Pack of Lies

by Edwards, Hailey

  Linus pegged her with a probing stare. “You’re going to help him.”

  There was no question, but she still answered, “Yes.”

  “Your choices and actions are your own.” The austere mask he wore, concealing his thoughts and feelings, made it hard to get a read on him. “I won’t help you, but I won’t stop you if you’re determined to walk this path.”

  “That’s the deal you made,” she surmised. “Natisha tied your hands.”

  “You’ve bargained with her before,” Midas realized. “That’s why she’s wary of you.”

  “The weather in Atlanta is lovely this time of year.” Linus almost smiled. “Wouldn’t you both agree?”

  Hadley frowned at the whiplash change in topic. “And you can’t talk about it.”

  “I can do this alone.” Midas stared at his hands, able to picture the blood staining them. “You don’t have to help, Hadley.”

  The name Bria was the only lead they had on the coven. Bishop might be able to help identify more, but there were no guarantees seven of them were left. They might have scattered to save their hides.

  “This is my city.” Hadley’s shoulders tightened. “The coven is a threat to all its paranormal citizens. I didn’t expect to go all Snow White and the Huntsman on their hearts, but I’m not willing to let a friend die either.” Her chin shot up. “I’m in.”

  A low chuckle brought Midas’s attention swinging back to Linus, who rubbed a hand over his mouth too late to conceal his rare smile.

  “Don’t encourage her.” Midas tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, still damp from the shower she abandoned to ride with Ares to his rescue. “She already thinks she’s a comedienne.”

  “Bite me,” she scoffed. “You laugh, therefore I am funny.”

  “There’s a difference between laughing with you and laughing at you.”

  “Bite.” She got in his face. “Me.”

  Midas struck between one beat of his heart and the next, instinct nudging him to take her up on the offer, to taste the skin of her throat, to hold it between his teeth asking for submission that would never come. Not from her. Never from her.

  Hadley gasped and shoved him back. “You bit me.”

  “In his defense,” Linus said dryly, “you did tell him to, repeatedly.”

  Laughter fell out of her mouth as she rubbed the spot still damp from where he’d swirled his tongue. “It’s slang. Everyone says it. I didn’t think he would actually do it.”

  A shrug moved through Linus’s shoulders. “Neither did I.”

  To Hadley, Midas said, “I like the way you taste.”

  “That would be sexy, borderline romantic, if not for the whole predator thing you’ve got happening.”

  This was one female he would never hurt, and for once, his feral half was in complete agreement.

  “Remember.” Linus turned a cryptic expression on her. “I’m always willing to lend an ear.”

  The quick uptick of her mouth proved she understood him, loud and clear. He agreed not to help her, but he had chosen to interpret that as getting his hands dirty, meaning he could advise her. The first loophole had been exposed, and Midas let relief flow through him unchecked.

  Linus smudged the circle with the toe of his dress shoe and strolled down the path toward a rental car, where the alpha awaited him.

  Hadley watched him go and pushed out an exhale so deep it sounded dredged up from her toes.

  “How did you get him here so fast?” Midas’s ears rang as the magic finished dissipating. “Was he not in Savannah?”

  “He drove up to check on Bishop.” She shrugged. “I didn’t realize he was in town when I called to beg him for a name to use as an intermediary, but I heard Bishop bellyaching in the background and pieced it together.”

  “You told him about us.”

  Of all the things Midas could have said next, that shouldn’t have been one of them.

  “I didn’t have a choice. Ares called in a panic, worried you were about to do something monumentally stupid, and I couldn’t figure out how to get into the den without playing the courtship card. I had no right to interfere in proceedings without some claim on you, so I dropped the bomb on Linus in the car on the way over.”

  “How did he take the news?”

  That Linus was here, that he had helped, didn’t mean he approved.

  “He told me some burdens are easier to bear with another shoulder to rest them on.”

  Hadley chewed on her ragged bottom lip, anxiety a bright sting in her scent.

  “How do you feel having told him?”

