by Chani Feener
“Here is fine,” Mavek told her. “This is going to be difficult since you haven’t done it before, so pay attention. First, focus all of your energy on a piece of fruit—let’s start with the grape, since it’s smaller.”
Arden stared at the grape as instructed, deciding to cooperate for now––this was something she needed to learn anyway. “I didn’t even think about the possibility that I’d have glamour.”
“Of course,” he said, “all Unseelie have the ability to use it in one form or another. You’ll need to develop the ability to make yourself invisible in front of humans. It’s a handy trick.”
She almost laughed. It wasn’t like she was planning on robbing any banks, but she smartly refrained from commenting.
“We’ll start small,” he continued. “Once you know how to do it, you should be able to practice on your own, though I’ll of course offer my services.”
“Hard pass.” She inhaled deeply and concentrated. “What now?”
“Think about the grape turning into something else. Picture it in your mind.”
“A food something?”
“Anything, really.”
As despicable as it was, the first thing that came to mind was one of the tiny squares of cake Cole had been eating. It made her sick to her stomach, but she could picture it vividly in her head, so it was easy to imagine the grape changing into a small chocolate confection. Squeezing her eyes shut in concentration, she focused on the image of a chocolate square, but when she opened her eyes eagerly a second later, the grape lay unchanged. She grunted. Easy to visualize. Not so easy to carry out.
“Keep trying,” Mavek instructed after a moment had passed and the grape still looked very much like a grape.
“For how long?” Frustration crept into her tone.
He chuckled. “As long as it takes.”
It took over an hour, but eventually Arden was able to do it. She made every single piece of fruit set out on the table appear to be something else. Unseelie used this trick not only to disguise or hide themselves while out in the world, but in other ways as well. They could make leaves look like money, a prank often played and one Arden was somewhat tempted to try out.
“That wasn’t bad for your first try,” Mavek complimented her when the glamour she’d placed on the peach wore off, transforming it from a cupcake back to its real form. She’d gotten it to last a solid five minutes. “You won’t know how long you can hold the glamour until you practice.”
They were at the end of their session, and Arden struggled to come up with an excuse to stick around, worried it would give him the wrong idea. This morning, she and Eskel had brainstormed ways she could search the kitchen, including one that involved getting the others to help while she distracted Mavek. Mulling it over, she realized she had little choice at this point. Now that they had the other two items, it seemed worth the risk in order to obtain the last ingredient.
“Arden.”
She glanced over at him, realized she’d been staring blankly at nothing, and cleared her throat. “Right. Let’s get this over with.”
He remained still as she walked to him, arms at his sides as she grabbed onto his hips for leverage and lifted herself onto her toes in a mirror of the move she’d made earlier. The second their lips touched, however, his arms banded around her, holding her flush against him. There was an odd sparking sensation when their mouths met, strong enough that she gasped. She shoved him away, hard enough that he banged into the table, sending all the tiny plates clattering.
“What the hell?” she growled. Something was wrong. An impending doom twisted in her gut, causing goose bumps to break out over her flesh for no apparent reason.
“Have you kissed the human again since the night of the Tithe?” he asked, his sudden change in topic momentarily catching her off guard.
Annoyance flashed through her. It wasn’t any of his business what she did, not anymore, and she opened her mouth to say as much as she turned to leave. All she wanted was to get out of there.
“Yes.” She came to a halt, feet suddenly rooted in place, ears buzzing as panic swarmed her within a millisecond. She’d just said yes when she’d meant to tell him to go screw himself. He hadn’t said her name––why had she just told the truth?
Behind her, the sound of his footsteps approaching echoed like gunshots in the otherwise quiet foyer. Now that she knew how to do it––how to focus––she could strongly sense him at her back, like a dark cloud.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” he told her, voice low and silky. His hand reached out once he was at her side, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as he twisted around to stand in front of her. “It was fair this time though. I promise.”
She clenched her jaw, barely resisting the urge to punch him. A dozen questions flickered through her mind at once, but she settled on the one that would disguise her panic. Whatever he’d done, he’d get to it on his own without her prompting, and the last thing she wanted was to betray her true feelings. “Fair how?”
“Ask me anything,” he suggested, holding out his arms momentarily before dropping them. He cocked his head. “Go ahead, Arden. Give it a try.”
“Have you killed anyone recently?” She blurted.
His eyes narrowed slightly, but he smoothly replied, “Yes. Yes, I have. I found the Unseelie responsible for the bird incident at your mortal’s college and dealt with them. Happy?”
“Of course not,” she practically growled back.
“You should be. From now on, we can’t lie to one another, heart. This distrust that’s formed between us has been dealt with, cured. The only words I can give you are truth, and vice versa. You can trust me again.”
She thought it over, trying to quickly piece it all together. “The kisses.” She uttered. “I knew those couldn’t just be innocent.”
Disgust rose within her. She’d guessed there was another motive behind his request, but she’d done it anyway. Stupid.
