“Heh. Nurse Kristi would have my ass if you got outta bed because of me.” Which meant I crossed over to the bed and took the hand she offered me. She pulled me down close enough for a one-armed hug. “How are you? They said your back…”
“My back’s great now. A couple fractures but no spinal cord damage. Doctor Kalarjian said she may even release me tomorrow.”
The vice-like tension around my chest loosened. “Nurse Kristi made it sound like you were paralyzed or something.”
“Nah, I’m good. We shifters heal fast, remember? She just exaggerates a little, since she likes to mother bear all of us.”
“Good, I’m glad. I felt… I felt awful, Anji.”
“You get in any trouble with the office?”
“Yeah, I did. They probably didn’t have much to say to you, though.”
Anji snorted. “Oh no. Sebastian was mad as hell. He had all kinds of things to say to me about that stunt. I got a mark in my record and everything.”
“Really?”
“Yup.” Anji nodded. “I mean, none of us would have gone in if I didn’t kick in the door. I made that decision. And almost roasted for it. Ben saved me from getting barbecued.”
Ben flushed deeply and mumbled something incoherent that sounded like, “Wasn’t much.”
“It was, and you know it. But you and I will be having a talk about who’s protecting who, mister, so don’t you forget it.”
The color in Ben’s cheeks flared hotter than a pyromancer’s spell. “Okay.”
My pal would have made a great battlemage, I thought, but I respected his choice not to pursue that path of magic. Still, he had the natural instincts for a sentinel. If he and Anji did remain together after college, I imagined they’d become as close as Simon and Sebastian—without the hippity dippity.
“So, the girls tell me you have a theory about the Scary Godmother but wouldn’t tell me what. Wanna clue me in? ’Cause I am itching to nail the bitch.”
“We can talk about it later.”
“No,” Anji said. “C’mon, Sky, I’m bored to tears in here. Don’t leave me hanging.”
I sucked in a deep breath and held it a second before releasing it on a heavy sigh. “Fine. I think Scary is Monica.”
“Your bitch mentor from last year? Wasn’t she Bound?”
“She was, yeah, but… she said something just to me, and if I closed my eyes and imagined the voice was different, it could have been Monica. It’s hard to describe it. I just know it’s her.”
“Hey, girl, if you say it’s her, I believe you.”
“Really?
“Well, yeah. You’re not a liar, Sky. You don’t do shit for fun. So, if you say this fae boogieman is Monica, who am I to argue? Besides, I thought she smelled familiar.” Anji’s brow furrowed. “Something struck me as familiar, but I couldn’t place it.”
It came as a relief that someone other than me noticed the similarities. Once I laid everything out for Anji, she took the time to consider everything I’d said. In the end, she agreed with me.
“Crap. Monica was enough of a bitch as a good fae. As a bad one, she’s gonna be the worst.”
Anji had that right. I was just glad my friends didn’t think I was nuts. Because, if I was honest with myself, sometimes I wondered.
We stayed a while longer with Anji, and when we finally left her to rest, some other students dragged us into a battle in the courtyard. A few of Julien’s senior fae friends had organized a massive snowball fight on the quad, and we found ourselves conscripted into a snow war of Red versus Blue the moment we walked within the field of enchantment, magic glamouring our respective clothing to indicate which team we’d serve on.
Shit.
Ben pleaded that he couldn’t participate due to his recuperating hands and was allowed to sit out as a referee and additional scorekeeper with Brooke.
As a member of the Blue team, I got to team up with Julien, but had to face off against Jiro and Radha. And in a snow battle as fierce as this one, friendship did not equal mercy. I fired off several good shots propelled with an extra dose of glamour, but in the end, Jiro stuffed a snowball down the back of my shirt when I crouched down to scoop up more ammo.
My screams and the really dumb dance I did to shimmy it all out became everyone’s amusement until Brooke blew a whistle, declaring the match to be at an end while Ben tallied up the points.
