by Karen Lynch
I returned the smile. “Thanks. You, too.”
He stood awkwardly for a moment before he seemed to remember why he’d come. He held out a white paper bag with handles on it. “Mom sent a pie, but I figured you already have more food than you can eat. I got you something else from me.”
“You didn’t have to bring me anything.” I took the bag and peeked inside. I let out a squeal when I saw the bag of dark roast coffee beans that had to have set him back at least fifty dollars. I hugged the bag to my chest. “This is perfect! Thanks.”
“It’s the least I could do after you saved my ass. Dad told me how you jumped in after me.” He shifted anxiously from one foot to the other. “I swear I didn’t know you were the reason I got away. I never would have left you alone with that kelpie.”
“I know,” I said softly. “It all happened so fast, and it was hard to see down there.”
He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “You could have died.”
“But I didn’t.” I waved at the couch. “Please, sit.”
He did, looking slightly more relaxed. “I can’t believe you spent the night outdoors on the island. It dropped into the twenties that night.”
“It wasn’t my best night.” I made a face. “But the next time I go out on the water, I’ll be sure to have waterproof matches on me.”
Trey smiled. “I heard you made a shelter out of leaves and dirt. How do you know about that stuff?”
“Books. Where else?”
He grew serious again. “That’s how you knew the female kelpie was nursing, too. You read that their eyes turn silver.”
“Yes.”
“We should have listened to you. Jeff Burry might still be alive if we had.”
“You don’t know that. Anything could have happened out there.” Kelpies were unpredictable creatures, which was one of the reasons they were so dangerous. Even if the female hadn’t been nursing, she would have come after us for hurting her mate.
“I guess we’ll never know.” He rubbed his palms on his jeans. “Did you hear that they sent a team to the island to trap the kelpies? Dad said it’s a lot easier on land, and the foal is too young to swim yet.”
“Did they get them?” I felt bad for the kelpies, but they were too much of a threat to humans to be left alone. Besides, they’d be together and happy in some lake in Faerie.
“Yeah. It took twelve hunters, but they did it.”
“That’s good.” I yawned so big my jaw cracked. “Sorry.”
He stood. “I’ll leave and let you get some rest. I just wanted to stop by and see how you’re doing.”
“Thanks. And thanks again for the coffee.”
His smile was boyish. “You’re welcome. Get better soon.”
Violet showed him out and came back to flop down beside me. “Was that the same Trey Fowler we went to school with? He was downright humble.”
I laughed, and it turned into a sneeze. “I’m sure he’ll be back to his usual cocky self in a few days. It was sweet of him to come by, though.”
“You need to save his life more often, and you’ll never run out of coffee,” she deadpanned, making us both crack up.
She grabbed the remote off the coffee table and turned on the TV. “What are you looking for?” I asked as she clicked through the channels.
“It’s almost time for the red-carpet coverage of Prince Rhys’s debut party.” She stopped on a channel and put down the remote. “I’m getting some pie. You want a piece?”
“Sure.” I picked up my spare glasses from the side table, bummed that I’d lost my favorite pair in the river. Turning to the TV, I watched a woman reporter talking about the huge gala that was being held in Manhattan. It was being touted as the social event of the decade, and everyone who was anyone was expected to attend.
“I don’t get what the big deal is,” I called to Violet. “Everyone already knows what he looks like.”
She came in carrying two plates of lemon meringue pie and handed one to me. “Pictures are not the same as seeing him live. And all of Hollywood will be there. This thing is bigger than the Oscars.”
She wasn’t wrong about that. We watched the celebrities arrive at the event, decked out in their designer fashions. It was easy to distinguish the faerie females from the human women without even looking at their faces. Humans went for flare and jewels, while faeries preferred simple elegance. When you were that beautiful, you didn’t need any adornments.
“Ooh, look, it’s Lukas!” Violet pointed at the screen.
