by Liz Schulte
I watched them play. Holden was the only one to look up and meet my eyes. “Even Holden?”
“Well, if Olivia likes you, he probably won’t hurt you. He might even have some insight on who would’ve burned down your studio—and on whether Michael’s alive.”
As much as I didn’t feel like doing it, I agreed, and Sy called everyone back.
“You guys pretty much know Cheney’s side of events,” I started, “but it turns out everything isn’t quite as simple as that.”
“It never is,” Olivia said.
“I don’t know any of these names. Who’s this cat, Cheney? Is he the one who was staring daggers at that vamp?” Baker said.
Holden gave him an evil look, but then he said, “You should fill him in on everything. Despite being relentlessly annoying, he knows a lot about the races.”
Baker grinned and I shrugged. “Cheney’s the son of the former Erlking and the current ruler of the fae. A few months ago I didn’t know I was anything other than a human witch. Then Cheney came to find me. He told me the rebels were after me, his father had a bounty on me, and that I was bound to him. From that moment on I’ve been stuck in this stupid world. No offense.” I got a few faint smiles, but everyone waited for me to continue. “I was a half-elf and I became a changeling by choice. Cheney said I did it to stop the rebels, but now I’m not so sure. Femi found the rebel leader, a half-elf named Jaron. He claims I helped him start the movement. It appears I also had a relationship with him.”
I ran my fingers through my hair and summed up the more recent events, starting with Cheney overthrowing his father and ending with talking to Jaron tonight. “So that’s what’s happening.”
Holden looked at Olivia, his eyes burning. “You went to a jinn club.”
She shrugged and took his hand. “It wasn’t a big deal. No one noticed me, I swear.”
“This isn’t over.” He kissed the back of her hand and looked back to me. “Forget your love life. Your main problem is someone’s trying to kill you.” His voice was flat and he seemed perfectly indifferent about it.
My mouth fell open, unsure how to respond. Yes, my studio was demolished and Michael was missing, but it seemed like a leap to assume those things meant someone wanted me dead.
“If they were trying to kill her, they’re stupid,” Femi said. “Why would they burn down a building she hasn’t even been in for months and abduct one of her friends?”
Holden sighed, but Baker spoke up. “It’s not like that, minx. The boss-man’s right. Selene’s been living in a palace, next to impossible to get to. This little stunt pulled her out into the open. Put her back on the playing field. Makes it clear that if she hides, what she loves will be at risk.”
“But why?” I asked.
“Beats me. You’re hot, but no dame’s worth all that fuss.” Baker winked. “Maybe the person knows your involvement with the rebels.”
“Do you think it was Jaron? If someone wanted to draw me out, he’s the one who followed me from the studio to the club.”
“Could be,” Holden said. “Could also be Cheney.”
“Why Cheney?” Sy asked.
“To keep her in her place. She said herself she has a history of running away. You can’t run away if you have nowhere to go. And the ex just makes everything that much more real. Keeps the threat level high and her needing his protection.”
That notion sunk like a lead brick in my stomach. Cheney wouldn’t do that, would he? “Do you think Michael’s still alive?”
“I’d keep him alive. So long as he lives and you care, they’ve got you by the short hairs.”
“Cheney wouldn’t do that.”
“Look, you already know he’s lied to you, or at the very least, told you only partial truths. Don’t take him off the suspect list until you can be certain.” Holden stared off into nothing. “Then again, it could be practically anyone you pissed off in what I’m assuming was your significant lifetime before you were reborn. Do you have any notion of other enemies?”
Only two came to mind. “Alanna. She’s fae, and she and Cheney were together until I popped back into the picture. She sort of hates me. And Cheney’s father. He’d love to see me dead—and most of the full elves wouldn’t weep at my funeral either. ”
“Cheney has plenty of enemies too,” Sy pointed out.
Olivia shook her head. “Burning down her studio and taking her ex-fiancé seems like a personal attack on Selene. I don’t think Cheney’s enemies factor in. Where’s Cheney’s father?”
“I don’t know where they took him. Cheney had him removed after he took the crown.”
“Worth looking into,” Baker said.
“Okay.” Femi slapped her hands together. “I’ll tail Jaron since I already found him. Baker, you see what you can find on Alanna. Sy, ask around and see what the fae community is feeling about Selene these days. Olivia and Holden, will you check out the scene and see if I missed anything that might be of use and see if you can get a lead on where the human’s being kept?”
“Sure,” Olivia said. “And I’ll do a scan for Michael tomorrow. Maybe something will come through the guardian lines if he’s a human in need of help.”
“What am I supposed to do?” I asked.
“Just keep being pretty.” Femi gave me an ornery smile when I glared at her. “I’m serious. You need to keep doing what you’ve been doing. Don’t let Cheney know anything’s different until he’s in the clear. And I think you should meet with Jaron. It’s time we heard his side. But if you’re really itching for a task, find out where Cheney’s keeping his dad.”
I could do that. “Thank you all.” I looked at each of them in turn.
