“The Blackwoods, the Garm, the O’Connors, and Fionn.”
“I know who the Blackwoods and the Garm are, but who are the others?” Niamh asked.
“The O’Connors are the coven I was born into in Dublin.”
“You’re Irish?” Ronan asked as Niamh gasped, “A coven?”
“As for Fionn, he’s the guy you thought I’d be safe with.”
“So that’s his real name,” Niamh murmured. She then drew to a halt, clutching at her brother’s arm, halting him too.
Ronan was tall, broad-shouldered, and strong-looking. Niamh was tall but willowy with feminine curves. She did not look like she could pull her brother to a stop with what amounted to a gentle tug. But, of course, neither did Rose.
There may be danger all around them, but Rose felt relieved to be with someone just like her. Deceptively, unnaturally strong and fast. And powerful.
“What is it?” Rose followed Niamh’s gaze.
Two men stood out from the crowd, their legs braced, arms crossed over wide chests, as they blocked the exit the siblings had been hurrying toward.
The hair on her neck rising on end, Rose’s instincts had her whipping her head to the right. A woman and a man were approaching them, determination etched on their faces. There was something about the way they moved that was familiar.
That was a little like … Kiyo.
“Werewolves?”
“Yes. The Garm,” Niamh told her.
But how had they found her? Rose’s immediate thought was of her parents. What if someone had tracked them down?
Shit.
“I told you we shouldn’t have come here for her.” Ronan gripped Niamh’s arms tightly, scowling as he gave her a hard shake. “Look what you’ve done.”
“Hey!” Rose pushed him none-too-gently away from his sister. “Watch it, pal.”
Fear flickered across his face before he cleared it. He looked past Rose to Niamh. “Well, what do we do now you’ve got us into this mess?”
Niamh flinched, guilt clear in her expression. “I’ll distract them while you run. Rose, follow Ronan. I’ll catch up.”
“No way. Why can’t we just travel outside the building?”
“Travel?”
“You know … poof! One minute you’re here, next minute you’re there.”
“You mean teleport?”
Rose made a face. Traveling sounding way less sci-fi. “Yeah, whatever, that.”
“Because Ronan is human and I won’t leave him here.”
Personally, Rose thought he seemed like kind of a turd, but he was the girl’s brother, so she understood. “Then you two run while I distract them.”
“But you don’t know where we’re staying.” Niamh shoved Rose toward Ronan. “Follow him.”
Niamh took off running toward the werewolves approaching on their right.
“What—”
“This way.” Ronan grabbed Rose’s hand and tugged her in the opposite dire
ction to the exit.
Thus began an exercise in running fast but not fast enough to overtake a very human Ronan who was the one who knew where he was going! A quick glance over her shoulder told her the two wolves who’d been guarding the exit were gaining on them.
“Ronan!”
He veered left and Rose followed. Up ahead was a stand that held newspapers and candy. Drawing up her magic, Rose thrust her arm behind her, making the stand fly. It collided with the wolves with such force, it propelled them across the station.
Cries and yells filled the atrium but Rose kept running.
They put distance between them and the wolves, but the tingling down her neck told her they weren’t free yet. Ronan skidded as he changed direction, and Rose could only blindly trust him to lead their escape.
They burst out through an exit door into the gray, rainy November day. Rose glanced over her shoulder to see the werewolves run around the corner, just in time to catch sight of her.
She cursed and sped after Ronan who was tearing across the road toward a taxi stand. The cab driver of the first car in the stand was leaning against the window of the second car, chatting to the driver.
To Rose’s mortification, Ronan threw open the driver’s side door of that first cab and got in.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted as she pulled open the front passenger door just as the cabbie noticed and yelled in German.
“Powers!” Ronan snapped as she slammed her door shut.
Seeing the cab driver reach for the door handle, Rose locked the car with her magic. “What do you mean?”
The cab driver pounded on the window.
“To start the car!”
Remembering Fionn doing that exact thing back in Slovenia, she placed a palm over the dash and willed the car to start.
The engine growled and Ronan slipped it into gear, skidding across the road just as the werewolves spotted them from their position by the exit. Rose craned her neck to watch as one of them sprung over the hood of a car and ran after them at a speed no human was capable of.
“Ronan!” she yelled, just as the werewolf launched himself into the air, knees tucked to his chest, arms above his head, claws out.
The roof crunched beneath his weight as he landed on the car. Rose yelped.
“Hold on!” Ronan bellowed, swinging the car around a corner, tipping it onto two wheels, causing the werewolf to be thrown from the top. He rolled across the road in a fast tumble, forcing cars to slam and swerve to avoid him.
The cab fell back down onto all fours, and Ronan expertly changed gears and sped away.
They drove for ten minutes—ten minutes in which she barely breathed—before Ronan pulled over.
“What are you doing? Are we here?”
“No.”
“Then why have we stopped?”
He scowled at her. “Fuck, you are new.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
Instead of answering, he threw open the car door and got out, leaving Rose no choice but to follow.
“We’re about a fifteen-minute run from the apartment. But the police will have been called and they’ll be looking for this cab, and us.” He jogged away without another word.
Adrenaline coursing through Rose, she desperately tried to ignore the mounting felonies in her wake as she pulled her backpack over her shoulders and ran after Niamh’s surly brother.
Ronan threw himself down on a huge L-shaped leather couch, a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his temple. Rose took in their new surroundings. The residential area he’d jogged to was host to a spectacular penthouse apartment that he hadn’t used a key to enter. The other buildings surrounding this one were nondescript. Nothing about them screamed luxury, but inside was a modern, loftlike home filled with contemporary design details.