Red team won.
Dancing in front of me in a transition state halfway between human and baku form, Jiro grinned. “Sorry about that, Skylar.”
“Nah, it’s all good, and I did peg you between the eyes.”
Victor and Gabriel rejoined us a few minutes after the match ended, the raven landing on my shoulder and the vamp appearing beside Holly, who was pale from all the blood she’d spent zipping around the field.
She jabbed Victor in his chest with one finger. “Oh, now you two show up. Where were you five minutes ago when we were getting our asses kicked?”
Victor nodded his head toward the left. “Watching from that tree over there.”
Holly’s face fell. “You’re joking.”
Gabriel gave one of his creepy bird laughs. “No. When we saw the fight going on, we stayed off to the edge and watched. What good is all that vampire speed doing you if you’re just going to run into the snowballs super fast?”
I tried to shrug him off my shoulder, but he held on with his little scaly feet, flapping his wings for balance and buffeting my ear until I stopped. “You’re both asses.”
“Smart-asses,” Gabriel chirped. “You girls looked good though.”
Pilar grumbled something unpleasant in Spanish, but he only laughed at her.
“We’d have beaten them for sure. That’s why they hid away.” Liadan grinned and winked at me. “Which means cocoa for us. C’mon, I’ll whip up a batch.”
“What? None for us?” Gabriel whined.
“You didn’t get all chilled up, now did you?” Lia smiled sweetly and headed off ahead of us, humming a cheery tune.
“Wanna join us, Jiro?” I asked. Julien, Radha, and the others had already headed off to set up another ambush near the student center.
“I would, thanks.”
Dain lounged in Lia’s rocking chair on our porch, looking way too at home and hot as hell with his angelic wings pillowing his back and big-ass feathers draped over the snow. The primary flight feathers were so long they flowed over the porch’s edge onto the ground. His smile broadened when we approached, and then he rose and dusted off his pants. He’d dressed semi-appropriately for the weather, lacking a coat but at least clothed in another of his handsome sweaters that had me wondering if it was all glamour, or if he’d stopped at some high-end menswear shop.
“Hi, Dain.”
“Greetings, Skylar,” he said, bowing to us. “And to the rest of you. Did you enjoy the game?”
“No,” Pilar muttered bitterly, still sore that a pack of freshmen had gotten the best of her by working as a cohesive squad, walling her in between two shelves of ice then dropping a miniature snow mountain on her.
It had been hilarious to watch, but in hindsight, probably hadn’t been too pleasant for her.
Dain stepped forward and raised one hand to Pilar’s dark hair, brushing away clumps of snow in one long sweep. “I have a feeling next time you will not be caught so easily, now that you know their tricks. I might suggest a Misdirection jinx.”
She blinked up at him. “Really?”
“Oh yes. It always works on Eldan. Don’t mention that I told you, but it fools him every time.”
I tried to imagine the two handsome fae lords frolicking in the snow. It wasn’t hard, actually. I could pretty much imagine them anywhere, but the idea of them having a snowball fight really tickled me for some reason. Probably because Eldan’s stoic countenance never changed, and I’d never seen him smile.
“I’ll try that, thank you,” Pilar said, drawing my attention back to the present.
“Hey, Skylar?
”
I turned to Jiro. “Yeah?”
“Raincheck on the cocoa?”
“Sure. Is everything okay?”
“It is, yes. I just remembered I had to do something, so I’ll catch you another time.”
Jiro headed off without further explanation, but I wondered if Dain had something to do with it. Not that I could blame the guy, since being around fae nobility was sort of intimidating. Holly and Victor were still staring at the sylph, as if he were a museum exhibit given life.
Lia moved to the door and unlocked it. “I’m going to make cocoa for all of us. Would you like a cup, Dain?”
“The game was well-played, and you are all certainly deserving of a warm beverage. However, I find myself in need of Skylar’s company for a moment.”