I’d seen Lukas in a tux that night at the Ralston, but he looked even hotter now, if that was possible. Watching him walk the red carpet with crowds swooning over him, it felt surreal that only yesterday, this handsome faerie had come to my rescue and carried me all the way to the hospital.
On Lukas’s arm was Jocq, a gorgeous pop star, whose dark skin and black hair were stunning against her glittering, white, floor-length dress. They stopped for photos, and he smiled down at her. An unpleasant burning sensation suddenly filled my stomach when I imagined what the two of them would be doing after the gala.
I am not jealous. I don’t even like Lukas that way. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was helping me find my parents, I wouldn’t have anything to do with him at all. Sure, I was physically attracted to him, but who wouldn’t be – except maybe Violet.
I’d been physically weak and emotional when he’d found me yesterday, and it was normal to manufacture feelings under extreme circumstances. I was sure I’d read that somewhere.
I looked at the TV again and spotted another couple behind Lukas and Jocq. It was Conlan and a woman I didn’t recognize. Next to them was Kerr and a model who had been on the cover of Sports Illustrated last summer. I wasn’t surprised to see no sign of Faolin. I couldn’t imagine him at one of these things, let alone coming with a date.
Violet sighed dreamily. “Someday, it’s going to be me walking the red carpet with a gorgeous model like that on my arm.”
“What? I always thought I’d be your guest.” I made a face of mock indignation. “Some friend you are.”
She shot me a sly grin. “Okay, but you have to let me pick out your dress.”
“Um.”
Laughter bubbled from her. “That’s what I thought.”
My gaze returned to the TV, but the camera was focused on someone else, and Lukas was nowhere in sight.
I ran my hand through my hair, my fingers seeking out the stone hidden in it. It was so light I couldn’t tell it was there unless I touched it.
Yesterday, when I had found the stone in my hair at the hospital, I’d panicked a little and removed it. But this morning when I woke up, the stone was back in my hair. I didn’t know what to do about it or if I should be worried. What did it mean? I wasn’t a faerie. More than that, I hunted them – even if I didn’t harm them. Why would their goddess favor me with one of her stones?
My first thought had been to tell Lukas and ask his advice. But how much did I really know about him? He was helping me search for my parents, but only because their disappearance was related to his own interests. And he’d come to rescue me because he was repaying a debt for his prince. He was powerful, and I trusted his ability to make things happen, but did I trust him on a personal level?
The red-carpet coverage seemed to go on forever, and I was yawning behind my hand by the time the last celebrity arrived. The reporter’s excitement was almost palpable as she talked about the dinner and speculated on the seating arrangements. Seriously, did people really care about this stuff?
It wasn’t until she mentioned Prince Rhys’s much anticipated speech that pieces clicked together in my mind. I sucked in a breath as the snatches of conversation I’d overheard in the diner came back to me. Those men had talked about shooting Prince Vaerik at a gala after a speech. Lukas and his men were at this one. Were they there to protect their prince? I’d heard no mention of Vaerik though, which was strange because Fae royalty were always the center of attention. Maybe
he’d backed out because of the threat.
I must have dozed off because I started when Violet gently shook me. “What time is it?” I murmured.
“Ten.” She tugged on my arms. “Come on, sleepyhead. I have to go, and you’ll be stiff tomorrow if you sleep on the couch.”
I let her help me to my sore feet. “You can stay here tonight if you want.”
“I have an audition at nine, so I need to sleep in my own bed tonight. I’ll come by after and tell you about it.”
“Okay. I’ll provide the dessert and coffee,” I said as I limped to the door with her. My feet were healing nicely, but I wouldn’t be doing much for a few days. Doctor’s orders.
“It’s a date.” She hugged me goodbye and let herself out.
I locked the dead bolt, turned off the lights, and went to bed. Being in my own bed again felt so good after a night on the ground and another in a hospital bed. I felt myself drifting off not long after my head hit the pillow.
I had no idea how long I’d been asleep when a high-pitched whistle woke me. I bolted upright in bed and peered through the darkness of my room. “Finch?”
