by Jenna Black
“Stop him!” I yelled at Finn, but I knew before the words had left my mouth that he wouldn’t. His job was to protect me, so he couldn’t chase the imposter. But if the imposter got away, then we might never know who had sent him—and what he’d done with the real Lachlan.
In retrospect, what I did next was flat-out dumb. Keane might have been training me in self-defense, but I was still a beginner, at best. Usually, I’m a pretty cautious person, into the look-before-you-leap philosophy. But being in Avalon, learning to fight, and constantly being in danger was changing me in more ways than one.
Fake-Lachlan was going to get away because Finn had to babysit me, and I didn’t want Fake-Lachlan getting away. So I dropped my bag of groceries and ran after him.
My reckless charge took Finn completely by surprise, so he was a beat too slow when he tried to reach out and grab me. I heard him yell my name as I dodged out of reach, but I ignored him and kept running. The arrival of the Wild Hunt had effectively cleared the streets, so both the imposter and I were able to run full speed. I heard the sound of Finn’s feet pounding the pavement behind me, and I allowed myself a little smile of satisfaction. I might not be much of a match for the imposter, but the guy wouldn’t be running like his life depended on it if he thought he could handle Finn.
The smile disappeared when the imposter suddenly stopped in his tracks, whirling around to face me. I tried to put on the brakes, but I’d been running headlong and couldn’t stop in time.
I crashed into the imposter’s body, my momentum pushing him back a few steps as his breath whooshed out. But apparently, he’d been ready for me, because he recovered his balance much faster than I did, and he wrapped his arms around me, turning me around so my back was to his chest. One of his arms pinned mine to my sides, while his other arm came around my neck.
“Stay back!” he yelled at Finn. “Come any closer, and I’ll break her neck.”
Finn stopped much more gracefully than I had and glared daggers at my attacker.
But I hadn’t been taking all those self-defense lessons from Keane for no reason, and we’d practiced any number of different escapes from this particular hold, which was apparently an old standby for bad guys. Without a moment of hesitation, I did three things in quick succession. I stomped down as hard as I could on his instep. Then I lowered my head and sank my teeth into his forearm. He screamed and started to let go, and that was when I snapped my head back as hard as I could.
Whoever he was, the guy wasn’t particularly tall, and the back of my head made satisfying contact with his nose. The crunching sound made me wince, as did his howl of pain. But he let go of me in a hurry.
I was wondering if I should turn around and give him a good kick in the knee to make sure he couldn’t run away, but before I could decide, Finn yanked me away and planted his fist in the imposter’s face. Every muscle in his body went limp at once, and he collapsed to the pavement in a heap.
Chapter Seven
Despite my frequent complaints about how visitors from Faerie can practically get away with murder in Avalon, the city does have a justice system and a police force. By the time the Lachlan impersonator went down for the count, the Wild Hunt had been gone long enough that people were starting to poke their heads out to see if the coast was clear. Someone must have seen what happened, because before Finn had a chance to round on me and congratulate me on my brilliant performance—hey, it could happen!—we heard the sound of sirens approaching.
The look on Finn’s face said he was considering grabbing me and making a run for it, but by now there were enough witnesses that the cops would have tracked us down if we tried it, and that couldn’t be a good thing.
Finn shook his finger in my face. “You are not to speak to the police, Dana,” he said. “You’re a minor, and they can’t question you without your legal guardian’s permission, so just keep your mouth shut.”
I frowned up at him. “Why? It’s not like we did anything wrong.” At least, not as far as I knew.
Finn gave me a long-suffering look. “Will you just this once do as you’re told without the thousand and one questions?”
“Well, excuse me for wanting to understand why I’m not supposed to talk to the police.”
Finn didn’t have time to respond before the police descended on us.
From the way Finn had been talking, I half expected the cops to arrest us or something, but when Finn told them what happened, they accepted his word without question and slapped handcuffs on Fake-Lachlan. When the cops asked me if I’d be willing to answer a few questions, I bit my tongue and told them I wanted to wait for my dad. I didn’t like it, but Finn wouldn’t have told me to keep quiet without a good reason. I thought maybe the cops would get mad about that, but it didn’t seem to bother them much.
They were just asking us to come to the police station to give formal statements—or at least for Finn to give a formal statement while they tried to contact my dad—when my dad made a surprise appearance. I knew Finn hadn’t called him, and the police hadn’t had time to yet, so I wondered how he knew where to find me—and that I needed him to find me. He worked as a Council Liaison, whatever that was. All I knew was that it was some kind of government position, and that it gave him some degree of power.
I can’t say for sure what happened next, but my suspicion is that some money changed hands, or my dad pulled some strings. Whatever the reason, the police decided Finn and I didn’t have to make a formal statement after all.
“Take her home immediately,” my dad told Finn as the cops stuffed Fake-Lachlan into the back of one of their cars. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, and I’ll expect a full report.”
Finn acknowledged his orders with a formal nod.
“What about Lachlan?” I asked. “He might be in trouble.”
Dad made one of his nose-in-the-air faces that said a troll was beneath his concern. “We won’t be able to do anything for Lachlan until we’ve had time to question the imposter. For all we know, he’s a willing accomplice.”