“Uh, guys, go ahead and start up a movie or something. I’ll be inside in a sec.”
Gabriel cocked his head. “Do you want me to stay?”
“No.” If Dain was going to chastise me, I totally didn’t want my boyfriend to hear it.
After the others filed inside, Gabe glided down from my shoulder to the open doorway and shifted in the threshold before walking inside. He shut the door behind him.
“I expected better of you.”
“Dain—”
He held up a hand. “Excuses are for the weak, little one. Apologies were given to the individuals harmed by your reckless mistake, but what will you do to prevent it from happening again?”
My tongue didn’t want to move to form more words, practically glued to the roof of my mouth. For some reason, Dain’s disappointment cut deepest of all, the salt in a raw wound that had only begun to heal. “I’ll train harder.”
He crossed his arms and stared me down, magnificent wings partially unfurled behind him. “Faerie Fire. Of all the idiotic stunts…”
“I panicked, Dain.”
He raised one hand to the pendant around my neck, breaking the illusion surrounding the Heartflame when he tapped the central ruby with his index finger. “If not for this, you would be dead, and with your loss, a million dreams would also die. You must take greater care, with not only your own life, but those around you.”
A million dreams?
“But I’m not learning to become a godmother. How could so many hinge on my survival?”
He merely smiled. “I’ve said more than I should. Simply keep my words in mind, and in the future, when similar threats loom before you, know what you face before charging into danger.”
“I will. Hey, Dain, can I ask a question?”
“Of course. But will I answer?”
“If you can.”
He nodded.
“If a fae is Bound, is it possible to become a darkling?”
“You ask me a question that, until recently, I believed to be impossible, Skylar.”
My breath caught. “So it was Monica.”
“It was… an anomaly. One the Court is most interested in.” He gestured to the door. “Shall we?”
“You’re coming in too?”
“I was invited, was I not?”
“Of course. Just, uh, please excuse the mess. Well, it’s not so much of a mess as it is a jungle in there.”
Dain followed me inside and all chatter died, my collection of friends staring at the faerie lord standing in our midst. Victor and Holly were fighting over the decorative pillows on the love seat end of our sectional, and Lia was in the kitchen already, Gabriel helping her.
Pilar had a strict no-shoes-allowed policy, so everyone had dumped all their shit beside the door, a pile of boots beside the slush-dampened welcome mat.
His gaze moved around the room, lingering on each blooming plant. Between Lia and Pilar’s gifts, we could have opened a flower shop.
“I see you were not exaggerating when you said it was a jungle.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know who’s been sending them all, do you?” Holly asked.
“It would be poor manners to reveal the gifter.”
“But you know,” she insisted.
“I do.”
“Sky, can you give us a hand?” Gabriel called over.
Between the three of us, we managed to carry a mug of steaming cocoa out to everyone. Homemade marshmallows floated in every cup, and the sweet scent of vanilla wafted up on the fragrant steam. No matter what Lia prepared in the kitchen, she took everything to the next level.
“I have never seen anyone make hot cocoa this extra before,” Victor muttered.
“Well give it to me then.”
He twisted away to evade Holly’s grasping hands. “Drink your own.”
Sitting on the floor between Lia and Pilar’s beanbags, Dain almost looked like one of us, though his wings were so damned huge he didn’t need a seat of his own. I caught Lia reaching for one of them then jerking her hand back, like she knew better than to touch a faerie lord without permission.
I totally didn’t blame her.
“How much longer until your classes begin?” Dain asked.
“Almost two weeks. Registration starts tomorrow.”
And I hoped that nothing else happened in that time, because this, right here with my friends, was how I wanted my winter break to be.
26
Déjà Vu
As soon as online registration unlocked the next morning, Holly and I hurried over to medical with our laptops to help Anji sign up for classes. Now that I was firmly in the sentinel program, I didn’t need Mrs. Hansford’s example of “guidance” anymore and was permitted to choose my own classes as long as there weren’t prerequisite courses.