He ran across the bed and pulled frantically on the front of my pajama top. I was reaching for the bedside lamp when I heard it, the sound of the front door opening.
Someone was in the apartment.
My first thought was that the faeries had returned, but it couldn’t be them unless they had somehow managed to get past our ward.
I slid quietly out of bed, wincing when I put weight on my damaged feet. I looked at Finch, who stood in the middle of my bed. “Hide,” I whispered.
I went to my bedroom door and listened for movement. Hearing nothing, I dared a peek into the hallway before I crept down the hall to the office. I looked around the dark office for a weapon, cursing myself for leaving my stun gun in the Jeep. The creak of a floorboard in the entryway had me grabbing the first thing I saw, which was a length of thick chain. It clinked softly, and I held my breath, but no one came running into the room.
Standing at the back of the dark office, I tried to control my erratic breathing. I jumped at the sound of a chair skidding in the dining room and the hushed whispers that followed. Whomever they were, they definitely weren’t faeries. Court faeries had excellent vision and could move with the stealth of a cat.
That realization bolstered my courage. There was no way I could have fought off two Court faeries, but against humans, I had a chance. And I had the home advantage. I just had to be smart and keep my wits about me.
I listened as the intruders moved through the apartment. They’d obviously removed their footwear, but this was an old building, and the occasional creak of a floorboard told me where they were.
My heart was almost bursting from my chest by the time a dark shape appeared in the office doorway. A flashlight shone in my eyes, blinding me. And then the overhead light came on, revealing the men.
The man holding the flashlight was tall and skinny, and his friend was short and stocky. They both wore dark clothes and black ski masks, telling me this wasn’t some random break-in. These guys meant business.
“This will only go harder on you if you fight,” the shorter man said with the smugness of someone who knew they had the upper hand.
My breathing grew ragged – but not from fear. In the last two weeks, my parents had disappeared, I’d nearly been eaten, almost drowned, and come close to dying of exposure. I’d been attacked by elves, interrogated and held hostage by one group of faeries, arrested, and had more faeries trying to break into my home. And on top of all of that, I had a cold. This was the last damn straw.
I swung the end of the chain. “You guys broke into the wrong apartment.”
The tall one pulled a roll of duct tape from his pocket. “No. I’m pretty sure this is the right one.”
I opened my mouth to speak when something crashed against the floor in my room.
“I thought you said she was alone,” the tall man hissed at his friend. “Go see who that is, and take care of them.”
Shorty ran to my room, leaving me alone with the tall one. I barely had time to worry about Finch before the man lunged at me.
I swung the end of the chain, but he dodged it, moving more nimbly than I’d expected. He slammed into me, pushing me hard against the wall, his bony elbow hitting my left eye and making me see stars.
I shook off the daze from the blow and realized I’d dropped my chain. The man wasted no time in pinning me against the wall, with one of his hands holding both of mine above my head. His eyes gleamed with triumph as he lifted the hand holding the duct tape.
I moved my legs into a defensive position and twisted my hips sharply, rotating my entire torso. Taken off guard, he offered little resistance when I swung him around into the wall.
I followed with a strike to his throat. Our height difference made it difficult to put much force behind it, but my blow was hard enough to allow me to break free.
I backed away from him, searching for a new weapon. My gaze fell on a small mesh bag of iron weights on a shelf, and I grabbed it just as the man came at me again.
I waited until he was within reach, and then I kicked him in the shin. When he stumbled, I slammed the heavy bag against his temple with all my strength. It made a sickening crunch, and he collapsed, out cold.
I didn’t check to see if I’d killed him. I could hear Shorty tearing my bedroom apart, and it wouldn’t be long before he found Finch. There were all kinds of weapons in here to use against faeries, but none of them would help me now. If only I had my stun gun.
I froze. Dad kept his handgun on the top shelf of their closet. I hated guns, but I’d do anything to protect my brother.