“Kissing you is never innocent.” He frowned, looking a bit confused by her statement. “Neither of us have been innocent for a very long time; what’s between us certainly isn’t.”
“So, what? Is this another curse? Another spell?”
“It’s a binding of sorts,” he told her. “It allows us to be truthful without the usage of a name. It’s only between us, don’t worry. You won’t be honest with just anyone.”
“Forcibly honest,” she reminded him, then realized, “But that’s only if I choose to answer, isn’t it?”
She’d asked him to explain how he thought this was fair, and he’d deflected by having her test it out on her own. That meant she didn’t have to actually give him an answer—she could choose not to—
“Not exactly,” he disagreed. “I intended to tell you the truth, so my beating around the bush was acceptable. You’d still discover the answer that way, after all.”
“You’re saying that no matter what, if you ask me something, I now have to tell you?” She clenched her fists tightly at her sides, muscles straining from the effort. “How is this supposed to fix things between us again? All this does is make me trust you less, Mavek. I don’t care that you have to be honest with me now, I care that up until this point, you were never honest. It’s how we got here.”
“I’m sorry you feel that way, Arden,” he said. “I did this for you.”
“To ‘have me’ and to ‘protect me’ are two very different things.” She’d known for a while now how selfish he was, how easily he disregarded the things she actually wanted. It shouldn’t surprise her, the realization that none of this had ever stemmed from real love.
Mavek hadn’t truly protected her. Not even once. All this time, she’d been torn over her past feelings for him, too blinded to see what was right in front of her. Maybe it was because he was an Unseelie, or his true nature was showing, but either way, Mavek Midnight didn’t love her, not really. Not in a way that actually mattered. If he did, he wouldn’t have done this behind her back.
<
br /> Again.
“After seeing how I reacted to you turning me into an Unseelie against my will,” she spat, “you thought this was a good plan? You don’t care about how I feel at all, do you? You don’t care that being manipulated like this makes me feel terrible about myself, or that the idea of living forever and watching all of the people I love die is horrifying to me. You never ask, Mavek. You take. So what is it?”
No matter how he tried to spin this act, she could see through him, maybe for the first time ever. He hadn’t done this to regain her trust; he’d done this to get something out of her.
“What’s the big truth you wanted from me so badly you cursed me yet again?” There were only a few things she could think of that she hadn’t told him about back when she’d trusted him. When she was his Heartless, when he’d asked her something, she’d answered willingly. Now since the Tithe, she could think of only one thing that she’d kept under tight wraps. “Is this about whether or not I’ve found a way to reverse what you’ve done?”
“I don’t care about that,” he said, momentarily shocking her into stunned silence. “There’s only one way to turn you back into a human, and I’m positive you haven’t discovered it yet.”
“How can you be so sure?” She needed to be careful. At least now she knew that he wasn’t aware of Cole’s discovery. He must not have realized that she’d already collected his blood.
“Because if you had, we’d be having a very different conversation right now,” he said, hesitating briefly before adding, “and you would undoubtedly be angry with me once more.”
“I’m angry with you now,” she pointed out, struggling to keep her voice even.
“I do want to know one thing,” he ignored her words. “You were right about that.”
Arden couldn’t help but frown. If it didn’t have to do with her staying human, she couldn’t imagine what was worth all of the trouble he’d gone through to secure the truth. As far as she knew, she wasn’t keeping any other big secrets from him. If it was her feelings, he’d used her full name against her enough times already to get the answer to that. She looked at him uncertainly. What was she missing?
“Why didn’t you just use my name to find out whatever it was?” She didn’t get it. He already had that power, why go through all of this? It certainly couldn’t be because he’d wanted to be able to kiss her six times.
“A full name only makes you unable to lie to me,” he explained. “It doesn’t make you give me the whole truth. Not like this will. There’s no more hiding, Arden.”
Mavek gently grabbed her chin, tipping her head back to maintain eye contact as he stepped closer into her personal space. She stilled as he leaned in, his warm breath fanning against her right cheek before she felt his mouth close to her ear. She tried to pull away, but there was no escaping his next words.
“What did the Erlking show you the night of the Tithe?” he practically whispered, and she shivered even as she felt the world come to another dead stop around her.
Of course he hadn’t forgotten that. Of course that was the thing he most wanted to know.
She shook her head, removing his hold and went to step back. His arm banded around her waist a second time, tugging her solidly against him. Even with the extra strength she’d gained from the change, she knew she couldn’t break his hold. She tried to bite down on her bottom lip instead, just to keep herself from talking.
But he’d been right about this new curse he’d placed on them. Because she had no intention of telling him, the curse worked its way through her bloodstream, lighting a fire in its wake that burned. It felt like a thousand tiny fire ants were biting her, her skin prickling and heating uncomfortably before it began to turn into pinpricks of pain. Her lungs started to heat, and she was struggling to breathe, all of sudden unable to unlock her jaw or inhale through her nose.
“Tell me,” Mavek said softly, brushing a few beads of sweat off her forehead, “and it’ll stop. That’s how this works, heart.”