  “Having it come out like this was a lot like the time I got caught with a boy in my room on a night when my parents should have been out.”

  Confusion knit his brow. “How old were you?”

  Hadley snapped her mouth shut, and her complexion paled. “Old enough to know better.”

  She had been a sick child, he knew that, but she had shown up in Atlanta healed and ready to assume an apprenticeship role. Ford had done the digging into her records. He told Midas she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, which had kept her bedbound and housebound for most of her life.

  Gossips whispered that Linus had cured her with an experimental sigil, but he knew Linus well enough to dismiss it as impossible. The more likely scenario, if it were true at all, was that Grier, his fiancée, had done it. Her goddess-touched powers had saved Eva, after all, and Lethe too. But if word got out that she had the power to heal diseases, as well as wounds and sickness, she would be hounded for the rest of her life to use her gift on others.

  Loyalty might explain the secrets Hadley kept. Some of them. She had proven she had no qualms protecting those she cared about, would and had put herself in danger to save her friends.

  One secret a night.

  As long as he would live, he wondered if he would scratch the surface of hers.

  Nineteen

  “How do you feel having told him?”

  The truth was I felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff. No, I was leaning over the edge. Way over the edge. Midas’s hand in mine was all that kept me from tumbling onto the jagged rocks below. If he let go, or I did, I would fall and be smashed to bits.

  Hand to my chest, I considered I might be having a heart attack. Not about the Midas stuff, though it was terrifying in its own way, but the Natisha stuff. The fae stuff.

  Even Midas, who I had stamped my name on, had fae blood. A lot of it.

  Seven hearts.

  Seven deaths.

  Seven more black marks on my soul.

  Who bargained life for death? Apparently Natisha. Not a life for a life. A life for seven lives.

  And Midas and I had agreed to pay it.

  I would have hunted the coven down, likely killed them, but I wouldn’t have hacked out their hearts and tucked them—still beating—into magical boxes designed to keep the blood pumping. I was a killer, yes, but Ambrose didn’t play with his food.

  The overwhelming urge to call Adelaide for more comfort left me torn. The idea of having a sister, a real sister, one who cared about me, called and texted with me, watched bad movies and ate questionable takeout with me, spent holidays with me or invited me to spend them with her, hurt almost as bad as losing my brothers. I wanted that connection, but I couldn’t call only to dump on her. That wasn’t a relationship. That was free therapy.

  “Are you going to puke?” Remy demanded from behind the wheel of my Swyft ride home from the den, a solo run since Midas was required to stay behind with Natisha until her half of the bargain had been fulfilled. The silence of the last twenty minutes must have finally stomped on her last nerve. “This car is a loaner, remember? Stick your head out the window or something.”

  Swallowing my panic, I cracked a window and breathed in the fresh air. “That’s how you did it.”

  “Did what? You’re not making sense.” She squinted at me. “Did you eat or drink anything that healer gave you?”


  Ignorant about fae I might be, but I wasn’t that clueless. Anyone who ever read a fairy tale knew better.

  “You held down multiple jobs by sending your halves to work for you.”

  “Oh, that.” She laughed. “How did you think I paid for my sweet, sweet ride?”

  “Why were you surprised when I saw one of your halves then? They must be visible if they function independent of you.” A prickle lifted the hairs on my nape. “Have I ever interacted with them and thought they were you?”

  “They’re as real as I am until they run out of juice. By the time they limp back to me, they’re ghosts.” She snorted. “Leave it to a necromancer to be able to see ghosts.” She let me answer the last question for myself then cut her eyes toward me. “What about your shadow? I can’t see it, but my halves can. What is it? For that matter, what are you?”

  “Tired.” Forehead pressed to the glass, I wished for its clarity. “Very tired.”

  “What’s gotten into you?” She cut her eyes toward me. “Are you sick for real?”

