by D. N. Hoxa
“Anything,” he said and brought a smile to my lips.
“Your necklace with the dragon blood powder.” Julian raised his brows in question. “I need it to take back to the ECU. I’m going to tell them that I killed you. I can’t live on the run anymore.”
He bit his lips and thought for a second. “Is that the plan? You’re just going to lie your way out of it?”
I shrugged. “Pretty much.” I was going to work with what I had. If that didn’t work, I’d figure out something else. I just hoped I’d be alive long enough to think about options.
Without hesitation, Julian took the leather tie from around his neck and handed it to me. The three cylinders were still there, filled with what was left of the dragon blood.
“They’re going to ask to see my body. Tell them you burned it.” He stepped to the side. Now, the portal was right in front of me. “I’ll ask one last thing of you, Winter Wayne: stop hiding.”
I grinned. “Oh, I plan to.”
Reaching for the hair tie in the pocket of my torn, burned, dirty jacket, I tied my hair back. No time for a braid, but there would be. Soon.
Julian smiled. It was one of my favorite smiles in the world. No hint of sadness anywhere on his face. That was how I wanted to remember him. It was refreshing to realize that his ears and the color of his eyes didn’t matter at all. So without another word, I jumped into the black hole.
Twenty
My knees hit the floor hard. A loud sigh left my lips. I hadn’t noticed the first time around, but going through that portal sucked balls. It turned my stomach over and over, then brought it all the way to my mouth before it was over. I almost spilled all of my guts out.
When I raised my head, I saw the exact same place I’d pictured in my head before jumping into the hole. The pool table was right in front of me. Black-and-white leather couches were behind it. The large desk was right in front of the window to the left in the middle of the room, and on the wall across from me was the floor-to-ceiling TV with four speakers to the side and lights all over it.
I was in Finn’s office.
I had no idea what time it was. It was dark outside. I just hoped I wasn’t too late because I definitely didn’t want to wait for Finn until morning. Someone spoke from right outside the door. I thought I recognized the werewolf’s voice. I ran to it and pressed my back against the wall, my knife ready.
The door opened. Finn came right in and closed it without looking behind. Why would he? Nobody could get to his office through the front door. Portals like the one I’d just used to get there didn’t exist. It just proved how much of magic we still didn’t understand and hadn’t explored. Limitless possibilities.
Finn was on his phone, and he walked straight for his desk, never looking back. I followed him, as soundlessly as possible.
“All right, then. Call me with an update,” he said, then threw the phone on his table.
“Don’t move.” The second the words left my lips, Finn’s whole body froze. “Put your hands up.”
Slowly, Finn moved both his arms up. His hands were empty. The gun in the holster around his waist was in my possession the next second. Much easier and faster than the knife.
“Winter?” Finn said.
“Turn around, real slow.”
I stepped back and watched him turn to face me, his gun in my hand pointed at his face.
When he saw my face, his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. But the reaction didn’t piss me off nearly as much as it used to. Instead, it made me grin widely.
“What the hell happened to you?” he whispered, unable to even speak properly.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I said. “But as you can see, I’m a fairy. Still a witch, but also a fairy.”
Finn shook his head as if to tell me he didn’t get it. He didn’t really need to.
“What are you doing here? A lot of people are after you. Why haven’t you left the country yet?”
There was no fear in his voice. Suddenly, I felt like a little shit for pointing the gun at his face. The guy meant me no harm. On the contrary. It looked like Dylan was right. More people cared about me than I realized. With a sigh, I lowered my arm and handed him his gun back. It didn’t matter if things changed along the way. I still had my beads. I had my magic.
But Finn didn’t take the gun back. He looked at the door, then back at me. “Keep it. Someone might walk in.”
“I need a favor,” I said, but he shook his head.
“How the hell did you even get here?” he asked. “And point that damn thing at my head!”
I raised my arm and pointed the gun again, just as he asked.
“You said it yourself, old wolf. I’m better than my peers.”
A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. “You need to leave. Right now. If they find you here, you’re dead.”
“As a matter of fact, I want them to find me. I want you to call whoever hired you to hunt me down, and I want you to bring them right here to your office.”
Finn’s brows rose. “You’ve lost your fucking mind, Bone.”
“No, I haven’t. Call them, Finn. I have something they want, and I’m going to give it right back.”
Surprised, the werewolf looked at my hands. “You mean the blood?” Of course he knew what had been in the package.
“Yep.”
With a sigh, Finn finally lowered his arms. “Give me that,” he said, nodding at my gun. “You crazy kids are going to be the death of me.”
He took his phone from the desk and began to dial the number, muttering curse words as he did.
I walked over to the white leather couch and sat on it. This was all going to go as planned, but for now, all I could do was wait.
***
An hour passed before there was a knock on the door. I stood up, knife in hand, beads ready, and Finn walked over to open it. A man walked in, dressed in a long grey coat, his black hair combed to the side of his head. Piercing blue eyes met mine, and his thin black brow rose up.