The noise in the other room stopped just as I made a run for it. I’d barely made it five steps down the hall when I was tackled from behind. The man was short but heavy, and the air was knocked out of my lungs when he landed on top of me.
Panic filled me when I couldn’t suck in a breath. The man rolled me over roughly, straddling my waist, and I was finally able to draw a breath.
“Get off me,” I wheezed, trying to buck him off.
He backhanded me, and I saw stars. The next thing I knew, his beefy hands were around my throat, choking me.
They say your life flashes before your eyes at a moment like this. Not for me. I saw my father’s face and heard his voice as he yelled at me to break his hold in my self-defense training.
Muscle memory took over, and I hooked my legs around my attacker’s, throwing him to the side. The hallway was narrow, but there was enough room to bring my knee up into his groin before he could recover. That was all I needed to scramble free from him.
I staggered to my parents’ room, dizzy from the fall and the choking, and shut the door, locking it. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it might give me the time I needed.
I yanked open the closet door and reached up for the metal box that held the gun. It wasn’t until I pulled it down that I remembered it was locked and the key was at the back of his sock drawer.
A body rammed against the door, and the sound of cracking wood filled the bedroom. I looked around frantically, but there were no weapons in here, except the box.
Another blow sent the door crashing inward. I jumped and almost tripped over Dad’s wooden baseball bat that had fallen from the closet.
I wrapped both hands around the base of the bat and spun toward the man as he fell through the broken door. Swinging low, I struck the side of his knee with enough force to make him scream in pain as he went down. His back hadn’t touched the floor when I brought the wide end of the bat down against his skull.
Wood snapped behind me. Like a cornered animal, I bellowed and whirled, striking out blindly. The bat hit flesh, and I heard my assailant let out an “oof.” I could make out his shape through the curtain of hair obscuring my vision, and I swung upward, feeling the wood connect with his jaw with a satisfying crunch.
I raised the bat again, but it was ya
nked from my hands. Long fingers circled my wrist in a steel grip, and I struggled wildly to free myself.
“Jesse, stop. It’s us,” said a vaguely familiar voice. But I was in survival mode, and I lashed out with my other fist.
Strong arms wrapped around me, holding me immobile against a hard body. “Shhh, you’re safe, li’fachan,” a soothing male voice said against my ear.
The beautiful lilting sound of the Fae language broke through the craze of fear and anger, and I sagged against Lukas.
“The girl is deranged,” growled an angry voice.
I lifted my head to meet Faolin’s furious gaze. He was rubbing his jaw as if he had a toothache, which was ridiculous since faeries had perfect teeth.
One look at me and his scowl grew even darker. “She’s been beaten.”
As soon as he said the words, the pain that adrenaline had been keeping at bay came flooding in. It hurt to swallow, and there wasn’t a part of my body that didn’t feel bruised. One side of my face felt tight, and it was getting hard to see out of my left eye. I didn’t need a mirror to imagine what I must look like.
Lukas sat me on my parents’ bed and went to his haunches in front of me. He brushed my hair aside, and a muscle ticked in his jaw when he saw my face.
“Can you tell us what happened?” he asked with controlled anger.
My voice was raspy, and it hurt when I spoke. “I was asleep. Finch woke me up. Oh, God. Finch!” I stood unsteadily, and Lukas didn’t try to stop me when I ran from the room.
“Finch,” I called hoarsely when I reached my room, which had been ransacked. “You can come out now.”
A sob caught in my throat when silence greeted me. Then the curtain fluttered, and Finch landed soundlessly on the floor. He started toward me and stopped, staring at something over my shoulder.
“They’re here to help.” I crouched and held out my arms, and Finch ran into them. His tiny frame trembled as I sat on my bed and whispered soothing words to him.
Lukas walked over to stand beside the window. “What happened here, Jesse? Do you know those men?”
“I don’t think so. I never even saw their faces.” I told him everything from when Finch had woken me up to when he and Faolin had arrived. When I talked about the man choking me, emotion welled in my chest as the gravity of what had almost happened pressed down on me.