  “Fae are everywhere.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know.” She scoffed. “I saw an ex-boyfriend last month who ought to still be tied to a marble pillar at the bottom of the sea. Yet there he was, walking around and flirting. Things that got him in trouble in the first place. I’ve a good mind to tell his wives. Bet they drown him for real this time.”

  Pretty sure the sizzling and popping in my ears was my brain. “I’m not sure I can do this job.”

  “You’re banging a fae.” She squinted at me. “They can’t freak you out that much.”

  “I’m not banging Midas.” Just cuddling him. And it was just the one time. So far. “And he’s got warg in him, human in him.”

  “You’re in the car with me,” she pointed out. “You took it all in stride until now. What’s up?”

  We reached the Faraday before I found a way to answer without telling her anything.

  “I have a lot to think about” seemed like the safest exit strategy.

  “Did you look over those numbers?” She locked me in as my fingers brushed the latch. “Peachy Keen?”

  Until she mentioned it, I had forgotten I owned a franchise, let alone had an employee on the clock.

  “I’ll do it first thing at dusk,” I promised. “We need to discuss your salary anyway.”

  “Seven employees for the price of one. That’s all I’m saying.”

  Seven was definitely today’s lucky, or unlucky, number.

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Out on the sidewalk, I caught a whiff of fried chicken as the wind shifted, and my stomach made pleading noises. Tired of its whining, I decided to hoof it the three blocks to Ben’s Fried Chicken and pick up a bucket. Or two. And sides. Probably dessert. They baked a mean pecan pie.

  Worry over Ford knotted my gut, but I couldn’t remember the last time I had eaten real food, and café mochas only stretched so far. I was running on fumes, so I might as well fuel up while it was on my mind. Plus, the walk would do me good. Let me burn off some of my nervous energy and give me time to wrap my head around everything that had happened tonight.

  Service was quick, my order ridiculous, and my appetite…gone.

  Good thing chicken reheated well. I would be eating this for days.

  After lugging my haul back to the Faraday, I paused to shove a bucket of wings at Hank before entering the lobby. I rode the elevator up to my floor, let myself into my apartment, and flipped on the lights, part of me dreading the quiet.

  Across the far wall, Ambrose cocked his shadowy head but then lost interest.

  “Your bed smells like Midas.”

  Thanks to Ambrose’s unintentional warning, I didn’t wet my pants at the sound of Bishop’s voice.

  “Last time I saw you,” I said, closing the door behind me and carrying my bounty into the kitchen, “you were licking your chops and inviting me over for dinner.”

  An olive tint made Bishop’s skin glow with health, and his glossy chestnut hair glinted beneath the lights. His eyes flashed emerald fire, bright and manic but alive. I didn’t want to know how many people had died to bring him back from the brink. I told myself Linus must know how he fed and allowed him to hunt. I told myself it was none of my business, that the boss’s okay was good enough for me. I told myself a lot of things to avoid feeling bad about how happy I was to see him.

  “Sorry about that.” He quirked a smile, patting the spot beside him. “Friends aren’t food and all that.”

  “Well, you had been recently tortured, starved, and who knows what else.” Once the fridge was bursting with food, I joined him in the living room. I sat to show him I wasn’t afraid, that even knowing what he was capable of, I trusted him not to hurt me now that he had regained his senses. “I assume you broke in for a reason?”

  “I wanted to thank you.” He sobered up quick. “You came for me.”

  “Do you know how hard it is to run a business and HQ and still find time to patrol the streets?”

  “The team filled me in.” He didn’t laugh, didn’t even smile. “You busted your ass to find me and bring me home, and I’m grateful.” He leaned forward, braced his forearms on his knees. “What you heard in the club…” He linked his fingers. “I’m sorry it came out that way. For what it’s worth, I think I would have told you one day.” He chuckled. “Maybe.”

  “You’re my friend.” I could no longer deny what was right in front of me. “I didn’t get that until it was taken away.”

  “You didn’t know who or what you were saving,” he pressed on. “Any regrets now that you do?”

  “Again, you’re my friend. The rest doesn’t matter.”