“Don’t thank us yet, doll. We haven’t done anything. Just keep your eyes open, and let us know if any change starts rattlin’ the old noggin.” Baker stood up and hugged me until Sy told him to move along.
One by one, they all left. I looked at Sy. “Do you really think Cheney’s trying to trap me?”
Sy rolled his neck. “I don’t know. I’d like to think he’s different than his family, but he secretly married you before you became a changeling. It’s all a matter of timing. Did he marry you before or after you lost your memory? If the latter, I don’t know what reason he’d have except to trap you.”
“He could’ve done it to protect me.”
Sy gave me a dubious look. “That’s one way to see it.”
Cheney was business as usual the next day. He woke me up and handed me my favorite green smoothie. “If you don’t get up, you’ll be late for training.”
Cheney and Sebastian decided I needed to continue to train until I was as proficient in everything as I had been or I had my memory back. “I have more important things to worry about than training right now,” I grumbled.
He kissed my temple. “Nothing is more important than training. It keeps you alive.” He pulled the covers off and roused me from bed. “Your friends will all be here this afternoon,” he said conversationally.
I sighed and walked into the bathroom. “I don’t want them to feel like prisoners.”
“They won’t,” he said from the doorway. “It’s the only way I know how to keep them safe.”
“What about Gram?”
He shook his head. “She refused to come. I’ve assigned her a bodyguard.”
“You could do that for them, too.” Even though they all agreed to come here, somewhat willingly, I couldn’t imagine upheaving so many lives.
“If you’d prefer–”
I nodded. “At least I can give them a choice.” I dressed quickly and called all of the coven. Everyone, except Katrina, decided to have a bodyguard. Kat, in her own words, said, “Hell no. I’m blowing this popsicle stand. I’ve been packed and waiting on my porch since I hung up the phone last night.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. I let Cheney know the new plan then headed down to Sebastian. He was reading a book when I came in.
“I wasn’t sure you’d make it today,�
� he said without looking up.
“I’m only a couple minutes late.” I sat down next to him. “What cruel and unusual punishment do you have for me today?”
He snapped the book closed. “My comment has nothing to do with you being late. Cheney told me what happened last night. I’m very sorry, Selene.”
Worry crept back in. I’d been so preoccupied with disrupting my friends’ lives I’d forgotten about Michael. “Do you think he’s still alive?”
Sebastian’s serious eyes met mine. “I think you have every reason to hope.”
“Cheney isn’t going to help look for him.”
Sebastian nodded. “He has many obligations–”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“Regardless of what he may or may not want to do, he has a responsibility to his people as well as to you. He’s walking a tight rope, trying to keep everyone happy. Don’t make it any harder on him.”
I moved down to the floor and began stretching. “So if there was something that might have happened in the past that would upset Cheney, should I wait to tell him?”
Sebastian was silent for so long I looked up to make sure he was still in the room. He stared at me, his face unreadable. “Like what?”
I shrugged. “Just a general question in case I have any more memories.”
“Did you have a memory?”
“Of course not.” He didn’t look convinced. “I would tell you if I did.” Sebastian nodded and offered me a hand to help me up. “You never answered my question.”
“I guess it depends on whether or not what you remember changes how you feel about things now.”
“What do you mean?”
“If a memory alters how you feel about Cheney, he deserves to know. If it doesn’t, then I wouldn’t worry about it. You both made mistakes. The past should be left in the past.”
Did Sebastian already know my involvement with the rebels? I couldn’t ask without giving myself away, but I was tempted. “So you’re advocating secret keeping?”
“No, I’m just saying you should keep things between the two of you as simple as possible. You already have plenty of obstacles. If you don’t need to add to them, don’t.”
I took his hand and stood. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Sebastian led me outside to a hedge maze. He waved his hand toward it. “Get to the center.”
I peered in. “What did you do to it? What’s in there waiting to kill me?”
He smiled. “Nothing will kill you. See you in the center.” He disappeared, and I rolled my shoulders back. I could do this.
I picked up the quarterstaff leaning next to the entrance. The hedge’s gnarled pine walls were almost twice my height and as wide as my arm span. I got to the first wall and had a choice: left or right. The two paths looked identical.
“I hate mazes,” I muttered. The creaking and popping of branches around me made me jump. I looked behind me; the entrance to the labyrinth was gone, the path I’d just followed nothing but shrubbery. “Damn it.”
If I couldn’t go back, I couldn’t afford to make the wrong decision. How was I supposed to know which way to go? While I stood there contemplating the greenery groaned and trembled. Suddenly it came to me. I was making this unnecessarily complicated. I shook my head and mustered my energy. I needed to get to the middle, so I’d walk a straight path. I parted the hedges like the red sea, stepped over a multitude of roots, and walked easily to Sebastian. He closed his book and stood when I arrived.
“Well done. And what did you learn from this exercise?”
“You’re an ass who was trying to trap me in a hedge for hours?”
He raised his eyebrows. “No. There was no wrong choice in this maze. Any direction you took would’ve led you here, but you chose not to take the established trails. You made your own way. Why?”
I thought about it. “I didn’t know which way to go, and I didn’t want to make a mistake.”