Stubbornly, she refused, fighting against the way every cell in her body screamed.
He sighed. “You won’t be able to hold out forever. Eventually the pain will get to be too much and you’ll tell me anyway, without even meaning to. It’ll be an act of self-preservation—like how it’s impossible for humans to drown themselves unless they weigh their bodies down. Just tell me, Arden. I don’t like watching you suffer. What did the Erlking show you?”
She was almost positive her eardrums were about to explode; the pounding in her ears was so strong. Because of that, she almost didn’t register that she had begun to speak, not until she was already a few words in and it was too late to stop herself from saying more.
He was right about that too. She couldn’t control her body.
Unseelie magic was too strong.
“He showed me my death,” she said, voice shaky, teeth chattering slightly. Without meaning to, she tangled her fingers in the thin material of his shirt, clinging to him desperately even as the pain and the heat finally started to dissipate. “Someone stabs me with a dagger.”
“Why keep something like that from me?” he asked, brow furrowing. “I can protect you.”
She shook her head, tried to fight against answering that question, but all of her energy was spent and she lasted less than a handful of seconds. “I couldn’t see who did it, but they were wearing a ring—the Erlking’s ring.”
Mavek straightened, noticeably stilling. The air around them seemed to darken, so that even as the final notes of pain left her, Arden still found it hard to breathe.
“One of his Heartless,” he murmured to himself, clearly thinking her words over. She tightened her grip on him, but he didn’t seem to notice. “Or…” his eyes met hers again, the calculation in them impossible to miss, “the brother of one of his Heartless.”
“It’s not them,” Arden said desperately as he pulled away. She tried to hold on, but he merely reached up and batted her hands away from him. “Eskel and Cole would never hurt me, you know that!”
“You must believe that to be true,” Mavek shook his head, “but I do not. Think, Arden. It isn’t worth the risk.”
“There is no risk,” she insisted. “Whoever it was I saw in that vision, it’s not them. Neither of them would give me a paper cut, let alone kill me.”
“You don’t understand,” he said, voice rising slightly, enough that she blinked at him in surprise. “There’s more to this than possible death.”
She frowned, not sure what he meant by that. He ran a hand through his hair, already turning away from her. “I’m sorry, Arden, but I have to protect you. I have to protect us.”
“What—” she started to ask, moving to go after him, though he was already too far out of reach.
“I can’t let them live, not if there’s even a chance one of them is who you saw.” Mavek yanked the front door open, paused for a split second to glance at her over his shoulder. There was real regret in his eyes, and she came to a standstill only a few feet away. “I’ll make their deaths quick, heart. I promise.”
“Wait—” She shot back into motion, slamming against the door as he shut it behind him. She struggled with the handle but he’d locked it. Pounding her hands against the wood, she screamed his name, only giving up once she could think past the fear long enough to acknowledge he wasn’t coming back.
He was going to kill her friends.
Spinning away from the door, Arden tugged out her cell phone, almost dropping it to the ground, her hands were shaking so much. She tried Eskel’s number first, making her way through the manor toward the back exit as she listened to the sound of his ring tone. When it went to voicemail she cursed and tried a second time.
Same thing.
She dialed Cole’s number next, exhaling in relief when the backdoor opened with ease. She darted out onto the porch, slipping on the snow-covered stone steps. Arden tumbled and hit the ground hard, the wind getting knocked out of her. She hissed and climbed back to her f
eet, snatching her phone off the ground and bringing it to her ear just in time to hear Cole’s voicemail connect. She’d scraped her palm pretty badly during the fall, but she hardly noticed as she ran around the side of the manor, cursing once she remembered that she didn’t have her bike with her.
Mavek had just left, so there was no way he was with either of her friends yet. They were safe, for now. Which meant there was another reason neither of them were picking up their phones.
Arden sent a warning message to them through the group chat, hoping that one of them would see it soon and warn the others. Then she started running, not really knowing where she was headed, but opting for the center of town. There were too many places they could be at this time of day, and she was unaware of their plans.
Maybe Eskel was back in his dorm room? She should head there first to check. If anything, she might get lucky and run into Mavek and convince him not to go through with it.
Her phone rang in her pocket before she’d made it halfway down the street, Cole’s image lighting up her screen as she fumbled to hit the accept button.
“Where are you?” she demanded, the fear in her voice palpable.
“I’m at the faerie ring, why?” He was calm. Clearly he hadn’t read her text yet.
“Stay there, I’m on my way!”
“What’s going on, A?”
“If you see Mavek, run. Do you know where Eskel is?”
“He’s here too. Seriously, what’s this about?”
Arden couldn’t stop the sigh of relief from slipping past her lips. If the two of them were together that meant she didn’t have to worry about tracking Eskel down as well. As far as she knew, Mavek wasn’t aware that they went to the faerie ring nearby her house. He definitely wouldn’t guess that was where they were now, which made it the safest place for them at the moment.