I managed to snag the same time slot as my friends for our sentinel courses and discovered a bevy of online classes Mrs. Hansford had never told me about, some of which would suit my busy schedule and allow me to pursue a criminal justice degree without committing suicide by sleep deprivation.
Once home again, I repeated the process for morning faerie classes with Pilar and Liadan. All in all, I felt good about my schedule.
Us girls had brunch together and set aside a fourth portion for Holly in the fridge. Then I crashed in bed for a mid-afternoon nap snuggled in blankets that still smelled like Pilar’s housekeeping magic. She really did cast those glamours the best out of all our group, infusing the linens with sunshine and spring breezes carrying floral aromas from Tir na Nog.
Disorienting, nebulous dreams woke me a half hour before my alarm was due to beep. I laid in bed, my heart racing and palms hot, because I’d made a big mistake and should have taken a ride home after all. Whatever I’d been dreaming about, it didn’t want to let me go, a lingering chill making me pull the blankets in tighter around my body.
It took me a moment to realize the feelings were Sharon’s emotions filtering through our link.
I rolled and grabbed my phone from the bedside table then hit Gabe’s name in my contacts. He answered on the fifth ring.
“Hey, Sky. I thought you’d still be sleeping.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
“Everything okay?”
“I dunno. I have a funny feeling about Sharon and realized I hadn’t checked in on her lately. Last I saw her, she was having second thoughts about how serious things had become with Oliver.”
“You wanna head on over to see her?”
“You don’t mind?”
“Nah. Rodrigo and I are playing video games, and I’m tired of staring at the screen.”
“He means I’ve been kicking his ass.” Rodrigo’s deep voice boomed through the line. “Your boy is a sore loser. Speaking of losing, when are you coming over again for a taste of this?”
“You name the day, and I’ll show you how it’s done.”
Rodrigo laughed. “Challenge accepted, short stuff.”
“Anyway,” Gabriel cut in, “how about we meet in the garage in twenty minutes?”
“Thank you.”
Once we disconnected, I hustled from bed and into some clean clothes. The cold weather demanded boots and a heavy jacket, and I
grabbed my gloves as well on my way out. Gabriel had beat me to the garage and already started the car. He passed me a Red Bull after I climbed in.
“Sorry again about this.”
“Hey, it’s your job to watch after Sharon, and I’m happy to help. Monica would have either ignored the feeling or banged on my door and told me to drive her the fuck over.”
“True enough.”
We headed down the campus drive, pausing at the gate to check out at the security booth. Then Gabriel pulled out onto the road and headed toward the freeway.
“Where to? Work, school, or home?”
“None of the above. She’s somewhere new.”
Every fae had an innate sense for their charge’s general whereabouts, but those of us with a closer bond were able to pinpoint their location with ease. It’s how godparents like my folks hopped directly to the people they looked after without hunting them down. I couldn’t do that, but I could direct Gabe in the right direction.
“She’s not too far from campus, so if we head that way, I should get a better idea of where to go.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
We both chugged our caffeine and sugar laden drinks before we reached the highway. This time of day, the traffic sucked, so I was thankful when Gabriel took the next exit and opted to take another route, passing a pretty church with gorgeous stained-glass windows.
“Hey, Sky?”
“Hm?”
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“What’s up?”
“What are your plans this summer?”
“Mom’s due date is May 23rd, so I wanna be there for that. Help her out, you know? Why?”
“You planning to fly?”
“Pretty much. I figured since we’re going to keep the same townhouse, it’ll be easy to leave most of my stuff behind.”
“What if I drive you instead?”
“Really? I sorta figured you’d wanna go home and see your folks.”
“I do, but… I’m not in a rush. Besides, I’d really like you to come with me.” He looked straight ahead through the windshield, but both hands tightened on the wheel.
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