“Mistakes are inevitable. All you can do is deal with them.”
“Hmph. So is this the only thing we’re doing today?”
He nodded. “Find your way out and you are finished.”
“Cool.” I collected my energy again, but this time the hedge didn’t budge. I looked behind me. Sebastian smiled.
“This maze is designed to keep people in. It adjusts. Now that it’s aware of your ability, it is immune to it. The two established trails are blocked because of your method. Good luck.” He disappeared before I could say anything.
I spun in a slow circle. Sure enough, there were no openings. Had I chosen right or left, only that path would’ve closed and I could’ve taken the other one out, but since I made my own way, I lost those options. How the hell was I supposed to get out? I paced the square area, thinking. There had to be a way. If I could transport like every other elf in the world, it would be no problem, but I couldn’t. I could tear down a house without breaking a sweat. An enchanted maze wasn’t going to defeat me. I let my frustration build and dug up my anger, confusion, and worry until it felt like my skin was vibrating and the ground beneath my feet shook. If I couldn’t make the hedges move, then I had to get rid of them. I lifted the dirt beneath each bush, forcing them up and out of the ground. The branches scratched and poked me as I climbed out, but I made it to where Sebastian was waiting. He looked at the destruction behind me with wide eyes.
“That’s one way to do it.”
“There was no other way.”
He opened his mouth to say something and everything went black.
I was lounging on the bench in the center of the hedge maze, staring up at the night sky and waiting for Cheney. Jasmine from the garden drifted in the breeze and made a strand of my hair flutter. Someday this would be mine. I would be welcome here.
“You ready?” Cheney’s voice came from above me.
I smiled, not looking at him. “No. Do you ever just enjoy all of this? You have so much, but you never stop and see it.”
“I don’t enjoy it? You hate it here.”
“No, I hate it in there.” I pointed in the direction of the palace. “I like it here.”
He picked up my feet and sat on the bench, resting my legs across his. “My dad will come around. We just have to give him time.”
My relaxation began to dissolve. “I don’t want to talk about your father.”
“Well, the two of you have that in common. He doesn’t want to talk about you either.”
This was all so much harder than I’d thought it would be. “Why do you like me?”
“What?” he said with a half laugh.
“Why do you like me? We’re so different. Your life would be so much easier without me.”
“I’ve had an easy life and I can tell you one thing for certain. I would rather fight with you than be anywhere else.”
“What if I’m not always here?”
“I will always find you.” He patted my leg. “This sort of talk is ridiculous. Don’t let my father get in your head. So long as we both love one another, we will always find a way to be together.”
A flood of sticky warmth flowing down over my mouth woke me up. I retched and my stomach rolled over and heaved out my breakfast. It mixed with the blood pouring from my nose. It felt like I’d been hit with a bat.
“Are you okay?” Sebastian’s voice drifted into my thoughts.
“Do I look okay?” I croaked.
“Get Cheney,” he said to someone.
I braced my arms against the ground as my stomach continued to purge itself.
“Another memory,” Sebastian said.
“They’re getting worse. You said they wouldn’t keep getting worse,” Cheney said as he reached down and scooped my hair out of my face.
“That was my best guess.”
“This has to stop. Before they kill her.”
When I was confident I had nothing left in my stomach, I rolled over onto my back, letting the cool air wash over my face. “Who’s going to kill me now?”
Cheney knelt beside me and ran a damp cloth over my face. “No one. What did you remember this time?”
“Us, talking in the maze after you spoke to your father.”
He smiled. “I remember that. I told you we’d find a way to be together. I was right.” His eyes flickered to the maze. “What the hell happened there?”
I covered my eyes with my arm to block out the light. “I got out.”
“I can see that.” He chuckled. “Let’s get you back inside.” He gently lifted me to him and a moment later I felt him lower me onto the bed.
“We can’t stop the memories, Cheney. Too many spells have been cast. We didn’t let things happen naturally. They’re going to keep coming.”
“Maybe we can repress them again.”
I shook my head. “No more spells. I need to remember. I want to remember. Let’s just hope it doesn’t kill me.”
“Memories don’t kill people.”
“Memories don’t make most people bleed.” I bit my lip and tried to think of a good way to bring up what had been on my mind since he took the throne. “Maybe we should try to break the bond.”
Cheney lifted my arm from my eyes. “What are you saying?”
“I don’t need the protection of the bond anymore, and it won’t change anything between us, right? I’m tired of everything in my life being riddled with magic. I want to feel my own real feelings and remember in my own time. You must understand that.”
He looked back toward the door. “It’s not possible. This sort of bond can’t be broken.”
“It’s just magic, Cheney. Any spell can be broken.” I took his hand. “Please consider it.”
“We’ll see.” He kissed my forehead. “I have to get back to work. Are you okay?”
I nodded. “Fine.”.
“Why are you in bed?” Katrina’s voice made me smile. My headache was all but gone. “I’ve been waiting and waiting for, like, ever.” She plopped down on the edge of my bed. “Entertain me, monkey.”
“When did you get here?” I sat up, stretching my arms over my head.