I opened my mouth to say something indignant, but Dad cut me off before I could.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” he promised. “And if Lachlan is in trouble, I’ll do everything I can to help him. Now hurry home. You’ve had an eventful enough day already.”
I might have argued some more, except he turned away from me. I didn’t like being dismissed like a pesky child, but I figured if Finn was going to give a thorough recounting of the day’s events to my dad, it would be best to put that off as long as possible. Call me crazy, but I didn’t think my dad would be happy to hear that I’d chased the imposter.
As Finn led me away from the scene of the crime, I looked back over my shoulder and saw my dad getting into the front seat of one of the police cars. Somehow, I didn’t think it was business as usual to let a civilian do that. However, no one seemed to object, and both cars drove away.
* * *
Miraculously, my bag of groceries was still sitting right on the sidewalk where I’d dropped it. Even better, nothing had spilled or broken, though I suspected the bananas I’d bought for my cereal were going to be covered in nasty, mushy bruises. Because of what I’d done, no matter how dumb it might have been, the imposter was in police custody, and I couldn’t help feeling proud. I’d spent a lot of time in Avalon feeling like a damsel in distress, so it felt good to have scored this minor victory. No matter how fiercely Finn frowned as he escorted me back to the safe house.
“If that man had had a weapon,” Finn said quietly once we were in the privacy of the darkened tunnels, “you could well be dead by now.”
I fought down a superstitious shiver. “Good thing for me he didn’t, then,” I responded with as much bravado as I could muster. If I thought too hard about what might have happened, I could totally freak myself out.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Finn shake his head. “That isn’t the point, and you know it. You can’t keep taking risks like that. I’m good at my jo
b, but I’m not invincible. And right now, you’re making my job a lot harder than it has to be.”
I hunched my shoulders a bit at the rebuke. If he’d yelled at me, or started barking orders at me, I’d have dug in my heels and fought back. His calm, quiet reasoning was a lot harder to fight against.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “I didn’t really think about it at the time. I just saw that he was getting away, and I reacted.”
He sighed. “And what about last night? Did you think about it before you went gallivanting about at night without a bodyguard?”
So much for my hope that last night was water under the bridge. The fact was, at the time I’d decided to sneak out with Keane, I’d felt pretty safe with him. Yes, I’d known I was taking a risk, but it hadn’t seemed like a particularly big one. After seeing how badly outmatched Keane was against Finn, I knew I’d taken a much bigger risk than I’d realized. I couldn’t come up with anything to say in my defense, so I kept my mouth shut.
When we got back to my safe house, Finn wouldn’t let me head back into my suite, but insisted I sit on the couch in the guardroom. He sat in an armchair and leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees as he fixed me with that green gaze of his.
“Your father is going to be very angry with you,” he warned.
Well, duh! If Dad had his way, I’d be holed up in this stupid cave twenty-four/seven, so I could hardly expect him to be happy that I’d taken the risk of chasing the imposter. He probably wasn’t going to be too happy to hear I’d gotten to meet the Erlking, either, though that wasn’t my fault.
“He has been a person of power all his long life,” Finn continued. “Working as a bodyguard, I’m intimately familiar with how hard it is for someone who’s not used to being in danger to adjust. Protecting himself is second nature to your father, and he has trouble understanding that it isn’t to you.”
I blinked at Finn in confusion, not sure where he was going with this. I’d been expecting a lecture, but that didn’t seem to be what I was getting.
“What are you trying to tell me?” I asked.
“I guess I’m trying to prepare you for his reaction and make sure you see his point of view. I understand that you’re going to make mistakes. I’ve guarded too many people over too many years not to expect it. But he’s not going to understand that, at least not right away. That’s why I’m not going to tell your father about last night’s adventure. Just remember that he’s trying to keep you safe, even if he goes about it in ways you don’t like.”
I don’t think I’d ever heard Finn string that many words together all at once. It almost made me want to do as he said and cut Dad some slack. But if Dad came down here and started shouting at me, I knew I wouldn’t be able to help getting mad right back.
* * *
It was several hours before I had to face my dad and his anger. He apparently had some kind of an in with the police, and he’d hung around while they’d questioned the imposter.
It turned out the imposter was an underworld mercenary who was officially a citizen of Avalon but had enough Fae blood in him that he spent much of his time in Faerie. He’d been hired by my aunt Grace to kidnap me.
Grace had given him some kind of spelled amulet that would have allowed him to knock Finn out, and he’d been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. Then he would have grabbed me and dragged me into Faerie, where he’d turn me over to Grace. That would have sucked big-time, since Grace wanted to use me as a weapon to kill Titania and snatch the Seelie throne. Also, she hates my guts—and the feeling is mutual.
Lucky for me, the mercenary was intimidated by Finn and had trouble working up the nerve to attack. Also lucky for me that the Erlking had happened along and had revealed him as an imposter. Why the Erlking had done that was a mystery, especially if he’d been sent here to kill me. I hoped I never got a chance to hear him explain.
Lachlan was fine, thank goodness. The imposter had used another of Grace’s spells to bind the troll, leaving him paralyzed and helpless in his apartment. The police were able to cast a counterspell that freed him.