“Mister Adams,” Finn said, and I immediately knew who this was. Erick Adams, one of the board members of the ECU. Boy, did I feel special. He’d even come alone, though I had no doubt that Finn’s building was already filled with werewolves armed all the way to their teeth.
“Miss Wayne, how nice of you to summon me,” Adams said, ignoring Finn completely. He did not look happy that I’d “summoned” him at all.
“You didn’t exactly leave me any choice,” I said as I analyzed him.
He was a Green witch, one of the most powerful ones, but he probably had guns under that weird long coat of his, too. One could never be too careful. That was why I was standing behind the pool table. It would provide cover for me if things went south.
“I was under the impression that you were a Bone witch,” he said and slowly unbuttoned his coat. Under it was a simple suit: black with thin streaks of grey. He threw his coat on one of the couches and put his hands together in front of him.
“I am. But I’m also a fairy. Just found out myself.”
Suspicion leaked from every pore on his skin. “How has that affected you?”
I shrugged. “It’s weakened my magic a bit, but other than what you can see, no other changes,” I lied. I was no longer going to hide, but I was no fool. If the ECU—or anyone—knew about the magic that coursed through my veins, I’d be gone before I left Finn’s office.
“Is that so?” he said passively to tell me he didn’t believe me. Good thing he had no way of knowing, and I doubted he’d care after I told him what he wanted to hear.
“I have something you’ve been looking for.”
I raised my arm just a bit so he could see my knife. That should have given him some reassurance. If I was using a knife as a means to defend myself, I could have no magic strong enough to mean anything, right?
“So Finn tells me,” Adams said.
“If you tell your men—and Finn—to stop hunting me, you’ll have it.”
Adam gave me
a tight-lipped smile. “And where did you get it, if I may ask?”
“Took it right off Julian Walker’s neck, right after I killed him.”
If they asked, I could even swear that I cut his throat because I had, just a tiny bit.
“Why now, Miss Wayne? Why not bring the powder to us in the beginning?”
I laughed dryly. “Sorry, I couldn’t exactly find the time to fit you in my agenda, because your werewolves and Finn’s agents were trying to kill me. The only language they used was made of bullets.”
“But you were with Mister Walker for a long time,” Adams said, raising his brows in question.
“I was. He was a strong witch. I had to gain his trust before I could out him. My magic was useless against his.”
There. Another thing he loved to hear, no doubt.
“And where is the powder now?” he asked.
“Somewhere safe,” I said with a smile. Somewhere safe was the pocket of Finn’s brown jacket, but Finn had no idea. I’d slipped it in there when he went to the bathroom before Adams arrived.
“And where is Julian’s body?”
I almost laughed. Julian had been right.
“Burned to ashes,” I said. “We escaped from your men through a tunnel from the cabin in Finger Lakes. That’s where I killed him.” Sweet, sweet lies. I was at my best here because one wrong word, or a simply squint on an eye could get me killed.
“My men did not find a tunnel,” he said.
“Your men aren’t very smart.” I shrugged. “If they were, I would have spoken to them sooner and told them to leave me the hell alone while I got that powder back.”
Erick Adams lowered his head and just looked at the floor for a second. Finn was terrified, leaning against his desk, just waiting for shit to hit the fan.
“You do see why trusting in anything you say is very difficult for me, Miss Wayne,” Adams said.
He was going to continue, but I didn’t let him.
“I don’t, in fact. The package I delivered had Julian Walker’s name written on it. That’s why I gave it to him. If your men had listened when I told them so, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Adams turned to look at Finn. “She was one of yours. Do you trust her?”
Finn didn’t miss a single beat. “Never gave me any reason not to. She’s the best agent I had.”
Did I ever mention that Finn was a really good guy?
“If what you say is a lie, Miss Wayne, just remember that your death is closer to you than that jacket of yours.”
I smiled. “There’s only one way to find out, right? I walk out of here, right now, with your word that the hunt against me stops. The powder will be in Finn’s desk by morning. He’ll have one of his agents deliver it to you personally. How does that sound?
Oh, please, please, please…
Adams smiled again, and this time he looked like a damn snake. The only reason why he hadn’t killed me yet was because of the powder. If he knew where it was, he’d just kill me and get it himself.
“Very well,” he finally said and turned to Finn. “Mister Finn, we will no longer need your services to hunt down Winter Wayne. If the powder is not in my hands by tomorrow, I’ll see to it that both of you are dead.”
Beads of sweat lined Finn’s forehead. With his eyes wide, he looked at me in question. Are we going to die, Winter?
I winked at him. No, Finn. We’re not going to die.
“In that case, it was nice meeting you, Mister Adams. I do hope I’ll never see you again.” With my knife still in hand, I walked over to the door.
Every cell in my body was on high alert. By the time I made it to the streets of Manhattan again, I’d either be breathing its dirty air or kissing the sidewalk. I wanted to start running so badly, but I knew that they would be listening. I took the stairs as slowly as I could. The door to the second floor filled me with nostalgia. My little cubicle had been in there, and I’d enjoyed having it. I’d enjoyed belonging. Back then, though, I knew very little about the world around me. About myself. Now I knew that I was right where I was supposed to be.