“How did you—”
“There you are.” Niamh wandered through a doorway in the middle of the left wall of the open-plan space.
Rose startled, her lips parting in surprise. Niamh had changed her clothes and was now wearing a yellow dress similar to the one she’d worn in Zagreb. “What—”
“I got here fifteen minutes ago.” She flopped down beside Ronan and tapped his knee. “Are you okay?”
He cut her a dirty look. “Do I look okay?”
“Go take a shower,” she suggested gently.
With a grunt of annoyance, Ronan stood, shot Rose a filthy look, and then vanished through the doorway Niamh had appeared in.
“I took the werewolves who stayed behind at the station on a little chase around the place until the security guards got involved. Then I teleported here.”
Teleported.
Rose frowned. “It’s called traveling.”
“I do like the sound of that better.”
“You can travel that far?”
“It took some practice and I’m always shattered after it, but yes. Can’t you?”
Shrugging, Rose crossed the room and sat beside Niamh, dumping her backpack on the floor. “I’m getting there.” She took in the glossy white kitchen and island, the doors beyond it that led out onto a balcony overlooking the tree-lined street. “How did you find this place?”
“We look up all the nicest places for rent in whatever city we’re in. Found this one.”
“What if someone turns up at the apartment?”
Niamh’s blue eyes darted away from Rose’s, almost guiltily, and Rose understood. “You mind-warp them.”
“Is that what you call it?” she whispered, her remorse evident in her tone. “I guess it makes me an awful person, but when you’re always running, sometimes there’s no time to legally rent a place. It would also leave a trail people could follow.”
Needing to reassure her, Rose reached across and placed a hand over hers. “I’ve done it once. To get my tickets to Zagreb. I was hoping I’d find you there.”
Niamh stood and strode into the kitchen. “I’ve done it more than once. Coffee?”
Rose could only nod, understanding the desire to bury your head in the sand when life forced you to make shitty choices. “I have so many questions.”
“I imagine you do.”
“Will they find us here?”
“The Garm?” Niamh placed a pod in a small coffee maker and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Unless they have something of yours. It’s more likely they’re watching the station. Since Eirik was killed, the new leader moved the Garm headquarters to Munich. That’s why Ronan didn’t want us to come here. The Garm consider the city theirs. They’ll have full-time guards on the train station and airport, and one of those werewolves sensed us there.”
Rose cursed inwardly. She’d unknowingly walked right into the danger zone, something that would never have happened if she’d had Bran. He and Fionn would’ve known that the Garm’s headquarters was in Munich. “Shit.” At least she could stop worrying that they’d somehow gotten to her parents.
“Eirik wanted us dead.” Niamh moved across the room to hand Rose a hot cup. “But from what I’ve heard, he wasn’t psychotic. He just believed in something. He got the job done and that was it. This new fella, his name is William. He’s a Brit, but he’s made his home here in Germany. And they say he’s a bit of a psychopath.”
“Vamp or wolf?”
“Vampire. Five hundred years old. He was Eirik’s second-in-command, and they never went on hunts together, which is why he wasn’t one of the fourteen vampires Thea killed. She’s searching for me, you know.”
Rose tensed, her spirits lifting at the news. “Thea? Are you kidding?”
“I’m afraid not.” She shook her head, her hair shimmering with the movement. “I pushed her toward Conall.”
“The werewolf she’s mated to?”
“Yes. I started getting visions of the other children when I was fourteen. I tried to help the others and failed, but the visions of Thea were different. First, it was horrific,” she said, her eyes glistening brightly. “It’s her story to tell but, Rose, what
Thea went through … She was tortured.”
What the hell. “By whom?”
“It’s neither here nor there now, the bastard’s dead. But when I started to get visions of Conall with Thea, I knew that fate wanted to make it up to her. I also knew that he’d been lied to and that he was hunting her, but if they could just trust each other, nothing would stop fate.”
“What do you mean by fate?”
“They’re mated.”
“What exactly does that mean? Fionn mentioned it, how it was a fae thing, but that supernaturals started mating with fae, and how a mate has the power to change a fae into one of them.”
Niamh nodded. “For years, I dreamed of Faerie. Hundreds of stories filling my head, providing me with the history. I knew much more than you and the others, and that’s why I felt it was my duty to try to find you and put you on the path to keeping the gate closed. The mating bond is beyond the powers of even Aine, Rose. It’s something more powerful. It’s entirely in the hands of fate.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s not like when two humans fall in love, even a powerful, long-lasting love. It’s more. It’s an actual linking of two souls. A completion. Neither one is whole without the other, which means, once a mated couple meet, they are forever fated to be together. To be separated from your mate is to live an eternity of grief.
“That’s why Eirik’s brother, Jerrik, was so determined to open the gate. His mate was on the other side.”
For a moment, Rose couldn’t speak. Finally, she said, “Wow.”
“Even I didn’t see Thea changing into a wolf, but I’m glad for her. She wasn’t suited to an immortal life. She didn’t want it, Rose. She didn’t want the powers or eternity … unlike you.”
Rose stared wide-eyed. “You can sense that in me?”
Niamh smiled. “It is who you are. It’s always who you were meant to be. But Thea was meant for a steadfast, peaceful life with a loving family in the highlands of Scotland. Unfortunately, despite her formative years, the now-alpha female is loyal and feels she owes it to me to find me. Which puts her right back in the mix.”
“Why don’t you go to her, like you came to me? Tell her to go home. Be safe.”
“Because you needed me more.”