I tried to convince Dad it was a case of “all’s well that ends well,” but he didn’t buy it. He grounded me for a week. I’d never been grounded before in my life, and this was now the second time since I’d come to Avalon.
There was a part of me that wanted to push, to once again threaten to leave Avalon as soon as I turned eighteen if my dad insisted on doing this to me. I managed to shout that part of me down. For one thing, if I kept using the threat, it would lose its power. For another, I had to reluctantly admit that I kinda sorta deserved it.
* * *
Knowing I had it coming didn’t make the week that followed any easier to endure. Dad had me under such a severe lockdown that I couldn’t even have my sparring sessions with Keane. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I’d miss them, but I did. If for no other reason than because they helped pass the time.
Well, okay, there was another reason, too. Most of the time, Keane got on my nerves in a big way, but it was nice to hang out with someone my own age. Yes, technically he was two years older, but he was a lot closer to my age than, say, Finn, who was my only company during my captivity. Even Dad stayed away, which I thought was rubbing it in.
I managed to talk to Kimber every day, and I think that was the only thing that kept me sane. We made plans to go to a spa for manicures as soon as I was free to leave my safe house. I’d never had a manicure in my life. When I was living with Mom, we were always strapped for money, and I couldn’t afford luxuries like that. Not to mention that I hadn’t had girlfriends to go with. It was a small thing, but the prospect helped me tolerate my punishment.
Not quite so pleasant were the phone calls from Ethan. After seeing him at Kimber’s party with that redhead, I really wasn’t interested in talking to him, so when his name popped up on caller ID, I didn’t answer. The first couple of times, he hung up without leaving a message. But then he started asking me to call him back. I even picked up the phone to do it once or twice, but never got so far as to dial his number. What did I have to say to him? I worried that I’d come off sounding like a jealous girlfriend, even though we weren’t dating. And I would probably die of humiliation if I actually started to cry.
But Ethan isn’t the kind of guy who takes no for an answer. When the phone rang on Wednesday and the caller ID said it was Kimber, I picked up without a moment’s hesitation. But just because the call was coming from Kimber’s phone didn’t mean she was the one making it.
“You haven’t called me back,” Ethan said as soon as I answered.
I bit my tongue to keep myself from groaning. If I had any sense, I’d hang up on him and then unplug my phone. Of course, we’d already established that I was a little short on sense.
“News flash,” I said. “If I don’t call you back, it means I don’t want to talk to you.” Hang up, Dana, I told myself. But I didn’t listen.
I could almost hear his puzzled frown. “Why don’t you want to talk to me?”
Anger spiked. He had to know by now that I’d been at Kimber’s party. Surely he could figure out for himself why I might not want to talk to him. That he would play innocent just made me more pissed.
“Gee, I don’t know, Ethan,” I said through gritted teeth. “Maybe it would be because I saw you with that redhead at Kimber’s party. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it.” I found myself holding my breath, hoping that Ethan would have some perfectly innocent explanation for why the redhead had been draped all over him. Hell if I know what that explanation could have been, but that didn’t stop me from hoping.
Ethan’s momentary silence shattered that admittedly fragile hope.
“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath, and once again ordered myself to hang up. Too bad I wasn’t any good at taking orders, even from myself.
Ethan finally found his voice. “It didn’t mean anything. We were just … having a good time at the party. Besides, you
’ve made it perfectly clear we aren’t dating, so I figured there was no harm in it.”
On the one hand, he had a point. I had been really clear with my words that we weren’t dating. On the other hand, he’d made it just as clear that he hoped to change my mind, which should have meant he wasn’t hooking up with other girls at the same time.
“You’re right,” I said flatly. “We’re not dating.”
I finally found the willpower to hang up on him, and barely resisted the urge to hurl the phone across the room. Angry tears burned my eyes, but I refused to let them fall.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Every logical bone in my body told me Ethan was bad news for me. He was older than me, he was a player, and he was a liar. He was exactly the kind of boy I didn’t want to get involved with. And yet, stupid me, I wanted him pursuing me, making me feel like a grown woman, rather than a kid. The idea of having a hottie like Ethan choose me over all the other more beautiful, more worldly girls he knew made my heart skip a beat.
But hello, reality here, he wasn’t choosing me over all those other girls. In fact, if he was up to his usual tricks, he wasn’t bothering to choose at all.
Seeing him with that girl at the party had hurt like a slap in the face, but it was probably good for me. Maybe it would help me get my head out of the clouds, help me see Ethan as he really was, rather than how I wanted him to be.
The phone rang again, but I let the answering machine pick up.
“Come on, Dana,” Ethan said after the beep. “Talk to me.”
I folded my arms and resisted the urge to pick up the phone. Ethan sighed dramatically.
“You’re making something out of nothing,” he said. “I was just dancing with her. What’s the big deal?”
If I were a less guarded sort, those words might have made me feel like a melodramatic idiot. Surely Ethan had a right to dance with other girls at a party, especially when he was under the impression I wasn’t going to be there myself. I might even have been able to talk myself into thinking I’d misinterpreted the level of flirting I’d seen.