  Though eventually, after he fully recovered, I was so hitting him up about the moving-HQ thing.

  “You’re not going to ask who I am?” He searched my face. “Who I really am?”

  The beginnings of a smile itched the corner of my mouth. “Not unless you plan on asking me the same.”

  “Would you tell me the truth if I did?”

  “Do you honestly expect me to believe you don’t know?” I rolled my eyes when he got offended. “You stick your nose in everyone’s business.”

  “Linus warned me about you,” he admitted. “He gave me a list of symptoms to watch for, and it made me curious.” He shrugged. “I’m not going to bring it up again, but if you ever need a sympathetic ear, I’ve got two.”

  “I appreciate that.”

  “As much as I enjoy talking about my feelings, I had another purpose in mind for this visit.”

  “Oh?”

  “Linus was on the phone with me when he arrived at the den.” Bishop smiled, teeth on display. “He forgot to hang up before he entered into negotiations with Natisha.”

  Silence gonged through the room, deafening, and I was reminded why I asked Linus to mediate in the first place.

  “I overheard, on accident, the terms of the agreement with her.” Bishop’s expression darkened. “You can’t give her those hearts. Not even one. There’s a reason she’s asked you to get them.”

  “The bargain was struck on Midas’s behalf, not mine.”

  “You busted into the room—and into the negotiations—uninvited, failed to show the proper respect due to an elder, and claimed Midas in front of a very old, very bored fae looking to stir the pot.” A troubled expression knitted his brow. “Fae like her want to set the world on fire just to watch it burn. She doesn’t care she has descendants here. She doesn’t care this isn’t her world to destroy. She cares that someone has more power than she thinks they ought to, and she wants it for herself.”

  “What makes you think she won’t take the hearts back to Faerie with her and cause trouble there?”

  “Natisha has the equivalent of a day pass to Earth, issued by the Earthen Conclave, for the sole purpose of visiting Tisdale. It’s a family thing. They have no clue she came here to work magic.” His mouth quirked. “Let me rephrase. They know fae don’t visit mostl
y mortal relatives for no reason. There’s just nothing they can do, aside from declining her request, which could land them in hot water without proper justification.” His amusement waned. “She can’t come here without an escort, and she will be returned by the specified time or a bounty will be set on her head, and a marshal will come to hunt her down.”

  “Okay.” I still didn’t get it. I didn’t know enough about fae, Faerie, or the conclave.

  Guess it was time to learn. Good thing Linus lived for handing out homework assignments.

  “Those hearts are half fae and half witch,” he warned. “Half Faerie and half Earth. She can eat them, consume their power, and become a realm walker. Trust me. You don’t want that to happen. She might have no agenda now, but one day she’ll run out of bugs to pull the wings off at home and come calling.”

  “That’s not a gwyllgi power, is it? The faeborn ones, I mean?”

  “Old fae are not what or how they began, and she’s a healer. She has a specific type of magic that will allow her to absorb the coven magic into her cells, into her bones.” He let me wrap my head around that. “You understand who she is?”

  “Midas told me she’s one of Tisdale’s relatives, that Natisha’s true name has been passed down through the generations.”

  “That’s mostly accurate.” Bishop stood and began pacing. “Natisha is the origin of their line.” He cut me a look. “The pack jokes that Midas is a prince and his sister a princess, and they don’t get how close they are to the truth. There’s a reason their pack harbors so many old ones. Their bloodline is not pure but well-documented. Their foremother is living. That gives Tisdale, and her kids, the kind of prestige fae get off on.”

  “The story about how they came to be…” I watched him. “How true is it?”

  “Very.” He paused, hooking his hands on his hips. “She crossed realms when she was young, back when it was easier, when there was no Earthen Conclave to stop fae from doing what they wanted with humans. She mated a warg and bore him children, but she grew tired of Earth. She wanted to go home. Being half-human, her lover had no intentions of joining her in Faerie. He knew there were no laws to protect one such as himself or their children. They would be mocked at best, hunted at worst.”