When I made it to the first floor, fifteen suited werewolves waited for me. They all had their guns in their hands, but for the first time since forever, none of them were pointed at me. Holding my knife tightly, I looked at all of them as I passed them and walked over to the front door, holding my breath.
I pushed the door open, my hands shaking slightly, and stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. Humans everywhere. I’d missed having them around. Everything that had happened to me in the past few days felt like years. I let go of my breath with a long sigh after ten seconds passed.
I was still standing. I was alive.
Twenty-one
Bloomsburg looked exactly the same as I’d left it: deserted. The cab driver who’d agreed to take me there for one gold coin stopped right in front of my aunt’s house. I’d seen on TV that cab drivers tended to be really chatty. I kind of wanted to experience that, but the driver seemed to forget I was sitting in the backseat the whole way there.
After I left Finn’s office, I took a long walk around the city, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened and figure out what to do next. I wondered if he would want me back to work for him, but when I did, I realized that I no longer wanted that. I didn’t want to take orders from the ECU and other rich people who had nothing better to do than throw money down the drain all day. I wanted to be someone normal people could turn to for orders as well. People like James. People like me, who were being hunted without fault.
Manhattan’s busy streets did manage to calm me down for long enough to see the road ahead of me clearly. There was so much I had yet to discover, so many new things to learn. To do that, I was going to have to be on my own.
Amelia’s flowers in the front yard had almost completely withered. My heart sank to see them like that. They looked dead. The hole the werewolves had made in the front of the house was covered with white plastic and duct tape. With a deep breath, I pulled the cover up and walked inside. It was as cold as it was out. I stopped to listen for any movement. I heard none.
The walls were covered in splatters of blood. As was the floor. No dead werewolf bodies, at least. The living room was a mess, but the kitchen was untouched. I went straight for Amelia’s garden, fearing it was dead like the flowers up front and hoping it wasn’t.
Relief covered me when I saw it just as I’d left it: perfectly intact. And Amelia was there, sitting on the ground close to the edge, scissors in hand, working on the plants in front of her. If she heard me approach, she didn’t look up, but God, was I glad to see that she was okay.
“You still look the same,” she said when I stopped in front of her, without even looking up. When had she even seen me?
Smiling, I sat down on the ground next to her. “I do.”
She was a bit pale, but her hair was clean and so were her clothes. She moved her arm with ease, so I could only guess Jeb had healed her completely, or she’d healed herself.
“You look good.”
“I got shot,” she said the next second, still cutting leaves from a plant. “It wasn’t fun.”
“It never is.”
My chest filled with regret. I hated myself for having done this to her and to her house.
“Aunt Amelia, I really am sorry. If I’d known they would find us, I would have never stayed.”
“If I’d known, I would have never let you,” she said, but she didn’t sound angry to me.
“I’ll make it up to you. It’s why I came back. I’m going to fix all the damage I caused.”
This time, Amelia met my eyes. “You’re no longer running?”
I smiled. “I’m not being chased anymore.”
At least not for the moment. By then Finn would have found the cylinders full of dragon blood powder I left in his pocket. I trusted him to deliver it to Erick Adams. I trusted his fear.
“Well, that’s good news.” My aunt smiled. “And where
is Julian?”
My heart skipped a long beat at the mentioning of his name. I’d tried hard not to think about him the night before, or on the way to Bloomsburg, but now, it was impossible not to feel kind of empty.
“He’s gone,” I said reluctantly.
“Did he…” Amelia couldn’t finish the question.
“No, he’s alive. He’s just gone.”
That was all I was going to share for her own safety. The less she knew, the better.
“So the spell didn’t work,” she said, going back to her plants.
“It actually did.” Magic buzzed under my skin, more than ever before. No idea if it was because of the brief time I’d spent in the fairy realm, or something else. In the end, it didn’t matter.
“What happened to the disguise?”
“I decided I don’t really need it. I look the way I was always meant to look.”
Whoever had a problem with it could shove it.
Amelia sighed in relief. “Good girl,” she whispered.
“Nobody can know,” I said reluctantly. “About my magic. Let’s just keep it to ourselves for a while.”
She nodded without hesitation. She knew as well as I did that nobody was going to want to let me live if they knew. “So, what now?”
“Now, I help you put everything back together before I go back to the city. I’m thinking about opening my own agency.”
My aunt looked up again. “Your own agency?”
“Yeah. I mean, the place I used to work in only took jobs from people who already have a lot of power. Others can’t afford their services. The rest of the world needs someone to turn to, too.”
To my surprise, Amelia laughed. “What are you going to eat?”
“I don’t mean that I’ll work for free,” I said, smiling. “I’ll just be affordable.”
Until I went over all of what was left of my mother’s jewelry, I could do that. If I ran out of money, I’d figure something out along the way.
“Okay,” Amelia whispered, nodding her head, still smiling. “And you won’t be a stranger?”
“Absolutely not.” She was my family. I was going to make sure I remembered that in the future.